Service Level Agreement Monitoring as a Service: An Independent Monitoring Service for Service Level Agreements in Clouds.

The cloud network is rapidly growing due to a massive increase in interconnected devices and the emergence of different technologies such as the Internet of things, fog computing, and artificial intelligence. In response, cloud computing needs reliable dealings among the service providers, brokers, and consumers. The existing cloud monitoring frameworks such as Amazon Cloud Watch, Paraleap Azure Watch, and Rack Space Cloud Kick work under the control of service providers. They work fine; however, this may create dissatisfaction among customers over Service Level Agreement (SLA) violations. Customers' dissatisfaction may drastically reduce the businesses of service providers. To cope with the earlier mentioned issue and get in line with cloud philosophy, Monitoring as a Service (MaaS), completely independent in nature, is needed for observing and regulating the cloud businesses. However, the existing MaaS frameworks do not address the comprehensive SLA for customer satisfaction and penalties management. This article proposes a reliable framework for monitoring the provider's services by adopting third-party monitoring services with clearcut SLA and penalties management. Since this framework monitors SLA as a cloud monitoring service, it is named as SLA-MaaS. On violations, it penalizes those who are found in breach of terms and condition enlisted in SLA. Simulation results confirmed that the proposed framework adequately satisfies the customers (as well as service providers). This helps in developing a trustworthy relationship among cloud partners and increases customer attention and retention.

Molecular genetic analysis reveals a novel B variant allele at the ABO locus.

BACKGROUND: When discrepancies in ABO blood typing emerge, ABO subgroups should be considered. Serological procedures such as the adsorption-elution test, the salivary ABH inhibition test, and the antiA1 (lectin) saline technique might be employed. These serological approaches, however in rare blood types are difficult to understand. As a result, a dependable and cost-effective approach for determining ABO subgroups is of special relevance. METHODOLOGY: for this purpose, DNA sequencing is most reliable solution for accurate results. Exon 1 to 7 5' 3' UTR and intron 6 of ABO gene of a Chinese individual was sequenced because the laboratory was unable to determine the blood group by traditional method. RESULTS: The analysis of the blood showed weak B antigens on their surface. Gene sequencing results revealed a novel B allele, that has one novel identified nucleotide difference from T to C at nucleotide 425. CONCLUSION: The results reported novel B allele which cannot be confirmed by conventional serological methods. Owing to the peculiarity of ABO blood types of inheritance, findings on the incidence and molecular causes of rare blood groups in the Chinese population have substantial therapeutic implications and are worthy of additional investigation in the future.

EMS: Efficient Monitoring System to Detect Non-Cooperative Nodes in IoT-Based Vehicular Delay Tolerant Networks (VDTNs).

Since several Internet of Things (IoT) applications have been widely deployed on unstable wireless networks, such as the Delay Tolerant Network (DTN), data communication efficiency in DTN remains a challenge for IoT applications. Vehicular Delay Tolerant Network (VDTN) has become one of DTN's potential applications, in which the network experiences connectivity interruption due to the lack of an end-to-end relay route. VDTNs focus on node cooperation to achieve this goal. As a result, it is essential to ensure that almost all network nodes adopt the protocol to preserve network performance. This is a challenging task since nodes may diverge from the basic protocol to optimize their effectiveness. This article presents an Efficient Monitoring System (EMS) to detect and respond to just selfish nodes to minimize their entire network and data communication efficacy. The scheme is based on a network-wide cooperative sharing of node reputation. It is also necessary to increase overall network efficiency by tracking selfish nodes. The NS-2 simulator is used to run this experimental setup. Simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme performs better in terms of probability of package delivery, package delivery delay, energy consumption, and amount of packet drops. For 80% selfish nodes in the network, the packet delivery of EMS is 37% and 31% better than SOS and IPS. Similarly, the average delivery delay of EMS is 22% and 18% lower than SOS and IPS when 80% selfish nodes are incorporated in the network.

Academic use of social networking sites in learners' engagement in underdeveloped countries' schools.

