A novel admission control scheme for network slicing based on squatting and kicking strategies

New services and applications impose differentquality of service (QoS) requirements on network slicing. Tomeet differentiated service requirements, current Internet servicemodel has to support emerging real-time applications from 5Gnetworks. The admission control mechanisms are expected tobe one of the key components of the future integrated serviceInternet model, for providing multi-level service guarantees withthe different classes (slices) of services. Therefore, this paperintroduces a new flexible admission control mechanism, basedon squatting and kicking techniques (SKM), which can beemployed under network slicing scenario. From the results, SKMprovides 100% total resource utilization in bandwidth contextand 100% acceptance ratio for highest priority class underdifferent input traffic volumes, which cannot be achieved byother existing schemes such as AllocTC-Sharing model due topriority constraints.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

L’ATTO LINGUISTICO DELLA MINACCIA NEL TEATRO DI PEPPINO DE FILIPPO. STUDIO PRAGMATICO

Questo contributo si prefigge di analizzare in un’ottica pragmatica gli atti di minaccia in sei commedie di Peppino De Filippo: Spacca il centesimo, Una persona fidata, La lettera di mammà, Le metamorfosi di un suonatore ambulante, Un suicidio collettivo e Tre poveri in campagna. Consultando la letteratura, ci siamo resi conto che non esistono studi italiani che indagano gli atti di minaccia né nel teatro né in un altro corpus, almeno per quanto è a nostra conoscenza. Questo contributo assume, quindi, un carattere esplorativo e si pone l’obiettivo di svelare le minacce nascoste nelle espressioni verbali e nei modi di fare dei personaggi delle commedie di Peppino De Filippo. Anche nelle frasi che non fanno subito pensare alla minaccia, si possono riscontrare elementi che non ne prescindono. Inoltre, viene calcolata la frequenza della distribuzione degli atti di minaccia a seconda della categoria diretta/indiretta e del sesso degli interlocutori per sapere se esistano differenze di comportamento tra i personaggi maschili e femminili nella minaccia. Nella conclusione si evidenziano i risultati della ricerca.   The Speech Act of Threatening in the theater of Peppino De Filippo. Pragmatic study   This contribution tends to analyze from a pragmatic perspective the Speech Act of Threatening in six comedies by Peppino De Filippo, which are Spacca il centesimo, Una persona fidata, La lettera di mammà, Le metamorfosi di un suonatore ambulante, Un suicidio collettivo and Tre poveri in campagna. Consulting the literature, we realized that there are no Italian studies investigating the Speech Act of Threatening either in the theater or in any other corpus, at least to the best of our knowledge. This contribution, therefore, takes on an exploratory character and aims to reveal the threats hidden in the verbal expressions and mannerisms of the characters in Peppino De Filippo's comedies. Even in phrases that do not immediately suggest threat, we can find elements that do not disregard it. In addition, we will calculate the frequency of the distribution of threatening acts according to the direct/indirect category and according to the gender of the interlocutors in order to find out whether there are differences in threatening behavior between male and female characters. The conclusion will highlight the results of the contribution

Plasma levels of TNF in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) before and after surgical intervention

AbstractBackgroundPrior studies have shown that biomarkers of inflammation, including TNF-α, are raised in patients with sleep apnea. TNF-α is one of important risk factors for atherosclerosis, stroke, and cardiovascular disease in OSA patients.Aim of the studyTo determine whether TNF-α blood levels are elevated in OSA syndrome and whether they are reversible after surgical intervention.MethodsAmong the patients who had visited the ENT clinic for evaluation of sleep problems, 70 subjects were selected. Polysomnography (PSG) and morning venous blood serum for levels of TNF- α were performed in all the subjects and 35 patients were diagnosed as having OSAS. All patients with OSA had surgical intervention according to individual cases. Laser assisted uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP), extended LAUP (LAUP and laser assisted tonsillar ablation), or laser assisted uvuloplasty were done using a CO2 laser. Sleep apnea monitoring, clinical evaluation and TNF-α level were then compared before and 3 months after intervention.ResultsWe compared thirty five patients with OSA (21 males and 14 females), mean age (46.6±12.4), with 35 control subjects (11males and 24 females), mean age (34.2±9.6). The mean (SD) plasma level of TNF-α was significantly higher in patients with OSAS than in control group {(5.77±4.04pg/ ml vs. 2.24±1.5pg/ml respectively, (P=0.039)}, and TNF-α level significantly decreased to {(3.22±3.4pg/ml) (P=0.001)} after treatment. In addition, TNF-α levels showed a statistically significant positive correlation with the AHI before treatment and with neck circumference after treatment.ConclusionOur results suggest that TNF may be prognostic factors for comparing patients with OSAS before and after treatment

Evaluating the impact of delay constraints in network services for intelligent network slicing based on SKM model

