The success of a Web service is largely dependent on its responsiveness (i.e., its availability and timeliness) in the delivery of the information its users (clients) require. A practical approach to the provision of responsive Web services, recently proposed in the literature [7], is based on introducing redundancy in the service implementation, namely by replicating the service across a numbe...

A replica exchange method is presented which requires fewer replicas and is designed to be used for large systems. In this method, dynamically scaled replicas are placed between conventional replicas at broadly spaced temperatures. The potential of the scaled replicas is linearly scaled by a dynamical variable which varies between 0 and 1. When the variable is near either end point the replica ...

Replication of the most popular objects is often used in distributed data provision systems to reduce access time and improve availability. In fact, a given replica placement scheme may have to be redefined as object popularity changes. Given two replica placement schemes X and X, the Replica Migration Problem (RMP) is to compute a schedule of replica transfers and deletions that lead from X to...

Although many approaches for architecturebased reliability estimation exist, these approaches are typically limited to certain classes or exclusively concentrate on software reliability, neglecting the influence of hardware resources, component reliability, component replica and software deployment. In this paper, a reliability estimation model based on software architecture (SA) is presented. ...

We report an approach for fabricating biomimetic surface replicas of cells with nanoscale resolution. Fixed cells serve as a template for a two-stage replica molding process. Cast from the template, the impression replica contains a reproduction of cellular topographical features indented into its surface, and cast from the impression replica, the relief replica contains a copy of these feature...

Data grid is developed to facilitate sharing data and resources located in different parts of the world. The major barrier to support fast data access in a data grid is the high latency of wide area networks and the Internet. Data replication is adopted to improve data access performance. When different sites hold replicas, there are significant benefits while selecting the best replica. In thi...

We present a phenomenological replica-field theory for symmetric AB copolymer systems with the A.block near its glass transition point. Using a variational principle based on the second Legendre transformation we prove that the interaction between composition fluctuations, due to the loss mobility of the A monomers, results in the elimination of microphase separation. Instead of a microphase se...

An asynchronous implementation of the replica exchange method that addresses some of the limitations of conventional synchronous replica exchange implementations is presented. In asynchronous replica exchange pairs of processors initiate and perform temperature replica exchanges independently from the other processors, thereby removing the need for processor synchronization found in conventiona...

A mechanical method for efficient replication of DNA microarrays is described. The approach consists of three steps. First, a master DNA microarray consisting of single-stranded DNA elements is exposed to a solution containing the biotin-functionalized complement of each array element. Following hybridization, a replica surface modified with streptavidin is brought into contact with the master....