The outsourcing and offshoring competitive landscape and its uncertainties

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 42).The outsourcing and offshoring competitive landscape is rapidly and constantly evolving, presenting new challenges and opportunities for providers and customers alike. Outsourcing providers are pressured to increase the value delivered to clients. American providers are rushing offshore in an attempt to achieve savings through lower labor cost, while Indian providers are attempting to establish a stronger presence onshore, to capture a greater share of the high-value services market. Meanwhile, the importance of business processes is being emphasized at every level. These market forces add to the difficulty of reaching a coherent understanding of outsourcing as a whole. Market research and consulting reports address the different aspects of outsourcing in a very haphazard manner, and inexperienced customers are having difficulties formulating realistic expectations. Cost savings vary significantly from case to case, and many other factors need to be taken into account, such as the risk of intellectual property loss and hidden costs due to loss of flexibility, both of which can be hard to quantify. Benchmarks are being used extensively in the industry, and associated with penalties. While the use of benchmarks can be a powerful tool, clients need to remain flexible, or both parties could end up disappointed.by Ziad R. Sultan.M.Eng

Evaluation of the Effect of Packaging Materials and Storage Temperatures on Quality Degradation of Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Olives Grown in Palestine

The quality of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is intimately affected by packaging material and storage temperature. In this study, the influence of packaging materials and elevated temperature on EVOO quality was investigated during six months. At ambient temperatures, oil maintained EVOO when stored in glass, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high density polyethylene (HDPE), cans and Pottery in terms of chemical tests (acidity, peroxide value, K232, and K270). Loss of phenols was the highest in pottery-stored oil and the lowest was found in glass-stored oil. Only PET-stored oil maintained the EVOO grade in terms of sensory evaluation when stored at room temperature. At elevated temperature, oil stored in all packaging materials lost extra virgin quality in terms of chemical tests. The loss of phenols was the largest in HDPE and smallest in cans-stored oil. Sensory evaluation, maintained glass-stored oil and PET-stored oil as EVOO. This study has reaffirmed that at both storage temperatures, the best container in maintaining the EVOO quality was glass and the worst was pottery. Grading of stored olive oil under investigation using sensory evaluation solely was not sufficient. Also it was clear that the absorption coefficient K270 was the most sensitive determinant chemical test that determines the quality of stored olive oil and could be used as a rapid indicator test.The authors wish to express their gratitude to the staff in the Palestinian Standard Institution (PSI) for their help in running the sensorial analysis for the samples namely Miss Tagreed Shhadeh

Recursion based parallelization of exact dense linear algebra routines for Gaussian elimination

International audienceWe present block algorithms and their implementation for the parallelization of sub-cubic Gaussian elimination on shared memory architectures.Contrarily to the classical cubic algorithms in parallel numerical linear algebra, we focus here on recursive algorithms and coarse grain parallelization.Indeed, sub-cubic matrix arithmetic can only be achieved through recursive algorithms making coarse grain block algorithms perform more efficiently than fine grain ones. This work is motivated by the design and implementation of dense linear algebraover a finite field, where fast matrix multiplication is used extensively and where costly modular reductions also advocate for coarse grain block decomposition. We incrementally build efficient kernels, for matrix multiplication first, then triangular system solving, on top of which a recursive PLUQ decomposition algorithm is built. We study the parallelization of these kernels using several algorithmic variants: either iterative or recursive and using different splitting strategies. Experiments show that recursive adaptive methods for matrix multiplication, hybrid recursive-iterative methods for triangular system solve and tile recursive versions of the PLUQ decomposition, together with various data mapping policies, provide the best performance on a 32 cores NUMA architecture. Overall, we show that the overhead of modular reductions is more than compensated by the fast linear algebra algorithms and that exact dense linear algebra matches the performance of full rank reference numerical software even in the presence of rank deficiencies

Polo kinase Cdc5 associates with centromeres to facilitate the removal of centromeric cohesin during mitosis

