Smart parking service based on wireless sensor networks

n this paper, we present the design and implementation of a prototype system of Smart Parking Services based on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) that allows vehicle drivers to effectively find the free parking places. The proposed scheme consists of wireless sensor networks, embedded web-server, central web-server and mobile phone application. In the system, low-cost wireless sensors networks modules are deployed into each parking slot equipped with one sensor node. The state of the parking slot is detected by sensor node and is reported periodically to embedded web-server via the deployed wireless sensor networks. This information is sent to central web-server using Wi-Fi networks in real-time, and also the vehicle driver can find vacant parking lots using standard mobile devices.

Evaluación, instalación y configuración de herramientas de gestión de proyectos de desarrollo de software

Actualmente existen multitud de aplicaciones creadas para la gestión de proyectos software; cada una de ellas pretende dar solución y facilitar las tareas propias de los gestores y los desarrolladores pertenecientes a los equipos de desarrollo. Los equipos de desarrollo software suelen estar integrados por gran variedad de recursos, tanto humanos como materiales. Cada uno desempeña una función concreta en el proyecto, pudiendo no tener una dedicación plena al proyecto. Por eso, es necesario que dichos recursos sean compartidos entre la cartera proyectos existentes. Para resolver este planteamiento en las aplicaciones de gestión de proyectos, ha sido requisito fundamental que se puedan gestionar varios proyectos de forma simultánea (gestión multiproyecto), pudiendo repartir la dedicación de los recursos entre los proyectos existentes en la cartera. En la actualidad, existe un gran número de metodologías de gestión de proyectos, por lo que, en parte, el éxito del proyecto radica en la elección de la más adecuada. Entre todas las metodologías existentes, este estudio se ha centrado en las cada vez más utilizadas metodologías de gestión de proyectos ágiles; se describe en qué consisten, qué beneficios aportan frente a las metodologías clásicas y cuáles son las más utilizadas por sus ya contrastados beneficios y el valor que aportan a la gestión de proyectos. Por lo descrito anteriormente, otro requisito fundamental a la hora de valorar las aplicaciones de gestión de proyectos ha sido la capacidad de soportar y aplicar metodologías ágiles de gestión de proyectos. En este estudio también se ha tenido en cuenta el tipo de aplicación atendiendo a su instalación y acceso, y se ha realizado la diferenciación entre aplicaciones web- las cuales precisan ser instaladas en un servidor web y son accesibles desde cualquier dispositivo con navegador -, y aplicaciones de escritorio - las cuales precisan estar instaladas en un equipo de forma local y sólo pueden ser accedidas a ellas desde dicho equipo. En este estudio se han evaluado varias aplicaciones, intentando analizar el cumplimiento de las características comentadas anteriormente, dando como resultado tres aplicaciones seleccionadas siendo éstas las que pueden aportar más valor a la hora de gestionar una cartera de proyectos. ABSTRACT. At present, there are many applications aimed at managing software projects. Every application intends to solve and facilitate tasks to managers and developers belonging to the development teams. Software development teams are usually made up of many different human and material resources, each of them developing a specific task in the project and sometimes without a full dedication to the project. Therefore, these resources have to be shared within the existing project portfolio. To meet this need in project management applications, the main requirement is to be able to manage several projects simultaneously (multi-project management), thus allowing resources to be shared within the existing project portfolio. At present, there are a large number of project management methodologies and the success of the project lies in choosing the most appropriate one. Among all the existing methodologies, this study has focused on the increasingly used agile project management methodologies. The study describes the way they work, their added value in comparison traditional methodologies, and which ones are more often used due to their already verified benefits and value in managing projects. Taking into account the above-mention characteristics, another key requirement when assessing the project management applications has been their capacity to support and implement project management agile methodologies. This study has also taken into account the type of application according to its installation and access. A difference is established between web applications – which require to be installed in a web server and are accessible from any device with a web browser – and desktop applications, which must be installed in the equipment to be used and are only accessible from this equipment. The study has assessed several applications by analyzing the compliance with the above-mentioned characteristics and has chosen three applications that provide the management of the project portfolio with an added value.

