Measuring Application Availability,Usage and Performance : Implementation of EnView System

The main objective for this degree project is to implement an Application Availability Monitoring (AAM) system named Softek EnView for Fujitsu Services. The aim of implementing the AAM system is to proactively identify end user performance problems, such as application and site performance, before the actual end users experience them. No matter how well applications and sites are designed and nomatter how well they meet business requirements, they are useless to the end users if the performance is slow and/or unreliable. It is important for the customers to find out whether the end user problems are caused by the network or application malfunction. The Softek EnView was comprised of the following EnView components: Robot, Monitor, Reporter, Collector and Repository. The implemented system, however, is designed to use only some of these EnView elements: Robot, Reporter and depository. Robots can be placed at any key user location and are dedicated to customers, which means that when the number of customers increases, at the sametime the amount of Robots will increase. To make the AAM system ideal for the company to use, it was integrated with Fujitsu Services’ centralised monitoring system, BMC PATROL Enterprise Manager (PEM). That was actually the reason for deciding to drop the EnView Monitor element. After the system was fully implemented, the AAM system was ready for production. Transactions were (and are) written and deployed on Robots to simulate typical end user actions. These transactions are configured to run with certain intervals, which are defined collectively with customers. While they are driven against customers’ applicationsautomatically, transactions collect availability data and response time data all the time. In case of a failure in transactions, the robot immediately quits the transactionand writes detailed information to a log file about what went wrong and which element failed while going through an application. Then an alert is generated by a BMC PATROL Agent based on this data and is sent to the BMC PEM. Fujitsu Services’ monitoring room receives the alert, reacts to it according to the incident management process in ITIL and by alerting system specialists on critical incidents to resolve problems. As a result of the data gathered by the Robots, weekly reports, which contain detailed statistics and trend analyses of ongoing quality of IT services, is provided for the Customers.

Separation and Execution of graphical engine on a cross platform IDE to enhance performance

“Biosim” is a simulation software which works to simulate the harvesting system.This system is able to design a model for any logistic problem with the combination of several objects so that the artificial system can show the performance of an individual model. The system will also describe the efficiency, possibility to be chosen for real life application of that particular model. So, when any one wish to setup a logistic model like- harvesting system, in real life he/she may be noticed about the suitable prostitution for his plants and factories as well as he/she may get information about the least number of objects, total time to complete the task, total investment required for his model, total amount of noise produced for his establishment in advance. It will produce an advance over view for his model. But “Biosim” is quite slow .As it is an object based system, it takes long time to make its decision. Here the main task is to modify the system so that it can work faster than the previous. So, the main objective of this thesis is to reduce the load of “Biosim” by making some modification of the original system as well as to increase its efficiency. So that the whole system will be faster than the previous one and performs more efficiently when it will be applied in real life. Theconcept is to separate the execution part of ”Biosim” form its graphical engine and run this separated portion in a third generation language platform. C++ is chosenhere as this external platform. After completing the proposed system, results with different models have been observed. The results show that, for any type of plants of fields, for any number of trucks, the proposed system is faster than the original system. The proposed system takes at least 15% less time “Biosim”. The efficiency increase with the complexity of than the original the model. More complex the model, more efficient the proposed system is than original “Biosim”.Depending on the complexity of a model, the proposed system can be 56.53 % faster than the original “Biosim”.

The performance of a parallel TSP program and byte sequential benchmarks executing on a shared cluster

Although individual PCs of a cluster are used by their owners to run sequential applications (local jobs), the cluster as a whole or its subset can also be employed to run parallel applications (cluster jobs) even during working hours. This implies that these computers have to be shared by parallel and sequential applications, which could lead to the improvement of the execution performance and resource utilization. However, there is a lack of experimental study showing the behavior and performance of executing parallel and sequential applications concurrently on a non-dedicated cluster. The result of such research would be beneficial for the development of new global scheduling algorithms. We present the result of an experimental study into scheduling of a mixture of parallel and sequential applications on a non-dedicated cluster. The aim of this study is to learn how the concurrent execution of a communication intensive parallel application and sequential applications influences their execution performance and utilization of the cluster.

Estimating performance indexes of a baggage handling system using metamodels

In this study, we develop some deterministic metamodels to quickly and precisely predict the future of a technically complex system. The underlying system is essentially a stochastic, discrete event simulation model of a big baggage handling system. The highly detailed simulation model of this is used for conducting some experiments and logging data which are then used for training artificial neural network metamodels. Demonstrated results show that the developed metamodels are well able to predict different performance measures related to the travel time of bags within this system. In contrast to the simulation models which are computationally expensive and expertise extensive to be developed, run, and maintained, the artificial neural network metamodels could serve as real time decision aiding tools which are considerably fast, precise, simple to use, and reliable.

Performance of building integrated solar hot water systems

The integration of solar energy systems into buildings has been the subject of considerable commercial and academic research, particularly building integrated photovoltaics. However, the integration of solar hot water systems into roofing systems has had far less attention. This paper presents the theoretical and experimental results of a novel building integrated solar hot water system developed using existing long run roofing materials.

This work shows that it is possible to achieve effective integration that maintains the aesthetics of the building and also provides useful thermal energy. The results of an unglazed 108m2 swimming pool heater and 8m2 glazed domestic hot water systems are presented.

The experimental results show that the glazed system performs close to the theoretical model and is an effective provider of hot water in certain climates. However it was also found that for larger scale building integrated solar water heating systems, special attention must be paid to the configuration and arrangement of the collectors in order to minimise problems with respect to flow distribution and its effect on collector and system efficiency.

Comparative study on performance of yeast and bacterial membrane bioreactors for high salinity wastewater treatment

Two laboratory-scale membrane bioreactor systems were investigated to treat high saline wastewater containing 1,000 mg/L COD and 32 g/L NaCl, namely: the yeast membrane bioreactor (YMBR) and the bacterial membrane bioreactor (BMBR). COD removal of both processes was above 90% at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 5 hours (volumetric loading of 5 kg COD/m³.d), sludge retention time (SRT) of 50 days (the MLSS of above 14 g/L and the F/M of 0.4 d-1). Under these operating conditions, the YMBR could run at a ten-fold lower transmembrane pressure with significantly reduced membrane fouling rate compared to BMBR. This may be because of low production of adhesive extracellular polymers (ECP) and the secondary filtration layer formed from large yeast cells. ECP production of bacterial sludge was increased considerably at high salt concentrations (32 g/L and 45 g/L) and long SRTs. For the bacterial sludge, the increased salinity led to increase in ECP, whereas the ECP content of the yeast sludge was relatively small.

IaaS clouds vs. clusters for HPC: a performance study

The increasing amount of data collected in the fields of physics and bio-informatics allows researchers to build realistic, and therefore accurate, models/simulations and gain a deeper understanding of complex systems. This analysis is often at the cost of greatly increased processing requirements. Cloud computing, which provides on demand resources, can offset increased analysis requirements. While beneficial to researchers, adaption of clouds has been slow due to network and performance uncertainties. We compare the performance of cloud computers to clusters to make clear the advantages and limitations of clouds. Focus has been put on understanding how virtualization and the underlying network effects performance of High Performance Computing (HPC) applications. Collected results indicate that performance comparable to high performance clusters is achievable on cloud computers depending on the type of application run.

Performance evaluation of multi-tier ensemble classifiers for phishing websites

This article is devoted to large multi-tier ensemble classifiers generated as ensembles of ensembles and applied to phishing websites. Our new ensemble construction is a special case of the general and productive multi-tier approach well known in information security. Many efficient multi-tier classifiers have been considered in the literature. Our new contribution is in generating new large systems as ensembles of ensembles by linking a top-tier ensemble to another middletier ensemble instead of a base classifier so that the top~ tier ensemble can generate the whole system. This automatic generation capability includes many large ensemble classifiers in two tiers simultaneously and automatically combines them into one hierarchical unified system so that one ensemble is an integral part of another one. This new construction makes it easy to set up and run such large systems. The present article concentrates on the investigation of performance of these new multi~tier ensembles for the example of detection of phishing websites. We carried out systematic experiments evaluating several essential ensemble techniques as well as more recent approaches and studying their performance as parts of multi~level ensembles with three tiers. The results presented here demonstrate that new three-tier ensemble classifiers performed better than the base classifiers and standard ensembles included in the system. This example of application to the classification of phishing websites shows that the new method of combining diverse ensemble techniques into a unified hierarchical three-tier ensemble can be applied to increase the performance of classifiers in situations where data can be processed on a large computer.

