Performance impacts of autocorrelated flows in multi-tiered systems

This paper presents an analysis of the performance effects of burstiness in multi-tiered systems. We introduce a compact characterization of burstiness based on autocorrelation that can be used in capacity planning, performance prediction, and admission control. We show that if autocorrelation exists either in the arrival or the service process of any of the tiers in a multi-tiered system, then autocorrelation propagates to all tiers of the system. We also observe the surprising result that in spite of the fact that the bottleneck resource in the system is far from saturation and that the measured throughput and utilizations of other resources are also modest, user response times are very high. When autocorrelation is not considered, this underutilization of resources falsely indicates that the system can sustain higher capacities.

We examine the behavior of a small queuing system that helps us understand this counter-intuitive behavior and quantify the performance degradation that originates from autocorrelated flows. We present a case study in an experimental multi-tiered Internet server and devise a model to capture the observed behavior. Our evaluation indicates that the model is in excellent agreement with experimental results and captures the propagation of autocorrelation in the multi-tiered system and resulting performance trends. Finally, we analyze an admission control algorithm that takes autocorrelation into account and improves performance by reducing the long tail of the response time distribution.     

Score prognosis for the infertile couple based on historical factors and sperm analysis

OBJECTIVE: To identify variables, obtained from historical factors and sperm analysis, associated with greater chances of pregnancy in infertile couples. METHODS: The study was carried out in Córdoba, Argentina. The characteristics of 247 couples consulting for infertility who achieved pregnancy within 3 years of their first visit were compared with those of 312 couples who did not become pregnant. We evaluated the relationship between the age of the woman and her partner, the type and duration of infertility, length of the last three menstrual cycles, history of pelvic surgery in the woman, and testicular volume, sperm density, motility and morphology in her partner, and the achievement of pregnancy. For the analysis, logistic regression was used. RESULTS: Six variables had a predictive value: sperm morphology, the woman's age, type and duration of infertility, her history of pelvic surgery, and duration of menstrual cycles. CONCLUSIONS: The best prognosis for future fertility in infertile couples is correlated with a higher percentage of normal sperm morphology, younger woman's age, secondary infertility, fewer years of infertility, negative history of pelvic surgery, and abnormal menstrual cycles.     

Mental health treatment outcome by sex, diagnosis, and treatment agency.

Analyzed the effect of client characteristics and treatment on 9 dimensions of functioning (e.g., sociolegal, thought processes, and interpersonal relations) among 1,519 male and 1,877 female patients. MANOVA yielded consistent and significant differences in levels of functioning at admission as a function of sex, treatment setting, and diagnosis. Women with transient disorders showed the most adequate functioning. A Diagnosis?×?Agency interaction was also significant and indicated greater differences in functioning at admission between hospitalized and nonhospitalized Ss with "less severe" diagnoses than for Ss with schizophrenia or personality disorders. Subsequently, MANCOVA was used to partial out the effects of admission level of functioning on terminal level of functioning. Several significant differential effects of treatment and client characteristics were noted. There were fewer differences at termination than at admission, and significant differences in terminal level of functioning were observed by sex, diagnosis, and treatment agency. The interaction of sex and diagnosis was significant as was the interaction between agency and diagnosis. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between dicotyledone-amaranth, quinoa, fagopyrum, soybean and monocots- sorghum and rice based on protein analyses and their use as substitution of each other

Comparative protein studies of cereals and pseudocereals are important, especially in cases of cereal protein allergy when pseudocereal substitution is unavoidable. Therefore, ten species and cultivars belonging to different Angiosperms families (Oryza sativa normal Poaceae, bran Poaceae and Jasmin Hom Dokmali Poaceae, Sorghum technicum Battand et Traubt Poaceae, Glycine max L. Merr. Fabaceae, Fagopyrum esculentum Mnch. Polygonaceae, Chenopodium quinoa Wild Chenopodiaceae, Amaranthus hybridum v.1004 Amaranthaceae, cruentus v. R104 Amaranthaceae and hypochondriacus v.1023 Amaranthaceae) were examined by sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS-PAGE) seed protein markers, fluorescence, circular dichroism (CD) spectra and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) measurements. A high degree of polymorphism of all species and cultivars was found. Amaranth species have very similar seed protein electrophoretic profiles. According to UPGMA algorithm the examined species and varieties could be clustered into two similarity groups. Soybean, quinoa, buckwheat and Amaranth (as a genus) can be considered as phylogenic distant taxa. The fluorescence properties of amaranth, soybean, quinoa, rice and buckwheat soluble protein fractions were measured by fluorescence of tryptophan at 295 nm, light intensity, peak response and shift in the maximum of emission. Relative structural stabilities of native proteins were estimated by CD and FTIR. Similarities were found between these plants, which could make them a substitution of each other as well as for cereals.Author, S. Gorinstein is affiliated with the David R. Bloom Center for Pharmacy.     

Enzymatic cross-linking of alkali extracted arabinoxylans: gel rheological and structural characteristics

Ferulated arabinoxylans were alkali-extracted from wheat bran at different incubation times (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 h). Wheat bran ferulated arabinoxylans (WBAX) arabinose-to-xylose ratio, ferulic acid content, intrinsic viscosity and viscosimetric molecular weight values decreased as the incubation time of extraction increased. WBAX enzymatic cross-linking capability was affected by incubation time while an increase in WBAX concentration from 5 to 6% (w/v) favored gelation. The WBAX gels formed presented a macroporous structure with mesh size ranging from 40 to 119 nm and hardness values varying from 1.7 to 5 N.     

