Sample records for technical cost schedule

  1. NASA Instrument Cost/Schedule Model

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Habib-Agahi, Hamid; Mrozinski, Joe; Fox, George

    2011-01-01

    NASA's Office of Independent Program and Cost Evaluation (IPCE) has established a number of initiatives to improve its cost and schedule estimating capabilities. 12One of these initiatives has resulted in the JPL developed NASA Instrument Cost Model. NICM is a cost and schedule estimator that contains: A system level cost estimation tool; a subsystem level cost estimation tool; a database of cost and technical parameters of over 140 previously flown remote sensing and in-situ instruments; a schedule estimator; a set of rules to estimate cost and schedule by life cycle phases (B/C/D); and a novel tool for developing joint probability distributions for cost and schedule risk (Joint Confidence Level (JCL)). This paper describes the development and use of NICM, including the data normalization processes, data mining methods (cluster analysis, principal components analysis, regression analysis and bootstrap cross validation), the estimating equations themselves and a demonstration of the NICM tool suite.

  2. Schedule Matters: Understanding the Relationship between Schedule Delays and Costs on Overruns

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Majerowicz, Walt; Shinn, Stephen A.

    2016-01-01

    This paper examines the relationship between schedule delays and cost overruns on complex projects. It is generally accepted by many project practitioners that cost overruns are directly related to schedule delays. But what does "directly related to" actually mean? Some reasons or root causes for schedule delays and associated cost overruns are obvious, if only in hindsight. For example, unrealistic estimates, supply chain difficulties, insufficient schedule margin, technical problems, scope changes, or the occurrence of risk events can negatively impact schedule performance. Other factors driving schedule delays and cost overruns may be less obvious and more difficult to quantify. Examples of these less obvious factors include project complexity, flawed estimating assumptions, over-optimism, political factors, "black swan" events, or even poor leadership and communication. Indeed, is it even possible the schedule itself could be a source of delay and subsequent cost overrun? Through literature review, surveys of project practitioners, and the authors' own experience on NASA programs and projects, the authors will categorize and examine the various factors affecting the relationship between project schedule delays and cost growth. The authors will also propose some ideas for organizations to consider to help create an awareness of the factors which could cause or influence schedule delays and associated cost growth on complex projects.

  3. Space station program phase B definition: Nuclear reactor-powered space station cost and schedules

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1971-01-01

    Tabulated data are presented on the costs, schedules, and technical characteristics for the space station phases C and D program. The work breakdown structure, schedule data, program ground rules, program costs, cost-estimating rationale, funding schedules, and supporting data are included.

  4. Cost and schedule analytical techniques development

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1994-01-01

    This contract provided technical services and products to the Marshall Space Flight Center's Engineering Cost Office (PP03) and the Program Plans and Requirements Office (PP02) for the period of 3 Aug. 1991 - 30 Nov. 1994. Accomplishments summarized cover the REDSTAR data base, NASCOM hard copy data base, NASCOM automated data base, NASCOM cost model, complexity generators, program planning, schedules, NASA computer connectivity, other analytical techniques, and special project support.

  5. The Business Change Initiative: A Novel Approach to Improved Cost and Schedule Management

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shinn, Stephen A.; Bryson, Jonathan; Klein, Gerald; Lunz-Ruark, Val; Majerowicz, Walt; McKeever, J.; Nair, Param

    2016-01-01

    Goddard Space Flight Center's Flight Projects Directorate employed a Business Change Initiative (BCI) to infuse a series of activities coordinated to drive improved cost and schedule performance across Goddard's missions. This sustaining change framework provides a platform to manage and implement cost and schedule control techniques throughout the project portfolio. The BCI concluded in December 2014, deploying over 100 cost and schedule management changes including best practices, tools, methods, training, and knowledge sharing. The new business approach has driven the portfolio to improved programmatic performance. The last eight launched GSFC missions have optimized cost, schedule, and technical performance on a sustained basis to deliver on time and within budget, returning funds in many cases. While not every future mission will boast such strong performance, improved cost and schedule tools, management practices, and ongoing comprehensive evaluations of program planning and control methods to refine and implement best practices will continue to provide a framework for sustained performance. This paper will describe the tools, techniques, and processes developed during the BCI and the utilization of collaborative content management tools to disseminate project planning and control techniques to ensure continuous collaboration and optimization of cost and schedule management in the future.

  6. EoC Study Update to Examine the Cost, Schedule and Technical Changes to NASA Projects

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bitten, Bob; Emmons, Debra; Shinn, Stephen; Scolese, Chris

    2018-01-01

    The original National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Explanation of Change (EoC) study was conducted in 2010 to understand the underlying causes of cost and schedule growth. The first study consisted of 25 missions launched from 2000 to 2010 and looked at the events that led to growth. These events were categorized into different bins that were rolled up to quantify whether the growth was due to internal planning, or internal execution, or from external forces and found that the growth was evenly distributed among those three categories. The result of the study presented nine considerations focused at reducing growth due to project external events and internal planning events. Although no one 'magic bullet' consideration was discovered in the previous work, the nine considerations taken as a whole were postulated to help reduce cost and schedule change in future NASA missions. A recent update was conducted that included investigating 8 missions developed since the previous study to determine if the results were different. Cost, schedule, and mass increases were analyzed from the start of Phase B through Preliminary Design Review and Critical Design Review to Launch. As shown in this paper, the results are better with overall cost and schedule growth being reduced. The paper will show a comparison of the previous results to the updated results to show specific reductions and provide an explanation of which recommendations were followed.

  7. Cost-efficient scheduling of FAST observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luo, Qi; Zhao, Laiping; Yu, Ce; Xiao, Jian; Sun, Jizhou; Zhu, Ming; Zhong, Yi

    2018-03-01

    A cost-efficient schedule for the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) requires to maximize the number of observable proposals and the overall scientific priority, and minimize the overall slew-cost generated by telescope shifting, while taking into account the constraints including the astronomical objects visibility, user-defined observable times, avoiding Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). In this contribution, first we solve the problem of maximizing the number of observable proposals and scientific priority by modeling it as a Minimum Cost Maximum Flow (MCMF) problem. The optimal schedule can be found by any MCMF solution algorithm. Then, for minimizing the slew-cost of the generated schedule, we devise a maximally-matchable edges detection-based method to reduce the problem size, and propose a backtracking algorithm to find the perfect matching with minimum slew-cost. Experiments on a real dataset from NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) show that, the proposed scheduler can increase the usage of available times with high scientific priority and reduce the slew-cost significantly in a very short time.

  8. Modular space station phase B extension program cost and schedules. Volume 1: Cost and schedule estimating process and results

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Frassinelli, G. J.

    1972-01-01

    Cost estimates and funding schedules are presented for a given configuration and costing ground rules. Cost methodology is described and the cost evolution from a baseline configuration to a selected configuration is given, emphasizing cases in which cost was a design driver. Programmatic cost avoidance techniques are discussed.

  9. Cost and Schedule Analytical Techniques Development

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1998-01-01

    This Final Report summarizes the activities performed by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) under contract NAS 8-40431 "Cost and Schedule Analytical Techniques Development Contract" (CSATD) during Option Year 3 (December 1, 1997 through November 30, 1998). This Final Report is in compliance with Paragraph 5 of Section F of the contract. This CSATD contract provides technical products and deliverables in the form of parametric models, databases, methodologies, studies, and analyses to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) Engineering Cost Office (PP03) and the Program Plans and Requirements Office (PP02) and other user organizations. Detailed Monthly Reports were submitted to MSFC in accordance with the contract's Statement of Work, Section IV "Reporting and Documentation". These reports spelled out each month's specific work performed, deliverables submitted, major meetings conducted, and other pertinent information. Therefore, this Final Report will summarize these activities at a higher level. During this contract Option Year, SAIC expended 25,745 hours in the performance of tasks called out in the Statement of Work. This represents approximately 14 full-time EPs. Included are the Huntsville-based team, plus SAIC specialists in San Diego, Ames Research Center, Tampa, and Colorado Springs performing specific tasks for which they are uniquely qualified.

  10. Maglev guideway cost and construction schedule assessment

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Plotkin, D.; Kim, S.

    1997-05-01

    A summary of construction cost and scheduling information is presented for four maglev guideway designs on an example route from Baltimore, MD to Newark, NJ. This work results from the National Maglev Initiative (NMI), a government-industry effort from 1989 to 1994. The system design concepts used as a basis for developing cost and construction scheduling information, were submitted by four industry consortia solely for this analysis, and represent their own unpublished designs. The detailed cost and construction schedule analyses cover the main guideway only. A summary estimate was made for stations, power distribution systems, maintenance facilities, and other types ofmore » infrastructure. The results of the analyses indicate a number of design aspects which must receive further consideration by future designers. These aspects will affect the practical and economic construction and long-term maintenance of a high-speed maglev guideway.« less

  11. TRU Waste Management Program cost/schedule optimization analysis

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Detamore, J.A.; Raudenbush, M.H.; Wolaver, R.W.

    1985-10-01

    The cost/schedule optimization task is a necessary function to insure that program goals and plans are optimized from a cost and schedule aspect. Results of this study will offer DOE information with which it can establish, within institutional constraints, the most efficient program for the long-term management and disposal of contact handled transuranic waste (CH-TRU). To this end, a comprehensive review of program cost/schedule tradeoffs has been made, to identify any major cost saving opportunities that may be realized by modification of current program plans. It was decided that all promising scenarios would be explored, and institutional limitations to implementationmore » would be described. Since a virtually limitless number of possible scenarios can be envisioned, it was necessary to distill these possibilities into a manageable number of alternatives. The resultant scenarios were described in the cost/schedule strategy and work plan document. Each scenario was compared with the base case: waste processing at the originating site; transport of CH-TRU wastes in TRUPACT; shipment of drums in 6-Packs; 25 year stored waste workoff; WIPP operational 10/88, with all sites shipping to WIPP beginning 10/88; and no processing at WIPP. Major savings were identified in two alternate scenarios: centralize waste processing at INEL and eliminate rail shipment of TRUPACT. No attempt was made to calculate savings due to combination of scenarios. 1 ref., 5 figs., 1 tab. (MHB)« less

  12. Incremental Scheduling Engines: Cost Savings through Automation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jaap, John; Phillips, Shaun

    2005-01-01

    As humankind embarks on longer space missions farther from home, the requirements and environments for scheduling the activities performed on these missions are changing. As we begin to prepare for these missions it is appropriate to evaluate the merits and applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. Scheduling engines temporally arrange tasks onto a timeline so that all constraints and ob.jectives are met and resources are not over-booked. Scheduling engines used to schedule space missions fall into three general categories: batch, mixed-initiative, and incremental. This paper, presents an assessment of the engine types, a discussion of the impact of human exploration of the moon and Mars on planning and scheduling, and the applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. This paper will pursue the hypothesis that incremental scheduling engines may have a place in the new environment; they have the potential to reduce cost, to improve the satisfaction of those who execute or benefit from a particular timeline (the customers), and to allow astronauts to plan their own tasks and those of their companion robots.

  13. Integrated Cost and Schedule using Monte Carlo Simulation of a CPM Model - 12419

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hulett, David T.; Nosbisch, Michael R.

    This discussion of the recommended practice (RP) 57R-09 of AACE International defines the integrated analysis of schedule and cost risk to estimate the appropriate level of cost and schedule contingency reserve on projects. The main contribution of this RP is to include the impact of schedule risk on cost risk and hence on the need for cost contingency reserves. Additional benefits include the prioritizing of the risks to cost, some of which are risks to schedule, so that risk mitigation may be conducted in a cost-effective way, scatter diagrams of time-cost pairs for developing joint targets of time and cost,more » and probabilistic cash flow which shows cash flow at different levels of certainty. Integrating cost and schedule risk into one analysis based on the project schedule loaded with costed resources from the cost estimate provides both: (1) more accurate cost estimates than if the schedule risk were ignored or incorporated only partially, and (2) illustrates the importance of schedule risk to cost risk when the durations of activities using labor-type (time-dependent) resources are risky. Many activities such as detailed engineering, construction or software development are mainly conducted by people who need to be paid even if their work takes longer than scheduled. Level-of-effort resources, such as the project management team, are extreme examples of time-dependent resources, since if the project duration exceeds its planned duration the cost of these resources will increase over their budgeted amount. The integrated cost-schedule risk analysis is based on: - A high quality CPM schedule with logic tight enough so that it will provide the correct dates and critical paths during simulation automatically without manual intervention. - A contingency-free estimate of project costs that is loaded on the activities of the schedule. - Resolves inconsistencies between cost estimate and schedule that often creep into those documents as project execution

  14. Cost and schedule estimation study report

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Condon, Steve; Regardie, Myrna; Stark, Mike; Waligora, Sharon

    1993-01-01

    This report describes the analysis performed and the findings of a study of the software development cost and schedule estimation models used by the Flight Dynamics Division (FDD), Goddard Space Flight Center. The study analyzes typical FDD projects, focusing primarily on those developed since 1982. The study reconfirms the standard SEL effort estimation model that is based on size adjusted for reuse; however, guidelines for the productivity and growth parameters in the baseline effort model have been updated. The study also produced a schedule prediction model based on empirical data that varies depending on application type. Models for the distribution of effort and schedule by life-cycle phase are also presented. Finally, this report explains how to use these models to plan SEL projects.

  15. Advanced Transportation System Studies. Technical Area 3: Alternate Propulsion Subsystems Concepts. Volume 3; Program Cost Estimates

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Levack, Daniel J. H.

    2000-01-01

    The objective of this contract was to provide definition of alternate propulsion systems for both earth-to-orbit (ETO) and in-space vehicles (upper stages and space transfer vehicles). For such propulsion systems, technical data to describe performance, weight, dimensions, etc. was provided along with programmatic information such as cost, schedule, needed facilities, etc. Advanced technology and advanced development needs were determined and provided. This volume separately presents the various program cost estimates that were generated under three tasks: the F- IA Restart Task, the J-2S Restart Task, and the SSME Upper Stage Use Task. The conclusions, technical results , and the program cost estimates are described in more detail in Volume I - Executive Summary and in individual Final Task Reports.

  16. PHENIX Work Breakdown Structure. Cost and schedule review copy

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Not Available

    1994-02-01

    The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Book begins with this Overview section, which contains the high-level summary cost estimate, the cost profile, and the global construction schedule. The summary cost estimate shows the total US cost and the cost in terms of PHENIX construction funds for building the PHENIX detector. All costs in the WBS book are shown in FY 1993 dollars. Also shown are the institutional and foreign contributions, the level of pre-operations funding, and the cost of deferred items. Pie charts are presented at PHENIX WBS level 1 and 2 that show this information. The PHENIX construction funds aremore » shown broken down to PHENIX WBS level 3 items per fiscal year, and the resulting profile is compared to the RHIC target profile. An accumulated difference of the two profiles is also shown. The PHENIX global construction schedule is presented at the end of the Overview section. Following the Overview are sections for each subsystem. Each subsystem section begins with a summary cost estimate, cost profile, and critical path. The total level 3 cost is broken down into fixed costs (M&S), engineering costs (EDIA) and labor costs. Costs are further broken down in terms of PHENIX construction funds, institutional and foreign contributions, pre-operations funding, and deferred items. Also shown is the contingency at level 3 and the level 4 breakdown of the total cost. The cost profile in fiscal years is shown at level 3. The subsystem summaries are followed by the full cost estimate and schedule sheets for that subsystem. These detailed sheets are typically carried down to level 7 or 8. The cost estimate shows Total, M&S, EDIA, and Labor breakdowns, as well as contingency, for each WBS entry.« less

  17. Contribution of Schedule Delays to Cost Growth: How to Make Peace with a Marching Army

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Majerowicz, Walt; Bitten, Robert; Emmons, Debra; Shinn, Stephen A.

    2016-01-01

    Numerous research papers have shown that cost and schedule growth are interrelated for NASA space science missions. Although there has shown to be a strong correlation of cost growth with schedule growth, it is unclear what percentage of cost growth is caused by schedule growth and how schedule growth can be controlled. This paper attempts to quantify this percentage by looking at historical data and show detailed examples of how schedule growth influences cost growth. The paper also addresses a methodology to show an alternate approach for assessing and setting a robust baseline schedule and use schedule performance metrics to help assess if the project is performing to plan. Finally, recommendations are presented to help control schedule growth in order to minimize cost growth for NASA space science missions.

  18. The Relationship Between Cost Growth and Schedule Growth

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2003-01-01

    Relationship between Cost Growth and Schedule Growth, 35th DoDCAS, SCEA 2002, Integrated Program Management Conference (IPMC) 2002, R. L. Coleman...currently valid OMB control number. 1. REPORT DATE 2003 2. REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED - 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE The Relationship Between Cost...

  19. TRU Waste Management Program. Cost/schedule optimization analysis

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Detamore, J.A.; Raudenbush, M.H.; Wolaver, R.W.

    This Current Year Work Plan presents in detail a description of the activities to be performed by the Joint Integration Office Rockwell International (JIO/RI) during FY86. It breaks down the activities into two major work areas: Program Management and Program Analysis. Program Management is performed by the JIO/RI by providing technical planning and guidance for the development of advanced TRU waste management capabilities. This includes equipment/facility design, engineering, construction, and operations. These functions are integrated to allow transition from interim storage to final disposition. JIO/RI tasks include program requirements identification, long-range technical planning, budget development, program planning document preparation, taskmore » guidance development, task monitoring, task progress information gathering and reporting to DOE, interfacing with other agencies and DOE lead programs, integrating public involvement with program efforts, and preparation of reports for DOE detailing program status. Program Analysis is performed by the JIO/RI to support identification and assessment of alternatives, and development of long-term TRU waste program capabilities. These analyses include short-term analyses in response to DOE information requests, along with performing an RH Cost/Schedule Optimization report. Systems models will be developed, updated, and upgraded as needed to enhance JIO/RI's capability to evaluate the adequacy of program efforts in various fields. A TRU program data base will be maintained and updated to provide DOE with timely responses to inventory related questions.« less

  20. A Comparison of Earned Value Management and Earned Schedule as Schedule Predictors on DoD ACAT I Programs

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-03-01

    33 Mario Vanhoucke and Stephan Vandevoorde – “Measuring the Accuracy of Earned Value/Earned Schedule Forecasting Predictors” (2007...technical problem to the present day ‘ super projects’” (Clark and Lorenzoni, 1997: 2). Cost engineering has “application regardless of industry...large construction projects, but also the acceptance of earned schedule principles on an international scale. Mario Vanhoucke and Stephan Vandevoorde

  1. Cost and Schedule Benchmarks for Defense Acquisition Contracts

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1994-09-01

    and schedule deviations early Knepp & S -curves for cost S -curves couldn’t Stroble/1993 control be used Terry & EAC Indices SCI-based EAC is...completed and on-going contracts from the early 1970’ s to date. Some of the fields in the database used in determining the status of cost overruns and...Measurement Data (Christensen, 1992:20). Christensen Article David S . Christensen published an analysis of cost overruns on DoD acquisition contracts

  2. Technical Feasibility of a Mobile Context-Aware (Social) Learning Schedule Framework

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yau, Jane Y. K.; Joy, Mike

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to show the technical feasibility of implementing their mobile context-aware learning schedule (mCALS) framework as a software application on a mobile device using current technologies, prior to its actual implementation. This process draws a set of compatible mobile and context-aware technologies at present and can be…

  3. Cost Minimization for Joint Energy Management and Production Scheduling Using Particle Swarm Optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shah, Rahul H.

    Production costs account for the largest share of the overall cost of manufacturing facilities. With the U.S. industrial sector becoming more and more competitive, manufacturers are looking for more cost and resource efficient working practices. Operations management and production planning have shown their capability to dramatically reduce manufacturing costs and increase system robustness. When implementing operations related decision making and planning, two fields that have shown to be most effective are maintenance and energy. Unfortunately, the current research that integrates both is limited. Additionally, these studies fail to consider parameter domains and optimization on joint energy and maintenance driven production planning. Accordingly, production planning methodology that considers maintenance and energy is investigated. Two models are presented to achieve well-rounded operating strategy. The first is a joint energy and maintenance production scheduling model. The second is a cost per part model considering maintenance, energy, and production. The proposed methodology will involve a Time-of-Use electricity demand response program, buffer and holding capacity, station reliability, production rate, station rated power, and more. In practice, the scheduling problem can be used to determine a joint energy, maintenance, and production schedule. Meanwhile, the cost per part model can be used to: (1) test the sensitivity of the obtained optimal production schedule and its corresponding savings by varying key production system parameters; and (2) to determine optimal system parameter combinations when using the joint energy, maintenance, and production planning model. Additionally, a factor analysis on the system parameters is conducted and the corresponding performance of the production schedule under variable parameter conditions, is evaluated. Also, parameter optimization guidelines that incorporate maintenance and energy parameter decision making in the

  4. Nuclear Waste: Defense Waste Processing Facility-Cost, Schedule, and Technical Issues.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1992-06-17

    gallons of high-level radioactive waste stored in underground tanks at the savannah major facility involved Is the Defense Waste Processing Facility ( DwPF ...As a result of concerns about potential problems with the DWPF and delays in its scheduled start-up, the Chairman of the Environment, Energy, and...Natural Resources Subcommittee, House Committee on Government Operations, asked GAO to review the status of the DWPF and other facilities. This report

  5. Space shuttle system program definition. Volume 4: Cost and schedule report

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1972-01-01

    The supporting cost and schedule data for the second half of the Space Shuttle System Phase B Extension Study is summarized. The major objective for this period was to address the cost/schedule differences affecting final selection of the HO orbiter space shuttle system. The contending options under study included the following booster launch configurations: (1) series burn ballistic recoverable booster (BRB), (2) parallel burn ballistic recoverable booster (BRB), (3) series burn solid rocket motors (SRM's), and (4) parallel burn solid rocket motors (SRM's). The implications of varying payload bay sizes for the orbiter, engine type for the ballistics recoverable booster, and SRM motors for the solid booster were examined.

  6. 41 CFR 102-85.170 - Can flexitime and other alternative work schedules cost the customer agency more?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... Can flexitime and other alternative work schedules cost the customer agency more? Yes, GSA customers who extend their regular work schedule by a system of flexible hours shall reimburse GSA for its... alternative work schedules cost the customer agency more? 102-85.170 Section 102-85.170 Public Contracts and...

  7. Space station systems analysis study. Part 3: Documentation. Volume 5: Cost and schedule data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1977-01-01

    Cost estimates for the space station systems analysis were recorded. Space construction base costs and characteristics were cited as well as mission hardware costs and characteristics. Also delineated were cost ground rules, the program schedule, and a detail cost estimate and funding distribution.

  8. Space Tug Docking Study. Volume 5: Cost Analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1976-01-01

    The cost methodology, summary cost data, resulting cost estimates by Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), technical characteristics data, program funding schedules and the WBS for the costing are discussed. Cost estimates for two tasks of the study are reported. The first, developed cost estimates for design, development, test and evaluation (DDT&E) and theoretical first unit (TFU) at the component level (Level 7) for all items reported in the data base. Task B developed total subsystem DDT&E costs and funding schedules for the three candidate Rendezvous and Docking Systems: manual, autonomous, and hybrid.

  9. C/SCSC overview: approach, implementation, use. [Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Turf, Larry

    1979-01-01

    An overview of the Cost/Schedule Control System Criteria, known as C/SCS or C/S Squared is pesented. In the mid-1960s, several DOD service agencies embarked on a new performance measurement concept to track cost and schedule performance on major DOD programs. The performance measurement concept of C/SCS has expanded from DOD use to the Department of Energy (PMS), NASA (533 reports), and private industry such as shipbuilding, utilities, and construction. This paper describes the C/SCSC with the events leading to the C/SCS requirement, how to approach the requirement, and discusses implementing and using the system. Many government publications, directives, and instructionsmore » on the subject are listed in the publication.« less

  10. Historical Mass, Power, Schedule, and Cost Growth for NASA Spacecraft

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hayhurst, Marc R.; Bitten, Robert E.; Shinn, Stephen A.; Judnick, Daniel C.; Hallgrimson, Ingrid E.; Youngs, Megan A.

    2016-01-01

    Although spacecraft developers have been moving towards standardized product lines as the aerospace industry has matured, NASA's continual need to push the cutting edge of science to accomplish unique, challenging missions can still lead to spacecraft resource growth over time. This paper assesses historical mass, power, cost, and schedule growth for multiple NASA spacecraft from the last twenty years and compares to industry reserve guidelines to understand where the guidelines may fall short. Growth is assessed from project start to launch, from the time of the preliminary design review (PDR) to launch and from the time of the critical design review (CDR) to launch. Data is also assessed not just at the spacecraft bus level, but also at the subsystem level wherever possible, to help obtain further insight into possible drivers of growth. Potential recommendations to minimize spacecraft mass, power, cost, and schedule growth for future missions are also discussed.

  11. Parametric Cost and Schedule Modeling for Early Technology Development

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2018-04-02

    Best Paper in the Analysis Methods Category and 2017 Best Paper Overall awards. It was also presented at the 2017 NASA Cost and Schedule Symposium... Methods over the Project Life Cycle .............................................................................................. 2 Figure 2. Average...information contribute to the lack of data, objective models, and methods that can be broadly applied in early planning stages. Scientific

  12. The Effectiveness of Concurrent Design on the Cost and Schedule Performance of Defense Weapons System Acquisitions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Robertson, Randolph B.

    This study investigates the impact of concurrent design on the cost growth and schedule growth of US Department of Defense Major Defense Acquisition Systems (MDAPs). It is motivated by the question of whether employment of concurrent design in the development of a major weapon system will produce better results in terms of cost and schedule than traditional serial development methods. Selected Acquisition Reports were used to determine the cost and schedule growth of MDAPs as well as the degree of concurrency employed. Two simple linear regression analyses were used to determine the degree to which cost growth and schedule growth vary with concurrency. The results were somewhat surprising in that for major weapon systems the utilization of concurrency as it was implemented in the programs under study was shown to have no effect on cost performance, and that performance to development schedule, one of the purported benefits of concurrency, was actually shown to deteriorate with increases in concurrency. These results, while not an indictment of the concept of concurrency, indicate that better practices and methods are needed in the implementation of concurrency in major weapon systems. The findings are instructive to stakeholders in the weapons acquisition process in their consideration of whether and how to employ concurrent design strategies in their planning of new weapons acquisition programs.

  13. Explanation of Change Cost and Schedule Growth Study Interim Status Briefing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Croonce, Thomas; Bitten, Bob; Emmons, Debra

    2010-01-01

    This slide presentation reviews the study to understand the changes in cost and schedule growth for NASA projects. A second goal was to determine the percentage of growth that was outside the control of the project. The study examined project documentation, conducted interviews with key project personnel, and allocated growth events to an Explanation of Change (EoC) tree to quantify the reasons for growth in the scheduled time. This briefing reviews the results of the study of the first 20 missions.

  14. Surgery scheduling optimization considering real life constraints and comprehensive operation cost of operating room.

    PubMed

    Xiang, Wei; Li, Chong

    2015-01-01

    Operating Room (OR) is the core sector in hospital expenditure, the operation management of which involves a complete three-stage surgery flow, multiple resources, prioritization of the various surgeries, and several real-life OR constraints. As such reasonable surgery scheduling is crucial to OR management. To optimize OR management and reduce operation cost, a short-term surgery scheduling problem is proposed and defined based on the survey of the OR operation in a typical hospital in China. The comprehensive operation cost is clearly defined considering both under-utilization and overutilization. A nested Ant Colony Optimization (nested-ACO) incorporated with several real-life OR constraints is proposed to solve such a combinatorial optimization problem. The 10-day manual surgery schedules from a hospital in China are compared with the optimized schedules solved by the nested-ACO. Comparison results show the advantage using the nested-ACO in several measurements: OR-related time, nurse-related time, variation in resources' working time, and the end time. The nested-ACO considering real-life operation constraints such as the difference between first and following case, surgeries priority, and fixed nurses in pre/post-operative stage is proposed to solve the surgery scheduling optimization problem. The results clearly show the benefit of using the nested-ACO in enhancing the OR management efficiency and minimizing the comprehensive overall operation cost.

  15. Cost Effectiveness in Evaluation Technical Assistance: Different Aspects of Measuring Cost and Outcomes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Estes, Gary D.

    The paper focuses on the Title I Evaluation Technical Assistance Centers to illustrate issues of measuring costs and deciding on outcome criteria before promoting "cost-effective" approaches. Effects are illustrated for varying resource allocations among personnel, travel, materials, and phone costs as a function of emphasizing…

  16. 48 CFR 31.205-43 - Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Trade, business, technical... Contracts With Commercial Organizations 31.205-43 Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs. The following types of costs are allowable: (a) Memberships in trade, business, technical, and...

  17. Technical Services Cost Studies in ARL Libraries. SPEC Kit 125.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hoerman, Heidi Lee

    Based on a survey of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries in February 1986, this kit is designed to illustrate a wide range of alternative approaches to analyzing the costs of technical services. The kit consists of the following unedited primary-source documents: (1) SPEC Technical Services Costs Survey (Three-Year Update)…

  18. Army Corps of Engineers: Factors Contributing to Cost Increases and Schedule Delays in the Olmsted Locks and Dam Project

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-02-01

    to cost increases and schedule delays and (2) what is known about the costs of benefits foregone because of project delays. GAO compared the...Contributors to Cost Increases and Schedule Delays 13 Total Cost of Benefits Foregone from Project Delays at Olmsted Is Uncertain 27 Agency Comments...would take 7 years. The Corps also estimated benefits , such as transportation cost savings, associated with the project. However, once the project was

  19. HUMAN RESPONDING ON RANDOM-INTERVAL SCHEDULES OF RESPONSE-COST PUNISHMENT: THE ROLE OF REDUCED REINFORCEMENT DENSITY

    PubMed Central

    Pietras, Cynthia J; Brandt, Andrew E; Searcy, Gabriel D

    2010-01-01

    An experiment with adult humans investigated the effects of response-contingent money loss (response-cost punishment) on monetary-reinforced responding. A yoked-control procedure was used to separate the effects on responding of the response-cost contingency from the effects of reduced reinforcement density. Eight adults pressed buttons for money on a three-component multiple reinforcement schedule. During baseline, responding in all components produced money gains according to a random-interval 20-s schedule. During punishment conditions, responding during the punishment component conjointly produced money losses according to a random-interval schedule. The value of the response-cost schedule was manipulated across conditions to systematically evaluate the effects on responding of response-cost frequency. Participants were assigned to one of two yoked-control conditions. For participants in the Yoked Punishment group, during punishment conditions money losses were delivered in the yoked component response independently at the same intervals that money losses were produced in the punishment component. For participants in the Yoked Reinforcement group, responding in the yoked component produced the same net earnings as produced in the punishment component. In 6 of 8 participants, contingent response cost selectively decreased response rates in the punishment component and the magnitude of the decrease was directly related to the punishment schedule value. Under punishment conditions, for participants in the Yoked Punishment group response rates in the yoked component also decreased, but the decrease was less than that observed in the punishment component, whereas for participants in the Yoked Reinforcement group response rates in the yoked component remained similar to rates in the no-punishment component. These results provide further evidence that contingent response cost functions similarly to noxious punishers in that it appears to suppress responding apart from

  20. Using Multiple and Logistic Regression to Estimate the Median WillCost and Probability of Cost and Schedule Overrun for Program Managers

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-03-23

    PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED Using Multiple and Logistic Regression to Estimate the Median Will- Cost and Probability of Cost and... Cost and Probability of Cost and Schedule Overrun for Program Managers Ryan C. Trudelle Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.afit.edu...afit.edu. Recommended Citation Trudelle, Ryan C., "Using Multiple and Logistic Regression to Estimate the Median Will- Cost and Probability of Cost and

  1. Computing the Expected Cost of an Appointment Schedule for Statistically Identical Customers with Probabilistic Service Times

    PubMed Central

    Dietz, Dennis C.

    2014-01-01

    A cogent method is presented for computing the expected cost of an appointment schedule where customers are statistically identical, the service time distribution has known mean and variance, and customer no-shows occur with time-dependent probability. The approach is computationally efficient and can be easily implemented to evaluate candidate schedules within a schedule optimization algorithm. PMID:24605070

  2. Managerial Cost Accounting for a Technical Information Center.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Helmkamp, John G.

    A two-fold solution to the cost information deficiency problem is proposed. A formal managerial cost accounting system is designed expressly for the two information services of retrospective search and selective dissemination. The system was employed during a trial period to test its effectiveness in a technical information center. Once…

  3. Cost and schedule management on the quiet short-haul research aircraft project

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilcox, D. E.; Patterakis, P.

    1979-01-01

    The Quiet Short-Haul Research Aircraft (QSRA) Project, one of the largest aeronautical programs undertaken by NASA to date, achieved a significant cost underrun. This is attributed to numerous factors, not the least of which were the contractual arrangement and the system of cost and schedule management employed by the contractor. This paper summarizes that system and the methods used for cost/performance measurement by the contractor and by the NASA project management. Recommendations are made for the use of some of these concepts in particular for future programs of a similar nature.

  4. 78 FR 70586 - Technical Support Document: Technical Update of the Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-11-26

    ... OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET Technical Support Document: Technical Update of the Social Cost of... Budget, Executive Office of the President. ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments. SUMMARY: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requests comments on the Technical Support Document...

  5. The cost of doing business: cost structure of electronic immunization registries.

    PubMed

    Fontanesi, John M; Flesher, Don S; De Guire, Michelle; Lieberthal, Allan; Holcomb, Kathy

    2002-10-01

    To predict the true cost of developing and maintaining an electronic immunization registry, and to set the framework for developing future cost-effective and cost-benefit analysis. Primary data collected at three immunization registries located in California, accounting for 90 percent of all immunization records in registries in the state during the study period. A parametric cost analysis compared registry development and maintenance expenditures to registry performance requirements. Data were collected at each registry through interviews, reviews of expenditure records, technical accomplishments development schedules, and immunization coverage rates. The cost of building immunization registries is predictable and independent of the hardware/software combination employed. The effort requires four man-years of technical effort or approximately $250,000 in 1998 dollars. Costs for maintaining a registry were approximately $5,100 per end user per three-year period. There is a predictable cost structure for both developing and maintaining immunization registries. The cost structure can be used as a framework for examining the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefits of registries. The greatest factor effecting improvement in coverage rates was ongoing, user-based administrative investment.

  6. Advanced transportation system studies, technical area 3. Alternate propulsion subsystem concepts: J-2S restart study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vilja, John; Levack, Daniel

    1993-04-01

    The objectives were to assess what design changes would be required to remit late production of the J-2S engine for use as a large high energy upper stage engine. The study assessed design changes required to perform per the J-2S model specification, manufacturing changes required due to obsolescence or improvements in state-of-the-practice, availability issues for supplier provided items, and provided cost and schedule estimates for this configuration. The confidence that J-2S production could be reinitiated within reasonable costs and schedules was provided. No significant technical issues were identified in either the producibility study or in the review of previous technical data. Areas of potential cost reduction were identified which could be quantified to a greater extent with further manufacturing planning. The proposed schedule can be met with no foreseeable impacts. The results of the study provided the necessary foundation for the detailed manufacturing and test plans and non-recurring and recurring cost estimates that are needed to complete the effort to reinitiate production of the J-2S engine system.

  7. Cost and technical efficiency of physician practices: a stochastic frontier approach using panel data.

    PubMed

    Heimeshoff, Mareike; Schreyögg, Jonas; Kwietniewski, Lukas

    2014-06-01

    This is the first study to use stochastic frontier analysis to estimate both the technical and cost efficiency of physician practices. The analysis is based on panel data from 3,126 physician practices for the years 2006 through 2008. We specified the technical and cost frontiers as translog function, using the one-step approach of Battese and Coelli to detect factors that influence the efficiency of general practitioners and specialists. Variables that were not analyzed previously in this context (e.g., the degree of practice specialization) and a range of control variables such as a patients' case-mix were included in the estimation. Our results suggest that it is important to investigate both technical and cost efficiency, as results may depend on the type of efficiency analyzed. For example, the technical efficiency of group practices was significantly higher than that of solo practices, whereas the results for cost efficiency differed. This may be due to indivisibilities in expensive technical equipment, which can lead to different types of health care services being provided by different practice types (i.e., with group practices using more expensive inputs, leading to higher costs per case despite these practices being technically more efficient). Other practice characteristics such as participation in disease management programs show the same impact throughout both cost and technical efficiency: participation in disease management programs led to an increase in both, technical and cost efficiency, and may also have had positive effects on the quality of care. Future studies should take quality-related issues into account.

  8. The Cost of Doing Business: Cost Structure of Electronic Immunization Registries

    PubMed Central

    Fontanesi, John M; Flesher, Don S; De Guire, Michelle; Lieberthal, Allan; Holcomb, Kathy

    2002-01-01

    Objective To predict the true cost of developing and maintaining an electronic immunization registry, and to set the framework for developing future cost-effective and cost-benefit analysis. Data Sources/Study Setting Primary data collected at three immunization registries located in California, accounting for 90 percent of all immunization records in registries in the state during the study period. Study Design A parametric cost analysis compared registry development and maintenance expenditures to registry performance requirements. Data Collection/Extraction Methods Data were collected at each registry through interviews, reviews of expenditure records, technical accomplishments development schedules, and immunization coverage rates. Principal Findings The cost of building immunization registries is predictable and independent of the hardware/software combination employed. The effort requires four man-years of technical effort or approximately $250,000 in 1998 dollars. Costs for maintaining a registry were approximately $5,100 per end user per three-year period. Conclusions There is a predictable cost structure for both developing and maintaining immunization registries. The cost structure can be used as a framework for examining the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefits of registries. The greatest factor effecting improvement in coverage rates was ongoing, user-based administrative investment. PMID:12479497

  9. Cost and Schedule Analytical Techniques Development

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1996-01-01

    This Final Report summarizes the activities performed by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for the base contract year from December 1, 1994 through November 30, 1995. The Final Report is in compliance with Paragraph 5 of Section F of the contract. This CSATD contract provides technical services and products to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) Engineering Cost Office (PP03) and the Program Plans and Requirements Office (PP02). Detailed Monthly Progress Reports were submitted to MSFC in accordance with the contract's Statement of Work Section IV "Reporting and Documentation". These reports spelled out each month's specific work accomplishments, deliverables submitted, major meetings held, and other pertinent information. This Final Report will summarize these activities at a higher level.

  10. Low Cost Technical Solutions to Jump Start an Insider Threat Program

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-05-11

    Low Cost Technical Solutions to Jump Start an Insider Threat Program George J. Silowash Derrick L. Spooner Daniel L. Costa Michael J...Albrethsen May 2016 TECHNICAL NOTE CMU/SEI-2016-TN-004 CERT Division http://www.sei.cmu.edu Copyright 2016 Carnegie Mellon University This... technical note will explore tools that may be suitable for satisfying the basic technical needs of an insider threat program, giving organizations a

  11. Global anthropogenic methane emissions 2005-2030: technical mitigation potentials and costs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Höglund-Isaksson, L.

    2012-10-01

    This paper presents estimates of current and future global anthropogenic methane emissions, their technical mitigation potential and associated costs for the period 2005 to 2030. The analysis uses the GAINS model framework to estimate emissions, mitigation potentials and costs for all major sources of anthropogenic methane for 83 countries/regions, which are aggregated to produce global estimates. Global emissions are estimated at 323 Mt methane in 2005, with an expected increase to 414 Mt methane in 2030. The technical mitigation potential is estimated at 195 Mt methane in 2030, whereof about 80 percent is found attainable at a marginal cost less than 20 Euro t-1 CO2eq when using a social planner cost perspective. With a private investor cost perspective, the corresponding fraction is only 30 percent. Major uncertainty sources in emission estimates are identified and discussed.

  12. Wave scheduling - Decentralized scheduling of task forces in multicomputers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Van Tilborg, A. M.; Wittie, L. D.

    1984-01-01

    Decentralized operating systems that control large multicomputers need techniques to schedule competing parallel programs called task forces. Wave scheduling is a probabilistic technique that uses a hierarchical distributed virtual machine to schedule task forces by recursively subdividing and issuing wavefront-like commands to processing elements capable of executing individual tasks. Wave scheduling is highly resistant to processing element failures because it uses many distributed schedulers that dynamically assign scheduling responsibilities among themselves. The scheduling technique is trivially extensible as more processing elements join the host multicomputer. A simple model of scheduling cost is used by every scheduler node to distribute scheduling activity and minimize wasted processing capacity by using perceived workload to vary decentralized scheduling rules. At low to moderate levels of network activity, wave scheduling is only slightly less efficient than a central scheduler in its ability to direct processing elements to accomplish useful work.

  13. A model for estimating the cost impact of schedule perturbations on aerospace research and development programs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bishop, D. F.

    1972-01-01

    The problem of determining the cost impact attributable to perturbations in an aerospace R and D program schedule is discussed in terms of the diminishing availability of funds. The methodology from which a model is presented for updating R and D cost estimates as a function of perturbations in program time is presented.

  14. Three-Stage Production Cost Modeling Approach for Evaluating the Benefits of Intra-Hour Scheduling between Balancing Authorities

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Samaan, Nader A.; Milligan, Michael; Hunsaker, Matthew

    This paper introduces a Production Cost Modeling (PCM) approach to evaluate the benefits of intra-hour scheduling between Balancing Authorities (BAs). The system operation is modeled in a three-stage sequential manner: day ahead (DA)-hour ahead (HA)-real time (RT). In addition to contingency reserve, each BA will need to carry out “up” and “down” load following and regulation reserve capacity requirements in the DA and HA time frames. In the real-time simulation, only contingency and regulation reserves are carried out as load following is deployed. To model current real-time operation with hourly schedules, a new constraint was introduced to force each BAmore » net exchange schedule deviation from HA schedules to be within NERC ACE limits. Case studies that investigate the benefits of moving from hourly exchange schedules between WECC BAs into 10-min exchange schedules under two different levels of wind and solar penetration (11% and 33%) are presented.« less

  15. Three-Stage Production Cost Modeling Approach for Evaluating the Benefits of Intra-Hour Scheduling Between Balancing Authorities

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Samaan, Nader; Milligan, Michael; Hunsaker, Matt

    This paper introduces a production cost modeling approach for evaluating the benefits of intra-hour scheduling among Balancing Authorities (BAs). System operation is modeled in a three-stage sequential manner: day ahead (DA)-hour ahead (HA) real time (RT). In addition to contingency reserve, each BA will need to carry out 'up' and 'down' load following and regulation reserve capacity requirements in the DA and HA time frames. In the RT simulation, only contingency and regulation reserves are carried out as load following is deployed. To model current RT operation with hourly schedules, a new constraint was introduced to force each BA netmore » exchange schedule deviation from HA schedules to be within North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) area control error (ACE) limits. Case studies that investigate the benefits of moving from hourly exchange schedules between Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) BAs into 10-minute exchange schedules under two different levels of wind and solar penetration (11% and 33%) are presented.« less

  16. Comparison of 2-Dose and 3-Dose 9-Valent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Schedules in the United States: A Cost-effectiveness Analysis.

    PubMed

    Laprise, Jean-François; Markowitz, Lauri E; Chesson, Harrell W; Drolet, Mélanie; Brisson, Marc

    2016-09-01

    A recent clinical trial using the 9-valent human papillomavirus virus (HPV) vaccine has shown that antibody responses after 2 doses are noninferior to those after 3 doses, suggesting that 2 and 3 doses may have comparable vaccine efficacy. We used an individual-based transmission-dynamic model to compare the population-level effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of 2- and 3-dose schedules of 9-valent HPV vaccine in the United States. Our model predicts that if 2 doses of 9-valent vaccine protect for ≥20 years, the additional benefits of a 3-dose schedule are small as compared to those of 2-dose schedules, and 2-dose schedules are likely much more cost-efficient than 3-dose schedules. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.

  17. Cost Estimation and Control for Flight Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hammond, Walter E.; Vanhook, Michael E. (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    Good program management practices, cost analysis, cost estimation, and cost control for aerospace flight systems are interrelated and depend upon each other. The best cost control process cannot overcome poor design or poor systems trades that lead to the wrong approach. The project needs robust Technical, Schedule, Cost, Risk, and Cost Risk practices before it can incorporate adequate Cost Control. Cost analysis both precedes and follows cost estimation -- the two are closely coupled with each other and with Risk analysis. Parametric cost estimating relationships and computerized models are most often used. NASA has learned some valuable lessons in controlling cost problems, and recommends use of a summary Project Manager's checklist as shown here.

  18. 48 CFR 1631.205-76 - Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Trade, business, technical....205-76 Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs. (a) FEHBP participating plans, carriers, and underwriters shall seek the advance written approval of the contracting officer for...

  19. Technology Estimating 2: A Process to Determine the Cost and Schedule of Space Technology Research and Development

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cole, Stuart K.; Wallace, Jon; Schaffer, Mark; May, M. Scott; Greenberg, Marc W.

    2014-01-01

    As a leader in space technology research and development, NASA is continuing in the development of the Technology Estimating process, initiated in 2012, for estimating the cost and schedule of low maturity technology research and development, where the Technology Readiness Level is less than TRL 6. NASA' s Technology Roadmap areas consist of 14 technology areas. The focus of this continuing Technology Estimating effort included four Technology Areas (TA): TA3 Space Power and Energy Storage, TA4 Robotics, TA8 Instruments, and TA12 Materials, to confine the research to the most abundant data pool. This research report continues the development of technology estimating efforts completed during 2013-2014, and addresses the refinement of parameters selected and recommended for use in the estimating process, where the parameters developed are applicable to Cost Estimating Relationships (CERs) used in the parametric cost estimating analysis. This research addresses the architecture for administration of the Technology Cost and Scheduling Estimating tool, the parameters suggested for computer software adjunct to any technology area, and the identification of gaps in the Technology Estimating process.

  20. 48 CFR 2131.205-43 - Trade, business, technical and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Trade, business, technical... Organizations 2131.205-43 Trade, business, technical and professional activity costs. (a) FEGLI Program contractors shall seek the advance written approval of the contracting officer for allowability of all or part...

  1. A DDC Bibliography on Cost/Benefits of Technical Information Services and Technology Transfer.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Defense Documentation Center, Alexandria, VA.

    This bibliography is a compilation of literature existing in both the government and public sectors and concerning Cost/Benefits of Technical information Services and Technology Transfer. Not only was the cost-benefit to the user reflected, but consideration was given to the initial cost of information collections, the cost of processing the…

  2. Magnetohydrodynamics MHD Engineering Test Facility ETF 200 MWe power plant. Conceptual Design Engineering Report CDER. Volume 3: Costs and schedules

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    1981-09-01

    The estimated plant capital cost for a coal fired 200 MWE electric generating plant with open cycle magnetohydrodynamics is divided into principal accounts based on Federal Energy Regulatory Commision account structure. Each principal account is defined and its estimated cost subdivided into identifiable and major equipment systems. The cost data sources for compiling the estimates, cost parameters, allotments, assumptions, and contingencies, are discussed. Uncertainties associated with developing the costs are quantified to show the confidence level acquired. Guidelines established in preparing the estimated costs are included. Based on an overall milestone schedule related to conventional power plant scheduling experience and starting procurement of MHD components during the preliminary design phase there is a 6 1/2-year construction period. The duration of the project from start to commercial operation is 79 months. The engineering phase of the project is 4 1/2 years; the construction duration following the start of the man power block is 37 months.

  3. Magnetohydrodynamics MHD Engineering Test Facility ETF 200 MWe power plant. Conceptual Design Engineering Report CDER. Volume 3: Costs and schedules

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1981-01-01

    The estimated plant capital cost for a coal fired 200 MWE electric generating plant with open cycle magnetohydrodynamics is divided into principal accounts based on Federal Energy Regulatory Commision account structure. Each principal account is defined and its estimated cost subdivided into identifiable and major equipment systems. The cost data sources for compiling the estimates, cost parameters, allotments, assumptions, and contingencies, are discussed. Uncertainties associated with developing the costs are quantified to show the confidence level acquired. Guidelines established in preparing the estimated costs are included. Based on an overall milestone schedule related to conventional power plant scheduling experience and starting procurement of MHD components during the preliminary design phase there is a 6 1/2-year construction period. The duration of the project from start to commercial operation is 79 months. The engineering phase of the project is 4 1/2 years; the construction duration following the start of the man power block is 37 months.

  4. Cost, Schedule, And Performance Elements For Comparison of Hydrodynamic Models of Near-Surface Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Operations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-12-01

    2-89) Prescribed by ANSI Std. 239-18 ii THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK iii Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited. COST ...from the scope of this demonstration due to time constraints. Further study of this software would benefit similar cost , schedule, and performance...NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA SYSTEMS ENGINEERING CAPSTONE PROJECT REPORT Approved for public release. Distribution

  5. Advanced transportation system studies technical area 3: Alternate propulsion subsystem concepts, volume 3

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Levak, Daniel

    1993-01-01

    The objective of this contract was to provide definition of alternate propulsion systems for both earth-to-orbit (ETO) and in-space vehicles (upper stages and space transfer vehicles). For such propulsion systems, technical data to describe performance, weight, dimensions, etc. was provided along with programmatic information such as cost, schedule, needed facilities, etc. Advanced technology and advanced development needs were determined and provided. This volume separately presents the various program cost estimates that were generated under three tasks: the F-1A Restart Task, the J-2S Restart Task, and the SSME Upper Stage Use Task. The conclusions, technical results, and the program cost estimates are described in more detail in Volume 1 - Executive Summary and in individual Final Task Reports.

  6. 48 CFR 1631.205-76 - Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs. 1631.205-76 Section 1631.205-76 Federal Acquisition Regulations System OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT COST...

  7. 48 CFR 31.205-43 - Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs. 31.205-43 Section 31.205-43 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT COST PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES Contracts With Commercial Organizations...

  8. 48 CFR 31.205-43 - Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs. 31.205-43 Section 31.205-43 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT COST PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES Contracts With Commercial Organizations...

  9. 48 CFR 1631.205-76 - Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs. 1631.205-76 Section 1631.205-76 Federal Acquisition Regulations System OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT COST...

  10. 48 CFR 31.205-43 - Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs. 31.205-43 Section 31.205-43 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT COST PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES Contracts With Commercial Organizations...

  11. 48 CFR 1631.205-76 - Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs. 1631.205-76 Section 1631.205-76 Federal Acquisition Regulations System OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT COST...

  12. 48 CFR 31.205-43 - Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Trade, business, technical, and professional activity costs. 31.205-43 Section 31.205-43 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT COST PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES Contracts With Commercial Organizations...

