47,289 research outputs found
Can involving clients in simulation studies help them solve their future problems? A transfer of learning experiment
It is often stated that involving the client in operational research studies increases conceptual learning about a system which can then be applied repeatedly to other, similar, systems. Our study provides a novel measurement approach for behavioural OR studies that aim to analyse the impact of modelling in long term problem solving and decision making. In particular, our approach is the first to operationalise the measurement of transfer of learning from modelling using the concepts of close and far transfer, and overconfidence. We investigate learning in discrete-event simulation (DES) projects through an experimental study. Participants were trained to manage queuing problems by varying the degree to which they were involved in building and using a DES model of a hospital emergency department. They were then asked to transfer learning to a set of analogous problems. Findings demonstrate that transfer of learning from a simulation study is difficult, but possible. However, this learning is only accessible when sufficient time is provided for clients to process the structural behaviour of the model. Overconfidence is also an issue when the clients who were involved in model building attempt to transfer their learning without the aid of a new model. Behavioural OR studies that aim to understand learning from modelling can ultimately improve our modelling interactions with clients; helping to ensure the benefits for a longer term; and enabling modelling efforts to become more sustainable
Simple and explicit bounds for multi-server queues with (and sometimes better) scaling
We consider the FCFS queue, and prove the first simple and explicit
bounds that scale as (and sometimes better). Here
denotes the corresponding traffic intensity. Conceptually, our results can be
viewed as a multi-server analogue of Kingman's bound. Our main results are
bounds for the tail of the steady-state queue length and the steady-state
probability of delay. The strength of our bounds (e.g. in the form of tail
decay rate) is a function of how many moments of the inter-arrival and service
distributions are assumed finite. More formally, suppose that the inter-arrival
and service times (distributed as random variables and respectively)
have finite th moment for some Let (respectively )
denote (respectively ). Then
our bounds (also for higher moments) are simple and explicit functions of
, and
only. Our bounds scale gracefully even when the number of
servers grows large and the traffic intensity converges to unity
simultaneously, as in the Halfin-Whitt scaling regime. Some of our bounds scale
better than in certain asymptotic regimes. More precisely,
they scale as multiplied by an inverse polynomial in These results formalize the intuition that bounds should be tighter
in light traffic as well as certain heavy-traffic regimes (e.g. with
fixed and large). In these same asymptotic regimes we also prove bounds for
the tail of the steady-state number in service.
Our main proofs proceed by explicitly analyzing the bounding process which
arises in the stochastic comparison bounds of amarnik and Goldberg for
multi-server queues. Along the way we derive several novel results for suprema
of random walks and pooled renewal processes which may be of independent
interest. We also prove several additional bounds using drift arguments (which
have much smaller pre-factors), and make several conjectures which would imply
further related bounds and generalizations
Extrapancreatic actions of incretin-based therapies on bone in diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus is correlated with modifications in bone microarchitectural and
mechanical strength, leading to increased bone fragility. The incretin hormones, with
a classical effect to increase insulin secretion following food ingestion, are now
postulated to have important direct effects on bone. As such, glucose-dependent
insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) has dual actions on bone cells; enhancing bone�forming activity of osteoblasts and suppressing bone resorption by osteoclasts. The
sister incretin of GIP, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), is also suspected to directly
influence bone health in a beneficial manner, although mechanism are less clear at
present. The physiological actions of incretins are attenuated by dipeptidyl peptidase
(DPP-4) activity and it is speculated that introduction of DPP-4 inhibitor may also
positively affect quality of the skeleton. As such, this thesis evaluates the potential
beneficial effects of a DPP-4 resistant GIP analogue, namely [D-Ala2
]GIP, on
osteoblastic-derived, SaOS-2 cells, and also preliminary in vivo studies on the impact
of genetic deficiencies of GIPRs and GLP-1Rs on bone mineral density and content.
Further studies characterised the beneficial effects of incretin-based therapies on
metabolic control, bone microstructure and bone mechanical integrity in animal
models of pharmacologically-, genetically- and environmentally-induced diabetes.
GIP and related stable analogue increased bone-forming biomarkers in SaOS-2 cells
and importantly, [D-Ala2
]GIP was shown to be more potent than native GIP.
