Abstract: A method, system, apparatus, and computer program for conducting a real-time payment settlement transaction. The method includes determining a prefunded requirement for one or more financial institutions. A prefunded balance is stored, based on a prefunded payment received in a separate funding account, for each of the one or more financial institutions. The method further includes receiving an electronic request for payment message from at least one creditor financial institution, and forwarding the electronic request for payment message to at least one debtor financial institution, the electronic request for payment message requesting that a payment be made to the at least one creditor financial institution and comparing the amount of payment requested in an electronic payment transaction to the prefunded balance of the at least one debtor financial institution. A real-time financial settlement transaction is performed based on a result of the comparing step.

Abstract: Techniques for bidirectional text selection are disclosed. When a character selection is received, such as a “Shift+Arrow” input, the unanchored side of a selection area is adjusted by one glyph in the selection direction. The adjusted selection area is then evaluated in terms of logical indices that define the selection. If the range of logical indices is contiguous, such as the range {3, 4, 5}, then the adjusted selection area is accepted, although further adjustments are optionally made for glyphs that map to multiple characters. However, if the range of logical indices is noncontiguous, such as {3, 4, 6}, then the selection area is further adjusted until a contiguous selection of logical indices is achieved. For instance, a character corresponding to logical index {5} is added to a selection of characters corresponding to logical indices {3, 4, 6} to produce a selection that is logically and visually contiguous.

Abstract: Maximum throughput of a storage unit, and workload and latency values of the storage unit corresponding to a predefined fraction of the maximum throughput are estimated based on workloads and latencies that are monitored on the storage unit. The computed metrics are usable in a variety of different applications including admission control, storage load balancing, and enforcing quality of service in a shared storage environment.

Abstract: Embodiments associate software applications with computing resource containers based on a placement rule and a selected failure correlation. A placement rule indicates that a first software application is to be co-located with a second software application during execution of the first and second software applications. The placement rule also indicates that the first software application is to be separated from the second software application during execution of the first and second software applications. Failure correlations are determined for a plurality of computing resources associated with the first software application. A computing resource with a lowest failure correlation is selected from the plurality of computing resources, and the second software application is associated with the selected computing resource despite the association violating the placement rule.

Abstract: The configuration of a cache is adjusted within a computer system that includes at least one entity that submits a stream of references, each reference corresponding to a location identifier corresponding to data storage locations in a storage system. The reference stream is spatially sampled using reference hashing. Cache utility values are determined for each of a plurality of caching simulations and an optimal configuration is selected based on the results of the simulations.

Abstract: Embodiments determine communication delay along a network path between a source and a destination in a network. A target injection rate is calculated based on the determined delay and a predetermined maximum queuing delay threshold. Data packets are transmitted along the network path using an inter-packet delay that is based on the target injection rate.

Abstract: One or more embodiments of the present invention provide a technique for effectively managing virtualized computing systems with an unlimited number of hardware resources. Host systems included in a virtualized computer system are organized into a scalable, peer-to-peer (P2P) network in which host systems arrange themselves into a network overlay to communicate with one another. The network overlay enables the host systems to perform a variety of operations, which include dividing computing resources of the host systems among a plurality of virtual machines (VMs), load balancing VMs across the host systems, and performing an initial placement of a VM in one of the host systems.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a peptide having a fungicidal activity, isolated from Lactobacillus plantarum YML007, and provides a fungicidal peptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1. In addition, the present invention provides a fungicidal composition or a composition for food preservation, containing the peptide as an active ingredient. The peptide of the present invention has a wide range of fungicidal activities, and thus can be applied, by using the same, to various fields such as a microbial preparation related to fungicidal activity, an agent for controlling pathogenic fungi, a preservative for food including feed, and the future development of medical supplies related to fungi.

Abstract: A technique for managing distributed computing resources in a virtual computing environment is disclosed. In an embodiment, a method includes receiving a recommended change to a virtual architecture of a virtual computing environment; determining an impact on current workload in the virtual computing environment if the recommended change is performed; determining an impact on future workload in the virtual computing environment if the recommended change is performed; calculating a combined impact on current and future workload; determining if the combined impact is above or below a threshold; if the combined impact on current and future workload is below the threshold, do not perform the recommended change; and if the combined impact on current and future workload is above the threshold, perform the recommended change.

Abstract: Maximum throughput of a storage unit, and workload and latency values of the storage unit corresponding to a predefined fraction of the maximum throughput are estimated based on workloads and latencies that are monitored on the storage unit. The computed metrics are usable in a variety of different applications including admission control, storage load balancing, and enforcing quality of service in a shared storage environment.