  13. Production of ELZM mirrors: performance coupled with attractive schedule, cost, and risk factors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leys, Antoine; Hull, Tony; Westerhoff, Thomas

    2016-08-01

    Extreme light weighted ZERODUR Mirrors (ELZM) have been developed to exploit the superb thermal characteristics of ZERODUR. Coupled with up to date mechanical and optical fabrication methods this becomes an attractive technical approach. However the process of making mirror substrates has demonstrated to be unusually rapid and especially cost-effective. ELZM is aimed at the knee of the cost as a function of light weighting curve. ELZM mirrors are available at 88% light weighted. Together with their low risk, low cost production methods, this is presented as a strong option for NASA Explorer and Probe class missions.

  14. Cost and Schedule Analytical Techniques Development: Option 1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1996-01-01

    This Final Report summarizes the activities performed by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for the base contract year from December 1, 1995 through November 30, 1996. The Final Report is in compliance with Paragraph 5 of Section F of the contract. This CSATD contract provides technical services and products to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) Engineering Cost Office (PPO3) and the Program Plans and Requirements Officer (PPO2). Detailed Monthly Progress Reports were submitted to MSFC in accordance with the contract's Statement of Work Section IV "Reporting and Documentation". These reports spelled out each month's specific work accomplishments, deliverables submitted, major meetings held, and other pertinent information. This Final Report will summarize these activities at a higher level.

  15. Contamination Sources Effects Analysis (CSEA) - A Tool to Balance Cost/Schedule While Managing Facility Availability

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilcox, Margaret

    2008-01-01

    A CSEA is similar to a Failure Modes Effects Analysis (FMEA). A CSEA tracks risk, deterrence, and occurrence of sources of contamination and their mitigation plans. Documentation is provided spanning mechanical and electrical assembly, precision cleaning, thermal vacuum bake-out, and thermal vacuum testing. These facilities all may play a role in contamination budgeting and reduction ultimately affecting test and flight. With a CSEA, visibility can be given to availability of these facilities, test sequencing and trade-offs. A cross-functional team including specialty engineering, contamination control, electrostatic dissipation, manufacturing, testing, and material engineering participate in an exercise that identifies contaminants and minimizes the complexity of scheduling these facilities considering their volatile schedules. Care can be taken in an efficient manner to insure correct cleaning processes are employed. The result is reduction in cycle time ("schedule hits"), reduced cost due to rework, reduced risk and improved communication and quality while achieving adherence to the Contamination Control Plan.

  16. Conflict-Aware Scheduling Algorithm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wang, Yeou-Fang; Borden, Chester

    2006-01-01

    conflict-aware scheduling algorithm is being developed to help automate the allocation of NASA s Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas and equipment that are used to communicate with interplanetary scientific spacecraft. The current approach for scheduling DSN ground resources seeks to provide an equitable distribution of tracking services among the multiple scientific missions and is very labor intensive. Due to the large (and increasing) number of mission requests for DSN services, combined with technical and geometric constraints, the DSN is highly oversubscribed. To help automate the process, and reduce the DSN and spaceflight project labor effort required for initiating, maintaining, and negotiating schedules, a new scheduling algorithm is being developed. The scheduling algorithm generates a "conflict-aware" schedule, where all requests are scheduled based on a dynamic priority scheme. The conflict-aware scheduling algorithm allocates all requests for DSN tracking services while identifying and maintaining the conflicts to facilitate collaboration and negotiation between spaceflight missions. These contrast with traditional "conflict-free" scheduling algorithms that assign tracks that are not in conflict and mark the remainder as unscheduled. In the case where full schedule automation is desired (based on mission/event priorities, fairness, allocation rules, geometric constraints, and ground system capabilities/ constraints), a conflict-free schedule can easily be created from the conflict-aware schedule by removing lower priority items that are in conflict.

  17. Cost Finding Principles and Procedures. Preliminary Field Review Edition. Technical Report 26.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ziemer, Gordon; And Others

    This report is part of the Larger Cost Finding Principles Project designed to develop a uniform set of standards, definitions, and alternative procedures that will use accounting and statistical data to find the full cost of resources utilized in the process of producing institutional outputs. This technical report describes preliminary procedures…

  18. Cost-effectiveness analysis of a universal mass vaccination program with a PHiD-CV 2+1 schedule in Malaysia.

    PubMed

    Wang, Xiao Jun; Saha, Ashwini; Zhang, Xu-Hao

    2017-01-01

    Currently, two pediatric pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are available in the private market of Malaysia-13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) and pneumococcal polysaccharide and non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV). This study aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a universal mass vaccination program with a PHiD-CV 2+1 schedule versus no vaccination or with a PCV13 2+1 schedule in Malaysia. A published Markov cohort model was adapted to evaluate the epidemiological and economic consequences of programs with no vaccination, a PHiD-CV 2+1 schedule or a PCV13 2+1 schedule over a 10-year time horizon. Disease cases, deaths, direct medical costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were estimated. Locally published epidemiology and cost data were used whenever possible. Vaccine effectiveness and disutility data were based on the best available published data. All data inputs and assumptions were validated by local clinical and health economics experts. Analyses were conducted from the perspective of the Malaysian government for a birth cohort of 508,774. Costs and QALYs were discounted at 3% per annum. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed. Compared with no vaccination, a PHiD-CV 2+1 program was projected to prevent 1109 invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), 24,679 pneumonia and 72,940 acute otitis media (AOM) cases and 103 IPD/pneumonia deaths over 10 years, with additional costs and QALYs of United States dollars (USD) 30.9 million and 1084 QALYs, respectively, at an ICER of USD 28,497/QALY. Compared with a PCV13 2+1 program, PHiD-CV 2+1 was projected to result in similar reductions in IPD cases (40 cases more) but significantly fewer AOM cases (30,001 cases less), with cost savings and additional QALYs gained of USD 5.2 million and 116 QALYs, respectively, demonstrating dominance over PCV13. Results were robust to variations in one-way and

  19. Benefit-Cost Analysis of Integrated Paratransit Systems : Volume 6. Technical Appendices.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1979-09-01

    This last volume, includes five technical appendices which document the methodologies used in the benefit-cost analysis. They are the following: Scenario analysis methodology; Impact estimation; Example of impact estimation; Sensitivity analysis; Agg...

  20. Pre-Scheduled and Self Organized Sleep-Scheduling Algorithms for Efficient K-Coverage in Wireless Sensor Networks

    PubMed Central

    Hwang, I-Shyan

    2017-01-01

    The K-coverage configuration that guarantees coverage of each location by at least K sensors is highly popular and is extensively used to monitor diversified applications in wireless sensor networks. Long network lifetime and high detection quality are the essentials of such K-covered sleep-scheduling algorithms. However, the existing sleep-scheduling algorithms either cause high cost or cannot preserve the detection quality effectively. In this paper, the Pre-Scheduling-based K-coverage Group Scheduling (PSKGS) and Self-Organized K-coverage Scheduling (SKS) algorithms are proposed to settle the problems in the existing sleep-scheduling algorithms. Simulation results show that our pre-scheduled-based KGS approach enhances the detection quality and network lifetime, whereas the self-organized-based SKS algorithm minimizes the computation and communication cost of the nodes and thereby is energy efficient. Besides, SKS outperforms PSKGS in terms of network lifetime and detection quality as it is self-organized. PMID:29257078

  1. Power Extension Package (PEP) system definition extension, orbital service module systems analysis study. Volume 11: PEP, cost, schedules, and work breakdown structure dictionary

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1979-01-01

    Cost scheduling and funding data are presented for the reference design of the power extension package. Major schedule milestones are correlated with current Spacelab flight dates. Funding distributions provide for minimum expenditure during the first year of the project.

  2. Investing in International Information Exchange Activities to Improve the Safety, Cost Effectiveness and Schedule of Cleanup - 13281

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Seed, Ian; James, Paula; Mathieson, John

    2013-07-01

    With decreasing budgets and increasing pressure on completing cleanup missions as quickly, safely and cost-effectively as possible, there is significant benefit to be gained from collaboration and joint efforts between organizations facing similar issues. With this in mind, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) have formally agreed to share information on lessons learned on the development and application of new technologies and approaches to improve the safety, cost effectiveness and schedule of the cleanup legacy wastes. To facilitate information exchange a range of tools and methodologies were established. These included tacit knowledge exchangemore » through facilitated meetings, conference calls and Site visits as well as explicit knowledge exchange through document sharing and newsletters. A DOE web-based portal has been established to capture these exchanges and add to them via discussion boards. The information exchange is operating at the Government-to-Government strategic level as well as at the Site Contractor level to address both technical and managerial topic areas. This effort has resulted in opening a dialogue and building working relationships. In some areas joint programs of work have been initiated thus saving resource and enabling the parties to leverage off one another activities. The potential benefits of high quality information exchange are significant, ranging from cost avoidance through identification of an approach to a problem that has been proven elsewhere to cost sharing and joint development of a new technology to address a common problem. The benefits in outcomes significantly outweigh the costs of the process. The applicability of the tools and methods along with the lessons learned regarding some key issues is of use to any organization that wants to improve value for money. In the waste management marketplace, there are a multitude of challenges being addressed by multiple

  3. Minimizing Project Cost by Integrating Subcontractor Selection Decisions with Scheduling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Biruk, Sławomir; Jaśkowski, Piotr; Czarnigowska, Agata

    2017-10-01

    Subcontracting has been a worldwide practice in the construction industry. It enables the construction enterprises to focus on their core competences and, at the same time, it makes complex project possible to be delivered. Since general contractors bear full responsibility for the works carried out by their subcontractors, it is their task and their risk to select a right subcontractor for a particular work. Although subcontractor management has been admitted to significantly affect the construction project’s performance, current practices and past research deal with subcontractor management and scheduling separately. The proposed model aims to support subcontracting decisions by integrating subcontractor selection with scheduling to enable the general contractor to select the optimal combination of subcontractors and own crews for all work packages of the project. The model allows for the interactions between the subcontractors and their impacts on the overall project performance in terms of cost and, indirectly, time and quality. The model is intended to be used at the general contractor’s bid preparation stage. The authors claim that the subcontracting decisions should be taken in a two-stage process. The first stage is a prequalification - provision of a short list of capable and reliable subcontractors; this stage is not the focus of the paper. The resulting pool of available resources is divided into two subsets: subcontractors, and general contractor’s in-house crews. Once it has been defined, the next stage is to assign them to the work packages that, bound by fixed precedence constraints, form the project’s network diagram. Each package is possible to be delivered by the general contractor’s crew or some of the potential subcontractors, at a specific time and cost. Particular crews and subcontractors can be contracted more than one package, but not at the same time. Other constraints include the predefined project completion date (the project is

  4. Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force on the International Space Station

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1998-01-01

    The Cost Assessment and Validation (CAV) Task Force was established for independent review and assessment of cost, schedule and partnership performance on the International Space Station (ISS) Program. The CAV Task Force has made the following key findings: The International Space Station Program has made notable and reasonable progress over the past four years in defining and executing a very challenging and technically complex effort; The Program, size, complexity, and ambitious schedule goals were beyond that which could be reasonably achieved within the $2.1 billion annual cap or $17.4 billion total cap; A number of critical risk elements are likely to have an adverse impact on the International Space Station cost and schedule; The schedule uncertainty associated with Russian implementation of joint Partnership agreements is the major threat to the ISS Program; The Fiscal Year (FY) 1999 budget submission to Congress is not adequate to execute the baseline ISS Program, cover normal program, growth, and address the known critical risks. Additional annual funding of between $130 million and $250 million will be required; and Completion of ISS assembly is likely to be delayed from, one to three years beyond December 2003.

  5. Assessing the costs for hybrid versus regular transit buses : [technical brief].

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2012-10-01

    This technical brief summarizes : information about the costs and benefits : that have been attributed to use of : hybrid transit buses as found in the : literature. Results from a demonstration : project that compared fuel economy : and emissions fo...

  6. Determining the Optimal Vaccination Schedule for Herpes Zoster: a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.

    PubMed

    Le, Phuc; Rothberg, Michael B

    2017-02-01

    The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends a single dose of herpes zoster (HZ) vaccine in persons aged 60 years or older, but the efficacy decreases to zero after approximately 10 years. A booster dose administered after 10 years might extend protection, but the cost-effectiveness of a booster strategy has not been examined. We aimed to determine the optimal schedule for HZ vaccine DESIGN: We built a Markov model to follow patients over their lifetime. From the societal perspective, we compared costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) saved of 11 strategies to start and repeat HZ vaccine at different ages. Adults aged 60 years. HZ vaccine. Costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and incremental costs per QALY saved. At a $100,000/QALY threshold, "vaccination at 70 plus one booster" was the most cost-effective strategy, with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $36,648/QALY. "Vaccination at 60 plus two boosters" was more effective, but had an ICER of $153,734/QALY. In deterministic sensitivity analysis, "vaccination at 60 plus two boosters" cost < $100,000/QALY if compliance rate was > 67 % or vaccine cost was < $156 per dose. In probabilistic sensitivity analysis, "vaccination at 70 plus one booster" was preferred at a willingness-to-pay of up to $135,000/QALY. Under current assumptions, initiating HZ vaccine at age 70 years with one booster dose 10 years later appears optimal. Future data regarding compliance with or efficacy of a booster could affect these conclusions.

  7. Compressed-air energy-storage preliminary design and site-development program in an aquifer. Volume 9: Cost estimate and schedule

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    1982-12-01

    The behavior and suitability of aquifers as compressed-air energy-storage sites is discussed. The engineering and construction schedule, facilities capital-cost estimate, and corresponding cash-flow requirements are given.

  8. Rolling scheduling of electric power system with wind power based on improved NNIA algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Q. S.; Luo, C. J.; Yang, D. J.; Fan, Y. H.; Sang, Z. X.; Lei, H.

    2017-11-01

    This paper puts forth a rolling modification strategy for day-ahead scheduling of electric power system with wind power, which takes the operation cost increment of unit and curtailed wind power of power grid as double modification functions. Additionally, an improved Nondominated Neighbor Immune Algorithm (NNIA) is proposed for solution. The proposed rolling scheduling model has further improved the operation cost of system in the intra-day generation process, enhanced the system’s accommodation capacity of wind power, and modified the key transmission section power flow in a rolling manner to satisfy the security constraint of power grid. The improved NNIA algorithm has defined an antibody preference relation model based on equal incremental rate, regulation deviation constraints and maximum & minimum technical outputs of units. The model can noticeably guide the direction of antibody evolution, and significantly speed up the process of algorithm convergence to final solution, and enhance the local search capability.

  9. An Analysis of Costs and Cenefits Associated with Initial Contracting Technical Education and Training for Unrestricted Marine Officers

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-03-01

    COSTS AND BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH INITIAL CONTRACTING TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR UNRESTRICTED MARINE OFFICERS by Lee A. White...WITH INITIAL CONTRACTING TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR UNRESTRICTED MARINE OFFICERS 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Lee A. White 7. PERFORMING...unlimited. AN ANALYSIS OF COSTS AND BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH INITIAL CONTRACTING TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR UNRESTRICTED MARINE OFFICERS

  10. Estimating the cost of major ongoing cost plus hardware development programs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bush, J. C.

    1990-01-01

    Approaches are developed for forecasting the cost of major hardware development programs while these programs are in the design and development C/D phase. Three approaches are developed: a schedule assessment technique for bottom-line summary cost estimation, a detailed cost estimation approach, and an intermediate cost element analysis procedure. The schedule assessment technique was developed using historical cost/schedule performance data.

  11. Techniques for cash management in scheduling manufacturing operations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morady Gohareh, Mehdy; Shams Gharneh, Naser; Ghasemy Yaghin, Reza

    2017-06-01

    The objective in traditional scheduling is usually time based. Minimizing the makespan, total flow times, total tardi costs, etc. are instances of these objectives. In manufacturing, processing each job entails a cost paying and price receiving. Thus, the objective should include some notion of managing the flow of cash. We have defined two new objectives: maximization of average and minimum available cash. For single machine scheduling, it is demonstrated that scheduling jobs in decreasing order of profit ratios maximizes the former and improves productivity. Moreover, scheduling jobs in increasing order of costs and breaking ties in decreasing order of prices maximizes the latter and creates protection against financial instability.

  12. Considerations for Using an Incremental Scheduler for Human Exploration Task Scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jaap, John; Phillips, Shaun

    2005-01-01

    As humankind embarks on longer space missions farther from home, the requirements and environments for scheduling the activities performed on these missions are changing. As we begin to prepare for these missions it is appropriate to evaluate the merits and applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. Scheduling engines temporally arrange tasks onto a timeline so that all constraints and objectives are met and resources are not overbooked. Scheduling engines used to schedule space missions fall into three general categories: batch, mixed-initiative, and incremental. This paper presents an assessment of the engine types, a discussion of the impact of human exploration of the moon and Mars on planning and scheduling, and the applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. This paper will pursue the hypothesis that incremental scheduling engines may have a place in the new environment; they have the potential to reduce cost, to improve the satisfaction of those who execute or benefit from a particular timeline (the customers), and to allow astronauts to plan their own tasks.

  13. Cure Schedule for Stycast 2651/Catalyst 9.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kropka, Jamie Michael; McCoy, John D.

    2017-11-01

    The Emerson & Cuming technical data sheet (TDS) for Stycast 2651/Catalyst 9 lists three alternate cure schedules for the material, each of which would result in a different state of reaction and different material properties. Here, a cure schedule that attains full reaction of the material is defined. The use of this cure schedule will eliminate variance in material properties due to changes in the cure state of the material, and the cure schedule will serve as the method to make material prior to characterizing properties. The following recommendation uses one of the schedules within the TDS and adds amore » “post cure” to obtain full reaction.« less

  14. Surveillance alternatives : cost estimates and technical considerations for the en route domain

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1998-09-01

    The report present cost estimates and technical performance projections for ten aircraft surveillance architectures. The architectures are intended for use in the en route flight domain, and are comprised of various combinations of Automatic Dependen...

  15. A methodology for spacecraft technology insertion analysis balancing benefit, cost, and risk

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bearden, David Allen

    Emerging technologies are changing the way space missions are developed and implemented. Technology development programs are proceeding with the goal of enhancing spacecraft performance and reducing mass and cost. However, it is often the case that technology insertion assessment activities, in the interest of maximizing performance and/or mass reduction, do not consider synergistic system-level effects. Furthermore, even though technical risks are often identified as a large cost and schedule driver, many design processes ignore effects of cost and schedule uncertainty. This research is based on the hypothesis that technology selection is a problem of balancing interrelated (and potentially competing) objectives. Current spacecraft technology selection approaches are summarized, and a Methodology for Evaluating and Ranking Insertion of Technology (MERIT) that expands on these practices to attack otherwise unsolved problems is demonstrated. MERIT combines the modern techniques of technology maturity measures, parametric models, genetic algorithms, and risk assessment (cost and schedule) in a unique manner to resolve very difficult issues including: user-generated uncertainty, relationships between cost/schedule and complexity, and technology "portfolio" management. While the methodology is sufficiently generic that it may in theory be applied to a number of technology insertion problems, this research focuses on application to the specific case of small (<500 kg) satellite design. Small satellite missions are of particular interest because they are often developed under rigid programmatic (cost and schedule) constraints and are motivated to introduce advanced technologies into the design. MERIT is demonstrated for programs procured under varying conditions and constraints such as stringent performance goals, not-to-exceed costs, or hard schedule requirements. MERIT'S contributions to the engineering community are its: unique coupling of the aspects of performance

  16. Report of the Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force on the International Space Station

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1998-01-01

    The Cost Assessment and Validation (CAV) Task Force was established for independent review and assessment of cost, schedule and partnership performance on the International Space Station (ISS) Program. The CAV Task Force has made the following key findings: The International Space Station Program has made notable and reasonable progress over the past four years in defining and executing a very challenging and technically complex effort. The Program size, complexity, and ambitious schedule goals were beyond that which could be reasonably achieved within the $2.1 billion annual cap or $17.4 billion total cap. A number of critical risk elements are likely to have an adverse impact on the International Space Station cost and schedule. The schedule uncertainty associated with Russian implementation of joint Partnership agreements is the major threat to the ISS Program. The Fiscal Year (FY) 1999 budget submission to Congress is not adequate to execute the baseline ISS Program, cover normal program growth, and address the known critical risks. Additional annual funding of between $130 million and $250 million will be required. Completion of ISS assembly is likely to be delayed from one to three years beyond December 2003.

  17. Constraint-based scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zweben, Monte

    1991-01-01

    The GERRY scheduling system developed by NASA Ames with assistance from the Lockheed Space Operations Company, and the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center, uses a method called constraint-based iterative repair. Using this technique, one encodes both hard rules and preference criteria into data structures called constraints. GERRY repeatedly attempts to improve schedules by seeking repairs for violated constraints. The system provides a general scheduling framework which is being tested on two NASA applications. The larger of the two is the Space Shuttle Ground Processing problem which entails the scheduling of all the inspection, repair, and maintenance tasks required to prepare the orbiter for flight. The other application involves power allocation for the NASA Ames wind tunnels. Here the system will be used to schedule wind tunnel tests with the goal of minimizing power costs. In this paper, we describe the GERRY system and its application to the Space Shuttle problem. We also speculate as to how the system would be used for manufacturing, transportation, and military problems.

  18. Constraint-based scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zweben, Monte

    1991-01-01

    The GERRY scheduling system developed by NASA Ames with assistance from the Lockheed Space Operations Company, and the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center, uses a method called constraint based iterative repair. Using this technique, one encodes both hard rules and preference criteria into data structures called constraints. GERRY repeatedly attempts to improve schedules by seeking repairs for violated constraints. The system provides a general scheduling framework which is being tested on two NASA applications. The larger of the two is the Space Shuttle Ground Processing problem which entails the scheduling of all inspection, repair, and maintenance tasks required to prepare the orbiter for flight. The other application involves power allocations for the NASA Ames wind tunnels. Here the system will be used to schedule wind tunnel tests with the goal of minimizing power costs. In this paper, we describe the GERRY system and its applications to the Space Shuttle problem. We also speculate as to how the system would be used for manufacturing, transportation, and military problems.

  19. Constraint-based scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zweben, Monte

    1993-01-01

    The GERRY scheduling system developed by NASA Ames with assistance from the Lockheed Space Operations Company, and the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center, uses a method called constraint-based iterative repair. Using this technique, one encodes both hard rules and preference criteria into data structures called constraints. GERRY repeatedly attempts to improve schedules by seeking repairs for violated constraints. The system provides a general scheduling framework which is being tested on two NASA applications. The larger of the two is the Space Shuttle Ground Processing problem which entails the scheduling of all the inspection, repair, and maintenance tasks required to prepare the orbiter for flight. The other application involves power allocation for the NASA Ames wind tunnels. Here the system will be used to schedule wind tunnel tests with the goal of minimizing power costs. In this paper, we describe the GERRY system and its application to the Space Shuttle problem. We also speculate as to how the system would be used for manufacturing, transportation, and military problems.

  20. The Effects of Varying Schedules of Incentive Delivery on Technical Training.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pritchard, Robert D.; And Others

    The research reported here was initiated and designed to assess the impact of various schedules of incentive delivery (schedules of reinforcement) on performance and attitudes in an Air Force-related setting. Civilian subjects matching the characteristics of Air Force trainees were hired to work for four weeks, one week under each of four…

  1. Development of Advanced Technologies to Reduce Design, Fabrication and Construction Costs for Future Nuclear Power Plants

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    DiNunzio, Camillo A.; Gupta, Abhinav; Golay, Michael

    2002-11-30

    This report presents a summation of the third and final year of a three-year investigation into methods and technologies for substantially reducing the capital costs and total schedule for future nuclear plants. In addition, this is the final technical report for the three-year period of studies.

  2. The Development of Patient Scheduling Groups for an Effective Appointment System

    PubMed Central

    2016-01-01

    Summary Background Patient access to care and long wait times has been identified as major problems in outpatient delivery systems. These aspects impact medical staff productivity, service quality, clinic efficiency, and health-care cost. Objectives This study proposed to redesign existing patient types into scheduling groups so that the total cost of clinic flow and scheduling flexibility was minimized. The optimal scheduling group aimed to improve clinic efficiency and accessibility. Methods The proposed approach used the simulation optimization technique and was demonstrated in a Primary Care physician clinic. Patient type included, emergency/urgent care (ER/UC), follow-up (FU), new patient (NP), office visit (OV), physical exam (PE), and well child care (WCC). One scheduling group was designed for this physician. The approach steps were to collect physician treatment time data for each patient type, form the possible scheduling groups, simulate daily clinic flow and patient appointment requests, calculate costs of clinic flow as well as appointment flexibility, and find the scheduling group that minimized the total cost. Results The cost of clinic flow was minimized at the scheduling group of four, an 8.3% reduction from the group of one. The four groups were: 1. WCC, 2. OV, 3. FU and ER/UC, and 4. PE and NP. The cost of flexibility was always minimized at the group of one. The total cost was minimized at the group of two. WCC was considered separate and the others were grouped together. The total cost reduction was 1.3% from the group of one. Conclusions This study provided an alternative method of redesigning patient scheduling groups to address the impact on both clinic flow and appointment accessibility. Balance between them ensured the feasibility to the recognized issues of patient service and access to care. The robustness of the proposed method on the changes of clinic conditions was also discussed. PMID:27081406

  3. 48 CFR 2131.205-43 - Trade, business, technical and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Trade, business, technical and professional activity costs. 2131.205-43 Section 2131.205-43 Federal Acquisition Regulations System OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT, FEDERAL EMPLOYEES GROUP LIFE INSURANCE FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT...

  4. 48 CFR 2131.205-43 - Trade, business, technical and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Trade, business, technical and professional activity costs. 2131.205-43 Section 2131.205-43 Federal Acquisition Regulations System OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT, FEDERAL EMPLOYEES GROUP LIFE INSURANCE FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT...

  5. 48 CFR 2131.205-43 - Trade, business, technical and professional activity costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Trade, business, technical and professional activity costs. 2131.205-43 Section 2131.205-43 Federal Acquisition Regulations System OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT, FEDERAL EMPLOYEES GROUP LIFE INSURANCE FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT...

  6. Labor costs incurred by anesthesiology groups because of operating rooms not being allocated and cases not being scheduled to maximize operating room efficiency.

    PubMed

    Abouleish, Amr E; Dexter, Franklin; Epstein, Richard H; Lubarsky, David A; Whitten, Charles W; Prough, Donald S

    2003-04-01

    Determination of operating room (OR) block allocation and case scheduling is often not based on maximizing OR efficiency, but rather on tradition and surgeon convenience. As a result, anesthesiology groups often incur additional labor costs. When negotiating financial support, heads of anesthesiology departments are often challenged to justify the subsidy necessary to offset these additional labor costs. In this study, we describe a method for calculating a statistically sound estimate of the excess labor costs incurred by an anesthesiology group because of inefficient OR allocation and case scheduling. OR information system and anesthesia staffing data for 1 yr were obtained from two university hospitals. Optimal OR allocation for each surgical service was determined by maximizing the efficiency of use of the OR staff. Hourly costs were converted to dollar amounts by using the nationwide median compensation for academic and private-practice anesthesia providers. Differences between actual costs and the optimal OR allocation were determined. For Hospital A, estimated annual excess labor costs were $1.6 million (95% confidence interval, $1.5-$1.7 million) and $2.0 million ($1.89-$2.05 million) when academic and private-practice compensation, respectively, was calculated. For Hospital B, excess labor costs were $1.0 million ($1.08-$1.17 million) and $1.4 million ($1.32-1.43 million) for academic and private-practice compensation, respectively. This study demonstrates a methodology for an anesthesiology group to estimate its excess labor costs. The group can then use these estimates when negotiating for subsidies with its hospital, medical school, or multispecialty medical group. We describe a new application for a previously reported statistical method to calculate operating room (OR) allocations to maximize OR efficiency. When optimal OR allocations and case scheduling are not implemented, the resulting increase in labor costs can be used in negotiations as a

  7. Cost-Effective Technical and Vocational Education in Developing Countries. Coombe Lodge Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gray, Lynton; Warrender, Ann-Marie

    1993-01-01

    A study examined ways of reducing the costs of technical and vocational education in developing countries. The major study activities were as follows: an extensive literature search; interviews with individuals experienced in designing and delivering vocational programs for developing countries; field investigations in Thailand and Nigeria; and an…

  8. Cost/benefit tradeoffs for reducing the energy consumption of the commercial air transportation system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kraus, E. F.; Vanabkoude, J. C.

    1976-01-01

    The fuel saving potential and cost effectiveness of numerous operational and technical options proposed for reducing the fuel consumption of the U.S. commercial airline fleet was examined and compared. The impact of the most promising fuel conserving options on fuel consumption, passenger demand, operating costs and airline profits when implemented in the U.S. domestic and international airline fleets was determined. A forecast estimate was made of the potential fuel savings achievable in the U.S. scheduled air transportation system. Specifically, the means for reducing the jet fuel consumption of the U.S. scheduled airlines in domestic and international passenger operations were investigated. A design analysis was made of two turboprop aircraft as possible fuel conserving derivatives of the DC-9-30.

  9. An Assessment of Technical and Production Risks of Candidate Low-Cost Attitude/Heading Reference Systems(AHRS)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yuchnovicz, Daniel; Burgess, Malcolm; Hammers, William

    1999-01-01

    This report provides an assessment of technical and production risks of candidate low-cost attitude/heading reference systems (AHRS) for use in the Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) airplanes. A low-cost AHRS is a key component of modem "glass cockpit" flight displays for General Aviation (GA) aircraft. The technical capabilities of several candidate low-cost AHRS were examined and described along with the technical issues involved with using all solid-state components for attitude measurement. An economic model was developed which describes the expected profit, rate of return, and volume requirements for the manufacture of low-cost AHRS for GA aircraft in the 2000 to 2020 time frame. The model is the result of interviews with GA airframe manufacturers, avionics manufacturers and historical analysis of avionics of similar complexity. The model shows that a manufacturer will break even after three years of AHRS production, realizing an 18 percent rate of return (23 percent profit) on an investment of $3.5M over the 20 year period. A start-up production estimate showed costs of $6-12M for a new company to build and certify an AHRS from scratch, considered to be a high-risk proposition, versus $0.25-0.75M for an experienced avionics manufacturer to manufacture a design under license, a low-risk proposition.

  10. Scheduling Multilevel Deadline-Constrained Scientific Workflows on Clouds Based on Cost Optimization

    DOE PAGES

    Malawski, Maciej; Figiela, Kamil; Bubak, Marian; ...

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a cost optimization model for scheduling scientific workflows on IaaS clouds such as Amazon EC2 or RackSpace. We assume multiple IaaS clouds with heterogeneous virtual machine instances, with limited number of instances per cloud and hourly billing. Input and output data are stored on a cloud object store such as Amazon S3. Applications are scientific workflows modeled as DAGs as in the Pegasus Workflow Management System. We assume that tasks in the workflows are grouped into levels of identical tasks. Our model is specified using mathematical programming languages (AMPL and CMPL) and allows us to minimize themore » cost of workflow execution under deadline constraints. We present results obtained using our model and the benchmark workflows representing real scientific applications in a variety of domains. The data used for evaluation come from the synthetic workflows and from general purpose cloud benchmarks, as well as from the data measured in our own experiments with Montage, an astronomical application, executed on Amazon EC2 cloud. We indicate how this model can be used for scenarios that require resource planning for scientific workflows and their ensembles.« less

  11. A heuristic approach to incremental and reactive scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Odubiyi, Jide B.; Zoch, David R.

    1989-01-01

    An heuristic approach to incremental and reactive scheduling is described. Incremental scheduling is the process of modifying an existing schedule if the initial schedule does not meet its stated initial goals. Reactive scheduling occurs in near real-time in response to changes in available resources or the occurrence of targets of opportunity. Only minor changes are made during both incremental and reactive scheduling because a goal of re-scheduling procedures is to minimally impact the schedule. The described heuristic search techniques, which are employed by the Request Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE), a prototype generic scheduler, efficiently approximate the cost of reaching a goal from a given state and effective mechanisms for controlling search.

  12. Integrated Campaign Probabilistic Cost, Schedule, Performance, and Value for Program Office Support

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cornelius, David; Sasamoto, Washito; Daugherty, Kevin; Deacon, Shaun

    2012-01-01

    This paper describes an integrated assessment tool developed at NASA Langley Research Center that incorporates probabilistic analysis of life cycle cost, schedule, launch performance, on-orbit performance, and value across a series of planned space-based missions, or campaign. Originally designed as an aid in planning the execution of missions to accomplish the National Research Council 2007 Earth Science Decadal Survey, it utilizes Monte Carlo simulation of a series of space missions for assessment of resource requirements and expected return on investment. Interactions between simulated missions are incorporated, such as competition for launch site manifest, to capture unexpected and non-linear system behaviors. A novel value model is utilized to provide an assessment of the probabilistic return on investment. A demonstration case is discussed to illustrate the tool utility.

  13. Workforce Investments: State Strategies to Preserve Higher-Cost Career Education Programs in Community and Technical Colleges

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shulock, Nancy; Lewis, Jodi; Tan, Connie

    2013-01-01

    In today's highly-skilled economy, rewarding career pathways are available to those who acquire technical skills by enrolling in certificate and associate degree programs in a community or technical college. Such programs are often more costly to offer than liberal arts and sciences programs that prepare students to transfer to four-year…

  14. Management Matters. Changing to Flexible Scheduling

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pappas, Marjorie L.

    2005-01-01

    Elementary school library media specialists state that one of the most frustrating issues they face is the fixed schedules in their library media centers. Beyond the cost effectiveness issue, the fixed schedule severely limits using the resources of the library media center for inquiry learning and collaborative teaching experiences between the…

  15. The Basic Organizing/Optimizing Training Scheduler (BOOTS): User's Guide. Technical Report 151.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Church, Richard L.; Keeler, F. Laurence

    This report provides the step-by-step instructions required for using the Navy's Basic Organizing/Optimizing Training Scheduler (BOOTS) system. BOOTS is a computerized tool designed to aid in the creation of master training schedules for each Navy recruit training command. The system is defined in terms of three major functions: (1) data file…

  16. Shuttle payload interface verification equipment study. Volume 2: Technical document, part 1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1976-01-01

    The technical analysis is reported that was performed during the shuttle payload interface verification equipment study. It describes: (1) the background and intent of the study; (2) study approach and philosophy covering all facets of shuttle payload/cargo integration; (3)shuttle payload integration requirements; (4) preliminary design of the horizontal IVE; (5) vertical IVE concept; and (6) IVE program development plans, schedule and cost. Also included is a payload integration analysis task to identify potential uses in addition to payload interface verification.

  17. 77 FR 56743 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Technical Amendments

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-09-13

    ... Regulation; Technical Amendments AGENCY: Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA... publication schedules. Please cite FAC 2005-61, Technical Amendments. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In order to...

  18. 78 FR 6191 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Technical Amendments

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-01-29

    ... Regulation; Technical Amendments AGENCY: Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA... publication schedules. Please cite FAC 2005-65, Technical Amendments. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In order to...

  19. Space Technology Demonstrations Using Low Cost, Short-Schedule Airborne and Range Facilities at the Dryden Flight Research Center

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Carter, John; Kelly, John; Jones, Dan; Lee, James

    2013-01-01

    There is a national effort to expedite advanced space technologies on new space systems for both government and commercial applications. In order to lower risk, these technologies should be demonstrated in a relevant environment before being installed in new space systems. This presentation introduces several low cost, short schedule space technology demonstrations using airborne and range facilities available at the Dryden Flight Research Center.

  20. Innovative routing and scheduling concepts for transit systems.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1984-01-01

    The objective of this research was to investigate innovative routing and scheduling concepts to determine how transit systems in Virginia may improve ridership and reduce operating costs. Information on innovative routing and scheduling concepts was ...

  1. Using Technical Performance Measures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Garrett, Christopher J.; Levack, Daniel J. H.; Rhodes, Russel E.

    2011-01-01

    All programs have requirements. For these requirements to be met, there must be a means of measurement. A Technical Performance Measure (TPM) is defined to produce a measured quantity that can be compared to the requirement. In practice, the TPM is often expressed as a maximum or minimum and a goal. Example TPMs for a rocket program are: vacuum or sea level specific impulse (lsp), weight, reliability (often expressed as a failure rate), schedule, operability (turn-around time), design and development cost, production cost, and operating cost. Program status is evaluated by comparing the TPMs against specified values of the requirements. During the program many design decisions are made and most of them affect some or all of the TPMs. Often, the same design decision changes some TPMs favorably while affecting other TPMs unfavorably. The problem then becomes how to compare the effects of a design decision on different TPMs. How much failure rate is one second of specific impulse worth? How many days of schedule is one pound of weight worth? In other words, how to compare dissimilar quantities in order to trade and manage the TPMs to meet all requirements. One method that has been used successfully and has a mathematical basis is Utility Analysis. Utility Analysis enables quantitative comparison among dissimilar attributes. It uses a mathematical model that maps decision maker preferences over the tradeable range of each attribute. It is capable of modeling both independent and dependent attributes. Utility Analysis is well supported in the literature on Decision Theory. It has been used at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for internal programs and for contracted work such as the J-2X rocket engine program. This paper describes the construction of TPMs and describes Utility Analysis. It then discusses the use of TPMs in design trades and to manage margin during a program using Utility Analysis.

  2. Planning and scheduling for success

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Manzanera, Ignacio

    1994-01-01

    Planning and scheduling programs are excellent management tools when properly introduced to the project management team and regularly maintained. Communications, creativity, flexibility and accuracy are substantially improved by following a simple set of rules. A planning and scheduling program will work for you if you believe in it, make others in your project team realize its benefits, and make it an extension of your project cost control philosophy.

  3. Production scheduling and rescheduling with genetic algorithms.

    PubMed

    Bierwirth, C; Mattfeld, D C

    1999-01-01

    A general model for job shop scheduling is described which applies to static, dynamic and non-deterministic production environments. Next, a Genetic Algorithm is presented which solves the job shop scheduling problem. This algorithm is tested in a dynamic environment under different workload situations. Thereby, a highly efficient decoding procedure is proposed which strongly improves the quality of schedules. Finally, this technique is tested for scheduling and rescheduling in a non-deterministic environment. It is shown by experiment that conventional methods of production control are clearly outperformed at reasonable run-time costs.

  4. Projecting Future Scheduled Airline Demand, Schedules and NGATS Benefits Using TSAM

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dollyhigh, Samuel; Smith, Jeremy; Viken, Jeff; Trani, Antonio; Baik, Hojong; Hinze, Nickolas; Ashiabor, Senanu

    2006-01-01

    The Transportation Systems Analysis Model (TSAM) developed by Virginia Tech s Air Transportation Systems Lab and NASA Langley can provide detailed analysis of the effects on the demand for air travel of a full range of NASA and FAA aviation projects. TSAM has been used to project the passenger demand for very light jet (VLJ) air taxi service, scheduled airline demand growth and future schedules, Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS) benefits, and future passenger revenues for the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. TSAM can project the resulting demand when new vehicles and/or technology is inserted into the long distance (100 or more miles one-way) transportation system, as well as, changes in demand as a result of fare yield increases or decreases, airport transit times, scheduled flight times, ticket taxes, reductions or increases in flight delays, and so on. TSAM models all long distance travel in the contiguous U.S. and determines the mode choice of the traveler based on detailed trip costs, travel time, schedule frequency, purpose of the trip (business or non-business), and household income level of the traveler. Demand is modeled at the county level, with an airport choice module providing up to three airports as part of the mode choice. Future enplanements at airports can be projected for different scenarios. A Fratar algorithm and a schedule generator are applied to generate future flight schedules. This paper presents the application of TSAM to modeling future scheduled air passenger demand and resulting airline schedules, the impact of NGATS goals and objectives on passenger demand, along with projections for passenger fee receipts for several scenarios for the FAA Airport and Airway Trust Fund.

  5. Global emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases until 2050: technical mitigation potentials and costs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Purohit, Pallav; Hoglund-Isaksson, Lena

    2016-04-01

    The anthropogenic fluorinated (F-gases) greenhouse gas emissions have increased significantly in recent years and are estimated to rise further in response to increased demand for cooling services and the phase out of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) under the Montreal Protocol. F-gases (HFCs, PFCs and SF6) are potent greenhouse gases, with a global warming effect up to 22,800 times greater than carbon dioxide (CO2). This study presents estimates of current and future global emissions of F-gases, their technical mitigation potential and associated costs for the period 2005 to 2050. The analysis uses the GAINS model framework to estimate emissions, mitigation potentials and costs for all major sources of anthropogenic F-gases for 162 countries/regions, which are aggregated to produce global estimates. For each region, 18 emission source sectors with mitigation potentials and costs were identified. Global F-gas emissions are estimated at 0.7 Gt CO2eq in 2005 with an expected increase to about 3.6 Gt CO2eq in 2050. There are extensive opportunities to reduce emissions by over 95 percent primarily through replacement with existing low GWP substances. The initial results indicate that at least half of the mitigation potential is attainable at a cost of less than 20€ per t CO2eq, while almost 90 percent reduction is attainable at less than 100€ per t CO2eq. Currently, several policy proposals have been presented to amend the Montreal Protocol to substantially curb global HFC use. We analyze the technical potentials and costs associated with the HFC mitigation required under the different proposed Montreal Protocol amendments.

  6. Synthesis of power plant outage schedules. Final technical report, April 1995-January 1996

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Smith, D.R.

    This document provides a report on the creation of domain theories in the power plant outage domain. These were developed in conjunction with the creation of a demonstration system of advanced scheduling technology for the outage problem. In 1994 personnel from Rome Laboratory (RL), Kaman Science (KS), Kestrel Institute, and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) began a joint project to develop scheduling tools for power plant outage activities. This report describes our support for this joint effort. The project uses KIDS (Kestrel Interactive Development System) to generate schedulers from formal specifications of the power plant domain outage activities.

  7. Streamlining Software Aspects of Certification: Technical Team Report on the First Industry Workshop

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hayhurst, Kelly J.; Holloway, C. Michael; Knight, John C.; Leveson, Nancy G.; Yang, Jeffrey C.; Dorsey, Cheryl A.; McCormick, G. Frank

    1998-01-01

    To address concerns about time and expense associated with software aspects of certification, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began the Streamlining Software Aspects of Certification (SSAC) program. As part of this program, a Technical Team was established to determine whether the cost and time associated with certifying aircraft can be reduced while maintaining or improving safety, with the intent of impacting the FAA's Flight 2000 program. The Technical Team conducted a workshop to gain a better understanding of the major concerns in industry about software cost and schedule. Over 120 people attended the workshop, including representatives from the FAA,commercial transport and general aviation aircraft manufacturers and suppliers, and procurers and developers of non-airborne systems; and, more than 200 issues about software aspects of certification were recorded. This paper provides an overview of the SSAC program, motivation for the workshop, details of the workshop activities and outcomes, and recommendations for follow-on work.

  8. Routing and Scheduling Optimization Model of Sea Transportation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    barus, Mika debora br; asyrafy, Habib; nababan, Esther; mawengkang, Herman

    2018-01-01

    This paper examines the routing and scheduling optimization model of sea transportation. One of the issues discussed is about the transportation of ships carrying crude oil (tankers) which is distributed to many islands. The consideration is the cost of transportation which consists of travel costs and the cost of layover at the port. Crude oil to be distributed consists of several types. This paper develops routing and scheduling model taking into consideration some objective functions and constraints. The formulation of the mathematical model analyzed is to minimize costs based on the total distance visited by the tanker and minimize the cost of the ports. In order for the model of the problem to be more realistic and the cost calculated to be more appropriate then added a parameter that states the multiplier factor of cost increases as the charge of crude oil is filled.

  9. Balancing Authority Cooperation Concepts - Intra-Hour Scheduling

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hunsaker, Matthew; Samaan, Nader; Milligan, Michael

    2013-03-29

    The overall objective of this study was to understand, on an Interconnection-wide basis, the effects intra-hour scheduling compared to hourly scheduling. Moreover, the study sought to understand how the benefits of intra-hour scheduling would change by altering the input assumptions in different scenarios. This report describes results of three separate scenarios with differing key assumptions and comparing the production costs between hourly scheduling and 10-minute scheduling performance. The different scenarios were chosen to provide insight into how the estimated benefits might change by altering input assumptions. Several key assumptions were different in the three scenarios, however most assumptions were similarmore » and/or unchanged among the scenarios.« less

  10. 42 CFR 7.4 - Schedule of charges.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Schedule of charges. 7.4 Section 7.4 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL PROVISIONS DISTRIBUTION OF..., depending upon the cost of ingredients and the complexity of production. An up-to-date schedule of charges...

  11. 20 CFR 402.165 - Fee schedule.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Fee schedule. 402.165 Section 402.165 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION AND RECORDS TO THE PUBLIC... costs of operating the machine, plus the actual cost of the materials used, plus charges for the time...

  12. 42 CFR 447.76 - Public schedule.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... limit on premiums and cost sharing or just cost sharing. (4) Mechanisms for making payments for required... State must make the public schedule available to the following: (1) Beneficiaries, at the time of their..., or aggregate limits are revised. (2) Applicants, at the time of application. (3) All participating...

  13. Show me the money: the implications of Schedule H.

    PubMed

    Salinsky, Eileen

    2009-04-21

    Responding to policymakers' concerns, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) implemented significant new hospital community benefit reporting under Schedule H of its revised Form 990, the return used by tax-exempt organizations. This issue brief considers the policy implications of the quantitative and qualitative information that hospitals are now mandated to report through Schedule H, including the costs associated with charity care, bad debt, and the unreimbursed costs of Medicaid and Medicare. The paper examines unresolved issues related to the new reporting requirements, such as controversies regarding the scope of Schedule H, and considers the potential for these reports to influence IRS oversight activities, legislative action, and hospital policies and practices.

  14. Turnaround operations analysis for OTV. Volume 2: Detailed technical report

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1988-01-01

    The objectives and accomplishments were to adapt and apply the newly created database of Shuttle/Centaur ground operations. Previously defined turnaround operations analyses were to be updated for ground-based OTVs (GBOTVs) and space-based OTVs (SBOTVs), design requirements identified for both OTV and Space Station accommodations hardware, turnaround operations costs estimated, and a technology development plan generated to develop the required capabilities. Technical and programmatic data were provided for NASA pertinent to OTV round and space operations requirements, turnaround operations, task descriptions, timelines and manpower requirements, OTV modular design and booster and Space Station interface requirements. SBOTV accommodations development schedule, cost and turnaround operations requirements, and a technology development plan for ground and space operations and space-based accommodations facilities and support equipment. Significant conclusion are discussed.

  15. Final Technical Progress Report: Development of Low-Cost Suspension Heliostat; December 7, 2011 - December 6, 2012

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bender, W.

    2013-01-01

    Final technical progress report of SunShot Incubator Solaflect Energy. The project succeeded in demonstrating that the Solaflect Suspension Heliostat design is viable for large-scale CSP installations. Canting accuracy is acceptable and is continually improving as Solaflect improves its understanding of this design. Cost reduction initiatives were successful, and there are still many opportunities for further development and further cost reduction.

  16. Cure Schedule for Stycast 2651/Catalyst 11.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kropka, Jamie Michael; McCoy, John D.

    2017-11-01

    The Henkel technical data sheet (TDS) for Stycast 2651/Catalyst 11 lists three alternate cure schedules for the material, each of which would result in a different state of reaction and different material properties. Here, a cure schedule that attains full reaction of the material is defined. The use of this cure schedule will eliminate variance in material properties due to changes in the cure state of the material, and the cure schedule will serve as the method to make material prior to characterizing properties. The following recommendation was motivated by (1) a desire to cure at a single temperature formore » ease of manufacture and (2) a desire to keep the cure temperature low (to minimize residual stress build-up associated with the cooldown from the cure temperature to room temperature) without excessively limiting the cure reaction due to vitrification (i.e., material glass transition temperature, T g, exceeding cure temperature).« less

  17. Job Scheduling in a Heterogeneous Grid Environment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shan, Hong-Zhang; Smith, Warren; Oliker, Leonid; Biswas, Rupak

    2004-01-01

    Computational grids have the potential for solving large-scale scientific problems using heterogeneous and geographically distributed resources. However, a number of major technical hurdles must be overcome before this potential can be realized. One problem that is critical to effective utilization of computational grids is the efficient scheduling of jobs. This work addresses this problem by describing and evaluating a grid scheduling architecture and three job migration algorithms. The architecture is scalable and does not assume control of local site resources. The job migration policies use the availability and performance of computer systems, the network bandwidth available between systems, and the volume of input and output data associated with each job. An extensive performance comparison is presented using real workloads from leading computational centers. The results, based on several key metrics, demonstrate that the performance of our distributed migration algorithms is significantly greater than that of a local scheduling framework and comparable to a non-scalable global scheduling approach.

  18. Calibration and Validation of the COCOMO II.1997.0 Cost/Schedule Estimating Model to the Space and Missile Systems Center Database

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1997-09-01

    Daly chose five models (REVIC, PRICE-S, SEER, System-4, and SPQR /20) to estimate schedule for 21 separate projects from the Electronic System Division...PRICE-S, two variants of COCOMO, System-3, SPQR /20, SASET, SoftCost-Ada) to 11 eight Ada specific programs. Ada was specifically designed for and is

  19. The Relationship between Return on Profitability and Costs of Outsourcing Information Technology Technical Support

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Odion, Segun

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this quantitative correlational research study was to examine the relationship between costs of operation and total return on profitability of outsourcing information technology technical support in a two-year period of outsourcing operations. United States of America list of Fortune 1000 companies' chief information officers…

  20. An Analysis of Rocket Propulsion Testing Costs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ramirez-Pagan, Carmen P.; Rahman, Shamim A.

    2009-01-01

    build several intermediate databases in order to understand, validate, and manipulate data. These intermediate databases (validated historical account of schedule, test activity, and cost) by themselves are of great value and utility. For example, for the Project Profile, we were able to merged schedule, cost, and test activity. This kind of historical account conveys important information about sequence of events, lead time, and opportunities for improvement in future propulsion test projects. The Product Requirement Document (PRD) file is a collection of data extracted from each project PRD (technical characteristics, test requirements, and projection of cost, schedule, and test activity). This information could help expedite the development of future PRD (or equivalent document) on similar projects, and could also, when compared to the actual results, help improve projections around cost and schedule. Also, this file can be sorted by the parameter of interest to perform a visual review of potential common themes or trends. The process of searching, collecting, and validating propulsion test data encountered a lot of difficulties which then led to a set of recommendations for improvement in order to facilitate future data gathering and analysis.

