Regularization Paths for Cox's Proportional Hazards Model via Coordinate Descent

We introduce a pathwise algorithm for the Cox proportional hazards model, regularized by convex combinations of l_1 and l_2 penalties (elastic net). Our algorithm fits via cyclical coordinate descent, and employs warm starts to find a solution along a regularization path. We demonstrate the efficacy of our algorithm on real and simulated data sets, and find considerable speedup between our algorithm and competing methods.

Howzat? The Financial Health of English Cricket: Not Out, Yet

In 1997 a review of the financial health of English county cricket highlighted strategic weaknesses within the professional game, principally an over-reliance by clubs on the annual grants provided to them by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Without such grants the teams, in general terms, would be insolvent. Using the financial statements of the First Class Cricket Counties, this paper explores how the financial position and performance of the county game has changed, 20 years on from the seminal study. A series of structural changes to the game had been made, yet financial problems are still evident. Counties are as reliant on central grant income as they were in 1997, although there are cases where clubs have made strategic enhancements and are becoming self-sustainable as going concerns. Rather than the ECB directly funding county revenue it should be working in collaboration with individual clubs to achieve developments in the game from the grassroots upwards, in order to help clubs grow their own revenue streams.</jats:p

Troubleshooting and rectifying structural mechanics problems –- applied mechanics in industry

This paper outlines the general process of troubleshooting and rectifying unexpected structural mechanics problems in industrial plant and infrastructure. Typically the process includes the combination and correlation of site measurements (strain, vibration), and computational simulations (finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics) to identify root cause sources and guide redesign and rectification means. Details of typical site installations are outlined, including mining machinery, gas pipelines, railway lines, manufacturing plant and ships. Four case studies are included, ranging from resin manufacturing tubular agitators suffering vortex induced resonance, ore grinding mills needing better access manhole design, mine dump trucks, and ship shafting issues

Fast analysis of gap waveguides using the characteristic basis function method and the parallel-plate Green’s function

The Characteristic Basis Function Method is employed in conjunction with the parallel-plate dyadic Green's function method to obtain the impedance characteristics of electrically large gap-waveguide structures. Numerical results are shown for the groove gap waveguide demonstrating reduced execution times relative to the HFSS software, while the solution accuracy is barely compromised

The Optimisation of Stochastic Grammars to Enable Cost-Effective Probabilistic Structural Testing

The effectiveness of probabilistic structural testing depends on the characteristics of the probability distribution from which test inputs are sampled at random. Metaheuristic search has been shown to be a practical method of optimis- ing the characteristics of such distributions. However, the applicability of the existing search-based algorithm is lim- ited by the requirement that the software’s inputs must be a fixed number of numeric values. In this paper we relax this limitation by means of a new representation for the probability distribution. The repre- sentation is based on stochastic context-free grammars but incorporates two novel extensions: conditional production weights and the aggregation of terminal symbols represent- ing numeric values. We demonstrate that an algorithm which combines the new representation with hill-climbing search is able to effi- ciently derive probability distributions suitable for testing software with structurally-complex input domains

Towards a generic research data management infrastructure

Until recent years, a focused and centralized strategy for the annotation, storage and curation of research data is something that has not been widely considered within academic communities. The majority of research data sits, fragmented, on a variety of disk structures (Desktops, network & external hard drives) and is usually managed locally, with little interest paid to policies governing how it is backed up, disseminated and organized for short or long term reuse. Recognition of how current practices and infrastructure present a barrier to research, has resulted in several recent academic programmes which have focused on developing comprehensive frameworks for the management and curation of research data1-3. Many of these frameworks (such as the Archer suite of e- Research tools1), however, are large and complex, and have an overreliance on new and novel technologies making them unwieldy and difficult to support. The paper discusses the development of a simpler framework for the management of research data through its full lifecycle, allowing users to annotate and structure their research in a secure and backed up environment. The infrastructure is being developed as a pilot system and is expected to work with data from approximately a dozen researchers and manage several Terabytes of data. The technical work is a strand of the MaDAM (Manchester Data Management) project at The University of Manchester which is funded by the JISC Managing Research Data Programme.

First impressions: introducing the 'Real Times' third sector case studies

‘Real Times’ is the Third Sector Research Centre’s qualitative longitudinal study of third sector organisations, groups and activities. Over a three year period the study is following the fortunes, strategies, challenges and performance of a diverse set of fifteen ‘core’ case studies of third sector activity, and their relations with a number ‘complementary’ case studies. This report introduces the core case studies through summary sketches, and provides a descriptive account of the research up to the end of the first wave of fieldwork

Development of a pilot data management infrastructure for biomedical researchers at University of Manchester – approach, findings, challenges and outlook of the MaDAM Project

Management and curation of digital data has been becoming ever more important in a higher education and research environment characterised by large and complex data, demand for more interdisciplinary and collaborative work, extended funder requirements and use of e-infrastructures to facilitate new research methods and paradigms. This paper presents the approach, technical infrastructure, findings, challenges and outlook (including future development within the successor project, MiSS) of the ‘MaDAM: Pilot data management infrastructure for biomedical researchers at University of Manchester’ project funded under the infrastructure strand of the JISC Managing Research Data (JISCMRD) programme. MaDAM developed a pilot research data management solution at the University of Manchester based on biomedical researchers’ requirements, which includes technical and governance components with the flexibility to meet future needs across multiple research groups and disciplines