Using combined static analysis and profiling for logic program execution time estimation

Predicting statically the running time of programs has many applications ranging from task scheduling in parallel execution to proving the ability of a program to meet strict time constraints. A starting point in order to attack this problem is to infer the computational complexity of such programs (or fragments thereof). This is one of the reasons why the development of static analysis techniques for inferring cost-related properties of programs (usually upper and/or lower bounds of actual costs) has received considerable attention.

Integrating software testing and run-time checking in an assertion verification framework.

We have designed and implemented a framework that unifies unit testing and run-time verification (as well as static verification and static debugging). A key contribution of our approach is that a unified assertion language is used for all of these tasks. We first propose methods for compiling runtime checks for (parts of) assertions which cannot be verified at compile-time via program transformation. This transformation allows checking preconditions and postconditions, including conditional postconditions, properties at arbitrary program points, and certain computational properties. The implemented transformation includes several optimizations to reduce run-time overhead. We also propose a minimal addition to the assertion language which allows defining unit tests to be run in order to detect possible violations of the (partial) specifications expressed by the assertions. This language can express for example the input data for performing the unit tests or the number of times that the unit tests should be repeated. We have implemented the framework within the Ciao/CiaoPP system and effectively applied it to the verification of ISO-prolog compliance and to the detection of different types of bugs in the Ciao system source code. Several experimental results are presented that illustrate different trade-offs among program size, running time, or levels of verbosity of the messages shown to the user.

A new generation of real-time systems in the JET tokamak

Recently a new recipe for developing and deploying real-time systems has become increasingly adopted in the JET tokamak. Powered by the advent of x86 multi-core technology and the reliability of the JET’s well established Real-Time Data Network (RTDN) to handle all real-time I/O, an official Linux vanilla kernel has been demonstrated to be able to provide realtime performance to user-space applications that are required to meet stringent timing constraints. In particular, a careful rearrangement of the Interrupt ReQuests’ (IRQs) affinities together with the kernel’s CPU isolation mechanism allows to obtain either soft or hard real-time behavior depending on the synchronization mechanism adopted. Finally, the Multithreaded Application Real-Time executor (MARTe) framework is used for building applications particularly optimised for exploring multicore architectures. In the past year, four new systems based on this philosophy have been installed and are now part of the JET’s routine operation. The focus of the present work is on the configuration and interconnection of the ingredients that enable these new systems’ real-time capability and on the impact that JET’s distributed real-time architecture has on system engineering requirements, such as algorithm testing and plant commissioning. Details are given about the common real-time configuration and development path of these systems, followed by a brief description of each system together with results regarding their real-time performance. A cycle time jitter analysis of a user-space MARTe based application synchronising over a network is also presented. The goal is to compare its deterministic performance while running on a vanilla and on a Messaging Real time Grid (MRG) Linux kernel.

A platform for real-time control education with LEGO MINDSTORMS.

A set of software development tools for building real-time control systems on a simple robotics platform is described in the paper. The tools are being used in a real-time systems course as a basis for student projects. The development platform is a low-cost PC running GNU/Linux, and the target system is LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT, thus keeping the cost of the laboratory low. Real-time control software is developed using a mixed paradigm. Functional code for control algorithms is automatically generated in C from Simulink models. This code is then integrated into a concurrent, real-time software architecture based on a set of components written in Ada. This approach enables the students to take advantage of the high-level, model-oriented features that Simulink oers for designing control algorithms, and the comprehensive support for concurrency and real-time constructs provided by Ada.

Time and space partitioning the EagleEye reference mission

We discuss experiences gained by porting a Software Validation Facility (SVF) and a satellite Central Software (CSW) to a platform with support for Time and Space Partitioning (TSP). The SVF and CSW are part of the EagleEye Reference mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). As a reference mission, EagleEye is a perfect candidate to evaluate practical aspects of developing satellite CSW for and on TSP platforms. The specific TSP platform we used consists of a simulate D LEON3 CPU controlled by the XtratuM separation micro-kernel. On top of this, we run five separate partitions. Each partition ru n s its own real-time operating system or Ada run-time kernel, which in turn are running the application software of the CSW. We describe issues related to partitioning; inter-partition communication; scheduling; I/O; and fault-detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR)

