Configuration Tools: Working Together

Since the LISA conferences began, the character of a typical ‘‘large installation’ ’ has changed greatly. Most large sites tended to consist of a comparatively small number of handcrafted ‘‘servers’ ’ supporting a larger number of very similar ‘‘clients’ ’ (which would usually be configured with the aid of some automatic tool). A modern large site involves a more complex mesh of services, often with demanding requirements for completely automatic reconfiguration of entire services to provide fault-tolerance. As these changes have happened however, the tools available to provide configuration management for a site have not evolved to keep pace with these new challenges. This paper looks at some of the reasons why configuration tools have failed to move forward, and presents some suggestions for enabling the state of the art to advance. Background and Motivation Configuration Tools have been an important theme at LISA for many years, and most conferences include one or more papers in this area. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of the configuratio

PRICE, QUALITY, AND PESTICIDE RELATED HEALTH RISK CONSIDERATIONS IN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PURCHASES: AN HEDONIC ANALYSIS OF TUCSON, ARIZONA SUPERMARKETS

National opinion polls indicate that pesticide residues on fresh fruits and vegetables remain an important concern of American consumers, despite a decade-long increase in per capita consumption levels for fresh fruits and vegetables. Increased availability of organically grown fruits and vegetables may change consumer produce purchase behavior which is often dominated by appearance considerations. Domestic consumers likely consider and tradeoff price, visual appearance, and health risk when buying fresh produce. This paper uses an hedonic framework to examine price, appearance, and health risk considerations made by Tucson, Arizona shoppers in 1994.Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis,

An integrated approach for evaluating the effectiveness of landslide risk reduction in unplanned communities in the Caribbean

Despite the recognition of the need for mitigation approaches to landslide risk in developing countries, the delivery of ‘on-the-ground’ measures is rarely undertaken. With respect to other ‘natural’ hazards it is widely reported that mitigation can pay. However, the lack of such an evidence-base in relation to landslides in developing countries hinders advocacy amongst decision makers for expenditure on ex-ante measures. This research addresses these limitations directly by developing and applying an integrated risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis of physical landslide mitigation measures implemented in an unplanned community in the Eastern Caribbean. In order to quantify the level of landslide risk reduction achieved, landslide hazard and vulnerability were modelled (before and after the intervention) and project costs, direct and indirect benefits were monetised. It is shown that the probability of landslide occurrence has been substantially reduced by implementing surface-water drainage measures, and that the benefits of the project outweigh the costs by a ratio of 2.7 to 1. This paper adds to the evidence base that ‘mitigation pays’ with respect to landslide risk in the most vulnerable communities – thus strengthening the argument for ex-ante measures. This integrated project evaluation methodology should be suitable for adoption as part of the community-based landslide mitigation project cycle, and it is hoped that this resource, and the results of this study, will stimulate further such programmes.Landslide modelling, Risk assessment, Cost Benefit Analysis, Developing countries, Community

Impressions on the American Cowboy: End Of The Trail, Ghost Town and Rough Men

“Impressions on the American Cowboy” seeks to consider, expose, and investigate the symbol of the cowboy in our culture–– in all of its twisted romance. After reflecting on my personal experiences as well as various historical texts and works of western fiction, I set out to make my own western-themed work. My intention is to comment and explore the so-called “man problem” across disciplines in live performed time and space. This work attempts to think critically about how and why cowboy culture has persisted, and to delve into this particular and troubling projection of masculine consciousness

Letter from E. Kirby Smith to Braxton Bragg

Confederate Major General E. Kirby Smith writes to General Braxton Bragg regarding the positioning of the units under his command in Lexington, Kentucky, close to Ohio and Indiana and also about the condition, positioning, and movements of the Union opposition forces. Smith alsohttps://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1023/thumbnail.jp

Overcoming barriers to effective early parenting interventions for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): parent and practitioner views