Aplicación móvil para el acceso a juego de naipes sobre el desarrollo humano

Este Proyecto Fin de Carrera (PFC) tiene como objetivo el análisis, diseño e implementación de un videojuego móvil multijugador, con un enfoque educativo, para la sensibilización sobre el Índice de Desarrollo Humano (IDH). El sistema resultante se ha desarrollado para la Plataforma Android, utilizando el Framework AndEngine, que utiliza aceleración hardware de la GPU para garantizar un buen rendimiento en terminales de gama baja, de modo que pueda utilizarse en un amplio número de terminales móviles disponibles en el mercado. La aplicación se presenta como un juego de cartas con los diferentes países y sus datos humanitarios, los jugadores deben conocer el peso de los índices de desarrollo (esperanza de vida, renta, educación) de los países en comparación con los países de los otros jugadores. El sistema de juego premia a los jugadores con mayores conocimientos sobre los datos humanos de los diferentes países del mundo, de ese modo los mejores jugadores serán los que tengan más conocimientos de estos datos. El juego permite jugar partidas en solitario utilizando jugadores manejados por la CPU, o multijugador mediante WIFI o 3G. La actualización de la información y de los datos de las partidas se realiza a través de la comunicación con un servidor web ya implementado de forma complementaria a la realización de este proyecto. El sistema ha sido integrado y validado satisfactoriamente con diferentes terminales móviles y usuarios de diferente perfil de edad y uso. El videojuego se puede descargar de la página web creada en un proyecto complementario a éste (pendiente de publicación web), y ya se encuentra también disponible en Google Play. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xnetcom.pro.cartas&hl=es_419 ABSTRACT. This Project End of Career (PFC) takes as an aim the analysis, design and implementation of a multiplayer mobile videogame, with an educational approach, for the awareness on the Human Development Index (HDI). The resultant system has been developed for the Platform Android, using the AndEngine Framework, which uses hardware acceleration of the GPU to ensure a good performance on low-end terminals, so that it can be used in a wide range of mobile handsets available in the market. The application is presented as a card game with the different countries and his humanitarian information, the players must know the weight of the indexes of development (life expectancy, revenue, education) of the countries in comparison with the countries of other players. The game system rewards players with more knowledge on human information of different countries, thus the best players will be those with more knowledge of these information. The game allows to play items in solitarily using players handled by the CPU, or multiplayer by means of WIFI or 3G. The update of the information and data of the online games is done through communication with a web server implemented as a complement to the realization of this project. The system has been built and successfully validated with different mobile terminals and users of different age and usage profile. The game can be downloaded from the website created in a complementary project to this (web publication pending), and is now also available on Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xnetcom.pro.cartas&hl=es_419

Gasification technology assessment of sterile coal to clean electrical power generation.

Sterile coal is a low-value residue associated to the coal extraction and mining activity. According to the type and origin of the coal bed configuration, sterile coal production can mainly vary on quantity, calorific value and presence of sulphur compounds. In addition, the potential availability of sterile coal within Spain is apparently high and its contribution to the local power generation would be of interest playing a significant role. The proposed study evaluates the availability and deployment of gasification technologies to drive clean electricity generation from waste coal and sterile rock coal, incorporating greenhouse gas emission mitigation systems, like CO2, H2S and NOx removal systems. It establishes the target facility and its conceptual basic design proposal. The syngas obtained after the gasification of sterile coal is processed through specific conditioning units before entering into the combustion chamber of a gas turbine. Flue gas leaving the gas turbine is ducted to a heat recovery steam generation boiler; the steam produced within the boilerdrives a steam turbine. The target facility resembles a singular Integrated Gasification in Combined Cycle (IGCC) power station. The evaluation of the conceptual basic design according to the power output set for a maximum sterile contribution, established that rates over 95% H2S and 90% CO2 removal can be achieved. Noticeable decrease of NOx compounds can be also achieved by the use of commercial technology. A techno-economic approach of the conceptual basic design is made evaluating the integration of potential unitsand their implementation within the target facility aiming toachieve clean power generation. The criterion to be compliant with the most restrictive regulation regarding environmental emissions is setting to carry out this analysis.

