In many regions of North America, Europe, and Australia, wood utility poles are used as main and secondary structural members for the support of electrical distribution and transmission lines. In the province of Ontario alone there are over 40000 H-frame, 6000 Gulfport, and thousands of single pole structures constructed of over 2 million wood utility poles (Pandey et al. 2010b). Currently, utility companies report an increasing number of woodpecker damage incidents on in-service utility poles (HONI 2010). In addition, many aging poles have woodpecker damage in combination with wood decay. Both these forms of degradation cause strength reductions in utility poles, making their structural integrity questionable. This has raised concerns regarding the safety of utility maintenance workers and the public, and the dependability of the electrical network. In response to these concerns, Hydro One Networks Incorporated (HONI) initiated a research project on the effect of woodpecker damage and wood decay on wood utility pole strength. The objective of the research was to develop methods of quantifying the strength reduction caused by woodpecker damage and wood decay. This information was then used to develop in-service assessment methods for determination of whether pole replacement is necessary when specific levels of woodpecker damage and wood decay are present. By developing better assessment methods, in-service utility poles will not be unnecessarily replaced, reducing maintenance costs. In this study, three analytical models were developed that predicted the theoretical cross-sectional strength reduction caused by the presence of woodpecker damage. A bending failure model was developed since, in the structural design of utility poles, bending moment stresses are known to be the critical design parameter. It was decided that the significance of shear stress in a cross-section should also be considered since the presence of woodpecker damage could cause shear stresses to be a significant parameter. As a result, a shear-bending and a shear failure model was developed to determine the significance of shear stress on cross-section behaviour. These models were developed for analysis purposes and were verified by the subsequent experimental program. A total of 28 new and in-service utility poles were received from HONI for experimental testing. The new poles were received in as-new condition, while the in-service poles received had varying levels of woodpecker damage and wood decay. The poles received were cut into 4.25 m lengths for beam testing. A single new pole and in-service specimen from each pole was tested as a control specimen without woodpecker damage to obtain reference utility pole bending strengths. The remainder of the new pole specimens were mechanically introduced with woodpecker damage, while the remainder of the in-service specimens were tested with natural woodpecker damage. The tested specimens were analyzed and the results were compared with the woodpecker damage analytical model predictions. Results indicated that the effect of woodpecker damage is well modelled by the woodpecker damage analytical models. Overall, the bending failure analytical model was preferable for cross-section analysis due to the accuracy of the model predictions and the simplicity of required calculations. It was evident from the experimental program that the presence of woodpecker damage can severely reduce the strength of utility poles, making replacement necessary according to CSA C22.3 No. 1 Cl. 8.3.1.3 (2006a). In-service specimen experimental results indicated that if wood decay is detected in wood utility poles, severe reduction in wood strength has occurred and the utility pole should be replaced. Analytical and experimental results were used to develop three application methods for determining whether utility pole replacement is necessary due to the presence of woodpecker damage. These three methods include the simplified method, the chart method, and the case-specific method. The simplified method allows determination of whether a utility pole should be replaced based only on knowledge of the most severe level of woodpecker damage present in a pole. The chart method takes into account additional factors such as the diameter of the pole at the location of the woodpecker damage and the width of the hole opening. The case-specific method is advantageous since it accounts for the parameters used in the chart method and allows the location of woodpecker damage along the length of a pole to be accounted for. The simplified and chart methods are preferable since they are relatively simple and easy to implement in the field. The case-specific method requires a full structural analysis of the utility pole in question to be undertaken and is useful for more accurately assessing whether replacement is necessary. These three methods show how the research completed can be used for improved assessment of in-service utility poles resulting in reduced unnecessary pole replacement and maintenance costs.

Thesis (M.S. in computer science)--Washington State University, December 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-109).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1949. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [342]-346).

Pain has a significant burden on individuals and society; however challenges remain in the measurement of pain-related utility. Research was conducted to design a measurement framework for valuing pain states, for use in policy making. Within the theoretical framework of utility theory, the bio-psychosocial model of pain was used to select co-variates impacting the pain-utility relationship. The applicability of two utility theories (prospect theory and hedonist theory) to pain was evaluated, with EQ-5D-5L and utility values for scenarios of different pain intensities elicited using time-trade-off (TTO) and willingness-to-pay (WTP). Prospect theory was tested using the pain-utility relationship in 600 members of the general population (‘genpop’) by examining the presence of a reference point and the relationship between pain decreases/increases (gains/losses) and utility. Hedonist theory was tested through examination of predicted, experienced and remembered utilities, and ‘peak-end’ effects, principally using data from 56 university athletes experiencing training pain. Pain intensity had the greatest influence on EQ-5D values, with present and worst pain showing additive effects. Duration of the pain episode, general health, mood, age and gender also had significant impacts. In addition to pain intensity, TTO ‘genpop’ models included age, income, experienced pain and general health; WTP ‘genpop’ models included residual pain, age and income. The TTO and WTP models did not fit the athletes’ data well and alternative models were developed. The data did not confirm prospect theory: a reference point could not be identified (‘genpop’ and athletes) and the shape of the utility curve contradicted theory (athletes). Results for hedonist theory were inconclusive: predicted utility was consistently higher than experienced utility in athletes but the relationship depended on pain levels in ‘genpop’; remembered and experienced utility differed despite being consistent for pain levels; peak-end effects were not found. Further research in controlled environments is recommended for further theory testing.

In my thesis, in the theoretical part I deal with atrial fibrillation. I also deal with management of atrial fibrillation treatment. In the paper I explain the basic principles of pharmaco-economic evaluation in the Czech Republic, on the basis of which laws these pharmacological interventions are evaluated and who are in the Czech Republic. In the work I present cost breakdown and what are the most commonly used pharmaco-economic analyzes. In the practical part I will apply the theoretical knowledge. I have developed cost utility analysis based on available clinical evidence - randomized clinical trials ARISTOTLE (Granger, 2011), RE-LY (Connolly, 2009), ROCKET AF (Patel, 2011). I made an indirect comparison of the total benefits of NOACs. In the baseline scenario, I have calculated QALY to evaluate the benefits of effectiveness, safety and reduction of mortality. I have also dealt with a bleeding-related scenario. The ICER's greatest contribution to the public healthcare system has shown the active substance apixaban in both scenarios. I added the results and confirmed the clinical results of a recent, robust, retrospective study by Mayo Clinic (Yao, 2016).

Economic explanations tend to view individuals as acting to satisfy their preferences, so that when given a choice between goods, individuals choose those goods which have greater utility for them – they choose those goods which they believe can best satisfy their preferences in the circumstances at hand. In this thesis, I investigate how utility theory works when it is used to explain behaviour. In theory, utility is a positive concept. It is intended to describe and explain an individual’s behaviour without judging or justifying it. It also seems to be regarded as non-hypothetical, for it explains an individual’s behaviour in terms of preferences which need not be shared by others, but may be wholly particular to her. This implies a distinctive way of approaching people’s behaviour as isolated from and immune to the judgements of a community, for utility cannot be used as a common standard by which we judge an individual’s behaviour as better or worse, appropriate or inappropriate. I argue that this theoretical treatment of utility is substantially different from the practice of using utility to explain behaviour. In the first place, when utility is used to explain behaviour as preference-guided, it treats this behaviour as rational action. An explanation of rational action is, however, necessarily governed by the instrumental principle. This principle is normative – it stipulates the correct relation between a person’s means and her ends, rather than simply describing an existing relation. The principle is also non-hypothetical – our commitment to the principle does not rely on the possession of particular ends, but on having ends in general. The instrumental principle therefore acts as a common standard for reasoning about how to act, so that when we explain an agent’s behaviour as rational action, we expect that her action will conform to standards that we all share in virtue of having ends. Thus, I contend, in order to explain the rational actions of an individual, marginal utility necessarily appeals to the judgements of a community.

Den som är sakägare i en förrättning eller process har rätt att föra sin talan. Det vill säga rättatt inkomma med yrkanden, överklaga beslut och i vissa fall rätt till ersättning. Vidlantmäteriförrättningar, enligt bland annat ledningsrättslagen, avgör förrättningslantmätarenvilka som är sakägare och får föra sin talan i förrättningen.Ledningsrätt gör det möjligt för en ledningshavare att dra fram och ha sina allmännyttigaledningar i annans mark. Lantmäterimyndigheten prövar frågan vid en ledningsrättsförrättningenligt bestämmelser i ledningsrättslagen (fortsätt LL) och i ett antal frågor blir dessutomfastighetsbildningslagen (fortsatt FBL) tillämplig.Vilka som ska vara sakägare vid en ledningsrättsförrättning behandlas i LL 18 § jämte FBL 4kap. 11 §. Bestämmelsen i FBL stadgar att förrättningslantmätaren ska utreda vilka som ärsakägare i förrättningen. Bestämmelsen i LL stadgar att rättighetshavare, med rätt till fastighetsom kommer att belastas av ledningsrätt, ska vara sakägare om deras rätt berörs. De syfte ochfrågeställningar som formulerats i arbetet går ut på att undersöka hur man avgör om någonsrätt berörs – och hur omfattande förrättningslantmätarens utredningsplikt är. Ett perspektiv avrättsekonomi har också adderats till undersökningen.Med utgångspunkt i syfte och frågeställningar har metoden utformats. För att undersöka hurlagstiftaren avsåg att sakägarbegreppet skulle tolkas och hanteras har förarbeten undersökts.Så även de vägledande rättsfall som finns. För att se hur begreppet tillämpas i praktiken har 40genomförda ledningsrättsförrättningar undersökts. Vidare har förrättningslantmätare ochtekniska råd intervjuats.Resultatet från undersökta förrättningsakterna visar att hanteringen av sakägarbegreppet ärmycket varierande. I vissa förrättningar är alla rättighetshavare, vars rättighet korsas sakägare.I andra är ingen av dessa sakägare. I intervjuerna förstärks bilden av att begreppet tolkas olika  och är svårt att tolka. Det finns också en varierande syn på hur strikt tolkningen ska göras ochhur omfattande utredningsplikten är.Förarbetena ger inte mycket svar i frågan om hur begreppet ska tolkas. Däremot finns ett antalrättsfall som vägledning. I rättsfall där ledningsrätten kommer att gå in på upplåtet utrymmeför en ledning (upplåten med avtalsservitut eller ledningsrätt), har domstolen ansett atträttighetshavarna ska anses vara berörda.Utifrån ett perspektiv av rättssäkerhet kan sägas att det ska vara förutsebart hur lagen kommeratt tolkas. I dessa fall skiljer sig tillämpningen åt för mycket för att vara förutsebar, något somtyder på att lagrummets utformning inte är tillräckligt tydligt för att uppfylla ett rättssäkertförfarande.Ett förtydligande eller en omformulering behövs – både ifråga om hur mycket som ska utredasoch ifråga om tolkningen av begreppet berörs. / Interested parties in a cadastral procedure or process holds the right to take legal actions. Incadastral procedures such as utility easement procedures, it is the cadastral surveyor decidingon who should be considered an interested party.Utility easement is a way for a proprietor of utility easement to ensure its right to have publicutilities in someone else’s land. In Sweden it is the cadastral authority determining if utilityeasement can be formed in a utility order according to the Utility Easement Act.The legal framework in deciding which ones should be considered as interested parties in autility easement procedure are to be found in the Utility Easement Act and the PropertyFormation Act. According to these the cadastral surveyor is responsible for investigating whoshould be interested parties in the procedure. It also says that a right-holder, with the right tospace on a property that will be claimed by the utility easement should be an interested party ifhis right is concerned.To examine how the legislator intended the law to be interpreted, the legislative history hasbeen investigated. Also, cases from court regarding this specific question has been studied forguidance in the interpretation. To investigate how cadastral surveyors’ apply the concept inutility easement procedures a study of cadastral documents has been done. In addition to thisseveral cadastral surveyors and technical judges have been interviewed to convey their viewand approach to the concept.The result shows that who is considered an interested party in the utility easement proceduresis handled differently between different cadastral procedures. The interviews reinforce thepicture of a concept that is difficult to interpret and therefore has a varying interpretation.The legislative history does not describe how to interpret the concept of interested parties. Butaccording to the cases, the court seem to have a quite low threshold for when a right-holdershould be considered as an interested party. The differences in how the concept of interested  parties according to the Utility Easement Act are interpreted indicates an inadequatelegislation.The formation of the concept of interested parties is vague which opens for a lot of differentinterpretations. A clarification is well needed, and a reformulation would be even better –both in the interpretation of the concept interested parties and the cadastral surveyors’ duty toinvestigate.

In this dissertation, we consider the problem of scheduling and synchronization of distributable real-time threads --- Real-Time CORBA's first-class abstraction for programming real-time, multi-node sequential behaviors. Distributable real-time threads can be scheduled, broadly, using two paradigms: node independent scheduling, in which nodes independently construct thread schedules, based on node-level decomposition of distributable thread (or DT) scheduling parameters, and collaborative scheduling, in which nodes collaborate to construct system-wide thread schedules, which may or may not involve scheduling parameter decomposition. While significant literature exists on node independent scheduling, little is known about collaborative scheduling and its concomitant tradeoffs. We design three collaborative scheduling algorithms, called ACUA, QBUA, and DQBUA. ACUA uses theory of consensus and QBUA uses theory of quorums for distributable thread schedule construction. DQBUA extends QBUA with lock-based, local and distributed concurrency control. The algorithms consider a model where distributable threads arrive arbitrarily, have time/utility function time constraints, access resources in an arbitrary way (e.g., arbitrary lock acquire/release order, arbitrary nestings), and are subject to arbitrary node crash failures and message losses. We analytically establish several properties of the algorithms including probabilistic end-to-end termination time satisfactions, timeliness optimality during underloads, bounded exception handling time, and correctness of the algorithms in partially synchronous systems. We implement distributable real-time threads in the Linux kernel as a first-class programming and scheduling abstraction. The resulting kernel, called ChronOS, provides application interfaces for creating and manipulating distributable threads, as well as kernel interfaces and mechanisms for scheduling them (using both independent and collaborative approaches). ChronOS also has failure detector mechanisms for detecting and recovering from distributable thread failures. We implement the proposed scheduling algorithms and their competitors in ChronOS and compare their behavior. Our studies reveal that the collaborative scheduling algorithms are superior to independent scheduling algorithms for certain thread sets, in particular, when thread sections have significantly varying execution time. This variability, especially if the variability is not consistent among the threads, may cause each node to make conflicting decisions in the absence of global information. We observe that collaborative schedulers outperform independent schedulers (e.g., EDF augmented with PIP) in terms of accrued utility by as much as 75%. We identify distributed dependencies as one of the major sources of overhead in collaborative scheduling. In particular, the cost of distributed lock-based concurrency control (e.g., lock management, distributed deadlock detection/resolution) can significantly reduce the problem space for which collaborative scheduling is beneficial. To mitigate this, we consider the use of software transactional memory (or STM), an optimistic, non-blocking synchronization alternative to lock-based concurrency control which has been extensively studied in non real-time contexts. We consider distributable real-time threads with STM concurrency control, and develop techniques for analyzing and bounding their end-to-end response times on distributed single-processor and distributed multiprocessor systems. We also develop contention management techniques, a key component of STM, which are driven by threads' real-time scheduling parameters, and establish their tradeoffs against non-real-time contention managers. / Ph. D.

