Pricing of insurance policies against cloud storage price rises

When a company migrates to cloud storage, the way back is neither easy nor cheap. The company is then locked up in the storage contract and exposed to upward market prices, which reduce the company's profit and may even bring it below zero. We propose a protection means based on an insurance contract, by which the cloud purchaser is indemnified when the current storage price exceeds a pre-defined threshold. By applying the financial options theory, we provide a formula for the insurance price (the premium). By using historical data on market prices for disks, we apply the formula in realistic scenarios. We show that the premium grows nearly quadratically with the length of the coverage period as long as this is below one year, but grows more slowly, though faster than linearly, over longer coverage periods

First--order continuous models of opinion formation

We study certain nonlinear continuous models of opinion formation derived from a kinetic description involving exchange of opinion between individual agents. These models imply that the only possible final opinions are the extremal ones, and are similar to models of pure drift in magnetization. Both analytical and numerical methods allow to recover the final distribution of opinion between the two extremal ones.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Estimation of traf- fic matrices in the presence of long memory traffic

The estimation of traffic matrices in a communications network on the basis of a set of traffic measurements on the network links is a well-known problem, for which a number of solutions have been proposed when the traffic does not show dependence over time, as in the case of the Poisson process. However, extensive measurements campaigns conducted on IP networks have shown that the traffic exhibits long range dependence. Here a method is proposed for the estimation of traffic matrices in the case of long range dependence, and its theoretical properties are studied. Its merits are then evaluated via a simulation study. Finally, an application to real data is provided

A rank-and-compare algorithm to detect abnormally low bids in procurement auctions

3noDetecting abnormally low bids in procurement auctions is a recognized problem, since their acceptance could result in the winner not being able to provide the service or work awarded by the auction, which is a significant risk for the auctioneer. A rank-and-compare algorithm is considered to detect such anomalous bids and help auctioneers in achieving an effective rejection decision. Analytical expressions and simulation results are provided for the detection probability, as well as for the false alarm probability. The suggested range of application of the detection algorithm leaves out the cases of many tenderers (more than 20) and quite dispersed bids (coefficient of variation larger than 0.15). An increase in the number of tenderers leads to contrasting effects, since both the false alarm probability and the detection probability are reduced. If the bids are spread over a large range, we have instead a double negative effect, with more false alarms and less detections. The presence of multiple anomalous bids worsens the performance of the algorithm as well. On the other hand, the method is quite robust to the presence of courtesy bids.reservedmixedL. De Giovanni; P. L. Conti; M. NaldiDE GIOVANNI, Livia; P. L., Conti; M., Nald

Related and unrelated industry variety and the internationalization of start-ups

We study the relationship between industry variety in a start-up's home location and the start-up's internationalization in terms of both the likelihood of and persistence in exporting. Using a unique sample of Swedish start-ups, we find that related industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence, whereas unrelated industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence when the start-ups’ employees possess technological knowledge. We also find that employees’ international experience strengthens the positive relationship between related industry variety and start-ups’ export persistence. We provide auxiliary evidence of the proposed mechanisms through which related and unrelated industry variety affects start-ups’ internationalization—that is, through their effects on start-ups’ ability to launch novel products in foreign markets. The findings of our study provide policymakers preliminary evidence on th

Experimental study on a Dual-Source Heat Pump in ground mode to assess the soil thermal response by means of a Distributed Temperature Sensing system

In this paper, a Dual-Source Heat Pump (DSHP), able to exploit both aerothermal and geothermal energy sources, has been tested in ground mode to evaluate experimentally the soil thermal response in presence of an undersized Borehole Heat Exchanger (BHE) field. The field is instrumented with a Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) system, by which the geothermal fluid temperature can be measured over the entire length of the boreholes during the heat pump operation. The DSHP has been tested to reproduce the working profile of a heat generator coupled to a reference building, which has been numerically simulated by means of ALMABuild, a Matlab-Simulink tool. Three operating profiles have been identified within the simulation results to define three typical days of the heating season, characterized by different required loads. The results show that a DSHP operated in ground-mode and coupled to a borefield 50% undersized can meet completely the heating needs of a typical winter day, whilst higher building loads must be satisfied exploiting both air and ground sources. In this case, 80% of the undisturbed temperature of the soil can be recovered in an hour when aerothermal energy is extracted, thus the unit efficiency remains high and the investment cost is strongly reduced

Related and unrelated industry variety and the internationalization of start-ups

We study the relationship between industry variety in a start-up's home location and the start-up's internationalization in terms of both the likelihood of and persistence in exporting. Using a unique sample of Swedish start-ups, we find that related industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence, whereas unrelated industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence when the start-ups’ employees possess technological knowledge. We also find that employees’ international experience strengthens the positive relationship between related industry variety and start-ups’ export persistence. We provide auxiliary evidence of the proposed mechanisms through which related and unrelated industry variety affects start-ups