A Framework for the Systematic Evaluation of Data and Analytics Use Cases at an Early Stage

Due to the immense growth of collected data and advancing big data technologies, there are countless potential use cases of data and analytics. But most data initiatives fail and do not bring the desired outcome. One essential reason for this situation is the lack of a systematic approach to evaluate and select promising analytics use cases. This study presents an evaluation framework that enables the systematic screening at an early stage by assessing nine criteria with the help of a scoring model. It also supports a prioritization among several use cases and facilitates the communication to decision makers. The action design research approach was followed to build, test, and evaluate the framework in three iterative design cycles. It was developed in close collaboration with Bundesdruckerei GmbH, an IT-security company owned by the German government that offers products and services for secure identities, data, and infrastructures

A Framework for the Systematic Evaluation of Data and Analytics Use Cases at an Early Stage

Due to the immense growth of collected data and advancing big data technologies, there are countless potential use cases of data and analytics. But most data initiatives fail and do not bring the desired outcome. One essential reason for this situation is the lack of a systematic approach to evaluate and select promising analytics use cases. This study presents an evaluation framework that enables the systematic screening at an early stage by assessing nine criteria with the help of a scoring model. It also supports a prioritization among several use cases and facilitates the communication to decision makers. The action design research approach was followed to build, test, and evaluate the framework in three iterative design cycles. It was developed in close collaboration with Bundesdruckerei GmbH, an IT-security company owned by the German government that offers products and services for secure identities, data, and infrastructures

INFLUENCE OF THE STEP LENGTH AND POSITION OF THE FRONT KNEE ON THE LOAD CONDITIONS OF THE KNEE AND HIP DURING LUNGES

The aim of this study was to quantify the differences in the loading conditions of the lunge strength exercise at different step lengths and different tibia angles of the front leg. Eleven subjects performed lunges with 25 % body mass (BM) barbell extra load on two force plates. The movement was recorded with a motion capture system. The angles and the forces were calculated using inverse dynamics. A larger tibia angle led to a smaller ROM of the front knee, a larger ROM of the rear knee and hip, whereas a larger step length decreased the ROM of the rear knee and hip. A larger tibia angle resulted in a decreased moment in the front knee, front and rear hip and an increased moment in the rear knee. This possibility for varying the angles and corresponding moments allows coaches and therapists to adapt the lunge to an efficient exercise for strength training

β-cell stimulation by saxagliptin in patients with type 2 diabetes

Diabetes is Australia’s fastest growing chronic disease with approximately 890,000 patients currently diagnosed with diabetes.1By 2031 it is predicted that 3.3 million Australians will have type 2 diabetes2thus increasing the demand for prevention strategies and an emphasis on early diagnosis and treatment. Saxagliptin (SAXA) is a potent, selective DPP-4 inhibitor, specifically designed for extended inhibition of the DPP-4 enzyme. DPP-4 inactivates incretins that stimulate glucose-dependent insulin secretion and inhibit glucagon secretion. A proposed MOA of SAXA involves protecting incretins from DPP-4 degradation, thus improving β-cell response. This randomised, parallel-group, double-blind, PBO-controlled study (CV181-041) assessed SAXA’s effect on β-cell function by intravenous hyperglycaemic clamp (IV HC) in T2DM patients. Patients were assessed at baseline (BL) and wk 12 in the fasting state (0-180min, IV HC) and after stimulating incretin secretion by orally ingesting 75g glucose (180-480min, IV-oral HC). HC infusions were adjusted to maintain plasma glucose at 280mg/dL. Insulin secretion was calculated by C-peptide deconvolution. Primary endpoint was %Δfrom BL in total insulin secretion (%Δinsulin) during IV-oral HC (180-480min). Secondary endpoint was %Δinsulin during IV HC (120-180min). Patients were drug-naïve with T2DM aged 43-69yrs with BL A1C range 5.9%-8.1%. Twenty patients received SAXA 5mg od; 16 received PBO. After 12 wks, SAXA significantly increased %Δinsulin from BL during IV-oral HC (adj% difference of 18.5% vs PBO, p=.035). In the fasting state during IV HC SAXA significantly increased %Δinsulin from BL (adj% difference of 27.9% vs PBO, p=.020). At wk 12 insulin secretion increased from BL with SAXA but not with PBO (Fig). Glucagon AUC during IV-oral HC also improved from BL with SAXA, (adj% difference of –21.8% vs PBO, p=.031). SAXA was generally safe and well-tolerated. In conclusion, SAXA improved pancreatic β-cell function in the postprandial and fasting states and decreased postprandial glucagon concentration

Clustering of Sloan Digital Sky Survey III Photometric Luminous Galaxies: The Measurement, Systematics, and Cosmological Implications

