CAMPUS GRIDS: A FRAMEWORK TO FACILITATE RESOURCE SHARING

It is common at research institutions to maintain multiple clusters. These might fulfill different needs and policies, or represent different owners or generations of hard- ware. Many of these clusters are under utilized while researchers at other departments may require these resources. This may be solved by linking clusters with grid mid- dleware. This thesis describes a distributed high throughput computing framework to link clusters without changing security or execution environments. The framework initially keeps jobs local to the submitter, overflowing if necessary to the campus, and regional grid. The framework is implemented spanning two campuses at the Holland Computing Center. We evaluate the framework for five characteristics of campus grids. This framework is then further expanded to bridge campus grids into a regional grid, and overflow to national cyberinfrastructure

Model-Based Systems Engineering Approach to Distributed and Hybrid Simulation Systems

INCOSE defines Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) as the formalized application of modeling to support system requirements, design, analysis, verification, and validation activities beginning in the conceptual design phase and continuing throughout development and later life cycle phases. One very important development is the utilization of MBSE to develop distributed and hybrid (discrete-continuous) simulation modeling systems. MBSE can help to describe the systems to be modeled and help make the right decisions and partitions to tame complexity. The ability to embrace conceptual modeling and interoperability techniques during systems specification and design presents a great advantage in distributed and hybrid simulation systems development efforts. Our research is aimed at the definition of a methodological framework that uses MBSE languages, methods and tools for the development of these simulation systems. A model-based composition approach is defined at the initial steps to identify distributed systems interoperability requirements and hybrid simulation systems characteristics. Guidelines are developed to adopt simulation interoperability standards and conceptual modeling techniques using MBSE methods and tools. Domain specific system complexity and behavior can be captured with model-based approaches during the system architecture and functional design requirements definition. MBSE can allow simulation engineers to formally model different aspects of a problem ranging from architectures to corresponding behavioral analysis, to functional decompositions and user requirements (Jobe, 2008)

A Visual Analytics Framework for Reviewing Streaming Performance Data

Understanding and tuning the performance of extreme-scale parallel computing systems demands a streaming approach due to the computational cost of applying offline algorithms to vast amounts of performance log data. Analyzing large streaming data is challenging because the rate of receiving data and limited time to comprehend data make it difficult for the analysts to sufficiently examine the data without missing important changes or patterns. To support streaming data analysis, we introduce a visual analytic framework comprising of three modules: data management, analysis, and interactive visualization. The data management module collects various computing and communication performance metrics from the monitored system using streaming data processing techniques and feeds the data to the other two modules. The analysis module automatically identifies important changes and patterns at the required latency. In particular, we introduce a set of online and progressive analysis methods for not only controlling the computational costs but also helping analysts better follow the critical aspects of the analysis results. Finally, the interactive visualization module provides the analysts with a coherent view of the changes and patterns in the continuously captured performance data. Through a multi-faceted case study on performance analysis of parallel discrete-event simulation, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework for identifying bottlenecks and locating outliers.Comment: This is the author's preprint version that will be published in Proceedings of IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium, 202

Oramics: Precedents, Technology and Influence: Daphne Oram (1925-2003)

Since the recent re-emergence of the work of British composer and inventor Daphne Oram, and the purchase of her Oramics Machine by the Science Museum, and their subsequent Oramics to Electronica exhibition, there has been much enthusiastic comment and re-appraisal of her work since she faded into obscurity from the late seventies onwards. Some of her recordings have been (re)released and she is now regularly written and blogged about, yet still, relatively little is known about her in terms of real detail with regard to her research and innovational achievements. Drawing heavily on the Daphne Oram archive at Goldsmiths, and the Oramics Machine in the collection of the Science Museum, this research is an attempt to define and contextualise Oram's achievements with the Oramics Machine and her subsequent attempts to miniaturise and commercialise the concept with Mini Oramics. It is an investigation as to why her ambitious and holistic approach to electronic music production did not make a bigger impact, at a time when the palette of the electronic musician was rapidly expanding, and anyone with good ideas, technical prowess and financial backing might have succeeded, before the eventual domination and homogenisation of the synthesiser/sequencer market by the major electronics corporations of Japan; before the era of the home studio. Central to this research is the construction of a version of Mini Oramics, an existing design (of Oram’s with a considerable input from John Emmett, Norman Gaythorpe and others), which, had it been developed further and brought to market, would have become Oram's commercial and educational product. The newly constructed Mini Oramics has been experimented with and evaluated by musicians and composers. This practice-based research will inform the other strands of the research and will feed into arguments about the artistic, technical, and commercial feasibility of the Oramics Machine at what became a pivotal moment for Electronic Music and Music Technology

The formation of new inter-firm relationships: A UK offshore wind sector analysis.

