Resource Control

Deadline-sensitive workflows require careful coordination of user constraints with resource availability. Current distributed resource access models provide varying degrees of resource control: from limited or none in grid batch systems to explicit in cloud systems. Additionally applications experience variability due to competing user loads, performance variations, failures, etc. These variations impact the quality of service (QoS) that goes unaccounted for in planning strategies. In this paper we propose Workflow ORchestrator for Distributed Systems (WORDS) architecture based on a least common denominator resource model that abstracts the differences and captures the QoS properties provided by grid and cloud systems. We investigate algorithms for effective orchestration (i.e., resource procurement and task mapping) for deadline-sensitive workflows atop the resource abstraction provided in WORDS. Our evaluation compares orchestration methodologies over TeraGrid and Amazon EC2 systems. Experimental results show that WORDS enables effective orchestration possible at reasonable costs on batch queue grid and cloud systems with or without explicit resource control.

Software effort models and effort estimates help project managers allocate resources, control costs, and schedule and improve current practices, leading to projects that are finished on time and within budget. In the context of Web development and maintenance, these issues are also crucial, and very challenging, given that Web projects have short schedules and a highly fluidic scope. Therefore this chapter has two main objectives. The first is to introduce the concepts related to effort estimation and in particular Web effort estimation. The second is to present a case study where a real effort prediction model based on data from completed industrial Web projects is constructed step by step.

Network planning for realtime services in traditional systems is normally performed based on a fixed traffic demand. Realtime services such as voice and video are currently being widely deployed over packet-based IP networks. Due to the lack of resource control mechanisms in IP networks, the actual traffic during network operation may easily deviate from the given mean traffic matrix values. As realtime services impose stringent quality of service (QoS) constraints, any traffic deviation inside the network might lead to severe quality degradation if any of the links provides insufficient service rate for the available traffic at any time. In this work, we highlight the significance of this problem and propose an effective approach to provide a highly robust network against traffic deviation. By means of both analytical and simulation studies, we study the distribution of realtime connections over an enterprise IP network and show how capacity needs of realtime traffic are affected when various resource control mechanisms are employed. In addition, we study the resulting tradeoff between capacity needs and traffic QoS parameters including packet loss and blocking probability.

To develop an evolutionary model that integrates human parenting and family formation with ideas about the evolved functions of distinctive human characteristics, such as concealed ovulation and sophisticated sociocognitive competencies. Design. Theoretical and empirical research across scientific disciplines is reviewed. The emphasis is on ecological and social conditions that covary, across species, with parenting, family formation, and potentially coevolving characteristics, such as a long developmental period. Results. For humans, social competition through coalition formation emerges as the key selective pressure that readily explains the coevolution of a constellation of characteristics that covary with parenting and family formation, including a lengthy developmental period, reduced sexual dimorphism, concealed ovulation, menopause, complex kinship networks, large brains, and sophisticated sociocognitive competencies. Individual and cross-cultural variations in patterns of parenting dynamics and family formation are viewed as adaptive phenotypic responses to different ecological and historical conditions. Conclusions. Human parenting and family formation are features of a coevolving suite of distinctive human characteristics, the evolutionary function of which is to facilitate the formation of kin-based coalitions for competition with other coalitions for resource control. In this view, a central function of human parenting and the human family is to provide a context for the development of sociocompetitive competencies appropriate to the local ecology.

Paternal investment has long been considered responsible for the evolution of predominantly monogamous marriage in humans. However, male-male competition resulting in mate-guarding and male coercion could be equally important. In this review, I use a comparative approach to examine the effect of variation in human paternal investment on our mating system. I conclude paternal investment is important but so too is mate-guarding. I propose a model of our mating system incorporating both factors. Variation in the mating system is explained by variation in male resource control and contribution, resulting in ecologically imposed monogamy or polygyny, as predicted by the polygyny threshold model, as well as variation in male -male competition for status, resulting in socially imposed monogamy or polygyny.

