Tri-axial accelerometry allows to determine parental food provisioning behaviour in a marine bird

The study of parental food provisioning is essential for understanding the breeding ecology of birds.We conducted the first study using accelerometry to detect food provisioning in birds,using Support Vector Machine(SVM)models to identify when adults feed chicks of three different age classes.Accelerometers were attached to the head of adult female Imperial Shags(Leucocarbo atriceps),and various attributes derived from the acceleration signals were used to train SVM models for each chick age class.Model performance improved with chick age class,with SVM models achieving high overall accuracy(>88%)and highest sensitivity in older chick categories(>91%).However,precision values,especially for younger chicks,remained relatively low(between 26%and 45%).The application of a time filter based on the minimum duration of the observed food provisioning behaviours for each chick age category,improved model performance by reducing false provisioning behaviours,particularly in the model for older chicks,which showed the highest precision(72.4%).This study highlights the effectiveness of accelerometry and machine learning in studying parental food provisioning in birds,providing a rapid and accurate data collection method to complement traditional techniques.The described methodology can be applied to any bird species that exhibits distinctive movements while feeding its offspring and has suitable characteristics for attaching an accelerometer to the body part that best captures this movement.Finally,it is hoped that the results of this study will contribute to future research on key questions in parental investment theory and reproductive strategies in birds.

Provision of Preconception Care by Midwives, Nurses and Doctors at Ndola Teaching Hospital in Ndola District, Zambia

Background: The goal of preconception care is to improve the outcome of a mother’s pregnancy and childbirth. Nevertheless, in most developing nations;Zambia included, there are still issues with implementation of preconception care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to establish the provision of preconception care by midwives, nurses and doctors at Ndola Teaching Hospital in Zambia. Methods: A concurrent embedded mixed methodology utilising a descriptive explorative study design, where 107 respondents were randomly selected using the lottery technique for quantitative part and two focused group discussions for qualitative part of the study was used. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data and a focus group discussion guide was used for the focus group discussions. Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 26 with significance set at 0.05 and at 95% confidence level and thematic analysis were used for data analysis. Results: 75% of the respondents in this study were not providing preconception care and only 25% of respondents were providing preconception care;however, this was provided randomly because there were no guidelines to follow. Among the respondents, 81.3% had medium knowledge, 70.1% had good practices and 92.5% had positive attitudes towards preconception care. Further analysis showed that the association between preconception care and knowledge, practices and attitudes was not statistically significant (p = values 0.336;0.344;1.000 respectively). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that participants with high knowledge were five times more likely to provide preconception care (OR = 5.00, CI = 0.42 - 59.7, P = 0.203). Generally, all the participants acknowledged that preconception care was an important package that could prevent maternal and child morbidities and mortalities. Conclusions: The study revealed that most of the respondents were not providing preconception care. Provision of preconception was done by a small fraction of the respondents and it was done in an unorderly manner due to lack of set standards and guidelines. Despite medium levels of knowledge and generally good practices and positive attitudes towards preconception care, its random provision indicates a need for established standards to enhance maternal and child health outcomes.

Provisioning Services与XenApp联合组建局域网应用环境的研究

Citrix公司推出的基于应用流技术的Provisioning Services软件可以实现客户端通过PXE技术获取服务端采用VDisk磁盘存放的操作系统镜像文件,实现无盘启动;而同公司的基于应用虚拟化技术的XenApp软件则可以实现瘦客户端对服务器端所发布程序的访问。将两者相互结合来组建局域网应用环境,不但可以节省软硬件成本,而且对局域网络环境的管理也变得更加轻松和安全。此外还可以指定客户端可运行的应用程序,对服务器端的访问也不仅限于局域网内部。

Joint optimization of maintenance inspection and spare provisioning for aircraft deteriorating parts

With the wide application of condition based maintenance(CBM) in aircraft maintenance practice, the joint optimization of maintenance and inventory management, which can take full advantage of CBM and reduce the aircraft operational cost, is receiving increasing attention. In order to optimize the inspection interval, maintenance decision and spare provisioning together for aircraft deteriorating parts, firstly, a joint inventory management strategy is presented, then, a joint optimization of maintenance inspection and spare provisioning for aircraft parts subject to the Wiener degradation process is proposed based on the strategy.Secondly, a combination of the genetic algorithm(GA) and the Monte Carol method is developed to minimize the total cost rate.Finally, a case study is conducted and the proposed joint optimization model is compared with the existing optimization model and the airline real case. The results demonstrate that the proposed model is more beneficial and effective. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of the proposed model shows that the lead time has higher influence on the optimal results than the urgent order cost and the corrective maintenance cost, which is consistent with the actual situation of aircraft maintenance practices and inventory management.

