WebWork: METEOR2's Web-Based Workflow Management System

METEOR₂ workflow management systems consist of both (1) design/build-time and (2) run-time/enactment components for implementing workflow applications. An enactment system provides the command, communication and control for the individual tasks in the workflow. Tasks are the run-time instances of intra- or inter-enterprise applications. We are developing three implementations of the METEOR₂ model: WebWork, OrbWork and NeoWork. This paper discusses WebWork, an implementation relying solely on Web technology as the infrastructure for the enactment system. WebWork supports a distributed implementation with participation of multiple Web servers. It also supports automatic code generation of workflow applications from design specifications produced by a comprehensive graphical designer. WebWork has been developed as a complement of its more heavyweight counterparts (OrbWork and NeoWork), with the goal of providing ease of workflow application development, installation, use and maintenance. At the time of this writing, WebWork has been installed by several of the LSDIS Lab's industrial partners for testing, evaluation and building workflow applications.     

Adaptive Multiuser Channel Estimation using Reduced Kalman/LMS Algorithm

This paper presents an adaptive multiuser channel estimator using the reduced-Kalman least-mean-square (RK-LMS) algorithm. The frequency-selective fading channel is modeled as a tapped-delay-line filter with smoothly time-varying Rayleigh distributed tap coefficients. The multiuser channel estimator based on minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) criterion is used to predict the filter coefficients. We also present its convergence characteristics and tracking performance using the RK-LMS algorithm. Unlike the previously available Kalman filtering algorithm based approach (Chen, Chen IEEE Trans Signal Process 49(7): 1523–1532, 2001) the incorporation of RK-LMS algorithm reduces the computational complexity of multiuser channel estimator used in the code division multiple access wireless systems. The computer simulation results are presented to demonstrate the substantial improvement in its tracking performance under the smoothly time-varying environment.

Pseudoelasticity of Metal Nanoparticles Is Caused by Their Ultrahigh Strength

An assembly of hemispherical Ag nanoparticles is prepared by solid‐state dewetting of thin Ag film deposited on the sapphire substrate. The in situ nanomechanical compression testing of the particles with a flat diamond punch inside the scanning electron microscope demonstrates the deformation behavior typical for the nucleation‐controlled plasticity: high elastic deformation followed by an abrupt particles collapse. The latter is associated with the dislocations nucleation in otherwise pristine particle. The average contact pressure in the contact zone at the onset of dislocation‐controlled plasticity is about 8 GPa, and does not depend on particle size. This observation supports the hypothesis that the pseudoelasticity of much smaller Ag nanoparticles is intrinsically related to their ultrahigh strength. A stress‐induced diffusion along the particle–substrate and particle–punch interfaces is identified as a factor controlling the pseudoelastic deformation. The corresponding diffusion model allows estimating the room‐temperature self‐diffusion coefficient of Ag along the Ag–W and Ag–zirconia interfaces, which is quite close to the estimated value of the grain boundary self‐diffusion coefficient in Ag. Based on this finding, the map of pseudoelastic deformation of crystalline materials is proposed.     

Design and development of a machine vision system using artificial neural network-based algorithm for automated coal characterization

Coal is heterogeneous in nature,and thus the characterization of coal is essential before its use for a specific purpose.Thus,the current study aims to develop ...     

Robust ego-motion estimation and 3-D model refinement using surface parallax.

We present an iterative algorithm for robustly estimating the ego-motion and refining and updating a coarse depth map using parametric surface parallax models and brightness derivatives extracted from an image pair. Given a coarse depth map acquired by a range-finder or extracted from a digital elevation map (DEM), ego-motion is estimated by combining a global ego-motion constraint and a local brightness constancy constraint. Using the estimated camera motion and the available depth estimate, motion of the three-dimensional (3-D) points is compensated. We utilize the fact that the resulting surface parallax field is an epipolar field, and knowing its direction from the previous motion estimates, estimate its magnitude and use it to refine the depth map estimate. The parallax magnitude is estimated using a constant parallax model (CPM) which assumes a smooth parallax field and a depth based parallax model (DBPM), which models the parallax magnitude using the given depth map. We obtain confidence measures for determining the accuracy of the estimated depth values which are used to remove regions with potentially incorrect depth estimates for robustly estimating ego-motion in subsequent iterations. Experimental results using both synthetic and real data (both indoor and outdoor sequences) illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

An efficient and intelligent routing strategy for vehicular delay tolerant networks

