IDRA (IDeal Resource Allocation): A tool for computing ideal speedups

Performance studies of actual parallel systems usually tend to concéntrate on the effectiveness of a given implementation. This is often done in the absolute, without quantitave reference to the potential parallelism contained in the programs from the point of view of the execution paradigm. We feel that studying the parallelism inherent to the programs is interesting, as it gives information about the best possible behavior of any implementation and thus allows contrasting the results obtained. We propose a method for obtaining ideal speedups for programs through a combination of sequential or parallel execution and simulation, and the algorithms that allow implementing the method. Our approach is novel and, we argüe, more accurate than previously proposed methods, in that a crucial part of the data - the execution times of tasks - is obtained from actual executions, while speedup is computed by simulation. This allows obtaining speedup (and other) data under controlled and ideal assumptions regarding issues such as number of processor, scheduling algorithm and overheads, etc. The results obtained can be used for example to evalúate the ideal parallelism that a program contains for a given model of execution and to compare such "perfect" parallelism to that obtained by a given implementation of that model. We also present a tool, IDRA, which implements the proposed method, and results obtained with IDRA for benchmark programs, which are then compared with those obtained in actual executions on real parallel systems.

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of the Conventional Façade SOS Natura and the Natural Water Tank Façade

The construction industry produces great environmental impacts to the planet. In order to tackle this problem, the European Union has put into effect Regulation No 305/2011, which compels the construction products manufacturers to carry out environmental performance studies of these products and thus make public the impact they cause on the environment. The aim of this research is to make known the environmental impacts of the SOS Natura Conventional Façade (CF) solution, obtained within the research project "SOS Natura, Vegetal Architectural Solutions" developed by the Department of Construction and Technology in Architecture of the School of Architecture of the Technical University of Madrid (Spain). In addition, we report an environmental comparative with the Natural Water Tank Façade (NWTF), studied previously by the same work group and included in the same research project.We present as well an uncertainty analysis for both façades. Following the study conducted we conclude that the NWTF profile has a slightly better environmental behaviour when compared to the CF profile for the entire life cycle in most of the impact categories analysed in this study. However it should also be noted that, in detail and at stage level, the NWTF presents a higher environmental impact than the CF.

Spectacular Disappearances : Celebrity and Privacy, 1696-1801 /

How can the modern individual control his or her self-representation when the whole world seems to be watching? This question is a familiar one amid the the twenty-first century's architecture of 24-hour newsrooms, chat rooms and interrogation rooms, but this book traces this question back to the stages, the pages, and the streets of eighteenth-century London--and to the strange and spectacular self-representations performed there by England's first modern celebrities. These self-representations include the enormous wig that the actor, manager, and playwright Colley Cibber donned in his most famous comic role as Lord Foppington--and that later reappeared on the head of Cibber's cross-dressing daughter, Charlotte Charke. They include the black page of 'Tristram Shandy,' a memorial to the parson Yorick (and his author Laurence Sterne), a page so full of ink that it cannot be read. And they include the puffs and prologues that David Garrick used to hiehgten his publicity while protecting his privacy; the epistolary autobiography, modeled on the sentimental novel, of Garrick's protégée George Anne Bellamy; and the elliptical poems and portraits of the poet, actress, and royal courtesan Mary Robinson, known throughout her life as Perdita. Linking all of these representations is a quality that Fawcett terms "over-expression." 'Spectacular Disappearances' theorizes over-expression as the unique quality that allows celebrities to meet their spectators' demands for disclosure without giving themselves away. Like a spotlight so brilliant it is blinding, these exaggerated but illegible self-representations suggest a new way of understanding some of the key aspects of celebrity culture, both in the eighteenth century and today. They also challenge many of the disciplinary divides between theatrical character and novelistic character in eighteenth-century studies, or between performance studies and literary studies today. Drawing on a wide variety of materials and methodologies, 'Spectacular Disappearances' provides an overlooked but indispensable history for scholars and students of celebrity studies, performance studies, and autobiography--as well as to anyone curious about the origins of the eighteenth-century self.