Adaptive Service Provisioning for Mobile Edge Cloud

A mobile edge cloud provides a platform to accommodate the offloaded traffic workload generated by mobile devices.It can significantly reduce the access delay for mobile application users.However,the high user mobility brings significant challenges to the service provisioning for mobile users,especially to delay-sensitive mobile applications.With the objective to maximize a profit,which positively associates with the overall admitted traffic served by the local edge cloud,and negatively associates with the access delay as well as virtual machine migration delay,we study a fundamental problem in this paper:how to update the service provisioning solution for a given group of mobile users.Such a profit-maximization problem is formulated as a nonlinear integer linear programming and linearized by absolute value manipulation techniques.Then,we propose a framework of heuristic algorithms to solve this Nondeterministic Polynomial(NP)-hard problem.The numerical simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the devised algorithms.Some useful summaries are concluded via the analysis of evaluation results.

Exploring Hits-Based Content Provisioning Mechanism in Content-Centric Networking

In-network caching and Interest packets aggregation are two important features of Content-Centric Networking(CCN).CCN routers can directly respond to the Interest request by Content Store(CS)and aggregate the same Interest packets by Pending Interest Table(PIT).In this way,most popular content requests will not reach the origin content server.Thus,content providers will be unaware of the actual usages of their contents in network.This new network paradigm presents content providers with unprecedented challenge.It will bring a great impact on existing mature business model of content providers,such as advertising revenue model based on hits amount.To leverage the advantages of CCN and the realistic business needs of content providers,we explore the hits-based content provisioning mechanism in CCN.The proposed approaches can avoid the unprecedented impact on content providers' existing business model and promote content providers to embrace the real deployment of CCN network.

PacketCable下eUE的安全Provisioning机制

本文介绍了一种基于Packet Cable2.0的eUE安全Provisioning过程和机制。在这种机制下,设计了一种E-UE的Provisioning架构,并详细定义了该架构下eUE与各个逻辑功能组件之间的交互过程。出于安全性的考虑,该机制通过加入KDC服务器来保证系统内部各组件之间安全的交互认证过程,有效地防止网络中可能出现的信息泄露、篡改和劫取等安全威胁,实现PacketCable下eUE的安全Provisoning过程。

Space- and time-efficient approach for virtual machine provisioning

As a new promising paradigm, cloud computing can make good use of economics of scale and elastically deliver almost any IT related services on demand. Nevertheless, one of the key problems remaining in cloud computing is related to virtual machine images, which require a great amount of space/time to reposit/provision, especially with diverse requests from thousands of users simultaneously. In this paper, by using the splitting and eliminating redundant data techniques, a space and time efficient approach for virtual machines is proposed. The experiments demonstrate that, compared with existing solutions, our approach can conserve more disk space and speed up the provisioning of virtual machines.

Switching between multiplexing and diversity in MIMO systems with QoS provisioning

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems can significantly improve the spectrum efficiency or transmission reliability through spatial multiplexing or diversity respectively.Most of previous works mainly have focused on the multiplexing-diversity tradeoff or switching between multiplexing and diversity without considering the property of heterogeneous QoS provisioning.In this paper,switching between multiplexing and diversity in MIMO system with the heterogeneous QoS provisioning is studied.Firstly the QoS provisioning for users are classified into two classes:users with real time service requirement and users with non-real time service requirement respectively.Then based on the heterogeneous QoS Provisioning for users,two different switching criterions are proposed,switching based on the Euclidean distance for users with real time service to minimize the probability of symbol error and capacity-based switching criterion for users with non-real time service to maximize the transmission capacity respectively.Finally,numerical simulation results are illustrated to demonstrate the performance of proposed scheme.

Prolonged milk provisioning and extended maternal care in the milking spider Toxeus magnus: biological implications and questions unresolved

Prolonged milk provisioning and extended parental care for nutritionally independent offspring, previously considered to only co-occur in long-lived mammals (Clutton-Brock, 1991;Royle et al., 2012), were recently reported in the reproduction of the milking spider, Toxeus magnus (Chen et al. 2018). Newly hatched T. magnus spiderlings require 53 days to develop to maturity, with an average adult body length of 6.6 mm.

Enhanced Cloud Service Provisioning for Social Networks

In the era of cloud computing and social networks prosperity, new requirements rise up for cloud services that meet social network’s needs. Several cloud service providers deliver social network services for cloud services users. The aim of this paper is to develop a framework to pick the best cloud service providers from group of available providers based on many Quality-of-Service (“QoS”) criteria attributes in order to enhance efficiency, accuracy and service provisioning. This paper also aims to provide a classification for QoS criteria attributes, which is divided into five main attributes and sub-attributes, helping in enhancing ranking process in the provided framework.

