Scalable unstructured mesh decomposition

As the efficiency of parallel software increases it is becoming common to measure near linear speedup for many applications. For a problem size N on P processors then with software running at O(N=P ) the performance restrictions due to file i/o systems and mesh decomposition running at O(N) become increasingly apparent especially for large P . For distributed memory parallel systems an additional limit to scalability results from the finite memory size available for i/o scatter/gather operations. Simple strategies developed to address the scalability of scatter/gather operations for unstructured mesh based applications have been extended to provide scalable mesh decomposition through the development of a parallel graph partitioning code, JOSTLE [8]. The focus of this work is directed towards the development of generic strategies that can be incorporated into the Computer Aided Parallelisation Tools (CAPTools) project.

A Stationless Bikeshare Proof of Concept for College Campuses

Bikeshares promote healthy lifestyles and sustainability among commuters, casual riders, and tourists. However, the central pillar of modern systems, the bike station, cannot be easily integrated into a compact college campus. Fixed stations lack the flexibility to meet the needs of college students who make quick, short-distance trips. Additionally, the necessary cost of implementing and maintaining each station prohibits increasing the number of stations for user convenience. Therefore, the team developed a stationless bikeshare based on a smartlock permanently attached to bicycles in the system. The smartlock system design incorporates several innovative approaches to provide usability, security, and reliability that overcome the limitations of a station centered design. A focus group discussion allowed the team to receive feedback on the early lock, system, and website designs, identify improvements and craft a pleasant user experience. The team designed a unique, two-step lock system that is intuitive to operate while mitigating user error. To ensure security, user access is limited through near field ii communications (NFC) technology connected to a mechatronic release system. The said system relied on a NFC module and a servo working through an Arduino microcontroller coded in the Arduino IDE. To track rentals and maintain the system, each bike is fitted with an XBee module to communicate with a scalable ZigBee mesh network. The network allows for bidirectional, real-time communication with a Meteor.js web application, which enables user and administrator functions through an intuitive user interface available on mobile and desktop. The development of an independent smartlock to replace bike stations is essential to meet the needs of the modern college student. With the goal of creating a bikeshare that better serves college students, Team BIKES has laid the framework for a system that is affordable, easily adaptable, and implementable on any university expressing an interest in bringing a bikeshare to its campus.

Numerical encoding to tame SQL injection attacks.

Recent years have seen an astronomical rise in SQL Injection Attacks (SQLIAs) used to compromise the confidentiality, authentication and integrity of organisations’ databases. Intruders becoming smarter in obfuscating web requests to evade detection combined with increasing volumes of web traffic from the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud-hosted and on-premise business applications have made it evident that the existing approaches of mostly static signature lack the ability to cope with novel signatures. A SQLIA detection and prevention solution can be achieved through exploring an alternative bio-inspired supervised learning approach that uses input of labelled dataset of numerical attributes in classifying true positives and negatives. We present in this paper a Numerical Encoding to Tame SQLIA (NETSQLIA) that implements a proof of concept for scalable numerical encoding of features to a dataset attributes with labelled class obtained from deep web traffic analysis. In the numerical attributes encoding: the model leverages proxy in the interception and decryption of web traffic. The intercepted web requests are then assembled for front-end SQL parsing and pattern matching by applying traditional Non-Deterministic Finite Automaton (NFA). This paper is intended for a technique of numerical attributes extraction of any size primed as an input dataset to an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and statistical Machine Learning (ML) algorithms implemented using Two-Class Averaged Perceptron (TCAP) and Two-Class Logistic Regression (TCLR) respectively. This methodology then forms the subject of the empirical evaluation of the suitability of this model in the accurate classification of both legitimate web requests and SQLIA payloads.

