A framework for adaptive execution in grids

Grids offer a dramatic increase in the number of available processing and storing resources that can be delivered to applications. However, efficient job submission and management continue being far from accessible to ordinary scientists and engineers due to their dynamic and complex nature. This paper describes a new Globus based framework that allows an easier and more efficient execution of jobs in a ‘submit and forget’ fashion. The framework automatically performs the steps involved in job submission and also watches over its efficient execution. In order to obtain a reasonable degree of performance, job execution is adapted to dynamic resource conditions and application demands. Adaptation is achieved by supporting automatic application migration following performance degradation, ‘better’ resource discovery, requirement change, owner decision or remote resource failure. The framework is currently functional on any Grid testbed based on Globus because it does not require new system software to be installed in the resources. The paper also includes practical experiences of the behavior of our framework on the TRGP and UCM‐CAB testbeds. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A framework for protein structure prediction on the grid

The large number of protein sequences, provided by genomic projects at an increasing pace, constitutes a challenge for large scale computational studies of protein structure and thermodynamics. Grid technology is very suitable to face this challenge, since it provides a way to access the resources needed in compute and data intensive applications. In this paper, we show the procedure to adapt to the Grid an algorithm for the prediction of protein thermodynamics, using the GridWay tool. GridWay allows the resolution of large computational experiments by reacting to events dynamically generated by both the Grid and the application. Eduardo Huedo, Ph.D.: He is a Computer Engineer (1999) and Ph.D. in Computer Architecture (2004) by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). He is Scientist in the Advanced Computing Laboratory at Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), associated to NASA Astrobiology Institute. He had one appointment in 2000 as a Summer Student in High Performance Computing and Applied Mathematics at ICASE (NASA Langley Research Center). His research areas are Performance Management and Tuning, High Performance Computing and Grid Technology. Ugo Bastolla, Ph.D.: He received his degree and Ph.D. in Physics in Rome University, with L. Peliti and G. Parisi respectively. He was interested from the beginning in biologically motivated problems, therefore, studied models of Population Genetics, Boolean Networks, Neural Networks, Statistical Mechanics of Polymers, Ecological and Biodiversity. His main research interest is constituted by studies of protein folding thermodynamics and evolution. Thereby, he set up an effective energy function allowing prediction of protein folding thermodynamics, and applied it to protein structure prediction, to simulate protein evolution and to analyze protein sequences from a thermodynamical point of view. He is currently in the Bioinformatic Unit of the Centro de Astrobiología of Madrid. Rubén S. Montero, Ph.D.: He received his B.S. in Physics (1996), M.S in Computer Science (1998) and Ph.D. in Computer Architecture (2002) from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). He is Assistant Professor of Computer Architecture and Technology at UCM since 1999. He has held several research appointments at ICASE (NASA Langley Research Center), where he worked on computational fluid dynamics, parallel multigrid algorithms and Cluster computing. Nowadays, his research interests lie mainly in Grid Technology, in particular in adaptive scheduling, adaptive execution and distributed algorithms. Ignacio M. Llorente, Ph.D.: He received his B.S. in Physics (1990), M.S in Computer Science (1992) and Ph.D. in Computer Architecture (1995) from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). He is Executive M.B.A. by Instituto de Empresa since 2003. He is Associate Professor of Computer Architecture and Technology in the Department of Computer Architecture and System Engineering at UCM and Senior Scientist at Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), associated to NASA Astrobiology Institute. He has held several appointments since 1997 as a Consultant in High Performance Computing and Applied Mathematics at ICASE (NASA Langley Research Center). His research areas are Information Security, High Performance Computing and Grid Technology.     

The influence the image of the product shown on food packaging labels has on product perception during tasting: Effects and gender differences

Many food packages on the market show an image of the product contained inside or the ingredients with which the product was produced. During the packaging design process, it is the job of the designer or the marketing team to decide which specific image will be depicted on the packaging. This paper analyses the potential implications of this decision by studying the influence that the visual appearance of the product pictured on the packaging has on the way consumers perceive the product during consumption. Two packaging designs for apple sauce were created; the only variable was the visual appearance of the apple displayed: one showed a red apple and the other showed a green one. The 147 participants in this between‐subjects experiment tasted and evaluated six product attributes (Sweet, Acidic, Intense Flavour, Healthy, Natural, and Quality) as well as Liking and Willingness to buy. The results of a MANOVA‐Biplot analysis show that the visual appearance of the product pictured affects Liking, Willingness to buy, and some product attributes. In fact, a strong positive relationship was identified between the attribute Healthy and the perceived quality of the product with Liking and Willingness to buy; if one of these attributes scored higher, the higher score was extrapolated to the others. The study also shows that gender differences exist as these effects do not affect all consumers equally, with women being more sensitive to them than men. This paper discusses the implications of these results for the food industry, for packaging designers and for marketers.     

New Concepts for Production of Scalable Single Layer Oxidized Regions by Local Anodic Oxidation of Graphene

A deep comprehension of the local anodic oxidation process in 2D materials is achieved thanks to an extensive experimental and theoretical study of this phenomenon in graphene. This requires to arrange a novel instrumental device capable to generate separated regions of monolayer graphene oxide (GO) over graphene, with any desired size, from micrometers to unprecedented mm², in minutes, a milestone in GO monolayer production. GO regions are manufactured by overlapping lots of individual oxide spots of thousands µm² area. The high reproducibility and circular size of the spots allows not only an exhaustive experimental characterization inside, but also establishing an original model for oxide expansion which, from classical first principles, overcomes the traditional paradigm of the water bridge, and is applicable to any 2D‐material. This tool predicts the oxidation behavior with voltage and exposure time, as well as the expected electrical current along the process. The hitherto unreported transient current is measured during oxidation, gaining insight on its components, electrochemical and transport. Just combining electrical measurements and optical imaging estimating carrier mobility and degree of oxidation is possible. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals a graphene oxidation about 30%, somewhat lower to that obtained by Hummers' method.     

