991 resultados para Efficient implementation
Resumo:
It is well known that multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques can bring numerous benefits, such as higher spectral efficiency, to point-to-point wireless links. More recently, there has been interest in extending MIMO concepts tomultiuser wireless systems. Our focus in this paper is on network MIMO, a family of techniques whereby each end user in a wireless access network is served through several access points within its range of influence. By tightly coordinating the transmission and reception of signals at multiple access points, network MIMO can transcend the limits on spectral efficiency imposed by cochannel interference. Taking prior information-theoretic analyses of networkMIMO to the next level, we quantify the spectral efficiency gains obtainable under realistic propagation and operational conditions in a typical indoor deployment. Our study relies on detailed simulations and, for specificity, is conducted largely within the physical-layer framework of the IEEE 802.16e Mobile WiMAX system. Furthermore,to facilitate the coordination between access points, we assume that a high-capacity local area network, such as Gigabit Ethernet,connects all the access points. Our results confirm that network MIMO stands to provide a multiple-fold increase in spectralefficiency under these conditions.
Resumo:
Winter maintenance, particularly snow removal and the stress of snow removal materials on public structures, is an enormous budgetary burden on municipalities and nongovernmental maintenance organizations in cold climates. Lately, geospatial technologies such as remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and decision support tools are roviding a valuable tool for planning snow removal operations. A few researchers recently used geospatial technologies to develop winter maintenance tools. However, most of these winter maintenance tools, while having the potential to address some of these information needs, are not typically placed in the hands of planners and other interested stakeholders. Most tools are not constructed with a nontechnical user in mind and lack an easyto-use, easily understood interface. A major goal of this project was to implement a web-based Winter Maintenance Decision Support System (WMDSS) that enhances the capacity of stakeholders (city/county planners, resource managers, transportation personnel, citizens, and policy makers) to evaluate different procedures for managing snow removal assets optimally. This was accomplished by integrating geospatial analytical techniques (GIS and remote sensing), the existing snow removal asset management system, and webbased spatial decision support systems. The web-based system was implemented using the ESRI ArcIMS ActiveX Connector and related web technologies, such as Active Server Pages, JavaScript, HTML, and XML. The expert knowledge on snow removal procedures is gathered and integrated into the system in the form of encoded business rules using Visual Rule Studio. The system developed not only manages the resources but also provides expert advice to assist complex decision making, such as routing, optimal resource allocation, and monitoring live weather information. This system was developed in collaboration with Black Hawk County, IA, the city of Columbia, MO, and the Iowa Department of transportation. This product was also demonstrated for these agencies to improve the usability and applicability of the system.
Resumo:
Ciao is a website specifically designed for young people and focuses mainly on health issues. This report presents the process of setting up the site and a first evaluation undertaken by using two self-administered questionnaires administered via the website itself. It suggests that it is possible to provide young people with authoritative health information and to facilitate their access to counseling and health care facilities by having young people use such a website.
Resumo:
From a managerial point of view, the more effcient, simple, and parameter-free (ESP) an algorithm is, the more likely it will be used in practice for solving real-life problems. Following this principle, an ESP algorithm for solving the Permutation Flowshop Sequencing Problem (PFSP) is proposed in this article. Using an Iterated Local Search (ILS) framework, the so-called ILS-ESP algorithm is able to compete in performance with other well-known ILS-based approaches, which are considered among the most effcient algorithms for the PFSP. However, while other similar approaches still employ several parameters that can affect their performance if not properly chosen, our algorithm does not require any particular fine-tuning process since it uses basic "common sense" rules for the local search, perturbation, and acceptance criterion stages of the ILS metaheuristic. Our approach defines a new operator for the ILS perturbation process, a new acceptance criterion based on extremely simple and transparent rules, and a biased randomization process of the initial solution to randomly generate different alternative initial solutions of similar quality -which is attained by applying a biased randomization to a classical PFSP heuristic. This diversification of the initial solution aims at avoiding poorly designed starting points and, thus, allows the methodology to take advantage of current trends in parallel and distributed computing. A set of extensive tests, based on literature benchmarks, has been carried out in order to validate our algorithm and compare it against other approaches. These tests show that our parameter-free algorithm is able to compete with state-of-the-art metaheuristics for the PFSP. Also, the experiments show that, when using parallel computing, it is possible to improve the top ILS-based metaheuristic by just incorporating to it our biased randomization process with a high-quality pseudo-random number generator.
