How Will Astronomy Archives Survive the Data Tsunami Case Study

How Will Astronomy Archives Survive the Data Tsunami - Case Study Example Archives operate within an environment where resources, mostly financial are limited (Chaisson & McMillan, 2011). When the response time for astronomy queries increases, so is the cost of obtaining data from the archives. This impresses on the need to search for further technological techniques, which are more efficient and cost effective. Various performance degradation issues associated with the growing trend are indicated by the archived astronomical data. First, there is growth in the usage of the archived data, increasing the access and queries associated with the archived data sets. This effectively reduces the efficiency of data access, while also increasing the response time involved in queries (Berriman & Groom, 2011). The decreased efficiency and increased response time has the effect of making the study into this field less efficient, thus discouraging the widening of the knowledge base in astronomy. Most significant is the fact that, the growth in archived astronomical da ta increases the demand for such data, encourages the creation of more sophisticated queries and analysis techniques, which in turn increases the storage, computation and database costs (Berriman & Groom, 2011). This serves to make the access to archived astronomical data more expensive for users. Additionally, the increased volume of archived astronomical data means that it is now more accessible, thus influencing the research undertaken in this field, since most researchers are now using the archived data to undertake their research, at the expense of newly acquired data (Chaisson & McMillan, 2011). This practice is detrimental to the growth of astronomy, since new research and enquiries are rarely made, thus making new discoveries and innovations in this field impractical. The effect of this is to limit the knowledge base of the astronomy field, while also enhancing the regurgitation of data and provision of redundant and irrelevant study findings (NRC, 2011). The essence of rese arch is to promote new enquiries and discoveries in certain field, with a view to creating new knowledge, while also enhancing creativity and innovation in solving the problems associated with the field (Berriman & Groom, 2011). With a continued publication of more papers using the archived data sets, the hope of new discoveries and innovations in this field is extinguished. The increased volume of archived astronomy data has also caused performance degradation of various astronomical data institutions such as NASA’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), through affecting their reporting abilities (Berriman & Groom, 2011). Following these performance degradation issues, a need for alternative archival techniques has risen. One such alternative archival technique is graphical processing units (GPUs), which is a technique developed to enhance the output of an image that occurs on a display device (Berriman & Groom, 2011). Neverthele ss, while this technique is meant to help in reducing the inefficiencies associated with large volumes of archived astronomical data, the technique has proved to be ineffective due to various reasons. First, the technique is only applicable in graphic-like

Wynn Resorts Financial Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Wynn Resorts Financial Summary - Essay Example alents, cost of sales, total current assets, gross profit, long term debt, net income (loss), total equity, inventory and total assets for the years 2012 and 2011. The output also shows changes and percentage changes in the items over the two peariods. Debt to equity ratio defines the ratio of an entity’s capital that is contributed by third parties to owner’s equity. It is an instrumental tool to potential investors and lenders as it indicates levels of certainty of the entity’s continuity. It is determined by the following formula, Return on investment is a profitability ratio that compares the profit performance to the investment made towards that profit. It is fundamental to investors as users of financial statements. It is obtained from the formula, Liquidity refers to an institution’s ability to have cash or cash equivalents from which it can meet its short-term obligations. A firm that has readily available cash or current assets that can be easily converted to cash, such as inventory that can be sold or debtors that can pay to boost the entity’s cash reserve, is therefore said to be more liquid than one with less cash equivalents. Liquidity is further evaluated with respect to short-term obligations. A firm with higher current assets than current liabilities, hence a high current ratio is for instance more liquid that one with a smaller current ratio (Khan and Jain, p. 6- 40). The company’s liquidity decreased from the year 2010 to the year 2011 with values of 1.76 and 1.09 respectively. This meant, on a short-term basis, that the company’s operations relied more on short-term debts, as compared to its current assets, in the year 2011 than in 2010. It also means a lower probability of acquiring short term debts hence strained short-term performance (Khan and Jain, p. 6- 40). The gross profit margin defines a measure of an organization’s products profitability. The company experienced an improvement in its gross profit margin that