Model checking support for conflict resolution in multiple non-functional concern management

When implementing autonomic management of multiple non-functional concerns a trade-off must be found between the ability to develop independently management of the individual concerns (following the separation of concerns principle) and the detection and resolution of conflicts that may arise when combining the independently developed management code. Here we discuss strategies to establish this trade-off and introduce a model checking based methodology aimed at simplifying the discovery and handling of conflicts arising from deployment-within the same parallel application-of independently developed management policies. Preliminary results are shown demonstrating the feasibility of the approach.

Energy Management in UK Non-Domestic Buildings - a New Perspective to Provoke Reduced Carbon Emissions

Politicians, industry and the public generally accept the need for energy consumption to be cut to deliver climate change mitigation measures essential for us to avoid climate disaster. For non-domestic fuel users current energy policy has attempted to drive this through rational economic responses to energy cost pressures. This reliance on voluntary action has created an “Energy Inconsistency”, that is a marked difference between energy opportunities that have been proven technically viable, financially rational and retrofit feasible and those actually adopted. Other factors must therefore be involved to influence what appear to be simple carbon and cost saving opportunities. This paper presents a new approach to energy efficiency and consumption in non-domestic buildings, viewing attitudes and behaviours of building owners and users as the key driver of energy consumption. A new framework is proposed as a method to examine the impact of building ownership on the users’ and owners’ abilities to improve energy efficiency and consumption and identify opportunities to overcome the barriers inherent in these ownership structures.

The Port as a “Non Consensual” Organisation: An IC Management Perspective

This paper addresses a gap in the literature concerning the management of Intellectual Capital (IC) in a port, which is a network of independent organizations that act together in the provision of a set of services. As far as the authors are aware, this type of empirical context has been unexplored when regarding knowledge management or IC creation/destruction. Indeed, most research in IC still focus on individual firms, despite the more recent interest placed on the analysis of macro-level units such as regions or nations. In this study, we conceptualise the port as meta-organisation, which has the generic goal of economic development, both for itself and for the region where it is located. It provides us with a unique environment due to its complexity as an “organisation” composed by several organisations, connected by interdependency relationships and, typically, with no formal hierarchy. Accordingly, actors’ interests are not always aligned and in some situations their individual interests can be misaligned with the collective goals of the port. Moreover, besides having their own interests, port actors also have different sources of influence and different levels of power, which can impact on the port’s Collective Intellectual Capital (CIC). Consequently, the management of the port’s CIC can be crucial in order for its goals to be met. With this paper we intend to discuss how the network coordinator (the port authority) manages those complex relations of interest and power in order to develop collaboration and mitigate conflict, thus creating collective intellectual assets or avoiding intellectual liabilities that may emerge for the whole port. The fact that we are studying complex and dynamic processes, about which there is a lack of understanding, in a complex and atypical organisation, leads us to consider the case study as an appropriate method of research. Evidence presented in this study results from preliminary interviews and also from document analysis. Findings suggest that alignment of interests and actions, at both dyadic and networking levels, is critical to develop a context of collaboration/cooperation within the port community and, accordingly, the port coordinator should make use of different types of power in order to ensure that port’s goals are achieved.

Receivable Management in Non Banking Finance Companies with Special Reference to Vehicle Financing

In the absence of entry barrier or regulatory restrictions, Non Banking Financial Companies frantically grew and accessed the public deposit without any regulatory control. The deposit of NBFCs grew from Rs. 41.9 crore in 1971 to 53116.0 crore in 1997. This growth was the result of a combined effect of increase in the number of NBFCs and increase in the amount of deposits. The deposits amazed as above was invested in various assets especially that in motor vehicles by these asset financing NBFCs. Various tactics were adopted by these NBFCs and their agents for recovering the receivable outstanding from such assets. Both central government and RBI were concerned about the protection of depositors‘ interest and various committees were set up to frame a comprehensive regulation for the functioning of these NBFCs.

