O objetivo do trabalho é a implementação de características de adaptabilidade ao VIC, software livre de videoconferência sobre multicast. O VIC é um software para vídeo utilizado pelos principais frameworks de videoconferência em uso no mundo. O trabalho é focado em cima do VIC para o Access Grid, desenvolvido no Argone National Laboratory. Videoconferência é uma aplicação que consome muitos recursos da rede e do processamento da máquina, devido à grande quantidade de informações com que trabalha e à velocidade com que estas informações devem ser processadas e transmitidas. Pelas próprias características intrínsecas de uma transmissão de vídeo, não são admitidos atrasos. O trabalho analisa as principais tecnologias e o estado da arte em videoconferência, tanto na parte de transmissão quanto na parte de codificação e decodificação de sinais. As principais ferramentas em uso são apresentadas com suas características próprias. Os dois principais enfoques de adaptabilidade para transmissão e recepção de vídeo são expostos. O trabalho propõe um modelo misto, baseado nestes dois enfoques. A partir daí é exposto o novo algoritmo criado e os resultados de alguns testes realizados. Até hoje, apenas uma tentativa foi feita de acrescentar características de adaptabilidade à condição da rede ao VIC, porém essa não se encontra em uso. O trabalho propõe um novo algoritmo de adaptabilidade utilizando características das duas principais tendências atualmente em pesquisa. / The goal of the work is to implement adaptability features to VIC, free software to deliver videoconferencing over multicast. VIC is a software to transmit video used by the main videoconferencing frameworks in use worldwide. The focus of the work is on VIC to Access Grid, developed at Argone National Laboratory. Videoconferencing is an application that uses too much resources of the network and processing power of the machine, due to the huge amount of information that it handles and due to the speed needed to process and transmit this information. For its own intrinsic properties, delays are not allowed in videoconferencing. The work analyses the main technologies and the state of the art in videoconferencing, both in transmission and in encoding and decoding of signals. The main tools in use are presented with their own characteristics. The two main approaches of adaptability for video transmission and reception are shown. The work proposes a new model, based on both approaches in a mixed way. The new algorithm created is shown together with the results of some tests made. Until today, only one try was made to add adaptability to the network conditions to VIC, but it is not in use. The work proposes a new adaptability algorithm using features of the two main trends in research today.

Submitted by Daniella Sodre (daniella.sodre@ufpe.br) on 2015-04-15T14:00:46Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) GriDoMol_dissertacao_final_definitiva.pdf: 3189365 bytes, checksum: 4e40c0bceaf848cd426c93d77d325502 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-15T14:00:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) GriDoMol_dissertacao_final_definitiva.pdf: 3189365 bytes, checksum: 4e40c0bceaf848cd426c93d77d325502 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-21 / FACEPE / A utilização de computadores no desenvolvimento de produtos ligados à inovação terapêutica tem tomado proporções significativas, particularmente na área de planejamento molecular baseado em métodos computacionais. Estima-se que o uso destas metodologias pode reduzir os custos e o tempo de desenvolvimento de um novo fármaco em até 50%. Isto ocorre porque muitas vezes o número de moléculas que precisam ser sintetizadas e testadas experimentalmente passa a ser drasticamente reduzido por conta da alta preditividade e confiabilidade dos métodos computacionais (in silico). O docking molecular determina se pode haver interação energética favorável entre duas moléculas (ligante e alvo biológico), no intuito de elucidar as razões moleculares responsáveis pela potência farmacológica destes fármacos em potencial. Ocorre que estes métodos podem apresentar, por vezes, uma alta demanda computacional quando o número de ligantes e alvos a serem testados é alto e quando se busca alta precisão nos resultados numéricos obtidos. Este trabalho apresenta a plataforma GriDoMol para execução de cálculos de docking molecular no ambiente distribuído através de um grid computacional. O programa GriDoMol pode ser usado tanto com o programa AutoDock quanto com o programa AutoDock Vina, para realizar os cálculos de docking. Através da interface intuitiva do GriDoMol é possível acompanhar o andamento com dados do conjunto de cálculos de docking e criar o arquivo Job Description File (JDF) contendo a lista de cálculos de docking que será realizado em paralelo no ambiente de grid computacional. Tanto no programa AutoDock quanto no AutoDock Vina, o tempo necessário para a realização de 500 cálculos de docking molecular foi reduzido em até 97% do tempo necessário quando comparado a não utilizar nenhuma estratégia de paralelização, ou de computação distribuída.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T16:00:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo6997_1.pdf: 3788091 bytes, checksum: cf9480da9819849e38359e4e9a2bb074 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O poder computacional atual das GPUs possibilita a execução de complexos algoritmos massivamente paralelos, como algoritmos de busca em estruturas de dados específicas para ray tracing em tempo real, comumente conhecidas como estruturas de aceleração. Esta dissertação descreve em detalhes o estudo e implementação de dezesseis diferentes algoritmos de travessia de estruturas de aceleração, utilizando o framework de CUDA, da NVIDIA. Este estudo comparativo teve o intuito de determinar as vantagens e desvantagens de cada técnica, em termos de performance, consumo de memória, grau de divergência em desvios e escalabilidade em múltiplas GPUs. Uma nova estrutura de aceleração, chamada Sparse Box Grid, também é proposta, além de dois novos algoritmos de busca, focando em melhoria de performance. Tais algoritmos são capazes de alcançar speedups de até 2.5x quando comparado com implementações recentes de travessias em GPU. Como consequência, é possível obter simulação em tempo real de cenas com milhões de primitivas para imagens com 1408x768 de resolução

