OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the stability of a generic lansoprazole product in a 3 mg/mL sodium bicarbonate suspension under room temperature and refrigerated conditions. METHODS Lansoprazole suspensions (3 mg/mL) were prepared in triplicate using an 8.4% sodium bicarbonate vehicle for each storage condition (room temperature and refrigerated). During 1 month, samples from each replicate were periodically removed and analyzed for lansoprazole concentration by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Each sample was spiked with 10 mg/L omeprazole to serve as the internal standard. A positive electrospray LC-MS/MS method was validated over the calibration range of 5 to 25 mg/L using Food and Drug Administration Guidance. The identities of the analyte and internal standard in the samples were verified by monitoring the MS/MS transitions of m/z 370 to m/z 252 and m/z 346 to m/z 198 for lansoprazole and omeprazole, respectively. Additionally, the pH of the suspensions was monitored throughout the study. RESULTS The stability of lansoprazole in the oral sodium bicarbonate suspension under refrigeration is compromised prior to what has been previously reported in the literature. Samples kept at room temperature lost >10% of the lansoprazole after 48 hours compared with the refrigerated samples, which maintained integrity up to 7 days. No statistically significant difference was found between the pH of the room temperature and refrigerated suspension samples, indicating that this factor is not the cause for the differences in stability at these two conditions. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that the extemporaneously compounded lansoprazole oral suspension prepared in 8.4% sodium bicarbonate should not be stored in plastic oral syringes longer than 48 hours at room temperature and no longer than 7 days when refrigerated. These data indicate an expiration time earlier than that previously reported for the refrigerated product (14 days).

Advancements in information technology enabled to track real time data in a more accurate and precise way in many manufacturing facilities. However, before obtaining the more accurate and precise data, the investment in information technology should be validated. Value of information may be adopted as a criterion in this investment. In this study, we analyze the value of information in a manufacturing facility where production and lead time quotation decisions are taken. In order to assess the value of information, two settings are analyzed. Under the first setting, the manufacturer takes decisions under perfect information. To find the optimal decisions under perfect information, a stochastic model is introduced. Under the second setting, the manufacturer takes decisions under imperfect information. To obtain a solution for this problem, Partially Observable Markov Decision Process is employed. Under the second setting, we study two approaches. In the first approach, we introduce a nonlinear programming model to find the optimal decisions. In the second approach, a heuristic approach, constructed on optimal actions taken under perfect information is presented. We examine the value of information under different parameters by considering the policies under nonlinear programming model and heuristic approach. The profit gap between the two policies is investigated. The effect of Make-to-Order (MTO) and Make-to-Stock (MTS) schemes on the value of information is analyzed. Lastly, different lead time quotation schemes / accept-all, accept-reject and precise lead time / are compared to find under which quotation scheme value of information is highest.

In service-oriented environments, services are put together in the form of a workflow with the aim of distributed problem solving. Capturing the execution details of the services' transformations is a significant advantage of using workflows. These execution details, referred to as provenance information, are usually traced automatically and stored in provenance stores. Provenance data contains the data recorded by a workflow engine during a workflow execution. It identifies what data is passed between services, which services are involved, and how results are eventually generated for particular sets of input values. Provenance information is of great importance and has found its way through areas in computer science such as: Bioinformatics, database, social, sensor networks, etc. Current exploitation and application of provenance data is very limited as provenance systems started being developed for specific applications. Thus, applying learning and knowledge discovery methods to provenance data can provide rich and useful information on workflows and services. Therefore, in this work, the challenges with workflows and services are studied to discover the possibilities and benefits of providing solutions by using provenance data. A multifunctional architecture is presented which addresses the workflow and service issues by exploiting provenance data. These challenges include workflow composition, abstract workflow selection, refinement, evaluation, and graph model extraction. The specific contribution of the proposed architecture is its novelty in providing a basis for taking advantage of the previous execution details of services and workflows along with artificial intelligence and knowledge management techniques to resolve the major challenges regarding workflows. The presented architecture is application-independent and could be deployed in any area. The requirements for such an architecture along with its building components are discussed. Furthermore, the responsibility of the components, related works and the implementation details of the architecture along with each component are presented.

