Reliability Benefits Research Articles

On the limited increase in validation reliability using high-density genotypes in genomic best linear unbiased prediction: Observations from Fleckvieh cattle

This study investigated reliability of genomic predictions using medium-density (40,089; 50K) or high-density (HD; 388,951) marker sets. We developed an approximate method to test differences in validation reliability for significance. Model-based reliability and the effect of HD genotypes on inflation of predictions were analyzed additionally. Genomic breeding values were predicted for at least 1,321 validation bulls based on phenotypes and genotypes of at least 5,324 calibration bulls by means of a linear model in milk, fat, and protein yield; somatic cell score; milkability; muscling; udder, feet, and legs score as well as stature. In total, 1,485 bulls were actually HD genotyped and HD genotypes of the other animals were imputed from 50K genotypes using FImpute software. Validation reliability was measured as the coefficient of determination of the weighted regression of daughter yield deviations on predicted breeding values divided by the reliability of daughter yield deviations and inflation was evaluated by the slope of this regression. Model-based reliability was calculated from the model. Distributions for validation reliability of 50K markers were derived by repeated sampling of 50,000-marker samples from HD to test differences in validation reliability statistically. Additionally, the benefit of HD genotypes in validation reliability was tested by repeated sampling of validation groups and calculation of the difference in validation reliability between HD and 50K genotypes for the sampled groups of bulls. The mean benefit in validation reliability of HD genotypes was 0.015 compared with real 50K genotypes and 0.028 compared with 50K samples from HD affected by imputation error and was significant for all traits. The model-based reliability was, on average, 0.036 lower and the regression coefficient was 0.036 closer to the expected value with HD genotypes. The observed gain in validation reliability with HD genotypes was similar to expectations based on the number of markers and the effective number of segregating chromosome segments. Sampling error in the marker-based relationship coefficients causing overestimation of the model-based reliability was smaller with HD genotypes. Inflation of the genomic predictions was reduced with HD genotypes, accordingly. Similar effects on model-based reliability and inflation, but not on the validation reliability, were obtained by shrinkage estimation of the realized relationship matrix from 50K genotypes.

Security-reliability trade-off for cognitive radio networks in the presence of eavesdropping attack

In this paper, we consider a cognitive radio network that consists of one cognitive base station (CBS) and multiple cognitive users (CUs) in the presence of an eavesdropper. In the cognitive radio network, CBS first detects whether there is spectrum hole through spectrum sensing and then communicates with CUs over the detected spectrum hole. Due to the broadcast nature of wireless transmission, the eavesdropper can overhear the cognitive transmissions between CBS and CUs and attempts to decode its overheard signals for interception purpose. In order to effectively defend against the eavesdropping attack, we propose a multiuser scheduling scheme for cognitive transmissions, where a CU with the highest instantaneous capacity to CBS is selected and scheduled to communicate with CBS. We analyze the security-reliability trade-off performance of proposed multiuser scheduling scheme for cognitive transmissions with the imperfect spectrum sensing over Rayleigh fading channels, where the security and reliability are evaluated in terms of the intercept probability and the outage probability, respectively. Numerical results illustrate that as the intercept probability requirement loosens, the outage probability of proposed multiuser scheduling scheme decreases accordingly, showing the trade-off between security and reliability. In addition, as the number of CUs increases, numerical intercept probability and outage probability of the multiuser scheduling scheme significantly improve, implying the security and reliability benefits through multiuser scheduling.

Soft error tolerant Content Addressable Memories (CAMs) using error detection codes and duplication

Soft Errors are becoming a major concern for modern computing systems. Memories are one of the elements affected by soft errors, which cause bitflips in some of the cells. A number of techniques such as the use of Error Correction Codes (ECCs), interleaving or scrubbing are utilized to mitigate the effects of soft errors on memories. Content Addressable Memories (CAMs) pose additional challenges, as many of those protection techniques are not applicable to CAMs. In this paper, a novel protection technique for CAMs is proposed, showing a convenient way to tackle false positives and negatives, and quantitatively studying the achieved benefit in reliability.

