39381350
Performance-Based Workload Distribution on Grid Environments
Imbalanced workload-distribution can significantly degrade performance of grid computing environments. In the past, the theory of divisible load has been widely investigated in static heterogeneous systems. However, it has not been widely applied to grid environments, which are characterized by heterogeneous resources and dynamic environments. In this paper, we propose a performance-based approach to workload distribution for master-slave types of applications on grids. Furthermore, applications with irregular workloads are addressed. We implemented three kinds of applications and conducted experimentations on our grid test-beds. Experimental results show that this approach performs more efficiently than conventional schemes. Consequently, we claim that dynamic workload distribution can benefit applications on grid environments.
7749374
A Performance-Based Approach to Dynamic Workload Distribution for Master-Slave Applications on Grid Environments
Effective workload distribution techniques can significantly reduce the total completion time of a program on grid computing environments. In this paper, we propose a dynamic performance-based workload partition approach for master-slave types of applications on grids. Furthermore, we implement two types of applications and conduct the experimentations on our grid testbed. Experimental results showed that our method could execute more efficiently than traditional schemes.
5672930
An e-Learning Platform Based on Grid Architecture
The overall popularity of the Internet has helped e-learning become a hot method for learning in recent years. Over the Internet, learners can freely absorb new knowledge without restrictions on time or place. Many companies have adopted e-learning to train their employees. An e-learning system can make an enterprise more competitive by increasing the knowledge of its employees. E-learning has been shown to have impressive potential in e-commerce. At present, most e-learning environment architectures use single computers or servers as their structural foundations. As soon as their work loads increase, their software and hardware must be updated or renewed. This is a big burden on organizations that lack sufficient funds. Thus, in this study we employ a kind of Grid Computing technology, called the ”Data Grid” to integrate idle computer resources in enterprises into e-learning platforms, thus eliminating the need to purchase costly high-level servers and other equipment.
12951016
A shareable e-learning platform using data grid technology
Over the past decade, speed in the transmission of knowledge is no longer the way it used to be. Due to this influence, conventional educational methodology has also followed this trend and has gone through a momentous transformation. An excellent example is e-learning which has achieved and broken through the restrictions of time and space. In recent years it has become one of the most popular teaching methods. SCORM (Sharable Course Object Reference Model) the most popular e-learning standard has been adapted from many differing e-learning platforms. Normally, courseware meeting SCORM standards is sharable with other e-learning platforms. Most e-learning platforms however are unable to share courseware directly on the Internet. With this in mind, we have employed one type of grid computing technology called "data grid" in order to achieve this. This technology allows the integration of different SCORM platforms into a huge e-learning environment.
32464432
An Enhanced Parallel Loop Self-Scheduling Scheme for Cluster Environments
In this paper, a parallel loop self-scheduling scheme for heterogeneous PC cluster systems is proposed. Though the proposed scheme does allow users to choose parameters before the execution initialization phase, there are still weaknesses that motivate us to go further with new improvements in that scheme. For instance, a decision on a fixed and monotonous parameter can easily lead to invalid schedule by using previous input information. Thus, it is proposed in this paper a new scheme, where the scheduling parameter can be adjusted dynamically and fit into most widely available computer systems, in order to provide higher overall performance.
7849532
A Peer-to-Peer Resource Sharing System with Data Grid Technology for Mobile Devices
Increases in mobile device processing power, storage capacity, and connectivity in recent years have led to a rapid rise in mobile device use. But mobile users face challenges in making connections with other users in order to share resources. To address this issue, we propose an architecture that uses peer-to-peer protocol to establish a resource sharing platform for mobile devices, combined with a data grid to help analyze and classify resources.
5690098
Gamut clipping in color image processing
Multiple color coordinate systems are usually involved in color image applications or systems. Forward and backward transformations are used to switch between color coordinate systems. The out of gamut problem emerges when the color coordinate systems' gamut is different. Conventional approaches, including clipping R, G, B values and clipping luminance value are not ideal as they both produce severe error in the luminance component of the resulting color or reduce the contrast of the resulting image. We propose to clip the saturation value when a vector is out of the gamut of the LHS or YIQ space using the saturation processing equations. We have conducted experiments to compare three different clipping approaches. The experimental results show that the saturation clipping approach outperforms the other two approaches, in the sense that it can keep the luminance value unchanged. In addition, the contrast of the image produced by saturation clipping is much better than those produced by other clipping approaches.