Women's empowerment is a dynamic process that has been quantified, measured and described in a variety of ways. We measure empowerment in a sample of 3500 rural women in 128 villages of Bangladesh with five indicators. A conceptual framework is presented, together with descriptive data on the indicators. Linear regressions to examine effects of covariates show that a woman's exposure to television is a significant predictor of three of the five indicators. A woman's years of schooling is significantly associated with one of two self-esteem indicators and with freedom of mobility. Household wealth has a significant and positive association with a woman's resource control but a significant negative association with her total decision-making score.

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) adopted in the core of Next Generation Networks (NGNs) promises to make network management easier by separating the control and the transport planes. Therefore, an interface between applications and the underlying transport network has been defined that offers a dynamic and efficient management of network resources based on a policy-based resource control engine. The resulting resource management framework enables the delivery of both the existing carrier grade existing and the next generation Quality of Service (QoS) sensitive services across operator-controlled networks using heterogeneous transport technologies. This review sheds some light into the policy control layer concept and the extended nomenclature introduced by current standardization works. The approaches of international standards development organizations, such as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the WiMAX Forum, and CableLabs are reviewed and compared with each other revealing the common architectural trend. Challenges and works in progress of NGN resource management towards Fixed and Mobile Convergence (FMC) are discussed as well.

The paper compares Bales' Interaction Process Analysis (IPA) with Sacks' Conversation Analysis (CA), arguing that CA has answered several questions that originally motivated the development of IPA, and while doing so, it has re-specified the phenomena of interaction research. These two research traditions are in many ways diametrically opposed: the former is quantitative, theory-oriented and aims at global characterizations of interactional situations, while the latter is qualitative, inductive and aims at characterizing specific layers of organization (such as turn taking or sequence organization) that give structure to interactional situations. Their primary objects of study are different. For the Balesian tradition, it is the functioning and the structure of a small group, whereas in the Sacksian tradition, it is the structures and practices of human social interaction per se. It is argued, however, that CA has radically expanded understanding of the questions IPA was originally developed to address. These questions include allocation of resources, control and solidarity. Bales' research deals with them in terms of the differentiation of participants of a group, whereas CA has re-specified them as emergent aspects of the very rules and structures that constitute and regulate interaction sequences. The uniqueness of the CA perspective on social interaction is demonstrated by exploring the display of emotion as an interactional phenomenon. It is argued that the display of emotion is intrinsically embedded in the sequential organization of action. Sensitive 'coding and counting' approaches can detect emotion displays, but the contribution of CA is to show the specific ways in which they are part of the business of interaction.

This contribution looks at the interplay of different logics of governing the environment, resources and people in Cambodia that materialise in overlapping zones of exclusion, thereby coproducing new relations of resource control in a complex frontier constellation: a frontier for water, forest and carbon commodities and also for state control. Focusing on three Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) hydropower dams, the paper analyses a partly unintentional, but significantly consequential coalescence of distinct spaces of governing located in the Cardamom Mountains: a forest conservation zone, the CDM technological zone, an enclaved corporate hydropower zone and a semi-official timber logging zone. While the CDM element has exposed the projects internationally, it has obscured several problematic aspects and dynamics of resource politics connected to the dams that are revealed in this paper. These include the vulnerabilisation of local fisher communities, incarceral labour practices on the dams’ construction sites and accelerated logging in the conservation zone. The paper also shows how the interaction of the studied zones takes place through their distinct mechanisms of exclusion with the effects of more centralised resource control and the bracketing of the associated dispossessions.

