84,256 research outputs found
Communication models insights meet simulations
International audienceIt is well-known that taking into account communications while scheduling jobs in large scale parallel computing platforms is a crucial issue. In modern hierarchical platforms, communication times are highly different when occurring inside a cluster or between clusters. Thus, allocating the jobs taking into account locality constraints is a key factor for reaching good performances. However, several theoretical results prove that imposing such constraints reduces the solution space and thus, possibly degrades the performances. In practice, such constraints simplify implementations and most often lead to better results. Our aim in this work is to bridge theoretical and practical intuitions, and check the differences between constrained and unconstrained schedules (namely with respect to locality and node contiguity) through simulations. We have developped a generic tool, using SimGrid as the base simulator, enabling interactions with external batch schedulers to evaluate their scheduling policies. The results confirm that insights gained through theoretical models are ill-suited to current architectures and should be reevaluated
Prospects for large-scale financial systems simulation
As the 21st century unfolds, we find ourselves having to control, support, manage or otherwise cope with large-scale complex adaptive systems to an extent that is unprecedented in human history. Whether we are concerned with issues of food security, infrastructural resilience, climate change, health care, web science, security, or financial stability, we face problems that combine scale, connectivity, adaptive dynamics, and criticality. Complex systems simulation is emerging as the key scientific tool for dealing with such complex adaptive systems. Although a relatively new paradigm, it is one that has already established a track record in fields as varied as ecology (Grimm and Railsback, 2005), transport (Nagel et al., 1999), neuroscience (Markram, 2006), and ICT (Bullock and Cliff, 2004). In this report, we consider the application of simulation methodologies to financial systems, assessing the prospects for continued progress in this line of research
The view from elsewhere: perspectives on ALife Modeling
Many artificial life researchers stress the interdisciplinary character of the field. Against such a backdrop, this report reviews and discusses artificial life, as it is depicted in, and as it interfaces with, adjacent disciplines (in particular, philosophy, biology, and linguistics), and in the light of a specific historical example of interdisciplinary research (namely cybernetics) with which artificial life shares many features. This report grew out of a workshop held at the Sixth European Conference on Artificial Life in Prague and features individual contributions from the workshop's eight speakers, plus a section designed to reflect the debates that took place during the workshop's discussion sessions. The major theme that emerged during these sessions was the identity and status of artificial life as a scientific endeavor
Applying the lessons of the attack on the World Trade Center, 11th September 2001, to the design and use of interactive evacuation simulations
The collapse of buildings, such as terminal 2E at Paris' Charles de Gaule Airport, and of fires, such as the Rhode Island, Station Night Club tragedy, has focused public attention on the safety of large public buildings. Initiatives in the United States and in Europe have led to the development of interactive simulators that model evacuation from these buildings. The tools avoid some of the ethical and legal problems from simulating evacuations; many people were injured during the 1993 evacuation of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex. They also use many concepts that originate within the CHI communities. For instance, some simulators use simple task models to represent the occupants' goal structures as they search for an available exit. However, the recent release of the report from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (the '9/11 commission') has posed serious questions about the design and use of this particular class of interactive systems. This paper argues that simulation research needs to draw on insights from the CHI communities in order to meet some the challenges identified by the 9/11 commission
Lessons from the evacuation of the World Trade Center, Sept 11th 2001 for the future development of computer simulations
This paper provides an overview of the state of the art in evacuation simulations. These interactive computer based tools have been developed to help the owners and designers of large public buildings to assess the risks that occupants might face during emergency egress. The development of the Glasgow Evacuation Simulator is used to illustrate the existing generation of tools. This system uses Monte Carlo techniques to control individual and group movements during an evacuation. The end-user can interactively open and block emergency exits at any point. It is also possible to alter the priorities that individuals associate with particular exit routes. A final benefit is that the tool can derive evacuation simulations directly from existing architects models; this reduces the cost of simulations and creates a more prominent role for these tools in the iterative development of large-scale public buildings. Empirical studies have been used to validate the GES system as a tool to support evacuation training. The development of these tools has been informed by numerous human factors studies and by recent accident investigations. For example, the 2003 fire in the Station nightclub in Rhode Island illustrated the way in which most building occupants retrace their steps to an entrance even when there are alternate fire exits. The second half of this paper uses this introduction to criticise the existing state of the art in evacuation simulations. These criticisms are based on a detailed study of the recent findings from the 9/11 Commission (2004). Ten different lessons are identified. Some relate to the need to better understand the role of building management and security systems in controlling egress from public buildings. Others relate to the human factors involved in coordinating distributed groups of emergency personnel who may be physically exhausted by the demands of an evacuation. Arguably the most important findings centre on the need to model the ingress and egress of emergency personnel from these structures. The previous focus of nearly all-existing simulation tools has been on the evacuation of building occupants rather than on the safety of first responders1
About the Power to Enforce and Prevent Consensus by Manipulating Communication Rules
We explore the possibilities of enforcing and preventing consensus in
continuous opinion dynamics that result from modifications in the communication
rules. We refer to the model of Weisbuch and Deffuant, where agents adjust
their continuous opinions as a result of random pairwise encounters whenever
their opinions differ not more than a given bound of confidence \eps. A high
\eps leads to consensus, while a lower \eps leads to a fragmentation into
several opinion clusters. We drop the random encounter assumption and ask: How
small may \eps be such that consensus is still possible with a certain
communication plan for the entire group? Mathematical analysis shows that
\eps may be significantly smaller than in the random pairwise case. On the
other hand we ask: How large may \eps be such that preventing consensus is
still possible? In answering this question we prove Fortunato's simulation
result that consensus cannot be prevented for \eps>0.5 for large groups. %
Next we consider opinion dynamics under different individual strategies and
examine their power to increase the chances of consensus. One result is that
balancing agents increase chances of consensus, especially if the agents are
cautious in adapting their opinions. However, curious agents increase chances
of consensus only if those agents are not cautious in adapting their opinions.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure
Learning in a Landscape: Simulation-building as Reflexive Intervention
This article makes a dual contribution to scholarship in science and
technology studies (STS) on simulation-building. It both documents a specific
simulation-building project, and demonstrates a concrete contribution to
interdisciplinary work of STS insights. The article analyses the struggles that
arise in the course of determining what counts as theory, as model and even as
a simulation. Such debates are especially decisive when working across
disciplinary boundaries, and their resolution is an important part of the work
involved in building simulations. In particular, we show how ontological
arguments about the value of simulations tend to determine the direction of
simulation-building. This dynamic makes it difficult to maintain an interest in
the heterogeneity of simulations and a view of simulations as unfolding
scientific objects. As an outcome of our analysis of the process and
reflections about interdisciplinary work around simulations, we propose a
chart, as a tool to facilitate discussions about simulations. This chart can be
a means to create common ground among actors in a simulation-building project,
and a support for discussions that address other features of simulations
besides their ontological status. Rather than foregrounding the chart's
classificatory potential, we stress its (past and potential) role in discussing
and reflecting on simulation-building as interdisciplinary endeavor. This chart
is a concrete instance of the kinds of contributions that STS can make to
better, more reflexive practice of simulation-building.Comment: 37 page
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