14945726
Zero-IF VGA with novel offset cancellation
Reliable offset control is a vital feature of a zero-IF variable gain amplifier (VGA). Many traditional methods sacrifice speed (settling time) to achieve offset control by realizing a high pass feature in the signal path. This paper introduces a novel VGA architecture that is capable of controlling offset for all gain settings with a single offline calibration cycle. The VGA realizes very fast gain/startup settling time with only a slight increase in power and area requirements by eliminating the need for a high pass filter. The VGA circuit draws 3mA and has a gain range of 0~42dB with 1dB steps. It has a 10MHz bandwidth at 42dB, has a gain settling time of 140nsec, and controls output offset within 2.2mV
15244741
Automated Case Base Creation and Management
In this paper, we report on a scheme for automated case base creation and management. The scheme aims at reducing the difficulty and human effort required for case creation. This paper provides an overview of the proposed scheme and outlines its technical implementation as an automated case creation system for the Integrated Diagnostic System. Some experimental results for testing the scheme and an interactive tool for evaluating the constructed case base are presented.
636423
Visualization of large category map for Internet browsing
Information overload is a critical problem in World Wide Web. Category map developed based on Kohonen's self-organizing map (SOM) has been proven to be a promising browsing tool for the Web. The SOM algorithm automatically categorizes a large Internet information space into manageable sub-spaces. It compresses and transforms a complex information space into a two-dimensional graphical representation. Such graphical representation provides a user-friendly interface for users to explore the automatically generated mental model. However, as the amount of information increases, it is expected to increase the size of the category map accordingly in order to accommodate the important concepts in the information space. It results in increasing of visual load of the category map. Large pool of information is packed closely together on a limited size of displaying window, where local details are difficult to be clearly seen. In this paper, we propose the fisheye views and fractal views to support the visualization of category map. Fisheye views are developed based on the distortion approach while fractal views are developed based on the information reduction approach. The purpose of fisheye views are to enlarge the regions of interest and diminish the regions that are further away while maintaining the global structure. On the other hand, fractal views are an approximation mechanism to abstract complex objects and control the amount of information to be displayed. We have developed a prototype system and conducted a user evaluation to investigate the performance of fisheye views and fractal views. The results show that both fisheye views and fractal views significantly increase the effectiveness of visualizing category map. In addition, fractal views are significantly better than fisheye views but the combination of fractal views and fisheye views do not increase the performance compared to each individual technique.
16166999
Automatic Construction of Cross-Lingual Networks of Concepts from the Hong Kong SAR Police Department
The tragic event of September 11 has prompted the rapid growth of attention of national security and criminal analysis. In the national security world, very large volumes of data and information are generated and gathered. Much of this data and information written in different languages and stored in different locations may be seemingly unconnected. Therefore, cross-lingual semantic interoperability is a major challenge to generate an overview of this disparate data and information so that it can be analysed, searched. The traditional information retrieval (IR) approaches normally require a document to share some keywords with the query. In reality, the users may use some keywords that are different from what used in the documents. There are then two different term spaces, one for the users, and another for the documents. The problem can be viewed as the creation of a thesaurus. The creation of such relationships would allow the system to match queries with relevant documents, even though they contain different terms. Apart from this, terrorists and criminals may communicate through letters, e-mails and faxes in languages other than English. The translation ambiguity significantly exacerbates the retrieval problem. To facilitate cross-lingual information retrieval, a corpusbased approach uses the term co-occurrence statistics in parallel or comparable corpora to construct a statistical translation model to cross the language boundary. However, collecting parallel corpora between European language and Oriental language is not an easy task due to the unique linguistics and grammar structures of oriental languages. In this paper, the text-based approach to align English/Chinese Hong Kong Police press release documents from the Web is first presented. This article then reports an algorithmic approach to generate a robust knowledge base based on statistical correlation analysis of the semantics (knowledge) embedded in the bilingual press release corpus. The research output consisted of a thesaurus-like, semantic network knowledge base, which can aid in semantics-based cross-lingual information management and retrieval.