Riding out of the storm: How to deal with the complexity of grid and cloud management

Over the last decade, Grid computing paved the way for a new level of large scale distributed systems. This infrastructure made it possible to securely and reliably take advantage of widely separated computational resources that are part of several different organizations. Resources can be incorporated to the Grid, building a theoretical virtual supercomputer. In time, cloud computing emerged as a new type of large scale distributed system, inheriting and expanding the expertise and knowledge that have been obtained so far. Some of the main characteristics of Grids naturally evolved into clouds, others were modified and adapted and others were simply discarded or postponed. Regardless of these technical specifics, both Grids and clouds together can be considered as one of the most important advances in large scale distributed computing of the past ten years; however, this step in distributed computing has came along with a completely new level of complexity. Grid and cloud management mechanisms play a key role, and correct analysis and understanding of the system behavior are needed. Large scale distributed systems must be able to self-manage, incorporating autonomic features capable of controlling and optimizing all resources and services. Traditional distributed computing management mechanisms analyze each resource separately and adjust specific parameters of each one of them. When trying to adapt the same procedures to Grid and cloud computing, the vast complexity of these systems can make this task extremely complicated. But large scale distributed systems complexity could only be a matter of perspective. It could be possible to understand the Grid or cloud behavior as a single entity, instead of a set of resources. This abstraction could provide a different understanding of the system, describing large scale behavior and global events that probably would not be detected analyzing each resource separately. In this work we define a theoretical framework that combines both ideas, multiple resources and single entity, to develop large scale distributed systems management techniques aimed at system performance optimization, increased dependability and Quality of Service (QoS). The resulting synergy could be the key 350 J. Montes et al. to address the most important difficulties of Grid and cloud management

Cloud computing and RESERVOIR project

The support for complex services delivery is becoming a key point in current internet technology. Current trends in internet applications are characterized by on demand delivery of ever growing amounts of content. The future internet of services will have to deliver content intensive applications to users with quality of service and security guarantees. This paper describes the RESERVOIR project and the challenge of a reliable and effective delivery of services as utilities in a commercial scenario. It starts by analyzing the needs of a future infrastructure provider and introducing the key concept of a service oriented architecture that combines virtualisation-aware grid with grid-aware virtualisation, while being driven by business service management. This article will then focus on the benefits and the innovations derived from the RESERVOIR approach. Eventually, a high level view of RESERVOIR general architecture is illustrated

An Epididymis-Specific Secretory Protein HongrES1 Critically Regulates Sperm Capacitation and Male Fertility

Mammalian sperm capacitation is an essential prerequisite to fertilizion. Although progress had been made in understanding the physiology and biochemistry of capacitation, little is known about the potential roles of epididymal proteins during this process. Here we report that HongrES1, a new member of the SERPIN (serine proteinase inhibitor) family exclusively expressed in the rat cauda epididymis and up-regulated by androgen, is secreted into the lumen and covers the sperm head. Co-culture of caudal sperms with HongrES1 antibody in vitro resulted in a significant increase in the percentage of capacitated spermatozoa. Furthermore, the percentage of capacitated spermatozoa clearly increased in rats when HongrES1 was down-regulated by RNAi in vivo. Remarkably, knockdown of HongrES1 in vivo led to reduced fertility accompanied with deformed appearance of fetuses and pups. These results identify HongrES1 as a novel and critical molecule in the regulation of sperm capacitation and male fertility

Resource discovery for distributed computing systems: A comprehensive survey

Large-scale distributed computing environments provide a vast amount of heterogeneous computing resources from different sources for resource sharing and distributed computing. Discovering appropriate resources in such environments is a challenge which involves several different subjects. In this paper, we provide an investigation on the current state of resource discovery protocols, mechanisms, and platforms for large-scale distributed environments, focusing on the design aspects. We classify all related aspects, general steps, and requirements to construct a novel resource discovery solution in three categories consisting of structures, methods, and issues. Accordingly, we review the literature, analyzing various aspects for each category

Executing Reactive Behavior for Autonomous Navigation (Extended Abstract)

# BennyRochwerger Claude L. Fennema # Bruce Draper Allen R. Hanson Edward M. Riseman Computer Vision Laboratory Dept. of Computer Science University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 Abstract Complex problems, such as driving, can be solved moreeasily by decomposing them into smaller subproblems, solving each sub-problem, and then integrating the solutions. In the case of an autonomous vehicle, the integrated system should be able to #react " in real time to a changing environment and to #reason"about ways to achieve its goals. This paper describes the approach taken on the UMass Mobile Perception Laboratory #MPL# to integrate independent processes #each solving a particular aspect of the navigation problem# into a fully capable autonomous vehicle.

An Architecture for Reactive Behavior

Complex problems, such as driving, can be solved by decomposing them into simpler sub-problems, solving each sub-problem, and then integrating the solutions. In the case of an autonomous vehicle, the integrated system should be able to "react" in real time to a changing environment and to "reason" about ways to achieve its goals. This paper describes the approach taken on the UMass Mobile Perception Laboratory (MPL) to integrate independent processes (each solving a particular aspect of the navigation problem) into a fully capable autonomous vehicle. 1 Introduction One of the goals of the autonomous vehicle effort at the University of Massachusetts is the development of a landmark-based navigation system capable of robust navigation both on-road and cross-country. While driving, the vehicle must exhibit classic driving behaviors, such as staying on the road or prescribed path, avoiding obstacles, etc., while using landmarks for determining the vehicle position. The Mobile Perception L..

Investigation of the flow structures in supersonic free and impinging jet flows

A numerical study of compressible jet flows is carried out using Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) turbulence models such as k - ε and k - ω - SST. An experimental investigation is performed concurrently using high-speed optical methods such as Schlieren photography and shadowgraphy. Numerical and experimental studies are carried out for the compressible impinging at various impinging angles and nozzle-to-wall distances. The results from both investigations converge remarkably well and agree with experimental data from the open literature. From the flow visualizations of the velocity fields, the RANS simulations accurately model the shock structures within the core jet region. The first shock cell is found to be constraint due to the interaction with the bow-shock structure for nozzle-to-wall distance less than 1.5 nozzle diameter. The results from the current study show that the RANS models utilized are suitable to simulate compressible free jets and impinging jet flows with varying impinging angles.C. Chin, M. Li, C. Harkin, T. Rochwerger, L. Chan, A. Ooi, A. Risborg and J. Sori