Resource Request Based Energy Efficient Heuristic for Server Offloading in Cloud Computing Environment

Increasing demand for high computing power led to the establishment of large-scale data centers. A data center is a collection of millions of servers. These large-scale data centers consume a huge amount of electrical energy. Managing these servers for provisioning and de-provisioning of resources in an automatic and efficient way is a great challenge. We attempt to minimise the power consumption by reducing the number of servers and maximizing the resource utilization of the servers that are in use through virtualization of resources. We work upon Virtual Machine Consolidation for consolidating them on fewer servers for maximizing resource utilization. In this article, we propose a resource request based heuristic for offloading the overloaded servers to optimise power consumption efficiency.

A new cytoplasmic male sterility system for hybrid seed production in Indian oilseed mustard Brassica juncea

We report a novel cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) system in Brassica juncea (oilseed mustard) which could be used for production of hybrid seed in the crop. A male sterile plant identified in a microspore derived doubled haploid population of re-synthesized B. napus line ISN 706 was found to be a CMS as the trait was inherited from the female parent. This CMS, designated '126-1', was subsequently transferred to ten different B. juncea varieties and lines through inter-specific crosses followed by recurrent backcrossing. The F(1)s of inter-specific crosses were invariably partially fertile, but irrespective of the variety/line used, the recipient lines became progressively male sterile over five to seven generations and could be maintained by crossing the male sterile lines with their normal counterparts. The male sterile lines were found to be stable for the trait under both long and short day conditions. CMS lines when crossed with lines other than the respective maintainer line were restored for fertility, implying that any variety could act as a restorer for '126-1' cytoplasm in B. juncea. These unique features in maintenance and restoration of CMS lines coupled with near normal floral morphology of the CMS lines have allowed the use of '126-1' cytoplasm for hybrid seed production. The uniqueness of '126-1' has been further established by Southern hybridization with mitochondrial DNA probes and by a histological study of the development of male sterile anthers.