Unveiling the underlying relationships over a network for monitoring purposes

Nowadays traffic monitoring and analysis tools provide poor information about traffic volume without giving any clear view of what the hidden rules and relationships that govern these flows are. Since the majority of flows is generated by services (web browsing, email, p2p) and most of these applications are dependent on many network assets (servers and databases) we should discover the underlying relationships of every application. We present a technique that discovers the hidden relationships among components of a network that consist of parts of specific applications. From time information and flow attributes, such as IP addresses and service ports, our method using a novel hybrid genetic algorithm produces a small set of fuzzy rules that can reveal the underlying relationships over a network without any guidance. These dependencies build a service graph which can become a useful tool for fault localization, monitoring service performance, designing changes and anomaly detection. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monitoring Charge Exchange in P3HT-Nanotube Composites Using Optical and Electrical Characterisation

Charge exchange at the bulk heterojunctions of composites made by mixing single wall nanotubes (SWNTs) and polymers show potential for use in optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and optical sensors. The density/total area of these heterojunctions is expected to increase with increasing SWNT concentration but the efficiency of solar cell peaks at low SWNT concentrations. Most researchers use current–voltage measurements to determine the evolution of the SWNT percolation network and optical absorption measurements to monitor the spectral response of the composites. However, these methods do not provide a detailed account of carrier transport at the concentrations of interest; i.e., near or below the percolation threshold. In this article, we show that capacitance–voltage (C–V) response of (metal)-(oxide)-(semiconducting composite) devices can be used to fill this gap in studying bulk heterojunctions. In an approach where we combine optical absorption methods with C–V measurements we can acquire a unified optoelectronic response from P3HT-SWNT composites. This methodology can become an important tool for optoelectronic device optimization.     

Surface wave dispersion in large concrete structures

The present paper discusses the repair characterization of large concrete surfaces based on the propagation of low-frequency elastic waves. A common repair method is cement injection. As a result, cracks and voids are eliminated increasing the measured average pulse velocity by about 5%. However, the central frequency of the pulses exhibits higher sensitivity to the repair increasing by about 15%. Additionally, the velocity of longitudinal waves exhibits a dependence on frequency. This dispersion is eliminated after repair being an indication of the repair efficiency, while Rayleigh waves are only slightly dispersive due to their long wavelength which enables them to travel below the shallow defects.     

Effects of Genetic, Pre- and Post-Harvest Factors on Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Capacity of White Asparagus Spears

The effects of genetic, pre-harvest (season of harvest, spear diameter, spear portion and spear tip color) and post-harvest factors (storage and domestic preparation practices, e.g., peeling and cooking) on total phenolic, flavonoid and ascorbic acid content of white asparagus spears and their correlation with antioxidant capacity (DPPH and FRAP) were studied. Results showed that genetic material was important for the total phenolic content but not season of harvest, spear diameter or storage. Violet spear tips and apical spear portions showed the largest amount of total phenolics. Peeling did not affect total phenolics in fresh asparagus, whereas it reduced their content in stored asparagus, while cooking resulted in an increase in both fresh and stored asparagus. However, the soluble extract of total phenolics and flavonoids were minor and the missing significance of phenolics and flavonoids in antioxidant capacity of white asparagus spears depends on these small amounts.     

The mechano-sorptive behavior of flexible water-blown polyurethane foams

Samples of flexible water-blown slabstock polyurethane foams were compressed under constant load to study the effects of cycling moisture content on creep behavior and compare this behavior with the creep response where either a constant high or low moisture environment existed at the same temperature. Three sets of foams were tested: (1) 4 pph water content slabstock foam; (2) 5 pph water content slabstock foam; and (3) 2 pph water content molded foam. As the moisture conditions were cycled from low to high humidity while maintaining constant temperature in an environmental chamber, the compressive strain increased in subsequent steps with larger increases observed during the desorption portion of the humidity cycling. All three sets of foams showed similar behavior at a given temperature. At a temperature of 40°C, the strain levels under cyclic moisture conditions surpassed those levels observed at the highest constant relative humidity. During the first absorption step, the creep level increased. During any subsequent absorption step, the creep level either increased very little or none at all. Finally, during any desorption step, the creep level increased. This overall phenomenon of enhanced creep under cyclic moisture levels is attributed to water interacting with the hydrogen bonded structure within the foam. These hydrophillic interactions, principally promoted within the hard segment regions due to high hydrogen bonding, are disrupted causing slippage and increased in strain. As the foam is rapidly dired, regions of free volume are induced by the loss of water thus causing further increases in strain Prior to the reestablishment of well ordered hydrogen bonding. Further support to this proposition was given by the results obtained at a temperature of 90° C where it is well known that hydrogen bonds are much more mobile. Here, the strain levels under cyclic moisture conditions were nearly the same as those under constant high relative humidity. Weakening of the hydrogen bonds by means such as increased temperature resulted in similar strain levels to those under cyclic moisture levels. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Occupant Tenability in Single Family Homes: Part II: Impact of Door Control,Vertical Ventilation and Water Application