Pipe Length Limit Analysis to Tunnel Vertical Well of Natural Gas Pipeline

In practical applications, often using natural gas pipeline through the pipe shaft way, so conditions for shaft pipe stress analysis has a very important practical significance and economic value, and limit the tube length calculation is one of the key issues. Take advantage of this stress analysis software, combined with program design, the shaft condition of the pipeline depth simulation. The results show that: gas pipeline tunnel shaft limit pipe length and pipe material, wall thickness and operating conditions are closely related, the greater the steel yield strength and wall thickness, the smaller the operating pressure, the longer the tube length limit. In the actual design pipeline crossing, it should fully take into account the limits of the tube length limit, the limit calculated under different conditions, to ensure the normal operation of gas pipelines provide pipeline reliability and economic benefits.

Aeetes: An App Generator for Sustainable and Secure Health Data Collection

Background and Purpose: Aeetes represents an approach to patient data collection in LMIC that is intended to be scalable, sustainable and secure. Methods: Existing approaches to data collection are typically either personal-computer-based or enterprise-based. Aeetes occupies a third space, that of peer-to-peer devices. It is intended to occupy a spot between the PC-based and enterprise-based approaches, addressing issues that make these approaches a poor match with some deployment scenarios. Results: The Aeetes approach is characterized by a compiler-based approach to data collection app generation: A new data collection app is generated from an input specification of the data to be collected and the user interface for data collection. The benefit of this is greater software reliability, since the data model is made explicit in the code, and eventually greater security through analysis of the code for information flows. Aeetes also takes measures to protect patient confidentiality against loss of devices. Conclusions: Aeetes represents an approach to moving away from PC-based approaches to data collection with poor security characteristics, to an approach that is more reliable and secure, while also being sustainable. It is hoped that some of the approach taken by Aeetes may eventually influence other systems such as OpenMRS. Keywords: Health Impact Assessment, Public Health Informatics, Health Information Management, Software Design, Computer Security, Database Management Systems

A survey of cross-layer power-reliability tradeoffs in multi and many core systems-on-chip

As systems-on-chip increase in complexity, the underlying technology presents us with significant challenges due to increased power consumption as well as decreased reliability. Today, designers must consider building systems that achieve the requisite functionality and performance using components that may be unreliable. In order to do so, it is crucial to understand the close interplay between the different layers of a system: technology, platform, and application. This will enable the most general tradeoff exploration, reaping the most benefits in power, performance and reliability. This paper surveys various cross layer techniques and approaches for power, performance, and reliability tradeoffs are technology, circuit, architecture and application layers.

Fault-Tolerant Five-Leg Converter Topology With FPGA-Based Reconfigurable Control

Fast fault detection and reconfiguration of power converters is necessary in electrical drives to prevent further damage and to make the continuity of service possible. On the other hand, component minimized converters may provide the benefits of higher reliability and less volume and cost. In this paper, a new fault-tolerant converter topology is studied. This converter has five legs before the fault occurrence, and after fault detection the converter continues to function with four legs. A very fast fault detection and reconfiguration scheme is presented and studied. Simulations and experimental tests are performed to evaluate the structure requirements, the digital reconfigurable controller, and fault detection scheme. For experimental tests, the control and the fault detection and reconfiguration schemes are implemented on a single field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip. Experimental and simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed fault-tolerant topology and its FPGA-based control.

How Network Coding Benefits Converge-Cast in Wireless Sensor Networks

Network coding is one of the most promising techniques to increase the reliability and reduce the energy consumption for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, most of the previous works mainly focus on the network coding for multicast or unicast in WSNs, in spite of the fact that the converge-cast is the most common communication style in WSNs. In this paper, we investigate, for the first time as far as we know, the feasibility of acquiring network coding benefits in converge-cast, and we present that with the ubiquitous convergent structures self-organized during converge-casting in the network, the reliability benefits can be obtained by applying linear network coding. We theoretically derive the network coding benefits obtained in a general convergent structure, and simulations are conducted to validate our theoretical analysis. The results reveal that the network coding can improve the network reliability considerably, and hence reduce number of retransmissions and improve energy-efficiency.

