Efficient Distribution Of Resources Research Articles

A Brief Political Economy of Energy Subsidies in the Middle East and North Africa

Energy subsidies are among the most pervasive and controversial fiscal policy tools used in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In a region with few functioning social welfare systems, subsidised energy prices continue to form an important social safety net, albeit a highly costly and inefficient one. In the MENA region’s oil and gas producing countries, low energy prices have also historically formed an important element of an unwritten social contract, where governments have extracted their countries’ hydrocarbon riches in return for citizens’ participation in sharing resource rents. While it is clear that energy subsidy reform will not be the only variable at play, its potential socio-economic dividends are important factors for enabling some common regional objectives—sustainable fiscal policies, fiscal space to invest in key areas, and a more efficient and equitable distribution of scarce resources—to be achieved, helping to promote a more stable political status quo in the long term. If accommodated by effective mitigation measures, reforming energy subsidies in the MENA region’s middle-income economies could be a powerful tool for governments—addressing those very profound socio-economic grievances that have contributed to the outbreak of political protest and, in some cases, to an intensification of domestic infighting over political control. In this paper, we look at some of the MENA region’s potential avenues for reform. While the past has demonstrated the political difficulty of reforming energy prices, recent experience also shows that the reform of energy subsidies can be achieved, if accompanied by a set of enabling factors.

A Mechanism for Fair Distribution of Resources without Payments.

We design a mechanism for Fair and Efficient Distribution of Resources (FEDoR) in the presence of strategic agents. We consider a multiple-instances, Bayesian setting, where in each round the preference of an agent over the set of resources is a private information. We assume that in each of r rounds n agents are competing for k non-identical indivisible goods, (n > k). In each round the strategic agents declare how much they value receiving any of the goods in the specific round. The agent declaring the highest valuation receives the good with the highest value, the agent with the second highest valuation receives the second highest valued good, etc. Hence we assume a decision function that assigns goods to agents based on their valuations. The novelty of the mechanism is that no payment scheme is required to achieve truthfulness in a setting with rational/strategic agents. The FEDoR mechanism takes advantage of the repeated nature of the framework, and through a statistical test is able to punish the misreporting agents and be fair, truthful, and socially efficient. FEDoR is fair in the sense that, in expectation over the course of the rounds, all agents will receive the same good the same amount of times. FEDoR is an eligible candidate for applications that require fair distribution of resources over time. For example, equal share of bandwidth for nodes through the same point of access. But further on, FEDoR can be applied in less trivial settings like sponsored search, where payment is necessary and can be given in the form of a flat participation fee. FEDoR can be a good candidate in a setting like that to solve the problem of starvation of publicity slots for some advertisers that have a difficult time determining their true valuations. To this extent we perform a comparison with traditional mechanisms applied to sponsored search, presenting the advantage of FEDoR.

Development of an estuarine assessment scheme for the management of a highly urbanised catchment/estuary system, Sydney estuary, Australia.

As coastal populations increase, considerable pressures are exerted on estuarine environments. Recently, there has been a trend towards the development and use of estuarine assessment schemes as a decision support tool in the management of these environments. These schemes offer a method by which complex environmental data is converted into a readily understandable and communicable format for informed decision making and effective distribution of limited management resources. Reliability and effectiveness of these schemes are often limited due to a complex assessment framework, poor data management and use of ineffective environmental indicators. The current scheme aims to improve reliability in the reporting of estuarine condition by including a concise assessment framework, employing high-value indicators and, in a unique approach, employing fuzzy logic in indicator evaluation. Using Sydney estuary as a case study, each of the 15 sub-catchment/sub-estuary systems were assessed using the current scheme. Results identified that poor sediment quality was a significant issue in Blackwattle/Rozelle Bay, Iron Cove and Hen and Chicken Bay while poor water quality was of particular concern in Duck River, Homebush Bay and the Parramatta River. Overall results of the assessment scheme were used to prioritise the management of each sub-catchment/sub-estuary assessed with Blackwattle/Rozelle Bay, Homebush Bay, Iron Cove and Duck River considered to be in need of a high priority management response. A report card format, using letter grades, was employed to convey the results of the assessment in a readily understood manner to estuarine managers and members of the public. Letter grades also provide benchmarking and performance monitoring ability, allowing estuarine managers to set improvement targets and assesses the effectiveness of management strategies. The current assessment scheme provides an effective, integrated and consistent assessment of estuarine health and provides an effective decision support tool to maximise the efficient distribution of limited management resources.

