Automated bidding in computational markets: an application in market-based allocation of computing services

Autonomous agents are widely applied to automate interactions in robotics, e.g. for selling and purchasing goods on eBay, and in financial markets, e.g. in the form of quote machines and algorithmic traders. Current research investigates efficient economic mechanisms that fully automate the provisioning and usage processes of Grid-based services. On the one hand, consumers want to allocate resources on demand for their various applications, e.g. data sharing, stream processing, email, business applications and simulations. On the other hand, providers of Grid services want to govern business policies to meet their utilization and profit goals. The above-mentioned processes are not manually manageable, however, because decisions need to be taken within milliseconds. Therefore, such processes have to be automated to minimize human interactions. Hence, market mechanisms and strategic behavior play important roles when it comes to achieving automated and efficient allocation of Grid services. The paper begins by presenting a framework for automated bidding, providing a methodology for the design and implementation of configurable bidding strategies. Second, it presents a novel bidding strategy based on a reinforcement learning technique. This strategy is designed to automate the bid generation processes of consumers and providers in various market mechanisms. Third, the behavior and convergence of the strategy is evaluated in a centralized Continuous Double Auction and a decentralized on-line machine scheduling mechanism against selected benchmark bidding strategies. Fourth, we define a bidding language for communicating consumer and provider preferences to the market as well as report back the match of the market-based allocation process.     

Determination of film thickness and refractive index of films and substrates by means of angular modulation in reflection

A method has been developed for determining the refractive index of films and substrates and film thicknesses by exact measurements of the angular positions of extrema in the reflectance curves representing the variation of the reflectance with angle of incidence. The use of the angular modulation technique provides great accuracy and does not require knowledge of the magnitude of the reflectance. The method is applied to Si-SiO₂ systems and to glass surfaces.     

THE INVESTIGATION OF KINETICS OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE STRUCTURE TRANSFORMATION OF HOMOPHASES AND HETEROPHASES MATERIALS

1.IntroductionTheinvestigationofinternalboundaries(antiphaseandinterphaseboundaries,grainboundariesandothers)inhomophaseandheterophasematerialsistheactualproblemofphaseorder--disordertransitionkinetics.TherearesomeexpermentaldatashowingtheirimportantroleinprocessesofmaterialstructuretransformationundervariousexternalfaCtorsll--4](temperature,pressure,stressandothers).Forexample,differentstructuralfeaturesarelocalizedonantiphasedomainboundarieswithtemperaturegrowth[2,3].Antiphaseboundariesbeha…     

Computer simulation of a thermoactivated process of atomic structure reconstruction in thin films

A possible influence of different factors on the structure and stability of binary thin films is investigated using methods of computer simulation. Equilibrium states of this thin film and their stability were analyzed depending on the temperature, topology of monophase layers, concentration of vacancies and coordinational sphere number taken into account at an interatomic interaction.     

Investigations on a new force-frequency measuring gauge

A force-frequency measuring gauge is realised on the basis of an oscillating quartz crystal plate. Two solutions to the problem of constructing a hermetic enclosure are described. The resulting force-frequency characteristics are shown. The possibility for utilising this kind of transducer in practice is therefore demonstrated.     

Cloud-Computing

Lately, a new computing paradigm has emerged: “Cloud Computing”. It seems to be promoted as heavily as the “Grid” was a few years ago, causing broad discussions on the differences between Grid and Cloud Computing. The first contribution of this paper is thus a detailed discussion about the different characteristics of Grid Computing and Cloud Computing. This technical classification allows for a well-founded discussion of the business opportunities of the Cloud Computing paradigm. To this end, this paper first presents a business model framework for Clouds. It subsequently reviews and classifies current Cloud offerings in the light of this framework. Finally, this paper discusses challenges that have to be mastered in order to make the Cloud vision come true and points to promising areas for future research.     

Some new results on Hadamard modulo prime matrices

First, some nonexistence and classification results on Hadamard modulo prime matrices whose size is relatively small with respect to their modulus, are presented. Second, we show the existence of an infinite class of matrices of that kind derived by finite projective planes.     

New cut of a quartz resonator with a linear temperature/frequency characteristic

The letter describes a new cut of quartz resonator with a linear temperature/frequency characteristic used as a sensor for precise temperature measurements. The newly developed thermosensitive quartz resonator has some important advantages: obtaining comparatively easily and reproducibly a precise orientation of the piezoelement, good linearity of the temperature/frequency characteristic and a clear frequency spectrum in a wide temperature interval. The first-order temperature coefficient is 38 parts in 106/deg C and the frequency of operation on the third overtone is about 26.5 MHz at 10°C. That leads to an increase of approximately 1000Hz/deg C, with a sensitivity of 0.0001 deg C. These qualities of the thermosensitive quartz resonator make possible its use in devices for precise temperature measurements.     

Synthesis and properties of prepolymers and their siloxane analogues by thiol‐ene polyaddition of limonene with dithiols

This work presents a synthesis of monomers from a natural compound (limonene) and dimethylsiloxanes with various chain lengths by hydrosilylation. Based on these monomers, prepolymers with various lengths of the siloxane and methylene parts, as well as their analogues without siloxane moieties, were obtained by thiol‐ene polyaddition with ethanedithiol, butanedithiol and hexanedithiol. Their physicochemical characteristics, namely the thermal stability, phase behaviour and intrinsic viscosity of the polymers obtained, were compared as a function of the length of the methylene spacer and the siloxane part in the polymer chain. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry