QoS Path Monitoring for Multicast Networks

New network monitoring tools are necessary for supporting the deployment and the operations of multicast services on the Internet. Because of the peculiar characteristics of multicast routing (e.g., multicast forwarding trees) and the potential of message implosion problems, traditional network management tools are not sufficient for monitoring the quality of multicast delivery such as packet loss, delay, and jitter. Current multicast monitoring tools are either not scalable, limited in their functionality, or difficult to deploy in enterprise networks.In this paper, we present a new monitoring framework (called SMRM, SNMP-based multicast reachability monitoring) for multicast reachability based on SNMP. The SMRM framework is used for actively monitoring the health and the quality of service of multicast networks. SMRM provides a scalable real-time feedback on the packet loss, delay, and jitter of any selected segments of multicast delivery trees. In addition, NOC (network operations center) personnel can easily understand, deploy, and extend the SMRM framework in order to detect and isolate reachability and performance problems in multicast sessions. SMRM combines both distributed monitoring and centralized control, which offers scalability and simplicity. The integration of SMRM into SNMP is motivated by the wide distribution of SNMP agents in networks today, which significantly facilitates the deployment of SMRM is existing networks.     

Laboratory Measurements of Flow through Culverts

Laboratory apparatus to simulate flow through culverts has been used to collect discharge and water level measurements. Two different shapes of culvert barrels, namely square and circular, were tested. The measurements presented in this note are intended to provide useful information regarding the variety of flow regimes (including overtopping) through culverts, and the transitions from one flow regime to another. It is known that modeling the culvert flow regimes and capturing the transitions among these regimes numerically is a challenging task. To that effect, the laboratory measurements presented herein can provide a testing and validation data set for numerical modeling of hydraulic structures such as culverts.     

Effect of cooking on tryptophan,basic amino acids,protein solubility and retention of some vitamins in two varieties of chick pea

Egyptian and Italian varieties of chick pea were analysed chemically to study their total constituents. The two varieties were cooked for 1 and 2 h and autoclaved for 1 h at 121°C. Their constituent basic amino acids, tryptophan, thiamin, pyridoxin and niacin, were determined.There were differences in the chemical constituents between the two varieties. Cooking decreased lysine, histidine and arginine, the effect being highly significant. Tryptophan decreased, the effect being significant. In addition, protein solubility decreased with increased cooking time.The vitamin content also decreased with increased cooking time. It is preferable to cook chick pea in an autoclave at 121°C for not more than 1 h to minimise losses in vitamins and amino acids.     

Amino acid composition of two Italian durum wheat varieties and their semolina

Two Italian durum wheat varieties and their semolina were analysed for protein content and amino acid composition. There was a difference in protein content between the two varieties. The concentration (in protein) of lysine, methionine and phenyl alanine was equal in both varieties. A large difference was found in glutamic acid and valine. A slight difference was found in other amino acids. There was a difference in the concentration of amino acids between wheat and its semolina. The biological value was equal in both varieties. The difference in results is attributed to the varietal difference.     

Class I/Class IIa bacteriocin cross-resistance phenomenon in Listeria monocytogenes

Variants resistant to nisin A (vA), nisin Z (vZ), pediocin PA-1 (vP), divergicin M35 (vD) and to bacteriocin-like compounds produced by Bifidobacterium thermophilum subsp. infantis RBL67 (vB) were developed from Listeria monocytogenes LSD530. Lactic acid production, specific growth rate, potassium ion efflux, susceptibility to 13 antibiotics, cell-envelope fatty acid composition and bacteriocin cross-resistance were evaluated. Lactic acid production decreased to 75% or less of that by strain LSD530 for vP, vD and vB and to 20% or less for vA and vZ. Specific growth rates also decreased for all five variants. Acquired resistance to nisin A or Z increased resistance to pediocin and divergicin while vD showed increased resistance to nisin Z but decreased resistance to nisin A and vP exhibited increased resistance to nisin Z, pediocin and divergicin but decreased resistance to nisin A. Acquired bacteriocin resistance generally decreased antibiotic sensitivity, particularly to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, erythromycin and tetracycline. Palmitic acid (C(16:0)) in the cell wall fraction of all variants was significantly higher than in strain LSD530, accounting for 18%, 43%, 32%, 26%, 53% and 44% of the total fatty acids for LSD530, vP, vD, vB, vA, and vZ, respectively. The relationship between the acquisition of bacteriocin resistance, cross-resistance and pathogenicity of Listeria monocytogenes should be studied.     

