Configuration Interface Research Articles

Evaporation induced natural convection inside a droplet of aqueous solution placed on a superhydrophobic surface

Numerical study has been conducted to study the fluid convection inside sessile and pendant evaporating droplets of aqueous NaCl solution placed on a superhydrophobic surface. Evaporation from the droplet surface leads to increase in the solute concentration at the evaporating liquid–air interface generating concentration gradient inside the droplet. Concentration gradient inside the droplet induces Rayleigh convection. Fluid with higher concentration in the liquid–air interface region moves downward along the interface and lighter fluid rises upward along the central region of the droplet like a plume. The average concentration, evaporation rate and the maximum velocity inside the sessile droplet on a superhydrophobic surface is higher than that on a hydrophobic surface. Both sessile and pendant droplet configurations have been investigated. Fluid near the interface moves towards the substrate in case of sessile droplet, where as the fluid moves away from the substrate along the interface for the pendant droplet configuration. Two counter rotating recirculation bubbles are observed in both sessile and pendant droplets. The magnitude of maximum convection velocity and circulation strength of the recirculation bubbles for pendant droplet is smaller than that of sessile droplet at the same evaporation conditions. This may be attributed to the stratification of higher density fluid for the pendant droplet configuration which suppresses the Rayleigh convection. The effect of initial solute concentration on the strength of convection is stronger for sessile droplet configuration compared to that of pendant droplet. The present study establishes strong influence of superhydrophobicity and orientation on the internal convection inside a droplet of aqueous solution.

A Queueing Model Based Periodical ACPI Global State Control for Web Server Cluster Energy Management

The queueing analysis of the call center staff planning is a common process for efficient resource allocation. In many ways, although at different time scales, this process is analogous to the provisioning of the nodes in a web hosting server cluster. Based on the well proven strategies learned from the call centers, this paper proposes an energy management method that (1) models a server cluster as an M/M/m queueing system, (2) periodically switches the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) global states of a server node, and (3) obtains an adequate number of active nodes constrained by a desired response time. The proposed process is simulated with a real world trace log. The simulation result shows that a significant energy saving can be achieved while maintaining a desirable response time.

Deep Artwork Detection and Retrieval for Automatic Context-Aware Audio Guides

In this article, we address the problem of creating a smart audio guide that adapts to the actions and interests of museum visitors. As an autonomous agent, our guide perceives the context and is able to interact with users in an appropriate fashion. To do so, it understands what the visitor is looking at, if the visitor is moving inside the museum hall, or if he or she is talking with a friend. The guide performs automatic recognition of artworks, and it provides configurable interface features to improve the user experience and the fruition of multimedia materials through semi-automatic interaction. Our smart audio guide is backed by a computer vision system capable of working in real time on a mobile device, coupled with audio and motion sensors. We propose the use of a compact Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) that performs object classification and localization. Using the same CNN features computed for these tasks, we perform also robust artwork recognition. To improve the recognition accuracy, we perform additional video processing using shape-based filtering, artwork tracking, and temporal filtering. The system has been deployed on an NVIDIA Jetson TK1 and a NVIDIA Shield Tablet K1 and tested in a real-world environment (Bargello Museum of Florence).

Reconfigurable Real Time Signal Capturing through FPGA

Today all communication systems are prototyped on FPGAs before sending them for ASIC backend and fabrication. On other side the FPGAs with million gate logic densities and embedded block RAMs allowed the high speed signal capturing and storage for real time analysis. Performing various functions on the captured data allows high speed spectrum analysis. These two allow the prototyping of complex communication system on FPGA and real time analysis of implemented blocks. There are several types of interface methods possible to communicate the FPGA with a computer.. In this paper novel techniques are implemented for capturing and analyzing the signals of any design on FPGA with configurable UART interface. VHDL will be used for implementation of necessary modules such as block memory, capture FSM, triggering logic and UART interface. Necessary scripts will be developed to generate the synthesizable VHDL code as per the requirements of user. The captured data will be sent to PC using UART. Xilinx ISE will be used for systhesis and performance analysis.

