Do-It-Right-Fisrt-Time (DRFT) Approach to DSF Restructuring

In this paper, we argue, using two real-world applications from the automotive industry, that the biggest benefit of a Design Structure Matrix (DSM) model may come not from resequencing and partitioning, but rather from “rewiring” the process/blocks. By “rewiring” we mean redefining relationships among elements and/or inserting new elements into the matrix. This requires intimate understanding of the process and cannot be done with application of context-free partitioning algorithms. The Do-it-Right-First-Time (DRFT) approach to DSM restructuring is another way to look at a DSM by inspecting the sources of iteration within a block and reversing it through inserting a DRFT activity at the beginning of the block. In other words, we reverse the traditional Design-Build-Test “Cycle” into a DRFT-Design-Build “Sequence”. That is, the "wiring diagram" of a process or system overpowers the behavior of the individual nodes, so changing the system requires changing the wiring

Second-generation PLINK: rising to the challenge of larger and richer datasets

PLINK 1 is a widely used open-source C/C++ toolset for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and research in population genetics. However, the steady accumulation of data from imputation and whole-genome sequencing studies has exposed a strong need for even faster and more scalable implementations of key functions. In addition, GWAS and population-genetic data now frequently contain probabilistic calls, phase information, and/or multiallelic variants, none of which can be represented by PLINK 1's primary data format. To address these issues, we are developing a second-generation codebase for PLINK. The first major release from this codebase, PLINK 1.9, introduces extensive use of bit-level parallelism, O(sqrt(n))-time/constant-space Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and Fisher's exact tests, and many other algorithmic improvements. In combination, these changes accelerate most operations by 1-4 orders of magnitude, and allow the program to handle datasets too large to fit in RAM. This will be followed by PLINK 2.0, which will introduce (a) a new data format capable of efficiently representing probabilities, phase, and multiallelic variants, and (b) extensions of many functions to account for the new types of information. The second-generation versions of PLINK will offer dramatic improvements in performance and compatibility. For the first time, users without access to high-end computing resources can perform several essential analyses of the feature-rich and very large genetic datasets coming into use.Comment: 2 figures, 1 additional fil

Channels of Restructuring in Privatized Czech Companies

Wide variety of restructuring activities in the former state-owned enterprises has been documented in the literature. The present paper provides an analysis of channels of restructuring in a panel of 483 Czech companies privatized by the voucher method. The fixed-effects model with observations between 1993 and 1997 is used for this purpose. The results indicate that asset sale, labor shedding, employee incentives, sales growth, and inventory management serve as channels through which performance of the privatized companies measured by sale efficiency is improved. On the other hand, investment is not found to be a significant determinant of enterprise performance. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that the companies still face a soft budget constraint.

Issues in socialist economy reform

This paper examines issues involving the design and sequence of economic reform in formerly socialist economies that have made the political decision to move to a private market economy. They also examine the potential role of foreign countries in providing aid, technical assistance, and market access. In economies that are actually or potentially unstable macroeconomically, the first priority is macroeconomic stabilization and measures to harden budget constraints and create an emergency social safety net. At the center of the reform process are price reform, trade liberalization, enterprise restructuring, and privatization. Banking reform, training, and the development of other financial markets must begin immediately, but the ability of the financial system to allocate resources efficiently will remain limited until enterprise and price reform are sufficiently advanced. In systemwide reform, the notice of sequencing should be replaced by that of packaging. A large number of interrelated reforms - including those needed to create an appropriate legal structure and develop the skills needed in a market economy - has to be put in place very early, although the speed of implementation will differ. However rapidly the reforms are initiated, their completion - especially privatization - is bound to take many years.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets

Computer architecture for efficient algorithmic executions in real-time systems: New technology for avionics systems and advanced space vehicles

Improvements and advances in the development of computer architecture now provide innovative technology for the recasting of traditional sequential solutions into high-performance, low-cost, parallel system to increase system performance. Research conducted in development of specialized computer architecture for the algorithmic execution of an avionics system, guidance and control problem in real time is described. A comprehensive treatment of both the hardware and software structures of a customized computer which performs real-time computation of guidance commands with updated estimates of target motion and time-to-go is presented. An optimal, real-time allocation algorithm was developed which maps the algorithmic tasks onto the processing elements. This allocation is based on the critical path analysis. The final stage is the design and development of the hardware structures suitable for the efficient execution of the allocated task graph. The processing element is designed for rapid execution of the allocated tasks. Fault tolerance is a key feature of the overall architecture. Parallel numerical integration techniques, tasks definitions, and allocation algorithms are discussed. The parallel implementation is analytically verified and the experimental results are presented. The design of the data-driven computer architecture, customized for the execution of the particular algorithm, is discussed

The Sorghum bicolor reference genome: improved assembly, gene annotations, a transcriptome atlas, and signatures of genome organization.

