Defining Service Level Agreements in Serverless Computing

The emergence of serverless computing has brought significant advancements to the delivery of computing resources to cloud users. With the abstraction of infrastructure, ecosystem, and execution environments, users could focus on their code while relying on the cloud provider to manage the abstracted layers. In addition, desirable features such as autoscaling and high availability became a provider’s responsibility and can be adopted by the user\u27s application at no extra overhead. Despite such advancements, significant challenges must be overcome as applications transition from monolithic stand-alone deployments to the ephemeral and stateless microservice model of serverless computing. These challenges pertain to the uniqueness of the conceptual and implementation models of serverless computing. One of the notable challenges is the complexity of defining Service Level Agreements (SLA) for serverless functions. As the serverless model shifts the administration of resources, ecosystem, and execution layers to the provider, users become mere consumers of the provider’s abstracted platform with no insight into its performance. Suboptimal conditions of the abstracted layers are not visible to the end-user who has no means to assess their performance. Thus, SLA in serverless computing must take into consideration the unique abstraction of its model. This work investigates the Service Level Agreement (SLA) modeling of serverless functions\u27 and serverless chains’ executions. We highlight how serverless SLA fundamentally differs from earlier cloud delivery models. We then propose an approach to define SLA for serverless functions by utilizing resource utilization fingerprints for functions\u27 executions and a method to assess if executions adhere to that SLA. We evaluate the approach’s accuracy in detecting SLA violations for a broad range of serverless application categories. Our validation results illustrate a high accuracy in detecting SLA violations resulting from resource contentions and provider’s ecosystem degradations. We conclude by presenting the empirical validation of our proposed approach, which could detect Execution-SLA violations with accuracy up to 99%

Analyzing Related Strategic Behavior Through Strictly Alternating Interactions with Two-Memory Length

Reciprocal altruism can often be modeled through the iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma game in which players take turns in the roles of donor and recipient. Several late studies were based on memory alteration in the repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma game. This prompted us to study this alteration in a strictly alternating iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma game. In our work, we represented the repeated games played by finite states of automata. Also, we supposed that there is relatedness between the players in this game. A relatedness average degree r considered between players, where 0 ≤ r ≤ 1. The effect of noise on the relatedness degree among players can be examined with regard to the behavior of the strategies in their competitions

COMPARATIVE BOTANICAL AND GENETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF CERTAIN SOLANUM SPECIES GROWN IN EGYPT

Objective: Urgent need for proper identification and characterization has emerged for some Solanum species as their toxicity to humans and animals ranges from mildly irritating to fatal. The objective of this work was targeted towards discrimination between Solanum seaforthianum Andrews and Solanum macrocarpon L.Methods: For establishment of different botanical and genetic criteria, this study presents a comparative investigation of the botanical features of the roots, stems and leaves of both plants through microscopical investigation of the prepared entire, transverse sections and powdered forms of different organs of both plants under study. Furthermore, the DNA of both plants was extracted from leaf samples and Random Amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis using ten primers of arbitrary sequences.Results: Comparative botanical characters of different organs were identified. On the other hand a total 101 fragments were generated in S. macrocarpon while 105 fragments were generated in S. seaforthianum. Where the highest degree of similarities (70%) was recorded using primer B16 therefore could be used as an indicator for obtaining genetic markers, followed by 65.38% for Z13 and the lowest degree of similarity (38.1%) was recorded using primer O14 which could be used to discriminate between the two Solanum species depending on their low values of similarity coefficients and high level of polymorphism.Conclusion: For the present study, macro and micro-morphological characters, as well as, DNA fingerprinting can be considered as the identifying parameters to authenticate and differentiate between the two plants under study.Â

Selenium and Nano-Selenium Biofortification for Human Health

Selenium is an essential micronutrient required for the health of humans and lower plants, but its importance for higher plants is still being investigated. The biological functions of Se related to human health revolve around its presence in 25 known selenoproteins (e.g., selenocysteine or the 21st amino acid). Humans may receive their required Se through plant uptake of soil Se, foods enriched in Se, or Se dietary supplements. Selenium nanoparticles (Se-NPs) have been applied to biofortified foods and feeds. Due to low toxicity and high e ciency, Se-NPs are used in applications such as cancer therapy and nano-medicines. Selenium and nano-selenium may be able to support and enhance the productivity of cultivated plants and animals under stressful conditions because they are antimicrobial and anti-carcinogenic agents, with antioxidant capacity and immune-modulatory efficacy. Thus, nano-selenium could be inserted in the feeds of fish and livestock to improvise stress resilience and productivity. This review offers new insights in Se and Se-NPs biofortification for edible plants and farm animals under stressful environments. Further, extensive research on Se-NPs is required to identify possible adverse effects on humans and their cytotoxicity.Peer Reviewe

Towards the development of a novel “bamboo-refinery” concept : Selective bamboo fractionation by means of a microwave-assisted, acid-catalysed, organosolv process

