Batch to the future: Analyzing timestamp accuracy of high-performance packet I/O engines

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. V. Moreno, P. M. S. Del Rio, J. Ramos, J. J. Garnica, and J. L. Garcia-Dorado, "Batch to the future: Analyzing timestamp accuracy of high-performance packet I/O engines", IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 16, no. 11, pp. 1888 - 1891, November 2012.Novel packet I/O engines allow capturing traffic at multi-10Gb/s using only-software and commodity-hardware systems. This is achieved thanks to the application of techniques such as batch processing. Nevertheless, this feature involves degradation in the timestamp accuracy, which may be relevant for monitoring purposes. We propose two different approaches to mitigate such effect: a simple algorithm to distribute inter-batch time among the packets composing a batch, and a driver modification to poll NIC buffers avoiding batch processing. Experimental results, using both synthetic and real traffic, show that our proposals allow capturing accurately timestamped traffic for monitoring purposes at multi-10Gb/s rates

3D reconstruction of weeds using depth cameras

El objetivo de este estudio fue optimizar el ángulo de posicionamiento del sensor Kinect para la reconstrucción de la estructura tridimensional de Xanthium strumarium L., Datura stramonium L. y Chenopodium album L., utilizando para ello algoritmos que permiten la captura y combinación de imágenes de profundidad y RGB. Se han comparado diferentes ángulos, fijando en cada uno de ellos el sensor Kinect de forma estática respecto de la planta objetivo. Los resultados han confirmado la correlación entre la biomasa de malas hierbas y el área estimada con el sensor. La estimación de la altura de las plantas también fue adecuada, con una media de 2cm de error dependiendo de la posición del sensor. Sin embargo, aunque el sensor ha mostrado su capacidad para la creación de modelos tridimensionales, el adecuado posicionamiento del sensor es fundamental para la correcta reconstrucción de plantas. La posición ideal del sensor debe ser elegida de acuerdo a la especie a medir y su estado fenológico. Estos resultados sugieren que Kinect es una herramienta útil para caracterizar de forma rápida y fiable las malas hierbas, con importantes ventajas sobre otros sensores debido a su bajo coste, bajo requerimiento energético y alta frecuencia de transmisión de imágenes.The objective of this study was to optimize the positioning angle of a Kinect sensor for reconstructing the three dimensional structure of weeds, using Kinect fusion algorithms to generate a 3D point cloud from the depth video stream. The sensor was mounted in different positions facing the plant in order to obtain depth (RGB-D) images from different angles. The results confirmed the correlation between ground truth (e. g. weed biomass) and the measured area with Kinect. In addition, plant height was accurately estimated with a few centimeters error. However, although the Kinect sensor has shown its ability for plant reconstruction, proper positioning of the sensor is critical for correct reconstruction of plants. The best position of the sensor must be chosen according to the species to be measured and their growth stage. These results suggest that Kinect is a promising tool for a rapid and reliable weed characterization, with several important advantages such as low cost, low power requirement and a high frame rate

Optimization of the Transesterification of Waste Cooking Oil with Mg-Al Hydrotalcite Using Response Surface Methodology

Nowadays, biodiesel has become a very promising alternative to fossil diesel fuel, regarding environmental concerns and fuel resource depletion. Biodiesel is usually produced through homogeneous or heterogeneous transesterification of different fatty raw materials. Although main research has been carried out with homogenous catalysts, heterogeneous catalysts may be of interest due to ease of recovery and recycling, as well as readiness for continuous processing. In this work, calcined Mg-Al hydrotalcite (HT) was used for the heterogeneous transesterification of waste cooking oil. Three reaction parameters, namely, reaction time, amount of catalyst, and methanol-to-oil molar ratio, were optimized by means of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) at constant temperature (65 C), using a Box-Behnken design. Optimal fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) content (86.23% w/w FAME/sample) was predicted by the model with an R-squared value of 98.45%, using 3.39 g of HT (8.5% w/w oil) and an 8:1 methanol-oil molar ratio, for a duration of 3.12 h. It was observed that calcination of HT, while avoiding the previous washing step, allowed the presence of chemical species that enhanced the effect of the catalyst. It can be concluded from this field trial that calcined and nonwashed Mg-Al hydrotalcite may be considered an effective basic catalyst for the production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil. Also, RSM proved to be a useful tool for predicting biodiesel yield