This work deals with reconfigurable control functions and protocols for supporting mobile computing applications in heterogeneous wireless systems like cellular networks and WLANs. The control functions are implemented in a software module, named Reconfigurable Access module for MObile computiNg applications (RAMON), placed in mobile and/or base stations. RAMON operates on abstract models of the main communication functions of a wireless systems (e.g., transmission over the radio channel, coding end error recovery, capacity sharing and packet scheduling, handover, congestion control, etc.). RAMON algorithms are programmed with reference to the abstract models, independently of specific radio and network technologies. RAMON interactions with a specific wireless access system are conceptually defined by means of parameters that can be measured and controlled, so that the general logic of the module can be posed on top of each system within the constraints and the flexibility provided by the system itself. The implementation of this architectural paradigm requires the definition of specific software adaptation modules between RAMON and each specific system. The reconfigurability of RAMON is exploited to adapt and select the algorithms on the basis of user/application requirements. The paper describes the RAMON architectural model and its control algorithms. Specific examples of adaptation modules are also provided. A selection of performance results achieved by a simulator implementing the RAMON module, the adaptation modules and the main communication functions of UMTS, 802.11 and Bluetooth are shown.

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

This paper provides simulation practitioners and consumers with a grounding in how discrete-event simulation software works. Topics include discrete-event systems; entities, resources, control elements and operations; simulation runs; entity states; entity lists; and entity-list management. The implementation of these generic ideas in AutoMod, SLX, and Extend is described. The paper concludes with several examples of "why it matters" for modelers to know how their simulation software works, including coverage of SIMAN (Arena), ProModel, and GPSS/H as well as the other three tools. 2 ABOUT DISCRETE-EVENT SIMULATION 2.1 The Transaction-Flow World View The "transaction-flow world view" often provides the basis for discrete-event simulation. In this world view, a system is visualized as consisting of discrete units of traffic that move ("flow") from point to point in the system while competing with each other for the use of scarce resources. The units of traffic are sometimes called "transactions," giving rise to the phrase "transaction flow." Numerous systems fit the preceding description. Included are many manufacturing, material handling, transportation, health care, civil, natural resource, communication, defense, and information processing systems, and queuing systems in general.

Social networks are online platforms where users form relationships with others by sharing resources. Access control for these social networks is different from other systems as it fulfills the social requirements of community as well as the technical requirements of the system. This paper presents a classification of access control models for social networks based on lattice taxonomy where axes represent the properties of the models. The proposed taxonomy has eight axes representing: requestor identity, mapping authority, resource control, relationship management, credential distribution, access control decisions, rights delegation and transparency. Analysis of existing models using this taxonomy highlights the tradeoffs between user control, state distribution and social needs. The taxonomy reveals that various interesting features of social networks have not been implemented yet and there is a gap between the social requirements and access control features of social networks.

This study investigated educational resource control and university autonomy in universities in South-South, Nigeria. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. A sample of 772 respondents (382 academic staff and 390 non-academic staff) was drawn using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The instrument used was questionnaire titled “Educational Resource Control and University Autonomy Questionnaire” (ERCUAQ), designed and structured by the researcher. The instrument was validated and the reliability yielded an index of 0.78 using the Chronbac Alpha Technique. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while z-test, was used to test the research hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that, the strategies for the control of educational resources to ensure university autonomy in South-South, Nigeria include: effective internal control mechanism, periodic auditing, establishment of central finance committee, and periodic posting and reposting. The test of hypothesis showed that, there is no significant difference between the mean score ratings of academic and non-academic staff on the strategies for controlling educational resources to ensure university autonomy in South-South, Nigeria. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that Universities in South-South Nigeria should strategically intensify enough through influencing government policy to be directed towards creating favourable economic environment that could ensure proper technical advancement.

This paper presents a simple resource control mechanism with traffic scheduling for 2-hop ad-hoc networks, in which the Request-To-Send (RTS) packet is utilized to deliver feedback information. With this feedback information, the Transmission Opportunity (TXOP) limit of the sources can be controlled to balance the traffic. Furthermore, a bottleneck transmission scheduling scheme is introduced to provide fairness between local and forwarding flows. The proposed mechanism is modeled and evaluated using the well-known 20-sim dynamic system simulator. Experimental results show that a fairer and more efficient bandwidth utilization can be achieved than without the feedback mechanism. The use of the structured and formalized control-theoretical modeling framework has as advantage that results can be obtained in a fast and efficient way.

