Influence of delay time on regularity estimation for voice pathology detection

The employment of nonlinear analysis techniques for automatic voice pathology detection systems has gained popularity due to the ability of such techniques for dealing with the underlying nonlinear phenomena. On this respect, characterization using nonlinear analysis typically employs the classical Correlation Dimension and the largest Lyapunov Exponent, as well as some regularity quantifiers computing the system predictability. Mostly, regularity features highly depend on a correct choosing of some parameters. One of those, the delay time �, is usually fixed to be 1. Nonetheless, it has been stated that a unity � can not avoid linear correlation of the time series and hence, may not correctly capture system nonlinearities. Therefore, present work studies the influence of the � parameter on the estimation of regularity features. Three � estimations are considered: the baseline value 1; a � based on the Average Automutual Information criterion; and � chosen from the embedding window. Testing results obtained for pathological voice suggest that an improved accuracy might be obtained by using a � value different from 1, as it accounts for the underlying nonlinearities of the voice signal.

The evolution of the laws of software evolution. A discussion based on a systematic literature review

After more than 40 years of life, software evolution should be considered as a mature field. However, despite such a long history, many research questions still remain open, and controversial studies about the validity of the laws of software evolution are common. During the first part of these 40 years the laws themselves evolved to adapt to changes in both the research and the software industry environments. This process of adaption to new paradigms, standards, and practices stopped about 15 years ago, when the laws were revised for the last time. However, most controversial studies have been raised during this latter period. Based on a systematic and comprehensive literature review, in this paper we describe how and when the laws, and the software evolution field, evolved. We also address the current state of affairs about the validity of the laws, how they are perceived by the research community, and the developments and challenges that are likely to occur in the coming years.

El cloud computing en la pyme española

Las últimas previsiones de mercado el cloud computing pronostican un crecimiento anual del 30%, ya que cada vez más personas adoptan la tecnología más avanzada para almacenar información en un espacio virtual. Sin embargo, el cloud computing no es sólo un sistema de almacenamiento de datos, sino que también se puede utilizar para ejecutar software y aplicaciones de forma remota, sin estar atado a un único ordenador. Para una pequeña empresa, la externalización de TI a la nube reduce la necesidad de contratar personas con habilidades especializadas y libera a los directores para que puedan concentrarse en el negocio. En el segundo capítulo analizamos el estado del arte del cloud computing, para lo cual en primer lugar definimos qué es cloud, así como cuáles son sus ventajas e inconvenientes. Presentamos los diferentes modelos de cloud computing, y cuáles son sus principales proveedores actualmente. Para finalizar esbozamos unas pinceladas del siempre complejo marco regulatorio del cloud computing en España. En el Capítulo 3 presentamos la situación de las pequeñas y medianas empresas dentro del ecosistema empresarial español, basándonos en los datos proporcionados por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística del año 2013. A continuación, en el Capítulo 4, analizamos la penetración del Cloud Computing en España, desde el punto de vista que tienen las pequeñas empresas de las tecnologías cloud, así como del uso que estas hacen del mismo. Para este capítulo hemos utilizado el informe realizado por Deloitte para el Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo. En el capítulo 5 veremos un caso real de solución software as a service, desarrollado por mi empresa. Se trata de una aplicación de gestión de activos inmobiliarios, que enfocaremos hacia las pequeñas inmobiliarias. Para ello analizaremos la tipología de Pyme hacia la que queremos dirigir el producto viendo en detalle el sector de las actividades inmobiliarias, así como describiremos qué tipo de aplicación es y su funcionalidad (de modo muy resumido consiste en la gestión del ciclo de venta de todos los inmuebles de una agencia inmobiliaria, desde que el cliente solicita una visita, hasta que se lleva a cabo la firma de las escrituras). Posicionaremos el producto en precio y haremos una comparativa entre otras soluciones tanto cloud como on-premise para comparar su ventaja competitiva en precio. A continuación describiremos cómo pensamos hacer la comunicación del producto, mediante la publicación de la aplicación en el App Exchange de Salesforce, ferias inmobiliarias, etc y describiremos los servicios de valor añadido que ofrecemos. Por último estableceremos las previsiones económicas a tres años de las ventas del producto. Por último en el Capítulo 6 concluiremos el proyecto con una serie de reflexiones sobre los retos y las oportunidades a las que se enfrentan las Pymes actualmente, en lo que se refiere a la implantación de sistemas en la nube, y más concretamente los retos y oportunidades que pueden tener las Pymes el sector inmobiliario con las soluciones cloud.