  1. A Technical, User and Cost Comparison Study of Microfiche Duplicate Film Material. Final Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Prevel, James J.

    A technical, user and cost comparison study was undertaken to provide the Educational Resources Information Clearinghouse (ERIC) staff with data on silver halide, diazo, and vesicular type films for microfiche duplication. This information will allow ERIC to determine if diazo and/or vesicular films should be considered in producing ERIC duplicate…

  2. Managing Technical and Cost Uncertainties During Product Development in a Simulation-Based Design Environment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Karandikar, Harsh M.

    1997-01-01

    An approach for objective and quantitative technical and cost risk analysis during product development, which is applicable from the earliest stages, is discussed. The approach is supported by a software tool called the Analytical System for Uncertainty and Risk Estimation (ASURE). Details of ASURE, the underlying concepts and its application history, are provided.

  3. Planning and scheduling lessons learned study, executive summary

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Robinson, Toni

    1990-01-01

    The study was performed to document the lessons on planning and scheduling activities for a number of missions and institutional facilities in such a way that they can be applied to future missions; to provide recommendations to both projects and Code 500 that will improve the end-to-end planning and scheduling process; and to identify what, if any, mission characteristics might be related to certain lessons learned. The results are a series of recommendations of both a managerial and technical nature related to the underlying lessons learned.

  4. A New Distributed Optimization for Community Microgrids Scheduling

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Starke, Michael R; Tomsovic, Kevin

    This paper proposes a distributed optimization model for community microgrids considering the building thermal dynamics and customer comfort preference. The microgrid central controller (MCC) minimizes the total cost of operating the community microgrid, including fuel cost, purchasing cost, battery degradation cost and voluntary load shedding cost based on the customers' consumption, while the building energy management systems (BEMS) minimize their electricity bills as well as the cost associated with customer discomfort due to room temperature deviation from the set point. The BEMSs and the MCC exchange information on energy consumption and prices. When the optimization converges, the distributed generation scheduling,more » energy storage charging/discharging and customers' consumption as well as the energy prices are determined. In particular, we integrate the detailed thermal dynamic characteristics of buildings into the proposed model. The heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems can be scheduled intelligently to reduce the electricity cost while maintaining the indoor temperature in the comfort range set by customers. Numerical simulation results show the effectiveness of proposed model.« less

  5. Systems cost/performance analysis (study 2.3). Volume 2: Systems cost/performance model. [unmanned automated payload programs and program planning

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Campbell, B. H.

    1974-01-01

    A methodology which was developed for balanced designing of spacecraft subsystems and interrelates cost, performance, safety, and schedule considerations was refined. The methodology consists of a two-step process: the first step is one of selecting all hardware designs which satisfy the given performance and safety requirements, the second step is one of estimating the cost and schedule required to design, build, and operate each spacecraft design. Using this methodology to develop a systems cost/performance model allows the user of such a model to establish specific designs and the related costs and schedule. The user is able to determine the sensitivity of design, costs, and schedules to changes in requirements. The resulting systems cost performance model is described and implemented as a digital computer program.

  6. 29 CFR 4901.32 - Fee schedule.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... an established agency-wide average rate for CPU operating costs and operator/programmer salaries... of duplication. (c) Other charges. The scheduled fees, set forth in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this...

  7. 29 CFR 4901.32 - Fee schedule.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... an established agency-wide average rate for CPU operating costs and operator/programmer salaries... of duplication. (c) Other charges. The scheduled fees, set forth in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this...

  8. A cost comparison analysis of adjuvant radiation therapy techniques after breast-conserving surgery.

    PubMed

    Lanni, Thomas; Keisch, Martin; Shah, Chirag; Wobb, Jessica; Kestin, Larry; Vicini, Frank

    2013-01-01

    The aim of this study is to perform a cost analysis to compare adjuvant radiation therapy schedules following breast conserving surgery. Treatment planning and delivery utilization data were modeled for a series of 10 different breast RT techniques. The whole breast (WB) regimens consisted of: (1) Wedge based WB (25 fractions [fx]), (2) WB using IMRT, (3) WBRT with a boost (B), (4) WBRT using IMRT with a B, (5) Canadian WB (16 fx) with 3D-CRT, and (6) Canadian using IMRT. The accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) regimens included (7): APBI using 3D-CRT, (8) IMRT, (9) single channel balloon, and (10) multi-channel balloon. Costs incurred by the payer (i.e., direct medical costs) were taken from the 2011 Medicare Fee Schedule. Among all the different regimens examined, Canadian 3D-CRT and APBI 3D-CRT were the least costly whereas WB using IMRT with a B was the most expensive. Both APBI brachytherapy techniques were less costly than conventional WB with a B. In terms of direct medical costs, the technical component accounted for most, if not all, of the disparity among the various treatments. A general trend of decreasing RT costs was observed with further reductions in overall treatment time for WBRT techniques, but not all of the alternative treatment regimens led to similar total cost savings. APBI using brachytherapy techniques was less costly than conventional WBRT with a standard boost. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. Optimal Power Scheduling for a Medium Voltage AC/DC Hybrid Distribution Network

    DOE PAGES

    Zhu, Zhenshan; Liu, Dichen; Liao, Qingfen; ...

    2018-01-26

    With the great increase of renewable generation as well as the DC loads in the distribution network; DC distribution technology is receiving more attention; since the DC distribution network can improve operating efficiency and power quality by reducing the energy conversion stages. This paper presents a new architecture for the medium voltage AC/DC hybrid distribution network; where the AC and DC subgrids are looped by normally closed AC soft open point (ACSOP) and DC soft open point (DCSOP); respectively. The proposed AC/DC hybrid distribution systems contain renewable generation (i.e., wind power and photovoltaic (PV) generation); energy storage systems (ESSs); softmore » open points (SOPs); and both AC and DC flexible demands. An energy management strategy for the hybrid system is presented based on the dynamic optimal power flow (DOPF) method. The main objective of the proposed power scheduling strategy is to minimize the operating cost and reduce the curtailment of renewable generation while meeting operational and technical constraints. The proposed approach is verified in five scenarios. The five scenarios are classified as pure AC system; hybrid AC/DC system; hybrid system with interlinking converter; hybrid system with DC flexible demand; and hybrid system with SOPs. Results show that the proposed scheduling method can successfully dispatch the controllable elements; and that the presented architecture for the AC/DC hybrid distribution system is beneficial for reducing operating cost and renewable generation curtailment.« less

  10. Optimal Power Scheduling for a Medium Voltage AC/DC Hybrid Distribution Network

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zhu, Zhenshan; Liu, Dichen; Liao, Qingfen

    With the great increase of renewable generation as well as the DC loads in the distribution network; DC distribution technology is receiving more attention; since the DC distribution network can improve operating efficiency and power quality by reducing the energy conversion stages. This paper presents a new architecture for the medium voltage AC/DC hybrid distribution network; where the AC and DC subgrids are looped by normally closed AC soft open point (ACSOP) and DC soft open point (DCSOP); respectively. The proposed AC/DC hybrid distribution systems contain renewable generation (i.e., wind power and photovoltaic (PV) generation); energy storage systems (ESSs); softmore » open points (SOPs); and both AC and DC flexible demands. An energy management strategy for the hybrid system is presented based on the dynamic optimal power flow (DOPF) method. The main objective of the proposed power scheduling strategy is to minimize the operating cost and reduce the curtailment of renewable generation while meeting operational and technical constraints. The proposed approach is verified in five scenarios. The five scenarios are classified as pure AC system; hybrid AC/DC system; hybrid system with interlinking converter; hybrid system with DC flexible demand; and hybrid system with SOPs. Results show that the proposed scheduling method can successfully dispatch the controllable elements; and that the presented architecture for the AC/DC hybrid distribution system is beneficial for reducing operating cost and renewable generation curtailment.« less

  11. The advantages of cost plus award fee contracts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Keathley, William C.

    1994-01-01

    A Cost Plus Award Fee contract is the best procurement vehicle for the high-tech, one-of-a-kind, development projects that constitute most of NASA'S projects. The use of this type of contract requires more government and contractor effort than any other forms of contracts. An award fee contract is described as an arrangement whereby the government periodically awards a fee consistent with the cost, schedule and technical performance that is achieved by a contractor during a preset period with preset award fee pools. It's the only contracting method where both the government and contractor goals are closely linked. It also has a built-in mechanism to conveniently alter and emphasize program events in order to current external and internal situations. The award fee process also demands good communication between government and contractor participants.

  12. Robust optimisation-based microgrid scheduling with islanding constraints

    DOE PAGES

    Liu, Guodong; Starke, Michael; Xiao, Bailu; ...

    2017-02-17

    This paper proposes a robust optimization based optimal scheduling model for microgrid operation considering constraints of islanding capability. Our objective is to minimize the total operation cost, including generation cost and spinning reserve cost of local resources as well as purchasing cost of energy from the main grid. In order to ensure the resiliency of a microgrid and improve the reliability of the local electricity supply, the microgrid is required to maintain enough spinning reserve (both up and down) to meet local demand and accommodate local renewable generation when the supply of power from the main grid is interrupted suddenly,more » i.e., microgrid transitions from grid-connected into islanded mode. Prevailing operational uncertainties in renewable energy resources and load are considered and captured using a robust optimization method. With proper robust level, the solution of the proposed scheduling model ensures successful islanding of the microgrid with minimum load curtailment and guarantees robustness against all possible realizations of the modeled operational uncertainties. Numerical simulations on a microgrid consisting of a wind turbine, a PV panel, a fuel cell, a micro-turbine, a diesel generator and a battery demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheduling model.« less

  13. Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Bridge to Integrate the Management of Technical Information for Producing Technical Manuals and Training Courses

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-11-01

    Philadelphia, and all Computer-Based Training (CBT) courses delivered by Navy eLearning (NeL), a part of the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC...concentrated exclu- sively on the benefit side—whether the Bridge would save money in producing future technical manuals and training courses. It...of $78.1 million in 10-year costs: a savings of $86.8 million in producing future HM&E manuals and NeL-delivered courses less $8.7 million in

  14. 76 FR 57681 - Modification of Interlibrary Loan Fee Schedule

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-09-16

    ... Agricultural Library. The revised fee schedule is based on the method of payment used (traditional invoicing through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) or payment through the Online Computer Library... Branch, National Agricultural Library, 10301 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, MD 20705-2351. Telephone (301...

  15. Scheduling structural health monitoring activities for optimizing life-cycle costs and reliability of wind turbines

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hanish Nithin, Anu; Omenzetter, Piotr

    2017-04-01

    Optimization of the life-cycle costs and reliability of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) is an area of immense interest due to the widespread increase in wind power generation across the world. Most of the existing studies have used structural reliability and the Bayesian pre-posterior analysis for optimization. This paper proposes an extension to the previous approaches in a framework for probabilistic optimization of the total life-cycle costs and reliability of OWTs by combining the elements of structural reliability/risk analysis (SRA), the Bayesian pre-posterior analysis with optimization through a genetic algorithm (GA). The SRA techniques are adopted to compute the probabilities of damage occurrence and failure associated with the deterioration model. The probabilities are used in the decision tree and are updated using the Bayesian analysis. The output of this framework would determine the optimal structural health monitoring and maintenance schedules to be implemented during the life span of OWTs while maintaining a trade-off between the life-cycle costs and risk of the structural failure. Numerical illustrations with a generic deterioration model for one monitoring exercise in the life cycle of a system are demonstrated. Two case scenarios, namely to build initially an expensive and robust or a cheaper but more quickly deteriorating structures and to adopt expensive monitoring system, are presented to aid in the decision-making process.

  16. Deep space network resource scheduling approach and application

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Eggemeyer, William C.; Bowling, Alan

    1987-01-01

    Deep Space Network (DSN) resource scheduling is the process of distributing ground-based facilities to track multiple spacecraft. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has carried out extensive research to find ways of automating this process in an effort to reduce time and manpower costs. This paper presents a resource-scheduling system entitled PLAN-IT with a description of its design philosophy. The PLAN-IT's current on-line usage and limitations in scheduling the resources of the DSN are discussed, along with potential enhancements for DSN application.

  17. Achieving reutilization of scheduling software through abstraction and generalization

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilkinson, George J.; Monteleone, Richard A.; Weinstein, Stuart M.; Mohler, Michael G.; Zoch, David R.; Tong, G. Michael

    1995-01-01

    Reutilization of software is a difficult goal to achieve particularly in complex environments that require advanced software systems. The Request-Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE) was developed to create a reusable scheduling system for the diverse scheduling needs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). ROSE is a data-driven scheduler that accepts inputs such as user activities, available resources, timing contraints, and user-defined events, and then produces a conflict-free schedule. To support reutilization, ROSE is designed to be flexible, extensible, and portable. With these design features, applying ROSE to a new scheduling application does not require changing the core scheduling engine, even if the new application requires significantly larger or smaller data sets, customized scheduling algorithms, or software portability. This paper includes a ROSE scheduling system description emphasizing its general-purpose features, reutilization techniques, and tasks for which ROSE reuse provided a low-risk solution with significant cost savings and reduced software development time.

  18. Efficient genetic algorithms using discretization scheduling.

    PubMed

    McLay, Laura A; Goldberg, David E

    2005-01-01

    In many applications of genetic algorithms, there is a tradeoff between speed and accuracy in fitness evaluations when evaluations use numerical methods with varying discretization. In these types of applications, the cost and accuracy vary from discretization errors when implicit or explicit quadrature is used to estimate the function evaluations. This paper examines discretization scheduling, or how to vary the discretization within the genetic algorithm in order to use the least amount of computation time for a solution of a desired quality. The effectiveness of discretization scheduling can be determined by comparing its computation time to the computation time of a GA using a constant discretization. There are three ingredients for the discretization scheduling: population sizing, estimated time for each function evaluation and predicted convergence time analysis. Idealized one- and two-dimensional experiments and an inverse groundwater application illustrate the computational savings to be achieved from using discretization scheduling.

  19. 1170 MW/sub t/ HTGR steamer cogeneration plant: design and cost study

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    None

    A conceptual design and cost study is presented for intermediate size high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) for industrial energy applications performed by United Engineers and Constructors Inc., (UE and C) and The General Atomic Company (GAC). The study is part of a program at ORNL and has the objective to provide support in the evaluation of the technical and economic feasibility of a single unit 1170 MW/sub t/ HTGR steam cycle cogeneration plant (referred to as the Steamer plant) for the production of industrial process energy. Inherent in the achievement of this objective, it was essential to perform a numbermore » of basic tasks such as the development of plant concept, capital cost estimate, project schedule and annual operation and maintenance (O and M) cost.« less

  20. Scheduling multimedia services in cloud computing environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Yunchang; Li, Chunlin; Luo, Youlong; Shao, Yanling; Zhang, Jing

    2018-02-01

    Currently, security is a critical factor for multimedia services running in the cloud computing environment. As an effective mechanism, trust can improve security level and mitigate attacks within cloud computing environments. Unfortunately, existing scheduling strategy for multimedia service in the cloud computing environment do not integrate trust mechanism when making scheduling decisions. In this paper, we propose a scheduling scheme for multimedia services in multi clouds. At first, a novel scheduling architecture is presented. Then, We build a trust model including both subjective trust and objective trust to evaluate the trust degree of multimedia service providers. By employing Bayesian theory, the subjective trust degree between multimedia service providers and users is obtained. According to the attributes of QoS, the objective trust degree of multimedia service providers is calculated. Finally, a scheduling algorithm integrating trust of entities is proposed by considering the deadline, cost and trust requirements of multimedia services. The scheduling algorithm heuristically hunts for reasonable resource allocations and satisfies the requirement of trust and meets deadlines for the multimedia services. Detailed simulated experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed trust scheduling scheme.

  1. An assessment of PERT as a technique for schedule planning and control

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sibbers, C. W.

    1982-01-01

    The PERT technique including the types of reports which can be computer generated using the NASA/LaRC PPARS System is described. An assessment is made of the effectiveness of PERT on various types of efforts as well as for specific purposes, namely, schedule planning, schedule analysis, schedule control, monitoring contractor schedule performance, and management reporting. This assessment is based primarily on the author's knowledge of the usage of PERT by NASA/LaRC personnel since the early 1960's. Both strengths and weaknesses of the technique for various applications are discussed. It is intended to serve as a reference guide for personnel performing project planning and control functions and technical personnel whose responsibilities either include schedule planning and control or require a general knowledge of the subject.

  2. Evaluating Self-Funded Health Insurance for the Lakeshore Technical Institute as a Cost-Containment Measure.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holstein, Karen E.

    In response to the rising costs of health care and large increases in insurance premiums, a study was conducted at Lakeshore Technical Institute (LTI) to investigate the feasibility of using a self-funded health insurance plan at the college. Data were obtained through a literature review; telephone and on-site discussions with a personnel…

  3. The Swift Project Contamination Control Program: A Case study of Balancing Cost, Schedule and Risk

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hansen, Patricia A.; Day, Diane; Secunda, Mark

    2003-01-01

    The Swift Observatory will be launched in early 2004 to examine the dynamic process of gamma ray burst (GRB) events. The multi-wavelength Observatory will study the GRB afterglow characteristics, which will help to answer fundamental questions about both the structure and the evolution of the universe. The Swift Observatory Contamination Control Program has been developed to aid in ensuring the success of the on-orbit performance of two of the primary instruments: the Ultraviolet and Optical Telescope (UVOT) and the X-Ray Telescope (XRT). During the design phase of the Observatory, the contamination control program evolved and trade studies were performed to assess the risk of contaminating the sensitive UVOT and XRT optics during both pre-launch testing and on-orbit operations, within the constraints of the overall program cost and schedule.

  4. The Swift Project Contamination Control Program: A Case Study of Balancing Cost, Schedule and Risk

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hansen, Patricia A.; Day, Diane T.; Secunda, Mark S.; Rosecrans, Glenn P.

    2004-01-01

    The Swift Observatory will be launched in early 2004 to examine the dynamic process of gamma ray burst (GRB) events. The multi-wavelength Observatory will study the GRB afterglow characteristics, which will help to answer fundamental questions about both the structure and the evolution of the universe. The Swift Observatory Contamination Control Program has been developed to aid in ensuring the success of the on-orbit performance of two of the primary instruments: the Ultraviolet and Optical Telescope (UVOT) and the X-Ray Telescope (XRT). During the design phase of the Observatory, the contamination control program evolved and trade studies were performed to assess the risk of contaminating the sensitive UVOT and XRT optics during both pre-launch testing and on-orbit operations, within the constraints of the overall program cost and schedule.

  5. [Toward a New Immunization Schedule in Spain, 2016 (Part 1)].

    PubMed

    Limia-Sánchez, Aurora; Andreu, María Mar; Torres de Mier, María de Viarce; Navarro-Alonso, José Antonio

    2016-03-08

    The immunization Schedule is a dynamic public health tool that has incorporated different changes over the years influenced by the epidemiologic situation and the scientific evidence. The Immunization Advisory Committee [Ponencia de Programa y Registro de Vacunaciones], as the Interterritorial Council scientific and technical advisory body, carries out assessments of different programmes and vaccines and proposes changes that after approval will be introduced in the Regions schedule. This article is divided into two parts presenting the rationale followed to propose a new schedule for the immunization against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and invasive disease by Haemophilus influenzae type b. This first part is focused in the reasoning to undertake the assessment, the review of the immunization policy and the impact of immunization in Spain, as well as a review of the immunization schedules in similar countries.

  6. Planning and Scheduling for Environmental Sensor Networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Frank, J. D.

    2005-12-01

    Environmental Sensor Networks are a new way of monitoring the environment. They comprise autonomous sensor nodes in the environment that record real-time data, which is retrieved, analyzed, integrated with other data sets (e.g. satellite images, GIS, process models) and ultimately lead to scientific discoveries. Sensor networks must operate within time and resource constraints. Sensors have limited onboard memory, energy, computational power, communications windows and communications bandwidth. The value of data will depend on when, where and how it was collected, how detailed the data is, how long it takes to integrate the data, and how important the data was to the original scientific question. Planning and scheduling of sensor networks is necessary for effective, safe operations in the face of these constraints. For example, power bus limitations may preclude sensors from simultaneously collecting data and communicating without damaging the sensor; planners and schedulers can ensure these operations are ordered so that they do not happen simultaneously. Planning and scheduling can also ensure best use of the sensor network to maximize the value of collected science data. For example, if data is best recorded using a particular camera angle but it is costly in time and energy to achieve this, planners and schedulers can search for times when time and energy are available to achieve the optimal camera angle. Planning and scheduling can handle uncertainty in the problem specification; planners can be re-run when new information is made available, or can generate plans that include contingencies. For example, if bad weather may prevent the collection of data, a contingent plan can check lighting conditions and turn off data collection to save resources if lighting is not ideal. Both mobile and immobile sensors can benefit from planning and scheduling. For example, data collection on otherwise passive sensors can be halted to preserve limited power and memory

  7. Integrated resource scheduling in a distributed scheduling environment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zoch, David; Hall, Gardiner

    1988-01-01

    The Space Station era presents a highly-complex multi-mission planning and scheduling environment exercised over a highly distributed system. In order to automate the scheduling process, customers require a mechanism for communicating their scheduling requirements to NASA. A request language that a remotely-located customer can use to specify his scheduling requirements to a NASA scheduler, thus automating the customer-scheduler interface, is described. This notation, Flexible Envelope-Request Notation (FERN), allows the user to completely specify his scheduling requirements such as resource usage, temporal constraints, and scheduling preferences and options. The FERN also contains mechanisms for representing schedule and resource availability information, which are used in the inter-scheduler inconsistency resolution process. Additionally, a scheduler is described that can accept these requests, process them, generate schedules, and return schedule and resource availability information to the requester. The Request-Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE) was designed to function either as an independent scheduler or as a scheduling element in a network of schedulers. When used in a network of schedulers, each ROSE communicates schedule and resource usage information to other schedulers via the FERN notation, enabling inconsistencies to be resolved between schedulers. Individual ROSE schedules are created by viewing the problem as a constraint satisfaction problem with a heuristically guided search strategy.

  8. A transportation-scheduling system for managing silvicultural projects

    Treesearch

    Jorge F. Valenzuela; H. Hakan Balci; Timothy McDonald

    2005-01-01

    A silvicultural project encompasses tasks such as sitelevel planning, regeneration, harvestin, and stand-tending treatments. an essential problem in managing silvicultural projects is to efficiently schedule the operations while considering project task due dates and costs of moving scarce resources to specific job locations. Transportation costs represent a...

  9. FASTER - A tool for DSN forecasting and scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Werntz, David; Loyola, Steven; Zendejas, Silvino

    1993-01-01

    FASTER (Forecasting And Scheduling Tool for Earth-based Resources) is a suite of tools designed for forecasting and scheduling JPL's Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN is a set of antennas and other associated resources that must be scheduled for satellite communications, astronomy, maintenance, and testing. FASTER consists of MS-Windows based programs that replace two existing programs (RALPH and PC4CAST). FASTER was designed to be more flexible, maintainable, and user friendly. FASTER makes heavy use of commercial software to allow for customization by users. FASTER implements scheduling as a two pass process: the first pass calculates a predictive profile of resource utilization; the second pass uses this information to calculate a cost function used in a dynamic programming optimization step. This information allows the scheduler to 'look ahead' at activities that are not as yet scheduled. FASTER has succeeded in allowing wider access to data and tools, reducing the amount of effort expended and increasing the quality of analysis.

  10. Producing Satisfactory Solutions to Scheduling Problems: An Iterative Constraint Relaxation Approach

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chien, S.; Gratch, J.

    1994-01-01

    One drawback to using constraint-propagation in planning and scheduling systems is that when a problem has an unsatisfiable set of constraints such algorithms typically only show that no solution exists. While, technically correct, in practical situations, it is desirable in these cases to produce a satisficing solution that satisfies the most important constraints (typically defined in terms of maximizing a utility function). This paper describes an iterative constraint relaxation approach in which the scheduler uses heuristics to progressively relax problem constraints until the problem becomes satisfiable. We present empirical results of applying these techniques to the problem of scheduling spacecraft communications for JPL/NASA antenna resources.

  11. Intercell scheduling: A negotiation approach using multi-agent coalitions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tian, Yunna; Li, Dongni; Zheng, Dan; Jia, Yunde

    2016-10-01

    Intercell scheduling problems arise as a result of intercell transfers in cellular manufacturing systems. Flexible intercell routes are considered in this article, and a coalition-based scheduling (CBS) approach using distributed multi-agent negotiation is developed. Taking advantage of the extended vision of the coalition agents, the global optimization is improved and the communication cost is reduced. The objective of the addressed problem is to minimize mean tardiness. Computational results show that, compared with the widely used combinatorial rules, CBS provides better performance not only in minimizing the objective, i.e. mean tardiness, but also in minimizing auxiliary measures such as maximum completion time, mean flow time and the ratio of tardy parts. Moreover, CBS is better than the existing intercell scheduling approach for the same problem with respect to the solution quality and computational costs.

  12. Scheduling Projects with Multiskill Learning Effect

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    We investigate the project scheduling problem with multiskill learning effect. A new model is proposed to deal with the problem, where both autonomous and induced learning are considered. In order to obtain the optimal solution, a genetic algorithm with specific encoding and decoding schemes is introduced. A numerical example is used to illustrate the proposed model. The computational results show that the learning effect cannot be neglected in project scheduling. By means of determining the level of induced learning, the project manager can balance the project makespan with total cost. PMID:24683355

  13. Scheduling projects with multiskill learning effect.

    PubMed

    Zha, Hong; Zhang, Lianying

    2014-01-01

    We investigate the project scheduling problem with multiskill learning effect. A new model is proposed to deal with the problem, where both autonomous and induced learning are considered. In order to obtain the optimal solution, a genetic algorithm with specific encoding and decoding schemes is introduced. A numerical example is used to illustrate the proposed model. The computational results show that the learning effect cannot be neglected in project scheduling. By means of determining the level of induced learning, the project manager can balance the project makespan with total cost.

  14. Multi-time Scale Joint Scheduling Method Considering the Grid of Renewable Energy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhijun, E.; Wang, Weichen; Cao, Jin; Wang, Xin; Kong, Xiangyu; Quan, Shuping

    2018-01-01

    Renewable new energy power generation prediction error like wind and light, brings difficulties to dispatch the power system. In this paper, a multi-time scale robust scheduling method is set to solve this problem. It reduces the impact of clean energy prediction bias to the power grid by using multi-time scale (day-ahead, intraday, real time) and coordinating the dispatching power output of various power supplies such as hydropower, thermal power, wind power, gas power and. The method adopts the robust scheduling method to ensure the robustness of the scheduling scheme. By calculating the cost of the abandon wind and the load, it transforms the robustness into the risk cost and optimizes the optimal uncertainty set for the smallest integrative costs. The validity of the method is verified by simulation.

  15. Implementation and Evaluation of Self-Scheduling in a Hospital System.

    PubMed

    Wright, Christina; McCartt, Peggy; Raines, Diane; Oermann, Marilyn H

    Inflexible work schedules affect job satisfaction and influence nurse turnover. Job satisfaction is a significant predictor of nurse retention. Acute care hospitals report that job satisfaction is influenced by autonomy and educational opportunity. This project discusses implementation of computer-based self-scheduling in a hospital system and its impact. It is important for staff development educators to be aware that self-scheduling may play a key role in autonomy, professional development, turnover, and hospital costs.

  16. Differences in Student Outcomes between Block, Semester, and Trimester Schedules.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCreary, Jason; Hausman, Charles

    Despite the popularity of schedule modifications as a cost-effective reform to improve student outcomes, little empirical research on the consequences of alternative schedules has been conducted. The literature has been dominated by anecdotal reports. Even when empirical evidence is examined, causal comparisons of school outcomes between schedules…

  17. Incremental Scheduling Engines for Human Exploration of the Cosmos

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jaap, John; Phillips, Shaun

    2005-01-01

    As humankind embarks on longer space missions farther from home, the requirements and environments for scheduling the activities performed on these missions are changing. As we begin to prepare for these missions it is appropriate to evaluate the merits and applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. Scheduling engines temporally arrange tasks onto a timeline so that all constraints and objectives are met and resources are not overbooked. Scheduling engines used to schedule space missions fall into three general categories: batch, mixed-initiative, and incremental. This paper presents an assessment of the engine types, a discussion of the impact of human exploration of the moon and Mars on planning and scheduling, and the applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. This paper will pursue the hypothesis that incremental scheduling engines may have a place in the new environment; they have the potential to reduce cost, to improve the satisfaction of those who execute or benefit from a particular timeline (the customers), and to allow astronauts to plan their own tasks and those of their companion robots.

  18. Zagreb Regimen, an Abbreviated Intramuscular Schedule for Rabies Vaccination

    PubMed Central

    Ren, Jiangping; Yao, Linong; Sun, Jimin

    2014-01-01

    The Zagreb regimen, an abbreviated intramuscular schedule for rabies vaccination, was developed by I. Vodopija and colleagues of the Zagreb Institute of Public Health in Croatia in the 1980s. It was recommended by WHO as one of the intramuscular (IM) schedules for rabies vaccination in 2010. We reviewed the literature on the immunogenicity, safety, economic burden, and compliance of the Zagreb 2-1-1 regimen. Compared to Essen, another IM schedule recommended by WHO, Zagreb has higher compliance, lower medical cost, and better immunogenicity at an early stage. PMID:25392012

  19. Leveraging Independent Management and Chief Engineer Hierarchy: Vertically and Horizontally-Derived Technical Authority Value

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barley, Bryan; Newhouse, Marilyn

    2012-01-01

    In the development of complex spacecraft missions, project management authority is usually extended hierarchically from NASA's highest agency levels down to the implementing institution's project team level, through both the center and the program. In parallel with management authority, NASA utilizes a complementary, but independent, hierarchy of technical authority (TA) that extends from the agency level to the project, again, through both the center and the program. The chief engineers (CEs) who serve in this technical authority capacity oversee and report on the technical status and ensure sound engineering practices, controls, and management of the projects and programs. At the lowest level, implementing institutions assign project CEs to technically engage projects, lead development teams, and ensure sound technical principles, processes, and issue resolution. At the middle level, programs and centers independently use CEs to ensure the technical success of their projects and programs. At the agency level, NASA's mission directorate CEs maintain technical cognizance over every program and project in their directorate and advise directorate management on the technical, cost, schedule, and programmatic health of each. As part of this vertically-extended CE team, a program level CE manages a continually varying balance between penetration depth and breadth across his or her assigned missions. Teamwork issues and information integration become critical for management at all levels to ensure value-added use of both the synergy available between CEs at the various agency levels, and the independence of the technical authority at each organization.

  20. Advanced Technology System Scheduling Governance Model

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ang, Jim; Carnes, Brian; Hoang, Thuc

    In the fall of 2005, the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program appointed a team to formulate a governance model for allocating resources and scheduling the stockpile stewardship workload on ASC capability systems. This update to the original document takes into account the new technical challenges and roles for advanced technology (AT) systems and the new ASC Program workload categories that must be supported. The goal of this updated model is to effectively allocate and schedule AT computing resources among all three National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratories for weapons deliverables that merit priority on this class of resource. Themore » process outlined below describes how proposed work can be evaluated and approved for resource allocations while preserving high effective utilization of the systems. This approach will provide the broadest possible benefit to the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP).« less

  1. Scheduling Independent Partitions in Integrated Modular Avionics Systems

    PubMed Central

    Du, Chenglie; Han, Pengcheng

    2016-01-01

    Recently the integrated modular avionics (IMA) architecture has been widely adopted by the avionics industry due to its strong partition mechanism. Although the IMA architecture can achieve effective cost reduction and reliability enhancement in the development of avionics systems, it results in a complex allocation and scheduling problem. All partitions in an IMA system should be integrated together according to a proper schedule such that their deadlines will be met even under the worst case situations. In order to help provide a proper scheduling table for all partitions in IMA systems, we study the schedulability of independent partitions on a multiprocessor platform in this paper. We firstly present an exact formulation to calculate the maximum scaling factor and determine whether all partitions are schedulable on a limited number of processors. Then with a Game Theory analogy, we design an approximation algorithm to solve the scheduling problem of partitions, by allowing each partition to optimize its own schedule according to the allocations of the others. Finally, simulation experiments are conducted to show the efficiency and reliability of the approach proposed in terms of time consumption and acceptance ratio. PMID:27942013

  2. Artificial Immune Algorithm for Subtask Industrial Robot Scheduling in Cloud Manufacturing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suma, T.; Murugesan, R.

    2018-04-01

    The current generation of manufacturing industry requires an intelligent scheduling model to achieve an effective utilization of distributed manufacturing resources, which motivated us to work on an Artificial Immune Algorithm for subtask robot scheduling in cloud manufacturing. This scheduling model enables a collaborative work between the industrial robots in different manufacturing centers. This paper discussed two optimizing objectives which includes minimizing the cost and load balance of industrial robots through scheduling. To solve these scheduling problems, we used the algorithm based on Artificial Immune system. The parameters are simulated with MATLAB and the results compared with the existing algorithms. The result shows better performance than existing.

  3. Cost-effectiveness assessment in outpatient sinonasal surgery.

    PubMed

    Mortuaire, G; Theis, D; Fackeure, R; Chevalier, D; Gengler, I

    2018-02-01

    To assess the cost-effectiveness of outpatient sinonasal surgery in terms of clinical efficacy and control of expenses. A retrospective study was conducted from January 2014 to January 2016. Patients scheduled for outpatient sinonasal surgery were systematically included. Clinical data were extracted from surgical and anesthesiology computer files. The cost accounting methods applied in our institution were used to evaluate logistic and technical costs. The standardized hospital fees rating system based on hospital stay and severity in diagnosis-related groups (Groupes homogènes de séjours: GHS) was used to estimate institutional revenue. Over 2years, 927 outpatient surgical procedures were performed. The crossover rate to conventional hospital admission was 2.9%. In a day-1 telephone interview, 85% of patients were very satisfied with the procedure. All outpatient cases showed significantly lower costs than estimated for conventional management with overnight admission, while hospital revenue did not differ between the two. This study confirmed the efficacy of outpatient surgery in this indication. Lower costs could allow savings for the health system by readjusting the rating for the procedure. More precise assessment of cost-effectiveness will require more fine-grained studies based on micro costing at hospital level and assessment of impact on conventional surgical activity and post-discharge community care. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  4. A cost and technical efficiency analysis of two alternative models for implementing the basic package of health services in Afghanistan.

    PubMed

    Blaakman, Aaron Philip; Salehi, Ahmad Shah; Boitard, Romain

    2014-01-01

    Since 2003, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and international partners have directed a contracting-out model through which non-governmental organisations (NGOs) deliver the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in 31 of the 34 Afghan provinces. The MoPH also managed health service delivery in three provinces under an alternative initiative entitled Strengthening Mechanisms (SM). In 2011, under the authority of the MoPH and Delegation of the European Union to Afghanistan, EPOS Health Management conducted a cost and technical efficiency study of the contracting-out and SM mechanisms in six provinces to examine economic trade-offs in the provision of the BPHS. The study provides analyses of all resource inputs and primary outputs of the BPHS in the six provinces during 2008 and 2009. The authors examined technical efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) at the BPHS facility level. Cost analysis results indicate that the weighted average cost per BPHS outpatient visit totalled $3.41 in the SM provinces and $5.39 in the NGO-led provinces in 2009. Furthermore, the data envelopment analyses (DEAs) indicate that facilities in the three NGO-led provinces scored 0.168 points higher on the DEA scale (0-1) than SM facilities. The authors conclude that an approximate 60% increase in costs yielded a 16.8% increase in technical efficiency in the delivery of the BPHS during 2009 in the six provinces.

  5. Optimizing Music Learning: Exploring How Blocked and Interleaved Practice Schedules Affect Advanced Performance.

    PubMed

    Carter, Christine E; Grahn, Jessica A

    2016-01-01

    Repetition is the most commonly used practice strategy by musicians. Although blocks of repetition continue to be suggested in the pedagogical literature, work in the field of cognitive psychology suggests that repeated events receive less processing, thereby reducing the potential for long-term learning. Motor skill learning and sport psychology research offer an alternative. Instead of using a blocked practice schedule, with practice completed on one task before moving on to the next task, an interleaved schedule can be used, in which practice is frequently alternated between tasks. This frequent alternation involves more effortful processing, resulting in increased long-term learning. The finding that practicing in an interleaved schedule leads to better retention than practicing in a blocked schedule has been labeled the "contextual interference effect." While the effect has been observed across a wide variety of fields, few studies have researched this phenomenon in a music-learning context, despite the broad potential for application to music practice. This study compared the effects of blocked and interleaved practice schedules on advanced clarinet performance in an ecologically valid context. Ten clarinetists were given one concerto exposition and one technical excerpt to practice in a blocked schedule (12 min per piece) and a second concerto exposition and technical excerpt to practice in an interleaved schedule (3 min per piece, alternating until a total of 12 min of practice were completed on each piece). Participants sight-read the four pieces prior to practice and performed them at the end of practice and again one day later. The sight-reading and two performance run-throughs of each piece were recorded and given to three professional clarinetists to rate using a percentage scale. Overall, whenever there was a ratings difference between the conditions, pieces practiced in the interleaved schedule were rated better than those in the blocked schedule

  6. Optimizing Music Learning: Exploring How Blocked and Interleaved Practice Schedules Affect Advanced Performance

    PubMed Central

    Carter, Christine E.; Grahn, Jessica A.

    2016-01-01

    Repetition is the most commonly used practice strategy by musicians. Although blocks of repetition continue to be suggested in the pedagogical literature, work in the field of cognitive psychology suggests that repeated events receive less processing, thereby reducing the potential for long-term learning. Motor skill learning and sport psychology research offer an alternative. Instead of using a blocked practice schedule, with practice completed on one task before moving on to the next task, an interleaved schedule can be used, in which practice is frequently alternated between tasks. This frequent alternation involves more effortful processing, resulting in increased long-term learning. The finding that practicing in an interleaved schedule leads to better retention than practicing in a blocked schedule has been labeled the “contextual interference effect.” While the effect has been observed across a wide variety of fields, few studies have researched this phenomenon in a music-learning context, despite the broad potential for application to music practice. This study compared the effects of blocked and interleaved practice schedules on advanced clarinet performance in an ecologically valid context. Ten clarinetists were given one concerto exposition and one technical excerpt to practice in a blocked schedule (12 min per piece) and a second concerto exposition and technical excerpt to practice in an interleaved schedule (3 min per piece, alternating until a total of 12 min of practice were completed on each piece). Participants sight-read the four pieces prior to practice and performed them at the end of practice and again one day later. The sight-reading and two performance run-throughs of each piece were recorded and given to three professional clarinetists to rate using a percentage scale. Overall, whenever there was a ratings difference between the conditions, pieces practiced in the interleaved schedule were rated better than those in the blocked schedule

  7. Reducing the Cost of Technical and Vocational Education. Education Research. A Report to the Overseas Development Administration.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gray, Lynton; And Others

    This report describes research that examined ways of reducing the costs of technical and vocational education programs, particularly in developing countries. The report is organized in three sections. The first section offers an extensive survey of recent and current literature, augmented by perspectives obtained from interviews with key…

  8. A Chaotic Particle Swarm Optimization-Based Heuristic for Market-Oriented Task-Level Scheduling in Cloud Workflow Systems.

    PubMed

    Li, Xuejun; Xu, Jia; Yang, Yun

    2015-01-01

    Cloud workflow system is a kind of platform service based on cloud computing. It facilitates the automation of workflow applications. Between cloud workflow system and its counterparts, market-oriented business model is one of the most prominent factors. The optimization of task-level scheduling in cloud workflow system is a hot topic. As the scheduling is a NP problem, Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) have been proposed to optimize the cost. However, they have the characteristic of premature convergence in optimization process and therefore cannot effectively reduce the cost. To solve these problems, Chaotic Particle Swarm Optimization (CPSO) algorithm with chaotic sequence and adaptive inertia weight factor is applied to present the task-level scheduling. Chaotic sequence with high randomness improves the diversity of solutions, and its regularity assures a good global convergence. Adaptive inertia weight factor depends on the estimate value of cost. It makes the scheduling avoid premature convergence by properly balancing between global and local exploration. The experimental simulation shows that the cost obtained by our scheduling is always lower than the other two representative counterparts.

  9. Fitting of full Cobb-Douglas and full VRTS cost frontiers by solving goal programming problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Venkateswarlu, B.; Mahaboob, B.; Subbarami Reddy, C.; Madhusudhana Rao, B.

    2017-11-01

    The present research article first defines two popular production functions viz, Cobb-Douglas and VRTS production frontiers and their dual cost functions and then derives their cost limited maximal outputs. This paper tells us that the cost limited maximal output is cost efficient. Here the one side goal programming problem is proposed by which the full Cobb-Douglas cost frontier, full VRTS frontier can be fitted. This paper includes the framing of goal programming by which stochastic cost frontier and stochastic VRTS frontiers are fitted. Hasan et al. [1] used a parameter approach Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA) to examine the technical efficiency of the Malaysian domestic banks listed in the Kuala Lumpur stock Exchange (KLSE) market over the period 2005-2010. AshkanHassani [2] exposed Cobb-Douglas Production Functions application in construction schedule crashing and project risk analysis related to the duration of construction projects. Nan Jiang [3] applied Stochastic Frontier analysis to a panel of New Zealand dairy forms in 1998/99-2006/2007.

  10. Project Scheduling Based on Risk of Gas Transmission Pipe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Silvianita; Nurbaity, A.; Mulyadi, Y.; Suntoyo; Chamelia, D. M.

    2018-03-01

    The planning of a project has a time limit on which must be completed before or right at a predetermined time. Thus, in a project planning, it is necessary to have scheduling management that is useful for completing a project to achieve maximum results by considering the constraints that will exists. Scheduling management is undertaken to deal with uncertainties and negative impacts of time and cost in project completion. This paper explains about scheduling management in gas transmission pipeline project Gresik-Semarang to find out which scheduling plan is most effectively used in accordance with its risk value. Scheduling management in this paper is assissted by Microsoft Project software to find the critical path of existing project scheduling planning data. Critical path is the longest scheduling path with the fastest completion time. The result is found a critical path on project scheduling with completion time is 152 days. Furthermore, the calculation of risk is done by using House of Risk (HOR) method and it is found that the critical path has a share of 40.98 percent of all causes of the occurence of risk events that will be experienced.

  11. Zagreb regimen, an abbreviated intramuscular schedule for rabies vaccination.

    PubMed

    Ren, Jiangping; Yao, Linong; Sun, Jimin; Gong, Zhenyu

    2015-01-01

    The Zagreb regimen, an abbreviated intramuscular schedule for rabies vaccination, was developed by I. Vodopija and colleagues of the Zagreb Institute of Public Health in Croatia in the 1980s. It was recommended by WHO as one of the intramuscular (IM) schedules for rabies vaccination in 2010. We reviewed the literature on the immunogenicity, safety, economic burden, and compliance of the Zagreb 2-1-1 regimen. Compared to Essen, another IM schedule recommended by WHO, Zagreb has higher compliance, lower medical cost, and better immunogenicity at an early stage. Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

  12. An Efficient Scheduling Scheme on Charging Stations for Smart Transportation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Hye-Jin; Lee, Junghoon; Park, Gyung-Leen; Kang, Min-Jae; Kang, Mikyung

    This paper proposes a reservation-based scheduling scheme for the charging station to decide the service order of multiple requests, aiming at improving the satisfiability of electric vehicles. The proposed scheme makes it possible for a customer to reduce the charge cost and waiting time, while a station can extend the number of clients it can serve. A linear rank function is defined based on estimated arrival time, waiting time bound, and the amount of needed power, reducing the scheduling complexity. Receiving the requests from the clients, the power station decides the charge order by the rank function and then replies to the requesters with the waiting time and cost it can guarantee. Each requester can decide whether to charge at that station or try another station. This scheduler can evolve to integrate a new pricing policy and services, enriching the electric vehicle transport system.

  13. Scheduling and rescheduling with iterative repair

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zweben, Monte; Davis, Eugene; Daun, Brian; Deale, Michael

    1992-01-01

    This paper describes the GERRY scheduling and rescheduling system being applied to coordinate Space Shuttle Ground Processing. The system uses constraint-based iterative repair, a technique that starts with a complete but possibly flawed schedule and iteratively improves it by using constraint knowledge within repair heuristics. In this paper we explore the tradeoff between the informedness and the computational cost of several repair heuristics. We show empirically that some knowledge can greatly improve the convergence speed of a repair-based system, but that too much knowledge, such as the knowledge embodied within the MIN-CONFLICTS lookahead heuristic, can overwhelm a system and result in degraded performance.

  14. Technical and cost advantages of silicon carbide telescopes for small-satellite imaging applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kasunic, Keith J.; Aikens, Dave; Szwabowski, Dean; Ragan, Chip; Tinker, Flemming

    2017-09-01

    Small satellites ("SmallSats") are a growing segment of the Earth imaging and remote sensing market. Designed to be relatively low cost and with performance tailored to specific end-use applications, they are driving changes in optical telescope assembly (OTA) requirements. OTAs implemented in silicon carbide (SiC) provide performance advantages for space applications but have been predominately limited to large programs. A new generation of lightweight and thermally-stable designs is becoming commercially available, expanding the application of SiC to small satellites. This paper reviews the cost and technical advantages of an OTA designed using SiC for small satellite platforms. Taking into account faceplate fabrication quilting and surface distortion after gravity release, an optimized open-back SiC design with a lightweighting of 70% for a 125-mm SmallSat-class primary mirror has an estimated mass area density of 2.8 kg/m2 and an aspect ratio of 40:1. In addition, the thermally-induced surface error of such optimized designs is estimated at λ/150 RMS per watt of absorbed power. Cost advantages of SiC include reductions in launch mass, thermal-management infrastructure, and manufacturing time based on allowable assembly tolerances.

  15. A Method for Scheduling Air Traffic with Uncertain En Route Capacity Constraints

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Arneson, Heather; Bloem, Michael

    2009-01-01

    A method for scheduling ground delay and airborne holding for flights scheduled to fly through airspace with uncertain capacity constraints is presented. The method iteratively solves linear programs for departure rates and airborne holding as new probabilistic information about future airspace constraints becomes available. The objective function is the expected value of the weighted sum of ground and airborne delay. In order to limit operationally costly changes to departure rates, they are updated only when such an update would lead to a significant cost reduction. Simulation results show a 13% cost reduction over a rough approximation of current practices. Comparison between the proposed as needed replanning method and a similar method that uses fixed frequency replanning shows a typical cost reduction of 1% to 2%, and even up to a 20% cost reduction in some cases.

  16. Effective Schedule and Cost Management as a Product Development Lead

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Simmons, Cynthia

    2015-01-01

    The presentation will be given at the 26th Annual Thermal Fluids Analysis Workshop (TFAWS 2015) hosted by the Goddard SpaceFlight Center (GSFC) Thermal Engineering Branch (Code 545). This course provides best practices, helpful tools and lessons learned for staying on plan and day-to-day management of Subsystem flight development after getting Project approval for your Subsystem schedule and budget baseline.

  17. Computer Supported Education at Fox Valley Technical Institute. IBM Application Brief.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    International Business Machines Corp., White Plains, NY.

    Fox Valley Technical Institute (FVTI) has developed an approach to education which emphasizes competency-based, round-the-clock education entailing short terms, flexible class schedules, and individualized instruction and which has as its focus strong computer support at classroom, technical, and management levels. The college provides 6,000…

  18. 24 CFR 982.517 - Utility allowance schedule.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ..., the PHA also must provide any information or procedures used in preparation of the schedule. (b) How... services according to the following general categories: space heating; air conditioning; cooking; water heating; water; sewer; trash collection (disposal of waste and refuse); other electric; refrigerator (cost...

  19. A Chaotic Particle Swarm Optimization-Based Heuristic for Market-Oriented Task-Level Scheduling in Cloud Workflow Systems

    PubMed Central

    Li, Xuejun; Xu, Jia; Yang, Yun

    2015-01-01

    Cloud workflow system is a kind of platform service based on cloud computing. It facilitates the automation of workflow applications. Between cloud workflow system and its counterparts, market-oriented business model is one of the most prominent factors. The optimization of task-level scheduling in cloud workflow system is a hot topic. As the scheduling is a NP problem, Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) have been proposed to optimize the cost. However, they have the characteristic of premature convergence in optimization process and therefore cannot effectively reduce the cost. To solve these problems, Chaotic Particle Swarm Optimization (CPSO) algorithm with chaotic sequence and adaptive inertia weight factor is applied to present the task-level scheduling. Chaotic sequence with high randomness improves the diversity of solutions, and its regularity assures a good global convergence. Adaptive inertia weight factor depends on the estimate value of cost. It makes the scheduling avoid premature convergence by properly balancing between global and local exploration. The experimental simulation shows that the cost obtained by our scheduling is always lower than the other two representative counterparts. PMID:26357510

  20. A Cost Comparison Between Active and Naval Reserve Force FFG 7 Class Ships

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-06-01

    so in our hypothetical depreciation schedule 1/30th of the depreciable cost would be expensed each year. Under GAAP , the historical cost of the asset...and Support Costs (VAMOSC) data base provided by the* aval Center For Cost Analysis. The thesis also sets up theoretical depreciation schedules for...VAMOSC) data base provided by the Naval Center for Cost Analysis. The thesis also sets up theoretical depreciation schedules for selected ships to

  1. Expert system for on-board satellite scheduling and control

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barry, John M.; Sary, Charisse

    1988-01-01

    An Expert System is described which Rockwell Satellite and Space Electronics Division (S&SED) is developing to dynamically schedule the allocation of on-board satellite resources and activities. This expert system is the Satellite Controller. The resources to be scheduled include power, propellant and recording tape. The activities controlled include scheduling satellite functions such as sensor checkout and operation. The scheduling of these resources and activities is presently a labor intensive and time consuming ground operations task. Developing a schedule requires extensive knowledge of the system and subsystems operations, operational constraints, and satellite design and configuration. This scheduling process requires highly trained experts anywhere from several hours to several weeks to accomplish. The process is done through brute force, that is examining cryptic mnemonic data off line to interpret the health and status of the satellite. Then schedules are formulated either as the result of practical operator experience or heuristics - that is rules of thumb. Orbital operations must become more productive in the future to reduce life cycle costs and decrease dependence on ground control. This reduction is required to increase autonomy and survivability of future systems. The design of future satellites require that the scheduling function be transferred from ground to on board systems.

