This paper examines the extent to which the economic gains derived from gum and resin commercialization impact rural livelihood improvement under different resource management regimes in the drylands of Ethiopia and Sudan. Primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 240 randomly selected small-scale producers in four regions with gradients of resource management regimes. The survey was supplemented by secondary data, group discussions and key informant interviews. In the four regions, gum and resin income contributes to 14%–23% of the small-scale producers’ household income. Absolute income was positively correlated with resource management regime and commercialization level. It was higher from cultivated resources on private lands, followed by regulated access to wild resources. In open-access resources, the producers’ income was the lowest, although accessed by the poor and women. However, dependence on gum and resin was higher in open-access resource areas. Households’ socioeconomic characteristics, resource access, production and marketing variables determining income from gum and resin were identified and their variation across the cases is discussed. Overall, gum and resin commercialization in the study areas play a potential poverty alleviation role as a source of regular income, a safety net, and a means of helping producers move out of poverty.

Bamboo is an abundant resource in Ethiopia and has a great potential for commercialization, which can drive rural development. In view of these realities, this study analyzed the state and determinants of small-scale bamboo commercialization in Ethiopia. Data were collected from three major bamboo-growing districts (Awi, Sidama, and Sheka) and four urban centers (Masha, Hawassa, Bahir Dar, and Addis Ababa) via semi-structured interviews, group discussions, and questionnaire surveys with key actors along the value chain. Results revealed distinctive differences in proportion of cash income, value chain structure, and management engagement among the districts. Percentages of cash income were 60.15, 42.60, and 9.48 at Awi, Sidam, and Sheka, respectively. Differences were statistically significant between Sheka and both other districts (p = 0.05), but not between Awi and Sidama. The value chain structure showed that compared with Sheka, Awi and Sidama have a relatively large number of actors involved. The major factors explaining commercialization differences among regions were distance to market and presence of alternative forest products. Within Sheka, households with larger family size, higher education attainment, and access to training reportedly engaged more in commercial extraction. Therefore, we conclude that development of infrastructure for linking resource and consumer centers and expansion of extension education among producers may enhance the commercial engagement of producers and improve the accessibility of bamboo resources for commercial production.

In diesem Jahr fand das erste Studentensymposium Informatik Chemnitz (TUCSIS StudSym 2012) statt. Wir freuen uns, Ihnen in diesem Tagungsband studentische Beiträge präsentieren zu können. Das Studentensymposium der Fakultät für Informatik der TU Chemnitz richtet sich an alle Studierende und Doktoranden der Informatik sowie angrenzender Disziplinen mit Schwerpunkt Informatik aus dem Raum Chemnitz. Das Symposium hat das Ziel, den Studierenden eine Plattform zu geben, ihre Projekte, Studienarbeiten und Forschungsvorhaben vorzustellen. Im Mittelpunkt des Symposiums stehen studentische Projekte aus Seminaren, Praktika, Abschlussarbeiten oder extracurricularen Aktivitäten. Das Symposium bietet die Möglichkeit, vor einem akademischen Publikum Ideen, Pläne und Ergebnisse zu präsentieren und zu diskutieren. Darüber hinaus sind Doktoranden eingeladen ihre Promotionsprojekte mit einem Poster zu präsentieren um dadurch Feedback von anderen jungen Wissenschaftlern und Professoren für ihre wissenschaftliche Arbeit zu erhalten.