A graphical user interface for XCAT phantom configuration, generation and processing

The main aim of this work is to facilitate generation of the extended cardiac and torso (XCAT) phantom with focus on automated and simplified generation of four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) simulated images. A comprehensive graphical user interface (GUI) was developed to expedite phantom generation, processing and 4DCT image generation. The use of irregularly shaped patient-specific tumors with the XCAT phantom, a capability that is not implemented in the current version of the application, was also addressed. XCAT phantoms were generated to demonstrate the GUIs functionality. The following GUI functions were demonstrated; (a) generation of 4DCT images using respiratory motion signal; (b) generation of maximum intensity image from 4DCT images; (c) insertion of irregularly shaped tumors from DICOM files; (d) exporting XCAT data to DICOM format and importing to an Eclipse treatment planning system. An open source, publicly available graphical interface for the XCAT phantom was developed. The graphical interface is capable of generating a wide variety of phantoms to simulate 4DCT acquisition images. The graphical interface is also able to incorporate irregularly shaped tumors within the XCAT framework. The graphical interface is freely distributed for imaging research.

Modeling and simulation of global and sleep states in ACPI‐compliant energy‐efficient cloud environments

SummaryThe more large‐scale data centers infrastructure costs increase, the more simulation‐based evaluations are needed to understand better the trade‐off between energy and performance and support the development of new energy‐aware resource allocation policies. Specifically, in the cloud computing field, various simulators are able to predict and measure the behavior of applications on different architectures using different resource allocation policies. Yet, only a few of them have the ability to simulate energy‐saving strategies, and none of them support the complete advanced configuration and power interface (ACPI) specification. ACPI defines a terminology for all possible power states of a machine and their associated power rate. The hardware industry has relied on ACPI to provide up‐to‐date standard interfaces for hardware discovery, configuration, power management, and monitoring, enabling a better understanding of the energy consumption level of different hardware states, referred to as ACPI G‐states, S‐states, and P‐states. In this paper, we improve the modeling and simulation of the ACPI G/S‐states and show not only that these states offer different energy‐saving levels but also that state transitions consume energy. In addition, we model the latency to transit between two states and the effects on the turnaround time when the transitions are not performed conservatively. Furthermore, the equations provide essential information to quantify the trade‐off between energy consumption and performance and assist in the analysis/decision on which strategy fits better in the environment and how it could be refined. Our expanded energy model was implemented in CloudSim and validated with simulation‐based experiments with a very high level of accuracy, with a standard deviation of at most 6%. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Entanglement entropy at holographic interfaces

In this note we calculate the holographic entanglement entropy in the presence of a conformal interface for a geometric configuration in which the entangling region ${\cal A}$ lies on one side of the interface. For the supersymmetric Janus solution we find exact agreement between the holographic and CFT calculation of the entanglement entropy.

HistFitter: a flexible framework for statistical data analysis

HistFitter is a software framework for statistical data analysis that has been used extensively in the ATLAS Collaboration to analyze data of proton-proton collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Most notably, HistFitter has become a de-facto standard in searches for supersymmetric particles since 2012, with some usage for Exotic and Higgs boson physics. HistFitter coherently combines several statistics tools in a programmable and flexible framework that is capable of bookkeeping hundreds of data models under study using thousands of generated input histograms.HistFitter interfaces with the statistics tools HistFactory and RooStats to construct parametric models and to perform statistical tests of the data, and extends these tools in four key areas. The key innovations are to weave the concepts of control, validation and signal regions into the very fabric of HistFitter, and to treat these with rigorous methods. Multiple tools to visualize and interpret the results through a simple configuration interface are also provided.

Implementation of a Network Provisioning System with User-driven and Trusty Protection Management

Proper management on user-driven virtual circuits (VCs) is essential for seamless operation of virtual networks. The Network Provisioning System (NPS) is useful software for creating user-driven VCs automatically and must take fault management into account for physical layer impairments on user-driven VCs. This paper addresses a user-driven and trusty protection management in an NPS with an open standard Network Service Interface (NSI), as a contribution to show how to implement the user-driven and trusty protection management required for user-driven VCs. In particular, it provides a RESTful web service Interface for Configuration and Event management (RICE) that enable management of a distinguished data and control plane VC status between Network Service Agents (NSAs) in the event of a node or link fault and repair in a domain. This capability represents a contribution to show how network and protection events in a domain can be monitored between NSAs (NPSs with the NSI) in multiple domains. The implemented NPS controls and manages both the primary and backup VC with disjoint path in a user-driven manner. A demonstration to verify RICE APIs capability is addressed for the trusty protection in the dynamic VC network.

