Analysis of effective service time with age dependent interruptions and its application to optimal rollback policy for database management

A stochastic model is developed describing a service system subject to inhomogeneous Poisson interruptions with age dependent interruption periods. By studying the probabilistic flow of the underlying multivariate Markov process, the Laplace transform of the effective service time is explicitly obtained. For general renewal interruptions, only the expected effective service time is derived. As an application, an optimal checkpoint policy is examined for database management. It is shown that an optimal policy maximizing the ergodic availability of the database is to implement a checkpoint as soon as the cumulative uptime of the database reaches a prespecified constantk ^*. A computational procedure is then developed for findingk ^* and numerical results are exhibited.This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ECS-8600992 and by the IBM Program of Support for Education in the Management of Information Systems.     

Optimal threshold analysis of segmentation methods for identifying target customers

In CRM (Customer Relationship Management), the importance of a segmentation method for identifying good customers has been increasing. For evaluation of different segmentation methods, Accuracy often plays a key role. This indicator, however, cannot distinguish two types of errors. The purpose of this paper is to overcome this pitfall by introducing two different indicators: Recall and Precision. Assuming that a promotion is addressed exclusively to the selected target customers, the financial effectiveness of the underlying segmentation method is expressed as a function of Recall and Precision. An optimization problem is then formulated so as to maximize the financial measure by finding the optimal threshold level in terms of the severeness for estimating the target set. By introducing a functional form which represents correctness and mistakes about the target set, the unique optimal solution is derived explicitly. The proposed approach is validated by using real customer purchase data.     

Effect of molecular weight distribution on the structure and mechanical properties of ultradrawn,ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene cast from solution. II. Drawability and mechanical properties

The effect of molecular weight distribution (MWD) on the ultradrawability and mechanical properties of solution-cast films of ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) has been investigated using tensile and dynamic mechanical measurements. The MWD has a marked effect on ultradrawability and thus on the ultimate mechanical properties such as the tensile modulus. It is proposed that UHMW-PE with a narrow MWD(N-PE) attains the ultimate structure at a lower draw ratio than UHMW-PE with a broad MWD(B-PE) because of the existence in the latter of less fully extended intercrystalline tie chains. It is found that, at the same drawing temperature (100°C), N-PE shows a higher modulus than B-PE at draw ratios up to 150 x, which is assumed to be the ultimate value for N-PE.     

A simple method for simultaneous determination of basic dyes encountered in food preparations by reversed-phase HPLC

The present method utilizes a simple pretreatment step, cleanup on polyamide SPE cartridges, and HPLC resolution on reversed-phase C18 for the detection of the three basic nonpermitted dyes encountered in food matrixes. Polyamide cartridges were chosen because both acidic and basic dyes can be cleaned up due to their amphoteric nature. Analysis was performed on a reversed-phase C18 micro-Bondapak column using the isocratic mixture of acetonitrile-sodium acetate with a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min and a programmable lambda(max) specific visible detection to monitor colors, achieving higher sensitivity and expanded scope to test multicolor blends. All the colors showed linearity with the regression coefficient, from 0.9983 to 0.9995. The LOD and LOQ ranged between 0.107 and 0.754 mg/L and 0.371 and 2.27 mg/L or mg/kg, respectively. The intraday and interday precision gave good RSDs, and percentage recoveries in different food matrixes ranged from 75 to 96.5%. The study demonstrates that the use of a combination of a simple SPE cleanup and HPLC resolution with UV-Vis end point detection was successful in screening the presence of these three basic nonpermitted dyes individually or in blend, in a variety of food matrixes.     

Surface-dependent chemical equilibrium constants and capacitances for bare and 3-cyanopropyldimethylchlorosilane coated silica nanochannels

We present a combined theoretical and experimental analysis of the solid-liquid interface of fused-silica nanofabricated channels with and without a hydrophilic 3-cyanopropyldimethylchlorosilane (cyanosilane) coating. We develop a model that relaxes the assumption that the surface parameters C(1), C(2), and pK(+) are constant and independent of surface composition. Our theoretical model consists of three parts: (i) a chemical equilibrium model of the bare or coated wall, (ii) a chemical equilibrium model of the buffered bulk electrolyte, and (iii) a self-consistent Gouy-Chapman-Stern triple-layer model of the electrochemical double layer coupling these two equilibrium models. To validate our model, we used both pH-sensitive dye-based capillary filling experiments as well as electro-osmotic current-monitoring measurements. Using our model we predict the dependence of ζ potential, surface charge density, and capillary filling length ratio on ionic strength for different surface compositions, which can be difficult to achieve otherwise.     

A Closed Queueing Network Model to Evaluate the Impact of Recovery Operations on the Performance of Database Servers

As database servers proliferate in modern information systems architectures in organizations, the issue of protecting and recovering the databases becomes of utmost importance. By developing an analytical model based on a closed network of queues, this paper analyses how different database recovery mechanisms impact on the normal transaction processing. Such a model enables one to capture intricate effects that are peculiar to complex, tightly coupled, multi-component systems, such as database recovery systems, and can be used to facilitate the design and the tuning of database recovery managers. The proposed model provides important performance measures in terms of average transaction processing time and overall systems throughput. Numerical experiments using actual recovery methods demonstrate the effectiveness of the modelling approach.     

On first passage time structure of random walks

For continuous time birth-death processes on {0,1,2,…}, the first passage time T⁺_n from n to n + 1 is always a mixture of (n + 1) independent exponential random variables. Furthermore, the first passage time T_0,n+1 from 0 to (n + 1) is always a sum of (n + 1) independent exponential random variables. The discrete time analogue, however, does not necessarily hold in spite of structural similarities. In this paper, some necessary and sufficient conditions are established under which T⁺_n and T_0,n+1 for discrete time birth-death chains become a mixture and a sum, respectively, of (n + 1) independent geometric random variables on {1,2,…};. The results are further extended to conditional first passage times.     

Molecular Design of a New Diboronic Acid for the Electrohydrodynamic Monitoring of Glucose

A new dicationic diboronic acid structure, DBA2+ , was designed to exhibit good affinity (K_d≈1 mm ) and selectivity toward glucose. Binding of DBA2+ to glucose changes the pK_a of DBA2+ from 9.4 to 6.3, enabling opportunities for detection of glucose at physiological pH. Proton release from DBA2+ is firmly related to glucose concentrations within the physiologically relevant range (0–30 mm ), as verified by conductimetric monitoring. Negligible interference from other sugars (for example, maltose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, and galactose) was observed. These results demonstrate the potential of DBA2+ for selective, quantitative glucose sensing. The nonenzymatic strategy based on electrohydrodynamic effects may enable the development of stable, accurate, and continuous glucose monitoring platforms.