Accessing Big Data in the Cloud Using Mobile Devices

The amount of data acquired, stored, and processed annually over the Internet has exceeded the processing capabilities of modern computer systems, including supercomputers with multiple-Petaflop processing power, giving rise to the term Big Data. Continuous research efforts to implement systems to cope with this insurmountable amount of data are underway. The authors introduce the ongoing research in three different facets: 1) in the Acquisition front, they introduce a concept that has come to the forefront in the past few years: Internet-of-Things (IoT), which will be one of the major sources for Big Data generation in the following decades. The authors provide a brief survey of IoT to understand the concept and the ongoing research in this field. 2) In the Cloud Storage and Processing front, they provide a survey of techniques to efficiently store the acquired Big Data in the cloud, index it, and get it ready for processing. While IoT relates primarily to sensor nodes and thin devices, the authors study this storage and processing aspect of Big Data within the framework of Cloud Computing. 3) In the Mobile Access front, they perform a survey of existing infrastructures to access the Big Data efficiently via mobile devices. This survey also includes intermediate devices, such as a Cloudlet, to accelerate the Big Data collection from IoT and access to Big Data for applications that require response times that are close to real-time.

Oculomotor task switching: alternating from a nonstandard to a standard response yields the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost

The completion of an antisaccade (i.e., a nonstandard task) lengthens the reaction time (RT) of a subsequent prosaccade: a behavioral phenomenon termed the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost. One explanation for the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost is suppressing a stimulus-driven prosaccade during the preceding antisaccade trial engenders a residual inhibition of the oculomotor networks that support prosaccade planning (i.e., the oculomotor inhibition hypothesis). Alternatively, the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost may reflect the persistent activation of the antisaccade's nonstandard task rules (i.e., task set), which delays the planning of the next prosaccade (i.e., task-set inertia hypothesis). To determine which hypothesis provides the most parsimonious account for the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost, participants alternated between pro- and antisaccades wherein task instructions (i.e., pro- and antisaccade) were provided before (i.e., classic cuing) or concurrent (i.e., delayed cuing) with response cuing. Importantly, pro- and antisaccades elicited via the delayed cuing condition required the suppression of a stimulus-driven prosaccade at response cuing (i.e., response suppression) to discern the appropriate to-be-performed task. Results showed that classic and delayed antisaccades, but not delayed prosaccades, lengthened the RT of subsequent prosaccades. That delayed prosaccades, which require response suppression for their successful execution, did not lengthen the RT of subsequent prosaccades indicates that the oculomotor inhibition hypothesis does not account for the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost. Instead, the current findings are in line with the assertion that the task set associated with a nonstandard antisaccade persists inertially and delays the planning of a subsequent prosaccade (i.e., task-set inertia hypothesis).

Accessing Big Data in the Cloud Using Mobile Devices

The amount of data acquired, stored, and processed annually over the Internet has exceeded the processing capabilities of modern computer systems, including supercomputers with multiple-Petaflop processing power, giving rise to the term Big Data. Continuous research efforts to implement systems to cope with this insurmountable amount of data are underway. The authors introduce the ongoing research in three different facets: 1) in the Acquisition front, they introduce a concept that has come to the forefront in the past few years: Internet-of-Things (IoT), which will be one of the major sources for Big Data generation in the following decades. The authors provide a brief survey of IoT to understand the concept and the ongoing research in this field. 2) In the Cloud Storage and Processing front, they provide a survey of techniques to efficiently store the acquired Big Data in the cloud, index it, and get it ready for processing. While IoT relates primarily to sensor nodes and thin devices, the authors study this storage and processing aspect of Big Data within the framework of Cloud Computing. 3) In the Mobile Access front, they perform a survey of existing infrastructures to access the Big Data efficiently via mobile devices. This survey also includes intermediate devices, such as a Cloudlet, to accelerate the Big Data collection from IoT and access to Big Data for applications that require response times that are close to real-time.