ANALYSIS IMBALANCE IN THE PROVISION MIDWIFE ON THE STAFF OF OBSTETRIC SERVICES THE RYAZAN AREA WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DEMOGRAPHIC SITUATION

Modern demographic situation determines the need for optimization of organizational technologies in nursing regional maternity hospitals, which will allow more efficient distribution and use of human resources, to co-ordinate services and facilities to meet the requirements of the current situation.

How to Efficiently Distribute Scarce Resources: Volatile Decision Behavior and Optimal Guidance through Information Services

The coordinated and efficient distribution of limited resources by individual decisions is a fundamental and unsolved problem. When individuals compete for road capacities, time, space, money, etc., they normally take decisions based on aggregate rather than complete information, such as TV news or stock market indices. In related experiments, we have observed a volatile decision dynamics and far-from-optimal return distributions. We have also identified ways of information presentation that can considerably improve the overall performance of the system. In order to determine optimal strategies of decision guidance by means of userspecific recommendations, we have developed a stochastic behavioural description. These strategies manage to increase the adaptibility to changing returns and to reduce the deviation from the time-dependent user equilibrium, thereby enhancing the average and individual payoffs. Hence, our guidance strategies can increase the performance of all users by reducing overreaction and stabilizing decision behaviour. Our results are highly significant for predicting decision behaviour, for reaching optimal behavioural distributions by decision support systems, and for information service providers.

Analysis of a queue length aware and latency guaranteed fuzzy-based adaptive resource allocator for WiMAX networks

Escalation of multimedia devices in recent times has prompted human appetite for affluent multimedia applications. The QoS demands of these applications can only be satisfied by more and more powerful networks. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) networks are best suitable to serve these real-time applications; however, quantity of non-real time and best-effort traffic also cannot be neglected. Fair and efficient distribution of resources is always challenging in these networks and schedulers need to be adaptive and passable in order to guarantee appreciable performance levels. This paper introduces a quality of service mechanism based on concepts of fuzzy logic for scheduling different traffic classes in WiMAX networks. The proposed framework simplifies fair allocation of resources to real as well as non-real-time traffic classes. The scheduling ploy is developed by modifying weighted fair queuing algorithm to work adaptively by changing weights of queues serving real- and non-real-time traffic using fuzzy logic inferencing capabilities. New weights are calculated adaptively and these weights decide amount of bandwidth allocated to a particular traffic class. The proposed system works on three parameters: amount of real- and non-real-time traffic in queues, throughput requirement for non-real-time flows, and latency requirement of real-time data. Efficiency and fairness of proposed method is evaluated by performing versatile experiments and comparisons with established practices. The results obtained as implication of proposed work are quite promising.

Probable nature of higher-dimensional symmetries underlying mammalian grid-cell activity patterns.

Lattices abound in nature-from the crystal structure of minerals to the honey-comb organization of ommatidia in the compound eye of insects. These arrangements provide solutions for optimal packings, efficient resource distribution, and cryptographic protocols. Do lattices also play a role in how the brain represents information? We focus on higher-dimensional stimulus domains, with particular emphasis on neural representations of physical space, and derive which neuronal lattice codes maximize spatial resolution. For mammals navigating on a surface, we show that the hexagonal activity patterns of grid cells are optimal. For species that move freely in three dimensions, a face-centered cubic lattice is best. This prediction could be tested experimentally in flying bats, arboreal monkeys, or marine mammals. More generally, our theory suggests that the brain encodes higher-dimensional sensory or cognitive variables with populations of grid-cell-like neurons whose activity patterns exhibit lattice structures at multiple, nested scales.

