Virtual Infrastructures as a Service enabling Converged Optical Networks and Data Centres

Abstract Cloud computing service emerged as an essential component of the Enterprise {IT} infrastructure. Migration towards a full range and large-scale convergence of Cloud and network services has become the current trend for addressing requirements of the Cloud environment. Our approach takes the infrastructure as a service paradigm to build converged virtual infrastructures, which allow offering tailored performance and enable multi-tenancy over a common physical infrastructure. Thanks to virtualization, new exploitation activities of the physical infrastructures may arise for both transport network and Data Centres services. This approach makes network and Data Centres’ resources dedicated to Cloud Computing to converge on the same flexible and scalable level. The work presented here is based on the automation of the virtual infrastructure provisioning service. On top of the virtual infrastructures, a coordinated operation and control of the different resources is performed with the objective of automatically tailoring connectivity services to the Cloud service dynamics. Furthermore, in order to support elasticity of the Cloud services through the optical network, dynamic re-planning features have been provided to the virtual infrastructure service, which allows scaling up or down existing virtual infrastructures to optimize resource utilisation and dynamically adapt to users’ demands. Thus, the dynamic re-planning of the service becomes key component for the coordination of Cloud and optical network resource in an optimal way in terms of resource utilisation. The presented work is complemented with a use case of the virtual infrastructure service being adopted in a distributed Enterprise Information System, that scales up and down as a function of the application requests.

Semantic, perceptual and number space: relations between category width and spatial processing.

Coarse semantic encoding and broad categorization behavior are the hallmarks of the right cerebral hemisphere's contribution to language processing. We correlated 40 healthy subjects' breadth of categorization as assessed with Pettigrew's category width scale with lateral asymmetries in perceptual and representational space. Specifically, we hypothesized broader category width to be associated with larger leftward spatial biases. For the 20 men, but not the 20 women, this hypothesis was confirmed both in a lateralized tachistoscopic task with chimeric faces and a random digit generation task; the higher a male participant's score on category width, the more pronounced were his left-visual field bias in the judgement of chimeric faces and his small-number preference in digit generation ("small" is to the left of "large" in number space). Subjects' category width was unrelated to lateral displacements in a blindfolded tactile-motor rod centering task. These findings indicate that visual-spatial functions of the right hemisphere should not be considered independent of the same hemisphere's contribution to language. Linguistic and spatial cognition may be more tightly interwoven than is currently assumed.

The Freedom SOLO bovine pericardial stentless valve: Single-center experience, outcome and long-term durability

Abstract Objectives We report our institutional experience and long-term results with the Sorin Freedom SOLO bovine pericardial stentless bioprosthesis. Methods Between January 2005 and November 2009, 149 patients (mean age 73.6±8.7 years, 68 [45.6%] female) underwent isolated (n=75) or combined (n=74) aortic valve replacement (AVR) using the SOLO in our institution. Follow-up was 100% complete with an average follow-up time of 5.9±2.6 years (maximum 9.6 years) and a total of 885.3 patient years. Results Operative (30-day) mortality was 2.7% (1.3% for isolated AVR [n=1] and 4.0% for combined procedures [n=3]). All causes of death were not valve-related. Preoperative peak (mean) gradients of 74.2±23.0 mmHg (48.6 ± 16.3 mmHg) decreased to 15.6±5.4 (8.8±3.0) after AVR, and remained low for up to 9 years. The postoperative effective orifice area (EOA) was 1.6 ±0.57 cm2, 1.90±0.45 cm2, 2.12±0.48 cm2 and 2.20±0.66 cm2 for the valve sizes 21, 23, 25 and 27, respectively; with absence of severe prosthesis-patient-mismatch (PPM) and 0.7% (n=1) moderate PPM. During follow-up, Twenty-six patients experienced structural valve deterioration (SVD) and 14 patients underwent explantation. Kaplan-Meier estimates for freedom from death, explantation and SVD at 9 years averaged 0.57 [0.47‒0.66], 0.82 [0.69‒0.90] and 0.70 [0.57‒0.79], respectively. Conclusions The Freedom SOLO stentless aortic valve is safe to implant and shows excellent early and mid-term hemodynamic performance. However, SVD was observed in a substantial number of patients after only 5 ̶ 6 years and the need for explantation increased markedly, suggesting low durability.

Monitoring and data quality assessment of the ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter

The liquid argon calorimeter is a key component of the ATLAS detector installed at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The primary purpose of this calorimeter is the measurement of electron and photon kinematic properties. It also provides a crucial input for measuring jets and missing transverse momentum. An advanced data monitoring procedure was designed to quickly identify issues that would affect detector performance and ensure that only the best quality data are used for physics analysis. This article presents the validation procedure developed during the 2011 and 2012 LHC data-taking periods, in which more than 98% of the proton-proton luminosity recorded by ATLAS at a centre-of-mass energy of 7–8 TeV had calorimeter data quality suitable for physics analysis.

Report SCRP Monitoring and Data Analysis Training Project

Report on the project activities 2003.