Cloud Service Provisioning Based on Peer-to-Peer Network for Flexible Service Sharing and Discovery

In this paper, we present an approach to establish efficient and scalable service provisioning in the cloud environment using P2P-based infrastructure for storing, sharing and discovering services. Unlike most other P2P-based approaches, it allows flexible search queries, since all of them are executed against internal database presenting at each overlay node. Various issues concerning using this approach in the cloud environment, such as load-balancing, queuing, dealing with skewed data and dynamic attributes, are addressed in the paper. The infrastructure proposed in the paper can serve as a base for creating robust, scalable and reliable cloud systems, able to fulfill client’s QoS requirements, and at the same time introduce more efficient utilization of resources to the cloud provider.

Mobile Applications Provisioning Using Bluetooth Wireless Technology

In this paper, we propose a cheap means for propagating mobile application using Bluetooth, a convenient short range wireless technology. Today, one of the main problems about mobile technology is about implementing automatically the software in the multiple and various type of phones devices, irrespective of the phone model (Nokia, Samsung, iPhone, etc.). There are many ways of doing OTA like by SMS. This approach allows providing an http download link by SMS but, we are limited by the maximum size one can have to build an application and send it trough this means. This approach is also expensive because data sources are expensive. Within the context of mobile social networking and proximity marketing, we come up with an original way of provisioning mobile applications using Bluetooth. We use anybody who is already a subscriber of an application to become an ambassador of it. The application is self-replicating and distributing in itself and sending back results. It ethically acts like a virus or a disease. A prototype is built to validate the proposed methodology.

Resource provisioning for computation and communication in multi-cell wireless networks

The convergence of computation and communication at network edges plays a significant role in coping with computation-intensive and delay-critical tasks.During the stage of network planning,the resource provisioning problem for edge nodes has to be investigated to provide prior information for future system configurations.This work focuses on how to quantify the computation capabilities of access points at network edges when provisioning resources of computation and communication in multi-cell wireless networks.The problem is formulated as a discrete and non-convex minimization problem,where practical constraints including delay requirements,the inter-cell interference,and resource allocation strategies are considered.An iterative algorithm is also developed based on decomposition theory and fractional programming to solve this problem.The analysis shows that the necessary computation capability needed for certain delay guarantee depends on resource allocation strategies for delay-critical tasks.For delay-tolerant tasks,it can be approximately estimated by a derived lower bound which ignores the scheduling strategy.The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated using numerical results.

Inter-individual variation in provisioning rate,prey size and number,and links to total prey biomass delivered to nestlings in the Collared Flycatcher(Ficedula albicollis)

Background:In bird species where offspring growth and survival rely on parents’food provisioning,parents can maximise their fitness by increasing the quantity and/or the quality of preys delivered to their offspring.Many studies have focused on inter-individual variation in feeding rate,yet this measure may not accurately reflect the total amount of food(i.e.energy)provided by parents if there is large variation in the quantity and quality of preys at each feeding.Here,we explored the relative role of individual(sex,age,body condition),breeding(hatching date,brood size)and environmental(temperature)factors on feeding rate,prey number,size and quality,and their contribution to total prey biomass delivered to the nestlings of 164 Collared Flycatcher(Ficedula albicollis)parents in 98 nests.Results:Preys delivered to the nest were mainly larvae(53.6%)and flying insects(45.6%).Feeding rate increased with brood size and age,and was higher in males than females.Mean prey number decreased,but mean prey size increased,as the season progressed and parents feeding their brood with primary larvae brought more preys per visit.Relationships between feeding rate,mean prey number and size remained when taking into account the provision-ing quality:parents brought either a large number of small prey or a small number of larger items,and the force of the trade-offs between feeding rate and mean prey number and size depended on the quality of the provisioning of the parents.Whatever the percentage of larvae among preys in the provisioning,the variance in total prey biomass was foremost explained by feeding rate(65.1%to 76.6%)compared to mean prey number(16.4%to 26%)and prey size(2.7%to 4%).Conclusions:Our study shows that variation in feeding rate,prey number,size,but not quality(i.e.percentage of lar-vae),were influenced by individual factors(sex and age)and breeding decisions(brood size and timing of breeding)and that,whatever the provisioning strategy adopted,feeding rate was the best proxy of the total biomass delivered to the nestlings.

