Process-Oriented Parallel Programming with an Application to Data-Intensive Computing

We introduce process-oriented programming as a natural extension of object-oriented programming for parallel computing. It is based on the observation that every class of an object-oriented language can be instantiated as a process, accessible via a remote pointer. The introduction of process pointers requires no syntax extension, identifies processes with programming objects, and enables processes to exchange information simply by executing remote methods. Process-oriented programming is a high-level language alternative to multithreading, MPI and many other languages, environments and tools currently used for parallel computations. It implements natural object-based parallelism using only minimal syntax extension of existing languages, such as C++ and Python, and has therefore the potential to lead to widespread adoption of parallel programming. We implemented a prototype system for running processes using C++ with MPI and used it to compute a large three-dimensional Fourier transform on a computer cluster built of commodity hardware components. Three-dimensional Fourier transform is a prototype of a data-intensive application with a complex data-access pattern. The process-oriented code is only a few hundred lines long, and attains very high data throughput by achieving massive parallelism and maximizing hardware utilization.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

3D Imaging of a Phase Object from a Single Sample Orientation Using an Optical Laser

Ankylography is a new 3D imaging technique, which, under certain circumstances, enables reconstruction of a 3D object from a single sample orientation. Here, we provide a matrix rank analysis to explain the principle of ankylography. We then present an ankylography experiment on a microscale phase object using an optical laser. Coherent diffraction patterns are acquired from the phase object using a planar CCD detector and are projected onto a spherical shell. The 3D structure of the object is directly reconstructed from the spherical diffraction pattern. This work may potentially open the door to a new method for 3D imaging of phase objects in the visible light region. Finally, the extension of ankylography to more complicated and larger objects is suggested.Comment: 22 pages 5 figure

From Topology to Noncommutative Geometry: KK-theory

We associate to each unital $C^*$-algebra $A$ a geometric object---a diagram of topological spaces representing quotient spaces of the noncommutative space underlying $A$---meant to serve the role of a generalized Gel'fand spectrum. After showing that any functor $F$ from compact Hausdorff spaces to a suitable target category can be applied directly to these geometric objects to automatically yield an extension $\tilde{F}$ which acts on all unital $C^*$-algebras, we compare a novel formulation of the operator $K_0$ functor to the extension $\tilde K$ of the topological $K$-functor.Comment: 14 page

UML-F: A Modeling Language for Object-Oriented Frameworks

The paper presents the essential features of a new member of the UML language family that supports working with object-oriented frameworks. This UML extension, called UML-F, allows the explicit representation of framework variation points. The paper discusses some of the relevant aspects of UML-F, which is based on standard UML extension mechanisms. A case study shows how it can be used to assist framework development. A discussion of additional tools for automating framework implementation and instantiation rounds out the paper.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figure

Cylindrical Wiener processes

In this work cylindrical Wiener processes on Banach spaces are defined by means of cylindrical stochastic processes, which are a well considered mathematical object. This approach allows a definition which is a simple straightforward extension of the real-valued situation. We apply this definition to introduce a stochastic integral with respect to cylindrical Wiener processes. Again, this definition is a straightforward extension of the real-valued situation which results now in simple conditions on the integrand. In particular, we do not have to put any geometric constraints on the Banach space under consideration. Finally, we relate this integral to well-known stochastic integrals in literature