Feasibility study to inform the design of a UK multi-centre randomised controlled trial of prophylactic antibiotics for the prevention of recurrent cellulitis of the leg

Background: This paper describes the results of a feasibility study for a randomised controlled trial (RCT). Methods: Twenty-nine members of the UK Dermatology Clinical Trials Network (UK DCTN) expressed an interest in recruiting for this study. Of these, 17 obtained full ethics and Research & Development (R&D) approval, and 15 successfully recruited patients into the study. A total of 70 participants with a diagnosis of cellulitis of the leg were enrolled over a 5-month period. These participants were largely recruited from medical admissions wards, although some were identified from dermatology, orthopaedic, geriatric and general surgery wards. Data were collected on patient demographics, clinical features and willingness to take part in a future RCT. Results: Despite being a relatively common condition, cellulitis patients were difficult to locate through our network of UK DCTN clinicians. This was largely because patients were rarely seen by dermatologists, and admissions were not co-ordinated centrally. In addition, the impact of the proposed exclusion criteria was high; only 26 (37%) of those enrolled in the study fulfilled all of the inclusion criteria for the subsequent RCT, and were willing to be randomised to treatment. Of the 70 participants identified during the study as having cellulitis of the leg (as confirmed by a dermatologist), only 59 (84%) had all 3 of the defining features of: i) erythema, ii) oedema, and iii) warmth with acute pain/tenderness upon examination. Twenty-two (32%) patients experienced a previous episode of cellulitis within the last 3 years. The median time to recurrence (estimated as the time since the most recent previous attack) was 205 days (95% CI 102 to 308). Service users were generally supportive of the trial, although several expressed concerns about taking antibiotics for lengthy periods, and felt that multiple morbidity/old age would limit entry into a 3-year study. Conclusion: This pilot study has been crucial in highlighting some key issues for the conduct of a future RCT. As a result of these findings, changes have been made to i) the planned recruitment strategy, ii) the proposed inclusion criteria and ii) the definition of cellulitis for use in the future trial.

Resilience to Climate Change: An Ethnographic Approach

Global projections for climate change impacts produce a startling picture of the future for low-lying coastal communities. The United States’ Chesapeake Bay region and especially marginalized and rural communities will be severely impacted by sea level rise and other changes over the next one hundred years. The concept of resilience has been theorized as a measure of social-ecological system health and as a unifying framework under which people can work together towards climate change adaptation. But it has also been critiqued for the way in which it does not adequately take into account local perspective and experiences, bringing into question the value of this concept as a tool for local communities. We must be sure that the concerns, weaknesses, and strengths of particular local communities are part of the climate change adaptation, decision-making, and planning process in which communities participate. An example of this type of planning process is the Deal Island Marsh and Community Project (DIMCP), a grant funded initiative to build resilience within marsh ecosystems and communities of the Deal Island Peninsula area of Maryland (USA) to environmental and social impacts from climate change. I argue it is important to have well-developed understandings of vulnerabilities and resiliencies identified by local residents and others to accomplish this type of work. This dissertation explores vulnerability and resilience to climate change using an engaged and ethnographic anthropological perspective. Utilizing participant observation, semi-structured and structured interviews, text analysis, and cultural domain analysis I produce an in-depth perspective of what vulnerability and resilience means to the DIMCP stakeholder network. Findings highlight significant vulnerabilities and resiliencies inherent in the local area and how these interface with additional vulnerabilities and resiliencies seen from a nonlocal perspective. I conclude that vulnerability and resilience are highly dynamic and context-specific for the local community. Vulnerabilities relate to climate change and other social and environmental changes. Resilience is a long-standing way of life, not a new concept related specifically to climate change. This ethnographic insight into vulnerability and resilience provides a basis for stronger engagement in collaboration and planning for the future.

Network Development with Bicycle Lanes

Bicycling as an active mode of transport can offer great individual and societal benefits. Allocating space for bicycle facilities is the key to promoting cycling as bicyclists perceive better safety and convenience in separate bikeways. In this thesis, a method is proposed for optimizing the selection and scheduling of capacity enhancements in road networks while also optimizing the allocation of road space to bicycle lanes. The goal is to determine what fraction of the available space should be allocated to bicycles, as the network evolves, in order to minimize the present value of the total cost of the system cost. The allocation method is combined with a genetic algorithm to select and schedule road expansion projects under certain budget constraints.