Cette thèse a pour but d’étudier l’impact du retour d’information (feedback) vers les ménages sur leur capacité de maîtrise de leur consommation d’électricité et s’est appuyée sur une expérimentation menée sur le terrain, dans le cadre d’un projet intitulé TicElec, réalisé dans la commune de Biot, dans les Alpes-Maritimes (un département marqué par des contraintes d’approvisionnement en électricité, en périodes froides) et associant l’Université, les Autorités locales et un Bureau d’études. Notre problématique qui a porté sur l’impact de plusieurs types de feedback (inspirée par la typologie des feedback développée par Darby (2006a)) appliqués à trois groupes de consommateurs, sur une durée supérieure à six mois, a montré l’existence de différents comportements de consommation et de maîtrise de la demande d’électricité des ménages étudiés, plus ou moins marqués par le manque d’information sur leurs modes de consommation, c'est-à-dire le maillon faible des stratégies de maîtrise de l’énergie. Nous avons également montré que les résultats varient selon le type d’information transmis, la nature et la durée du feedback, mais que de manière générale, le feedback sur consommation (direct ou indirect) a été efficace pour la maîtrise de la demande d’électricité (par réduction et effacement en pointe), même si la réduction était plus grande chez les groupes à feedback direct, par action sur les comportements de restriction (Curtailment behavior), sans toutefois déclencher les comportements d’efficience (Efficiency behavior) et de maintenance (Maintenance behavior), compte tenu des coûts et des délais de leur mise en œuvre. / This thesis aims to study the impact of feedback to households on their ability to control their electricity consumption and was based on an experiment conducted in the field, as part of a project called TicElec (Technologies de l'Information pour une Consommation Electrique Responsable), produced in the town of Biot, in Alpes-Maritimes (a department marked by power supply constraints in cold periods) and associating University, local authorities and a consulting firm. Our problematic which focused on the impact of several types of feedback (inspired by the typology of feedback developed by Darby (2006a)) applied to three groups of consumers over a period greater than six months, showed the existence of different consumer behavior and control of the electricity demand of households studied, more or less marked by the lack of information about their consumption patterns, that is to say, the weak link in energy management strategies. We also have shown that the results depend on the type of transmitted information, the nature and duration of feedback, but in general, the feedback on consumption (direct or indirect) was effective in controlling the application for electricity (by reduction and erasing peak), although the reduction was greater in groups direct feedback by acting on the Curtailment behavior, without triggering Efficiency behavior and Maintenance behavior, given the costs and time of implementation.

