Recursive Hardware-as-a-Service (rHaaS) and Fast Provisioning

Hardware as a Service (HaaS) is a new service being developed by the Massachusetts Open Cloud (MOC) to allow physical servers to be allocated to clients in the same way that virtual servers are in existing IaaS clouds. This poster describes the new recursive HaaS project and the fast provisioning customization we are developing. Recursive HaaS allows a HaaS service to be layered on top of an existing one. It will allow testing of new features at performance and scale without affecting the production service. It will also allow clients to host their own HaaS on top of a base HaaS to provide, potentially customized, services to their users. An example customization we are developing is a fast provisioning service that can be used between tenants that have some degree of trust in each other. It will allow nodes to be moved between customers (and a service installed) in seconds, rather than the minutes required by base HaaS

Hardware as a service - enabling dynamic, user-level bare metal provisioning of pools of data center resources.

We describe a “Hardware as a Service (HaaS)” tool for isolating pools of compute, storage and networking resources. The goal of HaaS is to enable dynamic and flexible, user-level provisioning of pools of resources at the so-called “bare-metal” layer. It allows experimental or untrusted services to co-exist alongside trusted services. By functioning only as a resource isolation system, users are free to choose between different system scheduling and provisioning systems and to manage isolated resources as they see fit. We describe key HaaS use cases and features. We show how HaaS can provide a valuable, and somehwat overlooked, layer in the software architecture of modern data center management. Documentation and source code for HaaS software are available at: https://github.com/CCI-MOC/haasPartial support for this work was provided by the MassTech Collaborative Research Matching Grant Program, National Science Foundation award #1347525 and several commercial partners of the Mass Open Cloud who may be found at http://www.massopencloud.org.http://www.ieee-hpec.org/2014/CD/index_htm_files/FinalPapers/116.pd

Osteopontin splice variant as a potential marker for metastatic disease in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Osteopontin (OPN) is a phosphoprotein that activates pathways that induce cancer cell survival and metastasis. Our aim was to examine the expression pattern of OPN splice variants a, b, and c in fine-needle aspirates and to determine their correlation with stage-adjusted pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) survival. METHODS: Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) was performed in patients with solid pancreatic masses. The tissue was collected and analyzed for the expression of OPN isoforms by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Survival curves of stages and overexpression of OPN splice variants (a, b, c) were estimated according to the Kaplan-Meier and the log-rank test. RESULTS: EUS-FNA was performed in 46 patients with solid pancreatic lesions (40 PDA and 6 chronic pancreatitis). OPNa was highly expressed in 39/40 (98%), OPNb in 24/40 (60%), while OPNc was present in 10/40 (25%) of PDA samples. The median survival was lower in patients whose fine-needle aspiration (FNA) samples expressed OPNb than those without (406 days vs 749 days, P = 0.049). There was no significant difference in survival in patients with OPNc. Cox proportional hazard model demonstrated that OPNb expression had a trend toward decrease overall survival (P = 0.06), with these patients having a hazard of death three times higher than those without. OPNc was found to significantly correlate with metastatic disease (P = 0.009) in PDA patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show for the first time that in FNA samples, there is a strong association between OPNc and presence of metastasis in PDA, and OPNb and poor survival

Paradigm shift in public administration: Implications for teaching in professional training programs

10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02085.xPublic Administration Review69SUPPL.

Chromosome assignment of two cloned DNA probes hybridizing predominantly to human sex chromosomes

In situ hybridization experiments were carried out with two clones, YACG 35 and 2.8, which had been selected from two genomic libraries strongly enriched for the human Y chromosome. Besides the human Y chromosome, both sequences strongly hybridized to the human X chromosome, with few minor binding sites on autosomes. In particular, on the X chromosome DNA from clone YACG 35 hybridized to the centromeric region and the distal part of the short arm (Xp2.2). On the Y chromosome, the sequence was assigned to one site situated in the border region between Yq1.1 and Yq1.2. DNA from clone 2.8 also hybridized to the centromeric region of the X and the distal part of the short arm (Xq2.2). On the Y, however, two binding sites were observed (Yp1.1 and Yq1.2). The findings indicate that sex chromosomal sequences may be localized in homologous regions (as suggested from meiotic pairing) but also at ectopic sites

Motivation and incentives of rural maternal and neonatal health care providers: a comparison of qualitative findings from Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania.

In Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania strong efforts are being made to improve the quality of maternal and neonatal health (MNH) care. However, progress is impeded by challenges, especially in the area of human resources. All three countries are striving not only to scale up the number of available health staff, but also to improve performance by raising skill levels and enhancing provider motivation. In-depth interviews were used to explore MNH provider views about motivation and incentives at primary care level in rural Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania. Interviews were held with 25 MNH providers, 8 facility and district managers, and 2 policy-makers in each country. Across the three countries some differences were found in the reasons why people became health workers. Commitment to remaining a health worker was generally high. The readiness to remain at a rural facility was far less, although in all settings there were some providers that were willing to stay. In Burkina Faso it appeared to be particularly difficult to recruit female MNH providers to rural areas. There were indications that MNH providers in all the settings sometimes failed to treat their patients well. This was shown to be interlinked with differences in how the term 'motivation' was understood, and in the views held about remuneration and the status of rural health work. Job satisfaction was shown to be quite high, and was particularly linked to community appreciation. With some important exceptions, there was a strong level of agreement regarding the financial and non-financial incentives that were suggested by these providers, but there were clear country preferences as to whether incentives should be for individuals or teams. Understandings of the terms and concepts pertaining to motivation differed between the three countries. The findings from Burkina Faso underline the importance of gender-sensitive health workforce planning. The training that all levels of MNH providers receive in professional ethics, and the way this is reinforced in practice require closer attention. The differences in the findings across the three settings underscore the importance of in-depth country-level research to tailor the development of incentives schemes

Antagonistic effects of transforming growth factor-beta on vitamin D3 enhancement of osteocalcin and osteopontin transcription: reduced interactions of vitamin D receptor/retinoid X receptor complexes with vitamin E response elements

Osteocalcin and osteopontin are noncollagenous proteins secreted by osteoblasts and regulated by a complex interplay of systemic and locally produced factors, including growth factors and steroid hormones. We investigated the mechanism by which transforming growth factor-beta (TGF beta) inhibits 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25-(OH)2D3)-enhanced expression of the osteocalcin (OC) and osteopontin (OP) genes. ROS 17/2.8 cells, in which both genes are expressed, were transfected with reporter constructs driven by native (i.e. wild-type) rat OC and mouse OP promoters. TGF beta abrogated the 1,25-(OH)2D3 enhanced transcription of both the OC and OP genes. The inhibitory TGF beta response for each requires vitamin D response element (VDRE) sequences, although there are additional contributions from proximal basal regulatory elements. These transcriptional effects were further investigated for contribution of the trans-activating factors, which interact with OC and OP VDREs, involving the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and retinoid X receptor (RXR). Gel mobility shift assays show that TGF beta significantly reduces induction of the heterodimers VDR/RXR complexes in 1,25-(OH)2D3-treated ROS 17/2.8 cells. However, Western blot and ligand binding analysis reveal that TGF beta does not affect nuclear availability of the VDR. We also show that activator protein-1 activity is up-regulated by TGF beta; thus, activator protein-1 binding sites in the OC promoter may potentially contribute to inhibitory effects of TGF beta on basal transcription. Our studies demonstrate that the inhibitory action of TGF beta on the 1,25-(OH)2D3 enhancement of OC and OP transcription in osteoblastic cells results from modulations of protein-DNA interactions at the OC and OP VDRE, which cannot be accounted for by changes in VDR protein levels. As OC and OP participate in bone turnover, our results provide insight into the contributions of TGF beta and 1,25-(OH)2D3 to VDR-mediated gene regulatory mechanism operative in bone formation and/or resorption events

The 'Iron Cage' strengthened? Discretion and digital discipline

Research on changes in public administration associated with the adoption and use of information and communication technologies ('informatization'), almost univocally supports the conclusion that shop floor discretion disappears under their influence. We, however, are ill at ease with this direction in thought about discretion. Our unease is based on the scholarly work about practices, organizational learning and responsiveness. In this article, we test the thesis on the relation between informatization and operational discretion in an empirical research of operational discretion and informatization in two Dutch public agencies, both large and both automated. Our findings show that informatization does not destroy operational discretion, but rather obscures discretion. Based on the work of Argyris, we show that the phenomenon at work is 'participatory boundary practices', the direct personal ties that keep an organization together. ICTs destroy such links and thereby affect organizational learning. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2007