Timed Consistent Network Updates

Network updates such as policy and routing changes occur frequently in Software Defined Networks (SDN). Updates should be performed consistently, preventing temporary disruptions, and should require as little overhead as possible. Scalability is increasingly becoming an essential requirement in SDN. In this paper we propose to use time-triggered network updates to achieve consistent updates. Our proposed solution requires lower overhead than existing update approaches, without compromising the consistency during the update. We demonstrate that accurate time enables far more scalable consistent updates in SDN than previously available. In addition, it provides the SDN programmer with fine-grained control over the tradeoff between consistency and scalability.Comment: This technical report is an extended version of the paper "Timed Consistent Network Updates", which was accepted to the ACM SIGCOMM Symposium on SDN Research (SOSR) '15, Santa Clara, CA, US, June 201

Risk Assessment Of Exotic Plant Diseases To The Australian Rice Industry, With Emphasis on Rice Blast

A pest risk assessment was carried out using all available information found in the literature and also two softwares developed by the CSIRO, CLIMEX and DYMEX. CLIMEX was used to assess the suitability of the climate in Australian rice growing area for each pest/disease and then when necessary and possible, a pest/disease model was created with DYMEX and run with Australian climatic data. The Australian climatic conditions and/or the rice growing practices were found to be unfavourable for the majority of the exotic diseases. However, two diseases of rice (rice blast and kernel smut) and one plant parasitic nematode genus (root nematodes) were identified as having the potential to threaten the Australian rice industry if ever introduced in south eastern Australia

Stocking Rate Theory and Profit Drivers in North Australian Rangeland Grazing Enterprises

Setting correct stock numbers is a key decision for successful pastoralism. In marginal environments, typified by northern Australia, this involves careful cattle herd management across landscapes and seasons characterised by heterogeneous land condition and extreme climatic uncertainty. Stocking rate theory which links animal production to stocking rates concentrates only on liveweight gain of sale animals and ignores complex herd (e.g. reproduction, mortality) and pasture dynamics (e.g. land condition) and costs of maintaining stock numbers (e.g. supplementary feeding). Related economic models are generally naïve and incomplete, being based on liveweight gain, meat prices and variable husbandry costs (e.g. Workman, 1986). Modelling approaches, which simulate whole herds (including breeding animals) with dynamic links between animal numbers, pasture availability, management effort and profits are more realistic. This paper explores the economic implications of changing stocking rates, animal production and management effort in the form of supplementary feeding

The genome sequence of the biocontrol fungus Metarhizium anisopliae and comparative genomics of Metarhizium species.

Background: Metarhizium anisopliae is an important fungal biocontrol agent of insect pests of agricultural crops. Genomics can aid the successful commercialization of biopesticides by identification of key genes differentiating closely related species, selection of virulent microbial isolates which are amenable to industrial scale production and formulation and through the reduction of phenotypic variability. The genome of Metarhizium isolate ARSEF23 was recently published as a model for M. anisopliae, however phylogenetic analysis has since re-classified this isolate as M. robertsii. We present a new annotated genome sequence of M. anisopliae (isolate Ma69) and whole genome comparison to M. robertsii (ARSEF23) and M. acridum (CQMa 102).Results: Whole genome analysis of M. anisopliae indicates significant macrosynteny with M. robertsii but with some large genomic inversions. In comparison to M. acridum, the genome of M. anisopliae shares lower sequence homology. While alignments overall are co-linear, the genome of M. acridum is not contiguous enough to conclusively observe macrosynteny. Mating type gene analysis revealed both MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 genes present in M. anisopliae suggesting putative homothallism, despite having no known teleomorph, in contrast with the putatively heterothallic M. acridum isolate CQMa 102 (MAT1-2) and M. robertsii isolate ARSEF23 (altered MAT1-1). Repetitive DNA and RIP analysis revealed M. acridum to have twice the repetitive content of the other two species and M. anisopliae to be five times more RIP affected than M. robertsii. We also present an initial bioinformatic survey of candidate pathogenicity genes in M. anisopliae.Conclusions: The annotated genome of M. anisopliae is an important resource for the identification of virulence genes specific to M. anisopliae and development of species- and strain- specific assays. New insight into the possibility of homothallism and RIP affectedness has important implications for the development of M. anisopliae as a biopesticide as it may indicate the potential for greater inherent diversity in this species than the other species. This could present opportunities to select isolates with unique combinations of pathogenicity factors, or it may point to instability in the species, a negative attribute in a biopesticide

Association of Botryosphaeriaceae grapevine trunk disease fungi with the reproductive structures of Vitis vinifera

Several species belonging to the Botryosphaeriaceae were isolated from grapevine (Vitis vinifera) tissue other than wood during a survey of two vineyards planted to cultivars ‘Chardonnay’ and ‘Shiraz’ in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia over the 2007/08 and 2008/09 growing seasons. A total of 188 isolates corresponding to nine different species of Diplodia, Dothiorella and Neofusicoccum anamorphs were isolated from dormant buds, flowers, pea-sized berries and mature berries prior to harvest in addition to 142 isolates from the trunks of the same vines. Furthermore, the occurrence of Dothiorella viticola, Diplodia mutila and Neofusicoccum australe is reported here for the first time from grapevines in the Hunter Valley. These findings may provide important information for the management and spread of Botryosphaeriaceae in vineyards where they are considered serious wood-invading pathogens. Botryosphaeriaceae are occasionally found on bunches, however, until now they have not directly been related  to bunch rots. Control strategies for trunk diseases caused by Botryosphaeriaceae are currently limited to remedial surgery and wound protection. These strategies do not consider other grapevine tissue as potential inoculum sources for infection of Botryosphaeriaceae in the vineyard.

Spectroscopy of neutron-unbound 27,28^{27,28}F

The ground state of $^{28}$F has been observed as an unbound resonance $2\underline{2}0$ keV above the ground state of $^{27}$F. Comparison of this result with USDA/USDB shell model predictions leads to the conclusion that the $^{28}$F ground state is primarily dominated by $sd$-shell configurations. Here we present a detailed report on the experiment in which the ground state resonance of $^{28}$F was first observed. Additionally, we report the first observation of a neutron-unbound excited state in $^{27}$F at an excitation energy of $25\underline{0}0 (2\underline{2}0)$ keV.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Many Roads to Synchrony: Natural Time Scales and Their Algorithms

We consider two important time scales---the Markov and cryptic orders---that monitor how an observer synchronizes to a finitary stochastic process. We show how to compute these orders exactly and that they are most efficiently calculated from the epsilon-machine, a process's minimal unifilar model. Surprisingly, though the Markov order is a basic concept from stochastic process theory, it is not a probabilistic property of a process. Rather, it is a topological property and, moreover, it is not computable from any finite-state model other than the epsilon-machine. Via an exhaustive survey, we close by demonstrating that infinite Markov and infinite cryptic orders are a dominant feature in the space of finite-memory processes. We draw out the roles played in statistical mechanical spin systems by these two complementary length scales.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures: http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~cmg/compmech/pubs/kro.htm. Santa Fe Institute Working Paper 10-11-02