A Survey on Load Balancing Algorithms for VM Placement in Cloud Computing

The emergence of cloud computing based on virtualization technologies brings huge opportunities to host virtual resource at low cost without the need of owning any infrastructure. Virtualization technologies enable users to acquire, configure and be charged on pay-per-use basis. However, Cloud data centers mostly comprise heterogeneous commodity servers hosting multiple virtual machines (VMs) with potential various specifications and fluctuating resource usages, which may cause imbalanced resource utilization within servers that may lead to performance degradation and service level agreements (SLAs) violations. To achieve efficient scheduling, these challenges should be addressed and solved by using load balancing strategies, which have been proved to be NP-hard problem. From multiple perspectives, this work identifies the challenges and analyzes existing algorithms for allocating VMs to PMs in infrastructure Clouds, especially focuses on load balancing. A detailed classification targeting load balancing algorithms for VM placement in cloud data centers is investigated and the surveyed algorithms are classified according to the classification. The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and comparative understanding of existing literature and aid researchers by providing an insight for potential future enhancements.Comment: 22 Pages, 4 Figures, 4 Tables, in pres

Policy Coordination between China and Latin American Countries under the Framework of the Belt and Road Initiative

Latin American countries were not a part of the earlier draft of the route map of China’s Belt and Road initiative. Through efforts of both sides, starting from the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May 2017, Latin America has become an indispensable and important participant of the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. In view of the differences in history and objective circumstances between China and Latin America in terms of histories, cultures, current economic states and development needs etc., policy coordination plays a fundamental role in the China-Latin America cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road initiative. This article explores the four aspects of policy coordination in the BRI context, namely historical background, philosophy, principle and objective. The article notes that the weight of the US, EU and Japan in the global economy is decreasing, and the number of contradictions in the national economies of these countries, on the contrary, is growing. At the same time, the aggregate economic weight of developing countries is increasing. This new paradigm of development of the world economy gives a chance to developing countries, namely China and Latin America, to deepen economic cooperation. China has already become the second largest trading partner and the third largest source of investment for Latin American countries. China also proposes a solution based on its own Chinese experience, which will allow countries from Latin America to further accelerate their economic growth through infrastructure cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. The basic principles of such cooperation are win-win cooperation, shared growth through discussion and collaboration and the essence of policy coordination, etc. It is believed that, on the premise of a high degree of consensus achieved through policy coordination, both China and Latin America will achieve sustainable and efficient cooperation and development under the framework of the Belt and Road initiative

Notch Signaling Mediates TNF-α-Induced IL-6 Production in Cultured Fibroblast-Like Synoviocytes from Rheumatoid Arthritis

It has been reported that Notch family proteins are expressed in synovium tissue and involved in the proliferation of synoviocyte from rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this paper was to investigate whether Notch signaling mediated TNF-α-induced cytokine production of cultured fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) from RA. Exposure of RA FLSs to TNF-α (10 ng/ml) led to increase of Hes-1, a target gene of Notch signaling, and a marked upregulation of Notch 2, Delta-like 1, and Delta-like 3 mRNA levels. Blockage of Notch signaling by a γ-secretase inhibitor (DAPT) inhibited IL-6 secretion of RA FLSs in response to TNF-α while treatment with recombinant fusion protein of Notch ligand Delta-like 1 promoted such response. TNF-α stimulation also induced IL-6 secretion in OA FLSs; however, the Hes-1 level remained unaffected. Our data confirm the functional involvement of Notch pathway in the pathophysiology of RA FLSs which may provide a new target for RA therapy