We develop a framework for asymptotic optimization of a queueing system. The motivation is the staffing problem of large call centers, which we have modeled as M/M/N queues with N , the number of agents, being large. Within our framework, we determine the asymptotically optimal staffing level N ∗ that trades off agents’ costs with service quality: the higher the latter, the more expensive is th...

Background: Manipur and Nagaland in northeast India are among the Indian states with the highest prevalence of HIV. Most prevention and care programs focus on identified "high risk" groups, but recent data suggest the epidemic is increasing among the general population, primarily through heterosexual sex. People with disability (PWD) in India are more likely than the general population to be il...

Virtual universities and work-place virtual institutes are seen, more and more, as a solution to the huge education demand of the knowledge society. I will limit my subject here to the design of Virtual Learning Centers, seen as the pedagogical heart of a virtual educational institution. This is where courses or learning events are designed, constructed and delivered using the Internet and its ...

Models for the development and function of germinal centers (GCs) have been so widely discussed in the original literature that they now appear in immunology textbooks. Unfortunately, many of the tenets of these models have not yet been subjected to adequate experimental scrutiny. Indeed, recent studies have called several of their principal assumptions into question. In addition, the term germ...

We prove that every quadratic plane differential system having an isochronous center commutes with a polynomial differential system.

Language resource centers allow researchers to reliably deposit their structured data together with associated meta data and run services operating on this deposited data. We are looking into possibilities to create long-term persistency of both the deposited data and the services operating on this data. Challenges, both technical and non-technical, that need to be solved are the need to replic...

Elder abuse forensic centers present a new model of multidisciplinary collaboration on elder abuse cases. The "clients" of a forensic center are Adult Protective Services (APS), law enforcement, and the Long-term Care Ombudsman. Centers take the basic multidisciplinary team model and add a geriatrician and a psychologist. Additionally, forensic center team members make home visits with APS and ...

Residential treatment centers (RTCs) usually house youths with significant psychiatric, psychological, behavioral, or substance abuse problems who have been unsuccessful in outpatient treatment or have proved too ill or unruly to be housed in foster care, day treatment programs, and other nonsecure environments but who do not yet merit commitment to a psychiatric hospital or secure correctional...