The objective of this study is to verify the relationship between the observable characteristics of CEOs working for companies listed in Sao Paulo Stock Exchange and their salary. To achieve this goal, we collected and analyzed informationabout the CEOs: age, time on the job, training, previous position and duality, as well as CEOs’ salary in the companies trading on the BM & FBOVESPA between 2010- 2014. The results showed that the longer a person works as CEO, the higher the salary. They also showed that CEOs with a better academic background receive, on average, a higher salary than less-educated CEOs. Executives hired exclusively for that position and those who do not perform the functions of CEO and chairman of the board earn, on average, more than corporate executives in the company andmore than those who are CEOs and chairman of the board at the same time. / El objetivo de este estudio es constatar la relación que existe entre las características observables de los directores ejecutivos de las empresas que cotizan en la Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo y el sueldo que reciben. Para esto, se analizó la información y características de los directores ejecutivos como: edad, tiempo en el cargo, educación, cargo anterior y dualidad, así como su relación con el salario del ejecutivo principal de las empresas que cotizan en la BM&FBOVESPA, entre los años 2010-2014. Los resultados mostraron que cuanto mayor tiempo tenga en ese cargo, mayor es el salario del CEO. También muestra que los CEO con una mejor formación académica reciben, en promedio, un mayor salario que aquellos con menores niveles de estudio. Los ejecutivos contratados exclusivamente para el cargo y los que no desempeñan las funciones de director ejecutivo y presidente del consejo ganan, en promedio, más que los ejecutivos de carrera en la empresa y más que los que ejercen la presidencia de la empresa y del consejo administrativo al mismo tiempo. / O objetivo deste estudo é verificar a relação entre as características observáveis e remuneração do diretor presidente de empresas listadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo. Para atingir este objetivo foram analisadas as informações referentes as características do executivo principal como, idade, tempo no cargo, formação, cargo anterior e dualidade e relacionada com a remuneração do executivo principal das empresas listadas na BM&FBOVESPA, entre os anos de 2010 a 2014. Os resultados mostram que quanto maior o tempo no cargo maior a remuneração do CEO. Mostram também, que CEOs com formação acadêmica melhor recebem, em média, mais do que aqueles com menores níveis estudo. Tanto executivos contratados exclusivamente para o cargo quanto os que não acumulam as funções de diretor presidente e presidente do conselho ganham em média mais do que os executivos de carreira na empresa e, os que exercem tanto a presidência da empresa quanto a do conselho de administração.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第18614号 / 情博第538号 / 新制||情||95(附属図書館) / 31514 / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科知能情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 河原 達也, 教授 黒橋 禎夫, 教授 鹿島 久嗣 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

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L'expérience de physique nucléaire GRAAL installée à Grenoble auprès du synchrotron européen (ESRF) produit, par rétrodiffusion Compton, un faisceau de gammas polarisés linéairement ou circulairement. <br /><br />Les caractéristiques d'un tel faisceau rendent possible l'étude des réactions de photoproduction de mésons pseudoscalaires (pion, eta, kaon) dont certains aspects théoriques sont explicités dans le cadre de cette thèse. <br /><br />Une description précise des programmes d'analyse permet de comprendre le traitement complet des informations depuis l'acquisition des données jusqu'à la présentation des premiers résultats expérimentaux sur l'asymétrie Sigma du faisceau pour les réactions gamma + p -> p + X (X = pi, eta) dans le domaine d'énergie situé entre 700 et 1100 MeV. <br /><br />Des méthodes d'extraction des observables de polarisation de la réaction gamma + p -> K+ + Lambda ont été mises au point à partir de la simulation Monte Carlo. La reproduction précise des trois observables de simple polarisation (P, Sigma, T) et des quatre observables de double polarisation faisceau-recul (Ox, Oz, Cx, Cz), pour un ensemble de données correspondant à 100000 réactions gamma + p -> K+ + Lambda, montre que ces quantités peuvent être mesurées dans l'expérience GRAAL.