Abstract: A method, system, apparatus, and computer program for conducting a real-time payment transaction. The method includes receiving a request for payment from a creditor financial institution (FI), and forwarding it to a debtor (FI). A payment transaction message is received from the debtor financial institution, specifying an amount of payment requested in the request, and is forwarded to the creditor FI such that the amount of payment is credited to an account in real-time. The debtor FI can request a return of the payment, in which case the creditor FI can comply therewith or refuse the return the payment. Also, an unsettled financial position of the debtor FI can be settled where that position does not exceed a combination of a pre-funded balance in a settlement account and a net debit cap value, and multiple settlements can be performed depending on a relationship between the position and combination.

Abstract: A cache in a computer system is configured with a plurality of monitoring slices, each comprising a separately addressable partition of the cache. With each monitoring slice is associated a respective sub-range of a hash function, which has a range that includes at least the addressable partitions of the cache that comprise the monitoring slices. For each of a stream of location identifiers submitted by at least one entity, a respective location identifier hash value is computed and used to determine in which, if any, monitoring slice-associated hash function sub-range the location identifier hash value falls. For at least one of the monitoring slices, a frequency value is determined as a function of how many of the location identifier hash values fell into the slice's associated hash function sub-range, and a respective cache utility value is then computed as a function of each monitoring slice's frequency value.

Abstract: The configuration of a cache is adjusted within a computer system that includes at least one entity that submits a stream of references, each reference corresponding to a location identifier corresponding to data storage locations in a storage system. The reference stream is spatially sampled using reference hashing. Cache utility values are determined for each of a plurality of caching simulations and an optimal configuration is selected based on the results of the simulations.

Abstract: A shared input/output (IO) resource is managed in a decentralized manner. Each of multiple hosts having IO access to the shared resource, computes an average latency value that is normalized with respect to average IO request sizes, and stores the computed normalized latency value for later use. The normalized latency values thus computed and stored may be used for a variety of different applications, including enforcing a quality of service (QoS) policy that is applied to the hosts, detecting a condition known as an anomaly where a host that is not bound by a QoS policy accesses the shared resource at a rate that impacts the level of service received by the plurality of hosts that are bound by the QoS policy, and migrating workloads between storage arrays to achieve load balancing across the storage arrays.

Abstract: A text-recognition system and method include a trained classifier configured to identify a font of a frame of text line image. The system also includes an adaptive sliding window configured to divide the frame into a plurality of cells. A first cell is located around a prominent writing line of the text line image. Additional cells are located above the prominent writing line and below the prominent writing line, such that each of the additional cells above the prominent writing line has a same percentage of ink-pixels and each of the additional cells below the prominent writing line has a same percentage of ink-pixels. The system also includes a font-specific feature parameters database configured for extraction of text features from each of the cells. The system also includes one or more trained font-specific recognizers configured to recognize the extracted text features using an associated font-specific recognizer for the identified font.

Abstract: A technique for predictive distributed resource scheduling and distributed power management includes analyzing patterns in the workload, predicting future workloads, and making recommendations for changes to the virtual computing environment. In addition, a cost-benefit analysis can be performed to determine whether the recommended change would likely result in improved performance.

Abstract: Maximum throughput of a storage unit, and workload and latency values of the storage unit corresponding to a predefined fraction of the maximum throughput are estimated based on workloads and latencies that are monitored on the storage unit. The computed metrics are usable in a variety of different applications including admission control, storage load balancing, and enforcing quality of service in a shared storage environment.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for saving and/or restoring state information for virtualized computing systems are described. An example apparatus includes a physical memory and a virtual machine monitor to: in response to a request to suspend operation of a virtual machine, place a trace on a memory page in the physical memory to detect at least one of a read access or a write access that occurs when state information of the virtual machine is saved in response to the request, the memory page associated with virtual memory hosted by the virtual machine, while the virtual machine continues to operate after the request, initiate storing of the virtual memory of the virtual machine, and in response to a trigger of the trace, store an indication that the memory page is an active memory page.

Abstract: Interaction is evaluated between a computer system cache and at least one entity that submits a stream of references corresponding to location identifiers of data storage locations. The reference stream is spatially sampled by comparing a hash value of each reference with a threshold value and selecting only those references whose hash value meets a selection criterion. Cache utility values are then compiled for those references. In some embodiments, the compiled cache values may then be corrected for accuracy as a function of statistics of those location identifiers over the entire stream of references and of the sampled references whose hash values satisfied the selection criterion. Alternatively, a plurality of caching configurations is selected and the selected references are applied as inputs to a plurality of caching simulations, each corresponding to a different caching configuration. A resulting set of cache utility values is then computed for each caching simulation.

Abstract: Cache utility curves are determined for different software entities depending on how frequently their storage access requests lead to cache hits or cache misses. Although possible, not all access requests need be tested, but rather only a sampled subset, determined by whether a hash value of each current storage location identifier (such as an address or block number) meets one or more sampling criteria. The sampling rate is adaptively changed so as to hold the number of location identifiers needed to be stored to compute the cache utility curves to within a set maximum limit.