Migration from Windows to Linux for a small engineering firm A&G Associates

The primary objectives of this paper are to complete a Masters Degree in Information Technology as required by Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, and to assist a small engineering firm in evaluating the possibilities of migrating from Microsoft Windows to a Linux Operating System. A recent announcement that Microsoft will limit support on some of their existing commonly used operating systems, along with their monopoly in the marketplace, will continue to allow them to sell licenses at high prices. These factors could force many companies to consider transiting to other operating systems which offer more support services and less expensive products. Although there are several such providers, the low cost of Linux, its non-rigorous licensing agreements, high level of security, stability, and usability makes it the best non-Microsoft operating system option. A 2004 survey of 85 North American firms conducted by Forrester Research, Inc., confirms that the transition has begun. The survey showed that low acquisition cost was the primary reason why firms moved to Linux, followed by low total cost of ownership, and then by low hardware cost. As of today the number of users or potential users of Linux are summarized below Pie Chart: No Plans, 39% Using Today, 46% Plan to Use, 14% Many firms are concerned about transitioning to Linux due to the fact that Linux is an open-source technology that has greater risks than Windows which the owner has to mitigate somehow. In reality there are many emerging companies which are providing 24/7 support to Linux just like Microsoft. The figure below presents the main concerns of firms planning to move to Linux. Bar Graph: We don’t have skills, 55% lack of support, 53% lack of applications, 42% Product immaturity, 35% Fear the OS community will disappear, 25% Security, 20% Unexpected license cost, 20% Other risk, 20% Don’t know, 9% Fear of getting sued over copyrights, 7% None, 2% The practical case used for evaluating transitioning from Windows to Linux is A&G Associates. The firm specializes in the design and construction management of water and wastewater treatment facilities. The firm\u27s current local area network configuration consists of 4 servers and 50 workstations. Since being established in early 2000, the firm has used a Windows 98 environment for workstations and Windows NT for servers. Today the firm is facing the challenge whether to upgrade their system in the Windows environment which entails choosing Windows XP for workstations and Windows Advance Server 2000 for servers or transitioning to a different operating system such as Linux. The most important reason for A&G Associates to move to Linux will come from a cost savings opportunity between the Windows and Linux operating systems. Since Linux can be downloaded for free or a licensed CD can be bought for less than $200 dollars, it can be used on multiple computers, and it offers many free applications, the most cost-effective solution seems to be to purchase Linux. The cost savings opportunities were based on three alternatives: 1. Full Transition from the existing Windows environment into the newest version of Windows for workstations and servers; or 2. Transition from an existing Windows environment to a Linux environment for workstations and servers. 3. Partial Transitioning (Option 5) from existing Windows environment to a new Linux environment for servers and majority of the workstations (35) and to upgraded Windows for 15 workstations Partial Transition Option 5 takes care of the issue of running engineering applications on some Windows workstations and changing the majority of the workstations and all servers to Linux in order to obtain the maximum cost savings benefit. In this option, 15 workstations are upgraded to the new Windows XP Platform and all four servers and the remaining 35 workstations are migrated to a Linux Platform. The total cost for partial transitioning under option 5 is$131,807. The total cost for transitioning the firm from Windows to Linux for A&G or a small firm with 50 to 250 employees and the associated total cost for full-transitioning to a new Windows version, a Linux platform, or to a hybrid environment such as Option 5 . The results is presented below Graph: 50 Users: Cost to Transition: Full Transition to Windows: $189,323 Full Transition to Linux:$116,462 Hybrid Environment: $131,807 100 Users: Cost to Transition: Full Transition to Windows:$331,700 Full Transition to Linux: $219,415 Hybrid Environment:$250,105 250 Users: Cost to Transition: Full Transition to Windows: $758,831 Full Transition to Linux:$528,274 Hybrid Environment: $604,999 Based on the results of the study, the following conclusions were drawn that would help the firm make informed decisions: - Making a full transition to Linux would limit the availability of engineering software compatible with Linux. - The total cost of transitioning under the partial transition, Option 5, would be approximately$132,000, with approximately $12,000 in software costs and$98,000 for hardware; the remaining cost is associated with operating the system. - Total cost savings of transitioning to Linux under the partial transition, Option 5, compared to a full Windows transition is approximately 58,000. The following are the recommendations for A&G: - The firm should consider transitioning to Linux but upgrade some workstations to the Windows XP environment in order to maintain the ability to run engineering applications, in accordance with partial transition, Option 5. - Implementation of partial transition, Option 5, would provide cost savings of approximately 58,000 during the transition to the new operating system. As Linux continues to provide its operating system at a more reasonable price, as more applications become available, and services such as 24/7 assistance and security become more reliable, the possibility that firms will move away from Windows toward Linux is inevitable. However, in the meantime, a partial transition can provide firms with greater flexibility and costs savings when compared to making a full transition to either the Windows or Linux environment

Anti- factor IIa (FIIa) heparin assay for patients on direct factor Xa (FXa) inhibitors

