Automatic generation of scheduling and communication code in real-time parallel programs

Inter-process communication and scheduling are notorious problem areas in the design of real-time systems. Using CASE tools, the system design phase will in general result in a system description in the form of parallel processes. Manual allocation of these processes to processors may result in error prone and/or slow communication code. Scheduling of the processes, necessary to meet timing constraints, is also a tedious task that takes many iterations. The described design tools result in code that is comparable in quality and performance with expert manual realization. Many network layers have been implemented to relieve the user from the low-level programming of communication software. However, the increase in user-friendliness is usually paid with performance degradation. The proposed approach combines user-friendliness with high performance by generating communication software that is tailor-made for the application. A similar approach is followed with the scheduling software. Schedulers in the form of a built-in a kernel are available all the time and cause overhead all the time. The proposed preprocessor tool generates scheduling software after analyzing the timing requirements of the particular application. This results in simple code for simple timing requirements and more complicated code for complex timing requirements. The tools have been implemented in Occam for use on a transputer. However, the results are valid for any distributed memory machine

Sky-View Factor Estimation: A Case Study of Athens, Georgia

A better understanding of the urban heat island (UHI) effect can be facilitated by accurately measuring urban geometry. One commonly utilized approach is to calculate the sky-view factor (SVF), which represents the proportion of the sky visible from a given location. The overall purpose of this study is to assess the spatial distribution of SVF values for various land use classes in Athens, GA. Since fish-eye lens imagery can effectively capture the complex nature of the urban canyon, I used a simplistic photographic methodology. I took fish-eye photographs within four land use classes (downtown, commercial, residential and rural/open space) and used graphics software to calculate the SVF values from the imagery. It was discovered that the lowest SVF values were located close to the urban core in the residential and downtown areas while the highest values were observed in the more peripheral commercial and rural/open space areas. These results suggest that an UHI could potentially exist in downtown Athens

Spatial Variation in Tourism in the United States: An Industrial View

This paper attempts to empirically document the spatial variations in employment and revenue for selected businesses in the tourism industries of 20 states under study. Employment and revenue figures were classified by US Census SIC codes, and separated into two classifications : direct and supporting tourist services. In states with large economies, a diversified economic base frequently minimizes tourism\u27s proportional importance to statewide service economy employment; however, in many states with small economic and population bases, tourism employment made a significant proportional contribution to the service labor market. States with large economies have high absolute revenue in both the direct and supporting tourist services due to large-scale economic activity and linkage. In states with smaller economies, absolute revenue in tourist services is frequently lower due to reduced population and economic size. As statewide revenue in direct tourist services increases, revenue in supporting tourist services tends to increase in a similar fashion, illustrating the proportionality between the direct and supporting tourist services

Atmospheric rivers over the Bay of Bengal lead to northern Indian extreme rainfall

Atmospheric rivers (ARs), filamentary patterns of strong water vapour fluxes, play a prominent role in global poleward moisture transport and have profound impacts on extreme rainfalls (ERs). Previous AR research has mainly focused on the mid-latitude regions, whereas the characteristics of ARs in low latitudes and their relationship with local ERs remain largely unknown. This study investigates the spatiotemporal characteristics of ARs over the Bay of Bengal and their relationship with ERs after landing on the northern Indian subcontinent using the ERA-Interim reanalysis data. During the study period from 1979 to 2011, a total of 149 ARs have been identified, which feature a bimodal temporal pattern with more events observed in May and October. The AR axes generally stretch northeastwards over the bay and land in Bangladesh and Burma. A total of 24% of ARs occurring during tropical cyclones implies a possible connection between them, in addition to the similar intra-annual distribution. In summer, as the tropical cyclones are weak and the northward water vapour flux decreases due to topographic blocking of the Western Ghats, it is less likely to form intensified water vapour pathway, though the atmospheric humidity is high in the study region. Furthermore, a close correlation between ARs and ERs is manifested. A large proportion of ARs would lead to ERs, with a small fraction of ERs occur after ARs. In addition, although persistent ARs constitute the majority of identified events, rainfall intensity will not be enhanced by the increase in AR duration. This study enriches the knowledge of AR characteristics in low latitudes and provides new pathways to understand the hydrological cycles in the Indian Peninsula and the Bay of Bengal

Wealth Generation in Metropolitan America: F.I.R.E. As Savior?

The current restructuring of the American economy from goods producing industry to service providing industry has been a focus of concern for many social scientists. While some argue in favor of the rapidly expanding service sector, pointing out that growth in services creates employment and generates income, others emphasize that many service sector jobs pay considerably less than comparable manufacturing sector jobs, which continue to be lost in many metropolitan areas. The Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (F.I.R.E.) industry in particular, is a branch of the service sector that is often associated with the generation of affluence and productivity. This paper examines the importance of the F.I.R.E. industry in 57 Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas and 3 New England County Metropolitan Areas, and discusses how agglomeration in this industry mayor may not be related to per capita income in these Metropolitan Areas

Where are the Geographers? Newly Incorporated Municipalities (NIMs) in the South

The creation of new cities can have dramatic impacts on urban landscapes regarding tax rates, land use patterns, school districts, and the provision of other municipal services. Between 1990 and 2005, 193 newly incorporated municipalities (NIMs) were created in the South. The study of these new cities falls under the purview of the larger field of boundary change. Boundary change can take the form of annexation, consolidation/ merger, secession, the formation of special districts, and incorporation. This paper examines the current literature on the different forms of boundary change and provides potential explanations for why municipal incorporation is an area of research that has been overlooked by geographers. Through a case study of municipal incorporation in the South, this paper will then explore the ways in which geographers can contribute to our understanding of this topic