  2. Anchorage Arrival Scheduling Under Off-Nominal Weather Conditions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grabbe, Shon; Chan, William N.; Mukherjee, Avijit

    2012-01-01

    of the aircraft. Findings from these initial experiments indicate that it is possible to schedule arrivals into Anchorage with minimal delays under low-visibility conditions with less disruption to high-cost, international flights.

  3. TTSA: An Effective Scheduling Approach for Delay Bounded Tasks in Hybrid Clouds.

    PubMed

    Yuan, Haitao; Bi, Jing; Tan, Wei; Zhou, MengChu; Li, Bo Hu; Li, Jianqiang

    2017-11-01

    The economy of scale provided by cloud attracts a growing number of organizations and industrial companies to deploy their applications in cloud data centers (CDCs) and to provide services to users around the world. The uncertainty of arriving tasks makes it a big challenge for private CDC to cost-effectively schedule delay bounded tasks without exceeding their delay bounds. Unlike previous studies, this paper takes into account the cost minimization problem for private CDC in hybrid clouds, where the energy price of private CDC and execution price of public clouds both show the temporal diversity. Then, this paper proposes a temporal task scheduling algorithm (TTSA) to effectively dispatch all arriving tasks to private CDC and public clouds. In each iteration of TTSA, the cost minimization problem is modeled as a mixed integer linear program and solved by a hybrid simulated-annealing particle-swarm-optimization. The experimental results demonstrate that compared with the existing methods, the optimal or suboptimal scheduling strategy produced by TTSA can efficiently increase the throughput and reduce the cost of private CDC while meeting the delay bounds of all the tasks.

  4. 7. PHOTOCOPY OF DRAWING (UNDATED PLAN AND SCHEDULE DRAWING BY ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    7. PHOTOCOPY OF DRAWING (UNDATED PLAN AND SCHEDULE DRAWING BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE, SPACE AND MISSILE TEST CENTER) MATERIAL SPECIFICATIONS AND GENERAL NOTES FOR INTERIOR FINISHING FOR BUILDING 762-A, SHEET A4 - Vandenberg Air Force Base, Space Launch Complex 3, Technical Support Building, Napa & Alden Roads, Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, CA

  5. Fault-tolerant dynamic task graph scheduling

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kurt, Mehmet C.; Krishnamoorthy, Sriram; Agrawal, Kunal

    2014-11-16

    In this paper, we present an approach to fault tolerant execution of dynamic task graphs scheduled using work stealing. In particular, we focus on selective and localized recovery of tasks in the presence of soft faults. We elicit from the user the basic task graph structure in terms of successor and predecessor relationships. The work stealing-based algorithm to schedule such a task graph is augmented to enable recovery when the data and meta-data associated with a task get corrupted. We use this redundancy, and the knowledge of the task graph structure, to selectively recover from faults with low space andmore » time overheads. We show that the fault tolerant design retains the essential properties of the underlying work stealing-based task scheduling algorithm, and that the fault tolerant execution is asymptotically optimal when task re-execution is taken into account. Experimental evaluation demonstrates the low cost of recovery under various fault scenarios.« less

  6. Engineering Technical Review Planning Briefing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gardner, Terrie

    2012-01-01

    The general topics covered in the engineering technical planning briefing are 1) overviews of NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and Engineering, 2) the NASA Systems Engineering(SE) Engine and its implementation , 3) the NASA Project Life Cycle, 4) MSFC Technical Management Branch Services in relation to the SE Engine and the Project Life Cycle , 5) Technical Reviews, 6) NASA Human Factor Design Guidance , and 7) the MSFC Human Factors Team. The engineering technical review portion of the presentation is the primary focus of the overall presentation and will address the definition of a design review, execution guidance, the essential stages of a technical review, and the overall review planning life cycle. Examples of a technical review plan content, review approaches, review schedules, and the review process will be provided and discussed. The human factors portion of the presentation will focus on the NASA guidance for human factors. Human factors definition, categories, design guidance, and human factor specialist roles will be addressed. In addition, the NASA Systems Engineering Engine description, definition, and application will be reviewed as background leading into the NASA Project Life Cycle Overview and technical review planning discussion.

  7. 5 CFR 1631.14 - Fee schedule.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... Disclosure of Records Under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552 § 1631.14 Fee schedule. (a) Manual... operator/programmer salary, plus 23.5 percent, apportionable to the search. The Board may assess charges... determined to be exempt from disclosure. (c) Duplication costs. (1) For copies of documents reproduced on a...

  8. 5 CFR 1631.14 - Fee schedule.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... Disclosure of Records Under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552 § 1631.14 Fee schedule. (a) Manual... operator/programmer salary, plus 23.5 percent, apportionable to the search. The Board may assess charges... determined to be exempt from disclosure. (c) Duplication costs. (1) For copies of documents reproduced on a...

  9. Annual Report, Fall 2016: Identifying Cost Effective Tank Waste Characterization Approaches

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Reboul, S. H.; DiPrete, D. P.

    2016-12-12

    This report documents the activities that were performed during the second year of a project undertaken to improve the cost effectiveness and timeliness of SRNL’s tank closure characterization practices. The activities performed during the first year of the project were previously reported in SRNL-STI-2015-00144. The scope of the second year activities was divided into the following three primary tasks: 1) develop a technical basis and strategy for improving the cost effectiveness and schedule of SRNL’s tank closure characterization program; 2) initiate the design and assembly of a new waste removal system for improving the throughput and reducing the personnel dosemore » associated with extraction chromatography radiochemical separations; and 3) develop and perform feasibility testing of three alternative radiochemical separation protocols holding promise for improving high resource demand/time consuming tank closure sample analysis methods.« less

  10. Quantifying Scheduling Challenges for Exascale System Software

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mondragon, Oscar; Bridges, Patrick G.; Jones, Terry R

    2015-01-01

    The move towards high-performance computing (HPC) ap- plications comprised of coupled codes and the need to dra- matically reduce data movement is leading to a reexami- nation of time-sharing vs. space-sharing in HPC systems. In this paper, we discuss and begin to quantify the perfor- mance impact of a move away from strict space-sharing of nodes for HPC applications. Specifically, we examine the po- tential performance cost of time-sharing nodes between ap- plication components, we determine whether a simple coor- dinated scheduling mechanism can address these problems, and we research how suitable simple constraint-based opti- mization techniques are for solvingmore » scheduling challenges in this regime. Our results demonstrate that current general- purpose HPC system software scheduling and resource al- location systems are subject to significant performance de- ciencies which we quantify for six representative applica- tions. Based on these results, we discuss areas in which ad- ditional research is needed to meet the scheduling challenges of next-generation HPC systems.« less

  11. Low-Cost Simulation to Teach Anesthetists' Non-Technical Skills in Rwanda.

    PubMed

    Skelton, Teresa; Nshimyumuremyi, Isaac; Mukwesi, Christian; Whynot, Sara; Zolpys, Lauren; Livingston, Patricia

    2016-08-01

    Safe anesthesia care is challenging in developing countries where there are shortages of personnel, drugs, equipment, and training. Anesthetists' Non-technical Skills (ANTS)-task management, team working, situation awareness, and decision making-are difficult to practice well in this context. Cesarean delivery is the most common surgical procedure in sub-Saharan Africa. This pilot study investigates whether a low-cost simulation model, with good psychological fidelity, can be used effectively to teach ANTS during cesarean delivery in Rwanda. Study participants were anesthesia providers working in a tertiary referral hospital in Rwanda. Baseline observations were conducted for 20 anesthesia providers during cesarean delivery using the established ANTS framework. After the first observation set was complete, participants were randomly assigned to either simulation intervention or control groups. The simulation intervention group underwent ANTS training using low-cost high psychological fidelity simulation with debriefing. No training was offered to the control group. Postintervention observations were then conducted in the same manner as the baseline observations. The primary outcome was the overall ANTS score (maximum, 16). The median (range) ANTS score of the simulation group was 13.5 (11-16). The ANTS score of the control group was 8 (8-9), with a statistically significant difference (P = .002). Simulation participants showed statistically significant improvement in subcategories and in the overall ANTS score compared with ANTS score before simulation exposure. Rwandan anesthesia providers show improvement in ANTS practice during cesarean delivery after 1 teaching session using a low-cost high psychological fidelity simulation model with debriefing.

  12. Irrigation scheduling: When, where, and how much?

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Irrigation scheduling, a key element of proper water management, is the accurate forecasting of water application (amount and timing) for optimal crop production (yield and fruit quality). The goal is to apply the correct amount of water at the right time to minimize irrigation costs and maximize cr...

  13. Completable scheduling: An integrated approach to planning and scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gervasio, Melinda T.; Dejong, Gerald F.

    1992-01-01

    The planning problem has traditionally been treated separately from the scheduling problem. However, as more realistic domains are tackled, it becomes evident that the problem of deciding on an ordered set of tasks to achieve a set of goals cannot be treated independently of the problem of actually allocating resources to the tasks. Doing so would result in losing the robustness and flexibility needed to deal with imperfectly modeled domains. Completable scheduling is an approach which integrates the two problems by allowing an a priori planning module to defer particular planning decisions, and consequently the associated scheduling decisions, until execution time. This allows a completable scheduling system to maximize plan flexibility by allowing runtime information to be taken into consideration when making planning and scheduling decision. Furthermore, through the criteria of achievability placed on deferred decision, a completable scheduling system is able to retain much of the goal-directedness and guarantees of achievement afforded by a priori planning. The completable scheduling approach is further enhanced by the use of contingent explanation-based learning, which enables a completable scheduling system to learn general completable plans from example and improve its performance through experience. Initial experimental results show that completable scheduling outperforms classical scheduling as well as pure reactive scheduling in a simple scheduling domain.

  14. A New Lagrangian Relaxation Method Considering Previous Hour Scheduling for Unit Commitment Problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khorasani, H.; Rashidinejad, M.; Purakbari-Kasmaie, M.; Abdollahi, A.

    2009-08-01

    Generation scheduling is a crucial challenge in power systems especially under new environment of liberalization of electricity industry. A new Lagrangian relaxation method for unit commitment (UC) has been presented for solving generation scheduling problem. This paper focuses on the economical aspect of UC problem, while the previous hour scheduling as a very important issue is studied. In this paper generation scheduling of present hour has been conducted by considering the previous hour scheduling. The impacts of hot/cold start-up cost have been taken in to account in this paper. Case studies and numerical analysis presents significant outcomes while it demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  15. Cloud computing task scheduling strategy based on improved differential evolution algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ge, Junwei; He, Qian; Fang, Yiqiu

    2017-04-01

    In order to optimize the cloud computing task scheduling scheme, an improved differential evolution algorithm for cloud computing task scheduling is proposed. Firstly, the cloud computing task scheduling model, according to the model of the fitness function, and then used improved optimization calculation of the fitness function of the evolutionary algorithm, according to the evolution of generation of dynamic selection strategy through dynamic mutation strategy to ensure the global and local search ability. The performance test experiment was carried out in the CloudSim simulation platform, the experimental results show that the improved differential evolution algorithm can reduce the cloud computing task execution time and user cost saving, good implementation of the optimal scheduling of cloud computing tasks.

  16. Scheduling Jobs with Variable Job Processing Times on Unrelated Parallel Machines

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Guang-Qian; Wang, Jian-Jun; Liu, Ya-Jing

    2014-01-01

    m unrelated parallel machines scheduling problems with variable job processing times are considered, where the processing time of a job is a function of its position in a sequence, its starting time, and its resource allocation. The objective is to determine the optimal resource allocation and the optimal schedule to minimize a total cost function that dependents on the total completion (waiting) time, the total machine load, the total absolute differences in completion (waiting) times on all machines, and total resource cost. If the number of machines is a given constant number, we propose a polynomial time algorithm to solve the problem. PMID:24982933

  17. 75 FR 13425 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Technical Amendment

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-03-19

    ... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION 48 CFR Part 14 [FAC 2005-39; Item VII; Docket FAR 2010-0078; Sequence 1] Federal Acquisition... publication schedules. Please cite FAC 2005-39, Technical Amendment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This document...

  18. Understanding London's Water Supply Tradeoffs When Scheduling Interventions Under Deep Uncertainty

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huskova, I.; Matrosov, E. S.; Harou, J. J.; Kasprzyk, J. R.; Reed, P. M.

    2015-12-01

    Water supply planning in many major world cities faces several challenges associated with but not limited to climate change, population growth and insufficient land availability for infrastructure development. Long-term plans to maintain supply-demand balance and ecosystem services require careful consideration of uncertainties associated with future conditions. The current approach for London's water supply planning utilizes least cost optimization of future intervention schedules with limited uncertainty consideration. Recently, the focus of the long-term plans has shifted from solely least cost performance to robustness and resilience of the system. Identifying robust scheduling of interventions requires optimizing over a statistically representative sample of stochastic inputs which may be computationally difficult to achieve. In this study we optimize schedules using an ensemble of plausible scenarios and assess how manipulating that ensemble influences the different Pareto-approximate intervention schedules. We investigate how a major stress event's location in time as well as the optimization problem formulation influence the Pareto-approximate schedules. A bootstrapping method that respects the non-stationary trend of climate change scenarios and ensures the even distribution of the major stress event in the scenario ensemble is proposed. Different bootstrapped hydrological scenario ensembles are assessed using many-objective scenario optimization of London's future water supply and demand intervention scheduling. However, such a "fixed" scheduling of interventions approach does not aim to embed flexibility or adapt effectively as the future unfolds. Alternatively, making decisions based on the observations of occurred conditions could help planners who prefer adaptive planning. We will show how rules to guide the implementation of interventions based on observations may result in more flexible strategies.

  19. Course Scheduling to Find the Minimum Cost Set of Facilities Required.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Seccatore, Luis A.

    The problem of determining the quantity of classroom, laboratories and instructors to train sections of students attending numerous distinct courses in a school such as the Fleet Ballistic Missile School is considered. A procedure is developed for determining feasible schedules in order to graduate a fixed number of trainees over time while…

  20. Hanford business structure for HANDI 2000 business management system

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wilson, D.

    The Hanford Business Structure integrates the project`s technical, schedule, and cost baselines; implements the use of a standard code of accounts; and streamlines performance reporting and cost collection. Technical requirements drive the technical functions and come from the RDD 100 database. The functions will be identified in the P3 scheduling system and also in the PeopleSoft system. Projects will break their work down from the technical requirements in the P3 schedules. When the level at which they want to track cost via the code of accounts is reached, a Project ID will be generated in the PeopleSoft system. P3 maymore » carry more detailed schedules below the Project ID level. The standard code of accounts will identify discrete work activities done across the site and various projects. They will include direct and overhead type work scopes. Activities in P3 will roll up to this standard code of accounts. The field that will be used to record this in PeopleSoft is ``Activity``. In Passport it is a user-defined field. It will have to be added to other feeder systems. Project ID and code of accounts are required fields on all cost records.« less

  1. Real-time adaptive aircraft scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kolitz, Stephan E.; Terrab, Mostafa

    1990-01-01

    One of the most important functions of any air traffic management system is the assignment of ground-holding times to flights, i.e., the determination of whether and by how much the take-off of a particular aircraft headed for a congested part of the air traffic control (ATC) system should be postponed in order to reduce the likelihood and extent of airborne delays. An analysis is presented for the fundamental case in which flights from many destinations must be scheduled for arrival at a single congested airport; the formulation is also useful in scheduling the landing of airborne flights within the extended terminal area. A set of approaches is described for addressing a deterministic and a probabilistic version of this problem. For the deterministic case, where airport capacities are known and fixed, several models were developed with associated low-order polynomial-time algorithms. For general delay cost functions, these algorithms find an optimal solution. Under a particular natural assumption regarding the delay cost function, an extremely fast (O(n ln n)) algorithm was developed. For the probabilistic case, using an estimated probability distribution of airport capacities, a model was developed with an associated low-order polynomial-time heuristic algorithm with useful properties.

  2. Status Report on the Development of Micro-Scheduling Software for the Advanced Outage Control Center Project

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Germain, Shawn St.; Thomas, Kenneth; Farris, Ronald

    2014-09-01

    The long-term viability of existing nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the United States (U.S.) is dependent upon a number of factors, including maintaining high capacity factors, maintaining nuclear safety, and reducing operating costs, particularly those associated with refueling outages. Refueling outages typically take 20-30 days, and for existing light water NPPs in the U.S., the reactor cannot be in operation during the outage. Furthermore, given that many NPPs generate between $1-1.5 million/day in revenue when in operation, there is considerable interest in shortening the length of refueling outages. Yet, refueling outages are highly complex operations, involving multiple concurrent and dependentmore » activities that are difficult to coordinate. Finding ways to improve refueling outage performance while maintaining nuclear safety has proven to be difficult. The Advanced Outage Control Center project is a research and development (R&D) demonstration activity under the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program. LWRS is a R&D program which works with industry R&D programs to establish technical foundations for the licensing and managing of long-term, safe, and economical operation of current NPPs. The Advanced Outage Control Center project has the goal of improving the management of commercial NPP refueling outages. To accomplish this goal, this INL R&D project is developing an advanced outage control center (OCC) that is specifically designed to maximize the usefulness of communication and collaboration technologies for outage coordination and problem resolution activities. This report describes specific recent efforts to develop a capability called outage Micro-Scheduling. Micro-Scheduling is the ability to allocate and schedule outage support task resources on a sub-hour basis. Micro-Scheduling is the real-time fine-tuning of the outage schedule to react to the actual progress of the primary outage activities to ensure that support task resources are

  3. An improved robust buffer allocation method for the project scheduling problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ghoddousi, Parviz; Ansari, Ramin; Makui, Ahmad

    2017-04-01

    Unpredictable uncertainties cause delays and additional costs for projects. Often, when using traditional approaches, the optimizing procedure of the baseline project plan fails and leads to delays. In this study, a two-stage multi-objective buffer allocation approach is applied for robust project scheduling. In the first stage, some decisions are made on buffer sizes and allocation to the project activities. A set of Pareto-optimal robust schedules is designed using the meta-heuristic non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) based on the decisions made in the buffer allocation step. In the second stage, the Pareto solutions are evaluated in terms of the deviation from the initial start time and due dates. The proposed approach was implemented on a real dam construction project. The outcomes indicated that the obtained buffered schedule reduces the cost of disruptions by 17.7% compared with the baseline plan, with an increase of about 0.3% in the project completion time.

  4. Technical Progress Report on Application and Development of Appropriate Tools and Technologies for Cost-Effective Carbon Sequestration

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bill Stanley; Patrick Gonzalez; Sandra Brown

    2006-06-30

    The Nature Conservancy is participating in a Cooperative Agreement with the Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to explore the compatibility of carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity. The title of the research project is ''Application and Development of Appropriate Tools and Technologies for Cost-Effective Carbon Sequestration''. The objectives of the project are to: (1) improve carbon offset estimates produced in both the planning and implementation phases of projects; (2) build valid and standardized approaches to estimate project carbon benefits at a reasonable cost; and (3) lay the groundwork for implementing cost-effective projects,more » providing new testing ground for biodiversity protection and restoration projects that store additional atmospheric carbon. This Technical Progress Report discusses preliminary results of the six specific tasks that The Nature Conservancy is undertaking to answer research needs while facilitating the development of real projects with measurable greenhouse gas reductions. The research described in this report occurred between April 1st and July 30th 2006. The specific tasks discussed include: Task 1: carbon inventory advancements; Task 2: emerging technologies for remote sensing of terrestrial carbon; Task 3: baseline method development; Task 4: third-party technical advisory panel meetings; Task 5: new project feasibility studies; and Task 6: development of new project software screening tool. Work is being carried out in Brazil, Belize, Chile, Peru and the USA.« less

  5. 77 FR 12948 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Technical Amendments

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-03-02

    ... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION 48 CFR Parts 19, 42, and 52 [FAC 2005-56; Item VIII; Docket 2012-0079; Sequence 1] Federal... to status or publication schedules. Please cite FAC 2005-56, Technical Amendments. SUPPLEMENTARY...

  6. 18 CFR 701.203 - Schedule of fees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... by the Public Information Officer on the basis of the balance between the benefit to the general public and the cost to the Water Resources Council. (d) Fees shall be limited to recovery of only direct... ORGANIZATION Availability of Information § 701.203 Schedule of fees. (a) The Public Information Officer will to...

  7. 18 CFR 701.203 - Schedule of fees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Schedule of fees. 701.203 Section 701.203 Conservation of Power and Water Resources WATER RESOURCES COUNCIL COUNCIL... public and the cost to the Water Resources Council. (d) Fees shall be limited to recovery of only direct...

  8. 18 CFR 701.203 - Schedule of fees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Schedule of fees. 701.203 Section 701.203 Conservation of Power and Water Resources WATER RESOURCES COUNCIL COUNCIL... public and the cost to the Water Resources Council. (d) Fees shall be limited to recovery of only direct...

  9. 18 CFR 701.203 - Schedule of fees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Schedule of fees. 701.203 Section 701.203 Conservation of Power and Water Resources WATER RESOURCES COUNCIL COUNCIL... public and the cost to the Water Resources Council. (d) Fees shall be limited to recovery of only direct...

  10. 18 CFR 701.203 - Schedule of fees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 2 2013-04-01 2012-04-01 true Schedule of fees. 701.203 Section 701.203 Conservation of Power and Water Resources WATER RESOURCES COUNCIL COUNCIL... public and the cost to the Water Resources Council. (d) Fees shall be limited to recovery of only direct...

  11. Advancing Air Force Scheduling through Modeling Problem Topologies

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-08-03

    Merrill on August 23, 2005 and corresponded with Major David Van Veldhuizen in Fall 2005 about obtaining data. 3.4.3 Transitions Analytical Graphics and...observation satellite orbit. Technical Report CRT-2003-27, Centre de recherche sur les transports, July 2003. [5] Van -Dat Cung. ROADEF 2003: Results of the...collaborateurs/etd/default.htm. January, 2004. [15] P.J.M van Laarhoven, E.H.L. Aarts, and J.K. Lenstra. Job shop scheduling by simulated annealing

  12. Space network scheduling benchmark: A proof-of-concept process for technology transfer

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moe, Karen; Happell, Nadine; Hayden, B. J.; Barclay, Cathy

    1993-01-01

    This paper describes a detailed proof-of-concept activity to evaluate flexible scheduling technology as implemented in the Request Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE) and applied to Space Network (SN) scheduling. The criteria developed for an operational evaluation of a reusable scheduling system is addressed including a methodology to prove that the proposed system performs at least as well as the current system in function and performance. The improvement of the new technology must be demonstrated and evaluated against the cost of making changes. Finally, there is a need to show significant improvement in SN operational procedures. Successful completion of a proof-of-concept would eventually lead to an operational concept and implementation transition plan, which is outside the scope of this paper. However, a high-fidelity benchmark using actual SN scheduling requests has been designed to test the ROSE scheduling tool. The benchmark evaluation methodology, scheduling data, and preliminary results are described.

  13. The LSST Scheduler from design to construction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Delgado, Francisco; Reuter, Michael A.

    2016-07-01

    The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be a highly robotic facility, demanding a very high efficiency during its operation. To achieve this, the LSST Scheduler has been envisioned as an autonomous software component of the Observatory Control System (OCS), that selects the sequence of targets in real time. The Scheduler will drive the survey using optimization of a dynamic cost function of more than 200 parameters. Multiple science programs produce thousands of candidate targets for each observation, and multiple telemetry measurements are received to evaluate the external and the internal conditions of the observatory. The design of the LSST Scheduler started early in the project supported by Model Based Systems Engineering, detailed prototyping and scientific validation of the survey capabilities required. In order to build such a critical component, an agile development path in incremental releases is presented, integrated to the development plan of the Operations Simulator (OpSim) to allow constant testing, integration and validation in a simulated OCS environment. The final product is a Scheduler that is also capable of running 2000 times faster than real time in simulation mode for survey studies and scientific validation during commissioning and operations.

  14. SOFIA'S Challenge: Scheduling Airborne Astronomy Observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Frank, Jeremy

    2005-01-01

    generate flights enables humans to assess and analyze complex tradeoffs between fuel consumption, estimated science quality and the percentage of scheduled observations. Due to the changing nature of SOFIA scheduling problems, this functionality will play a crucial role in optimizing science and minimizing costs during operations. In the full paper, we will summarize the technical challenges that have been met in order to build this system. These include: design of the search algorithm, design of appropriate heuristics and approximations, and reduction in the size of the search space. We will also describe technical challenges that are currently being addressed, including the extension of the existing approach to handle new solution criteria. Finally, we will describe a variety of cultural challenges that the astronomical community must address in order to successfully use SOFIA, and describe how the AFT can be used to address some of these challenges. Specifically, many of the intended science users are accustomed to using ground-based or space-based observatories; we will identify some differences that arise due to the nature of airborne observatories, and how the AFT can be extended to provide useful services to ease these cultural differences.

  15. Space station needs, attributes, and architectural options study. Volume 3: Cost and benefits

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1983-01-01

    Cost and schedule, cost/incremental capability, and schedule impact analyses are presented. Quantifiable benefits, space technology, non-quantifiable benefits, and space commercialization are addressed.

  16. A neural network approach to job-shop scheduling.

    PubMed

    Zhou, D N; Cherkassky, V; Baldwin, T R; Olson, D E

    1991-01-01

    A novel analog computational network is presented for solving NP-complete constraint satisfaction problems, i.e. job-shop scheduling. In contrast to most neural approaches to combinatorial optimization based on quadratic energy cost function, the authors propose to use linear cost functions. As a result, the network complexity (number of neurons and the number of resistive interconnections) grows only linearly with problem size, and large-scale implementations become possible. The proposed approach is related to the linear programming network described by D.W. Tank and J.J. Hopfield (1985), which also uses a linear cost function for a simple optimization problem. It is shown how to map a difficult constraint-satisfaction problem onto a simple neural net in which the number of neural processors equals the number of subjobs (operations) and the number of interconnections grows linearly with the total number of operations. Simulations show that the authors' approach produces better solutions than existing neural approaches to job-shop scheduling, i.e. the traveling salesman problem-type Hopfield approach and integer linear programming approach of J.P.S. Foo and Y. Takefuji (1988), in terms of the quality of the solution and the network complexity.

  17. A Scheduling Algorithm for Cloud Computing System Based on the Driver of Dynamic Essential Path.

    PubMed

    Xie, Zhiqiang; Shao, Xia; Xin, Yu

    2016-01-01

    To solve the problem of task scheduling in the cloud computing system, this paper proposes a scheduling algorithm for cloud computing based on the driver of dynamic essential path (DDEP). This algorithm applies a predecessor-task layer priority strategy to solve the problem of constraint relations among task nodes. The strategy assigns different priority values to every task node based on the scheduling order of task node as affected by the constraint relations among task nodes, and the task node list is generated by the different priority value. To address the scheduling order problem in which task nodes have the same priority value, the dynamic essential long path strategy is proposed. This strategy computes the dynamic essential path of the pre-scheduling task nodes based on the actual computation cost and communication cost of task node in the scheduling process. The task node that has the longest dynamic essential path is scheduled first as the completion time of task graph is indirectly influenced by the finishing time of task nodes in the longest dynamic essential path. Finally, we demonstrate the proposed algorithm via simulation experiments using Matlab tools. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the task Makespan in most cases and meet a high quality performance objective.

  18. A Scheduling Algorithm for Cloud Computing System Based on the Driver of Dynamic Essential Path

    PubMed Central

    Xie, Zhiqiang; Shao, Xia; Xin, Yu

    2016-01-01

    To solve the problem of task scheduling in the cloud computing system, this paper proposes a scheduling algorithm for cloud computing based on the driver of dynamic essential path (DDEP). This algorithm applies a predecessor-task layer priority strategy to solve the problem of constraint relations among task nodes. The strategy assigns different priority values to every task node based on the scheduling order of task node as affected by the constraint relations among task nodes, and the task node list is generated by the different priority value. To address the scheduling order problem in which task nodes have the same priority value, the dynamic essential long path strategy is proposed. This strategy computes the dynamic essential path of the pre-scheduling task nodes based on the actual computation cost and communication cost of task node in the scheduling process. The task node that has the longest dynamic essential path is scheduled first as the completion time of task graph is indirectly influenced by the finishing time of task nodes in the longest dynamic essential path. Finally, we demonstrate the proposed algorithm via simulation experiments using Matlab tools. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the task Makespan in most cases and meet a high quality performance objective. PMID:27490901

  19. Affirmative Action: The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sivaramayya, B.

    This paper considers Indian affirmative action policies that provide reservations (quotas) in favor of two disadvantaged groups, the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes. First, definitions and background are presented. The scheduled castes ("untouchables") are said to suffer from social segregation, and the scheduled tribes from…

  20. Modeling technical change in climate analysis: evidence from agricultural crop damages.

    PubMed

    Ahmed, Adeel; Devadason, Evelyn S; Al-Amin, Abul Quasem

    2017-05-01

    This study accounts for the Hicks neutral technical change in a calibrated model of climate analysis, to identify the optimum level of technical change for addressing climate changes. It demonstrates the reduction to crop damages, the costs to technical change, and the net gains for the adoption of technical change for a climate-sensitive Pakistan economy. The calibrated model assesses the net gains of technical change for the overall economy and at the agriculture-specific level. The study finds that the gains of technical change are overwhelmingly higher than the costs across the agriculture subsectors. The gains and costs following technical change differ substantially for different crops. More importantly, the study finds a cost-effective optimal level of technical change that potentially reduces crop damages to a minimum possible level. The study therefore contends that the climate policy for Pakistan should consider the role of technical change in addressing climate impacts on the agriculture sector.

  1. 75 FR 42831 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request for Form 1065, Schedule C, Schedule D, Schedule K-1...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-07-22

    ... Income, Credits, Deductions and Other Items), Schedule L (Balance Sheets per Books), Schedule M-1..., Deductions, etc. (Schedule K-1), Balance Sheets per Books (Schedule L), Reconciliation of Income (Loss) per...

  2. Automated Long - Term Scheduling for the SOFIA Airborne Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Civeit, Thomas

    2013-01-01

    The NASA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a joint US/German project to develop and operate a gyro-stabilized 2.5-meter telescope in a Boeing 747SP. SOFIA's first science observations were made in December 2010. During 2011, SOFIA accomplished 30 flights in the "Early Science" program as well as a deployment to Germany. The new observing period, known as Cycle 1, is scheduled to begin in 2012. It includes 46 science flights grouped in four multi-week observing campaigns spread through a 13-month span. Automation of the flight scheduling process offers a major challenge to the SOFIA mission operations. First because it is needed to mitigate its relatively high cost per unit observing time compared to space-borne missions. Second because automated scheduling techniques available for ground-based and space-based telescopes are inappropriate for an airborne observatory. Although serious attempts have been made in the past to solve part of the problem, until recently mission operations staff was still manually scheduling flights. We present in this paper a new automated solution for generating SOFIA long-term schedules that will be used in operations from the Cycle 1 observing period. We describe the constraints that should be satisfied to solve the SOFIA scheduling problem in the context of real operations. We establish key formulas required to efficiently calculate the aircraft course over ground when evaluating flight schedules. We describe the foundations of the SOFIA long-term scheduler, the constraint representation, and the random search based algorithm that generates observation and instrument schedules. Finally, we report on how the new long-term scheduler has been used in operations to date.

  3. Edwin I. Hatch nuclear plant implementation of improved technical specifications

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mahler, S.R.; Pendry, D.

    1994-12-31

    Edwin I. Hatch nuclear plant consists of two General Electric boiling water reactor/4 units, with a common control room and a common refueling floor. In March 1993, Hatch began conversion of both units` technical specifications utilizing NUREG 1433. The technical specifications amendment request was submitted February 25, 1994. Issuance is scheduled for October 21, 1994, with implementation on March 15, 1994. The current unit-1 technical specifications are in the {open_quotes}custom{close_quotes} format, and the unit-2 technical specifications are in the old standard format. Hatch previously relocated the fire protection and radiological technical specifications requirements. The Hatch conversion will provide consistency betweenmore » the two units, to the extent practicable.« less

  4. Automation Improves Schedule Quality and Increases Scheduling Efficiency for Residents.

    PubMed

    Perelstein, Elizabeth; Rose, Ariella; Hong, Young-Chae; Cohn, Amy; Long, Micah T

    2016-02-01

    Medical resident scheduling is difficult due to multiple rules, competing educational goals, and ever-evolving graduate medical education requirements. Despite this, schedules are typically created manually, consuming hours of work, producing schedules of varying quality, and yielding negative consequences for resident morale and learning. To determine whether computerized decision support can improve the construction of residency schedules, saving time and improving schedule quality. The Optimized Residency Scheduling Assistant was designed by a team from the University of Michigan Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering. It was implemented in the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital Pediatric Emergency Department in the 2012-2013 academic year. The 4 metrics of schedule quality that were compared between the 2010-2011 and 2012-2013 academic years were the incidence of challenging shift transitions, the incidence of shifts following continuity clinics, the total shift inequity, and the night shift inequity. All scheduling rules were successfully incorporated. Average schedule creation time fell from 22 to 28 hours to 4 to 6 hours per month, and 3 of 4 metrics of schedule quality significantly improved. For the implementation year, the incidence of challenging shift transitions decreased from 83 to 14 (P < .01); the incidence of postclinic shifts decreased from 72 to 32 (P < .01); and the SD of night shifts dropped by 55.6% (P < .01). This automated shift scheduling system improves the current manual scheduling process, reducing time spent and improving schedule quality. Embracing such automated tools can benefit residency programs with shift-based scheduling needs.

  5. Autonomous Hybrid Priority Queueing for Scheduling Residential Energy Demands

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kalimullah, I. Q.; Shamroukh, M.; Sahar, N.; Shetty, S.

    2017-05-01

    The advent of smart grid technologies has opened up opportunities to manage the energy consumption of the users within a residential smart grid system. Demand response management is particularly being employed to reduce the overall load on an electricity network which could in turn reduce outages and electricity costs. The objective of this paper is to develop an intelligible scheduler to optimize the energy available to a micro grid through hybrid queueing algorithm centered around the consumers’ energy demands. This is achieved by shifting certain schedulable load appliances to light load hours. Various factors such as the type of demand, grid load, consumers’ energy usage patterns and preferences are considered while formulating the logical constraints required for the algorithm. The algorithm thus obtained is then implemented in MATLAB workspace to simulate its execution by an Energy Consumption Scheduler (ECS) found within smart meters, which automatically finds the optimal energy consumption schedule tailor made to fit each consumer within the micro grid network.

  6. Home Health Care for California's Injured Workers: Options for Implementing a Fee Schedule.

    PubMed

    Wynn, Barbara O; Boustead, Anne

    2015-07-15

    The California Department of Industrial Relations/Division of Worker's Compensation asked RAND to provide technical assistance in developing a fee schedule for home health services provided to injured workers. The fee schedule needs to address the full spectrum of home health services ranging from skilled nursing and therapy services to unskilled personal care or chore services that may be provided by family members. RAND researchers consulted with stakeholders in the California workers' compensation system to outline issues the fee schedule should address, reviewed home health fee schedules used by other payers, and conducted interviews with WC administrators from other jurisdictions to elicit their experiences. California stakeholders identified unskilled attendant services as most problematic in determining need and payment rates, particularly services furnished by family members. RAND researchers concentrated on fee schedule options that would result in a single fee schedule covering the full range of home health care services furnished to injured workers and made three sets of recommendations. The first set pertains to obtaining additional information that would highlight the policy issues likely to occur with the implementation of the fee schedule and alternatives for assessing an injured worker's home health care needs. Another approach conforms most closely with the Labor Code requirements. It would integrate the fee schedules used by Medicare, In-Home Health Supportive Services, and the federal Office of Workers' Compensation. The third approach would base the home health fee schedule on rules used by the federal Office of Workers' Compensation.

  7. Fairness in optimizing bus-crew scheduling process.

    PubMed

    Ma, Jihui; Song, Cuiying; Ceder, Avishai Avi; Liu, Tao; Guan, Wei

    2017-01-01

    This work proposes a model considering fairness in the problem of crew scheduling for bus drivers (CSP-BD) using a hybrid ant-colony optimization (HACO) algorithm to solve it. The main contributions of this work are the following: (a) a valid approach for cases with a special cost structure and constraints considering the fairness of working time and idle time; (b) an improved algorithm incorporating Gamma heuristic function and selecting rules. The relationships of each cost are examined with ten bus lines collected from the Beijing Public Transport Holdings (Group) Co., Ltd., one of the largest bus transit companies in the world. It shows that unfair cost is indirectly related to common cost, fixed cost and extra cost and also the unfair cost approaches to common and fixed cost when its coefficient is twice of common cost coefficient. Furthermore, the longest time for the tested bus line with 1108 pieces, 74 blocks is less than 30 minutes. The results indicate that the HACO-based algorithm can be a feasible and efficient optimization technique for CSP-BD, especially with large scale problems.

  8. SMI Compatible Simulation Scheduler Design for Reuse of Model Complying with Smp Standard

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Koo, Cheol-Hea; Lee, Hoon-Hee; Cheon, Yee-Jin

    2010-12-01

    Software reusability is one of key factors which impacts cost and schedule on a software development project. It is very crucial also in satellite simulator development since there are many commercial simulator models related to satellite and dynamics. If these models can be used in another simulator platform, great deal of confidence and cost/schedule reduction would be achieved. Simulation model portability (SMP) is maintained by European Space Agency and many models compatible with SMP/simulation model interface (SMI) are available. Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is developing hardware abstraction layer (HAL) supported satellite simulator to verify on-board software of satellite. From above reasons, KARI wants to port these SMI compatible models to the HAL supported satellite simulator. To port these SMI compatible models to the HAL supported satellite simulator, simulation scheduler is preliminary designed according to the SMI standard.

  9. Systematic Approach to Better Understanding Integration Costs

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Stark, Gregory B.

    2015-09-01

    This research presents a systematic approach to evaluating the costs of integrating new generation and operational procedures into an existing power system, and the methodology is independent of the type of change or nature of the generation. The work was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy and performed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to investigate three integration cost-related questions: (1) How does the addition of new generation affect a system's operational costs, (2) How do generation mix and operating parameters and procedures affect costs, and (3) How does the amount of variable generation (non-dispatchable wind and solar) impactmore » the accuracy of natural gas orders? A detailed operational analysis was performed for seven sets of experiments: variable generation, large conventional generation, generation mix, gas prices, fast-start generation, self-scheduling, and gas supply constraints. For each experiment, four components of integration costs were examined: cycling costs, non-cycling VO&M costs, fuel costs, and reserves provisioning costs. The investigation was conducted with PLEXOS production cost modeling software utilizing an updated version of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 118-bus test system overlaid with projected operating loads from the Western Electricity Coordinating Council for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Puget Sound Energy, and Public Service Colorado in the year 2020. The test system was selected in consultation with an industry-based technical review committee to be a reasonable approximation of an interconnection yet small enough to allow the research team to investigate a large number of scenarios and sensitivity combinations. The research should prove useful to market designers, regulators, utilities, and others who want to better understand how system changes can affect production costs.« less

  10. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of the Spanish Renal Replacement Therapy Program

    PubMed Central

    Villa, Guillermo; Fernández–Ortiz, Lucía; Cuervo, Jesús; Rebollo, Pablo; Selgas, Rafael; González, Teresa; Arrieta, Javier

    2012-01-01

    ♦ Background: We undertook a cost-effectiveness analysis of the Spanish Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) program for end-stage renal disease patients from a societal perspective. The current Spanish situation was compared with several hypothetical scenarios. ♦ Methods: A Markov chain model was used as a foundation for simulations of the Spanish RRT program in three temporal horizons (5, 10, and 15 years). The current situation (scenario 1) was compared with three different scenarios: increased proportion of overall scheduled (planned) incident patients (scenario 2); constant proportion of overall scheduled incident patients, but increased proportion of scheduled incident patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD), resulting in a lower proportion of scheduled incident patients on hemodialysis (HD) (scenario 3); and increased overall proportion of scheduled incident patients together with increased scheduled incidence of patients on PD (scenario 4). ♦ Results: The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) of scenarios 2, 3, and 4, when compared with scenario 1, were estimated to be, respectively, –€83 150, –€354 977, and –€235 886 per incremental quality-adjusted life year (ΔQALY), evidencing both moderate cost savings and slight effectiveness gains. The net health benefits that would accrue to society were estimated to be, respectively, 0.0045, 0.0211, and 0.0219 ΔQALYs considering a willingness-to-pay threshold of €35 000/ΔQALY. ♦ Conclusions: Scenario 1, the current Spanish situation, was dominated by all the proposed scenarios. Interestingly, scenarios 3 and 4 showed the best results in terms of cost-effectiveness. From a cost-effectiveness perspective, an increase in the overall scheduled incidence of RRT, and particularly that of PD, should be promoted. PMID:21965620

  11. Dedicated heterogeneous node scheduling including backfill scheduling

    DOEpatents

    Wood, Robert R [Livermore, CA; Eckert, Philip D [Livermore, CA; Hommes, Gregg [Pleasanton, CA

    2006-07-25

    A method and system for job backfill scheduling dedicated heterogeneous nodes in a multi-node computing environment. Heterogeneous nodes are grouped into homogeneous node sub-pools. For each sub-pool, a free node schedule (FNS) is created so that the number of to chart the free nodes over time. For each prioritized job, using the FNS of sub-pools having nodes useable by a particular job, to determine the earliest time range (ETR) capable of running the job. Once determined for a particular job, scheduling the job to run in that ETR. If the ETR determined for a lower priority job (LPJ) has a start time earlier than a higher priority job (HPJ), then the LPJ is scheduled in that ETR if it would not disturb the anticipated start times of any HPJ previously scheduled for a future time. Thus, efficient utilization and throughput of such computing environments may be increased by utilizing resources otherwise remaining idle.

  12. Multi-Objective Approach for Energy-Aware Workflow Scheduling in Cloud Computing Environments

    PubMed Central

    Kadima, Hubert; Granado, Bertrand

    2013-01-01

    We address the problem of scheduling workflow applications on heterogeneous computing systems like cloud computing infrastructures. In general, the cloud workflow scheduling is a complex optimization problem which requires considering different criteria so as to meet a large number of QoS (Quality of Service) requirements. Traditional research in workflow scheduling mainly focuses on the optimization constrained by time or cost without paying attention to energy consumption. The main contribution of this study is to propose a new approach for multi-objective workflow scheduling in clouds, and present the hybrid PSO algorithm to optimize the scheduling performance. Our method is based on the Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) technique to minimize energy consumption. This technique allows processors to operate in different voltage supply levels by sacrificing clock frequencies. This multiple voltage involves a compromise between the quality of schedules and energy. Simulation results on synthetic and real-world scientific applications highlight the robust performance of the proposed approach. PMID:24319361

  13. Multi-objective approach for energy-aware workflow scheduling in cloud computing environments.

    PubMed

    Yassa, Sonia; Chelouah, Rachid; Kadima, Hubert; Granado, Bertrand

    2013-01-01

    We address the problem of scheduling workflow applications on heterogeneous computing systems like cloud computing infrastructures. In general, the cloud workflow scheduling is a complex optimization problem which requires considering different criteria so as to meet a large number of QoS (Quality of Service) requirements. Traditional research in workflow scheduling mainly focuses on the optimization constrained by time or cost without paying attention to energy consumption. The main contribution of this study is to propose a new approach for multi-objective workflow scheduling in clouds, and present the hybrid PSO algorithm to optimize the scheduling performance. Our method is based on the Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) technique to minimize energy consumption. This technique allows processors to operate in different voltage supply levels by sacrificing clock frequencies. This multiple voltage involves a compromise between the quality of schedules and energy. Simulation results on synthetic and real-world scientific applications highlight the robust performance of the proposed approach.

  14. 2016 Rio Olympic Games: Can the schedule of events compromise athletes' performance?

    PubMed

    Rosa, João Paulo P; Rodrigues, Dayane F; Silva, Andressa; de Moura Simim, Mário Antônio; Costa, Varley T; Noce, Franco; de Mello, Marco Túlio

    2016-01-01

    The organizing committee of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games recently announced that some of the preliminary and final competitions will be held at night. The present article discusses the potential harmful effects of these late-night competitions on sleep, circadian rhythms and athletic performance during the Olympic Games. Specifically, night-time competition could lead to injury and may compromise an athlete's decision-making, attentional, physiological and other processes. Consequently, these impacts could negatively affect the performance of athletes and their teams. Thus, it is suggested that technical commissions take special care when creating strategies to minimize harm to the athletes by considering factors such as light exposure, melatonin intake, sleep hygiene and scheduled naps, and training at local competition time. Furthermore, it is necessary for specialists in chronobiology and sleep to engage with members of the national teams to develop an activity schedule for physical, technical, tactical and psychological preparation that accounts for circadian rhythms, thereby creating the best possible environment for the athletes to achieve their ideal performance.

  15. Periodic Heterogeneous Vehicle Routing Problem With Driver Scheduling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mardiana Panggabean, Ellis; Mawengkang, Herman; Azis, Zainal; Filia Sari, Rina

    2018-01-01

    The paper develops a model for the optimal management of logistic delivery of a given commodity. The company has different type of vehicles with different capacity to deliver the commodity for customers. The problem is then called Periodic Heterogeneous Vehicle Routing Problem (PHVRP). The goal is to schedule the deliveries according to feasible combinations of delivery days and to determine the scheduling of fleet and driver and routing policies of the vehicles. The objective is to minimize the sum of the costs of all routes over the planning horizon. We propose a combined approach of heuristic algorithm and exact method to solve the problem.

  16. Cost-effectiveness of hepatitis A vaccination in Indonesia.

    PubMed

    Suwantika, Auliya A; Beutels, Philippe; Postma, Maarten J

    2014-01-01

    This study aims to assess the cost-effectiveness of hepatitis A immunization in Indonesia, including an explicit comparison between one-dose and two-dose vaccines. An age-structured cohort model based on a decision tree was developed for the 2012 Indonesia birth cohort. Using the model, we made a comparison on the use of two-dose and one-dose vaccines. The model involved a 70-year time horizon with 1-month cycles for children less than 2 years old and annually thereafter. Monte Carlo simulations were used to examine the economic acceptability and affordability of the hepatitis A vaccination. Vaccination would save US$ 3,795,148 and US$ 2,892,920 from the societal perspective, for the two-dose and one-dose vaccine schedules, respectively, in the context of hepatitis A treatment. It also would save 8917 and 6614 discounted quality-adjusted-life-years (QALYs), respectively. With the vaccine price of US$ 3.21 per dose, the implementation of single dose vaccine would yield an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of US$ 4933 per QALY gained versus no vaccination, whereas the two-dose versus one-dose schedule would cost US$ 14 568 per QALY gained. Considering the 2012 gross-domestic-product (GDP) per capita in Indonesia of US$ 3557, the results indicate that hepatitis A vaccination would be a cost-effective intervention, both for the two-dose and one-dose vaccine schedules in isolation, but two-dose vaccination would no longer be cost-effective if one-dose vaccination is a feasible option. Vaccination would be 100% affordable at budgets of US$ 71,408 000 and US$ 37,690,000 for the implementation of the two-dose and one-dose vaccine schedules, respectively. The implementation of hepatitis A vaccination in Indonesia would be a cost-effective health intervention under the market vaccine price. Given the budget limitations, the use of a one-dose-vaccine schedule would be more realistic to be applied than a two-dose schedule. The vaccine price, mortality rate and

  17. Prediction based proactive thermal virtual machine scheduling in green clouds.

    PubMed

    Kinger, Supriya; Kumar, Rajesh; Sharma, Anju

    2014-01-01

    Cloud computing has rapidly emerged as a widely accepted computing paradigm, but the research on Cloud computing is still at an early stage. Cloud computing provides many advanced features but it still has some shortcomings such as relatively high operating cost and environmental hazards like increasing carbon footprints. These hazards can be reduced up to some extent by efficient scheduling of Cloud resources. Working temperature on which a machine is currently running can be taken as a criterion for Virtual Machine (VM) scheduling. This paper proposes a new proactive technique that considers current and maximum threshold temperature of Server Machines (SMs) before making scheduling decisions with the help of a temperature predictor, so that maximum temperature is never reached. Different workload scenarios have been taken into consideration. The results obtained show that the proposed system is better than existing systems of VM scheduling, which does not consider current temperature of nodes before making scheduling decisions. Thus, a reduction in need of cooling systems for a Cloud environment has been obtained and validated.

  18. Prediction Based Proactive Thermal Virtual Machine Scheduling in Green Clouds

    PubMed Central

    Kinger, Supriya; Kumar, Rajesh; Sharma, Anju

    2014-01-01

    Cloud computing has rapidly emerged as a widely accepted computing paradigm, but the research on Cloud computing is still at an early stage. Cloud computing provides many advanced features but it still has some shortcomings such as relatively high operating cost and environmental hazards like increasing carbon footprints. These hazards can be reduced up to some extent by efficient scheduling of Cloud resources. Working temperature on which a machine is currently running can be taken as a criterion for Virtual Machine (VM) scheduling. This paper proposes a new proactive technique that considers current and maximum threshold temperature of Server Machines (SMs) before making scheduling decisions with the help of a temperature predictor, so that maximum temperature is never reached. Different workload scenarios have been taken into consideration. The results obtained show that the proposed system is better than existing systems of VM scheduling, which does not consider current temperature of nodes before making scheduling decisions. Thus, a reduction in need of cooling systems for a Cloud environment has been obtained and validated. PMID:24737962

  19. Software Cost-Estimation Model

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tausworthe, R. C.

    1985-01-01

    Software Cost Estimation Model SOFTCOST provides automated resource and schedule model for software development. Combines several cost models found in open literature into one comprehensive set of algorithms. Compensates for nearly fifty implementation factors relative to size of task, inherited baseline, organizational and system environment and difficulty of task.

  20. 32 CFR 518.21 - Collection of fees and fee rates for technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ...) Fee rates-(1) Costs for a manual search of technical data. Type Grade Hourly rate ($) Clerical E9/GS 8... costs for technical data. Type Cost ($) Aerial photograph, maps, specifications, permits, charts... microfilm indices, each .10 (e) Review time costs of technical data. Type Grade Hourly rate($) Clerical E9...

  1. 32 CFR 518.21 - Collection of fees and fee rates for technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ...) Fee rates-(1) Costs for a manual search of technical data. Type Grade Hourly rate ($) Clerical E9/GS 8... costs for technical data. Type Cost ($) Aerial photograph, maps, specifications, permits, charts... microfilm indices, each .10 (e) Review time costs of technical data. Type Grade Hourly rate($) Clerical E9...