Strategic management of non-point source pollution from sewage sludge

In the UK, the recycling of sewage sludge to land is expected to double by 2006 but the security of this route is threatened by environmental concerns and health scares. Strategic investment is needed to ensure sustainable and secure sludge recycling outlets. At present, the security of this landbank for sludge recycling is determined by legislation relating to nutrient rather than potentially toxic elements (PTEs) applications to land - especially the environmental risk linked to soil phosphorus (P) saturation. We believe that not all land has an equal risk of contributing nutrients derived from applications to land to receiving waters. We are currently investigating whether it is possible to minimise nutrient loss by applying sludge to land outside Critical Source Areas (CSAs) regardless of soil P Index status. Research is underway to develop a predictive and spatially-sensitive, semi-distributed model of critical thresholds for sludge application that goes beyond traditional 'end-of-pipe" or "edge-of-field" modelling, to include hydrological flow paths and delivery mechanisms to receiving waters from non-point sources at the catchment scale.

The rodent species of the Ifugao Rice Terraces, Philippines - Target or non-target species for management?

We investigated the species diversity and habitat use of rodents in the Ifugao Rice Terraces (IRT), Luzon, Philippines, as a first step in their assessment either as pest species of rice or as potential non-target species of rodent control practice. Trapping was carried out in caneland and forest habitats adjacent to rice cropland using trap lines of 10 - 15 cage-traps. Four trapping rounds, each consisting of 5 nights trapping, were replicated at two sites during the months of May and June. A diverse rodent fauna was recorded, including the non-native pest species, Rattus tanezumi, and the native species, Rattus everetti and Chrotomys mindorensis. Results from trapping and spool-and-line tracking suggested that these native species do not contribute to rice damage and that several may actually be beneficial in the ricefield ecosystem as vermivores that feed on invertebrate pests. Control should therefore be directed at the pest species, R. tanezumi, minimising non-target effects on the non-pest rodent species.

Combining physical, cultural and biological methods: prospects for integrated non-chemical weed management strategies

Physical, cultural and biological methods for weed control have developed largely independently and are often concerned with weed control in different systems: physical and cultural control in annual crops and biocontrol in extensive grasslands. We discuss the strengths and limitations of four physical and cultural methods for weed control: mechanical, thermal, cutting, and intercropping, and the advantages and disadvantages of combining biological control with them. These physical and cultural control methods may increase soil nitrogen levels and alter microclimate at soil level; this may be of benefit to biocontrol agents, although physical disturbance to the soil and plant damage may be detrimental. Some weeds escape control by these methods; we suggest that these weeds may be controlled by biocontrol agents. It will be easiest to combine biological control with. re and cutting in grasslands; within arable systems it would be most promising to combine biological control (especially using seed predators and foliar pathogens) with cover-cropping, and mechanical weeding combined with foliar bacterial and possibly foliar fungal pathogens. We stress the need to consider the timing of application of combined control methods in order to cause least damage to the biocontrol agent, along with maximum damage to the weed and to consider the wider implications of these different weed control methods.

Design and management optimization of trickle irrigation systems using non-linear programming

A non-linear model is presented which optimizes the lay-out, as well as the design and management of trickle irrigation systems, to achieve maximum net benefit. The model consists of an objective function that maximizes profit at the farm level, subject to appropriate geometric and hydraulic constraints. It can be applied to rectangular shaped fields, with uniform or zero slope. The software used is the Gams-Minos package. The basic inputs are the crop-water-production function, the cost function and cost of system components, and design variables. The main outputs are the annual net benefit and pipe diameters and lengths. To illustrate the capability of the model, a sensitivity analysis of the annual net benefit for a citrus field is evaluated with respect to irrigated area, ground slope, micro-sprinkler discharge and shape of the field. The sensitivity analysis suggests that the greatest benefit is obtained with the smallest microsprinkler discharge, the greatest area, a square field and zero ground slope. The costs of the investment and energy are the components of the objective function that had the greatest effect in the 120 situations evaluated. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited

Clinical applications of non-culture based methods for the diagnosis and management of opportunistic and endemic mycoses

Nonculture based methods for the detection of infections caused by fungal pathogens are becoming more important tools in the management of infected patients. Detection of fungal antigens and DNA appear to be the most promising in this respect for both opportunistic and endemic mycoses. In this article we present an overview of the most recent developments in nonculture based methods and examine their value in clinical practice.