A quality of service assessment technique for large-scale management of multimedia flows

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75869-3_15Proceedings of 10th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia and Mobile Networks and Services, MMNS 2007, San José, USA, October 31 - November 2, 2007This paper presents the concept and preliminary experiments of a system for assessing on the Quality of Service of multimedia flows. The goal is to devise a mechanism that allows a service provider to take action whenever poor quality of service is detected in the delivery of multimedia flows. Such procedure is fully automatic since it is based on a goodness-of-fit test between source and destination packet interarrival histograms. If the null hypothesis of the test is accepted the flow is marked as in good standing, otherwise it is marked as anomalous and the network management system should take action in response. The proposed technique is analyzed in terms of hardware complexity and bandwidth consumption. The results show this technique is feasible and easily deployable at a minimum hardware and bandwidth expense.The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid to this work, under project e-Magerit (S-0505/TIC/000251)

Packet storage at multi-gigabit rates using off-the-shelf systems

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. V. Moreno et al., "Packet Storage at Multi-gigabit Rates Using Off-the-Shelf Systems," High Performance Computing and Communications, 2014 IEEE 6th Intl Symp on Cyberspace Safety and Security, 2014 IEEE 11th Intl Conf on Embedded Software and Syst (HPCC,CSS,ICESS), 2014 IEEE Intl Conf on, Paris, 2014, pp. 486-489. doi: 10.1109/HPCC.2014.81The use of closed solutions from most known vendors to carry out network-monitoring tasks has turned out to be a questionable option given their lack of flexibility and extensibility, which has typically been translated into higher costs. Consequently, we study whether high-performance monitoring tasks can be carried out using off-the-shelf systems, the alternative to these pitfalls from the research community, consisting in the combination of open-source software and commodity hardware. We focus on sniffing and storing network traffic as one of the major tasks in any monitoring architecture. Specifically, we first review the keys to sniff traffic at multi-gigabit rates, and then present an experimental evaluation of commodity hard drives. Finally, the lessons learned from such studies and the performed experiments have conducted us to the development of an open solution, namely HPCAP, which sniffs and stores multi-gigabit traffic using commodity hardware without packet losses in very demanding scenarios.This research was carried out with the support of the EU FP7 OpenLab project (Grant No. 287581), the Spanish National I+D Packtrack project (TEC2012-33754) and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid’s multidisciplinary project Implementación de Modelos Computacionales Masivamente Paralelos (CEMU-2013-14)

Androgen receptor gene polymorphism influence fat accumulation: a longitudinal study from adolescence to adult age.

To determine the influence of androgen receptor CAG and GGN repeat polymorphisms on fat mass and maximal fat oxidation (MFO), CAG and GGN repeat lengths were measured in 128 young boys, from which longitudinal data were obtained in 45 of them [mean?±?SD: 12.8?±?3.6 years old at recruitment, and 27.0?±?4.8 years old at adult age]. Subjects were grouped as CAG short (CAGS ) if harboring repeat lengths ?21, the rest as CAG long (CAGL ); and GGN short (GGNS ) if GGN repeat lengths ?23, or long if >?23 (GGNL ). CAGS and GGNS were associated with lower adiposity than CAGL or GGNL (P?<?0.05). There was an association between the logarithm of CAG repeats polymorphism and the changes of body mass (r?=?0.34, P?=?0.03). At adult age, CAGS men showed lower accumulation of total body and trunk fat mass, and lower resting metabolic rate (RMR) and MFO per kg of total lean mass compared with CAGL (P?<?0.05). GGNS men also showed lower percentage of body fat (P?<?0.05). In summary, androgen receptor CAG and GGN repeat polymorphisms are associated with RMR, MFO, fat mass, and its regional distribution in healthy male adolescents, influencing fat accumulation from adolescence to adult age