Students' engagement has been a hot topic since the origin of teaching and learning; and is developing rapidly with time and technology. With the recent advances in Information and Communication Technology (e.g, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and 5G), it is a need of the hour to revive its smart use in academia. In underdeveloped countries, parents are offended by financial burdens and educating children is not a priority, resulting students are not effectively engaged in learning. Smartphones are mostly used for fun and entertainment, why not for teaching, learning and monitoring to reshape pedagogy. This study investigated the role of social media in learners' engagement (l = 734) by making a productive relationship among the parents (p = 400), teachers (t = 21) and Principal in underdeveloped countries' schools. The results of the study are promising. The statistics for 2018-2019 (i.e, without social media), shows only 3% to 4 % parental participation in meetings and scarce teachers interest in schooling, resulting in the learner disengagement. However, the statistics from 2019-2020 (i.e, use of social media), shows improvements in the parental engagement up to 20% and teachers engagement up to 70%, resulting in a productive learners engagement. It is worth mentioning here that the school (located in the village), learner average attendance increased to 95% (dropped the truancy to almost zero), which got higher authorities admiration.

Selfishness in Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks: A Review.

Various operational communication models are using Delay-Tolerant Network as a communication tool in recent times. In such a communication paradigm, sometimes there are disconnections and interferences as well as high delays like vehicle Ad hoc networks (VANETs). A new research mechanism, namely, the vehicle Delay-tolerant network (VDTN), is introduced due to several similar characteristics. The store-carry-forward mechanism in VDTNs is beneficial in forwarding the messages to the destination without end-to-end connectivity. To accomplish this task, the cooperation of nodes is needed to forward messages to the destination. However, we cannot be sure that all the nodes in the network will cooperate and contribute their computing resources for message forwarding without any reward. Furthermore, there are some selfish nodes in the network which may not cooperate to forward the messages, and are inclined to increase their own resources. This is one of the major challenges in VDTNs and incentive mechanisms are used as a major solution. This paper presents a detailed study of the recently proposed incentive schemes for VDTNs. This paper also gives some open challenges and future directions for interested researchers in the future.

Facile synthesis of GO and g-C3N4 nanosheets encapsulated magnetite ternary nanocomposite for superior photocatalytic degradation of phenol.

In this study, the synthesis of Fe3O4@GO@g-C3N4 ternary nanocomposite for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of phenol has been investigated. The surface modification of Fe3O4 was performed through layer-by-layer electrostatic deposition meanwhile the heterojunction structure of ternary nanocomposite was obtained through sonicated assisted hydrothermal method. The photocatalysts were characterized for their crystallinity, surface morphology, chemical functionalities, and band gap energy. The Fe3O4@GO@g-C3N4 ternary nanocomposite achieved phenol degradation of ∼97%, which was significantly higher than that of Fe3O4@GO (∼75%) and Fe3O4 (∼62%). The enhanced photoactivity was due to the efficient charge carrier separation and desired band structure. The photocatalytic performance was further enhanced with the addition of hydrogen peroxide, in which phenol degradation up to 100% was achieved in 2 h irradiation time. The findings revealed that operating parameters have significant influences on the photocatalytic activities. It was found that lower phenol concentration promoted higher activity. In this study, 0.3 g of Fe3O4@GO@g-C3N4 was found to be the optimized photocatalyst for phenol degradation. At the optimized condition, the reaction rate constant was reported as 6.96 × 10-3 min-1. The ternary photocatalyst showed excellent recyclability in three consecutive cycles, which confirmed the stability of this ternary nanocomposite for degradation applications.

Prevalence of Diabetes Type 2 in Hepatitis C Infected Patients in Kpk, Pakistan.

Hepatitis C (HCV) and diabetes mellitus are the two main health concerns that cause devastating health and financial worries worldwide. It has been observed in the past that both diseases have a high correlation that might be due to the abnormal conditions of the liver. But the mechanism of the prevalence of diabetes in patients with chronic HCV infection still remains unclear. In our study, we have investigated T2DM in the male and female patients at Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Peshawar. The blood samples of both in- and outpatients were analysed in the PCR laboratories of LRH from December 2014 to April 2015. Great prevalence of diabetes in hepatitis C infected male and female patients was observed during this study. The data were collected from the patients through a preplanned questionnaire that included name of the patient, HCV, being diabetic, age, gender, location, educational background, family history of the disease, other diseases, and any treatments if taken. The results of our study have found 26.42% prevalence of T2DM in HCV infected patients. So we conclude that HCV infection may be one of the reasons that could lead to T2DM.