RSMOA: a revenue and social welfare maximizing online auction for dynamic cloud resource provisioning

We study online cloud resource auctions where users can arrive anytime and bid for heterogeneous types of virtual machines (VMs) assembled and provisioned on the fly. The proposed auction mechanism RSMOA, to the authors’ knowledge, represents the first truthful online mechanism that timely responds to incoming users’ demands and makes dynamic resource provisioning and allocation decisions, while guaranteeing efficiency in both the provider’s revenue and system social welfare. RSMOA consists of two components: (1) an online mechanism that computes resource allocation and users’ payments based on a global, non-decreasing pricing curve, and guarantees truthfulness; (2) a judiciously designed pricing curve, which is derived from a threat-based strategy and guarantees a competitive ratio O(ln(p)) in both system social welfare and the provider’s revenue, as compared to the celebrated offline Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) auction. Here p is the ratio between the upper and lower bounds of users’ marginal valuation of a type of resource. The efficacy of RSMOA is validated through extensive theoretical analysis and trace-driven simulation studies.published_or_final_versio

An Online Auction Mechanism for Dynamic Virtual Cluster Provisioning in Geo-Distributed Clouds

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A Shapley-value Mechanism for Bandwidth On Demand between Datacenters

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Non-Parametric Estimation of Copula Parameters: Testing for Time-Varying Correlation

The correlation structure of financial assets is a key input with regard to portfolio and risk management. In this paper, we propose a non-parametric estimation method for the time-varying copula parameter. This is achieved in two steps: first, displaying the marginal distributions of financial asset returns by applying the empirical distribution function; second, by implementing the local likelihood method to estimate the copula parameters. The method for obtaining the optimal bandwidth through a maximum pseudo likelihood function and a statistical test on whether the copula parameter is time-varying are also introduced. A simulation study is conducted to show that our method is superior to its contender. Finally, we verify the proposed estimation methodology and time-varying statistical test by analysing the dynamic linkages between the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock markets

Renormalization of the statistics parameter in three-dimensional electrodynamics

Journal ArticleWe argue that the p function for the statistics parameter in (2+1)-dimensional electrodynamics is zero to all orders in perturbation theory beyond one loop. We show that there can be finite radiative corrections from massless charged scalar fields

Cadmium, lead, and arsenic contamination in paddy soils of a mining area and their exposure effects on human HEPG2 and keratinocyte cell-lines

A mining district in south China shows significant metal(loid) contamination in paddy fields. In the soils, average Pb, Cd and As concentrations were 460.1, 11.7 and 35.1 mg kg−1 respectively, which were higher than the environmental quality standard for agricultural soils in China (GB15618-1995) and UK Clea Soil Guideline Value. The average contents of Pb, Cd and As in rice were 5.24, 1.1 and 0.7 mg kg−1 respectively, which were about 25, 4.5 or 2.5 times greater than the limit values of the maximum safe contaminant concentration standard in food of China (GB 2762-2012), and about 25, 10 or 1 times greater than the limit values of FAO/WHO standard. The elevated contents of Pb, Cd and As detected in soils around the factories, indicated that their spatial distribution was influenced by anthropogenic activity, while greater concentrations of Cd in rice appeared in the northwest region of the factories, indicating that the spatial distribution of heavy metals was also affected by natural factors. As human exposure around mining districts is mainly through oral intake of food and dermal contact, the effects of these metals on the viability and MT protein of HepG2 and KERTr cells were investigated. The cell viability decreased with increasing metal concentrations. Co-exposure to heavy metals (Pb+Cd) increased the metals (Pb or Cd)-mediated MT protein induction in both human HepG2 and KERTr cells. Increased levels of MT protein will lead to greater risk of carcinogenic manifestations, and it is likely that chronic exposure to metals may increase the risk to human health. Nevertheless, when co-exposure to two or more metals occur (such as As+Pb), they may have an antagonistic effect thus reducing the toxic effects of each other