Energy-Aware Cloud Management through Progressive SLA Specification

Novel energy-aware cloud management methods dynamically reallocate computation across geographically distributed data centers to leverage regional electricity price and temperature differences. As a result, a managed VM may suffer occasional downtimes. Current cloud providers only offer high availability VMs, without enough flexibility to apply such energy-aware management. In this paper we show how to analyse past traces of dynamic cloud management actions based on electricity prices and temperatures to estimate VM availability and price values. We propose a novel SLA specification approach for offering VMs with different availability and price values guaranteed over multiple SLAs to enable flexible energy-aware cloud management. We determine the optimal number of such SLAs as well as their availability and price guaranteed values. We evaluate our approach in a user SLA selection simulation using Wikipedia and Grid'5000 workloads. The results show higher customer conversion and 39% average energy savings per VM.Comment: 14 pages, conferenc

Estrategias de mercadeo verde utilizadas por empresas a nivel mundial

Concern about the environment has become a subject that worries all current community, from the smallest to the largest, from the small business to large industry. Added to this, the rise of environmental regulations that establish regulations for employer to forces them to have a greater awareness of the damage that their actions can cause to the environment. For this, it has gradually begun by companies to adopt a number of strategies in ​​green marketing area that allows them to market their products and services to be environmentally compatible. In this paper, we examined the different strategies that the companies are using to address this important worldwide philosophy. To this purpose, we made a review and comparison of several articles written in the context of green marketing by Rivera and Molero (2006), Chamorro (2001), Samper and Echeverri (2008) mainly, finding that more and more companies are added to this form of marketing their products and processes and more consumers who put ecological criteria to other variables, changing their consumption habits  La preocupación por el medio ambiente se ha convertido en una temática que inquieta a toda la colectividad actual, desde los más pequeños hasta los más grandes, desde la pequeña empresa hasta la gran industria. Sumado a esto, el auge de normativas ambientales que establecen regulaciones al empresario, los obliga a tener una mayor conciencia de los daños que pueden causar sus acciones al medio ambiente. Es por esto, que paulatinamente ha comenzado, por parte de las empresas, la adopción de estrategias en el área de mercadeo verde que les permita comercializar sus productos y servicios de forma que los mismos sean ambientalmente compatibles. En el presente trabajo, se abordaron las diferentes estrategias que han venido asumiendo empresas de diferente índole para hacer frente a tan importante filosofía en el ámbito mundial. Para tal fin, se hizo la revisión y contrastación de artículos escritos en el marco del mercadeo verde por Rivera y Molero (2006), Chamorro (2001), Samper y Echeverri (2008) principalmente, encontrándose que cada vez son más las empresas que se suman a esta forma de mercadear sus procesos y productos y más los consumidores que anteponen criterios ecológicos ante variables de otra índole, modificando sus hábitos de consumo. &nbsp

Effect of Defoliation Frequency and Planting Density on Yield and Nutritive Value of \u3ci\u3eCoursetia ferruginea\u3c/i\u3e (HBK) Lavin

The aim of the present study was to asses the influence of the frequency of defoliation and density of sowing on yield and nutritive value of Coursetia ferruginea. Three defoliation frequencies (6, 8 and 10 weeks) and three densities of planting (1 x 1 m, 1 x 1.5 m and 1 x 2 m) were evaluated. A randomized block design, in a split plot arrangement and four repetitions, was used. Frequency of defoliation has a strong significant (P\u3c 0.01) effect on dry matter (DM) yield (13.6, 18.1 and 27.8 g DM/plant for 6, 8 and 10-week defoliation frequencies), plant height (63.5, 76.6 and 101.2 cm) and plant survival (71, 74 and 86%). Nutritive value was significantly (P\u3c 0.05) affected by the frequency of defoliation. Mineral content was reduced as the defoliation interval increased. Density of planting did not affect (P\u3e 0.05) any of the variables. It is concluded that, C. ferruginea is a forage shrub with potential to improve animal feed quality, but it does not stand frequent defoliation

Small Renal Masses: Incidental Diagnosis, Clinical Symptoms, and Prognostic Factors

Introduction. The small renal masses (SRMs) have increased over the past two decades due to more liberal use of imaging techniques. SRMs have allowed discussions regarding their prognostic, diagnosis, and therapeutic approach. Materials and methods. Clinical presentation, incidental diagnosis, and prognosis factors of SRMs are discussed in this review. Results. SRMs are defined as lesions less than 4 cm in diameter. SRM could be benign, and most malignant SMRs are low stage and low grade. Clinical symptoms like hematuria are very rare, being diagnosed by chance (incidental) in most cases. Size, stage, and grade are still the most consistent prognosis factors in (RCC). An enhanced contrast SRM that grows during active surveillance is clearly malignant, and its aggressive potential increases in those greater than 3 cm. Clear cell carcinoma is the most frequent cellular type of malign SRM. Conclusions. Only some SRMs are benign. The great majority of malign SRMs have good prognosis (low stage and grade, no metastasis) with open or laparoscopic surgical treatment (nephron sparing techniques). Active surveillance is an accepted attitude in selected cases