Integrating Volunteers into Rescue Processes

Recently, rescue worker resources have not been sufficient to meet the regular response time during large-scale catastrophic events in every case. However, many volunteers supported official forces in different disaster situations, often self-organized through social media. In this paper, a system will be introduced which allows the coordination of trained volunteers by a professional control center with the objective of a more efficient distribution of human resources and technical equipment. Volunteers are contacted via app on their private smartphone. The design of this app is based on user requirements gathered in focus group discussions. The feedback of the potential users includes privacy aspects, low energy consumption, and mechanisms for long-term motivation and training. The authors present the results of the focus group analyses as well as the transfer to their app design concept.

Strategy of Sustainable Development in Investment Portfolio Case

1. Introduction Relevence of research. The correct choice of financial instruments is one of the most important criteria for a successful investment. Selection of companies plays an important role in whole capital investment chain. In such a turbulent environment of financial market to achieve specific goals investors are looking for new strategies, tools, and measures that would help to contain the increasing risk, while maintaining the same, or even greater than the market's profitability of the investment. To satisfy the growing investment needs, already created and argued out methods are being improved, the classical synthesis strategies are being created, that in many cases the existing results would be improved. So it is clear, that constant monitoring of stock, an appropriate choice of stock selection strategy is the most important tool to achieve the desired return on the investment portfolio. Economists focus and the lack of published researchs led the authors to investigate the selection of companies in the investment portfolio, based on the discounted cash flow method strategy that has the theoretical basis and practical application to the global capital markets. Research problem. How to select investments in the global capital markets, so that they won't exceed the tolerable level of risk, provide the highest return for such risks and guaranteed development of sustainable portfolio. Research subject. Investments, consisting of the global capital markets quoted companies stock. Research goal. To verify the individual financial assets as the financial elements of the system and to evaluate the benefits of the financial assets portfolio of those subjects who borrow this capital. Hypothesis. Investment selection by discounted cash flow method constitutes a premise to obtain higher than the market's return. 2. Grounded Theory and the Concept of Sustainable Development of the Financial System Emerging concept of sustainable development requires to take a look back at the failures of the financial system, pay attention not only to economic growth but also to pay the same attention to the ecological and social dimension. In the scientific literature (Ravichandran 2007, Stiglitz, 2009, Alfonso 2012, Castren 2010, Goodschild 2012, Sharma 2012, Thalassinos et al. 2013) sustainable development of financial system is often limited to the analysis of economic aspect problematic. For the authorss of the article, it became a challenge to find innovative concepts for sustainable financial system, its evolution and improvement solutions. In fact, talking about the environmental dimension of the financial system is extremely difficult, but based on the Grounded Theory model, could be returned to the concept of sustainable element. This concept became popular after Bruntlandt Commission in 1987 published the report Our Common Future. It is important to note that until now, this concept has not been fully disscused. Based on the fundamental concepts of the guidelines: enlargement of general level of these days and future generations welfare, minimization of these days level of risk, economic stability, efficient distribution of resources (capital), competitive and sustainable environment, the authorss proposed an innovative approach and a new concept of the global financial system's sustainability. Thus, based on the application of grounded theory in the financial system, its sustainable development and taking into account all of the above listed theories of sustainability guidelines, without exception comprising three the most important aspects of this concept, combining but not distincting these components, we will be able to take advantage of the Grounded theory and its methods applied. Grounded theory is important because it is extremely focused on finding the interpretation of the problem as a whole and of its parts. If going deeper into the origins of Grounded Theory, components of financial system and sustainability concept can be easily perceived, evaluated and combined. …

Ants build transportation networks that optimize cost and efficiency at the expense of robustness

