Model-based cloud resource management with TOSCA and OCCI

Software and Systems Modeling - With the advent of cloud computing, different cloud providers with heterogeneous cloud services (compute, storage, network, applications, etc.) and their related...     

The KNNs Safe Region Pruning Based Method: An Efficient Approach for Continuously Determining the k Nearest Ambulances in Emergency

Wireless Personal Communications - A lot of research has been done on the problem of finding the k nearest neighbor to a query point. Existing studies are usually intended to work on static data....     

Hybrid continuous speech recognition systems by HMM,MLP and SVM: a comparative study

This paper presents a new hybrid method for continuous Arabic speech recognition based on triphones modelling. To do this, we apply Support Vectors Machine (SVM) as an estimator of posterior probabilities within the Hidden Markov Models (HMM) standards. In this work, we describe a new approach of categorising Arabic vowels to long and short vowels to be applied on the labeling phase of speech signals. Using this new labeling method, we deduce that SVM/HMM hybrid model is more efficient then HMMs standards and the hybrid system Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) with HMM. The obtained results for the Arabic speech recognition system based on triphones are 64.68 % with HMMs, 72.39 % with MLP/HMM and 74.01 % for SVM/HMM hybrid model. The WER obtained for the recognition of continuous speech by the three systems proves the performance of SVM/HMM by obtaining the lowest average for 4 tested speakers 11.42 %.     

Neganov–Luke Phonon Amplification in P-type Point Contact Detectors

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) detectors measure ionization and athermal phonons in high purity germanium crystals to discriminate between nuclear recoils from dark matter candidates and radioactive backgrounds. In order to reach lower energy detection thresholds, the CDMSlite experiment operates the CDMS detectors with a larger voltage bias to increase the signal-to-noise ratio using the Neganov–Luke effect. Breakdown in those detectors was observed at fields of order 30 V/cm, but the reason for the breakdown is unknown. It is unclear if the breakdowns are due to surface leakage current, impact ionization in the bulk of the crystals, or some other effect due to the very low operating temperatures of the detectors. Germanium detectors used in gamma spectroscopy at 77 K are regularly operated with fields in excess of 1,000 V/cm. In order to understand the origin of breakdown in the CDMS detectors, a P-type Point Contact detector was equipped with transition edge phonon thermistors and operated at a base temperature of \(\sim \) 30 mK. The linearity of the Neganov–Luke phonon amplification was studied and no sign of breakdown for biases up to 400 V was observed. This excludes impact ionization on neutral impurity states as the primary cause of the breakdown observed in the CDMSLite detectors. This demonstrates that the Neganov–Luke phonon amplification is a viable method for lowering the energy threshold in germanium detectors of masses of order 1 kg.     

A new semi-supervised hierarchical active clustering based on ranking constraints for analysts groupization

The groupization aims to enrich the individual preferences using similar individual’s data. It may efficiently adapt the query results to the user expectations. In this paper, we aim to optimally identify the analyst’ groups in a data warehouse. For that reason, we study the similarity between the selected queries in the analytical history. To enhance the quality of derived groups of analysts, we introduce a new method of semi-supervised hierarchical clustering under constraints ranking for handling cases when some constraints are more important than others and must be firstly enforced during the groupization process. Four axis for group identification are distinguished: (i) the function exerted, (ii) the granted responsibilities to accomplish goals, (iii) the source of groups identification, (iv) the dynamicity of discovered groups. Carried out experiments on real log files used for decision-maker groupization in data warehouse confirm the soundness of our approach. Our findings demonstrate that groupization improves upon personalization for several group types, mainly for function-based groupization and explicitly identified groups.     

Optimization of Citric Acid Production from a New Strain and Mutant of Aspergillus niger Using Solid State Fermentation

A new strain of Aspergillus niger isolated from soil and its mutant were used for citric acid production from carob under solid-state fermentation conditions. The parental strain produced 30 g/kg citric acid, while the mutant G4, selected after four rounds of gamma ray irradiation, produced 60 g/kg. Maximum citric acid production was obtained after 7 days of incubation, as the acid production was 34 and 64 g/kg for parental and mutant strains, respectively. The addition of 2% methanol increased citric acid production from the parental strain to 42 and the mutant G4 to 65 g/kg. Trace elements, namely Cu, Fe, and Zn, promoted the production of citric acid as the acid production from the parental strain increased to 46 g/kg and for mutant G4 increased to 73 g/kg after their addition. The optimum spore inoculum concentration for acid production was 10⁷ ml^?1, and the optimum pH was 5 for both parental and mutant strains.     

Optimization of Citric Acid Production from a New Strain and Mutant of Aspergillus niger Using Solid State Fermentation

A new strain of Aspergillus niger isolated from soil and its mutant were used for citric acid production from carob under solid-state fermentation conditions. The parental strain produced 30 g/kg citric acid, while the mutant G4, selected after four rounds of gamma ray irradiation, produced 60 g/kg. Maximum citric acid production was obtained after 7 days of incubation, as the acid production was 34 and 64 g/kg for parental and mutant strains, respectively. The addition of 2% methanol increased citric acid production from the parental strain to 42 and the mutant G4 to 65 g/kg. Trace elements, namely Cu, Fe, and Zn, promoted the production of citric acid as the acid production from the parental strain increased to 46 g/kg and for mutant G4 increased to 73 g/kg after their addition. The optimum spore inoculum concentration for acid production was 10⁷ ml^-1, and the optimum pH was 5 for both parental and mutant strains.     

MoDMaCAO: a model-driven framework for the design,validation and configuration management of cloud applications based on OCCI

Software and Systems Modeling - To tackle the cloud-provider lock-in, the open grid forum is developing the open cloud computing interface (OCCI), a standardized interface for managing any kind of...