Cyclic loading and fracture mechanics of Ductal<Superscript>®</Superscript> concrete

Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) is a special type of ultra high strength, superplasticized, silica fume concrete, often fibre-reinforced, with improved homogeneity because the traditional coarse and fine aggregate are replaced by fine sand with particle sizes in the range of 100–400 μm [4–16 thousandths of an inch]. RPC properties are attractive because compressive strengths up to 800 MPa [116 ksi] have been recorded, but more typically in excess of 200 MPa [29 ksi]. Flexural strengths up to 141 MPa [20.4 ksi] and fracture energy of 40 kJ/m²[kJ/in.²] have been reported—the latter achieved when steel or stainless steel fibres were included in the mix (Baché (1998) Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on superplasticizers in concrete, Ottawa, pp 35–41; Coppola et al. L’Industria Ital Cemento 707:112–125 (1996); Blais and Couture PCI J 44(5):60–71 (1999); Richard and Cheyrezy (1994) Proceedings of V. Mohan Malhotra symposium on concrete technology: past, present, and future (SP 144). American Concrete Institute, Detroit, pp 507–518; Richard and Cheyrezy Cement Concrete Res 25(7):1501–1511 (1995)). Ductal^®, a commercial RPC, has a compressive strength of approximately 150 MPa [22 ksi] with metallic or organic fibres. All tests described here were performed on 40 × 40 × 160 mm [1.6 × 1.6 × 6.3 in.] (Width (b) × Depth (d) × length (L)) prisms with Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) fibres. Ductal^® is a family of RPC and micro-defect-free concretes containing micro silica, silica fume, cement, Quartz sand, superplasticizer, and PVA fibres. Mechanical and fracture parameters were investigated using four point bending. Low and high cyclic fatigue tests were conducted in three stages, starting from low to high strain cycles. Cracks generated by cyclic fatigue tests were monitored periodically in order to evaluate the rate of crack propagation. Cracks were also investigated using a high magnification microscope. Three pairs of specimens were tested, notched and un-notched to evaluate fracture parameters. Four point bending was used again because determination of the J-Integral (J _IC ) requires the application of pure bending over a portion of the beam. Load was applied at the third points over a span (S) of 120 mm [4.7 in.], providing a span to depth ratio (S/d) of 3.0. Specimens were notched using a 1 mm [0.04 in.] thick diamond saw. The crack tip generated was circular and the crack length (s) was approximately 10 mm [0.4 in.]. Tests on the notched specimens included measurement of the crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD). Closed-loop testing was developed using a feed back signal from the (CMOD) clip gauge attached to the notched specimens and from strain gauges attached to the un-notched specimens. The weight (w) of each specimen was obtained prior to testing. Fracture parameters were calculated from the load–deflection curves obtained from the notched and un-notched specimens.     

A comparative study on treatment of wastewaters with various biodegradability and various pH values using single‐chamber microbial fuel cells

This work assessed the performance of a single‐chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) with various substrates. Primary settled domestic wastewaters were used to simulate wastewaters of high biodegradability; while phenol‐based wastewaters and benzene‐based wastewaters were used to simulate wastewaters of low biodegradability. Experiments were performed at initial pH values of 6, 7 and 8. The maximum voltage production, power density and removal of substrate were obtained using primary settled domestic wastewater, whereas the lowest values were obtained using phenol‐based wastewater. The maximum chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency, phenol removal efficiency and benzene removal efficiency were 80.8, 63.3 and 77.8%, respectively. The performance of the MFC was enhanced by increasing the influent pH. The lowest coulombic efficiencies were obtained from phenol‐based wastewater and benzene‐based wastewater, which indicated that electrogenic bacteria were not the primary microorganisms responsible for the biodegradation of low biodegradable wastewater.     