Performance experiments for flat plate solar water heater based on micro heat pipe array

A novel flat plate solar water heater based on the micro heat pipe array (MHPA) was invented, and the experiments were carried out on the MHPA heat collector and water heater to test their thermal performance. Owing to its distinctive structure, the MHPA has good heat transfer ability, high reliability, high compressive strength and low cost. The structure and character of the novel collector with MHPA as the high-efficiency heat transfer element are as follows. First, the contact surface between the absorber and the MHPA is so large that the heat resistance is smaller than the traditional one, thus its thermal transfer capability is greatly improved. Second, the condenser section of the MHPA is connected closely to the heat exchanger with dry type. The heat pipes do not contact with water, which precludes scaling and leakage in the collector. Third, the MHPA uses low freezing points of the refrigerants, which makes the collector more suitable for extremely cold areas. Fourth, the MHPA is made of aluminum instead of copper, which could reduce the fabrication cost significantly. Fifth, the unique heat exchanger could exclude water easily, which could prevent the frozen cracking of the collector in winter. Consequently, compared with other conventional evacuated glass tube solar water heaters, the novel flat plate solar water heater offers the additional benefits of high compressive strength, light weight, high reliability and durability, easy integration into buildings, and resistance to freezing during the winter months. Compared with traditional sheet-and-tube structure flat plate solar water heaters, this novel solar water heater also demonstrates many advantages: lower cost, absence of welding, resistance to freezing. The experiments focused on the novel collector's instantaneous efficiency. The test results for the collector's instantaneous efficiency show that the slope and intercept of the instantaneous efficiency curve are 4.7 and 0.80 respectively, which are 11.0% and 22.3% superior to the technical data of the Chinese national standard. The high maximum instantaneous efficiency can be attributed to high transmittance of the glass cover and good absorption of the absorber, as well as great performance of micro heat pipe array. Due to the excellent isothermal characteristic of the MHPA, the absorber have uniform temperature field so that the heat loss by natural convection in the collector is reduced, thus the novel flat plate solar collector have relatively low heat loss factor. The low emissivity of absorber film also reduces the radioactive heat transfer between the absorber and glass cover. Finally, a detailed experimental study focusing on the thermal performance for the novel flat plate solar water heater based on the MHPA is conducted during daytime over several days. The test results show that the effective heat gain per contour aperture area for the novel flat plate solar water heater are higher than that of the Chinese national standard, and all of the average daily thermal efficiency are higher than 60%. Therefore, the flat plate solar water heater based on the MHPA has the broad application prospect because of its excellent performance.

Statewide Implementation of Evidence-Based Programs

Evidence-based programs will be useful to the extent they produce benefits to individuals on a socially significant scale. It appears the combination of effective programs and effective implementation methods is required to assure consistent uses of programs and reliable benefits to children and families. To date, focus has been placed primarily on generating evidence and determining degrees of rigor required to qualify practices and programs as “evidence-based.” To be useful to society, the focus needs to shift to defining “programs” and to developing state-level infrastructures for statewide implementation of evidence-based programs and other innovations in human services. In this article, the authors explicate a framework for accomplishing these goals and discuss examples of the framework in use.

Evaluation of the benefits of vehicle safety technology: The MUNDS study

Real-world retrospective evaluation of the safety benefits of new integrated safety technologies is hampered by the lack of sufficient data to assess early reliable benefits. This MUNDS study set out to examine if a “prospective” case-control meta-analysis had the potential to provide more rapid and rigorous analyses of vehicle and infrastructure safety improvements. To examine the validity of the approach, an analysis of the effectiveness of ESC using a consistent analytic strategy across 6 European and Australasian databases was undertaken. It was hypothesised that the approach would be valid if the results of the MUNDS analysis were consistent with those published earlier (this would confirm the suitability of the MUNDS approach). The findings confirm the hypothesis and also found stronger and more robust findings across the range of crash-types, road conditions, vehicle sizes and speed zones than previous. The study recommends that while a number of limitations were identified with the findings that need be addressed in future research, the MUNDS approach nevertheless should be adopted widely for the benefit of all vehicle occupants.

