Arcadia, a software development environment research project

The research objectives of the Arcadia project are two-fold: discovery and development of environment architecture principles and creation of novel software development tools, particularly powerful analysis tools, which will function within an environment built upon these architectural principles.Work in the architecture area is concerned with providing the framework to support integration while also supporting the often conflicting goal of extensibility. Thus, this area of research is directed toward achieving external integration by providing a consistent, uniform user interface, while still admitting customization and addition of new tools and interface functions. In an effort to also attain internal integration, research is aimed at developing mechanisms for structuring and managing the tools and data objects that populate a software development environment, while facilitating the insertion of new kinds of tools and new classes of objects.The unifying theme of work in the tools area is support for effective analysis at every stage of a software development project. Research is directed toward tools suitable for analyzing pre-implementation descriptions of software, software itself, and towards the production of testing and debugging tools. In many cases, these tools are specifically tailored for applicability to concurrent, distributed, or real-time software systems.The initial focus of Arcadia research is on creating a prototype environment, embodying the architectural principles, which supports Ada1 software development. This prototype environment is itself being developed in Ada.Arcadia is being developed by a consortium of researchers from the University of California at Irvine, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, TRW, Incremental Systems Corporation, and The Aerospace Corporation. This paper delineates the research objectives and describes the approaches being taken, the organization of the research endeavor, and current status of the work

Assessing the Economic Gains from Telecom Competition

This paper develops and simulates a dynamic model of strategic telecom competition. The goal is to understand how regulatory policy, particularly relative to lease charges for local network elements, affects telecom competition, investment, retail prices, and consumer welfare. The model assumes two products, local voice service and data (broadband), and three types of players the regional Bell operating companies, referred to as incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs), cable companies (Cables), and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs). The game begins with a) ILECs established in each county with respect to the provision of local voice and data services and b) Cables established in roughly half of the counties with respect to the provision of data.There are one-time fixed costs of entering a county, product- and period-specific costs of operating in a county, and marginal costs of supplying each product. Economies of scope reduce the fixed entry and operating costs of supplying both products in a given county at a given point in time. Finally, in supplying telecom services in a given county, CLECs may enter by leasing ILEC infrastructure at specified access rates. The requirement that ILECs allow CLECs to lease their local network facilities was established in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as part of a quid pro quo that promised ILECs entry into the long distance market. But the ILECs continue to contest the quid. The ILECs support their position by suggesting that leased access reduces telecom investment and output and raises telecom prices. Our model considers the entire range of options available to each of the players, but it reaches the opposite conclusion. Indeed, we find thatif UNE-P rates were set at the Supreme Court-approved total element long-run incremental cost (TELRIC) levels, telecom investment and employment outlays would increase by over one fifth in counties containing the majority of the U.S. population and by over 30 percent in counties containing almost a third of the population. The present value of telecom outlays over the next 5 and 20 years would rise by $71 billion and$155 billion, respectively. On average, the switch from actual to TELRIC UNE rates would lower local phone rates across the country's 3108 counties by $57 per year, generating annual total savings to consumers of$15 billion. Almost two fifths of the population would experience reductions in local phone rates of 20 percent or more. Over one fifth would experience rate reductions of 30 percent or more. These findings of price reductions are based on a fairly conservative parameterization of our model with respect to the specification of true ILEC and CLEC incremental long-run production costs.

Labor Standards in the United States and Canada

Block, Roberts, and Clarke offer a method for comparing ten labor standards across political jurisdictions. They then apply this method to the United States and Canada, an exercise that allows them to settle the long-running dispute over whether or not Canada has higher standards than the U.S., and if so, to what degree.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1050/thumbnail.jp

Next generation software environments : principles, problems, and research directions

The past decade has seen a burgeoning of research and development in software environments. Conferences have been devoted to the topic of practical environments, journal papers produced, and commercial systems sold. Given all the activity, one might expect a great deal of consensus on issues, approaches, and techniques. This is not the case, however. Indeed, the term "environment" is still used in a variety of conflicting ways. Nevertheless substantial progress has been made and we are at least nearing consensus on many critical issues.The purpose of this paper is to characterize environments, describe several important principles that have emerged in the last decade or so, note current open problems, and describe some approaches to these problems, with particular emphasis on the activities of one large-scale research program, the Arcadia project. Consideration is also given to two related topics: empirical evaluation and technology transition. That is, how can environments and their constituents be evaluated, and how can new developments be moved effectively into the production sector

