YUMA – An AI Planning Agent for Composing IT Services from Infrastructure-as-Code Specifications

Infrastructure-as-code enables cloud architects to automate IT service delivery by specifying IT services through machine-readable definition files. To allow for a reusability of the infrastructure-as-code specifications, cloud architects specify IT services as compositions of sub-processes. As the AI planning agents for automated IT service composition proposed by prior research fall short in the infrastructure-as-code context, we design a search-based problem-solving agent named YUMA according to a design science research process to fill this research gap. YUMA holds a search tree reflecting the state space and transition model. It includes an algorithm for building the search tree and two algorithms for determining the minimum composition plan. The underlying IT service composition problem is explicated for the infrastructure-as-code context and formulated as a search problem. The results of the demonstration and evaluation show that YUMA fulfills the requirements necessary to solve this problem and digitizes an important task of cloud architects

Towards assessing the value of digital self-service options from a provider perspective

Given the ongoing digitization of service, understanding the value co-creation process in the self-service context is getting more and more relevant for practitioners and academics alike. Prior research on service co-production has primarily focused on the service beneficiaries’ causal paths of value determination or has conceptualized value as utility relying on neo-classical economic concepts and theories. As a result, little is known about how to assess the value-in-experience of digital self-service options from a service provider’s perspective. This study represents a first contribution towards answering this research question. Based on the results of a systematic literature review, we develop a framework that enables service organizations to assess the expected and perceived value before, during or after an actual service experience. It therefore conceptualizes value in form of net benefit and means-end. Drawing upon the framework, we discuss various value enhancement strategies reflecting different categories of self-service options

Identifying the Factors influencing Self-Service Technology Usage Intention – A Meta-Analysis

Service organizations introduce self-service technologies to their customers to reduce cost and realize efficiency gains. However, for service organizations to realize such benefits, the customers must use the SSTs provided. Results from prior studies are too diverse to derive a proper set of relevant factors that must be considered in this regard. A meta-analysis was conducted and the findings of prior studies that have investigated factors influencing the customers’ intentions to use SSTs were synthesized. 13 factors directly influencing the customers’ intentions to use SSTs were identified from 26 prior studies. The meta-analysis provides the following contributions. First, SSTs must be designed and marketed according to the customers’ familiarity with their usage. Second, the resources that are required from the customers must be considered when designing SSTs. Third, customers should not be forced to use SSTs. The research findings offer practical advice on how to design and market SSTs

DESERV IT: A Method for Devolving Service Tasks in IT Services

Nowadays, IT operations devolve many tasks in IT services to internal customers (i.e., IT self-service). The rationale for this service task devolvement is often to reduce the IT personnel’s workload. However, prior research has shown that IT operations often fail to achieve this goal. Existing methods for modeling and analyzing services fall short of supporting service providers in identifying and specifying service tasks suitable to be devolved to (internal) customers. This paper presents, therefore, the first method for devolving service tasks in IT services (DESERV IT). DESERV IT is a compound of four method components encompassing a joint meta-model, a visual notation for modeling IT services, and procedural recommendations. The DESERV IT meta-model extends the meta-model of service blueprinting by means of concepts required to analyze service task devolvement. DESERV IT is evaluated in four evaluation episodes. The results of the evaluation episodes show that DESERV IT is perceived as effective, useful, complete, and generalizable by experts in the IT service management and enterprise architecture discipline. This paper contributes to enterprise modeling by demonstrating the feasibility of DESERV IT in an example case and describing DESERV IT’s evolution during the evaluation episodes. DESERV IT supports practitioners (e.g., request fulfillment managers) in modeling and analyzing IT services

The changing epidemiology of human monkeypox-A potential threat? A systematic review