SNB-index: a SkipNet and B+ tree based auxiliary Cloud index

Distributed data management plays an essential part in internet applications. With benefits of scalability and reliability, the Cloud storage systems have become an attractive choice for large-scale data processing. However, most Cloud storage systems currently adopt a hash-like approach to retrieve data that only support simple keyword-based enquiries, but lack various forms of information search. In this paper, we propose a novel SkipNet and B+ tree based index structure, called SNB-index, for Cloud computing systems. SNB-index adopts a two-layer architecture. In the lower layer, it uses the B+ tree to construct efficient local index. In the upper layer, it adaptively selects among local index nodes to form a SkipNet based global overlay. Our scalable auxiliary Cloud index can efficiently support a variety of types of queries (e.g. point-query, range-query, similarity-query), and provide high availability. Some new routing algorithms and mapping processing algorithms are designed to enhance performance. Experimental results show that SNB-index is valid and can be an alternative approach for constructing an auxiliary index in Cloud computing systems.

Mechanical Extrusion Offers Advantages Over Ball Activation for Downhole Tools

Technology Update One of the most innovative recent advances in downhole drilling tool activation has been the introduction of mechanical extrusion technology, incorporating the use of rigid metal darts to improve the cycling and control of a variety of processes and devices. Increasingly, operators are recognizing mechanical extrusion by means of dart activation as a time-, cost-, and labor-saving alternative to traditional ball activation methods. For example, conventional cycling of drilling bypass valves has used a polymer extrusion process that relies on balls as the activation device. However, Churchill Drilling Tools has developed an effective and accurate mechanical extrusion method that uses a dart-based valve. The system can perform activations up to five times faster than polymer methods. The company’s MX (mechanical extrusion) system allows the use of rigid Smart Darts for multicycle control and exploits their robustness and resilience at high pressures and temperatures (up to 660°F) to deliver greater operating speed, reliability, and performance. The system’s unique feature is its two configurable shearing modes, which solves reliability and power delivery problems. It requires a radius as small as 0.0075 in. for power transmission, thereby making implementation extremely compact. With the ability to control and power three or more tools independently, users eliminate the conventional inner diameter (ID) and obstruction conflicts between different tools in a string. This has implications for mono-cycling ball and shear systems, which commonly obstruct the bore after use. These can be turned into multicycling, nonobstructive, and multi-tool systems. The system can also enhance multicycling ball-activated tools that are based on polymer extrusion by improving performance and delivering greater multitool compatibility and interoperability. The system allows the mechanical extrusion to be delivered in a range of settings to suit the specific cycle application. With a variety of latching, sealing, and flow path geometries, as well as the adjustable shear mode ratings, this element of the system provides a tangible change in string design and program implementation. For example, in bypass valve implementation, users can cover multiple flow path contingencies with a single valve in hole and choose from the range of darts to establish the optimal setting for the situation encountered. The system advances the capability of simple hydromechanical control and its power and reliability benefits into areas that previously needed more complex electronic systems. Being mechanical, it is not subject to the same high pressure and high temperature limits that affect electronics and electrical components. Smart Darts enable a multicycle circulating sub (circ sub) tool to deliver a reliable and versatile bypass on demand. Whatever the drilling application, whether planned or a contingency, the system enables a rapid and reliable switching to the optimal flow path configuration.

Optimal Placement of Distributed Generation for Reliability Benefit in Distribution Systems

A distributed generator is a small-scaled active generating unit located <st1:data language=0 startpos=73 context=A distributed generator is a small-scale active generating unit located on or near the site where it is to be used. Several benefits have been realized by installing DGs in the distribution network. Among them is a reduction in the

Statewide Implementation of Evidence-Based Programs

Evidence-based programs will be useful to the extent they produce benefits to individuals on a socially significant scale. It appears the combination of effective programs and effective implementation methods is required to assure consistent uses of programs and reliable benefits to children and families. To date, focus has been placed primarily on generating evidence and determining degrees of rigor required to qualify practices and programs as “evidence-based.” To be useful to society, the focus needs to shift to defining “programs” and to developing state-level infrastructures for statewide implementation of evidence-based programs and other innovations in human services. In this article, the authors explicate a framework for accomplishing these goals and discuss examples of the framework in use.

