Towards an Enhanced Protocol for Improving Transactional Support in Interoperable Service Oriented Application-Based (SOA-Based) Systems

When using a shared database for distributed transactions, it is often difficult to connect business processes and softwarecomponents running on disparate platforms into a single transaction. For instance, one platform may add or update data, and thenanother platform later access the changed or added data. This severely limits transactional capabilities across platforms. Thissituation becomes more acute when concurrent transactions with interleaving operations spans across different applications andresources. Addressing this problem in an open, dynamic and distributed environment of web services poses special challenges,and still remains an open issue. Following the broad adoption and use of the standard Web Services Transaction Protocols,requirements have grown for the addition of extended protocols to handle problems that exist within the context of interoperableservice-oriented applications. Most extensions to the current standard WS-Transaction Protocols still lack proper mechanisms forerror-handling, concurrency control, transaction recovery, consolidation of multiple transaction calls into a single call, and securereporting and tracing for suspicious activities. In this research, we will first extend the current standard WS-TransactionFramework, and then propose an enhanced protocol (that can be deployed within the extended framework) to improvetransactional and security support for asynchronous applications in a distributed environment. A hybrid methodology whichincorporates service-oriented engineering and rapid application development will be used to develop a procurement system(which represents an interoperable service-oriented application) that integrates our proposed protocol. We will empiricallyevaluate and compare the performance of the enhanced protocol with other conventional distributed protocols (such as 2PL) interms of QoS parameters (throughput, response time, and resource utilization), availability of the application, databaseconsistency, and effect of locking on latency, among other factors.Keywords: Database, interoperability, security, concurrent transaction, web services, protocol, service-oriente

A survey of simulation techniques in commerce and defence

Despite the developments in Modelling and Simulation (M&S) tools and techniques over the past years, there has been a gap in the M&S research and practice in healthcare on developing a toolkit to assist the modellers and simulation practitioners with selecting an appropriate set of techniques. This study is a preliminary step towards this goal. This paper presents some results from a systematic literature survey on applications of M&S in the commerce and defence domains that could inspire some improvements in the healthcare. Interim results show that in the commercial sector Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) has been the most widely used technique with System Dynamics (SD) in second place. However in the defence sector, SD has gained relatively more attention. SD has been found quite useful for qualitative and soft factors analysis. From both the surveys it becomes clear that there is a growing trend towards using hybrid M&S approaches

Ada in AI or AI in Ada. On developing a rationale for integration

The use of Ada as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) language is gaining interest in the NASA Community, i.e., by parties who have a need to deploy Knowledge Based-Systems (KBS) compatible with the use of Ada as the software standard for the Space Station. A fair number of KBS and pseudo-KBS implementations in Ada exist today. Currently, no widely used guidelines exist to compare and evaluate these with one another. The lack of guidelines illustrates a fundamental problem inherent in trying to compare and evaluate implementations of any sort in languages that are procedural or imperative in style, such as Ada, with those in languages that are functional in style, such as Lisp. Discussed are the strengths and weakness of using Ada as an AI language and a preliminary analysis provided of factors needed for the development of criteria for the integration of these two families of languages and the environments in which they are implemented. The intent for developing such criteria is to have a logical rationale that may be used to guide the development of Ada tools and methodology to support KBS requirements, and to identify those AI technology components that may most readily and effectively be deployed in Ada

Quantifying knowledge exchange in R&D networks: A data-driven model

We propose a model that reflects two important processes in R&D activities of firms, the formation of R&D alliances and the exchange of knowledge as a result of these collaborations. In a data-driven approach, we analyze two large-scale data sets extracting unique information about 7500 R&D alliances and 5200 patent portfolios of firms. This data is used to calibrate the model parameters for network formation and knowledge exchange. We obtain probabilities for incumbent and newcomer firms to link to other incumbents or newcomers which are able to reproduce the topology of the empirical R&D network. The position of firms in a knowledge space is obtained from their patents using two different classification schemes, IPC in 8 dimensions and ISI-OST-INPI in 35 dimensions. Our dynamics of knowledge exchange assumes that collaborating firms approach each other in knowledge space at a rate $\mu$ for an alliance duration $\tau$. Both parameters are obtained in two different ways, by comparing knowledge distances from simulations and empirics and by analyzing the collaboration efficiency $\mathcal{\hat{C}}_{n}$. This is a new measure, that takes also in account the effort of firms to maintain concurrent alliances, and is evaluated via extensive computer simulations. We find that R&D alliances have a duration of around two years and that the subsequent knowledge exchange occurs at a very low rate. Hence, a firm's position in the knowledge space is rather a determinant than a consequence of its R&D alliances. From our data-driven approach we also find model configurations that can be both realistic and optimized with respect to the collaboration efficiency $\mathcal{\hat{C}}_{n}$. Effective policies, as suggested by our model, would incentivize shorter R&D alliances and higher knowledge exchange rates.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figure