PROV-O: The PROV Ontology Tutorial

Provenance is key for describing the evolution of a resource, the entity responsible for its changes and how these changes affect its final state. A proper description of the provenance of a resource shows who has its attribution and can help resolving whether it can be trusted or not. This tutorial will provide an overview of the W3C PROV data model and its serialization as an OWL ontology. The tutorial will incrementally explain the features of the PROV data model, from the core starting terms to the most complex concepts. Finally, the tutorial will show the relation between PROV-O and the Dublin Core Metadata terms.

Image processing based on a model of the mammalian retina

A first study in order to construct a simple model of the mammalian retina is reported. The basic elements for this model are Optical Programmable Logic Cells, OPLCs, previously employed as a functional element for Optical Computing. The same type of circuit simulates the five types of neurons present in the retina. Different responses are obtained by modifying either internal or external connections. Two types of behaviors are reported: symmetrical and non-symmetrical with respect to light position. Some other higher functions, as the possibility to differentiate between symmetric and non-symmetric light images, are performed by another simulation of the first layers of the visual cortex. The possibility to apply these models to image processing is reported.

Analysis of service-oriented computing systems

La computación basada en servicios (Service-Oriented Computing, SOC) se estableció como un paradigma ampliamente aceptado para el desarollo de sistemas de software flexibles, distribuidos y adaptables, donde las composiciones de los servicios realizan las tareas más complejas o de nivel más alto, frecuentemente tareas inter-organizativas usando los servicios atómicos u otras composiciones de servicios. En tales sistemas, las propriedades de la calidad de servicio (Quality of Service, QoS), como la rapídez de procesamiento, coste, disponibilidad o seguridad, son críticas para la usabilidad de los servicios o sus composiciones en cualquier aplicación concreta. El análisis de estas propriedades se puede realizarse de una forma más precisa y rica en información si se utilizan las técnicas de análisis de programas, como el análisis de complejidad o de compartición de datos, que son capables de analizar simultáneamente tanto las estructuras de control como las de datos, dependencias y operaciones en una composición. El análisis de coste computacional para la composicion de servicios puede ayudar a una monitorización predictiva así como a una adaptación proactiva a través de una inferencia automática de coste computacional, usando los limites altos y bajos como funciones del valor o del tamaño de los mensajes de entrada. Tales funciones de coste se pueden usar para adaptación en la forma de selección de los candidatos entre los servicios que minimizan el coste total de la composición, basado en los datos reales que se pasan al servicio. Las funciones de coste también pueden ser combinadas con los parámetros extraídos empíricamente desde la infraestructura, para producir las funciones de los límites de QoS sobre los datos de entrada, cuales se pueden usar para previsar, en el momento de invocación, las violaciones de los compromisos al nivel de servicios (Service Level Agreements, SLA) potenciales or inminentes. En las composiciones críticas, una previsión continua de QoS bastante eficaz y precisa se puede basar en el modelado con restricciones de QoS desde la estructura de la composition, datos empiricos en tiempo de ejecución y (cuando estén disponibles) los resultados del análisis de complejidad. Este enfoque se puede aplicar a las orquestaciones de servicios con un control centralizado del flujo, así como a las coreografías con participantes multiples, siguiendo unas interacciones complejas que modifican su estado. El análisis del compartición de datos puede servir de apoyo para acciones de adaptación, como la paralelización, fragmentación y selección de los componentes, las cuales son basadas en dependencias funcionales y en el contenido de información en los mensajes, datos internos y las actividades de la composición, cuando se usan construcciones de control complejas, como bucles, bifurcaciones y flujos anidados. Tanto las dependencias funcionales como el contenido de información (descrito a través de algunos atributos definidos por el usuario) se pueden expresar usando una representación basada en la lógica de primer orden (claúsulas de Horn), y los resultados del análisis se pueden interpretar como modelos conceptuales basados en retículos. ABSTRACT Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) is a widely accepted paradigm for development of flexible, distributed and adaptable software systems, in which service compositions perform more complex, higher-level, often cross-organizational tasks using atomic services or other service compositions. In such systems, Quality of Service (QoS) properties, such as the performance, cost, availability or security, are critical for the usability of services and their compositions in concrete applications. Analysis of these properties can become more precise and richer in information, if it employs program analysis techniques, such as the complexity and sharing analyses, which are able to simultaneously take into account both the control and the data structures, dependencies, and operations in a composition. Computation cost analysis for service composition can support predictive monitoring and proactive adaptation by automatically inferring computation cost using the upper and lower bound functions of value or size of input messages. These cost functions can be used for adaptation by selecting service candidates that minimize total cost of the composition, based on the actual data that is passed to them. The cost functions can also be combined with the empirically collected infrastructural parameters to produce QoS bounds functions of input data that can be used to predict potential or imminent Service Level Agreement (SLA) violations at the moment of invocation. In mission-critical applications, an effective and accurate continuous QoS prediction, based on continuations, can be achieved by constraint modeling of composition QoS based on its structure, known data at runtime, and (when available) the results of complexity analysis. This approach can be applied to service orchestrations with centralized flow control, and choreographies with multiple participants with complex stateful interactions. Sharing analysis can support adaptation actions, such as parallelization, fragmentation, and component selection, which are based on functional dependencies and information content of the composition messages, internal data, and activities, in presence of complex control constructs, such as loops, branches, and sub-workflows. Both the functional dependencies and the information content (described using user-defined attributes) can be expressed using a first-order logic (Horn clause) representation, and the analysis results can be interpreted as a lattice-based conceptual models.

