Optimizing Data-Intensive Computing with Efficient Configuration Tuning

As the complexity of distributed analytics systems evolves over time, more configuration parameters get exposed for tuning. While these numerous parameters allow users more control over how their workloads are executed, this flexibility comes at a cost, since finding the right configurations for such systems in a cost-effective way becomes challenging. In practice, several factors contribute to the complexity of tuning the configuration of those systems: the large configuration space, the diversity of the served workloads (each workload possibly requiring a different resource allocation strategy to run optimally), and the dynamic characteristics of these systems’ environment (e.g., increase in input data size, changes in the allocation of resources). Paradoxically, existing solutions for workload tuning either assume static tuning environment or workloads that are inexpensive to run (i.e. requiring hundreds of execution samples). Recently, Bayesian Optimisation (BO) strategies have been applied as a solution to enable efficient autotuning. They build a probabilistic model incrementally to predict the impact of the parameters on performance using a small number of execution samples. The incrementally constructed BO model is used to guide the tuning process and accelerate convergence to a near-optimal configuration. Unfortunately, for distributed analytics systems, the configuration space is too large to construct a good model using traditional BO, which fails to provide quick convergence in high dimensional configuration space. I argue that cost-effective tuning strategies can only be developed when taking into account: the frequent changes that can happen in the analytics workload/environment, the amortization of tuning costs and how this influences tuning profitability, the high dimensionality of configuration space and the need to cater for diverse workloads. To tackle these challenges, I propose Tuneful, an efficient configuration tuning framework for such expensive to tune systems. It works efficiently both initially (when little data is available) as well as later (as more tuning knowledge is acquired). It starts with learning workload-specific influential parameters incrementally and tunes those only, then when more tuning knowledge becomes available, it detects similarity across workloads and utilizes multitask BO to share the tuning knowledge across similar workloads. I show how augmenting the BO approach with parameters’ significance and workload similarity characteristics enables an efficient configuration tuning in high dimensional configuration space. Over diverse analytics workloads, this significantly accelerates both configuration tuning and cost amortization, saving search time by 2.7-3.7X at median compared to the-state-of-the-art approaches

The relation between student behaviours in group presentations and their teamwork modalities using Belbin and MBTI analysis

This research paper aims to investigate the relationship between learners’ profiles as analysed according to MBTI and Belbin and their behaviour during group presentations while not being the active presenter. This paper is part of a research study in the field of video tagging as a mechanism for analysing individual behaviour in learning activities. As part of this study, the authors analysed videos of student group presentation and associated behavioural patterns to individual student profiles as produced by the Belbin and MBTI analysis models. The aim of the study was to identify how social and teamwork characteristics of individual learners can relate to certain behaviours. Such relations would help to better assess video content of learning activities including meetings and presentations. A primary aim of the study is to identify associations between human behaviour and individual’s teamwork characteristics. Such associations could facilitate the judgment of learners’ ability to work in a team. The study included quantitative research methods for analysing videos in combination with personality profiling analysis, with emphasis on social and teamwork activities. The Belbin and Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) models were used for the purpose of this study. Furthermore, the behavioural patterns monitored during the video analysis included ‘eye contact with presenter’ and ‘eye focus out’ as the most prominent observable behaviours. The paper’s conclusion is that based on the analysis results, learners classified as Coordinators (Belbin) or Virtuosos (MBTI) are less likely to lose focus while they are not presenting, and students classified as Monitor Evaluators (Belbin) or Logisticians (MBTI) are more likely to look and take care of their team members while presenting

The nano world of Munir Nahfey

The objective of this chapter is to find out the achievement of Munir Nayfeh in Particle Physics as well as in Nanotechnology. The significance of this chapter proves Nayfeh as one of the pioneers of this field and his contribution has taken the world in to another sphere of Nanotechnology. The methodology has been taken in this chapter are from Internet information, Scientific journals and books