Resumo:
Résumé Les glissements de terrain représentent un des principaux risques naturels dans les régions montagneuses. En Suisse, chaque année les glissements de terrains causent des dégâts qui affectent les infrastructures et ont des coûts financiers importants. Une bonne compréhension des mécanismes des glissements peut permettre d'atténuer leur impact. Celle-ci passe notamment par la connaissance de la structure interne du glissement, la détermination de son volume et de son ou ses plans de glissement. Dans un glissement de terrain, la désorganisation et la présence de fractures dans le matériel déplacé engendre un changement des paramètres physiques et en particulier une diminution des vitesses de propagation des ondes sismiques ainsi que de la densité du matériel. Les méthodes sismiques sont de ce fait bien adaptées à l'étude des glissements de terrain. Parmi les méthodes sismiques, l'analyse de la dispersion des ondes de surface est une méthode simple à mettre en oeuvre. Elle présente l'avantage d'estimer les variations des vitesses de cisaillement avec la profondeur sans avoir spécifiquement recours à l'utilisation d'une source d'onde S et de géophones horizontaux. Sa mise en oeuvre en trois étapes implique la mesure de la dispersion des ondes de surface sur des réseaux étendus, la détermination des courbes de dispersion pour finir par l'inversion de ces courbes. Les modèles de vitesse obtenus à partir de cette procédure ne sont valides que lorsque les milieux explorés ne présentent pas de variations latérales. En pratique cette hypothèse est rarement vérifiée, notamment pour un glissement de terrain dans lequel les couches remaniées sont susceptibles de présenter de fortes hétérogénéités latérales. Pour évaluer la possibilité de déterminer des courbes de dispersion à partir de réseaux de faible extension des mesures testes ont été effectuées sur un site (Arnex, VD) équipé d'un forage. Un profil sismique de 190 m de long a été implanté dans une vallée creusée dans du calcaire et remplie par des dépôts glacio-lacustres d'une trentaine de mètres d'épaisseur. Les données acquises le long de ce profil ont confirmé que la présence de variations latérales sous le réseau de géophones affecte l'allure des courbes de dispersion jusqu'à parfois empêcher leur détermination. Pour utiliser l'analyse de la dispersion des ondes de surface sur des sites présentant des variations latérales, notre approche consiste à déterminer les courbes de dispersions pour une série de réseaux de faible extension, à inverser chacune des courbes et à interpoler les différents modèles de vitesse obtenus. Le choix de la position ainsi que de l'extension des différents réseaux de géophones est important. Il tient compte de la localisation des hétérogénéités détectées à partir de l'analyse de sismique réfraction, mais également d'anomalies d'amplitudes observées sur des cartes qui représentent dans le domaine position de tir - position du récepteur, l'amplitude mesurée pour différentes fréquences. La procédure proposée par Lin et Lin (2007) s'est avérée être une méthode efficace permettant de déterminer des courbes de dispersion à partir de réseaux de faible extension. Elle consiste à construire à partir d'un réseau de géophones et de plusieurs positions de tir un enregistrement temps-déports qui tient compte d'une large gamme de distances source-récepteur. Au moment d'assembler les différentes données une correction de phase est appliquée pour tenir compte des hétérogénéités situées entre les différents points de tir. Pour évaluer cette correction nous suggérons de calculer pour deux tir successif la densité spectrale croisée des traces de même offset: Sur le site d'Arnex, 22 courbes de dispersions ont été déterminées pour de réseaux de géophones de 10 m d'extension. Nous avons également profité du forage pour acquérir un profil de sismique verticale en ondes S. Le modèle de vitesse S déduit de l'interprétation du profil de sismique verticale est utilisé comme information à priori lors l'inversion des différentes courbes de dispersion. Finalement, le modèle en deux dimension qui a été établi grâce à l'analyse de la dispersion des ondes de surface met en évidence une structure tabulaire à trois couches dont les limites coïncident bien avec les limites lithologiques observées dans le forage. Dans celui-ci des argiles limoneuses associées à une vitesse de propagation des ondes S de l'ordre de 175 m/s surmontent vers 9 m de profondeur des dépôts de moraine argilo-sableuse caractérisés par des vitesses de propagation des ondes S de l'ordre de 300 m/s jusqu'à 14 m de profondeur et supérieur ou égal à 400 m/s entre 14 et 20 m de profondeur. Le glissement de la Grande Combe (Ballaigues, VD) se produit à l'intérieur du remplissage quaternaire d'une combe creusée dans des calcaires Portlandien. Comme dans le cas du site d'Arnex les dépôts quaternaires correspondent à des dépôts glacio-lacustres. Dans la partie supérieure la surface de glissement a été localisée à une vingtaine de mètres de profondeur au niveau de