This work addresses a novel microwave-assisted, acid-catalysed, organosolv (EtOH/H2O) system for the selective fractionation of bamboo, examining the effects of the temperature (110–190 °C), solvent system (EtOH/H2O) and catalyst amount (0–5 vol.% formic acid) on the process. The statistical analysis of the results revealed that the operating variables have a significant influence on bamboo fractionation, allowing the selective production of (i) a cellulose-rich solid fraction, (ii) a hemicellulose rich water-soluble fraction and (iii) a lignin rich solid fraction. The yields of each of these fractions varied between 51 and 94%, 2 and 23% and 2 and 32%, respectively. Increasing temperature exerted a positive effect on bamboo decomposition, increasing the overall bamboo conversion and influencing the effect that the solvent system (EtOH/H2O) has on the process. At low tem- perature (110 °C) the solvent system does not have much influence, while a synergetic interaction between EtOH and H2O took place at higher temperatures, which allowed better results to be obtained with EtOH/H2O mix- tures than with the pure solvents alone. The effect of the catalyst was relatively weak, being greatest when using a high temperature (190 °C) and high proportions of water (> 85 vol.%) in the solvent system. With respect to the properties of each fraction, the cellulose rich solid fraction was made up of un-reacted cellulose (44–83 wt. %), hemicellulose (0–21 wt.%) and lignin (12–34 wt.%); the water-soluble hemicellulose rich fraction consisted of a mixture of oligomers, sugars, carboxylic acids, ketones and furans; and the solid rich lignin fraction com- prised high purity (> 95 wt.%) organosolv lignin. The optimisation of the process revealed that by using a temperature of 190 °C, a solvent system consisting of 45 vol.% EtOH and 55 vol.% H2O with a concentration of formic acid of 5 vol.% it is possible to fractionate bamboo into a high purity (84 wt.%) cellulose solid fraction, very pure (> 95%) organosolv lignin and a rich water-soluble hemicellulose fraction consisting of a mixture of oligomers (27 wt.%), sugars (56 wt.%) and carboxylic acids (14 wt.%); thus converting this process into a very promising method for the selective fractionation of bamboo

Characterization of Antibiotic-Producing Thermophilic Bacteria from Remote Environments

Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus paralicheniformis are Gram positive, endospore forming bacteria, present in a wide variety of environments. Until 2015, when B. paralicheniformis was identified from fermented soybeans, it was impossible to distinguish it from B. licheniformis. B. licheniformis and its products have established many biotechnological applications. On the other hand, B. paralicheniformis, being less studied, is considered a promising bacterium with significant biotechnological applications. Bacteria in this study were isolated from Yellowstone National Park hot springs [YNP] which are naturally occurring hydrothermal features. In this remote environment with limited resources, competition among microorganisms is crucial for survival. Certain microorganisms may be able to hinder or kill surrounding competitors through antibiotic production, effectively lowering competition for resources and enhancing their own chances of survival and reproduction. Simultaneously, microorganisms with antibiotic resistance genes can tolerate the effects of antibiotics, allowing them to survive in the presence of antibiotics. This resistance could be genetically inherited or acquired by horizontal gene transfer. To gain insights into these thermophilic bacteria, this study characterized thermophilic strains of B. licheniformis and B. paralicheniformis isolated from hot springs in YNP and performed a comparative genomic analysis with genomes of non-thermophilic bacteria isolated from various vi environments. This study revealed that the genomes of B. licheniformis and B. paralicheniformis encode multiple biosynthetic gene clusters [BGC] and antibiotic resistance genes. These BGC are responsible for the production of various compounds, including antimicrobials, as well as others whose functions remain unknown. These BGC and antibiotic resistance genes in thermophilic bacteria share significant similarities with those found in non-thermophilic bacteria. This finding underscores the potential for horizontal gene transfer and the exchange of genetic information across bacterial populations, regardless of their thermal preferences. Understanding the presence and distribution of these BGC and antibiotic resistance genes, as well as their relationship with mobile genetic elements, provides vital insights into bacterial genetic diversity and adaptation mechanisms. It adds to our understanding of the genetic basis of antibiotic synthesis, resistance, and the possibility for horizontal gene transfer, which has consequences for antibiotic discovery, resistance mechanisms, and microbial ecology

Independence and domination in divisor graph and mod-difference graphs

Abstract We initiate the study of domination and inverse domination in labeled graphs. In this paper, we determined the cardinality of maximal independent and minimum variant dominating (total dominating/independent dominating/co-independent dominating) sets and their inverse in divisor graph and in two new labeling definitions called 0-mod-difference and 1-mod-difference graphs

The Cordiality for the Join of Pairs of the Third Power of Paths

A graph is said to be cordial if it has a 0−1 labeling that satisfies certain properties. The third power of path P3, is the graph n obtained from the path Pn by adding edges that join all vertices and with d ≤ 3. In this paper, we show that Pn3 is cordial if and only if n ̸= 4. Moreover, we study the cordiality for the sum of pairs of the third power of paths. Keywords