26,666 research outputs found
The integration of grid and peer-to-peer to support scientific collaboration
There have been a number of e-Science projects which address the issues of collaboration within and between scientific communities. Most effort to date focussed on the building of the Grid infrastructure to enable the sharing of huge volume of computational and data resources. The âportalâ approach has been used by some to bring the power of grid computing to the desk top of individual researchers. However, collaborative activities within a scientific community are not only confined to the sharing of data or computational intensive resources. There are other forms of sharing which can be better supported by other forms of architecture. In order to provide a more holistic support to a scientific community, this paper proposes a hybrid architecture, which integrates Grid and peer-to-peer technologies using Service Oriented Architecture. This platform will then be used for a semantic architecture which captures characteristics of the data, functional and process requirements for a range of collaborative activities. A combustion chemistry research community is being used as a case study
Many-Task Computing and Blue Waters
This report discusses many-task computing (MTC) generically and in the
context of the proposed Blue Waters systems, which is planned to be the largest
NSF-funded supercomputer when it begins production use in 2012. The aim of this
report is to inform the BW project about MTC, including understanding aspects
of MTC applications that can be used to characterize the domain and
understanding the implications of these aspects to middleware and policies.
Many MTC applications do not neatly fit the stereotypes of high-performance
computing (HPC) or high-throughput computing (HTC) applications. Like HTC
applications, by definition MTC applications are structured as graphs of
discrete tasks, with explicit input and output dependencies forming the graph
edges. However, MTC applications have significant features that distinguish
them from typical HTC applications. In particular, different engineering
constraints for hardware and software must be met in order to support these
applications. HTC applications have traditionally run on platforms such as
grids and clusters, through either workflow systems or parallel programming
systems. MTC applications, in contrast, will often demand a short time to
solution, may be communication intensive or data intensive, and may comprise
very short tasks. Therefore, hardware and software for MTC must be engineered
to support the additional communication and I/O and must minimize task dispatch
overheads. The hardware of large-scale HPC systems, with its high degree of
parallelism and support for intensive communication, is well suited for MTC
applications. However, HPC systems often lack a dynamic resource-provisioning
feature, are not ideal for task communication via the file system, and have an
I/O system that is not optimized for MTC-style applications. Hence, additional
software support is likely to be required to gain full benefit from the HPC
hardware
Quantum Robot: Structure, Algorithms and Applications
A kind of brand-new robot, quantum robot, is proposed through fusing quantum
theory with robot technology. Quantum robot is essentially a complex quantum
system and it is generally composed of three fundamental parts: MQCU (multi
quantum computing units), quantum controller/actuator, and information
acquisition units. Corresponding to the system structure, several learning
control algorithms including quantum searching algorithm and quantum
reinforcement learning are presented for quantum robot. The theoretic results
show that quantum robot can reduce the complexity of O(N^2) in traditional
robot to O(N^(3/2)) using quantum searching algorithm, and the simulation
results demonstrate that quantum robot is also superior to traditional robot in
efficient learning by novel quantum reinforcement learning algorithm.
Considering the advantages of quantum robot, its some potential important
applications are also analyzed and prospected.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
Treatment and valorization plants in materials recovery supply chain
Aim of industrial symbiosis is to create synergies between industries in order to exchange resources (by-products, water and energy) through geographic proximity and collaboration [1]. By optimizing resource flows in a âwhole-system approachâ, a minimization of dangerous emissions and of supply needs can be achieved. Resources exchanges are established to facilitate recycling and re-use of industrial waste using a commercial vehicle. Several paths can be identified in order to establish an industrial symbiosis network (Figure 1, left), in relation (i) to the life cycle phase (raw material, component, product) and (ii) to the nature (material, water, energy) of the resource flows to be exchanged. Sometimes by-products and/or waste of an industrial process have to be treated and valorized in order to become the raw materials for others. In particular, two main treatment processes can be identified: refurbishment/upgrade for re-use (Figure 1, center) and recycling for material recovery (Figure 1, right). A brief overview of technological and economic aspects is given, together with their relevance to industrial symbiosis
Potential future climatic conditions on tourists : a case study focusing on Malta and Venice
The main purpose of this study is to
quantify important climatic shifts that took place over
Malta and Venice that could be considered as a determining
factor on their choice as two prime tourist destinations.
Rather than making use of traditional tourist
climate indices, this study identifi es long-term trends
in weather variables and their derived bioclimatic indices.
These climate derivatives are based on a set
of high temporal observations (some of which are collected
every 30 minutes) and are thus able to capture
valuable information that traditional monthly distribution
cannot provide. The derivatives obtained from the
elementary meteorological observations showed that the
level of comfort experienced by visiting tourists over the
long term is deteriorating due to increased heat stress.
Nonetheless, the increased occurrence of optimal wind
speed conditions, as well as a reduced occurrence of gale
storms and wind chill events is making these destinations
more attractive. A careful study of the output of
IPCC climate model projections sheds light on a critical
future bioclimate condition during current peak visiting
months (July and August) at both destinations. This
may imply a required shift, as a form of adaptation,
of the visiting periods at these two destinations. This
study should allow tourist planners to determine which
weather element is a likely future obstacle to the overall
bioclimatic suitability of outdoor tourism activities.peer-reviewe
- âŚ