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This document presents the state of work in the WP4 of the CS3MESH4EOSC project on integrating user-level applications and usage scenarios within the ScienceMesh federation. The CS3MESH4EOSC consortium is building a federated mesh of sync & share systems (EFSS) and applications focused on scientific and research use-cases, referred to as ScienceMesh. The Interoperability Platform (IOP) worked out in WP3 provides the technical basis for the federation, ensuring compatibility across sync & share products, enabling data flow and user information exchange as well as implementing communication for application workflows. The partner-provided deployments of sync & share systems at federated sites provide the testing and pre-production environments for the federation. Finally, management procedures and tools developed by WP2 constitute the operational basis for the federation. Within WP4, a set of user-level applications is being developed with the aim of being embedded into this federated mesh of sync & share systems. This work is organized in four application-related design, development and testing tasks (T4.1-T4.4) as well as two auxiliary tasks (T4.5-T4.6). This deliverable provides the summary of the work within WP4 related to the integration of the flagship applications identified for the ScienceMesh. It provides an overview of the state of the demonstrators prepared within the first 18 months of the Project. It also summarizes the status of work in the auxiliary tasks dedicated to ensuring that requirements and other information flow among WP4 and WP3, WP4 and WP2, while analysing the future sustainability of those Project results.

The Heavy-Ion Run 2018 was the last part of the LHC Run 2 programme. The experiments depend on the statistics from this relatively short (24 days) data taking phase, before the LS2 maintenance period starts. This report provides a summary of this data taking exercise from the point of view of the data recording and distribution in the CERN Data Centre.

Storage management is one of the most important enabling technologies for large-scale scientific investigations. Having to deal with multiple heterogeneous storage and file systems is one of the major bottlenecks in managing, replicating, and accessing files in distributed environments. Storage Resource Managers (SRMs), named after their web services control protocol, provide the technology needed to manage the rapidly growing distributed data volumes, as a result of faster and larger computational facilities. SRMs are Grid storage services providing interfaces to storage resources, as well as advanced functionality such as dynamic space allocation and file management on shared storage systems. They call on transport services to bring files into their space transparently and provide effective sharing of files. SRMs are based on a common specification that emerged over time and evolved into an international collaboration. This approach of an open specification that can be used by various institutions to adapt to their own storage systems has proven to be a remarkable success -- the challenge has been to provide a consistent homogeneous interface to the Grid, while allowing sites to have diverse infrastructures. In particular, supporting optional features while preserving interoperability is one of the main challenges we describe in this paper. We also describe using SRM in a large international High Energy Physics collaboration, called WLCG, to prepare to handle the large volume of data expected when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) goes online at CERN. This intense collaboration led to refinements and additional functionality in the SRM specification, and the development of multiple interoperating implementations of SRM for various complex multi-component storage systems.

The main goal of the presented research is to investigate Peer-to-Peer architectures and to leverage distributed services to support networked autonomous systems. The research work focuses on development and demonstration of technologies suitable for providing autonomy and flexibility in the context of distributed network management and distributed data acquisition. A network management system enables the network administrator to monitor a computer network and properly handle any failure that can arise within the network. An online data acquisition (DAQ) system for high-energy physics experiments has to collect, combine, filter, and store for later analysis a huge amount of data, describing subatomic particles collision events. Both domains have tight constraints which are discussed and tackled in this work. New emerging paradigms have been investigated to design novel middleware architectures for such distributed systems, particularly the Active Networks paradigm and the Peer-to-Peer paradigm. A network management framework has been designed and developed, which is able to carry on network management tasks and failures detection. Moreover an Artificial Intelligence based autonomous agent has been prototyped, in order to support the network administrator in pursuing his management responsibilities. The Active Networks paradigm has been used in this context to enable network programming. In addition, a software prototype has been developed to enable controlling of DAQ systems by means of distributed discovery services. A discovery service allows network entities to be acknowledged about each other, and enables them to expose and make use of custom services. The Peer-to-Peer paradigm has been leveraged to implement a discovery service to ease configuration and monitoring of distributed DAQ systems. The research and development activity carried on in both domains had the common goal of demonstrating how appropriate middleware can provide the required autonomy to systems under analysis.

