Generalized adhesion maps for predicting thin film transitions

Thin film transition (TFT) phenomena are of special interest to the petroleum industry. After crude-oil is trapped in reservoir rocks, it can alter the wettability of the rock surface, with profound implications for the subsequent transport of fluids. Correlation between the TFT and wettability alteration is qualitatively evident from many experiments. It is not clear, however, whether the TFT is a sufficient condition for wettability alteration. In this work we describe a generalized adhesion map, which locates the TFT in parameter space. Comparison of these maps with laboratory studies indicates that wettability alteration involves other mechanisms in addition to the TFT.     

A Cluster-Based Data-Centric Model for Network-Aware Task Scheduling in Distributed Systems

Big Data processing architectures are now widely recognized as one of the most significant innovations in Computing in the last decade. Their enormous potential in collecting and processing huge volumes of data scattered throughout the Internet is opening the door to a new generation of fully distributed applications that, by leveraging the large amount of resources available on the network will be able to cope with very complex problems achieving performances never seen before. However, the Internet is known to have severe scalability limitations in moving very large quantities of data, and such limitations introduce the challenge of making efficient use of the computing and storage resources available on the network, in order to enable data-intensive applications to be executed effectively in such a complex distributed environment. This implies resource scheduling decisions which drive the execution of task towards the data by taking network load and capacity into consideration to maximize data access performance and reduce queueing and processing delays as possible. Accordingly, this work presents a data-centric meta-scheduling scheme for fully distributed Big Data processing architectures based on clustering techniques whose goal is aggregating tasks around storage repositories and driven by a new concept of “gravitational” attraction between the tasks and their data of interest. This scheme will benefit from heuristic criteria based on network awareness and advance resource reservation in order to suppress long delays in data transfer operations and result into an optimized use of data storage and runtime resources at the expense of a limited (polynomial) computational complexity.     

Security and privacy issues in the Portable Document Format

The Portable Document Format (PDF) was developed by Adobe in the early nineties and today it is the de-facto standard for electronic document exchange. It allows reliable reproductions of published materials on any platform and it is used by many governmental and educational institutions, as well as companies and individuals. PDF documents are also credited with being more secure than other document formats such as Microsoft Compound Document File Format or Rich Text Format.This paper investigates the Portable Document Format and shows that it is not immune from some privacy related issues that affect other popular document formats. From a PDF document, it is possible to retrieve any text or object previously deleted or modified, extract user information and perform some actions that may be used to violate user privacy. There are several applications of such an issue. One of them is relevant to the scientific community and it pertains to the ability to overcome the blind review process of a paper, revealing information related to the anonymous referee (e.g., the IP address of the referee).     

Mitochondrial cytochrome b DNA sequence variations: an approach to fish species identification in processed fish products

The identification of fish species in food products is problematic because morphological features of the fish are partially or completely lost during processing. It is important to determine fish origin because of the increasing international seafood trade and because European Community Regulation 104/2000 requires that the products be labeled correctly. Sequence analysis of PCR products from a conserved region of the cytochrome b gene was used to identity fish species belonging to the families Gadidae and Merluccidae in 18 different processed fish products. This method allowed the identification of fish species in all samples. Fish in all of the examined products belonged to these two families, with the exception of one sample of smoked baccalà (salt cod), which was not included in the Gadidae cluster.     

Reverse engineering: Algorithms for program graph production

The paper proposes an algebraic representation of program modules, called F(p), and illustrates the algorithms that use F(p) to generate program graph models for measurement, documentation and testing activities. The representation refers to procedural languages, D-structured programs and one-in/one-out modules but its definition can be extended to programs structured in terms of an arbitrary set of one-in/one-out legal control structures. Since it is possible to produce F(p) directly from the program code using reverse engineering techniques, the algorithms proposed are of considerable interest for the setting up of tools supporting the program comprehension phase, which is a fundamental first step in any maintenance operation.     

Cloning and characterization of a developmentally regulated sea urchin cDNA encoding glutamine synthetase

A 2935-bp cDNA clone encoding glutamine synthetase (GS) was isolated from a cDNA library prepared from four-blastomere Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin embryos. The sequence consists of a 75-bp 5' untranslated region (5'-UTR) followed by a 1095-bp coding region corresponding to a 365-amino-acid (aa) protein, a 1747-bp 3'-UTR and a terminal 18-bp poly(A) tail. The encoded protein shows about 66% identical residues, as compared with human and lobster class-II GS. The sequence contains the Mn(2+)-binding aa and the highly conserved aa regions observed in other GS. Northern blot analyses show that the GS mRNA is present in the sea urchin egg and is developmentally regulated in the embryo.     