The focus of this thesis is to understand the initial formation of inter-firm relationships with the aim of establishing a long-term relationship in the offshore-wind sector. It is common to initiate relationships with pre-existing partners but less is known about how firms form relationships with strangers. This thesis attempts to answer a research question: ‘How and why new inter-firm relationships are built in nascent industries with highly uncertain business environments?’ The research involves three longitudinal case studies (12 pairs of supplier-buyer relationships) of three offshore wind (OSW) suppliers and one OSW buyer, and their relationships with new partners in a highly uncertain market and political context. By examining the early-stage relationships between a supplier and multiple new customers this study provides insights into supplier selection in the OSW sector. It identifies the main motivations for OSW supply chain companies seeking new partnerships and how they benefit from the new relationships despite facing high market risk and political uncertainty. Furthermore, this research reveals how inter-firm relationships progress (or fail) from one stage to another under high market risk and political uncertainty. This study argues that the way the selective process is being managed is as important as the levels of compatibility and complementarity and makes theoretical contributions on how to achieve greater understanding and knowledge advancement of dynamic relationship life-cycle management, effects of compatibility and complementarity, uncertainty and time series dimensions are made

Security of Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-physical system (CPS) innovations, in conjunction with their sibling computational and technological advancements, have positively impacted our society, leading to the establishment of new horizons of service excellence in a variety of applicational fields. With the rapid increase in the application of CPSs in safety-critical infrastructures, their safety and security are the top priorities of next-generation designs. The extent of potential consequences of CPS insecurity is large enough to ensure that CPS security is one of the core elements of the CPS research agenda. Faults, failures, and cyber-physical attacks lead to variations in the dynamics of CPSs and cause the instability and malfunction of normal operations. This reprint discusses the existing vulnerabilities and focuses on detection, prevention, and compensation techniques to improve the security of safety-critical systems

Identification and regulation of receptors involved in plant immunity

Plants sense invading microbes using surface-localised transmembrane receptors (pattern recognition receptors, PRRs) and intracellular nucleotide-binding - leucine-rich repeats proteins (NB-LRR). PRRs detect elicitors conserved amongst whole classes of microbes (pathogen-associated molecular patterns, PAMPs), such as bacterial flagellin. PAMP perception initiates cellular reactions collectively called PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI). Considering the number of transmembrane receptors present in plant genomes, only few PRRs have been identified to date. Identification of novel PRRs is important from a basic knowledge standpoint and because interfamily transfer of PRRs can confer broad-spectrum disease resistance. I used the common PRR co-factor BAK1 as bait to purify new PRRs after PAMP treatment. The success of this novel strategy was confirmed by the identification of the receptor for the bacterial PAMP cold shock protein (CSP) from Nicotiana benthamiana (Cold Shock Protein Receptor; NbCSPR). Perception of CSP is potentiated by earlier flagellin recognition, confers resistance to bacteria in an age-dependent manner, and limits Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of flowering N. benthamiana plants. Transfer of NbCSPR to Arabidopsis thaliana confers CSP recognition, suggesting that the gene can be transferred into other plant species to confer anti-bacterial resistance. I further studied recognition of the fungal pathogen Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici in non-host species. Treatment of N. benthamiana and A. thaliana with stripe rust PAMP-preparations suggested the existence of PRRs that recognise this wheat pathogen. Using the above BAK1 strategy, I identified candidates for such PRRs and their potential roles in restricting rust diseases in non-host plants through PTI may now be determined. PTI can be supressed by pathogenic microbes through the secretion of virulence effector proteins, which target defence components and lead to disease development in susceptible plants. The recognition of effectors by intracellular NB-LRR Resistance (R) protein can however initiate effector-triggered immunity (ETI), usually associated with a localised cell death that can prevent pathogen spread. How effector recognition translates to cell death is not well understood. Because of the dramatic outcome of ETI, R proteins have to be tightly regulated, and understanding these mechanisms is crucial for engineering durable resistance to crop pathogens. The tomato R protein complex composed of the Pto kinase and the NB-LRR protein Prf confers resistance to the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pathovar tomato (Psto), the causal agent of bacterial speck disease. The Pto/Prf complex is tightly regulated: In the absence of the Psto effectors AvrPto and AvrPtoB, Pto negatively regulates Prf and vice versa. Effector binding to Pto triggers a number of conformational changes within the complex for which the structural basis is largely undetermined. The unique N-terminal domain of Prf (N) is the Pto binding site, and must play an important role in regulation of the complex. I analysed the interactions between Pto and N using a co-immunoprecipitation strategy. I developed a schematic model of the complex, which includes a novel interaction between the N and LRR domains. Finally, using the Pto homolog Fen, I develop a model suggesting that Fen (and by analogy Pto) together with N, encodes the module for downstream signalling, leading to cell death and resistance

The role of culture in website localization: Clarks International - A case of study

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