Characterising and exploiting workloads of highly interactive video-on-demand

This paper presents a detailed characterisation of user behaviour for a series of interactive video experiments over a 12 month period, in which we served popular sporting and musical content. In addition to generic VCR-like features, our custom-built video-on-demand application provides advanced interactivity features such as bookmarking. The dramatic impact of such functionality on how users consume content is studied and analysed. We discuss in detail how this user behaviour can be exploited by content distributors to improve user experience. Specifically, we study how simple dynamic bookmark placement and interactivity-aware content pre-fetching and replication can reduce the impact of highly interactive media on CDN performance.     

Towards Pseudonymous e-Commerce

The lack of privacy is one of the main reasons that limits trust in e-commerce. Current e-commerce practice enforces a customer to disclose her identity to the e-shop and the use of credit cards makes it straightforward for an e-shop to know the real identity of its customers. Although there are some payment systems based on untraceable tokens, they are not as widely used as credit cards. Furthermore, even without buying anything, a customer is already disclosing some information about who or where she may be by just connecting to the e-shop's web server and leaving behind an IP-address. In this paper, we present novel components that enable secure pseudonymous e-commerce. On the one hand, these components allow a customer to browse through an e-shop, select goods, and pay the goods with her credit card such that neither the e-shop operator nor the credit card issuer nor an eavesdropper is able to get any information about the customer's identity. On the other hand, it is guaranteed that none of the involved parties is able to act dishonestly during the credit card payment. Such a system could greatly enhance trust in e-commerce since it overcomes the customers' privacy concerns.     

激光诱导击穿光谱法连续测定高炉流道中的组分和温度

介绍了用于炼铁和炼钢领域过程控制的传感器。用激光诱导击穿光谱法（LIBS）连续测定高炉（BF）流道中的组分和温度,此传感器主要用于高炉流道的在线测量,监测了两次浇铸过程中元素硅、锰和碳的浓度,结果满意。     

Molecular markers for differentiation of multiresistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates in a pediatric hospital

OBJECTIVE: To study the spread of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing, but aminoglycoside-susceptible, Klebsiella pneumoniae strains in our hospital over an 8-month period, by using two genotypic markers. DESIGN: Ribotyping (using two endonucleases) and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis (RAPD; using two different 10-mer primers) were applied to the epidemiological typing of clinical K pneumoniae isolates from stools, ileal fluid, or urine of hospitalized children. SETTING AND PATIENTS: The surgical intensive-care ward (S1: 9 patients, 17 isolates), surgical unit (S2: 2 patients, 2 isolates), and gastroenterology ward (GE: 1 patient, 1 isolate) of the Robert Debré Hospital of Paris, France. RESULTS: Ribotyping of the 20 clinical isolates, the type strain of the species, and two epidemiologically unrelated isolates with EcoRI and HindIII revealed 6 and 5 different patterns, respectively. Six ribotypes were identified by using these two enzymes. RAPD generated 6 distinct patterns, in complete agreement with ribotyping. Our genotypic results showed that 11 patients from wards S1, S2, and GE harbored genotypically related strains, suggesting nosocomial transmission and cross-colonization between and within the three wards. CONCLUSIONS: Ribotyping and RAPD appear to be reliable methods for distinguishing K pneumoniae strains. The spread of one strain of K pneumoniae in different units of our hospital was demonstrated by both methods. However, RAPD has the advantage of simplicity and rapidity conferred by polymerase chain reaction.     

Friedel-Crafts acylations with modified clays as catalysts

Friedel-Crafts acylations are very effectively catalyzed by clays modified through exchange of the interlamellar cations or through impregnation of metal chlorides. The acidic K10 montmorillonite exchanged with iron(III) gives outstanding results in quantitative (98–100%) acylation of anisole (15 min), mesitylene (15 min), and p-xylene (3 h) at 140–160 °C. Clays impregnated with zinc chloride, such as the K10 montmorillonite, or Japanese acidic clay show near-equivalent catalytic performance.     

A survey of proposals for an alternative group communication service

As expectations for the Internet to support multimedia applications grow, new services need to be deployed. One of them is the group communication service for one-to-many or many-to-many data delivery. After more than a decade of important research and development efforts, the deployment of multicast routing in the Internet is far behind expectations. Therefore, a first motivation for an alternative group communication service is to bypass the lack of native IP multicast routing. Although less efficient and scalable than native multicast routing, such alternative services are generally suitable for the purpose. A second possible motivation is to go beyond the limitations of classic multicast routing for very specific working environments. We identify, classify, and discuss some of these alternative approaches.     

Scalable adaptive hierarchical clustering

We propose a new application-level clustering algorithm capable of building an overlay spanning tree among participants of large multicast sessions, without any specific help from the network routers. The algorithm and associated protocol are shown to exhibit scalable properties     

在线监测烧结度的 Supermagnag传感器

介绍了用于在线监测烧结物磁特性的Supermagnag传感器。Supermagnag传感器通过测量磁导率连续监测烧结块的烧结程度,与Permagnag传感器相比,其响应时间显著缩短（SIFA2为68 min）。此传感器不仅可用于反应过程控制,而且可用于警报信号,以检测反常的装填条件、点火失败或者维修需要。     

A performance study of RSVP with proposed extensions

Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP) was developed as an intended key component for the evolving Internet, and in particular for the Integrated Services architecture. Therefore, RSVP performance is crucially important; yet this has been little studied up till now. In this paper, we target two of the most important aspects of RSVP: its ability to establish flows and its steady-state overhead. We first identify the factors influencing the performance of the protocol by modelling the establishment mechanism. Then, we propose the principles of a Fast Establishment Mechanism (FEM) aimed at speeding up the set-up procedure in RSVP. We analyse FEM by means of simulation, and show that it offers improvements to the performance of RSVP over a range of likely circumstances. We also present the principles of a simple mechanism aimed at reducing the steady-state (i.e. refresh) message overhead of RSVP.