  2. 32 CFR 518.21 - Collection of fees and fee rates for technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ...) Fee rates-(1) Costs for a manual search of technical data. Type Grade Hourly rate ($) Clerical E9/GS 8... costs for technical data. Type Cost ($) Aerial photograph, maps, specifications, permits, charts... microfilm indices, each .10 (e) Review time costs of technical data. Type Grade Hourly rate($) Clerical E9...

  3. 32 CFR 518.21 - Collection of fees and fee rates for technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ...) Fee rates-(1) Costs for a manual search of technical data. Type Grade Hourly rate ($) Clerical E9/GS 8... costs for technical data. Type Cost ($) Aerial photograph, maps, specifications, permits, charts... microfilm indices, each .10 (e) Review time costs of technical data. Type Grade Hourly rate($) Clerical E9...

  4. Cost/benefit tradeoffs for reducing the energy consumption of the commercial air transportation system. Volume 1: Technical analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kraus, E. F.

    1976-01-01

    The effectiveness and associated costs of operational and technical options for reduced fuel consumption by Douglas aircraft in the domestic airline fleet are assessed. Areas explored include alternative procedures for airline and flight operations, advanced and state of the art technology, modification and derivative configurations, new near-term aircraft, turboprop configuration studies, and optimum aircraft geometry. Data for each aircraft studied is presented in tables and graphs.

  5. Hidden Efficiencies: Making Completion of the Pediatric Vaccine Schedule More Efficient for Physicians

    PubMed Central

    Ciarametaro, Mike; Bradshaw, Steven E.; Guiglotto, Jillian; Hahn, Beth; Meier, Genevieve

    2015-01-01

    Abstract The objective of this work is to demonstrate the potential time and labor savings that may result from increased use of combination vaccinations. The study (GSK study identifier: HO-12-4735) was a model developed to evaluate the efficiency of the pediatric vaccine schedule, using time and motion studies. The model considered vaccination time and the associated labor costs, but vaccination acquisition costs were not considered. We also did not consider any efficacy or safety differences between formulations. The model inputs were supported by a targeted literature review. The reference year for the model was 2012. The most efficient vaccination program using currently available vaccines was predicted to reduce costs through a combination of fewer injections (62%) and less time per vaccination (38%). The most versus the least efficient vaccine program was predicted to result in a 47% reduction in vaccination time and a 42% reduction in labor and supply costs. The estimated administration cost saving with the most versus the least efficient program was estimated to be nearly US $45 million. If hypothetical 6- or 7-valent vaccines are developed using the already most efficient schedule by adding additional antigens (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and Haemophilus influenzae type b) to the most efficient 5-valent vaccine, the savings are predicted to be even greater. Combination vaccinations reduce the time burden of the childhood immunization schedule and could create the potential to improve vaccination uptake and compliance as a result of fewer required injections. PMID:25634165

  6. Environmental surveillance master sampling schedule

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bisping, L.E.

    This document contains the planned 1994 schedules for routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP), Drinking Water Project, and Ground-Water Surveillance Project. Samples are routinely collected for the SESP and analyzed to determine the quality of air, surface water, soil, sediment, wildlife, vegetation, foodstuffs, and farm products at Hanford Site and surrounding communities. The responsibility for monitoring the onsite drinking water falls outside the scope of the SESP. The Hanford Environmental Health Foundation is responsible for monitoring the nonradiological parameters as defined in the National Drinking Water Standards while PNL conducts the radiological monitoring of themore » onsite drinking water. PNL conducts the drinking water monitoring project concurrent with the SESP to promote efficiency and consistency, utilize the expertise developed over the years, and reduce costs associated with management, procedure development, data management, quality control and reporting. The ground-water sampling schedule identifies ground-water sampling events used by PNL for environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site.« less

  7. A new distributed systems scheduling algorithm: a swarm intelligence approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Haghi Kashani, Mostafa; Sarvizadeh, Raheleh; Jameii, Mahdi

    2011-12-01

    The scheduling problem in distributed systems is known as an NP-complete problem, and methods based on heuristic or metaheuristic search have been proposed to obtain optimal and suboptimal solutions. The task scheduling is a key factor for distributed systems to gain better performance. In this paper, an efficient method based on memetic algorithm is developed to solve the problem of distributed systems scheduling. With regard to load balancing efficiently, Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) has been applied as local search in the proposed memetic algorithm. The proposed method has been compared to existing memetic-Based approach in which Learning Automata method has been used as local search. The results demonstrated that the proposed method outperform the above mentioned method in terms of communication cost.

  8. 29 CFR Appendix A to Part 2201 - Schedule of Fees

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... IMPLEMENTING THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT Pt. 2201, App. A Appendix A to Part 2201—Schedule of Fees Type of... and above) 76 Duplication cost per page 0.25 Computer printout copying fee 0.40 Searches of...

  9. Design Principles and Algorithms for Air Traffic Arrival Scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Erzberger, Heinz; Itoh, Eri

    2014-01-01

    This report presents design principles and algorithms for building a real-time scheduler of arrival aircraft based on a first-come-first-served (FCFS) scheduling protocol. The algorithms provide the conceptual and computational foundation for the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) of the Center/terminal radar approach control facilities (TRACON) automation system, which comprises a set of decision support tools for managing arrival traffic at major airports in the United States. The primary objective of the scheduler is to assign arrival aircraft to a favorable landing runway and schedule them to land at times that minimize delays. A further objective of the scheduler is to allocate delays between high-altitude airspace far away from the airport and low-altitude airspace near the airport. A method of delay allocation is described that minimizes the average operating cost in the presence of errors in controlling aircraft to a specified landing time. This report is a revision of an earlier paper first presented as part of an Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD) lecture series in September 1995. The authors, during vigorous discussions over the details of this paper, felt it was important to the air-trafficmanagement (ATM) community to revise and extend the original 1995 paper, providing more detail and clarity and thereby allowing future researchers to understand this foundational work as the basis for the TMA's scheduling algorithms.

  10. The temporal organization of behavior on periodic food schedules.

    PubMed Central

    Reid, A K; Bacha, G; Morán, C

    1993-01-01

    Various theories of temporal control and schedule induction imply that periodic schedules temporally modulate an organism's motivational states within interreinforcement intervals. This speculation has been fueled by frequently observed multimodal activity distributions created by averaging across interreinforcement intervals. We tested this hypothesis by manipulating the cost associated with schedule-induced activities and the availability of other activities to determine the degree to which (a) the temporal distributions of activities within the interreinforcement interval are fixed or can be temporally displaced, (b) rats can reallocate activities across different interreinforcement intervals, and (c) noninduced activities can substitute for schedule-induced activities. Obtained multimodal activity distributions created by averaging across interreinforcement intervals were not representative of the transitions occurring within individual intervals, so the averaged multimodal distributions should not be assumed to represent changes in the subject's motivational states within the interval. Rather, the multimodal distributions often result from averaging across interreinforcement intervals in which only a single activity occurs. A direct influence of the periodic schedule on the motivational states implies that drinking and running should occur at different periods within the interval, but in three experiments the starting times of drinking and running within interreinforcement intervals were equal. Thus, the sequential pattern of drinking and running on periodic schedules does not result from temporal modulation of motivational states within interreinforcement intervals. PMID:8433061

  11. 76 FR 31416 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Technical Amendments

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-05-31

    ... ADMINISTRATION 48 CFR Parts 52 and 53 [FAC 2005-52; Item VI; Docket 2011-0078; Sequence 2] Federal Acquisition... publication schedules. Please cite FAC 2005-52, Technical Amendments. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In order to update certain elements in 48 CFR parts 52 and 53, this document makes editorial changes to the Federal...

  12. A Novel Collaboration to Reduce the Travel-Related Cost of Residency Interviewing.

    PubMed

    Shappell, Eric; Fant, Abra; Schnapp, Benjamin; Craig, Jill P; Ahn, James; Babcock, Christine; Gisondi, Michael A

    2017-04-01

    Interviewing for residency is a complicated and often expensive endeavor. Literature has estimated interview costs of $4,000 to $15,000 per applicant, mostly attributable to travel and lodging. The authors sought to reduce these costs and improve the applicant interview experience by coordinating interview dates between two residency programs in Chicago, Illinois. Two emergency medicine residency programs scheduled contiguous interview dates for the 2015-2016 interview season. We used a survey to assess applicant experiences interviewing in Chicago and attitudes regarding coordinated scheduling. Data on utilization of coordinated dates were obtained from interview scheduling software. The target group for this intervention consisted of applicants from medical schools outside Illinois who completed interviews at both programs. Of the 158 applicants invited to both programs, 84 (53%) responded to the survey. Scheduling data were available for all applicants. The total estimated cost savings for target applicants coordinating interview dates was $13,950. The majority of target applicants reported that this intervention increased the ease of scheduling (84%), made them less likely to cancel the interview (82%), and saved them money (71%). Coordinated scheduling of interview dates was associated with significant estimated cost savings and was reviewed favorably by applicants across all measures of experience. Expanding use of this practice geographically and across specialties may further reduce the cost of interviewing for applicants.

  13. RVU costing applications.

    PubMed

    Berlin, M F; Faber, B P; Berlin, L M; Budzynski, M R

    1997-11-01

    Relative value unit (RVU) cost accounting which uses the resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS), can be used to determine the cost to produce given services and determine appropriate physician fees. The calculations derived from RVU costing have additional applications, such as analyzing fee schedules, evaluating the profitability of third-party payer reimbursement, calculating a floor capitation rate, and allocating capitation payments within the group. The ability to produce this information can help group practice administrators determine ways to manage the cost of providing services, set more realistic fees, and negotiate more profitable contracts.

  14. 77 FR 64848 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request for Form 1120S, Schedule D, Schedule K-1, and Schedule M-3

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-10-23

    ... 1120S, Schedule D, Schedule K-1, and Schedule M-3 AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury... (Loss) Reconciliation for S Corporations With Total Assets of $10 Million or More, and Schedule K-1... Corporation, Schedule D (Form 1120S), Capital Gains and Losses and Built-in Gains, Schedule K-1 (Form 1120S...

  15. Space communications scheduler: A rule-based approach to adaptive deadline scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Straguzzi, Nicholas

    1990-01-01

    Job scheduling is a deceptively complex subfield of computer science. The highly combinatorial nature of the problem, which is NP-complete in nearly all cases, requires a scheduling program to intelligently transverse an immense search tree to create the best possible schedule in a minimal amount of time. In addition, the program must continually make adjustments to the initial schedule when faced with last-minute user requests, cancellations, unexpected device failures, quests, cancellations, unexpected device failures, etc. A good scheduler must be quick, flexible, and efficient, even at the expense of generating slightly less-than-optimal schedules. The Space Communication Scheduler (SCS) is an intelligent rule-based scheduling system. SCS is an adaptive deadline scheduler which allocates modular communications resources to meet an ordered set of user-specified job requests on board the NASA Space Station. SCS uses pattern matching techniques to detect potential conflicts through algorithmic and heuristic means. As a result, the system generates and maintains high density schedules without relying heavily on backtracking or blind search techniques. SCS is suitable for many common real-world applications.

  16. DORCA II: Dynamic operations requirements and cost analysis program

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1976-01-01

    Program is written to handle logistics of acquisition and transport of personnel, equipment, and services and to determine costs, transport schedules, acquisition schedules, and fuel requirements of cargo transport.

  17. Practical quantum appointment scheduling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Touchette, Dave; Lovitz, Benjamin; Lütkenhaus, Norbert

    2018-04-01

    We propose a protocol based on coherent states and linear optics operations for solving the appointment-scheduling problem. Our main protocol leaks strictly less information about each party's input than the optimal classical protocol, even when considering experimental errors. Along with the ability to generate constant-amplitude coherent states over two modes, this protocol requires the ability to transfer these modes back-and-forth between the two parties multiple times with very low losses. The implementation requirements are thus still challenging. Along the way, we develop tools to study quantum information cost of interactive protocols in the finite regime.

  18. The application of artificial intelligence to astronomical scheduling problems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Johnston, Mark D.

    1992-01-01

    Efficient utilization of expensive space- and ground-based observatories is an important goal for the astronomical community; the cost of modern observing facilities is enormous, and the available observing time is much less than the demand from astronomers around the world. The complexity and variety of scheduling constraints and goals has led several groups to investigate how artificial intelligence (AI) techniques might help solve these kinds of problems. The earliest and most successful of these projects was started at Space Telescope Science Institute in 1987 and has led to the development of the Spike scheduling system to support the scheduling of Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The aim of Spike at STScI is to allocate observations to timescales of days to a week observing all scheduling constraints and maximizing preferences that help ensure that observations are made at optimal times. Spike has been in use operationally for HST since shortly after the observatory was launched in Apr. 1990. Although developed specifically for HST scheduling, Spike was carefully designed to provide a general framework for similar (activity-based) scheduling problems. In particular, the tasks to be scheduled are defined in the system in general terms, and no assumptions about the scheduling timescale are built in. The mechanisms for describing, combining, and propagating temporal and other constraints and preferences are quite general. The success of this approach has been demonstrated by the application of Spike to the scheduling of other satellite observatories: changes to the system are required only in the specific constraints that apply, and not in the framework itself. In particular, the Spike framework is sufficiently flexible to handle both long-term and short-term scheduling, on timescales of years down to minutes or less. This talk will discuss recent progress made in scheduling search techniques, the lessons learned from early HST operations, the application of Spike

  19. Smart sensing to drive real-time loads scheduling algorithm in a domotic architecture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Santamaria, Amilcare Francesco; Raimondo, Pierfrancesco; De Rango, Floriano; Vaccaro, Andrea

    2014-05-01

    Nowadays the focus on power consumption represent a very important factor regarding the reduction of power consumption with correlated costs and the environmental sustainability problems. Automatic control load based on power consumption and use cycle represents the optimal solution to costs restraint. The purpose of these systems is to modulate the power request of electricity avoiding an unorganized work of the loads, using intelligent techniques to manage them based on real time scheduling algorithms. The goal is to coordinate a set of electrical loads to optimize energy costs and consumptions based on the stipulated contract terms. The proposed algorithm use two new main notions: priority driven loads and smart scheduling loads. The priority driven loads can be turned off (stand by) according to a priority policy established by the user if the consumption exceed a defined threshold, on the contrary smart scheduling loads are scheduled in a particular way to don't stop their Life Cycle (LC) safeguarding the devices functions or allowing the user to freely use the devices without the risk of exceeding the power threshold. The algorithm, using these two kind of notions and taking into account user requirements, manages loads activation and deactivation allowing the completion their operation cycle without exceeding the consumption threshold in an off-peak time range according to the electricity fare. This kind of logic is inspired by industrial lean manufacturing which focus is to minimize any kind of power waste optimizing the available resources.

  20. Scheduling Results for the THEMIS Observation Scheduling Tool

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mclaren, David; Rabideau, Gregg; Chien, Steve; Knight, Russell; Anwar, Sadaat; Mehall, Greg; Christensen, Philip

    2011-01-01

    We describe a scheduling system intended to assist in the development of instrument data acquisitions for the THEMIS instrument, onboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, and compare results from multiple scheduling algorithms. This tool creates observations of both (a) targeted geographical regions of interest and (b) general mapping observations, while respecting spacecraft constraints such as data volume, observation timing, visibility, lighting, season, and science priorities. This tool therefore must address both geometric and state/timing/resource constraints. We describe a tool that maps geometric polygon overlap constraints to set covering constraints using a grid-based approach. These set covering constraints are then incorporated into a greedy optimization scheduling algorithm incorporating operations constraints to generate feasible schedules. The resultant tool generates schedules of hundreds of observations per week out of potential thousands of observations. This tool is currently under evaluation by the THEMIS observation planning team at Arizona State University.

  1. Hybrid glowworm swarm optimization for task scheduling in the cloud environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Jing; Dong, Shoubin

    2018-06-01

    In recent years many heuristic algorithms have been proposed to solve task scheduling problems in the cloud environment owing to their optimization capability. This article proposes a hybrid glowworm swarm optimization (HGSO) based on glowworm swarm optimization (GSO), which uses a technique of evolutionary computation, a strategy of quantum behaviour based on the principle of neighbourhood, offspring production and random walk, to achieve more efficient scheduling with reasonable scheduling costs. The proposed HGSO reduces the redundant computation and the dependence on the initialization of GSO, accelerates the convergence and more easily escapes from local optima. The conducted experiments and statistical analysis showed that in most cases the proposed HGSO algorithm outperformed previous heuristic algorithms to deal with independent tasks.

  2. Louisiana ITS business plan : technical summary.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2000-03-01

    The objectives are defined under: 1. Development of the plan, which identifies the preferred program of projects and policy initiatives and outlines the purpose, requirements, responsibilities, estimated cost, and implementation schedule for each pla...

  3. Studying the Cost and Value of Library Services: Final Report. Technical Report APLAB/94-3/1,2,3,4.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kantor, Paul B.; And Others

    This is the final technical report (in three parts) of a 15-month long project to study the costs and value of library functions at five major research libraries. Twenty-one services or service aspects were studied, and numerous measures of the importance or benefit of the service to the users were made. These measures were studied together to lay…

  4. 48 CFR 227.7103-2 - Acquisition of technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ...) Identify the type and quantity of the technical data to be delivered under the contract and the format and...-price type contract; (4) Include delivery schedules and acceptance criteria for each deliverable data... data. 227.7103-2 Section 227.7103-2 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION...

  5. 48 CFR 227.7103-2 - Acquisition of technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ...) Identify the type and quantity of the technical data to be delivered under the contract and the format and...-price type contract; (4) Include delivery schedules and acceptance criteria for each deliverable data... data. 227.7103-2 Section 227.7103-2 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION...

  6. 48 CFR 227.7103-2 - Acquisition of technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ...) Identify the type and quantity of the technical data to be delivered under the contract and the format and...-price type contract; (4) Include delivery schedules and acceptance criteria for each deliverable data... data. 227.7103-2 Section 227.7103-2 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION...

  7. 48 CFR 227.7103-2 - Acquisition of technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ...) Identify the type and quantity of the technical data to be delivered under the contract and the format and...-price type contract; (4) Include delivery schedules and acceptance criteria for each deliverable data... data. 227.7103-2 Section 227.7103-2 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION...

  8. 48 CFR 227.7103-2 - Acquisition of technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ...) Identify the type and quantity of the technical data to be delivered under the contract and the format and...-price type contract; (4) Include delivery schedules and acceptance criteria for each deliverable data... data. 227.7103-2 Section 227.7103-2 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION...

  9. Intelligent Scheduling for Underground Mobile Mining Equipment

    PubMed Central

    Song, Zhen; Schunnesson, Håkan; Rinne, Mikael; Sturgul, John

    2015-01-01

    Many studies have been carried out and many commercial software applications have been developed to improve the performances of surface mining operations, especially for the loader-trucks cycle of surface mining. However, there have been quite few studies aiming to improve the mining process of underground mines. In underground mines, mobile mining equipment is mostly scheduled instinctively, without theoretical support for these decisions. Furthermore, in case of unexpected events, it is hard for miners to rapidly find solutions to reschedule and to adapt the changes. This investigation first introduces the motivation, the technical background, and then the objective of the study. A decision support instrument (i.e. schedule optimizer for mobile mining equipment) is proposed and described to address this issue. The method and related algorithms which are used in this instrument are presented and discussed. The proposed method was tested by using a real case of Kittilä mine located in Finland. The result suggests that the proposed method can considerably improve the working efficiency and reduce the working time of the underground mine. PMID:26098934

  10. Intelligent Scheduling for Underground Mobile Mining Equipment.

    PubMed

    Song, Zhen; Schunnesson, Håkan; Rinne, Mikael; Sturgul, John

    2015-01-01

    Many studies have been carried out and many commercial software applications have been developed to improve the performances of surface mining operations, especially for the loader-trucks cycle of surface mining. However, there have been quite few studies aiming to improve the mining process of underground mines. In underground mines, mobile mining equipment is mostly scheduled instinctively, without theoretical support for these decisions. Furthermore, in case of unexpected events, it is hard for miners to rapidly find solutions to reschedule and to adapt the changes. This investigation first introduces the motivation, the technical background, and then the objective of the study. A decision support instrument (i.e. schedule optimizer for mobile mining equipment) is proposed and described to address this issue. The method and related algorithms which are used in this instrument are presented and discussed. The proposed method was tested by using a real case of Kittilä mine located in Finland. The result suggests that the proposed method can considerably improve the working efficiency and reduce the working time of the underground mine.

  11. Production Scheduling of Sequenced Tapes for Printed Circuit Pack Assembly.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-07-09

    detail. L j 6 The subject matter of this thesis is inspired directly from their technical report. The goals of this research are twofold: 1) Test their...The subject matter of the following chapters describes a heuristic approach to another variation of the sequenced tape production scheduling problem...assignment problem, comprise the subject matter of Chapter 5. It is sufficient to note that the three definitions of the term common correspond to the

  12. Scheduling techniques in the Request Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zoch, David R.

    1991-01-01

    Scheduling techniques in the ROSE are presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: agenda; ROSE summary and history; NCC-ROSE task goals; accomplishments; ROSE timeline manager; scheduling concerns; current and ROSE approaches; initial scheduling; BFSSE overview and example; and summary.

  13. Interference Cognizant Network Scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hall, Brendan (Inventor); Bonk, Ted (Inventor); DeLay, Benjamin F. (Inventor); Varadarajan, Srivatsan (Inventor); Smithgall, William Todd (Inventor)

    2017-01-01

    Systems and methods for interference cognizant network scheduling are provided. In certain embodiments, a method of scheduling communications in a network comprises identifying a bin of a global timeline for scheduling an unscheduled virtual link, wherein a bin is a segment of the timeline; identifying a pre-scheduled virtual link in the bin; and determining if the pre-scheduled and unscheduled virtual links share a port. In certain embodiments, if the unscheduled and pre-scheduled virtual links don't share a port, scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link to overlap with the scheduled transmission of the pre-scheduled virtual link; and if the unscheduled and pre-scheduled virtual links share a port: determining a start time delay for the unscheduled virtual link based on the port; and scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link in the bin based on the start time delay to overlap part of the scheduled transmission of the pre-scheduled virtual link.

  14. Confronting Regulatory Cost and Quality Expectations. An Exploration of Technical Change in Minimum Efficiency Performance Standards

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Taylor, Margaret; Spurlock, C. Anna; Yang, Hung-Chia

    The dual purpose of this project was to contribute to basic knowledge about the interaction between regulation and innovation and to inform the cost and benefit expectations related to technical change which are embedded in the rulemaking process of an important area of national regulation. The area of regulation focused on here is minimum efficiency performance standards (MEPS) for appliances and other energy-using products. Relevant both to U.S. climate policy and energy policy for buildings, MEPS remove certain product models from the market that do not meet specified efficiency thresholds.

  15. Scheduling and control strategies for the departure problem in air traffic control

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bolender, Michael Alan

    Two problems relating to the departure problem in air traffic control automation are examined. The first problem that is addressed is the scheduling of aircraft for departure. The departure operations at a major US hub airport are analyzed, and a discrete event simulation of the departure operations is constructed. Specifically, the case where there is a single departure runway is considered. The runway is fed by two queues of aircraft. Each queue, in turn, is fed by a single taxiway. Two salient areas regarding scheduling are addressed. The first is the construction of optimal departure sequences for the aircraft that are queued. Several greedy search algorithms are designed to minimize the total time to depart a set of queued aircraft. Each algorithm has a different set of heuristic rules to resolve situations within the search space whenever two branches of the search tree with equal edge costs are encountered. These algorithms are then compared and contrasted with a genetic search algorithm in order to assess the performance of the heuristics. This is done in the context of a static departure problem where the length of the departure queue is fixed. A greedy algorithm which deepens the search whenever two branches of the search tree with non-unique costs are encountered is shown to outperform the other heuristic algorithms. This search strategy is then implemented in the discrete event simulation. A baseline performance level is established, and a sensitivity analysis is performed by implementing changes in traffic mix, routing, and miles-in-trail restrictions for comparison. It is concluded that to minimize the average time spent in the queue for different traffic conditions, a queue assignment algorithm is needed to maintain an even balance of aircraft in the queues. A necessary consideration is to base queue assignment upon traffic management restrictions such as miles-in-trail constraints. The second problem addresses the technical challenges associated

  16. Scheduling Operations for Massive Heterogeneous Clusters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Humphrey, John; Spagnoli, Kyle

    2013-01-01

    High-performance computing (HPC) programming has become increasingly difficult with the advent of hybrid supercomputers consisting of multicore CPUs and accelerator boards such as the GPU. Manual tuning of software to achieve high performance on this type of machine has been performed by programmers. This is needlessly difficult and prone to being invalidated by new hardware, new software, or changes in the underlying code. A system was developed for task-based representation of programs, which when coupled with a scheduler and runtime system, allows for many benefits, including higher performance and utilization of computational resources, easier programming and porting, and adaptations of code during runtime. The system consists of a method of representing computer algorithms as a series of data-dependent tasks. The series forms a graph, which can be scheduled for execution on many nodes of a supercomputer efficiently by a computer algorithm. The schedule is executed by a dispatch component, which is tailored to understand all of the hardware types that may be available within the system. The scheduler is informed by a cluster mapping tool, which generates a topology of available resources and their strengths and communication costs. Software is decoupled from its hardware, which aids in porting to future architectures. A computer algorithm schedules all operations, which for systems of high complexity (i.e., most NASA codes), cannot be performed optimally by a human. The system aids in reducing repetitive code, such as communication code, and aids in the reduction of redundant code across projects. It adds new features to code automatically, such as recovering from a lost node or the ability to modify the code while running. In this project, the innovators at the time of this reporting intend to develop two distinct technologies that build upon each other and both of which serve as building blocks for more efficient HPC usage. First is the scheduling and dynamic

  17. Tug fleet and ground operations schedules and controls. Volume 2: part 1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1975-01-01

    This Tug Fleet and Ground Operations Schedules and Controls Study addresses both ground operational data and technical requirements that span the Tug planning phase and operations phase. A similar study covering mission operations (by others) provides the complimentary flight operations details. The two studies provide the planning data requirements, resource allocation, and control milestones for supporting the requirements of the STS program. This Tug Fleet and Ground Operations Schedules and Controls Study incorporates the basic ground operations requirements and concepts provided by previous studies with the interrelationships of the planning, IUS transition, and Tug fleet operations phases. The interrelationships of these phases were studied as a system to optimize overall program benefits and minimize operational risk factors.

  18. DSN Scheduling Engine

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Clement, Bradley; Johnston, Mark; Wax, Allan; Chouinard, Caroline

    2008-01-01

    The DSN (Deep Space Network) Scheduling Engine targets all space missions that use DSN services. It allows clients to issue scheduling, conflict identification, conflict resolution, and status requests in XML over a Java Message Service interface. The scheduling requests may include new requirements that represent a set of tracks to be scheduled under some constraints. This program uses a heuristic local search to schedule a variety of schedule requirements, and is being infused into the Service Scheduling Assembly, a mixed-initiative scheduling application. The engine resolves conflicting schedules of resource allocation according to a range of existing and possible requirement specifications, including optional antennas; start of track and track duration ranges; periodic tracks; locks on track start, duration, and allocated antenna; MSPA (multiple spacecraft per aperture); arraying/VLBI (very long baseline interferometry)/delta DOR (differential one-way ranging); continuous tracks; segmented tracks; gap-to-track ratio; and override or block-out of requirements. The scheduling models now include conflict identification for SOA(start of activity), BOT (beginning of track), RFI (radio frequency interference), and equipment constraints. This software will search through all possible allocations while providing a best-effort solution at any time. The engine reschedules to accommodate individual emergency tracks in 0.2 second, and emergency antenna downtime in 0.2 second. The software handles doubling of one mission's track requests over one week (to 42 total) in 2.7 seconds. Further tests will be performed in the context of actual schedules.

  19. 48 CFR 49.303-2 - Submission of inventory disposal schedules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Submission of inventory disposal schedules. 49.303-2 Section 49.303-2 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION CONTRACT MANAGEMENT TERMINATION OF CONTRACTS Additional Principles for Cost-Reimbursement...

  20. Artificial intelligence for the CTA Observatory scheduler

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Colomé, Josep; Colomer, Pau; Campreciós, Jordi; Coiffard, Thierry; de Oña, Emma; Pedaletti, Giovanna; Torres, Diego F.; Garcia-Piquer, Alvaro

    2014-08-01

    The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project will be the next generation ground-based very high energy gamma-ray instrument. The success of the precursor projects (i.e., HESS, MAGIC, VERITAS) motivated the construction of this large infrastructure that is included in the roadmap of the ESFRI projects since 2008. CTA is planned to start the construction phase in 2015 and will consist of two arrays of Cherenkov telescopes operated as a proposal-driven open observatory. Two sites are foreseen at the southern and northern hemispheres. The CTA observatory will handle several observation modes and will have to operate tens of telescopes with a highly efficient and reliable control. Thus, the CTA planning tool is a key element in the control layer for the optimization of the observatory time. The main purpose of the scheduler for CTA is the allocation of multiple tasks to one single array or to multiple sub-arrays of telescopes, while maximizing the scientific return of the facility and minimizing the operational costs. The scheduler considers long- and short-term varying conditions to optimize the prioritization of tasks. A short-term scheduler provides the system with the capability to adapt, in almost real-time, the selected task to the varying execution constraints (i.e., Targets of Opportunity, health or status of the system components, environment conditions). The scheduling procedure ensures that long-term planning decisions are correctly transferred to the short-term prioritization process for a suitable selection of the next task to execute on the array. In this contribution we present the constraints to CTA task scheduling that helped classifying it as a Flexible Job-Shop Problem case and finding its optimal solution based on Artificial Intelligence techniques. We describe the scheduler prototype that uses a Guarded Discrete Stochastic Neural Network (GDSN), for an easy representation of the possible long- and short-term planning solutions, and Constraint

  1. Optimal Preventive Maintenance Schedule based on Lifecycle Cost and Time-Dependent Reliability

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-11-10

    Page 1 of 16 UNCLASSIFIED: Distribution Statement A. Approved for public release. 12IDM-0064 Optimal Preventive Maintenance Schedule based... 1 . INTRODUCTION Customers and product manufacturers demand continued functionality of complex equipment and processes. Degradation of material...Documentation Page Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response

  2. The role of the production scheduling system in rescheduling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kalinowski, K.; Grabowik, C.; Kempa, W.; Paprocka, I.

    2015-11-01

    The paper presents the rescheduling problem in the context of cooperation between production scheduling system (PSS) and other units in an integrated manufacturing environment - decision makers and software systems. The main aim is to discuss the PSS functionality for maximizing automation of the rescheduling process, reducing the response time and improving the quality of generated solutions. PSSs operate in the meeting of tactical and operational level of planning and control, and play an important role in the production preparation and control. On the basis of information about orders, technology and production system state (e.g. resources availability) they prepare and/or update a detailed plan of production flow - a schedule. All necessary data for scheduling and rescheduling are usually collected in other systems both from organizational and technical production preparation, e.g. ERP, PLM, MES, CAPP or others, as well as they are entered directly by the decision- makers/operators. Data acquired in this way are often incomplete and inconsistent. Therefore the existing rescheduling software works according to interactive method - rather support but does not replace the human decision maker in tasks planning. When rescheduling, due to the limited amount of time to make a decision this interaction is particularly important. An additional problem arises in data acquisition, in the process of data exchanging between systems or in the identification of new data sources and their processing. Different approaches to rescheduling were characterized, including those solutions, where all these operations are carried out by an autonomous system and those in which scheduling is performed only upon request from the outside, for the newly created scheduling data representing the current state of the production system.

  3. Cost-effectiveness of hepatitis A vaccination in Indonesia

    PubMed Central

    Suwantika, Auliya A; Beutels, Philippe; Postma, Maarten J

    2014-01-01

    Objective This study aims to assess the cost-effectiveness of hepatitis A immunization in Indonesia, including an explicit comparison between one-dose and two-dose vaccines. Methods An age-structured cohort model based on a decision tree was developed for the 2012 Indonesia birth cohort. Using the model, we made a comparison on the use of two-dose and one-dose vaccines. The model involved a 70-year time horizon with 1-month cycles for children less than 2 years old and annually thereafter. Monte Carlo simulations were used to examine the economic acceptability and affordability of the hepatitis A vaccination. Results Vaccination would save US$ 3 795 148 and US$ 2 892 920 from the societal perspective, for the two-dose and one-dose vaccine schedules, respectively, in the context of hepatitis A treatment. It also would save 8917 and 6614 discounted quality-adjusted-life-years (QALYs), respectively. With the vaccine price of US$ 3.21 per dose, the implementation of single dose vaccine would yield an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of US$ 4933 per QALY gained versus no vaccination, whereas the two-dose versus one-dose schedule would cost US$ 14 568 per QALY gained. Considering the 2012 gross-domestic-product (GDP) per capita in Indonesia of US$ 3557, the results indicate that hepatitis A vaccination would be a cost-effective intervention, both for the two-dose and one-dose vaccine schedules in isolation, but two-dose vaccination would no longer be cost-effective if one-dose vaccination is a feasible option. Vaccination would be 100% affordable at budgets of US$ 71 408 000 and US$ 37 690 000 for the implementation of the two-dose and one-dose vaccine schedules, respectively. Conclusions The implementation of hepatitis A vaccination in Indonesia would be a cost-effective health intervention under the market vaccine price. Given the budget limitations, the use of a one-dose-vaccine schedule would be more realistic to be applied than a two

  4. Cloud computing task scheduling strategy based on differential evolution and ant colony optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ge, Junwei; Cai, Yu; Fang, Yiqiu

    2018-05-01

    This paper proposes a task scheduling strategy DEACO based on the combination of Differential Evolution (DE) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), aiming at the single problem of optimization objective in cloud computing task scheduling, this paper combines the shortest task completion time, cost and load balancing. DEACO uses the solution of the DE to initialize the initial pheromone of ACO, reduces the time of collecting the pheromone in ACO in the early, and improves the pheromone updating rule through the load factor. The proposed algorithm is simulated on cloudsim, and compared with the min-min and ACO. The experimental results show that DEACO is more superior in terms of time, cost, and load.

  5. Emergency material allocation and scheduling for the application to chemical contingency spills under multiple scenarios.

    PubMed

    Liu, Jie; Guo, Liang; Jiang, Jiping; Jiang, Dexun; Wang, Peng

    2017-01-01

    In the emergency management relevant to chemical contingency spills, efficiency emergency rescue can be deeply influenced by a reasonable assignment of the available emergency materials to the related risk sources. In this study, an emergency material scheduling model (EMSM) with time-effective and cost-effective objectives is developed to coordinate both allocation and scheduling of the emergency materials. Meanwhile, an improved genetic algorithm (IGA) which includes a revision operation for EMSM is proposed to identify the emergency material scheduling schemes. Then, scenario analysis is used to evaluate optimal emergency rescue scheme under different emergency pollution conditions associated with different threat degrees based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. The whole framework is then applied to a computational experiment based on south-to-north water transfer project in China. The results demonstrate that the developed method not only could guarantee the implementation of the emergency rescue to satisfy the requirements of chemical contingency spills but also help decision makers identify appropriate emergency material scheduling schemes in a balance between time-effective and cost-effective objectives.

  6. NASA scheduling technologies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Adair, Jerry R.

    1994-01-01

    This paper is a consolidated report on ten major planning and scheduling systems that have been developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A description of each system, its components, and how it could be potentially used in private industry is provided in this paper. The planning and scheduling technology represented by the systems ranges from activity based scheduling employing artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to constraint based, iterative repair scheduling. The space related application domains in which the systems have been deployed vary from Space Shuttle monitoring during launch countdown to long term Hubble Space Telescope (HST) scheduling. This paper also describes any correlation that may exist between the work done on different planning and scheduling systems. Finally, this paper documents the lessons learned from the work and research performed in planning and scheduling technology and describes the areas where future work will be conducted.

  7. The GBT Dynamic Scheduling System: A New Scheduling Paradigm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    O'Neil, K.; Balser, D.; Bignell, C.; Clark, M.; Condon, J.; McCarty, M.; Marganian, P.; Shelton, A.; Braatz, J.; Harnett, J.; Maddalena, R.; Mello, M.; Sessoms, E.

    2009-09-01

    The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) is implementing a new Dynamic Scheduling System (DSS) designed to maximize the observing efficiency of the telescope while ensuring that none of the flexibility and ease of use of the GBT is harmed and that the data quality of observations is not adversely affected. To accomplish this, the GBT DSS is implementing a dynamic scheduling system which schedules observers, rather than running scripts. The DSS works by breaking each project into one or more sessions which have associated observing criteria such as RA, Dec, and frequency. Potential observers may also enter dates when members of their team will not be available for either on-site or remote observing. The scheduling algorithm uses those data, along with the predicted weather, to determine the most efficient schedule for the GBT. The DSS provides all observers at least 24 hours notice of their upcoming observing. In the uncommon (< 20%) case where the actual weather does not match the predictions, a backup project, chosen from the database, is run instead. Here we give an overview of the GBT DSS project, including the ranking and scheduling algorithms for the sessions, the scheduling probabilities generation, the web framework for the system, and an overview of the results from the beta testing which were held from June - September, 2008.

  8. Study of job burnout in technical writers and technical illustrators/designers at LLNL

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Rice, J A

    According to the American Institute of Stress, job stress is estimated to cost American industry more than $200 billion a year. These costs are, in part, related to the estimated 1 million employees that will be absent on an average workday because of stress; 75 percent of visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related problems. California workers' compensation claims for stress cost $1 billion for medical and legal fees alone (Murphy, 1997). But, there is another dimension to stress that needs to be addressed. Job stress can be a precursor to job burnout. Burnout is a loss of motivation,more » and antidotes for job stress will not necessarily alleviate or stop job burnout. Job burnout is experienced as exhaustion on physical, emotional, and cognitive levels. Burnout can include withdrawal and decreasing involvement on the job, seriously affecting job satisfaction, turnover, absenteeism, and productivity (Dwyer & Ganster, 1991; Erickson & Gunderson, 1972; Spector & Jex, 1991). The research project described in this paper examined whether job burnout exists in the technical writer and technical illustrator/designer occupations in the Technical Information Department at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This study also determined at what age and after how many years of service these employees were most likely to experience job burnout, whether it affects men or women most, and if writers in a technical organization experience job burnout more than illustrators/designers in that organization.« less

  9. Systematic Evaluation of Stochastic Methods in Power System Scheduling and Dispatch with Renewable Energy

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Yishen; Zhou, Zhi; Liu, Cong

    2016-08-01

    As more wind power and other renewable resources are being integrated into the electric power grid, the forecast uncertainty brings operational challenges for the power system operators. In this report, different operational strategies for uncertainty management are presented and evaluated. A comprehensive and consistent simulation framework is developed to analyze the performance of different reserve policies and scheduling techniques under uncertainty in wind power. Numerical simulations are conducted on a modified version of the IEEE 118-bus system with a 20% wind penetration level, comparing deterministic, interval, and stochastic unit commitment strategies. The results show that stochastic unit commitment provides amore » reliable schedule without large increases in operational costs. Moreover, decomposition techniques, such as load shift factor and Benders decomposition, can help in overcoming the computational obstacles to stochastic unit commitment and enable the use of a larger scenario set to represent forecast uncertainty. In contrast, deterministic and interval unit commitment tend to give higher system costs as more reserves are being scheduled to address forecast uncertainty. However, these approaches require a much lower computational effort Choosing a proper lower bound for the forecast uncertainty is important for balancing reliability and system operational cost in deterministic and interval unit commitment. Finally, we find that the introduction of zonal reserve requirements improves reliability, but at the expense of higher operational costs.« less

  10. Synthesis on construction unit cost development : technical report.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2009-01-01

    Availability of historical unit cost data is an important factor in developing accurate project cost estimates. : State highway agencies (SHAs) collect data on historical bids and/or production rates, crew sizes and mixes, : material costs, and equip...

  11. Schedule Risk Assessment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Smith, Greg

    2003-01-01

    Schedule risk assessments determine the likelihood of finishing on time. Each task in a schedule has a varying degree of probability of being finished on time. A schedule risk assessment quantifies these probabilities by assigning values to each task. This viewgraph presentation contains a flow chart for conducting a schedule risk assessment, and profiles applicable several methods of data analysis.

  12. Practice expenses in the MFS (Medicare fee schedule): the service-class approach.

    PubMed

    Latimer, E A; Kane, N M

    1995-01-01

    The practice expense component of the Medicare fee schedule (MFS), which is currently based on historical charges and rewards physician procedures at the expense of cognitive services, is due to be changed by January 1, 1998. The Physician Payment Review Commission (PPRC) and others have proposed microcosting direct costs and allocating all indirect costs on a common basis, such as physician time or work plus direct costs. Without altering the treatment of direct costs, the service-class approach disaggregates indirect costs into six practice function costs. The practice function costs are then allocated to classes of services using cost-accounting and statistical methods. This approach would make the practice expense component more resource-based than other proposed alternatives.

  13. Satellite scheduling considering maximum observation coverage time and minimum orbital transfer fuel cost

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Kai-Jian; Li, Jun-Feng; Baoyin, He-Xi

    2010-01-01

    In case of an emergency like the Wenchuan earthquake, it is impossible to observe a given target on earth by immediately launching new satellites. There is an urgent need for efficient satellite scheduling within a limited time period, so we must find a way to reasonably utilize the existing satellites to rapidly image the affected area during a short time period. Generally, the main consideration in orbit design is satellite coverage with the subsatellite nadir point as a standard of reference. Two factors must be taken into consideration simultaneously in orbit design, i.e., the maximum observation coverage time and the minimum orbital transfer fuel cost. The local time of visiting the given observation sites must satisfy the solar radiation requirement. When calculating the operational orbit elements as optimal parameters to be evaluated, we obtain the minimum objective function by comparing the results derived from the primer vector theory with those derived from the Hohmann transfer because the operational orbit for observing the disaster area with impulse maneuvers is considered in this paper. The primer vector theory is utilized to optimize the transfer trajectory with three impulses and the Hohmann transfer is utilized for coplanar and small inclination of non-coplanar cases. Finally, we applied this method in a simulation of the rescue mission at Wenchuan city. The results of optimizing orbit design with a hybrid PSO and DE algorithm show that the primer vector and Hohmann transfer theory proved to be effective methods for multi-object orbit optimization.

  14. Ammunition Cost Research Study

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1976-06-01

    LIBRARY TECHNICAL REPORT Gerald W. Kalal Patrick J. Gannon COST ANALYSIS DIVISION (DRSAR-CPE) HEADQUARTERS, U.S. ARMY ARMAMENT COMMAND ROCK ISLAND... Kalal trick J. Gannon COST ANALYSIS DIVISION (DRSAR-CPE) HEADQUARTERS, U.S. ARMY ARMAMENT COMMAND ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS 61201 I UNCLASSIFIED...4. DESCRIPTIVE NOTES (Type ot report and Inclusive date») Technical Report 8- AU THOR(S> (flral name, middle Initial, laat name) Gerald W. Kalal

  15. 77 FR 68891 - Medicare Program; Revisions to Payment Policies Under the Physician Fee Schedule, DME Face-to...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-11-16

    ... Area ICD International Classification of Diseases IMRT Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy IOM... Stereotactic body radiation therapy SGR Sustainable growth rate TC Technical component TIN Tax identification... Clinical Lab Fee Schedule, which is unaffected by the misvalued code initiative. Radiation therapy centers...

  16. Protocols for distributive scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Richards, Stephen F.; Fox, Barry

    1993-01-01

    The increasing complexity of space operations and the inclusion of interorganizational and international groups in the planning and control of space missions lead to requirements for greater communication, coordination, and cooperation among mission schedulers. These schedulers must jointly allocate scarce shared resources among the various operational and mission oriented activities while adhering to all constraints. This scheduling environment is complicated by such factors as the presence of varying perspectives and conflicting objectives among the schedulers, the need for different schedulers to work in parallel, and limited communication among schedulers. Smooth interaction among schedulers requires the use of protocols that govern such issues as resource sharing, authority to update the schedule, and communication of updates. This paper addresses the development and characteristics of such protocols and their use in a distributed scheduling environment that incorporates computer-aided scheduling tools. An example problem is drawn from the domain of space shuttle mission planning.

  17. Cost-effectiveness of strategies to enhance mammography use.

    PubMed

    Fishman, P; Taplin, S; Meyer, D; Barlow, W

    2000-01-01

    To estimate the cost-effectiveness of three strategies to increase breast cancer screening with mammography (reminder postcard, reminder telephone call, and motivational telephone call). Cost accounting for each strategy followed by cost-effectiveness analysis. DATA SOURCE FOR EFFECTIVENESS: Randomized trial of three strategies conducted at Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound (GHC). Women 50 to 79 years of age who were enrolled in GHC's breast cancer screening program who did not schedule screening mammography within 2 months after it was recommended by letter. Health plan. Marginal cost-effectiveness of each additional woman screened. Because of its high cost (about $26 per call) and intermediate effectiveness, the motivational call was the least cost-effective strategy. If it was assumed that 50% of the women who scheduled mammography after receiving the reminder postcard would have scheduled mammography within 10 months even without it, marginal cost-effectiveness for the postcard among all women was $22 per woman screened versus $92 for the reminder call. Among women with no previous mammography, the marginal cost-effectiveness for the postcard was $70 versus $100 for the reminder call. Among women with no previous mammography, the choice between the reminder postcard and the reminder call was sensitive to assumptions about the percentage of women expected to receive mammography in the absence of other promotional strategies. A simple reminder postcard is the most cost-effective way to increase mammography. Choices about how to promote mammography will ultimately depend on plan values and willingness to invest in promotional strategies that increase participation at higher unit costs.

  18. An Examination of the Benefits and Costs of Sabbatical Leave for General Higher Education, Industry, and Professional-Technical/Community College Environments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Otto, Linda R.; Kroth, Michael

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this literature review is to examine the differences in the use of sabbatical leave among the arenas of general higher education, industry, and professional-technical/community college. The purposes and policies applied to sabbatical leave, along with the cost of using sabbatical leave in these three environments are compared and…

  19. A modify ant colony optimization for the grid jobs scheduling problem with QoS requirements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pu, Xun; Lu, XianLiang

    2011-10-01

    Job scheduling with customers' quality of service (QoS) requirement is challenging in grid environment. In this paper, we present a modify Ant colony optimization (MACO) for the Job scheduling problem in grid. Instead of using the conventional construction approach to construct feasible schedules, the proposed algorithm employs a decomposition method to satisfy the customer's deadline and cost requirements. Besides, a new mechanism of service instances state updating is embedded to improve the convergence of MACO. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

  20. Analysis of Issues for Project Scheduling by Multiple, Dispersed Schedulers (distributed Scheduling) and Requirements for Manual Protocols and Computer-based Support

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Richards, Stephen F.

    1991-01-01

    Although computerized operations have significant gains realized in many areas, one area, scheduling, has enjoyed few benefits from automation. The traditional methods of industrial engineering and operations research have not proven robust enough to handle the complexities associated with the scheduling of realistic problems. To address this need, NASA has developed the computer-aided scheduling system (COMPASS), a sophisticated, interactive scheduling tool that is in wide-spread use within NASA and the contractor community. Therefore, COMPASS provides no explicit support for the large class of problems in which several people, perhaps at various locations, build separate schedules that share a common pool of resources. This research examines the issue of distributing scheduling, as applied to application domains characterized by the partial ordering of tasks, limited resources, and time restrictions. The focus of this research is on identifying issues related to distributed scheduling, locating applicable problem domains within NASA, and suggesting areas for ongoing research. The issues that this research identifies are goals, rescheduling requirements, database support, the need for communication and coordination among individual schedulers, the potential for expert system support for scheduling, and the possibility of integrating artificially intelligent schedulers into a network of human schedulers.

  1. Agents, assemblers, and ANTS: scheduling assembly with market and biological software mechanisms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Toth-Fejel, Tihamer T.

    2000-06-01

    Nanoscale assemblers will need robust, scalable, flexible, and well-understood mechanisms such as software agents to control them. This paper discusses assemblers and agents, and proposes a taxonomy of their possible interaction. Molecular assembly is seen as a special case of general assembly, subject to many of the same issues, such as the advantages of convergent assembly, and the problem of scheduling. This paper discusses the contract net architecture of ANTS, an agent-based scheduling application under development. It also describes an algorithm for least commitment scheduling, which uses probabilistic committed capacity profiles of resources over time, along with realistic costs, to provide an abstract search space over which the agents can wander to quickly find optimal solutions.

  2. Cost-effectiveness of rotavirus vaccination in peru.

    PubMed

    Clark, Andrew D; Walker, Damian G; Mosqueira, N Rocio; Penny, Mary E; Lanata, Claudio F; Fox-Rushby, Julia; Sanderson, Colin F B

    2009-11-01

    There are plans to introduce the oral rotavirus vaccine Rotarix (GlaxoSmithKline), 1 of 2 recently developed vaccines against rotavirus, in Peru. We modeled the cost-effectiveness of adding a rotavirus vaccine to the Peruvian immunization program under 3 scenarios for the timing of vaccination: (1) strictly according to schedule, at 2 and 4 months of age (on time); (2) distributed around the target ages in the same way as the actual timings in the program (flexible); and (3) flexible but assuming vaccination is not initiated for infants >12 weeks of age (restricted). We assumed an introductory price of US $7.50 per dose, and varied the annual rate of price decrease in sensitivity analyses. The discounted cost per disability-adjusted life-year averted for restricted, flexible, and on-time schedules was $621, $615, and $581, respectively. For each of the 3 scenarios, the percentage reduction in deaths due to rotavirus infection was 53%, 66%, and 69%, respectively. The cost per disability-adjusted life-year averted for alternative "what-if" scenarios ranged from $229 (assuming a 1-dose schedule, administered on time) to $1491 (assuming a 2-dose schedule, with half the baseline vaccine efficacy rates and a restricted timing policy). On the basis of current World Health Organization guidelines, rotavirus vaccination represents a highly cost-effective intervention in Peru. Withholding the vaccine from children who present for their first dose after 12 weeks of age would reduce the number of deaths averted by approximately 20%. A single dose may be more cost-effective than 2 doses, but more evidence on the protection conferred by a single dose is required.

  3. User’s guide to SNAP for ArcGIS® :ArcGIS interface for scheduling and network analysis program

    Treesearch

    Woodam Chung; Dennis Dykstra; Fred Bower; Stephen O’Brien; Richard Abt; John. and Sessions

    2012-01-01

    This document introduces a computer software named SNAP for ArcGIS® , which has been developed to streamline scheduling and transportation planning for timber harvest areas. Using modern optimization techniques, it can be used to spatially schedule timber harvest with consideration of harvesting costs, multiple products, alternative...