Sister chromatid cohesion is essential for tension-sensing mechanisms that monitor bipolar attachment of replicated chromatids in metaphase. Cohesion is mediated by the association of cohesins along the length of sister chromatid arms. In contrast, centromeric cohesin generates intrastrand cohesion and sister centromeres, while highly cohesin enriched, are separated by >800 nm at metaphase in yeast. Removal of cohesin is necessary for sister chromatid separation during anaphase, and this is regulated by evolutionarily conserved polo-like kinase (Cdc5 in yeast, Plk1 in humans). Here we address how high levels of cohesins at centromeric chromatin are removed. Cdc5 associates with centromeric chromatin and cohesin-associated regions. Maximum enrichment of Cdc5 in centromeric chromatin occurs during the metaphase-to-anaphase transition and coincides with the removal of chromosome-associated cohesin. Cdc5 interacts with cohesin in vivo, and cohesin is required for association of Cdc5 at centromeric chromatin. Cohesin removal from centromeric chromatin requires Cdc5 but removal at distal chromosomal arm sites does not. Our results define a novel role for Cdc5 in regulating removal of centromeric cohesins and faithful chromosome segregation

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030

Algèbre linéaire exacte, parallèle, adaptative et générique

Triangular matrix decompositions are fundamental building blocks in computational linear algebra. They are used to solve linear systems, compute the rank, the determinant, the null-space or the row and column rank profiles of a matrix. The project of my PhD thesis is to develop high performance shared memory parallel implementations of exact Gaussian elimination.In order to abstract the computational code from the parallel programming environment, we developed a domain specific language, PALADIn: Parallel Algebraic Linear Algebra Dedicated Interface, that is based on C/C + + macros. This domain specific language allows the user to write C + + code and benefit from sequential and parallel executions on shared memory architectures using the standard OpenMP, TBB and Kaapi parallel runtime systems and thus providing data and task parallelism.Several aspects of parallel exact linear algebra were studied. We incrementally build efficient parallel kernels, for matrix multiplication, triangular system solving, on top of which several variants of PLUQ decomposition algorithm are built. We study the parallelization of these kernels using several algorithmic variants: either iterative or recursive and using different splitting strategies.We propose a recursive Gaussian elimination that can compute simultaneously therow and column rank profiles of a matrix as well as those of all of its leading submatrices, in the same time as state of the art Gaussian elimination algorithms. We also study the conditions making a Gaussian elimination algorithm reveal this information by defining a new matrix invariant, the rank profile matrix.Les décompositions en matrices triangulaires sont une brique de base fondamentale en calcul algébrique. Ils sont utilisés pour résoudre des systèmes linéaires et calculer le rang, le déterminant, l'espace nul ou les profiles de rang en ligne et en colonne d'une matrix. Le projet de cette thèse est de développer des implantations hautes performances parallèles de l'élimination de Gauss exact sur des machines à mémoire partagée.Dans le but d'abstraire le code de l'environnement de calcul parallèle utilisé, un langage dédié PALADIn (Parallel Algebraic Linear Algebra Dedicated Interface) a été implanté et est basé essentiellement sur des macros C/C++. Ce langage permet à l'utilisateur d'écrire un code C++ et tirer partie d’exécutions séquentielles et parallèles sur des architectures à mémoires partagées en utilisant le standard OpenMP et les environnements parallel KAAPI et TBB, ce qui lui permet de bénéficier d'un parallélisme de données et de taches.Plusieurs aspects de l'algèbre linéaire exacte parallèle ont été étudiés. Nous avons construit de façon incrémentale des noyaux parallèles efficaces pour les multiplication de matrice, la résolution de systèmes triangulaires au dessus duquel plusieurs variantes de l'algorithme de décomposition PLUQ sont construites. Nous étudions la parallélisation de ces noyaux en utilisant plusieurs variantes algorithmiques itératives ou récursives et en utilisant des stratégies de découpes variées.Nous proposons un nouvel algorithme récursive de l'élimination de Gauss qui peut calculer simultanément les profiles de rang en ligne et en colonne d'une matrice et de toutes ses sous-matrices principales, tout en étant un algorithme état de l'art de l'élimination de Gauss. Nous étudions aussi les conditions pour qu'un algorithme de l'élimination de Gauss révèle cette information en définissant un nouvel invariant matriciel, la matrice de profil de rang

