OpenStack is currently the most popular open source platform for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds. OpenStack lets users deploy virtual machines and other instances, which handle different tasks for managing a cloud environment on the fly. A lot of cloud platform offerings, including the Ericsson Cloud System, are based on OpenStack. Despite the popularity of OpenStack, there is currently a limited understanding of how much resource is consumed/needed by components of OpenStack under different operating conditions such as number of compute nodes, number of running VMs, the number of users and the rate of requests to the various services. The master thesis attempts to model the resource demand of the various components of OpenStack in function of different operating condition, identify correlations and evaluate how accurate the predictions are. For this purpose, a physical OpenStack is setup with one strong controller node and eight compute nodes. All the experiments and measurements were on virtual OpenStack components on top of the main physical one. In conclusion, a simple model is generated for idle behavior of OpenStack, starting and stopping a Virtual Machine (VM) API calls which predicts the total CPU utilization based on the number of Compute Nodes and VMs.

Vocabulary learning is viewed as one of the most important subject in language development. (Rusanganwa, 2012). Therefore, this study aims to raise awareness of different methods used in vocabulary teaching. Those different methods are the use of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) and non-CALL, the methods that does not require the use of technology. This study presents a literature review on vocabulary teaching methods and the importance of vocabulary. Moreover, it presents a review on CALL and the use of it as a vocabulary teaching method. A comparative study was done between two different schools in a CALL-classroom and a non-CALL classroom both in year five, to observe pupils’ vocabulary acquisition and variation in methodology. Furthermore, two interviews were conducted to gather data of the teacher’s perspective on the advantage and disadvantages of the different vocabulary teaching methods. The results revealed that both methods have some disadvantages but are also rich in advantages if used correctly and adapted to the students’ needs and circumstances. In addition, the variation in methods formed a major role in pupils’ vocabulary acquisition. In conclusion, the teacher should be familiar with the pupils’ in order to help them develop their vocabulary acquisition.

This paper presents a Call Admission Control (CAC) algorithm based fuzzy logic to maintain the quality of service using cell breathing concept. When a new call is accepted by a cell, its current user is generally affected due to cell breathing. The proposed CAC algorithm accepts a new call only if the current users in the cell are not jeopardized. Performance evaluation is done for single-cell and multicell scenarios. In multicell scenario dynamic assignment of users to the neighboring cell, so called handoff, has been considered to achieve a lower blocking probability. Handoff and new call requests are assumed with handoff being given preference using a reserved channel scheme. CAC for different types of services are shown which depend upon the bandwidth requirement for voice, data and video. Distance, arrival rate, bandwidth and nonorthogonality factor of the signal are considered for making the call acceptance decision. The paper demonstrates that fuzzy logic with the cell breathing concept can be used to develop a CAC algorithm to achieve a better performance evaluation.

