A two-phase framework for quality-aware Web service selection

Service-oriented computing is gaining momentum as the next technological tool to leverage the huge investments in Web application development. The expected large number of Web services poses a set of new challenges for efficiently accessing these services. We propose an integrated service query framework that facilitates users in accessing their desired services. The framework incorporates a service query model and a two-phase optimization strategy. The query model defines service communities that are used to organize the large and heterogeneous service space. The service communities allow users to use declarative queries to retrieve their desired services without worrying about the underlying technical details. The two-phase optimization strategy automatically generates feasible service execution plans and selects the plan with the best user-desired quality. In particular, we present an evolutionary algorithm that is able to “co-evolve” multiple feasible execution plans simultaneously and allows them to compete with each other to generate the best plan. We conduct a set of experiments to assess the performance of the proposed algorithms.     

New aspect-oriented constructs for security hardening concerns

In this paper, we present new pointcuts and primitives to Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) languages that are needed for systematic hardening of security concerns. The two proposed pointcuts allow to identify particular join points in a program's control-flow graph (CFG). The first one is the GAFlow, Closest Guaranteed Ancestor, which returns the closest ancestor join point to the pointcuts of interest that is on all their runtime paths. The second one is the GDFlow, Closest Guaranteed Descendant, which returns the closest child join point that can be reached by all paths starting from the pointcut of interest. The two proposed primitives are called ExportParameter and ImportParameter and are used to pass parameters between two pointcuts. They allow to analyze a program's call graph in order to determine how to change function signatures for passing the parameters associated with a given security hardening. We find these pointcuts and primitives to be necessary because they are needed to perform many security hardening practices and, to the best of our knowledge, none of the existing ones can provide their functionalities. Moreover, we show the viability and correctness of the proposed pointcuts and primitives by elaborating and implementing their algorithms and presenting the result of explanatory case studies.     

QRS detection based on wavelet coefficients

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal processing and analysis provide crucial information about functional status of the heart. The QRS complex represents the most important component within the ECG signal. Its detection is the first step of all kinds of automatic feature extraction. QRS detector must be able to detect a large number of different QRS morphologies. This paper examines the use of wavelet detail coefficients for the accurate detection of different QRS morphologies in ECG. Our method is based on the power spectrum of QRS complexes in different energy levels since it differs from normal beats to abnormal ones. This property is used to discriminate between true beats (normal and abnormal) and false beats. Significant performance enhancement is observed when the proposed approach is tested with the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database (MITDB). The obtained results show a sensitivity of 99.64% and a positive predictivity of 99.82%.     

Fault diagnosis using partial syndromes: a modified Hopfield neural network approach

This paper presents a modified Hopfield neural network (HNN) for solving the system-level fault diagnosis problem which aims at identifying the set of faulty nodes. This problem has been extensively studied in the last three decades. Nevertheless, identifying the set of all faulty nodes using only partial syndromes, i.e. when some of the testing or comparison outcomes are missing prior to initiating the diagnosis phase, remains an outstanding research issue. The new HNN-based diagnosis algorithm does not require any prior learning or knowledge about the system, nor about any faulty situation, hence providing a better generalisation performance. Results from a thorough simulation study demonstrate the effectiveness of the HNN-based fault diagnosis algorithm in terms of diagnosis correctness, diagnosis latency and diagnosis scalability, for randomly generated diagnosable systems of different sizes and under various fault scenarios. We have also conducted extensive simulations using partial syndromes. Simulations showed that the HNN-based diagnosis performed efficiently, i.e. diagnosis correctness was around 99% when at most half of the test or comparison outcomes are missing, making it a viable alternative to existing diagnosis algorithms.     

Rapid and efficient hand gestures recognizer based on classes discriminator wavelet networks

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The vision based on hand gesture recognition is one of the key challenges in behavior understanding and computer vision. It offers to machines the possibility of...     

Bioconversion of shrimp shell waste for the production of antioxidant and chitosan used as fruit juice clarifier

The pH, proteolytic activity, extent of demineralisation and deprotenisation of shrimp waste were studied during 7 days of fermentation using Pseudomonas aeruginosa A2. After 3 days, pH dropped from 7.0 to 4.4 and then remained constant. Simultaneously, a demineralisation of 92% was achieved. However, protease activity reached its highest level (1230 U mL^?1) after 1 day of incubation, and a protein removal of 90% was achieved. Chitin obtained was converted to chitosan. This chitosan, with 73% deacetylation, was tested for clarification of different fruit juices. It was observed that low concentrations of chitosan (below to 1%) greatly increase the clarity of juices without affecting the nutritional value. The antioxidant activity of the hydrolysates produced during fermentation was tested. Hydrolysate obtained after 3 days showed the strongest scavenging activity (90%), which was comparable to the positive control BHA; however, that obtained after 1 day exhibited the highest ferric‐reducing antioxidant power (OD 700 nm = 1.7).     

Characterization of boride coatings on a ductile cast iron

In this work, the EN-GJS-400-15 cast iron was pack-borided in a powder mixture composed of 5% B₄C, 5% NaBF₄ and 90% SiC at the three temperatures: 900, 950 and 1000°C for 2, 4 and 6 h, respectively. The pack-borided EN-GJS-400-15 cast iron was characterized by the following experimental techniques: optical microscopy, XRD analysis and Microhardness Vickers tester. The growth kinetics of boride layers was also investigated. As a consequence, the boron activation energy was found to be 212.28 kJ mol^–1 for the EN-GJS-400-15 cast iron. Based on a regression model, a useful equation was derived to estimate the boride layer thickness as a function of the boriding parameters (time and temperature). A good agreement was then obtained between the predicted values of boride layers thicknesses and those measured experimentally. In addition, an iso-thickness diagram was proposed to be used as a simple tool to select the boride layers thicknesses according to the potential applications of EN-GJS-400-15 cast iron in industry.     

Thermo-mechanical characteristics of thermally aged polyethylene/polypropylene blends

Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and their blends have attracted a lot of attention due to their potential industrial applications. Therefore, the current work has been carried out with the main objective of investigating the impact of the thermal aging/treatment and blend ratio (composition range) on the mechanical (tensile and hardness) and thermal characteristics (using thermogravimetric analysis in a dynamic air atmosphere) of PE, PP and PE/PP binary blends. Samples of PE/PP blends containing 100/00, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75 and 0/100 wt.% were prepared via injection moulding technique and thermally treated/aged at 100 °C for 0, 2, 4, 7, 14 days. The tensile measurements indicated that the yield strength and the modulus decrease with increasing PE content. It was also observed that PE, PP and their blends deform in ductile modes. They undergo a uniform yielding over a wide range of deformation, which is followed by strain hardening and then failure. The strain to break for pure PE is found to be much higher than that for pure PP and for their blends, intermediate values have been observed. The hardness measurements have also revealed that increasing PE content in PE/PP blends reduced the hardness value of PP, however, thermal aging at 100 °C has not affected the polymers hardness which holds also true for the tensile properties, showing a good correlation between tested mechanical properties. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in a dynamic air atmosphere and derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTA) were conducted to study the thermal degradation and stability of thermally unaged and aged PE, PP and PE/PP blends in terms of the initial (T_d and T_d(1%)) and final (T_d(99%)) decomposition temperatures and maximum decomposition rate temperature (T_max). All polymers start to decompose at no less than 365 °C. As for mechanical properties, the blend ratio has affected the thermal properties however, aging time has not.     

Can distributed generation offer substantial benefits in a Northeastern American context? A case study of small-scale renewable technologies using a life cycle methodology

Renewable distributed electricity generation can play a significant role in meeting today's energy policy goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy security, while adding supply to meet increasing energy demand. However, the exact potential benefits are still a matter of debate. The objective of this study is to evaluate the life cycle implications (environmental, economic and energy) of distributed generation (DG) technologies. A complementary objective is to compare the life cycle implications of DG technologies with the centralized electricity production representing the Northeastern American context. Environmental and energy implications are modeled according to the recommendations in the ISO 14040 standard and this, using different indicators: Human Health; Ecosystem Quality; Climate Change; Resources and Non-Renewable Energy Payback Ratio. Distinctly, economic implications are modeled using conventional life cycle costing. DG technologies include two types of grid-connected photovoltaic panels (3 kWp mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline) and three types of micro-wind turbines (1, 10 and 30 kW) modeled for average, below average and above average climatic conditions in the province of Quebec (Canada). A sensitivity analysis was also performed using different scenarios of centralized energy systems based on average and marginal (short- and long-term) technology approaches. Results show the following. First, climatic conditions (i.e., geographic location) have a significant effect on the results for the environmental, economic and energy indicators. More specifically, it was shown that the 30 kW micro-wind turbine is the best technology for above average conditions, while 3 kWp poly-crystalline photovoltaic panels are preferable for below average conditions. Second, the assessed DG technologies do not show benefits in comparison to the centralized Quebec grid mix (average technology approach). On the other hand, the 30 kW micro-wind turbine shows a potential benefit as long as the Northeastern American electricity market is considered (i.e., oil and coal centralized technologies are affected for the short- and long-term marginal scenarios, respectively). Photovoltaic panels could also become more competitive if the acquisition cost decreased. In conclusion, DG utilization will represent an improvement over centralized electricity production in a Northeastern American context, with respect to the environmental, energy and economic indicators assessed, and under the appropriate conditions discussed (i.e., geographical locations and affected centralized electricity production scenarios).