An approach based on semantic stream reasoning to support decision processes in smart cities

This paper discusses the use of stream reasoning models and techniques to provide a stream reasoning-based architecture to represent, manage and process data streams produced in the Smart City context, to extract useful knowledge for a better understanding of city phenomena and to support the decision making processes in both the city governance and the citizens. The proposed architecture, taking into account the need for processing heterogeneous data/information across several and different domains, is able to sustain decision-making processes deployed at operational, tactical and strategical levels. Such architecture is distributed and adopts a meet-in-the-middle configuration logic that is really effective and scalable in a complex environment like a (smart) city. The applicability of semantic technologies to implement all the aforementioned features is demonstrated by means of a complex case study realized by using a dataset, related to the city of Aarhus, provided by the CityPulse EU Project.     

Sensible: IP‐layer dynamic bandwidth management for DVB‐RCS network subdomains

Broadband communication via satellite systems finds applications in several contexts where other technologies are not available or economically not convenient. Examples are remote areas, disaster struck areas, or vessels/ships. The scarce availability and the high cost of the bandwidth impose to improve flexibility in bandwidth management and dynamic allocation, especially on the shared return link. Typically, this capability is available only to the satellite operator (SO). An innovative dynamic bandwidth management of satellite capacity for the return link has been developed and prototyped as an Internet protocol‐based solution. This solution allows small operators renting bandwidth from the satellite operator and providing services to final customers, managing the permanently assigned resources in a flexible and efficient way. The scope of the paper is to illustrate this technique to achieve the dynamic bandwidth management for a subgroup of satellite terminals (subdomain) by using a centralized controller and distributed software with IP shaping capabilities, without interacting with the satellite operator. This approach has been applied in particular to a satellite maritime ship owner, which is thus able to dynamically distribute capacity among satellite terminals installed onboard of its ship fleet as required, as a network operator. The presented results are the outputs of simulations performed with the NS2 simulator and tests by using real hardware. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Brain Proteome and Behavioural Analysis in Wild Type,BDNF+/− and BDNF−/− Adult Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Exposed to Two Different Temperatures

Experimental evidence suggests that environmental stress conditions can alter the expression of BDNF and that the expression of this neurotrophin influences behavioural responses in mammalian models. It has been recently demonstrated that exposure to 34 °C for 21 days alters the brain proteome and behaviour in zebrafish. The aim of this work was to investigate the role of BDNF in the nervous system of adult zebrafish under control and heat treatment conditions. For this purpose, zebrafish from three different genotypes (wild type, heterozygous BDNF^+/− and knock out BDNF^−/−) were kept for 21 days at 26 °C or 34 °C and then euthanized for brain molecular analyses or subjected to behavioural tests (Y-maze test, novel tank test, light and dark test, social preference test, mirror biting test) for assessing behavioural aspects such as boldness, anxiety, social preference, aggressive behaviour, interest for the novel environment and exploration. qRT-PCR analysis showed the reduction of gene expression of BDNF and its receptors after heat treatment in wild type zebrafish. Moreover, proteomic analysis and behavioural tests showed genotype- and temperature-dependent effects on brain proteome and behavioural responding. Overall, the absent expression of BDNF in KO alters (1) the brain proteome by reducing the expression of proteins involved in synapse functioning and neurotransmitter-mediated transduction; (2) the behaviour, which can be interpreted as bolder and less anxious and (3) the cellular and behavioural response to thermal treatment.     

On the robustness of finite element procedures based on Virtual Crack Closure Technique and fail release approach for delamination growth phenomena. Definition and assessment of a novel methodology

Numerical procedures based on the combined use of the Virtual Crack Closure Technique and of a fail release approach have been widely used to simulate delamination growth phenomena of composite material structures. This paper starts explaining why this kind of methodologies might not be robust due to mesh and load step size dependency and introduces a novel approach able to cope with the problems identified. Finally the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed procedure, implemented into a commercial finite element software by means of user subroutines, are assessed by comparing the obtained numerical results for a delamination growth phenomenon against literature experimental data on a stiffened panel with a circular embedded delamination under compressive load.