Release Planning Research Articles

Recommendations for the rehabilitation and release of wild-born, captive-raised cheetahs: the importance of pre- and post-release management for optimizing survival

AbstractLarge carnivores are frequently released for conservation purposes, but early efforts struggled with inadequate monitoring and reporting, resulting in poor understanding of success. Although managers have improved release practice and monitoring, the use of orphaned, captive-raised large carnivores for release remains controversial because of the potential influence of captivity and the possible lack of natural behaviours in such individuals. Yet, rehabilitating orphaned individuals for release could help mitigate pressures on vulnerable wild populations. We present a case study on the rearing, rehabilitation and release of wild-born cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus that were rescued as orphans in Namibia. Our aim was to develop a methodological framework for cheetah release planning and post-release management based on the outcome of release trials conducted during 2004–2018. Between 2001 and 2012, we rescued 86 orphaned cheetahs from the wild. Of these, 36 (42%) were selected as release candidates. We found high success rates (75–96%) of selected individuals in achieving independence post-release. Additionally, annual survival estimates for rehabilitated individuals that reached independence were comparable to those of wild counterparts described by other studies, and some rehabilitated individuals reproduced with wild conspecifics. Our findings demonstrate the ability of wild-born, captive-raised cheetahs to transition back into the wild with strategic pre- and post-release management directed towards optimizing survival. This includes selecting appropriate release candidates, forming artificial coalitions, balancing habituation levels during captivity, choosing appropriate release sites, and providing strategic support during post-release monitoring. We encourage scientists and managers to implement and refine our protocol for rehabilitation throughout the cheetah's current and historic range.

Maternal incarceration in a provincial prison in Canada: A qualitative study.

To explore the experiences of provincially incarcerated mothers in Nova Scotia, Canada; and to make recommendations with respect to improving the experiences of mothers facing criminalization and their children. This qualitative study is rooted in feminist standpoint theory, community-based research methodologies and prison abolition. Mothers who were currently or previously incarcerated were recruited by community partners. Between Fall 2021 and Winter 2022, 14 individual interviews and one focus group were conducted, for a total of 18 study participants. Data were analysed collaboratively using thematic analysis. Three key themes were developed through the data analysis: Maintaining Connection, Broken Bonds and The Damage. Mothers shared experiences of trying to maintain connections with their children through numerous challenges, including emotional distress caused by the separation and significant logistical and financial barriers. Mothers felt their children unfairly bore the burden of their incarceration. They experienced a lack of or outright denial of services while incarcerated, and a lack of transitional support on release, making working towards parenting again difficult and discouraging. For participants in our study, separation from their children during incarceration caused severe emotional distress and had serious implications on their right to parent and their relationships with their children. Incarceration for even brief periods has detrimental social impacts, and release planning does not prepare people for the challenges of repairing that damage. Conditions of maternal incarceration are in violation of international human rights laws. Although we make some recommendations for reform (e.g. free phone calls), we focus on alternatives to incarceration for mothers experiencing criminalization. Findings will be shared with relevant institutional partners with the goal of impacting sentencing and incarceration practices.

Software Architecture during Release Planning

This research paper will throw light on the design and implementation of how software architects are involved in release planning of industry and how issues are tackled during this time. Release planning basically deals with the inclusion of products in future release. The intricacy of investors guarantees the application of results. The prescribed method of release planning is referred to redirect versatile categories and it will help in an organized way. Moreover, difficulties related to danger, personal controls, structures, money or technical needs can be easily implemented into the release planning. Release planning is also referred to as new embodiment of a growing product. Though, the idea of a release is not limited to this but can be functional to any kind of intruded progress where a release planning relates a time period. An experienced based planning procedure is not able to justify size, complication, ambiguity, problems and such plans leaves a customer with discontentment which can result in the loss of time, budget and market share.

Clearing function-based simulation optimization for release planning under digital twin wafer fabs

This research studies the generating and updating of production release plans in digital twin wafer fabs. We collect the manufacturing data of the workload and the expected output for each planning period from the manufacturing execution system and the data monitoring system. Then, we fit the above data as piecewise linear clearing functions (CFs) and import the parameters of clearing functions to the mathematical planning model. A theoretical optimal solution can be calculated by the mathematical model. We import this solution as an initial solution into the discrete-event simulation model to perform simulation iterative optimization, until a satisfactory solution is obtained. To reflect the physical production system data changes in time and to update production plans, we design two update strategies. Strategy 1: The discrete event simulation model in virtual space is updated when key parameters exceed the designed thresholds. Strategy 2: The simulated data used by clearing functions is updated after every production planning process. We fit clearing functions using both historical data and simulation prediction data.

