Coordination, as the act of managing interdependencies between activities, is one of the central research issues in Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Our thesis is that the design of coordination mechanisms cannot rely on the principled construction of agents alone, but must also rely on the structure and other characteristics of the agents' task environment. For example, the presence of both uncertainty and high variance in a task structure can lead to better performance in coordination algorithms that adapt to each problem-solving episode. Furthermore, the structure and characteristics of an environment can and should be used as the central guide to the design of coordination mechanisms, and thus must be a part of our eventual goal, a comprehensive theory of coordination, partially developed here. Our approach is to first develop a framework, TAEMS, to directly represent the salient features of a computational task environment. The unique features of TAEMS include that it quantitatively represents complex task interrelationships, and that it divides a task environment model into generative, objective, and subjective levels. We then extend a standard methodology to use the framework and apply it to the first published analysis, explanation, and prediction of agent performance in a distributed sensor network problem. We predict the effect of adding more agents, changing the relative cost of communication and computation, and changing how the agents are organized. Finally, we show how coordination mechanisms can be designed to respond to particular features of the task environment structure by developing the Generalized Partial Global Planning (GPGP) family of algorithms. GPGP is a cooperative (team-oriented) coordination component that is unique because it is built of modular mechanisms that work in conjunction with, but do not replace, a fully functional agent with a local scheduler. GPGP differs from other previous approaches in that it is not tied to a single domain, it allows agent heterogeneity, it exchanges less global information, it communicates at multiple levels of abstraction, and it allows the use of a separate local scheduling component. We prove that GPGP can be adapted to different domains, and learn what its performance is through simulation in conjunction with a heuristic real-time local scheduler and randomly generated abstract task environments.

Clinical and applied health research is led by academics and often conducted in the National Health Service (NHS). Researchers work with Research Support Offices in both Universities and the NHS. The 2006 government health research strategy, Best Research for Best Health heralded dramatic changes for both the funding of, and support for, clinical and applied health research in England with the creation of new, quality driven, competitive funding streams and a new infrastructure to support research and researchers. One of the results of these changes was to drive NHS and University Research Support Offices closer together, with some institutions forming close partnerships, including joint offices to deliver support for clinical and applied health research. Little is known about the models of partnership working between the universities and the NHS and the factors that drove the decisions to create partnership Research Support Offices. Therefore it is important to map current arrangements and describe the factors that contribute to those arrangements. Firstly a survey of University Research Support Offices based in universities with a medical school was undertaken to provide a snapshot of the structures and functions of those Research Support Offices. Then semistructured interviews were undertaken with a sample of staff working in joint NHS/University and separate NHS and University Research Support Offices to gain a deeper understanding of why the Research Support Offices were structured and functioned in the ways that they did. The main findings from this work were: there are no common structures, functions, or systems and few common processes in place to support clinical and applied health researchers across England; advice and help for navigating the complex regulatory environment currently underpinning clinical and applied health research in England is fragmented; three models of working between NHS and university Research Support Offices were identified; joint offices, collaborative offices and separate offices. The drivers for joint working between NHS and University Research Support Offices are compelling. However, the barriers to working closely can be immense if not carefully considered. Those contemplating working in partnership need to ensure that they understand what the partnership aims to deliver and all partners need to commit to a shared vision. In addition, practical issues such as the systems to be used, the physical location of staff and employment issues need to be addressed in advance before meaningful joint working can occur.

<p> This research advances a water infrastructure vulnerability index (WIVI) in order to assess levels of susceptibility within the water sector and its respective infrastructure system(s). WIVI provides an assessment tool that can assist decision makers and policymakers in making better investment decisions supported by a prudent data-driven instrument. The index is dependent upon individual water utility data that are publically available, making it a transparent process that is repeatable and reproducible. Normalization of the data was used to establish baselines, and indicators were developed to represent the different levels of a functional water utility. WIVI provides a quantifiable snapshot of a water utility&rsquo;s past and present state of vulnerability. WIVI is a supportive tool that assists in data-driven decision management, which will determine the direction and allocation of financial infrastructure upgrades pertaining to a water system&rsquo;s need to rehabilitate, replace, or abandon current water system infrastructure.</p>

