The Efficiency of Private Universities As Measured By Graduation Rates

It is well known that human capital is enhanced by graduation from a college or university. How efficient are such institutions in conveying this mark of human capital? Efficiency and productivity in private higher education is measured by using undergraduate graduation rates as the output, and demographic variables, the quality of the students, and the annual expenditures (adjusted for academic mission) as inputs. Tests of several models using OLS and stochastic frontier analysis confirm that private schools can increase their graduation rates by increasing focused expenditures and through more selective admissions. Estimated elasticities are reported and point toward increasing expenditures as the most responsive method. Estimate graduation efficiencies of 93.0, 91.5, and near 100% are also reported for four, five and six year graduation rates respectively. A rank correlation with the U S News and World Report 2008 rankings is consistent with our measure of relative efficiencies

A Model Driven Approach to Model Transformations

The OMG's Model Driven Architecture (MDA) initiative has been the focus of much attention in both academia and industry, due to its promise of more rapid and consistent software development through the increased use of models. In order for MDA to reach its full potential, the ability to manipulate and transform models { most obviously from the Platform Independent Model (PIM) to the Platform Specific Models (PSM) { is vital. Recognizing this need, the OMG issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) largely concerned with finding a suitable mechanism for trans- forming models. This paper outlines the relevant background material, summarizes the approach taken by the QVT-Partners (to whom the authors belong), presents a non-trivial example using the QVT-Partners approach, and finally sketches out what the future holds for model transformations

Conceptualização e desenvolvimento de uma framework de clustering

Com a proliferação de todo o tipo de serviços baseados em plataformas digitais, como por exemplo, o e-commerce o home banking ou mesmo as redes sociais, o conceito de sistemas distribuídos ganhou um novo folgo, e com ele, surgiram novas necessidades de se atingir altos níveis de disponibilidade para determinados sistemas de software. Este cenário obriga a que as infraestruturas tecnológicas atuais incluam várias réplicas desses mesmos sistemas, de forma a manter o serviço sempre disponível ainda que ocorra uma falha num ou noutro sistema. A maior parte dos sistemas atuais incluem duas camadas distintas, a camada aplicacional, onde corre a lógica de negócio, e a camada de persistência onde os dados são guardados de forma não volátil. Embora, normalmente, de forma simples se consigam replicar os aplicacionais desses sistemas, replicar as camadas de persistência revela-se a maior parte das vezes um desafio bem mais complexo. Esta dissertação apresenta um problema concreto de uma necessidade de aplicar replicação de dados num sistema distribuído que se encontra atualmente em ambiente de produção, de forma a poder garantir-se a disponibilidade do mesmo. Do estudo realizado sobre os principais conceitos de replicação de dados, assim como algumas frameworks de replicação a nível de middleware, e o problema em questão, foi possível conceptualizar e desenvolver uma nova framework de clustering ao nível do middleware que pode ser aplicada em sistemas aos quais se queira adicionar capacidade de clustering, independentemente do tipo de persistência com os quais os mesmos interagem.With the proliferation of all kinds of services based on digital platforms, as for example, the ecommerce, the home banking or even the social networks, the concept of distributed systems gained a new breadth, and with it, appeared new necessities to achieve higher levels of high availability in some specific software systems. This scenario forces the need of the actual technological infrastructures to include several replicas of those systems, in order to ensure the service availability, even in an advent of a failure in one or more systems. The majority of the actual systems include two distinct layers, the application layer, where the business logic runs, and the persistence layer, where the data is stored in a non-volatile way. Although, usually, is simple to apply replication to the application layer of those systems, applying replication on the persistence layers reveals itself most of the times a much more complex challenge. This master thesis presents a concrete problem of the necessity to apply data replication to a distributed system that is currently in a production environment, in order to ensure its availability. Through study performed both on the main concepts of data replication, as on some middleware based replication frameworks, and taking into the account the problem in hand, it was possible to conceptualize and develop a new middleware clustering framework that can be applied to systems to which is wanted to add clustering capabilities, regardless of the persistence type they interact with

TOWARDS ADAPTIVE ENTERPRISES USING DIGITAL TWINS

Modern enterprises are large complex systems operating in highly dynamic environments thus requiring quick response to a variety of change drivers. Moreover, they are systems of systems wherein understanding is available in localized contexts only and that too is typically partial and uncertain. With the overall system behaviour hard to know a-priori and conventional techniques for system-wide analysis either lacking in rigour or defeated by the scale of the problem, the current practice often exclusively relies on human expertise for monitoring and adaptation. We present an approach that combines ideas from modeling & simulation, reinforcement learning and control theory to make enterprises adaptive. The approach hinges on the concept of Digital Twin - a set of relevant models that are amenable to analysis and simulation. The paper describes illustration of approach in two real world use cases

Market impact of SR

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-169).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Software radio (SR) is a new technology where signal-processing software running over general-purpose hardware platforms performs the radio functions. This approach promises to solve the issues that traditional radios face today, enhance competitiveness and accelerate the development of wireless communications. Lots of expectations have been put on SR. Nevertheless, SR is a still developing technology whose capabilities and implications have not been deeply studied. This thesis puts some clarity on the impact of SR through four steps: first, considering the technical constraints of SR and how they may affect its evolution; second, evaluating the SR benefits assuming that there are neither regulatory nor economic hurdles; third, analyzing the impact of SR on the stakeholders; and fourth, discussing the current regulatory framework and proposing changes to reduce barriers to SR development. This thesis finds that SR capabilities may be applied to multiple commercial sectors. A/D converters and semiconductors capacity limit the full implementation of these scenarios. Battery life is a further problem for SR devices. SR disrupts the traditional wireless value chain: general-purpose processors will capture market share from dedicated semiconductors; traditional radio manufacturers will compete against general-purpose platforms vendors, operating system designers and software programmers. Such changes modify the upper layers. In the cellular industry, SR reduces deployment costs in at least 33% per standard and operation costs in at least 47% per standard, promotes VMNOs, modifies the business model of players like site owners and improves roaming. In the short-term, FCC certification rules may damage SR development and adoption. In the long-term, software radio might provide the means to relax the need for standardization and improve spectrum management policies.by Maria Fuencisla Merino Artalejo.S.M

Decision support for production capacity planning under uncertainty: A case study of TINE SA

Confidential until 21 May 201

On the development life cycle of distributed functional applications: a case study

[Abstract] In a world where technology plays a major, increasing role day after day, efforts devoted to develop better software are never too much. Both industry and academia are well aware of this, and keep on working to face the new problems and challenges that arise, more efficiently and effectively each time. Companies show their interest in cutting-edge methods, techniques, and tools, especially when they are backed up with empirical results that show practical benefits. On the other hand, academia is more than ever aware of real-world problems, and it is succeeding in connecting its research efforts to actual case studies. This thesis follows the mentioned trend, as it presents a study on software applications development based on a real case. As its main novelty and contribution, the integral process of software development is addressed from the functional paradigm point of view. In contrast with the traditional imperative paradigm, the functional paradigm represents not only a different way of developing applications, but also a distinct manner of thinking about software itself. This work goes through the characteristics and properties that functional technology gives to both software and its development process, from the early analysis and design development phases, up to the final and no less critical verification and validation stages. In particular, the strengths and opportunities that emerge in the broad field of testing, thanks to the use of the functional paradigm, are explored in depth. From the analysis of this process being put into practise in a real software development experience, we draw conclusions about the convenience of applying a functional approach to complex domains. At the same time, we extract a reusable engineering methodology to do so