A Stateful Approach to Generate Synthetic Events from Kernel Traces

We propose a generic synthetic event generator from kernel trace events. The proposed method makes use of patterns of system states and environment-independent semantic events rather than platform-specific raw events. This method can be applied to different kernel and user level trace formats. We use a state model to store intermediate states and events. This stateful method supports partial trace abstraction and enables users to seek and navigate through the trace events and to abstract out the desired part. Since it uses the current and previous values of the system states and has more knowledge of the underlying system execution, it can generate a wide range of synthetic events. One of the obvious applications of this method is the identification of system faults and problems that will appear later in this paper. We will discuss the architecture of the method, its implementation, and the performance results

Optical Properties for Thin Film of Coumarin 334 Organic Laser Dye doped with PVA Polymer and Al2O3 Nanoparticles

Background: In this work, the optical properties for thin film of Coumarin 334 organic laser dye doped with PVA polymer and AL2O3 nanoparticles are determined at different concentrations, dissolved in ethanol solvent. Methods: Solutions at concentration (10-4 M) from coumarin (334) dye  in ethanol solvent at Different concentrations from dye (1, 3, 5, and 7)  ×10-5 M  were  prepared. Results: The AFM measurements show that the  grain size, root mean  square and roughness belong to the surface of the thin films rises with thickness rise for thin films  .  It has also increased the absorbance due to the increase in concentration. Conclusion: By using Gaussian beam from CW pulsed laser at 457 nm, we used Z-scan to study the nonlinear optical properties. The nonlinearity of thin film highly excels the pure dye solutions

The Eyes and Ears of Engagement: Using RAs to Assess Resident Engagement

This article analyzes the effectiveness of an effort to assess the extent of student engagement at Fairfield University through the assistance of resident assistants (RAs) and the adaptation of a methodology used by the university’s schools of engineering and education. Asking RAs to participate in an assessment of their residents provides several clear benefits: the assessment rubric sets clear expectations in plain language; the rubric sets out clear expectations to the residents; and the assessment data appear to be a valid indicator of student engagement and allow the institution to identify students who may benefit from additional counseling or attention

Efficient cloud tracing: From very high level to very low level

With the increase of cloud infrastructure complexity, the origin of service deterioration is difficult to detect because issues may occur at the different layer of the system. We propose a multi-layer tracing approach to gather all the relevant information needed for a full workflow analysis. The idea is to collect trace events from all the cloud nodes to follow users' requests from the cloud interface to their execution on the hardware. Our approach involves tracing OpenStack's interfaces, the virtualization layer, and the host kernel space to perform analysis and show abnormal tasks and the main causes of latency or failures in the system. Experimental results about virtual machines live migration confirm that we are able to analyse services efficiency by locating platforms' weakest links

Realizing IT Value at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

How can senior IS executives successfully shepherd IT initiatives through complex organizations? This paper prescribes an integrated IT investment management process incorporating four recommended activities: *strategic planning, *quality function deployment, *activity analysis, and *responsibility assignment. The process, tools, methods, and organizational learning were drawn from two projects at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. The integrated process for IT investment management can help senior IS executives prioritize projects and align responsibility and accountability for IT initiatives that require complementary organizational changes to activities across the entire value chain to realize full benefits

Efficient methods for trace analysis parallelization

Tracing provides a low-impact, high-resolution way to observe the execution of a system. As the amount of parallelism in traced systems increases, so does the data generated by the trace. Most trace analysis tools work in a single thread, which hinders their performance as the scale of data increases. In this paper, we explore parallelization as an approach to speedup system trace analysis. We propose a solution which uses the inherent aspects of the CTF trace format to create balanced and parallelizable workloads. Our solution takes into account key factors of parallelization, such as good load balancing, low synchronization overhead and an efficient resolution of data dependencies. We also propose an algorithm to detect and resolve data dependencies during trace analysis, with minimal locking and synchronization. Using this approach, we implement three different trace analysis programs: event counting, CPU usage analysis and I/O usage analysis, to assess the scalability in terms of parallel efficiency. The parallel implementations achieve parallel efficiency above 56% with 32 cores, which translates to a speedup of 18 times the serial speed, when running the parallel trace analyses and using trace data stored on consumer-grade solid state storage devices. We also show the scalability and potential of our approach by measuring the effect of future improvements to trace decoding on parallel efficiency

Left atrial appendage thrombus is not uncommon in patients with acute atrial fibrillation and a recent embolic event: A transesophageal echocardiographics tudy

AbstractObjectives. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of left atrial thrombus in patients with acute atrial fibrillation.Background. It is commonly assumed but unproved that left atrial thrombus in patients with atrial fibrillation begins to form after the onset of atrial fibrillation and that it requires ≥3 days to form. Thus, patients with acute atrial fibrillation (i.e., <3 days) frequently undergo cardioversion without anticoagulation prophylaxis.Methods. Three hundred seventeen patients (250 men, 67 women; mean [±SD] age 64 ± 12 years) with acute (n = 143) or chronic (n = 174) atrial fibrillation were studied by two-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography.Results. Left atrial appendage thrombus was present in 20 patients (14%) with acute and 47 patients (27%, p < 0.01) with chronic atrial fibrillation. In patients with a recent embolic event, the frequency of left atrial appendage thrombus did not differ between those with acute (5 [21%] of 24) and those with chronic (12 [23%] of 52, p = NS) atrial fibrillation. Patients with acute versus chronic atrial fibrillation, respectively, did not differ (p = NS) in mean age (64 ± 13 vs. 65 ± 11 years), frequency of concentric left ventricular hypertrophy (32% vs. 26%), hypertension (32% vs. 41%), coronary artery disease (35% vs. 39%), congestive heart failure (43% vs. 48%), mitral stenosis (4% vs. 7%) or mitral valve replacement (1.4% vs. 6%). The minimally detectable difference in proportions between patients with acute and chronic atrial fibrillation based on a power of 0.80 and base proportion of 0.20 was 14%.Conclusions. Left atrial thrombus does occur in patients with acute atrial fibrillation <3 days in duration. The frequency of left atrial thrombus in patients with recent emboli is comparable between those with acute and chronic atrial fibrillation. These data suggest that patients with acute atrial fibrillation for <3 days require anticoagulation prophylaxis or evaluation by transesophageal echocardiography before cardioversion and should not be assumed to be free of left atrial thrombus