Parallel evolution in streptococcus pneumoniae biofilms

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a commensal human pathogen and the causative agent of various invasive and noninvasive diseases. Carriage of the pneumococcus in the nasopharynx is thought to be mediated by biofilm formation, an environment where isogenic populations frequently give rise to morphological colony variants, including small colony variant (SCV) phenotypes. We employed metabolic characterization and whole-genome sequencing of biofilm-derived S. pneumoniae serotype 22F pneumococcal SCVs to investigate diversification during biofilm formation. Phenotypic profiling revealed that SCVs exhibit reduced growth rates, reduced capsule expression, altered metabolic profiles, and increased biofilm formation compared to the ancestral strain. Whole-genome sequencing of 12 SCVs from independent biofilm experiments revealed that all SCVs studied had mutations within the DNA-directed RNA polymerase delta subunit (RpoE). Mutations included four large-scale deletions ranging from 51 to 264 bp, one insertion resulting in a coding frameshift, and seven nonsense single-nucleotide substitutions that result in a truncated gene product. This work links mutations in the rpoE gene to SCV formation and enhanced biofilm development in S. pneumoniae and therefore may have important implications for colonization, carriage, and persistence of the organism. Furthermore, recurrent mutation of the pneumococcal rpoE gene presents an unprecedented level of parallel evolution in pneumococcal biofilm development

Knee angle affects posterior chain muscle activation during an isometric test used in soccer players

It has been suggested that altering the knee flexion angle during a commonly used supine isometric strength test developed with professional soccer players changes preferential hamstring muscle recruitment. The aim of this study was to examine the electromyography (EMG) knee joint-angle relationship during this test, as these data are currently unknown. Ten recreational male soccer athletes (age: 28 ± 2.4 years) were recruited and performed a supine isometric strength test on their dominant leg with the knee placed at two pre-selected flexion angles (30° and 90°). The surface EMG of the gluteus maximus, biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and medial gastrocnemius was measured, in addition to the within-session reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and coefficient of variation (CV)). Within-session reliability showed large variation dependent upon the test position and muscle measured (CV% = 8.8⁻36.1) Absolute mean EMG activity and percentage of maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) indicated different magnitudes of activation between the two test positions; however, significant mean differences were present for the biceps femoris only with greater activation recorded at the 30° knee angle (% MVIC: 31 ± 9 vs. 22 ± 7; = 0.002). These differences (30% mean difference) were greater than the observed typical measurement error (CV% = 13.1⁻14.3 for the 90° and 30° test positions, respectively). Furthermore, the percentage MVIC showed a trend of heightened activation of all muscles with the knee positioned at 30°, but there was also more within-subject variation, and this was more pronounced for the gluteus maximus (CV% = 36.1 vs. 19.8) and medial gastrocnemius (CV% 31 vs. 22.6). These results indicate that biceps femoris and overall posterior chain muscle activation is increased with the knee positioned at 30° of flexion; however, the 90° angle displayed less variation in performance within individual participants, especially in the gluteus maximus and medial gastrocnemius. Thus, practitioners using this test to assess hamstring muscle strength should ensure appropriate familiarisation is afforded, and then may wish to prioritise the 30° knee position

Formalising the Continuous/Discrete Modeling Step

Formally capturing the transition from a continuous model to a discrete model is investigated using model based refinement techniques. A very simple model for stopping (eg. of a train) is developed in both the continuous and discrete domains. The difference between the two is quantified using generic results from ODE theory, and these estimates can be compared with the exact solutions. Such results do not fit well into a conventional model based refinement framework; however they can be accommodated into a model based retrenchment. The retrenchment is described, and the way it can interface to refinement development on both the continuous and discrete sides is outlined. The approach is compared to what can be achieved using hybrid systems techniques.Comment: In Proceedings Refine 2011, arXiv:1106.348

