Scheduling UET-UCT tasks: branch-and-bound search in the priority space

The paper is concerned with the problem of scheduling partially ordered unit execution time tasks on parallel processors with unit communication delays and release times. Two criteria are considered, the maximum lateness and its particular case, the makespan. This problem plays an important role in scheduling theory and was originally inspired by the applications to multi-processor computer systems. It is well known that for both criteria the problem is NP-hard in the strong sense. The paper presents an implementation of the branch-and-bound method which does not partition the feasible region explicitly. The theoretical results are complemented by computational experiments.     

Structural investigation of PEG-fibrinogen conjugates

Controllable bio-synthetic polymeric hydrogels made from fibrinogen-poly(ethylene glycol) adducts have been successfully employed in tissue engineering. The structural consequences of PEG conjugation to fibrinogen (i.e., PEGylation) in such a hydrogel network are not fully understood. The current investigation details the structural alterations caused to the reduced fibrinogen polypeptides by the covalent attachment of linear or branched PEG chains. The structure of PEGylated fibrinogen polypeptides were comprehensively characterized using small angle X-ray scattering, light scattering, and cryo-transmission electron microscopy. These characterizations concur that the bio-synthetic hybrids self-assemble into elongated objects, having a protein core of about 50 Å in diameter decorated with multiple PEG chains. Conjugates with branched PEG chains were shorter, and have lower average molecular weight compared to conjugates with linear chains. The diameter of the protein core of both samples was similar, suggesting a tail-to-head aggregation of the PEGylated fibrinogen polypeptide. A more complete understanding of this unique structural arrangement can provide further insight into the full extent of biofunctional accessibility in a biomaterial that combines the advantages of synthetic polymers with bioactive proteins.     

Die Vorratsdatenspeicherung aus datenschutzrechtlicher Sicht

Mit dem „Gesetz zur Neuregelung der Telekommunikationsüberwachung und anderer verdeckter Ermittlungsma?nahmen sowie zur Umsetzung der Richtlinie 2006/24/EG“ wurde zum 1.1.2008 die Vorratsdatenspeicherung von Telekommunikationsverbindungsdaten eingeführt. Gegen diese gesetzliche Regelung führt der vorliegende Beitrag nicht nur erhebliche verfassungsrechtliche Bedenken, sondern auch Vorbehalte gegen bestehende Regelungsdefizite ins Feld.     

Parental Mediation of Children's Television Viewing in Low-Income Families

Studies of parental mediation of children's television viewing have included samples of mostly middle- and upper-class Caucasian parents. These studies have only begun to examine mediation in the context of parent-child relationships. This study of 306 low-income, predominately African American mothers assesses macro- and microlevel influences on viewing mediation using Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory of child development. It was hypothesized that factors outside the home (e.g., work hours) influence parents' involvement with children, which, in turn, was predicted to influence viewing mediation. Results supported this model for coviewing and instructive mediation, but not for viewing restrictions.     

Forgetting all else: On the antecedents and consequences of goal shielding.

Six studies explore the role of goal shielding in self-regulation by examining how activation of focal goals to which the individual is committed inhibits the accessibility of alternative goals. Consistent evidence was found for such goal shielding, and a number of its moderators were identified: Individuals' level of commitment to the focal goal, their degree of anxiety and depression, their need for cognitive closure, and differences in their goal-related tenacity. Moreover, inhibition of alternative goals was found to be more pronounced when they serve the same overarching purpose as the focal goal, but lessened when the alternative goals facilitate focal goal attainment. Finally, goal shielding was shown to have beneficial consequences for goal pursuit and attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specifying real-time properties with metric temporal logic

This paper is motivated by the need for a formal specification method for real-time systems. In these systemsquantitative temporal properties play a dominant role. We first characterize real-time systems by giving a classification of such quantitative temporal properties. Next, we extend the usual models for temporal logic by including a distance function to measure time and analyze what restrictions should be imposed on such a function. Then we introduce appropriate temporal operators to reason about such models by turning qualitative temporal operators into (quantitative) metric temporal operators and show how the usual quantitative temporal properties of real-time systems can be expressed in this metric temporal logic. After we illustrate the application of metric temporal logic to real-time systems by several examples, we end this paper with some conclusions.Part of this research has been performed at the Eindhoven University of Technology when the author was working in ESPRIT project 937: Debugging and Specification of Ada Real-Time Embedded Systems (DESCARTES).