The subject of ownership and control of oil and gas in Nigeria is one that has generated a great deal of passion and controversy amongst people and nations. Since her attainment of independence in1960, there has been a constant struggle for ownership and control of these natural resources (oil and gas) between Nigerian citizens and the Federal Government of Nigeria. The Niger Delta Region whose oil wealth sustains the whole country remains a portrait of poverty, infrastructural decay, Social dislocation and environmental degradation. This article examines some of the issues which have overtime hampered the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Niger-Delta region especially with regards to Petroleum exploration in the Region which include but not limited to environmental and ecological degradation, loss of means of livelihood, inter and intra communities squabbles, among others. All these negative impacts of petroleum exploration in the Niger Delta Region together with other reasons such as lack of human development, lack of good governance, lack of infrastructure, delays in delivering benefits to communities, lack of equity in the distribution of resources, social federalism, derivation issue, land ownership and control of resources including the oppressive and obsolete laws affecting the Niger-Delta Such as the mineral Act, the Petroleum Act, the Oil pipeline Act, the land Use Act, etc which have overtime hampered the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the region especially the legal mechanisms in place as they relate to the environment, oil and gas industry in Nigeria with a view for reforms. The article further examines the geopolitics of ownership and control of oil and gas and the burning issue of resource control agitation. The writer ended this article with concluding remarks as well as suggesting appropriate recommendations as a way out of the quagmire.

This paper presents an application of Markov Decision Process (MDP) into the provision of traffic prioritisation in the best-effort networks. MDP was used because it is a standard, general formalism for modelling stochastic, sequential decision problems. The implementation of traffic prioritisation involves a series of decision making processes by which packets are marked and classified before being despatched to destinations. The application of MDP was driven by the objective of ensuring the higher priority packets are not delayed by the lower ones. The MDP is believed to be applicable in improving the traffic prioritisation arbitration.

In this paper, based on software reliability growth models with generalized logistic testing-effort function, we study three optimal resource allocation problems in modular software systems during testing phase: 1) minimization of the remaining faults when a fixed amount of testing-effort and a desired reliability objective are given, 2) minimization of the required amount of testing-effort when a specific number of remaining faults and a desired reliability objective are given, and 3) minimization of the cost when the number of remaining faults and a desired reliability objective are given. Several useful optimization algorithms based on the Lagrange multiplier method are proposed and numerical examples are illustrated. Our methodologies provide practical approaches to the optimization of testingresource allocation with a reliability objective. In addition, we also introduce the testing-resource control problem and compare different resource allocation methods. Finally, we demonstrate how these analytical approaches can be employed in the integration testing. Using the proposed algorithms, project managers can allocate limited testingresource easily and efficiently and thus achieve the highest reliability objective during software module and integration testing.

The multitasking virtual machine (called from now on simply MVM) is a modification of the Java virtual machine. It enables safe, secure, and scalable multitasking. Safety is achieved by strict isolation of application from one another. Resource control augment security by preventing some denial-of-service attacks. Improved scalability results from an aggressive application of the main design principle of MVM: share