Methanogenic community development in anaerobic granular bioreactors treating trichloroethylene (TCE)-contaminated wastewater at 37 °C and 15 °C

Four expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) bioreactors were seeded with a mesophilically-grown granular sludge and operated in duplicate for mesophilic (37 °C; R1 & R2) and low- (15°; R3 & R4) temperature treatment of a synthetic volatile fatty acid (VFA) based wastewater (3 kg COD m⁻³ d⁻¹) with one of each pair (R1 & R3) supplemented with increasing concentrations of trichloroethylene (TCE; 10, 20, 40, 60 mg l⁻¹) and one acting as a control. Bioreactor performance was evaluated by % COD removal efficiency and % biogas methane (CH₄) content. Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) was used to investigate the methanogenic community composition and dynamics in the bioreactors during the trial, while specific methanogenic activity (SMA) and toxicity assays were utilized to investigate the activity and TCE/dichloroethylene (DCE) toxicity thresholds of key trophic groups, respectively. At both 37 °C and 15 °C, TCE levels of 60 mg l⁻¹ resulted in the decline of % COD removal efficiencies to 29% (Day 235) and 37% (Day 238), respectively, and in % biogas CH₄ to 54% (Day 235) and 5% (Day 238), respectively. Despite the inhibitory effect of TCE on the anaerobic digestion process, the main drivers influencing methanogenic community development, as determined by qPCR and Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis, were (i) wastewater composition and (ii) operating temperature. At the apical TCE concentration both SMA and qPCR of methanogenic archaea suggested that acetoclastic methanogens were somewhat inhibited by the presence of TCE and/or its degradation derivatives, while competition by dechlorinating organisms may have limited the availability of H₂ for hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. In addition, there appeared to be an inverse correlation between SMA levels and TCE tolerance, a finding that was supported by the analysis of the inhibitory effect of TCE on two additional biomass sources. The results indicate that low-temperature anaerobic digestion is a feasible approach for the treatment of TCE-containing wastewater.     

The total polyphenols and the antioxidant potentials of some selected cereals and pseudocereals

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of phenolic substances and proteins on the antioxidant potentials in some cereals and pseudocereals and to compare their bioability. The polyphenol dry matter extracts (PDME) from the investigated seeds of buckwheat, rice, soybean, amaranth and quinoa with 1.2 M HCl in 50% methanol/water (PDME50%Met/HCl) exhibited higher inhibition of lipid peroxidation than the ones extracted with 50% methanol/water (PDME50%Met) and were comparable to the antioxidant activity of butylated hydroxyanisole at concentration of 0.2 mg mL⁻¹. The antioxidant activities of these seed extracts determined by 2,2′-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate)-ABTS^●+/K₂S₂O₈, β-carotene bleaching (β-carotene), and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging methods showed high correlation coefficients (R ²) such as 0.9515, 0.9058 and 0.8723, respectively, with the presence of total polyphenols estimated by Folin-Ciocalteu assay. These results indicate that the major antioxidant components in these extracts mostly derived from the polyphenols, and proteins showed only minimal values of bioactivity. Based on high contents of polyphenols, anthocyanins, flavonoids and their antioxidant activities pseudocereals such as buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth can be a substitute for cereals for common and atherosclerotic diets and sometimes in the allergic cases.     

Two quantitative multiplex real-time PCR systems for the efficient GMO screening of food products

According to the EU and Swiss food legislation, only deregulated traits of transgenic plants are allowed to be imported and sold to the consumer. In order to control imports of soya and maize products from retailers, efficient and reliable methods for the detection and quantification are a prerequisite. The screening for specific DNA elements characteristic of transgenic plants is crucial for further analysis and has a major impact on the efficiency of the whole analysis workflow. To allow laboratories to efficiently and reliably screen food products for transgenic plant products, two novel multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) systems were developed and validated. One system determines DNA contents from maize, soya, cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter (P35S), NOS terminator from Agrobacterium tumefaciens and CaMV, and the second PCR system simultaneously detects DNA sequences from figwort mosaic virus promoter (PFMV), from bar gene of Streptomyces hygroscopicus, from gene coding for phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT) and from a DNA construct of enolpyruvyl shikimate phosphate synthase gene (CP4-EPSPS) and Arabidopsis thaliana (CPT2). The tests exhibit good specificity and a limit of detection of at least 0.1 % for all analytes.     

Effect of bio‐oil and epoxidized linseed oil on physical,mechanical, and biological properties of treated wood

In this article, the effects of bio‐oil and epoxidized linseed oil (ELO) on water absorption, tangential swelling, decay and insect resistance, thermo‐gravimetric analysis, and mechanical properties of treated wood samples were studied. The bio‐oil used in this article was by‐product of ThermoWood thermal modification process. Linseed oil and hydrogen peroxide were used to prepare ELO. The results indicated that the samples treated with bio‐oil had lower water absorption than that of the control group. The second treatment with ELO significantly reduced further the water absorption. The decay resistance of treated wood samples with 20% of bio‐oil against brown (Coniophora puteana) and white rot (Trametes versicolor) fungi was very high. According to the insect test results, increasing bio‐oil concentration from 10% to 20% significantly decreased surviving rate of Hylotrupes bajulus. Thermo‐gravimetric analysis showed that all treated samples had higher initial deterioration temperature than that of the control group. Regarding the wood strength, the impregnated bio‐oil generally reduced the mechanical properties of wood except modulus of elasticity (MOE). © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 1562–1569, 2013