Granular layer in the periplasmic space of gram-positive bacteria and fine structures of Enterococcus gallinarum and Streptococcus gordonii septa revealed by cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections.

High-resolution structural information on optimally preserved bacterial cells can be obtained with cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections. With the help of this technique, the existence of a periplasmic space between the plasma membrane and the thick peptidoglycan layer of the gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus was recently shown. This raises questions about the mode of polymerization of peptidoglycan. In the present study, we report the structure of the cell envelope of three gram-positive bacteria (B. subtilis, Streptococcus gordonii, and Enterococcus gallinarum). In the three cases, a previously undescribed granular layer adjacent to the plasma membrane is found in the periplasmic space. In order to better understand how nascent peptidoglycan is incorporated into the mature peptidoglycan, we investigated cellular regions known to represent the sites of cell wall production. Each of these sites possesses a specific structure. We propose a hypothetic model of peptidoglycan polymerization that accommodates these differences: peptidoglycan precursors could be exported from the cytoplasm to the periplasmic space, where they could diffuse until they would interact with the interface between the granular layer and the thick peptidoglycan layer. They could then polymerize with mature peptidoglycan. We report cytoplasmic structures at the E. gallinarum septum that could be interpreted as cytoskeletal elements driving cell division (FtsZ ring). Although immunoelectron microscopy and fluorescence microscopy studies have demonstrated the septal and cytoplasmic localization of FtsZ, direct visualization of in situ FtsZ filaments has not been obtained in any electron microscopy study of fixed and dehydrated bacteria.

The Global Plankton Database: an inventory and data from the Former Soviet Union expeditions

At present time, there is a lack of knowledge on the interannual climate-related variability of zooplankton communities of the tropical Atlantic, central Mediterranean Sea, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea, due to the absence of appropriate databases. In the mid latitudes, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the dominant mode of atmospheric fluctuations over eastern North America, the northern Atlantic Ocean and Europe. Therefore, one of the issues that need to be addressed through data synthesis is the evaluation of interannual patterns in species abundance and species diversity over these regions in regard to the NAO. The database has been used to investigate the ecological role of the NAO in interannual variations of mesozooplankton abundance and biomass along the zonal array of the NAO influence. Basic approach to the proposed research involved: (1) development of co-operation between experts and data holders in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, UK, and USA to rescue and compile the oceanographic data sets and release them on CD-ROM, (2) organization and compilation of a database based on FSU cruises to the above regions, (3) analysis of the basin-scale interannual variability of the zooplankton species abundance, biomass, and species diversity.

A set of canonical problems in sloshing. Part 0: Experimental setup and data processing

In a series of attempts to research and document relevant sloshing type phenomena, a series of experiments have been conducted. The aim of this paper is to describe the setup and data processing of such experiments. A sloshing tank is subjected to angular motion. As a result pressure registers are obtained at several locations, together with the motion data, torque and a collection of image and video information. The experimental rig and the data acquisition systems are described. Useful information for experimental sloshing research practitioners is provided. This information is related to the liquids used in the experiments, the dying techniques, tank building processes, synchronization of acquisition systems, etc. A new procedure for reconstructing experimental data, that takes into account experimental uncertainties, is presented. This procedure is based on a least squares spline approximation of the data. Based on a deterministic approach to the first sloshing wave impact event in a sloshing experiment, an uncertainty analysis procedure of the associated first pressure peak value is described.

Cooperation between expert knowledge and data mining discovered knowledge: Lessons learned

Expert systems are built from knowledge traditionally elicited from the human expert. It is precisely knowledge elicitation from the expert that is the bottleneck in expert system construction. On the other hand, a data mining system, which automatically extracts knowledge, needs expert guidance on the successive decisions to be made in each of the system phases. In this context, expert knowledge and data mining discovered knowledge can cooperate, maximizing their individual capabilities: data mining discovered knowledge can be used as a complementary source of knowledge for the expert system, whereas expert knowledge can be used to guide the data mining process. This article summarizes different examples of systems where there is cooperation between expert knowledge and data mining discovered knowledge and reports our experience of such cooperation gathered from a medical diagnosis project called Intelligent Interpretation of Isokinetics Data, which we developed. From that experience, a series of lessons were learned throughout project development. Some of these lessons are generally applicable and others pertain exclusively to certain project types.

Self-similar motion of laser half-space plasmas. II. Thermal waves and intermediate regimes

The one-dimensional self-similar motion of an initially cold, half-space plasma of electron density n,produced by the (anomalous) absorption of a laser pulse of irradiation

and ion-electron energy exchange, involves three dimensionless numbers: e = nc/n0 assumed small, Z, (ion charge number), and a parameter aanding into the vacuum. For land a very thin transition layer bounding an expansion flow, much larger in extent than the compression region. In both regimes, the critical plane lies far in the expansion tail. The results break down when the density is so small that the plasma becomes collisionless. The analysis is also invalid for a too small. Using results previously found for a>€~4'3, a qualitative discussion of how plasma behavior changes with a, is given.