Sorghum bicolor is a drought tolerant C4 grass used for the production of grain, forage, sugar, and lignocellulosic biomass and a genetic model for C4 grasses due to its relatively small genome (approximately 800 Mbp), diploid genetics, diverse germplasm, and colinearity with other C4 grass genomes. In this study, deep sequencing, genetic linkage analysis, and transcriptome data were used to produce and annotate a high-quality reference genome sequence. Reference genome sequence order was improved, 29.6 Mbp of additional sequence was incorporated, the number of genes annotated increased 24% to 34 211, average gene length and N50 increased, and error frequency was reduced 10-fold to 1 per 100 kbp. Subtelomeric repeats with characteristics of Tandem Repeats in Miniature (TRIM) elements were identified at the termini of most chromosomes. Nucleosome occupancy predictions identified nucleosomes positioned immediately downstream of transcription start sites and at different densities across chromosomes. Alignment of more than 50 resequenced genomes from diverse sorghum genotypes to the reference genome identified approximately 7.4 M single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 1.9 M indels. Large-scale variant features in euchromatin were identified with periodicities of approximately 25 kbp. A transcriptome atlas of gene expression was constructed from 47 RNA-seq profiles of growing and developed tissues of the major plant organs (roots, leaves, stems, panicles, and seed) collected during the juvenile, vegetative and reproductive phases. Analysis of the transcriptome data indicated that tissue type and protein kinase expression had large influences on transcriptional profile clustering. The updated assembly, annotation, and transcriptome data represent a resource for C4 grass research and crop improvement

Computer-aided programming for multiprocessing systems

As both the number of processors and the complexity of problems to be solved increase, programming multiprocessing systems becomes more difficult and error-prone. This report discusses parallel models of computation and tools for computer-aided programming (CAP). Program development tools are necessary since programmers are not able to develop complex parallel programs efficiently. In particular, a CAP tool, named Hypertool, is described here. It performs scheduling and handles the communication primitive insertion automatically so that many errors are eliminated. It also generates the performance estimates and other program quality measures to help programmers in improving their algorithms and programs. Experiments have shown that up to a 300% performance improvement can be achieved by computer-aided programming

Do-It-Right-First-Time (Draft) Approach To Design Structure Matrix (DSM) Restructuring

This paper argues, using two real-world applications from the automotive industry, that the biggest benefit of a Design Structure Matrix (DSM) model may come not from resequencing and partitioning, but rather from rewiring the process/blocks. Rewiring means redefining relationships among elements and/or inserting new elements into the matrix. This requires intimate understanding of the process and cannot be done with application of context-free partitioning algorithms. The Do-it-Right-First-Time (DRFT) approach to DSM restructuring is another way to look at a DSM by inspecting the sources of iteration within a block and reversing it through inserting a DRFT activity at the beginning of the block. In this way, the traditional Design-Build-Test Cycle is reversed into a DRFT-Design-Build Sequence." That is, the "wiring diagram" of a process or system overpowers the behavior of the individual nodes, so changing the system requires changing the wiring

Taxonomic classification of planning decisions in health care: a review of the state of the art in OR/MS

We provide a structured overview of the typical decisions to be made in resource capacity planning and control in health care, and a review of relevant OR/MS articles for each planning decision. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, to position the planning decisions, a taxonomy is presented. This taxonomy provides health care managers and OR/MS researchers with a method to identify, break down and classify planning and control decisions. Second, following the taxonomy, for six health care services, we provide an exhaustive specification of planning and control decisions in resource capacity planning and control. For each planning and control decision, we structurally review the key OR/MS articles and the OR/MS methods and techniques that are applied in the literature to support decision making