An analysis of update ordering in distributed replication systems

This paper analyses update ordering and its impact on the performance of a distributed replication system. We propose a model for update orderings and constraints and develop a number of algorithms for implementing different ordering constraints. A performance study is then carried out to analyse the update-ordering model. We show that our model allows the definition of an ordering constraint on each update operation, and the ordering implementation takes account of detailed inter-operation semantics denoted by commutative operations and causal operations to reduce unnecessary delay and results in a better response time for update requests.

An analysis of update ordering in a cluster of replicated servers

This paper analyses update ordering and its impact on the performance of a cluster of replicated servers. We propose a model for update orderings and constraints and develop a number of algorithms for implementing different ordering constraints. A performance study is then carried out to analyse the update ordering model.

Pervasive computing at tableside : a wireless web-based ordering system

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a wireless web-based ordering system called iMenu in the restaurant industry. Design/methodology/approach – By using wireless devices such as personal digital assistants and WebPads, this system realizes the paradigm of pervasive computing at tableside. Detailed system requirements, design, implementation and evaluation of iMenu are presented.

Findings – The evaluation of iMenu shows it explicitly increases productivity of restaurant staff. It also has other desirable features such as integration, interoperation and scalability. Compared to traditional restaurant ordering process, by using this system customers get faster and better services, restaurant staff cooperate more efficiently with less working mistakes, and enterprise owners thus receive more business profits.

Originality/value – While many researchers have explored using wireless web-based information systems in different industries, this paper presents a system that employs wireless multi-tiered web-based architecture to build pervasive computing systems. Instead of discussing theoretical issues on pervasive computing, we focus on practical issues of developing a real system, such as choosing of web-based architecture, design of input methods in small screens, and response time in wireless web-based systems.

Constructions of aggregation operators that preserve ordering of the data

We address the issue of identifying various classes of aggregation operators from empirical data, which also preserves the ordering of the outputs. It is argued that the ordering of the outputs is more important than the numerical values, however the usual data fitting methods are only concerned with fitting the values. We will formulate preservation of the ordering problem as a standard mathematical programming problem, solved by standard numerical methods.

Envisioning Indochina : the spatial and social ordering and imagining of a French colony

The emergence of Indochina in the French imagination was articulated in both representational and institutional modes. Representation involves the transmission of colonial ideals through more obtuse means; that is, through literary texts, travelogues, exhibitions, film and advertising. However, these textual sites feed from and invest in a material situation, which was the institutional arm of colonialism. Indochina was institutionally articulated in cartographic maps and surveys, in the new social spaces of cities and towns, in architectural and technological forms, through social technologies of discipline and welfare and in cultural and religious organisations. The aim of this thesis is to analyse, across a number of textual sites, the representation and institutionalisation of Otherness through the politics of space in the French colony of Indochina, Indochine in this sense becomes a spatial discourse. The French constructed a mental and physical space for Indochina by blanketing and suffocating the original cultural landscape, which in fact had to be ignored for this process to occur. What actually became manifest as a result of this projection stemmed from the French imagination. Just as the French manipulated space, language also underwent the same process of reduction. The Vietnamese script was latinised to make it more 'useable' and ‘accessible’. Through christening the union of Indochina; initiating a comprehensive writing reform; and renaming the streets in the colonial cities, the French used language us another tool for 'making transparent'. Furthermore, the colonial powers established a communication and transport network throughout the colony in an attempt to materialise their fictive (artificial) vision of a unified French Indochinese space. The accessibility and design of these different modes of transport reflected the gendered, racial and class divisions inherent in the colonial establishment. At the heart of representing and institutionalising Indochina was the desire to control and contain. This characterised French imperial ordering of space in the city and the rural areas. In rural areas land was divided into small parcels and alienated to individuals or worked into precise grids for the rubber plantation. In urban centres the native quarter was clearly demarcated from the European quarter which functioned as its modern, progressive Other. The rationale behind this segregation was premised on European, nineteenth century discourses of race, class, gender and hygiene. Influenced by Darwinian and neo-Lamarkian theories of race, this biological discourse identified the 'working class', 'women' and 'the native' as not only biologically but also culturally inferior. They were perceived as a potential, degenerative threat to the biological, cultural and industrial development of the nation. In the colonial context, space was thus ordered and domesticated to control the native population. Coextensively, the literature which springs from such a structure will be tainted by the same ideas, and thus the spaces it formulates within the readers mind feed on and reinforce this foundation. Examples of gender and indigenous narratives which contest this imaginative, transparent topography are analysed throughout this thesis. They provide instances of struggle and resistance which undermine the ideal/stereotypical level of architectural and planned space and delineate an alternative insight into colonial spatial and social relations. The fictional accounts of European women and indigenous writers both challenge and reaffirm the fixity of some of these idealised colonial boundaries. In various literary, historical, political, architectural and cinematic discourses Indochina has been und continues to be depicted as a modern city and exotic Utopia. Informed by the mood of nostalgia, exotic images of Indochina have resurfaced in contemporary French culture. France's continued desire to create, control and maintain an Indochinese space in the French public imagination reinforces the multi-layered, interconnected and persistent nature of colonial discourse.