This paper describes experimental investigations of fire service ventilation and suppression practices in full-scale residential structures, including a one-story, 112 m², 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with 8 total rooms and a two-story 297 m², 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house with 12 total rooms. The two-story house featured a modern open floor plan, two-story great room and open foyer. Seventeen experiments were conducted varying fire location, ventilation locations, the size of ventilation openings and suppression techniques. The experimental series was designed to examine the impact of several different tactics on tenability: door control, vertical ventilation size, and exterior suppression. The results of these experiments examine potential occupant and firefighter tenability and provide knowledge the fire service can use to examine their vertical ventilation and exterior suppression standard operating procedures and training content. It was observed that door control performed better at controlling the thermal exposure to occupants than did fully opening the door. Additionally, the impact of increased vertical ventilation area was minimal, and only slightly reduced the thermal exposure to occupants in a few non-fire rooms. In the two-story structure, the non-fire rooms on the second floor consistently had larger thermal fractional effective rate (FER) values (approximately 2.5× the thermal risk to oocupants) than did the non-fire rooms on the first floor. Water application was also shown to reduce the thermal risk to occupants 60 s after water application 1/3rd the original values on second floor rooms of the two-storry structure and by at least 1/5th of the original values on the first floor rooms of both structures. Data also showed that the impact of front door ventilation on the toxic gases exposure was minimal, as the toxic gases FER actually increased after front door ventilation for several experiments. However, after vertical ventilation there was a 30% reduction in the toxic gases exposure rate in two of the one-story structure experiments.     

Behavioral-Level Performance and Power Exploration of Data-Intensive Applications Mapped on Programmable Processors

The continuous increase of the computational power of programmable processors has established them as an attractive design alternative, for implementation of the most computationally intensive applications, like video compression. To enforce this trend, designers implementing applications on programmable platforms have to be provided with reliable and in-depth data and instruction analysis that will allow for the early selection of the most appropriate application for a given set of specifications. To address this need, we introduce a new methodology for early and accurate estimation of the number of instructions required for the execution of an application, together with the number of data memory transfers on a programmable processor. The high-level estimation is achieved by a series of mathematical formulas; these describe not only the arithmetic operations of an application, but also its control and addressing operations, if it is executed on a programmable core. The comparative study, which is done using three popular processors (ARM, MIPS, and Pentium), shows the high efficiency and accuracy of the methodology proposed, in terms of the number of executed (micro-)instructions (i.e. performance) and the number of data memory transfers (i.e. memory power consumption). Using the proposed methodology we estimated an average deviation of 23% in our estimated figures compared with the measurements taken from the real execution on the CPUs. This work was supported by the project PENED ’99 ED501 funded by GSRT of the Greek Ministry of Development, and the project PRENED ’99 KE 874 funded by the Research Committee of the Democritus University of Thrace. This work was partially sponsored by a scholarship from the Public Benefit Foundation of Alexander S. Onassis (Minas Dasygenis). Nikolaos Kroupis was born in Trikala in 1976. He receiver the engineering degree and Ms.C. degree in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from Democritous University of Thrace, Greece, in 2000 and 2002, respectively. Since 2002 he has been a Ph.D. student at the Laboratory of Electrical and Electronic Materials Technology. His research interests are in software/hardware co-design of embedded system for signal processing applications. Nikos D. Zervas received a Diploma in Electrical & Computer Engineering from University of Patras, Greece in 1997. He received the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the same University in 2004. His research interests are in the area of high-level, power optimization techniques and methodologies for multimedia and telecommunication applications. He has received an award from IEEE Computer Society in the context of Low-Power Design Contest of 2000 IEEE Computer Elements Mesa Workshop. Mr. Zervas is a member of the IEEE, ACM and of the Technical Chamber of Greece. Minas Dasygenis was born in Thessaloniki in 1976. He received his Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1999, from the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, and for his diploma Thesis he was honored by The Technical Chamber of Greece and Ericsson Hellas. In 2005, he received his PhD Degree from the Democritus University of Thrace. His research interests include low-power VLSI design of arithmetic circuits, residue number system, embedded architectures, DSPs, hardware/ software codesign and IT security. He has published more than 20 papers in international journals and conferences and he has been a principal researcher in three European research projects. Konstantinos Tatas received his degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece in 1999. He received his Ph.D. in the VLSI Design and Testing Center in the same University by June 2005. He has been employed as an RTL designer in INTRACOM SA, Greece between 2000 and 2003. His research interests include low-power VLSI design of DSP and multimedia systems, computer arithmetic, IP core design and design for reuse. Antonios Argyriou received the degree in Electrical and Computer engineering from the Democritous University of Thrace, Greece, in 2001, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 2003 and 2005, respectively. His primary research interests include wireless networks, mobile computing and multimedia communications. He is a member of the IEEE and ACM. Dimitrios Soudris received his Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, in 1987. He received the Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering, from the University of Patras in 1992. He is currently working as Ass. Professor in Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. His research interests include low power design, parallel architectures, embedded systems design, and VLSI signal processing. He has published more than 140 papers in international journals and conferences. He was leader and principal investigator in numerous research projects funded from the Greek Government and Industry as well as the European Commission (ESPRIT II-III-IV and 5th and 6th IST). He has served as General Chair and Program Chair for the International Workshop on Power and Timing Modelling, Optimisation, and Simulation (PATMOS). He received an award from INTEL and IBM for the project results of LPGD #25256 (ESPRIT IV). He is a member of the IEEE, the VLSI Systems and Applications Technical Committee of IEEE CAS and the ACM. Antonios Thanailakis was born in Greece on August 5, 1940. He received B.Sc. degrees in physics and electrical engineering from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, 1964 and 1968, respectively, and the Msc. and Ph.D. Degrees in electrical engineering and electronics from UMIST, Manchester, U.K. in 1968 and 1971, respectively. He has been a Professor of Microelectronics in Dept. of Electrical and Computer Eng., Democritus Univ. of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece, since 1977. He has been active in electronic device and VLSI system design research since 1968. His current research activities include microelectronic devices and VLSI systems design. He has published a great number of scientific and technical papers, as well as five textbooks. He was leader for carrying out research and development projects funded by Greece, EU, or other organizations on various topics of Microlectronics and VLSI Systems Design (e.g. NATO, ESPRIT, ACTS, STRIDE).     