© 2021 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Solving the problem of network resource allocation with delay constraint is a significant challenge for realizing future Internet and 5G networks services such as advanced mobile broadband services and Internet of things (IoT), especially under the network slicing scenario. The impact of delay constraints may lead to rejection of demands, resulting in low resource utilization of network resources. This is especially severe when dynamic traffic is considered. Therefore, intelligent resource allocation algorithms are required to use the network resources in delay constrained scenario efficiently. Moreover, these algorithms should guarantee quality of service (QoS) between different priority slices during congestion case. Therefore, in this paper, we analyze the impact of delay constraint on the performance of an online resource allocation algorithm based on an intelligent efficient squatting and kicking model (SKM), proved in other works to be the most effective up to the present time yet. SKM incorporates kicking and squatting of resources as innovative techniques enabling it to achieve 100% resource utilization and acceptance ratio for higher priority slices in scenarios where the other state of art algorithms not able to reach by far in some scenarios. Simulation results showed that incorporating delay constraints has a significant impact on the performance, resulting in up to 10% and 4% reduction in terms of average resource utilization and acceptance ratios respectively.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Squatting and kicking model evaluation for prioritized sliced resource management

© Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Effective management and allocation of resources remains a challenging paradigm for future large-scale networks such as 5G, especially under a network slicing scenario where the different services will be characterized by differing Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. This makes the task of guaranteeing the QoS levels and maximizing the resource utilization across such networks a complicated task. Moreover, the existing allocation strategies with link sharing tend to suffer from inefficient network resource usage. Therefore, we focused on prioritized sliced resource management in this work and the contributions of this paper can be summarized as formally defining and evaluating a self-provisioned resource management scheme through a smart Squatting and Kicking model (SKM) for multi-class networks. SKM provides the ability to dynamically allocate network resources such as bandwidth, Label Switched Paths (LSP), fiber, slots among others to different user priority classes. Also, SKM can guarantee the correct level of QoS (especially for the higher priority classes) while optimizing the resource utilization across networks. Moreover, given the network slicing scenarios, the proposed scheme can be employed for admission control. Simulation results show that our model achieves 100% resource utilization in bandwidth-constrained environments while guaranteeing higher admission ratio for higher priority classes. From the results, SKM provided 100% acceptance ratio for highest priority class under different input traffic volumes, which, as we articulate, cannot be sufficiently achieved by other existing schemes such as AllocTC-Sharing model due to priority constraints.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Evaluation of hydrocortisone, vitamin c, and thiamine for the treatment of septic shock: a randomized controlled trial (the HYVITS trial)

Purpose: The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of combined hydrocortisone, vitamin C, and thiamine (triple therapy) on the mortality of patients with septic shock. Methods: This multicenter, open-label, two-arm parallel-group, randomized controlled trial was conducted in four intensive care units in Qatar. Adult patients diagnosed with septic shock requiring norepinephrine at a rate of ≥0.1 μg/kg/min for ≥6 h were randomized to a triple therapy group or a control group. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality at 60 days or at discharge, whichever occurred first. Secondary outcomes included time to death, change in Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score at 72 h of randomization, intensive care unit length of stay, hospital length of stay, and vasopressor duration. Results: A total of 106 patients (53 in each group) were enrolled in this study. The study was terminated early because of a lack of funding. The median baseline SOFA score was 10 (interquartile range, 8–12). The primary outcomes were similar between the two groups (triple therapy, 28.3% vs.control, 35.8%; P = 0.41). Vasopressor duration among the survivors was similar between the two groups (triple therapy, 50 h vs. control, 58 h; P = 0.44). Other secondary and safety endpoints were similar between the two groups. Conclusion:Triple therapy did not improve in-hospital mortality at 60 days in critically ill patients with septic shock or reduce the vasopressor duration or SOFA score at 72 h

An Assessment of the Filling Process of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Its Impact on the Downstream Countries

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), formerly known as the Millennium Dam, has been filling at a fast rate. This project has created issues for the Nile Basin countries of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. The filling of GERD has an impact on the Nile Basin hydrology and specifically the water storages (lakes/reservoirs) and flow downstream. In this study, through the analysis of multi-source satellite imagery, we study the filling of the GERD reservoir. The time-series generated using Sentinel-1 SAR imagery displays the number of classified water pixels in the dam from early June 2017 to September 2020, indicating a contrasting trend in August and September 2020 for the upstream/downstream water bodies: upstream of the dam rises steeply, while downstream decreases. Our time-series analysis also shows the average monthly precipitation (derived using IMERG) in the Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopia has received an abnormally high amount of rainfall as well as a high amount of runoff (analyzed using GLDAS output). Simultaneously, the study also demonstrates the drying trend downstream at Lake Nasser in Southern Egypt before December 2020. From our results, we estimate that the volume of water at GERD has already increased by 3.584 billion cubic meters, which accounts for about 5.3% of its planned capacity (67.37 billion cubic meters) from 9 July–30 November 2020. Finally, we observed an increasing trend in GRACE anomalies for GERD, whereas, for the Lake Nasser, we observed a decreasing trend. In addition, our study discusses potential interactions between GERD and the rainfall and resulting flood in Sudan. Our study suggests that attention should be drawn to the connection between the GERD filling and potential drought in the downstream countries during the upcoming dry spells in the Blue Nile River Basin. This study provides an open-source technique using Google Earth Engine (GEE) to monitor the changes in water level during the filling of the GERD reservoir. GEE proves to be a powerful as well as an efficient way of analyzing computationally intensive SAR images