Like modern human societies, many biological systems are dependent on transportation networks for the efficient distribution of resources and information. Network builders face the daunting challenge of optimizing conflicting network criteria such as robustness, efficiency, and cost, which cannot be optimized simultaneously. Here, we use graph and network theory to examine the trail networks of the polydomous meat ant Iridomyrmex purpureus. Meat ants build and maintain physical trails that connect their multiple nests to each other and to food resources. The resulting transportation network is used to distribute workers, brood, and food resources. We found that meat ants built low-cost trail networks that were relatively efficient. However, networks were less robust than comparable simulated networks, suggesting that meat ants prioritize cost and efficiency over robustness. Populous nests had higher connectivity than did less populous nests, implying they play a key role in resource distribution throughout the network. We propose that meat ant networks are an ideal model system for the development of network optimization heuristics.

Interactions between voluntary and involuntary attention modulate the quality and temporal dynamics of visual processing.

Successfully navigating a dynamic environment requires the efficient distribution of finite neural resources. Voluntary (endogenous) covert spatial attention selectively allocates those processing resources to goal-relevant locations in the visual scene in the absence of eye movements. However, the allocation of spatial attention is not always voluntary; abrupt onsets in the visual periphery automatically enhance processing of nearby stimuli (exogenous attention). In dynamic environments, exogenous events and internal goals likely compete to determine the distribution of attention, but how such competition is resolved is not well understood. To investigate how exogenous events interact with the concurrent allocation of voluntary attention, we used a speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure. SAT conjointly measures the rate of information accrual and asymptotic discriminability, allowing us to measure how attentional interactions unfold over time during stimulus processing. We found that both types of attention sped information accrual and improved discriminability. However, focusing endogenous attention at the target location reduced the effects of exogenous cues on the rate of information accrual and rendered negligible their effects on asymptotic discriminability. We verified the robustness of these findings in four additional experiments that targeted specific, critical response delays. In conclusion, the speed and quality of visual processing depend conjointly on internally and externally driven attentional states, but it is possible to voluntarily diminish distraction by irrelevant events in the periphery.

Prioritizing small hydropower projects in scenarios with limited financial resources

Because of the maturity of its technology, small scale hydropower generation is one of the main energy sources to be considered to provide electricity to areas far from the national grid. Very often, because of the economic limitations of the communities that can be supplied with electricity, these projects are unappealing from the entrepreneur's point of view; however, they can have such a great positive impact on the life of these communities, with little impact on the environment, that they may well justify subsidies for their construction. This paper describes a mathematical model that combines multicriteria analysis and a knapsack problem formulation for optimizing the distribution of limited financial resources among several options available of hydropower projects with a stochastic behavior in their initial cost. The test data were obtained mainly from 14 prefeasibility studies of sites in rural Nicaragua with potential for small hydropower. Five scenarios are presented, assessing the impact of multicriteria and different subsidy conditions or economic efficiency requirements. The results indicate that the presented method is suitable to be used for an efficient distribution of limited monetary resources for funding small hydropower projects, and, therefore, can be a useful tool in decision making process. The proposed method can be adapted for application to projects based on other forms of renewable energy, and can also be adapted for prioritization of projects based on different energy resources.

Trends in postgraduate medical education in Iran

Trends in postgraduate medical education in Iran Shima Tabatabai, Seyed Amir Mohsen Ziaee Background Iran is designing an evidence-based plan for promoting postgraduate medical education and efficient distribution of health professional human resources. An important part of this program is foresight studies for post graduate medical education considering the important trends affecting the future of health status and postgraduate medical education in Iran. In this article, we clarify such trends in Iran. Methods For this study, we used a systematic review of current evidence about the mega trends affecting the future of medical education. Also we gathered opinions of key stakeholders in expert panels. Results Following trends identified as affecting the health system and post graduate medical education in Iran: demographic changes; epidemiologic transition; physician work patterns changes, female specialists number growth, changes in patients’ expectations of health services; growth in information and communication technologies; new advances in diagnostic and therapeutic technolo ... BMC Health Services Research