Monkeypox, a zoonotic disease caused by an orthopoxvirus, results in a smallpox-like disease in humans. Since monkeypox in humans was initially diagnosed in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it has spread to other regions of Africa (primarily West and Central), and cases outside Africa have emerged in recent years. We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed and grey literature on how monkeypox epidemiology has evolved, with particular emphasis on the number of confirmed, probable, and/or possible cases, age at presentation, mortality, and geographical spread. The review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020208269). We identified 48 peer-reviewed articles and 18 grey literature sources for data extraction. The number of human monkeypox cases has been on the rise since the 1970s, with the most dramatic increases occurring in the DRC. The median age at presentation has increased from 4 (1970s) to 21 years (2010-2019). There was an overall case fatality rate of 8.7%, with a significant difference between clades-Central African 10.6% (95% CI: 8.4%- 13.3%) vs. West African 3.6% (95% CI: 1.7%- 6.8%). Since 2003, import- and travel-related spread outside of Africa has occasionally resulted in outbreaks. Interactions/activities with infected animals or individuals are risk behaviors associated with acquiring monkeypox. Our review shows an escalation of monkeypox cases, especially in the highly endemic DRC, a spread to other countries, and a growing median age from young children to young adults. These findings may be related to the cessation of smallpox vaccination, which provided some cross-protection against monkeypox, leading to increased human-to-human transmission. The appearance of outbreaks beyond Africa highlights the global relevance of the disease. Increased surveillance and detection of monkeypox cases are essential tools for understanding the continuously changing epidemiology of this resurging disease

Isolated-photon production in polarized pp collisions

We perform a detailed study of the production of isolated prompt photons in polarized hadronic collisions, in the centre-of-mass energy range relevant to RHIC. We compare the results obtained for a traditional cone-isolation prescription, with those obtained by imposing an isolation condition that eliminates any contribution to the cross section from the fragmentation mechanism. The latter prescription will allow us to present the first fully consistent next-to-leading order calculation in polarized prompt-photon production. We will discuss the theoretical uncertainties affecting the cross section, addressing the issue of the reliability of the perturbative expansion, for both inclusive isolated-photon and photon-plus-jet observables. Finally, we will study the dependence of our predictions upon the polarized parton densities, and the implications for the measurability of the gluon density.Comment: 34 Pages, LaTeX, 13 figures as ps file

The Thrombopoietin Receptor Agonist Eltrombopag Inhibits Human Cytomegalovirus Replication Via Iron Chelation

The thrombopoietin receptor agonist eltrombopag was successfully used against human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-associated thrombocytopenia refractory to immunomodulatory and antiviral drugs. These effects were ascribed to the effects of eltrombopag on megakaryocytes. Here, we tested whether eltrombopag may also exert direct antiviral effects. Therapeutic eltrombopag concentrations inhibited HCMV replication in human fibroblasts and adult mesenchymal stem cells infected with six different virus strains and drug-resistant clinical isolates. Eltrombopag also synergistically increased the anti-HCMV activity of the mainstay drug ganciclovir. Time-of-addition experiments suggested that eltrombopag interfered with HCMV replication after virus entry. Eltrombopag was effective in thrombopoietin receptor-negative cells, and the addition of Fe3+ prevented the anti-HCMV effects, indicating that it inhibits HCMV replication via iron chelation. This may be of particular interest for the treatment of cytopenias after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, as HCMV reactivation is a major reason for transplantation failure. Since therapeutic eltrombopag concentrations are effective against drug-resistant viruses, and synergistically increase the effects of ganciclovir, eltrombopag is also a drug-repurposing candidate for the treatment of therapy-refractory HCMV disease

Survey of present data on photon structure functions and resolved photon processes

Present data on the partonic content of the photon from LEP, TRISTAN and HERA accelerators are reviewed and the essential aspects of the underlying ideas and methods are pointed out. Results of the unpolarized photon structure function F_2 from DIS_{e gamma} experiments and on large p_T jet production processes in the resolved gamma-gamma collisions are presented for both real and virtual photons. The results of analysis of the hadronic final state accompanying the DIS_{e gamma} measurements, showing some discrepancies with the Monte Carlo models, are collected together and presented as a separate issue. Also results on the DIS_{e gamma} with leptonic final states are shown. The results from resolved real and virtual photon processes at HERA collider based on the single and double jet events, also charged particles and prompt photons, are presented. In the context of virtual photon processes the data for forward jet and forward particle production are included. In addition a short presentation of the recent data on the heavy quark content of the photon is given. Related topics - the polarized (spin dependent) structure functions for the real and virtual photon, the structure function of the electron and the photonic content of the proton are also shortly mentioned.Comment: latex, 220 pages, 195 ps figures; extended and updated version of hep-ph/9806291; to appear in Physics Report