Calidad del servicio de taxis del municipio Maracaibo

The objective of this study is to describe the quality of taxi service in the Maracaibo Municipality, since taxis comprise part of the city’s urban transport system and represent a fundamental public service for social coexistence. To achieve this objective, an adaptation of the SERVPERF model was made, designed as a questionnaire-type instrument with 32 items in 6 dimensions, adapted to the characteristics of taxi service. In order to confirm that items on the instruments corresponded with the adapted dimensions, the factorial analysis technique was applied, producing a new instrument with 24 items in 3 dimensions. The Likert scale was used with three (3) alternative answers. Research was of the descriptive, applied type, using a non-experimental design of the cross-sectional, descriptive and field variety. The population consisted of taxi line users in the Maracaibo Municipality. Random sampling by conglomerate was applied. Reliability of the instrument was measured using the Cronbach alpha coefficient, resulting in a 0.82, which is considered acceptable. Results reveal that the quality of taxi service in the Maracaibo Municipality is moderate; therefore, this service is apt for improvements, necessary to elevate the quality of life for Marabinos. This result was obtained with the originally adapted instrument of 32 items and the resulting factorial analysis questionnaire of 24 items, confirming the appropriateness of this technique, since it reduced the number of items and the originally adapted dimensions and no significant differences were found on comparing results from the two instruments. Thus, the quality of taxi service in the Maracaibo Municipality can be measured through the dimensions: reliability of the service, socialization and responsibility.El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo describir la calidad del servicio de los taxis en el municipio Maracaibo, ya que los mismos forman parte del sistema de transporte urbano de la ciudad, y es un servicio público fundamental para la convivencia de la sociedad; para lograr este objetivo se realizó una adaptación del modelo SERVPERF, diseñando un instrumento tipo cuestionario, con 32 ítems en 6 dimensiones, adecuado a las características  propias del servicio de taxi, con la finalidad de confirmar que los ítems de los instrumentos se correspondían con las dimensiones adaptadas se aplicó la técnica de análisis factorial resultando un nuevo instrumento con 24 ítems en 3 dimensiones. Se utilizó la escala de Likert con tres (3) alternativas de respuesta. La investigación es de tipo descriptiva y aplicada, bajo diseño no experimental de tipo transeccional descriptiva y de campo. La población quedó conformada por los usuarios de las líneas de taxis del municipio Maracaibo. Se aplicó muestreo aleatorio por conglomerado. La confiabilidad del instrumento se midió a través del coeficiente alfa de Cronbach resultando de 0,82 lo cual se considera aceptable. Los resultados revelan que la calidad del servicio de taxis del municipio Maracaibo es mediana por lo tanto este servicio es susceptible a mejoras, las cuales son necesarias para elevar la calidad de vida de los marabinos. Este resultado se obtuvo con el instrumento originalmente adaptado de 32 ítems y con el cuestionario resultante del análisis factorial, de 24 ítems; esto confirma lo apropiado de esta técnica, ya que se redujo el número de ítems y de las dimensiones originalmente adaptadas y no se encontraron diferencias significativas en los resultados con ambos instrumentos; de esta manera se puede medir la calidad del servicio de taxis en el municipio Maracaibo a través de las dimensiones: confiabilidad del servicio, socialización y responsabilidad

Rarefaction-singular shock dynamics for conserved volume gravity driven particle-laden thin film

We employ a recently proposed model [Murisic et al., "Dynamics of particle settling and resuspension in viscous liquids," J. Fluid. Mech. 717, 203-231 (2013)] to study a finite-volume, particle-laden thin film flowing under gravity on an incline. For negatively buoyant particles with concentration above a critical value and buoyant particles, the particles accumulate at the front of the flow forming a particle-rich ridge, whose similarity solution is of the rarefaction-singular shock type. We investigate the structure in detail and find that the particle/fluid front advances linearly to the leading order with time to the one-third power as predicted by the Huppert solution [H. E. Huppert, "Flow and instability of a viscous current down a slope," Nature 300, 427-419 (1982)] for clear fluid (i.e., in the absence of particles). We also explore a deviation from this law when the particle concentration is high. Several experiments are carried out with both buoyant and negatively buoyant particles whose results qualitatively agree with the theoretics

