Pricing Algorithms For a Two-sided Internet Advertisement Market

The Google AdSense Program is a successful internet advertisement program where Google places contextual adverts on third-party websites and shares the resulting revenue with each publisher. Advertisers have budgets and bid on ad slots while publishers set reserve prices for the ad slots on their websites. Following previous modelling efforts, we model the program as a two-sided market with advertisers on one side and publishers on the other. We show a reduction from the Generalised Assignment Problem (GAP) to the problem of computing the revenue maximising allocation and pricing of publisher slots under a first-price auction. GAP is APX-hard but a (1-1/e) approximation is known. We compute truthful and revenue-maximizing prices and allocation of ad slots to advertisers under a second-price auction. The auctioneer's revenue is within (1-1/e) second-price optimal

Electrochemical studies of the corrosion inhibition property of Rosmarinus officinalis on mild steel in dilute sulphuric acid

The electrochemical behaviour and corrosion inhibition of mild steel in 0.5M and 1M dilute sulpuric acid by rosemary oil (Rosmarinus officinalis) at ambient temperature was investigated through potentiodynamic polarization test, weight loss techniques analysis and optical microscopy. Results obtained showed the organic compound to be highly effective with a maximum inhibition efficiency of 80.8 % and 87.9% from weight loss and 84.1% and 80.8% from polarization test in the acid test solutions. The adsorption characteristics of the compound obeyed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm while the inhibition mechanism was observed from thermodynamic calculations to be physiochemical. Optical microscopy micrographs confirms the overwhelming influence of the compound on the topography and surface morphology of the steel after exposure

On Supporting Mobility and Multihoming in Recursive Internet Architectures

As the Internet has evolved and grown, an increasing number of nodes (hosts or autonomous systems) have become multihomed, i.e., a node is connected to more than one network. Mobility can be viewed as a special case of multihoming — as a node moves, it unsubscribes from one network and subscribes to another, which is akin to one interface becoming inactive and another active. The current Internet architecture has been facing significant challenges in effectively dealing with multihoming (and consequently mobility), which has led to the emergence of several custom point-solutions. The Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA) was recently proposed as a cleanslate solution to the current problems of the Internet. In this paper, we present a specification of the process of ROuting in Recursive Architectures (RORA). We also perform an average-case cost analysis to compare the multihoming / mobility support of RINA, against that of other approaches such as LISP and Mobile-IP. Extensive experimental results confirm the premise that the RINA architecture and its RORA routing approach are inherently better suited for supporting mobility and multihoming

Willingness of Family Caregivers to Consent to Relative’s Postmortem Examination that Die Suddenly in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

BACKGROUND: Postmortem examination is necessary to diagnose the cause of sudden death, and family caregivers are expected to consent to this examination. This study assessed knowledge, attitude, practices and willingness of family caregivers to consent to postmortem examination of their relative if they die suddenly in a Nigerian tertiary hospital.METHODS: Descriptive cross-sectional study of family caregivers of our patients that completed an interviewer administered semistructured questionnaire assessing their knowledge, attitude, practices and willingness to consent to postmortem examination of their relative if they die suddenly. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.RESULTS: A total of 224 caregivers were interviewed. The mean age (SD) was 34.95 (11.74), ranging 22-75 years. They were parents (32.6%), siblings (37.9%), spouses (11.2%) and other relatives (18.3%). Only 17% had adequate knowledge, 44.6% positive attitude and 11.2% good practices to postmortem examination of sudden death. The majority (75.9%) would consent to postmortem examination of their relatives if they die suddenly. Sociodemographic variables associated with willingness to consent to postmortem examination after relative’s sudden death include being male (AOR 3.61; 95%CI 3.09-8.92; p=0.001), having tertiary education (AOR 4.83; 95%CI 1.01-8.29; p=0.034), Christianity (AOR 2.59; 95%CI 1.25-5.35; p=0.010) and skilled worker (AOR 1.43; 95%CI 1.33-3.80; p=0.020).CONCLUSION: Some family caregivers would not consent to postmortem examination of their relatives when they die suddenly. Sensitization programs targeting family caregivers are necessary to increase knowledge and enhance prevention of sudden death as well as improve willingness to consent to postmortem examination when their relatives die suddenly

Emergence and spread of two SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest in Nigeria.

Identifying the dissemination patterns and impacts of a virus of economic or health importance during a pandemic is crucial, as it informs the public on policies for containment in order to reduce the spread of the virus. In this study, we integrated genomic and travel data to investigate the emergence and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.318 and B.1.525 (Eta) variants of interest in Nigeria and the wider Africa region. By integrating travel data and phylogeographic reconstructions, we find that these two variants that arose during the second wave in Nigeria emerged from within Africa, with the B.1.525 from Nigeria, and then spread to other parts of the world. Data from this study show how regional connectivity of Nigeria drove the spread of these variants of interest to surrounding countries and those connected by air-traffic. Our findings demonstrate the power of genomic analysis when combined with mobility and epidemiological data to identify the drivers of transmission, as bidirectional transmission within and between African nations are grossly underestimated as seen in our import risk index estimates

Pro forma

Network coding treats data as mathematical objects which can be transformed at network nodes in contrast to the traditional multi-commodity fluid model for network information flow where data can only be replicated or routed. Most previous work in this area has been largely theoretical and simulation-based. The original aim of this project is thus to select and develop an encoder/decoder pair suitable for deploying the concept of network coding in practical systems such as a large-scale content distribution application. If time permitted, we further aimed at demonstrating how the encoder/decoder pair can be integrated into the application. Work Completed A family of encoder/decoder with suitable encoding/decoding time and memory requirement was selected, implemented in C/C++ and tested. These good codes are based on sparse matrices and iterative decoding. The content distribution network was simulated as a Packet Erasure Channel. We setup a private content distribution network of cTorrent clients and BNBT Trinity Edition tracker, devised a scheme for integrating the encoder/decoder into the cTorrent network for network coding, outlined the changes that need be made to cTorrent source code and described how they can be implemented

On the Cost of Supporting Multihoming and Mobility

As the Internet has evolved and grown, an increasing number of nodes (hosts or autonomous systems) have become multihomed, i.e., a node is connected to more than one network. Mobility can be viewed as a special case of multihoming— as a node moves, it unsubscribes from one network and subscribes to another, which is akin to one interface becoming inactive and another active. The current Internet architecture has been facing significant challenges in effectively dealing with multihoming (and consequently mobility). The Recursive INternet Architecture (RINA) [1] was recently proposed as a clean-slate solution to the current problems of the Internet. In this paper, we perform an average-case cost analysis to compare the multihoming / mobility support of RINA, against that of other approaches such as LISP and Mobile-IP. We also validate our analysis using trace-driven simulation. 1

On the Cost of Supporting Mobility and Multihoming

Abstract—As the Internet has evolved and grown, an increasing number of nodes (hosts or autonomous systems) have become multihomed, i.e., a node is connected to more than one network. Multihoming can be viewed as a special case of Mobility—as a node moves, it unsubscribes from one network and subscribes to another, which is akin to one interface becoming inactive and another active. The current Internet architecture has been facing significant challenges in effectively dealing with mobility (and consequently multihoming). The Recursive INternet Architecture (RINA) [1] was recently proposed as a clean-slate solution to the current problems of the Internet. In this paper, we perform an average-case cost analysis to compare the mobility / multihoming support of RINA, against that of other approaches such as LISP and Mobile-IP. We also validate our analysis using simulation. I