Browsing by Subject "Future research directions"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Open Access
Inequity averse optimization in operational research
(Elsevier, 2015) Karsu, Ö.; Morton, A.
There are many applications across a broad range of business problem domains in which equity is a concern and many well-known operational research (OR) problems such as knapsack, scheduling or assignment problems have been considered from an equity perspective. This shows that equity is both a technically interesting concept and a substantial practical concern. In this paper we review the operational research literature on inequity averse optimization. We focus on the cases where there is a tradeoff between efficiency and equity. We discuss two equity related concerns, namely equitability and balance. Equitability concerns are distinguished from balance concerns depending on whether an underlying anonymity assumption holds. From a modeling point of view, we classify three main approaches to handle equitability concerns: the first approach is based on a Rawlsian principle. The second approach uses an explicit inequality index in the mathematical model. The third approach uses equitable aggregation functions that can represent the DM's preferences, which take into account both efficiency and equity concerns. We also discuss the two main approaches to handle balance: the first approach is based on imbalance indicators, which measure deviation from a reference balanced solution. The second approach is based on scaling the distributions such that balance concerns turn into equitability concerns in the resulting distributions and then one of the approaches to handle equitability concerns can be applied. We briefly describe these approaches and provide a discussion of their advantages and disadvantages. We discuss future research directions focussing on decision support and robustness.
Open Access
Microfluidic device for synthesis of chitosan nanoparticles
(ASME, 2013) Çetin, Barbaros; Taze, Serdar; Asik, M.D.; Tuncel, S.A.
Chitosan nanoparticles have a biodegradable, biocompatible, non-toxic structure, and commonly used for drug delivery systems. In this paper, simulation of a microfluidic device for the synthesis of chitosan nanoparticle is presented. The flow filed together with the concentration field within the microchannel network is simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics® simulation environment. Different microchannel geometries are analyzed, and the mixing performance of these configurations are compared. As a result, a 3D design for a microfluidics platform which includes four channel each of which performs the synthesis in parallel is proposed. Future research directions regarding the fabrication of the microfluidic device and experimentation phase are addressed and discussed. Copyright © 2013 by ASME.
Open Access
Privacy and security in the genomic era
(ACM, 2016-10) Ayday, Erman; Hubaux, Jean-Pierre
With the help of rapidly developing technology, DNA sequencing is becoming less expensive. As a consequence, the research in genomics has gained speed in paving the way to personalized (genomic) medicine, and geneticists need large collections of human genomes to further increase this speed. Furthermore, individuals are using their genomes to learn about their (genetic) predispositions to diseases, their ancestries, and even their (genetic) compatibilities with potential partners. This trend has also caused the launch of health-related websites and online social networks (OSNs), in which individuals share their genomic data (e.g., Open-SNP or 23 and Me). On the other hand, genomic data carries much sensitive information about its owner. By analyzing the DNA of an individual, it is now possible to learn about his disease predispositions (e.g., for Alzheimer's or Parkinson's), ancestries, and physical attributes. The threat to genomic privacy is magnified by the fact that a person's genome is correlated to his family members' genomes, thus leading to interdependent privacy risks. This short tutorial will help computer scientists better understand the privacy and security challenges in today's genomic era. We will first highlight the significance of genomic data and the threats for genomic privacy. Then, we will present the high level descriptions of the proposed solutions to protect the privacy of genomic data and we will discuss future research directions. No prerequisite knowledge on biology or genomics is required for the attendees of this proposal. We only require the attendees to have a slight background on cryptography and statistics.
Open Access
Spiral microfluidics device for continuous flow PCR
(ASME, 2013) Salemmilani, Reza; Çetin, Barbaros
Polymerase-chain-Reaction (PCR) is a thermal cycling (repeated heating and cooling of PCR solution) process for DNA amplification. PCR is the key ingredient in many biomedical applications. One key feature for the success of the PCR is to control the temperature of the solution precisely at the desired temperature levels required for the PCR in a cyclic manner. Microfluidics offers a great advantage over conventional techniques since minute amounts of PCR solution can be heated and cooled with a high rate in a controlled manner. In this study, a microfluidic platform has been proposed for continuous-flow PCR. The microfluidic device consists of a spiral channel on a glass wafer with integrated chromium microheaters. Sub-micron thick microheaters are deposited beneath the micro-channels to facilitate localized heating. The microfluidic device is modeled using COMSOL MultiphysicsR . The fabrication procedure of the device is also discussed and future research directions are addressed. With its compact design, the proposed system can easily be coupled with an integrated microfluidic device to be used in biomedical applications. Copyright © 2013 by ASME.