The vehicular delay-tolerant network is the real-life application based area of Delay tolerant network where communication takes place using vehicular nodes and roadside units. The topology used in vehicular networks is highly dynamic by architecture due to the use of moving vehicular nodes. It operates in such a scenario where a direct path between source and destination remains absent on the most piece of the time. In case of non-existence of connected path vehicular delay-tolerant network works opportunistically and uses the same store, carry, and forward paradigm as Delay Tolerant Network. However, the routing protocols designed for vehicular delay-tolerant network faces crucial challenges like inadequate relay node, incomplete data transfer, a large number of packet drop, and uncertain delivery time. In this research paper, we propose a novel routing strategy for the vehicular delay-tolerant network. The proposed routing strategy selects efficient vehicular relay node for complete packet transfer and intelligently reduces the packet drop for timely packet delivery. We implement the proposed routing strategy in the ONE simulator; the ONE simulator provides an opportunistic environment for nodes. We analyze the performance of the proposed strategy under various simulations results using different parameters. The results show that the proposed strategy outperforms standard routing protocols in terms of considered parameters and provide an efficient solution for the problem of disconnection.

     

Failure Investigation of Boiler Water Wall Tubes of a Thermal Power Station

Failure investigation was carried out on boiler water wall tubes of a thermal power plant through visual inspection, chemical analysis, and metallurgical analysis. Failure was in the form of thin/micro cracks along the length of the tubes which were located at the girth welding joint of tubes. Experimental results revealed that the cracking was from inward to outward of the tube thickness. Discontinuities/cavities were observed in the welded region which might have occurred due to lack of fusion of base metal and the weld metal. Cracks were initiated from the sharp corner/crack tip of the cavities/discontinuities present at the welded region under the action of hoop/thermal stress existed during the operation. Nature of the crack propagation indicates the case of typical hydrogen-induced cracking. Moreover, the presence of the cavities/discontinuities reduced the cross-sectional area of tubes resulting increased stress intensity. Increased stress beyond the flow stress of the material assisted by hydrogen-induced effect resulted the cracking of the tubes. In order to mitigate the problem, proper welding of tubes joints should be carried out followed by proper inspection after weld. Secondly, hydrogen dissolution during welding should be prevented and treatment for its removal after welding should be carried out.     

Morphology,Mineralogy and Mixing of Individual Atmospheric Particles Over Kanpur (IGP): Relevance of Homogeneous Equivalent Sphere Approximation in Radiative Models

Estimation of the direct radiative forcing (DRF) by atmospheric particles is uncertain to a large extent owing to uncertainties in their morphology (shape and size), mixing states, and chemical composition. A region-specific database of the aforementioned physico-chemical properties (at individual particle level) is necessary to improve numerically-estimated optical and radiative properties. Till date, there is no detailed observation of the above mentioned properties over Kanpur in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). To fill this gap, an experiment was carried out at Kanpur (IITK; 26.52°N, 80.23°E, 142 m msl), India from April to July, 2011. Particle types broadly classified as (a) Cu-rich particles mixed with carbon and sulphur (b) dust and clays mixed with carbonaceous species (c) Fe-rich particles mixed with carbon and sulfur and (d) calcite (CaCO₃) particles aged with nitrate, were observed. The frequency distributions of aspect ratio (AR; indicator of extent of particle non-sphericity) of total 708 particles from April to June reveal that particles with aspect ratio range >1.2 to ≤1.4 were abundant throughout the experiment except during June when it was found to shift to high AR range, >1.4 to ≤1.6 (followed with another peak of AR i.e. >2 to ≤2.4) due to dust storm conditions enhancing the occurrence of more non-spherical particles over the sampling site. The spherical particles (and close to spherical shape; AR range, 1.0 to ≤1.2) were found to be <20% throughout the experiment with a minimum (11.5%) during June. Consideration of Homogeneous Equivalent Sphere Approximation (HESA) in the optical/radiative model over the study region is found to be irrelevant during the campaign.     

Tracer design for magnetic particle imaging (invited)

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) uses safe iron oxide nanoparticle tracers to offer fundamentally new capabilities for medical imaging, in applications as vascular imaging and ultra-sensitive cancer therapeutics. MPI is perhaps the first medical imaging platform to intrinsically exploit nanoscale material properties. MPI tracers contain magnetic nanoparticles whose tunable, size-dependent magnetic properties can be optimized by selecting a particular particle size and narrow size-distribution. In this paper we present experimental MPI measurements acquired using a homemade MPI magnetometer: a zero-dimensional MPI imaging system designed to characterize tracer performance by measuring the derivative of the time-varying tracer magnetization, M'(H(t)), at a driving frequency of 25 kHz. We show that MPI performance is optimized by selecting phase-pure magnetite tracers of a particular size and narrow size distribution; in this work, tracers with 20 nm median diameter, log-normal distribution shape parameter, σ(v), equal to 0.26, and hydrodynamic diameter equal to 30 nm showed the best performance. Furthermore, these optimized MPI tracers show 4?×?greater signal intensity (measured at the third harmonic) and 20% better spatial resolution compared with commercial nanoparticles developed for MRI.