This paper presents a combination of a parallel Genetic Algorithm (GA) and a local search methodology for the Steiner Problem in Networks (SPN). Several previous papers have proposed the adoption of GAs and others metaheuristics to solve the SPN demonstrating the validity of their approaches. This work differs from them for two main reasons: the dimension and the features of the networks adopted in the experiments and the aim from which it has been originated. The reason that aimed this work was namely to assess deterministic and computationally inexpensive algorithms which can be used in practical engineering applications, such as the multicast transmission in the Internet. The large dimensions of our sample networks require the adoption of an efficient grid based parallel implementation of the Steiner GAs. Furthermore, a local search technique, which complements the global search capability of the GA, is implemented by means of a heuristic method. Finally, a further mutation operator is added to the GA replacing the original genome with the solution achieved by the heuristic, providing thus a mechanism like the genetically modified organisms in nature. Although the results achieved cannot be applied directly to the problem we investigate, they can be used to validate other methodologies that can find better applications in the telecommunication field.

The present study describes a strategy to produce patient-specific skull base replica with realistic shapes, starting from radiological images. Several papers aim to highlight the clinical value of patient-specific three-dimensional (3D) models, obtained segmenting multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) images, for preoperative planning in general surgery, for physician training and for didactics targets. In this study, segmentation and 3D model generation were performed using a semiautomatic tool developed in the EndoCAS centre. The segmentation procedure is based on the neighbourhood connected region-growing algorithm that, appropriately parameterized for the anatomy of interest and combined with the optimal segmentation sequence, generates good-quality 3D images coupled with facility of use. Using a touch screen monitor, manual refining has been added to segment structures unsuitable for automatic reconstruction. The goal of the present work consists in providing and visualizing quantitative geometrical and topological information on the anatomy of a cranium, starting from a MDCT dataset, and to develop a detailed solid replica that allow to improve the comprehension of anatomy and the dimensions of deep structures of a skull base. Anatomical structures of little size - e.g. foramen rotundum, foramen spinosum, lamina cribriformis, hypoglossal canal - were replicated in detail. Furthermore our 3D virtual model permits to well distinguish pneumatized bones; in particular nasal cavities and paranasal sinuses were minutely computer-generated. We consider that our methodological approach to reproduce virtual and solid anatomical models can represent an useful didactic tool, both for undergraduate and postgraduate students., Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology, Vol 117, No 2 (Supplement) 2012

The goal of this study was to compare the risk of periprosthetic infection of a consecutive cohort of primary varus–valgus constrained (VVC) total knee arthroplasties (TKAs), with a matched 1:1 cohort of primary posterior-stabilized (PS) TKAs. 74 primary VVC TKAs performed in 66 patients were identified and matched 1:1 with a cohort of 74 primary PS TKAs performed in 73 patients. At last follow up, patients were clinically evaluated using the Knee Society Score (KSS). Kaplan–Meier survival curves were generated to analyze survivorship using as endpoints revision for any reason, revision for periprosthetic infection and revision for mechanical failure after excluding periprosthetic infection. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was constructed to determine whether revision surgery for periprosthetic infection was influenced by patients’ gender, age, surgical time and reasons for TKA (primary vs secondary osteoarthritis). Demographic data were not significantly different between the two groups as regard patients’ age, gender, body mass index, Charlson Comorbidity Index, reasons for replacement, and length of follow-up. Surgical time was greater in the VVC group (95.7 ± 22.5 min vs 88.6 ± 17.1 min, respectively, p = 0.032). Postoperative KSS, range of motion and radiographic data did not differ significantly between the two groups. Overall revision rate and revision rate for mechanical failure after 5 years of follow-up was not statistically different between the two groups. Considering only the revision rate due to periprosthetic infection, the risk was higher in patients with primary VVC implants (p = 0.013). The surgical time was the only factor that significantly affected the risk of revision for periprosthetic infection (OR 1.0636, CI 95% 1.0209–1.1081, p = 0.0032), whereas patients’ gender, age and reason for TKA had no influence. Patients and surgeons should be aware of the higher risk of periprosthetic knee infection using a VVC prosthesis. However, the present study supports the use of VVC implants in cases of difficult knee replacements, since comparable clinical outcomes and overall revision rate was found after at least 5 years of follow up. Retrospective cohort study, Level III.