Ant-Inspired Mini-Community-Based Solution for Video-On-Demand Services in Wireless Mobile Networks

Highly efficient distribution and management of media resources and fast content discovery are key determinants for mobile peer-to-peer video-on-demand solutions, especially in wireless mobile networks. Virtual communities making use of users' common characteristics such as interest and interaction to describe the boundary of sharing content and objects are a promising avenue for high-efficiency resource sharing. In this paper, we propose a novel ant-inspired mini-community-based video sharing solution for on-demand streaming services in wireless mobile networks (AMCV). AMCV relies on a newly designed two layer architecture and on an algorithm inspired from the indirect communication between ants via pheromone trails which enables them to discover and use shortest paths. The architecture is composed of a mini-community network layer and a community member layer. The ant-inspired algorithm enables finding the common interest of users in video content within large amounts of pseudo disorderly interactive behavior data. AMCV proposes an ant colony optimization-based community communication strategy that dynamically bridges communities to support fast search for resources. AMCV achieves high scalability by making use of a designed community maintenance mechanism to uniformly distribute the maintenance cost of members and resources in the community, according to various member roles. Simulation-based testing shows how AMCV outperforms another state-of- the-art solution in terms of a wide set of performance metrics.

Labour Mobility Impact on Sending Countries. Romanian EU Workers Case Study

Free movement of workers is one of the four freedoms of EU law and and labour force relocation through temporary migration is a form of efficient distribution of resources on the EU labour market. Although it is estimated that the net effects labour mobility leads to win-win for both countries involved, the higher demand for qualified workforce and extending the average duration of temporary mobility increases win-win imbalance to the detriment of the country of origin. In sending countries, labour migration may lead to mitigation of the labour market by reducing unemployment and wage growth, but may also emphasize imbalances directly, or through spillover effects. As EU Romanians mobile workers are over 2.25 million (2011, WB) and the trend of growth continues, though more moderate in the crisis, the effects on the Romanian economy grow and “advantages of mobility” are significantly lower. In this paper we have estimated the main effects of the free movement of Romanian workers in the EU and identified appropriate policy measures to manage outflows. We used labour force survey data and estimates of BM and determined the impact on socio -economic variables such as GDP, the level and structure of employment, on state budget incomes, investment potential.

NEST: A quantitative model for detecting emerging trends using a global monitoring expert network and Bayesian network

The analysis of changes in the research and development (R&D) environment and developing foresight of future technologies are increasingly recognized as important to support policy decision making and efficient resource distribution. Many futurists are developing foresight of future technologies based on Delphi studies, unfolding history, brainstorming, expert surveys, trend analysis, data mining, and so on. However, formalizing these processes is still a necessary task. In this paper, we introduce the NEST (New and Emerging Signals of Trends) model developed by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI). The NEST collects information from worldwide expert networks and detects the weak signals of emerging future trends systematically, based on massive data analysis, inference techniques, and Delphi studies, to support the development of foresight of future research and technology. The NEST model combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. In the quantitative approach stages, NEST uses clustering, pattern recognition, and cross-impact analysis using a Bayesian network. In the stages of qualitative approaches, NEST conducts environmental scanning, brainstorming, and a Delphi study.

NFC 기반의 스마트워크 서비스 모델 설계

Since Korean government announced `Smartwork promotion strategy` in 2010, Korean firms and government organizations have started to adopt smartwork. However, the smartwork has been implemented only in a few of large enterprises and government organizations rather than SMEs (small and medium enterprises). In USA, both Yahoo! and Best Buy have stopped their flexible work because of its reported low productivity and job loafing problems. In addition, according to the literature on smartwork, we could draw obstacles of smartwork adoption and categorize them into the three types: institutional, organizational, and technological. The first category of smartwork adoption obstacles, institutional, include the difficulties of smartwork performance evaluation metrics, the lack of readiness of organizational processes, limitation of smartwork types and models, lack of employee participation in smartwork adoption procedure, high cost of building smartwork system, and insufficiency of government support. The second category, organizational, includes limitation of the organization hierarchy, wrong perception of employees and employers, a difficulty in close collaboration, low productivity with remote coworkers, insufficient understanding on remote working, and lack of training about smartwork. The third category, technological, obstacles include security concern of mobile work, lack of specialized solution, and lack of adoption and operation know-how. To overcome the current problems of smartwork in reality and the reported obstacles in literature, we suggest a novel smartwork service model based on NFC(Near Field Communication). This paper suggests NFC-based Smartwork Service Model composed of NFC-based Smartworker networking service and NFC-based Smartwork space management service. NFC-based smartworker networking service is comprised of NFC-based communication/SNS service and NFC-based recruiting/job seeking service. NFC-based communication/SNS Service Model supplements the key shortcomings that existing smartwork service model has. By connecting to existing legacy system of a company through NFC tags and systems, the low productivity and the difficulty of collaboration and attendance management can be overcome since managers can get work processing information, work time information and work space information of employees and employees can do real-time communication with coworkers and get location information of coworkers. Shortly, this service model has features such as affordable system cost, provision of location-based information, and possibility of knowledge accumulation. NFC-based recruiting/job-seeking service provides new value by linking NFC tag service and sharing economy sites. This service model has features such as easiness of service attachment and removal, efficient space-based work provision, easy search of location-based recruiting/job-seeking information, and system flexibility. This service model combines advantages of sharing economy sites with the advantages of NFC. By cooperation with sharing economy sites, the model can provide recruiters with human resource who finds not only long-term works but also short-term works. Additionally, SMEs (Small Medium-sized Enterprises) can easily find job seeker by attaching NFC tags to any spaces at which human resource with qualification may be located. In short, this service model helps efficient human resource distribution by providing location of job hunters and job applicants. NFC-based smartwork space management service can promote smartwork by linking NFC tags attached to the work space and existing smartwork system. This service has features such as low cost, provision of indoor and outdoor location information, and customized service. In particular, this model can help small company adopt smartwork system because it is light-weight system and cost-effective compared to existing smartwork system. This paper proposes the scenarios of the service models, the roles and incentives of the participants, and the comparative analysis. The superiority of NFC-based smartwork service model is shown by comparing and analyzing the new service models and the existing service models. The service model can expand scope of enterprises and organizations that adopt smartwork and expand the scope of employees that take advantages of smartwork.

The City-State in Europe, 1000–1600: Hinterland, Territory, Region by Tom Scott (review)

