Enhancing the interoperability between distributed-memory and task-based programming models

Hybrid applications allow to exploit both inter- and intra-node parallelism, however the programming models currently used are not designed to be combined. For this reason, we propose a generic mechanism to enhance the interoperability between distributed-memory and task-based programming models

Decoupling User Interface Design Using Libraries of Reusable Components

The integration of electronic and mechanical hardware, software and interaction design presents a challenging design space for researchers developing physical user interfaces and interactive artifacts. Currently in the academic research community, physical user interfaces and interactive artifacts are predominantly designed and prototyped either as one-off instances from the ground up, or using functionally rich hardware toolkits and prototyping systems. During this prototyping phase, undertaking an integral design of the interface or interactive artifact’s electronic hardware is frequently constraining due to the tight couplings between the different design realms and the typical need for iterations as the design matures. Several current toolkit designs have consequently embraced component-sharing and component-swapping modular designs with a view to extending flexibility and improving researcher freedom by disentangling and softening the cause-effect couplings. Encouraged by early successes of these toolkits, this research work strives to further enhance these freedoms by pursuing an alternative style and dimension of hardware modularity. Another motivation is our goal to facilitate the design and development of certain classes of interfaces and interactive artifacts for which current electronic design approaches are argued to be restrictively constraining (e.g., relating to scale and complexity). Unfortunately, this goal of a new platform architecture is met with conceptual and technical challenges on the embedded system networking front. In response, this research investigates and extends a growing field of multi-module distributed embedded systems. We identify and characterize a sub-class of these systems, calling them embedded aggregates. We then outline and develop a framework for realizing the embedded aggregate class of systems. Toward this end, this thesis examines several architectures, topologies and communication protocols, making the case for and substantial steps toward the development of a suite of networking protocols and control algorithms to support embedded aggregates. We define a set of protocols, mechanisms and communication packets that collectively form the underlying framework for the aggregates. Following the aggregates design, we develop blades and tiles to support user interface researchers

COVID-19: Preparing for the future: looking ahead to winter 2021/22 and beyond

Despite a highly successful vaccination campaign in the UK, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is not over, and we are currently seeing rapidly rising infection rates. While there is an understandable and intense desire for ‘normality’ to return, we need to sustain our efforts to limit the transmission and impacts of the virus, particularly for the most vulnerable, for the longer term. To prepare for the winter period and beyond, the priorities over the summer period must be to: Maximise the speed and uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in all eligible age groups, and prepare for possible booster vaccines in priority groups and vaccination against influenza later in the year. Increase the ability of people with COVID-19 to self-isolate through financial and other support, with a particular focus on those in areas of persistent transmission and in the lowest socio-economic groups. Boost capacity in the NHS (staff and beds) to: build resilience against future outbreaks of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, including through improving infection prevention and control (IPC), increasing vaccination and testing capacity for COVID-19 and influenza, adequately resourcing primary care, and reducing the backlog of non-COVID-19 care. Provide clear guidance about environmental and behavioural precautions (such as the use of face coverings, ventilation and physical distancing) that individuals and organisations can take to protect themselves and others, especially those who are most vulnerable from infection

Space Transportation System and associated payloads: Glossary, acronyms, and abbreviations

A collection of acronyms in everyday use concerning shuttle activities is presented. A glossary of terms pertaining to the Space Transportation System is included

Space transportation system and associated payloads: Glossary, acronyms, and abbreviations

A collection of some of the acronyms and abbreviations now in everyday use in the shuttle world is presented. It is a combination of lists that were prepared at Marshall Space Flight Center and Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers, places where intensive shuttle activities are being carried out. This list is intended as a guide or reference and should not be considered to have the status and sanction of a dictionary

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 1

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 1

Private Telegraphy: The Path from Private Wires to Subscriber Lines in Victorian Britain

In this thesis, I investigate private telegraphy from its rise in the late 1830s to the advent of exchange telephony in the early 1880s. In contrast to public telegraphy where telegrams were transmitted over a shared network infrastructure, private telegraphy was a direct, more immediate form of user-to-user communication delivered over private wires. My objective is to redress a historiographical distortion in the understanding of the Victorian telegraph created by the conflation of the concept of telegraph with telegram, and by the prominence given to the nationalisation of the telegraph industry in 1870 in the discourse of historians like Jeffrey Kieve or Charles Perry, thus obscuring the critical role played by private telegraphy in the history of communication. To begin with, I expose the dichotomy between public and private telegraphy by demonstrating the similarities and rivalry between telegrams and letters. I contend that this rivalry was an important factor behind the nationalisation. The extent to which private telegraphy was distinct from public telegraphy is demonstrated through a comprehensive history of private wires and the first domestic telegraph instruments. I track the development of private wires, from their inception at the hands of users of the telegraph to their assimilation by telephony, and show their versatility for diverse uses. I also reveal how telegraphic intercommunication systems – the so-called Umschalters – were reconfigured to become the Post Office’s first generation of telephone exchanges in the early 1880s. From this novel perspective, I counter the received scholarly view that the Post Office obstructed the expansion of telephony to protect the Crown’s stake in telegraphy. I claim instead that the Post Office exploited the installed base of Umschalters and private wires, by then referred to as subscriber lines, to become an active participant in the nascent telephone industry alongside the private companies, thus accelerating the take-up of exchange telephony