Transparent autonomization in CORBA

Increasingly, software systems are constructed by integrating and composing multiple existing applications. The resulting complexity increases the need for self-management of the system. However, adding autonomic behavior to composite systems is difficult, especially when the constituent components are heterogeneous and they were not originally designed to support such interactions. Moreover, entangling the code for self-management with the code for the business logic of the original applications may actually increase the complexity of the systems, counter to the desired goal. In this paper, we address autonomization of composite systems that use CORBA, one of the first widely used middleware platforms introduced more than 17 years ago that is still commonly used in numerous systems. We propose a model, called Adaptive CORBA Template (ACT), that enables autonomic behavior to be added to CORBA applications automatically and transparently, that is, without requiring any modifications to the code implementing the business logic of the original applications. To do so, ACT uses “generic” interceptors, which are added to CORBA applications at startup time and enable autonomic behavior to be introduced later at runtime. We have developed ACT/J, a prototype of ACT in Java. We describe a case study in which ACT/J is used to introduce three types of autonomic behavior (self-healing, self-optimization, and self-configuration) to a distributed surveillance application.     

基于路标点追踪的差速驱动机器人运动规划

首先,针对三角网格路径规划方法采用D-P算法提取路标点时,其最大阈值不易确定等问题,提出基于碰撞检测的抽取路标点方法.同时采用Pure Pursuit算法跟踪路标点,对差速驱动机器人进行运动规划;然后,通过实验对比分析表明,在提取路标点时,与D-P算法相比,碰撞检测方法更加优越;最后,通过差速驱动机器人的运动规划实验表明:Pure Pursuit算法追踪路标点方法规划的运动轨迹为一条光滑曲线,能够有效地避开地图上的障碍物;机器人角速度和线速度均为光滑函数,变化平缓,在路标点附近出现较小波动,波动范围均在允许值内;运动规划时间为0.049s,完全能够满足实际需求.研究结果表明,基于路标点追踪的移动机器人运动规划是一种简单有效的运动规划方法.     

Scientific Workflow Makespan Minimization in Edge Multiple Service Providers Environment

The edge computing model offers an ultimate platform to support scientific and real-time workflow-based applications over the edge of the network. However, scientific workflow scheduling and execution still facing challenges such as response time management and latency time. This leads to deal with the acquisition delay of servers, deployed at the edge of a network and reduces the overall completion time of workflow. Previous studies show that existing scheduling methods consider the static performance of the server and ignore the impact of resource acquisition delay when scheduling workflow tasks. Our proposed method presented a meta-heuristic algorithm to schedule the scientific workflow and minimize the overall completion time by properly managing the acquisition and transmission delays. We carry out extensive experiments and evaluations based on commercial clouds and various scientific workflow templates. The proposed method has approximately 7.7% better performance than the baseline algorithms, particularly in overall deadline constraint that gives a success rate.

     

Design and analysis of miniaturized all-optical binary to gray code converter using Y-shaped plasmonic waveguide for optical processors

In this paper, an all-optical miniaturized binary to gray code converter is designed and analyzed. The all-optical domain is now an alternative for electronic devices, where performance and speed are the key issues. Code converters are significantly used in digital data transmission in the areas of error detection and correction. Gray code is one of the cyclic codes, where the cyclic shift of each codeword is also a code word. An all-optical XOR gate, realized using a Y-shaped power combiner is used in this design to generate the desired gray code from the given binary code. The insertion loss and extinction ratio parameters are found to be 0.347 dB and 22.26 dB, respectively. The entire simulation is carried out using finite-difference time-domain method. The obtained practical results are verified mathematically using MATLAB.

     

一种抗背景干扰的多尺度人群计数算法

人群计数技术以估计人群图片或视频中的人数为目标,可以有效预防人群踩踏事故的发生,广泛应用于安防预警、城市规划及大型集会管理等领域。然而,由于人群尺度变化、背景干扰、人群分布不均、遮挡和透视效应等因素的影响,单幅图片的人群计数仍是一项非常具有挑战性的任务。针对人群计数中多尺度变化和背景干扰问题,提出一种抗背景干扰的多尺度人群计数算法。以VGG16网络结构为基础,引入特征金字塔构建多尺度特征融合骨干网络解决人群多尺度变化问题,设计Double-Head-CC结构对融合后的特征图进行前景背景分割和密度图预测以抑制背景干扰。基于密度图的局部相关性和多任务学习,定义多重损失函数和多任务联合损失函数进行网络优化。在ShanghaiTech、UCF-QNRF和JHU-CROWD++数据集上进行训练和评测,实验结果表明,该算法能够很好地预测人群密度分布和人群数量,具有较高的准确性,且鲁棒性强、泛化性能良好。     

Theoretical Investigation of Cubic BaVO<Subscript>3</Subscript> and LaVO<Subscript>3</Subscript> Perovskites via Tran–Blaha-Modified Becke–Johnson Exchange Potential Approach

The full potential linearized augmented plane wave method of density functional theory has been used to investigate the structural, electronic, magnetic and thermoelectric properties of cubic perovskites BaVO₃ and LaVO₃. The ferromagnetic ground state has been found to be stable by comparing the total energies of non-spin-polarized and spin-polarized calculations performed for optimized unit cells. For both compounds, the bond length and tolerance factor are also measured. From the band structures and density of states plots, it is found that both compounds are half-metallic. We found that the presence of V at the octahedral site of these perovskites develops exchange splitting through p-d hybridization, which results in a stable ferromagnetic state. The observed exchange splitting is further clarified from the magnetic moment, charge and spin of the anion and cations. Finally, we also presented the calculated thermoelectric properties of these materials, which show that half-metallic BaVO₃ and LaVO₃ materials are potential contenders for thermoelectric applications.     

Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 nanotubes synthesis and infrared absorption properties

Herein a useful methodology to synthesize the lead zirconate titanate (PZT) nanotubes via a dip-coating deposition process with anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template is proposed. The nano-porous AAO templates were produced using a controlled two-step electrochemical anodization technique. The PZT/AAO composite was formed using the dip-coating wetting technique. The prepared PZT precursor solution was driven into the nanopore channels of AAO template under the driving force of capillary action, subsequently the sintering process of the as-filled templates was carefully tuned to obtain Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ nanotubes of crystalline tetragonal phase with uniform pore size and ordered arrange. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results show that in the 1200–1900 cm⁻¹ band, the composite structure of PZT/AAO has obvious absorption peaks at 1471.56 cm⁻¹ and 1556.09 cm⁻¹, the absorption intensity of the composite structure is about six times of pure AAO template. The unusual optical properties found in PZT/AAO composite will stimulate further theoretical and experimental interests in ferroelectric nanostructures.     

Controlled chemical modification of the internal surface of photonic crystal fibers for application as biosensitive elements

Photonic crystal fibers (PCF) are one of the most promising materials for creation of constructive elements for bio-, drug and contaminant sensing based on unique optical properties of the PCF as effective nanosized optical signal collectors. In order to provide efficient and controllable binding of biomolecules, the internal surface of glass hollow core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCF) has been chemically modified with silanol groups and functionalized with (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES). The shift of local maxima in the HC-PCF transmission spectrum has been selected as a signal for estimating the amount of silanol groups on the HC-PCF inner surface. The relationship between amount of silanol groups on the HC-PCF inner surface and efficiency of following APTES functionalization has been evaluated. Covalent binding of horseradish peroxidase (chosen as a model protein) on functionalized PCF inner surface has been performed successively, thus verifying the possibility of creating a biosensitive element.