In this thesis, we first propose a distributed QoS evaluation framework for Web services, named WS-DREAM. Inspired by the recent success of Web 2.0, our evaluation framework employs the concept of user-collaboration. In our framework, users in different geographic locations collaborative with each other to evaluate the target Web services and share their observed Web service QoS information. Based on our Web service evaluation framework, several large-scale distributed evaluations are conducted on 5,825 real-world Web services and the detailed evaluation results are publicly released for future research. / The predicted Web service QoS values can be employed to build fault-tolerant service-oriented systems. In the area of service computing, the cost for developing multiple redundant components is greatly reduced, since the functionally equivalent Web services are provided by different organizations and are accessible via Internet. Hence, based on the predicted QoS values, we propose two methods for building fault tolerance Web services. Firstly, we propose an adaptive fault tolerance strategy for Web services. Then, we present an optimal fault tolerance strategy selection framework for Web services. / Web service evaluation is time and resource consuming. Moreover, in some scenarios, Web service evaluation may not be possible (e.g., the Web service invocation is charged, too many service candidate, etc.). Therefore, Web service QoS prediction approaches are becoming more and more attractive. In order to prediction the Web service QoS as accurate as possible, we propose three prediction methods. The first prediction method employs the information of neighborhoods for making missing value prediction. The second method engages matrix factorization techniques to enhance the prediction accuracy. The third method predicts the ranking of the target Web services instead of QoS values. / Web service is becoming a major technique for building loosely-coupled distributed systems. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has been widely employed in e-business, e-government, automotive systems, multimedia services, process control, finance, and a lot of other domains. Quality-of-Service (QoS) is usually employed for describing the non-functional characteristics of Web services and employed as an important differentiating point of different Web services. With the prevalence of Web services on the Internet, Web service QoS management is becoming more and more important. / Zheng, Zibin. / Adviser: Michael R. Lyu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-198). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Diploma thesis is focused on volunteering in social services in Jindrichuv Hradec and potential developments. Work is based on mapping of current situation of volunteering in this region. This ascertained information is used for compilation a concept of project which should facilitate further development of volunteer activities. This work is supported thank author's experience which was gained during several years in volunteering.

Adolescents and Young Adults (AYAs) ages 15-39 years with cancer have received little attention in the health field, resulting in a lack of progress. The purposes of this study were to use the Tennessee Cancer Registry for all new cancer cases from 2004-2008 to determine the main types of cancer that affect AYAs in Tennessee and understand if there were any cancer types that warranted additional investigation. A total of 8,097 cancer cases were diagnosed in AYAs in Tennessee from 2004-2008. The main types were breast, melanomas, thyroid, lymphomas, and testicular, accounting for over 50% (N=4,269) of cancers in the sample. The incidence of melanoma and thyroid cancer was higher in Tennessee compared to the United States, deserving further examination. In Tennessee, females were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with melanomas (AIR 14.01, 95% CI 12.96-15.06) and thyroid cancers (AIR 13.39, CI 12.37-14.42) compared to males (AIR 8.08, CI 7.28-8.88 and AIR 3.50, CI 2.98-4.03. Regression models were used to further analyze melanoma and thyroid cancers, specifically looking at predictors of late stage diagnosis and treatment types, respectively. Individuals with government insurance were eight times (OR 8.41, CI 3.04-23.27) more likely to be diagnosed with late stage melanoma when compared with private or other types of insurance. Individuals diagnosed with regional or distant stage thyroid cancer compared to localized stage were three times (OR 3.01, CI 1.84-4.94) more likely to have a total thyroidectomy. These data suggest the need for additional cancer prevention and control efforts geared towards AYAs.

No description available.

This study investigated the association of race, age, and census tract area poverty level on breast cancer stage at diagnosis. The study was limited to women residing in Missouri, aged 18 years and older, diagnosed with breast cancer, and whose cases were reported to the Cancer Registry between 2003 and 2008. The risk, relative risk, and increased risk of late-stage at diagnosis by race, age, and census tract area poverty level were computed. We found that the odds of late-stage breast cancer among African-American women were higher when compared with their white counterpart (OR 1.433; 95% CI, 1.316, 1.560). In addition, the odds of advanced stage disease for women residing in high-poverty areas were greater than those living in low-poverty areas (OR 1.319; 95% CI 1.08; 1.201). To close the widening cancer disparities gap in Missouri, there is the need for effective and programmatic strategies to enable interventions to reach areas and populations most vulnerable to advanced stage breast cancer diagnosis.

No description available.

Abstract not available

Dynamic selection and composition of autonomous and loosely-coupled Web services is increasingly used to automate business processes. The typical long-running characteristic of business processes imposes new management challenges such as dynamic adaptation of running process instances. However, current process orchestration engines provide limited flexibility to dynamically adapt to changing runtime conditions (e.g., presence of faults). Additionally, current process specification languages exhibit some limitations regarding modularity of crosscutting management concerns. In particular, monitoring and adaptation logic is often scattered across several process definitions and intertwined with the business logic. This leads to monolithic and complex processes that are hard to understand, reuse, maintain, and evolve. To address these limitations, we developed a policy-based change management framework, named Manageable and Adaptable Service Compositions (MASC), to declaratively express crosscutting monitoring and process adaptation concerns in a separate and modular way. MASC policies use a set of simple, but flexible and relatively powerful, constructs to declaratively specify policies that govern: (1) discovery and selection of services to be used, (2) monitoring to detect the need for adaptation, (3) reconfiguration and adaptation of the process to handle special cases (e.g., context-dependant behaviour) and recover from typical faults in service-based processes. The identified constructs are executed by a lightweight service-oriented management middleware named MASC middleware. The adaptation is transparent because it preserves the original functional behaviour of the business process and does not tangle the adaptation logic with that of the business process. Additionally, policies do not have to be necessarily defined when designing the process; they can also be introduced later during deployment or at runtime. We implemented a MASC proof-of-concept prototype and evaluated it on Stock Trading case study scenarios. We conducted extensive studies to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed techniques and illustrate the benefits of our approach in providing adaptive composite services using the policy-based approach. Our performance and scalability studies indicate that MASC middleware is scalable and the introduced overhead are acceptable.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-205). Also available on the Internet.