New cross-layer techniques for multi-criteria scheduling in large-scale systems

The global ecosystem of information technology (IT) is in transition to a new generation of applications that require more and more intensive data acquisition, processing and storage systems. As a result of that change towards data intensive computing, there is a growing overlap between high performance computing (HPC) and Big Data techniques in applications, since many HPC applications produce large volumes of data, and Big Data needs HPC capabilities. The hypothesis of this PhD. thesis is that the potential interoperability and convergence of the HPC and Big Data systems are crucial for the future, being essential the unification of both paradigms to address a broad spectrum of research domains. For this reason, the main objective of this Phd. thesis is purposing and developing a monitoring system to allow the HPC and Big Data convergence, thanks to giving information about behaviors of applications in a system which execute both kind of them, giving information to improve scalability, data locality, and to allow adaptability to large scale computers. To achieve this goal, this work is focused on the design of resource monitoring and discovery to exploit parallelism at all levels. These collected data are disseminated to facilitate global improvements at the whole system, and, thus, avoid mismatches between layers. The result is a two-level monitoring framework (both at node and application level) with a low computational load, scalable, and that can communicate with different modules thanks to an API provided for this purpose. All data collected is disseminated to facilitate the implementation of improvements globally throughout the system, and thus avoid mismatches between layers, which combined with the techniques applied to deal with fault tolerance, makes the system robust and with high availability. On the other hand, the developed framework includes a task scheduler capable of managing the launch of applications, their migration between nodes, as well as the possibility of dynamically increasing or decreasing the number of processes. All these thanks to the cooperation with other modules that are integrated into LIMITLESS, and whose objective is to optimize the execution of a stack of applications based on multi-criteria policies. This scheduling mode is called coarse-grain scheduling based on monitoring. For better performance and in order to further reduce the overhead during the monitorization, different optimizations have been applied at different levels to try to reduce communications between components, while trying to avoid the loss of information. To achieve this objective, data filtering techniques, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, and Neural Networks (NN) have been used. In order to improve the scheduling process and to design new multi-criteria scheduling policies, the monitoring information has been combined with other ML algorithms to identify (through classification algorithms) the applications and their execution phases, doing offline profiling. Thanks to this feature, LIMITLESS can detect which phase is executing an application and tries to share the computational resources with other applications that are compatible (there is no performance degradation between them when both are running at the same time). This feature is called fine-grain scheduling, and can reduce the makespan of the use cases while makes efficient use of the computational resources that other applications do not use.El ecosistema global de las tecnologías de la información (IT) se encuentra en transición a una nueva generación de aplicaciones que requieren sistemas de adquisición de datos, procesamiento y almacenamiento cada vez más intensivo. Como resultado de ese cambio hacia la computación intensiva de datos, existe una superposición, cada vez mayor, entre la computación de alto rendimiento (HPC) y las técnicas Big Data en las aplicaciones, pues muchas aplicaciones HPC producen grandes volúmenes de datos, y Big Data necesita capacidades HPC. La hipótesis de esta tesis es que hay un gran potencial en la interoperabilidad y convergencia de los sistemas HPC y Big Data, siendo crucial para el futuro tratar una unificación de ambos para hacer frente a un amplio espectro de problemas de investigación. Por lo tanto, el objetivo principal de esta tesis es la propuesta y desarrollo de un sistema de monitorización que facilite la convergencia de los paradigmas HPC y Big Data gracias a la provisión de datos sobre el comportamiento de las aplicaciones en un entorno en el que se pueden ejecutar aplicaciones de ambos mundos, ofreciendo información útil para mejorar la escalabilidad, la explotación de la localidad de datos y la adaptabilidad en los computadores de gran escala. Para lograr este objetivo, el foco se ha centrado en el diseño de mecanismos de monitorización y localización de recursos para explotar el paralelismo en todos los niveles de la pila del software. El resultado es un framework de monitorización en dos niveles (tanto a nivel de nodo como de aplicación) con una baja carga computacional, escalable, y que se puede comunicar con distintos módulos gracias a una API proporcionada para tal objetivo. Todos datos recolectados se difunden para facilitar la realización de mejoras de manera global en todo el sistema, y así evitar desajustes entre capas, lo que combinado con las técnicas aplicadas para lidiar con la tolerancia a fallos, hace que el sistema sea robusto y con una alta disponibilidad. Por otro lado, el framework desarrollado incluye un planificador de tareas capaz de gestionar el lanzamiento de aplicaciones, la migración de las mismas entre nodos, además de la posibilidad de incrementar o disminuir su número de procesos de forma dinámica. Todo ello gracias a la cooperación con otros módulos que se integran en LIMITLESS, y cuyo objetivo es optimizar la ejecución de una pila de aplicaciones en base a políticas multicriterio. Esta funcionalidad se llama planificación de grano grueso. Para un mejor desempeño y con el objetivo de reducir más aún la carga durante la ejecución, se han aplicado distintas optimizaciones en distintos niveles para tratar de reducir las comunicaciones entre componentes, a la vez que se trata de evitar la pérdida de información. Para lograr este objetivo se ha hecho uso de técnicas de filtrado de datos, algoritmos de Machine Learning (ML), y Redes Neuronales (NN). Finalmente, para obtener mejores resultados en la planificación de aplicaciones y para diseñar nuevas políticas de planificación multi-criterio, los datos de monitorización recolectados han sido combinados con nuevos algoritmos de ML para identificar (por medio de algoritmos de clasificación) aplicaciones y sus fases de ejecución. Todo ello realizando tareas de profiling offline. Gracias a estas técnicas, LIMITLESS puede detectar en qué fase de su ejecución se encuentra una determinada aplicación e intentar compartir los recursos de computacionales con otras aplicaciones que sean compatibles (no se produce una degradación del rendimiento entre ellas cuando ambas se ejecutan a la vez en el mismo nodo). Esta funcionalidad se llama planificación de grano fino y puede reducir el tiempo total de ejecución de la pila de aplicaciones en los casos de uso porque realiza un uso más eficiente de los recursos de las máquinas.This PhD dissertation has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under an FPI fellowship associated to a National Project with reference TIN2016-79637-P (from July 1, 2018 to October 10, 2021)Programa de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Informática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Félix García Carballeira.- Secretario: Pedro Ángel Cuenca Castillo.- Vocal: María Cristina V. Marinesc