Predictors of individual player match performance in junior Australian football

PURPOSE: Player match statistics in junior Australian football (AF) are not well documented while contributors to success are poorly understood. A clearer understanding of the relationships between fitness and skill in younger age players participating at the foundation level of the performance pathway in AF has implications for the development of coaching priorities (e.g., physical or technical). The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between indices of fitness (speed, power and endurance) and skill (coach rating) on player performance (disposals and effective disposals) in junior AF. METHODS: Junior male AF players (n = 156, 10 - 15 years old) were recruited from 12 teams of a single amateur recreational AF club located in metropolitan Victoria. All players were tested for fitness (20 m sprint, vertical jump, 20 m shuttle run) and rated by their coach on a 6-point Likert scale for skill (within a team in comparison to their teammates). Player performance was assessed during a single match in which disposals and their effectiveness were coded from a video recording. RESULTS: Coach rating of skill displayed the strongest correlations and combined with 20 m shuttle test showed a good ability to predict both disposals and the number of effective disposals. None of the skill or fitness attributes adequately explained the percentage of effective disposals. The influence of team did not meaningfully contribute to the performance of any of the models. CONCLUSION: Skill development should be considered a high priority by coaches in junior AF.

Managerial ownership, capital structure and firm value: Evidence from China’s civilian-run firms

This paper examines the influence of managerial ownership on firm performance through capital-structure choices, using a sample of China’s civilian-run firms listed on the Chinese stock market between 2002 and 2007. The empirical results demonstrate a nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and firm value. Managerial ownership drives the capital structure into a nonlinear shape, but in an opposite direction to the effect of managerial ownership on firm value. The results of simultaneous regressions suggest that managerial ownership affects capital structure, which in turn affects firm value. Our findings imply that the “interest convergence” and “entrenchment” effects of managers’ behaviour in terms of managerial ownership can also explain the agency-relevant situation of China’s civilian-run firms.

Long-Term post-merger announcement performance. A case study of Australian listed real estate

This study examines the long-term postmerger performance of Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts (A-REITs). The A-REIT sector is used as a case study being less vulnerable to agency issues due to its regulatory structure (Eichholtz and Kok, 2008; Ratcliffe et al., 2009). Research on conventional firms has shown, on average, shareholders are worse off in the long run (Alexandridis et al., 2012). In contrast, we find that shareholders experience significantly positive abnormal returns, after accounting for the financial crisis. This outcome suggests that when managers are restricted with the use of retained earnings and the type of investment, they may be less susceptible to hubris and/or agency issues.

Construção de base organizacional e suas implicações para performance corporativa: evidências da área abastecimento do Petróleo brasileiro S.A.

Esta dissertação examina algumas implicações do processo de implementação de estratégias para a performance corporativa. Este relacionamento é examinado na Área de negócios Abastecimento, da empresa Petróleo Brasileiro S.A, durante o período de 1996 e 2003. A despeito da profusão de estudos sobre estratégia empresarial, ainda há escassez de trabalhos que examinem o processo de implementação de mudanças organizacionais e suas implicações para o aprimoramento de certos indicadores de performance corporativa. Adicionalmente, tendem a prevalecer na literatura gerencial, abordagens pontuais de caráter imediatista e prescritivo, que não captam o processo de mudança organizacional e suas implicações para performance ao longo do tempo. o exame da implementação de estratégias é realizado com base em seis variáveis organizacionais extraídas da literatura existente: "comportamento da liderança"; "interação e influência"; "inovação e aprendizado"; "gestão de pessoas"; "comunicação e fluxos de conhecimento" e "estrutura organizacional". As implicações das mudanças na base organizacional para performance corporativa são examinadas a partir de dezenove indicadores, agrupados em três categorias: (i) operacionais, (ii) econômico-financeiro e (iii) segurança, meio ambiente e saúde. Esta dissertação consiste num estudo de caso individual, o qual é baseado em evidências empíricas qualitativas e quantitativas, coletadas em trabalhos de campo. A coleta dos dados baseou-se em fontes e técnicas múltiplas. Os efeitos das variáveis organizacionais que comporiam o Abastecimento, antes da criação da Área de negócio, em 1996, foram pequenos. Esses efeitos foram moderados no período entre 1996 a 2000, só apresentando impactos relevantes sobre indicadores operacionais entre 2000 e 2003, com reflexos positivos sobre o desempenho econômico, pois muitos custos foram reduzidos. Isso sugere que estratégias tecnológicas de longo prazo são um rumo robusto e consistente. As evidências sugerem que a empresa optou pela construção de uma base organizacional visando melhoria de performance no longo prazo, alinhando-se com autores que defendem essa construção como forma de fortalecer a competitividade no longo prazo. Esta dissertação contribui para o entendimento de fatores organizacionais que favorecem a implementação de estratégias e dos mecanismos que alavancam aprendizado e inovação numa empresa nacional. Este estudo conclui que a utilização de estruturas organizacionais, com o suporte da liderança e prática de baixas barreiras interfuncionais, alavancaram o aprendizado e a inovação, favorecendo resultados econômicos. Isto contradiz a proposição de autores que afirmam que reestruturação organizacional possui baixo potencial de geração de resultados, ou que enfatizam soluções de curto prazo para obtenção imediata de resultados, em detrimento da competitividade da empresa nos médio e longo prazos.