Traffic monitoring for assuring quality of advanced services in future internet

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21560-5_16Services based on packet switched networks are becoming dominant in telecommunication business and both operators and service providers must evolve in order to guarantee the required quality. Increasing bandwidth is no longer a viable solution because of the business erosion for network operators which cannot expect revenues due to the large investments required to satisfy new applications demand of bandwidth. This paper presents devices and a specific architecture of services monitoring platform that allows network operators and service providers to analyze the perceived quality of service and check their service level agreements. Thus, a cost-effective service management, based on direct IP traffic measuring, can be supported on integrated monitoring systems to provide network-centric mechanisms for differentiated quality of service, security and other advanced services.This work has been partially developed in the framework of the Celtic and EUREKA initiative IPNQSIS (IP Network Monitoring for Quality of Service Intelligent Support)

2D copper-imidazolate framework without thermal treatment as an efficient ORR electrocatalyst for Zn–air batteries

To face unmet energy demands, the search for more stable, low-cost, and scalable electrocatalyst materials is imperative. Within this context, single-atom catalysts (SACs) have drawn considerable attention due to their maximum atom utilization. With this idea in mind, we have synthesized a new ultrathin and water-stable 2D Cu-based metal-organic framework (2DCIFs), which presents a notable electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media without the need of calcination, which makes the difference when compared to most MOF-based electrocatalysts. The designed MOF-based SAC consists of single-atom sites (isolated and accessible Cu) coordinated to imidazole carboxylic ligands, giving rise to Cu-N4O actives sites confined into a 2D-nanostructured network. This unique structure, along with the ultrathin nature of nanosheets that favors mass transport and electrical conductivity, and the high chemical stability of these 2DCIFs are the key features of the excellent ORR performance, which occurs by a direct four-electron transfer pathway, an onset potential of 0.86 V vs RHE and a maximum current density of 6.4 mA·cm-2. These good catalytic properties of 2DCIFs have allowed their use as efficient air electrodes in alkaline flooded and all-solid-state Zn-air batteries. In the former case, 2DCIFsbased air electrodes presented a specific power density of 91.2 kW·cm-2·kg-1 and a specific capacity of 296.2 A·h·g-1, significantly exceeding the specific capacity values reported previously for other Cu-based catalysts. Besides, the specific capacity increased to 389.1 A·h·g-1 when 2DCIFs were tested in an all-solid-state Zn-air battery

Mechanochemically Synthetized PAN-Based Co-N-Doped Carbon Materials as Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

We report a new class of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based Co-N-doped carbon materials that can act as suitable catalyst for oxygen evolution reactions (OER). Different Co loadings were mechanochemically added into post-consumed PAN fibers. Subsequently, the samples were treated at 300 °C under air (PAN-A) or nitrogen (PAN-N) atmosphere to promote simultaneously the Co3O4 species and PAN cyclization. The resulting electrocatalysts were fully characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission (TEM) and scanning electron (SEM) microscopies, as well as nitrogen porosimetry. The catalytic performance of the Co-N-doped carbon nanomaterials were tested for OER in alkaline environments. Cobalt-doped PAN-A samples showed worse OER electrocatalytic performance than their homologous PAN-N ones. The PAN-N/3% Co catalyst exhibited the lowest OER overpotential (460 mV) among all the Co-N-doped carbon nanocomposites, reaching 10 mA/cm2. This work provides in-depth insights on the electrocatalytic performance of metal-doped carbon nanomaterials for OER

Heterogeneous, distributed mixed reality Applications. A concept

This poster formulates the concept of heterogeneous distributed mixed reality (HDMR) applications in order to state some interesting research questions in this domain. HDMR applications give synchronous access to shared virtual worlds, from diverse mixed reality (MR) hardware, and at similar levels of functionality. We show the relationship between HDMR and previous concepts, state challenges in their development, and illustrate this concept and its challenges with an example