RCD: Rapid Close to Deadline Scheduling for Datacenter Networks

Datacenter-based Cloud Computing services provide a flexible, scalable and yet economical infrastructure to host online services such as multimedia streaming, email and bulk storage. Many such services perform geo-replication to provide necessary quality of service and reliability to users resulting in frequent large inter- datacenter transfers. In order to meet tenant service level agreements (SLAs), these transfers have to be completed prior to a deadline. In addition, WAN resources are quite scarce and costly, meaning they should be fully utilized. Several recently proposed schemes, such as B4, TEMPUS, and SWAN have focused on improving the utilization of inter-datacenter transfers through centralized scheduling, however, they fail to provide a mechanism to guarantee that admitted requests meet their deadlines. Also, in a recent study, authors propose Amoeba, a system that allows tenants to define deadlines and guarantees that the specified deadlines are met, however, to admit new traffic, the proposed system has to modify the allocation of already admitted transfers. In this paper, we propose Rapid Close to Deadline Scheduling (RCD), a close to deadline traffic allocation technique that is fast and efficient. Through simulations, we show that RCD is up to 15 times faster than Amoeba, provides high link utilization along with deadline guarantees, and is able to make quick decisions on whether a new request can be fully satisfied before its deadline.Comment: World Automation Congress (WAC), IEEE, 201

Virtual Runtime Application Partitions for Resource Management in Massively Parallel Architectures

This thesis presents a novel design paradigm, called Virtual Runtime Application Partitions (VRAP), to judiciously utilize the on-chip resources. As the dark silicon era approaches, where the power considerations will allow only a fraction chip to be powered on, judicious resource management will become a key consideration in future designs. Most of the works on resource management treat only the physical components (i.e. computation, communication, and memory blocks) as resources and manipulate the component to application mapping to optimize various parameters (e.g. energy efficiency). To further enhance the optimization potential, in addition to the physical resources we propose to manipulate abstract resources (i.e. voltage/frequency operating point, the fault-tolerance strength, the degree of parallelism, and the configuration architecture). The proposed framework (i.e. VRAP) encapsulates methods, algorithms, and hardware blocks to provide each application with the abstract resources tailored to its needs. To test the efficacy of this concept, we have developed three distinct self adaptive environments: (i) Private Operating Environment (POE), (ii) Private Reliability Environment (PRE), and (iii) Private Configuration Environment (PCE) that collectively ensure that each application meets its deadlines using minimal platform resources. In this work several novel architectural enhancements, algorithms and policies are presented to realize the virtual runtime application partitions efficiently. Considering the future design trends, we have chosen Coarse Grained Reconfigurable Architectures (CGRAs) and Network on Chips (NoCs) to test the feasibility of our approach. Specifically, we have chosen Dynamically Reconfigurable Resource Array (DRRA) and McNoC as the representative CGRA and NoC platforms. The proposed techniques are compared and evaluated using a variety of quantitative experiments. Synthesis and simulation results demonstrate VRAP significantly enhances the energy and power efficiency compared to state of the art.Siirretty Doriast

Characterization of anaerobic biotransformation of β-hexachlorocyclohexane

Hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) is a contaminant of concern worldwide. HCH has four main isomers α, β, δ, and γ-HCH. Since only γ-HCH (Lindane) has a specific pesticide activity, the purification of Lindane resulted in the production of other waste residues. β-HCH is the most persistent one, has relatively low water solubility and is considered highly carcinogenic and health hazardous. A large amount of β-HCH produced as a by-product which was dumped at landfill sites has caused heavy contamination in soil, groundwater, and atmosphere. In this study, we focused on the anaerobic degradation of β-HCH. Thus far, only one anaerobic, Dehalobacter sp. containing, a culture was reported in the literature. Contaminated soil was collected from a highly contaminated site in China and anaerobic microcosms were set up to enrich β-HCH degrading microorganisms. The degradation potential was evaluated by measuring the concentration of the products benzene and mono chlorobenzene (MCB). At the same time, cell growth was monitored by fluorescent microscopy. Illumina sequencing was done for the first and second generation and bacteria belonging to the Firmicutes, including Dehalobacter, Gelria, and Gracilibacter, were dominant. Additionally, the genomic DNA from an active, fourth generation, the β-HCH degrading culture was isolated and a 16s-rRNA clone library was prepared for subsequent sequencing to analyze the overall microbial diversity. Furthermore, compound-specific carbon stable isotope analysis (CSIA) will be applied to investigate the transformation pathway

Feasibility of Primary PCI as the Reperfusion Strategy for Acute ST elevation MI at PIMS

Objective: To determine the feasibility of primary PCI in terms of frequency of patients with acute ST elevation MI found to have a first-medical-contact to needle time of 90 minutes.Methodology: The descriptive, cross sectional case series was conducted at department of Cardiology, PIMS, Islamabad from January 2017 to April 2017Results: A total of 350 patients were enrolled into the study, 67% (235) of which were males and 33% (115) females. Mean age of the participating population was 54 ±7.8 years. The mean first medical contact needle time was 2.3±1.1 hours, out of which a vast majority (73%) fell into the 90 minutes range. The patients had a median first medical contact to needle time of 74 minutes.Conclusion: The study concluded that majority of patients presenting to the emergency department with acute STEMI were found to be feasible for primary PCI as the reperfusion strategy with an FMC to needle time of less than 90 minutes. Therefore, accelerated efforts need to be made to develop this center as a primary PCI capable facility providing such standards of care to patients with ST-elevation MI

The Role of Rater Motivation and Training in Effective Performance Appraisal System in Public Sector Universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Performance appraisal is considered to be the most significant element of performance management but often the former involves controversial practices, among other variables influenced by accuracy and effectiveness. However, it is generally understood that performance appraisal system commonly result into positive organizational outcomes, yet the accuracy of the measuring tools is still an arguable issue with more criticisms. The ongoing matters are measured and tested as a case study approach by paying attention on higher education institutions. Since higher education is progressively playing a vital role in economic competitiveness of a country. Aiming to examine the effect of rater motivation and rater training on performance appraisal process in public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and recognized as a critical contribution to organizational and people’s performance. Thus, this study finds the effects and consequences of rater motivation and rater training on performance appraisal system. This study is survey based, 300 questionnaires in total were distributed among the faculty of public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Out of which 160 were received back recording response rate of 53%. Findings of this study indicate that there was positive and significant relationship between rater motivation and performance appraisal and also between rater training and performance appraisal in public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The current study offers researchers with the opportunity to search performance appraisal from a new perspective which has never been explored before in a developing country like Pakistan

The Effect of Total Quality Management on Firm Performance with the Mediating Roles of Innovation and Knowledge Management in Small Medium Enterprises

In the present era, the policy and decision makers are quite concerned regarding quality, hence the firms are more intricate and facing questions concerning which quality management practice would be adopted to increase the firm’s performance. The primary objective of this paper was to identify the effect of total quality management on firm’s performance through the mediating roles of innovation and knowledge management in the SME’S of Pakistan. A sum of 280 respondents was selected for data collection from various SME’S and employing a structural equation modelling for data analysis. It was summed up that a statistically significant causal correlation has been found among the TQM, innovation, knowledge management and firm’s performance. This article is established on theories like resource based theory and institutional theory. The results give cognitive understandings regarding how the modern as well as present SME’s would accomplish higher performance and consistent competitiveness through the interplay of these variables in the local and international market