Leveraging Interactivity and MPI for Environmental Applications

This paper describes two different approaches to exploiting interactivity and MPI support available in the Interactive European Grid project.The first application is an air pollution simulation using Lagrangian trajectory model to simulate the spread of pollutant particles released into the atmosphere. The performance of the sequential implementation of the application was not satisfactory, therefore a parallelization was planned. The MPI programming model was used because of some previous experience with it and its support in the grid infrastructure to be used. Then the interactivity enabling the user to receive visualizations of simulation steps and to exercise control over the application running in the grid was added. The user interface for interacting with the application was implemented as a plug-in into the Migrating Desktop user interface client platform. The other application is an interactive workflow management system, which is a modification of a previously developed system for management of applications composed of web and grid services. It allows users to manage more complex jobs, composed of several program executions, in an interactive and comfortable manner. The system uses the interactive channel of the project to forward commands from a GUI to the on-site workflow manager, and to control the job during execution. This tool is able to visualize the inner workflow of the application. User has complete in-execution control over the job, can see its partial results, and can even alter it while it is running. This allows not only to accommodate the job workflow to the data it produces, extend or shorten it, but also to interactively debug and tune the job

Agent-Based Cloud Resource Management for Secure Cloud Infrastructures

The cloud offers clear benefits for computations as well as for storage for diverse application areas. Security concerns are by far the greatest barriers to the wider uptake of cloud computing, particularly for privacy-sensitive applications. The aim of this article is to propose an approach for establishing trust between users and providers of cloud infrastructures (IaaS model) based on certified trusted agents. Such approach would remove barriers that prevent security sensitive applications being moved to the cloud. The core technology encompasses a secure agent platform for providing the execution environment for agents and the secure attested software base which ensures the integrity of the host platform. In this article we describe the motivation, concept, design and initial implementation of these technologies

Email Analysis and Information Extraction for Enterprise Benefit

In spite of rapid advances in multimedia and interactive technologies, enterprise users prefer to battle with email spam and overload rather than lose the benefits of communicating, collaborating and solving business tasks over email. Many aspects of email have significantly improved over time, but its overall integration with the enterprise environment remained practically the same. In this paper we describe and evaluate a light-weight approach to enterprise email communication analysis and information extraction. We provide several use cases exploiting the extracted information, such as the enrichment of emails with relevant contextual information, social network extraction and its subsequent search, creation of semantic objects as well as the relationship between email analysis and information extraction on one hand, and email protocols and email servers on the other. The proposed approach was partially tested on several small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and seems to be promising for enterprise interoperability and collaboration in SMEs that depend on emails to accomplish their daily business tasks

Collaborative Environment for Grid-based Flood Prediction

This paper presents the design, architecture and main implementation features of the flood prediction application of the Task 1.2 of the EU IST CROSSGRID. The paper begins with the description of the virtual organization of hydrometeorological experts, users, data providers and customers supported by the application. Then the architecture of the application is described, followed by used simulation models and modules of the collaborative environment. The paper ends with vision of future development of the application

REDIRNET – Emergency Responder Data Interoperability Network

European states regularly experience a wide range of major crisis events, including not only environmental disasters such as major flooding, avalanches and earthquakes, but also man-made incidents involving large-scale transport-related accidents and terrorist-sponsored events. When responding to such incidents, Emergency service agencies and rescue organisations are working together more frequently to enhance their overall operational effectiveness, often requiring collaboration across state borders. The REDIRNET project benefits multi-agency joint-working by facilitating information exchange through the concept of broad-scale data interoperability