Online ordering : report of a trial by the Queensland Institutue of Technology Library

The article reports the methods and results of a trial by The QIT Library of the IDAPS Acquisitions System, specifically for items ordered from James Bennett Pty. Ltd. Hardware problems at Bennetts precluded test of comparative speed of delivery of electronically placed orders but the library reports a clear reduction in order preparation time and an excellent hit rate for bibliographic data on the LYNX and ABN databases viewed as a composite resource.

Ordering and stability in conducting polypyrrole

X-ray diffraction (XRD) was employed to characterize electrochemically synthesized polypyrrole (PPy) films with 1,5-naphthalene disulfonate (1,5-NDS) counterions treated with simple acid and base. Results show that the as-synthesized film is amorphous with short-range ordering in the polymer backbone. This ordering is soon lost after thermal ageing at 150°C for 60 days and there is evidence of counterion degradation. Base treatment of the PPy/1,5-NDS films has similar effects leading to a complete loss of ordering in the polymer backbone and dedoping of the polymer. Acid treatment at high temperatures increases the ordering of the polymer backbone and results in the development of a secondary interdopant peak confirming that ion exchange has occurred. Conductivity of the PPy was also increased substantially. The enhanced ordering was maintained even after thermal ageing. Room-temperature acid treatment also results in improved ordering of the polymer as well as the counterion but the increase in conductivity is only marginal and most of the ordering is soon lost after thermal ageing. Increase in ordering of the polymer structure seems to lead to better conductivity, although not necessarily improved thermal stability.

(Dis)ordering teacher education : from problem students to problem-based learning

This paper takes issue with the 'disabling' of students enrolled in teacher education courses, perpetrated by definitions of students' learning disorders and by the structures and pedagogies engaged by teacher educators. Focusing on one case, but with relevance for similarly affected systems, the paper begins by outlining the changed student entry credentials of Australian universities and their faculties of education. These are seen as induced by a shift from elite to mass provision of higher education and the particular effect on teacher education providers (especially those located in regional institutions) of the politics of government funding and the continuing demand for teachers by education systems. While these changed conditions are often used to argue an increased university population of students with learning disorders, the paper suggests that such arguments often have more to do with how student problems are defined by institutions and how these definitions serve to secure additional government funding. More pertinently, the paper argues that such definition tends to locate the problem in individual students, deferring considerations of teacher educators' pedagogy and the learning arrangements of their institutions. The paper concludes that the place to begin addressing these issues of difficulty would seem to be with a different conception of knowledge production.

Atom probe tomography investigation of heterogeneous short-range ordering in the 'komplex' phase state (K-state) of Fe-18Al (at.%)

We study an Fe-18Al (at.%) alloy after various thermal treatments at different times (24-336 h) and temperatures (250-1100 °C) to determine the nature of the so-called 'komplex' phase state (or "K-state"), which is common to other alloy systems having compositions at the boundaries of known order-disorder transitions and is characterised by heterogeneous short-range-ordering (SRO). This has been done by direct observation using atom probe tomography (APT), which reveals that nano-sized, ordered regions/particles do not exist. Also, by employing shell-based analysis of the three-dimensional atomic positions, we have determined chemically sensitive, generalised multicomponent short-range order (GM-SRO) parameters, which are compared with published pairwise SRO parameters derived from bulk, volume-averaged measurement techniques (e.g. X-ray and neutron scattering, Mössbauer spectroscopy) and combined ab-initio and Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis procedure has general relevance for other alloy systems where quantitative chemical-structure evaluation of local atomic environments is required to understand ordering and partial ordering phenomena that affect physical and mechanical properties.

New insights into ordering and dynamics in organic ionic plastic crystal electrolytes

Solid state phases of organic salts, whose chemistry is closely related to that of ionic liquids, often show interesting phase behavior and dynamics resulting in solid-state conductors that have potential application in electrochemical devices such as solid state batteries. The mechanism of conduction in these solid-state plastic crystal phases is still not entirely understood. We have recently shown using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations that the introduction of defects, such as vacancies, leads to heterogeneous dynamics in the OIPC arising from amorphous and mobile domains in these materials. Advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis indicates that these domains can exhibit distinct orientations, leading to anisotropic ionic conductivity with enhanced values in a particular direction. This paper will review this new understanding, drawing links between the molecular and macroscopic-level information provided by these two techniques.