Shadedpath : aplicación Android para calcular rutas peatonales con mínima exposición solar

El trabajo de fin de grado consiste en realizar una aplicación móvil basada en Android [7]. Para calcular la ruta más sombreada desde un punto de origen a un punto de destino. Dicha aplicación móvil realizará peticiones a un servidor que estará ejecutando un programa que realizará el cálculo de rutas conforme a los parámetros que elegirá el usuario desde su móvil. Estos parámetros pueden ser: la hora de partida, la fecha y la importancia de la sombra a la hora de calcular la ruta. Siempre podremos elegir entre una ruta más corta o una más sombreada, según la importancia que le quiera dar el usuario. La lógica de la aplicación del lado del servidor que realiza el cálculo está basada en Open- TripPlanner, el cual usa algoritmos de búsqueda para encontrar el camino más corto. Sirviéndonos de dicho algoritmo realizaremos las modificaciones e implementaciones necesarias para calcular la ruta más sombreada.

Estudio y optimización de las infraestructuras de los carriles para bicicletas

La necesidad cotidiana de los ciudadanos de desplazarse para realizar diferentes actividades, sea cual fuere su naturaleza, se ha visto afectada en gran medida por los cambios producidos. Las ventajas generadas por la inclusión de la bicicleta como modo de transporte y la proliferación de su uso entre la ciudadanía son innumerables y se extienden tanto en el ámbito de la movilidad urbana como del desarrollo sostenible. En la actualidad, hay multitud de programas para la implantación, fomento o aumento de la participación ciudadana relacionado con la bicicleta en las ciudades. Pero en definitiva, todos y cada uno de estas iniciativas tienen la misma finalidad, crear una malla de vías cicladles eficaz y útil. Capaces de permitir el uso de la bicicleta en vías preferentes con unas garantías de seguridad altas, incorporando la bicicleta en el modelo de intermodalidad del transporte urbano. Con la progresiva implantación del carril bici, muchas personas han empezado a utilizarlas para moverse por la ciudad. Pero todo lo nuevo necesita un periodo de adaptación. Y, la realidad es que la red de viales destinados para estos vehículos está repleta de obstáculos para el ciclista. La actual situación ha llevado a cuestionar qué cantidad de kilómetros de carriles bici son necesarios para abastecer la demanda existente de este modo de transporte y, si las obras ejecutadas y proyectadas son las correctas y suficientes. En este trabajo se presenta una herramienta, basada en un modelo de programación matemática, para el diseño óptimo de una red destinada a los ciclistas. En concreto, el sistema determina una infraestructura para la bicicleta adaptada a las características de la red de carreteras existentes, con base en criterios de teoría de grafos ponderados. Como una aplicación del modelo propuesto, se ofrece el resultado de estos experimentos, obteniéndose un número de conclusiones útiles para la planificación y el diseño de redes de carriles bici desde una perspectiva social. Se realiza una aplicación de la metodología desarrollada para el caso real del municipio de Málaga (España). Por último se produce la validación del modelo de optimización presentado y la repercusión que tiene éste sobre el resultado final y la importancia o el peso del total de variables capaces de condicionar el resultado final de la red ciclista. Se obtiene, por tanto, una herramienta destinada a la mejora de la planificación, diseño y gestión de las diferentes infraestructuras para la bicicleta, con capacidad de interactuar con el modelo de red vial actual y con el resto de los modos de transportes existentes en el entramado urbano de las ciudades.

COMPUTATIONAL PREDICTION OF THE SPORULATION NETWORK IN CLOSTRIDIUM THERMOCELLUM

Sporulation is a process in which some bacteria divide asymmetrically to form tough protective endospores, which help them to survive in a hazardous environment for a quite long time. The factors which can trigger this process are diverse. Heat, radiation, chemicals and lacking of nutrition can all lead to the formation of endospores. This phenomenon will lead to low productivity during industrial production. However, the sporulation mechanism in a spore-forming bacterium, Clostridium theromcellum, is still unclear. Therefore, if a regulation network of sporulation can be built, we may figure out ways to inhibit this process. In this study, a computational method is applied to predict the sporulation network in Clostridium theromcellum. A working sporulation network model with 40 new predicted genes and 4 function groups is built by using a network construction program, CINPER. 5 sets of microarray expression data in Clostridium theromcellum under different conditions have been collected. The analysis shows the predicted result is reasonable.