Integrating User Reviews and Issue Reports of Mobile Apps for Change Requests Detection

There is abundance of mobile Apps released continuously on the App store, where developers are required to maintain these Apps to attain user satisfaction. Developers should consider all user feedback, as they are important resources for planning of next App’s release. In order to consider user feedback, many platforms host mobile Apps and allow users to submit their opinions, such as: Google Play App store and Github Open-Source Development platform. The automated consolidation of user feedback from such platforms, and transforming it into a list of change requests would result in satisfying users across different platforms, and their analysis helps developer to reduce cost of time and effort to plan for the new release of the mobile App. In this paper, a framework is proposed which integrates user feedback from different sources and analyzes them using a state-of-art user reviews analysis tool to obtain a list of change requests, such list is further examined for similarity to remove duplicates and prioritize the identified change requests. A prototype is designed to implement the proposed framework and applied to AntennaPod. Consequently, the framework experimentation results show that reviews and issue reports can be analyzed almost equally despite the difference of text’s nature.

Maturing the Scrum Framework for Software Projects Portfolio Management: A Case Study-Oriented Methodology

In the modern era, information technology-based solution providers are encountering a growing request for satisfying the versatile requirements of their customers in terms of software applications. To this end, specific approaches have been designed to streamline the way of accomplishing software projects in an efficient manner, i.e., agile-oriented frameworks. Even though previous studies have highlighted variations of such a framework, the literature has not addressed the adaptations required in response to the gradual maturity of a wide-ranging case study dealing with software applications. Following a case study-oriented methodology, this paper focuses on elaborating a set of workable maneuvers to mature the Scrum framework when applied to portfolio management. Particularly, we highlight how Scrum should be adapted from its basic setting to a vision and goal-oriented configuration or Scrumban under certain conditions. As a maturing practice, we propose a heuristic scoring technique to determine the sprint length of subprojects with different characteristics in the context of a portfolio. The study also introduces a multi-level refinement structure to enhance the monitoring of the teams’ performance under the proposed mature framework. The results obtained display a considerable spike in the realization rate of release planning in light of the actual performance.

A Revenue-based Decision-making Approach for Evaluating Modular Product Release Plans under Resource Constraints

A Revenue-based Decision-making Approach for Evaluating Modular Product Release Plans under Resource Constraints

Analyzing Uncertainty in Release Planning: A Method and Experiment for Fixed-Date Release Cycles

Release planning—deciding what features to implement in upcoming releases of a software system—is a critical activity in iterative software development. Many release planning methods exist, but most ignore the inevitable uncertainty in estimating software development effort and business value. The article’s objective is to study whether analyzing uncertainty during release planning generates better release plans than if uncertainty is ignored. To study this question, we have developed a novel release planning method under uncertainty, called BEARS, that models uncertainty using Bayesian probability distributions and recommends release plans that maximize expected net present value and expected punctuality. We then compare release plans recommended by BEARS to those recommended by methods that ignore uncertainty on 32 release planning problems. The experiment shows that BEARS recommends release plans with higher expected net present value and expected punctuality than methods that ignore uncertainty, thereby indicating the harmful effects of ignoring uncertainty during release planning. These results highlight the importance of eliciting and analyzing uncertainty in software effort and value estimations and call for increased research in these areas.

IMOEA/D to optimize job release problem for a reentrant hybrid flow shop

In a reentrant production system, an effective job release policy is helpful to increase output and keep the work in process (WIP) in an acceptable level. This study mainly focuses on the job release problem in a reentrant hybrid flow shop (RHFS-JRP). First, to increase output and reduce jobs’ waiting time, a mathematical model is formulated to minimize the difference between the actual output and the target output and the total waiting time of jobs jointly. Second, an improved multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (IMOEA/D) is proposed to solve the RHFS-JRP. Third, to generate job release plans effectively, a dual chromosome encoding method indicating release quantities and release intervals is proposed. Fourth, the WIP control mechanism based decoding algorithm is proposed to reduce the total waiting time of jobs without affecting output. Fifth, to avoid falling into the local optimum and ensure the diversity of the population, an adaptive neighborhood updating strategy is proposed. Finally, numerical experiments are performed and the results show that the IMOEA/D can solve the RHFS-JRP effectively.

