Centralized Service Provider Research Articles

In-field determination of soil ion content using a handheld device and screen-printed solid-state ion-selective electrodes.

Small-holding farmers in the developing world suffer from sub-optimal crop yields because they lack a soil diagnostic system that is affordable, usable, and actionable. This paper details the fabrication and characterization of an integrated point-of-use soil-testing system, comprised of disposable ion-selective electrode strips and a handheld electrochemical reader. Together, the strips and reader transduce soil ion concentrations into to an alphanumeric output that can be communicated via text message to a central service provider offering immediate, customized fertilizer advisory. The solid-state ion-selective electrode (SS-ISE) strips employ a two-electrode design with screen-printable carbon nanotube ink serving as the electrical contacts for the working and reference electrodes. The working electrode comprises a plasticizer-free butyl acrylate ion-selective membrane (ISM), doped with an ion-selective ionophore and lipophilic salt. Meanwhile, the reference electrode includes a screen-printed silver-silver chloride ink and a polyvinyl-butyral membrane, which is doped with sodium chloride for stable reference potentials. As a proof of concept, potassium-selective electrodes are studied, given potassium’s essential role in plant growth and reproduction. The ISE-based system is reproducibly manufactured to yield a Nernstian response with a sub-micromolar detection limit (pK+ of 5.18 ± 0.08) and near-Nernstian sensitivity (61 mV/decade) in the presence of a 0.02 M strontium chloride extraction solution. Analysis of soil samples using the printed electrodes and reader yielded a correlation coefficient of 𝑅2 = 0.89 with respect to values measured via inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). The reliable performance of this system is encouraging toward its deployment for soil nutrient management in resource-limited environments.

Probability of success in the search for a related bone marrow donor in Cologne, Germany using HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 haplotype frequencies.

Between 2004 and 2013, 603 patients and their relatives (n = 1297) were typed as part of the search for a suitable HLA‐matched donor in their nuclear and extended families at the central service provider for transfusion medicine at the University Hospital of Cologne. The high success rate in finding donors over the years at our center (38.1%) led us to examine our database retrospectively in order to evaluate the donor search and haplotype frequencies (HFs) in the sample. Our goal was to identify the factors contributing to this high success rate and also to compare the HFs we observed with other reported haplotype frequency estimations (HFE) for the Cologne area. Probability estimations for a successful donor search were constructed based on the HFEs for the sample.

A biztonság mint szolgáltatás megteremtése az állami, önkormányzati elektronikus információs rendszereknél I.

A tanulmányban összefoglaltam Magyarország kibervédelmének főbb elemeit, kiemelve a téma szempontjából legfontosabb stratégiát, jogszabályokat és szervezeteket. Ez után bemutattam az állami, önkormányzati infokommunikációs rendszerek konszolidálása okán létrejövő szolgáltató-felhasználói modellt, és annak hatását a kibervédelemre, amelynek kapcsán rámutattam, hogy a jelenlegi jogszabályok az ebből adódó feladat- és felelősségelhatárolást nem kezelik. Rávilágítottam, hogy a hazánkban kijelölt központi szolgáltató, a NISZ Zrt. említett jogszabályokban leírt feladatainak ellátását úgy végezheti el, hogy alapvetően felhőalapú szolgáltatásokat nyújt, ezért összefoglaltam a felhőalapú rendszerek tulajdonságait, csoportosításukat. Bemutattam azt is, hogy a nagy nemzetközi szervezetek ezek közül melyeket ajánlják az állami intézmények számára és a NISZ Zrt. melyben szolgáltat.

How anesthetists manage growing demands with dwindling resources in German university hospitals: Overview and outlook

As a central service provider in medical care, anesthetists manage the growing demand on medical services, thereby increasing specialization and patient morbidity. Various indicators and measurements have been used to match staff capacity, competence, and workload. It remains unclear whether the problems are due to real shortages or "just" to a wrong distribution. Medical services, service development, infrastructure, capacity, and competences of medical staff of 15 departments of anesthesiology at German university hospitals were compared. They reported an increase in medical service and staff capacity. Competences did not grow, fluctuation rates were high, and part-time employment increased. The broad variety of hospitals' infrastructures requires different staff capacity and competence structures. Anesthetists need to take on a key role in redesigning hospital performance and staff management to ensure performance increases, patient safety, and bearable workloads. Optimal distribution of expertise and early counteraction for shortages in staff capacities and competences is needed.

