Economic value of freshwater provisioning services of the cryosphere in the Urumqi River, Northwest China

As an important component of cryospheric provisioning services, freshwater provisioning services of the cryosphere is particularly critical to human well-being and socio-economic sustainability. It is imperative to quantitatively estimate the value of freshwater provisioning services to facilitate informed decision-making for ecosystem management and economic development. This study assessed the economic value and associated changes in benefits of freshwater provisioning services for industrial, agricultural, services and domestic water uses combining cost-based method and hydrological model in the Urumqi River during 2010–2016. The results showed that the average annual economic value of agricultural, services, domestic and industrial water uses generated from freshwater provisioning services were estimated to be 1.7, 4.4, 9.9, and 15.7 million CNY. The annual value of snowmelt provisioning services of sectorial water uses was much higher than that of glacier meltwater due to the greater contribution of snowmelt to outlet streamflow than glacier melt. The relative contributions of agricultural, services, domestic and industrial sectors to total economic value of freshwater provisioning services were 6%, 13%, 32%, and 49% respectively, depending on the meltwater supply and market prices. The benefits of freshwater provisioning services from different sectors generally increased in 2010–2016, with a significant increase in the services sector. Considering the impact of changes in freshwater supply under climate change on the assessment of cryospheric provisioning services, the results emphasize the necessity of promoting industrial structure optimization and adopting resource-efficient policies.

Tree-based ecosystem services supply and multifunctionality of church forests and their agricultural matrix near Lake Tana,Ethiopia

Ecosystem services(ES)are the connection between nature and society,and are essential for the well-being of local communities that depend on them.In Ethiopia,church forests and the surrounding agricultural matrix supply numerous ES.However,the ES delivered by both land use types have not yet been assessed simultaneously.Here we surveyed both church forests and their agricultural matrices,aiming to quantify,compare and unravel the drivers underlying tree-based ES supply,density and multifunctionality.We found that almost all church forests and half of the agricultural matrices provided high ES densities.ES multifunctionality was higher in the agricultural matrices,suggesting that people deliberately conserve or plant multifunctional tree species.Furthermore,the supply of all categories of ES was positively correlated with church forest age(p-value<0.001)in the agricultural matrix,while the extent of church forest was positively correlated with the density of all categories ecosystem services score in the church forests(p-value<0.001).Our results can be used to prioritize conservation efforts at sites that provide high levels of ES supply,ES density and ES multifunctionality,and to prioritize restoration efforts at sites with low levels thereof.

Spatial matching and flow in supply and demand of water provision services: A case study in Xiangjiang River Basin

Global climate change and increased human consumption have aggravated the uneven spatiotemporal distribution of watershed water resources, affecting the water provision supply and demand state. However, this problem has often been ignored. The present study used the Xiangjiang River basin(XRB) as the study area, and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs(InVEST) model, demand quantification model,supply–demand ratio, and water flow formula were applied to explore the spatial heterogeneity, flow, and equilibrium between water supply and demand. The results demonstrated significant spatial heterogeneity in the upstream, midstream, and downstream regions.The areas of water shortage were mainly located the downstream of the Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan urban agglomeration, and the Hengyang basin was the most scarcity area. Affected by terrain gradients and human needs, water flow varied from-16.33 × 10^(8) m^(3) to 13.69 × 10^(8) m^(3)from the upstream to the downstream area, which provided a possibility to reduce spatial heterogeneity. In the future, measures such as strengthening water resource system control,sponge city construction, and dynamic monitoring technology should be taken to balance the supply and demand of water in different river sections of the basin. This study can provide references for regulating water resources allocation in different reaches of the basin.