A logical approach to the management of object identifiers in non-conventional database management systems

Non-conventional database management systems are used to achieve a better performance when dealing with complex data. One fundamental concept of these systems is object identity (OID), because each object in the database has a unique identifier that is used to access and reference it in relationships to other objects. Two approaches can be used for the implementation of OIDs: physical or logical OIDs. In order to manage complex data, was proposed the Multimedia Data Manager Kernel (NuGeM) that uses a logical technique, named Indirect Mapping. This paper proposes an improvement to the technique used by NuGeM, whose original contribution is management of OIDs with a fewer number of disc accesses and less processing, thus reducing management time from the pages and eliminating the problem with exhaustion of OIDs. Also, the technique presented here can be applied to others OODBMSs. © 2011 IEEE.

Icodextrin reduces insulin resistance in non-diabetic patients undergoing automated peritoneal dialysis: results of a randomized controlled trial (STARCH)

Insulin resistance is a common risk factor in chronic kidney disease patients contributing to the high cardiovascular burden, even in the absence of diabetes. Glucose-based peritoneal dialysis (PD) solutions are thought to intensify insulin resistance due to the continuous glucose absorption from the peritoneal cavity. The aim of our study was to analyse the effect of the substitution of glucose for icodextrin on insulin resistance in non-diabetic PD patients in a multicentric randomized clinical trial. This was a multicenter, open-label study with balanced randomization (1:1) and two parallel-groups. Inclusion criteria were non-diabetic adult patients on automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) for at least 3 months on therapy prior to randomization. Patients assigned to the intervention group were treated with 2L of icodextrin 7.5%, and the control group with glucose 2.5% during the long dwell and, at night in the cycler, with a prescription of standard glucose-based PD solution only in both groups. The primary end-point was the change in insulin resistance measured by homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) index at 90 days. Sixty patients were included in the intervention (n = 33) or the control (n = 27) groups. There was no difference between groups at baseline. After adjustment for pre-intervention HOMA index levels, the group treated with icodextrin had the lower post-intervention levels at 90 days in both intention to treat [1.49 (95% CI: 1.23-1.74) versus 1.89 (95% CI: 1.62-2.17)], (F = 4.643, P = 0.03, partial η(2) = 0.078); and the treated analysis [1.47 (95% CI: 1.01-1.84) versus 2.18 (95% CI: 1.81-2.55)], (F = 7.488, P = 0.01, partial η(2) = 0.195). The substitution of glucose for icodextrin for the long dwell improved insulin resistance measured by HOMA index in non-diabetic APD patients.

Non-invasive brain stimulation for the management of arterial hypertension

The neural control of the cardiovascular system is a complex process that involves many structures at different levels of nervous system. Several cortical areas are involved in the control of systemic blood pressure, such as the sensorimotor cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex and the insular cortex. Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques - repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) - induce sustained and prolonged functional changes of the human cerebral cortex. rTMS and tDCS has led to positive results in the treatment of some neurological and psychiatric disorders. Because experiments in animals show that cortical modulation can be an effective method to regulate the cardiovascular system, non-invasive brain stimulation might be a novel tool in the therapeutics of human arterial hypertension. We here review the experimental evidence that non-invasive brain stimulation can influence the autonomic nervous system and discuss the hypothesis that focal modulation of cortical excitability by rTMS or tDCS can influence sympathetic outflow and, eventually, blood pressure, thus providing a novel therapeutic tool for human arterial hypertension. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.