Proactive defragmentation in elastic optical networks under dynamic load conditions

The main weakness of elastic optical networks (EON), under dynamic traffic conditions, stems from spectrum fragmentation. A lot of research efforts have been dedicated during recent years to spectrum defragmentation. In this work, a thorough study about proactive defragmentation is carried out. Effects of the different defragmentation parameters on the EON performance are analyzed, and appropriate values of the defragmentation period, which guarantee suitable network performance while keeping the network control complexity at reasonable values, are obtained by means of extensive simulations. Benefit obtained by applying different defragmentation strategies, in terms of increase in the supported load at a given bandwidth blocking probability, is also reported. Different traffic conditions and network topologies are simulated to assess the validity of the obtained results.     

The Manifesto Off the Shelf: Educating Black Architects at Morgan State University

This study will look at the education of black architects in the undergraduate Architecture and Environmental Design Program (BSAED) at Morgan State University (MSU) relative to the vision of its founding director, Melvin Mitchell. Though retiring shortly after the start of the program in 2001, Mitchell left on the shelf his book The Crisis of the African-American Architect, which included a manifesto for educating black architects for the 21st century. Examining Mitchell's book provides for an evaluation of the current program and pedagogy, relative to Mitchell's vision of the future of black architecture and black architects.     

Principal component analysis of the electricity consumption in residential dwellings

Data gathered from energy audits, phone surveys and smart meter readings are used to derive regression models of the electricity consumption of housing units in Oshawa (Ontario, Canada). The database used comprises 59 predictors, for 62 observations. To address the problem of multi-collinearities among the predictors and at the same time reduce the number of needed predictors, a methodology is developed based on the latent root regression technique of Hawkins [5]. Contrary to other variable selection techniques such as the stepwise method, the technique used in this paper allows an easy identification of alternative subsets. Using this technique, a reduction of 85% in the number of predictors is obtained, leaving only nine of them in the final subset. These nine variables are the number of occupants, the house status (owned or rented), the number of weeks of vacation per year, the type of fuel used in the pool heater, the type of fuel used in the heating system, the type of fuel used in the domestic hot water heater, the existence or not of an air conditioning system, the type of air conditioning system, and the number of air changes per hour at 50 Pa. A regression with these nine predictors leads to an R² of 0.79, with an adjusted R² of 0.75 and all regression coefficients statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.     

Generativity and spiritual disclosure in close relationships.

This exploratory study examines the link between generativity and an interpersonal aspect of religion and spirituality, spiritual disclosure, in close relationships. Three hundred seventy-eight adults aged 18 to 85 years were asked about their use of spiritual disclosure with close friends, views on their own generativity, questions related to personality characteristics, and level of general self-disclosure. This community sample’s reports on higher levels of spiritual disclosure were tied to higher levels of generativity and general self-disclosure. Spiritual disclosure also predicted unique variance in generativity beyond general self-disclosure, personality, and intrapersonal aspects of religion and spirituality. These findings suggest spiritual disclosure in close relationships is an important part of the religious/spiritual landscape, which merits further study in relation to generativity and other prosocial indices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Application of centralised DEA approach to capital budgeting in Spanish ports

In this paper, we propose a number of non-radial, output-oriented, centralised DEA models to determine individual and collective output target levels, input slacks and input reallocations as well as additional inputs acquisitions under a capital budget constraint. The application of the proposed approach to the Spanish Port Agency is presented. The overall amount of inefficiency currently found in the system allows for the determination of potential total output increases ranging from 24% to 114% without additional resources. Considering inputs reallocation would allow for an additional 20% output expansion. The acquisition of additional input resources would make feasible to expand outputs further, to levels whose exact values monotonously depend on the capital budget considered.