l'interface qui sépare des dépôts de moraine jurassienne et des dépôts glacio-lacustres. Au pied du glissement 14 courbes de dispersions ont été déterminées sur des réseaux de 10 m d'extension le long d'un profil de 144 m. Les courbes obtenues sont discontinues et définies pour un domaine de fréquence de 7 à 35 Hz. Grâce à l'utilisation de distances source-récepteur entre 8 et 72 m, 2 à 4 modes de propagation ont été identifiés pour chacune des courbes. Lors de l'inversion des courbes de dispersion la prise en compte des différents modes de propagation a permis d'étendre la profondeur d'investigation jusqu'à une vingtaine de mètres de profondeur. Le modèle en deux dimensions permet de distinguer 4 couches (Vs1 < 175 m/s, 175 m/s < Vs2 < 225 m/s, 225 m/s < Vs3 < 400 m/s et Vs4 >.400 m/s) qui présentent des variations d'épaisseur. Des profils de sismiques réflexion en ondes S acquis avec une source construite dans le cadre de ce travail, complètent et corroborent le modèle établi à partir de l'analyse de la dispersion des ondes de surface. Un réflecteur localisé entre 5 et 10 m de profondeur et associé à une vitesse de sommation de 180 m/s souligne notamment la géométrie de l'interface qui sépare la deuxième de la troisième couche du modèle établi à partir de l'analyse de la dispersion des ondes de surface. Abstract Landslides are one of the main natural hazards in mountainous regions. In Switzerland, landslides cause damages every year that impact infrastructures and have important financial costs. In depth understanding of sliding mechanisms may help limiting their impact. In particular, this can be achieved through a better knowledge of the internal structure of the landslide, the determination of its volume and its sliding surface or surfaces In a landslide, the disorganization and the presence of fractures in the displaced material generate a change of the physical parameters and in particular a decrease of the seismic velocities and of the material density. Therefoe, seismic methods are well adapted to the study of landslides. Among seismic methods, surface-wave dispersion analysis is a easy to implement. Through it, shearwave velocity variations with depth can be estimated without having to resort to an S-wave source and to horizontal geophones. Its 3-step implementation implies measurement of surface-wave dispersion with long arrays, determination of the dispersion curves and finally inversion of these curves. Velocity models obtained through this approach are only valid when the investigated medium does not include lateral variations. In practice, this assumption is seldom correct, in particular for landslides in which reshaped layers likely include strong lateral heterogeneities. To assess the possibility of determining dispersion curves from short array lengths we carried out tests measurements on a site (Arnex, VD) that includes a borehole. A 190 m long seismic profile was acquired in a valley carved into limestone and filled with 30 m of glacio-lacustrine sediments. The data acquired along this profile confirmed that the presence of lateral variations under the geophone array influences the dispersion-curve shape so much that it sometimes preventes the dispersion curves determination. Our approach to use the analysis of surface-wave dispersion on sites that include lateral variations consists in obtaining dispersion curves for a series of short length arrays; inverting each so obtained curve and interpolating the different obtained velocity model. The choice of the location as well as the geophone array length is important. It takes into account the location of the heterogeneities that are revealed by the seismic refraction interpretation of the data but also, the location of signal amplitude anomalies observed on maps that represent, for a given frequency, the measured amplitude in the shot position - receiver position domain. The procedure proposed by Lin and Lin (2007) turned out to be an efficient one to determine dispersion curves using short extension arrays. It consists in building a time-offset from an array of geophones with a wide offset range by gathering seismograms acquired with different source-to-receiver offsets. When assembling the different data, a phase correction is applied in order to reduce static phase error induced by lateral variation. To evaluate this correction, we suggest to calculate, for two successive shots, the cross power spectral density of common offset traces. On the Arnex site, 22 curves were determined with 10m in length geophone-arrays. We also took advantage of the borehole to acquire a S-wave vertical seismic profile. The S-wave velocity depth model derived from the vertical seismic profile interpretation is used as prior information in the inversion of the dispersion-curves. Finally a 2D velocity model was established from the analysis of the different dispersion curves. It reveals a 3-layer structure in good agreement with the observed lithologies in the borehole. In it a clay layer with a shear-wave of 175 m/s shear-wave velocity