MULTIDISCIPLINARY EVALUATION OF THE FUNCTION AND IMPORTANCE OF THE SMALL WATER RESERVOIRS: THE BIODIVERSITY ASPECT

ABSTRACT Small water reservoirs are the very important landscape elements for effective water management. Although these man-made artificial biotopes change the proportion of lotic and lentic habitats and thus influence the species community structure, them secondarily offer a broader scale of microhabitats and, in general, can significantly influence the fauna's sustainable development. The evaluation of the function and importance of small water reservoirs in the biodiversity development on all levels is still unappreciated. In this case, preliminary results of the study on six small water reservoirs in West Slovakia are presented. The research has covered the major species groups (phytobentos, macrophytes, benthic and pelagic invertebrates, mollusks, fish and birds). As the first step, we are focusing on the description of the biodiversity patterns within the particular water reservoirs followed by the analyses of species links to the environmental variables using the multidimensional methods (neural networks, ordination methods and generalized linear methods) as the second step. The third step covers the compilation of obtained results and evaluation of the function and importance of the small water reservoirs. The major benefits of this study are as follows: (i) significant improvement of the knowledge on the biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems influenced by small water reservoirs, (ii) implementation of the innovative methods of the multidisciplinary ecological research, (iii) support for sustainable development of the biodiversity in artificial biotopes, development of the multidisciplinary network of researchers and experts from the applied sphere, (iv) effective application of outputs in the ecological management oriented to the sustainable development of the artificial aquatic ecosystems in combination with their primary use and implementation of the results gained at the international scale. L. Pekárik et al. -Multidisciplinary evaluation of small water reservoirs: the biodiversity aspect (105 ~ 112) 106 RÉSUMÉ: Evaluation multidisciplinaire de la fonction et de l'importance des étangs. L'aspect de la biodiversité. Les petits corps d'eau sont des éléments de paysage très importants pour la gestion efficace de l'eau. Même si ces biotopes artificiels changent les proportions des habitats lotiques et lentiques, elles offrent également une échelle plus large de microhabitats et, généralement, elles peuvent influencer de manière signifiante le développement durable de la faune. L'évaluation de la fonction et de l'importance des étangs dans le développement de la biodiversité à tous niveaux est encore sous appréciée. Dans ce cas, nous présentons les résultats préliminaires d'une étude effectuée sur 6 étangs anthropiques de l'Ouest de la Slovakie. La recherche a compris les groupes spécifiques majeurs (phytobentos, macrophytes, invertébrés benthiques et pélagiques, mollusques, poissons et oiseaux). En première étape, nous nous sommes concentrés sur la description des modèles de biodiversité de ces étangs suivie, en deuxième étape, par l'analyse des relations entre les espèces et les variables de l'environnement en utilisant des méthodes multidimensionnelles (des réseaux neuronaux, des méthodes d'ordination et des méthodes linéaires généralisées); la troisième étape comprend la compilation des résultats obtenus et l'évaluation de la fonction et de l'importance des étangs. Les bénéfices majeures de cette étude sont les suivantes: (i) amélioration significative de la connaissance de la biodiversité des écosystèmes aquatiques sous l'influence des étangs, (ii) l'implémentation des méthodes nouvelles dans la recherche écologique multidisciplinaire, (iii) un support pour le développement durable de la biodiversité dans les biotopes artificiels, le développement des réseaux multidisciplinaires des chercheurs et d'experts de la sphère appliquée, (iv) l'application effective des résultats dans la gestion écologique orientée vers le développement durable des écosystèmes aquatiques artificielles combinée à leur utilisation primaire et l'implémentation à l'échelle internationale des résultats obtenus. REZUMAT: Evaluare multidisciplinară a funcţiei şi importanţei iazurilor: aspectul biodiversităţii. Iazurile şi heleşteele sunt elemente peisagistice foarte importante pentru gestiunea eficientă a apei. Deşi aceste biotopuri artificiale modifică proporţiile habitatelor lotice şi lentice şi influenţează astfel structura comunităţilor biologice, ele oferă secundar o gamă mai largă de microhabitate, în general, pot influenţa de manieră semnificativă dezvoltarea durabilă a faunei. Evaluarea funcţiei şi importanţei iazurilor în dezvoltarea biodiversităţii la toate nivelurile este încă neglijată. În acest caz, sunt prezentate rezultatele preliminare ale unui studiu pe şase iazuri mici, din vestul Slovaciei. Cercetările au acoperit grupele majore de specii (fitobentos, macrofite, nevertebrate bentice şi pelagice, moluşte, peşti şi păsări). Într-o primă etapă, ne-am concentrat pe descrierea modelelor de biodiversitate, aplicate la iazurile studiate, apoi am efectuat analiza relaţiilor interspecifice cu ajutorul metodelor multidimensionale (reţele neuronale, metode de ordonare şi metode liniare generalizate) care au constituit a doua etapă a studiului. A treia etapă a acoperit compilarea datelor obţinute şi evaluarea funcţiei şi importanţei iazurilor. Beneficiile principale ale studiului sunt următoarele: (i) ameliorarea semnificativă a cunoaşterii biodiversităţii ecosistemelor acvatice sub influenţa iazurilor, (ii) implementarea de metode noi, inovatoare în cercetarea ecologică multidisciplinară, (iii) suport pentru dezvoltarea durabilă a biodiversităţii în biotopurile artificiale, dezvoltarea de reţele multidisciplinare de cercetători şi experţi din sfera aplicată, (iv) aplicarea efectivă a rezultatelor gestiunii ecologice, orientate spre dezvoltare durabilă a ecosistemelor acvatice artificiale, în paralel cu utilizarea lor primară şi implementarea rezultatelor obţinute la scară internaţională. Transylv. Rev. Syst. Ecol. Res. 8, (2009), "The Wetlands Diversity" 107 INTRODUCTION Small water reservoirs The artificial small water reservoirs were built on small streams in the first place for the purpose of their potential for irrigation and as flood protection. But also their contribution to the nature protection through the water self-purification is not negligible Small water reservoirs are very important landscape elements for effective water management. Although these man-made artificial ponds change the proportion of lotic and lenitic habitats and thus influence the species community structure, secondarily offer a broader scale of microhabitats and, in general, can significantly influence the fauna sustainable development. The evaluation of the function and also of the importance of the small water reservoirs on the biodiversity development on all levels is still unappreciated. Ertl The aim of the project SAV-FM-EHP-2008-03-04 is to identify the function of small water reservoirs in the system of aquatic biotopes of the Slovakia in respect to preservation and development of water biota diversity. The results should enable to model the development of the biodiversity for the purpose of reservoir management with the respect of ecological value of the reservoirs. Management should involve the primary purposes of reservoirs together with effective protection of the nature. This paper brings first results of limnology of selected six reservoirs of the west Slovakia

