A Statistical Approach to Thermal Management of Data Centers Under Steady State and System Perturbations

Temperature control for a large data center is both important and expensive. On the one hand, many of the components produce a great deal of heat, and on the other hand, many of the components require temperatures below a fairly low threshold for reliable operation. A statistical framework is proposed within which the behavior of a large cooling system can be modeled and forecast under both steady state and perturbations. This framework is based upon an extension of multivariate Gaussian autoregressive hidden Markov models (HMMs). The estimated parameters of the fitted model provide useful summaries of the overall behavior of and relationships within the cooling system. Predictions under system perturbations are useful for assessing potential changes and improvements to be made to the system. Many data centers have far more cooling capacity than necessary under sensible circumstances, thus resulting in energy inefficiencies. Using this model, predictions for system behavior after a particular component of the cooling system is shut down or reduced in cooling power can be generated. Steady-state predictions are also useful for facility monitors. System traces outside control boundaries flag a change in behavior to examine. The proposed model is fit to data from a group of air conditioners within an enterprise data center from the IT industry. The fitted model is examined, and a particular unit is found to be underutilized. Predictions generated for the system under the removal of that unit appear very reasonable. Steady-state system behavior also is predicted well.     

居民参与城市生态文明建设的影响因素分析及对策建议——以哈尔滨市问卷调查为例

随着我国城市化进程的加快,城市已成为生态文明建设的重点。城市居民作为城市生态文明建设的主体,其参与情况决定着城市生态文明建设的成败。通过对哈尔滨市进行问卷抽样调查,并利用SAS统计分析软件进行描述性统计分析和影响因素关联性分析,结果表明:越是在国企、事业单位工作的年轻居民对垃圾的可循环回收情况越了解,越愿意将垃圾回收资金作为小区建设资金;虽然年轻居民比年长居民更愿意配合垃圾分类,但是目前进行垃圾分类的却常常是年长的已婚居民;文化程度越高、居住时间越短的年轻居民越倾向于自己出资开展小区绿化工作;文化程度越高的居民越注意绿色标识;在人均月收入较高的居民中,已婚有孩子的居民在购买家电时不会考虑节能因素,未婚的居民出门经常不带购物袋。为此,需要加强舆论宣传,完善个人信用体系建设,建立可行的居民参与制度和有效的社区组织制度,提高居民之间以及居民对社区的信任程度,从而促使更多的居民为了获得良好的社区环境而参与到城市生态文明建设中来。     

Conditional approval: discussion points from the PSI conditional approval expert group

The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products has recently completed the consultation of a draft guidance on how to implement conditional approval. This route of application is available for orphan drugs, emergency situations and serious debilitating or life-threatening diseases. Although there has been limited experience in implementing conditional approval to date, PSI (Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry) sponsored a meeting of pharmaceutical statisticians with an interest in the area to discuss potential issues. This article outlines the issues raised and resulting discussions, based on the group's interpretation of the legislation. Conditional approval seems to fit well with the accepted regulatory strategy in HIV. In oncology, conditional approval may be most likely when (a) compelling phase II data are available using accepted clinical outcomes (e.g. progression/recurrence-free survival or overall survival) and Phase III has been planned or started, or (b) when data are available using a surrogate endpoint for clinical outcome (e.g. response rate or biochemical measures) from a single-arm study in rare tumours with high response, compared with historical data. The use of interim analyses in Phase III for supporting conditional approval raises some challenging issues regarding dissemination of information, maintenance of blinding, potential introduction of bias, ethics, switching, etc.     

If You Go Down to the Woods Today: Infants’ Distress During a Teddy Bear's Picnic in Relation to Peer Relations and Later Emotional Problems

Infants’ emotional reactions to an unusual event were assessed at a simulated birthday party during which two costumed characters enacted a Teddy Bear's Picnic. Two hundred and fifty‐eight firstborn infants in a representative British community sample were observed at a mean age of 12.8 months in the presence of their parents and other participating families, in a laboratory sitting room decorated with balloons and banners. The picnic scenario was followed by free play with the other participating infants. At a mean of 36 months of age, mothers, fathers, and another informant who knew the child well completed the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL). The majority of infants showed no vocal distress during the picnic scenario. A minority of infants expressed strong distress, which was correlated with elevated heart rate and production of cortisol. Infants who were not distressed were more likely to direct social behavior to their peers and especially likely to use physical force against peers. In comparison with strongly distressed and nondistressed infants, those who had shown mild distress during the picnic scenario were least likely to manifest later emotional problems. This pattern was particularly marked for boys. Taken together, the findings indicate that infants’ strong distress during naturalistic encounters that are meant to be entertaining can suppress sociability and might indicate risk for subsequent emotional problems.     

Older people's experiences of community life: patterns of neighbouring in three urban areas

This paper examines changes to the community life of older people living in three urban areas of England: Bethnal Green, Wolverhampton and Woodford. All three were the subject of classic community studies in the 1940s and 1950s, these providing rich material about the lives of groups such as elderly people. Using this earlier research as a baseline, the paper presents data on how the experience of living in urban neighbourhoods has changed for older people in the intervening years. The article reviews the relationship between elderly people and their neighbours, drawing on quantitative as well as qualitative data. In conclusion, the paper identifies a number of general arguments pointing to the value of a community and locality perspective for understanding the impact of social changes on later life.     

Financial Development,Institutional Quality and Poverty Reduction: Worldwide Evidence

Social Indicators Research - There is a burgeoning literature on wealth in the rich world. It mainly focuses on the top. This paper shows that assets can also matter for the analysis of poverty and...     

Everyday incivility: towards a benchmark

Commonplace incivility is a topic of longstanding interest within social theory, perhaps best exemplified by Goffman's studies of the interaction order. Nevertheless we know very little about its distribution and expression in everyday life. Current empirical work is dominated by criminological agendas. These tend to focus on more serious and illegal activities rather than minor deviant acts that are simply inconsiderate or rude. The paper reports findings from a focus group study conducted in Melbourne, Australia that set out to benchmark everyday incivilities. The results suggest that perpetrators of incivility have a surprisingly broad social distribution as does the range of locales that might be characterised as ‘high risk’. Turning to the work of Putnam and Wolfe, we call for a research focus on low‐level incivilities as key symptoms of the state of civic virtue and the strength of moral ties within civil society. Drawing on Virilio, Bauman and Durkheim, it is suggested that the experience of incivility is underpinned by the growth of freedom and movement in contemporary urban settings, and has ambivalent implications that not only invoke boundary maintenance and retreatism, but also offer the possibility for boundary expansion and tolerance of difference.