Design and Performance Evaluation of EXMAN: An EXtended MANchester Data Flow Computer

Data flow computers are high-speed machines in which an instruction is executed as soon as all its operands are available. This paper describes the EXtended MANchester (EXMAN) data flow computer which incorporates three major extensions to the basic Manchester machine. As extensions we provide a multiple matching units scheme, an efficient, implementation of array data structure, and a facility to concurrently execute reentrant routines. A simulator for the EXMAN computer has been coded in the discrete event simulation language, SIMULA 67, on the DEC 1090 system. Performance analysis studies have been conducted on the simulated EXMAN computer to study the effectiveness of the proposed extensions. The performance experiments have been carried out using three sample problems: matrix multiplication, Bresenham's line drawing algorithm, and the polygon scan-conversion algorithm.

The evolution of genomic imprinting

We explore three possible pathways for the evolution of genomic imprinting. (1) Imprinting may be advantageous in itself when imprinted and unimprinted alleles of a locus confer different phenotypes. If a segment of DNA is imprinted in the gametes of one sex but not in those of the other, it might lead to effects correlated with sexual dimorphism. More fundamentally, in certain organisms, sex determination might have evolved because of imprinting. When imprinting leads to chromosome elimination or inactivation and occurs in some embryos but not in others, two classes of embryos, differing in the number of functional gene copies, would result. A model for sex determination based on inequality in the actual or effective copy-number of particular noncoding, regulatory sequences of DNA has been proposed (Chandra, Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 82. 1165–1169 and 6947–6949, 1985). Maternal control of offspring sex is another possible consequence of imprinting; this would indicate a potential role for imprinting in sex ratio evolution. (2) Genes responsible for imprinting may have pleiotropic effects and they may have been selected for reasons other than their imprinting ability. Lack of evidence precludes further consideration of this possibility. (3) Imprinting could have co-evolved with other traits. For instance, gamete-specific imprinting could lead to a lowered fitness of androgenetic or gynogenetic diploids relative to the fitness of ‘normal’ diploids. This in turn would reinforce the evolution of anisogamy. The reversibility of imprinting raises the possibility of occasional incomplete or improper erasure. If the site of imprinting is the egg – as appears to be the case with the human X (Chandra and Brown, Nature 253. 165–168, 1975) – either improper imprinting or improper erasure could lead to unusual patterns of inheritance (as in the fragile-X syndrome) or fitness effects skipping generations.

Modelling and analysis of the variance in parallelism in parallel computations

In this paper, we introduce an analytical technique based on queueing networks and Petri nets for making a performance analysis of dataflow computations when executed on the Manchester machine. This technique is also applicable for the analysis of parallel computations on multiprocessors. We characterize the parallelism in dataflow computations through a four-parameter characterization, namely, the minimum parallelism, the maximum parallelism, the average parallelism and the variance in parallelism. We observe through detailed investigation of our analytical models that the average parallelism is a good characterization of the dataflow computations only as long as the variance in parallelism is small. However, significant difference in performance measures will result when the variance in parallelism is comparable to or higher than the average parallelism.

An Actor-Critic Algorithm for Finite Horizon Markov Decision Processes

We develop a simulation based algorithm for finite horizon Markov decision processes with finite state and finite action space. Illustrative numerical experiments with the proposed algorithm are shown for problems in flow control of communication networks and capacity switching in semiconductor fabrication.

A Simultaneous Deterministic Perturbation Actor-Critic Algorithm with an Application to Optimal Mortgage Refinancing

We develop a simulation-based, two-timescale actor-critic algorithm for infinite horizon Markov decision processes with finite state and action spaces, with a discounted reward criterion. The algorithm is of the gradient ascent type and performs a search in the space of stationary randomized policies. The algorithm uses certain simultaneous deterministic perturbation stochastic approximation (SDPSA) gradient estimates for enhanced performance. We show an application of our algorithm on a problem of mortgage refinancing. Our algorithm obtains the optimal refinancing strategies in a computationally efficient manner

Influence of soil pedological properties on termite mound stability

This study investigated the influence of soil properties on the density and shape of epigeous fungus-growing termite nests in a dry deciduous forest in Karnataka, India. In this environment, Odontotermes obesus produces cathedral shaped mounds. Their density, shape (height and volume) and soil physicochemical properties were analyzed in ferralsol and vertisol environments. No significant difference was observed in O. obesus mound density (n = 2.7 mound ha(-1) on average in the vertisol and ferralsol areas). This study also showed that O. obesus has a limited effect on soil physical properties. No differences in soil particle size, pH, or the C:N ratio and base saturation were measured whereas the C and N contents were reduced and CEC was higher in termite nest soils in both environments. Clay mineralogical composition was also measured, and showed the presence of higher amounts of smectite clays in termite nest soils, which thus explained the increasing CEC despite the reduced C and N content. However, the main difference was the shape of the termite mounds. The degradation of the nests created a hillock of eroded soil at the base of termite mounds in the vertisol while only a thin layer of eroded soil was observed in the ferralsol. The increased degradation of termite mounds in the vertisol is explained by the presence of smectites (2:1 swelling clays), which confer macroscopic swelling and shrinking characteristics to the soil. Soil shrinkage during the dry season leads to the formation of deep cracks in the termite mounds that allow rain to rapidly penetrate inside the mound wall and then breakdown unstable aggregates. In conclusion, it appears that despite a similar abundance, termite mound properties depend to a large extent on the soil properties of their environments. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.