With a large variety of communication methods and protocols, many software architects face the problem of choosing the best way for services to share information. For communication technology to be functional and practical, it should enable developers to define a complete set of CRUD methods for the processed data. The research team compared this paper’s most commonly used data transfer protocols and concepts: REST, WebSocket, gRPC GraphQL and SOAP. A set of web servers was implemented in Python, each using one of the examined technologies. Then, the team performed an automated benchmark measuring time and data transfer overhead for a set of defined operations: creating an entity, retrieving a list of 100 entities and fetching details of one entity. Tests were designed to avoid the results being interfered with by database connection or docker-compose environment characteristics. The research team has concluded that gRPC was the most efficient and reliable data transfer method. On the other hand, GraphQL turned out to be the slowest communication method of all. Moreover, its server and client libraries caused the most problems with proper usage in a web server. SOAP did not participate in benchmarking due to limited compatibility with Python and a lack of popularity in modern web solutions.

In modern times, innovation often requires performing complex computations in a short amount of time. However, for many small organisations and freelance innovators, large-scale computations remain beyond reach because of the small accessibility of computation resources and the lack of knowledge required to use them efficiently. The BalticLSC Platform is a software development and computing environment created to address this issue. This paper presents the associated software development process. The platform users can perform advanced computations using ready applications or develop new applications quickly from available components. This can be done using a visual notation called the Computation Application Language (CAL). CAL programs are developed in a dedicated online editor, through selecting and connecting reusable computation modules. If a required module is missing, it can be quickly created by encapsulating code inside a standardised container. The platform's ultimate goal is to relieve the developers from the need to understand the complexity of the distributed parallel computation environment. The platform was implemented in the form of an online software development portal. Validation of the platform consisted in the development of applications and modules by students not experienced in programming. The results of this validation acknowledge the required platform's characteristics.

Distributed, large-scale computing is typically performed using textual general-purpose programming languages. This requires significant programming skills associated with the parallelisation and distribution of computations. In this paper, we present a visual (graphical) programming language called the Computation Application Language (CAL) to raise abstraction in distributed computing. CAL programs define computation workflows by visualising data flowing between computation units. The goal is to reduce the amount of traditional code needed and thus facilitate development even by non-professional programmers. The language follows the low-code paradigm, i.e. its implementation (the editor and the runtime system) is available online. We formalise the language by defining its syntax using a metamodel and specifying its semantics using a two-step approach. We define a translation of CAL into an intermediate language which is then defined using an operational approach. This formalisation was used to develop a programming and execution environment. The environment orchestrates computations by interpreting the intermediate language and managing the instantiation of computation modules using data tokens. We also present an explanatory case-study example that shows a practical application of the language.

The needs of modern medical diagnostics increasingly set new research directions and allow to improve current technologies. Gland segmentation is an important step on the way to automate the diagnosis of pathogenic changes in the colon. Without rapid and correct diagnosis it is not possible to take appropriate treatment. A small number of specialists, long education of future experts and widening from year to year the number of specialized probe commissioned cause significant lengthening of waiting for results and negatively affect the quality of the research. In this work we developed and presented gland segmentation algorithm can automate the most time consuming elements of the diagnostic process.

Research teams often face problems with insufficient resources to develop and execute their computation algorithms. This is due to limited access to professional programmers and High Performance Computing centres. This paper presents a platform that uses a new visual language to solve these problems. It uses high-level abstractions to define the flow of data and the execution of computation modules in a distributed computation environment. The runtime system follows the rules of low-code, where the development is on-line and highly simplifies the deployment of apps. This way, even small research teams can easily gain access to high-end computation resources and develop and share their applications.

The article deals with the issue of electromagnetic disturbances caused by electromechanical relays. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is important for the reliable work of electrical and electronic devices. Our research focused on the low-voltage relay, which is the source of electrical fast transients (EFT)/burst disturbances. The voltage and current waveforms were tested on the constructed stand while opening the relays’ contacts. We investigated one-circuit topology with varied element parameters in order to observe their influence on the burst phenomenon. The new technologies in the measurement equipment allow us to observe many detailed aspects of the burst phenomenon, which were not reported up to now. In order to analyze the disturbances, they have been fragmented into restoration, ignition and arc times. The number of disturbance cycles differs depending on the value of the circuit capacitance on the load side. The effect of capacity on times of restoration, ignition and burning arc was also observed. The division into cycles allowed us to observe changes in the studied phenomenon along with the increased distance between the relay contacts during its opening. There were also discrepancies between the presentation of the phenomenon in the standard defining the method of measuring the resistance to interference EFT/burst and the measurement results.