Semantic Interoperability in the Fixed Income Securities Industry: A Knowledge Representation Architecture for Dynamic Integration of Web-Based Information

We examine a knowledge representation architecture to support context interchange mediation. For autonomous receivers and sources sharing a common subject domain, the mediator's reasoning engine can devise query plans integrating multiple sources and resolving semantic heterogeneity. Receiver applications obtain the data they need in the form they need it without imposing changes on sources. The KR architecture includes: 1) data models for each source and receiver, 2) subject domain ontologies, containing abstract subject matter conceptualizations that would be known to experienced practitioners in the industry, and 3) context models for each source and receiver that explain how each source or receiver data model implements the abstract concepts from a subject domain ontology. Examples drawn from the fixed income securities industry illustrate problems and solutions enabled by the proposed architecture

Effect of Funding Fluctuations on Government Funded Software Development

Almost everyone understands that budget fluctuations have an impact on software development, but it is difficult to estimate the magnitude of the impact and all the causes. This paper examines government sponsored software development with a focus on how funding gaps affect productivity and product delivery delay. A system dynamics model is developed and the results generated from that model are presented. The results provide decision makers with further considerations for the negative impacts of budget fluctuations. Two key insights include the “ramp up tax” that slows development and the “gap tax” due to the loss of project-related skill and familiarity when employees are not working on those projects. This discussion also analyzes many elements within the process that can produce a change in budgets from year to year and notes the different impacts of temporarily stopping a project versus reducing the funding level on the project

Using System Dynamics to Analyze the Effect of Funding Fluctuation on Software Development

Almost everyone understands that budget fluctuations have an impact on software development, but it is difficult to estimate the magnitude of the impact and all the causes. This paper uses System Dynamics modeling to examine how gaps in funding affect software development productivity and product delivery delay. The results provide decision makers with an improved sense of the negative impacts of budget fluctuations. Two key insights include the “ramp up tax” that slows development and the “gap tax” due to the loss of project-related skill and familiarity when employees are transferred off of a project and then return. The model experiments also compare the different impacts of temporarily stopping a project versus stretching out a project by temporarily reducing the funding level

Context Mediation Demonstration of Counter-Terrorism Intelligence (CTI) Integration

Examination of intelligence failures prior to the 9/11/01 attacks made clear it that lack of effective information exchange among government agencies hindered the capability of identifying potential threats and preventing terrorist actions. A 2002 National Research Council study noted that “Although there are many private and public databases that contain information potentially relevant to counterterrorism programs, they lack the necessary context definitions (i.e., metadata) and access tools to enable interoperation with other databases and the extraction of meaningful and timely information.”[14] This report clearly recognized the importance of problems that the semantic data integration research community has been studying

Agile Project Dynamics: A System Dynamics Investigation of Agile Software Development Methods

While Agile software development has many advocates, acceptance in the government and defense sectors has been limited. To address questions of meanings to the term “Agile,” we examine a range of Agile methods practiced and develop a framework of seven characteristics, which we call the Agile Genome. We gain insight into the dynamics of how Agile development compares to classic “waterfall” approaches by constructing a System Dynamics model for software projects. The Agile Project Dynamics (APD) model captures each of the Agile genes as a separate component of the model and allows experimentation with combinations of practices and management policies. Experimentation with the APD model is used to explore how different genes work in combination with one another to produce both positive and negative effects. The extensible design of the APD model provides the basis for further study of Agile methods and management practices

Context Mediation Demonstration of Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Integration

In this report, we demonstrate the applicability and value of the context mediation approach in facilitating the effective and correct use of counter-terrorism intelligence information coming from diverse heterogeneous sources

Parametric study of the total system life cycle cost of an alternate nuclear waste management strategy using deep boreholes

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2008.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.The Department of Energy recently submitted a license application for the Yucca Mountain repository to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, yet even the most optimistic timetable projects that the repository will not now open until at least 2020. The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management recently revised the official undiscounted total life cycle cost of the waste management system upward by $22B (2000$), an increase of nearly 40% over the previous estimate, published in 2001. In this thesis a waste management tool, named SNuFManager (Spent Nuclear Fuel Manager), has been developed which deterministically simulates the stocks and flows of spent fuel in the United States and estimates annual expenditures based on the system's behavior. The tool allows policy makers to quickly and cheaply estimate the economic consequences of various decision alternatives under an array of scenarios in order to make quantitatively informed decisions and identify ways to mitigate or reverse recent increases in life cycle costs. The results are expressed in 2000 dollars, enabling a convenient comparison with the government's 2001 total system life cycle cost analysis. For each year of delay beyond 2020 in opening the repository and transferring ownership of spent fuel to the federal government, the total waste management system life cycle cost is estimated to increase by another $330M (2000$). The model also estimates that switching from the current mined geologic repository approach to a deep borehole disposal strategy would reduce the undiscounted total system life cycle cost by $19.4B, or 32$1.5B relative to the case with no interim storage. If, moreover, the opening date of the mined geologic repository were delayed until 2040 or 2060, the savings provided by interim storage increase dramatically, to $4.9 and$8.1B, respectively. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the political and strategic consequences of several key policy choices.by Taylor Allen Moulton.S.M

Information Integration for Counter Terrorism Activities: The Requirement for Context Mediation

The National Research Council has noted that although there are many private and public databases that contain information potentially relevant to counterterrorism programs, they lack the necessary context definitions (i.e., metadata) and access tools to enable interoperation with other databases and the extraction of meaningful and timely information. In this paper we present examples of these problems and a technology developed at MIT, called context mediation, which provides a novel approach for addressing these problems

Kimura's Disease

Kimuras disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology. It is rare in the West, but endemic in Asia. It typically presents as solitary or multiple subcutaneous nodules, that slowly increase in size. The lesions are variably painful and pruritic. It often accompanied by regional lymphadenopathy, raised serum eosinophil counts, and markedly elevated serum immunoglobulin E levels. Histologically, the lesions are characterized by reactive lymphoid follicles with eosinophilic infiltration and an increased amount of postcapillary venules. The optimal treatment for KD remains controversial. Although the condition seldom resolves spontaneously, malignant transformation has not been reported to date, and the prognosis is good. We describe a male patient with a 4-year pruritic progressive “bump” in front of his left ear. On physical examination, the patient had 2 discrete lesions on the left side of his face near his ear. Postauricularly, there was a 3 × 5 cm erythematous to violaceous, indurated nodule. Preauricularly, there was a similar, but smaller cyst-like nodule. Punch biopsy showed a superficial and deep nodular and interstitial infiltrate, reactive lymphoid follicles with a dense infiltration of eosinophils and areas of eosinophilic follicle lysis. The patient received intralesional triamcinolone acetonide injections 10 mg/cc behind left ear with a good improvement

Portrayals of Bullying in Children’s Picture Books and Implications for Bibliotherapy

Bullying, a serious issue in today’s schools, negatively impacts children. This article summarizes research and emphasizes the need for effective tools, such as bibliotherapy, to deter bullying. To assist professionals in selecting books for bibliotherapy, 38 bully-themed children’s K-3 picture books ranked 1- 4 by The Horn Book Guide (HBG) from January 1, 2004 through January 1, 2010 were analyzed. Comparisons were made between the selected books’ portrayals of bullying and aspects of bullying, and bully prevention described in research literature. Information was summarized, including the following details: (a) gender of bully and victim, (b) type of bullying, (c) location of bullying, (d) responses of bystanders and adults, and (e) resolution of bullying problems. Considering this descriptive information, professionals are advised to more selectively recommend books to fit the unique needs of students and encourage desired bullying resolution strategies