Resilience in Cloud Computing for Critical Systems. Resilience, Dependability, Reliability in the use of Cloud Computing in Critical Systems in Public Organizations.

La informática se está convirtiendo en la quinta utilidad (gas, agua, luz, teléfono) en parte debido al impacto de Cloud Computing en las mayorías de las organizaciones. Este uso de informática es usada por cada vez más tipos de sistemas, incluidos Sistemas Críticos. Esto tiene un impacto en la complejidad internad y la fiabilidad de los sistemas de la organización y los que se ofrecen a los clientes. Este trabajo investiga el uso de Cloud Computing por sistemas críticos, centrándose en las dependencias y especialmente en la fiabilidad de estos sistemas. Se han presentado algunos ejemplos de su uso, y aunque su utilización en sistemas críticos no está extendido, se presenta cual puede llegar a ser su impacto. El objetivo de este trabajo es primero definir un modelo que pueda representar de una forma cuantitativa las interdependencias en fiabilidad y interdependencia para las organizaciones que utilicen estos sistemas, y aplicar este modelo en un sistema crítico del campo de sanidad y mostrar sus resultados. Los conceptos de “macro-dependability” y “micro-dependability” son introducidos en el modelo para la definición de interdependencia y para analizar la fiabilidad de sistemas que dependen de otros sistemas. ABSTRACT With the increasing utilization of Internet services and cloud computing by most organizations (both private and public), it is clear that computing is becoming the 5th utility (along with water, electricity, telephony and gas). These technologies are used for almost all types of systems, and the number is increasing, including Critical Infrastructure systems. Even if Critical Infrastructure systems appear not to rely directly on cloud services, there may be hidden inter-dependencies. This is true even for private cloud computing, which seems more secure and reliable. The critical systems can began in some cases with a clear and simple design, but evolved as described by Egan to "rafted" networks. Because they are usually controlled by one or few organizations, even when they are complex systems, their dependencies can be understood. The organization oversees and manages changes. These CI systems have been affected by the introduction of new ICT models like global communications, PCs and the Internet. Even virtualization took more time to be adopted by Critical systems, due to their strategic nature, but once that these technologies have been proven in other areas, at the end they are adopted as well, for different reasons such as costs. A new technology model is happening now based on some previous technologies (virtualization, distributing and utility computing, web and software services) that are offered in new ways and is called cloud computing. The organizations are migrating more services to the cloud; this will have impact in their internal complexity and in the reliability of the systems they are offering to the organization itself and their clients. Not always this added complexity and associated risks to their reliability are seen. As well, when two or more CI systems are interacting, the risks of one can affect the rest, sharing the risks. This work investigates the use of cloud computing by critical systems, and is focused in the dependencies and reliability of these systems. Some examples are presented together with the associated risks. A framework is introduced for analysing the dependability and resilience of a system that relies on cloud services and how to improve them. As part of the framework, the concepts of micro and macro dependability are introduced to explain the internal and external dependability on services supplied by an external cloud. A pharmacovigilance model system has been used for framework validation.