INTEGRACIÓN EUROPEA Y CONSTITUCIONES NACIONALES

In the light of the current debatesand events on both the EuropeanUnion Constitution and on theeffects that the latter has had ondomestic constitutional and legalsystems, this article discusses theposition of EU legislation (and futureconstitution) in the Spanishconstitutional and legal order, asset by the 1/2004 Ruling of theSpanish Constitutional Court. Inthis sense, the article mainly focuseson the consequences of theabovementioned ruling on thesupremacy of the Spanish Constitution

Rail Urban Projects: A Way For Improving Public Transport Patronage

Motorised mobility has increased in a significant way in last years in European cities, and this has brought too much congestion in urban areas, which has deteriorated city centres’ liveable conditions. For that reason, there is a need of effective and flexible transport systems in order to improve this situation in favour of public transport. The investment on design and innovation of competitive public transport is necessary in order to improve its modal share. Nevertheless, there exists other aspects, also very important, which make public transport more attractive. In the last years, many cities have implemented rail urban projects (tram, metros and light rail systems) as they have been considered the optimal option to foster public transport patronage and also for getting a sustainable mobility for the growing urban population. These kind of projects provide fast, regular, safe and comfortable services with medium-high capacity. At the same time, they provide a modern image of the city. Those characteristics are essential for a competitive public transport in contemporary cities, although they require large investments for its construction. This paper will present a comparison between different rail urban projects running in European cities since, at least, ten years ago. There will be described how they have increased modal share of public transport in different cities contexts..Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