Valorization of two waste streams into activated carbon and studying its adsorption kinetics, equilibrium isotherms and thermodynamics for methylene blue removal

AbstractWastes must be managed properly to avoid negative impacts that may result. Open burning of waste causes air pollution which is particularly hazardous. Flies, mosquitoes and rats are major problems in poorly managed surroundings. Uncollected wastes often cause unsanitary conditions and hinder the efforts to keep streets and open spaces in a clean and attractive condition. During final disposal methane is generated, it is much more effective than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, leading to climate change. Therefore, this study describes the possible valorization of two waste streams into activated carbon (AC) with added value due to copyrolysis. High efficiency activated carbon was prepared by the copyrolysis of palm stem waste and lubricating oil waste. The effects of the lubricating oil waste to palm stem ratio and the carbonization temperature on the yield and adsorption capacity of the activated carbon were investigated. The results indicated that the carbon yield depended strongly on both the carbonization temperature and the lubricating oil to palm stem ratio. The efficiency of the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) onto the prepared carbons increased when the lubricating oil to palm stem ratio increased due to synergistic effect. The effects of pH, contact time, and the initial adsorbate concentration on the adsorption of methylene blue were investigated. The maximum adsorption capacity (128.89mg/g) of MB occurred at pH 8.0. The MB adsorption kinetics were analyzed using pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion kinetic models. The results indicated that the adsorption of MB onto activated carbon is best described using a second order kinetic model. Adsorption data are well fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The thermodynamic parameters; ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° indicate that the adsorption is spontaneous and endothermic

USE OF NATURAL ZEOLITES AS A DETOXIFIER OF HEAVY METALS IN WATER AND THE FLESH OF REARED EUROPEAN SEABASS Dicentrarchus labrax

Provedeno je istraživanje kojim su se ispitivali učinci prirodnih zeolita kao pročišćivača vode na učinkovitost uklanjanja teških metala iz podzemne slane vode koja se koristi za uzgoj mlađi Dicentrarchus labrax. Ispitano je pet koncentracija zeolita: 0 (Z0), 2,5 ‰ (Z2,5), 5‰ (Z5), 7,5 ‰ (Z7,5) i 10 ‰ (Z10). Mlađ s početnom tjelesnom masom od 1,53 ± 0,018 g su nasađene u 15 akvarija s gustoćom 10 jedinki/akvarij. Ribe su se hranile komercijalnom hranom (42% proteina i 12,34% lipida) dva puta dnevno (09:30 i 14:00), u udjelu od 5% tjelesne mase ribe, tijekom 42 dana. Evaluirani su rast, iskorištavanje hrane, preživljavanje i učinkovitost uklanjanja teških metala. Indeksi rasta i iskorištenja hrane postupno su se poboljšavali s povećanjem koncentracije zeolita, pri čemu su najznačajnije vrijednosti (P≤0,05) otkrivene sa skupinom Z10. Stopa preživljavanja značajno se smanjila u skupini Z10 pri usporedbi s kontrolom (Z0). Značajno povećanje koncentracije zeolita (P≤0,05) poboljšalo je učinkovitost uklanjanja teških metala iz uzgojne vode sa adsorpcijskom selektivnošću Pb˃Cd˃Fe˃Cu˃Zn. Nadalje, otkriveno je povećanje brzine detoksikacije teških metala u mesu ribe s povećanjem razine zeolita uz selektivnost uklanjanja Fe˃Cu˃Zn˃Pb˃Cd. Zaključno, može se reći da se prirodni zeoliti mogu učinkovito koristiti za smanjenje teških metala u onečišćenim vodama, a posljedično i u mesu ribe, uz poboljšanje performansi rasta ribe.A study was conducted to investigate the effects of natural zeolites as a water clarifier on the heavy metal removal efficiency from the underground saltwater used for rearing Dicentrarchus labrax fry. Five concentrations of zeolites were tested: 0 (Z0), 2.5‰ (Z2.5), 5‰ (Z5), 7.5‰ (Z7.5) and 10‰ (Z10). Fry with an initial body weight of 1.53±0.018 g/fish were stocked in 15 aquaria at a density of 10 fry/aquarium. The fish were fed a commercial diet (42% protein and 12.34% lipid) twice daily (09:30 and 14:00) at 5% of their body weight per day for 42 days. Growth, feed utilization, survival and heavy metal removal efficiency were evaluated. The growth performance and feed utilization indices gradually improved with increasing zeolite concentration, with the most significant (P≤0.05) values detected at Z10. The survival rate decreased significantly at Z10 compared with the control (Z0). Increasing the zeolite concentration significantly (P≤0.05) improved the removal efficiency of heavy metals in the rearing water with adsorption selectivity of Pb˃Cd˃Fe˃Cu˃Zn. Furthermore, an increase in the detoxification rate of heavy metals in fish flesh with increasing zeolite level was detected with the removal selectivity of Fe˃Cu˃Zn˃Pb˃Cd. In conclusion, it can be stated that natural zeolites can be used effectively to reduce heavy metals in polluted waters and subsequently in fish flesh in addition to improving fish performance