COVID-19:Effect on gastroenterology and hepatology service provision and training:Lessons learnt and planning for the future

In late 2019,reports arose of a new respiratory disease in China,identified as a novel coronavirus,severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.The World Health Organisation named the disease caused by the virus‘coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)’.It was declared a pandemic in early 2020,after the disease rapidly spread across the world.COVID-19 has not only resulted in substantial morbidity and mortality but also significantly impacted healthcare service provision and training across all medical specialties with gastroenterology and Hepatology services being no exception.Internationally,most,if not all‘nonurgent’services have been placed on hold during surges of infections.As a result there have been delayed diagnoses,procedures,and surgeries which will undoubtedly result in increased morbidity and mortality.Outpatient services have been converted to remote consultations where possible in many countries.Trainees have been redeployed to help care for COVID-19 patients in other settings,resulting in disruption to their training-particularly endoscopy and outpatient clinics.This has led to significant anxiety amongst trainees,and risks prolongation of training.It is of the utmost importance to develop strategies that continue to support COVID-19-related service provision,whilst also supporting existing and future gastroenterology and Hepatology services and training.Changes to healthcare provision during the pandemic have generated new and improved frameworks of service and training delivery,which can be adopted in the post-COVID-19 world,leading to enhanced patient care.

A Software-Defined Approach to IoT Networking

It is foreseen that the Internet of Things (IoT) will comprise billions of connected devices, and this will make the provi?sioning and operation of some IoT connectivity services more challenging. Indeed, IoT services are very different from lega?cy Internet services because of their dimensioning figures and also because IoT services differ dramatically in terms of na?ture and constraints. For example, IoT services often rely on energy and CPU?constrained sensor technologies, regardless of whether the service is for home automation, smart building, e?health, or power or water metering on a regional or national scale. Also, some IoT services, such as dynamic monitoring of biometric data, manipulation of sensitive information, and pri?vacy needs to be safeguarded whenever this information is for?warded over the underlying IoT network infrastructure. This paper discusses how software?defined networking (SDN) can facilitate the deployment and operation of some advanced IoT services regardless of their nature or scope. SDN introduces a high degree of automation in service delivery and operation-from dynamic IoT service parameter exposure and negotiation to resource allocation, service fulfillment, and assurance. This paper does not argue that all IoT services must adopt SDN. Rather, it is left to the discretion of operators to decide which IoT services can best leverage SDN capabilities. This paper only discusses managed IoT services, i.e., services that are op?erated by a service provider.

Provisioning of Inter-Domain QoS-Aware Services

Cooperation among service providers, network providers, and access providers in the Internet allows the creation of new services to offer to customers that are in other domains, thus increasing revenue. However, the Internet heterogeneous environment, where each provider has its own policies, infrastructure and business goals, hinders the deployment of more advanced communication services. This paper presents a Quality of Service （QoS） for Inter-Domain Services （QIDS） model that allows inter-domain QoS-aware services to be defined, configured, and adapted in a dynamic and on-demand fashion, among service providers. This is accomplished by： 1） the use of a common communication channel （business layer） where service providers publish and search for services, and interact with each other to contract and manage these services; 2） the templates to specify the business and technical characteristics of the services; 3） the automatic composition of services using service dements （smaller services） a^cording to performance and service-specific QoS parameters; and 4） the creation and enforcement of configuration rules for the underlying infrastructure. A prototype was implemented to validate QIDS and performance tests were conducted on an inter-domain Border Gateway Protocol （BGP）/Multiprotocol Label Switching （MPLS） Virtual Private Network （VPN） scenario.

Next Generation Network Service Provision Mode and Its Developing Trend

The provision mode of the telecommunication service has experienced an evolving process, and showing the developing trend from distributed to centralized, from integrated to separated, and from closed to open. To suit this trend, there will be three provision modes as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server, Open Service Access (OSA) application server and intelligent network(IN) in Next Generation Network (NGN), provides all kinds of services and applications to the subscribers. With the popularity of broadband access and Internet, the NGN will provide single telecommunication service and act as the important national infrastructure to offer various information services to the subscribers. The service provision mode will be more open, diversified, and individualized.

