Simple Pricing Schemes for the Cloud

The problem of pricing the cloud has attracted much recent attention due to the widespread use of cloud computing and cloud services. From a theoretical perspective, several mechanisms that provide strong efficiency or fairness guarantees and desirable incentive properties have been designed. However, these mechanisms often rely on a rigid model, with several parameters needing to be precisely known in order for the guarantees to hold. In this paper, we consider a stochastic model and show that it is possible to obtain good welfare and revenue guarantees with simple mechanisms that do not make use of the information on some of these parameters. In particular, we prove that a mechanism that sets the same price per time step for jobs of any length achieves at least 50% of the welfare and revenue obtained by a mechanism that can set different prices for jobs of different lengths, and the ratio can be improved if we have more specific knowledge of some parameters. Similarly, a mechanism that sets the same price for all servers even though the servers may receive different kinds of jobs can provide a reasonable welfare and revenue approximation compared to a mechanism that is allowed to set different prices for different servers.Comment: To appear in the 13th Conference on Web and Internet Economics (WINE), 2017. A preliminary version was presented at the 12th Workshop on the Economics of Networks, Systems and Computation (NetEcon), 201

The Determinants of University Participation in Canada (1977−2003)

The decision to attend university is influenced by the balance of the expected returns and costs of attending university, by liquidity constraints and capital market imperfections that may modify these calculations and, hence, by the family income of prospective students. Family circumstances also play a role. We examine the secular increase in the propensity of children from Canadian families, evident in annual surveys spanning two and a half decades, to attend university. We quantify the importance of these factors taking account of the greater propensity by young women than men to attend university and controlling for secular trends in socioeconomic norms that impinge on these decisions.university participation, parental education, university premium, gender, tuition, income, societal trends

The Gender Imbalance in Participation in Canadian Universities (1977-2005)

More females than males have been attending Canadian universities over the past decade and this gender imbalance in university participation has been increasing. We use the Linear Probability and Logit models to investigate the determinants of attending university and explore the reasons for the increasing gender imbalance. We find that, in gender-specific equations, the values of the coefficients attached to variables and the values of the variables themselves are both important in explaining the rising level of the university participation rate for women and men. The important variables include a time trend to capture the evolving societal norms, the dynamic influence of parental education, the earnings premium for a university degree, tuition fees and real income. The increasing gap between the female and male participation rates (15 percentage points by 2005) can be accounted for equally by differences in the coefficients in female and male participation equations and the widening gap in the university premium for women and men.University participation, individuals, gender, Canada

Outcomes from the other side

Parents and individuals who were born preterm rarely contribute to research study design in order to ensure that outcomes are reported that are of relevance to them. In this article we explore aspects of the measures we use and the lived experiences of three individuals with experience of having a very preterm birth or being very preterm themselves. Their experiences tell us that follow up needs to be more than 2 years, that prematurity needs to be more widely acknowledged in education and that adult services need to consider the consequences of being born early. There are encouraging signs that these important issues are becoming recognised. Individuals designing outcome studies should ensure that these important voices are heard, and their perspectives captured in such studies

Family Income and Postsecondary Education In Canada

We use data from the Surveys of Consumer Finance (1975-1993) to examine how postsecondary education participation rates have evolved over time and how certain variables may affect them. A number of socio- economic influences are shown to affect participation rates. Beyond these, particularly pronounced trend increases in postsecondary education attendance for children from low-income households have led to a convergence in the participation rates of children from different income groups and a consequent reduction in the regressivity associated with subsidies for postsecondary education. We consider possible reasons for this convergence. Conditioning on a number of other variables, we are particularly interested in the possibility that increases in family real income may have affected the demand for postsecondary education by children from low-income families more than the demand by children from high-income households. We find that, although income does have a statistically significant non-linear influence which can explain much of the cross-sectional difference in attendance at postsecondary institutions, its quantitative effects are not sufficiently strong to account for the convergence over time in participation by children from different family income groups.Avec les informations fournies par les Sondages des finances des consommateurs (1975-1993), on y examine de quelle façon les taux de fréquentation ont évolué au fil des années dans les établissements d'enseignement postsecondaire et de quelle façon certaines variables pourraient les affecter. Il est démontré que plusieurs influences socio- économiques ont affecté les taux de fréquentation dans les établissements d'enseignement postsecondaire. En plus, une tendance marquée à l'augmentation de l'inscription des enfants de familles à faible revenu a mené à une convergence dans les taux de fréquentation des enfants provenant de divers milieux économiques et ainsi une baisse de la régression associée aux subventions pour l'éducation postsecondaire. On y considère les raisons possibles pour cette convergence. Prenant en considération plusieurs variables, on s'intéresse particulièrement à la possibilité que les augmentations réelles dans les revenus familiaux auraient pu affecter la demande d'éducation postsecondaire pour les enfants de familles à faible revenu davantage que pour ceux de familles à revenu élevé. On démontre que, même si le niveau de revenu exerce une influence non-linéaire statistiquement significative qui peut expliquer en grande partie la différence dans la fréquentation des établissements d'enseignement postsecondaire, les effets quantitatifs ne sont pas suffisamment importants pour expliquer la convergence, au fil des années, des taux de fréquentation dans les établissements d'enseignement postsecondaire des enfants de divers milieux économiques