This dissertation presents a class of utility accrual scheduling and synchronization algorithms for dynamic, single and multiprocessor real-time systems. Dynamic real-time systems operate in environments with run-time uncertainties including those on activity execution times and arrival behaviors. We consider the time/utility function (or TUF) timing model for specifying application time constraints, and the utility accrual (or UA) timeliness optimality criteria of satisfying lower bounds on accrued activity utility, and maximizing the total accrued utility. Efficient TUF/UA scheduling algorithms exist for single processors---e.g., the Resource-constrained Utility Accrual scheduling algorithm (RUA), and the Dependent Activity Scheduling Algorithm (DASA). However, they all use lock-based synchronization. To overcome shortcomings of lock-based (e.g., serialized object access, increased run-time overhead, deadlocks), we consider non-blocking synchronization including wait-free and lock-free synchronization. We present a buffer-optimal, scheduler-independent wait-free synchronization protocol (the first such), and develop wait-free versions of RUA and DASA. We also develop their lock-free versions, and upper bound their retries under the unimodal arbitrary arrival model. The tradeoff between wait-free, lock-free, and lock-based is fundamentally about their space and time costs. Wait-free sacrifices space efficiency in return for no additional time cost, as opposed to the blocking time of lock-based and the retry time of lock-free. We show that wait-free RUA/DASA outperform lock-based RUA/DASA when the object access times of both approaches are the same, e.g., when the shared data size is so large that the data copying process dominates the object access time of two approaches. We derive lower bounds on the maximum accrued utility that is possible with wait-free over lock-based. Further, we show that when maximum sojourn times under lock-free RUA/DASA is shorter than under lock-based, it is a necessary condition that the object access time of lock-free is shorter than that of lock-based. We also establish the maximum increase in activity utility that is possible under lock-free and lock-based. Multiprocessor TUF/UA scheduling has not been studied in the past. For step TUFs, periodic arrivals, and under-loads, we first present a non-quantum-based, optimal scheduling algorithm called Largest Local Remaining Execution time-tasks First (or LLREF) that yields the optimum total utility. We then develop another algorithm for non-step TUFs, arbitrary arrivals, and overloads, called the global Multiprocessor Utility Accrual scheduling algorithm (or gMUA). We show that gMUA lower bounds each activity's accrued utility, as well as the system-wide, total accrued utility. We consider lock-based, lock-free, and wait-free synchronization under LLREF and gMUA. We derive LLREF's and gMUA's minimum-required space cost for wait-free synchronization using our space-optimal wait-free algorithm, which also applies for multiprocessors. We also develop lock-free versions of LLREF and gMUA with bounded retries. While the tradeoff between wait-free LLREF/gMUA versus lock-based LLREF/gMUA is similar to that for the single processor case, that between lock-free LLREF/gMUA and lock-based LLREF/gMUA hinges on the cost of the lock-free retry, blocking time under lock-based, and the operating system overhead. / Ph. D.

This dissertation first presents an uniprocessor real-time scheduling algorithm called the Generic Benefit Scheduling algorithm (or GBS). GBS solves a previously open real-time scheduling problem: scheduling activities subject to arbitrarily shaped, time/utility function (TUF) time constraints and mutual exclusion resource constraints. A TUF specifies the utility of completing an application activity as an application- or situation-specific function of when that activity completes. GBS considers the scheduling objective of maximizing system-wide, total accrued utility, while respecting mutual exclusion constraints. Since this problem is NP-hard, GBS heuristically computes schedules in polynomial-time. The performance of the GBS algorithm is evaluated through simulation and through an implementation on a Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX)-compliant real-time operating system. The simulation studies and implementation measurements reveal that GBS performs close to, if not better than existing algorithms for the cases that they apply. Further, the results verify the effectiveness of GBS for its unique model. We also analytically establish timeliness and non-timeliness properties of GBS including bounds on activity utilities and mutual exclusion. GBS targets real-time systems that are subject to significant non-determinism inherent in their operating environments e.g., completely unknown activity arrivals. When system uncertainties can be stochastically characterized (e.g., stochastic activity arrivals and execution times), it is possible to provide stochastic assurances on timeliness behavior. The dissertation also presents algorithmic solutions to fundamental assurance problems in TUF-driven real-time systems, including stochastically satisfying individual, activity utility lower bounds and system-wide, total utility lower bounds. The algorithmic solutions include algorithms for processor bandwidth allocation and TUF scheduling. While bandwidth allocation algorithms allocate processor bandwidth share to activities to satisfy utility lower bounds, TUF scheduling algorithms schedule activities to maximize accrued utility. The algorithmic solutions and analysis are extended with a class of lock-free and lock-based resource access protocols to satisfy mutual exclusion constraints. We show that satisfying utility lower bounds with lock-based resource access protocols does not imply doing so with the lock-free scheme, and vice versa. Finally, the dissertation presents a rule-based framework for trading off assurance requirements on utility lower bound satisfaction. / Ph. D.