Unattended motion detection system based on the mammalian retina

Sensing systems in living bodies offer a large variety of possible different configurations and philosophies able to be emulated in artificial sensing systems. Motion detection is one of the areas where different animals adopt different solutions and, in most of the cases, these solutions reflect a very sophisticated form. One of them, the mammalian visual system, presents several advantages with respect to the artificial ones. The main objective of this paper is to present a system, based on this biological structure, able to detect motion, its sense and its characteristics. The configuration adopted responds to the internal structure of the mammalian retina, where just five types of cells arranged in five layers are able to differentiate a large number of characteristics of the image impinging onto it. Its main advantage is that the detection of these properties is based purely on its hardware. A simple unit, based in a previous optical logic cell employed in optical computing, is the basis for emulating the different behaviors of the biological neurons. No software is present and, in this way, no possible interference from outside affects to the final behavior. This type of structure is able to work, once the internal configuration is implemented, without any further attention. Different possibilities are present in the architecture to be presented: detection of motion, of its direction and intensity. Moreover, some other characteristics, as symmetry may be obtained.

Brain injury MRI simulator based on theoretical models of neuroanatomic damage

In order to improve the body of knowledge about brain injury impairment is essential to develop image database with different types of injuries. This paper proposes a new methodology to model three types of brain injury: stroke, tumor and traumatic brain injury; and implements a system to navigate among simulated MRI studies. These studies can be used on research studies, to validate new processing methods and as an educational tool, to show different types of brain injury and how they affect to neuroanatomic structures.

Workshop on engaging the human-computer interaction community with public policymaking internationally

There is an increasing interest in the intersection of human-computer interaction and public policy. This day-long workshop will examine successes and challenges related to public policy and human computer interaction, in order to provide a forum to create a baseline of examples and to start the process of writing a white paper on the topic.

Control and command systems concepts from early work on a Mars Rover

We recover and develop some robotic systems concepts (on the light of present systems tools) that were originated for an intended Mars Rover in the sixties of the last century at the Instrumentation Laboratory of MIT, where one of the authors was involved. The basic concepts came from the specifications for a type of generalized robot inspired in the structure of the vertebrate nervous systems, where the decision system was based in the structure and function of the Reticular Formation (RF). The vertebrate RF is supposed to commit the whole organism to one among various modes of behavior, so taking the decisions about the present overall task. That is, it is a kind of control and command system. In this concepts updating, the basic idea is that the RF comprises a set of computing units such that each computing module receives information only from a reduced part of the overall, little processed sensory inputs. Each computing unit is capable of both general diagnostics about overall input situations and of specialized diagnostics according to the values of a concrete subset of the input lines. Slave systems to this command and control computer, there are the sensors, the representations of external environment, structures for modeling and planning and finally, the effectors acting in the external world.

The University in the Cloud Computing.