  4. Ahuachapan geothermal project: a technical and economic assessment

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bloomster, C.H.; DiPippo; Kuwada, J.T.

    Theeconomic and technical factors involved in using geothermal energy at Ahuachapan are examined. The experience at Ahuachapan is evaluated in relation to conditions prevailing in El Salvador and to conditions in the U.S. technical characteristics considered are: geological characteristics, well programs and gathering system, well productivity and geofluid characteristics, and energy conversion systems. Economic factors considered for El Salvador are: construction costs; environmental control costs; operating experience and costs; financing; taxes, subsidies, or incentives; marketing; and electrical system characteristics. (MHR)

  5. 77 FR 47047 - Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-08-07

    ... research and development leading to the production of biobased fuels and biobased products. Tentative... Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee. To attend the meeting and/or to make oral statements... at the beginning of the meeting. Reasonable provision will be made to include the scheduled oral...

  6. Cost Control

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Foreman, Phillip

    2009-01-01

    Education administrators involved in construction initiatives unanimously agree that when it comes to change orders, less is more. Change orders have a negative rippling effect of driving up building costs and producing expensive project delays that often interfere with school operations and schedules. Some change orders are initiated by schools…

  7. Counting Costs under Severe Financial Constraints: A Cost-of-Illness Analysis of Spondyloarthropathies in a Tertiary Hospital in Greece.

    PubMed

    Tsifetaki, Niki; Migkos, Michail P; Papagoras, Charalampos; Voulgari, Paraskevi V; Athanasakis, Kostas; Drosos, Alexandros A

    2015-06-01

    To investigate the total annual direct cost of patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA) in Greece. Retrospective study with 156 patients diagnosed and followed up in the rheumatology clinic of the University Hospital of Ioannina. Sixty-four had ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and 92 had psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Health resource use for each patient was elicited through a retrospective chart review that documented the use of monitoring visits, medications, laboratory/diagnostic tests, and inpatient stays for the previous year from the date that the review took place. Costs were calculated from a third-party payer perspective and are reported in 2014 euros. The mean ± SD annual direct cost for the patients with SpA reached €8680 ± 6627. For the patients with PsA and AS, the cost was estimated to be €8097 ± 6802 and €9531 ± 6322, respectively. The major cost was medication, which represented 88.9%, 88.2%, and 89.3% of the mean total direct cost for SpA, AS, and PsA, respectively. The annual amount of the scheduled tests for all patients corresponded to 7.5%, and for those performed on an emergency basis, 1.1%. Further, the cost for scheduled and emergency hospitalization, as well as the cost of scheduled visits to an outpatient clinic, corresponded to 2.5% of the mean total annual direct cost for the patients with SpA. SpA carries substantial financial cost, especially in the era of new treatment options. Adequate access and treatment for patients with SpA remains a necessity, even in times of fiscal constraint. Thus, the recommendations of the international scientific organizations should be considered when administering high-cost drugs such as biological treatments.

  8. Additively Manufactured Low Cost Upper Stage Combustion Chamber

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Protz, Christopher; Cooper, Ken; Ellis, David; Fikes, John; Jones, Zachary; Kim, Tony; Medina, Cory; Taminger, Karen; Willingham, Derek

    2016-01-01

    Over the past two years NASA's Low Cost Upper Stage Propulsion (LCUSP) project has developed Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies and design tools aimed at reducing the costs and manufacturing time of regeneratively cooled rocket engine components. High pressure/high temperature combustion chambers and nozzles must be regeneratively cooled to survive their operating environment, causing their design fabrication to be costly and time consuming due to the number of individual steps and different processes required. Under LCUSP, AM technologies in Sintered Laser Melting (SLM) GRCop-84 and Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF3) Inconel 625 have been significantly advanced, allowing the team to successfully fabricate a 25k-class regenerative chamber. Estimates of the costs and schedule of future builds indicate cost reductions and significant schedule reductions will be enabled by this technology. Characterization of the microstructural and mechanical properties of the SLM-produced GRCop-84, EBF3 Inconel 625 and the interface layer between the two has been performed and indicates the properties will meet the design requirements. The LCUSP chamber is to be tested with a previously demonstrated SLM injector in order to advance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and demonstrate the capability of the application of these processes. NASA is advancing these technologies to reduce cost and schedule for future engine applications and commercial needs.

  9. Simultaneous personnel and vehicle shift scheduling in the waste management sector.

    PubMed

    Ghiani, Gianpaolo; Guerriero, Emanuela; Manni, Andrea; Manni, Emanuele; Potenza, Agostino

    2013-07-01

    Urban waste management is becoming an increasingly complex task, absorbing a huge amount of resources, and having a major environmental impact. The design of a waste management system consists in various activities, and one of these is related to the definition of shift schedules for both personnel and vehicles. This activity has a great incidence on the tactical and operational cost for companies. In this paper, we propose an integer programming model to find an optimal solution to the integrated problem. The aim is to determine optimal schedules at minimum cost. Moreover, we design a fast and effective heuristic to face large-size problems. Both approaches are tested on data from a real-world case in Southern Italy and compared to the current practice utilized by the company managing the service, showing that simultaneously solving these problems can lead to significant monetary savings. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Advanced transportation system studies technical area 2 (TA-2): Heavy lift launch vehicle development. volume 3; Program Cost estimates

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McCurry, J. B.

    1995-01-01

    The purpose of the TA-2 contract was to provide advanced launch vehicle concept definition and analysis to assist NASA in the identification of future launch vehicle requirements. Contracted analysis activities included vehicle sizing and performance analysis, subsystem concept definition, propulsion subsystem definition (foreign and domestic), ground operations and facilities analysis, and life cycle cost estimation. The basic period of performance of the TA-2 contract was from May 1992 through May 1993. No-cost extensions were exercised on the contract from June 1993 through July 1995. This document is part of the final report for the TA-2 contract. The final report consists of three volumes: Volume 1 is the Executive Summary, Volume 2 is Technical Results, and Volume 3 is Program Cost Estimates. The document-at-hand, Volume 3, provides a work breakdown structure dictionary, user's guide for the parametric life cycle cost estimation tool, and final report developed by ECON, Inc., under subcontract to Lockheed Martin on TA-2 for the analysis of heavy lift launch vehicle concepts.

  11. Space Station needs, attributes and architectural options, volume 2, book 3: Cost and programmatics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1983-01-01

    The cost and programmatic considerations which integrate mission requirements and architectural options into a cohesive system for exploitation of space opportunities within affordable limits are discussed. The mission requirements, baseline architecture, a top level baseline schedule, and acquisition costs are summarized. The work breakdown structure (WBS) used to structure the program, and the WBS dictionary are included. The costing approach used, including the operation of the primary costing tool, the SPACE cost model are described. The rationale for the choice of cost estimating relationships is given and costs at the module level are shown. Detailed costs at the subsystem level are shown. The baseline schedule and annual funding profiles are provided. Alternate schedules are developed to provide different funding profiles. Alternate funding sources are discussed and foreign and contractor participation is outlined. The results of the benefit analysis are given and the accrued benefits deriving from an implemented space station program are outlined.

  12. 29 CFR 20.59 - Assessment of administrative costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... against other debtors in similar stages of delinquency. (b) In addition to assessing the costs listed in... delinquency. (c) The Chief Financial Officer shall issue each year a schedule providing the costs associated...

  13. 25 CFR 547.12 - What are the minimum technical standards for downloading on a Class II gaming system?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... OF CLASS II GAMES § 547.12 What are the minimum technical standards for downloading on a Class II... software, files, data, and prize schedules. (2) Downloads of software, games, prize schedules, or other... performed in a manner that will not affect game play. (5) Downloads shall not affect the integrity of...

  14. 25 CFR 547.12 - What are the minimum technical standards for downloading on a Class II gaming system?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... OF CLASS II GAMES § 547.12 What are the minimum technical standards for downloading on a Class II... software, files, data, and prize schedules. (2) Downloads of software, games, prize schedules, or other... performed in a manner that will not affect game play. (5) Downloads shall not affect the integrity of...

  15. 25 CFR 547.12 - What are the minimum technical standards for downloading on a Class II gaming system?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... OF CLASS II GAMES § 547.12 What are the minimum technical standards for downloading on a Class II... software, files, data, and prize schedules. (2) Downloads of software, games, prize schedules, or other... performed in a manner that will not affect game play. (5) Downloads shall not affect the integrity of...

  16. Automated telescope scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Johnston, Mark D.

    1988-01-01

    With the ever increasing level of automation of astronomical telescopes the benefits and feasibility of automated planning and scheduling are becoming more apparent. Improved efficiency and increased overall telescope utilization are the most obvious goals. Automated scheduling at some level has been done for several satellite observatories, but the requirements on these systems were much less stringent than on modern ground or satellite observatories. The scheduling problem is particularly acute for Hubble Space Telescope: virtually all observations must be planned in excruciating detail weeks to months in advance. Space Telescope Science Institute has recently made significant progress on the scheduling problem by exploiting state-of-the-art artificial intelligence software technology. What is especially interesting is that this effort has already yielded software that is well suited to scheduling groundbased telescopes, including the problem of optimizing the coordinated scheduling of more than one telescope.

  17. Collaboration Strategies to Reduce Technical Debt

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miko, Jeffrey Allen

    2017-01-01

    Inadequate software development collaboration processes can allow technical debt to accumulate increasing future maintenance costs and the chance of system failures. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore collaboration strategies software development leaders use to reduce the amount of technical debt created by software…

  18. Predicting Schedule Duration for Defense Acquisition Programs: Program Initiation to Initial Operational Capability

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-03-24

    Corporation found that increases in schedule effort tend to be the reason for increases in the cost of acquiring a new weapons system due to, at a minimum...in-depth finance and schedule data for selected programs (Brown et al., 2015). We also give extra focus on Research Development Test & Evaluation...we create and employ an entirely new database. The database we utilize for our research is a database originally built by the RAND Corporation for

  19. Submarine watch schedules: underway evaluation of rotating (contemporary) and compressed (alternative) schedules.

    PubMed

    Duplessis, C A; Miller, J C; Crepeau, L J; Osborn, C M; Dyche, J

    2007-01-01

    With a desire to increase health, cognitive performance effectiveness, and quality of life for submarine watch-standers underway, we performed an evaluation comparing an alternative, compressed-work (ALT) schedule, designed to enhance circadian rhythm entrainment and sleep hygiene, to the contemporary submarine (SUB) forward rotating schedule, aboard the ballistic-missile submarine, USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN-730 Gold). We assessed a compressed close-6 watch-schedule ("ALT") relative to the existing backward rotating 6-hr on, 12-hr off 18-hr watch schedule ("SUB") employed underway aboard submarines. We monitored 40 subjects' sleep, and temperature and salivary cortisol from 10 of the 40 for approximately two weeks on each respective schedule underway. The cortisol cosinor mesors (midline estimating statistic of rhythm), and amplitudes did not differ significantly between conditions. The temperature cosinor mesors, and the cosinor amplitude were not significantly different, while the cosine curve fit accounted for significantly more variance in the ALT condition than in the SUB condition. The SUB schedule garnered significantly more sleep (7.1 +/- 0.2 hours) than that of the ALTMID schedule (6.3 +/- 0.3 hours). Surveys revealed that 52% of respondents preferred the SUB schedule, 15% preferred the ALT, and 33% were either indifferent or submitted uninterpretable surveys. The ALT schedule was not superior to the existing SUB schedule by physiological or subjective measures and was incompatible to accommodating operational constraints.

  20. Optimisation of assembly scheduling in VCIM systems using genetic algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dao, Son Duy; Abhary, Kazem; Marian, Romeo

    2017-09-01

    Assembly plays an important role in any production system as it constitutes a significant portion of the lead time and cost of a product. Virtual computer-integrated manufacturing (VCIM) system is a modern production system being conceptually developed to extend the application of traditional computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) system to global level. Assembly scheduling in VCIM systems is quite different from one in traditional production systems because of the difference in the working principles of the two systems. In this article, the assembly scheduling problem in VCIM systems is modeled and then an integrated approach based on genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to search for a global optimised solution to the problem. Because of dynamic nature of the scheduling problem, a novel GA with unique chromosome representation and modified genetic operations is developed herein. Robustness of the proposed approach is verified by a numerical example.

  1. Web Publishing Schedule

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Section 207(f)(2) of the E-Gov Act requires federal agencies to develop an inventory and establish a schedule of information to be published on their Web sites, make those schedules available for public comment. To post the schedules on the web site.

  2. Schedule Risk Assessment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Smith, Greg

    2003-01-01

    Schedule Risk Assessment needs to determine the probability of finishing on or before a given point in time. Task in a schedule should reflect the "most likely" duration for each task. IN reality, each task is different and has a varying degree of probability of finishing within or after the duration specified. Schedule risk assessment attempt to quantify these probabilities by assigning values to each task. Bridges the gap between CPM scheduling and the project's need to know the likelihood of "when".

  3. Technical Data to Justify Full Burnup Credit in Criticality Safety Licensing Analysis

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Enercon Services, Inc.

    2011-03-14

    in ENERCON's understanding of the difficult issues related to obtaining and analyzing additional cross section test data to support Full Burnup Credit. A PIRT (Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table) analysis was performed by ENERCON to evaluate the costs and benefits of acquiring different types of nuclear data in support of Full Burnup Credit. A PIRT exercise is a formal expert elicitation process with the final output being the ranking tables. The PIRT analysis (Table 7-4: Results of PIRT Evaluation) showed that the acquisition of additional Actinide-Only experimental data, although beneficial, was associated with high cost and is not necessarily needed. The conclusion was that the existing Radiochemical Assay (RCA) data plus the French Haut Taux de Combustion (HTC)2 and handbook Laboratory Critical Experiment (LCE) data provide adequate benchmark validation for Actinide-Only Burnup Credit. The PIRT analysis indicated that the costs and schedule to obtain sufficient additional experimental data to support the addition of 16 fission products to Actinide-Only Burnup Credit to produce Full Burnup Credit are quite substantial. ENERCON estimates the cost to be $50M to $100M with a schedule of five or more years. The PIRT analysis highlights another option for fission product burnup credit, which is the application of computer-based uncertainty analyses (S/U - Sensitivity/Uncertainty methodologies), confirmed by the limited experimental data that is already available. S/U analyses essentially transform cross section uncertainty information contained in the cross section libraries into a reactivity bias and uncertainty. Recent work by ORNL and EPRI has shown that a methodology to support Full Burnup Credit is possible using a combination of traditional RCA and LCE validation plus S/U validation for fission product isotopics and cross sections. Further, the most recent cross section data (ENDF/B-VII) can be incorporated into the burnup credit codes at a reasonable

  4. Charge scheduling of an energy storage system under time-of-use pricing and a demand charge.

    PubMed

    Yoon, Yourim; Kim, Yong-Hyuk

    2014-01-01

    A real-coded genetic algorithm is used to schedule the charging of an energy storage system (ESS), operated in tandem with renewable power by an electricity consumer who is subject to time-of-use pricing and a demand charge. Simulations based on load and generation profiles of typical residential customers show that an ESS scheduled by our algorithm can reduce electricity costs by approximately 17%, compared to a system without an ESS and by 8% compared to a scheduling algorithm based on net power.

  5. Charge Scheduling of an Energy Storage System under Time-of-Use Pricing and a Demand Charge

    PubMed Central

    Yoon, Yourim

    2014-01-01

    A real-coded genetic algorithm is used to schedule the charging of an energy storage system (ESS), operated in tandem with renewable power by an electricity consumer who is subject to time-of-use pricing and a demand charge. Simulations based on load and generation profiles of typical residential customers show that an ESS scheduled by our algorithm can reduce electricity costs by approximately 17%, compared to a system without an ESS and by 8% compared to a scheduling algorithm based on net power. PMID:25197720

  6. Optimization-based manufacturing scheduling with multiple resources and setup requirements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Dong; Luh, Peter B.; Thakur, Lakshman S.; Moreno, Jack, Jr.

    1998-10-01

    The increasing demand for on-time delivery and low price forces manufacturer to seek effective schedules to improve coordination of multiple resources and to reduce product internal costs associated with labor, setup and inventory. This study describes the design and implementation of a scheduling system for J. M. Product Inc. whose manufacturing is characterized by the need to simultaneously consider machines and operators while an operator may attend several operations at the same time, and the presence of machines requiring significant setup times. The scheduling problem with these characteristics are typical for many manufacturers, very difficult to be handled, and have not been adequately addressed in the literature. In this study, both machine and operators are modeled as resources with finite capacities to obtain efficient coordination between them, and an operator's time can be shared by several operations at the same time to make full use of the operator. Setups are explicitly modeled following our previous work, with additional penalties on excessive setups to reduce setup costs and avoid possible scraps. An integer formulation with a separable structure is developed to maximize on-time delivery of products, low inventory and small number of setups. Within the Lagrangian relaxation framework, the problem is decomposed into individual subproblems that are effectively solved by using dynamic programming with additional penalties embedded in state transitions. Heuristics is then developed to obtain a feasible schedule following on our previous work with new mechanism to satisfy operator capacity constraints. The method has been implemented using the object-oriented programming language C++ with a user-friendly interface, and numerical testing shows that the method generates high quality schedules in a timely fashion. Through simultaneous consideration of machines and operators, machines and operators are well coordinated to facilitate the smooth flow of

  7. Cutting Transportation Costs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lewis, Barbara

    1982-01-01

    Beginning on the front cover, this article tells how school districts are reducing their transportation costs. Particularly effective measures include the use of computers for bus maintenance and scheduling, school board ownership of buses, and the conversion of gasoline-powered buses to alternative fuels. (Author/MLF)

  8. An integer batch scheduling model considering learning, forgetting, and deterioration effects for a single machine to minimize total inventory holding cost

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yusriski, R.; Sukoyo; Samadhi, T. M. A. A.; Halim, A. H.

    2018-03-01

    This research deals with a single machine batch scheduling model considering the influenced of learning, forgetting, and machine deterioration effects. The objective of the model is to minimize total inventory holding cost, and the decision variables are the number of batches (N), batch sizes (Q[i], i = 1, 2, .., N) and the sequence of processing the resulting batches. The parts to be processed are received at the right time and the right quantities, and all completed parts must be delivered at a common due date. We propose a heuristic procedure based on the Lagrange method to solve the problem. The effectiveness of the procedure is evaluated by comparing the resulting solution to the optimal solution obtained from the enumeration procedure using the integer composition technique and shows that the average effectiveness is 94%.

  9. Heritage Systems Engineering Lessons from NASA Deep Space Missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barley, Bryan; Newhouse, Marilyn; Clardy, Dennon

    2010-01-01

    In the design and development of complex spacecraft missions, project teams frequently assume the use of advanced technology systems or heritage systems to enable a mission or reduce the overall mission risk and cost. As projects proceed through the development life cycle, increasingly detailed knowledge of the advanced and heritage systems within the spacecraft and mission environment identifies unanticipated technical issues. Resolving these issues often results in cost overruns and schedule impacts. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Discovery & New Frontiers (D&NF) Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) recently studied cost overruns and schedule delays for 5 missions. The goal was to identify the underlying causes for the overruns and delays, and to develop practical mitigations to assist the D&NF projects in identifying potential risks and controlling the associated impacts to proposed mission costs and schedules. The study found that optimistic hardware/software inheritance and technology readiness assumptions caused cost and schedule growth for all five missions studied. The cost and schedule growth was not found to be the result of technical hurdles requiring significant technology development. The projects institutional inheritance and technology readiness processes appear to adequately assess technology viability and prevent technical issues from impacting the final mission success. However, the processes do not appear to identify critical issues early enough in the design cycle to ensure project schedules and estimated costs address the inherent risks. In general, the overruns were traceable to: an inadequate understanding of the heritage system s behavior within the proposed spacecraft design and mission environment; an insufficient level of development experience with the heritage system; or an inadequate scoping of the systemwide impacts necessary to implement an advanced technology for space flight applications

  10. Heritage and Advanced Technology Systems Engineering Lessons Learned from NASA Deep Space Missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barley, Bryan; Newhouse, Marilyn; Clardy, Dennon

    2010-01-01

    In the design and development of complex spacecraft missions, project teams frequently assume the use of advanced technology systems or heritage systems to enable a mission or reduce the overall mission risk and cost. As projects proceed through the development life cycle, increasingly detailed knowledge of the advanced and heritage systems within the spacecraft and mission environment identifies unanticipated technical issues. Resolving these issues often results in cost overruns and schedule impacts. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Discovery & New Frontiers (D&NF) Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) recently studied cost overruns and schedule delays for 5 missions. The goal was to identify the underlying causes for the overruns and delays, and to develop practical mitigations to assist the D&NF projects in identifying potential risks and controlling the associated impacts to proposed mission costs and schedules. The study found that optimistic hardware/software inheritance and technology readiness assumptions caused cost and schedule growth for four of the five missions studied. The cost and schedule growth was not found to result from technical hurdles requiring significant technology development. The projects institutional inheritance and technology readiness processes appear to adequately assess technology viability and prevent technical issues from impacting the final mission success. However, the processes do not appear to identify critical issues early enough in the design cycle to ensure project schedules and estimated costs address the inherent risks. In general, the overruns were traceable to: an inadequate understanding of the heritage system s behavior within the proposed spacecraft design and mission environment; an insufficient level of development experience with the heritage system; or an inadequate scoping of the system-wide impacts necessary to implement an advanced technology for space flight

  11. 48 CFR 1631.205-10 - Cost of money.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... Section 1631.205-10 Federal Acquisition Regulations System OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT COST PRINCIPLES..., the supplemental information supporting submitted costs (such as the Supplemental Schedule of...

  12. 48 CFR 1631.205-10 - Cost of money.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... Section 1631.205-10 Federal Acquisition Regulations System OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS CONTRACT COST PRINCIPLES..., the supplemental information supporting submitted costs (such as the Supplemental Schedule of...

  13. The financial implications of endovascular aneurysm repair in the cost containment era.

    PubMed

    Stone, David H; Horvath, Alexander J; Goodney, Philip P; Rzucidlo, Eva M; Nolan, Brian W; Walsh, Daniel B; Zwolak, Robert M; Powell, Richard J

    2014-02-01

    Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is associated with significant direct device costs. Such costs place EVAR at odds with efforts to constrain healthcare expenditures. This study examines the procedure-associated costs and operating margins associated with EVAR at a tertiary care academic medical center. All infrarenal EVARs performed from April 2011 to March 2012 were identified (n = 127). Among this cohort, 49 patients met standard commercial instruction for use guidelines, were treated using a single manufacturer device, and billed to Medicare diagnosis-related group (DRG) 238. Of these 49 patients, net technical operating margins (technical revenue minus technical cost) were calculated in conjunction with the hospital finance department. EVAR implant costs were determined for each procedure. DRG 238-associated costs and length of stay were benchmarked against other academic medical centers using University Health System Consortium 2012 data. Among the studied EVAR cohort (age 75, 82% male, mean length of stay, 1.7 days), mean technical costs totaled $31,672. Graft implants accounted for 52% of the allocated technical costs. Institutional overhead was 17% ($5495) of total technical costs. Net mean total technical EVAR-associated operating margins were -$4015 per procedure. Our institutional costs and length of stay, when benchmarked against comparable centers, remained in the lowest quartile nationally using University Health System Consortium costs for DRG 238. Stent graft price did not correlate with total EVAR market share. EVAR is currently associated with significant negative operating margins among Medicare beneficiaries. Currently, device costs account for over 50% of EVAR-associated technical costs and did not impact EVAR market share, reflecting an unawareness of cost differential among surgeons. These data indicate that EVAR must undergo dramatic care delivery redesign for this practice to remain sustainable. Copyright © 2014 Society for Vascular

  14. Aspects of job scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Phillips, K.

    1976-01-01

    A mathematical model for job scheduling in a specified context is presented. The model uses both linear programming and combinatorial methods. While designed with a view toward optimization of scheduling of facility and plant operations at the Deep Space Communications Complex, the context is sufficiently general to be widely applicable. The general scheduling problem including options for scheduling objectives is discussed and fundamental parameters identified. Mathematical algorithms for partitioning problems germane to scheduling are presented.

  15. New Desktop Virtual Reality Technology in Technical Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ausburn, Lynna J.; Ausburn, Floyd B.

    2008-01-01

    Virtual reality (VR) that immerses users in a 3D environment through use of headwear, body suits, and data gloves has demonstrated effectiveness in technical and professional education. Immersive VR is highly engaging and appealing to technically skilled young Net Generation learners. However, technical difficulty and very high costs have kept…

  16. Cost-effectiveness analysis of AS04-adjuvanted human papillomavirus 16/18 vaccine compared with human papillomavirus 6/11/16/18 vaccine in the Philippines, with the new 2-dose schedule.

    PubMed

    Germar, Maria Julieta; Purugganan, Carrie; Bernardino, Ma Socorro; Cuenca, Benjamin; Chen, Y-Chen; Li, Xiao; Van Kriekinge, Georges; Lee, I-Heng

    2017-05-04

    Cervical cancer (CC) is the second leading cause of cancer death among Filipino women. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination protects against CC. Two vaccines (AS04-HPV-16/18 and 4vHPV) are approved in the Philippines; they were originally developed for a 3-dose (3D) administration and have recently been approved in a 2-dose schedule (2D). This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of HPV vaccination of 13-year-old Filipino girls, in addition to current screening, in the new 2D schedule. An existing static lifetime, one-year cycle Markov cohort model was adapted to the Philippine settings to simulate the natural history of low-risk and oncogenic HPV infection, the effects of screening and vaccination of a 13-year-old girls cohort vaccinated with either the 2D-AS04-HPV-16/18 or 2D-4vHPV assuming a 100% vaccination coverage. Incremental cost, quality-adjusted life year (QALY) and cost-effectiveness were derived from these estimates. Input data were obtained from published sources and Delphi panel, using country-specific data where possible. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the robustness of the model. The model estimated that 2D-AS04-HPV-16/18 prevented 986 additional CC cases and 399 CC deaths (undiscounted), as well as 555 increased QALY (discounted), and save 228.1 million Philippine pesos (PHP) compared with the 2D-4vHPV. In conclusion, AS04-HPV-16/18 is shown to be dominant over 4vHPV in the Philippines, with greater estimated health benefits and lower costs.

  17. Cost-effectiveness analysis of AS04-adjuvanted human papillomavirus 16/18 vaccine compared with human papillomavirus 6/11/16/18 vaccine in the Philippines, with the new 2-dose schedule

    PubMed Central

    Germar, Maria Julieta; Purugganan, Carrie; Bernardino, Ma. Socorro; Cuenca, Benjamin; Chen, Y-Chen; Li, Xiao; Van Kriekinge, Georges; Lee, I-Heng

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT Cervical cancer (CC) is the second leading cause of cancer death among Filipino women. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination protects against CC. Two vaccines (AS04-HPV-16/18 and 4vHPV) are approved in the Philippines; they were originally developed for a 3-dose (3D) administration and have recently been approved in a 2-dose schedule (2D). This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of HPV vaccination of 13-year-old Filipino girls, in addition to current screening, in the new 2D schedule. An existing static lifetime, one-year cycle Markov cohort model was adapted to the Philippine settings to simulate the natural history of low-risk and oncogenic HPV infection, the effects of screening and vaccination of a 13-year-old girls cohort vaccinated with either the 2D-AS04-HPV-16/18 or 2D-4vHPV assuming a 100% vaccination coverage. Incremental cost, quality-adjusted life year (QALY) and cost-effectiveness were derived from these estimates. Input data were obtained from published sources and Delphi panel, using country-specific data where possible. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the robustness of the model. The model estimated that 2D-AS04-HPV-16/18 prevented 986 additional CC cases and 399 CC deaths (undiscounted), as well as 555 increased QALY (discounted), and save 228.1 million Philippine pesos (PHP) compared with the 2D-4vHPV. In conclusion, AS04-HPV-16/18 is shown to be dominant over 4vHPV in the Philippines, with greater estimated health benefits and lower costs. PMID:28075249

  18. Technical Assistance Information Centers and Consultants.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    National Arts and the Handicapped Information Service, New York, NY.

    Three types of resources for planners of programs for the arts and/or the handicapped are indicated in this directory: technical assistance, information services, and consultants. In this context, technical assistance is defined as free or low cost professional advisory service provided by telephone, mail, or personal visits. Resources listed…

  19. Chemotherapy appointment scheduling under uncertainty using mean-risk stochastic integer programming.

    PubMed

    Alvarado, Michelle; Ntaimo, Lewis

    2018-03-01

    Oncology clinics are often burdened with scheduling large volumes of cancer patients for chemotherapy treatments under limited resources such as the number of nurses and chairs. These cancer patients require a series of appointments over several weeks or months and the timing of these appointments is critical to the treatment's effectiveness. Additionally, the appointment duration, the acuity levels of each appointment, and the availability of clinic nurses are uncertain. The timing constraints, stochastic parameters, rising treatment costs, and increased demand of outpatient oncology clinic services motivate the need for efficient appointment schedules and clinic operations. In this paper, we develop three mean-risk stochastic integer programming (SIP) models, referred to as SIP-CHEMO, for the problem of scheduling individual chemotherapy patient appointments and resources. These mean-risk models are presented and an algorithm is devised to improve computational speed. Computational results were conducted using a simulation model and results indicate that the risk-averse SIP-CHEMO model with the expected excess mean-risk measure can decrease patient waiting times and nurse overtime when compared to deterministic scheduling algorithms by 42 % and 27 %, respectively.

  20. Re-scheduling as a tool for the power management on board a spacecraft

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Albasheer, Omar; Momoh, James A.

    1995-01-01

    The scheduling of events on board a spacecraft is based on forecast energy levels. The real time values of energy may not coincide with the forecast values; consequently, a dynamic revising to the allocation of power is needed. The re-scheduling is also needed for other reasons on board a spacecraft like the addition of new event which must be scheduled, or a failure of an event due to many different contingencies. This need of rescheduling is very important to the survivability of the spacecraft. In this presentation, a re-scheduling tool will be presented as a part of an overall scheme for the power management on board a spacecraft from the allocation of energy point of view. The overall scheme is based on the optimal use of energy available on board a spacecraft using expert systems combined with linear optimization techniques. The system will be able to schedule maximum number of events utilizing most energy available. The outcome is more events scheduled to share the operation cost of that spacecraft. The system will also be able to re-schedule in case of a contingency with minimal time and minimal disturbance of the original schedule. The end product is a fully integrated planning system capable of producing the right decisions in short time with less human error. The overall system will be presented with the re-scheduling algorithm discussed in detail, then the tests and results will be presented for validations.

  1. 29 CFR 825.203 - Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... OF LABOR OTHER LAWS THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT OF 1993 Employee Leave Entitlements Under the Family and Medical Leave Act § 825.203 Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave. Eligible... leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule for planned medical treatment, then the employee...

  2. 29 CFR 825.203 - Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... OF LABOR OTHER LAWS THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT OF 1993 Employee Leave Entitlements Under the Family and Medical Leave Act § 825.203 Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave. Eligible... leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule for planned medical treatment, then the employee...

  3. 29 CFR 825.203 - Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... OF LABOR OTHER LAWS THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT OF 1993 Employee Leave Entitlements Under the Family and Medical Leave Act § 825.203 Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave. Eligible... leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule for planned medical treatment, then the employee...

  4. 29 CFR 825.203 - Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... OF LABOR OTHER LAWS THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT OF 1993 Employee Leave Entitlements Under the Family and Medical Leave Act § 825.203 Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave. Eligible... leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule for planned medical treatment, then the employee...

  5. Expert assessments of the cost of light water small modular reactors

    PubMed Central

    Abdulla, Ahmed; Azevedo, Inês Lima; Morgan, M. Granger

    2013-01-01

    Analysts and decision makers frequently want estimates of the cost of technologies that have yet to be developed or deployed. Small modular reactors (SMRs), which could become part of a portfolio of carbon-free energy sources, are one such technology. Existing estimates of likely SMR costs rely on problematic top-down approaches or bottom-up assessments that are proprietary. When done properly, expert elicitations can complement these approaches. We developed detailed technical descriptions of two SMR designs and then conduced elicitation interviews in which we obtained probabilistic judgments from 16 experts who are involved in, or have access to, engineering-economic assessments of SMR projects. Here, we report estimates of the overnight cost and construction duration for five reactor-deployment scenarios that involve a large reactor and two light water SMRs. Consistent with the uncertainty introduced by past cost overruns and construction delays, median estimates of the cost of new large plants vary by more than a factor of 2.5. Expert judgments about likely SMR costs display an even wider range. Median estimates for a 45 megawatts-electric (MWe) SMR range from $4,000 to $16,300/kWe and from $3,200 to $7,100/kWe for a 225-MWe SMR. Sources of disagreement are highlighted, exposing the thought processes of experts involved with SMR design. There was consensus that SMRs could be built and brought online about 2 y faster than large reactors. Experts identify more affordable unit cost, factory fabrication, and shorter construction schedules as factors that may make light water SMRs economically viable. PMID:23716682

  6. Expert assessments of the cost of light water small modular reactors.

    PubMed

    Abdulla, Ahmed; Azevedo, Inês Lima; Morgan, M Granger

    2013-06-11

    Analysts and decision makers frequently want estimates of the cost of technologies that have yet to be developed or deployed. Small modular reactors (SMRs), which could become part of a portfolio of carbon-free energy sources, are one such technology. Existing estimates of likely SMR costs rely on problematic top-down approaches or bottom-up assessments that are proprietary. When done properly, expert elicitations can complement these approaches. We developed detailed technical descriptions of two SMR designs and then conduced elicitation interviews in which we obtained probabilistic judgments from 16 experts who are involved in, or have access to, engineering-economic assessments of SMR projects. Here, we report estimates of the overnight cost and construction duration for five reactor-deployment scenarios that involve a large reactor and two light water SMRs. Consistent with the uncertainty introduced by past cost overruns and construction delays, median estimates of the cost of new large plants vary by more than a factor of 2.5. Expert judgments about likely SMR costs display an even wider range. Median estimates for a 45 megawatts-electric (MWe) SMR range from $4,000 to $16,300/kWe and from $3,200 to $7,100/kWe for a 225-MWe SMR. Sources of disagreement are highlighted, exposing the thought processes of experts involved with SMR design. There was consensus that SMRs could be built and brought online about 2 y faster than large reactors. Experts identify more affordable unit cost, factory fabrication, and shorter construction schedules as factors that may make light water SMRs economically viable.

  7. Scheduling revisited workstations in integrated-circuit fabrication

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kline, Paul J.

    1992-01-01

    The cost of building new semiconductor wafer fabrication factories has grown rapidly, and a state-of-the-art fab may cost 250 million dollars or more. Obtaining an acceptable return on this investment requires high productivity from the fabrication facilities. This paper describes the Photo Dispatcher system which was developed to make machine-loading recommendations on a set of key fab machines. Dispatching policies that generally perform well in job shops (e.g., Shortest Remaining Processing Time) perform poorly for workstations such as photolithography which are visited several times by the same lot of silicon wafers. The Photo Dispatcher evaluates the history of workloads throughout the fab and identifies bottleneck areas. The scheduler then assigns priorities to lots depending on where they are headed after photolithography. These priorities are designed to avoid starving bottleneck workstations and to give preference to lots that are headed to areas where they can be processed with minimal waiting. Other factors considered by the scheduler to establish priorities are the nearness of a lot to the end of its process flow and the time that the lot has already been waiting in queue. Simulations that model the equipment and products in one of Texas Instrument's wafer fabs show the Photo Dispatcher can produce a 10 percent improvement in the time required to fabricate integrated circuits.

  8. Combating pertussis resurgence: One booster vaccination schedule does not fit all.

    PubMed

    Riolo, Maria A; Rohani, Pejman

    2015-02-03

    Pertussis has reemerged as a major public health concern in many countries where it was once considered well controlled. Although the mechanisms responsible for continued pertussis circulation and resurgence remain elusive and contentious, many countries have nevertheless recommended booster vaccinations, the timing and number of which vary widely. Here, using a stochastic, age-stratified transmission model, we searched for cost-effective booster vaccination strategies using a genetic algorithm. We did so assuming four hypothesized mechanisms underpinning contemporary pertussis epidemiology: (I) insufficient coverage, (II) frequent primary vaccine failure, (III) waning of vaccine-derived protection, and (IV) vaccine "leakiness." For scenarios I-IV, successful booster strategies were identified and varied considerably by mechanism. Especially notable is the inability of booster schedules to alleviate resurgence when vaccines are leaky. Critically, our findings argue that the ultimate effectiveness of vaccine booster schedules will likely depend on correctly pinpointing the causes of resurgence, with misdiagnosis of the problem epidemiologically ineffective and economically costly.

  9. Single-Pass Serial Scheduling Heuristic for Eglin AFB Range Services Division Schedule

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-06-01

    scheduling tool for this RCPSP. Research on a schedule improvement metaheuristic and coding of the complete algorithm is required before it can be...a schedule better by applying metaheuristic improvement algorithms to a feasible schedule after it is created. 2.5.1. Greedy Algorithm The...next available position, the algorithm will not utilize all the available range time and manpower. An improvement metaheuristic is required to

  10. Defense Remote Handled Transuranic Waste Cost/Schedule Optimization Study

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Pierce, G.D.; Beaulieu, D.H.; Wolaver, R.W.

    1986-11-01

    The purpose of this study is to provide the DOE information with which it can establish the most efficient program for the long management and disposal, in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), of remote handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) waste. To fulfill this purpose, a comprehensive review of waste characteristics, existing and projected waste inventories, processing and transportation options, and WIPP requirements was made. Cost differences between waste management alternatives were analyzed and compared to an established baseline. The result of this study is an information package that DOE can use as the basis for policy decisions. As part ofmore » this study, a comprehensive list of alternatives for each element of the baseline was developed and reviewed with the sites. The principle conclusions of the study follow. A single processing facility for RH TRU waste is both necessary and sufficient. The RH TRU processing facility should be located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Shielding of RH TRU to contact handled levels is not an economic alternative in general, but is an acceptable alternative for specific waste streams. Compaction is only cost effective at the ORNL processing facility, with a possible exception at Hanford for small compaction of paint cans of newly generated glovebox waste. It is more cost effective to ship certified waste to WIPP in 55-gal drums than in canisters, assuming a suitable drum cask becomes available. Some waste forms cannot be packaged in drums, a canister/shielded cask capability is also required. To achieve the desired disposal rate, the ORNL processing facility must be operational by 1996. Implementing the conclusions of this study can save approximately $110 million, compared to the baseline, in facility, transportation, and interim storage costs through the year 2013. 10 figs., 28 tabs.« less

  11. Public and Private Hospital Services Reform Using Data Envelopment Analysis to Measure Technical, Scale, Allocative, and Cost Efficiencies

    PubMed Central

    Sheikhzadeh, Yaghoub; Roudsari, Abdul V.; Vahidi, Reza Gholi; Emrouznejad, Ali; Dastgiri, Saeed

    2012-01-01

    Background: The aim of this study was to suggest a suitable context to develop efficient hospital systems while maintaining the quality of care at minimum expenditures. Methods: This research aimed to present a model of efficiency for selected public and private hospitals of East Azerbaijani Province of Iran by making use of Data Envelopment Analysis approach in order to recognize and suggest the best practice standards. Results: Among the six inefficient hospitals, 2 (33%) had a technical efficiency score of less than 50% (both private), 2 (33%) between 51 and 74% (one private and one public) and the rest (2, 33%) between 75 and 99% (one private and one public). Conclusion: In general, the public hospitals are relatively more efficient than private ones; it is recommended for inefficient hospitals to make use of the followings: transferring, selling, or renting idle/unused beds; transferring excess doctors and nurses to the efficient hospitals or other health centers; pensioning off, early retirement clinic officers, technicians/technologists, and other technical staff. The saving obtained from the above approaches could be used to improve remuneration for remaining staff and quality of health care services of hospitals, rural and urban health centers, support communities to start or sustain systematic risk and resource pooling and cost sharing mechanisms for protecting beneficiaries against unexpected health care costs, compensate the capital depreciation, increasing investments, and improve diseases prevention services and facilities in the provincial level. PMID:24688915

  12. Public and private hospital services reform using data envelopment analysis to measure technical, scale, allocative, and cost efficiencies.

    PubMed

    Sheikhzadeh, Yaghoub; Roudsari, Abdul V; Vahidi, Reza Gholi; Emrouznejad, Ali; Dastgiri, Saeed

    2012-01-01

    The aim of this study was to suggest a suitable context to develop efficient hospital systems while maintaining the quality of care at minimum expenditures. This research aimed to present a model of efficiency for selected public and private hospitals of East Azerbaijani Province of Iran by making use of Data Envelopment Analysis approach in order to recognize and suggest the best practice standards. Among the six inefficient hospitals, 2 (33%) had a technical efficiency score of less than 50% (both private), 2 (33%) between 51 and 74% (one private and one public) and the rest (2, 33%) between 75 and 99% (one private and one public). In general, the public hospitals are relatively more efficient than private ones; it is recommended for inefficient hospitals to make use of the followings: transferring, selling, or renting idle/unused beds; transferring excess doctors and nurses to the efficient hospitals or other health centers; pensioning off, early retirement clinic officers, technicians/technologists, and other technical staff. The saving obtained from the above approaches could be used to improve remuneration for remaining staff and quality of health care services of hospitals, rural and urban health centers, support communities to start or sustain systematic risk and resource pooling and cost sharing mechanisms for protecting beneficiaries against unexpected health care costs, compensate the capital depreciation, increasing investments, and improve diseases prevention services and facilities in the provincial level.

  13. Microgrid Optimal Scheduling With Chance-Constrained Islanding Capability

    DOE PAGES

    Liu, Guodong; Starke, Michael R.; Xiao, B.; ...

    2017-01-13

    To facilitate the integration of variable renewable generation and improve the resilience of electricity sup-ply in a microgrid, this paper proposes an optimal scheduling strategy for microgrid operation considering constraints of islanding capability. A new concept, probability of successful islanding (PSI), indicating the probability that a microgrid maintains enough spinning reserve (both up and down) to meet local demand and accommodate local renewable generation after instantaneously islanding from the main grid, is developed. The PSI is formulated as mixed-integer linear program using multi-interval approximation taking into account the probability distributions of forecast errors of wind, PV and load. With themore » goal of minimizing the total operating cost while preserving user specified PSI, a chance-constrained optimization problem is formulated for the optimal scheduling of mirogrids and solved by mixed integer linear programming (MILP). Numerical simulations on a microgrid consisting of a wind turbine, a PV panel, a fuel cell, a micro-turbine, a diesel generator and a battery demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheduling strategy. Lastly, we verify the relationship between PSI and various factors.« less

  14. Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace-vehicle Design (IPAD) system. Volume 6: Implementation schedule, development costs, operational costs, benefit assessment, impact on company organization, spin-off assessment, phase 1, tasks 3 to 8

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Garrocq, C. A.; Hurley, M. J.; Dublin, M.

    1973-01-01

    A baseline implementation plan, including alternative implementation approaches for critical software elements and variants to the plan, was developed. The basic philosophy was aimed at: (1) a progressive release of capability for three major computing systems, (2) an end product that was a working tool, (3) giving participation to industry, government agencies, and universities, and (4) emphasizing the development of critical elements of the IPAD framework software. The results of these tasks indicate an IPAD first release capability 45 months after go-ahead, a five year total implementation schedule, and a total developmental cost of 2027 man-months and 1074 computer hours. Several areas of operational cost increases were identified mainly due to the impact of additional equipment needed and additional computer overhead. The benefits of an IPAD system were related mainly to potential savings in engineering man-hours, reduction of design-cycle calendar time, and indirect upgrading of product quality and performance.

  15. Scheduling Nonconsumable Resources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Porta, Harry J.

    1990-01-01

    Users manual describes computer program SWITCH that schedules use of resources - by appliances switched on and off and use resources while they are on. Plans schedules according to predetermined goals; revises schedules when new goals imposed. Program works by depth-first searching with strict chronological back-tracking. Proceeds to evaluate alternatives as necessary, sometimes interacting with user.

  16. HOROPLAN: computer-assisted nurse scheduling using constraint-based programming.

    PubMed

    Darmoni, S J; Fajner, A; Mahé, N; Leforestier, A; Vondracek, M; Stelian, O; Baldenweck, M

    1995-01-01

    Nurse scheduling is a difficult and time consuming task. The schedule has to determine the day to day shift assignments of each nurse for a specified period of time in a way that satisfies the given requirements as much as possible, taking into account the wishes of nurses as closely as possible. This paper presents a constraint-based, artificial intelligence approach by describing a prototype implementation developed with the Charme language and the first results of its use in the Rouen University Hospital. Horoplan implements a non-cyclical constraint-based scheduling, using some heuristics. Four levels of constraints were defined to give a maximum of flexibility: French level (e.g. number of worked hours in a year), hospital level (e.g. specific day-off), department level (e.g. specific shift) and care unit level (e.g. specific pattern for week-ends). Some constraints must always be verified and can not be overruled and some constraints can be overruled at a certain cost. Rescheduling is possible at any time specially in case of an unscheduled absence.

  17. 14 CFR 291.44 - BTS Schedule P-12(a), Fuel Consumption by Type of Service and Entity.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... other than Jet A fuel, a footnote shall be added indicating the number of gallons and applicable costs... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false BTS Schedule P-12(a), Fuel Consumption by... TRANSPORTATION Reporting Rules § 291.44 BTS Schedule P-12(a), Fuel Consumption by Type of Service and Entity. (a...

  18. 14 CFR 291.44 - BTS Schedule P-12(a), Fuel Consumption by Type of Service and Entity.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... other than Jet A fuel, a footnote shall be added indicating the number of gallons and applicable costs... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false BTS Schedule P-12(a), Fuel Consumption by... TRANSPORTATION Reporting Rules § 291.44 BTS Schedule P-12(a), Fuel Consumption by Type of Service and Entity. (a...

  19. 14 CFR 291.44 - BTS Schedule P-12(a), Fuel Consumption by Type of Service and Entity.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... other than Jet A fuel, a footnote shall be added indicating the number of gallons and applicable costs... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false BTS Schedule P-12(a), Fuel Consumption by... TRANSPORTATION Reporting Rules § 291.44 BTS Schedule P-12(a), Fuel Consumption by Type of Service and Entity. (a...

  20. Evolutionarily stable learning schedules and cumulative culture in discrete generation models.

    PubMed

    Aoki, Kenichi; Wakano, Joe Yuichiro; Lehmann, Laurent

    2012-06-01

    Individual learning (e.g., trial-and-error) and social learning (e.g., imitation) are alternative ways of acquiring and expressing the appropriate phenotype in an environment. The optimal choice between using individual learning and/or social learning may be dictated by the life-stage or age of an organism. Of special interest is a learning schedule in which social learning precedes individual learning, because such a schedule is apparently a necessary condition for cumulative culture. Assuming two obligatory learning stages per discrete generation, we obtain the evolutionarily stable learning schedules for the three situations where the environment is constant, fluctuates between generations, or fluctuates within generations. During each learning stage, we assume that an organism may target the optimal phenotype in the current environment by individual learning, and/or the mature phenotype of the previous generation by oblique social learning. In the absence of exogenous costs to learning, the evolutionarily stable learning schedules are predicted to be either pure social learning followed by pure individual learning ("bang-bang" control) or pure individual learning at both stages ("flat" control). Moreover, we find for each situation that the evolutionarily stable learning schedule is also the one that optimizes the learned phenotype at equilibrium. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Self-balancing dynamic scheduling of electrical energy for energy-intensive enterprises

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Yunlong; Gao, Feng; Zhai, Qiaozhu; Guan, Xiaohong

    2013-06-01

    Balancing production and consumption with self-generation capacity in energy-intensive enterprises has huge economic and environmental benefits. However, balancing production and consumption with self-generation capacity is a challenging task since the energy production and consumption must be balanced in real time with the criteria specified by power grid. In this article, a mathematical model for minimising the production cost with exactly realisable energy delivery schedule is formulated. And a dynamic programming (DP)-based self-balancing dynamic scheduling algorithm is developed to obtain the complete solution set for such a multiple optimal solutions problem. For each stage, a set of conditions are established to determine whether a feasible control trajectory exists. The state space under these conditions is partitioned into subsets and each subset is viewed as an aggregate state, the cost-to-go function is then expressed as a function of initial and terminal generation levels of each stage and is proved to be a staircase function with finite steps. This avoids the calculation of the cost-to-go of every state to resolve the issue of dimensionality in DP algorithm. In the backward sweep process of the algorithm, an optimal policy is determined to maximise the realisability of energy delivery schedule across the entire time horizon. And then in the forward sweep process, the feasible region of the optimal policy with the initial and terminal state at each stage is identified. Different feasible control trajectories can be identified based on the region; therefore, optimising for the feasible control trajectory is performed based on the region with economic and reliability objectives taken into account.

  2. CONTACT: An Air Force technical report on military satellite control technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Weakley, Christopher K.

    1993-07-01

    This technical report focuses on Military Satellite Control Technologies and their application to the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN). This report is a compilation of articles that provide an overview of the AFSCN and the Advanced Technology Program, and discusses relevant technical issues and developments applicable to the AFSCN. Among the topics covered are articles on Future Technology Projections; Future AFSCN Topologies; Modeling of the AFSCN; Wide Area Communications Technology Evolution; Automating AFSCN Resource Scheduling; Health & Status Monitoring at Remote Tracking Stations; Software Metrics and Tools for Measuring AFSCN Software Performance; Human-Computer Interface Working Group; Trusted Systems Workshop; and the University Technical Interaction Program. In addition, Key Technology Area points of contact are listed in the report.

  3. Cost model validation: a technical and cultural approach

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hihn, J.; Rosenberg, L.; Roust, K.; Warfield, K.

    2001-01-01

    This paper summarizes how JPL's parametric mission cost model (PMCM) has been validated using both formal statistical methods and a variety of peer and management reviews in order to establish organizational acceptance of the cost model estimates.

  4. Improving Space Project Cost Estimating with Engineering Management Variables

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hamaker, Joseph W.; Roth, Axel (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    Current space project cost models attempt to predict space flight project cost via regression equations, which relate the cost of projects to technical performance metrics (e.g. weight, thrust, power, pointing accuracy, etc.). This paper examines the introduction of engineering management parameters to the set of explanatory variables. A number of specific engineering management variables are considered and exploratory regression analysis is performed to determine if there is statistical evidence for cost effects apart from technical aspects of the projects. It is concluded that there are other non-technical effects at work and that further research is warranted to determine if it can be shown that these cost effects are definitely related to engineering management.

