An optimized cost-based data allocation model for heterogeneous distributed computing systems

Continuous attempts have been made to improve the flexibility and effectiveness of distributed computing systems. Extensive effort in the fields of connectivity technologies, network programs, high processing components, and storage helps to improvise results. However, concerns such as slowness in response, long execution time, and long completion time have been identified as stumbling blocks that hinder performance and require additional attention. These defects increased the total system cost and made the data allocation procedure for a geographically dispersed setup difficult. The load-based architectural model has been strengthened to improve data allocation performance. To do this, an abstract job model is employed, and a data query file containing input data is processed on a directed acyclic graph. The jobs are executed on the processing engine with the lowest execution cost, and the system's total cost is calculated. The total cost is computed by summing the costs of communication, computation, and network. The total cost of the system will be reduced using a Swarm intelligence algorithm. In heterogeneous distributed computing systems, the suggested approach attempts to reduce the system's total cost and improve data distribution. According to simulation results, the technique efficiently lowers total system cost and optimizes partitioned data allocation

Wavelet Based Resolution Enhancement for Low Resolution Satellite Images

International audienceSatellite images play a major role in the analysis of land cover, topographic analysis, geosciences etc. There has always existed a tradeoff between the image resolution and the image cost. In this paper, a modified discrete wavelet transform and interpolation based technique is proposed for enhancing the resolution of satellite images having low resolution in such a way that a highly resolved satellite image can be obtained without losing any image information. The advent of DWT has given a major impetus to many techniques based on achieving super resolution starting with a single low resolution image. In the proposed method, DWT is employed on the input satellite image to decompose it into sub-bands then the high frequency sub- bands and the input low resolution satellite image have been interpolated to obtain four interpolated images which are later combined after minor alterations to the interpolated input image using IDWT. The quantitative peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and classification results show that the resolution has been enhanced to a good scale without losing any information content present in the satellite image

Mars 2020: A Step Closer to the Red Planet

This research paper primarily focuses on the NASA Mars 2020 mission, but will also revisit and discuss past rover missions. As the Mars 2020 mission is ongoing, some information will be updated accordingly. For decades, humans have dreamed of the colonization of Mars for many reasons, such as some similarities shared by Earth and Mars or the close proximity to our planet. In fact, dozens of films, books, and articles have been written, especially in the past 2 decades, about the possibility. As technology advances, we develop newer equipment to hopefully make this possibility into a reality. Of course, placing a moving robotic vehicle on a satellite for research purposes is nothing new and we have done so in the past. However, it is clear that we have come a long way from the first rover we’ve placed on Mars, the Sojourner in 1997. As for the 2020 mission, the main components would include the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity Mars helicopter. The main objective of the Perseverance is to examine any possible traces of life or the possibility of life - with traces of past microbial life. It would also collect various samples that may prove helpful for future research if brought back to Earth. Compared to the Curiosity rover and its mission, there are many shared similarities, and the Perseverance (and its mission) could be said to be a “continuation” or “extension” of the Curiosity mission. For the Ingenuity, the task is relatively simple - to test the possibility of flight on another planet. Earth’s gravitational pull differs from Mars’, along with many other atmospheric differences, so if the flight of the Ingenuity proves to be successful, it could pave the way for future “travels” on Mars