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) surveyed 14,555 deg2, and delivered over a trillion pixels of imaging data. We present a study of galaxy clustering using 900,000 luminous galaxies with photometric redshifts, spanning between z = 0.45 and z = 0.65, constructed from the SDSS using methods described in Ross et al. This data set spans 11,000 deg2 and probes a volume of 3 h-3 Gpc3, making it the largest volume ever used for galaxy clustering measurements. We describe in detail the construction of the survey window function and various systematics affecting our measurement. With such a large volume, high-precision cosmological constraints can be obtained given careful control and understanding of the observational systematics. We present a novel treatment of the observational systematics and its applications to the clustering signals from the data set. In this paper, we measure the angular clustering using an optimal quadratic estimator at four redshift slices with an accuracy of ~5%, with a bin size of δ1 = 10 on scales of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs; at ℓ ~ 40-400). We also apply corrections to the power spectra due to systematics and derive cosmological constraints using the full shape of the power spectra. For a flat ΛCDM model, when combined with cosmic microwave background Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7 (WMAP7) and H0 constraints from using 600 Cepheids observed by Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3; HST), we find Ω˄ = 0.73 ± 0.019 and H0 to be 70.5 ± 1.6 s-1 Mpc-1 km. For an open ΛCDM model, when combined with WMAP7 + HST, we find ΩK = 0.0035 ± 0.0054, improved over WMAP7+HST alone by 40%. For a wCDM model, when combined with WMAP7+HST+SN, we find ω = -1.071 ± 0.078, and H0 to be 71.3 ± 1.7 s-1 Mpc-1 km, which is competitive with the latest large-scale structure constraints from large spectroscopic surveys such as the SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7) and WiggleZ. We also find that systematic-corrected power spectra give consistent constraints on cosmological models when compared with pre-systematic correction power spectra in the angular scales of interest. The SDSS-III Data Release 8 (SDSS-III DR8) Angular Clustering Data allow a wide range of investigations into the cosmological model, cosmic expansion (via BAO), Gaussianity of initial conditions, and neutrino masses. Here, we refer to our companion papers for further investigations using the clustering data. Our calculation of the survey selection function, systematics maps, and likelihood function for the COSMOMC package will be released at http://portal.nersc.gov/project/boss/galaxy/photoz/

Wavelength-Selective Switch with Direct Few Mode Fiber Integration

The first realization of a wavelength-selective switch (WSS) with direct integration of few mode fibers (FMF) is fully described. The freespace optics FMF-WSS dynamically steers spectral information-bearing beams containing three spatial modes from an input port to one of nine output ports using a phase spatial light modulator. Sources of mode dependent losses (MDL) are identified, analytically analyzed and experimentally confirmed on account of different modal sensitivities to fiber coupling in imperfect imaging and at spectral channel edges due to mode clipping. These performance impacting effects can be reduced by adhering to provided design guidelines, which scale in support of higher spatial mode counts. The effect on data transmission of cascaded passband filtering and MDL build-up is experimentally investigated in detail

Search for Doubly-Charged Higgs Boson Production at HERA

A search for the single production of doubly-charged Higgs bosons H^{\pm \pm} in ep collisions is presented. The signal is searched for via the Higgs decays into a high mass pair of same charge leptons, one of them being an electron. The analysis uses up to 118 pb^{-1} of ep data collected by the H1 experiment at HERA. No evidence for doubly-charged Higgs production is observed and mass dependent upper limits are derived on the Yukawa couplings h_{el} of the Higgs boson to an electron-lepton pair. Assuming that the doubly-charged Higgs only decays into an electron and a muon via a coupling of electromagnetic strength h_{e \mu} = \sqrt{4 \pi \alpha_{em}} = 0.3, a lower limit of 141 GeV on the H^{\pm\pm} mass is obtained at the 95% confidence level. For a doubly-charged Higgs decaying only into an electron and a tau and a coupling h_{e\tau} = 0.3, masses below 112 GeV are ruled out.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Energy Flow in the Hadronic Final State of Diffractive and Non-Diffractive Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

An investigation of the hadronic final state in diffractive and non--diffractive deep--inelastic electron--proton scattering at HERA is presented, where diffractive data are selected experimentally by demanding a large gap in pseudo --rapidity around the proton remnant direction. The transverse energy flow in the hadronic final state is evaluated using a set of estimators which quantify topological properties. Using available Monte Carlo QCD calculations, it is demonstrated that the final state in diffractive DIS exhibits the features expected if the interaction is interpreted as the scattering of an electron off a current quark with associated effects of perturbative QCD. A model in which deep--inelastic diffraction is taken to be the exchange of a pomeron with partonic structure is found to reproduce the measurements well. Models for deep--inelastic $ep$ scattering, in which a sizeable diffractive contribution is present because of non--perturbative effects in the production of the hadronic final state, reproduce the general tendencies of the data but in all give a worse description.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 6 Figures appended as uuencoded fil

Reviewing the evidence on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of HIV prevention strategies in Thailand

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Following universal access to antiretroviral therapy in Thailand, evidence from National AIDS Spending Assessment indicates a decreasing proportion of expenditure on prevention interventions. To prompt policymakers to revitalize HIV prevention, this study identifies a comprehensive list of HIV/AIDs preventive interventions that are likely to be effective and cost-effective in Thailand.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic review of the national and international literature on HIV prevention strategies from 1997 to 2008 was undertaken. The outcomes used to consider the effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions were changes in HIV risk behaviour and HIV incidence. Economic evaluations that presented their results in terms of cost per HIV infection averted or cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained were also included. All studies were assessed against quality criteria.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The findings demonstrated that school based-sex education plus life-skill programs, voluntary and routine HIV counselling and testing, male condoms, street outreach programs, needle and syringe programs, programs for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, male circumcision, screening blood products and donated organs for HIV, and increased alcohol tax were all effective in reducing HIV infection among target populations in a cost-effective manner.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We found very limited local evidence regarding the effectiveness of HIV interventions amongst specific high risk populations. This underlines the urgent need to prioritise health research resources to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of HIV interventions aimed at reducing HIV infection among high risk groups in Thailand.</p