  5. Systematic Approach to Better Understanding Integration Costs: Preprint

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Stark, Gregory B.

    2015-09-28

    When someone mentions integration costs, thoughts of the costs of integrating renewable generation into an existing system come to mind. We think about how variability and uncertainty can increase power system cycling costs as increasing amounts of wind or solar generation are incorporated into the generation mix. However, seldom do we think about what happens to system costs when new baseload generation is added to an existing system or when generation self-schedules. What happens when a highly flexible combined-cycle plant is added? Do system costs go up, or do they go down? Are other, non-cycling, maintenance costs impacted? In thismore » paper we investigate six technologies and operating practices--including VG, baseload generation, generation mix, gas prices, self-scheduling, and fast-start generation--and how changes in these areas can impact a system's operating costs. This paper provides a working definition of integration costs and four components of variable costs. It describes the study approach and how a production cost modeling-based method was used to determine the cost effects, and, as a part of the study approach section, it describes the test system and data used for the comparisons. Finally, it presents the research findings, and, in closing, suggests three areas for future work.« less

  6. Putting ROSE to Work: A Proposed Application of a Request-Oriented Scheduling Engine for Space Station Operations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jaap, John; Muery, Kim

    2000-01-01

    Scheduling engines are found at the core of software systems that plan and schedule activities and resources. A Request-Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE) is one that processes a single request (adding a task to a timeline) and then waits for another request. For the International Space Station, a robust ROSE-based system would support multiple, simultaneous users, each formulating requests (defining scheduling requirements), submitting these requests via the internet to a single scheduling engine operating on a single timeline, and immediately viewing the resulting timeline. ROSE is significantly different from the engine currently used to schedule Space Station operations. The current engine supports essentially one person at a time, with a pre-defined set of requirements from many payloads, working in either a "batch" scheduling mode or an interactive/manual scheduling mode. A planning and scheduling process that takes advantage of the features of ROSE could produce greater customer satisfaction at reduced cost and reduced flow time. This paper describes a possible ROSE-based scheduling process and identifies the additional software component required to support it. Resulting changes to the management and control of the process are also discussed.

  7. A Generic Expert Scheduling System Architecture and Toolkit: GUESS (Generically Used Expert Scheduling System)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Liebowitz, Jay; Krishnamurthy, Vijaya; Rodens, Ira; Houston, Chapman; Liebowitz, Alisa; Baek, Seung; Radko, Joe; Zeide, Janet

    1996-01-01

    Scheduling has become an increasingly important element in today's society and workplace. Within the NASA environment, scheduling is one of the most frequently performed and challenging functions. Towards meeting NASA's scheduling needs, a research version of a generic expert scheduling system architecture and toolkit has been developed. This final report describes the development and testing of GUESS (Generically Used Expert Scheduling System).

  8. Treatment of urban river contaminated sediment with ex situ advanced oxidation processes: technical feasibility, environmental discharges and cost-performance analysis.

    PubMed

    Yan, Dickson Y S; Liu, Tongzhou; Lo, Irene M C

    2015-01-01

    The technical feasibility, environmental discharges and cost-performance of urban river contaminated sediment treatment with ex situ advanced oxidation processes were evaluated for the purpose of achieving an ideal treatment goal (for marine disposal) and a cost-performance treatment goal (for beneficially reusing as a filling material). Sediment samples were collected from a river located in southern China. To achieve the ideal treatment goal, sequential treatments (Fenton's reaction+activated persulphate oxidation) were carried out. One-step Fenton's reaction was applied to achieve the cost-performance treatment goal. The resulting effluent was treated and discharged, and sludge generated in wastewater treatment was characterized. The resources input throughout the treatment processes were recorded for cost estimation. After the treatment designed for achieving the ideal treatment goal, most pollutants fulfilled the treatment goal except Pb, Cd, Hg and Ag, probably because these four metals were present mainly in stable fractions of the sediment. The cost-performance treatment goal was achieved in view of low pollutant contents in the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure leachate of treated sediment. The cost for achieving the cost-performance treatment goal is much less than that for achieving the ideal treatment goal. The major cost difference is attributed to chemical cost. Stringent sediment treatment goals based on existing standards would lead to massive chemical use, complex treatment and hence huge cost. A simpler treatment with fewer chemicals is adequate for sediment beneficially reused as a filling material, and is economically more advantageous than handling sediment for marine disposal.

  9. Metroplex Optimization Model Expansion and Analysis: The Airline Fleet, Route, and Schedule Optimization Model (AFRS-OM)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sherry, Lance; Ferguson, John; Hoffman, Karla; Donohue, George; Beradino, Frank

    2012-01-01

    This report describes the Airline Fleet, Route, and Schedule Optimization Model (AFRS-OM) that is designed to provide insights into airline decision-making with regards to markets served, schedule of flights on these markets, the type of aircraft assigned to each scheduled flight, load factors, airfares, and airline profits. The main inputs to the model are hedged fuel prices, airport capacity limits, and candidate markets. Embedded in the model are aircraft performance and associated cost factors, and willingness-to-pay (i.e. demand vs. airfare curves). Case studies demonstrate the application of the model for analysis of the effects of increased capacity and changes in operating costs (e.g. fuel prices). Although there are differences between airports (due to differences in the magnitude of travel demand and sensitivity to airfare), the system is more sensitive to changes in fuel prices than capacity. Further, the benefits of modernization in the form of increased capacity could be undermined by increases in hedged fuel prices

  10. Operational VGOS Scheduling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Searle, Anthony; Petrachenko, Bill

    2016-12-01

    The VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS) has been designed to take advantage of advances in data recording speeds and storage capacity, allowing for smaller and faster antennas, wider bandwidths, and shorter observation durations. Here, schedules for a ``realistic" VGOS network, frequency sequences, and expanded source lists are presented using a new source-based scheduling algorithm. The VGOS aim for continuous observations presents new operational challenges. As the source-based strategy is independent of the observing network, there are operational advantages which allow for more flexible scheduling of continuous VLBI observations. Using VieVS, simulations of several schedules are presented and compared with previous VGOS studies.

  11. Discrete Optimization Model for Vehicle Routing Problem with Scheduling Side Cosntraints

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Juliandri, Dedy; Mawengkang, Herman; Bu'ulolo, F.

    2018-01-01

    Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is an important element of many logistic systems which involve routing and scheduling of vehicles from a depot to a set of customers node. This is a hard combinatorial optimization problem with the objective to find an optimal set of routes used by a fleet of vehicles to serve the demands a set of customers It is required that these vehicles return to the depot after serving customers’ demand. The problem incorporates time windows, fleet and driver scheduling, pick-up and delivery in the planning horizon. The goal is to determine the scheduling of fleet and driver and routing policies of the vehicles. The objective is to minimize the overall costs of all routes over the planning horizon. We model the problem as a linear mixed integer program. We develop a combination of heuristics and exact method for solving the model.

  12. Budget impact analysis of vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae type b as a part of a Pentavalent vaccine in the childhood immunization schedule of Iran.

    PubMed

    Teimouri, Fatemeh; Kebriaeezadeh, Abbas; Zahraei, Seyed Mohsen; Gheiratian, MohammadMahdi; Nikfar, Shekoufeh

    2017-01-14

    Health decision makers need to know the impact of the development of a new intervention on the public health and health care costs so that they can plan for economic and financial objectives. The aim of this study was to determine the budget impact of adding Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) as a part of a Pentavalent vaccine (Hib-HBV-DTP) to the national childhood immunization schedule of Iran. An excel-based model was developed to determine the costs of including the Pentavalent vaccine in the national immunization program (NIP), comparing the present schedule with the previous one (including separate DTP and hepatitis B vaccines). The total annual costs included the cost of vaccination (the vaccine and syringe) and the cost of Hib treatment. The health outcome was the estimated annual cases of the diseases. The net budget impact was the difference in the total annual cost between the two schedules. Uncertainty about the vaccine effectiveness, vaccination coverage, cost of the vaccine, and cost of the diseases were handled through scenario analysis. The total cost of vaccination during 5 years was $18,060,463 in the previous program and $67,774,786 in the present program. Inclusion of the Pentavalent vaccine would increase the vaccination cost about $49 million, but would save approximately $6 million in the healthcare costs due to reduction of disease cases and treatment costs. The introduction of the Pentavalent vaccine resulted in a net increase in the healthcare budget expenditure across all scenarios from $43.4 million to $50.7 million. The results of this study showed that the inclusion of the Pentavalent vaccine in the NIP of Iran had a significant impact on the health care budget and increased the financial burden on the government. Budget impact of including Pentavalent vaccine in the national immunization schedule of Iranᅟ.

  13. A particle swarm model for estimating reliability and scheduling system maintenance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Puzis, Rami; Shirtz, Dov; Elovici, Yuval

    2016-05-01

    Modifying data and information system components may introduce new errors and deteriorate the reliability of the system. Reliability can be efficiently regained with reliability centred maintenance, which requires reliability estimation for maintenance scheduling. A variant of the particle swarm model is used to estimate reliability of systems implemented according to the model view controller paradigm. Simulations based on data collected from an online system of a large financial institute are used to compare three component-level maintenance policies. Results show that appropriately scheduled component-level maintenance greatly reduces the cost of upholding an acceptable level of reliability by reducing the need in system-wide maintenance.

  14. Concepts, requirements, and design approaches for building successful planning and scheduling systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hornstein, Rhoda Shaller; Willoughby, John K.

    1991-01-01

    Traditional practice of systems engineering management assumes requirements can be precisely determined and unambiguously defined prior to system design and implementation; practice further assumes requirements are held static during implementation. Human-computer decision support systems for service planning and scheduling applications do not conform well to these assumptions. Adaptation to the traditional practice of systems engineering management are required. Basic technology exists to support these adaptations. Additional innovations must be encouraged and nutured. Continued partnership between the programmatic and technical perspective assures proper balance of the impossible with the possible. Past problems have the following origins: not recognizing the unusual and perverse nature of the requirements for planning and scheduling; not recognizing the best starting point assumptions for the design; not understanding the type of system that being built; and not understanding the design consequences of the operations concept selected.

  15. New workers' compensation legislation: expected pharmaceutical cost savings.

    PubMed

    Wilson, Leslie; Gitlin, Matthew

    2005-10-01

    California Workers' Compensation (WC) system costs are under review. With recently approved California State Assembly Bill (AB) 749 and Senate Bill (SB) 228, an assessment of proposed pharmaceutical cost savings is needed. A large workers' compensation database provided by the California Workers' Compensation Institute (CWCI) and Medi-Cal pharmacy costs obtained from the State Drug Utilization Project are utilized to compare frequency, costs and savings to Workers' Compensation in 2002 with the new pharmacy legislation. Compared to the former California Workers' Compensation fee schedule, the newly implemented 100% Medi-Cal fee schedule will result in savings of 29.5% with a potential total pharmacy cost savings of $125 million. Further statistical analysis demonstrated that a large variability in savings across drugs could not be controlled with this drug pricing system. Despite the large savings in pharmaceuticals, inconsistencies between the two pharmaceutical payment systems could lead to negative incentives and uncertainty for long-term savings. Proposed alternative pricing systems could be considered. However, pain management implemented along with other cost containment strategies could more effectively reduce overall drug spending in the workers' compensation system.

  16. Communications network design and costing model technical manual

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Logan, K. P.; Somes, S. S.; Clark, C. A.

    1983-01-01

    This computer model provides the capability for analyzing long-haul trunking networks comprising a set of user-defined cities, traffic conditions, and tariff rates. Networks may consist of all terrestrial connectivity, all satellite connectivity, or a combination of terrestrial and satellite connectivity. Network solutions provide the least-cost routes between all cities, the least-cost network routing configuration, and terrestrial and satellite service cost totals. The CNDC model allows analyses involving three specific FCC-approved tariffs, which are uniquely structured and representative of most existing service connectivity and pricing philosophies. User-defined tariffs that can be variations of these three tariffs are accepted as input to the model and allow considerable flexibility in network problem specification. The resulting model extends the domain of network analysis from traditional fixed link cost (distance-sensitive) problems to more complex problems involving combinations of distance and traffic-sensitive tariffs.

  17. Construction cost forecast model : model documentation and technical notes.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2013-05-01

    Construction cost indices are generally estimated with Laspeyres, Paasche, or Fisher indices that allow changes : in the quantities of construction bid items, as well as changes in price to change the cost indices of those items. : These cost indices...

  18. Trends in highway construction costs in Louisiana : technical summary.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1999-09-01

    The objectives of this study are to observe past trends in highway construction costs in Louisiana, identify factors that determine these costs, quantify their impact, and establish a model that can be used to predict future construction cost in Loui...

  19. Second-order schedules of token reinforcement with pigeons: effects of fixed- and variable-ratio exchange schedules.

    PubMed

    Foster, T A; Hackenberg, T D; Vaidya, M

    2001-09-01

    Pigeons' key pecks produced food under second-order schedules of token reinforcement, with light-emitting diodes serving as token reinforcers. In Experiment 1, tokens were earned according to a fixed-ratio 50 schedule and were exchanged for food according to either fixed-ratio or variable-ratio exchange schedules, with schedule type varied across conditions. In Experiment 2, schedule type was varied within sessions using a multiple schedule. In one component, tokens were earned according to a fixed-ratio 50 schedule and exchanged according to a variable-ratio schedule. In the other component, tokens were earned according to a variable-ratio 50 schedule and exchanged according to a fixed-ratio schedule. In both experiments, the number of responses per exchange was varied parametrically across conditions, ranging from 50 to 400 responses. Response rates decreased systematically with increases in the fixed-ratio exchange schedules, but were much less affected by changes in the variable-ratio exchange schedules. Response rates were consistently higher under variable-ratio exchange schedules than tinder comparable fixed-ratio exchange schedules, especially at higher exchange ratios. These response-rate differences were due both to greater pre-ratio pausing and to lower local rates tinder the fixed-ratio exchange schedules. Local response rates increased with proximity to food under the higher fixed-ratio exchange schedules, indicative of discriminative control by the tokens.

  20. Stochastic online appointment scheduling of multi-step sequential procedures in nuclear medicine.

    PubMed

    Pérez, Eduardo; Ntaimo, Lewis; Malavé, César O; Bailey, Carla; McCormack, Peter

    2013-12-01

    The increased demand for medical diagnosis procedures has been recognized as one of the contributors to the rise of health care costs in the U.S. in the last few years. Nuclear medicine is a subspecialty of radiology that uses advanced technology and radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. Procedures in nuclear medicine require the use of radiopharmaceuticals, are multi-step, and have to be performed under strict time window constraints. These characteristics make the scheduling of patients and resources in nuclear medicine challenging. In this work, we derive a stochastic online scheduling algorithm for patient and resource scheduling in nuclear medicine departments which take into account the time constraints imposed by the decay of the radiopharmaceuticals and the stochastic nature of the system when scheduling patients. We report on a computational study of the new methodology applied to a real clinic. We use both patient and clinic performance measures in our study. The results show that the new method schedules about 600 more patients per year on average than a scheduling policy that was used in practice by improving the way limited resources are managed at the clinic. The new methodology finds the best start time and resources to be used for each appointment. Furthermore, the new method decreases patient waiting time for an appointment by about two days on average.

  1. Scheduling the future NASA Space Network: Experiences with a flexible scheduling prototype

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Happell, Nadine; Moe, Karen L.; Minnix, Jay

    1993-01-01

    NASA's Space Network (SN) provides telecommunications and tracking services to low earth orbiting spacecraft. One proposal for improving resource allocation and automating conflict resolution for the SN is the concept of flexible scheduling. In this concept, each Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) will possess a Space Network User POCC Interface (SNUPI) to support the development and management of flexible requests. Flexible requests express the flexibility, constraints, and repetitious nature of the user's communications requirements. Flexible scheduling is expected to improve SN resource utilization and user satisfaction, as well as reduce the effort to produce and maintain a schedule. A prototype testbed has been developed to better understand flexible scheduling as it applies to the SN. This testbed consists of a SNUPI workstation, an SN scheduler, and a flexible request language that conveys information between the two systems. All three are being evaluated by operations personnel. Benchmark testing is being conducted on the scheduler to quantify the productivity improvements achieved with flexible requests.

  2. DSN Resource Scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wang, Yeou-Fang; Baldwin, John

    2007-01-01

    TIGRAS is client-side software, which provides tracking-station equipment planning, allocation, and scheduling services to the DSMS (Deep Space Mission System). TIGRAS provides functions for schedulers to coordinate the DSN (Deep Space Network) antenna usage time and to resolve the resource usage conflicts among tracking passes, antenna calibrations, maintenance, and system testing activities. TIGRAS provides a fully integrated multi-pane graphical user interface for all scheduling operations. This is a great improvement over the legacy VAX VMS command line user interface. TIGRAS has the capability to handle all DSN resource scheduling aspects from long-range to real time. TIGRAS assists NASA mission operations for DSN tracking of station equipment resource request processes from long-range load forecasts (ten years or longer), to midrange, short-range, and real-time (less than one week) emergency tracking plan changes. TIGRAS can be operated by NASA mission operations worldwide to make schedule requests for the DSN station equipment.

  3. Technical Report on Application and Development of Appropriate Tools and Technologies for Cost-Effective Carbon Sequestration

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bill Stanley; Sandra Brown; Zoe Kant

    2009-01-07

    The Nature Conservancy participated in a Cooperative Agreement with the Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to explore the compatibility of carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity. The title of the research project was 'Application and Development of Appropriate Tools and Technologies for Cost-Effective Carbon Sequestration'. The objectives of the project were to: (1) improve carbon offset estimates produced in both the planning and implementation phases of projects; (2) build valid and standardized approaches to estimate project carbon benefits at a reasonable cost; and (3) lay the groundwork for implementing cost-effective projects, providingmore » new testing ground for biodiversity protection and restoration projects that store additional atmospheric carbon. This Final Technical Report discusses the results of the six tasks that The Nature Conservancy undertook to answer research needs while facilitating the development of real projects with measurable greenhouse gas reductions. The research described in this report occurred between July 1st 2001 and July 10th 2008. The specific tasks discussed include: Task 1: carbon inventory advancements; Task 2: emerging technologies for remote sensing of terrestrial carbon; Task 3: baseline method development; Task 4: third-party technical advisory panel meetings; Task 5: new project feasibility studies; and Task 6: development of new project software screening tool. The project occurred in two phases. The first was a focused exploration of specific carbon measurement and monitoring methodologies and pre-selected carbon sequestration opportunities. The second was a more systematic and comprehensive approach to compare various competing measurement and monitoring methodologies, and assessment of a variety of carbon sequestration opportunities in order to find those that are the lowest cost with the greatest combined carbon and other

  4. Perceptions of randomized security schedules.

    PubMed

    Scurich, Nicholas; John, Richard S

    2014-04-01

    Security of infrastructure is a major concern. Traditional security schedules are unable to provide omnipresent coverage; consequently, adversaries can exploit predictable vulnerabilities to their advantage. Randomized security schedules, which randomly deploy security measures, overcome these limitations, but public perceptions of such schedules have not been examined. In this experiment, participants were asked to make a choice between attending a venue that employed a traditional (i.e., search everyone) or a random (i.e., a probability of being searched) security schedule. The absolute probability of detecting contraband was manipulated (i.e., 1/10, 1/4, 1/2) but equivalent between the two schedule types. In general, participants were indifferent to either security schedule, regardless of the probability of detection. The randomized schedule was deemed more convenient, but the traditional schedule was considered fairer and safer. There were no differences between traditional and random schedule in terms of perceived effectiveness or deterrence. Policy implications for the implementation and utilization of randomized schedules are discussed. © 2013 Society for Risk Analysis.

  5. 24 CFR 570.402 - Technical assistance awards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... CFR part 571); and the Special Purpose Grants for Insular Areas, Community Development Work Study and... attended by more than one unit of government. (d) Eligible activities. Activities eligible for technical.... Activities for which costs are ineligible under this section include: (1) In the case of technical assistance...

  6. 24 CFR 570.402 - Technical assistance awards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... CFR part 571); and the Special Purpose Grants for Insular Areas, Community Development Work Study and... attended by more than one unit of government. (d) Eligible activities. Activities eligible for technical.... Activities for which costs are ineligible under this section include: (1) In the case of technical assistance...

  7. Multi-objective group scheduling optimization integrated with preventive maintenance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liao, Wenzhu; Zhang, Xiufang; Jiang, Min

    2017-11-01

    This article proposes a single-machine-based integration model to meet the requirements of production scheduling and preventive maintenance in group production. To describe the production for identical/similar and different jobs, this integrated model considers the learning and forgetting effects. Based on machine degradation, the deterioration effect is also considered. Moreover, perfect maintenance and minimal repair are adopted in this integrated model. The multi-objective of minimizing total completion time and maintenance cost is taken to meet the dual requirements of delivery date and cost. Finally, a genetic algorithm is developed to solve this optimization model, and the computation results demonstrate that this integrated model is effective and reliable.

  8. Some single-machine scheduling problems with learning effects and two competing agents.

    PubMed

    Li, Hongjie; Li, Zeyuan; Yin, Yunqiang

    2014-01-01

    This study considers a scheduling environment in which there are two agents and a set of jobs, each of which belongs to one of the two agents and its actual processing time is defined as a decreasing linear function of its starting time. Each of the two agents competes to process its respective jobs on a single machine and has its own scheduling objective to optimize. The objective is to assign the jobs so that the resulting schedule performs well with respect to the objectives of both agents. The objective functions addressed in this study include the maximum cost, the total weighted completion time, and the discounted total weighted completion time. We investigate three problems arising from different combinations of the objectives of the two agents. The computational complexity of the problems is discussed and solution algorithms where possible are presented.

  9. Bidding-based autonomous process planning and scheduling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gu, Peihua; Balasubramanian, Sivaram; Norrie, Douglas H.

    1995-08-01

    Improving productivity through computer integrated manufacturing systems (CIMS) and concurrent engineering requires that the islands of automation in an enterprise be completely integrated. The first step in this direction is to integrate design, process planning, and scheduling. This can be achieved through a bidding-based process planning approach. The product is represented in a STEP model with detailed design and administrative information including design specifications, batch size, and due dates. Upon arrival at the manufacturing facility, the product registered in the shop floor manager which is essentially a coordinating agent. The shop floor manager broadcasts the product's requirements to the machines. The shop contains autonomous machines that have knowledge about their functionality, capabilities, tooling, and schedule. Each machine has its own process planner and responds to the product's request in a different way that is consistent with its capabilities and capacities. When more than one machine offers certain process(es) for the same requirements, they enter into negotiation. Based on processing time, due date, and cost, one of the machines wins the contract. The successful machine updates its schedule and advises the product to request raw material for processing. The concept was implemented using a multi-agent system with the task decomposition and planning achieved through contract nets. The examples are included to illustrate the approach.

  10. Optimal load scheduling in commercial and residential microgrids

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ganji Tanha, Mohammad Mahdi

    Residential and commercial electricity customers use more than two third of the total energy consumed in the United States, representing a significant resource of demand response. Price-based demand response, which is in response to changes in electricity prices, represents the adjustments in load through optimal load scheduling (OLS). In this study, an efficient model for OLS is developed for residential and commercial microgrids which include aggregated loads in single-units and communal loads. Single unit loads which include fixed, adjustable and shiftable loads are controllable by the unit occupants. Communal loads which include pool pumps, elevators and central heating/cooling systems are shared among the units. In order to optimally schedule residential and commercial loads, a community-based optimal load scheduling (CBOLS) is proposed in this thesis. The CBOLS schedule considers hourly market prices, occupants' comfort level, and microgrid operation constraints. The CBOLS' objective in residential and commercial microgrids is the constrained minimization of the total cost of supplying the aggregator load, defined as the microgrid load minus the microgrid generation. This problem is represented by a large-scale mixed-integer optimization for supplying single-unit and communal loads. The Lagrangian relaxation methodology is used to relax the linking communal load constraint and decompose the independent single-unit functions into subproblems which can be solved in parallel. The optimal solution is acceptable if the aggregator load limit and the duality gap are within the bounds. If any of the proposed criteria is not satisfied, the Lagrangian multiplier will be updated and a new optimal load schedule will be regenerated until both constraints are satisfied. The proposed method is applied to several case studies and the results are presented for the Galvin Center load on the 16th floor of the IIT Tower in Chicago.

  11. Genetic algorithm parameters tuning for resource-constrained project scheduling problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tian, Xingke; Yuan, Shengrui

    2018-04-01

    Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) is a kind of important scheduling problem. To achieve a certain optimal goal such as the shortest duration, the smallest cost, the resource balance and so on, it is required to arrange the start and finish of all tasks under the condition of satisfying project timing constraints and resource constraints. In theory, the problem belongs to the NP-hard problem, and the model is abundant. Many combinatorial optimization problems are special cases of RCPSP, such as job shop scheduling, flow shop scheduling and so on. At present, the genetic algorithm (GA) has been used to deal with the classical RCPSP problem and achieved remarkable results. Vast scholars have also studied the improved genetic algorithm for the RCPSP problem, which makes it to solve the RCPSP problem more efficiently and accurately. However, for the selection of the main parameters of the genetic algorithm, there is no parameter optimization in these studies. Generally, we used the empirical method, but it cannot ensure to meet the optimal parameters. In this paper, the problem was carried out, which is the blind selection of parameters in the process of solving the RCPSP problem. We made sampling analysis, the establishment of proxy model and ultimately solved the optimal parameters.

  12. A&M. Technical service laboratory in administration building (TAN602). Floor plan, ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    A&M. Technical service laboratory in administration building (TAN-602). Floor plan, reception desk, door and finish schedules. Ralph M. Parsons 1480-12-ANP/GE-3-602-A-1. INEEL index code no. 033-0602-00-693-107488 - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Test Area North, Scoville, Butte County, ID

  13. A real-time Excel-based scheduling solution for nursing staff reallocation.

    PubMed

    Tuominen, Outi Anneli; Lundgren-Laine, Heljä; Kauppila, Wiveka; Hupli, Maija; Salanterä, Sanna

    2016-09-30

    Aim This article describes the development and testing of an Excel-based scheduling solution for the flexible allocation and reallocation of nurses to cover sudden, unplanned absences among permanent nursing staff. Method A quasi-experimental, one group, pre- and post-test study design was used ( Box 1 ) with total sampling. Participants (n=17) were selected purposefully by including all ward managers (n=8) and assistant ward managers (n=9) from one university hospital department. The number of sudden absences among the nursing staff was identified during two 4-week data collection periods (pre- and post-test). Results During the use of the paper-based scheduling system, 121 absences were identified; during the use of the Excel-based system, 106 were identified. The main reasons for the use of flexible 'floating' nurses were sick leave (n=66) and workload (n=31). Other reasons (n=29) included patient transfer to another hospital, scheduling errors and the start or end of employment. Conclusion The Excel-based scheduling solution offered better support in obtaining substitute labour inside the organisation, with smaller employment costs. It also reduced the number of tasks ward managers had to carry out during the process of reallocating staff.

  14. The impact of alternative pricing methods for drugs in California Workers' Compensation System: Fee-schedule pricing.

    PubMed

    Wilson, Leslie; Turkistani, Fatema A; Huang, Wei; Tran, Dang M; Lin, Tracy Kuo

    2018-01-01

    California's Workers' Compensation System (CAWCS) Department of Industrial Relations questioned the adequacy of the current Medi-Cal fee-schedule pricing and requested analysis of alternatives that maximize price availability and maintain budget neutrality. To compare CAWCS pharmacy-dispensed (PD) drug prices under alternative fee schedules, and identify combinations of alternative benchmarks that have prices available for the largest percentage of PD drugs and that best reach budget neutrality. Claims transaction-level data (2011-2013) from CAWCS were used to estimate total annual PD pharmaceutical payments. Medi-Cal pricing data was from the Workman's Compensation Insurance System (WCIS). Average Wholesale Prices (AWP), Wholesale Acquisition Costs (WAC), Direct Prices (DP), Federal Upper Limit (FUL) prices, and National Average Drug Acquisition Costs (NADAC) were from Medi-Span. We matched National Drug Codes (NDCs), pricing dates, and drug quantity for comparisons. We report pharmacy-dispensed (PD) claims frequency, reimbursement matching rate, and paid costs by CAWCS as the reference price against all alternative price benchmarks. Of 12,529,977 CAWCS claims for pharmaceutical products 11.6% (1,462,814) were for PD drugs. Prescription drug cost for CAWCS was over $152M; $63.9M, $47.9M, and $40.6M in 2011-2013. Ninety seven percent of these CAWCS PD claims had a Medi-Cal price. Alternative mechanisms provided a price for fewer claims; NADAC 94.23%, AWP 90.94%, FUL 73.11%, WAC 66.98%, and DP 14.33%. Among CAWCS drugs with no Medi-Cal price in PD claims, AWP, WAC, NADAC, DP, and FUL provided prices for 96.7%, 63.14%, 24.82%, 20.83%, and 15.08% of claims. Overall CAWCS paid 100.52% of Medi-Cal, 60% of AWP, 97% of WAC, 309.53% of FUL, 103.83% of DP, and 136.27% of NADAC. CAWCS current Medi-Cal fee-schedule price list for PD drugs is more complete than all alternative fee-schedules. However, all reimbursement approaches would require combinations of pricing benchmarks

  15. Equivalent Mass versus Life Cycle Cost for Life Support Technology Selection

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jones, Harry

    2003-01-01

    The decision to develop a particular life support technology or to select it for flight usually depends on the cost to develop and fly it. Other criteria such as performance, safety, reliability, crew time, and technical and schedule risk are considered, but cost is always an important factor. Because launch cost would account for much of the cost of a future planetary mission, and because launch cost is directly proportional to the mass launched, equivalent mass has been used instead of cost to select advanced life support technology. The equivalent mass of a life support system includes the estimated mass of the hardware and of the spacecraft pressurized volume, power supply, and cooling system that the hardware requires. The equivalent mass of a system is defined as the total payload launch mass needed to provide and support the system. An extension of equivalent mass, Equivalent System Mass (ESM), has been established for use in the Advanced Life Support project. ESM adds a mass-equivalent of crew time and possibly other cost factors to equivalent mass. Traditional equivalent mass is strictly based on flown mass and reflects only the launch cost. ESM includes other important cost factors, but it complicates the simple flown mass definition of equivalent mass by adding a non-physical mass penalty for crew time that may exceed the actual flown mass. Equivalent mass is used only in life support analysis. Life Cycle Cost (LCC) is much more commonly used. LCC includes DDT&E, launch, and operations costs. For Earth orbit rather than planetary missions, the launch cost is less than the cost of Design, Development, Test, and Evaluation (DDTBE). LCC is a more inclusive cost estimator than equivalent mass. The relative costs of development, launch, and operations vary depending on the mission destination and duration. Since DDTBE or operations may cost more than launch, LCC gives a more accurate relative cost ranking than equivalent mass. To select the lowest cost

  16. 48 CFR 942.803 - Disallowing costs after incurrence.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... incurrence. 942.803 Section 942.803 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY CONTRACT MANAGEMENT CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION AND AUDIT SERVICES Disallowance of Costs 942.803 Disallowing costs after... Circular A-73 or their own charters, scheduling and conducting financial or compliance audits of government...

  17. Technical Report: Installed Cost Benchmarks and Deployment Barriers for

    Science.gov Websites

    Cost Benchmarks and Deployment Barriers for Residential Solar Photovoltaics with Energy Storage Q1 2016 Installed Cost Benchmarks and Deployment Barriers for Residential Solar with Energy Storage Researchers from NREL published a report that provides detailed component and system-level cost breakdowns for

  18. Short-term bulk energy storage system scheduling for load leveling in unit commitment: modeling, optimization, and sensitivity analysis

    PubMed Central

    Hemmati, Reza; Saboori, Hedayat

    2016-01-01

    Energy storage systems (ESSs) have experienced a very rapid growth in recent years and are expected to be a promising tool in order to improving power system reliability and being economically efficient. The ESSs possess many potential benefits in various areas in the electric power systems. One of the main benefits of an ESS, especially a bulk unit, relies on smoothing the load pattern by decreasing on-peak and increasing off-peak loads, known as load leveling. These devices require new methods and tools in order to model and optimize their effects in the power system studies. In this respect, this paper will model bulk ESSs based on the several technical characteristics, introduce the proposed model in the thermal unit commitment (UC) problem, and analyze it with respect to the various sensitive parameters. The technical limitations of the thermal units and transmission network constraints are also considered in the model. The proposed model is a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) which can be easily solved by strong commercial solvers (for instance CPLEX) and it is appropriate to be used in the practical large scale networks. The results of implementing the proposed model on a test system reveal that proper load leveling through optimum storage scheduling leads to considerable operation cost reduction with respect to the storage system characteristics. PMID:27222741

  19. Short-term bulk energy storage system scheduling for load leveling in unit commitment: modeling, optimization, and sensitivity analysis.

    PubMed

    Hemmati, Reza; Saboori, Hedayat

    2016-05-01

    Energy storage systems (ESSs) have experienced a very rapid growth in recent years and are expected to be a promising tool in order to improving power system reliability and being economically efficient. The ESSs possess many potential benefits in various areas in the electric power systems. One of the main benefits of an ESS, especially a bulk unit, relies on smoothing the load pattern by decreasing on-peak and increasing off-peak loads, known as load leveling. These devices require new methods and tools in order to model and optimize their effects in the power system studies. In this respect, this paper will model bulk ESSs based on the several technical characteristics, introduce the proposed model in the thermal unit commitment (UC) problem, and analyze it with respect to the various sensitive parameters. The technical limitations of the thermal units and transmission network constraints are also considered in the model. The proposed model is a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) which can be easily solved by strong commercial solvers (for instance CPLEX) and it is appropriate to be used in the practical large scale networks. The results of implementing the proposed model on a test system reveal that proper load leveling through optimum storage scheduling leads to considerable operation cost reduction with respect to the storage system characteristics.

  20. Composite Scheduling

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Childers, Gary L.; Ireland, Rebecca Weeks

    2005-01-01

    In education, there is no one best way to do anything. There are compelling reasons why some courses should be taught in longer segments of time, which the block schedule provides. There are also compelling reasons why some classes should be taught in shorter segments. At Watauga High School in Boone, North Carolina, an alternative schedule that…

  1. Technical Assistance | NREL

    Science.gov Websites

    Multi-Wind Heat Smart Grid Project. Advancing Energy Solutions in Alaska NREL provides analysis mission to transfer knowledge and innovation to solve the nation's energy challenges. The goal of this transportation energy efficiency and reduce transportation energy costs State Technical Assistance-solar market

  2. Automated Platform Management System Scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hull, Larry G.

    1990-01-01

    The Platform Management System was established to coordinate the operation of platform systems and instruments. The management functions are split between ground and space components. Since platforms are to be out of contact with the ground more than the manned base, the on-board functions are required to be more autonomous than those of the manned base. Under this concept, automated replanning and rescheduling, including on-board real-time schedule maintenance and schedule repair, are required to effectively and efficiently meet Space Station Freedom mission goals. In a FY88 study, we developed several promising alternatives for automated platform planning and scheduling. We recommended both a specific alternative and a phased approach to automated platform resource scheduling. Our recommended alternative was based upon use of exactly the same scheduling engine in both ground and space components of the platform management system. Our phased approach recommendation was based upon evolutionary development of the platform. In the past year, we developed platform scheduler requirements and implemented a rapid prototype of a baseline platform scheduler. Presently we are rehosting this platform scheduler rapid prototype and integrating the scheduler prototype into two Goddard Space Flight Center testbeds, as the ground scheduler in the Scheduling Concepts, Architectures, and Networks Testbed and as the on-board scheduler in the Platform Management System Testbed. Using these testbeds, we will investigate rescheduling issues, evaluate operational performance and enhance the platform scheduler prototype to demonstrate our evolutionary approach to automated platform scheduling. The work described in this paper was performed prior to Space Station Freedom rephasing, transfer of platform responsibility to Code E, and other recently discussed changes. We neither speculate on these changes nor attempt to predict the impact of the final decisions. As a consequence some of our

  3. 32 CFR Appendix D to Part 286 - DD Form 2086-1, “Record of Freedom of Information (FOI) Processing Cost for Technical Data”

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false DD Form 2086-1, âRecord of Freedom of Information (FOI) Processing Cost for Technical Dataâ D Appendix D to Part 286 National Defense Department of... FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT PROGRAM REGULATION Pt. 286, App. D Appendix D to Part 286—DD Form 2086-1...

  4. How should periods without social interaction be scheduled? Children's preference for practical schedules of positive reinforcement.

    PubMed

    Luczynski, Kevin C; Hanley, Gregory P

    2014-01-01

    Several studies have shown that children prefer contingent reinforcement (CR) rather than yoked noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) when continuous reinforcement is programmed in the CR schedule. Preference has not, however, been evaluated for practical schedules that involve CR. In Study 1, we assessed 5 children's preference for obtaining social interaction via a multiple schedule (periods of fixed-ratio 1 reinforcement alternating with periods of extinction), a briefly signaled delayed reinforcement schedule, and an NCR schedule. The multiple schedule promoted the most efficient level of responding. In general, children chose to experience the multiple schedule and avoided the delay and NCR schedules, indicating that they preferred multiple schedules as the means to arrange practical schedules of social interaction. In Study 2, we evaluated potential controlling variables that influenced 1 child's preference for the multiple schedule and found that the strong positive contingency was the primary variable. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

  5. Lunar mission safety and rescue: Technical summary

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1971-01-01

    A technical summary is presented of the escape/rescue and the hazards analyses for manned missions and operations in the 1980 time frame. Hazards are interpreted as hazards to man, not to equipment, program schedule, or program objectives. Hazards in 39 individual areas are analyzed, and corrective measures are recommended. Over 200 safety guidelines are proposed, based on significant hazards. Escape and rescue situtations and requirements are identified and analyzed, and escape/survival/rescue concepts are defined to cope with each escape/rescue situation. Areas in which research or technical development efforts could improve mission safety are identified. It is concluded that the primary emphasis should be on survival and escape provisions, with rescue required only where self-help cannot bring the endangered crewmen to a safe haven.

  6. Reinforcement learning in scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dietterich, Tom G.; Ok, Dokyeong; Zhang, Wei; Tadepalli, Prasad

    1994-01-01

    The goal of this research is to apply reinforcement learning methods to real-world problems like scheduling. In this preliminary paper, we show that learning to solve scheduling problems such as the Space Shuttle Payload Processing and the Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) scheduling can be usefully studied in the reinforcement learning framework. We discuss some of the special challenges posed by the scheduling domain to these methods and propose some possible solutions we plan to implement.

  7. The comparison of predictive scheduling algorithms for different sizes of job shop scheduling problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Paprocka, I.; Kempa, W. M.; Grabowik, C.; Kalinowski, K.; Krenczyk, D.

    2016-08-01

    In the paper a survey of predictive and reactive scheduling methods is done in order to evaluate how the ability of prediction of reliability characteristics influences over robustness criteria. The most important reliability characteristics are: Mean Time to Failure, Mean Time of Repair. Survey analysis is done for a job shop scheduling problem. The paper answers the question: what method generates robust schedules in the case of a bottleneck failure occurrence before, at the beginning of planned maintenance actions or after planned maintenance actions? Efficiency of predictive schedules is evaluated using criteria: makespan, total tardiness, flow time, idle time. Efficiency of reactive schedules is evaluated using: solution robustness criterion and quality robustness criterion. This paper is the continuation of the research conducted in the paper [1], where the survey of predictive and reactive scheduling methods is done only for small size scheduling problems.

  8. Technical Services Research Needs for the 1990s.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Veaner, Allen B.

    1983-01-01

    Research needs in area of library technical services are identified, focusing on costs, the catalog, bibliographic data, new cataloging code, subject access in online catalogs, acquisitions, serials control system, universal technical processing terminals, data storage devices, robots and artificial intelligence, bibliographic instruction, and…

  9. 77 FR 43084 - Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program Continuous Open Season-Operational Change

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-07-23

    ... Award Schedule (MAS) Program Continuous Open Season- Operational Change AGENCY: Federal Acquisition... proposing this operational change to enhance the performance of and modernize the MAS program in three key program areas: Small business viability, operational efficiency, and cost control. The DBM will realign...

  10. 2013 Cost of Wind Energy Review

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mone, C.; Smith, A.; Maples, B.

    2015-02-01

    This report uses representative project types to estimate the levelized cost of wind energy (LCOE) in the United States for 2013. Scheduled to be published on an annual basis, it relies on both market and modeled data to maintain a current understanding of wind generation cost trends and drivers. It is intended to provide insight into current component-level costs and a basis for understanding current component-level costs and a basis for understanding variability in the LCOE across the industry. Data and tools developed from this analysis are used to inform wind technology cost projections, goals, and improvement opportunities.

  11. A novel hybrid genetic algorithm to solve the make-to-order sequence-dependent flow-shop scheduling problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mirabi, Mohammad; Fatemi Ghomi, S. M. T.; Jolai, F.

    2014-04-01

    Flow-shop scheduling problem (FSP) deals with the scheduling of a set of n jobs that visit a set of m machines in the same order. As the FSP is NP-hard, there is no efficient algorithm to reach the optimal solution of the problem. To minimize the holding, delay and setup costs of large permutation flow-shop scheduling problems with sequence-dependent setup times on each machine, this paper develops a novel hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) with three genetic operators. Proposed HGA applies a modified approach to generate a pool of initial solutions, and also uses an improved heuristic called the iterated swap procedure to improve the initial solutions. We consider the make-to-order production approach that some sequences between jobs are assumed as tabu based on maximum allowable setup cost. In addition, the results are compared to some recently developed heuristics and computational experimental results show that the proposed HGA performs very competitively with respect to accuracy and efficiency of solution.

  12. SOFTCOST - DEEP SPACE NETWORK SOFTWARE COST MODEL

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tausworthe, R. C.

    1994-01-01

    The early-on estimation of required resources and a schedule for the development and maintenance of software is usually the least precise aspect of the software life cycle. However, it is desirable to make some sort of an orderly and rational attempt at estimation in order to plan and organize an implementation effort. The Software Cost Estimation Model program, SOFTCOST, was developed to provide a consistent automated resource and schedule model which is more formalized than the often used guesswork model based on experience, intuition, and luck. SOFTCOST was developed after the evaluation of a number of existing cost estimation programs indicated that there was a need for a cost estimation program with a wide range of application and adaptability to diverse kinds of software. SOFTCOST combines several software cost models found in the open literature into one comprehensive set of algorithms that compensate for nearly fifty implementation factors relative to size of the task, inherited baseline, organizational and system environment, and difficulty of the task. SOFTCOST produces mean and variance estimates of software size, implementation productivity, recommended staff level, probable duration, amount of computer resources required, and amount and cost of software documentation. Since the confidence level for a project using mean estimates is small, the user is given the opportunity to enter risk-biased values for effort, duration, and staffing, to achieve higher confidence levels. SOFTCOST then produces a PERT/CPM file with subtask efforts, durations, and precedences defined so as to produce the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and schedule having the asked-for overall effort and duration. The SOFTCOST program operates in an interactive environment prompting the user for all of the required input. The program builds the supporting PERT data base in a file for later report generation or revision. The PERT schedule and the WBS schedule may be printed and stored in a

  13. Automated Scheduling Via Artificial Intelligence

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Biefeld, Eric W.; Cooper, Lynne P.

    1991-01-01

    Artificial-intelligence software that automates scheduling developed in Operations Mission Planner (OMP) research project. Software used in both generation of new schedules and modification of existing schedules in view of changes in tasks and/or available resources. Approach based on iterative refinement. Although project focused upon scheduling of operations of scientific instruments and other equipment aboard spacecraft, also applicable to such terrestrial problems as scheduling production in factory.

  14. Multiple R&D projects scheduling optimization with improved particle swarm algorithm.

    PubMed

    Liu, Mengqi; Shan, Miyuan; Wu, Juan

    2014-01-01

    For most enterprises, in order to win the initiative in the fierce competition of market, a key step is to improve their R&D ability to meet the various demands of customers more timely and less costly. This paper discusses the features of multiple R&D environments in large make-to-order enterprises under constrained human resource and budget, and puts forward a multi-project scheduling model during a certain period. Furthermore, we make some improvements to existed particle swarm algorithm and apply the one developed here to the resource-constrained multi-project scheduling model for a simulation experiment. Simultaneously, the feasibility of model and the validity of algorithm are proved in the experiment.

  15. Workflow as a Service in the Cloud: Architecture and Scheduling Algorithms

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Jianwu; Korambath, Prakashan; Altintas, Ilkay; Davis, Jim; Crawl, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    With more and more workflow systems adopting cloud as their execution environment, it becomes increasingly challenging on how to efficiently manage various workflows, virtual machines (VMs) and workflow execution on VM instances. To make the system scalable and easy-to-extend, we design a Workflow as a Service (WFaaS) architecture with independent services. A core part of the architecture is how to efficiently respond continuous workflow requests from users and schedule their executions in the cloud. Based on different targets, we propose four heuristic workflow scheduling algorithms for the WFaaS architecture, and analyze the differences and best usages of the algorithms in terms of performance, cost and the price/performance ratio via experimental studies. PMID:29399237

  16. Workflow as a Service in the Cloud: Architecture and Scheduling Algorithms.

    PubMed

    Wang, Jianwu; Korambath, Prakashan; Altintas, Ilkay; Davis, Jim; Crawl, Daniel

    2014-01-01

    With more and more workflow systems adopting cloud as their execution environment, it becomes increasingly challenging on how to efficiently manage various workflows, virtual machines (VMs) and workflow execution on VM instances. To make the system scalable and easy-to-extend, we design a Workflow as a Service (WFaaS) architecture with independent services. A core part of the architecture is how to efficiently respond continuous workflow requests from users and schedule their executions in the cloud. Based on different targets, we propose four heuristic workflow scheduling algorithms for the WFaaS architecture, and analyze the differences and best usages of the algorithms in terms of performance, cost and the price/performance ratio via experimental studies.

  17. 32 CFR 518.21 - Collection of fees and fee rates for technical data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... AID OF CIVIL AUTHORITIES AND PUBLIC RELATIONS THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT PROGRAM Fee Schedule..., blueprints, and other technical engineering documents 2.50 Engineering data (microfilm) a. Aperture cards... mm roll film, per frame .45 d. Paper prints (engineering drawings), each 1.50 e. Paper reprints of...

  18. Space Station Furnace Facility. Volume 3: Program cost estimate

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1992-01-01

    The approach used to estimate costs for the Space Station Furnace Facility (SSFF) is based on a computer program developed internally at Teledyne Brown Engineering (TBE). The program produces time-phased estimates of cost elements for each hardware component, based on experience with similar components. Engineering estimates of the degree of similarity or difference between the current project and the historical data is then used to adjust the computer-produced cost estimate and to fit it to the current project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The SSFF Concept as presented at the Requirements Definition Review (RDR) was used as the base configuration for the cost estimate. This program incorporates data on costs of previous projects and the allocation of those costs to the components of one of three, time-phased, generic WBS's. Input consists of a list of similar components for which cost data exist, number of interfaces with their type and complexity, identification of the extent to which previous designs are applicable, and programmatic data concerning schedules and miscellaneous data (travel, off-site assignments). Output is program cost in labor hours and material dollars, for each component, broken down by generic WBS task and program schedule phase.

  19. Production Scheduling for Rehabilitation Workshops.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hietala, David A.

    This publication examines production scheduling procedures for sheltered workshops. The manual includes three major sections: (1) the importance and benefits of production scheduling; (2) how-to information on performing basic scheduling in the workshop; and (3) answers to the question, What makes production scheduling work? The scheduling…

  20. Efficiently Scheduling Multi-core Guest Virtual Machines on Multi-core Hosts in Network Simulation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yoginath, Srikanth B; Perumalla, Kalyan S

    2011-01-01

    Virtual machine (VM)-based simulation is a method used by network simulators to incorporate realistic application behaviors by executing actual VMs as high-fidelity surrogates for simulated end-hosts. A critical requirement in such a method is the simulation time-ordered scheduling and execution of the VMs. Prior approaches such as time dilation are less efficient due to the high degree of multiplexing possible when multiple multi-core VMs are simulated on multi-core host systems. We present a new simulation time-ordered scheduler to efficiently schedule multi-core VMs on multi-core real hosts, with a virtual clock realized on each virtual core. The distinguishing features of ourmore » approach are: (1) customizable granularity of the VM scheduling time unit on the simulation time axis, (2) ability to take arbitrary leaps in virtual time by VMs to maximize the utilization of host (real) cores when guest virtual cores idle, and (3) empirically determinable optimality in the tradeoff between total execution (real) time and time-ordering accuracy levels. Experiments show that it is possible to get nearly perfect time-ordered execution, with a slight cost in total run time, relative to optimized non-simulation VM schedulers. Interestingly, with our time-ordered scheduler, it is also possible to reduce the time-ordering error from over 50% of non-simulation scheduler to less than 1% realized by our scheduler, with almost the same run time efficiency as that of the highly efficient non-simulation VM schedulers.« less

  1. Application of multiobjective optimization to scheduling capacity expansion of urban water resource systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mortazavi-Naeini, Mohammad; Kuczera, George; Cui, Lijie

    2014-06-01

    Significant population increase in urban areas is likely to result in a deterioration of drought security and level of service provided by urban water resource systems. One way to cope with this is to optimally schedule the expansion of system resources. However, the high capital costs and environmental impacts associated with expanding or building major water infrastructure warrant the investigation of scheduling system operational options such as reservoir operating rules, demand reduction policies, and drought contingency plans, as a way of delaying or avoiding the expansion of water supply infrastructure. Traditionally, minimizing cost has been considered the primary objective in scheduling capacity expansion problems. In this paper, we consider some of the drawbacks of this approach. It is shown that there is no guarantee that the social burden of coping with drought emergencies is shared equitably across planning stages. In addition, it is shown that previous approaches do not adequately exploit the benefits of joint optimization of operational and infrastructure options and do not adequately address the need for the high level of drought security expected for urban systems. To address these shortcomings, a new multiobjective optimization approach to scheduling capacity expansion in an urban water resource system is presented and illustrated in a case study involving the bulk water supply system for Canberra. The results show that the multiobjective approach can address the temporal equity issue of sharing the burden of drought emergencies and that joint optimization of operational and infrastructure options can provide solutions superior to those just involving infrastructure options.

