Evaluating workloads using comparative functional coverage

We introduce comparative functional coverage—a technique for comparing the coverage of multiple workloads—and the tool in which it was implemented, FoCuS. The need to compare workloads and the use of functional coverage as a technique to explore data are not new. However, the use of functional coverage for comparing workloads has not been addressed as a method that responds to this long unanswered need. We describe our work in augmenting a functional coverage tool so it can handle multiple data sources. We present the data and include an experiment that shows the usefulness of this method.     

Energetics of stepwise disordering transformation in pyrochlores,RE2Ti2O7 (RE = Y,Gd and Dy)

The capacity to incorporate actinide cations makes pyrochlore titanates first-choice phases in titanate-based waste form ceramics. Despite broad interest in the pyrochlore order–disorder transformation due to the cumulative effects of ²³⁸U, ²³⁵U and ²³²Th radioactive decay and their daughter products, only limited thermodynamic data, mainly based on simulations of ion-beam irradiation experiments, have been reported. In this work, for the first time, heavily disordered pyrochlores, RE₂Ti₂O₇ (RE = Y, Gd and Dy), from mechanical milling of their constituent oxides, were thermochemically investigated. Two types of thermal events were identified using high-temperature differential scanning calorimetry and correlated to the structural disorder in the cation and anion sublattices. Moreover, the excess formation energy measured by oxide melt solution calorimetry shows that the smaller the ionic radius of the RE, the easier it is to remove damage domains.     

Phase Constitution and Dynamic Properties of Spark Plasma‐Sintered Alumina–Titanium Composites

Al₂O₃/Ti composites of various metal to ceramic ratios were fabricated by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The effects of titanium concentration in the initial mixture on phase composition, and on the static and dynamic (planar impact testing) mechanical properties of the SPS‐processed composites were investigated. It was observed that the significant alumina dissolution in titanium takes place during SPS treatment. The composites fabricated from starting alumina/titanium powder mixtures with a mass fraction of titanium less than 0.8 consisted of two phases, alumina and a solid solution of oxygen and aluminum in titanium. For starting mixtures with higher titanium content, the presence of a Ti₃Al intermetallic phase with a relatively low fraction of dissolved oxygen was detected. Changes in phase composition could explain the effect of titanium content in the starting mixture on physical and mechanical properties of the composites. Mechanisms governing the dynamic response of the composites under loading of different intensities are discussed.     

Location-centric storage for safety warning based on roadway sensor networks

We propose a novel vision for roadway safety warning based on sensor networks, aiming at providing user-friendly zero-delay safety warnings to motorists. Our idea leverages the advanced sensing, networking and storage technologies. Roadway sensors detect events and store event records at multiple designated locations along the against traffic direction, such that the passing-by drivers can be alerted to potential dangers or traffic delays through the wireless communication between roadway sensors and the vehicle. We design a location-centric storage (LCS) protocol, which manages the propagation and storage of event records based on the time needed to clear the road. In LCS, the density of the sensors storing an event record decreases logarithmically with respect to the distance to the event location. Thus, the closer to the event position, the more number of warnings a driver may obtain. LCS is further tailored for the case of “highway” sensor networks when all sensors are deployed along a straight line mimicking a highway, and the more complex case when two roads intersect at some place. We conduct both theoretic analysis and simulation study to verify the performance of LCS when applied to roadway sensor networks for safety warning. The results indicate that LCS is fair to all sensors. We conclude that roadway safety warning based on sensor networks is a promising idea for realizing ITS's “Zero Fatality, Zero Delay” roadway safety philosophy.     

Learning from successful and failed experience: The moderating role of kind of after-event review.