Ad-hoc messaging infrastructure for peer-to-peer communication

Traditional means of communication rely on a centralized service provider in order to function. With a traditional cellular service provider, when somebody (Alice) wants to send a text message to someone else (Bob), the message is sent from Alice’s phone to a cellular network and then finally to Bob. This process happens regardless if they are located on opposite sides of the world or are in the same room. In this paper, we present the design, implementation and evaluation of a peer-to-peer (P2P) network that will route text messages along the shortest reliable path. By “shortest path” we mean that if Alice and Bob’s phones are in wireless range of each other, the message passes only through their phones over the wireless link. If Alice and Bob are located further apart and their wireless radios are out of range, then a repeater node which can be reached by both Alice and Bob can be deployed and the message will pass through this node, again taking the shortest path. The network can be deployed with inexpensive off-the-shelf microcomputers, such as the Raspberry Pi, which can run off batteries in the event of a power outage. These nodes can be easily deployed and need not be trusted as the messages are encrypted and signed. In our tests, we were able to send text messages across a building over our mesh-network of Raspberry Pi microcomputers running our software and using ad-hoc Wi-Fi for neighbour-to-neighbour links. In addition, our simulation results show the feasibility of the proposed protocol.

Measuring the value variation of a service system: a Markov-switching model estimation

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to create a value variation measurement model to define the relationship among various roles in resource management within a service system; and divide value creation into two states (i.e. cocreation and codestruction) and use them as crucial indicators for value variation by adopting the service-dominant logic and using the Markov switching model.Design/methodology/approachThis study proposed that variations in value are similar to changes in economy because both are abstract, indefinable and not easy to identify. Therefore, this study used the Markov switching model to define the state of value through value cocreation and codestruction; analyze value variations in a service system; and provide a numerical evaluation method by using the concept of probability to depict state transitions. In addition, open data from the Kaohsiung City Government’s 1999 call center were collected to address the aforementioned research objectives. The 1999 call center (service provider) offers citizens (customers) efficient consultant services to help them solve problems regarding the city government’s affairs or policies. Thus, this call center can be considered a complex service system.FindingsThis study revealed that the call center can utilize the analysis results of the Markov switching model on answer rates to predict service quality patterns. In addition, most first call resolution rates occurred under State 1 (value cocreation). To address problems caused by accidental or rare events, the call center should formulate policies to increase people and technical resources and improve service system effectiveness.Originality/valueEnterprises currently focus on catering to customers’ needs and offering services through comprehensive service procedures to sustainably generate multiple values for customers, helping them to create values. Previous studies have mostly focused on analyzing the values of a service system and have failed to extensively explore actual value variations. Thus, the value variation measurement model proposed in the present study was able to analyze value variations of a set of call center data and illustrate value variations by using state transitions.

Searchain: Blockchain-based private keyword search in decentralized storage

Blockchain-based distributed storage enables users to share data without the help of a centralized service provider. Decentralization eliminates traditional data loss brought by compromising the provider, but incurs the possible privacy leakage in a way that the supplier directly links the retrieved data to its ciphertext. Oblivious keyword search (OKS) has been regarded as a solution to this issue. OKS allows a user to retrieve the data associated with a chosen keyword in an oblivious way. That is, the chosen keyword and the corresponding ciphertext are unknown to the data supplier. But if the retrieval privilege is with an authorized keyword set, OKS is unavailable due to one-keyword restriction and public key encryption with keyword search (PEKS) might lead to high bandwidth consumption.In this paper, we introduce Searchain, a blockchain-based keyword search system. It enables oblivious search over an authorized keyword set in the decentralized storage. Searchain is built on top of a novel primitive called oblivious keyword search with authorization (OKSA), which provides the guarantee of keyword authorization besides oblivious search. We instantiate a provably secure OKSA scheme, featured with one-round interaction and constant size communication cost in the transfer phase. We apply OKSA and ordered multisignatures (OMS) to present a Searchain protocol, which achieves oblivious peer-to-peer retrieval with order-preserving transaction. The analysis and evaluation show that Searchain maintains reasonable cost without loss of retrieval privacy, and hence guarantees its practicality.