An Assessment of the Within-Year Seasonality in the Loan Loss Provisioning Behavior of European Banks

This study aims at assessing whether a significant within-year seasonality exists in the loan loss provisioning behavior of European listed banks observed in the period from 2004 to 2013. Since the accuracy of auditing processes and the level of disclosure requirements in financial reports differ among quarters, during the year, banks may have a leeway to underestimate and postpone the complete provisioning of loan losses in the less regulated and less audited quarters. We hypothesize that those differences are relevant factors which determine non-lower or significantly higher average levels of loan loss provisions in the half-yearly and especially in the annual financial reports than in the interim management statements disclosed in the first and the third quarters of the year. We also investigate the impact of the recent financial crisis and develop a special analysis for the ltalian banks＇ case. The empirical results support our hypotheses, suggesting that, in some cases, a convergence among quarterly levels of auditing processes and disclosure requirements may be needed. Our work contributes to the existing literature by providing additional evidences and considerations on the within-year seasonality in the loan loss provisioning behavior of European listed banks observed in the last decade.

International Telecommunication Union Standardization for Trust Provisioning in Information, Communication and Technology Infrastructure toward Achieving United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals

The advancement of the fourth industrial revolution has shaped the integration and interaction of different information, communication and technologies (ICTs) in the merging cyber, physical, and social infrastructures. The impact of ICT has accelerated the progress of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and influenced the evolution of smart, sustainable, stable society development. Making the trustworthy information and communication technologies infrastructure widely available will promote the community innovation needed to stimulate domestic economics, provide decent work, and reduce inequalities. This article attempts to outline a big picture about the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)’s trust provisioning framework, including its motivation, current status, and application for achieving the UN SDGs by 2030. This article first describes the purpose of the UN SDGs and the evolution of the industrial revolution, then demonstrates the challenges of global risks affecting the fourth industrial revolution and the need for trustworthy ICT infrastructures. Subsequently, the article evaluates the ITU trust provisioning framework and assesses its applications in the future knowledge society, trust provisioning ecosystem, and cyber, physical, and social infrastructure toward achieving UN SDGs. Use cases are also presented in this article to show the effectiveness of the ITU trust provisioning framework on achieving UN SDGs.

The Material Provisioning Dynamics Analysis and Simulation in the Smart Manufacturing Theme

The nature of production is time dominated based, it requires to manage the material supply, the product delivery, and the time of the process in an effective and efficient way. This paper posits the production behaves as a dynamic system that requires a model to optimize the production scheduling with the flexibility of predictive settings and to give a holistic overview about the dynamic properties of the material and the product across the cycle time to the factory planner.

Loan Loss Provisioning Practices

The purpose of this paper is to come up with factors in loan loss provisioning practices on commercial banks that reflect on collectability of defaulted loans. The need for this research is due to failures in the loan loss provisioning practices which resulted in loan loss provisions （LLP） not reflecting on collectability of the defaulted loans. As a consequence, the banks do not capture their loss expectations and do not continuously reassess their loss expectations as the conditions affecting their borrowers may change. Henceforth, in their financial reporting, the banks do not represent relevantly and faithfully their true underlying credit risks conditions. When the banks do not represent relevantly and faithfully their true underlying risk conditions, they contradict the objectives of useful financial reporting. The results showed that among explanatory variables, bad debt recoveries as a factor in loan loss provisioning practices that reflect on collectability of defaulted loans was rejected. Bad debt recoveries was a biased variable and inconsistent estimator. In context of perceived credit risks as the basis to make credit judgments, an estimate of bad debt recoveries had not fulfilled the criteria. On the other hand, non-performing loans （NPL） as a factor in loan loss provisioning practices was not rejected.

Impact of Mandatory Provisions on the Validity of Juristic Acts: A Path for Legal Policy Analysis

Contrary to the approach in judicial practice,Paragraph 1,Article 153,of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China,as a rule of invalidity for violating mandatory provisions,does not adopt a dichotomy towards mandatory provisions with effectiveness and administrative characteristics,yet it maintains the legislative philosophy of differentiation.It leaves unspecified whether mandatory provisions that do not explicitly render a juristic act invalid impact the act’s validity,entrusting this determination to the discretion of judges on a case-by-case basis.When judges,under the authority of Paragraph 1,Article 153 of the Civil Code,explore the normative intent of mandatory provisions to assess their effect on the validity of juristic acts,they should engage in legal policy analysis centered on consequence-based argumentation to overcome the limitations of norm typological analysis.This analysis employs a reasoning model predicated on the normative purpose,utilizing a consequencefocused interpretative approach for formulating and arguing propositions of rules applicable to pending cases,thereby arriving at case-specific conclusions.Since the invalidation of juristic acts serves as an auxiliary regulatory tool for the state economy and society,a consequence-oriented interpretation needs to be based on the idea of mutual instrumentalization of public and private laws.This entails predicting the outcomes of negating the validity of a juristic act in industrial regulatory scenarios and assessing these outcomes within the framework of public and private regulatory instruments.