Kooperativna evolucija za kvalitetno pružanje usluga u paradigmi Interneta stvari

To facilitate the automation process in the Internet of Things, the research issue of distinguishing prospective services out of many “similar” services, and identifying needed services w.r.t the criteria of Quality of Service (QoS), becomes very important. To address this aim, we propose heuristic optimization, as a robust and efficient approach for solving complex real world problems. Accordingly, this paper devises a cooperative evolution approach for service composition under the restrictions of QoS. A series of effective strategies are presented for this problem, which include an enhanced local best first strategy and a global best strategy that introduces perturbations. Simulation traces collected from real measurements are used for evaluating the proposed algorithms under different service composition scales that indicate that the proposed cooperative evolution approach conducts highly efficient search with stability and rapid convergence. The proposed algorithm also makes a well-designed trade-off between the population diversity and the selection pressure when the service compositions occur on a large scale.Kako bi se automatizirali procesi u internetu stvati, nužno je rezlikovati bitne usluge u moru sličnih kao i identificirati potrebne usluge u pogledu kvalitete usluge (QoS). Kako bi doskočili ovome problemu prdlaže se heuristička optimizacija kao robustan i efikasan način rješavajne kompleksnih problema. Nadalje, u članku je predložen postupak kooperativne evolucije za slaganje usluga uz ograničenja u pogledu kvalutete usluge. Predstavljen je niz efektivnih strategija za spomenuti problem uključujući strategije najboljeg prvog i najboljeg globalnog koje unose perturbacije u polazni problem. Simulacijski rezultati kao i stvarni podatci su korišteni u svrhu evaluacije prodloženog algoritma kako bi se osigurala efikasna pretraga uz stabilnost i brzu konvergenciju. Predloženi algoritam tako.er vodi računa o odnosu izme.u različitosti populacije i selekcijskog pritiska kada je potrebno osigurati slaganje usluga na velikoj skali

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).Background: Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery. Results: To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N = 1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3–5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk.Peer reviewe

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis

Funding GMP, PN, and CW are supported by NHLBI R01HL127564. GMP and PN are supported by R01HL142711. AG acknowledge support from the Wellcome Trust (201543/B/16/Z), European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013 under grant agreement no. HEALTH-F2-2013–601456 (CVGenes@Target) & the TriPartite Immunometabolism Consortium [TrIC]-Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Grant number NNF15CC0018486. JMM is supported by American Diabetes Association Innovative and Clinical Translational Award 1–19-ICTS-068. SR was supported by the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (Grant No 312062), the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research, the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, and University of Helsinki HiLIFE Fellow and Grand Challenge grants. EW was supported by the Finnish innovation fund Sitra (EW) and Finska Läkaresällskapet. CNS was supported by American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowships 15POST24470131 and 17POST33650016. Charles N Rotimi is supported by Z01HG200362. Zhe Wang, Michael H Preuss, and Ruth JF Loos are supported by R01HL142302. NJT is a Wellcome Trust Investigator (202802/Z/16/Z), is the PI of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (MRC & WT 217065/Z/19/Z), is supported by the University of Bristol NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-1215–2001) and the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MC_UU_00011), and works within the CRUK Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Programme (C18281/A19169). Ruth E Mitchell is a member of the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol funded by the MRC (MC_UU_00011/1). Simon Haworth is supported by the UK National Institute for Health Research Academic Clinical Fellowship. Paul S. de Vries was supported by American Heart Association grant number 18CDA34110116. Julia Ramierz acknowledges support by the People Programme of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme grant n° 608765 and Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant n° 786833. Maria Sabater-Lleal is supported by a Miguel Servet contract from the ISCIII Spanish Health Institute (CP17/00142) and co-financed by the European Social Fund. Jian Yang is funded by the Westlake Education Foundation. Olga Giannakopoulou has received funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) (FS/14/66/3129). CHARGE Consortium cohorts were supported by R01HL105756. Study-specific acknowledgements are available in the Additional file 32: Supplementary Note. The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institutes of Health; or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis

Abstract Background Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery. Results To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N = 1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3–5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism. Conclusions Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk

Modeling stockout risk and JIT purchasing in ready-mixed concrete batching plants

A model for comparing the inventory costs of purchasing under an economic order quantity (EOQ) with a price discount system and a just-in-time (JIT) order purchasing system concluded that JIT purchasing is virtually always the preferable inventory ordering system. This claim however contradicts the practices observed in ready-mixed concrete (RMC) batching plants. By expanding the EOQ model and considering the stockout risks, this paper derives new EOQ-JIT cost indifference point equations. We show that it is possible for an EOQ with a price discount system to be more cost-effective than a JIT system when the stockout risks associated with the JIT purchasing system are high or the annual demand is either too low or too high. The case study conducted in the RMC industry in Chongqing, China supports our proposition

An empirical model for decision-making on ISO 14000 acceptance in the Shanghai construction industry

A remarkable disagreement/deviation between the rate of ISO 14001 registration and the rate of implementation of environmental impact assessment in the Chinese construction industry indicates that the contractors there might not have really applied environmental management (EM) in construction projects. This hypothesis has been tested in this paper by a mail questionnaire survey conducted to 72 main contractors in Shanghai, mainland China. The survey results indicate that there are five classes of factors influencing the acceptability of the ISO 14000 series of EM standards. Reasons why approximately 81% of contractors surveyed are indifferent to the ISO 14000 series are then analysed based on the critical classes. A linear discriminant model for decision-making for construction companies on whether to accept the ISO 14000 series is developed.ISO 14000 series, environmental management system, environmental impact assessment, empirical model, China,

Demolition of Existing Buildings in Urban Renewal Projects: A Decision Support System in the China Context

Much of the rapid urbanization of China’s cities has occurred at the expense of the existing urban fabric. Across the nation, whole city blocks have been replaced with new structures, requiring large numbers of buildings to be demolished while still serviceable. This curtailed lifespan of existing buildings not only comes with an economic cost, but results in loss of urban culture, wastes resources, degrades the environment, exacerbates pollution, and inflames social conflict and instability. For the purpose of evaluating the merits of building demolition, this study develops a decision support system (DSS) for building demolition in the China context from the perspective of sustainable urban renewal. The indicators of this system cover economic, social, environmental, and institutional aspects of sustainable development. Meanwhile, both the individual characteristics of buildings and the external or extrinsic indicators at the neighborhood, local, or city level are taken into account. Based on exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), 24 critical indicators containing qualitative and quantitative factors are identified. These indicators are classified into six parameters: (1) service performance; (2) economic impact; (3) social identity; (4) local development; (5) building location; and (6) building safety. Empirical results reveal considerations of local development to be of greatest significance with the value of standardized factor loading standing at 0.911, followed by service performance (loading = 0.870) and building location (loading = 0.863), with social identity (loading = 0.236) ranking substantially lower. The findings contribute to the practice of urban renewal and, in particular, provide practical guidance to the building demolition decision-making process