Morphology and dynamics of ice crystals and the effect of proteins

286 p.La tesis "Morfología y dinámica de los cristales de hielo y su efecto en las proteínas" se basa en una amplia gama de temas que abarcan el fundamento de la estructura del hielo (tanto su superficie como su morfología), la interacción de las proteínas con el hielo y las ciencias ambientales (formación de las nubes y la dinámica de los glaciares). El enfoque se centra en las interfaces hielo/vapor e hielo/agua.Mediante el microscopio electrónico de barrido ambiental (ESEM) a temperaturas inusualmente bajas, se ha logrado acceder a estudiar la morfología del hielo in-situ en diversas áreas del diagrama de fases (presión-temperatura). Además de reproducir las morfologías ya conocidas de cristales individuales e hielo poli-cristalino, se han observado formas ya conocidas de hielo, así como hielo poli-cristalino. Nuevas geometrías llamadas ¿pools¿, formas circulares de ¿m de diámetro, fueron encontradas en los límites del grano de la superficie del hielo poli-cristalino durante procesos de sublimación lento.Además, se estudiaron ocho soluciones diferentes de proteínas en condiciones de súper-enfriamiento mediante las técnicas de congelación de gota (drop freezing technique) y calorimetría diferencial de barrido (DSC). Únicamente, la (apo)ferritina y la ferritina han mostrado buenas características para la nucleación de hielo, es decir, la congelación bajo pequeño súper-enfriamiento (solo algunos grados debajo de 0 ºC), mientras que la mayoría de las soluciones de proteínas estudiadas se congelan por debajo de -15 ºC, como el agua pura.CIC NanoGUNE:nanoscience cooperative research center CFM: materials physics center ETH Zürich: Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Scienc

Rail Urban Projects: A Way For Improving Public Transport Patronage

Motorised mobility has increased in a significant way in last years in European cities, and this has brought too much congestion in urban areas, which has deteriorated city centres’ liveable conditions. For that reason, there is a need of effective and flexible transport systems in order to improve this situation in favour of public transport. The investment on design and innovation of competitive public transport is necessary in order to improve its modal share. Nevertheless, there exists other aspects, also very important, which make public transport more attractive. In the last years, many cities have implemented rail urban projects (tram, metros and light rail systems) as they have been considered the optimal option to foster public transport patronage and also for getting a sustainable mobility for the growing urban population. These kind of projects provide fast, regular, safe and comfortable services with medium-high capacity. At the same time, they provide a modern image of the city. Those characteristics are essential for a competitive public transport in contemporary cities, although they require large investments for its construction. This paper will present a comparison between different rail urban projects running in European cities since, at least, ten years ago. There will be described how they have increased modal share of public transport in different cities contexts..Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

The use of games to promote the Second Language Acquisition

A considerable amount of research and publications have dealt with games in Infant and Primary Education. Nevertheless, little is known about the role games can play in Foreign Language Acquisition with young learners. The aim of this project is to investigate how Infant Education teachers use them to promote SLA and whether their use can help to achieve this objective. Firstly, this study briefly reviews the techniques of English teaching and how these can influence the use of games. Subsequently, key theories and research concerned with the importance of games in Infant Education, are reviewed, as well as the suitability of using games as a methodology for teaching English. Moreover, eight games provided by several teachers from bilingual schools are analyzed and the extent to which they promote the SLA is evaluated. Finally, data from interviews with two teachers is examined to investigate their opinion about games as an educational method

¿Cómo nos movemos los españoles?

Los cambios socioeconómicos que se han producido a nivel mundial durante las últimas décadas han afectado sustancialmente al transporte urbano. La movilidad en las ciudades actuales se caracteriza por unos patrones más difusos, con unas distancias de viaje más largas y un continuo crecimiento del nivel de motorización. Pero, ¿qué ocurre en las ciudades españolas? En esta ponencia se hace un estudio de la movilidad en ciudades españolas, analizando los resultados de las Encuestas de Movilidad de las Personas Residentes en España realizadas por el Ministerio de Fomento, MOVILIA 2000/2001 y MOVILIA 2006/2007. La comparación entre ambas encuestas permite estudiar cómo ha cambiado el patrón de la movilidad de los españoles en estos seis años. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que hay un mayor número de hogares en los que se tiene más de un vehículo, ya que el porcentaje ha pasado del 33,7% al 35,6% entre 2000 y 2006. Este aumento influye en el reparto modal de los desplazamientos, ya que ha aumentado el porcentaje de uso del coche, pasando del 79,4% al 81,3%. Por último, también se ha producido un incremento del tiempo medio dedicado por la población a los desplazamientos, aumentando en dos minutos diarios, desde los 71 minutos de 2000 hasta los 73 minutos de 2006

Assessing the passengers’ perception of implemented advanced management measures in bus service