Order release in production planning and control systems: challenges and opportunities

Production planning and control (PPC) systems are important to the competitiveness of manufacturing firms and their ability to benefit from recent technological advances. We give an overview of research and unsolved research questions in PPC systems related to the order release function that sets output targets for autonomous production units that manage production at the shop-floor level. We describe the hierarchical Manufacturing Planning and Control (MPC) and Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) architectures for PPC systems prevalent in practice and the positioning of the order release task within these frameworks. We then describe the research streams relevant to order release, optimisation models for order release planning, and the relation of these models to the overall PPC system. Modelling the dynamic response of production units to time-varying work input, which represents an extension of classical production theory by incorporating the time dimension, is identified as the major modelling challenge. We conclude by suggesting several unsolved research questions that should encourage researchers to work on this topic which is far from mature.

Reintegrating released and rehabilitated offenders: A case of Windhoek Correctional Facility on Khomas Region, Namibia

National correctional services such as life and social skills aims to rehabilitate and integrate offenders into the communities where they came from with a purpose of balancing societies and enabling offenders to overcome economic, social and personal challenges that may come their way. Such programs have a great impact on society because education thereof denotes change. This study examines the experiences of ex-offenders after being released from lawful custody and sent back to their communities. Using a qualitative approach, designed with convenience and criteria sampling techniques, five (5) released and reintegrated offenders, rehabilitated through vocational education and training. Offenders felt that, families and communities showed rejections. Initial isolation and stigmatization from society was also noted as employers are often reluctant to hire former offenders. In some cases, the absence of stable housing allows an ex-offender to feel a routine in a safe environment. It is recommended that policy makers within the Department of Correctional Services in Windhoek, Namibia should generate and improve on existing policies to help released offenders obtain their self-esteem, confidence and self-respect. It is further recommended that social workers may educate families and societies about the support released offenders need. The Correctional facility should have a better release plan with community-based organizations, including faith-based organizations to make services available after release. Key words: Rehabilitation, integration, isolation, rejection, self-esteem, experiences.

A mathematical model for the formation of the pricing policy and the plan of the production and transport system in a timber-processing enterprise

The formation of supply chains for raw materials is closely related to production problems involving the determination of prices for sold goods. The question often arises about the need to study the sources of raw materials and the methodology for pricing the goods produced, taking into account a large number of external aspects of the market. Often, only particular approaches to solving production problems are considered in the literature, and methods for solving the complex problem of forming supply chains for raw materials and pricing are poorly developed. This paper presents a mathematical model that makes it possible to assess the feasibility of interaction between a timber industry enterprise and a commodity exchange, with the daily formation of a price vector over the entire planning horizon. A two-stage algorithm for finding a suboptimal solution is considered, which at the first stage is based on linear optimization, and at the second, on gradient descent with the use of penalty functions. The model was tested on the data of the commodity and raw materials exchange of Russia and one of the enterprises of the Primorsky Territory. The result of testing was the volume of production of each type of product over the entire planning horizon, the volume of delivery of raw materials from regions to enterprises, as well as the methods of delivery of goods to the consumer and the policy of pricing. It is shown that almost all goods should increase in price due to a reduction in the excess volume of applications (demand) over the entire planning horizon, with the exception of two types of products. It is noted that the exchange can provide the necessary volume of raw materials for high-capacity production, which demonstrates the possibility, if necessary, to increase the volume of raw materials purchases. It is shown which goods will be included in the release plan more often than others when optimizing the price vector. The ways of delivery of final types of products are analyzed. The disadvantages and advantages of the mathematical model and algorithm are presented.

Acoustic investigation of fishery resources in Guanting Reservoir

This project uses acoustic methods to conduct a comprehensive survey of the fishery resources of the Guanting Reservoir. It uses the “Zigzag” survey route based on the actual situation of the reservoir, and uses the scientific fish finder (EK80, Simrad, Norway) as the main survey equipment. Post-processing software (Echoview, Myrix, Australia) analyzes the amount and distribution of biological resources. Statistical analysis of the existing reservoir resources and the spatial distribution of resource density showed that the fishery resources in the central part of the reservoir area are relatively high, the fishery resources in the waters near the dam in the southern reservoir area are second, and the northernmost fishery resources in the northern reservoir area. Resource Fengdu is relatively small. According to the analysis results of acoustic data, combined with the situation of biological sampling, various types of resources are also obtained. This survey provides basic data for the management of reservoir fishery resources and the formulation of enhancement and release plans, and provides a scientific basis for protecting the ecological resources and environment of the Guanting Reservoir.

