An Efficient Algorithm for Delay and Delay- Variation Bounded Core Based Tree Generation

Many multimedia group applications require the construction of multicast tree satisfying the quality of service (QoS) requirements. To support real time communication, computer networks need to optimize the Delay and Delay-Variation Bounded Multicast Tree (DVBMT). The problem is to satisfy the end-to-end delay and delay-variation within an upper bound. The DVBMT problem is known to be NP complete. In this paper, we propose an efficient core selection algorithm for satisfying the end-to-end delay and delay-variation within an upper bound. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is validated through the simulation. The simulation results reveal that our algorithm performs better than the existing heuristic algorithms

A hybrid ACO/PSO based algorithm for QoS multicast routing problem

AbstractMany Internet multicast applications such as videoconferencing, distance education, and online simulation require to send information from a source to some selected destinations. These applications have stringent Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements that include delay, loss rate, bandwidth, and delay jitter. This leads to the problem of routing multicast traffic satisfying QoS requirements. The above mentioned problem is known as the QoS constrained multicast routing problem and is NP Complete. In this paper, we present a swarming agent based intelligent algorithm using a hybrid Ant Colony Optimization (ACO)/Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique to optimize the multicast tree. The algorithm starts with generating a large amount of mobile agents in the search space. The ACO algorithm guides the agents’ movement by pheromones in the shared environment locally, and the global maximum of the attribute values are obtained through the random interaction between the agents using PSO algorithm. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated through simulation. The simulation results reveal that our algorithm performs better than the existing algorithms

Agroforestry practices for physiological amelioration of salt aff ected soils

Agroforestry is a sustainable land use system act as an alternative form of biological reclamation in salt affected soils apart from sustainable production, continuous income, and regular employment along with food and nutrition security. In general, salt affected soils get ameliorated by tree species; however, following factors such as nature and type of tree species planted, growth habit, quantity and quality of litter production, planting density, nitrogen fixation, and different management practices are influenced. In the present study, various studies pertaining to soil reclamation in the salt affected soils are reviewed. Overall result showed that trees grown with crops, horticultural crops, pastures resulted in improvement of physical and chemical properties of soil under various agroforestry systems. For instance, reduction of soil pH, electrical conductivity, and exchangeable sodium percentage minimization of salt deposition in the upper layers of the soil, improvement of water permeability and water holding capacity, improvement of infiltration rate and hydraulic conductivity with soil fertility, enhancement of cation exchange capacity, and other features are characteristics of soil as influenced by tree species, as well as through agroforestry practices. Various multipurpose tree species such as Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia nilotica, Albizia lebbeck, Terminalia arjuna, Casuarina equisetifolia, Prosopis cineraria, Prosopis juliflora; and fruit trees such as Zizyphus jujuba, Emblica officinalis, Syzygium cumini, and Tamarindus indica ameliorated the different salt affected soils in different agroforestry systems viz., agrisilvicultural system, silvipastoral system, multipurpose wood lot, and agrihorisilvicultural system. Thus, agroforestry system provides an alternative for restoring soil health and amelioration of salt affected soils for further yield improvement. Therefore, these species are suggested for reclamation of salt affected soil through agroforestry systems

A global action agenda for turning the tide on fatty liver disease

Background and Aims: Fatty liver disease is a major public health threat due to its very high prevalence and related morbidity and mortality. Focused and dedicated interventions are urgently needed to target disease prevention, treatment, and care. Approach and Results: We developed an aligned, prioritized action agenda for the global fatty liver disease community of practice. Following a Delphi methodology over 2 rounds, a large panel (R1 n = 344, R2 n = 288) reviewed the action priorities using Qualtrics XM, indicating agreement using a 4-point Likert-scale and providing written feedback. Priorities were revised between rounds, and in R2, panelists also ranked the priorities within 6 domains: epidemiology, treatment and care, models of care, education and awareness, patient and community perspectives, and leadership and public health policy. The consensus fatty liver disease action agenda encompasses 29 priorities. In R2, the mean percentage of “agree” responses was 82.4%, with all individual priorities having at least a super-majority of agreement (> 66.7% “agree”). The highest-ranked action priorities included collaboration between liver specialists and primary care doctors on early diagnosis, action to address the needs of people living with multiple morbidities, and the incorporation of fatty liver disease into relevant non-communicable disease strategies and guidance. Conclusions: This consensus-driven multidisciplinary fatty liver disease action agenda developed by care providers, clinical researchers, and public health and policy experts provides a path to reduce the prevalence of fatty liver disease and improve health outcomes. To implement this agenda, concerted efforts will be needed at the global, regional, and national levels.publishedVersio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe