Load balancing for cluster systems under heavy-tailed and temporal dependent workloads

Large-scaled cluster systems have been employed in various areas by offering pools of fundamental resources. Efficient allocation of the shared resources in a cluster system is a critical but challenging issue, which has been extensively studied in the past few years. Despite the fact that existing load balancing policies, such as Random, Join Shortest Queue and size-based polices, are widely implemented in actual systems due to their simplicity and efficiency, the performance benefits of these policies diminish when workloads are highly variable and temporally correlated. In this paper, we propose a new load balancing policy, named ADuS, which attempts to partition jobs according to their present sizes and further rank the servers based on their loads. By dispatching jobs of similar sizes to the corresponding ranked servers, ADuS can adaptively balance user traffic and system load in a cluster and thus achieve significant performance benefits. Extensive trace-driven simulations using both synthetic and real traces show the effectiveness and robustness of ADuS under many different environments.     

A novel cross-linked anion exchange membrane with conjugated and non-conjugated pyridine groups

A novel cross-linked pyridine anion exchange membrane was synthesized via thermal cross-linking methods. 2,5-bis(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (FPOx) and diallyl bisphenol A (DABPA) were reacted to obtain the main polymer chain (MP). MP was substituted with 4-bromopyridine and 4-hydroxypyridine to generate two pyridine polymers conjugated pyridine polymer (CPP) and non-conjugated pyridine polymer (NPP). The different conjugation statues of CPP and NPP led to distinct mechanical and electrochemical properties. The diallyl groups in MP acted as the cross-linking structures which strengthened the mechanical properties of CPP and NPP and provided more flexible side chains. The ultimate membrane CPP-membrane and NPP-membrane were prepared by solution casting methods. Compared with NPP-membrane, the ionic conductivity of CPP can achieve to 20.1 mS/cm at 20 °C with excellent mechanical and thermal characteristics. Quantum theory computation and AFM morphology were carried out to figure out the reason of the difference in ionic conductivities and physical properties.     

Coriolis mass-flow meter with integrated multi-DOF active vibration isolation

Vibration isolation of more than 40 dB is achieved for a Coriolis Mass-Flow Meter (CMFM) with integrated Active Vibration Isolation. A CMFM is an active device based on the Coriolis force principle for direct mass-flow measurements independent of fluid properties. The mass-flow measurement is derived from tube displacement measurements. Support excitations can introduce motions that cannot be distinguished from the Coriolis force induced motion, thus introducing a measurement error. Therefore, the measurement stage is passively suspended at 30 Hz in the 3 out-of-plane directions. Active vibration isolation is added to increase the attenuation. In this paper the system model and controller design are presented. Based on the model an on-scale proof of principle is built and the model and controller are validated in multi-DOF. Acceleration feedback and a novel adaptive feedforward control strategy are compared A filtered-reference least-mean-square (FxLMS) adaptive scheme is used to determine the optimal feedforward controller parameters to minimise a squared error signal; the motion of the measurement stage. Both strategies result in an attenuation of 10 – 20 dB at 175 Hz in addition to the 30 dB attenuation obtained by the 30 Hz passive vibration isolation stage. The performance of the feedback strategy is limited by robust stability and the the feedforward performance is limited by sensor noise.     

Vehicle state estimation for anti-lock control with nonlinear observer

Vehicle state estimation during anti-lock braking is considered. A novel nonlinear observer based on a vehicle dynamics model and a simplified Pacejka tire model is introduced in order to provide estimates of longitudinal and lateral vehicle velocities and the tire-road friction coefficient for vehicle safety control systems, specifically anti-lock braking control. The approach differs from previous work on vehicle state estimation in two main respects. The first is the introduction of a switched nonlinear observer in order to deal with the fact that in some driving situations the information provided by the sensor is not sufficient to carry out state estimation (i.e., not all states are observable). This is shown through an observability analysis. The second contribution is the introduction of tire-road friction estimation depending on vehicle longitudinal motion. Stability properties of the observer are analyzed using a Lyapunov function based method. Practical applicability of the proposed nonlinear observer is shown by means of experimental results.     

基于混合模糊多人多目标非合作博弈的车道选择模型

建立汽车安全驾驶辅助系统（包括安全驾驶预警系统）是保证交通安全的有效手段.准确预测车辆集群态势是汽车安全辅助驾驶的前提,车道选择是车辆集群态势发生转移最为根本的原因,也是交通流理论研究的基本内容.以往研究没有综合考虑车辆集群复杂态势下各运动实体特征及其操控者类型,以及多个车道间车辆的冲突对车道选择的影响.为此,本文综合考虑各运动实体特征及其操控者类型,基于混合模糊多人多目标非合作博弈方法,建立城市快速路基本路段上的驾驶员车道选择模型.通过分析各方驾驶员在不同车道选择策略下的收益,确定换道博弈的Nash均衡,得到驾驶员最优车道选择策略.研究结果表明：基于混合模糊多人多目标非合作博弈方法建构的驾驶员车道选择模型,其预测准确率可达到85.2%.     

Multiple objective dynamic programming with forward filtering

In this paper we present a heuristic method for reducing the computational burden in multiple objective dynamic programming (MODP). Using techniques originally suggested for multiple objective linear programming, the solution set for each state (stage) are filtered, giving a representative subset of the set of efficient ways of attaining that state (stage). The method allows for considerable reductions in the amount of storage required to solve the problem, and in the dimensionality of the problem in solution space. It does not guarantee that all the identified solutions are non-dominated; however, the examples presented suggest that the representation of the subset of all efficient solutions is a good one.     

基于鲁棒控制理论的多模型分层切换控制

A new hierarchical switching control system of multiple models based on robust control theory is designed for some plant with large uncertainties. The model set and controller set are designed by robust control theory and the characteristics of robust control system are taken into account. A new kind of switching index function by estimating uncertainty is designed. Furthermore,stability of the closed system is analyzed by the small gain theorem in the sense of exponentially weighted L2 norm. And simulation is done on a plant with both parameter uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results show that this new hierarchical switching control system can control the plant with large uncertainties effectively and has good performance of tracking and stability.     

Tin and tin–titanium as catalyst components for reversible hydrogen storage of sodium aluminium hydride

This paper is concerned with the effects of adding tin and/or titanium dopant to sodium aluminium hydride for both dehydrogenation and re-hydrogenation reactions during their reversible storage of molecular hydrogen. Temperature programmed decomposition (TPD) measurements show that the dehydrogenation kinetics of NaAlH₄ are significantly enhanced upon doping the material with 2 mol% of tributyltin hydride, Sn(Bu)₃H but the tin catalyst dopant is shown to be inferior than titanium. On the other hand, in this preliminary work, a significant synergetic catalytic effect is clearly revealed in material co-doped with both titanium and tin catalysts which shows the highest reversible rates of dehydrogenation and re-hydrogenation (after their hydrogen depletion). The re-hydrogenation rates of depleted Sn/Ti/NaAlH₄ evaluated at both 9.5 and 140 bars hydrogen are also found to be favourable compared to the Ti/NaAlH₄, which clearly suggest the importance of the catalyst choice. Basing on these results some mechanistic insights for the catalytic reversible dehydrogenation and re-hydrogenation processes of Sn/Ti/NaAlH₄ are therefore made.     

Bifunctional oxygen/air electrodes

A selective review on the materials and construction principles used for bifunctional oxygen/air electrodes is given. The discussion emphasizes the catalytically active materials used for the construction of these electrodes, which are a key component in electrically rechargeable air breathing electrochemical systems. Whereas, in acid electrolytes normally noble metal catalysts must be used, there is a possibility to use less expensive transition metal oxides in alkaline electrolytes. Typical transition metal oxides have the perovskite, pyrochlore and spinel structure.