Adjustment of Parametric Dynamic Scheduling Heuristics for Heterogeneous Systems to Account for Heterogeneity

Modern computing applications are becoming increasingly data-hungry and computationally expensive. This trend continues even as hardware performance constraints loom with the impending death of Moore\u27s law. Hence, systems have become increasingly heterogeneous in the pursuits of improving performance and reducing power consumption. Such a heterogeneous system relies on a variety of different specialized processors with differing architectures, rather than processing units of a single type. Given their architectural differences, any given computation will not perform equally on all processors. As such, efficient scheduling of computations to processors is an essential design consideration. In this thesis work, a simulation of an existing dynamic scheduling heuristic - Alternative Processor within Threshold (APT) - was used to model the execution of a variety of heterogeneous workloads and heterogeneous systems. An extended version of this scheduler (APTX) was analyzed in a similar way, as was a simplified version of the existing K-Percent Best (KPB) scheduler. Each of these schedulers has a numeric parameter constraining its behavior. In existing analyses, these scheduling heuristics were tested only with a small set of arbitrary values for these parameters. The goal of this research was to use a stochastic method to optimize said parameters for the minimum finishing time of any given set of computations on any given heterogeneous system. An analytical expression to estimate the ideal parameter of each scheduler was developed. Each was based on the statistical analysis of the results of a set of randomly-generated simulations. After these expressions were developed, these optimized APT, APTX, and KPB schedulers were evaluated against three other dynamic schedulers - Minimum Execution Time (MET), Serial Scheduling (SS), and Shortest Process Next (SPN) - by running the randomly-generated simulations on all six. For the most common type of heterogeneous system, APT and APTX were found to have the earliest finish time on average, while MET and KPB generally performed poorly. Ultimately, this research not only demonstrated the advantages of APT and APTX over other dynamic schedulers in a fair comparison, but it also demonstrated a method by which any parametric scheduler can be tuned

Decarbonizing the EU power sector: policy approaches in the light of current trends and long-term trajectories

ASSESSMENT European climate policy is gradually shifting towards a long-term perspec- tive. The electricity sector has a crucial role to play in the long-term decar- bonization of the EU economy. It makes up a significant share of EU emis- sions and can contribute to the reduction of emissions in other sectors, particularly buildings and transport. The EU 2008 Climate and Energy Package (CEP) took a significant step towards a low-carbon future, initi- ating a very ambitious program of renewables expansion and strengthen- ing the ETS. However, the omissions and internal inconsistencies of the CEP are becoming more and more evident. This relates in particular to the absence of long-term, comprehensive signals for decarbonization and the imbalance between the ETS, energy efficiency and renewables objectives. This risks delaying and distorting investment in low-carbon infrastructure and ideas, raising the ultimate cost of climate policy. In view of the inertias within the electricity sector, it is imperative for the EU to set a long-term signal for the decarbonization of the sector by set- ting 2030 objectives for the ETS and complementary policies. The EU’s decarbonization strategy needs to be robust against future uncertainties; strengthening a technology neutral instrument like the ETS can provide a key part of a comprehensive signal to develop the full range of decarbon- ization options. The instrument imbalance also needs to be addressed. Demand side policies should be the point of departure for supply side interventions: ETS caps should be set so as to achieve carbon scarcity after energy efficiency and RES objectives have been taken into account. A short-term adjustment of scarcity in the ETS may create some incen- tives for low-carbon investment. However, it would not address the funda- mental concern, namely the lack of policy information regarding the post 2020 environment in which these investment will amortize.European climate policy; 2050 decarbonization; European emissions trading scheme; renewables policy

Lessons Learned from Development of a Software Tool to Support Academic Advising

We detail some lessons learned while designing and testing a decision-theoretic advising support tool for undergraduates at a large state university. Between 2009 and 2011 we conducted two surveys of over 500 students in multiple majors and colleges. These surveys asked students detailed questions about their preferences concerning course selection, advising, and career paths. We present data from this study which may be helpful for faculty and staff who advise undergraduate students. We find that advising support software tools can augment the student-advisor relationship, particularly in terms of course planning, but cannot and should not replace in-person advising.Comment: 5 Figures, revised version including more figures and cross-referencin

The French Atlantic littoral and the Massif Armoricain, part 1

The author has identified the following significant results. For interpretation of Isle of Jersey imagery, two types of taxons were defined according to their variability in time. On the whole, taxons with a similar spectral signature were opposed to those with strongly varying spectral signature. The taxon types were low diachronic variations and strong diachronic variation. Imagery interpretation was restricted to the landward part of the Fromentine area, including the sand beaches which were often difficult to spectrally separate from the barren coastal dunes in the southern part of Noirmoutier Island as well as along the Breton marsh. From 1972 to 1976, sandbanks reduced in area. Two high river discharge images showed over a two year period an identical outline for the Bilho bank to seaward, whereas upstream, the bank has receeded in the same time to a line joining Paimboeuf to Montoir. The Brillantes bank has receeded at both ends, partly due to dredging operations in the access channel to Donges harbor