THE ROLE OF PLASMIDS AND CLONES IN THE EMERGENCE OF CARBAPENEM RESISTANT ENTEROBACTERIACEAE IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Resistance to carbapenems, the ultimate beta-lactam antibiotics used to treat life-threatening Gram-negative infections associates with very high mortality. Consequently, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), which are usually multi- or extremely drug-resistant, is considered a critical pathogen. To help to control their spread, we investigated the molecular epidemiology of CRE in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its neighboring countries. CRE isolated in the UAE were screened for IncX3 incompatibility type plasmids carrying carbapenemases. The complete sequence of the IncX3 plasmids identified was established. Thirty CRE carried blaNDM-1, blaNDM-4, blaNDM-5, blaNDM-7, blaOXA-181, and blaKPC-2 on IncX3 plasmids. This CRE belonged to 16 sequence types of five different species. Phylogenetic analysis of the conserved regions of local IncX3 plasmids and those described globally clustered them according to the carbapenemase genes carried, suggesting that they do not evolve locally, rather, are imported from other regions. Furthermore, we investigated members of the Klebsiella pneumonia ST14 clone, which was found to be significantly associated with NDM- and OXA-48-like double carbapenemase production, with extreme drug resistance, and with being isolated from Emirati patients in Dubai. To gain a deeper insight into the molecular features of this clone, 39 CRKP-ST14 selected from five cities of the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia were subjected to whole-genome sequencing, and their resistome, virulome, and core genome MLST was assessed. cgMLST revealed three clusters of 16 isolates from five UAE cities (C1), 11 isolates from three UAE cities and Bahrain (C2) and, the 5 isolates from Saudi Arabia (C3), respectively, and seven singletons. Resistance gene profile and carbapenemase carrying plasmid types were variable in both C1 and C2 clusters. Cluster 2 exhibited a capsular switch from K2 to K64. The successful dissemination of the CRKP-14 clone could be explained by the genetic flexibility demonstrated. Our data show that the emergence of CRE in the United Arab Emirates is a complex phenomenon of likely international transfer of successful plasmids, and also of countrywide clonal transmission of a genetically flexible high-risk Klebsiella pneumonia clone

Electrochemical Corrosion Inhibition Of Al -Alloy In Phosphoric Acid

Electrochemical corrosion inhibition of aluminum die casting alloy (A383) in H3PO4 has been studied using different electrochemical techniques. The results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization measurements confirm the inhibition effects of K2CrO4 which describe the increase in the effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor in the presence of 0.1M K2CrO4 in 0.5 M H3PO4. The results indicated that both concentration and the immersion time affect the inhibition efficiency (IE%). Langmuir adsorption isotherm was found to fit well with the experimental data.  The obtained results were confirmed by surface examination using scanning electron microscope. Keywords: A383, Polarization, EIS, SEM, Acid inhibition

Al-Majusi: the pioner in obstetrics

The methodology adopted in this research is library based research. Data and information are collected from reliable previous works and reviews. This research is basically to explore the contribution of AI-Majusi to the field of obstetrics. The research explores the theory of how a baby being pushed during delivery process. The research also explores the content of AI-Majusi's famous book which is Kitab al-Maliki. The significant of this research is the revelation of AI-Majusi's work in the obstetrics specifically on women's reproductive anatomies and the process of deliver

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's understanding of trigonometry

The methodology adopted in this chapter is library and internet based. The data used were collected from dependable sources. The objective of this chapter is to investigate the understanding of Nasir aI-Din al-Tusi's work in trigonometry and to derive and analyze the scope of sine law which initiated by al - Tusi. The significance of this chapter is the usefulness of the sine law to various fields such as astronomy, geography and medicine. Trigonometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with specific functions of angles and their application to calculations. It is derived from two Greek words trigon meaning "triangle" and metron meaning "a measurement". Hence, it is a methodology for finding some unknown elements of triangle provided the data include a sufficient amount of linear and angular measurements to define a shap