Lessons Learned from the Pathways to Community Health Study to Evaluate the Transition of Care from Jail to Community for Men with HIV.

Time spent in jail can provide opportunities to deliver comprehensive medical care, including screening and treatment for HIV; however, engagement in HIV care postrelease is often fragmented. Identifying ways to improve the transition of care from jail to community for people with HIV (PWH) may help with engagement in HIV care postrelease. We evaluated the current HIV care transition processes of one jail in Massachusetts and identified change ideas to facilitate improving the transition of care from the jail to the community for PWH. We conducted qualitative interviews in 2018–2019 with incarcerated men with HIV (n = 17), jail staff (n = 7), and community providers (n = 6) to understand the processes of HIV care prerelease from the jail and engagement in care on release. Data from these interviews and quality improvement tools were used to identify ways to improve the release process for PWH, such as using a release planning checklist, to help ensure that a 30-day supply of HIV medication and an appointment with a community provider within 30 days of release were provided. We identified communication process inefficiencies related to knowing release dates between the HIV care team and case managers that prevented providing HIV medications on release. We worked with jail administrators to find ways to improve the prerelease planning process, which is vital to the continuity of successful HIV care. The use of quality improvement methods generated a list of testable change ideas to improve the release planning process to better align with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which has implications for PWH and public health.

Assessing Damages to Built and Natural Environments: Linking Hydrodynamic and Geospatial Enviro-Economical Models

In this study, a novel framework was developed to provide a holistic damage assessment caused by severe hydrologic events whether individually or as a compound event. The novel framework uses a developed hurricane-specific water quality model, Environmental Fluid Dynamic Code-Storm Surge model (EFDC-SS) and an ArcGIS-based framework, the Facility Economic Damage and Environmental Release Planning (FEDERAP) to assess damages to the built and natural environment. The developed framework could be used to compare different hurricanes and storms with a focus on land inundation, spill destination in both land and water and their associated risks, as well as economic loss including both physical and secondary losses. The results showed different spreading mechanisms during surge and rainfall-based hurricanes. While storm surge pushed contaminants (from spills) upstream, the rainfall-based hurricane caused a larger footprint of contamination on land. Though different in spreading patterns, spills during both hurricane types can widely spread miles away from the release location in a very short period of time. The FEDERAP economic loss model showed that facility area, average land elevation, the number of storage tanks and process units at the facility, and daily production are key drivers in the calculated total losses for a given hydrologic event.

Brain Injury in Justice-Involved Youth: Findings and Implications for Juvenile Service Professionals

It is well-established that the prevalence of brain injury among justice-involved populations is significantly greater than that of the general population. From 2014-2018, a demonstration project was conducted in two juvenile detention centers in southeastern PA. Its core strategy was to identify youth with history of brain injury; determine their neurocognitive barriers to successful re-entry; and create release plans including connections to appropriate resources. 489 youth participated. They were screened for brain injury utilizing the Ohio State University Traumatic Brain Injury Identification Method, and those who screened positive, were assessed utilizing standardized measures of memory and executive functioning. Results indicated that 49% had history of brain injury, with an average of 2.59 injuries per youth. 62% of injuries did not involve a loss of consciousness, and two-thirds never sought treatment for their injury. A history of repetitive blows to the head was also common, and often caused by violence. 147 youth were subsequently evaluated for cognitive impairment. 57% showed evidence of significant cognitive impairment, with the most common impairments being working memory, behavioral regulation, and delayed recall of novel information. Resources included referrals to brain injury school re-entry programs, vocational rehabilitation, and medical rehabilitation.

