JUST: Large-Scale Multi-Tier Storage Infrastructure at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre

JUST is a versatile storage infrastructure operated by the Jülich Supercomputing Centre at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The system provides high-performance and high-capacity storage resources for the supercomputer facility. Recently, additional storage and management services, addressing demands beyond the high-performance computing area, have been added. In support of its mission, JUST consists of multiple storage tiers with different performance and functional characteristics to cover the entire data lifecycle

Flexibilisierung am deutschen Arbeitsmarkt: subjektive Kosten und Anpassungsschwierigkeiten

"Ausgehend vom 'challenge-response-model' des SFB 580 thematisiert der Vortrag soziale Institutionalisierungsprozesse im Wechselspiel von Arbeitsmarktstruktur und Akteurshandeln. Im Rahmen einer quantitativen Längsschnittuntersuchung über den Zeitraum 1990-2004 wird die Frage beantwortet, zu welchen Erwartungsstrukturen die Destabilisierung der Beschäftigungsstruktur in Ostdeutschland im Vergleich zu Westdeutschland führt und welche Handlungsreaktionen in Form des Mobilitätsverhalten hieraus resultieren. Die Institutionalisierung des Lebenslaufs als Wechselspiel von challenge und response. Der Lebenslauf entsteht als endogener Sinnzusammenhang in Wechselwirkung von sozialem Strukturwandel und biographischen Prozessen. Der Strukturwandel wird zur 'Herausforderung' an die biographisch mit unterschiedlichen Dispositionen ausgestatteten Akteure, die auf diese Herausforderung unterschiedlich, d.h. in Form von Anpassung, innovativem oder anomischem Handeln 'reagieren'. In der Folge kommt es zu Beharrung, zu verzögertem, beschleunigtem oder inkrementellem Strukturwandel. Um dieses Wechselspiel konkret analysieren zu können, wenden sich die Verfasser dem Erwerbssystem zu. Beschäftigungssicherheit und flexible Beschäftigung. Die Systemtransition in Ostdeutschland zu Beginn der 1990er Jahre erzeugte eine schockartige Destabilisierung der Beschäftigungsstruktur infolge makroökonomischen Strukturwandels. Diese Herausforderung (challenge) für die Arbeitsmarktakteure, führt zu unterschiedlichen Reaktionen (response). Diese Konstellation wird anhand von zwei Teilfragestellungen analysiert: Die erste Teilfrage zielt auf die Verknüpfung von challenge und response: Weisen bislang instabil Beschäftigte eine erhöhte Unsicherheitserwartung auf als stabil Beschäftigte? Die zweite Teilfrage richtet sich auf die Differenzierung der response in Erwartung und Handlung. Die Sorge um den Arbeitsplatz wird hier zu einem Teil der Evaluation der Handlungssituation. Zu welchen Mobilitätsreaktionen führt Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit? In der Untersuchung beider Fragen werden sozialstrukturelle und individuelle Merkmale kontrolliert." (Autorenreferat

The Sustainable Corporate Strategy in Industrial Goods Markets

Classical management thinking and traditional manufacturing processes will reach their limits soon. There is a great need for innovative sustainability-orientated business models. Has a market-oriented, sustainability-oriented corporate strategy the potential for successful marketing of industrial goods in a monopolistic market

The Multidimensional Prognostic Index in general practice: One-year follow-up study.

BACKGROUND Older patients' health problems in general practice (GP) can often not be assigned to a specific disease, requiring a paradigm shift to goal-oriented, personalised care for clinical decision making. PURPOSE To investigate the predictive value of the comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA)-based Multidimensional Prognostic Index (MPI) in a GP setting with respect to the main healthcare indicators during the 12 months following initial evaluation. METHODS One hundred twenty-five consecutive patients aged 70 years and older were enrolled in a GP and followed up to one year. All patients underwent a CGA based on which the MPI was calculated and subdivided into three risk groups (MPI-1, 0-0.33 = low risk, MPI-2, 0.34-0.66 = moderate risk and MPI-3, 0.67-1, severe risk). Grade of Care (GC), hospitalization rate, mortality, nursing home admission, use of home care services, falls, number of general practitioner contacts (GPC), of geriatric resources (GR) and geriatric syndromes (GS) during the 12 months following initial evaluation were collected. RESULTS The MPI was significantly associated with number of GS (P < .001), GR (P < .001), GC (P < .001) as well as with the average number of GPC per year (mean 10.4, P = .046). Interestingly, the clinical judgement of the general practitioner, in this case knowing his patients for 16 years on average, was associated with adverse outcomes to a similar extent than the prediction offered by the MPI (GP/adverse outcomes and MPI/adverse outcomes P < .001). CONCLUSION The MPI is strongly associated with adverse outcomes in older GP patients and strongly predicts the number of GPC up to one year after initial evaluation. Considering the feasibility and the strong clinimetric properties of the MPI, its collection should be encouraged as early as possible to disclose risk conditions, implement tailored preventive strategies and improve cost-effectiveness of healthcare resources use

An Exploratory Investigation on the Invasiveness of Environmental Modeling Frameworks