π-Stacking of rhodamine B onto water-soluble polymers containing aromatic groups

Evidences of the π-stacking of rhodamine B onto poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) are given by ¹H NMR spectroscopy. As a consequence of these π-π interactions, changes on the diafiltration and UV-vis absorbance and fluorescence patterns are shown comparing water-soluble polymers containing aromatic rings as poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) and poly(N-methacryloyl-5-aminosalicylic acid) with other polyanions that do not contain aromatic rings as poly(sodium vinylsulfonate) and poly(acrylic acid).     

Comparison of immobilized Box and azaBox–Cu(II) complexes as catalysts for enantioselective Mukaiyama aldol reactions

Enantioselective Mukaiyama aldol reactions of different α-ketoesters was tested with copper complexes of chiral Box and azaBox ligands in both homogeneous and heterogeneous systems. Results in the homogeneous reactions were greatly influenced by the nature of the ketoester, the chiral ligand, and the reaction solvent. In the case of supported catalysts, the use of strongly coordinating azaBox ligands prevented the leaching of metal but reduced the Lewis acidity, and thus the catalytic activity, and did not solve the problem of poisoning by strong coordination of products, byproducts, or solvents. The counter-ion effect also was very significant, and electrostatic immobilization was efficient only with Box ligands (up to 86% ee at room temperature), whereas covalent immobilization allowed the use of azaBox ligands (up to 85% ee at room temperature) in the heterogeneous phase. Recovered deactivated solids could be reused in a reaction with a completely different mechanism that does not require acid centers, such as cyclopropanation.     

Assessing event correlation in non-process-aware information systems

Many present-day companies carry out a huge amount of daily operations through the use of their information systems without ever having done their own enterprise modeling. Business process mining is a well-proven solution which is used to discover the underlying business process models that are supported by existing information systems. Business process discovery techniques employ event logs as input, which are recorded by process-aware information systems. However, a wide variety of traditional information systems do not have any in-built mechanisms with which to collect events (representing the execution of business activities). Various mechanisms with which to collect events from non-process-aware information systems have been proposed in order to enable the application of process mining techniques to traditional information systems. Unfortunately, since business processes supported by traditional information systems are implicitly defined, correlating events into the appropriate process instance is not trivial. This challenge is known as the event correlation problem. This paper presents an adaptation of an existing event correlation algorithm and incorporates it into a technique in order to collect event logs from the execution of traditional information systems. The technique first instruments the source code to collect events together with some candidate correlation attributes. Based on several well-known design patterns, the technique provides a set of guidelines to support experts when instrumenting the source code. The event correlation algorithm is subsequently applied to the data set of events to discover the best correlation conditions, which are then used to create event logs. The technique has been semi-automated to facilitate its validation through an industrial case study involving a writer management system and a healthcare evaluation system. The study demonstrates that the technique is able to discover an appropriate correlation set and obtain well-formed event logs, thus enabling business process mining techniques to be applied to traditional information systems.     

Element mobility during the hydrothermal alteration of rhyolitic rocks of the Los Azufres geothermal field, Mexico

The effects of hydrothermal alteration on major, rare-earth, and other trace-element concentrations in rhyolitic rocks of the Los Azufres geothermal field, Mexico, were investigated by statistically comparing the chemical compositions of altered drill cuttings (taken above 450 m depth) with those of fresh rock outcrop samples. Altered rhyolitic rocks show predominantly vitreous and fluidal textures, with alteration products (mainly clay minerals, chlorites and, less commonly, sericite) comprising up to 40% of the rock mass; cryptocrystalline quartz, chlorite, and zeolites fill fractures and vesicles. In altered rocks the greater statistical variances of several elements (Y, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Lu, and Pb) are probably due to alteration effects, whereas smaller variances for CaO, Sr, Rb/Sr, and Rb/Ba suggest that alteration processes have resulted in more uniform chemical compositions. Only MnO, P₂O₅, Ta, Zr, and Nb have significantly different concentrations in hydrothermal altered rocks as compared to fresh rocks. MnO, P₂O₅, Ta, Rb/Zr, and Rb/Nb decrease, whereas Zr, Nb, and Nb/Y increase in the altered rocks. The present study stresses that caution should be taken when using these chemical parameters for petrogenetic studies of old hydrothermally altered areas, particularly with rhyolitic rocks. Rare-earth element (REE) concentrations were not significantly different between fresh and altered rhyolitic rocks. This may indicate that these elements were relatively immobile during the hydrothermal alteration processes affecting the rhyolites at Los Azufres, or more likely that they were reincorporated into hydrothermal minerals after being mobilized from the primary phases.     

Optical pattern recognition in motion acquired scenes using a binary joint transform correlation

Abstract

The problem of detecting patterns in moved scenes is analysed. The correlation when the input scene presents a relative motion with respect to the recording system image is studied analytically and an original method for detecting patterns by means of a binary joint transform correlator is presented. The method is based on the compensation of the sign errors introduced in the joint power spectrum by the transfer function of the degradation. Two alternatives to determine the sign of the transfer function are demonstrated: the first is based on an algorithm to extract information from the Fourier spectrum of the blurred image and the second method determines the sign errors by post-processing the correlation. Digital simulations and optical results are provided.