Neuro-Dynamic Programming for Radiation Treatment Planning

In many cases a radiotherapy treatment is delivered as a series of smaller dosages over a period of time. Currently, it is difficult to determine the actual dose that has been delivered at each stage, precluding the use of adaptive treatment plans. However, new generations of machines will give more accurate information of actual dose delivered, allowing a planner to compensate for errors in delivery. We formulate a model of the day-to-day planning problem as a stochastic linear program and exhibit the gains that can be achieved by incorporating uncertainty about errors during treatment into the planning process. Due to size and time restrictions, the model becomes intractable for realistic instances. We show how neuro-dynamic programming can be used to approximate the stochastic solution, and derive results from our models for realistic time periods. These results allow us to generate practical rules of thumb that can be immediately implemented in current planning technologies.\ud \ud This material is based on research partially supported by the National Science Foundation Grants ACI-0113051 and CCR-9972372, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-01-1-0040, Microsoft Corporation and the Guggenheim Foundation

Performance of Historically Underrepresented Firms in the Public-Private Sector

This study examines the performance of historically underrepresented firms, which includes women-owned businesses and socially disadvantaged businesses. We examine performance in the context of securing public contracts and compare the performance of these historically underrepresented firms to those of non-minority small and large businesses. Utilizing a sample of all contracts awarded by the Johnson Space Center, a NASA directorate located in Houston, Texas, which identified 5,676 contracts totaling approximately $157 billion, we found that small businesses received around 63% of all contracts. The results indicate that more diverse firms received higher awards than specialists and that disadvantaged firms received higher dollar awards than general small businesses. In addition, women-owned businesses neither outperformed nor performed more poorly than general small business in the dollar amounts of contracts received, and they are neither more or less specialized than general small and large businesses. A discussion, practical implications, and future research ideas are also presented

Data report: IODP Expedition 339 Site U1391: an improved splice and preliminary age model on the basis of XRF data

With the objective to reconstruct past primary production on the southwest Portuguese margin at orbital and millennial timescales through the Pleistocene, we chose to compare two sites recovered during Expedition 339 at similar latitude but different distances to the coast (Sites U1385 and U1391). Site U1385 has a well-established chronology, but for Site U1391 no isotope data are yet available. In order to develop a correct chronology without isotope data, we performed XRF analysis of cores from Holes U1391A and U1391B between 76.51 and 205.77 mbsf. With these data, in particular using log(Ca/Ti) and log(Ca/Fe), it was possible to enhance the Site U1391 splice and to establish an age model based on the correlation to the well-defined and robust Site U1385 age model.UID/Multi/04326/2019;info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Data report: diatom and silicoflagellate records of marine isotope Stages 25-27 at IODP Site U1387, Faro Drift

During Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 339, the shipboard micropaleontological studies of Site U1387 core catcher samples revealed the preservation of diatoms and radiolarians in specific depths from early Pleistocene age (900–1000 ka). To evaluate the ecological significance of those diatoms, we analyzed 98 samples from the intervals of 244 to 274 m along the corrected splice, corresponding to marine isotope Stage (MIS) 25 to MIS 29, for the abundance of diatoms and silicoflagellates. In 6 samples, the composition of the diatom assemblage was determined as well. Although most samples were barren of siliceous microfossils, the downcore record revealed two intervals, 249–252 corrected meters composite depth (cmcd) and 263–265 cmcd, where diatoms and silicoflagellates reach their maximum values. These maxima occurred from the MIS 26/25 transition to interglacial MIS 25, and again during early MIS 27. The diatom assemblage includes 27 identified taxa with Chaetoceros (Hyalochaete) resting spores being dominant and Thalassionema nitzschioides and Paralia sulcata significant. The Chaetoceros spores clearly indicate strong influence of seasonal upwelling and associated high primary productivity. Special to the diatom record is, however, the occurrence of the large-diameter (>125 µm) centric diatoms Coscinodiscus asteromphalus, Coscinodiscus apiculatus, and Coscinodiscus cf. gigas that imply incursions of low-nutrient, open-ocean water into the southern Portuguese coast during MIS 25.FCT: IF/01500/2014. Provided by PTCRIS: 130279. UIDB/04326/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