Real-time order acceptance and scheduling for data-enabled permutation flow shops: Bilevel interactive optimization with nonlinear integer programming

With the fourth-generation industrial revolution, manufacturing industries are focusing on dynamic, fully autonomous, and more customer-oriented production systems. This customer-oriented change converts classically static customer demand into that which is dynamic and real-time, as no prior information regarding customer demand is known in advance. This paper focuses on real-time order acceptance and scheduling (r-OAS) for a data-enabled permutation flow shop. To compensate for the shortage in prevailing approaches that make bottleneck-based decisions or assume that the intermediate buffers among workstations are infinite, an r-OAS scheme is generated based on a data-driven representation, which can concisely predict the dynamic production status of flow shops and the corresponding makespan of a job with finite intermediate buffer constraints. Using this representation, real-time job release planning (r-JRP) can be coupled with r-OAS to minimize various operational costs of flow shops (i.e., the costs of the work-in-process, earliness, and tardiness). In terms of the inherent interactive mechanism between r-OAS and r-JRP, in which r-OAS generates a decision space for r-JRP and r-JRP then feeds the lowest operational costs back for use in r-OAS decision-making, a bilevel interactive optimization (BIO) is formulated to simultaneously address the two subproblems based on the Stackelberg game. The r-OAS acts as the leader, while r-JRP acts as the follower. The BIO is a type of nonlinear integer programming, and a bilevel tabu-enumeration heuristic algorithm is developed to solve it. The efficiency of the BIO is verified through a practical case study. The results show that the BIO can increase the net revenue of flow shops by 2.97%, compared to the bottleneck-based approach, and by 2.45% and 0.92%, respectively, compared to step-by-step methodologies.

Development of Decision–Model and Strategies for Allaying Biased Choices in Design and Development Processes

The design and development processes are full of decisions. Ranging from simple and straightforward to complex and elaborated. These decisions are taken by individuals that constantly rely on their intuition and heuristics to support their decision-making processes. Although heuristics tend to be very helpful, in many cases, they can lead to cognitive biases. This article postulates a method to recognize some of these biases and to apply dedicated strategies to diminish their effects. To do so, the study reviews different decision models in engineering design and consolidates them into one; here, called ABC decision model—ABC stands for Allaying Biased Choices. This model consists of four phases describing four different decision types. Subsequently, four matching strategy sets are prescribed to target some of the most prone biases on those phases. Then, to demonstrate the application opportunities of this method, the ABC decision model is applied to the process of Strategic Release Planning (SRP). Finally, to show the theory in real-world conditions, the results of a pilot industrial application are presented. This article offers promising opportunities for allaying biased choices in design and development processes.

AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Agile Software Development plays a quintessential part in modern day software development. The term Agile refers to frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans and techniques and dividing tasks into shorter tasks for efficiency. Agile Software Development differs considerably from Traditional Software Development Methodology. Agile methodology aims to deliver features of a software project in small steps within a short duration of time (i.e., iterations). Hence, it becomes necessary to use agile software development methodology in todays’ fast-paced revolutionizing software industry. This paper discusses the important subtopics of Agile Software Development which gathered by reviewing/surveying of research papers. First, is the Agile Planning Life Cycle which consists of various stages such as pre-planning, planning, release planning and product backlog management. In the next section, principles such as Scrum, Extreme Programming, Kanban and Lean are discussed. The last section comprises the impact of Agile principles on software quality.

What Can Radiation Protection Experts Contribute to the Issue of the Treated Water Stored in the Damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant?

Decommissioning efforts are underway at the reactor where the accident occurred, namely the damaged Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP). However, a large amount of groundwater flowing into the site has become contaminated with radioactive substances and is stored in tanks on site, which has hampered the decommissioning work. Although the inflow of groundwater has been greatly reduced through measures such as the construction of frost walls, approximately 170 m3 of water treated by the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) is being stored in tanks, each day. The tanks used to store this treated water are expected to become full by around the summer of 2022. It is not easy to get people to understand the efforts of all concerned parties, and providing clear information to these concerned parties is also a challenge. Questions have also been raised regarding whether other alternatives have been fully explored in the ALPS subcommittee. Some people have commented that the answers to the questions raised regarding the biological effects of tritium transmutation are inadequate. Some suspect that the answers are too detailed and incomprehensible, and that the respondents may be manipulating the public with some malicious intent. In any case, each possible plan presents both advantages and disadvantages, depending on the people who are involved. That makes it an ethical and vexing issue that can sway decisions, as perspectives change. While the environmental release plan is scientifically safe, it may represent a painful alternative. On the other hand, a more careful and imaginative approach to the idea of continued storage in tanks or other forms of storage may reveal some troublesome hidden disadvantages. Under these circumstances, experts must be prepared to answer people's questions in a comprehensive and robust manner.