Some advances in extensive bridge monitoring using low cost dynamic characterization

Dynamic measurements will become a standard for bridge monitoring in the near future. This fact will produce an important cost reduction for maintenance. US Administration has a long term intensive research program in order to diminish the estimated current maintenance cost of US$7 billion per year over 20 years. An optimal intervention maintenance program demands a historical dynamical record, as well as an updated mathematical model of the structure to be monitored. In case that a model of the structure is not actually available it is possible to produce it, however this possibility does not exist for missing measurement records from the past. Current acquisition systems to monitor structures can be made more efficient by introducing the following improvements, under development in the Spanish research Project “Low cost bridge health monitoring by ambient vibration tests using wireless sensors”: (a) a complete wireless system to acquire sensor data, (b) a wireless system that permits the localization and the hardware identification of the whole sensor system. The applied localization system has been object of a recent patent, and (c) automatization of the modal identification process, aimed to diminish human intervention. This system is assembled with cheap components and allows the simultaneous use of a large number of sensors at a low placement cost. The engineer’s intervention is limited to the selection of sensor positions, probably based on a preliminary FE analysis. In case of multiple setups, also the position of a number of fixed reference sensors has to be decided. The wireless localization system will obtain the exact coordinates of all these sensors positions. When the selection of optimal positions is difficult, for example because of the lack of a proper FE model, this can be compensated by using a higher number of measuring (also reference) points. The described low cost acquisition system allows the responsible bridge administration to obtain historical dynamic identification records at reasonable costs that will be used in future maintenance programs. Therefore, due to the importance of the baseline monitoring record of a new bridge, a monitoring test just after its construction should be highly recommended, if not compulsory.

Desarrollo de sistema para organizar eventos entre grupos

RESUMEN DEL PROYECTO Organizar actividades y proyectos entre varias personas o tomar decisiones conjuntas son cuestiones a las que se enfrenta cualquier individuo en su día a día. El simple hecho de coordinar o poner de acuerdo a un grupo reducido de personas puede llegar a suponer un gran problema ya que cada participante tiene sus propias preferencias y, en ocasiones, es difícil conseguir encajarlas con las demás del grupo. Este proyecto, llamado “DealtDay”, surge para facilitar esta labor. La idea nace ante la necesidad de organizar, de forma fácil e intuitiva, a un grupo de personas para, por ejemplo, concretar una reunión, quedar para ir a dar una vuelta, decidir qué película ver, etc. Este proyecto se ha desarrollado basándose en el sistema actual de relaciones con el que se han creado la mayoría de las redes sociales que hoy conocemos. Como medio para poder hacer uso del proyecto se ha construido una aplicación web que, gracias a las decisiones de diseño tomadas, se puede usar tanto en un ordenador, una tablet o un Smartphone. Este punto se considera fundamental ya que cada vez más personas están dejando de lado los ordenadores corrientes para dar paso al uso de las nuevas tecnologías. Además, se ha creado una API REST, lo que nos permite utilizar todas las funcionalidades de la aplicación desde cualquier sistema que pueda realizar peticiones http. En este proyecto en concreto se realizará la parte del desarrollo de la API, el cliente web y el despliegue de la aplicación en un servidor web para realizar las pruebas pertinentes. ABSTRACT To organize activities and projects between several people or make joint decisions are issues to which any person faces every day.The simple fact of coordinate or coming to an agreement with a group of persons could be a major problem, since each participant has their own preferences and often fails when tries to fit them with the group. This project, called “Dealt Day”, is born to facilitate this task. The idea arises of how to achieve organize a group of people in an easily and intuitively way in order to arrange a meeting, be able to go for a walk, decide what movie to see or simply vote a choice between a users group. This project has been developed based on the current relation system that has been created in the most social networks we know. As a means of making use of the project a web application has been built, that thanks to the design decisions taken it can be used in a computer, tablet or smartphone, This is an essential point because more and more people are abandoning the current computers to make way for the use of new technologies. Also, a REST API has been created, which allows us to use all the features of the application from any system able to make http requests. In this particular project, I have done the development of the API, web client and the application deployment on a web server in order to test it.