Knockout mouse studies revealed that both GIPR and GLP-1R signaling are
important for optimum bone mass. All diabetic mouse models displayed reduced
bone mass, altered bone micromorphology and impairment of bone mechanical
strength, similar to the human situation, confirming their appropriateness. The
incretin-based therapeutics, [D-Ala2
]GIP and Liraglutide, in streptozotocin-diabetic
significantly increased bone matrix properties, indicating recovery of bone strength
at the tissue level. The beneficial effects of administration of [D-Ala2
]GIP�oxyntomodulin on bone health in db/db mice were more prominent as the Oxm
analogue did not only improve bone strength at tissue level, but also at whole-bone
level. These modifications were independent of metabolic status. Twice-daily
Exendin-4 therapy improved glycaemic control and increased work required to resist
bone fracture in high-fat fed mice. It was also established that Sitagliptin had neutral
effects on bone microstructure and mechanical strength in high-fat mice. In summary, these data demonstrate the negative impact of diabetes mellitus on normal
skeleton development and bone quality. Moreover, this thesis highlights the growing
potential of incretin-based therapies for ameliorating bone defects and improving the
increased fragility fracture risk associated with diabete
Survey and Analysis of Production Distributed Computing Infrastructures
This report has two objectives. First, we describe a set of the production
distributed infrastructures currently available, so that the reader has a basic
understanding of them. This includes explaining why each infrastructure was
created and made available and how it has succeeded and failed. The set is not
complete, but we believe it is representative.
Second, we describe the infrastructures in terms of their use, which is a
combination of how they were designed to be used and how users have found ways
to use them. Applications are often designed and created with specific
infrastructures in mind, with both an appreciation of the existing capabilities
provided by those infrastructures and an anticipation of their future
capabilities. Here, the infrastructures we discuss were often designed and
created with specific applications in mind, or at least specific types of
applications. The reader should understand how the interplay between the
infrastructure providers and the users leads to such usages, which we call
usage modalities. These usage modalities are really abstractions that exist
between the infrastructures and the applications; they influence the
infrastructures by representing the applications, and they influence the ap-
plications by representing the infrastructures
S = 3 Ground State for a Tetranuclear Mn^(IV)₄O₄ Complex Mimicking the S₃ State of the Oxygen Evolving Complex
The S₃ state is currently the last observable intermediate prior to O–O bond formation at the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of Photosystem II, and its electronic structure has been assigned to a homovalent Mn^(IV)₄ core with an S = 3 ground state. While structural interpretations based on the EPR spectroscopic features of the S₃ state provide valuable mechanistic insight, corresponding synthetic and spectroscopic studies on tetranuclear complexes mirroring the Mn oxidation states of the S₃ state remain rare. Herein, we report the synthesis and characterization by XAS and multifrequency EPR spectroscopy of a Mn^(IV)₄O₄ cuboidal complex as a spectroscopic model of the S₃ state. Results show that this Mn^(IV)₄O₄ complex has an S = 3 ground state with isotropic ⁵⁵Mn hyperfine coupling constants of −75, −88, −91, and 66 MHz. These parameters are consistent with an αααβ spin topology approaching the trimer–monomer magnetic coupling model of pseudo-octahedral Mn^(IV) centers. Importantly, the spin ground state changes from S = 1/2 to S = 3 as the OEC is oxidized from the S₂ state to the S₃ state. This same spin state change is observed following oxidation of the previously reported Mn^(III)Mn^(IV)₃O₄ cuboidal complex to the Mn^(IV)₄O₄ complex described here. This sets a synthetic precedent for the observed low-spin to high-spin conversion in the OEC
Resource Oriented Modelling: Describing Restful Web Services Using Collaboration Diagrams
The popularity of Resource Oriented and RESTful Web Services is increasing rapidly. In these, resources are key actors in the interfaces, in contrast to other approaches where services, messages or objects are. This distinctive feature necessitates a new approach for modelling RESTful interfaces providing a more intuitive mapping from model to implementation than could be achieved with non-resource methods. With this objective we propose an approach to describe Resource Oriented and RESTful Web Services based on UML collaboration diagrams. Then use it to model scenarios from several problem domains, arguing that Resource Oriented and RESTful Web Services can be used in systems which go beyond ad-hoc integration. Using the scenarios we demonstrate how the approach is useful for: eliciting domain ontologies; identifying recurring patterns; and capturing static and dynamic aspects of the interface
Modelling of an industrial moving belt chemical vapour deposition reactor forming SiO2 films
In order to improve the efficiency of an industrial atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition (APCVD) moving belt reactor depositing silicon dioxide SiO2 films from tetraethoxysilane Si(OC2H5)4 (TEOS) andozone O3, a 2D simulation model based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software ESTET has been developed. On the basis of the global chemical scheme of Zhou et al. [1997. Fifth International Conference on Advanced Thermal Processing of Semiconductors, RTP’97, New Orleans, LA, USA, pp. 257–268], a new kinetic model has been developed to conveniently represent our own set of experimental data. In particular, a chemical limitation for TEOS has been introduced, conferring increased chemical validity to the model. Simulations have shown that for the nominal conditions, TEOS conversion into SiO2 layers was too low andthat an increase in ozone concentration or in the nitrogen flow rates through the injector did not offer any advantage. Conversely, a decrease in the curtain nitrogen flow rate or an increase in that of the shieldcan enhance the process productivity and TEOS conversion
Cloudbus Toolkit for Market-Oriented Cloud Computing
This keynote paper: (1) presents the 21st century vision of computing and
identifies various IT paradigms promising to deliver computing as a utility;
(2) defines the architecture for creating market-oriented Clouds and computing
atmosphere by leveraging technologies such as virtual machines; (3) provides
thoughts on market-based resource management strategies that encompass both
customer-driven service management and computational risk management to sustain
SLA-oriented resource allocation; (4) presents the work carried out as part of
our new Cloud Computing initiative, called Cloudbus: (i) Aneka, a Platform as a
Service software system containing SDK (Software Development Kit) for
construction of Cloud applications and deployment on private or public Clouds,
in addition to supporting market-oriented resource management; (ii)
internetworking of Clouds for dynamic creation of federated computing
environments for scaling of elastic applications; (iii) creation of 3rd party
Cloud brokering services for building content delivery networks and e-Science
applications and their deployment on capabilities of IaaS providers such as
Amazon along with Grid mashups; (iv) CloudSim supporting modelling and
simulation of Clouds for performance studies; (v) Energy Efficient Resource
Allocation Mechanisms and Techniques for creation and management of Green
Clouds; and (vi) pathways for future research.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, Conference pape
Extrapancreatic actions of incretin-based therapies on bone in diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus is correlated with modifications in bone microarchitectural and
mechanical strength, leading to increased bone fragility. The incretin hormones, with
a classical effect to increase insulin secretion following food ingestion, are now
postulated to have important direct effects on bone. As such, glucose-dependent
insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) has dual actions on bone cells; enhancing bone�forming activity of osteoblasts and suppressing bone resorption by osteoclasts. The
sister incretin of GIP, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), is also suspected to directly
influence bone health in a beneficial manner, although mechanism are less clear at
present. The physiological actions of incretins are attenuated by dipeptidyl peptidase
(DPP-4) activity and it is speculated that introduction of DPP-4 inhibitor may also
positively affect quality of the skeleton. As such, this thesis evaluates the potential
beneficial effects of a DPP-4 resistant GIP analogue, namely [D-Ala2
]GIP, on
osteoblastic-derived, SaOS-2 cells, and also preliminary in vivo studies on the impact
of genetic deficiencies of GIPRs and GLP-1Rs on bone mineral density and content.
Further studies characterised the beneficial effects of incretin-based therapies on
metabolic control, bone microstructure and bone mechanical integrity in animal
models of pharmacologically-, genetically- and environmentally-induced diabetes.
GIP and related stable analogue increased bone-forming biomarkers in SaOS-2 cells
and importantly, [D-Ala2
]GIP was shown to be more potent than native GIP.
Knockout mouse studies revealed that both GIPR and GLP-1R signaling are
important for optimum bone mass. All diabetic mouse models displayed reduced
bone mass, altered bone micromorphology and impairment of bone mechanical
strength, similar to the human situation, confirming their appropriateness. The
incretin-based therapeutics, [D-Ala2
]GIP and Liraglutide, in streptozotocin-diabetic
significantly increased bone matrix properties, indicating recovery of bone strength
at the tissue level. The beneficial effects of administration of [D-Ala2
]GIP�oxyntomodulin on bone health in db/db mice were more prominent as the Oxm
analogue did not only improve bone strength at tissue level, but also at whole-bone
level. These modifications were independent of metabolic status. Twice-daily
Exendin-4 therapy improved glycaemic control and increased work required to resist
bone fracture in high-fat fed mice. It was also established that Sitagliptin had neutral
effects on bone microstructure and mechanical strength in high-fat mice. In summary, these data demonstrate the negative impact of diabetes mellitus on normal
skeleton development and bone quality. Moreover, this thesis highlights the growing
potential of incretin-based therapies for ameliorating bone defects and improving the
increased fragility fracture risk associated with diabete
- …