The design of a parallel and distributed computing system is a very complicated task. It requires a detailed understanding of the design issues and of the theoretical and practical aspects of their solutions. Firstly, this thesis discusses in detail the major concepts and components required to make parallel and distributed computing a reality. A multithreaded and distributed framework capable of analysing the simulation data produced by a pedestrian simulation software was developed. Secondly, this thesis discusses the origins and fundamentals of Grid computing and the motivations for its use in High Energy Physics. Access to the data produced by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has to be provided for more than five thousand scientists all over the world. Users who run analysis jobs on the Grid do not necessarily have expertise in Grid computing. Simple, userfriendly and reliable monitoring of the analysis jobs is one of the key components of the operations of the distributed analysis; reliable monitoring is one of the crucial components of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid for providing the functionality and performance that is required by the LHC experiments. The CMS Dashboard Task Monitoring and the CMS Dashboard Job Summary monitoring applications were developed to serve the needs of the CMS community.

The promise of telemedicine is great as observed in developed countries. However, its adoption in developing countries has been very slow. The Kenyan government approved telemedicine (use of ICT to overcome geographical barriers and increase access to health care services) as a strategic approach of improving healthcare delivery especially in the marginalised areas of the country. However, the adoption of telemedicine is further hindered in developing countries by the fact that the cost of implementing telemedicine technology is deemed high and the resources needed are scarce especially in the public sector. Extant literature on healthcare technological innovation indicates that organisation collaboration can expedite the adoption of telemedicine especially in developing countries. Since it is highlighted that empirical evidence on how organisation collaboration can facilitate telemedicine deployment in developing countries is still lacking, this research aims to develop a model to examine the potential of various organisation factors in facilitating telemedicine deployment in developing countries. This study employed a conceptual research framework to examine organisation factors that may influence organisation collaboration in facilitating telemedicine deployment in developing countries. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 50 private and public hospitals located in Eastern Kenya. 177 valid questionnaires were received and analysed using SPSS software (version 20). The findings of this research revealed that Kenyan hospitals collaborate with other organisations mainly to lessen budget restrained suffered during technological innovation process. Further, it was revealed that organisation affiliation might enhance their ability to adopt telemedicine. Organisation affiliation was observed to significantly influence organisation resources, organisation’s innovation acceptance, organisation’s innovative capacities, organisation agility and collaborative innovation aspects. In addition, all the organisational model factors were supported and explained 46.5% of the variance in collaborative innovation internal outcomes and 53.2% of the variance in collaborative innovation external outcomes. However, personnel innovation acceptance made no significant effect on collaborative innovation outcomes.

Context. When dealing with large data sets and heavy calculations the common solution is clusters, supercomputers or Grids of these two. However, there are ways of gaining large computational power by utilizing the unused cycles of regular home or office computers, this are referred to as Desktop Grids. Objectives. In this study we review the current field of solutions for open source Desktop Grid computing capable of dealing with a heterogeneous set of clients and dynamic size of the Desktop Grid. We investigate current use, interest of use and priority of key attributes of Desktop Grids. Finally we want to show how time effective Desktop Grids are compared to execution on a single machine and in the process show effort needed to setup a Desktop Grid and start computing. The overall purpose of this study is to provide a path for industry organizations to take when taking the first step into Desktop Grid computing. Methods. We use a systematic review to collect information of existing open source Desktop Grid solutions. Studies are selected based on inclusion criterions and a quality assessment. A survey questioner is used to assess industry usage, interest and prioritization of attributes of Desktop Grids. We will conduct an experiment to show execution speedup as well as setup effort. Results. We found ten open source Desktop Grids fulfilling our requirements. The survey shows that Desktop Grids is used to a very little extent within industry while a majority of the participants state that there is an interest for Desktop Grids. As result of the experiment, we can say that we achieved very high speedup and that effort needed to setup a Desktop Grid is about 40 hours for one person with no prior experience to the selected Desktop Grid system. Conclusions. We conclude that industry organizations have a possible need for Desktop Grids but in order to be more successful, Desktop Grid developers must put more effort into areas as automated testing and code compilation.

