On generalized processor sharing and objective functions: analytical framework

Today, telecommunication networks host a wide range of heterogeneous services. Some demand strict delay minima, while others only need a best-effort kind of service. To achieve service differentiation, network traffic is partitioned in several classes which is then transmitted according to a flexible and fair scheduling mechanism. Telecommunication networks can, for instance, use an implementation of Generalized Processor Sharing (GPS) in its internal nodes to supply an adequate Quality of Service to each class. GPS is flexible and fair, but also notoriously hard to study analytically. As a result, one has to resort to simulation or approximation techniques to optimize GPS for some given objective function. In this paper, we set up an analytical framework for two-class discrete-time probabilistic GPS which allows to optimize the scheduling for a generic objective function in terms of the mean unfinished work of both classes without the need for exact results or estimations/approximations for these performance characteristics. This framework is based on results of strict priority scheduling, which can be regarded as a special case of GPS, and some specific unfinished-work properties in two-class GPS. We also apply our framework on a popular type of objective functions, i.e., convex combinations of functions of the mean unfinished work. Lastly, we incorporate the framework in an algorithm to yield a faster and less computation-intensive result for the optimum of an objective function

Leprosy and tuberculosis concomitant infection: a poorly understood, age-old relationship

Historically, archaeological evidence, post-mortem findings and retro- spective analysis of leprosy institutions’ data demonstrates a high observed incidence of concomitant infection with leprosy and tuberculosis (TB). However, reports of concomitant infection in the modern literature remain scarce, with estimates of annual new case detection rates of concomitant infection at approximately 0·02 cases per 100,000 population. Whilst the mechanism for this apparent decline in concomitant infections remains unclear, further research on this topic has remained relatively neglected. Modelling of the interaction of the two organisms has suggested that the apparent decline in observations of concomitant infection may be due to the protective effects of cross immunity, whilst more recently others have questioned whether it is a more harmful relationship, predisposing towards increased host mortality. We review recent evidence, comparing it to previously held understanding on the epidemiological relationship and our own experience of concomitant infection. From this discussion, we highlight several under-investigated areas, which may lead to improvements in the future delivery of leprosy management and services, as well as enhance understanding in other fields of infection management. These include, a) highlighting the need for greater understanding of host immunogenetics involved in concomitant infection, b) whether prolonged courses of high dose steroids pre-dispose to TB infection? and, c) whether there is a risk of rifampicin resistance developing in leprosy patients treated in the face of undiagnosed TB and other infections? Longitudinal work is still required to characterise these temporal relationships further and add to the current paucity of literature on this subject matter

Hybrid copula mixed models for combining case-control and cohort studies in meta-analysis of diagnostic tests

Copula mixed models for trivariate (or bivariate) meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies accounting (or not) for disease prevalence have been proposed in the biostatistics literature to synthesize information. However, many systematic reviews often include case-control and cohort studies, so one can either focus on the bivariate meta-analysis of the case-control studies or the trivariate meta-analysis of the cohort studies, as only the latter contains information on disease prevalence. In order to remedy this situation of wasting data we propose a hybrid copula mixed model via a combination of the bivariate and trivariate copula mixed model for the data from the case-control studies and cohort studies, respectively. Hence, this hybrid model can account for study design and also due to its generality can deal with dependence in the joint tails. We apply the proposed hybrid copula mixed model to a review of the performance of contemporary diagnostic imaging modalities for detecting metastases in patients with melanoma

New Neighbours: Modelling the Growing Population of Gamma-ray Millisecond Pulsars

The Fermi Large Area Telescope, in collaboration with several groups from the radio community, have had marvellous success at uncovering new gamma-ray millisecond pulsars (MSPs). In fact, MSPs now make up a sizable fraction of the total number of known gamma-ray pulsars. The MSP population is characterized by a variety of pulse profile shapes, peak separations, and radio-to-gamma phase lags, with some members exhibiting nearly phase-aligned radio and gamma-ray light curves (LCs). The MSPs' short spin periods underline the importance of including special relativistic effects in LC calculations, even for emission originating from near the stellar surface. We present results on modelling and classification of MSP LCs using standard pulsar model geometries.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of the ICREA Workshop on The High-Energy Emission from Pulsars and their Systems (HEEPS), Sant Cugat, Spai

Self-care in primary care: findings from a longitudinal comparison study.

To examine the effects of self-care training workshops for primary healthcare workers on frequently attending patients

LSD1 is essential for oocyte meiotic progression by regulating CDC25B expression in mice

Mammalian oocytes are arrested at prophase I until puberty when hormonal signals induce the resumption of meiosis I and progression to meiosis II. Meiotic progression is controlled by CDK1 activity and is accompanied by dynamic epigenetic changes. Although the signalling pathways regulating CDK1 activity are well defined, the functional significance of epigenetic changes remains largely unknown. Here we show that LSD1, a lysine demethylase, regulates histone H3 lysine 4 di-methylation (H3K4me2) in mouse oocytes and is essential for meiotic progression. Conditional deletion of Lsd1 in growing oocytes results in precocious resumption of meiosis and spindle and chromosomal abnormalities. Consequently, most Lsd1-null oocytes fail to complete meiosis I and undergo apoptosis. Mechanistically, upregulation of CDC25B, a phosphatase that activates CDK1, is responsible for precocious meiotic resumption and also contributes to subsequent spindle and chromosomal defects. Our findings uncover a functional link between LSD1 and the major signalling pathway governing meiotic progression

Boundedness of Pseudodifferential Operators on Banach Function Spaces

We show that if the Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator is bounded on a separable Banach function space $X(\mathbb{R}^n)$ and on its associate space $X'(\mathbb{R}^n)$, then a pseudodifferential operator $\operatorname{Op}(a)$ is bounded on $X(\mathbb{R}^n)$ whenever the symbol $a$ belongs to the H\"ormander class $S_{\rho,\delta}^{n(\rho-1)}$ with $0<\rho\le 1$, $0\le\delta<1$ or to the the Miyachi class $S_{\rho,\delta}^{n(\rho-1)}(\varkappa,n)$ with $0\le\delta\le\rho\le 1$, $0\le\delta0$. This result is applied to the case of variable Lebesgue spaces $L^{p(\cdot)}(\mathbb{R}^n)$.Comment: To appear in a special volume of Operator Theory: Advances and Applications dedicated to Ant\'onio Ferreira dos Santo

A conceptual framework for the alignment of infrastructure assets to citizen requirements within a Smart Cities framework

There is a growing interest by academics, industry and government to the digitalisation of the built environment and its potential impact on private enterprises, public services and the broader context of society. The UK government and others are aiming to guide and standardise this process by developing an array of standards to support this digitalisation, most notably on Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Smart Cities Framework. Furthermore, the advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) is creating a highly flexible, dynamic and accessible platform for the exchange capture and of information. There is a risk that all of this information on the built environment is quickly becoming unmanageable, and the value of that information is quickly becoming lost. This paper proposes a smart asset alignment framework that aims to create an alignment between the information captured at the infrastructure asset level and citizen requirements within a smart city framework