NASA MAA (MUREP AEROSPACE ACADEMY) STEM PROJECT AT YORK COLLEGE: ENSURING FUTURE STEM PIPELINE

Our ongoing K1-12 NASA-supported STEM activities has served over 5000 children since 2015, largely from groups that are undeserved and underrepresented in the sciences. These STEM activities have been successfully delivered for several years and include earth science, meteorite geology, rocketry, aerodynamics, star gazing, EV3 Mindstorm robotics, basic coding exercises, wind tunnel, 3D-printing, etc., conducted largely through our present MAA (MUREP Aerospace Academy) Project. Corporate funding from the Con Edison and National Grid ensures additional STEM dissemination to the students during the summer operation. Significant positive component of the MAA program is the availability and willingness of the former student participants (many of whom are completing STEM majors in college) to extend their helping hands to assist teachers and guide students to fulfill assigned tasks and share their rich experience to reinforce the value of STEM learning. In a way, they validate students’ participation and promote meaningful dialog with their parents, mostly first generation Americans, often with English as a second language, and lacking knowledge of the importance of the STEM disciplines and careers built around it. Recent involvement of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Explorer’s Program, a vigorous initiative undertaken by the CUNY to bring thousands of middle school students to the various CUNY campuses, including York College, opened a formidable partnership building opportunity for the MAA to tap into the future pipeline by engaging visiting students with our STEM facilities and educating these young and curious minds about the future STEM potential both in selecting exciting academic and career options. STEM outreach delivered through hands-on, team work, in an experiential and critical thinking environment is becoming a catalyst for motivating numerous students towards earth science and relevant NASA content. This way, MAA Program is creating a STEM conscious young student body and providing a strategic recruitment tool for various undergraduate STEM disciplines. Early involvement of middle school students in STEM activities can be deemed as a powerful and viable mechanism to overcome an apparent shortage of STEM workforce representing minorities, women and financially disadvantaged groups

A novel approach for optimal weight factor of DT-CWT coefficients for land cover classification using MODIS data.

International audiencePresently, there is a need to explore the possibility to maximize the use of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data as it has very good spectral (36 bands) and temporal resolution whereas its spatial resolution is moderate i.e. 250m, 500m, and 1km. Because of its moderate spatial resolution, its application for land cover classification is limited. Therefore, in this paper, an attempt has been made to enhance its spatial resolution and utilize the information contained in the different bands together to achieve good land cover classification accuracy, so that, in future, MODIS data can be used more effectively. For resolution enhancement, modified dual tree complex wavelet transform (DT-CWT) has been employed, where DT-CWT has been modified by critically analyzing the effect of weight factor of the DT-CWT coefficients on land cover classification. For this purpose, image statistics parameter like Mean of the image has also been considered. The proposed technique has been applied on the six bands of MODIS data which have spatial resolution of 500m. It is observed that weight factor of the high-frequency sub-bands is quite sensitive for computation of classification accuracy. Index Terms— DT-CWT, Resolution enhancement, wavelets, weights, MODIS 1.INTRODUCTION Satellite images are being used in various applications such as geoscience studies, astronomy and geographical information systems where their resolution plays a critical role but on the other hand, directly obtaining a high resolution data is an another herculean task because of high cost of sensor. Land cover classification from satellite data is a central topic in satellite imaging applications. Therefore, it becomes a necessity to develop and utilize a reliable resolution enhancement technique to obtain accurate information as much as possible as per application from the freely available moderate resolution satellite data. In this regard, many image resolution enhancement techniques have been developed which are interpolations (nearest neighbor, bilinear and bicubic) and wavelets (DWT, SWT, WZP etc.) based. Interpolation techniques [1] have been widely used for resolution enhancement but it results in loss of edges (i.e., high frequency components) of an image. Nowadays, resolution enhancement is being carried out in the wavelet domain. There are many wavelet transforms which have acquired the place. Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) [2] has also been widely used in order to preserve the high-frequency components of the image but its disadvantage is that it ends up with some ringing artifacts into the image since it is not found to be shift-invariant because of decimations and suppression of wavelet coefficients exploited by DWT. It basically suffers from four shortcomings i.e., oscillations, shift variance, aliasing and lack of directionality which can lead to some artifacts in the image and difficulties in signal modeling. Hence, the DWT has somewhat disappointed the researchers for satellite images. Therefore, in order to alleviate all these drawbacks of DWT [2,3], a new kind of wavelet was introduced by Kingsbury which is known as DT-CWT (Dual tree complex wavelet transform) [1,3]. It possesses shift-invariant property and has the capability of improving directional resolution (because of good directional sensitivity) as compared to that of the decimated DWT. That's why, DT-CWT has been employed in this paper for resolution enhancement of moderate resolution satellite images. It is foremost to discover the possibility of maximizing the use of freely available satellite data like MODIS. It consists of several bands in which different information is present, but has certain limitations as well like low spatial resolution i.e. 500m which is a major obstacle in obtaining that information accurately. Many researchers have worked on resolution enhancement techniques for visualization enhancement whereas in this paper, main motive is to enhance the land cover classification accuracy which is not reported much for satellite images like MODIS yet. Variance minimization [4] has also been explored by several researchers for weights optimization but it is somewhat 4528 978-1-5090-3332-4/16/$31.0