Ada real-time services and virtualization

Virtualization techniques have received increased attention in the field of embedded real-time systems. Such techniques provide a set of virtual machines that run on a single hardware platform, thus allowing several application programs to be executed as though they were running on separate machines, with isolated memory spaces and a fraction of the real processor time available to each of them.This papers deals with some problems that arise when implementing real-time systems written in Ada on a virtual machine. The effects of virtualization on the performance of the Ada real-time services are analysed, and requirements for the virtualization layer are derived. Virtual-machine time services are also defined in order to properly support Ada real-time applications. The implementation of the ORK+ kernel on the XtratuM supervisor is used as an example.

Night time performance of a storage integrated solar thermophotovoltaic (SISTPV) system

Energy storage at low maintenance cost is one of the key challenges for generating electricity from the solar energy. This paper presents the theoretical analysis (verified by CFD) of the night time performance of a recently proposed conceptual system that integrates thermal storage (via phase change materials) and thermophotovoltaics for power generation. These storage integrated solar thermophotovoltaic (SISTPV) systems are attractive owing to their simple design (no moving parts) and modularity compared to conventional Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technologies. Importantly, the ability of high temperature operation of these systems allows the use of silicon (melting point of 1680 K) as the phase change material (PCM). Silicon's very high latent heat of fusion of 1800 kJ/kg and low cost ($1.70/kg), makes it an ideal heat storage medium enabling for an extremely high storage energy density and low weight modular systems. In this paper, the night time operation of the SISTPV system optimised for steady state is analysed. The results indicate that for any given PCM length, a combination of small taper ratio and large inlet hole-to-absorber area ratio are essential to increase the operation time and the average power produced during the night time. Additionally, the overall results show that there is a trade-off between running time and the average power produced during the night time. Average night time power densities as high as 30 W/cm(2) are possible if the system is designed with a small PCM length (10 cm) to operate just a few hours after sun-set, but running times longer than 72 h (3 days) are possible for larger lengths (50 cm) at the expense of a lower average power density of about 14 W/cm(2). In both cases the steady state system efficiency has been predicted to be about 30%. This makes SISTPV systems to be a versatile solution that can be adapted for operation in a broad range of locations with different climate conditions, even being used off-grid and in space applications.

Time-motion analysis in women’s team handball: importance of aerobic performance

Women’s handball is a sport, which has seen an accelerated development over the last decade. Data on movement patterns in combination with physiological demands are nearly nonexistent in the literature. The aim of this study was twofold: first, to analyze the horizontal movement pattern, including the sprint acceleration profiles, of individual female elite handball players and the corresponding heart rates (HRs) during a match and secondly to determine underlying correlations with individual aerobic performance. Players from one German First League team (n = 11) and the Norwegian National Team (n = 14) were studied during one match using the Sagit system for movement analysis and Polar HR monitoring for analysis of physiological demands. Mean HR during the match was 86 % of maximum HR (HRmax). With the exception of the goalkeepers (GKs, 78 % of HRmax), no position-specific differences could be detected. Total distance covered during the match was 4614 m (2066 m in GKs and 5251 m in field players (FPs)). Total distance consisted of 9.2 % sprinting, 26.7 % fast running, 28.8 % slow running, and 35.5 % walking. Mean velocity varied between 1.9 km/h (0.52 m/s) (GKs) and 4.2 km/h (1.17 m/s) (FPs, no position effect). Field players with a higher level of maximum oxygen uptake (V̇O2max) executed run activities with a higher velocity but comparable percentage of HRmax as compared to players with lower aerobic performance, independent of FP position. Acceleration profile depended on aerobic performance and the field player’s position. In conclusion, a high V̇O2max appears to be important in top-level international women’s handball. Sprint and endurance training should be conducted according to the specific demands of the player’s position.