Network Construction and Graph Theoretical Analysis of Functional Language Networks in Pediatric Epilepsy

This dissertation introduces a new approach for assessing the effects of pediatric epilepsy on the language connectome. Two novel data-driven network construction approaches are presented. These methods rely on connecting different brain regions using either extent or intensity of language related activations as identified by independent component analysis of fMRI data. An auditory description decision task (ADDT) paradigm was used to activate the language network for 29 patients and 30 controls recruited from three major pediatric hospitals. Empirical evaluations illustrated that pediatric epilepsy can cause, or is associated with, a network efficiency reduction. Patients showed a propensity to inefficiently employ the whole brain network to perform the ADDT language task; on the contrary, controls seemed to efficiently use smaller segregated network components to achieve the same task. To explain the causes of the decreased efficiency, graph theoretical analysis was carried out. The analysis revealed no substantial global network feature differences between the patient and control groups. It also showed that for both subject groups the language network exhibited small-world characteristics; however, the patient’s extent of activation network showed a tendency towards more random networks. It was also shown that the intensity of activation network displayed ipsilateral hub reorganization on the local level. The left hemispheric hubs displayed greater centrality values for patients, whereas the right hemispheric hubs displayed greater centrality values for controls. This hub hemispheric disparity was not correlated with a right atypical language laterality found in six patients. Finally it was shown that a multi-level unsupervised clustering scheme based on self-organizing maps, a type of artificial neural network, and k-means was able to fairly and blindly separate the subjects into their respective patient or control groups. The clustering was initiated using the local nodal centrality measurements only. Compared to the extent of activation network, the intensity of activation network clustering demonstrated better precision. This outcome supports the assertion that the local centrality differences presented by the intensity of activation network can be associated with focal epilepsy.

A probabilistic approach to user mobility prediction for wireless services.

Mobile and wireless networks have long exploited mobility predictions, focused on predicting the future location of given users, to perform more efficient network resource management. In this paper, we present a new approach in which we provide predictions as a probability distribution of the likelihood of moving to a set of future locations. This approach provides wireless services a greater amount of knowledge and enables them to perform more effectively. We present a framework for the evaluation of this new type of predictor, and develop 2 new predictors, HEM and G-Stat. We evaluate our predictors accuracy in predicting future cells for mobile users, using two large geolocation data sets, from MDC [11], [12] and Crawdad [13]. We show that our predictors can successfully predict with as low as an average 2.2% inaccuracy in certain scenarios.

Young adults’ perceptions of and affective bonds to a rural tourism community

Many rural areas, in Sweden and worldwide, experience population decline where the young leave for education and work in urban areas. Employment has declined in several rural industries, such as agriculture, forestry, and fishing, while growing in other industries are often located in urban areas. Politicians and organizations have put much hope in tourism as a tool of rural development, but can tourism help reverse the rural out-migration trend among young adults? This paper explores how tourism affects young inhabitants’ perceptions of and affective bonds to a rural area in Sweden, the ski resort of Sälen. Students from the 1993–1995 elementary school graduating classes were interviewed about their migration history, childhood, and view of and ties to Sälen. The respondents experience that tourism contributes to a more vital community incorporating influences from elsewhere, but without eliminating the positive aspects of rural life. The regular flow of people – tourists, seasonal workers, and entrepreneurs – passing through Sälen presents opportunities to extend one’s social network that are widely appreciated by respondents. The high in and out mobility constitutes a key part of Sälen’s character. Contributions from tourism – such as employment, entertainment, leisure, and opportunities to forge new social relationships – are available during the adult transition, the life phase when rural areas are often perceived as least attractive. Even though out-migration occurs in Sälen, and some respondents still find Sälen too small, tourism has clearly increased the available opportunities and contributed significantly to making Sälen more attractive to young adults.