MiRNAfe: A comprehensive tool for feature extraction in microRNA prediction

miRNAfe is a comprehensive tool to extract features from RNA sequences. It is freely available as a web service, allowing a single access point to almost all state-of-the-art feature extraction methods used today in a variety of works from different authors. It has a very simple user interface, where the user only needs to load a file containing the input sequences and select the features to extract. As a result, the user obtains a text file with the features extracted, which can be used to analyze the sequences or as input to a miRNA prediction software.The tool can calculate up to 80 features where many of them are multidimensional arrays. In order to simplify the web interface, the features have been divided into six pre-defined groups, each one providing information about: primary sequence, secondary structure, thermodynamic stability, statistical stability, conservation between genomes of different species and substrings analysis of the sequences. Additionally, pre-trained classifiers are provided for prediction in different species. All algorithms to extract the features have been validated, comparing the results with the ones obtained from software of the original authors.The source code is freely available for academic use under GPL license at http://sourceforge.net/projects/sourcesinc/files/mirnafe/0.90/. A user-friendly access is provided as web interface at http://fich.unl.edu.ar/sinc/web-demo/mirnafe/. A more configurable web interface can be accessed at http://fich.unl.edu.ar/sinc/web-demo/mirnafe-full/.

IoT Based iPower Saver Meter

Background: An Internet of Things (IoT) based iPower Saver Meter which steps toward monitoring the total amount of power consumed by the domestic appliances. There by notifying the beneficiary a detail wise power consumption of appliances. Additionally provides, a configurable interface for user to limit the usage of high power consuming devices, such as Washing Machine, Air conditioner, etc. This facilitates user to set the timer on those appliances as per their affordability to check bulky increase in electricity bill. Methods: The sensing environment of the smart system is built upon BeagleBone Black board. The hardware environment is integrated with an IoT Platform called Xively and a secure web templates are designed using Flask interface. Findings: This platform yields a calibrated measurement of the power usage hence enabling the user to easily track down, by simply logging into Xively, the power consumption of every appliance and the current bill drawn from the usage. Conclusion/Improvements: The proposed intelligent power savor meter not only rectifies the inclining problem by providing a specified domain of power to be put under utility but also keeps a cautious vigilance over the area by turning off the devices which is running needlessly thereby saving surplus amount of wastage power.

HistFitter - A flexible framework for statistical data analysis

We present a software framework for statistical data analysis, called HistFitter, that has extensively been used in the ATLAS Collaboration to analyze data of proton-proton collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Most notably, HistFitter has become a de-facto standard in searches for supersymmetric particles since 2012, with some usage for Exotic and Higgs boson physics. HistFitter coherently combines several statistics tools in a programmable and flexible framework that is capable of bookkeeping hundreds of data models under study using thousands of generated input histograms. The key innovations of HistFitter are to weave the concepts of control, validation and signal regions into its very fabric, and to treat them with rigorous statistical methods, while providing multiple tools to visualize and interpret the results through a simple configuration interface.

Mason: a JavaScript web site widget for visualizing and comparing annotated features in nucleotide or protein sequences.

BackgroundSequence feature annotations (e.g., protein domain boundaries, binding sites, and secondary structure predictions) are an essential part of biological research. Annotations are widely used by scientists during research and experimental design, and are frequently the result of biological studies. A generalized and simple means of disseminating and visualizing these data via the web would be of value to the research community.FindingsMason is a web site widget designed to visualize and compare annotated features of one or more nucleotide or protein sequence. Annotated features may be of virtually any type, ranging from annotating transcription binding sites or exons and introns in DNA to secondary structure or domain boundaries in proteins. Mason is simple to use and easy to integrate into web sites. Mason has a highly dynamic and configurable interface supporting multiple sets of annotations per sequence, overlapping regions, customization of interface and user-driven events (e.g., clicks and text to appear for tooltips). It is written purely in JavaScript and SVG, requiring no 3rd party plugins or browser customization.ConclusionsMason is a solution for dissemination of sequence annotation data on the web. It is highly flexible, customizable, simple to use, and is designed to be easily integrated into web sites. Mason is open source and freely available at https://github.com/yeastrc/mason.