BackgroundThe importance of early intervention approaches for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been increasingly acknowledged. Parenting programmes (PPs) are recommended for use with preschool children with ADHD. However, low take-up' and high drop-out' rates compromise the effectiveness of such programmes within the community. MethodsThis qualitative study examined the views of 25 parents and 18 practitioners regarding currently available PPs for preschool children with ADHD-type problems in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken to identify both barriers and facilitators associated with programme access, programme effectiveness, and continued engagement. Results and conclusionsMany of the themes mirrored previous accounts relating to generic PPs for disruptive behaviour problems. There were also a number of ADHD-specific themes. Enhancing parental motivation to change parenting practice and providing an intervention that addresses the parents' own needs (e.g. in relation to self-confidence, depression or parental ADHD), in addition to those of the child, were considered of particular importance. Comparisons between the views of parents and practitioners highlighted a need to increase awareness of parental psychological barriers among practitioners and for better programme advertising generally. Clinical implications and specific recommendations drawn from these findings are discussed and presented

The Age of the Superhero: The Cycle of Appropriation & Revitalisation in the Hollywood Blockbuster

Over the course of the 2000s, the Hollywood blockbuster welcomed the superhero genre into its ranks, after these films saw an explosion in popularity. Now, the ability to produce superhero films through an extended transmedia franchise is the coveted prize of major studios. The likes of Sony, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. are locked in competition with the new kid on the block, Marvel, who changed the way Hollywood produces the blockbuster franchise. This thesis examines the recent successes of the superhero genre, predominantly in relation to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which exemplifies the industrial model of the Hollywood blockbuster and the cycle of appropriation and revitalisation that defines it. In discussing the conflicting creative and commercial interests of these films, I will examine the superhero genre in relation to transmedia storytelling, paratexts, genre, star power, and the significant role of fan amplification. Fan expertise and opinion on the comic book properties that underprop superhero films plays an important industrial function in the development of these films. Through their support and promotion of superhero films, I argue that the perception of ‘fannish authenticity’ has been integrated into modern studio production in terms of promotion but also director selection. I analyse the creative and industrial role of the contemporary auteur-director and how studios like Marvel call upon up-and-coming talent to further legitimise their films and have them appeal to middlebrow expectations through auteur as well as fan credibility. Such director selection demonstrates: 1) how the contemporary auteur has become commodified with transmedia franchise blockbusters and, 2) how, due to the conflicting creative and commercial interests inherent to the blockbuster, these films are now supported by a form of co-dependent authorship. In analysing these various elements of the contemporary superhero genre, my thesis shows how a transmedia franchise can be developed and how it functions, on both a micro (within the franchise itself) and macro (within the film industry) level

Parallel solution of linear programs

The factors limiting the performance of computer software periodically undergo sudden shifts, resulting from technological progress, and these shifts can have profound implications for the design of high performance codes. At the present time, the speed with which hardware can execute a single stream of instructions has reached a plateau. It is now the number of instruction streams that may be executed concurrently which underpins estimates of compute power, and with this change, a critical limitation on the performance of software has come to be the degree to which it can be parallelised. The research in this thesis is concerned with the means by which codes for linear programming may be adapted to this new hardware. For the most part, it is codes implementing the simplex method which will be discussed, though these have typically lower performance for single solves than those implementing interior point methods. However, the ability of the simplex method to rapidly re-solve a problem makes it at present indispensable as a subroutine for mixed integer programming. The long history of the simplex method as a practical technique, with applications in many industries and government, has led to such codes reaching a great level of sophistication. It would be unexpected in a research project such as this one to match the performance of top commercial codes with many years of development behind them. The simplex codes described in this thesis are, however, able to solve real problems of small to moderate size, rather than being confined to random or otherwise artificially generated instances. The remainder of this thesis is structured as follows. The rest of this chapter gives a brief overview of the essential elements of modern parallel hardware and of the linear programming problem. Both the simplex method and interior point methods are discussed, along with some of the key algorithmic enhancements required for such systems to solve real-world problems. Some background on the parallelisation of both types of code is given. The next chapter describes two standard simplex codes designed to exploit the current generation of hardware. i6 is a parallel standard simplex solver capable of being applied to a range of real problems, and showing exceptional performance for dense, square programs. i8 is also a parallel, standard simplex solver, but now implemented for graphics processing units (GPUs)