Nurses’ Experiences in Service Provision a COVID-19 Dedicated Tertiary Public Hospital

Objectives: To assess the nurses’ experiences in service provision a COVID-19 dedicated tertiary public hospital. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in one tertiary level public hospital namely Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), Dhaka, Bangladesh from January to December 2021. Data were collected through face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire containing demographic details and experiences faced by the nurses in service provision during COVID-19. Data was analysed by using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) software version 23. Results: The findings revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 32.35 ± 7.248 years, the minimum age was 23 years and maximum age was 58 years. About half of the respondents 52.1% were in 21 - 30 years. The majorities 89% were female. More than half of the respondents 72.6% were Muslim and 63.83% of respondents have completed Diploma in nursing. About 32.2% respondents were living with senior citizen, 33% respondents were infected by COVID-19, 24.23% respondent mentioned nurse-Patient ratio in general ward was 1:7 and 71.08% mentioned nurse-patient ratio in I.C.U/C.C.U. was 1:3 (December 2021). PPE were available among 88.0% respondents and N95 mask were available among 84.0% respondent. About 34.8% respondents got COVID-19 guideline training and 32.4% got donning and doffing training. More than half of the respondents 76% stated that equipment is adequate, 56.38% respondents mention that insufficient of nurses and 53.7% were mentioned insufficient of subordinate staff. About 22.6% respondents faced social stigma and majorities 96.5% respondents mentioned they got proper family support. There was a significant association found between Professional educational qualification and satisfaction of current designation (p value = 0.001 Conclusion: The most important findings of this study was lack of training, insufficient of manpower especially nurses and subordinate staff, high nurse-patient ratio and fear about personal and family safety. The findings of the study will be helpful for the authority in planning for future course of action.

Impact of climate change on biodiversity and associated key ecosystem services in Africa:a systematic review

Introduction:Biodiversity and biodiversity-based ecosystems services are intrinsically dependent on the climate.During the twentieth century,climate change has posed major threats to biodiversity in Africa,and impacts are expected to increase as climate change continues and perhaps even accelerates.Outcomes:Our review shows that the multiple components of climate change are projected to affect all levels of biodiversity,from genes over species to biome level.Loss of biodiversity as a result of climate change can alter the structures and functions of African ecological systems.As a result,the provision of biodiversity-based ecosystem services and the wellbeing of people that rely on these services are being modified.Of particular concerns are“tipping points”where the exceedance of ecosystem thresholds will possibly lead to irreversible shifts of the structure of ecosystems and their services.In recent years,climate prediction models have portended continued warming and more frequent extreme weather events across the region.Such weather-related disturbances such as El Niño will place a premium on biodiversity and biodiversity-based ecosystem services that people rely on.Conclusion:As biodiversity underlies all goods and services provided by ecosystems that are crucial for human survival and well-being,this paper synthesizes and discusses observed and anticipated impacts of climate change on biodiversity and biodiversity-based ecosystem service provision and livelihoods,and what strategies might be employed to decrease current and future risks on the well-being of human in Africa.

Cosmetology Services in Ukraine:Problems of Legal Regulation

The demand for cosmetology services has been recently growing in Ukraine,but there is no proper legal regulation for their provision.The aim of the article is to analyze the current status and specific features of legal regulation for the provision of cosmetology services in Ukraine,as well as to suggest the improvements to Ukrainian legislation in this area.The main objective is to distinguish the problems and to develop suggestions to improve regulatory legal acts regulating the provision of cosmetic services in Ukraine.Materials to identify the specific features of the current state of legal regulation in regard to the provision of cosmetology services in Ukraine were the legislation and case law of Ukraine,the works of Ukrainian scholars,analytical materials and Internet resources.The methodological basis of the research is general and special methods of scientific cognition,the use of which is due to specific features of the legal regulation of the market of cosmetology services.It has been stated that there is currently no normatively established procedure and specific features for the implementation of activities for the provision of cosmetology services in Ukrainian laws;there are also no standards for their provision,treatment of complications and training of qualified personnel.The author has formulated proposals to improve the legislation regulating the provision of cosmetology services and cosmetic care to the Ukrainian population.The Ministry of Health of Ukraine was offered to develop and approve a regulatory legal act governing the procedure for the provision of cosmetology services and the list of services that can be provided exclusively by health professionals.

