CASPR: Judiciously Using the Cloud for Wide-Area Packet Recovery

We revisit a classic networking problem -- how to recover from lost packets in the best-effort Internet. We propose CASPR, a system that judiciously leverages the cloud to recover from lost or delayed packets. CASPR supplements and protects best-effort connections by sending a small number of coded packets along the highly reliable but expensive cloud paths. When receivers detect packet loss, they recover packets with the help of the nearby data center, not the sender, thus providing quick and reliable packet recovery for latency-sensitive applications. Using a prototype implementation and its deployment on the public cloud and the PlanetLab testbed, we quantify the benefits of CASPR in providing fast, cost effective packet recovery. Using controlled experiments, we also explore how these benefits translate into improvements up and down the network stack

Alien Registration- Doucette, Loretta R.,RN (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/29317/thumbnail.jp

Entrepreneurial Orientation as a Basis for Classification within a Service Industry: The Case of Retail Pharmacy Industry

To date, service classification research has primarily taken a macro view, creating service typologies or taxonomies by using dimensions such as customer contact or degree of labor intensity. Such classification schemes, though helpful in deciphering critical management issues and positioning strategies between service industries, tend to treat an entire industry, such as airlines, as a single homogenous entity. However, organizations in the same industry often use intangible resources, such as entrepreneurial orientation processes, to compete with one another. Resource-advantage theory suggests that organizations utilize intangible resources to build long-term strategies and a sustainable competitive advantage leading to superior performance. We developed organization clusters based on entrepreneurial orientation as intangible resources to classify organizations within a retailing industry. Using data from the retail pharmacy industry, we tested if the entrepreneurial orientations of the resultant groups within the pharmacy industry were related to their perception of the environment, organizational factors, and performance outcomes. The operationalization of the construct of entrepreneurial orientation is one of the contributions of the study

Localization of Social Work Knowledge through Practitioner Adaptations in Northern Ontario and the Northwest Territories, Canada

Social work is only just beginning to adapt knowledge and practice to the realities of a geographically diverse world. Within the social services, one of the most exciting diversity-related initiatives is a localization movement that calls for a social work knowledge base that is fundamentally different from one geographic milieu to the next. Few, if any, studies to date have considered the Canadian North (an area populated by diverse aboriginal cultural and linguistic groups) as a basis for localizing social work knowledge. This study reports on interviews conducted with social work practitioners in northern Ontario and the Northwest Territories to gain insight into how changes in the current social work knowledge base could be the locus for meaningful and contextually sensitive social work knowledge and intervention. This initial exploratory study presents a number of key findings that aid in developing an understanding of social work practice and knowledge specific to the Canadian North. These findings identify geographical areas where social work knowledge requires adaptation, changes in the personal and professional behaviour of practitioners, or modification of mainstream knowledge; use of appropriate and inappropriate social work theory and practice; specific challenges faced by agencies; ways agencies can modify programs to meet community needs; ways for clients to access service; and the relationships between practitioners and the surrounding communities. We conclude with implications for the Canadian North related to social work, allied disciplines, and social welfare structures.Le travail social ne fait que commencer à adapter les connaissances et les pratiques aux réalités d’un monde géographiquement varié. Sur le plan des services sociaux, l’une des initiatives les plus intéressantes en matière de diversité prend la forme d’un mouvement de localisation faisant appel à une base de connaissances en travail social qui est fondamentalement différente d’un milieu géographique à un autre. Peu d’études, voire aucune, n’ont porté sur le Nord canadien (une région peuplée par des groupes autochtones linguistiquement et culturellement variés) en tant que base de localisation des connaissances en travail social. Cette étude fait état d’entrevues réalisées avec des praticiens du travail social dans le nord de l’Ontario et dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest afin d’obtenir un aperçu de la manière dont les changements caractérisant la base de connaissances actuelle en travail social pourrait être le centre d’interventions et de connaissances significatives en travail social, interventions et connaissances tenant compte du contexte. Cette première étude exploratoire présente un certain nombre de constatations importantes qui permettent de mieux comprendre les connaissances et les pratiques en travail social propres au Nord canadien. Ces constatations identifient les régions géographiques où les connaissances en travail social doivent faire l’objet d’une adaptation, de changements du point de vue du comportement personnel et professionnel des praticiens ou de modifications des connaissances primaires. Elles portent aussi sur l’utilisation de théories et de pratiques adéquates et inadéquates en travail social; sur les défis particuliers auxquels les organismes ou agences font face; sur les manières dont les organismes ou agences peuvent modifier les programmes afin de répondre aux besoins des collectivités; sur les moyens d’accès aux services par les clients; et sur les relations entre les praticiens et les collectivités environnantes. Nous concluons en présentant les incidences sur le Nord canadien sur le plan du travail social, des disciplines connexes et des structures du bien-être social

CASPR: judiciously using the cloud for wide-area packet recovery

We revisit a classic networking problem -- how to recover from lost packets in the best-effort Internet. We propose CASPR, a system that judiciously leverages the cloud to recover from lost or delayed packets. CASPR supplements and protects best-effort connections by sending a small number of coded packets along the highly reliable but expensive cloud paths. When receivers detect packet loss, they recover packets with the help of the nearby data center, not the sender, thus providing quick and reliable packet recovery for latency-sensitive applications. Using a prototype implementation and its deployment on the public cloud and the PlanetLab testbed, we quantify the benefits of CASPR in providing fast, cost effective packet recovery. Using controlled experiments, we also explore how these benefits translate into improvements up and down the network stack.First author draf

An Evaluation of Managing and Educating Patients on the Risk of Glucocorticoid-Induced Osteoporosis

AbstractObjectiveTo assess the impact of risk management activities on patient risk of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis.MethodsNinety-six adult patients taking chronic glucocorticoid therapy in 15 community pharmacies. Patients in the control group received usual and customary care. Patients in the treatment pharmacies received education and an educational pamphlet about the risks of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. In addition, the treatment group pharmacists monitored the patients' drug therapy, to identify and address drug-related problems. Data including the glucocorticoid taken by the patient, medications, and osteoporosis risk factors were collected at baseline and after 9 months of monitoring, via Web-based survey completed in the pharmacy. Using an intent to treat approach, the pre–post frequency changes were compared with contrasts for presence of bisphosphonate therapy, presence of estrogen therapy, presence of calcium supplement, discussion of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis risk, discussion of bone density test, presence of bone mineral density test, reported inactivity, and reported low calcium diet.ResultsThe contrast was significant in favor of the treatment pharmacies for the frequency of patients taking a calcium supplement (Control [−6.9%] vs. Treatment [17.1%], P < 0.05). No other contrast was significant.ConclusionsCommunity pharmacists are capable of increasing calcium supplementation among patients at risk for glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. Pharmacists who educate at-risk patients can impact the self-care of these patients