Fine-Grain Interoperability of Scientific Workflows in Distributed Computing Infrastructures

Today there exist a wide variety of scientific workflow management systems, each designed to fulfill the needs of a certain scientific community. Unfortunately, once a workflow application has been designed in one particular system it becomes very hard to share it with users working with different systems. Portability of workflows and interoperability between current systems barely exists. In this work, we present the fine-grained interoperability solution proposed in the SHIWA European project that brings together four representative European workflow systems: ASKALON, MOTEUR, WS-PGRADE, and Triana. The proposed interoperability is realised at two levels of abstraction: abstract and concrete. At the abstract level, we propose a generic Interoperable Workflow Intermediate Representation (IWIR) that can be used as a common bridge for translating workflows between different languages independent of the underlying distributed computing infrastructure. At the concrete level, we propose a bundling technique that aggregates the abstract IWIR representation and concrete task representations to enable workflow instantiation, execution and scheduling. We illustrate case studies using two real-workflow applications designed in a native environment and then translated and executed by a foreign workflow system in a foreign distributed computing infrastructure.     

Inside looking out: a framework for discussing the question of architectural design doctorates

This text proposes a framework for provoking and sustaining a debate on the question of architectural design doctorates. Through a series of aphorisms it argues that the formal structure of architectural research should be defined by architects according to disciplinary specificity.

1. Architectural design is to architecture what research is to science.
2. The recognition of architectural design as research is more a problem of academic and social legitimisation than an epistemological one.
3. The process of architectural design is close to the process of knowledge creation in the sciences.
4. Architectural design is a process that incorporates and reconstructs knowledge.
5. The doctorate is a link in the chain of professional training of scientists as researchers and of architects as designers.
6. The ArchD is an opportunity to improve the practice of architecture.
7. The ArchD is an exploration of architectural design, the main tool of architects.
8. The Interface ArchD connects architectural design to theories and practices, to other forms of design and to other types of knowledge.
9. The Didactic ArchD contributes to the training of design professors, to the conversion of design knowledge into educational content and to innovation in learning environments in architecture.
10. The Self-reflective ArchD questions real or simulated practice, or proposes visionary designs.
11. There is no axiological difference between architectural design and scientific research.

     

Water management on semiconductor surfaces

The wafer direct bonding technique is very sensitive to water adsorbed on surfaces just before bonding; hence it is a useful way to characterize the impact of the trapped water and subsequently the wafer drying efficiency. We have focused this work on the water behavior at the bonding interface depending on the nature of the surface but also depending on the thermal treatment. Then we described the drying impact on surfaces after innovative solvent exposure, in a liquid or in a vapor phase, compared with standard isopropyl alcohol drying. We report characterization results from different techniques investigating both native and thermal oxides. We also characterized innovative solvent drying, especially in a vapor phase.     

Semi-fragile watermarking for image authentication with sensitive tamper localization in the wavelet domain

This paper proposes a novel image authentication scheme in the wavelet domain. The scheme uses a semi-fragile watermark to detect and precisely locate malicious tampering in images. The wavelet coefficients selected for embedding are randomly permuted with a secret key, achieving high security. A bit of the watermark is embedded in a group of coefficients by means of quantization. The experimental results show, that our algorithm achieves high image quality and high tampering detection resolution at a low watermark payload, compared to block-based authentication schemes. Thanks to the random permutation, the watermark is protected against local attacks. We have also conducted experiments to demonstrate the robustness of the watermark against mild to moderate JPEG compression.     

Designing and building SDN testbeds for energy-aware traffic engineering services

As experimenting with energy-aware techniques on large-scale production infrastructure is prohibitive, a large number of proposed traffic engineering strategies have been evaluated only using discrete-event simulations. The present work discusses (i) challenges towards building testbeds that allow researchers and practitioners to validate and evaluate the performance and quality of energy-aware traffic engineering strategies, (ii) requirements to fulfil when porting simulations to testbeds, and (iii) two proof-of-concept testbeds. One testbed uses and provides software-defined network (SDN) services created on the open-network operating system while the other is a composition of virtual Open vSwitches controlled by the Ryu SDN framework. The aim of the testbeds is to validate previously proposed energy-aware traffic engineering strategies in different environments. We detail the platforms and illustrate how they have been used for performance evaluation. Additionally, the paper compares results obtained in the testbeds with evaluations performed using discrete-event simulations and presents challenges faced while implementing energy-aware traffic engineering mechanisms as SDN services in testbed environments.     

Characterization and applications of a new composite material obtained by green synthesis,through deposition of zinc oxide onto calcium carbonate precipitated in green seaweeds extract

Zinc oxide was deposited onto calcium carbonate precipitated using a template of polysaccharides from Ulva lactuca green seaweeds (Black Sea). The resulted composite material was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, UV–vis and FTIR spectroscopy. The therapeutic effect of prepared composite material was assessed in vivo as a topical application for the burns treatment and compared with that of ZnO. An increased antioxidant activity by combining zinc oxide with calcium carbonate capped with polysaccharides from green seaweeds extract in a composite material was demonstrated.     

New multifunctional textile biomaterials for the treatment of leg venous insufficiency

Acryloyl monomers have been synthesized by reaction of β-cyclodextrin and troxerutin with acryloyl chloride and grafted on a knitted material obtained from polyamide 6.6 and polyurethane fibers. Polyamide grafted with β-cyclodextrin derivative binds troxerutin as a physical complex. The obtained biomaterials have been tested in vivo on rats for their ability to deliver troxerutin (a flebotonic drug) to different skin areas (epidermis, dermis and vascular wall). The results showed that the new synthesized materials can act as multifunctional bioactive textiles that can display both compression (given by the textile material) and sustained venotonic and haemostatic properties (given by the troxerutin delivered from biomaterial to the skin).     

Study of PVC degradation using a fast computer scanning procedure

A computer scanning procedure for the determination of total double‐bond concentration resulting from PVC degradation is described. It is fast, fully automated, and has a very high sensitivity (5 ppm of degraded monomer units). This high sensitivity makes possible the monitoring of discoloration on a very small surface and generates very large amounts of experimental data allowing corrections for inhomogeneities and surface irregularities. The measured extinctions (E_rgb) correlate with the concentrations of double bonds and allow the estimation of degradation rates. The measuring of stabilization times and the reaction rates of stabilizers with allylic chlorides and HCI offers the capability to optimize the PVC stabilization.