A Partially Feasible Distributed SQO Method for Two-block General Linearly Constrained Smooth Optimization

This paper discusses a class of two-block smooth large-scale optimization problems with both linear equality and linear inequality constraints, which have a wide range of applications, such as economic power dispatch, data mining, signal processing, etc.Our goal is to develop a novel partially feasible distributed (PFD) sequential quadratic optimization (SQO) method (PFD-SQO method) for this kind of problems. The design of the method is based on the ideas of SQO method and augmented Lagrangian Jacobian splitting scheme as well as feasible direction method,which decomposes the quadratic optimization (QO) subproblem into two small-scale QOs that can be solved independently and parallelly. A novel disturbance contraction term that can be suitably adjusted is introduced into the inequality constraints so that the feasible step size along the search direction can be increased to 1. The new iteration points are generated by the Armijo line search and the partially augmented Lagrangian function that only contains equality constraints as the merit function. The iteration points always satisfy all the inequality constraints of the problem. The theoretical properties, such as global convergence, iterative complexity, superlinear and quadratic rates of convergence of the proposed PFD-SQO method are analyzed under appropriate assumptions, respectively. Finally, the numerical effectiveness of the method is tested on a class of academic examples and an economic power dispatch problem, which shows that the proposed method is quite promising

A Novel Application of Boolean Functions with High Algebraic Immunity in Minimal Codes

Boolean functions with high algebraic immunity are important cryptographic primitives in some stream ciphers. In this paper, two methodologies for constructing binary minimal codes from sets, Boolean functions and vectorial Boolean functions with high algebraic immunity are proposed. More precisely, a general construction of new minimal codes using minimal codes contained in Reed-Muller codes and sets without nonzero low degree annihilators is presented. The other construction allows us to yield minimal codes from certain subcodes of Reed-Muller codes and vectorial Boolean functions with high algebraic immunity. Via these general constructions, infinite families of minimal binary linear codes of dimension $m$ and length less than or equal to $m(m+1)/2$ are obtained. In addition, a lower bound on the minimum distance of the proposed minimal linear codes is established. Conjectures and open problems are also presented. The results of this paper show that Boolean functions with high algebraic immunity have nice applications in several fields such as symmetric cryptography, coding theory and secret sharing schemes

PSO-GA Based Resource AllocationStrategy for Cloud-Based SoftwareServices with Workload-Time Windows

Cloud-based software services necessitate adaptive resource allocation with the promise of dynamic resource adjustment for guaranteeing the Quality-of-Service (QoS) and reducing resource costs. However, it is challenging to achieve adaptive resource allocation for software services in complex cloud environments with dynamic workloads. To address this essential problem, we propose an adaptive resource allocation strategy for cloud-based software services with workload-time windows. Based on the QoS prediction, the proposed strategy first brings the current and future workloads into the process of calculating resource allocation plans. Next, the particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm (PSO-GA) is proposed to make run time decisions for exploring the objective resource allocation plan. Using the RUBiS benchmark, the extensive simulation experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy on improving the performance of resource allocation for cloud-based software services.The simulation results show that the proposed strategy can obtain a better trade-off between the QoS and resource costs than two classic resource allocation methods.publishedVersio

Efficient Non-Interactive Verifiable Outsourced Computation for Arbitrary Functions

Non-interactive verifiable outsourced computation enables a computationally weak client to outsource the computation of a function $f$ on input $x$ to a more powerful but untrusted server, who will return the result of the function evaluation as well as a proof that the computation is performed correctly. A basic requirement of a verifiable outsourced computation scheme is that the client should invest less time in preparing the inputs and verifying the proof than computing the function by himself. One of the best solutions of such non-interactive schemes are based on Yao\u27s garble circuit and full homomorphic encryption, which leads to invest $poly(T)$ running time in offline stage and $poly(log T)$ time in online stage of the client, where $T$ is the time complexity to compute $f$. In this paper, we\u27ll present a scheme which does not need to use garble circuit, but to use a very simple technique to confuse the function we are going to compute, and only invests $poly(log T)$ running time in the offline stage

Construction of Multiplicative Monotone Span Program

Multiplicative monotone span program is one of the important tools to realize secure multiparty computation. It is essential to construct multiplicative monotone span programs for secure multiparty computations. For any access structure, Cramer et al. gave a method to construct multiplicative monotone span programs, but its row size became double, and the column size also increased. In this paper, we propose a new construction which can get a multiplicative monotone span program with the row size less than double without changing the column size

Architecture-based integrated management of diverse cloud resources

Cloud management faces with great challenges, due to the diversity of Cloud resources and ever-changing management requirements. For constructing a management system to satisfy a specific management requirement, a redevelopment solution based on existing management systems is usually more practicable than developing the system from scratch. However, the difficulty and workload of redevelopment are also very high. As the architecture-based runtime model is causally connected with the corresponding running system automatically, constructing an integrated Cloud management system based on the architecture-based runtime models of Cloud resources can benefit from the model-specific natures, and thus reduce the development workload. In this paper, we present an architecture-based approach to managing diverse Cloud resources. First, manageability of Cloud resources is abstracted as runtime models, which could automatically and immediately propagate any observable runtime changes of target resources to corresponding architecture models, and vice versa. Second, a customized model is constructed according to the personalized management requirement and the synchronization between the customized model and Cloud resource runtime models is ensured through model transformation. Thus, all the management tasks could be carried out through executing programs on the customized model. The experiment on a real-world cloud demonstrates the feasibility, effectiveness and benefits of the new approach to integrated management of Cloud resources ? 2014, Chen et al.; licensee Springer.EI11-15

What is China doing in policy-making to push back the negative aspects of the nutrition transition?

OBJECTIVE: To review the nutrition policies and efforts related to nutrition transition in China. DESIGN AND SETTING: This paper reviews the nutrition policy and activities of China to prevent and control diet-related non-communicable diseases (DR-NCDs). Data came from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Council and some cross-sectional surveys. RESULTS: China is undergoing a remarkable, but undesirable, rapid transition towards a stage of the nutrition transition characterised by high rates of DR-NCDs in a very short time. Some public sector Chinese organisations have combined their efforts to create the initial stages of systematic attempts to reduce these problems. These efforts, which focus on both under- and overnutrition, include the new Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents and the Chinese Pagoda and The National Plan of Action for Nutrition in China, issued by the highest body of the government, the State Council. There are selected agricultural sector activities that are laudable and few other systematic efforts that are impacting behaviour yet. In the health sector, efforts related to reducing hypertension and diabetes are becoming more widespread, but there is limited work in the nutrition sector. This paper points to some unique strengths from past Chinese efforts and to an agenda for the next several decades. CONCLUSIONS: China is trying in its efforts to prevent and control the development of DR-NCDs but effects are limited. Systematic multi-sector co-operation is needed to effectively prevent and control DR-NCDs inside and outside the health sector