Adaptive and generic parallel exact linear algebra

Les décompositions en matrices triangulaires sont une brique de base fondamentale en calcul algébrique. Ils sont utilisés pour résoudre des systèmes linéaires et calculer le rang, le déterminant, l'espace nul ou les profiles de rang en ligne et en colonne d'une matrix. Le projet de cette thèse est de développer des implantations hautes performances parallèles de l'élimination de Gauss exact sur des machines à mémoire partagée.Dans le but d'abstraire le code de l'environnement de calcul parallèle utilisé, un langage dédié PALADIn (Parallel Algebraic Linear Algebra Dedicated Interface) a été implanté et est basé essentiellement sur des macros C/C++. Ce langage permet à l'utilisateur d'écrire un code C++ et tirer partie d’exécutions séquentielles et parallèles sur des architectures à mémoires partagées en utilisant le standard OpenMP et les environnements parallel KAAPI et TBB, ce qui lui permet de bénéficier d'un parallélisme de données et de taches.Plusieurs aspects de l'algèbre linéaire exacte parallèle ont été étudiés. Nous avons construit de façon incrémentale des noyaux parallèles efficaces pour les multiplication de matrice, la résolution de systèmes triangulaires au dessus duquel plusieurs variantes de l'algorithme de décomposition PLUQ sont construites. Nous étudions la parallélisation de ces noyaux en utilisant plusieurs variantes algorithmiques itératives ou récursives et en utilisant des stratégies de découpes variées.Nous proposons un nouvel algorithme récursive de l'élimination de Gauss qui peut calculer simultanément les profiles de rang en ligne et en colonne d'une matrice et de toutes ses sous-matrices principales, tout en étant un algorithme état de l'art de l'élimination de Gauss. Nous étudions aussi les conditions pour qu'un algorithme de l'élimination de Gauss révèle cette information en définissant un nouvel invariant matriciel, la matrice de profil de rang.Triangular matrix decompositions are fundamental building blocks in computational linear algebra. They are used to solve linear systems, compute the rank, the determinant, the null-space or the row and column rank profiles of a matrix. The project of my PhD thesis is to develop high performance shared memory parallel implementations of exact Gaussian elimination.In order to abstract the computational code from the parallel programming environment, we developed a domain specific language, PALADIn: Parallel Algebraic Linear Algebra Dedicated Interface, that is based on C/C + + macros. This domain specific language allows the user to write C + + code and benefit from sequential and parallel executions on shared memory architectures using the standard OpenMP, TBB and Kaapi parallel runtime systems and thus providing data and task parallelism.Several aspects of parallel exact linear algebra were studied. We incrementally build efficient parallel kernels, for matrix multiplication, triangular system solving, on top of which several variants of PLUQ decomposition algorithm are built. We study the parallelization of these kernels using several algorithmic variants: either iterative or recursive and using different splitting strategies.We propose a recursive Gaussian elimination that can compute simultaneously therow and column rank profiles of a matrix as well as those of all of its leading submatrices, in the same time as state of the art Gaussian elimination algorithms. We also study the conditions making a Gaussian elimination algorithm reveal this information by defining a new matrix invariant, the rank profile matrix

Syphilis : changement épidémiologique au CHU de Reims : 1993-2007

REIMS-BU Santé (514542104) / SudocPARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocSudocFranceF

Fast Computation of the Rank Profile Matrix and the Generalized Bruhat Decomposition

International audienceThe row (resp. column) rank profile of a matrix describes the stair-case shape of its row (resp. column) echelon form. We here propose a new matrix invariant, the rank profile matrix, summarizing all information on the row and column rank profiles of all the leading sub-matrices. We show that this normal form exists and is unique over any ring, provided that the notion of McCoy's rank is used, in the presence of zero divisors. We then explore the conditions for a Gaussian elimination algorithm to compute all or part of this invariant, through the corresponding PLUQ decomposition. This enlarges the set of known Elimination variants that compute row or column rank profiles. As a consequence a new Crout base case variant significantly improves the practical efficiency of previously known implementations over a finite field. With matrices of very small rank, we also generalize the techniques of Storjohann and Yang to the computation of the rank profile matrix, achieving an $(r^\omega+mn)^{1+o(1)}$ time complexity for an $m \times n$ matrix of rank $r$, where $\omega$ is the exponent of matrix multiplication. Finally, we give connections to the Bruhat decomposition, and several of its variants and generalizations. Thus, our algorithmic improvements for the PLUQ factorization, and their implementations, directly apply to these decompositions. In particular, we show how a PLUQ decomposition revealing the rank profile matrix also reveals both a row and a column echelon form of the input matrix or of any of its leading sub-matrices, by a simple post-processing made of row and column permutations