Engineering 3D Multi-Branched Nanostructures for Ultra- Sensing Applications

The fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures with sub-10 nm gaps supporting extremely large electric field enhancement (hot-spot) has attained great interest over the past years, especially in ultra-sensing applications. The “hot-spot” concept has been successfully implemented in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) through the extensive exploitation of localized surface plasmon resonances. However, the detection of analyte molecules at ultra-low concentrations, i.e., down to the single/few molecule level, still remains an open challenge due to the poor localization of analyte molecules onto the hot-spot region. On the other hand, three-dimensional nanostructures with multiple branches have been recently introduced, demonstrating breakthrough performances in hot-spot-mediated ultra-sensitive detection. Multi-branched nanostructures support high hot-spot densities with large electromagnetic (EM) fields at the interparticle separations and sharp edges, and exhibit excellent uniformity and morphological homogeneity, thus allowing for unprecedented reproducibility in the SERS signals. 3D multi-branched nanostructures with various configurations are engineered for high hot-spot density SERS substrates, showing an enhancement factor of 1011 with a low detection limit of 1 fM. In this view, multi-branched nanostructures assume enormous importance in analyte detection at ultra-low concentrations, where the superior hot-spot density can promote the identification of probe molecules with increased contrast and spatial resolution

Capacity Planning of Web Servers using Timed Hierarchical Coloured

This paper presents the main results of a research project conducted in cooperation between the CPN group and Hewlett-Packard Corporation on capacity planning and performance analysis of distributed computing environments. We present a general framework for modelling distributed computing environments for capacity planning by means of Timed Hierarchical Coloured Petri Nets. For validation of the proposed framework we build a Coloured Petri Net model of a HTTP web server and compare the performance results obtained by simulation with the performance measured in a corresponding physical environment. We demonstrate that the performance results obtained by simulation are close to those of the physical web server

Capacity Planning of Web Servers using Timed Hierarchical Coloured Petri Nets

This paper presents the main results of a research project conducted in cooperation between the CPN group and Hewlett-Packard Corporation on capacity planning and performance analysis of distributed computing environments. We present a general framework for modelling distributed computing environments for capacity planning by means of Timed Hierarchical Coloured Petri Nets. For validation of the proposed framework we build a Coloured Petri Net model of a HTTP web server and compare the performance results obtained by simulation with the performance measured in a corresponding physical environment. We demonstrate that the performance results obtained by simulation are close to those of the physical web server. Keywords: Timed Hierarchical Coloured Petri Nets, Web Servers, Capacity Planning, Performance Evaluation, Performance Analysis, Simulation. 1 Introduction The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) have experienced exponential growth since their inception. Popular web sites recei..