GazeConduits: Calibration-Free Cross-Device Collaboration through Gaze and Touch

We present GazeConduits, a calibration-free ad-hoc mobile interaction concept that enables users to collaboratively interact with tablets, other users, and content in a cross-device setting using gaze and touch input. GazeConduits leverages recently introduced smartphone capabilities to detect facial features and estimate users' gaze directions. To join a collaborative setting, users place one or more tablets onto a shared table and position their phone in the center, which then tracks users present as well as their gaze direction to determine the tablets they look at. We present a series of techniques using GazeConduits for collaborative interaction across mobile devices for content selection and manipulation. Our evaluation with 20 simultaneous tablets on a table shows that GazeConduits can reliably identify which tablet or collaborator a user is looking at

Studying the past of Mediterranean outflow based on 230th excess inventories and contourites

The Mediterranean Outflow water (MOW) comes out from the Mediterranean Sea and then contours the northern slope of the Cadiz Gulf. Along its way to the southern Portuguese Margin, it divides itself into three levels flowing at different depths, 400 m, 800 m and 1200 m, respectively. These different pathways induce a series of contourites along the Cadiz slope as well as some sedimentary drifts, such as the Faro Drift. Based on the assumption that the sedimentologic characteristics of these contourites should give some light on the history of MOW velocity and intensity variability, two long sedimentary cores collected during the Marion Dufresnes 114/Images cruise in 1999 have been studied. The sampling sites of these two cores, MD99-2336 and MD99-2339, located in the Cadiz Gulf at 690 and 1177 m water column depths respectively, are thus, actually, below the first level and in the main core of the MOW third level. Along time, variations in these current levels, parallel to the slope, should then influence the existence and characteristics of contourites in both sedimentary records. For this purpose, thorium-230 (230Th) as well as granulometric and micropaleontologic analysis have been undergone at high resolution on the 4 uppermost meters spanning MIS1 to LGM times. The referred current prints can be detected by analysing surface and down core sediment for its 230Th content. This radioisotope is produced by the radioactive decay of uranium-234 which content in oceanic waters is known. Therefore, its production rate in the water column can be estimated as a linear function of the water depth (~ 2.6 dpm/cm2.ka for 1 km water depth). As 230Th is almost insoluble, it will sink to the oceanic floor together with the settling particles. This vertical flux to the underlying sediment is considered, in a first order approximation, equal to its production rate in the water column. On this basis, the 230Th excess in the sediment becomes a proxy for sedimentation versus erosion processes accordingly to the sign of the difference between the total and the vertical 230Th flux, i.e. if it is, respectively, positive or negative. With this method it is then possible to extrapolate on the location of the high velocity core area and whether its intensity changed or not looking at the inventory of excess 230Th in the contourite units. We acknowledge FEDER and OE that financed this study through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PDCTM/PP/MAR/15297/1999)

Collaborative Preference: The Role of Homophily, Multiplexity, and Advantageous Network Position across Small and Medium-sized Organizations

The purpose of this paper is to examine collaboration between individuals across organizations. While both for profit and not-for-profit organizations utilize collaborative efforts, the factors that are important for bringing individuals and businesses together for collaboration still remain somewhat unresolved. In this paper, colleague similarity, the quality of pre-existing relationships, and the relative power of the other colleague are all examined for their correlation with the desirability of collaboration with that individual. In a study of pastors of small and medium sized churches in a southwestern protestant conference, we examined these areas through the lenses of homophily theory, multiplicity theories, and network positioning theories and found support for each of our hypotheses. Implications for management as well as future research directions are also presented