With the advancement of Information and Communication Technology ICT which favors increasingly fast, easy, and accessible communication for all and which can reach large groups of people, there have been changes, in recent years in our society that have modified the way we interact, communicate and transmit information. Access to this, it is possible, not only through computers situated in a fixed location, but new mobile devices make it available, wherever the user happens to be located. Now, information "travels" with the user. These forms of communication, transmission and access to information, have also affected the way to conceive and manage business. To these new forms of business that the Internet has brought, is now added the concept of companies in the Cloud Computing ClC. The ClC technology is based on the supply and consumption of services on demand and pay per use, and it gives a 180 degree turn to the business management concept. Small and large businesses may use the latest developments in ICT, to manage their organizations without the need for expensive investments in them. This will enable enterprises to focus more specifically within the scope of their business, leaving the ICT control to the experts. We believe that education can also and should benefit from these new philosophies. ?Due to the global economic crisis in general and each country in particular, economic cutbacks have come to most universities. These are seen in the need to raise tuition rates, which makes increasingly fewer students have the opportunity to pursue higher education?. In this paper we propose using ClC technologies in universities and we make a dissertation on the advantages that it can provide to both: universities and students. For the universities, we expose two focuses, one: ?to reorganize university ICT structures with the ClC philosophy? and the other one, ?to extend the offer of the university education with education on demand?. Regarding the former we propose to use public or private Clouds, to reuse resources across the education community, to save costs on infrastructure investment, in upgrades and in maintenance of ICT, and paying only for what you use and with the ability to scale according to needs. Regarding the latter, we propose an educational model in the ClC, to increase the current university offerings, using educational units in the form of low-cost services and where students pay only for the units consumed on demand. For the students, they could study at any university in the world (virtually), from anywhere, without travel costs: money and time, and what is most important paying only for what they consume. We think that this proposal of education on demand may represent a great change in the current educational model, because strict registration deadlines disappear, and also the problem of economically disadvantaged students, who will not have to raise large amounts of money for an annual tuition. Also it will decrease the problem of loss of the money invested in an enrollment when the student dropout. In summary we think that this proposal is interesting for both, universities and students, we aim for "Higher education from anywhere, with access from any mobile device, at any time, without requiring large investments for students, and with reuse and optimization of resources by universities. Cost by consumption and consumption by service?. We argue for a Universal University "wisdom and knowledge accessible to all?

Development of a management system for virtual machines on private clouds

Cloud computing and, more particularly, private IaaS, is seen as a mature technol- ogy with a myriad solutions to choose from. However, this disparity of solutions and products has instilled in potential adopters the fear of vendor and data lock- in. Several competing and incompatible interfaces and management styles have increased even more these fears. On top of this, cloud users might want to work with several solutions at the same time, an integration that is difficult to achieve in practice. In this Master Thesis I propose a management architecture that tries to solve these problems; it provides a generalized control mechanism for several cloud infrastructures, and an interface that can meet the requirements of the users. This management architecture is designed in a modular way, and using a generic infor- mation model. I have validated the approach through the implementation of the components needed for this architecture to support a sample private IaaS solution: OpenStack.

A survey on service quality description

Quality of service (QoS) can be a critical element for achieving the business goals of a service provider, for the acceptance of a service by the user, or for guaranteeing service characteristics in a composition of services, where a service is defined as either a software or a software-support (i.e., infrastructural) service which is available on any type of network or electronic channel. The goal of this article is to compare the approaches to QoS description in the literature, where several models and metamodels are included. consider a large spectrum of models and metamodels to describe service quality, ranging from ontological approaches to define quality measures, metrics, and dimensions, to metamodels enabling the specification of quality-based service requirements and capabilities as well as of SLAs (Service-Level Agreements) and SLA templates for service provisioning. Our survey is performed by inspecting the characteristics of the available approaches to reveal which are the consolidated ones and which are the ones specific to given aspects and to analyze where the need for further research and investigation lies. The approaches here illustrated have been selected based on a systematic review of conference proceedings and journals spanning various research areas in computer science and engineering, including: distributed, information, and telecommunication systems, networks and security, and service-oriented and grid computing.

Floating-point exponentiation units for reconfigurable computing

The high performance and capacity of current FPGAs makes them suitable as acceleration co-processors. This article studies the implementation, for such accelerators, of the floating-point power function xy as defined by the C99 and IEEE 754-2008 standards, generalized here to arbitrary exponent and mantissa sizes. Last-bit accuracy at the smallest possible cost is obtained thanks to a careful study of the various subcomponents: a floating-point logarithm, a modified floating-point exponential, and a truncated floating-point multiplier. A parameterized architecture generator in the open-source FloPoCo project is presented in details and evaluated.