We studied the causal relationships between forest harvesting and the soil decomposer community focusing on suppression of energy inputs from trees to the soil through root±mycorrhizal network and increased energy input to the soil in the form of slash left on site. We hypothesised that both of these factors would affect the decomposer community, since the soil food web has been regarded as a system in which the amount of resources controls the numbers of consumers. To study the importance of these factors without changes in microclimate, like in sunshine and shade, taking place in clear-felled areas, the experiment was performed in a mature spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) forest. The experiment with factorial design included two factors, isolation of the tree roots in the study plots from the surrounding soil and addition of slash. The isolation increased soil NH 4 content and promoted growth of herbs. It had no effect on the total microbial or bacterial biomass, but the amount of soil fungi decreased by 40% and community structure of bacteria changed in the isolated plots. At the level of microbivores, fungivorous microarthropods (collembolans and oribatid mites) decreased in their numbers while bacterivorous nematodes slightly increased. In addition, the isolation increased the numbers of enchytraeids with a 2 year delay. No effects on decomposers by slash addition could be detected. The responses of decomposers to the isolation were similar to those observed earlier in clear-felled areas. It was concluded that, in short-term, elimination of root±mycorrhizal connections is one of most important factors affecting the soil decomposer community after harvesting of northern coniferous forest. The effect of slash is, to a large extent, due to its effects on micro-climate and soil moisture. q

Cloud computing denotes an architectural shift toward thin clients and conveniently centralized provision of computing resources. Clients' lack of direct resource control in the cloud prompts concern about the potential for data privacy violations, particularly abuse or leakage of sensitive information by service providers. Cryptography is an oft-touted remedy. Among its most powerful primitives is fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), dubbed by some the field's "Holy Grail," and recently realized as a fully functional construct with seeming promise for cloud privacy.

This chapter first presents taxonomies on approaches for resource allocation across resource sharing networks such as Grids. It then examines existing systems and classifies them under their architectures, operational models, support for the life-cycle of virtual organisations, and resource control techniques. Resource sharing networks have been established and used for various scientific applications over the last decade. The early ideas of Grid computing have foreseen a global and scalable network that would provide users with resources on demand. In spite of the extensive literature on resource allocation and scheduling across organisational boundaries, these resource sharing networks mostly work in isola- tion, thus contrasting with the original idea of Grid computing. Several efforts have been made towards providing architectures, mechanisms, policies and standards that may enable resource allocation across Grids. A survey and classification of these systems are relevant for th...

To gain better insight into the importance of predator and resource control in New Zealand lakes we surveyed the late summer trophic structure of 25 shallow South Island lakes with contrasting nutrient levels (6-603 µg TP l -1 ) and fish densities. Total catch of fish per net (CPUE) in multimesh gillnets placed in the open water and the littoral zones was positively related with the nutrient level. Trout CPUE was negatively correlated with total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN). Zooplankton seemed largely influenced by fish, as high fish CPUE coincided with low zooplankton and Daphnia biomass, low average weight of cladocerans, low contribution of Daphnia to total cladoceran biomass, low ratio of calanoids to total copepod biomass and low ratio of zooplankton biomass to phytoplankton biomass. However, chlorophyll a was only slightly negatively related to Daphnia biomass and not to zooplankton biomass in a multiple regression that included TN and TP. Ciliate abundance was positively related to chlorophyll a and negatively to Daphnia biomass, but not to total zooplankton biomass, while no relationships were found between heterotrophic nanoflagellates and zooplankton. The relationships between fish abundance and nutrients and fish abundance and zooplankton:phytoplankton ratio and between chlorophyll a and TP largely followed the pattern obtained for 42 north temperate Danish lakes. We conclude that fish, including trout, have a major effect on the zooplankton community structure and biomass in the pelagial of the shallow oligotrophic to slightly eutrophic New Zealand lakes, but that the cascading effects on phytoplankton and protist are apparently modest.

This paper examines the perceived deprivations in the Niger Delta that have led to the demand for resource control in the Niger Delta region. The study relies mainly on secondary sources for its analysis. There is a reliance on existing literature in books, journals, newspapers and magazines. The piece identifies and historicizes the reasons for the persistent agitations for self-determination and resource control in the Niger Delta. It finds that the demand for resource control has been necessitated by the neglect and deprivation suffered by the people of the region. It is this neglect and deprivation that have crystallized and metamorphosed into the current resource control conflict that threatens to dismember the Nigerian state. It concludes that the agitations in the region cannot be explained only in terms of environmental conflict. The neglect over the years suffered by the people in terms of provision of infrastructural facilities and their socio-political marginalization are crucial in explaining the frequent eruptions in the Niger Delta.