Parkinson's disease biomarkers: perspective from the NINDS Parkinson's Disease Biomarkers Program

Biomarkers for Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnosis, prognostication and clinical trial cohort selection are an urgent need. While many promising markers have been discovered through the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Parkinson's Disease Biomarker Program (PDBP) and other mechanisms, no single PD marker or set of markers are ready for clinical use. Here we discuss the current state of biomarker discovery for platforms relevant to PDBP. We discuss the role of the PDBP in PD biomarker identification and present guidelines to facilitate their development. These guidelines include: harmonizing procedures for biofluid acquisition and clinical assessments, replication of the most promising biomarkers, support and encouragement of publications that report negative findings, longitudinal follow-up of current cohorts including the PDBP, testing of wearable technologies to capture readouts between study visits and development of recently diagnosed (de novo) cohorts to foster identification of the earliest markers of disease onset

Stellar Populations in Three Outer Fields of the LMC

We present HST photometry for three fields in the outer disk of the LMC extending approximately four magnitudes below the faintest main sequence turnoff. We cannot detect any strongly significant differences in the stellar populations of the three fields based on the morphologies of the color-magnitude diagrams, the luminosity functions, and the relative numbers of stars in different evolutionary stages. Our observations therefore suggest similar star formation histories in these regions, although some variations are certainly allowed. The fields are located in two regions of the LMC: one is in the north-east field and two are located in the north-west. Under the assumption of a common star formation history, we combine the three fields with ground-based data at the same location as one of the fields to improve statistics for the brightest stars. We compare this stellar population with those predicted from several simple star formation histories suggested in the literature, using a combination of the R-method of Bertelli et al (1992) and comparisons with the observed luminosity function. The only model which we consider that is not rejected by the observations is one in which the star formation rate is roughly constant for most of the LMC's history and then increases by a factor of three about 2 Gyr ago. Such a model has roughly equal numbers of stars older and younger than 4 Gyr, and thus is not dominated by young stars. This star formation history, combined with a closed box chemical evolution model, is consistent with observations that the metallicity of the LMC has doubled in the past 2 Gyr.Comment: 30 pages, includes 10 postscript figures. Figure 1 avaiable at ftp://charon.nmsu.edu/pub/mgeha/LMC. Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journa

The Impact of Global Warming and Anoxia on Marine Benthic Community Dynamics: an Example from the Toarcian (Early Jurassic)

The Pliensbachian-Toarcian (Early Jurassic) fossil record is an archive of natural data of benthic community response to global warming and marine long-term hypoxia and anoxia. In the early Toarcian mean temperatures increased by the same order of magnitude as that predicted for the near future; laminated, organic-rich, black shales were deposited in many shallow water epicontinental basins; and a biotic crisis occurred in the marine realm, with the extinction of approximately 5% of families and 26% of genera. High-resolution quantitative abundance data of benthic invertebrates were collected from the Cleveland Basin (North Yorkshire, UK), and analysed with multivariate statistical methods to detect how the fauna responded to environmental changes during the early Toarcian. Twelve biofacies were identified. Their changes through time closely resemble the pattern of faunal degradation and recovery observed in modern habitats affected by anoxia. All four successional stages of community structure recorded in modern studies are recognised in the fossil data (i.e. Stage III: climax; II: transitional; I: pioneer; 0: highly disturbed). Two main faunal turnover events occurred: (i) at the onset of anoxia, with the extinction of most benthic species and the survival of a few adapted to thrive in low-oxygen conditions (Stages I to 0) and (ii) in the recovery, when newly evolved species colonized the re-oxygenated soft sediments and the path of recovery did not retrace of pattern of ecological degradation (Stages I to II). The ordination of samples coupled with sedimentological and palaeotemperature proxy data indicate that the onset of anoxia and the extinction horizon coincide with both a rise in temperature and sea level. Our study of how faunal associations co-vary with long and short term sea level and temperature changes has implications for predicting the long-term effects of “dead zones” in modern oceans