The claim that appropriate "after-event review (AER)" may increase the relative value of drawing lessons from successes, as compared with failures, was examined in the present study. The study was a laboratory experiment in which the effect of type of AER (failure-focused, success-focused, failure- and success-focused, and no AER review) on performance improvement and causal attributions was tested under conditions of earlier success and earlier failure. In general, 2 results were demonstrated: (a) Drawing lessons from successful experience is feasible, and its effectiveness is contingent upon the type of AER. More specifically, after successful events, the most effective review is that of wrong actions, whereas after failed events, any kind of event review (correct or wrong actions) is effective. (b) AERs elicit more internal (as opposed to external) and specific (as opposed to general) attributions. These 2 classifications moderate the effect of AERs on task performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determination of Polyphenols,Flavonoids, and Antioxidant Capacity in Colored Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

ABSTRACT: Dry legumes are staple and potentially functional food, being a good source of polyphenols, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity. The objective of this study was to determine the total polyphenol content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and their relation with antioxidant capacity in 17 chickpea lines having colored seed coats (black, red, brown, green, rubiginous, gray, yellow, cream, or beige). The seed coat usually contains more than 95% of these compounds. In this study, both TPC and TFC varied significantly among different lines and were highly correlated to antioxidant activity. Colored seeds contained up to 13-, 11-, and 31-fold more TPC, TFC, and antioxidant activity, respectively, than cream- and beige-color seeds. Thus, colored chickpea could be a potentially functional food in addition to its traditional role of providing dietary proteins and dietary fibers.     

Seamless image stitching by minimizing false edges.

Various applications such as mosaicing and object insertion require stitching of image parts. The stitching quality is measured visually by the similarity of the stitched image to each of the input images, and by the visibility of the seam between the stitched images. In order to define and get the best possible stitching, we introduce several formal cost functions for the evaluation of the stitching quality. In these cost functions the similarity to the input images and the visibility of the seam are defined in the gradient domain, minimizing the disturbing edges along the seam. A good image stitching will optimize these cost functions, overcoming both photometric inconsistencies and geometric misalignments between the stitched images. We study the cost functions and compare their performance for different scenarios both theoretically and practically. Our approach is demonstrated in various applications including generation of panoramic images, object blending and removal of compression artifacts. Comparisons with existing methods show the benefits of optimizing the measures in the gradient domain.     

Toxins and Biologically Active Secondary Metabolites of Microcystis sp. isolated from Lake Kinneret

For many years cyanobacteria were considered a minor, negligible component of the phytoplankton population in Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee, Israel). However, during the last decade several new species invaded the lake and other, more common species were present more frequently and in higher concentrations. Recently, we isolated two Microcystis sp. strains from Lake Kinneret. Both produced an array of hepatotoxic microcystins. In a bioassay-guided study we identified in exudates of one of the Microcystis strains (MB-K) that allelopathic activity was attributed to a novel metabolite, microcarbonin A ( 1 ). Subsequently, two other novel metabolites, micropeptin KT946 ( 2 ) and anabaenopeptin KT864 ( 3 ), were isolated from the hydrophilic extract of the cultured (MB-K) strain, based on their protease inhibition activity. Homo- and heteronuclear-2D-NMR techniques, as well as HRMS, determined the gross structure of the three compounds. The relative and absolute stereochemistry of 2 and 3 was deduced from a combination of spectral data and Marfey's method for HPLC.     

Near-Field Optical Microscopy in Jerusalem

During the past decade the area of near-field optics has seen an exponential growth. This is a result of the resolution of the technical problems that had prevented the potential of this powerful optical methodology from being generally applied. As a result of committed and steady progress in resolving these technical problems the fundamental principles of near-field optics are now generally accepted and the technology is widely used. The potential of these advances has important implications in a variety of areas, from chemistry to information storage to the characterization of structures with potential in fundamental mesoscopic physics, and in the characterization of practical devices in electronics and photonics which are rapidly reaching nanometer dimensionalities. In this paper, the progress that has been made in Jerusalem in developing a near-field microscope fully integrated with conventional far-field, confocal far-field, and all forms of force and other scanned probe microscopies will be described. The potential of this unique imaging system in chemical applications is also discussed.