Deep Rooting In-Situ Expansion of mtDNA Haplogroup R8 in South Asia

The phylogeny of the indigenous Indian-specific mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups have been determined and refined in previous reports. Similar to mtDNA superhaplogroups M and N, a profusion of reports are also available for superhaplogroup R. However, there is a dearth of information on South Asian subhaplogroups in particular, including R8. Therefore, we ought to access the genealogy and pre-historic expansion of haplogroup R8 which is considered one of the autochthonous lineages of South Asia.Upon screening the mtDNA of 5,836 individuals belonging to 104 distinct ethnic populations of the Indian subcontinent, we found 54 individuals with the HVS-I motif that defines the R8 haplogroup. Complete mtDNA sequencing of these 54 individuals revealed two deep-rooted subclades: R8a and R8b. Furthermore, these subclades split into several fine subclades. An isofrequency contour map detected the highest frequency of R8 in the state of Orissa. Spearman's rank correlation analysis suggests significant correlation of R8 occurrence with geography.The coalescent age of newly-characterized subclades of R8, R8a (15.4+/-7.2 Kya) and R8b (25.7+/-10.2 Kya) indicates that the initial maternal colonization of this haplogroup occurred during the middle and upper Paleolithic period, roughly around 40 to 45 Kya. These results signify that the southern part of Orissa currently inhabited by Munda speakers is likely the origin of these autochthonous maternal deep-rooted haplogroups. Our high-resolution study on the genesis of R8 haplogroup provides ample evidence of its deep-rooted ancestry among the Orissa (Austro-Asiatic) tribes

NetPath: a public resource of curated signal transduction pathways

NetPath, a novel community resource of curated human signaling pathways is presented and its utility demonstrated using immune signaling data

CHSI costing study-Challenges and solutions for cost data collection in private hospitals in India

INTRODUCTION: Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) has enabled the Government of India to become a strategic purchaser of health care services from private providers. To generate base cost evidence for evidence-based policymaking the Costing of Health Services in India (CHSI) study was commissioned in 2018 for the price setting of health benefit packages. This paper reports the findings of a process evaluation of the cost data collection in the private hospitals. METHODS: The process evaluation of health system costing in private hospitals was an exploratory survey with mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative). We used three approaches-an online survey using a semi-structured questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and a review of monitoring data. The process of data collection was assessed in terms of time taken for different aspects, resources used, level and nature of difficulty encountered, challenges and solutions. RESULTS: The mean time taken for data collection in a private hospital was 9.31 (± 1.0) person months including time for obtaining permissions, actual data collection and entry, and addressing queries for data completeness and quality. The longest time was taken to collect data on human resources (30%), while it took the least time for collecting information on building and space (5%). On a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) difficulty levels, the data on human resources was the most difficult to collect. This included data on salaries (8), time allocation (5.5) and leaves (5). DISCUSSION: Cost data from private hospitals is crucial for mixed health systems. Developing formal mechanisms of cost accounting data and data sharing as pre-requisites for empanelment under a national insurance scheme can significantly ease the process of cost data collection

A Fluorescent Glycolipid-Binding Peptide Probe Traces Cholesterol Dependent Microdomain-Derived Trafficking Pathways

10.1371/journal.pone.0002933PLoS ONE38

Does corporate reputation matter? Role of social media in consumer intention to purchase innovative food product

The exponential growth of the corporate reputation in food industry has resulted in innovations in every link of its supply chain. There have been studies that have characterized innovation in various industries from the perspective of technology, but far fewer in the area of corporate reputation, consumer perception, and intention towards innovations in food products. This research analyses the innovations in the food industry from the perspective of the consumer and provides a conceptual framework of food innovation stages. The study also investigates the relationship between corporate reputation and intention towards food innovation along with the other components of TPB model with an extension of social media engagement. The results from India and US samples confirm that social media engagement have a significant role to play in creating intention to purchase innovative food products. The study compares the US and Indian samples and identifies differences in subjective norms and perceived behavioural control