Data Centers: Jobs and Opportunities in Communities Nationwide

Data centers will continue their fast-paced growth to support the digital economy’s increased demand for massive data storage in a secured environment. There are more than 3 million large and small data centers in the United States. Large data centers occupy several hundred thousand square feet and contain tens of thousands of servers with power backup and temperature control systems. This study focuses on the development of large data centers that have significant economic and social impacts on the communities where they locate. Our data sample consists of 244 large data centers owned by large enterprises and data center service providers, covering over 40 million net rentable square feet in 16 states across the country. We use financial information of the most recent data center development projects and annual income statements of data center service providers and enterprises to characterize a typical large data center in the United States. We then use official regional economic multipliers (RIMS II) constructed and published by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis to estimate direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts of a typical data center on local communities. We analyze the economic and social contributions of data centers to discuss the long-term impacts beyond the economic multipliers. In addition to immediate economic impacts, data centers create other long-lasting economic and social benefits for communities. Recognizing the economic and social benefits that a data center brings to communities, many local governments are competing to create business-friendly policies, such as tax incentives, to attract data centers. The economic and social benefits that data centers bring to communities are far reaching.

Mitigating Zero-Day Attacks in IoT Using a Strategic Framework

Internet of Things (IoT) aims at providing connectivity between every computing entity. However, this facilitation is also leading to more cyber threats which may exploit the presence of a vulnerability of a period of time. One such vulnerability is the zero-day threat that may lead to zero-day attacks which are detrimental to an enterprise as well as the network security. In this article, a study is presented on the zero-day threats for IoT networks and a context graph based framework is presented to provide a strategy for mitigating these attacks. The proposed approach uses a distributed diagnosis system for classifying the context at the central service provider as well as at the local user site. Once a potential zero-day attack is identified, a critical data sharing protocol is used to transmit alert messages and reestablish the trust between the network entities and the IoT devices. The results show that the distributed approach is capable of mitigating the zero-day threats efficiently with 33% and 21% improvements in terms of cost of operation and communication overheads, respectively, in comparison with the centralized diagnosis system.

Survey on Web Service Discovery and Availability in Mobile Environments and Future Trends in Mobile Web Services

advancement in technology related to mobile devices has become a very important platform to share mobile information among millions of users across the globe. Also the mobile devices are easily available and accessible among the people. Recently, the mobile devices have been powered by faster and multicore processors, more available memory and sophisticated user display. People prefer smart phones rather than carrying laptops or desktops because of their small size, light weight and anywhere anytime information provider. Many users need to access the services on these mobile phones connecting through the web. Just like centralized service providers there is a great need of providing service through mobile phones. In most scenarios, personal smart phones also provide web services. These services are referred as mobile web services since the devices are in mobility. In this paper, a review on the availability and discovery of web services in resource constrained mobile specific environments and the future trends have been discussed.

안전한 XaaS 구현을 위한 APT 공격 분석과 대응방안에 관한 연구

XaaS (Everything as a Service) provides re-usable, fine-grained software components like software, platform, infra across a network. Then users usually pay a fee to get access to the software components. It is a subset of cloud computing. Since XaaS is provided by centralized service providers, it can be a target of various security attacks. Specially, if XaaS becomes the target of APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) attack, many users utilizing XaaS as well as XaaS system can be exposed to serious danger. So various solutions against APT attack are proposed. However, they do not consider all aspects of security control, synthetically. In this paper, we propose overall security checkup considering technical aspect and policy aspect to securely operate XaaS.

