Our streaming system is designed to increase the overall performance by making the topology refining robust to the incoming workload on the fly, while still being able to achieve QoS goals of SLA constraints. Apache Flink distributed processing engine is used as a testbed in the paper. The result shows that the prediction scheme works well for both workloads, i.e., synthetic as well as real traces of data.Increasing urbanisation has led to a greater use of artificial structures by bats as alternative roost sites. Despite the widespread presence of bats, roost availability may restrict their distribution and abundance in urban environments. There is limited quantitative information on the drivers of bat roost selection and roosting preferences, particularly in African bats. We explore the factors influencing roost selection in the Mauritian tomb bat (Taphozous mauritianus), within an urban landscape in Lilongwe city, Malawi. Eight building and five landscape features of roosts were compared with both adjacent and random control buildings throughout the city. Bat occupied buildings were situated closer to woodland (mean 709m) compared to random buildings (mean 1847m) but did not differ in any other landscape features explored. Roosts were situated on buildings with larger areas and taller walls, suggesting bats select features for predator-avoidance and acoustic perception when leaving the roost. Bats preferred buildings with exposed roof beams which may provide refuge from disturbance. Whilst roosts are situated more often on brick walls, this feature was also associated with landscape features, therefore its importance in roost selection is less clear. These results are indicative that T. mauritianus selects roosts at both the building and landscape level. The selectivity of T. mauritianus in relation to its roost sites implies that preferred roosts are a limited resource, and as such, conservation actions should focus on protecting roost sites and the woodland bats rely on. This study aimed to examine patterns and determinants of modern contraceptive discontinuation among women in Kenya. Secondary analysis was conducted using national representative Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys of 2003, 2008/9, and 2014. These household cross-sectional surveys targeted women of reproductive age from 15 to 49 years who had experienced an episode of modern contraceptive use within five years preceding the surveys from 2003 (n = 2686), 2008/9 (n = 2992), and 2014 (5919). https://www.selleckchem.com/products/irak4-in-4.html The contraceptive discontinuation rate was defined as the number of episodes discontinued divided by the total number of episodes. Weighted descriptive statistics, multivariable logistic regression analysis, and Cox proportional hazards analysis were used to examine the determinants of contraceptive discontinuation. The 12-month contraceptive discontinuation rate for all methods declined from 37.5% in 2003 and 36.7% in 2008/9 to 30.5% in 2014. Consistently across the three surveys, intrauterine devices had the lowest hose in need. Women should be informed about potential side effects and reassured on health concerns, including being provided options for method switching. The health system should avail a wider range of contraceptive methods and ensure a constant supply of commodities for women to choose from. Short-term contraceptive method users and younger women may need greater support for continued use. Family planning programs should focus on improving service quality to strengthen the continuation of contraceptive use among those in need. Women should be informed about potential side effects and reassured on health concerns, including being provided options for method switching. The health system should avail a wider range of contraceptive methods and ensure a constant supply of commodities for women to choose from. Short-term contraceptive method users and younger women may need greater support for continued use. Higher maternal plasma glucose (PG) concentrations, even below gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) thresholds, are associated with adverse offspring outcomes, with DNA methylation proposed as a mediating mechanism. Here, we examined the relationships between maternal dysglycaemia at 24 to 28 weeks' gestation and DNA methylation in neonates and whether a dietary and physical activity intervention in pregnant women with obesity modified the methylation signatures associated with maternal dysglycaemia. We investigated 557 women, recruited between 2009 and 2014 from the UK Pregnancies Better Eating and Activity Trial (UPBEAT), a randomised controlled trial (RCT), of a lifestyle intervention (low glycaemic index (GI) diet plus physical activity) in pregnant women with obesity (294 contol, 263 intervention). Between 27 and 28 weeks of pregnancy, participants had an oral glucose (75 g) tolerance test (OGTT), and GDM diagnosis was based on diagnostic criteria recommended by the International Association of Diabeto be modified by a lifestyle intervention in pregnancy. Further research will be needed to investigate possible medical implications of the findings. ISRCTN89971375. ISRCTN89971375.Sexual signals play a central role in male-male competition in polygynous species. In red deer (Cervus elaphus), male's ventral area become dark during the rutting season due to urine spraying behaviour and retains many chemical compounds potentially revealing individual features. Here we investigate the variation in size of this trait, exploring its relationship with age and male competitive features such as antlers or body size, as well as populational level of intrasexual competition for mates. We found that the size of the dark ventral patch followed a clearly bimodal distribution, i.e. males mostly expressed the full-size trait or just developed a very small one. For these two groups of males according to trait expression, the relationships of trait size with age and antler size differed. Populational level of intrasexual competition appeared to affect the relationship between antler size and the probability of a fully developed ventral patch. These results indicate that the trait encodes information on body size, antler size, age and populational level of mate competition, thus suggesting a role in signalling male's competitive features and willingness to allocate reproductive effort within a particular season.