A Back-to-Basics Empirical Study of Priority Queues

The theory community has proposed several new heap variants in the recent past which have remained largely untested experimentally. We take the field back to the drawing board, with straightforward implementations of both classic and novel structures using only standard, well-known optimizations. We study the behavior of each structure on a variety of inputs, including artificial workloads, workloads generated by running algorithms on real map data, and workloads from a discrete event simulator used in recent systems networking research. We provide observations about which characteristics are most correlated to performance. For example, we find that the L1 cache miss rate appears to be strongly correlated with wallclock time. We also provide observations about how the input sequence affects the relative performance of the different heap variants. For example, we show (both theoretically and in practice) that certain random insertion-deletion sequences are degenerate and can lead to misleading results. Overall, our findings suggest that while the conventional wisdom holds in some cases, it is sorely mistaken in others

Learning from e-family history: online research behaviour and strategies of family historians and implications for local studies collections.

The massive expansion of electronic resources has been identified as one of the major drivers behind the explosion in the popularity of family history, which bring ease, convenience and accessibility to some parts of the research process. Amongst this expanse of easily-accessible raw materials, online local studies materials (recording both historical and contemporary aspects of a community) can add real context and value to researchers findings and experience; turning a genealogy into a family history. However, the vast majority of these do not appear visible to online family history researchers. Through three central foci (users, e-family history resources, and Local Studies Collections), this research investigates these resources and collections from the perspective of users, to establish how to make the added value of the local studies collections more visible and encourage increased engagement for those who cannot visit collections in person. Specific evaluative criteria for e-family history resources are presented, contributing to practitioners awareness and understanding of their nature; in turn helping maintain their service quality to researchers. Using a hybrid (primarily ethnographic) research approach, the study also examines the online research behaviour of family historians, identifying a taxonomy of actions (seeking of genealogical facts, local or social history; communicating with other researchers or resources; locating resources or instructive information; managing own information), strategies (search modifications and incorporation of background knowledge) and outcomes (outcome; direction (projected and actual)). From these categories, a model of Family Historians online information seeking has been developed. Researchers have both informational and affective needs, and are highly emotionally attached to the research process. Users universally used Ancestry, FamilySearch, ScotlandsPeople, and Genes Reunited far more than other sites, seeking out quality informational content and unique records, which must be successful for researchers. Google was a major method of access to these. Very few participants were pre-aware of e-local studies websites, and were surprised by the variations in quality, inconsistencies in terminology and navigation, and invisibility of quality content. Despite a lack of ease of use, the content present on e-local studies sites and their usefulness and value had been demonstrated to researchers. This suggests significant demand for local information of this kind online where it is available and made known

GUMSMP: a scalable parallel Haskell implementation

The most widely available high performance platforms today are hierarchical, with shared memory leaves, e.g. clusters of multi-cores, or NUMA with multiple regions. The Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) provides a number of parallel Haskell implementations targeting different parallel architectures. In particular, GHC-SMP supports shared memory architectures, and GHC-GUM supports distributed memory machines. Both implementations use different, but related, runtime system (RTS) mechanisms and achieve good performance. A specialised RTS for the ubiquitous hierarchical architectures is lacking. This thesis presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a new parallel Haskell RTS, GUMSMP, that combines shared and distributed memory mechanisms to exploit hierarchical architectures more effectively. The design evaluates a variety of design choices and aims to efficiently combine scalable distributed memory parallelism, using a virtual shared heap over a hierarchical architecture, with low-overhead shared memory parallelism on shared memory nodes. Key design objectives in realising this system are to prefer local work, and to exploit mostly passive load distribution with pre-fetching. Systematic performance evaluation shows that the automatic hierarchical load distribution policies must be carefully tuned to obtain good performance. We investigate the impact of several policies including work pre-fetching, favouring inter-node work distribution, and spark segregation with different export and select policies. We present the performance results for GUMSMP, demonstrating good scalability for a set of benchmarks on up to 300 cores. Moreover, our policies provide performance improvements of up to a factor of 1.5 compared to GHC- GUM. The thesis provides a performance evaluation of distributed and shared heap implementations of parallel Haskell on a state-of-the-art physical shared memory NUMA machine. The evaluation exposes bottlenecks in memory management, which limit scalability beyond 25 cores. We demonstrate that GUMSMP, that combines both distributed and shared heap abstractions, consistently outper- forms the shared memory GHC-SMP on seven benchmarks by a factor of 3.3 on average. Specifically, we show that the best results are obtained when shar- ing memory only within a single NUMA region, and using distributed memory system abstractions across the regions

