53,728 research outputs found
Models of everywhere revisited: a technological perspective
The concept āmodels of everywhereā was first introduced in the mid 2000s as a means of reasoning about the
environmental science of a place, changing the nature of the underlying modelling process, from one in which
general model structures are used to one in which modelling becomes a learning process about specific places, in
particular capturing the idiosyncrasies of that place. At one level, this is a straightforward concept, but at another
it is a rich multi-dimensional conceptual framework involving the following key dimensions: models of everywhere,
models of everything and models at all times, being constantly re-evaluated against the most current
evidence. This is a compelling approach with the potential to deal with epistemic uncertainties and nonlinearities.
However, the approach has, as yet, not been fully utilised or explored. This paper examines the
concept of models of everywhere in the light of recent advances in technology. The paper argues that, when first
proposed, technology was a limiting factor but now, with advances in areas such as Internet of Things, cloud
computing and data analytics, many of the barriers have been alleviated. Consequently, it is timely to look again
at the concept of models of everywhere in practical conditions as part of a trans-disciplinary effort to tackle the
remaining research questions. The paper concludes by identifying the key elements of a research agenda that
should underpin such experimentation and deployment
Pitfalls and guide lines in the transition to object oriented software design methodologies
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science in Engineering.Due to the dynamic nature of the software engineering industry there is a constant
move towards new strategies for solving design problems. More specifically there is a
move towards Object Oriented (OO) methodologies, presumably because of the
various advantages offered in terms of maintainability, and reuse of code produced this
way. As with various other aspects of the software industry there are however also
problems encountered in this transition and lessons to be learned from the experience
of companies who have already performed this change.
This research report investigates possible guidelines for companies who are currently
contemplating a change to the OO software design methodologies, by covering a
collection of issues one should know about prior to this change. It also summarises the
problems faced in the transition so far, the reasons for these problems and suggests
possible solutions. Lastly it also investigates new trends in the OO arena. The
emphasis is on South African companies and projects. The results obtained are
compared with results obtained overseas to find out what the differences and
similarities are. Areas of concern are also identified, where theoreticians' views have
been ignored, and both South African and overeeas companies have not implemented
any of the suggestions made.Andrew Chakane 201
Linear groups in Galois fields. A case study of tacit circulation of explicit knowledge
This preprint is the extended version of a paper that will be published in
the proceedings of the Oberwolfach conference "Explicit vs tacit knowledge in
mathematics" (January 2012). It presents a case study on some algebraic
researches at the turn of the twentieth century that involved mainly French and
American authors. By investigating the collective dimensions of these works,
this paper sheds light on the tension between the tacit and the explicit in the
ways some groups of texts hold together, thereby constituting some shared
algebraic cultures. Although prominent algebraists such as Dickson made
extensive references to papers published in France, and despite the roles
played by algebra and arithmetic in the development of the American
mathematical community, our knowledge of the circulations of knowledge between
France and the United States at the beginning of the 20th century is still very
limited. It is my aim to tackle such issues through the case study of a
specific collective approach to finite group theory at the turn of the 20th
century. This specific approach can be understood as a shared algebraic culture
based on the long run circulation of some specific procedures of decompositions
of the analytic forms of substitutions. In this context, the general linear
group was introduced as the maximal group in which an elementary abelian group
(i.e., the multiplicative group of a Galois field) is a normal subgroup
Revisiting Actor Programming in C++
The actor model of computation has gained significant popularity over the
last decade. Its high level of abstraction makes it appealing for concurrent
applications in parallel and distributed systems. However, designing a
real-world actor framework that subsumes full scalability, strong reliability,
and high resource efficiency requires many conceptual and algorithmic additives
to the original model.
In this paper, we report on designing and building CAF, the "C++ Actor
Framework". CAF targets at providing a concurrent and distributed native
environment for scaling up to very large, high-performance applications, and
equally well down to small constrained systems. We present the key
specifications and design concepts---in particular a message-transparent
architecture, type-safe message interfaces, and pattern matching
facilities---that make native actors a viable approach for many robust,
elastic, and highly distributed developments. We demonstrate the feasibility of
CAF in three scenarios: first for elastic, upscaling environments, second for
including heterogeneous hardware like GPGPUs, and third for distributed runtime
systems. Extensive performance evaluations indicate ideal runtime behaviour for
up to 64 cores at very low memory footprint, or in the presence of GPUs. In
these tests, CAF continuously outperforms the competing actor environments
Erlang, Charm++, SalsaLite, Scala, ActorFoundry, and even the OpenMPI.Comment: 33 page
Volunteer Computing Simulation Using Repast And Mason
Volunteer environments usually consist of a large number of computing nodes,with highly dynamic characteristics, therefore reliable models for a planning ofthe whole computing are highly desired. An easy to implement approach to mo-delling and simulation of such environments may employ agent-based universalsimulation frameworks, such as RePast or MASON. In the course of the paperthe above-mentioned simulation frameworks are adapted to support simulationof volunteer computing. After giving implementation details, selected resultsconcerning computing time and speedup are given and are compared with theones obtained from an actual volunteer environment
Prime, Perform, Recover
This thesis examines the formal and conceptual framework of my artistic practice as it culminated in the installation of my thesis exhibition, Prime, Perform, Recover. My exhibition seeks to operate as an analysis and critique of the separation inherent in media presentation and rhetoric surrounding natural disasters.
I utilize the aesthetics and vocabulary of disaster capitalism and prepping culture in order to pose direct questions about ecological and social change. I examine the role of images within mass media image production as an all encompassing Now-Time. In this paper I describe frameworks that my practice proposes as potential solutions to these problems, and I position my research in the context of artists and artworks that have influenced me and operate within similar channels as my own
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