Performance Analysis for Mesh and Mesh-Spectral Archetype Applications

This document outlines a simple method for benchmarking a parallel communication library and for using the results to model the performance of applications developed with that communication library. We use compositional performance analysis - decomposing a parallel program into its modular parts and analyzing their respective performances - to gain perspective on the performance of the whole program. This model is useful for predicting parallel program execution times for different types of program archetypes, (e.g., mesh and mesh-spectral) using communication libraries built with different message-passing schemes (e.g., Fortran M and Fortran with MPI) running on different architectures (e.g., IBM SP2 and a network of Pentium personal computers)

The Mesh Archetype

A parallel program archetype [2] aids in the development of reliable, efficient parallel applications with common computation/communication structures by providing development methods and code libraries specific to the structure. This document presents an archetype for mesh-spectral computations. It describes the common structure captured by the archetype abstraction, discusses a parallelization strategy for such computations, documents our code library to support this parallelization strategy, and presents a collection of tutorial example application programs

Carlex Glass Laminated Side Glass Process Optimization

The intent of this project is to determine how many racks of glass should be inserted into the autoclave at a given time in order to maximize productivity of the Laminated Side Glass line. Based on this value, the total number of workers necessary at finishing and the cycle time of the bag furnace were determined. This was achieved by building a model of the line in Arena and analyzing it. The model demonstrated that twelve is the optimal number of racks to insert at a given time, only one team of two workers is necessary per shift, and that the optimal bag furnace cycle time is 18 seconds. This optimization allows for an increase in profitability of over $16,000 per month and also increases utilization of human workers at finishing by more than 10%

AN INVESTIGATION OF INCLUSIONARY PRACTICES BY GENERAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSROOMS

This study investigated teacher-reported inclusionary practices and strategies in general education classrooms grades 6, 7, and 8. Students with disabilities are being educated in the general education classroom for varying amounts of time during the school day by classroom teachers with varying amounts of experience with special education practices. The study included a web-based survey of approximately 100 randomly selected teachers who were teaching Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, or any combination of those academic subjects during May 2010. The survey asked teachers what inclusionary practices and strategies they were using and which of these inclusionary practices and strategies they considered to be effective. The survey also asked teachers to select the inclusionary practices and strategies they are not currently using, but would like to use in the future. Survey results indicated curriculum modifications were the inclusionary practice used most frequently and lead and support was the collaborative strategy used most frequently. Teachers considered modifying curriculum the most effective inclusionary practice and skill grouping the most effective collaborative strategy. When asked to select the inclusionary practice and strategy not currently used, but that they would like to use in the future, the largest response was none

An Algorithm for Distributed Location Management in Networks of Mobile Computers

In a network supporting mobile communication devices, a mechanism to find the location of a device, wherever it may be, is needed. In this paper, we present a distributed algorithm for this purpose along with its formal specification and proof sketch. Inspired by our experiences with Wang's algorithm [9], one goal of this paper is to demonstrate that the process of formalization together with careful attention to abstraction and presentation can yield significant benefits in algorithm design. In this case, we obtained a more regular, general, and robust algorithm with a clearer description. An incidental contribution is a useful theorem for proving progress properties in distributed algorithms that use tokens

Parallel Program Archetypes

A parallel program archetype is an abstraction that captures the common features of a class of problems with similar computational structure and combines them with a parallelization strategy to produce a pattern of dataflow and communication. Such abstractions are useful in application development, both as a conceptual framework and as a basis for tools and techniques. This paper describes an approach to parallel application development based on archetypes and presents two example archetypes with applications

A Comparison of Communication Motives of On-Site and Off-Site Students in Videoconference-Based Courses

The objective of this investigation is to determine whether student site location in an instructional videoconference is related to students' motives for communicating with their instructor. The study is based, in part, on the work of Martin et al. who identify five separate student-teacher communication motives. These motives, or dimensions, are termed relational, functional, excuse, participation, and sycophancy, and are measured by a 30-item questionnaire. Several communication-related theories were used to predict differences between on-site and off-site students, Media richness theory was used, foundationally, to explain differences between mediated and face-to-face communication and other theories such as uncertainty reduction theory were used in conjunction with media richness theory to predict specific differences.Two hundred eighty-one completed questionnaires were obtained from Education and Library and Information Science students in 17 separate course-sections employing interactive video at the University of North Texas during the Spring and Summer semesters of the 2001/2002 school year. This study concludes that off-site students in an instructional videoconference are more likely than their on-site peers to report being motivated to communicate with their instructor for participation reasons. If off-site students are more motivated than on-site students to communicate as a means to participate, then it may be important for instructors to watch for actual differences in participation levels, and instructors may need to be well versed in pedagogical methods that attempt to increase participation, The study also suggests that current teaching methods being employed in interactive video environments may be adequate with regard to functional, excuse-making, relational and sycophantic communication

A Structured Approach to Parallel Programming

Parallel programs are more difficult to develop and reason about than sequential programs. There are two broad classes of parallel programs: (1) programs whose specifications describe ongoing behavior and interaction with an environment, and (2) programs whose specifications describe the relation between initial and final states. This thesis presents a simple, structured approach to developing parallel programs of the latter class that allows much of the work of development and reasoning to be done using the same techniques and tools used for sequential programs. In this approach, programs are initially developed in a primary programming model that combines the standard sequential model with a restricted form of parallel composition that is semantically equivalent to sequential composition. Such programs can be reasoned about using sequential techniques and executed sequentially for testing. They are then transformed for execution on typical parallel architectures via a sequence of semantics-preserving transformations, making use of two secondary programming models, both based on parallel composition with barrier synchronization and one incorporating data partitioning. The transformation process for a particular program is typically guided and assisted by a parallel programming archetype, an abstraction that captures the commonality of a class of programs with similar computational features and provides a class-specific strategy for producing efficient parallel programs. Transformations may be applied manually or via a parallelizing compiler. Correctness of transformations within the primary programming model is proved using standard sequential techniques. Correctness of transformations between the programming models and between the models and practical programming languages is proved using a state-transition-based operational model. This thesis presents: (1) the primary and secondary programming models, (2) an operational model that provides a common framework for reasoning about programs in all three models, (3) a collection of example program transformations with arguments for their correctness, and (4) two groups of experiments in which our overall approach was used to develop example applications. The specific contribution of this work is to present a unified theory/practice framework for this approach to parallel program development, tying together the underlying theory, the program transformations, and the program-development methodology