Influences of Body Composition, Multimorbidity and Polypharmacy on Physical Mobility of Older Adults

Background and Purpose: The prevalence of falls, and the resulting injuries and complications reflect a key concern in the older adult population. An increased risk of falls is highly correlated with decreases in physical mobility and related functions. The Timed Up-and-Go test (TUG) has an established reliability and validity in assessing physical function and the risk of falling in the older adult population. With age, a person typically has an increased number of health morbidities, which may be reflected in changing body composition and the number of medications associated with diseases. However, the influence of these factors on physical mobility in the older adult population has not been quantified. The purpose of this study was to investigate how common indicators of health, including body mass index (BMI), presence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy influence the TUG performance in the older adult population. Methods: A total of 222 individuals ≥ 65 years of age were recruited (68 men and 154 women, mean age = 75.1 yrs). Additional subjects (28 men and 54 women, mean age = 72.7 yrs) from previous research were included in the analysis of BMI on TUG performance with a total of 304 subjects (96 men and 208 women, mean age= 74.4 yrs). Height and weight were obtained in conjunction with a medical history survey. Subjects completed 3 trials of the TUG test at 3 and 9 m walking distances. Comparison was made between 3 participant groups according to their BMI (underweight: BMI \u3c 24 kg/m2, normal weight: BMI 24-30 kg/m2, overweight: BMI \u3e 30 kg/m2). Multimorbidity was categorized into 2 groups (multimorbidity: ≥ 2 morbidities, non-multimorbidity: 0-1 morbidity). Polypharmacy was categorized into 2 groups (polypharmacy: ≥ 5 medications, non-polypharmacy: 0-4 medications). Non-parametric tests were run for all 3 variables (BMI, multimorbidity, and polypharmacy). Results: The underweight BMI group exhibited a trend of slower performance than normal weight BMI group for the 3 m (underweight = 8.8±5.3s, normal weight = 8.5±3.3s, p = 0.055) and the 9 m TUG distances (underweight = 17.3±8.9s, normal weight = 17.0±6.1s, p = 0.071). There was a trend toward the overweight BMI group having slower performance than the normal weight BMI group on the 9 m distance (normal weight = 17.0±6.1s, overweight = 18.0±5.5s, p = 0.069). The group with ≥ 2 morbidities had slower performance on the 3 m (multimorbidity = 9.2±3.9s, non-multimorbidity = 7.7±2.1s, p \u3c 0.001) and 9 m TUG distances (multimorbidity = 18.3±6.8s, non-multimorbidity = 15.6±4.0s, p \u3c 0.001). The polypharmacy group had slower performance on the 3 m (polypharmacy = 9.6±3.3s, non-polypharmacy = 8.3±3.4s, p = 0.001) and 9 m TUG distances (polypharmacy = 19.1 ± 5.9s, non-polypharmacy = 16.7±6.0s, p = 0.001). Discussion: Being underweight and overweight were shown to impact a person’s walking ability. We expected overweight individuals to have a slower performance on the TUG but underweight individuals did as well. This could be due to frail older adults having decreased muscle mass and strength. Polypharmacy and multimorbidity were shown to also have a significant impact on mobility performance. Limitations: The examined older adult population was relatively healthy as they are community dwelling individuals who are active in the retirement community. Conclusion: This study provided quantitative information regarding the effects of common health indicators (BMI, status of multimorbidity and polypharmacy) on mobility. Understanding the impact of BMI, multimorbidity, and polypharmacy on TUG performance will assist in identifying patients at risk of decrease physical mobility and falls. Wellness interventions might include reducing/altering medications used or adopting a healthier BMI to improve mobility