Context Aware Adaptable Applications - A global approach

Actual applications (mostly component based) requirements cannot be expressed without a ubiquitous and mobile part for end-users as well as for M2M applications (Machine to Machine). Such an evolution implies context management in order to evaluate the consequences of the mobility and corresponding mechanisms to adapt or to be adapted to the new environment. Applications are then qualified as context aware applications. This first part of this paper presents an overview of context and its management by application adaptation. This part starts by a definition and proposes a model for the context. It also presents various techniques to adapt applications to the context: from self-adaptation to supervised approached. The second part is an overview of architectures for adaptable applications. It focuses on platforms based solutions and shows information flows between application, platform and context. Finally it makes a synthesis proposition with a platform for adaptable context-aware applications called Kalimucho. Then we present implementations tools for software components and a dataflow models in order to implement the Kalimucho platform

A model relating transpiration for Japanese cedar and cypress plantations with stand structure

Previous studies have revealed that changes in forest structure due to management (e.g., thinning, aging, and clearcutting) could affect the forest water balance. However, there are unexplained variability in changes in the annual water balance with changing structure among different sites. This is the case even when analyzing data for specific species/regions. For a more advanced and process-based understanding of changes in the water balance with changing forest structure, we examined transpiration (E) observed using the sap-flux method for 14 Japanese cedar and cypress plantations with various structure (e.g., stem density and diameter) in Japan and surrounding areas and developed a model relating E with structural parameters. We expressed E using the simplified Penman–Monteith equation and modeled canopy conductance (G[c]) as a product of reference G[c] (G[cref]) when vapor pressure deficit is 1.0 kPa and functions expressing the responses of G[c] to meteorological factors. We determined G[cref] and parameters of the functions for the sites separately. E observed for the 14 sites was not reproduced well by the model when using mean values of G[cref] and the parameters among the sites. However, E observed for the sites was reproduced well when using G[cref] determined for each site and mean values of the parameters of the functions among the sites, similar to the case when using G[cref] and the parameters of the functions determined for each site. These results suggest that considering variations in G[cref] among the sites was important to reproduce variations in E, but considering variations in the parameters of the functions was not. Our analysis revealed that G[cref] linearly related with the sapwood area on a stand scale (A) and that Alinearly related with stem density (N) and powers of the mean stem diameter (d[m]). Thus, we proposed a model relating E with A (or N and d[m]), where G[cref] was calculated from A (or N and d[m]) and the parameters of the functions were assumed to be the mean values among the sites. This model estimates changes in Ewith changing structure from commonly available data (N and d[m]), and therefore helps improve our understanding of the underlying processes of the changes in the water balance for Japanese cedar and cypress plantations

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements