Lem Amy

Abstract America, long considered the melting pot of global cultures and people, has evolved from a refuge for the once displaced and abandoned to a diverse and pluralistic community. As America remains a country of immigrants, it is fitting that both immigrant ...

Service parts logistics focuses on providing repair parts for computer, medical, and other high-cost equipment, typically in a very short period of time. Problems within this domain are often challenging to solve, due to the complexity of the network, tight constraints on time and warehouse capacity, and the high costs of inventory and transportation resources. Mathematical modeling can be critical in solving such difficult problems, but basic modeling approaches often suffer from complicating factors such as large numbers of constraints and integer variables, non-linearities, and weak linear programming relaxations. To address some of these difficulties, we present a modeling framework based on composite variables---variables that encompass multiple decisions. We begin by considering the problem of how to stock those repair parts which are both high cost and very low demand. We then discuss how this relatively simple problem can become much more computationally challenging when we expand the scope to consider a more global view of the system. As an example, we consider what happens when warehouse capacity constraints are added. We show that a basic modeling approach to this new problem is intractable for many instances of realistic size. We then present a composite-variable model and show how it enables us to improve tractability significantly. Our experience suggests potential opportunities to be found in modeling other SPL problems within a composite-variable framework as well. We conclude by presenting modeling approaches to address a broad class of problems within this challenging and important arena.

Retrospective investigation using gait analysis and medical records. To evaluate the relationship between ambulatory function improvement and an increase in lower-limb motor scores in persons with motor incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) and to compare the efficiency of lower extremity motor score (LEMS) and ambulatory motor index (AMI) in representation of ambulatory function improvement using gait analysis. SCI Unit, Yonsei Rehabilitation Hospital, Seoul, Korea. The gait analysis from 43 patients with SCI (paraplegic, n=22, tetraplegic n=21) were reviewed. The gait analysis data were obtained with Vicon 370 system. The LEMS and AMI were assessed before the gait analysis and the influence of an increase in lower-limb motor scores were investigated with linear parameters of gait analysis. For group including both tetraplegic and paraplegic patients, both AMI and LEMS were statistically correlated with gait speed, step length and negative correlation with double-limb support. However, only LEMS was correlated with cadence. For the paraplegic group, with AMI and LEMS, there were correlation with gait speed, step length and right single-limb support and negative correlation with right double-limb support. However, only LEMS was correlated with left cadence and negative correlation with double-limb support. For the tetraplegic group, only left cadence was statistically correlated with AMI. Both AMI and LEMS were useful in terms of providing information for capability of ambulatory function for the paraplegic group. However, for the tetraplegic group, both AMI and LEMS do not provide sufficient information for ambulatory function of the incomplete SCI patients.

Evolutionary relationships of red-backed voles and their relatives were examined and used to test biogeographic hypotheses. Sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene were obtained for 25 individuals representing Alticola macrotis, Clethrionomys californicus, C. gapperi, C. glareolus, C. rutilus, and C. rufocanus. These were combined with 21 partial sequences from GenBank for C. regulus, C. rex, C. rufocanus, C. rutilus, Eothenomys imaizumii, E. melanogaster, Phaulomys andersoni, and P. smithii. Complete sequences of three species of Microtus (M. montanus, M. oeconomus, and M. pennsylvanicus), representative species of other arvicoline genera (Myopus, Synaptomys, Arvicola, Ellobius, Ondatra, Lemmus, Dicrostonyx, and Phenacomys), and a sigmodontine representative (Peromyscus) were included as outgroups. We used maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, distance, and Bayesian based methods and conducted statistical tests on proposed hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships and biogeographic histories. A close relationship of species representing the genera Alticola, Clethrionomys, and Eothenomys was supported (Clethrionomyini); however, the genus Clethrionomys was paraphyletic with respect to both Alticola and Eothenomys. Three major clades were identified as Asian (Eothenomys andersoni, E. smithii, C. rex, C. regulus, and C. rufocanus), Trans-beringian (Alticola macrotis, C. californicus, C. gapperi, C. glarelolus, and C. rutilus), and Taiwanese (E. melanogaster). These results are consistent with the fossil record which indicates an initial diversification in Asia followed by colonization of the Nearctic on at least two occasions. The holarctic species, C. rutilus, appears to have either reinvaded Asia from North America or colonized North America more recently (late Pleistocene) than the two species of Clethrionomys (C. gapperi and C. californicus) that are endemic to North America (early to mid-Pleistocene). Finally, C. gapperi, appears to be comprised of an eastern and a western species, the former with affinities to the Asian C. glareolus and the latter more closely related to C. californicus.

... Amy Loutfi, Silvia Coradeschi and Alessandro Saffiotti Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems ¨Orebro University ¨Orebro, Sweden 701-82 ... On one hand, perception management [Ronnie et al., 2003], an extension of sensor management [Adrian, 1993], is required to ...

In an agent system, the ability to handle prob- lems and recover from them is important in sustaining sta- bility and providing robustness. We claim that execution log- ging is essential to support agent system robustness, and that agents should have architectural-level support for logging and recovery methods. We describe an infrastructure-level, default methodology for agent problem-handling, based on logging,