Acumulação de Competências Tecnológicas e suas Implicações para a Performance Corporativa: Um Estudo Comparativo entre Duas Empresas da Indústria Moveleira em Bento Gonçalves - RS

This dissertation focus the implication of differences in accumulation of technological competences among companies and its reflex on the improvement of indexes of operational, economical and financial performance. This connection has been investigated at D'Itália Móveis Industrial Ltda. and Pozza S.A Industrial Moveleira, both companies of the furniture market located in Bento Gonçalves - RS. Based on a comparative case study of these two companies, this dissertation is based on empiric evidences about how the company has accumulated its technological competences. Such evidences are qualitative and quantitative, and were collected from several sources in the studied companies. The examination of technological competences accumulation is done based on an analytical structure that exists in the literature, that has been adapted to the analysis of the furniture market. The examination of performance improvement is based on a set of indexes used in the furniture industry. Studies about this subject are found in the literature, but the application of these analytic structures in the furniture market is scarce, mainly in brazilian companies. It has been noticed that the company D'Itália has accumulated technological competences on all the three functions analysed, what suggests implications for the improvement of its performance. On the other side, the company Pozza has shown a paralysation on technological competences accumulation during a long time, what brought implications for the reduction of its corporative performance. In this way, the conclusion of this dissertation suggests that the accumulation of technological competences has contributed to explain the differences of performance between both companies. Besides, it explains how both companies have managed (or not) to accumulate their indexes of performance in the long run. Even though this conclusion is not different from other studies formerly done, this conclusion is derivated from a study applied to a kind of industry that still wasn¿t examined in the available literature.

Model selection, estimation and forecasting in VAR models with short-run and long-run restrictions

We study the joint determination of the lag length, the dimension of the cointegrating space and the rank of the matrix of short-run parameters of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model using model selection criteria. We suggest a new two-step model selection procedure which is a hybrid of traditional criteria and criteria with data-dependant penalties and we prove its consistency. A Monte Carlo study explores the finite sample performance of this procedure and evaluates the forecasting accuracy of models selected by this procedure. Two empirical applications confirm the usefulness of the model selection procedure proposed here for forecasting.

Test score disclosure and school performance

In this paper we test whether the disclosure of test scores has direct impacts on student performance, school composition and school inputs. We take advantage of the discontinuity on the disclosure rules of The National Secondary Education Examination (ENEM) run in Brazil by the Ministry of Education: In 2006 it was established that the 2005 mean score results would be disclosed for schools with ten or more students who took the exam in the previous year. We use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the e ects of test disclosure. Our results indicate that private schools that had their average scores released in 2005 outperformed those that did not by 0.2-0.6 in 2007. We did not nd same results for public schools. Moreover, we did not nd evidence that treated schools adjusted their inputs or that there was major changes in the students composition of treated schools. These ndings allow us to interpret that the main mechanism driving the di erences in performance was the increased levels of students', teachers' and principals' e ort exerted by those in schools that had scores publicized.