ResumEl procés de mundialització econòmica, la revolució tecnològica digital i els nous patrons de demanda assenten les bases d'una nova economia, que es caracteritza per una massiva incorporació del coneixement a l'activitat econòmica. Podem afirmar, doncs, que la nova economia és l'economia del coneixement i que l'economia del coneixement és global, digital i amb una creixent demanda de mercaderies amb caràcter intangible. Aquest treball d'investigació analitza, des d'un punt de vista del'anàlisi econòmica, però amb un enfocament necessàriament interdisciplinari, les transformacions de l'activitat productiva vinculades amb l'ús intensiu del coneixement. Amb la intenció d'evidenciar empíricament com el coneixement s'ha revelat com un factor productiu i una mercaderia de progressiva importància econòmica a partir de la segona meitat de la dècada dels noranta a un ampli conjunt de països de l'OCDE i partint de la literatura sobre els fets i les fonts del creixement econòmics'han contrastat les següents hipòtesis. Primera, l'aplicació econòmica de les TIC defineix unaeconomia basada en el coneixement. Segona, la massiva incorporació de les TIC a l'activitateconòmica defineix un nou esquema en la producció de coneixement. I, tercera, el coneixement és unfactor productiu determinant del nivell i del creixement de la productivitat i, en conseqüència, del creixement econòmic. / El proceso de mundialización económica, la revolución tecnológica digital y los nuevos patrones dedemanda sientan las bases de una nueva economía, que se caracteriza por la masiva incorporación delconocimiento a la actividad económica. Podemos afirmar, pues, que la nueva economía es la economíadel conocimiento y que la economía del conocimiento es global, digital y con una demanda crecientede mercancías con carácter intangible. Este trabajo de investigación analiza, desde el punto de vistadel análisis económico, pero con un enfoque interdisciplinario, las transformaciones de la actividadproductiva vinculadas con el uso intensivo del conocimiento. Con la intención de evidenciarempíricamente como el conocimiento se ha revelado como un factor productivo y una mercancía deprogresiva importancia económica a partir de la segunda mitad de la década de los noventa en unamplio conjunto de países de la OCDE y partiendo de la literatura sobre los hechos y las fuentes delcrecimiento económico se han contrastado las siguientes hipótesis. Primera, la aplicación económicade las TIC define una economía basada en el conocimiento. Segunda, la masiva incorporación de lasTIC a la actividad económica define un nuevo esquema en la producción de conocimiento. Y, tercera,el conocimiento es un factor productivo determinante en la explicación del nivel y el crecimiento de laproductividad y, en consecuencia, del crecimiento económico.

Planning in partially observable domains is a notoriously difficult problem. However, in many real-world scenarios, planning can be simplified by decomposing the task into a hierarchy of smaller planning problems which, can then be solved independently of one another. Several approaches, mainly dealing with fully observable domains, have been proposed to optimize a plan that decomposes according to a hierarchy specified a priori. Some researchers have also proposed to discover hierarchies in fully observable domains. In this thesis, we investigate the problem of automatically discovering planning hierarchies in partially observable domains. The main advantage of discovering hierarchies is that, for a plan of a fixed size, hierarchical plans can be more expressive than non-hierarchical ones. Our solution frames the discovery and optimization of a hierarchical policy as a non-convex optimization problem. By encoding the hierarchical structure as variables of the optimization problem, we can automatically discover a hierarchy. Successfully solving the optimization problem therefore yields an optimal hierarchy and an optimal policy. We describe several techniques to solve the optimization problem. Namely, we provide results using general non-linear solvers, mixed-integer linear and non-linear solvers or a form of bounded hierarchical policy iteration. Our method is flexible enough to allow any parts of the hierarchy to be specified based on prior knowledge while letting the optimization discover the unknown parts. It can also discover hierarchical policies, including recursive policies, that are more compact (potentially infinitely fewer parameters).

Planning in partially observable domains is a notoriously difficult problem. However, in many real-world scenarios, planning can be simplified by decomposing the task into a hierarchy of smaller planning problems which, can then be solved independently of one another. Several approaches, mainly dealing with fully observable domains, have been proposed to optimize a plan that decomposes according to a hierarchy specified a priori. Some researchers have also proposed to discover hierarchies in fully observable domains. In this thesis, we investigate the problem of automatically discovering planning hierarchies in partially observable domains. The main advantage of discovering hierarchies is that, for a plan of a fixed size, hierarchical plans can be more expressive than non-hierarchical ones. Our solution frames the discovery and optimization of a hierarchical policy as a non-convex optimization problem. By encoding the hierarchical structure as variables of the optimization problem, we can automatically discover a hierarchy. Successfully solving the optimization problem therefore yields an optimal hierarchy and an optimal policy. We describe several techniques to solve the optimization problem. Namely, we provide results using general non-linear solvers, mixed-integer linear and non-linear solvers or a form of bounded hierarchical policy iteration. Our method is flexible enough to allow any parts of the hierarchy to be specified based on prior knowledge while letting the optimization discover the unknown parts. It can also discover hierarchical policies, including recursive policies, that are more compact (potentially infinitely fewer parameters).