Traffic Scheduling in OFDMA-based WiMAX Networks on the PMP Mode

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is the basis for several emerging wireless systems, such as 802.16e (WiMAX) and Long Term Evolution (LTE). In special, the diverse requirements of multimedia traffic to be supported by convergent broadband wireless networks are commonly difficult to be satisfied, considering factors such as scarcity of radio resources, variability of wireless channel conditions as well as the exponentially growing number of subscribers. Moreover, a scheduler works aiming to intelligently allocate radio resources to achieve high system performance in terms of efficiency and fairness. In this paper, we consider an OFDMA-based WiMAX network using the point-to-multipoint mode (PMP), where multiple subscribers are served by a centralized service provider (a base station), and PUSC (Partial Usage of Subchannels) channelization, considered mandatory for uplink in the 802.16 standard. Given such network conditions, we propose a scheduling technique, based on an evolution of the technique proposed in [4], that is evaluated through discrete event simulation, considering different traffic conditions and scenarios. Results indicate that the strategy was successfully adapted to the new physical layer specifications, respecting all the quality requirements of each kind of

Assessing the reliability of an automated dose-rounding algorithm

ObjectivePediatric dose rounding is a unique and complex process whose complexity is rarely supported by e-prescribing systems, though amenable to automation and deployment from a central service provider. The goal of this project was to validate an automated dose-rounding algorithm for pediatric dose rounding. MethodsWe developed a dose-rounding algorithm, STEPSTools, based on expert consensus about the rounding process and knowledge about the therapeutic/toxic window for each medication. We then used a 60% subsample of electronically-generated prescriptions from one academic medical center to further refine the web services. Once all issues were resolved, we used the remaining 40% of the prescriptions as a test sample and assessed the degree of concordance between automatically calculated optimal doses and the doses in the test sample. Cases with discrepant doses were compiled in a survey and assessed by pediatricians from two academic centers. The response rate for the survey was 25%. ResultsSeventy-nine test cases were tested for concordance. For 20 cases, STEPSTools was unable to provide a recommended dose. The dose recommendation provided by STEPSTools was identical to that of the test prescription for 31 cases. For 14 out of the 24 discrepant cases included in the survey, respondents significantly preferred STEPSTools recommendations (p<0.05, binomial test). Overall, when combined with the data from all test cases, STEPSTools either matched or exceeded the performance of the test cases in 45/59 (76%) of the cases. The majority of other cases were challenged by the need to provide an extremely small dose. We estimated that with the addition of two dose-selection rules, STEPSTools would achieve an overall performance of 82% or higher. ConclusionsResults of this pilot study suggest that automated dose rounding is a feasible mechanism for providing guidance to e-prescribing systems. These results also demonstrate the need for validating decision-support systems to support targeted and iterative improvement in performance.

Quantum entanglement distribution with 810 nm photons through active telecommunication fibers

We demonstrate the distribution of polarization-entangled photons for the purpose of quantum key distribution (QKD) along active telecom fibers. Entangled photon pairs of 810 nm wavelength generated by a Sagnac interferometer source were coupled into standard telecom single mode fibers. The fibers were either dark or carrying a standardized 1550 nm ethernet signals (1000BASE-ZX) with a nominal speed of 1 GBps from regular media converter devices, without any requirements on the optical power or spectrum transmitted. Our system demonstrates a QKD network covering 6 km in distance with a central service provider for classical and quantum data.

대학스포츠센터 서비스제공자의 매력성이 서비스품질 만족도에 미치는 영향

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of service providers` attractiveness perceived by university sports center users on the users` satisfaction with service quality and to provide basic information necessary to establish strategies for activating university sports centers. The subjects of this study were male and female adults aged over 20 who were using university sports centers in Gyeongju City currently as of 2010, and they were sampled through quota sampling, one of non-probability sampling methods. In consideration of the distribution of gender and age among the customers of two university sports centers, we surveyed a total of 320 people and, with excluding 19 questionnaires with omitted answers, used 301 questionnaires (94.1%) as a valid sample. Data were processed through multiple regression analysis, and statistical significance was tested at significance level p.05. From the research method and data analysis as above were drawn conclusions as follows. First, satisfaction with empathy was higher when university sports center service providers` attractiveness was high in terms of sincerity of service, promised service, staff`s reliability, and staff`s appearance. Second, satisfaction with responsiveness was higher when university sports center service providers` attractiveness was high in terms of sincerity of service, promised service, and staff`s appearance. Third, satisfaction with assurance was higher when university sports center service providers` attractiveness was high in terms of sincerity of service, staff`s reliability, and staff`s appearance. Fourth, satisfaction with tangibility was higher when university sports center service providers` attractiveness was high in terms of promised service, staff`s reliability, and staff`s appearance. Fifth, satisfaction with reliability was higher when university sports center service providers` attractiveness was high in terms of sincerity of service, and promised service.