Renal biopsy findings among Indigenous Australians: a nationwide review

Australia's Indigenous people have high rates of chronic kidney disease and kidney failure. To define renal disease among these people, we reviewed 643 renal biopsies on Indigenous people across Australia, and compared them with 249 biopsies of non-Indigenous patients. The intent was to reach a consensus on pathological findings and terminology, quantify glomerular size, and establish and compare regional biopsy profiles. The relative population-adjusted biopsy frequencies were 16.9, 6.6, and 1, respectively, for Aboriginal people living remotely/very remotely, for Torres Strait Islander people, and for non-remote-living Aboriginal people. Indigenous people more often had heavy proteinuria and renal failure at biopsy. No single condition defined the Indigenous biopsies and, where biopsy rates were high, all common conditions were in absolute excess. Indigenous people were more often diabetic than non-Indigenous people, but diabetic changes were still present in fewer than half their biopsies. Their biopsies also had higher rates of segmental sclerosis, post-infectious glomerulonephritis, and mixed morphologies. Among the great excess of biopsies in remote/very remote Aborigines, females predominated, with younger age at biopsy and larger mean glomerular volumes. Glomerulomegaly characterized biopsies with mesangiopathic changes only, with IgA deposition, or with diabetic change, and with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). This review reveals great variations in biopsy rates and findings among Indigenous Australians, and findings refute the prevailing dogma that most indigenous renal disease is due to diabetes. Glomerulomegaly in remote/very remote Aboriginal people is probably due to nephron deficiency, in part related to low birth weight, and probably contributes to the increased susceptibility to kidney disease and the predisposition to FSGS

A Systematic Review on the Detection of Fake News Articles

Currently submitted to ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology. Awaiting peer-review.It has been argued that fake news and the spread of false information pose a threat to societies throughout the world, from influencing the results of elections to hindering the efforts to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. To combat this threat, a number of Natural Language Processing (NLP) approaches have been developed. These leverage a number of datasets, feature extraction/selection techniques and machine learning (ML) algorithms to detect fake news before it spreads. While these methods are well-documented, there is less evidence regarding their efficacy in this domain. By systematically reviewing the literature, this paper aims to delineate the approaches for fake news detection that are most performant, identify limitations with existing approaches, and suggest ways these can be mitigated. The analysis of the results indicates that Ensemble Methods using a combination of news content and socially-based features are currently the most effective. Finally, it is proposed that future research should focus on developing approaches that address generalisability issues (which, in part, arise from limitations with current datasets), explainability and bias

Implementation of a screening program for patients at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder

Introduction Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) recipients who suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are known to be associated with significant cardiac-specific mortality. Clinical observations suggest that PTSD is frequently undetected in ICD recipients followed up at electrophysiology (EP) outpatient clinics. Early recognition of PTSD is important to reduce the risk of serious manifestations on patient outcomes. Methods All ICD recipients aged 19 years or older at the Washington University School of Medicine (WASHU) EP clinic, a large urban EP clinic, were invited to participate in the project. An informed consent letter with an attached primary care: posttraumatic stress disorder (PC: PTSD) survey was offered to the participants who met the inclusion criteria. Those who completed the survey were included in the project. Individuals with positive survey result were offered a referral to mental health services. Comparisons between PTSD and non-PTSD patients were done using a two-sample t -test for continuous variables. Using Fisher's exact test, PTSD prevalence was compared to the study by Ladwig et al in which prevalence was determined as the proportion of patients with positive findings of PTSD ( n = 38/147). All analyses were conducted using SAS v9.4. The proportion of patients having PTSD was determined and an exact 95% confidence interval was evaluated based on the binomial distribution. Results Using a convenience sample, 50 ICD recipients (33 males and 17 females) were enrolled. The project had a 30-day outcome period. Nine (18%) of the 50 participants had positive PC: PTSD findings and all these nine participants were referred to a mental health specialist. The current project demonstrated an 18% (9/50) PTSD prevalence rate when compared to a 26% (38/147) prevalence rate in the study by Ladwig et al ( P = 0.34). Although this project did not demonstrate 20% PTSD prevalence rate, as hypothesized, the 18% PTSD prevalence rate is consistent with previous research. Conclusion The prevalence of PTSD noted in the current project is consistent with previous research and validates underrecognition of PTSD in ICD patients. Offering a referral to all ICD recipients at EP clinic visits with a positive PC: PTSD screening to a mental health specialist is an important step in reducing the risk of serious manifestations on patient outcomes