overlies a clayey-sandy till layer at 9 m depth that is characterized down to 14 m by a 300 m/s S-wave velocity; these deposits have a S-wave velocity of 400 m/s between depths of 14 to 20 m. The La Grand Combe landslide (Ballaigues, VD) occurs inside the Quaternary filling of a valley carved into Portlandien limestone. As at the Arnex site, the Quaternary deposits correspond to glaciolacustrine sediments. In the upper part of the landslide, the sliding surface is located at a depth of about 20 m that coincides with the discontinuity between Jurassian till and glacio-lacustrine deposits. At the toe of the landslide, we defined 14 dispersion curves along a 144 m long profile using 10 m long geophone arrays. The obtained curves are discontinuous and defined within a frequency range of 7 to 35 Hz. The use of a wide range of offsets (from 8 to 72 m) enabled us to determine 2 to 4 mode of propagation for each dispersion curve. Taking these higher modes into consideration for dispersion curve inversion allowed us to reach an investigation depth of about 20 m. A four layer 2D model was derived (Vs1< 175 m/s, 175 m/s <Vs2< 225 m/s, 225 m/s < Vs3 < 400 m/s, Vs4> 400 m/s) with variable layer thicknesses. S-wave seismic reflection profiles acquired with a source built as part of this work complete and the velocity model revealed by surface-wave analysis. In particular, reflector at a depth of 5 to 10 m associated with a 180 m/s stacking velocity image the geometry of the discontinuity between the second and third layer of the model derived from the surface-wave dispersion analysis.
Qualitative analysis of pharmacists' experiences during the implementation of a medication adherence
Resumo:
Financial markets play an important role in an economy performing various functions like mobilizing and pooling savings, producing information about investment opportunities, screening and monitoring investments, implementation of corporate governance, diversification and management of risk. These functions influence saving rates, investment decisions, technological innovation and, therefore, have important implications for welfare. In my PhD dissertation I examine the interplay of financial and product markets by looking at different channels through which financial markets may influence an economy.My dissertation consists of four chapters. The first chapter is a co-authored work with Martin Strieborny, a PhD student from the University of Lausanne. The second chapter is a co-authored work with Melise Jaud, a PhD student from the Paris School of Economics. The third chapter is co-authored with both Melise Jaud and Martin Strieborny. The last chapter of my PhD dissertation is a single author paper.Chapter 1 of my PhD thesis analyzes the effect of financial development on growth of contract intensive industries. These industries intensively use intermediate inputs that neither can be sold on organized exchange, nor are reference-priced (Levchenko, 2007; Nunn, 2007). A typical example of a contract intensive industry would be an industry where an upstream supplier has to make investments in order to customize a product for needs of a downstream buyer. After the investment is made and the product is adjusted, the buyer may refuse to meet a commitment and trigger ex post renegotiation. Since the product is customized to the buyer's needs, the supplier cannot sell the product to a different buyer at the original price. This is referred in the literature as the holdup problem. As a consequence, the individually rational suppliers will underinvest into relationship-specific assets, hurting the downstream firms with negative consequences for aggregate growth. The standard way to mitigate the hold up problem is to write a binding contract and to rely on the legal enforcement by the state. However, even the most effective contract enforcement might fail to protect the supplier in tough times when the buyer lacks a reliable source of external financing. This suggests the potential role of financial intermediaries, banks in particular, in mitigating the incomplete contract problem. First, financial products like letters of credit and letters of guarantee can substantially decrease a risk and transaction costs of parties. Second, a bank loan can serve as a signal about a buyer's true financial situation, an upstream firm will be more willing undertake relationship-specific investment knowing that the business partner is creditworthy and will abstain from myopic behavior (Fama, 1985; von Thadden, 1995). Therefore, a well-developed financial (especially banking) system should disproportionately benefit contract intensive industries.The empirical test confirms this hypothesis. Indeed, contract intensive industries seem to grow faster in countries with a well developed financial system. Furthermore, this effect comes from a more developed banking sector rather than from a deeper stock market. These results are reaffirmed examining the effect of US bank deregulation on the growth of contract intensive industries in different