Assessment of a modification to the Brinell method for determining solid wood hardness

Purpose of this study was to assess a modification to the hardness determination method in order to mitigate the effect of visual measurements on the consistency of Brinell method and accuracy of the results. The amendment has been previously proposed by other researchers and refers to the automated determination of indentation diameter and relies on the ability of modern testing machines to accurately measure indentation depth, through which the calculation of indentation diameter is possible. From the results of this study it was shown that the hardness values acquired by the proposed modification presented statistically significant difference compared to those acquired using the visual method described in EN1534 (Wood and parquet flooring—determination of resistance to indentation (Brinell)—test method, 2000). Moreover, compared to the standard methodology, the application of the proposed amendment led to hardness values which are better correlated to density as well as Janka hardness for the six different solid wood species tested. Furthermore, the proposed modification resulted to hardness values which seem to be less affected by the presence of varnish coatings.     

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Bromodomains Reveal Binding-Site Flexibility and Multiple Binding Modes of the Natural Ligand Acetyl-Lysine

Experimental protein structures provide spatial information at the atomic level. A further dimension, time, is supplemented by molecular dynamics. Since the pioneering work on the 58-residue inhibitor of bovine pancreatic trypsin in the group of Martin Karplus in the seventies, molecular dynamics simulations have shown that the intrinsic flexibility of proteins is essential for their function. Here, we review simulation studies of bromodomains. These protein modules are involved in the recognition of acetylated lysine side chains, a post-translational modification frequently observed in histone tails. The molecular dynamics simulations have unmasked: (i) the large plasticity of the loops lining the acetyl-lysine binding site (coupled to its self-occlusion), and (ii) multiple binding modes of acetyl-lysine. These simulation results suggest that recognition of histone tails by bromodomains is modulated by their intrinsic flexibility, and further corroborate the utility of molecular dynamics in understanding (macro)molecular recognition.     

Improving through-thickness conductivity of carbon fiber reinforced polymer using carbon nanotube/polyethylenimine at the interlaminar region

The through-thickness conductivity of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite was increased by incorporating multiwalled carbon nanotubes in the interlaminar region. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were dispersed in a polyethylenimine (PEI) binder, which was then coated onto the carbon fiber fabric. Standard vacuum-assisted resin infusion process was applied to fabricate the composite laminates. This modification technique aims to enhance the electrical conductivity in through-thickness direction for the purpose of nondestructive testing, damage detection, and electromagnetic interference shielding. CNT concentrations ranging from 0 to 0.75 wt% were used and compared to pristine CFRP samples (reference). The through-thickness conductivity of the CFRP exhibited an improvement of up to 781% by adopting this technique. However, the dispersion of CNT in PEI led to a viscosity increase and poor wetting properties which resulted in the formation of voids/defects, poor adhesion (as shown in scanning electron micrographs) and the deterioration of the mechanical properties as manifested by interlaminar shear strength and dynamic mechanical analysis measurements.