All issues

The rheological behavior of aqueous suspensions based on nanoscale silicon dioxide particles strongly depends on the dynamic viscosity, which affects directly the use of nanofluids. The purpose of this work is to develop and validate models for predicting dynamic viscosity from independent input parameters: silicon dioxide concentration SiO₂, pH acidity, and shear rate $\gamma$. The influence of the suspension composition on its dynamic viscosity is analyzed. Groups of suspensions with statistically homogeneous composition have been identified, within which the interchangeability of compositions is possible. It is shown that at low shear rates, the rheological properties of suspensions differ significantly from those obtained at higher speeds. Significant positive correlations of the dynamic viscosity of the suspension with SiO₂ concentration and pH acidity were established, and negative correlations with the shear rate $\gamma$. Regression models with regularization of the dependence of the dynamic viscosity $\eta$ on the concentrations of SiO₂, NaOH, H₃PO₄, surfactant (surfactant), EDA (ethylenediamine), shear rate γ were constructed. For more accurate prediction of dynamic viscosity, the models using algorithms of neural network technologies and machine learning (MLP multilayer perceptron, RBF radial basis function network, SVM support vector method, RF random forest method) were trained. The effectiveness of the constructed models was evaluated using various statistical metrics, including the average absolute approximation error (MAE), the average quadratic error (MSE), the coefficient of determination $R^2$, and the average percentage of absolute relative deviation (AARD%). The RF model proved to be the best model in the training and test samples. The contribution of each component to the constructed model is determined. It is shown that the concentration of SiO₂ has the greatest influence on the dynamic viscosity, followed by pH acidity and shear rate γ. The accuracy of the proposed models is compared to the accuracy of models previously published. The results confirm that the developed models can be considered as a practical tool for studying the behavior of nanofluids, which use aqueous suspensions based on nanoscale particles of silicon dioxide.

A hybrid cluster implies the use of computational devices with radically different architectures. Usually, these are conventional CPU architecture (e.g. x86_64) and GPU architecture (e. g. NVIDIA CUDA). Creating and exploiting such a cluster requires some experience: in order to harness all computational power of the described system and get substantial speedup for computational tasks many factors should be taken into account. These factors consist of hardware characteristics (e.g. network infrastructure, a type of data storage, GPU architecture) as well as software stack (e.g. MPI implementation, GPGPU libraries). So, in order to run scientific applications GPU capabilities, software features, task size and other factors should be considered.

This report discusses opportunities and problems of hybrid computations. Some statistics from tests programs and applications runs will be demonstrated. The main focus of interest is open source applications (e. g. OpenFOAM) that support GPGPU (with some parts rewritten to use GPGPU directly or by replacing libraries).

There are several approaches to organize heterogeneous computations for different GPU architectures out of which CUDA library and OpenCL framework are compared. CUDA library is becoming quite typical for hybrid systems with NVIDIA cards, but OpenCL offers portability opportunities which can be a determinant factor when choosing framework for development. We also put emphasis on multi-GPU systems that are often used to build hybrid clusters. Calculations were performed on a hybrid cluster of SPbU computing center.

Industrial imaging or “machine vision” is currently a key technology in many industries as it can be used to optimize various processes. The purpose of this work is to create a software and hardware complex for measuring the overall and weight characteristics of cargo based on an intelligent system using neural network identification methods that allow one to overcome the technological limitations of similar complexes implemented on ultrasonic and infrared measuring sensors. The complex to be developed will measure cargo without restrictions on the volume and weight characteristics of cargo to be tariffed and sorted within the framework of the warehouse complexes. The system will include an intelligent computer program that determines the volume and weight characteristics of cargo using the machine vision technology and an experimental sample of the stand for measuring the volume and weight of cargo.

We analyzed the solutions to similar problems. We noted that the disadvantages of the studied methods are very high requirements for the location of the camera, as well as the need for manual operations when calculating the dimensions, which cannot be automated without significant modifications. In the course of the work, we investigated various methods of object recognition in images to carry out subject filtering by the presence of cargo and measure its overall dimensions. We obtained satisfactory results when using cameras that combine both an optical method of image capture and infrared sensors. As a result of the work, we developed a computer program allowing one to capture a continuous stream from Intel RealSense video cameras with subsequent extraction of a three-dimensional object from the designated area and to calculate the overall dimensions of the object. At this stage, we analyzed computer vision techniques; developed an algorithm to implement the task of automatic measurement of goods using special cameras and the software allowing one to obtain the overall dimensions of objects in automatic mode.

Upon completion of the work, this development can be used as a ready-made solution for transport companies, logistics centers, warehouses of large industrial and commercial enterprises.

Modeling banking systems using a network approach has received growing attention in recent years. One of the notable models is that developed by Iori et al, who proposed a banking system model for analyzing systemic risks in interbank networks. The model is built based on the simple dynamics of several bank balance sheet variables such as deposit, equity, loan, liquid asset, and interbank lending (or borrowing) in the form of difference equations. Each bank faces random shocks in deposits and loans. The balance sheet is updated at the beginning or end of each period. In the model, banks are grouped into either potential lenders or borrowers. The potential borrowers are those that have lack of liquidity and the potential lenders are those which have excess liquids after dividend payment and channeling new investment. The borrowers and the lenders are connected through the interbank market. Those borrowers have some percentage of linkage to random potential lenders for borrowing funds to maintain their safety net of the liquidity. If the demand for borrowing funds can meet the supply of excess liquids, then the borrower bank survives. If not, they are deemed to be in default and will be removed from the banking system. However, in their paper, most part of the interbank borrowing-lending mechanism is described qualitatively rather than by detailed mathematical or computational analysis. Therefore, in this paper, we enhance the mathematical parts of borrowing-lending in the interbank market and present an algorithm for simulating the model. We also perform some simulations to analyze the effects of the model’s parameters on banking stability using the number of surviving banks as the measure. We apply this technique to analyze the effects of a macroprudential policy called loan-to-deposit ratio based reserve requirement for banking stability.

