A self‐scalable load injection service

Load testing of applications is an important and costly activity for software provider companies. Classical solutions are very difficult to set up statically, and their cost is prohibitive in terms of both human and hardware resources. Virtualized cloud computing platforms provide new opportunities for stressing an application's scalability, by providing a large range of flexible and less expensive (pay‐per‐use model) computation units. On the basis of these advantages, load testing solutions could be provided on demand in the cloud. This paper describes a Benchmark‐as‐a‐Service solution that automatically scales the load injection platform and facilitates its setup according to load profiles. Our approach is based on: (i) virtualization of the benchmarking platform to create self‐scaling injectors; (ii) online calibration to characterize the injector's capacity and impact on the benched application; and (iii) a provisioning solution to appropriately scale the load injection platform ahead of time. We also report experiments on a benchmark illustrating the benefits of this system in terms of cost and resource reductions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recent-onset ecstasy use: Association with deviant behaviors and psychiatric comorbidity.

Background: Despite increases in ecstasy (MDMA) use in the United States, little is known about characteristics linked with recent-onset ecstasy use, especially psychiatric symptoms and deviant behaviors. Aims: To test whether individuals with high levels of other drug use are more likely to be recent-onset ecstasy users; to test whether psychiatric symptoms in adults are associated with recent-onset ecstasy use; to explore the association between recent-onset ecstasy use and concomitant deviant behaviors in adolescents and adults. Methods: Data from the 2001 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Findings: Recent-onset ecstasy use was significantly more likely to occur among adolescents and adults (18-34 years old) who engaged in deviant behaviors during the past year as compared with those who did not engage in deviant behaviors during the past year. Higher levels of deviancy indicated a higher likelihood of being a recent-onset ecstasy user, and associations were strongest with nonviolent deviant behaviors such as selling illegal drugs and stealing. Associations between deviant behaviors and recent-onset ecstasy use were similar in strength to associations between deviant behaviors and recent-onset cocaine and marijuana use, respectively. Adults who had past-year psychiatric symptoms (both depressive and panic symptoms) were twice as likely to be recent-onset ecstasy users as compared with those without past-year psychiatric symptoms. Greater levels of drug involvement increased the odds of being a recent-onset ecstasy user. Conclusion: Recent-onset ecstasy use seems to be associated with a range of other behavioral problems and may reflect one aspect of a larger problem behavior syndrome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the issue of trend and noise in the estimation of extreme rainfall properties.

Up until today extreme rainfall properties are frequently applied in sewer design guidelines. Uncertainty in the estimation of such properties will hence directly influence the dimensions of sewers, structures and pumps. In this paper the issue of potential trend and noise in the estimation is investigated for 6 rain series ranging from 19 to 55 years in duration. Different to recent research that predicts a climate induced-increase in heavy precipitation no clear indication for such trend was found in the investigated historical rain series. Another important aspect is the length of the rain series that is required for the estimation of extreme rainfall properties and the associated uncertainty. The analysis indicates that at least a period of 10 years should be used for the estimation. But even so the possible deviation expressed in terms of the 90 percentile is in the order of 5 to 10% of the 'true value', defined as the value derived when the whole given series is used for the estimation.     

On the effect of spatial variances in historical rainfall time series to CSO performance evaluation.

Historical, high-resolution rain series are the backbone of modern combined sewer overflow (CSO) structure design. These rain series are the input to the computational estimation of the performance of the measures with respect to CSO pollution abatement. However, those historical precipitation measurements are available at only a few locations. Frequently rain series have to be used from gauging stations at a significant distance. In order to judge and to compensate for this influence an estimate between rain characteristics and combined sewer outflow (CSO) performance indicators would be useful. In this paper such correlations have been sought for a collection of 37 rain series covering large areas of Europe. It was found that the mean annual rain volume can explain most of the variances for the performance indicators Number of overflows and CSO volume. For explaining the spatial differences in the efficiency of the CSO structure another rain characteristic, i.e. the maximum event with a return period of one year, is to be used.     

Influence of device engineering on the analog and RF performances of SOI MOSFETs

This work presents a systematic comparative study of the influence of various process options on the analog and RF properties of fully depleted (FD) silicon-on-insulator (SOI), partially depleted (PD) SOI, and bulk MOSFET's with gate lengths down to 0.08 /spl mu/m. We introduce the transconductance-over-drain current ratio and Early voltage as key figures of merits for the analog MOS performance and the gain and the transition and maximum frequencies for RF performances and link them to device engineering. Specifically, we investigate the effects of HALO implantation in FD, PD, and bulk devices, of film thickness in FD, of substrate doping in SOI, and of nonstandard channel engineering (i.e., asymmetric Graded-channel MOSFETs and gate-body contacted DTMOS).     

The Two-Dimensional Clifford-Fourier Transform

Recently several generalizations to higher dimension of the Fourier transform using Clifford algebra have been introduced, including the Clifford-Fourier transform by the authors, defined as an operator exponential with a Clifford algebra-valued kernel. In this paper an overview is given of all these generalizations and an in depth study of the two-dimensional Clifford-Fourier transform of the authors is presented. In this special two-dimensional case a closed form for the integral kernel may be obtained, leading to further properties, both in the L ₁ and in the L ₂ context. Furthermore, based on this Clifford-Fourier transform Clifford-Gabor filters are introduced. AMS subject classification numbers: 42B10, 30G35 Fred Brackx received a diploma degree in mathematics from Ghent University, Belgium, in 1970 and a Ph.D. degree in mathematics from the same university in 1973. Since 1984 he is professor for mathematical analysis at Ghent University and currently he is leading the Clifford Research Group. His main interests are function theory and functional analysis for functions with values in quaternion and Clifford algebras. The research covers Clifford distributions, generalized Fourier, Radon and Hilbert transforms, orthogonal polynomials and multi-dimensional wavelets. Nele De Schepper received a diploma degree in mathematics from Ghent University, Belgium, in 2001. Since then she holds an assistantship at the Department of Mathematical Analysis of Ghent University and is a member of the Clifford Research Group. Her main interests are function theory and functional analysis for functions with values in Clifford algebras. The research covers generalized Fourier transforms, orthogonal polynomials and multi-dimensional wavelets. Frank Sommen received a diploma degree in mathematics from Ghent University, Belgium, in 1978, a Ph.D. degree in mathematics from the same university in 1980, and a habilitation degree in mathematical analysis in 1984. From 1978 until 1999 he was at the National Fund for Scientific Research (Flanders). Since 2000 he holds a Research professorship at Ghent University. His main interests are function theory and functional analysis for functions with values in quaternion and Clifford algebras. The research covers Clifford distributions, generalized Fourier, Radon and Hilbert transforms, orthogonal polynomials and multi-dimensional wavelets, algebraic analysis, hyperfunctions and radial algebra.