Environmental modeling frameworks provide an array of useful features that model developers can harness when implementing models. Each framework differs in how it provides features to a model developer via its Application Programming Interface (API). Environmental modelers harness framework features by calling and interfacing with the framework API. As modelers write model code, they make framework-specific function calls and use framework specific data types for achieving the functionality of the model. As a result of this development approach, model code becomes coupled with and dependent on a specific modeling framework. Coupling to a specific framework makes migration to other frameworks and reuse of the code outside the original framework more difficult. This complicates collaboration between model developers wishing to share model code that ma y have been developed in a variety of languages and frameworks. This paper provides initial results of an exploratory investigation on the invasiveness of environmental modeling frameworks. Invasiveness is defined as th e coupling between application (i.e., model) and framework code used to implement the model. By comparing the implementation of an environmental model across several modeling frameworks, we aim to better understand the consequences of framework design. How frameworks present functionality to modelers through APIs can lead to consequences with respect to model development, model maintenance, reuse of model code, and ultimately collaboration among model developers. By measuring framework invasiveness, we hope to provide environmental modeling framework developers and environmental modelers with valuable in formation to assist in future development efforts. Eight implementations (six framework-based) of Thornthwaite, a simple water balance model, were made in a variety of environmental modeling frameworks and languages. A set of software metrics were proposed and applied to measure invasiveness between model implementation code and framework code. The metrics produced a rank ordering of invasiveness for the framework-based implementations of Thornthwaite. We compared model invasiveness results with several popular software metrics including size in lines of code (LOC), cyclomatic complexity, and object oriented coupling. To investigate software quality implications of framework invasiveness we checked for relationships between the Chidamber and Kemerer (1994) object oriented software metrics and our framework invasiveness measures. For the six framework-based implementations of Thornthwaite we found a five-fold variation in code size (LOC). We observed up to a seven-fold variation in total cyclomatic complexity, and a two to three-fold variation in object oriented coupling. For the model implementations we found that total size, total complexity, and total coupling all had a significant positive correlation. The raw count version of our invasiveness measures correlated with application size (LOC), total cyclomatic complexity, total efferent coupling (fan out) and total afferent coupling (fan in). Large size, complexity, and high levels of coupling between units (classes, modules) in a software system are often cited in software engineering as causes of high maintenance costs due to poor understandability and flexibility of the code. This study provides initial results but further investigation is desired to evaluate the utility of our invasiveness measurement approach as well as the software quality implications of framework invasiveness

Environmental Modeling Framework Invasiveness: Analysis and Implications

Environmental modeling frameworks support scientific model development by providing an Application Programming Interface (API) which model developers use to implement models. This paper presents results of an investigation on the framework invasiveness of environmental modeling frameworks. Invasiveness is defined as the quantity of dependencies between model code and the modeling framework. This research investigates relationships between invasiveness and the quality of modeling code. Additionally, we investigate the relationship between invasiveness and two common framework designs (lightweight vs. heavyweight). Five metrics to measure framework invasiveness were proposed and applied to measure invasiveness between model and framework code of several implementations of Thornthwaite and the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS), two hydrological models. Framework invasiveness measurements were compared with existing software metrics including size (lines of code), cyclomatic complexity, and object-oriented coupling with generally positive correlations being found. We found that models with lower framework invasiveness tended to be smaller, less complex, and have lower coupling. In addition, the lightweight framework implementations of the Thornthwaite and PRMS models were less invasive than the heavyweight framework model implementations. Our initial results suggest that framework invasiveness is undesirable for model code quality and that lightweight frameworks may help reduce invasiveness

Postoperative Severity Assessment in Sheep

Introduction: Sheep are frequently used in translational surgical orthopedic studies. Naturally, a good pain management is mandatory for animal welfare, although it is also important with regard to data quality. However, methods for adequate severity assessment, especially considering pain, are rather rare regarding large animal models. Therefore, in the present study, accompanying a surgical pilot study, telemetry and the Sheep Grimace Scale (SGS) were used in addition to clinical scoring for severity assessment after surgical interventions in sheep. Methods: Telemetric devices were implanted in a first surgery subcutaneously into four German black-headed mutton ewes (4-5 years, 77-115 kg). After 3-4 weeks of recovery, sheep underwent tendon ablation of the left M. infraspinatus. Clinical scoring and video recordings for SGS analysis were performed after both surgeries, and the heart rate (HR) and general activity were monitored by telemetry. Results: Immediately after surgery, clinical score and HR were slightly increased, and activity was decreased in individual sheep after both surgeries. The SGS mildly elevated directly after transmitter implantation but increased to higher levels after tendon ablation immediately after surgery and on the following day. Conclusion: In summary, SGS- and telemetry-derived data were suitable to detect postoperative pain in sheep with the potential to improve individual pain recognition and postoperative management, which consequently contributes to refinement

Finding Mycenaeans in Minoan Crete? Isotope and DNA analysis of human mobility in Bronze Age Crete.

We undertook a large-scale study of Neolithic and Bronze Age human mobility on Crete using biomolecular methods (isotope analysis, DNA), with a particular focus on sites dating to the Late Bronze Age ('Late Minoan') period. We measured the strontium and sulphur isotope values of animal remains from archaeological sites around the island of Crete to determine the local baseline values. We then measured the strontium and sulphur values of humans from Late Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. Our results indicate that most of the humans have sulphur and strontium isotope values consistent with being local to Crete, showing no evidence for a wide-scale movement of people from the Greek mainland or other areas away from Crete in these time periods. However, we found four individuals from the late Bronze Age (Late Minoan III) cemetery of Armenoi with sulphur isotope values not typically found in Crete and are instead consistent with an origin elsewhere. This cemetery at Armenoi also has one of only a few examples of the newly adopted Mycenaean Linear B script on Crete found outside of the palace sites, pointing to an influence (trade and possible migration) from the mainland, which may then be the place of origin of these four individuals. DNA (mtDNA) studies of eight Late Bronze Age individuals from Armenoi have results consistent with people living in Aegean region at this time and cannot be used to distinguish between individuals from Crete ('Minoans') and the Greek mainland ['Mycenaeans'])

Plakophilin 1 stimulates translation by promoting eIF4A1 activity

p120 armadillo protein plakophilin 1 binds to eukaryotic translation factor eIF4A1, recruiting it into cap-binding complexes and stimulating translation