In our research, we focus on the problem of classification for silent speech recognition to develop a brain– computer interface (BCI) based on electroencephalographic (EEG) data, which will be capable of assisting people with mental and physical disabilities and expanding human capabilities in everyday life. Our previous research has shown that the silent pronouncing of some words results in almost identical distributions of electroencephalographic signal data. Such a phenomenon has a suppressive impact on the quality of neural network model behavior. This paper proposes a data processing technique that distinguishes between statistically remote and inseparable classes in the dataset. Applying the proposed approach helps us reach the goal of maximizing the semantic load of the dictionary used in BCI.

Furthermore, we propose the existence of a statistical predictive criterion for the accuracy of binary classification of the words in a dictionary. Such a criterion aims to estimate the lower and the upper bounds of classifiers’ behavior only by measuring quantitative statistical properties of the data (in particular, using the Kolmogorov – Smirnov method). We show that higher levels of classification accuracy can be achieved by means of applying the proposed predictive criterion, making it possible to form an optimized dictionary in terms of semantic load for the EEG-based BCIs. Furthermore, using such a dictionary as a training dataset for classification problems grants the statistical remoteness of the classes by taking into account the semantic and phonetic properties of the corresponding words and improves the classification behavior of silent speech recognition models.

The problem of optimal control of traffic flow in an urban road network is considered. The control is carried out by varying the duration of the working phases of traffic lights at controlled intersections. A description of the control system developed is given. The control system enables the use of three types of control: open-loop, feedback and manual. In feedback control, road infrastructure detectors, video cameras, inductive loop and radar detectors are used to determine the quantitative characteristics of current traffic flow state. The quantitative characteristics of the traffic flows are fed into a mathematical model of the traffic flow, implemented in the computer environment of an automatic traffic flow control system, in order to determine the moments for switching the working phases of the traffic lights. The model is a system of finite-difference recurrent equations and describes the change in traffic flow on each road section at each time step, based on retrived data on traffic flow characteristics in the network, capacity of maneuvers and flow distribution through alternative maneuvers at intersections. The model has scaling and aggregation properties. The structure of the model depends on the structure of the graph of the controlled road network. The number of nodes in the graph is equal to the number of road sections in the considered network. The simulation of traffic flow changes in real time makes it possible to optimally determine the duration of traffic light operating phases and to provide traffic flow control with feedback based on its current state. The system of automatic collection and processing of input data for the model is presented. In order to model the states of traffic flow in the network and to solve the problem of optimal traffic flow control, the CTraf software package has been developed, a brief description of which is given in the paper. An example of the solution of the optimal control problem of traffic flows on the basis of real data in the road network of Moscow is given.

In this paper, we propose an adaptive traffic signal control method invariant to the configuration of the traffic signal. The proposed method uses one neural network model to control traffic signals of various configurations, differing both in the number of controlled lanes and in the used traffic light control cycle (set of phases). To describe the state space, both dynamic information about the current state of the traffic flow and static data about the configuration of a controlled intersection are used. To increase the speed of model training and reduce the required amount of data required for model convergence, it is proposed to use an “expert” who provides additional data for model training. As an expert, we propose to use an adaptive control method based on maximizing the weighted flow of vehicles through an intersection. Experimental studies of the effectiveness of the developed method were carried out in a microscopic simulation software package. The obtained results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method in different simulation scenarios. The possibility of using the developed method in a simulation scenario that is not used in the training process was shown. We provide a comparison of the proposed method with other baseline solutions, including the method used as an “expert”. In most scenarios, the developed method showed the best results by average travel time and average waiting time criteria. The advantage over the method used as an expert, depending on the scenario under study, ranged from 2% to 12% according to the criterion of average vehicle waiting time and from 1% to 7% according to the criterion of average travel time.

A model of the behavior of the active neuron, which was the development of the model described in Shamis A.L. [Shamis, 2006], is designed. Proposed topology is locally connected matrix of the active neural network and the structure integration of information from different sources. An example of the script behavior robot controlled by this neural network is described. The results of experiments with the software implementation of a neural network are presented.

The paper simulated the spread of certain ideas in a professional virtual group. We consider the propagation of excitation in an inhomogeneous excitable medium of high connectivity. It is assumed that the network elements form a complete graph. Parameters of the elements are normally distributed. The simulation showed that interest in the idea can fade or fluctuate depending on the settings in the virtual group. The presence of a permanent excited element with relatively high activity leads to chaos — the fraction of members of the community actively interested in an idea varies irregularly.

This paper targets programmers and developers interested in utilizing parallel programming techniques to enhance application performance. The Oracle Solaris Studio software provides state-of-the-art optimizing and parallelizing compilers for C, C++ and Fortran, an advanced debugger, and optimized mathematical and performance libraries. Also included are an extremely powerful performance analysis tool for profiling serial and parallel applications, a thread analysis tool to detect data races and deadlock in memory parallel programs, and an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The Oracle Message Passing Toolkit software provides the high-performance MPI libraries and associated run-time environment needed for message passing applications that can run on a single system or across multiple compute systems connected with high performance networking, including Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, InfiniBand and Myrinet. Examples of OpenMP and MPI are provided throughout the paper, including their usage via the Oracle Solaris Studio and Oracle Message Passing Toolkit products for development and deployment of both serial and parallel applications on SPARC and x86/x64 based systems. Throughout this paper it is demonstrated how to develop and deploy an application parallelized with OpenMP and/or MPI.