Size selectivity of diamond and square mesh cod ends for four by-catch species in the crustacean fishery off the Portuguese south coast

The effects of an increase in cod end mesh size from 55 to 60 and 70 mm and a change of mesh configuration from 55 mm diamond to 55 turn square mesh on the size selectivity of four by-catch species (the red shrimp Aristeus antennatus, the European hake Merluccius merluccius, the horse mackerel Trachurus trachurus and the blue whiting Micromesistius poutassou) commonly captured in the crustacean fishery off the Portuguese south coast, were evaluated. Selectivity parameters for blue whiting, the most abundant species in the catches, were estimated taking into account between-haul variation, while for the remaining species, captured in much lower quantities, the selectivity estimates were based on pooled data by length class for all hauls within the same cod end. Length at 50% retention, L-50, was found to increase with mesh size and with the change in mesh configuration for all the studied species. For blue whiting trawling depth and cod end catch were found to play a role in between-haul variation by increasing L-50 as well. The results suggest that an increase in the current minimum mesh size of 55-70 mm would be advisable to be compatible with the minimum landing sizes (MLSs) of 29 mm carapace length and 27 cm total length for red shrimp and hake, respectively, while it would greatly reduce the amount of discards, particularly those for blue whiting, that accounted for approximately 50% of the total catch weight. Horse mackerel was the only species for which the use of a larger mesh size would result in a significant escapement of individuals above the MLS of 15 cm. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Transatlantic Brokers. A global history of Jean Monnet’s network 1914-1943

Jean Monnet, possibly the most important actor during the first post-war decades of European integration, is constantly described in the literature as part of a network that included several influential individuals in Europe and in the United States who, at different moments, held key positions. An important aspect in this regard is that some of Monnet’s transatlantic friends promoted European integration and contributed to a cross-fertilization process across the Atlantic. Considering that most of the authors either list a number of people as being part of this network, or focus on particular individuals’ relationship with Monnet, it is fair to ask to what extent his network helped him in pursuing his goals, if Monnet was simply accepted, and why, in already existing networks, if we can consider his as a transatlantic working group and if we can retrace in this story elements of continuity and long durée that can contribute to the historiography of early European Integration. Considering new trends and interpretations that highlight the role played by networks, examination of Monnet’s techniques and his reliance on his transatlantic connections reveal important findings about his relationship with policymakers, shading also a light on important features of XX century diplomatic and transatlantic history. This dissertation’s attempt, therefore, is to define these as elements of continuity throughout the formative years of one of founding fathers of the Integration process.

Design and Development of Network Monitoring Strategies in P4-enabled Programmable Switches

Network monitoring is of paramount importance for effective network management: it allows to constantly observe the network’s behavior to ensure it is working as intended and can trigger both automated and manual remediation procedures in case of failures and anomalies. The concept of SDN decouples the control logic from legacy network infrastructure to perform centralized control on multiple switches in the network, and in this context, the responsibility of switches is only to forward packets according to the flow control instructions provided by controller. However, as current SDN switches only expose simple per-port and per-flow counters, the controller has to do almost all the processing to determine the network state, which causes significant communication overhead and excessive latency for monitoring purposes. The absence of programmability in the data plane of SDN prompted the advent of programmable switches, which allow developers to customize the data-plane pipeline and implement novel programs operating directly in the switches. This means that we can offload certain monitoring tasks to programmable data planes, to perform fine-grained monitoring even at very high packet processing speeds. Given the central importance of network monitoring exploiting programmable data planes, the goal of this thesis is to enable a wide range of monitoring tasks in programmable switches, with a specific focus on the ones equipped with programmable ASICs. Indeed, most network monitoring solutions available in literature do not take computational and memory constraints of programmable switches into due account, preventing, de facto, their successful implementation in commodity switches. This claims that network monitoring tasks can be executed in programmable switches. Our evaluations show that the contributions in this thesis could be used by network administrators as well as network security engineers, to better understand the network status depending on different monitoring metrics, and thus prevent network infrastructure and service outages.