Reviewed by: The City-State in Europe, 1000–1600: Hinterland, Territory, Region by Tom Scott Carolyn James Scott, Tom, The City-State in Europe, 1000–1600: Hinterland, Territory, Region, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012; hardback; pp. 400; R.R.P. £35.00; ISBN 9780199274604. In this well written and thoughtful study, Tom Scott interrogates the conventional assumption that the late medieval and early modern city-states of Europe were so diverse that a comparative analysis from a European-wide perspective cannot offer any meaningful insights into their origins and development. Scott acknowledges that no single template can be imposed on the range of southern and northern examples since the city-states of Italy followed a very different evolutionary path to their northern European counterparts. Indeed he spends a good part of his book articulating the contrasts. Italian city-states emerged in ancient urban centres that were usually also the seat of bishoprics and grew wealthy on the proceeds of long-distance trade. In the north, they arose considerably later, were not coterminous with ecclesiastical boundaries, and their entrepreneurs engaged mostly in local, rather than international, trade. These differences are thoroughly examined by Scott in numerous case studies and are traced chronologically over six centuries. Chapters 1 to 3 trace the rise of the communes and the struggle for [End Page 274] autonomy by urban elites, while Chapters 4 and 5 analyse the full flowering of the European city-state during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Scott shows that city-states all over Europe inexorably expanded their control over the surrounding countryside in response to the need to secure the food supply for large urban populations. From the basic need for provisions, wider political ambitions flowed, as cities sought to secure markets and to organize efficient production and distribution of essential resources. It is the interaction of both Italian and northern European city-states with their rural hinterlands, territories, and regions that Scott regards as the way forward in our attempt to understand the complex, and seemingly unpredictable, process of state formation in the early modern period. The traditional historiographical approach privileged the study of Italian city-states on the grounds that they lasted much longer, established sophisticated and efficient administrative systems to a greater extent, and were more politically assertive than those in the north, which have been dismissed as imperfectly realized, or even stunted, polities. The ideological concern in much of this scholarship has been to distinguish the progressive features of communal or republican Italian city-states from monarchical or dynastic ones. However, no convincing link has been made between forms of political organization and the emergence of particular kinds of city-state. As Scott points out, there was little difference between the territorial policies pursued by civic regimes and dynastic principalities. The republic of Florence and the principality of Milan are shown, for example, to have been similarly aggressive in their determination to dominate their hinterlands, while the Venetian republic was lax, or even benignly neglectful, towards its subject territory in the terraferma. If the unitary model of the Italian city-state is undermined, and its status as prefiguring modern notions of sovereignty is no longer assumed, it makes sense to look anew at the rise of this polity from a territorial and regional perspective. Scott’s aim is to investigate why, and how, a range of city-states across Europe came to dominate the contado beyond their city walls and what were the consequences of this expansion. He identifies four types of European city-state. Some acquired no territory but dominated the areas in their vicinity through commercial contracts that imposed mechanisms of quality control on rural outworkers. Others used jurisdictional instruments to reinforce urban economic clout. Coastal cities that had no easy access to hinterlands acquired territories in distant places. Genoa, for example, was cut off from inland areas by rugged terrain and relied on its control over Sardinia and Corsica to provide sustenance for its population. The fourth group of city-states dominated their contado through the acquisition of land along axial trade routes. Thus urban centres could evolve into city-states through [End Page 275] legal instruments and economic domination, rather than land ownership...

Intelligent Reconfigurable Method of Cloud Computing Resources for Multimedia Data Delivery

While users increasingly use such large multimedia data, more people use the cloud computing technology. It is necessary to manage large data in an efficient way, and to consider transmission efficiency for multimedia data of different quality. To this end, an important thing is to ensure efficient distribution of important resources (CPU, network and storage) which constitute cloud computing, and variable distribution algorithms are required therefor. This study proposes a method of designing a scheme for applying MapReduce of the FP-Growth algorithm which is one of data mining methods based on the Hadoop platform at the stage of IaaS (Infrastructure As a Service) including CPU, networking and storages. The method is then for allocating resources with the scheme.

Autonomous Component Carrier Selection for 4G Femtocells — A Fresh Look at an Old Problem

This paper addresses the interference management problem in the context of LTE-Advanced femtocells. Due to the expected large number of user-deployed cells, centralized network planning becomes increasingly less viable. Consequently, we consider an architecture of autonomous decision makers. Our main contribution in this paper, denominated Generalized Autonomous Component Carrier Selection (G-ACCS), is a distributed carrier-based inter-cell interference coordination scheme that represents one step towards cognitive radio networks. The algorithm relies on expected rather than sensed interference levels. This approach facilitates scheduler-independent decisions, however, it can lead to overestimation of the interference coupling among cells when the resources are not fully utilized. Acknowledging this fact, G-ACCS leverages the power domain to circumvent the restrictive nature of expected interference coupling. This work focuses on the downlink and also provides an extensive characterization of the network performance as a function of the topology as well as the often overlooked temporal traits of traffic. We compare G-ACCS with other carrier-based solutions, including the simplest universal reuse strategy. The encouraging simulation results demonstrate that G-ACCS achieves an efficient and fair distribution of resources in all considered traffic and deployment conditions. More importantly, this is attained in a truly autonomous fashion, without any explicit parametrization.