Column Generation Method for an Agent Scheduling Problem

Abstract This paper discusses a real life problem of daily schedule planning for customer visiting agents. An optimization scheme using a combination of column generation and rounding techniques is proposed for solving this problem. In order to realize an efficient implementation, a polynomial time algorithm is presented for the column generation subproblem. Some technical implementation issues are also discussed and finally, experimental results are shown on real-life problem instances. An implementation of the presented solution is currently in production use by one of the leading contact center service providers of Hungary.

Optimal Hop-Constrained Trees for Nonlinear Cost Flow Networks

In this work we propose a new problem, that we have named hop-constrained minimum cost flow spanning tree problem, and develop an exact solution methodology. This problem is an extension of the well know NP-hard hop-constrained Minimum Spanning Tree problem (MST), since in addition to finding the arcs to be used we also must find the amount of flow that is to be routed through each arc. The hop-constrained MST has numerous practical applications in the design of communication networks. The hop constraints are usually used to guarantee a certain quality of service with respect to availability, reliability and lower delays, since they limit the number of arcs in each path from the central service provider. Including the flows, as we propose, allows for different levels of service requirements. A further extension is considered: the cost functions may have any type or form, may be neither convex nor concave, and need not to be differentiable or continuous. We develop a dynamic programming approach, which extends the scope of application of a previous work, to solve to optimality such problems. Computational experiments are performed using randomly generated test problems. Results showing the robustness of the method are reported.

Application of partnering principles to a framework contract

Sir John Egan's report on Rethinking Construction advocated ‘long term relationships based on clear measurement of performance and sustained improvements in quality and efficiency’. In 2001, Northern Ireland Roads Service embarked on a three-year framework to review the work carried out on their stock of post-tensioned bridges. The contract adopted a partnering approach embodying the key principles recommended by Egan. This paper outlines the significant lessons learned from a partnering approach between a consultant and a central government service provider. The partnership was built on an ethos of knowledge share and transfer; it developed long-term relationships that continued after the end of the original programme. It is an example of how a partnering approach to a single project acted as a catalyst for the further development of each organisation. One of the significant factors involved is the people, their personal and professional relationships and their willingness to innovate at all times. The partnering ethos led to innovation in terms of amending the payment mechanism under the contract as originally procured, leading to potential incentives and disincentives based on performance measured using key performance indicators as advocated by the Egan report.

Inner-City Victims of Violence and Trauma Care

Inner-city trauma centers often provide care for disproportionately indigent populations who are victims of violence. Many of these victims of violence often return to the trauma center with more violent injuries. Research has shown that a majority of these individuals who return to the trauma center for care are expensive to treat, are uninsured and have significant social problems. Two potential policy approaches are discussed: (1) the use of violence prevention programs to attempt to reduce violence in the immediate community and subsequently reduce the number of victims of violence who are treated in trauma centers and (2) the use of aftercare and discharge models that form an alliance between the trauma center and social service providers in the community. Nontraditional interventions will require the collaboration with hospital departments (emergency medicine, surgery, trauma, social work) and outside agencies, such as the courts and probation and parole. Case management, discharge planning, continuous care treatment teams, and violence intervention models offer positive alternatives to the current method of addressing the multiple problems of victims of violence who frequent the ED.

Supporting the Information Needs of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Users in an Academic Library

The growing use of GIS in university research and teaching environments has created a demand for data, software, and technical support that is best accommodated by a central GIS service provider. The library is a natural candidate for this role. While some academic libraries only provide GIS-formatted data, others offer exhaustive services, ranging from GIS courses to contract GIS work for students and faculty upon demand. This paper discusses how the Stanford University Library System has integrated GIS support into its suite of services offered to patrons across all academic disciplines. Two case studies illustrate how the library meets patrons' diverse and detailed GIS information and technical needs.