Parallel and Distributed Computing

The 14 chapters presented in this book cover a wide variety of representative works ranging from hardware design to application development. Particularly, the topics that are addressed are programmable and reconfigurable devices and systems, dependability of GPUs (General Purpose Units), network topologies, cache coherence protocols, resource allocation, scheduling algorithms, peertopeer networks, largescale network simulation, and parallel routines and algorithms. In this way, the articles included in this book constitute an excellent reference for engineers and researchers who have particular interests in each of these topics in parallel and distributed computing

Preventing premature convergence and proving the optimality in evolutionary algorithms

http://ea2013.inria.fr//proceedings.pdfInternational audienceEvolutionary Algorithms (EA) usually carry out an efficient exploration of the search-space, but get often trapped in local minima and do not prove the optimality of the solution. Interval-based techniques, on the other hand, yield a numerical proof of optimality of the solution. However, they may fail to converge within a reasonable time due to their inability to quickly compute a good approximation of the global minimum and their exponential complexity. The contribution of this paper is a hybrid algorithm called Charibde in which a particular EA, Differential Evolution, cooperates with a Branch and Bound algorithm endowed with interval propagation techniques. It prevents premature convergence toward local optima and outperforms both deterministic and stochastic existing approaches. We demonstrate its efficiency on a benchmark of highly multimodal problems, for which we provide previously unknown global minima and certification of optimality

Sessenta anos de Shop Scheduling : uma revisão sistemática da literatura

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Cassius Tadeu ScarpinDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Tecnologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção. Defesa: Curitiba, 09/02/2017Inclui referências : f. 449-492Resumo: Desde o seminal artigo de Johnson em 1954, a Programação da Produção em Shop Scheduling tem se tornado uma área relevante dentro da Pesquisa Operacional e, atualmente, duzentos trabalhos tangentes à temática são publicados anualmente. Dentre os artigos aqui citados tem-se aqueles que se dedicam à apresentação e síntese do estado da arte desse assunto, intitulados artigos de revisão. Quando tais artigos são elaborados a partir de um conjunto objetivo de critérios, relativos à categorização dos artigos selecionados, tem-se a Revisão Sistemática da Literatura (RSL). O presente trabalho realiza uma RSL em Shop Scheduling, a partir da análise de cada ambiente fabril que o compõe. Fez-se o escrutínio de 560 artigos, à luz de um conjunto de métricas, que constitui a estrutura basilar da proposta de nova taxonomia do Shop Scheduling, complementar à notação de Graham, objetivo fulcral do presente trabalho. Além disso, utilizou-se uma representação em redes dos resultados obtidos em algumas das métricas empregadas, como a característica dos itens, algo outrora inaudito em estudos de revisão desse assunto. Ademais, outro ponto relevante desse estudo repousa na identificação de campos pouco explorados, de modo a colaborar com a pesquisa futura neste tomo. Palavras-chave: Shop Scheduling. Revisão Sistemática da Literatura. Taxonomia. Representação em Redes.Abstract: Since Johnson's seminal article in 1954, Shop Scheduling in Production Scheduling has become a relevant area within Operational Research, and currently hundreds of tangential works on the subject are published annually. Among the articles cited here are those dedicated to the presentation and synthesis of the state of the art of this subject, which are entitled review articles. When these articles are elaborated from an objective set of criteria, regarding the categorization of the selected articles, we have the Systematic Review of Literature (SLR). The present work performs a SLR in Shop Scheduling, based on the analysis of each manufacturing environment that composes it. There were 560 articles scrutinized based on a set of metrics, which is the basic structure of the proposed new Taxonomy of Shop Scheduling, complementary to Graham's notation, the main objective of this work. In addition to that a network representation of the results was obtained in some of the metrics used, such as the job characteristics, something previously unheard of in review studies of this subject. Moreover, another relevant point of this study lies in the identification of less explored fields in order to collaborate with future research in this matter. Keywords: Shop Scheduling. Systematic Literature Review. Taxonomy. Network Representation

Solving job shop scheduling problems utilizing the properties of backbone and “big valley”

