Work-in-Progress: Why statistical power matters for probabilistic real-time

The probabilistic approaches for real-time systems are based on the estimation of the probabilistic-WCET distribution. Such estimation is naturally subject to errors, caused by both systematic and estimation uncertainties. To solve this problem, statistical tests are applied on the resulting distribution to check whether such errors affect or not the output validity. In this paper, we show that the reliability of these tests depends on the statistical power that must be estimated in order to select the proper sample size. This a priori analysis is required to obtain a reliable result of the probabilistic-WCET

Mixed Criticality Scheduling of Probabilistic Real-Time Systems

In this paper we approach the problem of Mixed Criticality (MC) for probabilistic real-time systems where tasks execution times are described with probabilistic distributions. In our analysis, the task enters high criticality mode if its response time exceeds a certain threshold, which is a slight deviation from a more classical approach in MC. We do this to obtain an application oriented MC system in which criticality mode changes depend on actual scheduled execution. This is in contrast to classical approaches which use task execution time to make criticality mode decisions, because execution time is not affected by scheduling while the response time is. We use a graph-based approach to seek for an optimal MC schedule by exploring every possible MC schedule the task set can have. The schedule we obtain minimizes the probability of the system entering high criticality mode. In turn, this aims at maximizing the resource efficiency by the means of scheduling without compromising the execution of the high criticality tasks and minimizing the loss of lower criticality functionality. The proposed approach is applied to test cases for validation purposes

Ageing and learning in Australia: Arguing an evidence base for informed and equitable policy

Background: Given Australia's population ageing and predicted impacts related to health, productivity, equity and enhancing quality of life outcomes for senior Australians, lifelong learning has been identified as a pathway for addressing the risks associated with an ageing population. To date Australian governments have paid little attention to addressing these needs and thus, there is an urgent need for policy development for lifelong learning as a national priority. The purpose of this article is to explore the current lifelong learning context in Australia and to propose a set of factors that are most likely to impact learning in later years. Conclusion: Evidence based policy that understands and incorporates learning opportunities for all citizens is required to meet emerging global challenges. Providing appropriate learning opportunities to seniors is one clear pathway for achieving diverse health, social and economic outcomes

Variation of milk components in the Italian Brown cattle

The aim of this study was to evaluate the variations of protein, casein, saturated (SFA), unsaturated (UFA), monounsaturated (MUFA), polyunsaturated (PUFA) fatty acids contents and cheese yield in the milk of two groups of Italian Brown cows conventionally reared in indoor period of housing or consuming pasture during the summer months in 2008 and 2013. Milk components were obtained from samples collected during the national routine (conventionally reared) and 'extraordinary' (pasture period) milk recording scheme in herds located near Sondrio (Lombardia, Italy). Milk samples were processed with the MilkoScanTM FT6000 for the identification of milk casein, SFA, UFA, MUFA and PUFA composition. The groups were analysed separately per year and the environmental factors affecting milk protein, casein, and fatty acids contents (pasture/indoor, parity, data of sampling, days in milk, days from collection to analysis) were included in the MIXED procedure of SAS 9.3. A total of 778 milk samples were available, including 234 records from indoor and 544 observations from pasture feeding. Pasture intake affected the content of casein (%) and the proportion of fat in milk (g/100 g), enhancing milk casein levels (from 2.90 to 3) and reducing the concentration of milk SFA in milk from grazing cows (from 2.29 to 1.92). Additionally, the cheese yield was calculated as 'kg of cheese per 100 kg of milk' and resulted to be 10.4 and 12 in 2008 from milk of cows reared indoor and with pasture based diet, respectively. The dairy industry should take advantage of the milk production during grazing periods from which high quality products may be obtained

Probabilistic-WCET reliability: on the experimental validation of EVT hypotheses

The interest in probabilistic real-time is increasing, in response to the lack of traditional static WCET analysis methods for applications running on complex systems, like multi/many-cores and COTS platforms. However, the probabilistic theory is still immature and, furthermore, it requires strong guarantees on the timing traces, in order to provide safe probabilistic-WCET estimations. These requirements can be verified with appropriate statistical tests, as described in this paper, and tested with synthetic and realistic sources, to assess their ability to detect unreliable results. In this work, we identified also the challenges and the problems of using statistical test based procedures for probabilistic real-time computin

Quantitative trait loci mapping for conjugated linoleic acid, vaccenic acid and Δ9-desaturase in Italian Brown Swiss dairy cattle using selective DNA pooling

A selective DNA pooling approach was applied to identify QTL for conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), vaccenic acid (VA) and D9-desaturase (D9D) milk content in Italian Brown Swiss dairy cattle. Milk samples from 60 animals with higher values (after correction for environmental factors) and 60 animals with lower values for each of these traits from each of five half-sib families were pooled separately. The pools were genotyped using the Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip. Sire allele frequencies were compared between high and low tails at the sire and marker level for SNPs for which the sires were heterozygous. An R procedure was implemented to perform data analysis in a selective DNA pooling design. A correction for multiple tests was applied using the proportion of false positives among all test results. BTA 19 showed the largest number of markers in association with CLA. Associations between SNPs and the VA and D9-desaturase traits were found on several chromosomes. A bioinformatics survey identified genes with an important role in pathways for milk fat and fatty acids metabolism within 1 Mb of SNP markers associated with fatty acids contents