Methodological bases and practice of sustainable development implementation

У монографії досліджено актуальні питання формування методології сталого розвитку. Проаналзіровано основні чинники сталого розвитку. Розглянуто економічні інструменти забезпечення сталого розвитку на різних рівнях управління. Запропоновано науково-методичні підходи до забезпечення сталого розвитку. Особливу увагу приділено науково-прикладним аспектам забезпечення сталого розвитку в галузевому та територіальному розрізах. Адресовано фахівцям з питань економіки природокористування, макроекономічного регулювання, регіонального розвитку, економіки підприємства, інноваційного менеджменту та маркетингу, а також науково-педагогічним працівникам, аспірантам і студентам галузі наук економічних і дисципліни наук про управління.В монографии исследованы актуальные вопросы формирования методологии устойчивого развития. Проаналзированы основные факторы устойчивого развития. Рассмотрены экономические инструменты обеспечения устойчивого развития на различных уровнях управления. Предложены научно-методические подходы к обеспечению устойчивого развития. Особое внимание уделено научно-прикладным аспектам обеспечения устойчивого развития в отраслевом и территориальном разрезах. Адресовано специалистам по вопросам экономики природопользования, макроэкономического регулирования, регионального развития, экономики предприятия, инновационного менеджмента и маркетинга, а также научно-педагогическим работникам, аспирантам и студентам области экономических наук и дисцтплины наук об управлении.The monograph deals with new approaches and urgent questions to create methodology of sustainable development. There is suggested usage of economic instruments for sustainable development on different management levels. Authors analyze and suggest scientific and methodological approaches to sustainable development. Special attention is paid to scientific and applied aspects of sustainable development into regional and territorial levels. It can be useful for specialists on environmental economics, innovative management and marketing, business economics, regional development, macro-economic regulation, and also for lecturers, post-graduates and students of HEIs economic specialties

Things in Culture, Culture in Things

This volume addresses the dynamics of materiality over time and space. In cross-cultural, multi-temporal and interdisciplinary studies the authors examine how things gain meaning and status, generate a multitude of emotions, and feed into the propagation of myths, narratives and discourses. The book is divided according to four themes: soft objects, stoic stories, consuming and the collectable, and waste and technologies. The first section discusses the meanings of the lived environment on the individual and national levels. The second section provides specific examples on the role of things in identity construction. The third section focuses on historical and contemporary aspects of consumption and collecting. The phenomena under scrutiny in the fourth section are moral dilemmas associated with and representations of dirt/waste and advancements in science and technology. Presenting diverse case studies of material culture, the volume points to rich interdisciplinary approaches in cultural theory

Household waste management in a South African township

South Africa emerged from apartheid in 1994 as a nation divided by race and class. The apartheid laws enforced separate development, which disadvantaged the black African population; especially the Xhosa people in rural Eastern Cape and the Zulu people in KwaZulu-Natal province. The democratically elected government inherited a country marked by social and economic inequalities, which had been enforced by the apartheid regime. A notable spatial variability in South Africa remains the difference in level of basic service provision between the former white suburbs and the black townships. The most visible evidence of poor service delivery in townships are informal household waste dumps. The main causes of the continuing waste problems in South African townships are high population growth and urbanisation rates, compounded by a lack of enforcement of environmental legislation. The transition to democracy demolished laws that restricted free movement between urban and rural areas resulting in large-scale urbanisation. This coincided with the integration into the national economy of black South Africans. The changes in their consumption patterns further accelerated the generation of waste. To remedy the household waste problem, a national policy framework was adopted focusing on achieving environmental and social justice while promoting economic development in deprived regions. The waste management policy aims to create sustainable and inclusive cities. Its implications and effectiveness have not been examined in township areas.This thesis applies an approach of feminist political ecology to further the understanding of the complex socio-political relationships around household waste management in a multi-ethnic urban South African township. The aim of the research is to develop an in-depth understanding of household waste management in a post-apartheid urban township in order to evaluate the management challenges and identify opportunities for waste minimization. Fieldwork was undertaken in Lamontville Township, an urban community on the periphery of eThekwini Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The research adopts a mixed methods approach. Qualitative information was gathered through focus group discussions, participatory activities, as well as interviews with waste management stakeholders and key informants. Quantitative data was gathered through a structured household survey that was administered to household members in Lamontville Township. Secondary data was collected from government websites and officials.The research suggests that the waste problems in Lamontville reflect a number of underlying issues. According to the local municipality, waste collection is prioritised in areas where residents are contributing towards local taxes. However, not all parts of the township have the option of paying taxes, including peripheral areas that have not been formally incorporated. Disproportionately, Xhosa people, recent immigrants to KwaZulu-Natal, are located on the periphery of the township. Findings indicate discourses around dirt, gender and ethnicity are prevalent among both township populations and local government, compounding the challenges of integration. New and different forms of discrimination have developed whereby people are excluded from service provision based on gender, class and ethnicity. The policy framework designed to counteract the ills of apartheid is not coping with the fragmented social landscape and therefore has not achieved social inclusion. The application of the national waste management policy further divides South African society, increasing the socio-economic and spatial inequalities and tensions between different communities

Computer Aided Verification

This open access two-volume set LNCS 13371 and 13372 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 34rd International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2022, which was held in Haifa, Israel, in August 2022. The 40 full papers presented together with 9 tool papers and 2 case studies were carefully reviewed and selected from 209 submissions. The papers were organized in the following topical sections: Part I: Invited papers; formal methods for probabilistic programs; formal methods for neural networks; software Verification and model checking; hyperproperties and security; formal methods for hardware, cyber-physical, and hybrid systems. Part II: Probabilistic techniques; automata and logic; deductive verification and decision procedures; machine learning; synthesis and concurrency. This is an open access book