Grid-connected inverters have wide application in the field of distributed generation and power quality. As the power level demanded by these applications increase, the design and performance evaluation of these converters become important. In the present work, a 50 kVA three-phase back-to-back connected inverter with output LCL filter is built to study design and performance evaluation aspects of grid-connected inverters. The first part of the work explores the split-capacitor resistive-inductive (SC-RL) passive damping scheme for the output LCL filter of a three-phase grid-connected inverter. The low losses in the SC-RL scheme makes it suitable for high power applications. The SCRL damped LCL filter is modelled using state space approach. Using this model, the power loss and damping are analysed. A method for component selection that minimizes the power loss in the damping resistors while keeping the system well damped is proposed. Analytical results show the losses to be in the range of 0.05-0.1% and the quality factor to be in the range of 2.0-2.5. These results are validated experimentally. In the second part of the work, a test method to evaluate the thermal performance of the semi-conductor devices of a three-phase grid-connected inverter is proposed. The method eliminates the need for high power sources, loads or any additional power converters for circulation of power. Only energy corresponding to the losses is consumed. The capability of the method to evaluate the thermal performance of the DC bus capacitors and the output filter components is also explored. The method can be used with different inverter configurations -three-wire or four-wire and for different PWM techniques. The method has been experimentally validated at a power level of 24kVA. In the third part of the work, the back-to-back connected inverter is programmed as a hardware grid simulator. The hardware grid simulator emulates the real-time grid and helps create grid disturbances often observed at the point of common coupling in an ac low voltage grid. A novel disturbance generation algorithm has been developed, analysed and implemented in digital controller using finite state machine model for control of the grid simulator. A wide range of disturbance conditions can be created using the developed algorithm. Experimental tests have been done on a linear purely resistive load, a non-linear diode-bridge load and a current-controlled inverter load to validate the programmed features of the grid simulator.

Robustness is a key issue for all the programs, especially safety critical ones. In the literature, Program Robustness is defined as “the degree to which a system or component can function correctly in the presence of invalid input or stressful environment” (IEEE 1990). Robustness measurement is the value that reflects the Robustness Degree of the program. In this thesis, a new Robustness measurement technique; the Robustness Grid, is introduced. The Robustness Grid measures the Robustness Degree for programs, C programs in this instance, using a relative scale. It allows programmers to find the program’s vulnerable points, repair them, and avoid similar mistakes in the future. The Robustness Grid is a table that contains Language rules, which is classified into categories with respect to the program’s function names, and calculates the robustness degree. The Motor Industry Software Reliability Association (MISRA) C language rules with the Clause Program Slicing technique will be the basis for the robustness measurement mechanism. In the Robustness Grid, for every MISRA rule, a score will be given to a function every time it satisfies or violates a rule. Furthermore, Clause program slicing will be used to weight every MISRA rule to illustrate its importance in the program. The Robustness Grid shows how much each part of the program is robust and effective, and assists developers to measure and evaluate the robustness degree for each part of a program. Overall, the Robustness Grid is a new technique that measures the robustness of C programs using MISRA C rules and Clause program slicing. The Robustness Grid shows the program robustness degree and the importance of each part of the program. An evaluation of the Robustness Grid is performed to show that it offers new measurements that were not provided before.

Gyllene snittet har sedan en mycket lång tid tillbaka använts som begrepp för att beskriva en proportion som är behaglig för det mänskliga ögat. Proportionen har dels använts för att formge byggnader och måla konstverk men används som flitigast i den grafiska branshen. Då främst gällande affisher och andra format av trycksaker där det är viktigt att läsaren känner att en harmoni existerar. Webbdesign är ett relativt nytt ämne och handlar om hur en webbsida formges, webbsidor har idag många olika uttryck och funktioner och nästan alla människor i Sverige vet vad en webbsida är och vad man använder den till. Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på hurvida användningen av gyllene snittet på webbsidor ändrar användarens upplevelse samt att kartlägga om gyllene snittet används på de tio mest besökta webbsidorna i Sverige. För att svara på syftet har semistrukturerade intervjuer gjorts för att samla in data. Dessa intervjuer har gått ut på att deltagaren fått se och jämföra bilder på webbsidor. En del av bilderna har varit med orginallayout och en del har varit med gyllene snittet applicerat. Deltagarna har fått titta på bilderna en och en men också samtidigt för att kunna jämföra. Studiens intervjuer har fokuserat på känslor kring bilderna, och hur betraktaren uppfattar det som hen sett framför sig.