Estudio, definición e implementación de una ontología para la creación y consulta de una base de datos relacional sobre datos obtenidos del linaje de las parcelas catastrales.

En los últimos años la evolución de la información compartida por internet ha cambiado enormemente, llegando a convertirse en lo que llamamos hoy la Web Semántica. Este término, acuñado en 2004, muestra una manera más “inteligente” de compartir los datos, de tal manera que éstos puedan ser entendibles por una máquina o por cualquier persona en el mundo. Ahora mismo se encuentra en fase de expansión, prueba de ello es la cantidad de grupos de investigación que están actualmente dedicando sus esfuerzos al desarrollo e implementación de la misma y la amplitud de temáticas que tienen sus trabajos. Con la aparición de la Web Semántica, la tendencia de las bases de datos de nueva creación se está empezando a inclinar hacia la creación de ontologías más o menos sencillas que describan las bases de datos y así beneficiarse de las posibilidades de interoperabilidad que aporta. Con el presente trabajo se pretende el estudio de los beneficios que aporta la implementación de una ontología en una base de datos relacional ya creada, los trabajos necesarios para ello y las herramientas necesarias para hacerlo. Para ello se han tomado unos datos de gran interés y, como continuación a su trabajo, se ha implementado la ontología. Estos datos provienen del estudio de un método para la obtención automatizada del linaje de las parcelas registradas en el catastro español. Abstract: In the last years the evolution of the information shared on the Internet has dramatically changed, emerging what is called Semantic Web. This term appeared in 2004, defining a “smarter” way of sharing data. Data that could be understood by machines or by any human around the world. Nowadays, the Semantic Web is in expansion phase, as it can be probed by the amount of research groups working on this approach and the wide thematic range of their work. With the appearance of the Semantic Web, current database technologies are supported by the creation of ontologies which describe them and therefore get a new set of interoperability possibilities from them. This work focuses in the study of the benefits given by the implementation of an ontology in a created relational database, the steps to follow and the tools necessary to get it done. The study has been done by using data of considerable interest, coming from a study of the lineage of parcels registered in the Spanish cadaster. As a continuation of this work an ontology has been implemented.

Plataformas de ejercicios de ciberseguridad

El objetivo principal de este proyecto es estudiar, desde un punto de vista práctico, las posibilidades que ofrece la plataforma de ejercicios de ciberseguridad propuesta por la Universidad de Rhode Island en Estado Unidos, denominada Open Cyber Challenge Platform (OCCP); para ello primero nos ubicaremos dentro del campo de la ciberseguridad, estudiando porqué este área está tomando tanta relevancia, observando datos de estudios reales realizados por instituciones de prestigio, al mismo tiempo estudiaremos la tendencia actual y futura de los ciberataques. Seguidamente, analizaremos el estado del arte de la enseñanza en ciberseguridad y como se está enfocando por parte de las universidades y empresas más importantes en el sector. En esta parte del sector se está imponiendo una novedosa forma para desarrollar el aprendizaje tanto práctico como teórico basada en simular situaciones reales mediante escenarios virtuales. Una vez vistas otras opciones, nos centraremos en OCCP, podremos estudiar el estado de desarrollo de esta plataforma, la situación actual y las principales características. Además detallaremos el primer escenario propuesto por ellos mismos, estudiando los principales componentes, la topología de la red virtual de la empresa virtualizada, los principales ficheros de configuración, e incluso la montaremos y ejecutaremos y podremos observar como el equipo rojo ataca el servidor web de la empresa que lo tiene que proteger el equipo azul y consigue que la web deje de funcionar. También incluiremos una guía de instalación del escenario para que el lector pueda probar con su propio ordenador las posibilidades de esta plataforma. VirtualBox es un programa gratuito de virtualización perteneciente a la empresa Oracle. Más adelante estudiaremos este programa centrándonos en el servicio web ofrecido por VirtualBox ya que es utilizado por la plataforma Open Cyber Challenge Platform como virtualizador o hipervisor. Podremos ver como suelen funcionar los servicios web de este tipo en general y después nos centraremos principalmente en el archivo descriptivo de las interfaces que ofrece esta plataforma. Finalmente, resumiremos los resultados y conclusiones proponiendo un trabajo futuro ya que como hemos dicho esta plataforma está en estado de desarrollo y seguramente al final de la lectura del proyecto incluso el lector se haya podido percatar del potencial tan elevado que tiene una plataforma de este estilo. ABSTRACT. The main objective of this project is to study, from a practical standpoint the possibilities offered by the cybersecurity exercises platform proposed by the University of Rhode Island in United States, called Cyber Challenge Open Platform (OCCP); therefore we will place first in the field of cybersecurity, studying why this area is taking so much relevance, watching real data studies by prestigious institutions and the current and future trend of cyber-attacks. Then, we will discuss the state of the art of teaching cybersecurity and how universities and major companies in the sector are focusing to reach the aims among students or workers. In this part of the sector it is increasing the popularity of a new way to develop both practical and theoretical learning based on simulating real situations through virtual scenarios. Once seen other options, we will focus on OCCP, we can study the state of development of this platform, the current situation and main characteristics. In addition we will detail the first proposed scenario by the very own university, studying the main components, the topology of the virtual network virtualized enterprise, the main configuration files, and even we would mount and execute it. We will see how the red team attacks the web server of the company and get it thrown out. At the same time the blue team will have to protect it. We will also include an installation guide of the scenario so that the reader can test in their own computer the possibilities of this tool. VirtualBox is a free virtualization program belonging to the Oracle enterprise. Later on we will study this program focusing on the web service provided by VirtualBox because it is used by the Open Cyber Challenge Platform like hypervisor. We will see how this kind of web services work and then we will focus mainly on the descriptive file of the interfaces provided by this tool. Finally we summarize the results and conclusions proposing a future work since as we have said this platform is in the development stage and certainly at the end of reading the project even the reader may have realized of such high potential as would have a tool of this kind.

PDBsum: summaries and analyses of PDB structures

PDBsum is a web-based database providing a largely pictorial summary of the key information on each macromolecular structure deposited at the Protein Data Bank (PDB). It includes images of the structure, annotated plots of each protein chain’s secondary structure, detailed structural analyses generated by the PROMOTIF program, summary PROCHECK results and schematic diagrams of protein–ligand and protein–DNA interactions. RasMol scripts highlight key aspects of the structure, such as the protein’s domains, PROSITE patterns and protein–ligand interactions, for interactive viewing in 3D. Numerous links take the user to related sites. PDBsum is updated whenever any new structures are released by the PDB and is freely accessible via http://www.biochem.ucl.ac.uk/bsm/pdbsum.

Multi-objective adaptive evolutionary strategy for tuning compilations

Tuning compilations is the process of adjusting the values of a compiler options to improve some features of the final application. In this paper, a strategy based on the use of a genetic algorithm and a multi-objective scheme is proposed to deal with this task. Unlike previous works, we try to take advantage of the knowledge of this domain to provide a problem-specific genetic operation that improves both the speed of convergence and the quality of the results. The evaluation of the strategy is carried out by means of a case of study aimed to improve the performance of the well-known web server Apache. Experimental results show that a 7.5% of overall improvement can be achieved. Furthermore, the adaptive approach has shown an ability to markedly speed-up the convergence of the original strategy.

