Harrah\u27s E-Business

This case discusses the changing market and future of Harrah’s casino entertainment in E-Commerce area. All information was derived from interviewing managers and employees, Internet survey, and journal articles. The case outlines the important of E-Business to the casino industry and its current and futures players. It concludes that, in this highly competitive casino business, management must change their focus and desired outcomes to survive in the era of E-Business

Managing Vendor Lock-in in Serverless Edge-to-Cloud Computing from the Client Side

International audienceServerless computing is a widely adopted cloud execution model composed of Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) and Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings. The increased level of abstraction makes vendor lock-in inherent to serverless computing, raising more concerns than previous cloud paradigms. Multi-cloud serverless is a promising emerging approach against vendor lock-in, yet multiple challenges must be overcome to tap its potential. First, we need to be aware of the performance and cost of each FaaS provider. Second, a multi-cloud architecture needs to be proposed before deploying a multi-cloud workflow. Domain-specific serverless offerings must then be integrated into the multi-cloud architecture to improve performance or save costs. Moreover, dealing with serverless offerings from multiple providers is challenging. Finally, we require workload portability support for serverless multi-cloud.In this thesis, we present a multi-cloud library for cross-serverless offerings. We develop the End Analysis System (EAS) to support comparison among public FaaS providers in terms of performance and cost. Moreover, we design proof-of-concept multi-cloud architectures with domain-specific serverless offerings to alleviate problems such as data gravity. Finally, we deploy workloads on these architectures to evaluate several public FaaS offerings

Supporting Multi-Cloud in Serverless Computing

Serverless computing is a widely adopted cloud execution model composed of Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) and Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings. The increased level of abstraction makes vendor lock-in inherent to serverless computing, raising more concerns than previous cloud paradigms. Multi-cloud serverless is a promising emerging approach against vendor lock-in, yet multiple challenges must be overcome to tap its potential. First, we need to be aware of both the performance and cost of each FaaS provider. Second, a multi-cloud architecture must be proposed before deploying a multi-cloud workflow. Domain-specific serverless offerings must then be integrated into the multi-cloud architecture to improve performance or save costs. Moreover, dealing with serverless offerings from multiple providers is challenging. Finally, we require workload portability support for serverless multi-cloud. In this paper, we present a multi-cloud library for cross-serverless offerings. We develop the End Analysis System (EAS) to support comparison among public FaaS providers in terms of performance and cost. Moreover, we design proof-of-concept multi-cloud architectures with domain-specific serverless offerings to alleviate problems such as data gravity. Finally, we deploy workloads on these architectures to evaluate several public FaaS offerings.Comment: Accepted for the 15th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing Companion (UCC'22 Companion

Validation of the Accuracy of Different Precipitation Datasets over Tianshan Mountainous Area

Precipitation is one of the important water supplies in the arid and semiarid regions of northwestern China, playing a vital role in maintaining the fragile ecosystem. In remote mountainous area, it is difficult to obtain an accurate and reliable spatialization of the precipitation amount at the regional scale due to the inaccessibility, the sparsity of observation stations, and the complexity of relationships between precipitation and topography. Furthermore, accurate precipitation is important driven data for hydrological models to assess the water balance and water resource for hydrologists. Therefore, the use of satellite remote sensing becomes an important means over mountainous area. Precipitation datasets based on station data or pure satellite data have been increasingly available in spite of several weaknesses. This paper evaluates the usefulness of three precipitation datasets including TRMM 3B43_V6, 3B43_V7, and Asian Precipitation Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation with rain gauge data over Tianshan mountainous area where precipitation data is scarce. The results suggest that precipitation measurements only provided accurate information on a small scale, while the satellite remote sensing of precipitation had obvious advantages in basin scale or large scale especially over remote mountainous area

Extraction optimization of Eucommia ulmoides Oliver and its effect on bone quality in OVX rats