Cloud computing is an exciting concept that propels the development of technologies, the creation and expansion of businesses and the rapid prototyping of new ideas. Utilizing the advantages the cloud offers to their fullest potential is not a simple task and thus often users struggle with the technological aspects, lose revenue or do not attempt to benefit from this idea at all. In this dissertation, we identify the lack of standards for performance descriptions as well as the steep learning curve to get familiar with the cloud, which is further amplified by the abundance of available services, as the most prevalent issues that individuals and companies encounter. We further show the relevance of solving these issues by outlining the expected impact, which includes decreased time and financial detriments for individuals and companies as well as a negative effect on the environment. To solve the identified problems we propose the development of a cloud broker with three key components that utilize a performance oriented resource and application model to 1) compare arbitrary resources and applications in a fair manner based on general information, collected with standard benchmark tools 2) select the optimal infrastructure for any application by estimating its resource consumption and execution time and 3) automatically create and manage the selected infrastructure as well as the application deployment. Our contributions to this proposal include the development and test of prototypical proof-of-concept implementations for the three components, the design of the underlying resource and application performance model as well as the selection of appropriate, generic benchmark solutions, which we deployed on two major public clouds using our prototypes. In an extensive objective-based evaluation we assess that we contributed towards solving all the major issues that we identified to increase the usability and efficiency of cloud computing by enabling a better comprehension of resource and application performance in cloud environments and by reducing the necessary time and effort to deploy arbitrary applications in the cloud. We conclude by interpreting the evaluation results and providing an outlook towards future work.:1 Introduction 2 Challenges 3 Improve Resource Selection and Management in Cloud Environments 4 Cloud Resource Comparison 5 Resource Estimation 6 Cloud Application Execution 7 Overall Evaluation 8 Conclusion A LFA Artifacts B Analysis and Results C PoC Platform / Die Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der effizienten Nutzung von Cloud Ressourcen zur Beschleunigung der Entwicklung neuer Technologien und Geschäftsmodellen sowie des Rapid Prototypings neuer Ideen. Auf Grund der Komplexität von Cloud Plattformen, stellt die Nutzung derer oft eine große Hürde, speziell für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen dar, weshalb oft Ressourcen verschwendet werden, Prozesse mehr Zeit in Anspruch nehmen als nötig oder erst gar kein Versuch unternommen wird, diese Technologie zu nutzen. In der Arbeit werden dazu drei Kernprobleme identifiziert und thematisiert. Dies sind Lücken in Bezug auf Standards zur Beschreibung der Performance von Cloud Ressourcen, die Fülle an existierenden Cloud Diensten, sowie die steile Lernkurze bei der Nutzung dieser Dienste. Zur Lösung der identifizierten Probleme, wird in der Arbeit die Entwicklung einer Cloud Broker Anwendung mit drei Kernkomponenten vorgeschlagen, die ein Performanz-orientiertes Ressourcen- und Anwendungsmodell verwenden, welches es ermöglicht: 1) beliebige Ressourcen und Anwendungen unterschiedlichster Anbieter mit der Hilfe von frei verfügbaren und standardisierten Benchmark Tools zu vergleichen, 2) die passende Infrastruktur für jede auszuführende Anwendung durch Schätzung des Ressourcenbedarfs und der Dauer der Ausführung auszuwählen und 3) die gewählte Infrastruktur automatisch in der Cloud erzeugt und die Anwendung selbstständig ausführt. Im Rahmen der Dissertation wurden dazu alle drei Kernkomponenten prototypisch implementiert, das zugrundeliegende Ressourcen und Anwendungsmodell designt, sowie geeignete Benchmark Lösungen ausgewählt und umfangreiche Benchmarks auf zwei großen, öffentlichen Cloud Plattformen mit Hilfe der entwickelten Prototypen durchgeführt. In einer umfassenden zielorientierten Evaluation, wird der Beitrag zur Lösung der im Vorfeld identifizierten Probleme bewertet und festgestellt, dass mit den entwickelten Komponenten sowohl die Nutzbarkeit als auch Effizienz von Cloud-Computing insgesamt erhöht werden kann. Dies wird ermöglicht durch ein besseres Verständnis der Ressourcen und Anwendungsperformanz, sowie durch Reduzierung der notwendigen Zeit und des Aufwands für eine Anwendungsausführung in der Cloud. Im Vortrag wird abschließend noch ein Ausblick auf weiterführende Arbeiten gegeben.:1 Introduction 2 Challenges 3 Improve Resource Selection and Management in Cloud Environments 4 Cloud Resource Comparison 5 Resource Estimation 6 Cloud Application Execution 7 Overall Evaluation 8 Conclusion A LFA Artifacts B Analysis and Results C PoC Platform

Data centres and similar server clusters consume a large amount of energy. However, not all consumed energy produces useful work. Servers consume a disproportional amount of energy when they are idle, underutilised, or overloaded. The effect of these conditions can be minimised by attempting to balance the demand for and the supply of resources through a careful prediction of future workloads and their efficient consolidation. In this paper we extend the cutting stock problem for consolidating workloads having stochastic characteristics. Hence, we employ the aggregate probability density function of co-located and simultaneously executing services to establish valid patterns. A valid pattern is one yielding an overall resource utilisation below a set threshold. We tested the scope and usefulness of our approach on a 16-core server with 29 different benchmarks. The workloads of these benchmarks have been generated based on the CPU utilisation traces of 100 real-world virtual machines which we obtained from a Google data centre hosting more than 32000 virtual machines. Altogether, we considered 600 different consolidation scenarios during our experiment. We compared the performance of our approach-system overload probability, job completion time, and energy consumption-with four existing/proposed scheduling strategies. In each category, our approach incurred a modest penalty with respect to the best performing approach in that category, but overall resulted in a remarkable performance clearly demonstrating its capacity to achieve the best trade-off between resource consumption and performance.

Das Untersuchungsgebiet, die Nha Phu Lagune, weist eine massive Degradation der fischereilichen Ressourcen auf. Die „Rural Livelihoods“ in den Gemeinden dieser Küstenregionen sind durch diese Degradation gefährdet. Da, die Ressourcennutzungsentscheidungen einzelner Haushalte von vielen Faktoren abhängen, bedarf es eines multi-sektoralen Forschungsansatzes. Dieser ermöglicht, die Komplexität und die Diversität des Ressourcennutzungssystems und seine Nutzer, zu erfassen. Das Integrated Natural Resources Management (INRM) ist ein multi-sektoraler Forschungsansatz, der innovative und flexible Managementformen zu entwickeln versucht, um natürliche Ressourcen nachhaltig zu nutzen. Interdisziplinarität und die Betonung von Partizipation sind zentrale Kennzeichen des angewandten INRM-Forschungsansatzes. Diese interdisziplinäre Vorgehensweise berücksichtigt sowohl sozio-ökonomische und institutionelle Einflussfaktoren, z.B. Ressourcennutzer-Gruppen und bestehende Regulierungen und Gesetze, als auch biologische und produktionstechnische Einflussfaktoren, z.B. Aquakultur und Fischfangtechniken. Während eines sechs monatigen Untersuchungszeitraums unter Anwendung Partizipativer Aktionsforschung und des INRM-Ansatzes wurden 12 Dörfer im Umkreis der Nha Phu Lagune besucht. Der innerhalb der Partizipativen Aktionsforschung angesiedelte Lernzyklus generiert Wissen durch die Reflektion von gesammelten Daten, die kontinuierlich an die Beteiligten zurückgeführt werden. Die Erhebung mittels Fragebögen, halbstrukturierter Interviews, Gruppendiskussionen, Observierung, „Resource Mapping“ und Venn Diagrammen identifizierte Ursachen für die Degradation fischereilicher Ressourcen. Diese Informationen wurden dann an die Beteiligten weitergereicht, was zu neuen Erkenntnissen über alternative Ressourcenmanagementstrategien führte. Die Integration biologischer und sozio-ökonomischer Aspekte erfasste die Komplexität des Ressourcensystems Nha Phu Lagune und seiner Nutzer. Dies beinhaltet eine Vielzahl von verschiedenen Ressourcen, Akteuren, Ebenen, Institutionen, Entscheidungsstrukturen, Livelihood Strategien, Trends und assoziierte Probleme des nachhaltigen Managements natürlicher Ressourcen. / The selected study site, Nha Phu Lagoon is characterized by massive degradation of coastal fishery resources. As a result rural livelihoods in coastal communities are threatened. Since household decisions concerning resource use are influenced by several factors, a multi-sectoral approach is necessary. A multi-sectoral approach enables to comprehend the complexity and diversity of the resource system and its users. Integrated natural resources management (INRM) is one multi-sectoral research approach that aims to develop innovative and flexible management forms to manage natural resources in a more sustainable way. The applied INRM-approach is characterized through strong interdisciplinarity and participation. Interdisciplinary means that socioeconomic and institutional aspects, e.g. resource-user groups and existing legal arrangements, are combined with biological as well as production system aspects, e.g. mangrove reforestation as well as aquaculture or gear-fishing techniques. For a period of six months participatory action research following an integrated natural resource management approach was carried out visiting 12 fishing villages around Nha Phu Lagoon. The inherent ‘learning cycle’ in participatory action research generates knowledge in a process of reflecting on the collected data that is continuously fed back to the participants. During questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, group discussions, observations, resource mappings, and Venn diagrams reasons for the degradation of fishery resources were gathered. This information was then shared with participants, which led to new insights as well as alternative resource management strategies. The integration of biological and socioeconomic aspects identified the complexity of the coastal fishery resource system Nha Phu Lagoon and its users. This includes a multitude of different resources, actors, levels, institutions, decision-making structures, livelihood strategies, trends, and associated problems in the sustainable management of the natural resources.

No description available.

This paper examines the extent to which the economic gains derived from gum and resin commercialization impact rural livelihood improvement under different resource management regimes in the drylands of Ethiopia and Sudan. Primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 240 randomly selected small-scale producers in four regions with gradients of resource management regimes. The survey was supplemented by secondary data, group discussions and key informant interviews. In the four regions, gum and resin income contributes to 14%–23% of the small-scale producers’ household income. Absolute income was positively correlated with resource management regime and commercialization level. It was higher from cultivated resources on private lands, followed by regulated access to wild resources. In open-access resources, the producers’ income was the lowest, although accessed by the poor and women. However, dependence on gum and resin was higher in open-access resource areas. Households’ socioeconomic characteristics, resource access, production and marketing variables determining income from gum and resin were identified and their variation across the cases is discussed. Overall, gum and resin commercialization in the study areas play a potential poverty alleviation role as a source of regular income, a safety net, and a means of helping producers move out of poverty.

Quality-aware management of data streams is gaining more and more importance with the amount of data produced by streams growing continuously. The resources required for data stream processing depend on different factors and are limited by the environment of the data stream management system (DSMS). Thus, with a potentially unbounded amount of stream data and limited processing resources, some of the data stream processing tasks (originating from different users) may not be satisfyingly answered, and therefore, users should be enabled to negotiate a certain quality for the execution of their stream processing tasks. After the negotiation process, it is the responsibility of the Data Stream Management System to meet the quality constraints by using adequate resource reservation and scheduling techniques. Within this paper, we consider different aspects of real-time scheduling for operations within a DSMS. We propose a scheduling concept which enables us to meet certain time-dependent quality of service requirements for user-given processing tasks. Furthermore, we describe the implementation of our scheduling concept within a real-time capable data stream management system, and we give experimental results on that.