states. Beyond an overall pro-growth effect, the bank deregulation seems to disproportionately benefit the industries requiring relationship-specific investments from their suppliers.Chapter 2 of my PhD focuses on the role of the financial sector in promoting exports of developing countries. In particular, it investigates how credit constraints affect the ability of firms operating in agri-food sectors of developing countries to keep exporting to foreign markets.Trade in high-value agri-food products from developing countries has expanded enormously over the last two decades offering opportunities for development. However, trade in agri-food is governed by a growing array of standards. Sanitary and Phytosanitary standards (SPS) and technical regulations impose additional sunk, fixed and operating costs along the firms' export life. Such costs may be detrimental to firms' survival, "pricing out" producers that cannot comply. The existence of these costs suggests a potential role of credit constraints in shaping the duration of trade relationships on foreign markets. A well-developed financial system provides the funds to exporters necessary to adjust production processes in order to meet quality and quantity requirements in foreign markets and to maintain long-standing trade relationships. The products with higher needs for financing should benefit the most from a well functioning financial system. This differential effect calls for a difference-in-difference approach initially proposed by Rajan and Zingales (1998). As a proxy for demand for financing of agri-food products, the sanitary risk index developed by Jaud et al. (2009) is used. The empirical literature on standards and norms show high costs of compliance, both variable and fixed, for high-value food products (Garcia-Martinez and Poole, 2004; Maskus et al., 2005). The sanitary risk index reflects the propensity of products to fail health and safety controls on the European Union (EU) market. Given the high costs of compliance, the sanitary risk index captures the demand for external financing to comply with such regulations.The prediction is empirically tested examining the export survival of different agri-food products from firms operating in Ghana, Mali, Malawi, Senegal and Tanzania. The results suggest that agri-food products that require more financing to keep up with food safety regulation of the destination market, indeed sustain longer in foreign market, when they are exported from countries with better developed financial markets.Chapter 3 analyzes the link between financial markets and efficiency of resource allocation in an economy. Producing and exporting products inconsistent with a country's factor endowments constitutes a serious misallocation of funds, which undermines competitiveness of the economy and inhibits its long term growth. In this chapter, inefficient exporting patterns are analyzed through the lens of the agency theories from the corporate finance literature. Managers may pursue projects with negative net present values because their perquisites or even their job might depend on them. Exporting activities are particularly prone to this problem. Business related to foreign markets involves both high levels of additional spending and strong incentives for managers to overinvest. Rational managers might have incentives to push for exports that use country's scarce factors which is suboptimal from a social point of view. Export subsidies might further skew the incentives towards inefficient exporting. Management can divert the export subsidies into investments promoting inefficient exporting.Corporate finance literature stresses the disciplining role of outside debt in counteracting the internal pressures to divert such "free cash flow" into unprofitable investments. Managers can lose both their reputation and the control of "their" firm if the unpaid external debt triggers a bankruptcy procedure. The threat of possible failure to satisfy debt service payments pushes the managers toward an efficient use of available resources (Jensen, 1986; Stulz, 1990; Hart and Moore, 1995). The main sources of debt financing in the most countries are banks. The disciplining role of banks might be especially important in the countries suffering from insufficient judicial quality. Banks, in pursuing their rights, rely on comparatively simple legal interventions that can be implemented even by mediocre courts. In addition to their disciplining role, banks can promote efficient exporting patterns in a more direct way by relaxing credit constraints of producers, through screening, identifying and investing in the most profitable investment projects. Therefore, a well-developed domestic financial system, and particular banking system, would help to push a country's exports towards products congruent with its comparative advantage.This prediction is tested looking at the survival of different product categories exported to US market. Products are identified according to the Euclidian distance between their revealed factor intensity and the country's factor endowments. The results suggest that products suffering from a comparative disadvantage (labour-intensive products from capital-abundant countries) survive less on the competitive US market. This pattern is stronger if the exporting country has a well-developed banking system. Thus, a strong banking sector promotes exports consistent with a country comparative advantage.Chapter 4 of my PhD thesis further examines the role of financial markets in fostering efficient resource allocation in an economy. In particular, the allocative efficiency hypothesis is investigated in the context of equity market liberalization.Many empirical studies document a positive and significant effect of financial liberalization on growth (Levchenko et al. 2009; Quinn and Toyoda 2009; Bekaert et al., 2005). However, the decrease in the cost of capital and the associated growth in investment appears rather modest in comparison to the large GDP growth effect (Bekaert and Harvey, 2005; Henry, 2000, 2003). Therefore, financial liberalization may have a positive impact on growth through its effect on the allocation of funds across firms and sectors.Free access to international capital markets allows the largest and most profitable domestic firms to borrow funds in foreign markets (Rajan and Zingales, 2003). As domestic banks loose some of their best clients, they reoptimize their lending practices seeking new clients among small and younger industrial firms. These firms are likely to be more risky than large and established companies. Screening of customers becomes prevalent as the return to screening rises. Banks, ceteris paribus, tend to focus on firms operating in comparative-advantage sectors because they are better risks. Firms in comparative-disadvantage sectors finding it harder to finance their entry into or survival in export markets either exit or refrain from entering export markets. On aggregate, one should therefore expect to see less entry, more exit, and shorter survival on export markets in those sectors after financial liberalization.The paper investigates the effect of financial liberalization on a country's export pattern by comparing the dynamics of entry and exit of different products in a country export portfolio before and after financial liberalization.The results suggest that products that lie far from the country's comparative advantage set tend to disappear relatively faster from the country's export portfolio following the liberalization of financial markets. In other words, financial liberalization tends to rebalance the composition of a country's export portfolio towards the products that intensively use the economy's abundant factors.
Distributional Issues in Regulatory Policy Implementation : the Case of Air Quality Control Policies
Resumo:
Clinical practice guidelines in nursing (CPG-N) are tools that allow the necessary knowledge that frequently remains specialist-internalised to be made explicit. These tools are a complement to risk adjustment systems (RAS), reinforcing their effectiveness and permitting a rationalisation of healthcare costs. This theoretical study defends the importance of building and using CPG-Ns as instruments to support the figure of the nursing supervisor in order to optimise the implementation of R&D and hospital quality strategies, enabling clinical excellence in nursing processes and cost-efficient reallocation of economic resources through their linear integration with SARs.
Resumo:
In coronary magnetic resonance angiography, a magnetization-preparation scheme for T2 -weighting (T2 Prep) is widely used to enhance contrast between the coronary blood-pool and the myocardium. This prepulse is commonly applied without spatial selection to minimize flow sensitivity, but the nonselective implementation results in a reduced magnetization of the in-flowing blood and a related penalty in signal-to-noise ratio. It is hypothesized that a spatially selective T2 Prep would leave the magnetization of blood outside the T2 Prep volume unaffected and thereby lower the signal-to-noise ratio penalty. To test this hypothesis, a spatially selective T2 Prep was implemented where the user could freely adjust angulation and position of the T2 Prep slab to avoid covering the ventricular blood-pool and saturating the in-flowing spins. A time gap of 150 ms was further added between the T2 Prep and other prepulses to allow for in-flow of a larger volume of unsaturated spins. Consistent with numerical simulation, the spatially selective T2 Prep increased in vivo human coronary artery signal-to-noise ratio (42.3 ± 2.9 vs. 31.4 ± 2.2, n = 22, P < 0.0001) and contrast-to-noise-ratio (18.6 ± 1.5 vs. 13.9 ± 1.2, P = 0.009) as compared to those of the nonselective T2 Prep. Additionally, a segmental analysis demonstrated that the spatially selective T2 Prep was most beneficial in proximal and mid segments where the in-flowing blood volume was largest compared to the distal segments. Magn Reson Med, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.