Heads in the Cloud: An Example of Practice-Based Information and Communication Technology in Child Welfare

Changes in information and communications technology (ICT) in human services have accelerated rapidly and have elicited academic concern about the impact on practice, changes in approaches to implementation, and a shift to user-led development. This article describes the development of ICT by a nongovernment child welfare agency over the past two decades. It is guided by a social constructionist view of technology in which technology is shaped by social factors, but in turn shapes the “social” implementation as requiring the integration of two distinct technologies: a standardized framework for practice and the computer. Both technologies had to be carefully aligned to workplace culture, but the interests of workers have not been allowed to dominate those of and children and families. The organization of work has had to change. This article explores the agency’s experience drawing on theories of implementation of ICT in human services.     

The fastest itinerary in time-dependent decentralized travel information systems

A travel information system (TIS) provides customers with information about transportation, transfers, and routings. A decentralized TIS is composed of autonomous subsystems and a central computer, where local subsystems have full control of their data and there is not a complete database in the central computer about the entire TIS. The transportation vehicles are scheduled. A travel itinerary from one spot to another contains the travel path and the schedule of transportations. The approach presented in this paper is for the central computer to identify the fastest itinerary across autonomous subsystems, based on the incomplete local information provided by the independent subsystems.     

考虑计算资源容量的云服务垄断定价研究

云服务是针对虚拟计算资源的访问服务,客户价值差异与资源能力约束是影响云服务定价决策的重要因素。针对云服务市场中按固定价格和按用量定价两种常用定价方式,提出一般性假设并构建旨在最大化垄断利润的非线性定价模型,对模型求解并对模型解的含义进行揭示。给出数值算例,从市场覆盖、计算资源影子价格、厂商利润及客户剩余等方面对两种定价方法进行比较,结果表明：客户类型分布影响厂商利润、客户剩余及计算资源需求,厂商应努力掌握客户类型分布信息;计算资源充足时应采用按用量定价方法;市场覆盖与客户类型分布及可用计算资源量有关,按用量定价时市场覆盖更大;增加计算资源有利于提升社会福利。本文为云服务厂商定价决策提供理论与方法支持。     

Clustering Binary Oligonucleotide Fingerprint Vectors for DNA Clone Classification Analysis

We considered the problem of clustering binarized oligonucleotide fingerprints that attempts to identify clusters. Oligonucleotide fingerprinting is a powerful DNA array based method to characterize cDNA and rRNA libraries and has many applications including gene expression profiling and DNA clone classification. DNA clone classification is the main application for the problem considered in this paper. Most of the existing approaches for clustering use normalized real intensity values and thus do not treat positive and negative hybridization signals equally. This is demonstrated in a series of recent publications where a discrete approach typically useful in the classification of microbial rRNA clones has been proposed. In the discrete approach, hybridization intensities are normalized and thresholds are set such that a value of 1 represents hybridization, a value of 0 represents no hybridization, and an N represents unknown, which is also called a missing value. A combinatorial optimization problem is then formulated attempting to cluster the fingerprints and resolve the missing values simultaneously. It has been examined that missing values cause much difficulty in clustering analysis and most clustering methods are very sensitive to them. In this paper, we turned a little back to the traditional clustering problem, which takes in no missing values but with the revised goal to stabilize the number of clusters and maintain the clustering quality. We adopted the binarizing scheme used in the discrete approach as it is shown to be typically useful for the clone classifications. We formulated such a problem into another combinatorial optimization problem. The computational complexity of this new clustering problem and its relationships to the discrete approach and the traditional clustering problem were studied. We have designed an exact algorithm for the new clustering problem, which is an A* search algorithm for finding a minimum number of clusters. The experimental results on two commonly tested real datasets demonstrated that the A* search algorithm runs fast and performs better than some popular hierarchical clustering methods, in terms of separating clones that have different characteristics with respect to the given oligonucleotide probes.Supported by NSERC and CFI.Supported by NSERC.Supported partially by NSERC, CFI, and NNSF Grant 60373012.     

因特网约车平台双边报价交易机制创新及策略研究

现有网约车平台采用接受或拒绝的定价交易机制,即乘客和司机被动选择接受或拒绝交易平台给出的定价及加价规则。由于缺乏对平台用户个体需求的了解,当前平台产生的价格不能反映不同交易者的内在诉求,如每个乘客的用车目的、紧急程度、经济能力,司机的实际运行成本、期望收益等差异。由于每个交易者的内在诉求对每笔交易的合理定价具有很大影响,为优化资源配置,将这类信息纳入网约用车市场价格形成机制变得越来越重要。本文设计了基于网约车平台的双边报价交易机制,该机制允许乘客和司机分别进行报价,网约车平台基于每次交易涉及的乘客及司机的报价自动生成交易价格并实现乘客与司机的交易匹配,该机制满足参与理性约束、预算平衡约束,保障乘客和司机获得该机制作用下的所有交易剩余,文章还对该机制下交易人的报价策略及投机策略进行了理性及仿真分析,证明该机制鼓励交易者说真话,从而优化平台资源配置。     

A review of parallel processing for statistical computation

Parallel computers differ from conventional serial computers in that they can, in a variety of ways, perform more than one operation at a time. Parallel processing, the application of parallel computers, has been successfully utilized in many fields of science and technology. The purpose of this paper is to review efforts to use parallel processing for statistical computing. We present some technical background, followed by a review of the literature that relates parallel computing to statistics. The review material focuses explicitly on statistical methods and applications, rather than on conventional mathematical techniques. Thus, most of the review material is drawn from statistics publications. We conclude by discussing the nature of the review material and considering some possibilities for the future.     

Assessing the missing data problem in criminal network analysis using forensic DNA data

Missing data is pertinent to criminal networks due to the hidden nature of crime. Generally, researchers evaluate the impact of incomplete network data by extracting or adding nodes and/or edges from a known network. Statistics on this reduced or completed network are then compared with statistics from the known network. In this study, we integrate police data on known offenders with DNA data on unknown offenders. Statistics from the integrated dataset (‘known network’) are compared with statistics from the police data (‘reduced network’). Networks with both known and unknown offenders are bigger but also have a different structure to networks with only known offenders.     

从海鱼加工下脚料中提取核酸的试验(Ⅱ)--从鱼白中提取核酸及产物纯度分析和组分鉴定

对地产海鱼加工下脚料之一-鱼白中核酸的提取方法，产品纯度测定和组分鉴定方法进行一些探索，结果显示，DNA粗产物得率为4.62%，DNA质量分数为4.77%，RNA粗产物得率为1.98%，RNA质量分数4.06%，提取方法基本可行。     

国内外云计算产业发展现状对比分析

通过文献研究和实地调研等方式,从发展战略、政策环境、技术产品和企业以及应用情况等多维度,对国内外云计算产业发展现状进行对比分析,总结国外云计算产业发展经验,研判我国云计算产业发展存在的问题,最后提出推动我国云计算产业发展和应用的政策建议。     

浅谈科技服装

将诸如先进纺织材料以及照相机、播放器、计算机芯片、传感器等各种与数字化相关科技产品,通过附加、编织等结合方式与服装融为一体的科技服装,代表了服装设计与服装行业未来科技发展的趋势。由此形成的服装内建环境和所使用的普适计算模式,将为着装者带来更多的舒适、便利和全新的功能。源于西方先进国家的这一科技服装潮流,有待我国服装设计师、社会学者、科研人员和企业家关注、借鉴,并开展探索与努力。