Iterative design of two-channel IIR perfect construction QMG filters

A simple rapidly convergent method is described for the design of two-channel IIR perfect reconstruction quadrature mirror filters. For any prescribed characteristic, it has been shown how one can construct a stable two-channel IIR banks, starting from any random transmission zero locations. A simple rapidly convergent search algorithm is also described for the determination of the exact locations of these transmission zeros, such that the filter has equiripple pass and stop responses as well as almost constant group delay. Illustrative examples are also given to show that the proposed design method competes very well with the existing design methods. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of Therapeutic Targets in Histological Subtypes of Bladder Cancer

Histologically, bladder cancer is a heterogeneous group comprising urothelial carcinoma (UC), squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinomas (ACs), urachal carcinomas (UrCs), and small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas (SCCs). However, all bladder cancers have been treated so far uniformly, and targeted therapy options are still limited. Thus, we aimed to determine the protein expression/molecular status of commonly used cancer targets (programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1), mismatch repair (MMR), androgen and estrogen receptors (AR/ER), Nectin-4, tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 2 (Tacstd2, Trop-2), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3)) to give first insights into whether patients with SCC, AC/UrCs, and squamous-differentiated carcinomas (Sq-BLCA) of the bladder could be eligible for targeted therapies. In addition, for MMR-deficient tumors, microsatellite instability was analyzed. We completed our own data with molecular data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We present ratios for each drug and cumulative ratios for multiple therapeutic options for each nonurothelial subtype. For example, 58.9% of SCC patients, 33.5% of AC/UrCs patients, and 79.3% of Sq-BLCA patients would be eligible for at least one of the analyzed targets. In conclusion, our findings hold promise for targeted therapeutic approaches in selected patients in the future, as various drugs could be applied according to the biomarker status.     

A Heuristics-Based Cost Model for Scientific Workflow Scheduling in Cloud

Scientific Workflow Applications (SWFAs) can deliver collaborative tools useful to researchers in executing large and complex scientific processes. Particularly, Scientific Workflow Scheduling (SWFS) accelerates the computational procedures between the available computational resources and the dependent workflow jobs based on the researchers’ requirements. However, cost optimization is one of the SWFS challenges in handling massive and complicated tasks and requires determining an approximate (near-optimal) solution within polynomial computational time. Motivated by this, current work proposes a novel SWFS cost optimization model effective in solving this challenge. The proposed model contains three main stages: (i) scientific workflow application, (ii) targeted computational environment, and (iii) cost optimization criteria. The model has been used to optimize completion time (makespan) and overall computational cost of SWFS in cloud computing for all considered scenarios in this research context. This will ultimately reduce the cost for service consumers. At the same time, reducing the cost has a positive impact on the profitability of service providers towards utilizing all computational resources to achieve a competitive advantage over other cloud service providers. To evaluate the effectiveness of this proposed model, an empirical comparison was conducted by employing three core types of heuristic approaches, including Single-based (i.e., Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and Invasive Weed Optimization (IWO)), Hybrid-based (i.e., Hybrid-based Heuristics Algorithms (HIWO)), and Hyper-based (i.e., Dynamic Hyper-Heuristic Algorithm (DHHA)). Additionally, a simulation-based implementation was used for SIPHT SWFA by considering three different sizes of datasets. The proposed model provides an efficient platform to optimally schedule workflow tasks by handling data-intensiveness and computational-intensiveness of SWFAs. The results reveal that the proposed cost optimization model attained an optimal Job completion time (makespan) and total computational cost for small and large sizes of the considered dataset. In contrast, hybrid and hyper-based approaches consistently achieved better results for the medium-sized dataset.