Culture Industries in a Postindustrial Age: Entertainment, Leisure, Creativity, Design

This article reviews the evolution of the concept of culture industries, when neither industry nor culture themselves are today what they were at the time when the term was coined. It attempts to explain the dilution of the term into more nebulous terms (“leisure industries,” “entertainment industries” or “creative industries”) and suggests new challenges for the research on culture industries. What is at stake is no longer an application of a Fordist production to culture, a one-directional mass communication and a mediation by experts, but rather: (1) a cultural experience which is no longer clearly separated from other activities (leisure in general, consumption and even work); (2) the communicative explosion of all industrial production in a media environment, where industrialized symbolic products are mixed with culturalized industrial products; and (3) the empowerment of the recipient, which on one hand ignores the traditional experts and on the other leads to post-productive (recreational and even creative) cultural practices.

Flexible Framework for Real-Time Embedded Systems Based on Mobile Cloud Computing Paradigm

The development of applications as well as the services for mobile systems faces a varied range of devices with very heterogeneous capabilities whose response times are difficult to predict. The research described in this work aims to respond to this issue by developing a computational model that formalizes the problem and that defines adjusting computing methods. The described proposal combines imprecise computing strategies with cloud computing paradigms in order to provide flexible implementation frameworks for embedded or mobile devices. As a result, the imprecise computation scheduling method on the workload of the embedded system is the solution to move computing to the cloud according to the priority and response time of the tasks to be executed and hereby be able to meet productivity and quality of desired services. A technique to estimate network delays and to schedule more accurately tasks is illustrated in this paper. An application example in which this technique is experimented in running contexts with heterogeneous work loading for checking the validity of the proposed model is described.

Towards a real-time 3D object recognition pipeline on mobile GPGPU computing platforms using low-cost RGB-D sensors

In this project, we propose the implementation of a 3D object recognition system which will be optimized to operate under demanding time constraints. The system must be robust so that objects can be recognized properly in poor light conditions and cluttered scenes with significant levels of occlusion. An important requirement must be met: the system must exhibit a reasonable performance running on a low power consumption mobile GPU computing platform (NVIDIA Jetson TK1) so that it can be integrated in mobile robotics systems, ambient intelligence or ambient assisted living applications. The acquisition system is based on the use of color and depth (RGB-D) data streams provided by low-cost 3D sensors like Microsoft Kinect or PrimeSense Carmine. The range of algorithms and applications to be implemented and integrated will be quite broad, ranging from the acquisition, outlier removal or filtering of the input data and the segmentation or characterization of regions of interest in the scene to the very object recognition and pose estimation. Furthermore, in order to validate the proposed system, we will create a 3D object dataset. It will be composed by a set of 3D models, reconstructed from common household objects, as well as a handful of test scenes in which those objects appear. The scenes will be characterized by different levels of occlusion, diverse distances from the elements to the sensor and variations on the pose of the target objects. The creation of this dataset implies the additional development of 3D data acquisition and 3D object reconstruction applications. The resulting system has many possible applications, ranging from mobile robot navigation and semantic scene labeling to human-computer interaction (HCI) systems based on visual information.

Is the EU-Central Asia Strategy running out of steam? EUCAM Policy Brief No. 17, May 2011

The EU’s Central Asia Strategy approaches its fourth anniversary. In that time the EU has placed its relationship with Central Asia on a more structured footing. Although progress has been made in building dialogue and in furthering engagement, the strategy’s limitations are increasingly obvious. This brief argues that the driving force of the EU engagement should be based on a closer link between security and development. Engagement in this broad field should be underpinned by a values based approach that seeks to promote more explicitly reform on human rights, rule of law, governance and democracy. The momentous changes sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa have demonstrated that even the most apparently durable authoritarian regimes are vulnerable to sudden political shocks.

Daytime running lights and turn signal masking. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Military antiquities respecting a history of the English Army, from the conquest to the present time.

"Appendix, no. X. A general and compleat list-military of every commission-officer ... of England ... London, N. Brooks, 1684" (v. 2. p. [1]-22 [3d series of numbering]) has special t.p.

An impartial and succinct history of the revival and progress of the Church of Christ, from the Reformation to the present time. With faithful characters of the principal personages.

Part 3 of the author's An impartial and succinct history of the rise, declension, and revival of the Church of Christ, from the birth of our Savior to the present time. London, 1800. 3 v. cf. Preface of the editor, signed Samuel Austin, and Lowndes, W. T. The bibliographer's manual of English literature, new ed. [1857-65] vol. 2, p. 1013.