In Australia, like many countries, government, medicine and the community have maintained an interdependent and symbiotic relationship based on mutual resource dependency and reciprocity. The services of medicine have been indispensable to government and the community and in return medicine has achieved power, elitism and financial gain. Traditionally, doctors have controlled and directed medical knowledge in an absolute manner and this has been the basis of increasing power and dominance. There are, however, claims that medicine's power and dominance over the health care system is being eroded by the emergence of major social trends. The corporatization of medicine, manageralism and proletarianization are touted as factors that are increasingly countervailing medical dominance and power. Whilst it could be suggested that as these trends become more firmly established government and the community gain greater discretionary control over how the resources of medicine can be allocated and utilized, this article argues that the geographic and social dimensions of the community in which doctors practice must be considered. Using a qualitative descriptive approach research was conducted in rural Victoria, Australia. The overall aim of the study was to identify the issues that impact upon service delivery in rural hospitals. The most significant issue that emerged related to medical relationships. The results of this research indicate that in this rural area the power of medicine is strengthened and institutionalized by geographically determined resource control. The sustainability of rural communities is linked to the ability of the town to attract and retain the services of a doctor. Crucial shortages of rural doctors provide medicine with a mandate to dictate the way in which medical resources will be allocated and used by hospitals and the community. Organizations that control critical resources are in an extremely powerful position to control others. Doctors in rural Victoria maintain a position of strength and use their power to exert control over the state, the community and the hospital. Although medical power and dominance may be declining in some areas, in rural Victoria it remains firmly entrenched. r

In this paper, a novel solution to dynamically control the resources of a WiMAX system is proposed. The presented solution is aligned with the NGN trends, as well as with the WiMAX Forum guidelines and architecture. The interaction with the WiMAX systems is performed through SNMP, supporting the standardized IEEE 802.16f MIB. Furthermore, the paper defines an horizontal abstraction layer, hiding the WiMAX equipments specific functionalities from the network control plane, thus providing robustness and vendor independency. In order to verify the performance of the proposed framework, a WiMAX testbed has been installed, and a set of measurements have been made, showing that the proposed system ensures a quick resource allocation, even for a large number of simultaneous resource reservation requests.

Energy conservation is essential to wireless networks, particularly for third-generation (3G) and fourth-generation (4G) wireless systems, because high-speed data transmissions would rapidly exhaust the energy of a mobile station. This paper presents the details of energy-saving mechanisms for packet data services in two major standards, namely, the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the Third-Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2). In addition to qualitative comparison, analytic models and quantitative comparison based on the energy-saving models are provided. The proposed analytic models analyze and quantify the energy consumption for bursty and streaming traffic in cdma2000 and wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA). The impacts of an inactivity timer on energy consumption and reconnection cost are demonstrated further by simulation and analysis. The analytic results could be used to suggest proper timer lengths that can balance the energy consumption and the reconnection cost. In addition to providing insights of the energyconservation mechanisms of 3GPP and 3GPP2, which are often difficult to directly obtain from standards specifications, results shown in this paper are also practical for 3GPP and 3GPP2 operators to determine proper parameters for energy efficiency.