Pipeline Dehydration Station Centralized Control System

The iron ore concentrate transport is one of an important factor in restricting the mining economic development; pipeline is a good solution with the hydraulic. The Dongchuan pipes are the use of the gravitational potential energy to achieve transporting concentrates by the way of self-flowing drop. The project is highly energy saving demonstration. However, it has a high demand of the control system of the end of the pipe dehydration station running due to the complex topography. Centralized control system given in this paper, having the characteristic of high reliability, operating performance, real-time strong, versatile and high economic benefits. The system realize the intelligent monitoring of the whole plant, all equipment control, the detection signal into the control room, remote control of the bottom pump system on the mountain, all equipment automatically switches to control. The system has a certain generalization.

The Performance and Analysis of an Efficient Model of DC to DC Converter for on Chip Circuitry using a Less Number of Power Devices

This paper presents an efficient DC to DC converter for on chip circuitry which gives high-energy conversion quality using CMOS Driver-Receiver Pair for Low-Swing Signaling. The efficiency has increased due to the use of power FETs, which are able to switch at high frequency more efficiently than power bipolar transistors, which incur more switching losses and require a more complicated drive circuit. The proposed schemes perform better than the other schemes in terms of power consumption, delay, and energy delay product. Moreover, the proposed scheme requires no reference voltages, and multiple threshold voltage processes. In addition the other key advantages of the proposed signaling schemes is that they require only one power supply and threshold voltage, hence significantly reducing the design complexity. This proposed work also takes care of the relative reliability benefits of the proposed signaling techniques through a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) analysis.

Web Sense: Assisting Individuals with Disabilities and Caregivers to Find Online Health Information

Retrieving online health information can be challenging for many individuals with disabilities and their caregivers. Librarians and other informed mediators have an important role to guide consumers and caregivers to web sites posting authoritative, unbiased, and current health information specific to an individual's needs using the mnemonic “A-B-C” (Authority, Bias, and Currency). Users can also identify quality indicators from accrediting or certifying organizations. Reliable information benefits individuals with disabilities and caregivers, facilitating active participation and informed decision making about health. This article provides a brief process for librarians and health educators to use when assisting individuals with disabilities and their caregivers.

Quantitative Reliability Assessment of Various Automated Industrial Substations and Their Impacts on Distribution Reliability

Considering six common types of substation automation systems (SASs), this paper not only performs a quantitative reliability evaluation of different automated industrial substations, but also assesses the impacts of various automated substations on the distribution system reliability. The technique is based on the event-tree methodology, reliability block diagram approach, and the concept-of-expectation method. The proposed approach is applied to the eight basic industrial substation configurations, and quantitative assessment of reliability benefits from the utilization of substation automation is conducted through a range of studies. The results show the value of using a systematic quantitative approach for investigating the effects of automation systems on substation reliability. The main contributions of this paper are: 1) to give explicit formulas for reliability evaluations of the automated industrial substation with arbitrary time duration of the automatic switching operation; 2) to prove the SAS with a faster automatic switching operation has a higher degree of improvement in the substation reliability indices; 3) to provide an effective tool for ranking the most reliable industrial substation configurations in the presence of various SASs; and 4) to quantitatively evaluate the effects of the automated substation with various SASs on distribution reliability indices.

Questioning the benefits that coloured overlays can have for reading in students with and without dyslexia

Visual stress (the experience of visual distortions and discomfort during prolonged reading) is frequently identified and alleviated with coloured overlays or lenses. Previous studies have associated visual stress with dyslexia and as a consequence, coloured overlays are widely distributed to children and adults with reading difficulty. However, this practice remains controversial. We investigated whether overlays have advantageous and reliable benefits for reading in undergraduate students with and without dyslexia. Both groups read jumbled text faster with a coloured overlay than without. The dyslexic group did not show greater gains than controls, despite reporting significantly more symptoms of visual stress. However, coloured overlays did not improve reading rate or comprehension of connected text. The improvement in reading speed with an overlay was not reliable and was significantly reduced at retesting for dyslexic students. These results question the value of coloured overlays as a tool for identifying visual stress and as a form of remediation for the reading difficulties associated with dyslexia.