A high-precision long-range cooperative radar system for gantry rail crane distance measurement

We present the implementation of a cooperative radar system on a gantry rail crane for distance measurements in an industrial environment. The measurement approach is based on the dual-ramp frequency-modulated continuous-wave principle, using identical sensor-nodes at the endpoints of the range of interest. Pseudo-range information is exchanged via a dedicated data-link between these stations. At the sensor-node a flexible high-performance signal processing and remote management engine is implemented. The system setup is controlled by a single host-PC, which is used as a man–machine interface for configuration of the remotely controlled measurement stations, system surveillance, and visualization of the measurement data. Indoor characterization of the developed hardware is sufficient for an efficient calibration of the system, minimizing distance offsets. On-site measurements at distances up to 1000 m with an accuracy better than 2 cm confirm the performance of the ranging system. Furthermore, the results are verified by simulation.

Software framework for inverse modeling and uncertainty characterization

Estimation of spatial random fields (SRFs) is required for predicting groundwater flow, subsurface contaminant movement, and other areas of environmental and earth sciences modeling. This paper presents an inverse modeling framework called MAD# for characterizing SRFs, which is an implementation of the Bayesian inverse modeling technique Method of Anchored Distributions (MAD). MAD# allows modelers to “wrap” simulation models using an extensible driver architecture that exposes model parameters to the inversion engine. MAD# is implemented in an open source software package with the goal of lowering the barrier to using inverse modeling in education, research, and resource management. MAD# includes an intentionally simple user interface for simulation configuration, external software integration, spatial domain and model output visualization, and evaluation of model convergence. Four test cases are presented demonstrating the novel functionality of this framework to apply inversion in order to calibrate the model parameters characterizing a groundwater aquifer.

Design and Implementation of an Ethernet MAC IP Core for Embedded Applications

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML /> <o:AllowPNG /> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;">An IP (intellectual property) core is a block of logic or data that is used in making a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for a product. As essential elements of design reuse, IP cores are part of the growing electronic design automation (EDA) industry trend towards repeated use of previously designed components. Ethernet continues to be one of the most popular LAN technologies. Due to the robustness resulting from its wide acceptance and deployment, there has been an attempt to build Ethernet-based real-time control networks for manufacturing automation. There is a growing demand for low cost, power efficient MAC IP Core for various embedded applications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this paper a</span><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> project is discussed to design an Ethernet MAC IP Core solution for such embedded applications. The proposed 10_100_1000 Mbps tri-mode Ethernet MAC implements a MAC controller conforming to IEEE 802.3 specification. It is designed to use less than 2000 LCs/LEs to implement full function. It will use inferred RAMs and PADs to reduce technology dependence. To increase the flexibility, three optional modules can be added to or removed from the project. A GUI configuration interface, created by Tcl/tk script language, is convenient for configuring optional modules, FIFO depth and verification parameters. Furthermore, a verification system was designed with Tcl/tk user interface, by which the stimulus can be generated automatically and the output packets can be verified with CRC-32 checksum.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;">A solution which would consume a smaller part of the targeted FPGA, and thus giving room for other on-chip peripherals or enable the use of a smaller sized FPGA. To employ a smaller FPGA is desirable since it would reduce power consumption and device price. </span></p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:UseFELayout /> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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Redesign of the Microsurgical Interface with a Novel, Computer‐Assisted “Virtual Microscope” System in Laser Phonomicrosurgery

Objectives: (1) Augment surgeon skills through gesture scaling and magnified visualization. (2) Eliminate extensive training using intuitive stylus-based manipulation. (3) Perform active constraints intraoperative planning assisting the surgeon. Methods: The virtual microscope elements system are: Motorized Micromanipulator, Graphics Stylus with Tablet, Virtual Microscope (VM), Configuration Interface (CI). The apparatus has been implemented and tested between July and December 2013 by resident surgeons and medical students. The surgeon performs the surgical tasks in the VM interface, consisting of modified head-mount display and HD cameras attached to a microscope. The CI includes different categories: in-surgery messages, choosing assistive features, system configuration, etc. The assistive features in the VM include: Precise aiming and incision with laser, defining virtual scan patterns allowing incision and ablation planning for automatic execution, defining regions where the laser is active (safe area), or inactive (dangerous area). The apparatus was compared with the state-of-the-art Lumenis AcuBlade (AB) interface. Average path outcome measurements following error and statistical subjective evaluations of usability were made. Results: The average path following error (root mean square error value) was 0.25 mm while maximum error was 0.66 mm. VM is more accurate and superior to AB, which provided values of 0.51 mm and 1.20 mm, respectively, in earlier trials. The subjective evaluations of usability gave a score of 88.3 for the VM. Earlier trials with AB provided a score of 65.56. VM interface is simple, usable, easy to learn, and appropriate. Conclusions: The VM was created to provide improved precision, safety, and better ergonomics for microsurgery procedures. The system provides enhanced 3D visualization and allows delicate maneuvers.