To gain better insight into the importance of predator and resource control in New Zealand lakes we surveyed the late summer trophic structure of 25 shallow South Island lakes with contrasting nutrient levels (6-603 µg TP l -1 ) and fish densities. Total catch of fish per net (CPUE) in multimesh gillnets placed in the open water and the littoral zones was positively related with the nutrient level. Trout CPUE was negatively correlated with total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN). Zooplankton seemed largely influenced by fish, as high fish CPUE coincided with low zooplankton and Daphnia biomass, low average weight of cladocerans, low contribution of Daphnia to total cladoceran biomass, low ratio of calanoids to total copepod biomass and low ratio of zooplankton biomass to phytoplankton biomass. However, chlorophyll a was only slightly negatively related to Daphnia biomass and not to zooplankton biomass in a multiple regression that included TN and TP. Ciliate abundance was positively related to chlorophyll a and negatively to Daphnia biomass, but not to total zooplankton biomass, while no relationships were found between heterotrophic nanoflagellates and zooplankton. The relationships between fish abundance and nutrients and fish abundance and zooplankton:phytoplankton ratio and between chlorophyll a and TP largely followed the pattern obtained for 42 north temperate Danish lakes. We conclude that fish, including trout, have a major effect on the zooplankton community structure and biomass in the pelagial of the shallow oligotrophic to slightly eutrophic New Zealand lakes, but that the cascading effects on phytoplankton and protist are apparently modest.

Journal Vol.29,Issue 4, pages 72-77

Ο μηχανισμός συντονισμού της συνεργασίας των παραγωγικών συντελεστών ενός οικονομικού συστήματος χαρακτηρίζει τον τρόπο λειτουργίας του και ευθύνεται για τις οικονομικές επιδόσεις του. Ένα αποτελεσματικό οικονομικό σύστημα επιτυγχάνει την συνεισφορά όλων των παραγόντων στην παραγωγή και οδηγεί την κατανάλωση, την επένδυση και την διανομή του πλούτου της κοινωνίας στο καλύτερο δυνατό επίπεδο όπου το συναλλακτικό κόστος της κοινωνίας περιορίζεται στο ελάχιστο δυνατό. Ο τρόπος με τον οποίο το οικονομικό σύστημα υλοποιεί τις κυρίες λειτουργίες του είναι ο μηχανισμός συντονισμού που αναπτύσσει. Ο μηχανισμός συντονισμού επιτελείται από τον τρόπο μεταφοράς των αποφάσεων για τον έλεγχο των πόρων από το υψηλότερο στο χαμηλότερο επίπεδο των ιεραρχιών των θεσμών (κράτη, οργανισμοί, επιχειρήσεις) ή από τους αγοραστές στους πωλητές ή από τους παραγωγούς στους καταναλωτές ή από τους αποταμιευτές στους επενδυτές. Η επιτυχής λειτουργία του μηχανισμού μεταφοράς και ελέγχου των αποφάσεων κρατά το συναλλακτικό κόστος του οικονομικού συστήματος χαμηλό καθιστώντας τον συντονισμό του οικονομικού συστήματος ευκολότερο και πιο αποτελεσματικό. Η αποτυχία του μηχανισμού συντονισμού στις κεντρικά σχεδιαζόμενες οικονομίες και τις αυτοδιαχειριζόμενες από τους εργάτες οικονομίες οδήγησε στην κατάρρευση τους. Η εξήγηση αυτού του φαινομένου εδράζεται στην θεμελιώδη αντίθεση της λειτουργίας του αποκεντρωμένου μηχανισμού συντονισμού με τον σκληρό πυρήνα του τρόπου οργάνωσης των οικονομιών τόσο των κεντρικά σχεδιαζόμενων όσο και των αυτοδιαχειριζόμεων από τους εργάτες οικονομιών. Η εργασία μου εξηγεί γιατί αυτή η θεμελιώδης αντίθεση προκαλεί την θεσμική αποτυχία των σοσιαλιστικών οικονομιών που προκύπτει κυρίως από την αδυναμία συντονισμού των πόρων και της ασυνέπειας των αποφάσεων μεταξύ των εντολέων και των εντολοδόχων του οικονομικού συστήματος.

