A study of a Java based framework for telecommunications services : a dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science, Massey University, New Zealand

Additional content held on disk with print copy in Library.In this report, we study some of the general issues surrounding the area of telecommunications service development including the history of telecommunications services, current service creation techniques and the network used by services. We also discuss the lack of service portability and reasons for it. The JAIN framework – a set of Java APIs for integrated networks – is introduced as an approach that elegantly addresses this. We present a survey of recent work in telecommunications services that relate to JAIN. This includes a discussion of the feature interaction problem, an overview of the Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture, in particular, its relationship with JAIN, and the rapidly advancing field of Internet Telephony. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the JAIN approach we present designs for two advanced services that use the JAIN framework. These services are Internet Call Waiting and Click-to-Dial. Finally, areas for future research are introduced

WP 98 - The graying of the median voter

Analyzing 30 OECD-countries in 1980-2005, this paper documents the association of an aging electorate with retirement spending. The fi rst result is that an increase in the age of the median voter of one year is associated with an increase of 0.25 percentage points in retirement spending relative to GDP. The second result is that aging does not lead to higher benefi ts per retiree. Both results also hold for health care costs, which are frequently assumed to be positively associated with aging as well. Together, the results contradict the main prediction of median voter models that imply that an older median voter successfully pushes for higher individual benefi ts. If anything, a graying median voter is associated with less generous pensions. These results are reinforced when health care costs are considered with a time trend proxying for technological change. Absent a time trend, health care costs –both relative to GDP and per inhabitant– are positively infl uenced by the age of the median voter. JEL classifi cation: C23; H55; J18 Key words: aging; retirement; political economy *Nederlandse samenvatting (Dutch summary)* Deze studie onderzoekt de relatie tussen vergrijzing en pensioenuitgaven in 30 OECD-landen voor de periode 1980 en 2005. Ten eerste blijkt dat een toename van de leeftijd van de mediane kiezer met een jaar gerelateerd is aan een 0.25 procentpunt hogere pensioenuitgaven als deel van het BNP. Ten tweede laat de studie zien dat vergrijzing niet samengaat met hogere pensioenuitkeringen per gepensioneerde. Beide resultaten gaan ook op voor kosten voor de gezondheidszorg, waarvan ook vaak wordt verondersteld dat zij samengaan met vergrijzing. Samengenomen betekent dit dat geen steun wordt gevonden voor de voorspelling dat oudere kiezers in staat zijn pensioenuitgaven te verhogen, zoals verondersteld wordt in mediane kiezer modellen. In plaats daarvan gaat de vergrijzende kiezer samen met mindere genereuze pensioenen. Het toevoegen van een tijdtrend als controle voor de invloed van technologische verandering op gezondheidskosten is cruciaal: zonder deze trend zijn gezondheidszorguitgaven –zowel als deel van het BNP als per inwoner– wel positief gerelateerd aan de leeftijd van de mediane kiezer.

Dynamics of Current, Charge and Mass

Electricity plays a special role in our lives and life. Equations of electron dynamics are nearly exact and apply from nuclear particles to stars. These Maxwell equations include a special term the displacement current (of vacuum). Displacement current allows electrical signals to propagate through space. Displacement current guarantees that current is exactly conserved from inside atoms to between stars, as long as current is defined as Maxwell did, as the entire source of the curl of the magnetic field. We show how the Bohm formulation of quantum mechanics allows easy definition of current. We show how conservation of current can be derived without mention of the polarization or dielectric properties of matter. Matter does not behave the way physicists of the 1800's thought it does with a single dielectric constant, a real positive number independent of everything. Charge moves in enormously complicated ways that cannot be described in that way, when studied on time scales important today for electronic technology and molecular biology. Life occurs in ionic solutions in which charge moves in response to forces not mentioned or described in the Maxwell equations, like convection and diffusion. Classical derivations of conservation of current involve classical treatments of dielectrics and polarization in nearly every textbook. Because real dielectrics do not behave in a classical way, classical derivations of conservation of current are often distrusted or even ignored. We show that current is conserved exactly in any material no matter how complex the dielectric, polarization or conduction currents are. We believe models, simulations, and computations should conserve current on all scales, as accurately as possible, because physics conserves current that way. We believe models will be much more successful if they conserve current at every level of resolution, the way physics does.Comment: Version 4 slight reformattin