Civil unmanned aircraft system operation in national airspace: A survey from Air Navigation Service Provider perspective

Unmanned Aircraft Systems(UASs) have advanced technologically and surged exponentially over recent years. Currently, due to safety concerns, most civil operations of UAS are conducted in low-level uncontrolled area or in segregated controlled airspace. As the industry progresses, both operational and technological capabilities have matured to the point where UASs are expected to gain greater freedom of access to both controlled and uncontrolled airspace. Extensive technical and regulatory surveys have been conducted to enable the expanded operations. However, most surveys are derived from the perspective of UAS own operating mechanism and barely consider interactions of their non-segregated activities with the Air Traffic Management(ATM) system. Hence, to fill the gap, this paper presents a survey conducted from the perspective of Air Navigation Service Provider(ANSP), which serves to accommodate these new entrants to the overall national airspace while continuing flight safety and efficiency. The primary objectives of this paper are to:(A) describe what typical ANSP-supplied UAS Traffic Management(UTM) architecture is required to facilitate all types of civil UAS operations;(B) identify three major ANSP considerations on how UAS can be accommodated safely in civil airspace;(C) outline future directions and challenges related with UAS operations for the ANSP.

Business cases for energy storage with multiple service provision

Energy storage(ES)has been considered as the key source of flexibility to support the integration of renewable energy.Previous studies have demonstrated the substantial system cost savings by the deployment of ES,including both investment and operation of generation,transmission and distribution infrastructure.However,this societal benefit may not be realized if industry actors do not have a viable business case to appropriately capture these multiple value streams.In this context,this paper investigates the value that ES may deliver to its owner over two specific business cases in a 2030 UK system.Firstly,the application of large-scale ES in the wholesale market is analysed.It is demonstrated that the optimal allocation of ES to provide multiple services is the key element for ES to become competitive in the electricity market.In the second business case,this paper analyses the value of kilowattscale ES combined with roof photovoltaic(PV)system in the household and community level.The study shows that multiple service provision of ES through advanced pricing schemes,for example time-of-use(ToU)tariff and dynamic distribution use of system(DUoS),lead to higher value and the coordination in the community level could further justify the application of domestic ES.

A Model of Grid Service Capacity

Computational grids （CGs） are large scale networks of geographically distributed aggregates of resource clusters that may be contributed by distinct organizations for the provision of computing services such as model simulation, compute cycle and data mining. Traditionally, the decision-making strategies underlying the grid management mechanisms rely on the physical view of the grid resource model. This entails the need for complex multi-dimensional search strategies and a considerable level of resource state information exchange between the grid management domains. In this paper we argue that with the adoption of service oriented grid architectures, a logical service-oriented view of the resource model provides a more appropriate level of abstraction to express the grid capacity to handle incoming service requests. In this respect, we propose a quantification model of the aggregated service capacity of the hosting environment that is updated based on the monitored state of the various environmental resources required by the hosted services. A comparative experimental validation of the model shows its performance towards enabling an adequate exploitation of provisioned services.

Online Scheduling on Two Parallel Identical Machines Under a Grade of Service Provision

In this paper,we investigate online scheduling problems on two parallel identical machines under a grade of service provision with makespan as the objective function.The jobs arrive over time and each job can be scheduled only when it has already been arrived.We consider three different versions:(i)the two machines cannot be idle at the same time until all arrived jobs have been processed;(ii)further to the first problem,jobs are processed on a first-come,first-serviced basis;(iii)each job must be assigned to one of the two machines as soon as it arrives.Respectively for three online scheduling problems,optimal online algorithms are proposed with competitive ratio(√5+1)/2,(√5+1)/2 and 5/3.

An Optimal Resource Provision Policy in Cloud Computing Based on Customer Profiles

Conventional resource provision algorithms focus on how to maximize resource utilization and meet a fixed constraint of response time which be written in service level agreement（SLA）.Unfortunately,the expected response time is highly variable and it is usually longer than the value of SLA.So,it leads to a poor resource utilization and unnecessary servers migration.We develop a framework for customer-driven dynamic resource allocation in cloud computing.Termed CDSMS（customer-driven service manage system）,and the framework’s contributions are twofold.First,it can reduce the total migration times by adjusting the value of parameters of response time dynamically according to customers’profiles.Second,it can choose a best resource provision algorithm automatically in different scenarios to improve resource utilization.Finally,we perform a serious experiment in a real cloud computing platform.Experimental results show that CDSMS provides a satisfactory solution for the prediction of expected response time and the interval period between two tasks and reduce the total resource usage cost.