The paper describes a technical strategy for implementing natural language processing applications in the cloud. Annotated corpora can be stored in the cloud and queried in normal web browsers via user interfaces implemented in the described framework. A key aim of the strategy is to exploit the free storage and processing that is available in the cloud, while avoiding lock-in to proprietary in...

The role of competition and monetary benefits in the design of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) is largely an unexplored area. In this paper, we investigate the effect of competition among the competitive web based CDNs and show that little difference in their performance may cause significant financial gain/loss. It turns out that the economy of scale effect is very significant for the success...

OBJECTIVE To review smoking policies of major international airports, to compare these policies with corresponding incountry tobacco control legislation and to identify areas of improvement for advancing smoke-free policy in airports. METHODS We reviewed smoking policies of 34 major international airports in five world regions, and collected data on current national and subnational legislatio...

The barriers to health care delivery in developing nations are many: underfunding, limited support services, scarce resources, suboptimal health care worker attitudes, and deficient health care policies are some of the challenges. The literature contains little information about health care leadership in developing nations. This discursive paper examines the impact of leadership on the delivery...

BACKGROUND Many low and middle income countries have initiated maternity fee exemption and removal policies to promote use of skilled maternity care. After two and a half decades of these policies, uptake of skilled birth care remains low and inequalities continue to exist in many low and middle income countries. This study uses 2 decades of birth histories data to examine four maternity fee pa...

Background: Smoke-free hospital policies are becoming increasingly common to promote good health and quit attempts among patients who smoke. This study aims to assess: staff perceived enforcement and compliance with smoke-free policy; the current provision of smoking cessation care; and the characteristics of staff most likely to report provision of care to patients. Methods: An online cross-se...

Systems delivering stored video content using a peer-assisted approach are able to serve large numbers of concurrent requests by utilizing upload bandwidth from their clients to assist in delivery. In systems providing download service, BitTorrent-like protocols may be used in which “tit-for-tat” policies provide incentive for clients to contribute upload bandwidth. For on-demand streaming deli...

Abstract One of the distinctive features of sites on the Internet is their ability to gather enormous amounts of information regarding their visitors, and use this information to enhance a visitor’s experience by providing personalized information or recommendations. In providing personalized services a website is typically faced with the following tradeoff: when serving a visitor’s request, it...

Transnational ageing presents fundamental challenges to nationally bounded welfare states, which historically have tended to be organised according to a logic of solidarity among nationals and permanent residents of a given state territory. Nonetheless, the Dutch and French governments have taken steps to break this link between solidarity and territorially bounded consumption of welfare, by pr...

BACKGROUND Industrial food animal production employs many of the same antibiotics or classes of antibiotics that are used in human medicine. These drugs can be administered to food animals in the form of free-choice medicated feeds (FCMF), where animals choose how much feed to consume. Routine administration of these drugs to livestock selects for microorganisms that are resistant to medication...