Concurrency Platforms for Real-Time and Cyber-Physical Systems

Parallel processing is an important way to satisfy the increasingly demanding computational needs of modern real-time and cyber-physical systems, but existing parallel computing technologies primarily emphasize high-throughput and average-case performance metrics, which are largely unsuitable for direct application to real-time, safety-critical contexts. This work contrasts two concurrency platforms designed to achieve predictable worst case parallel performance for soft real-time workloads with millisecond periods and higher. One of these is then the basis for the CyberMech platform, which enables parallel real-time computing for a novel yet representative application called Real-Time Hybrid Simulation (RTHS). RTHS combines demanding parallel real-time computation with real-time simulation and control in an earthquake engineering laboratory environment, and results concerning RTHS characterize a reasonably comprehensive survey of parallel real-time computing in the static context, where the size, shape, timing constraints, and computational requirements of workloads are fixed prior to system runtime. Collectively, these contributions constitute the first published implementations and evaluations of general-purpose concurrency platforms for real-time and cyber-physical systems, explore two fundamentally different design spaces for such systems, and successfully demonstrate the utility and tradeoffs of parallel computing for statically determined real-time and cyber-physical systems

Using Ensemble Monte Carlo Methods to Evaluate Non-Equilibrium Green's Functions

The use of ensemble Monte Carlo (EMC) methods for the simulation of transport in semiconductor devices has become extensive over the past few decades. This method allows for simulation utilizing particles while addressing the full physics within the device, leaving the computational difficulties to the computer. More recently, the study of quantum mechanical effects within the devices, effects which also strongly affect the carrier transport itself, have become important. While particles have continued to be useful in quantum simulations using Wigner functions, interest in analytical solutions based upon the non-equilibrium Green's functions (NEGF) have become of greater interest in device simulation. While NEGF has been adopted by many commercial semiconductor, there remains considerable computational difficulty in this approach. Here, a particle approach to NEGF is discussed, and preliminary results presented illustrating the computational efficiency that remains with the use of particles. This approach adopts the natural basis functions for use in a high electric field and the preliminary results are obtained for quantum transport in Si at 300 K. This approach appears to offer significant advantages for the use of NEGF.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

On a Method of Treating Polar-Optical Phonons in Real Space

Polar-optical phonon interactions with carriers in semiconductors are long range interactions due to their Coulombic nature. Generally, if one wants to treat these with non-equilibrium Green's functions, this long-range interaction requires two- and three-particle Green's functions to be evaluated by e.g. the Bethe-Salpeter equation. On the other hand, optical phonon scattering is thought to be phase-breaking, which, if true, would eliminate this concern over long-range interactions. In seeking to determine just to what extent phase breaking is important, one could treat the polar modes as a real space potential, as is done for impurities, and examine the occurrence of any such correlations. This latter approach suffers from the condition that it is not really known how to handle the polar modes in real space -- no one seems to have done it. Here, such an approach is described as one possible method.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figur

Using Ensemble Monte Carlo Methods to Evaluate Non-Equilibrium Green's Functions, II. Polar-Optical Phonons

In semi-classical transport, it has become common practice over the past few decades to use ensemble Monte Carlo (EMC) methods for the simulation of transport in semiconductor devices. This method utilizes particles while still addressing the full physics within the device, leaving the computational difficulties to the computer. More recently, the study of quantum mechanical effects within the devices, have become important, and have been addressed in semiconductor devices using non-equilibrium Green's functions (NEGF). In using NEGF, one faces considerable computational difficulties. Recently, a particle approach to NEGF has been proposed [ 1], and preliminary results presented for non-polar optical phonons, which are very localized scattering centers. Here, the problems with long-range polar-optical phonons are discussed and results of the particle-based simulation presented.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Alzheimer's disease research group (ADRG)

In these last few years, there has been a growing consensus in Europe and beyond on the need of increasing research on neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease and other related dementias. The societal impact and financial consequences of these diseases are already being felt and will continue to grow with the projected rise in the elderly population. Currently, there are over 35 million individuals with dementia worldwide, a figure that will treble by the year 2050. It has been estimated that formal and informal dementia care costs a total of €445 billion (2009 data),' equivalent to 1 % of the global gross domestic product. It is therefore not surprising that the European Union supports various funding programmes in the hope of enhancing diagnosis, provide better treatment and improve care pathways and support for individuals with dementia, their caregivers and relatives.peer-reviewe