Investigation into Central-Difference and Newmark’s Beta Methods in Measuring Dynamic Responses

Studies in the structural systems include two main approaches, design and analysis, which require response evaluation of structures to the external loads including live and dead loads. Structures behave statically and dynamically for static and dynamic loads, respectively. One of the most important dynamic loads acting on a structure is earthquake force. In order to find responses of structures subjected to earthquake, several schemes of direct integration can be used. This study deals with two methods of calculating dynamic responses of a single-degree of freedom oscillator, i.e., central difference method (CDM) and Newmarks beta method (NBM), using recorded ground acceleration for 60seconds. The maximum relative acceleration is obtained to determine maximum relative displacement by which estimation of quality and quantity of failure occurred to a structure for a given earthquake is provided. Firstly both CDM and NBM are discussed. Second, for a specific damping ratio dynamic responses are evaluated for periods of range in between 0.1sec to 1.5sec to evaluate the effects of period on responses of system. Third, the effects of damping on dynamic responses of SDOF system are evaluated by considering different damping coefficients from ζ=0 to 0.5. The results are compared and discussed to investigate the range of periods and damping factors where methods can provide a better estimation of responses.

HARMONIZING REQUIREMENTS FOR OILS, NOXIOUS LIQUID SUBSTANCES, AND HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES IN SPILL PREPAREDNESS REGULATIONS1

ABSTRACT The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) enforces regulations for vessel response plans and marine transportation-related facility response plans for oil. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces similar regulations for response plans for non-transportation-related facilities. Proposed USCG rules would require response plans for hazardous substances designated under the authority of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Other USCG regulations implement provisions of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, known as MARPOL 73/78. Annex I of MARPOL 73/78 addresses petroleum pollution, while Annex II identifies and addresses Noxious Liquid Substances (NLSs). The Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2004 gives the USCG authority to require response plans for NLSs under the CWA. There is some overlap, however, in the substances that are listed as NLSs and those that are categorized as oils or designated as CWA hazardous substances. Adding NLSs to the list of substances requiring a response plan has several implications for spill prevention, preparedness, and response programs. Some facilities currently have response plans for oils and may have response plans for CWA hazardous substances in the future. Some NLSs may be hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and response plans for those NLSs must be consistent with spill notification and response requirements under CERCLA. EPA and USCG On-Scene Coordinators must consider these overlapping listings when deciding on the appropriate removal actions for discharges. Facility owners and operators will need to consider their existing response plans when preparing response plans for NLSs. Under the CWA all response plans must be consistent with the National Contingency Plan and Area Contingency Plans.

DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURAL RESOURCES PROTECTION GUIDELINES FOR ALASKA'S ON-SCENE COORDINATORS

ABSTRACT In recognition that oil spills and hazardous substance releases typically require response actions within the first 24 hours, the Alaska Regional Response Team (RRT) has developed draft Cultural Resources Protection Guidelines for Alaska to establish an emergency procedure for taking cultural resources into account during responses and to ensure that response actions comply with the National Historic Preservation Act. The draft guidelines were developed in consultation with the Alaska State Historic Preservation Officer and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. The mechanism for formally establishing the guidelines’ emergency procedures is a programmatic agreement, which will be signed by appropriate federal and state agencies’ historic preservation officials.

Symmetry, Regression Design, and Sampling Distributions

When values of regressors are symmetrically disposed, many M-estimators in a wide class of models have a reflection property, namely, that as the signs of the coefficients on regressors are reversed, their estimators' sampling distribution is reflected about the origin. When the coefficients are zero, sign reversal can have no effect. So in this case, the sampling distribution of regression coefficient estimators is symmetric about zero, the estimators are median unbiased and, when moments exist, the estimators are exactly uncorrelated with estimators of other parameters. The result is unusual in that it does not require response variates to have symmetric conditional distributions. It demonstrates the potential importance of covariate design in determining the distributions of estimators, and it is useful in designing and interpreting Monte Carlo experiments. The result is illustrated by a Monte Carlo experiment in which maximum likelihood and symmetrically censored least-squares estimators are calculated for small samples from a censored normal linear regression, Tobit, model.

Two-Plane Balancing of a Rotor System Without Phase Response Measurements

This paper presents, and experimentally verifies, a two-plane balancing technique for rigid rotors and possibly flexible rotors operating at a constant speed. The technique, based upon influence coefficients, extends the single-plane four-run balancing procedure to two planes. Like the four-run method, this technique is most easily performed graphically and does not require response phase measurement. Despite the additional runs required to obtain data, its simplicity and applicability to a wide range of equipment renders it more useful, in some cases, than the standard two-plane influence coefficient method.