7,233 research outputs found
A compositional method for reliability analysis of workflows affected by multiple failure modes
We focus on reliability analysis for systems designed as workflow based compositions of components. Components are characterized by their failure profiles, which take into account possible multiple failure modes. A compositional calculus is provided to evaluate the failure profile of a composite system, given failure profiles of the components. The calculus is described as a syntax-driven procedure that synthesizes a workflows failure profile. The method is viewed as a design-time aid that can help software engineers reason about systems reliability in the early stage of development. A simple case study is presented to illustrate the proposed approach
Alcohol-Induced Histone Acetylation Reveals a Gene Network Involved in Alcohol Tolerance
Alfredo Ghezzi, Harish R. Krishnan, Linda Lew, Francisco J. Prado III, Darryl S. Ong, Nigel S. Atkinson, Section of Neurobiology and Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of AmericaSustained or repeated exposure to sedating drugs, such as alcohol, triggers homeostatic adaptations in the brain that lead to the development of drug tolerance and dependence. These adaptations involve long-term changes in the transcription of drug-responsive genes as well as an epigenetic restructuring of chromosomal regions that is thought to signal and maintain the altered transcriptional state. Alcohol-induced epigenetic changes have been shown to be important in the long-term adaptation that leads to alcohol tolerance and dependence endophenotypes. A major constraint impeding progress is that alcohol produces a surfeit of changes in gene expression, most of which may not make any meaningful contribution to the ethanol response under study. Here we used a novel genomic epigenetic approach to find genes relevant for functional alcohol tolerance by exploiting the commonalities of two chemically distinct alcohols. In Drosophila melanogaster, ethanol and benzyl alcohol induce mutual cross-tolerance, indicating that they share a common mechanism for producing tolerance. We surveyed the genome-wide changes in histone acetylation that occur in response to these drugs. Each drug induces modifications in a large number of genes. The genes that respond similarly to either treatment, however, represent a subgroup enriched for genes important for the common tolerance response. Genes were functionally tested for behavioral tolerance to the sedative effects of ethanol and benzyl alcohol using mutant and inducible RNAi stocks. We identified a network of genes that are essential for the development of tolerance to sedation by alcohol.This work was supported by National Institute of Health grant R01 AA018037 to NSA (http://www.nih.gov/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.NeuroscienceWaggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction ResearchEmail: [email protected] (AG)Email: [email protected] (NSA
Attractions between charged colloids at water interfaces
The effective potential between charged colloids trapped at water interfaces
is analyzed. It consists of a repulsive electrostatic and an attractive
capillary part which asymptotically both show dipole--like behavior. For
sufficiently large colloid charges, the capillary attraction dominates at large
separations.
The total effective potential exhibits a minimum at intermediate separations
if the Debye screening length of water and the colloid radius are of comparable
size.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, revised version (one paragraph added) accepted in
JPC
Variation of the first Hilbert coefficients of parameters with a common integral closure
A problem posed by Wolmer V. Vasconcelos on the variation of the first
Hilbert coefficients of parameter ideals with a common integral closure in a
local ring is studied. Affirmative answers are given and counterexamples are
explored as well
Numeric simulation of relativistic stellar core collapse and the formation of Reissner-Nordstrom space-times
The time evolution of a set of 22 Mo unstable charged stars that collapse is
computed integrating the Einstein-Maxwell equations. The model simulate the
collapse of an spherical star that had exhausted its nuclear fuel and have or
acquires a net electric charge in its core while collapsing. When the charge to
mass ratio is Q/M >= 1 the star do not collapse and spreads. On the other hand,
it is observed a different physical behavior with a charge to mass ratio 1 > Q/
M > 0.1. In this case, the collapsing matter forms a bubble enclosing a lower
density core. We discuss an immediate astrophysical consequence of these
results that is a more efficient neutrino trapping during the stellar collapse
and an alternative mechanism for powerful supernova explosions. The outer
space-time of the star is the Reissner-Nordstrom solution that match smoothly
with our interior numerical solution, thus the collapsing models forms
Reissner-Nordstrom black holes.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, paper accepte
DSOL: a declarative approach to self-adaptive service orchestrations
Service oriented computing (SOC) has brought a simplification in the way distributed applications can be built. Mainstream approaches, however, failed to support dynamic, self-managed compositions that would empower even non-technical users to build their own orchestrations. Indeed, because of the changeable world in which they are embedded, service compositions must be able to adapt to changes that may happen at run-time. Unfortunately, mainstream SOC languages, like BPEL and BPMN, make it quite hard to develop such kind of self-adapting orchestrations. We claim that this is mostly due to the imperative programming paradigm they are based on. To overcome this limitation we propose a radically different, strongly declarative approach to model service orchestration, which is easier to use and results in more flexible and self-adapting orchestrations. An ad-hoc engine, leveraging well-known planning techniques, interprets such models to support dynamic service orchestration at run-time
- …