private List<Particle> jsonToParticleList(JsonNode jsonParticleList) {

    List<Particle> particleList = new ArrayList<Particle>();
    if (jsonParticleList == null) {
      logger.info("Null json, empty particle list returned");
    } else {
      for (JsonNode jsonParticle : jsonParticleList) {
        Particle particle;
        particle = Json.fromJson(jsonParticle, Particle.class);
        if (particle != null) {
          particleList.add(particle);
        }
      }
    }
    return particleList;
  }
Converts a json to list of particles
@param jsonParticleList A list of  configurations (particles) in json
@return Particle List
app/com/linkedin/drelephant/tuning/ParamGenerator.java