Purpose: To maximize the yield of extract from Eucommia ulmoides Oliver and its effect on bone quality. Methods: Different extraction indices were optimized with response surface methodology (RSM) for maximization of extract yield from Eucommia ulmoides Oliver. Box–Behnken design (BBD) was used to identify the effects of temperature, time, and liquid to solid ratio on extract yield from Eucommia ulmoides Oliver. After 4-week acclimatization, thiry-two rats were randomly assigned to 4 groups (n = 8): group 1 (sham) given vehicle only; group 2 (OVX rats given Eucommia ulmoides Oliver extract at a dose of 4 g/kg; group 3 (OVX + vehicle); group 4 (OVX + EUOE), i.e., OVX rats given Eucommia ulmoides Oliver extract (4 g/kg). Sham rats had intact ovaries. After surgery, the rats received gentamicin intramuscularly for 3 successive days. Two months after surgery, blood and trabecular bones was taken for analysis. Results: Temperature and liquid-to-solid ratio had marked impact on extract yield from Eucommia ulmoides Oliver, with the best conditions being temperature of 88 °C, time of 137 min, and liquid to solid ratio 16:1. Using these optimized conditions, the maximum yield of extract obtained experimentally (2.53%) was very close to the predicted value of 2.49 %. There was a good fit between the mathematical model evolved and the data on extract yield. The extract significantly (p < 0.01) increased the Ca and P and Cr levels in OVX + EUOE group compared to those in OVX control. Moreover, the extract significantly (p < 0.01) increased macro-mechanical indices of trabecular bone in OVX+EUOE group, relative to those in OVX control. Conclusion: The yield of Eucommia ulmoides Oliver extract has been successfully optimized using RSM. The extract exhibited strong effects on bone quality. Keywords: Optimization, Eucommia ulmoides, Box–Behnken design, Response surface methodology, Bone loss, Gen

Effect of total flavonoids from Drynaria rhizome on bone loss in ovariectomized rats

Purpose: To determine the potential effect of total flavonoids from Drynaria rhizome on bone loss in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. Methods: The rats were divided into four groups: normal control, ovariectomized (OVX) control, and two Drynaria rhizome (DR) flavonoids treatments. Post-operation, osteoporotic OVX rats were given Drynaria rhizome total flavonoids for 3 months. Thereafter, the expressions of bone-related genes and biochemical indices were investigated in samples taken from the serum and bone of the rats. Results: Treatment with total flavonoids from Drynaria rhizome prevented bone mineral loss and improved some related biochemical indices associated with osteoporosis: alkaline phosphatase (ALP), tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), bone gla protein (BGP) and estradiol (E2). Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) data showed that treatment with the total flavonoids significantly downregulated mRNA expression of Wnt10b, β-catenin, recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) and BMP4 in OVX rats, but significantly reversed OVX-induced downregulation of dickkopf1 (Dkk1) mRNA expression. Conclusion: These results indicate that total flavonoids from Drynaria rhizome exert anti-osteoporotic effects in rats via WNT signaling and BMP-2 signaling pathways

Optimization of extraction of total flavonoids from Drynaria rhizome, and its effect on osteoclast differentiation

Purpose: To optimize the extraction parameters for total flavonoids of Drynaria rhizome, and determine their effect on osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption in vitro. Methods: A 5-level 3-factor central composite design was applied to the optimization of extract yield of total flavonoids from Drynaria rhizome. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) design was used to optimize total flavonoids extraction from Drynaria rhizome. The independent factors included extraction temperature (A), extraction time (B) and liquid: solid ratio (C). Moreover, NFATc1, DC-STAMP, cathepsin K and MMP-9 mRNA expressions were determined. Results: Values obtained were fitted into a second-order polynomial equation with multiple regression analysis using a statistical method. Analysis of variance results indicate that the independent variables influenced total flavonoid extraction from Drynaria rhizome. The optimal conditions for extraction yield were extraction temperature of 75 oC, extraction time of 100 min, and liquid: solid ratio of 107:1. The yield of 5.38 ± 0.62 % was consistent with these optimized conditions, which was an indication of the accuracy of the model. Experiments revealed that total flavonoids from Drynaria rhizome regulated the expression levels of NFATc1, DC-STAMP, cathepsin K and MMP-9 mRNA Conclusion: This study has successfully optimized the extraction yield of total flavonoids from Drynaria rhizome. The total flavonoids inhibit osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption. Thus, they may be beneficial in the treatment of bone diseases