Job shop scheduling problem, Makespan, Backbone, Big valley, Metaheuristic,

Studies in Matamoros and Cameron County history

The Pineda plaque / Don Clifford -- El romanticismo Hispanoamericano tambien florecio aqui / Jorge Green Huie -- La batalla de la Resaca de la Palma / Carlos Rosas -- Los Matamorenses fundan el casino / Andres Cuellar -- The shifting relationship between Harlingen and San Benito in the first three decades of the Twentieth century / Milo Kearney -- Reading Zane Grey in Brownsville / Mimosa Stephenson -- After the boss: Twentieth century political trends of Brownsville city government / Anthony K. Knopp -- Ethnicity and political participation in Cameron and Hidalgo counties: Mexican American voters and nonvoters / J. L. Polinard, Robert D. Winkle, and Norman E. Binder -- Poem: “Karankawas” / Marty Lewis -- E. J. Davis: traitor or idealist? / Sondra Shands with Sherry McCullough -- El General Manuel Gonzalez Flores / Clemente Rendon de la Garza -- Colonel Sam A. Roberston and his house / Henry E. Agar and Margaret E. Brown -- Biografia del General de Division Lauro Villar Ochoa / Gustavo Flores Sanchez -- Don Luis Emigdio Rendon Arias / Elia Garcia Cruz -- Ladislao Cardenas / Maria Luisa Meade -- Don Florentino Cuellar Martinez / Alma Rodriguez -- Jose Rangel Cantu: the conscience of South Texas / Carlos Larralde -- Gene McNair / Nat Flores -- Jim Mills: from West Texas famer to South Texas mayor / James W. Mills, Brent H. Mills, Susan E. Mills -- Frank Yturria: profile of a citizen / Eliana Guerrero Ramos Bennett -- Poem: “Valle Hermoso” / Manuel F. Rodriguez Brayda -- De cronistas e historiadores: apuntes para una historia conjunta / Cirila Quintero Ramirez -- Matamoros, cartago de America / Oscar Rivera Saldana -- Historia de la Sautena / Jose M. Karlis -- Colonia Diez y Ocho de Marzo / Nora E. Rios McMillan -- A selected history of fine arts in Brownsville / Nancy Escobedo Churchill -- Hispanic journalism in Brownsville, Texas / Cipriano Cardenas -- The history of the Maquiladora industry in Matamoros / Kathleen E. Owen -- An initial overview of Matamoros’ Nineteeth-Century street names / Thomas B. Carroll -- La ciuidad de Matamoros en el Siglo XIX / Jaime Mendoza Martinez -- Instituto literario de San Juan / Jaime Mendoza Martinez -- Architecture in Brownsville: the 20th century / Stephen Fox -- Historic folk sainthood along the Texas-Mexico Border / Joseph Spielberg and Antonio Zavaleta -- Poem: “Playa de Matamoros” / Manuel F. Rodriguez Brayda.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/regionalhist/1004/thumbnail.jp

Bowdoin Orient v.131, no.1-24 (1999-2000)

https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinorient-2000s/1000/thumbnail.jp

With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture since 1830

Popular culture is a central part of everyday life to many Americans. Personalities such as Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jordan are more recognizable to many people than are most elected officials. With Amusement for All is the first comprehensive history of two centuries of mass entertainment in the United States, covering everything from the penny press to Playboy, the NBA to NASCAR, big band to hip hop, and other topics including film, comics, television, sports, dance, and music. Paying careful attention to matters of race, gender, class, technology, economics, and politics, LeRoy Ashby emphasizes the complex ways in which popular culture simultaneously reflects and transforms American culture, revealing that the world of entertainment constantly evolves as it tries to meet the demands of a diverse audience. Trends in popular entertainment often reveal the tensions between competing ideologies, appetites, and values in American society. For example, in the late nineteenth century, Americans embraced “self-made men” such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie: the celebrities of the day were circus tycoons P.T. Barnum and James A. Bailey, Wild West star “Buffalo Bill” Cody, professional baseball organizer Albert Spalding, and prizefighter John L. Sullivan. At the same time, however, several female performers challenged traditional notions of weak, frail Victorian women. Adah Isaacs Menken astonished crowds by wearing tights that made her appear nude while performing dangerous stunts on horseback, and the shows of the voluptuous burlesque group British Blondes often centered on provocative images of female sexual power and dominance. Ashby describes how history and politics frequently influence mainstream entertainment. When Native Americans, blacks, and other non-whites appeared in the nineteenth-century circuses and Wild West shows, it was often to perpetuate demeaning racial stereotypes—crowds jeered Sitting Bull at Cody’s shows. By the early twentieth century, however, black minstrel acts reveled in racial tensions, reinforcing stereotypes while at the same time satirizing them and mocking racist attitudes before a predominantly white audience. Decades later, Red Foxx and Richard Pryor’s profane comedy routines changed American entertainment. The raw ethnic material of Pryor’s short-lived television show led to a series of African-American sitcoms in the 1980s that presented common American experiences—from family life to college life—with black casts. Mainstream entertainment has often co-opted and sanitized fringe amusements in an ongoing process of redefining the cultural center and its boundaries. Social control and respectability vied with the bold, erotic, sensational, and surprising, as entrepreneurs sought to manipulate the vagaries of the market, control shifting public appetites, and capitalize on campaigns to protect public morals. Rock ‘n Roll was one such fringe culture; in the 1950s, Elvis blurred gender norms with his androgynous style and challenged conventions of public decency with his sexually-charged performances. By the end of the 1960s, Bob Dylan introduced the social consciousness of folk music into the rock scene, and The Beatles embraced hippie counter-culture. Don McLean’s 1971 anthem “American Pie” served as an epitaph for rock’s political core, which had been replaced by the spectacle of hard rock acts such as Kiss and Alice Cooper. While Rock ‘n Roll did not lose its ability to shock, in less than three decades it became part of the established order that it had originally sought to challenge. With Amusement for All provides the context to what Americans have done for fun since 1830, showing the reciprocal nature of the relationships between social, political, economic, and cultural forces and the way in which the entertainment world has reflected, refracted, or reinforced the values those forces represent in America. LeRoy Ashby is Regents Professor and Claudius O. and Mary Johnson Distinguished Professor of History at Washington State University. He is the author of several books, including Fighting the Odds: The Life of Senator Frank Church and Endangered Children: Dependency, Neglect, and Abuse in American History. Combines being a remarkably quixotic endeavor with being something of a monumental achievement of scholarship and pure perseverance. --Belles Lettres -- Belles Lettres When regarding this book\u27s comprehensiveness, the richness of its detail, and the strength of its interpretation of the specifics of popular culture, I stand in awe. What an achievement! Majestic! --Benjamin G. Rader, author of Baseball: A History of America\u27s Game This intelligent, energetic book has the ability to appeal to historians and scholars without distancing the general reader. The easy linear narrative is punctuated by songs, comic anecdotes, and rich descriptions that bring each era to life. --Charleston Post and Courier Ashby has given us a fine new book. They say in baseball, \u27it\u27s hard to tell the players without a scorecard.\u27 With Amusement for All will be the new scorecard for anyone interested in the study of popular culture. The book is both comprehensive and smart, a fine combination of surveying the terrain then saying intelligent things about it. Ashby has rendered an invaluable service. --Elliott Gorn, co-author of A Brief History of American Sports American popular culture isn\u27t a distraction from the serious issues of our time. It is inseparable from them. . . . Researches events ranging from Wild West shows to Janet Jackson\u27s wardrobe malfunctions during the 2004 Super Bowl. --Lewiston Tribune No single author has tackled popular culture with so much breadth and depth and managed to strike a balance between the popular and scholarly approaches. Ashby\u27s absorbing and hugely informative study will appeal to a wide audience. Highly recommended. --Library Journal (starred review) I know of no other book that provides the same kind of documented, engaging, and lively narrative about American popular culture as With Amusement for All. --Michael Allen, author of Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination It is not taken for granted that Super Bowls and reality talent shows are discussed around water coolers everywhere the morning after they occur. What should be more common is the use of such entertainment supernovas by historians interested in understanding what makes American culture tick. Thanks to Ashby\u27s fascinating book, this task has become substantially easier. --Pacific Northwest Quarterly The author skilfully quotes appropriate anecdotes and gives us fine, brief descriptions of some of the personalities of the day. . . . Well and fluently written and pleasant to read, and offers a good summary of a whole lot of material about popular culture. --Early Popular Visual Culture Without question, the author...has researched and written a masterpiece. The book is a tour de force in its field and has made popular culture--once thought to be a frivolous area for academic study--a serious field of inquiry. --USA Today LeRoy Ashby draws on the substantial volume of historical scholarship on American popular culture produced since the 1970s to present a survey of impressive breadth on two centuries of American amusements. --Journal of American History “You’ll enjoy this fascinating and massively researched volume on how Americans have amused themselves and how it changed the world.” –WTBF Radio In With Amusement for All, one will find a wide variety of entertainment venues - radio, television, music, sports, movies and the internet; from P.T. Barnum\u27s bunkum to Sheldon Cooper\u27s hokum , it is all here, presented in an informative, entertaining narrative. -- The Past in Review -- The Past in Reviewhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_american_popular_culture/1017/thumbnail.jp