Zhang, Lucy Chen, Master of Public Policy, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 2013. Policy Evaluation: A Case Study of Genome Canada Programming, 2000-2011. Supervisor: Dr. Peter W. B. Phillips The policy evaluation literature on research programing generally focuses on the cost-benefit of different choices in research systems. This thesis applies evaluation tools to assess the fit between project allocations and the strategic goals of Genome Canada, a major research funding organization in Canada. Genome Canada (GC) was established in April, 2000, to provide funding and information resources related to genomics research. The research targets many key areas, such as health, agriculture, environment, forestry, energy, mining and fisheries. Since then the scientific community has partnered with government, the private sector, and international organizations to fund research projects on genomics related subjects. Four open competitions (I, II, III and Applied Genomics in Bio-products and Crops or ABC), combined with a wide array of more targeted projects, have collectively been allocated more than C$2 billion in total investment for the 2000-2014 period. This study assesses how well these research projects fit the stated goals of Genome Canada. The study assesses the fit between the goals and research investment decisions of GC. As a first step in this research, we conducted a review of Genome Canada operations to develop the background understanding of the system and its structure. After reviewing the goals, structure, selection processes and progress reports, we found that there was no explicit assessment of the fit between the stated goals and resource allocation decisions. This study targets to fill this area. Second, we investigated the methods used by GC to develop and implement their goals. Once we understood these methods, we developed a research approach to assess the fit between the goals and the outputs. The model was built to test each project against the stated overall program objectives, namely to: develop and implement a coordinated strategy for the technology in Canada; bring together industry, governments, universities, research hospitals and the public to support large-scale genomics and proteomics research projects; provide accessibility to science & technology platforms to researchers; and assist in attracting co-funding for projects from both domestic and international investors. Third, we determined that the review processes contain scientific, financial and management criteria. By using the STATA tool, we tested the relationship between the stated goals of the organization and the share of funds allocated to specific projects both in the total pool of investments and the open competitions. The analysis revealed that the overall fit for the entire investment program between 2001 and 2011 was about 35%, which is quite reasonable for such an analysis. We found the most important variable affecting resource allocation was the quality of the principal investigator. Other stated goals of GC were either less important or insignificant. By segmenting the analysis into the open-competition investments alone, we discovered the fit deteriorated (R2 of 34% dropped to 22%), which suggests the directed investments are a stronger fit with the goals. While we could not conclusively determine the cause, it might be attributed to either weaknesses in the competitive process or a particularly effective and strategic effort by Genome Canada staff. Further analysis would be needed to determine this.

Ralph Katz, Thomas J. Allen. / "February 1983." / Bibliography: p. 31-32.

Subjective time perception has received considerable attention in the past decade in management research. Organizational behavioral researchers increasingly emphasize the necessity of introducing a new perspective, the temporal perspective, to explore individual willingness to engage in discretionary behavior (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive behavior), as behavior entailing a temporal conflict of interest (e.g., short-term individual cost versus long-term individual and collective benefit). Temporal focus, defined as the degree to which people devote their attention to perceptions of the past, present, and future (Shipp, Edwards, & Lambert, 2009), is a core concept in the study of subjective time perception. However, most research on temporal focus is descriptive and vague in terms of explicating the causal mechanisms from temporal focus to individual decision-making and behavior. In this study, I use construal level theory to explain how temporal focus affects individual levels of mental construal, which in turn influences discretionary behavioral choices. Specifically, I propose that the effect of temporal focus on construal level is dependent on individual levels of need for cognition (NFC), defined as people's tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity (Cacioppo & Petty, 1984). Specifically, when high NFC persons reflect on their past, they recall, re-experience, and reanalyze the facts and details stored in their memory, resulting in a concrete mindset (low construal level). In contrast, when people with low NFC reflect on their past, they only retain or extract the general experiences, feelings, and lessons, leading to an abstract mindset (high construal level). Regarding the focus on the present, when high NFC people think about their current situation, they tend to interpret every detail and the context, leading to a constrained and narrow mindset (low construal level). Conversely, when low NFC people think about their present, they are less analytical and tend to be receptive about what is happening, resulting in an abstract mindset (high construal level). Regarding the focus of the future, when high NFC people think about their future, without involving concrete facts and details, they are able to predict global trends and aim at the superordinate goal (high construal level). In contrast, low NFC people who are reluctant to analyze, predict, and plan the future tend to simply extend the current subordinate goal into the future or just enter "daydreaming" mode (low construal level). Based on CLT, I further propose that temporal distance serves as a moderator exaggerating the abovementioned interactive effects of temporal focus and need for cognition. Specifically, when individuals higher in NFC think of their remote (versus recent) past, past focus has a stronger negative effect on their construal level; when those individuals who are lower in NFC think about their remote (versus recent) past, past focus has a stronger positive effect on their construal level. Similarly, when individuals with stronger NFC think of their remote (versus recent) future, future focus has a stronger positive effect on their construal level; in contrast, when individuals who have lower level of need for cognition think about the remote (versus recent) future, future focus has a stronger negative effect on their construal level. Regarding the interaction effect of different temporal foci, I argue that for individuals with low NFC, a temporal profile consisting of low past, low present, and high future focus results in the lowest level of mental construal; for individuals with a high need for cognition, low past focus, low present focus, and high future focus result in the highest mental construal level. Finally, I propose that high construal level leads to more OCB and less CWB by increasing individuals' ability to delay gratification (to forgo immediate desires for the sake of long-term rewards) and self-control (to resist short-term temptations and to refrain from impulsivity). I conduct a lab experiment (study 1) and a field survey (study 2) to test the proposed relationships in the model. In study 1, by recruiting 218 undergraduate students and randomly assigning them to one of three conditions where they are asked to focus on a specified temporal period of either past, present, or future, I establish the associations among manipulated temporal focus, need for cognition, and construal level. In study 2, I survey 291 employees and their immediate supervisors three times to test the entire model. The findings of the two studies confirm almost all of the hypotheses. In the section devoted to discussion, I further explore the data, findings, and theoretical and practical contributions. Finally, I discuss how this work has limitations and identify several directions for future research.