The basic purpose of the research is to understand the significance of internal marketing in influencing frontline employees'job-related attitudes and service quality. Since rewards are considered to be an important compqnent of internal marketing, this research investigates relationships among frontline employee perceptions of rewards (extrinsic and intrinsic), attitudes (three components of organisational commitment viz. affective, normative and continuance, and job satisfaction), and service quality, in banking call centres. In this context, a conceptual model is presented comprising rewards as the antecedentsa, ttitudes as the mediating variables, and service quality of the frontline employees as the outcome variable. The model is empirically tested through a large sample study that is conducted among 4 call centres of a major retail bank in the UK. Following certain qualitative in-depth interviews at the exploratory stage, structural equation modelling (using AMOS) is carried out on 342 useable questionnaires (response rate of more than 50%), to empirically test the proposed framework for the study. The measurement and structural models, after validation and purification, provided satisfactory fit estimates across absolute, incremental and parsimonious measures. The results highlight the importance of rewards, as part of internal marketing, in maintaining employee attitudes, and improving service quality. Intrinsic rewards (like role clarity, training and skill variety) emerged as the most significant of all, as they were found to impact on service quality directly. Extrinsic social rewards (like supervision and team support) were not found to be significant, while the finding regarding extrinsic organisational rewards-service quality relationship was surprising. Although assumed important for perfon-nance, some had no direct effect (pay, and benefits satisfaction, extrinsic exchange), while others (working conditions and promotional opportunities) exerted a negative direct effect on service quality, although the indirect effect of most of these rewards was found to be positive. However, these rewards were considered important for influencing employee attitudes, which in turn influence service quality. In this context, the importance of employee attitudes like affective commitment and job satisfaction is emphasisedfor service quality. The empirical results of the study also reveal that it is the nature of commitment that matters in commitment-service quality relationship. Affective commitment emerged as the only attitude variable to bear a significant positive relationship with service quality. Job satisfaction was not found to impact on service quality directly, although the indirect effect was found to be positive. Normative commitment impacted on service quality indirectly, while continuance commitment was not found to be effective at all. Besides theoretical and methodological contributions, the thesis also provides strong managerial implications and directions for future research in applying internal marketing for improving service quality of frontline employees in call centres. Keywords: internal marketing, rewards, service quality, commitment, job satisfaction, UK banks, call centres, frontline employees.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced user experience (UX) designers to make their research comply with social distant roles, because of this many have turned to using computer mediated communication (CMC) tools. Even though research has shown that interviewing in person is marginally superior to video call interviews, user experience research is often conducted using more than one method. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate how user experience professionals are using video call as the main communication method for their user centered data gathering. Eleven UX professionals from one company were interviewed about ten different projects, focusing on the project execution and the methods used. The results show different ways of using video calls to interview, workaround methods to replace in person observation and, drawbacks and benefits from using CMC tools to gather data. Indicating that some projects are better suited to the use of video calls then others and suggest possible benefits from using both CMC tools and well as in person methods to gather data. / COVID-19-pandemin har tvingat UX-designers (User Experience) att anpassa sin forskning till sociala distansieringsregler, och därför har många börjat använda verktyg för datormedierad kommunikation (CMC). Även om forskning har visat att intervjuer där designers träffarpersonen är marginellt överlägsna intervjuer med videosamtal, utförs forskning om användarupplevelser ofta med hjälp av mer än en metod. Denna avhandling syftar därför till att undersöka hur yrkesverksamma inom user experience använder videosamtal som den huvudsakliga kommunikationsmetoden för sin användarcentrerade datainsamling. Elva UX-proffs från ett designföretag intervjuades om tio olika kundprojekt, med fokus på projektgenomförandet och de metoder som användes. Resultaten visar olika sätt att använda videosamtal för intervjuer, alternativa metoder för att ersätta personliga observationer samt nackdelar och fördelar med att använda CMC-verktyg för att samla in data. Det framgår att vissa projekt lämpar sig bättre för videosamtal än andra och att det finns möjliga fördelar med att använda både CMC-verktyg och personliga metoder för att samla in uppgifter.

Preventing diabetic foot ulcers among patients diagnosed with diabetes is an important element of care as diabetic foot ulcers present major medical, psychosocial and economic threats. In addition, about 20% of the diabetic foot ulcer cases will ultimately require amputation and cause greater mortality rates. The purpose of this literature review was to evaluate cellphone use to promote diabetic foot care practices among patients with diabetes. Six electronic databases were searched for articles which included text messaging and or phone interventions geared at improving foot care practices. A total of 14 articles dated 2009-2019 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Cellphone use for text messaging and phone calls to advance diabetic foot care practices appears to be promising. Cellphone interventions among clients diagnosed with diabetes were found to have higher adherence with foot examinations, more frequent foot checks, and better overall performance score of diabetic foot ulcer preventive behaviors. This literature review supports cellphone use for text messaging and phone calls to improve diabetic foot care practices. Particularly among populations with health disparities and limited access to healthcare cellphone improves access to care, is uncomplicated and presents a cost-effective approach to improving diabetic foot care practices.

Research on the effects of color associations in gambling situations has especially come to the forefront in recent times with the rise of casinos and other sales techniques in which consumers do not know the outcome of their purchases. Loot boxes are a unique form of micro-transactions in video games where players are uncertain about the objects they will receive with their monetary purchase. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of color and color placement in ads on loot box purchase intent. It will contribute to research about color perception in marketing and will, more specifically, establish a link between color associations in Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons and online video game environments in which gambling takes place. This research sets out to demonstrate that the color red, when placed in a foreground CTA button will achieve the highest purchase intent for a theoretical loot box in an online video game scenario. The study tests the placement of the color (foreground and background) and the color itself (red, blue, and gray).

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