Seamless Communication for Crises Management

SECRICOM is proposed as a collaborative research project aiming at development of a reference security platform for EU crisis management operations with two essential ambitions: (A) Solve or mitigate problems of contemporary crisis communication infrastructures (Tetra, GSM, Citizen Band, IP) such as poor interoperability of specialized communication means, vulnerability against tapping and misuse, lack of possibilities to recover from failures, inability to use alternative data carrier and high deployment and operational costs. (B) Add new smart functions to existing services which will make the communication more effective and helpful for users. Smart functions will be provided by distributed IT systems based on an agents’ infrastructure. Achieving these two project ambitions will allow creating a pervasive and trusted communication infrastructure fulfilling requirements of crisis management users and ready for immediate application

Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing in Grid Applications

In this paper we describe a solution for collaboration and knowledge sharing based on text notes entered by a user. Theory, implementation and use of such system -- EMBET is described. The key idea is that a user enters notes in a particular situation/context, which can be detected by the computer. Such notes are later displayed to other or the same users in a similar situation /context. The context of user is detected from computerized tasks performed by user. In the K-Wf Grid, grid services are semi-automatically composed to workflows, which should solve a user problem. It was identified that even when services and input and output data are well semantically described, there is often no possibility to compose an appropriate workflow e.g. because of missing specific input data or fulfillment of a user and application specific requirements. To help user in workflow construction it is appropriate to display notes and suggestions entered by the same or different users. Thus experts can collaborate and fill up application specific knowledge base with useful knowledge, which is shown to users in the right time. The solution was used and evaluated in the Pellucid IST project and it is further developed in the K-Wf Grid IST project