Galactic ArchaeoLogIcaL ExcavatiOns (GALILEO) II. t-SNE Portrait of Local Fossil Relics and Structures

Based on high-quality APOGEE DR17 and Gaia DR3 data for 1,742 red giants stars within 5 kpc of the Sun and not rotating with the Galactic disc ($V_\phi <$ 100 km s$^{-1}$), we use the nonlinear technique of unsupervised analysis t-SNE to detect coherent structures in the space of ten chemical-abundance ratios: [Fe/H], [O/Fe], [Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Ca/Fe], [C/Fe], [N/Fe], [Al/Fe], [Mn/Fe], and [Ni/Fe]. Additionally, we obtain orbital parameters for each star using the non-axisymmetric gravitational potential {\tt GravPot16}. Seven structures are detected, including the Splash, Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus (GSE), the high-$\alpha$ heated-disc population, N-C-O peculiar stars, and inner disk-like stars, plus two other groups that did not match anything previously reported in the literature, here named Galileo 5 and Galileo 6 (G5 and G6). These two groups overlap with Splash in [Fe/H], G5 being lower metallicity than G6, both between GSE and Splash in the [Mg/Mn] versus [Al/Fe] plane, G5 in the $\alpha$-rich in-situ locus, and G6 on the border of the $\alpha$-poor in-situ one; nonetheless their low [Ni/Fe] hints to a possible ex-situ origin. Their orbital energy distributions are between the Splash and GSE, with G5 being slightly more energetic than G6. We verified the robustness of all the obtained groups by exploring a large range of t-SNE parameters, applying it to various subsets of data, and also measuring the effect of abundance errors through Monte Carlo tests.Comment: Accepted by A&A. 19 pages, 15 figures, and 3 table

Discovery of a nitrogen-enhanced mildly metal-poor binary system: Possible evidence for pollution from an extinct AGB star

We report the serendipitous discovery of a nitrogen-rich, mildly metal-poor ([Fe/H] = -1.08) giant star in a single-lined spectroscopic binary system found in the SDSS-IV Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2) survey, Data Release 14 (DR14). Previous work has assumed that two percent of halo giants with unusual elemental abundances have been evaporated from globular clusters, but other origins for their abundance signatures, including binary mass transfer, must also be explored. We present the results of an abundance reanalysis of the APOGEE-2 high-resolution near-infrared spectrum of 2M12451043+1217401 with the Brussels Automatic Stellar Parameter (BACCHUS) automated spectral analysis code. We manually re-derive the main element families, namely light elements (C, N), elements (O, Mg, Si), the iron-peak element (Fe), s-process element (Ce), and light odd-Z element (Al). Our analysis confirms the N-rich nature of 2M12451043+1217401, which has a [N/Fe] ratio of +0.69, and shows that the abundances of C and Al are slightly discrepant from those of a typical mildly metal-poor red giant branch star, but exhibit Mg, Si, O and s-process abundances (Ce) of typical field stars. We also detect a particularly large variability in the radial velocity of this star over the period of the APOGEE-2 observations; the most likely orbit fit to the radial velocity data has a period of 730.89 +/- 106.86 days, a velocity semi-amplitude of 9.92 +/- 0.14 km s(-1), and an eccentricity of similar to 0.1276 +/- 0.1174. These data support the hypothesis of a binary companion, which has probably been polluted by a now-extinct asymptotic giant branch star

An Environmental Watch System for the Andean Countries: El Observatorio Andino

An experimental Environmental Watch System, the so-called Observatorio Andino (OA), has been implemented in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile over the past 2 yr. The OA is a collaborative and regional network that aims to monitor several environmental variables and develop accurate forecasts based on different scientific tools. Its overall goal is to improve risk assessments, set up early warning systems, support decision-making processes, and provide easily and intuitively understandable spatial maps to end users. The initiative works under the scientific and logistic coordination of the Centro de Modelado Científico (CMC) at Zulia University, Venezuela, and the Centro Internacional para la Investigación del Fenómeno “El Niño” (CIIFEN), and it is operated at a local level by the national weather services (NWSs) of the above-mentioned six Andean nations. The OA provides several freely available model outputs, including meteorological and hydrological forecasts, droughts, fire and flood indices, ecosystems dynamics, climate and health applications, and 5-day high-resolution oceanographic predictions for the eastern Pacific. This article briefly describes the current products, methodologies, and dynamical and statistical modeling outputs provided by the OA. Also, a discussion on how these sets of tools have been put together as a coordinated scientific watch and forecast system for each country and for the entire region is presented. Our experiences over the past 2 yr suggest that this initiative would significantly improve the current decision-making processes in Andean countries