BackgroundDirect factor Xa (FXa) inhibitors are increasingly prescribed for outpatients, and those transitioning to unfractionated heparin (UFH) for hospital admission are monitored via an anti- FXa assay. Because of assay interference, UFH results would often be critically elevated, confounding dosing.ObjectivesAn anti- factor IIa (FIIa) UFH assay was evaluated for clinical use.MethodsThe BIOPHEN ANTI- IIa (Aniara Diagnostica) assay and anti- FXa INNOVANCE Heparin assay (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Products GmbH) were compared on the Siemens BCS XP system. Samples included UFH controls and calibrators and specimens from patients transitioning from apixaban or rivaroxaban to UFH. Method comparison, linearity, recovery, precision, and interference by direct FXa inhibitors were evaluated. The effect of the BIOPHEN ANTI- IIa assay on the rate of critically high UFH results was retrospectively reviewed 4 months after implementation.ResultsAccuracy studies using 0.24 and 0.50 IU/mL UFH yielded means and standard deviations of 0.26 ± 0.01 and 0.58 ± 0.01 IU/mL, respectively. Within- run and between- run coefficients of variation were 4.6% and 15.5% for the low control, and 1.8% and 10.6% for the high control. The method comparison slope was 0.9965 (r2 = 0.9468). The linear range was 0.1 to 1.3 IU/mL. The assay measured UFH in the presence of 192 ng/mL apixaban or 158 ng/mL rivaroxaban. Introduction of the assay for clinical use reduced the monthly percentage of critically high results from 9.4% to 3.8% for admitted heparinized patients who recently discontinued apixaban or rivaroxaban.ConclusionsThe BIOPHEN ANTI- IIa assay is suitable for patients transitioning off apixaban or rivaroxaban.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156142/2/jth14806.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156142/1/jth14806_am.pd

Likelihood-Based Inference for Discretely Observed Birth-Death-Shift Processes, with Applications to Evolution of Mobile Genetic Elements

Continuous-time birth-death-shift (BDS) processes are frequently used in stochastic modeling, with many applications in ecology and epidemiology. In particular, such processes can model evolutionary dynamics of transposable elements - important genetic markers in molecular epidemiology. Estimation of the effects of individual covariates on the birth, death, and shift rates of the process can be accomplished by analyzing patient data, but inferring these rates in a discretely and unevenly observed setting presents computational challenges. We propose a mutli-type branching process approximation to BDS processes and develop a corresponding expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, where we use spectral techniques to reduce calculation of expected sufficient statistics to low dimensional integration. These techniques yield an efficient and robust optimization routine for inferring the rates of the BDS process, and apply more broadly to multi-type branching processes where rates can depend on many covariates. After rigorously testing our methodology in simulation studies, we apply our method to study intrapatient time evolution of IS6110 transposable element, a frequently used element during estimation of epidemiological clusters of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Evaluating duration of response to treatment in systemic lupus erythematosus clinical trials.

ObjectiveTo evaluate response duration and identify predictors of transitioning into and out of the response state in patients with SLE receiving standard of care (SoC) in 52-week clinical trials.MethodsA multistate model (MSM) allowing for bidirectional transitions between response and non-response states was fit to data on 759 patients with SLE with active disease randomised to SoC. The probability of being in response at 52 weeks, average duration of response (sojourn time) and mean total time in response for SLE Responder Index (SRI-4, SRI-5, SRI-6) and BILAG-based Composite Lupus Assessment (BICLA) were estimated. Predictors of attainment and loss of SRI-5 response were also assessed.ResultsThe MSM estimated probability of being in response at 52 weeks ranged from 42% (SRI-6) to 61% (SRI-4). Mean duration of response ranged from 20.4 weeks (BICLA) to 31.5 weeks (SRI-4). Mean total time in response was 16.4-24.8 weeks. Baseline characteristics predictive of shorter SRI-5 response duration were African descent (p=0.005), longer history of disease (p=0.03), higher anti-dsDNA antibody titres (p=0.039), lower lymphocyte count (p=0.008) and lower haemoglobin (p=0.006). Younger age (p<0.001) and higher protein/creatinine ratio (p<0.001) were associated with higher likelihood of achieving SRI-5 but also shorter response duration.ConclusionFactors associated with disease severity were more predictive of shorter response duration than of 52-week response status. Analysing landmark response rates and response duration using MSM may be a more powerful way to distinguish effective investigational treatments from background SoC, although this remains to be evaluated in future trials

Fecal Viral Community Responses to High-Fat Diet in Mice.

Alterations in diet can have significant impact on the host, with high-fat diet (HFD) leading to obesity, diabetes, and inflammation of the gut. Although membership and abundances in gut bacterial communities are strongly influenced by diet, substantially less is known about how viral communities respond to dietary changes. Examining fecal contents of mice as the mice were transitioned from normal chow to HFD, we found significant changes in the relative abundances and the diversity in the gut of bacteria and their viruses. Alpha diversity of the bacterial community was significantly diminished in response to the diet change but did not change significantly in the viral community. However, the diet shift significantly impacted the beta diversity in both the bacterial and viral communities. There was a significant shift away from the relatively abundant Siphoviridae accompanied by increases in bacteriophages from the Microviridae family. The proportion of identified bacteriophage structural genes significantly decreased after the transition to HFD, with a conserved loss of integrase genes in all four experimental groups. In total, this study provides evidence for substantial changes in the intestinal virome disproportionate to bacterial changes, and with alterations in putative viral lifestyles related to chromosomal integration as a result of shift to HFD.IMPORTANCE Prior studies have shown that high-fat diet (HFD) can have profound effects on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract microbiome and also demonstrate that bacteria in the GI tract can affect metabolism and lean/obese phenotypes. We investigated whether the composition of viral communities that also inhabit the GI tract are affected by shifts from normal to HFD. We found significant and reproducible shifts in the content of GI tract viromes after the transition to HFD. The differences observed in virome community membership and their associated gene content suggest that these altered viral communities are populated by viruses that are more virulent toward their host bacteria. Because HFD also are associated with significant shifts in GI tract bacterial communities, we believe that the shifts in the viral community may serve to drive the changes that occur in associated bacterial communities