Today's shared hosting platforms often employ virtualization to allow multiple enterprise applications with time-varying resource demands to share a common infrastructure in order to improve resource utilization. Meeting application-level quality of service (QoS) goals becomes a challenge in such an environment as enterprise applications often have a multi-tier architecture and complex interactions and dependencies among individual tiers. In addition, when the shared infrastructure becomes overloaded, appropriate resource control needs to be performed at these individual tiers in a coordinated fashion in order to provide differentiated services to co-hosted applications. In this paper, we present an adaptive multivariate controller that dynamically adjusts the resource shares to individual tiers of multiple applications optimally in order to meet a specified level of service differentiation. The controller parameters are automatically tuned at runtime based on a quadratic cost function and a system model that is learned online using a recursive least-squares (RLS) method. To evaluate our controller design, we built a testbed hosting two instances of the RUBiS application, a multi-tier online auction web site, using Xen virtual machines. Our results indicate that our controller is able to meet given QoS differentiation targets between co-hosted applications while the total demand from these applications exceeds the capacities of the shared systems.

In this paper, we present an Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA)-based decentralized allocation enforcement system, developed with an emphasis on a consistent data model and easy integration into existing scheduling, and workload management software at six independent high-performance computing centers forming a Grid known as SweGrid. The Swedish National Allocations Committee (SNAC) allocates resource quotas at these centers to research projects requiring substantial computer time. Our system, the SweGrid Accounting System (SGAS), addresses the need for soft real-time allocation enforcement on SweGrid for cross-domain job submission. The SGAS framework is based on state-of-the-art Web and Grid services technologies. The openness and ubiquity of Web services combined with the fine-grained resource control and cross-organizational security models of Grid services proved to be a perfect match for the SweGrid needs. Extensibility and customizability of policy implementations for the...

Coalition operations rely on the fusion, sharing and dissemination of information for a network of disparate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets such as sensors, sensing platforms, human intelligence, data fusion and networking elements. ...

The backbone of IT infrastructure is evolving towards a service-oriented model, in which distributed resources, either software or hardware, can be composed as a customized IT service on demand. In particular, cloud computing infrastructure services manage a shared "cloud" of servers as a unified hosting substrate for diverse applications, using various technologies to virtualize servers and orchestrate their operation. Emerging cloud infrastructure-asa-service efforts include Eucalyptus, Nimbus, Tashi, OpenCirrus, and IBM's Blue Cloud.

In this paper, we present an Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA)-based decentralized allocation enforcement system, developed with an emphasis on a consistent data model and easy integration into existing scheduling, and workload management software at six independent high-performance computing centers forming a Grid known as SweGrid. The Swedish National Allocations Committee (SNAC) allocates resource quotas at these centers to research projects requiring substantial computer time. Our system, the SweGrid Accounting System (SGAS), addresses the need for soft real-time allocation enforcement on SweGrid for cross-domain job submission. The SGAS framework is based on state-of-the-art Web and Grid services technologies. The openness and ubiquity of Web services combined with the fine-grained resource control and cross-organizational security models of Grid services proved to be a perfect match for the SweGrid needs. Extensibility and customizability of policy implementations for the three different parties the system serves (the user, the resource manager, and the allocation authority) are key design goals. Another goal is end-to-end security and single sign-on, to allow resources-selected based on client policies-to act on behalf of the user when negotiating contracts with the bank in an environment where the six centers would continue to use their existing accounting policies and tools. We conclude this paper by showing the feasibility of SGAS, which is currently being deployed at the production sites, using simulations of reservation streams. The reservation streams are shaped using soft computing and policy-based algorithms.

Although customary marine tenure (CMT) systems for the manage ment of local marine resources occur throughout the world, compared with other models offisheries management they remain relatively little known. The Pacific Basin is especially rich in MT systems, which play key roles in overall wCIGI, economic and cultural life of societies. Based on a Solomon Island example, we examine the organizational principles and potentials of CMT systems to provide sustainable yields and equitable access to resources, their resilience to external pressures, and mechanisms for ensuring local autonomy in resource control. Next we demonstrate that CMT systems are an expression of traditional ecological knowledge, and show the importance of such knowl edge to scientific research and the planning of resource management. Finally, we suggest priorities for research on CMT systems.