Mesh Network for RFID and Electric Vehicle Monitoring in Smart Charging Infrastructure

With an increased number of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) on the roads, PEV charging infrastructure is gaining an ever-more important role in simultaneously meeting the needs of drivers and those of the local distribution grid. However, the current approach to charging is not well suited to scaling with the PEV market. If PEV adoption continues, charging infrastructure will have to overcome its current shortcomings such as unresponsiveness to grid constraints, low degree of autonomy, and high cost, in order to provide a seamless and configurable interface from the vehicle to the power grid. Among the tasks a charging station will have to accomplish will be PEV identification, charging authorization, dynamic monitoring, and charge control. These will have to be done with a minimum of involvement at a maximum of convenience for a user. The system proposed in this work allows charging stations to become more responsive to grid constraints and gain a degree of networked autonomy by automatically identifying and authorizing vehicles, along with monitoring and controlling all charging activities via an RFID mesh network consisting of charging stations and in-vehicle devices. The proposed system uses a ZigBee mesh network of in-vehicle monitoring devices which simultaneously serve as active RFID tags and remote sensors. The system outlined lays the groundwork for intelligent charge-scheduling by providing access to vehicle’s State of Charge (SOC) data as well as vehicle/driver IDs, allowing a custom charging schedule to be generated for a particular driver and PEV. The approach presented would allow PEV charging to be conducted effectively while observing grid constraints and meeting the needs of PEV drivers.

ROOT based Offline and Online Analysis (ROAn): An analysis framework for X-ray detector data

The ROOT based Offline and Online Analysis (ROAn) framework was developed to perform data analysis on data from Depleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor (DePFET) detectors, a type of active pixel sensors developed at the MPI Halbleiterlabor (HLL). ROAn is highly flexible and extensible, thanks to ROOT׳s features like run-time type information and reflection.ROAn provides an analysis program which allows to perform configurable step-by-step analysis on arbitrary data, an associated suite of algorithms focused on DePFET data analysis, and a viewer program for displaying and processing online or offline detector data streams.The analysis program encapsulates the applied algorithms in objects called steps which produce analysis results. The dependency between results and thus the order of calculation is resolved automatically by the program. To optimize algorithms for studying detector effects, analysis parameters are often changed. Such changes of input parameters are detected in subsequent analysis runs and only the necessary recalculations are triggered. This saves time and simultaneously keeps the results consistent.The viewer program offers a configurable Graphical User Interface (GUI) and process chain, which allows the user to adapt the program to different tasks such as offline viewing of file data, online monitoring of running detector systems, or performing online data analysis (histogramming, calibration, etc.).Because of its modular design, ROAn can be extended easily, e.g. be adapted to new detector types and analysis processes.

Design and implementation of data acquisition system for magnets of SST-1

The magnet system of the Steady-State Superconducting Tokamak-1 at the Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, India, consists of sixteen toroidal field and nine poloidal field. Superconducting coils together with a pair of resistive PF coils, an air core ohmic transformer and a pair of vertical field coils. These magnets are instrumented with various cryogenic compatible sensors and voltage taps for its monitoring, operation, protection, and control during different machine operational scenarios like cryogenic cool down, current charging cycles including ramp up, flat top, plasma breakdown, dumping/ramp down and warm up. The data acquisition system for these magnet instrumentation have stringent requirement regarding operational flexibility, reliability for continuous long term operation and data visualization during operations. A VME hardware based data acquisition system with ethernet based remote system architecture is implemented for data acquisition and control of the complete magnet operation. Software application is developed in three parts namely an embedded VME target, a network server and a remote client applications. A target board application implemented with real time operating system takes care of hardware configuration and raw data transmission to server application. A java server application manages several activities mainly multiple client communication over ethernet, database interface and data storage. A java based platform independent desktop client application is developed for online and offline data visualization, remote hard ware configuration and many other user interface tasks. The application has two modes of operation to cater to different needs of cool-down and charging operations. This paper describes application architecture, installation and commissioning and operational experience from the recent campaigns of SST-1.