The aim of this investigation is to evaluate the passenger?s perception of some attributes related to quality of bus services, and how this perception changes with the implementation of different measures. Surveys to passengers riding different bus lines were conducted in two scenarios: before the implementation of the measures and after the measures were implemented. The results of the passenger surveys were statistically analysed; then, an ordered logit model was used to analyse the differences between surveys thanks to the implemented measures. Finally, a factor analysis was done to identify the underlying unobserved factors (latent variables) that the respondents perceive

Protein aggregates nucleate ice: the example of apoferritin

Biological material has gained increasing attention recently as a source of ice-nucleating particles that may account for cloud glaciation at moderate supercooling. While the ice-nucleation (IN) ability of some bacteria can be related to membrane-bound proteins with epitaxial fit to ice, little is known about the IN-active entities present in biological material in general. To elucidate the potential of proteins and viruses to contribute to the IN activity of biological material, we performed bulk freezing experiments with the newly developed drop freezing assay DRoplet Ice Nuclei Counter Zurich (DRINCZ), which allows the simultaneous cooling of 96 sample aliquots in a chilled ethanol bath. We performed a screening of common proteins, namely the iron storage protein ferritin and its iron-free counterpart apoferritin, the milk protein casein, the egg protein ovalbumin, two hydrophobins, and a yeast ice-binding protein, all of which revealed IN activity with active site densities > 0.1 mg−1 at −10 ∘C. The tobacco mosaic virus, a plant virus based on helically assembled proteins, also proved to be IN active with active site densities increasing from 100 mg−1 at −14 ∘C to 10 000 mg−1 at −20 ∘C. Among the screened proteins, the IN activity of horse spleen ferritin and apoferritin, which form cages of 24 co-assembled protein subunits, proved to be outstanding with active site densities > 10 mg−1 at −5 ∘C. Investigation of the pH dependence and heat resistance of the apoferritin sample confirmed the proteinaceous nature of its IN-active entities but excluded the correctly folded cage monomer as the IN-active species. A dilution series of apoferritin in water revealed two distinct freezing ranges, an upper one from −4 to −11 ∘C and a lower one from −11 to −21 ∘C. Dynamic light scattering measurements related the upper freezing range to ice-nucleating sites residing on aggregates and the lower freezing range to sites located on misfolded cage monomers or oligomers. The sites proved to persist during several freeze–thaw cycles performed with the same sample aliquots. Based on these results, IN activity seems to be a common feature of diverse proteins, irrespective of their function, but arising only rarely, most probably through defective folding or aggregation to structures that are IN active.This research has been supported by the Swiss National Foundation (grant nos. IZSEZ0_179149/1 and 200021_156581), the Basque government (Elkartek programmes ng 15 and ng 17), and the Spanish MINECO (grant no. MAT2013- 46006-R, programme MDM-2016-0618)

The ice–vapour interface during growth and sublimation

We employed environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) in low-humidity atmosphere to study the ice growth, coalescence of crystallites, polycrystalline film morphology, and sublimation, in the temperature range of −10 to −20 ∘C. First, individual ice crystals grow in the shape of micron-sized hexagonal columns with stable basal faces. Their coalescence during further growth results in substantial surface defects and forms thick polycrystalline films, consisting of large grains separated by grain boundaries. The latter are composed of 1 to 3 µm wide pores, which are attributed to the coalescence of defective crystallite surfaces. Sublimation of isolated crystals and of films is defect-driven, and grain boundaries play a decisive role. A scallop-like concave structure forms, limited by sharp ridges, which are terminated by nanoscale asperities. The motivation for this work is also to evaluate ESEM's ability to provide a clean and reproducible environment for future study of nucleation and growth on atmospherically relevant nucleators such as materials of biological origin and inorganic materials. Hence, extensive information regarding potential ESEM beam damage and effect of impurities are discussed.This research has been supported by the Ekonomiaren Garapen eta Lehiakortasun Saila, Eusko Jaurlaritza (grant no. PI2013-57), the Ekonomiaren Garapen eta Lehiakorta sun Saila, Eusko Jaurlaritza (grant nos. Elkartek ng15 and Elkartek ng19), and the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España (grant nos. PID2019-104650GB, MAT2013- 46006-R, and Maria de Maeztu “Units of Excellence” programme MDM-2016-0618)