Conferencia ETD2017, realizada en Washington DC, 7-9 de Agosto de 2017. / In the last three years Peru has gone through changes in the process of strengthening and disseminating open access, especially regarding digital theses and research or governmental data. Enactment of Law 30035, which establishes and regulates the Open Access National Digital Repository of Science, Technology and Innovation; the Regulations of the National Registry of Research Papers Submitted for Academic Degrees and Professional Titles, RENATI; the National Strategy for Open Governmental Data, Peru 2017-2021; and the Peruvian Open Governmental Data Model constitute all a legal framework that fosters open access. Within this context, since 2013 the Peruvian University for Applied Science, UPC, has implemented policies aimed to foster open access to academic and scientific information, as well to support the use of interoperable technological platforms. As a result, in March of 2013, the UPC Academic Repository was published. And, recently, UPC adopted as mandatory the open access publication of bachelor’s and master’s theses. In the last three years, the UPC Academic Repository ranked among the top in the Webometrics Repositories (Peru), and showed a significant improvement at the Latin American and World level: At the national level, it went from being ranked 13th in January 2013 to 3rd in January 2017. Worldwide, it went from being ranked 1,516th in January 2013 to 849th in January 2017. In Latin America, in January 2017 it was ranked 62nd among 217 repositories. All actions implemented have been complemented with the following strategies: the open access publication of the theses-related data; the use of diverse metadata standards —Dublin Core Qualifiers, ETD-MS, DRIVER 2.0 and OpenAIRE—; the use of the OAI-PMH interoperable protocol; the implementation of identifiers of digital content —DOI and Handle— and identifiers for users —ORCID and Google Profile—; and curation of digital content. Future activities will be oriented to increase visibility of the UPC repository contents. To this end, we have proposed the following: to use DOI in bachelor’s and master’s theses; increase the number of bibliographical records for theses and their data; monitor and assess consultations to UPC theses as shown by national repositories ALICIA and RENATI; and, finally, implement an automated system for managing theses integrated into the UPC Academic Repository.

Salinity stress predisposed cultivar Penncross creeping bentgrass to cottony blight caused by Pythium aphanidennatum at two temperature regimes. At 25-32 C, complete necrosis of all inoculated plants occurred at electrical conductivity (Ec) levels from 4.3-7.1 ds/m in 2 days, whereas at Ec levels of 0.5-2.8 ds/m death occurred within 3 days. At 25-27 C, complete necrosis of all inoculated plants occurred at Ec levels from 4.3-7.1 ds /m within a period of 5 days; no death was observed in control or inoculated plants at an Ec level of 0.5 ds/m. Increased salinity levels apparently affected the bentgrass rather than P. aphanidermatum. Mycelia' growth rate of the fungus was increased only slightly by salinity levels up to 7.1 ds/m. Zoospore production of P. aphanidermatum and two other species of Pythium decreased with increasing salinity levels up to 7.1 ds/m; production was completely inhibited at 14.2 ds/m.

No description available.

The Arizona Meteorological Network provides weather-based estimates of reference evapotranspiration (ETo) for much of southern, central and western Arizona. A simple 3-step procedure to convert ETo data into reliable estimates of turfgrass water use is described The procedure requires that AZMET ETo values be multiplied by a correction factor known as a crop coefficient (Kc). The selection of the Kc depends on the type and height of the turfgrass as well as desired turf quality. The procedure is well adapted for use on computers.