Discovering user access pattern based on probabilistic latent factor model

There has been an increased demand for characterizing user access patterns using web mining techniques since the informative knowledge extracted from web server log files can not only offer benefits for web site structure improvement but also for better understanding of user navigational behavior. In this paper, we present a web usage mining method, which utilize web user usage and page linkage information to capture user access pattern based on Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) model. A specific probabilistic model analysis algorithm, EM algorithm, is applied to the integrated usage data to infer the latent semantic factors as well as generate user session clusters for revealing user access patterns. Experiments have been conducted on real world data set to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The results have shown that the presented method is capable of characterizing the latent semantic factors and generating user profile in terms of weighted page vectors, which may reflect the common access interest exhibited by users among same session cluster.

Quantitative online prediction of peptide binding to the major histocompatibility complex

With its implications for vaccine discovery, the accurate prediction of T cell epitopes is one of the key aspirations of computational vaccinology. We have developed a robust multivariate statistical method, based on partial least squares, for the quantitative prediction of peptide binding to major histocompatibility complexes (MHC), the principal checkpoint on the antigen presentation pathway. As a service to the immunobiology community, we have made a Perl implementation of the method available via a World Wide Web server. We call this server MHCPred. Access to the server is freely available from the URL: http://www.jenner.ac.uk/MHCPred. We have exemplified our method with a model for peptides binding to the common human MHC molecule HLA-B*3501.

Software Development for Distributed System of Russian Databases for Electronics Materials

Current state of Russian databases for substances and materials properties was considered. A brief review of integration methods of given information systems was prepared and a distributed databases integration approach based on metabase was proposed. Implementation details were mentioned on the posed database on electronics materials integration approach. An operating pilot version of given integrated information system implemented at IMET RAS was considered.

webComputing Service Framework

Presented is webComputing – a general framework of mathematically oriented services including remote access to hardware and software resources for mathematical computations, and web interface to dynamic interactive computations and visualization in a diversity of contexts: mathematical research and engineering, computer-aided mathematical/technical education and distance learning. webComputing builds on the innovative webMathematica technology connecting technical computing system Mathematica to a web server and providing tools for building dynamic and interactive web-interface to Mathematica-based functionality. Discussed are the conception and some of the major components of webComputing service: Scientific Visualization, Domain- Specific Computations, Interactive Education, and Authoring of Interactive Pages.

EnDNA-Prot:identification of DNA-binding proteins by applying ensemble learning

DNA-binding proteins are crucial for various cellular processes, such as recognition of specific nucleotide, regulation of transcription, and regulation of gene expression. Developing an effective model for identifying DNA-binding proteins is an urgent research problem. Up to now, many methods have been proposed, but most of them focus on only one classifier and cannot make full use of the large number of negative samples to improve predicting performance. This study proposed a predictor called enDNA-Prot for DNA-binding protein identification by employing the ensemble learning technique. Experiential results showed that enDNA-Prot was comparable with DNA-Prot and outperformed DNAbinder and iDNA-Prot with performance improvement in the range of 3.97-9.52% in ACC and 0.08-0.19 in MCC. Furthermore, when the benchmark dataset was expanded with negative samples, the performance of enDNA-Prot outperformed the three existing methods by 2.83-16.63% in terms of ACC and 0.02-0.16 in terms of MCC. It indicated that enDNA-Prot is an effective method for DNA-binding protein identification and expanding training dataset with negative samples can improve its performance. For the convenience of the vast majority of experimental scientists, we developed a user-friendly web-server for enDNA-Prot which is freely accessible to the public. © 2014 Ruifeng Xu et al.