  2. 48 CFR 2937.602 - Elements of performance-based contracting.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... objectively measurable incentives (e.g., Firm-Fixed-Price, Fixed-Price-Incentive-Fee, or Cost-Plus-Incentive-Fee) is appropriate. However, when contractor performance (e.g., cost control, schedule, or quality/technical) is best evaluated subjectively using qualitative measures, a Cost-Plus-Award-Fee contract may be...

  3. Interactive computer aided shift scheduling.

    PubMed

    Gaertner, J

    2001-12-01

    This paper starts with a discussion of computer aided shift scheduling. After a brief review of earlier approaches, two conceptualizations of this field are introduced: First, shift scheduling as a field that ranges from extremely stable rosters at one pole to rather market-like approaches on the other pole. Unfortunately, already small alterations of a scheduling problem (e.g., the number of groups, the number of shifts) may call for rather different approaches and tools. Second, their environment shapes scheduling problems and scheduling has to be done within idiosyncratic organizational settings. This calls for the amalgamation of scheduling with other tasks (e.g., accounting) and for reflections whether better solutions might become possible by changes in the problem definition (e.g., other service levels, organizational changes). Therefore shift scheduling should be understood as a highly connected problem. Building upon these two conceptualizations, a few examples of software that ease scheduling in some areas of this field are given and future research questions are outlined.

  4. AEMS implementation cost study for Boeing 727

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Allison, R. L.

    1977-01-01

    Costs for airline operational implementation of a NASA-developed approach energy management system (AEMS) concept, as applied to the 727 airplane, were determined. Estimated costs are provided for airplane retrofit and for installation of the required DME ground stations. Operational costs and fuel cost savings are presented in a cost-of-ownership study. The potential return on the equipment investment is evaluated using a net present value method. Scheduled 727 traffic and existing VASI, ILS, and collocated DME ground station facilities are summarized for domestic airports used by 727 operators.

  5. Automated and dynamic scheduling for geodetic VLBI - A simulation study for AuScope and global networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Iles, E. J.; McCallum, L.; Lovell, J. E. J.; McCallum, J. N.

    2018-02-01

    As we move into the next era of geodetic VLBI, the scheduling process is one focus for improvement in terms of increased flexibility and the ability to react with changing conditions. A range of simulations were conducted to ascertain the impact of scheduling on geodetic results such as Earth Orientation Parameters (EOPs) and station coordinates. The potential capabilities of new automated scheduling modes were also simulated, using the so-called 'dynamic scheduling' technique. The primary aim was to improve efficiency for both cost and time without losing geodetic precision, particularly to maximise the uses of the Australian AuScope VLBI array. We show that short breaks in observation will not significantly degrade the results of a typical 24 h experiment, whereas simply shortening observing time degrades precision exponentially. We also confirm the new automated, dynamic scheduling mode is capable of producing the same standard of result as a traditional schedule, with close to real-time flexibility. Further, it is possible to use the dynamic scheduler to augment the 3 station Australian AuScope array and thereby attain EOPs of the current global precision with only intermittent contribution from 2 additional stations. We thus confirm automated, dynamic scheduling bears great potential for flexibility and automation in line with aims for future continuous VLBI operations.

  6. 78 FR 11179 - Auction of Lower and Upper Paging Bands Licenses Scheduled for July 16, 2013; Comment Sought on...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-02-15

    ... investigating and evaluating all technical and marketplace factors that may have a bearing on the value of the... cooperate, collaborate, or communicate, including discussing bids, bidding strategies, or post-auction... schedule in order to foster an auction pace that reasonably balances speed with the bidders' need to study...

  7. Boiler MACT Technical Assistance (Fact Sheet)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Not Available

    2012-03-01

    Fact sheet describing the changes to Environmental Protection Act process standards. The DOE will offer technical assistance to ensure that major sources burning coal and oil have information on cost-effective, clean energy strategies for compliance, and to promote cleaner, more efficient boiler burning to cut harmful pollution and reduce operational costs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to finalize the reconsideration process for its Clean Air Act pollution standards National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Major Sources: Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters (known as Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT)), in Spring 2012.more » This rule applies to large and small boilers in a wide range of industrial facilities and institutions. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will offer technical assistance to ensure that major sources burning coal or oil have information on cost-effective clean energy strategies for compliance, including combined heat and power, and to promote cleaner, more efficient boilers to cut harmful pollution and reduce operational costs.« less

  8. A Technical Survey on Optimization of Processing Geo Distributed Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Naga Malleswari, T. Y. J.; Ushasukhanya, S.; Nithyakalyani, A.; Girija, S.

    2018-04-01

    With growing cloud services and technology, there is growth in some geographically distributed data centers to store large amounts of data. Analysis of geo-distributed data is required in various services for data processing, storage of essential information, etc., processing this geo-distributed data and performing analytics on this data is a challenging task. The distributed data processing is accompanied by issues in storage, computation and communication. The key issues to be dealt with are time efficiency, cost minimization, utility maximization. This paper describes various optimization methods like end-to-end multiphase, G-MR, etc., using the techniques like Map-Reduce, CDS (Community Detection based Scheduling), ROUT, Workload-Aware Scheduling, SAGE, AMP (Ant Colony Optimization) to handle these issues. In this paper various optimization methods and techniques used are analyzed. It has been observed that end-to end multiphase achieves time efficiency; Cost minimization concentrates to achieve Quality of Service, Computation and reduction of Communication cost. SAGE achieves performance improvisation in processing geo-distributed data sets.

  9. Modeling the violation of reward maximization and invariance in reinforcement schedules.

    PubMed

    La Camera, Giancarlo; Richmond, Barry J

    2008-08-08

    It is often assumed that animals and people adjust their behavior to maximize reward acquisition. In visually cued reinforcement schedules, monkeys make errors in trials that are not immediately rewarded, despite having to repeat error trials. Here we show that error rates are typically smaller in trials equally distant from reward but belonging to longer schedules (referred to as "schedule length effect"). This violates the principles of reward maximization and invariance and cannot be predicted by the standard methods of Reinforcement Learning, such as the method of temporal differences. We develop a heuristic model that accounts for all of the properties of the behavior in the reinforcement schedule task but whose predictions are not different from those of the standard temporal difference model in choice tasks. In the modification of temporal difference learning introduced here, the effect of schedule length emerges spontaneously from the sensitivity to the immediately preceding trial. We also introduce a policy for general Markov Decision Processes, where the decision made at each node is conditioned on the motivation to perform an instrumental action, and show that the application of our model to the reinforcement schedule task and the choice task are special cases of this general theoretical framework. Within this framework, Reinforcement Learning can approach contextual learning with the mixture of empirical findings and principled assumptions that seem to coexist in the best descriptions of animal behavior. As examples, we discuss two phenomena observed in humans that often derive from the violation of the principle of invariance: "framing," wherein equivalent options are treated differently depending on the context in which they are presented, and the "sunk cost" effect, the greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made. The schedule length effect might be a manifestation of these phenomena in monkeys.

  10. Technical considerations for designing low-cost, long-wave infrared objectives

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Desroches, Gerard; Dalzell, Kristy; Robitaille, Blaise

    2014-06-01

    With the growth of uncooled infrared imaging in the consumer market, the balance between cost implications and performance criteria in the objective lens must be examined carefully. The increased availability of consumer-grade, long-wave infrared cameras is related to a decrease in military usage but it is also due to the decreasing costs of the cameras themselves. This has also driven up demand for low-cost, long-wave objectives that can resolve smaller pixels while maintaining high performance. Smaller pixels are traditionally associated with high cost objectives because of higher resolution requirements but, with careful consideration of all the requirements and proper selection of materials, costs can be moderated. This paper examines the cost/performance trade-off implications associated with optical and mechanical requirements of long-wave infrared objectives. Optical performance, f-number, field of view, distortion, focus range and thermal range all affect the cost of the objective. Because raw lens material cost is often the most expensive item in the construction, selection of the material as well as the shape of the lens while maintaining acceptable performance and cost targets were explored. As a result of these considerations, a low-cost, lightweight, well-performing objective was successfully designed, manufactured and tested.

  11. Cost-effectiveness of rotavirus vaccination in Kenya and Uganda.

    PubMed

    Sigei, Charles; Odaga, John; Mvundura, Mercy; Madrid, Yvette; Clark, Andrew David

    2015-05-07

    Rotavirus vaccines have the potential to prevent a substantial amount of life-threatening gastroenteritis in young African children. This paper presents the results of prospective cost-effectiveness analyses for rotavirus vaccine introduction for Kenya and Uganda. In each country, a national consultant worked with a national technical working group to identify appropriate data and validate study results. Secondary data on demographics, disease burden, health utilization, and costs were used to populate the TRIVAC cost-effectiveness model. The baseline analysis assumed an initial vaccine price of $0.20 per dose, corresponding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance stipulated copay for low-income countries. The incremental cost-effectiveness of a 2-dose rotavirus vaccination schedule was evaluated for 20 successive birth cohorts from the government perspective in both countries, and from the societal perspective in Uganda. Between 2014 and 2033, rotavirus vaccination can avert approximately 60,935 and 216,454 undiscounted deaths and hospital admissions respectively in children under 5 years in Kenya. In Uganda, the respective number of undiscounted deaths and hospital admission averted is 70,236 and 329,779 between 2016 and 2035. Over the 20-year period, the discounted vaccine program costs are around US$ 80 million in Kenya and US$ 60 million in Uganda. Discounted government health service costs avoided are US$ 30 million in Kenya and US$ 10 million in Uganda (or US$ 18 million including household costs). The cost per disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) averted from a government perspective is US$ 38 in Kenya and US$ 34 in Uganda (US$ 29 from a societal perspective). Rotavirus vaccine introduction is highly cost-effective in both countries in a range of plausible 'what-if' scenarios. The involvement of national experts improves the quality of data used, is likely to increase acceptability of the results in decision-making, and can contribute to strengthened national

  12. Distributed network scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Clement, Bradley J.; Schaffer, Steven R.

    2004-01-01

    Distributed Network Scheduling is the scheduling of future communications of a network by nodes in the network. This report details software for doing this onboard spacecraft in a remote network. While prior work on distributed scheduling has been applied to remote spacecraft networks, the software reported here focuses on modeling communication activities in greater detail and including quality of service constraints. Our main results are based on a Mars network of spacecraft and include identifying a maximum opportunity of improving traverse exploration rate a factor of three; a simulation showing reduction in one-way delivery times from a rover to Earth from as much as 5 to 1.5 hours; simulated response to unexpected events averaging under an hour onboard; and ground schedule generation ranging from seconds to 50 minutes for 15 to 100 communication goals.

  13. Surgical demand scheduling: a review.

    PubMed Central

    Magerlein, J M; Martin, J B

    1978-01-01

    This article reviews the literature on scheduling of patient demand for surgery and outlines an approach to improving overall performance of hospital surgical suites. Reported scheduling systems are categorized into those that schedule patients in advance of the surgical date and those that schedule available patients on the day of surgery. Approaches to estimating surgical procedure times are also reviewed, and the article concludes with a discussion of the failure to implement the majority of reported scheduling schemes. PMID:367987

  14. Community Microgrid Scheduling Considering Network Operational Constraints and Building Thermal Dynamics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Liu, Guodong; Ollis, Thomas B.; Xiao, Bailu

    Here, this paper proposes a Mixed Integer Conic Programming (MICP) model for community microgrids considering the network operational constraints and building thermal dynamics. The proposed optimization model optimizes not only the operating cost, including fuel cost, purchasing cost, battery degradation cost, voluntary load shedding cost and the cost associated with customer discomfort due to room temperature deviation from the set point, but also several performance indices, including voltage deviation, network power loss and power factor at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC). In particular, the detailed thermal dynamic model of buildings is integrated into the distribution optimal power flow (D-OPF)more » model for the optimal operation of community microgrids. The heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems can be scheduled intelligently to reduce the electricity cost while maintaining the indoor temperature in the comfort range set by customers. Numerical simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed model and significant saving in electricity cost could be achieved with network operational constraints satisfied.« less

  15. Community Microgrid Scheduling Considering Network Operational Constraints and Building Thermal Dynamics

    DOE PAGES

    Liu, Guodong; Ollis, Thomas B.; Xiao, Bailu; ...

    2017-10-10

    Here, this paper proposes a Mixed Integer Conic Programming (MICP) model for community microgrids considering the network operational constraints and building thermal dynamics. The proposed optimization model optimizes not only the operating cost, including fuel cost, purchasing cost, battery degradation cost, voluntary load shedding cost and the cost associated with customer discomfort due to room temperature deviation from the set point, but also several performance indices, including voltage deviation, network power loss and power factor at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC). In particular, the detailed thermal dynamic model of buildings is integrated into the distribution optimal power flow (D-OPF)more » model for the optimal operation of community microgrids. The heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems can be scheduled intelligently to reduce the electricity cost while maintaining the indoor temperature in the comfort range set by customers. Numerical simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed model and significant saving in electricity cost could be achieved with network operational constraints satisfied.« less

  16. Scheduling Accessory Assists Patients with Cognitive Disorders

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2007-01-01

    Recom Technologies Inc. received initial funding from NASA to research the commercial potential of an artificially intelligent planning reaction model to serve as a tool to help individuals suffering from various forms and levels of brain impairment. In 1993, the chief of the Artificial Intelligence Research Branch at Ames Research Center suggested collaborative research with Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. This partnership led to further development of the technology and funding to support clinical research from the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. In 1996, Attention Control Systems Inc. was founded to market the finished device, called the Planning and Execution Assistant and Trainer (PEAT). PEAT is a pocket-sized PDA-like device with a graphical display, touchscreen controls, an electronic calendar, an address book, and a built-in phone, that cues users to start or stop scheduled activities, monitors their progress, and adjusts schedules as necessary in response to delays or calendar changes. It uses an automatic planning model developed for NASA to adjust daily plans when a situation changes. PEAT is sold as a complete system that includes software, hardware, documentation, and technical support. In addition to the flagship Pocket PEAT device, there is PEAT Phone, PC PEAT, and PEAT Link. Clinical studies of PEAT continue at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center

  17. NASA Schedule Management Handbook

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of schedule management is to provide the framework for time-phasing, resource planning, coordination, and communicating the necessary tasks within a work effort. The intent is to improve schedule management by providing recommended concepts, processes, and techniques used within the Agency and private industry. The intended function of this handbook is two-fold: first, to provide guidance for meeting the scheduling requirements contained in NPR 7120.5, NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements, NPR 7120.7, NASA Information Technology and Institutional Infrastructure Program and Project Requirements, NPR 7120.8, NASA Research and Technology Program and Project Management Requirements, and NPD 1000.5, Policy for NASA Acquisition. The second function is to describe the schedule management approach and the recommended best practices for carrying out this project control function. With regards to the above project management requirements documents, it should be noted that those space flight projects previously established and approved under the guidance of prior versions of NPR 7120.5 will continue to comply with those requirements until project completion has been achieved. This handbook will be updated as needed, to enhance efficient and effective schedule management across the Agency. It is acknowledged that most, if not all, external organizations participating in NASA programs/projects will have their own internal schedule management documents. Issues that arise from conflicting schedule guidance will be resolved on a case by case basis as contracts and partnering relationships are established. It is also acknowledged and understood that all projects are not the same and may require different levels of schedule visibility, scrutiny and control. Project type, value, and complexity are factors that typically dictate which schedule management practices should be employed.

  18. FlexMod Scheduling Redux

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray, Shannon

    2008-01-01

    Flexible modular scheduling (flex mod)--a schedule philosophy and system that has been in place at Wausau West High School in Wausau, Wisconsin, for the last 35 years and aligns nicely with current research on student learning--is getting more and more attention from high school administrators across the country. Flexible modular scheduling was…

  19. Nuclear Weapons: NNSA Has a New Approach to Managing the B61-12 Life Extension, but a Constrained Schedule and Other Risks Remain

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-02-01

    components. In 2010, they began an LEP to consolidate four versions of a legacy nuclear weapon, the B61 bomb , into a bomb called the B61-12 (see...Force Integrated Master Schedule BIMS Boeing Integrated Master Schedule B61 bomb B61 legacy bomb CD critical decision Cost Guide GAO Cost...are versions of the B61 bomb , an aircraft-delivered weapon that is a key component of the United States’ commitments to the North Atlantic Treaty

  20. Heuristic Scheduling in Grid Environments: Reducing the Operational Energy Demand

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bodenstein, Christian

    In a world where more and more businesses seem to trade in an online market, the supply of online services to the ever-growing demand could quickly reach its capacity limits. Online service providers may find themselves maxed out at peak operation levels during high-traffic timeslots but too little demand during low-traffic timeslots, although the latter is becoming less frequent. At this point deciding which user is allocated what level of service becomes essential. The concept of Grid computing could offer a meaningful alternative to conventional super-computing centres. Not only can Grids reach the same computing speeds as some of the fastest supercomputers, but distributed computing harbors a great energy-saving potential. When scheduling projects in such a Grid environment however, simply assigning one process to a system becomes so complex in calculation that schedules are often too late to execute, rendering their optimizations useless. Current schedulers attempt to maximize the utility, given some sort of constraint, often reverting to heuristics. This optimization often comes at the cost of environmental impact, in this case CO 2 emissions. This work proposes an alternate model of energy efficient scheduling while keeping a respectable amount of economic incentives untouched. Using this model, it is possible to reduce the total energy consumed by a Grid environment using 'just-in-time' flowtime management, paired with ranking nodes by efficiency.

  1. Cost-Effects Analysis of Year-Round Education Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hough, David; And Others

    This feasibility study was designed to gather and analyze data to determine the potential cost-effectiveness of year-round education (YRE) compared to traditional-schedule education in California. An expanded version of the Stanford Research Institute's cost model was used to fit a broad conceptualization that enabled school districts with…

  2. Cost efficient command management

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Brandt, Theresa; Murphy, C. W.; Kuntz, Jon; Barlett, Tom

    1996-01-01

    The design and implementation of a command management system (CMS) for a NASA control center, is described. The technology innovations implemented in the CMS provide the infrastructure required for operations cost reduction and future development cost reduction through increased operational efficiency and reuse in future missions. The command management design facilitates error-free operations which enables the automation of the routine control center functions and allows for the distribution of scheduling responsibility to the instrument teams. The reusable system was developed using object oriented methodologies.

  3. Lift cruise fan V/STOL aircraft conceptual design study T-39 modification. Volume 1: Technical report

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Elliott, D. W.

    1976-01-01

    The conversion of two T-39 aircraft into lift cruise fan research and technology vehicles is discussed. The concept is based upon modifying the T-39A (NA265-40) Sabreliner airframe into a V/STOL configuration by incorporating two LCF-459 lift cruise fans and three YJ-97 gas generators. The propulsion concept provides the thrust for horizontal flight or lift for vertical flight by deflection of bifurcated nozzles while maintaining engine out safety throughout the flight envelope. The configuration meets all the study requirements specified for the design with control powers in VTOL and conversion in excess of the requirement making it an excellent vehicle for research and development. The study report consists of two volumes; Volume 1 (Reference a) contains background data detailed description and technical substantiation of the aircraft. Volume 2 includes cost data, scheduling and program planning not addressed in Volume 1.

  4. The impact of alternative pricing methods for drugs in California Workers’ Compensation System: Fee-schedule pricing

    PubMed Central

    Wilson, Leslie; Turkistani, Fatema A.; Huang, Wei; Tran, Dang M.; Lin, Tracy Kuo

    2018-01-01

    Introduction California’s Workers’ Compensation System (CAWCS) Department of Industrial Relations questioned the adequacy of the current Medi-Cal fee-schedule pricing and requested analysis of alternatives that maximize price availability and maintain budget neutrality. Objectives To compare CAWCS pharmacy-dispensed (PD) drug prices under alternative fee schedules, and identify combinations of alternative benchmarks that have prices available for the largest percentage of PD drugs and that best reach budget neutrality. Methods Claims transaction-level data (2011–2013) from CAWCS were used to estimate total annual PD pharmaceutical payments. Medi-Cal pricing data was from the Workman’s Compensation Insurance System (WCIS). Average Wholesale Prices (AWP), Wholesale Acquisition Costs (WAC), Direct Prices (DP), Federal Upper Limit (FUL) prices, and National Average Drug Acquisition Costs (NADAC) were from Medi-Span. We matched National Drug Codes (NDCs), pricing dates, and drug quantity for comparisons. We report pharmacy-dispensed (PD) claims frequency, reimbursement matching rate, and paid costs by CAWCS as the reference price against all alternative price benchmarks. Results Of 12,529,977 CAWCS claims for pharmaceutical products 11.6% (1,462,814) were for PD drugs. Prescription drug cost for CAWCS was over $152M; $63.9M, $47.9M, and $40.6M in 2011–2013. Ninety seven percent of these CAWCS PD claims had a Medi-Cal price. Alternative mechanisms provided a price for fewer claims; NADAC 94.23%, AWP 90.94%, FUL 73.11%, WAC 66.98%, and DP 14.33%. Among CAWCS drugs with no Medi-Cal price in PD claims, AWP, WAC, NADAC, DP, and FUL provided prices for 96.7%, 63.14%, 24.82%, 20.83%, and 15.08% of claims. Overall CAWCS paid 100.52% of Medi-Cal, 60% of AWP, 97% of WAC, 309.53% of FUL, 103.83% of DP, and 136.27% of NADAC. Conclusions CAWCS current Medi-Cal fee-schedule price list for PD drugs is more complete than all alternative fee-schedules. However, all

  5. WFIRST: Exoplanet Target Selection and Scheduling with Greedy Optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Keithly, Dean; Garrett, Daniel; Delacroix, Christian; Savransky, Dmitry

    2018-01-01

    We present target selection and scheduling algorithms for missions with direct imaging of exoplanets, and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) in particular, which will be equipped with a coronagraphic instrument (CGI). Optimal scheduling of CGI targets can maximize the expected value of directly imaged exoplanets (completeness). Using target completeness as a reward metric and integration time plus overhead time as a cost metric, we can maximize the sum completeness for a mission with a fixed duration. We optimize over these metrics to create a list of target stars using a greedy optimization algorithm based off altruistic yield optimization (AYO) under ideal conditions. We simulate full missions using EXOSIMS by observing targets in this list for their predetermined integration times. In this poster, we report the theoretical maximum sum completeness, mean number of detected exoplanets from Monte Carlo simulations, and the ideal expected value of the simulated missions.

  6. 1993 Wholesale Power and Transmission Rate Schedules.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    US Bonneville Power Administration

    1993-10-01

    Bonneville Power Administration 1993 Wholesale Power Rate Schedules and General Rate Schedule Provisions and 1993 Transmission Rate Schedules and General Transmission Rate Schedule Provisions, contained herein, were approved on an interim basis effective October 1, 1993. These rate schedules and provisions were approved by the Federal Energy Commission, United States Department of Energy, in September, 1993. These rate schedules and provisions supersede the Administration`s Wholesale Power Rate Schedules and General Rate Schedule Provisions and Transmission Rate Schedules and General Transmission Rate Schedule Provisions effective October 1, 1991.

  7. Exploring a QoS Driven Scheduling Approach for Peer-to-Peer Live Streaming Systems with Network Coding

    PubMed Central

    Cui, Laizhong; Lu, Nan; Chen, Fu

    2014-01-01

    Most large-scale peer-to-peer (P2P) live streaming systems use mesh to organize peers and leverage pull scheduling to transmit packets for providing robustness in dynamic environment. The pull scheduling brings large packet delay. Network coding makes the push scheduling feasible in mesh P2P live streaming and improves the efficiency. However, it may also introduce some extra delays and coding computational overhead. To improve the packet delay, streaming quality, and coding overhead, in this paper are as follows. we propose a QoS driven push scheduling approach. The main contributions of this paper are: (i) We introduce a new network coding method to increase the content diversity and reduce the complexity of scheduling; (ii) we formulate the push scheduling as an optimization problem and transform it to a min-cost flow problem for solving it in polynomial time; (iii) we propose a push scheduling algorithm to reduce the coding overhead and do extensive experiments to validate the effectiveness of our approach. Compared with previous approaches, the simulation results demonstrate that packet delay, continuity index, and coding ratio of our system can be significantly improved, especially in dynamic environments. PMID:25114968

  8. 78 FR 48995 - Medicare Program; Revisions to Payment Policies Under the Physician Fee Schedule, DME Face-to...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-12

    ...This document corrects technical errors that appeared in the final rule with comment period published in the Federal Register on November 16, 2012, entitled ``Medicare Program; Revisions to Payment Policies Under the Physician Fee Schedule, DME Face-to-Face Encounters, Elimination of the Requirement for Termination of Non-Random Prepayment Complex Medical Review and Other Revisions to Part B for CY 2013.''

  9. Short-term scheduling of crude oil operations in refinery with high-fusion-point oil and two transportation pipelines

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, NaiQi; Zhu, MengChu; Bai, LiPing; Li, ZhiWu

    2016-07-01

    In some refineries, storage tanks are located at two different sites, one for low-fusion-point crude oil and the other for high one. Two pipelines are used to transport different oil types. Due to the constraints resulting from the high-fusion-point oil transportation, it is challenging to schedule such a system. This work studies the scheduling problem from a control-theoretic perspective. It proposes to use a hybrid Petri net method to model the system. It then finds the schedulability conditions by analysing the dynamic behaviour of the net model. Next, it proposes an efficient scheduling method to minimize the cost of high-fusion-point oil transportation. Finally, it gives a complex industrial case study to show its application.

  10. A time scheduling model of logistics service supply chain based on the customer order decoupling point: a perspective from the constant service operation time.

    PubMed

    Liu, Weihua; Yang, Yi; Xu, Haitao; Liu, Xiaoyan; Wang, Yijia; Liang, Zhicheng

    2014-01-01

    In mass customization logistics service, reasonable scheduling of the logistics service supply chain (LSSC), especially time scheduling, is benefit to increase its competitiveness. Therefore, the effect of a customer order decoupling point (CODP) on the time scheduling performance should be considered. To minimize the total order operation cost of the LSSC, minimize the difference between the expected and actual time of completing the service orders, and maximize the satisfaction of functional logistics service providers, this study establishes an LSSC time scheduling model based on the CODP. Matlab 7.8 software is used in the numerical analysis for a specific example. Results show that the order completion time of the LSSC can be delayed or be ahead of schedule but cannot be infinitely advanced or infinitely delayed. Obtaining the optimal comprehensive performance can be effective if the expected order completion time is appropriately delayed. The increase in supply chain comprehensive performance caused by the increase in the relationship coefficient of logistics service integrator (LSI) is limited. The relative concern degree of LSI on cost and service delivery punctuality leads to not only changes in CODP but also to those in the scheduling performance of the LSSC.

  11. A Time Scheduling Model of Logistics Service Supply Chain Based on the Customer Order Decoupling Point: A Perspective from the Constant Service Operation Time

    PubMed Central

    Yang, Yi; Xu, Haitao; Liu, Xiaoyan; Wang, Yijia; Liang, Zhicheng

    2014-01-01

    In mass customization logistics service, reasonable scheduling of the logistics service supply chain (LSSC), especially time scheduling, is benefit to increase its competitiveness. Therefore, the effect of a customer order decoupling point (CODP) on the time scheduling performance should be considered. To minimize the total order operation cost of the LSSC, minimize the difference between the expected and actual time of completing the service orders, and maximize the satisfaction of functional logistics service providers, this study establishes an LSSC time scheduling model based on the CODP. Matlab 7.8 software is used in the numerical analysis for a specific example. Results show that the order completion time of the LSSC can be delayed or be ahead of schedule but cannot be infinitely advanced or infinitely delayed. Obtaining the optimal comprehensive performance can be effective if the expected order completion time is appropriately delayed. The increase in supply chain comprehensive performance caused by the increase in the relationship coefficient of logistics service integrator (LSI) is limited. The relative concern degree of LSI on cost and service delivery punctuality leads to not only changes in CODP but also to those in the scheduling performance of the LSSC. PMID:24715818

  12. Conceptual Framework for Conducting Cost Benefit Studies in Wisconsin VTAE and Cost Benefit Studies--VTAE Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Webb, Robert I.; And Others

    The step-by-step cost benefit study, confined to measuring and comparing economic costs with economic benefits, is based on the 1971, 1972, and 1973 classes graduating from the Agribusiness-Machinery Partsman-Salesman Program at District One Technical Institute in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Numerous tables throughout the report contain cost benefit…

  13. Investigations into Generalization of Constraint-Based Scheduling Theories with Applications to Space Telescope Observation Scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Muscettola, Nicola; Smith, Steven S.

    1996-01-01

    This final report summarizes research performed under NASA contract NCC 2-531 toward generalization of constraint-based scheduling theories and techniques for application to space telescope observation scheduling problems. Our work into theories and techniques for solution of this class of problems has led to the development of the Heuristic Scheduling Testbed System (HSTS), a software system for integrated planning and scheduling. Within HSTS, planning and scheduling are treated as two complementary aspects of the more general process of constructing a feasible set of behaviors of a target system. We have validated the HSTS approach by applying it to the generation of observation schedules for the Hubble Space Telescope. This report summarizes the HSTS framework and its application to the Hubble Space Telescope domain. First, the HSTS software architecture is described, indicating (1) how the structure and dynamics of a system is modeled in HSTS, (2) how schedules are represented at multiple levels of abstraction, and (3) the problem solving machinery that is provided. Next, the specific scheduler developed within this software architecture for detailed management of Hubble Space Telescope operations is presented. Finally, experimental performance results are given that confirm the utility and practicality of the approach.

  14. Optimal Scheduling Method of Controllable Loads in DC Smart Apartment Building

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shimoji, Tsubasa; Tahara, Hayato; Matayoshi, Hidehito; Yona, Atsushi; Senjyu, Tomonobu

    2015-12-01

    From the perspective of global warming suppression and the depletion of energy resources, renewable energies, such as the solar collector (SC) and photovoltaic generation (PV), have been gaining attention in worldwide. Houses or buildings with PV and heat pumps (HPs) are recently being used in residential areas widely due to the time of use (TOU) electricity pricing scheme which is essentially inexpensive during middle-night and expensive during day-time. If fixed batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) can be introduced in the premises, the electricity cost would be even more reduced. While, if the occupants arbitrarily use these controllable loads respectively, power demand in residential buildings may fluctuate in the future. Thus, an optimal operation of controllable loads such as HPs, batteries and EV should be scheduled in the buildings in order to prevent power flow from fluctuating rapidly. This paper proposes an optimal scheduling method of controllable loads, and the purpose is not only the minimization of electricity cost for the consumers, but also suppression of fluctuation of power flow on the power supply side. Furthermore, a novel electricity pricing scheme is also suggested in this paper.

  15. Complex ambulatory settings demand scheduling systems.

    PubMed

    Ross, K M

    1998-01-01

    Practice management systems are becoming more and more complex, as they are asked to integrate all aspects of patient and resource management. Although patient scheduling is a standard expectation in any ambulatory environment, facilities and equipment resource scheduling are additional functionalities of scheduling systems. Because these functions were not typically managed in manual patient scheduling, often the result was resource mismanagement, along with a potential negative impact on utilization, patient flow and provider productivity. As ambulatory organizations have become more seasoned users of practice management software, the value of resource scheduling has become apparent. Appointment scheduling within a fully integrated practice management system is recognized as an enhancement of scheduling itself and provides additional tools to manage other information needs. Scheduling, as one component of patient information management, provides additional tools in these areas.

  16. Single machine scheduling with slack due dates assignment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Weiguo; Hu, Xiangpei; Wang, Xuyin

    2017-04-01

    This paper considers a single machine scheduling problem in which each job is assigned an individual due date based on a common flow allowance (i.e. all jobs have slack due date). The goal is to find a sequence for jobs, together with a due date assignment, that minimizes a non-regular criterion comprising the total weighted absolute lateness value and common flow allowance cost, where the weight is a position-dependent weight. In order to solve this problem, an ? time algorithm is proposed. Some extensions of the problem are also shown.

  17. Dispatch Scheduling of Automated Telescopes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Denny, R. B.

    2004-05-01

    Automated telescope scheduling systems have traditionally focused on optimiz- ing the use of the observatory, minimizing overhead and maximizing shutter- open time. However, educational and amateur observatories do not enjoy con- sistently good skies. Conditions can change significantly during an observing session, leading to schedule breakage. This gives rise to the need for a scheduling system that is capable of recovering from periods of bad skies, wind, etc. without operator intervention. The concept of dispatch scheduling, where the scheduler makes a "best" choice for the next observation, will be discussed. The choice of next target must consider constraints such as mini- mum altitude or maximum air mass, moon illumination, and sky condition, as well as timing constraints that may arise from linked observations and/or target phasing requirements. It also must be as fair and efficient as prac- tical. A dispatch scheduler (ACPS) was constructed and used to perform a num- ber of simulations with both isolated and multiple/linked observations, and noisy timing. By varying "best next target" choice algorithm, these simula- tions provided insight into the behavior of a dispatch scheduler. This talk will describe the scheduler and present the results of these preliminary sim- ulations, some conclusions that arose from them, and outline areas for fur- ther research.

  18. The use of cluster analysis techniques in spaceflight project cost risk estimation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fox, G.; Ebbeler, D.; Jorgensen, E.

    2003-01-01

    Project cost risk is the uncertainty in final project cost, contingent on initial budget, requirements and schedule. For a proposed mission, a dynamic simulation model relying for some of its input on a simple risk elicitation is used to identify and quantify systemic cost risk.

  19. Process-based Cost Estimation for Ramjet/Scramjet Engines

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Singh, Brijendra; Torres, Felix; Nesman, Miles; Reynolds, John

    2003-01-01

    Process-based cost estimation plays a key role in effecting cultural change that integrates distributed science, technology and engineering teams to rapidly create innovative and affordable products. Working together, NASA Glenn Research Center and Boeing Canoga Park have developed a methodology of process-based cost estimation bridging the methodologies of high-level parametric models and detailed bottoms-up estimation. The NASA GRC/Boeing CP process-based cost model provides a probabilistic structure of layered cost drivers. High-level inputs characterize mission requirements, system performance, and relevant economic factors. Design alternatives are extracted from a standard, product-specific work breakdown structure to pre-load lower-level cost driver inputs and generate the cost-risk analysis. As product design progresses and matures the lower level more detailed cost drivers can be re-accessed and the projected variation of input values narrowed, thereby generating a progressively more accurate estimate of cost-risk. Incorporated into the process-based cost model are techniques for decision analysis, specifically, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and functional utility analysis. Design alternatives may then be evaluated not just on cost-risk, but also user defined performance and schedule criteria. This implementation of full-trade study support contributes significantly to the realization of the integrated development environment. The process-based cost estimation model generates development and manufacturing cost estimates. The development team plans to expand the manufacturing process base from approximately 80 manufacturing processes to over 250 processes. Operation and support cost modeling is also envisioned. Process-based estimation considers the materials, resources, and processes in establishing cost-risk and rather depending on weight as an input, actually estimates weight along with cost and schedule.

  20. Space fabrication demonstration system, technical volume

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1979-01-01

    The automatic beam builder ABB was developed, fabricated, and demonstrated within the established contract cost and schedule constraints. The ABB demonstrated the feasibility of: producing lightweight beams automatically within the required rate of 1 to 5 ft of completed beam per minute and producing structurally sound beams with axial design load of 5538 N based on the Grumman photovoltaic satellite solar power system design reference structure.

  1. Optimal pre-scheduling of problem remappings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nicol, David M.; Saltz, Joel H.

    1987-01-01

    A large class of scientific computational problems can be characterized as a sequence of steps where a significant amount of computation occurs each step, but the work performed at each step is not necessarily identical. Two good examples of this type of computation are: (1) regridding methods which change the problem discretization during the course of the computation, and (2) methods for solving sparse triangular systems of linear equations. Recent work has investigated a means of mapping such computations onto parallel processors; the method defines a family of static mappings with differing degrees of importance placed on the conflicting goals of good load balance and low communication/synchronization overhead. The performance tradeoffs are controllable by adjusting the parameters of the mapping method. To achieve good performance it may be necessary to dynamically change these parameters at run-time, but such changes can impose additional costs. If the computation's behavior can be determined prior to its execution, it can be possible to construct an optimal parameter schedule using a low-order-polynomial-time dynamic programming algorithm. Since the latter can be expensive, the performance is studied of the effect of a linear-time scheduling heuristic on one of the model problems, and it is shown to be effective and nearly optimal.

  2. System cost/performance analysis (study 2.3). Volume 1: Executive summary

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kazangey, T.

    1973-01-01

    The relationships between performance, safety, cost, and schedule parameters were identified and quantified in support of an overall effort to generate program models and methodology that provide insight into a total space vehicle program. A specific space vehicle system, the attitude control system (ACS), was used, and a modeling methodology was selected that develops a consistent set of quantitative relationships among performance, safety, cost, and schedule, based on the characteristics of the components utilized in candidate mechanisms. These descriptive equations were developed for a three-axis, earth-pointing, mass expulsion ACS. A data base describing typical candidate ACS components was implemented, along with a computer program to perform sample calculations. This approach, implemented on a computer, is capable of determining the effect of a change in functional requirements to the ACS mechanization and the resulting cost and schedule. By a simple extension of this modeling methodology to the other systems in a space vehicle, a complete space vehicle model can be developed. Study results and recommendations are presented.

  3. It Is Not Just about the Schedule: Key Factors in Effective Reference Desk Scheduling and Management

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sciammarella, Susan; Fernandes, Maria Isabel; McKay, Devin

    2008-01-01

    Reference desk scheduling is one of the most challenging tasks in the organizational structure of an academic library. The ability to turn this challenge into a workable and effective function lies with the scheduler and indirectly the cooperation of all librarians scheduled for reference desk service. It is the scheduler's sensitivity to such…

  4. Operation costs and pollutant emissions reduction by definition of new collection scheduling and optimization of MSW collection routes using GIS. The case study of Barreiro, Portugal.

    PubMed

    Zsigraiova, Zdena; Semiao, Viriato; Beijoco, Filipa

    2013-04-01

    This work proposes an innovative methodology for the reduction of the operation costs and pollutant emissions involved in the waste collection and transportation. Its innovative feature lies in combining vehicle route optimization with that of waste collection scheduling. The latter uses historical data of the filling rate of each container individually to establish the daily circuits of collection points to be visited, which is more realistic than the usual assumption of a single average fill-up rate common to all the system containers. Moreover, this allows for the ahead planning of the collection scheduling, which permits a better system management. The optimization process of the routes to be travelled makes recourse to Geographical Information Systems (GISs) and uses interchangeably two optimization criteria: total spent time and travelled distance. Furthermore, rather than using average values, the relevant parameters influencing fuel consumption and pollutant emissions, such as vehicle speed in different roads and loading weight, are taken into consideration. The established methodology is applied to the glass-waste collection and transportation system of Amarsul S.A., in Barreiro. Moreover, to isolate the influence of the dynamic load on fuel consumption and pollutant emissions a sensitivity analysis of the vehicle loading process is performed. For that, two hypothetical scenarios are tested: one with the collected volume increasing exponentially along the collection path; the other assuming that the collected volume decreases exponentially along the same path. The results evidence unquestionable beneficial impacts of the optimization on both the operation costs (labor and vehicles maintenance and fuel consumption) and pollutant emissions, regardless the optimization criterion used. Nonetheless, such impact is particularly relevant when optimizing for time yielding substantial improvements to the existing system: potential reductions of 62% for the total

  5. A Patient-specific Approach to Hospital Cost Accounting

    PubMed Central

    Macdonald, Larry K.; Reuter, Louis F.

    1973-01-01

    The hospital facilities and manpower used for the various procedures of a delivery suite are identified and measured as the basis for determining individual patient costs. The method of measuring staff and facility requirements, including the “cost of readiness” and the cost of inherent inefficiencies, generates detailed information that can be used in determining utilization ranges for budgeting decisions, for planning space needs, for personnel scheduling, and for patient billing. PMID:4269322

  6. DTS: Building custom, intelligent schedulers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hansson, Othar; Mayer, Andrew

    1994-01-01

    DTS is a decision-theoretic scheduler, built on top of a flexible toolkit -- this paper focuses on how the toolkit might be reused in future NASA mission schedulers. The toolkit includes a user-customizable scheduling interface, and a 'Just-For-You' optimization engine. The customizable interface is built on two metaphors: objects and dynamic graphs. Objects help to structure problem specifications and related data, while dynamic graphs simplify the specification of graphical schedule editors (such as Gantt charts). The interface can be used with any 'back-end' scheduler, through dynamically-loaded code, interprocess communication, or a shared database. The 'Just-For-You' optimization engine includes user-specific utility functions, automatically compiled heuristic evaluations, and a postprocessing facility for enforcing scheduling policies. The optimization engine is based on BPS, the Bayesian Problem-Solver (1,2), which introduced a similar approach to solving single-agent and adversarial graph search problems.

  7. 49 CFR Schedule C to Subpart B of... - Schedule C to Subpart B of Part 1139

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 8 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Schedule C to Subpart B of Part 1139 C Schedule C... REVENUE PROCEEDINGS Intercity Bus Industry Pt. 1139, Subpt. B, Sch. C Schedule C to Subpart B of Part 1139 Attachment 1 Schedule C Part I—Condensed Income Statement [Dollars in thousands] () Greyhound Lines, Inc...

  8. 49 CFR Schedule C to Subpart B of... - Schedule C to Subpart B of Part 1139

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 8 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Schedule C to Subpart B of Part 1139 C Schedule C... REVENUE PROCEEDINGS Intercity Bus Industry Pt. 1139, Subpt. B, Sch. C Schedule C to Subpart B of Part 1139 Attachment 1 Schedule C Part I—Condensed Income Statement [Dollars in thousands] () Greyhound Lines, Inc...

  9. 49 CFR Schedule C to Subpart B of... - Schedule C to Subpart B of Part 1139

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Schedule C to Subpart B of Part 1139 C Schedule C... REVENUE PROCEEDINGS Intercity Bus Industry Pt. 1139, Subpt. B, Sch. C Schedule C to Subpart B of Part 1139 Attachment 1 Schedule C Part I—Condensed Income Statement [Dollars in thousands] () Greyhound Lines, Inc...

  10. 46 CFR 525.2 - Terminal schedules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... scrap, new assembled motor vehicles, waste paper and paper waste in terminal schedules. (2) Marine... MARITIME COMMISSION REGULATIONS AFFECTING OCEAN SHIPPING IN FOREIGN COMMERCE MARINE TERMINAL OPERATOR SCHEDULES § 525.2 Terminal schedules. (a) Marine terminal operator schedules. A marine terminal operator, at...

  11. 46 CFR 525.2 - Terminal schedules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... scrap, new assembled motor vehicles, waste paper and paper waste in terminal schedules. (2) Marine... MARITIME COMMISSION REGULATIONS AFFECTING OCEAN SHIPPING IN FOREIGN COMMERCE MARINE TERMINAL OPERATOR SCHEDULES § 525.2 Terminal schedules. (a) Marine terminal operator schedules. A marine terminal operator, at...

  12. 29 CFR 825.203 - Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... OF LABOR OTHER LAWS THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT OF 1993 Employee Leave Entitlements Under the Family and Medical Leave Act § 825.203 Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave. Eligible... the serious health condition of a covered family member or the employee or the serious injury or...

  13. Scheduling: A guide for program managers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1994-01-01

    The following topics are discussed concerning scheduling: (1) milestone scheduling; (2) network scheduling; (3) program evaluation and review technique; (4) critical path method; (5) developing a network; (6) converting an ugly duckling to a swan; (7) network scheduling problem; (8) (9) network scheduling when resources are limited; (10) multi-program considerations; (11) influence on program performance; (12) line-of-balance technique; (13) time management; (14) recapitulization; and (15) analysis.

  14. Squaring the Project Management Circle: Updating the Cost, Schedule, and Performance Methodology

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-04-30

    success is measured as achieving technical performance and/or mission performance goals, coupled with customer (warfighter) satisfaction (De Wit, 1988...studies added criteria such as customer satisfaction , efficiency of execution, and effectiveness of the project organization (Pinto & Slevin, 1998...team and the user customer organization, management policy and project control. This clustering of success factors represents the amalgamation of the

  15. Reactive Scheduling in Multipurpose Batch Plants

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Narayani, A.; Shaik, Munawar A.

    2010-10-01

    Scheduling is an important operation in process industries for improving resource utilization resulting in direct economic benefits. It has a two-fold objective of fulfilling customer orders within the specified time as well as maximizing the plant profit. Unexpected disturbances such as machine breakdown, arrival of rush orders and cancellation of orders affect the schedule of the plant. Reactive scheduling is generation of a new schedule which has minimum deviation from the original schedule in spite of the occurrence of unexpected events in the plant operation. Recently, Shaik & Floudas (2009) proposed a novel unified model for short-term scheduling of multipurpose batch plants using unit-specific event-based continuous time representation. In this paper, we extend the model of Shaik & Floudas (2009) to handle reactive scheduling.

  16. Automated problem scheduling and reduction of synchronization delay effects

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Saltz, Joel H.

    1987-01-01

    It is anticipated that in order to make effective use of many future high performance architectures, programs will have to exhibit at least a medium grained parallelism. A framework is presented for partitioning very sparse triangular systems of linear equations that is designed to produce favorable preformance results in a wide variety of parallel architectures. Efficient methods for solving these systems are of interest because: (1) they provide a useful model problem for use in exploring heuristics for the aggregation, mapping and scheduling of relatively fine grained computations whose data dependencies are specified by directed acrylic graphs, and (2) because such efficient methods can find direct application in the development of parallel algorithms for scientific computation. Simple expressions are derived that describe how to schedule computational work with varying degrees of granularity. The Encore Multimax was used as a hardware simulator to investigate the performance effects of using the partitioning techniques presented in shared memory architectures with varying relative synchronization costs.

  17. Schedule-Aware Workflow Management Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mans, Ronny S.; Russell, Nick C.; van der Aalst, Wil M. P.; Moleman, Arnold J.; Bakker, Piet J. M.

    Contemporary workflow management systems offer work-items to users through specific work-lists. Users select the work-items they will perform without having a specific schedule in mind. However, in many environments work needs to be scheduled and performed at particular times. For example, in hospitals many work-items are linked to appointments, e.g., a doctor cannot perform surgery without reserving an operating theater and making sure that the patient is present. One of the problems when applying workflow technology in such domains is the lack of calendar-based scheduling support. In this paper, we present an approach that supports the seamless integration of unscheduled (flow) and scheduled (schedule) tasks. Using CPN Tools we have developed a specification and simulation model for schedule-aware workflow management systems. Based on this a system has been realized that uses YAWL, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Outlook, and a dedicated scheduling service. The approach is illustrated using a real-life case study at the AMC hospital in the Netherlands. In addition, we elaborate on the experiences obtained when developing and implementing a system of this scale using formal techniques.

  18. Machine Learning Based Online Performance Prediction for Runtime Parallelization and Task Scheduling

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Li, J; Ma, X; Singh, K

    2008-10-09

    With the emerging many-core paradigm, parallel programming must extend beyond its traditional realm of scientific applications. Converting existing sequential applications as well as developing next-generation software requires assistance from hardware, compilers and runtime systems to exploit parallelism transparently within applications. These systems must decompose applications into tasks that can be executed in parallel and then schedule those tasks to minimize load imbalance. However, many systems lack a priori knowledge about the execution time of all tasks to perform effective load balancing with low scheduling overhead. In this paper, we approach this fundamental problem using machine learning techniques first to generatemore » performance models for all tasks and then applying those models to perform automatic performance prediction across program executions. We also extend an existing scheduling algorithm to use generated task cost estimates for online task partitioning and scheduling. We implement the above techniques in the pR framework, which transparently parallelizes scripts in the popular R language, and evaluate their performance and overhead with both a real-world application and a large number of synthetic representative test scripts. Our experimental results show that our proposed approach significantly improves task partitioning and scheduling, with maximum improvements of 21.8%, 40.3% and 22.1% and average improvements of 15.9%, 16.9% and 4.2% for LMM (a real R application) and synthetic test cases with independent and dependent tasks, respectively.« less

  19. Designing for Cost

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dean, Edwin B.; Unal, Resit

    1991-01-01

    Designing for cost is a state of mind. Of course, a lot of technical knowledge is required and the use of appropriate tools will improve the process. Unfortunately, the extensive use of weight based cost estimating relationships has generated a perception in the aerospace community that the primary way to reduce cost is to reduce weight. Wrong! Based upon an approximation of an industry accepted formula, the PRICE H (tm) production-production equation, Dean demonstrated theoretically that the optimal trajectory for cost reduction is predominantly in the direction of system complexity reduction, not system weight reduction. Thus the phrase "keep it simple" is a primary state of mind required for reducing cost throughout the design process.

  20. Using standardized tools to improve immunization costing data for program planning: the cost of the Colombian Expanded Program on Immunization.

    PubMed

    Castañeda-Orjuela, Carlos; Romero, Martin; Arce, Patricia; Resch, Stephen; Janusz, Cara B; Toscano, Cristiana M; De la Hoz-Restrepo, Fernando

    2013-07-02

    The cost of Expanded Programs on Immunization (EPI) is an important aspect of the economic and financial analysis needed for planning purposes. Costs also are needed for cost-effectiveness analysis of introducing new vaccines. We describe a costing tool that improves the speed, accuracy, and availability of EPI costs and that was piloted in Colombia. The ProVac CostVac Tool is a spreadsheet-based tool that estimates overall EPI costs considering program inputs (personnel, cold chain, vaccines, supplies, etc.) at three administrative levels (central, departmental, and municipal) and one service delivery level (health facilities). It uses various costing methods. The tool was evaluated through a pilot exercise in Colombia. In addition to the costs obtained from the central and intermediate administrative levels, a survey of 112 local health facilities was conducted to collect vaccination costs. Total cost of the EPI, cost per dose of vaccine delivered, and cost per fully vaccinated child with the recommended immunization schedule in Colombia in 2009 were estimated. The ProVac CostVac Tool is a novel, user-friendly tool, which allows users to conduct an EPI costing study following guidelines for cost studies. The total costs of the Colombian EPI were estimated at US$ 107.8 million in 2009. The cost for a fully immunized child with the recommended schedule was estimated at US$ 153.62. Vaccines and vaccination supplies accounted for 58% of total costs, personnel for 21%, cold chain for 18%, and transportation for 2%. Most EPI costs are incurred at the central level (62%). The major cost driver at the department and municipal levels is personnel costs. The ProVac CostVac Tool proved to be a comprehensive and useful tool that will allow researchers and health officials to estimate the actual cost for national immunization programs. The present analysis shows that personnel, cold chain, and transportation are important components of EPI and should be carefully estimated in