Phasing-out tobacco: proposal to deny access to tobacco for those born from 2000

As a contribution to worldwide efforts towards a tobacco-free society, this paper considers the possibility of a long-term phasing-in of a total ban, by proposing that individuals born in or after the year 2000 have their supply of tobacco restricted. In conjunction, a survey that we have conducted in Singapore indicates strong public support (even among current smokers) for the proposal

Surgical peri-implantitis treatment with and without guided bone regeneration. A randomized controlled trial

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of reconstructive peri-implantitis treatment. Materials and Methods: Forty participants, with peri-implantitis and a contained intraosseous defect, were randomized to access flap (control) or access flap with xenograft and collagen membrane (test). All received systemic antimicrobials. Blinded examiners recorded probing depths (PD), bleeding and suppuration on probing (BOP & SOP), soft tissue levels, and marginal bone levels (MBL) at baseline and 12 months. Patient reported outcomes were recorded. The primary outcome was PD change. Results: All 40 participants (40 implants) completed the 12-month study. The mean (standard deviation) PD reduction (deepest site) was 4.2 (1.8) mm in the control and 3.7 (1.9) mm in the test group. MBL gain (deepest site) was 1.7 (1.6) mm in the control and 2.4 (1.4) mm in the test group. Absence of BOP & SOP was observed at 60% of both control and test implants. Buccal recession was 0.9 (1.6) mm in the control and 0.4 (1.1) mm in the test group. A successful outcome (absence of PD ≥ 5 mm with BOP, absence of SOP and absence of progressive bone loss) was achieved for 90% of the control and 85% of test group implants. No statistically significant differences in clinical or radiographic parameters were found between treatment groups. 30% of participants experienced mild gastro-intestinal disturbances. Reporting followed CONSORT guidelines. Conclusion: Similar clinical and radiographic improvements at 12 months were observed with high levels of patient satisfaction for both the access flap and xenograft covered by collagen membrane groups. Registered clinical trials.gov. ID:NCT03163602 (23/05/2017)

Algorithms for Fault-Tolerant Placement of Stateful Virtualized Network Functions

Traditional network functions (NFs) such as firewalls are implemented in costly dedicated hardware. By decoupling NFs from physical devices, network function virtualization enables virtual network functions (VNF) to run in virtual machines (VMs). However, VNFs are vulnerable to various faults such as software and hardware failures. To enhance VNF fault tolerance, the deployment of backup VNFs in stand-by VM instances is necessary. In case of stateful VNFs, stand-by instances require constant state updates from active instances during its operation. This will guarantee a correct and seamless handover from failed instances to stand-by instances after failures. Nevertheless, such state updates to stand-by instances could consume significant network bandwidth resources and lead to potential admission failures for VNF requests. In this paper, we study the fault-tolerant VNF placement problem with the optimization objective of admitting as many requests as possible. In particular, the VNF placement of active/stand-by instances, the request routing paths to active instances, and state transfer paths to stand-by instances are jointly considered. We devise an efficient heuristic algorithm to solve this problem, and propose a bi-criteria approximation algorithm with performance guarantees for a special case of the problem. Simulations with realistic settings show that our algorithms can significantly improve the request admission rate compared to conventional approaches

High atmospheric demand for water can limit forest carbon uptake and transpiration as severely as dry soil

When stressed by low soil water content (SWC) or high vapor pressure deficit (VPD), plants close stomata, reducing transpiration and photosynthesis. However, it has historically been difficult to disentangle the magnitudes of VPD compared to SWC limitations on ecosystem-scale fluxes. We used a 13 year record of eddy covariance measurements from a forest in south central Indiana, USA, to quantify how transpiration and photosynthesis respond to fluctuations in VPD versus SWC. High VPD and low SWC both explained reductions in photosynthesis relative to its long-term mean, as well as reductions in transpiration relative to potential transpiration estimated with the Penman-Monteith equation. Flux responses to typical fluctuations in SWC and VPD had similar magnitudes. Integrated over the year, VPD fluctuations accounted for significant reductions of GPP in both nondrought and drought years. Our results suggest that increasing VPD under climatic warming could reduce forest CO2 uptake regardless of changes in SWC

Modeling traffic congestion spreading using a topology-based SIR epidemic model

The continuous urbanisation and increase in vehicle ownership have increasingly exacerbated traffic congestion problems. In this paper, we advocate the use of epidemic theory to model the spreading of traffic congestion in urban cities. Specifically, we use the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model but propose to explicitly consider the road network structure in the model to understand the contagion process of road congestion. This departs from the classical SIR model where homogeneous mixing based on the law of mass action is assumed. For this purpose, we adopt the N-intertwined modeling framework for the SIR model based on continuous-time Markov chain analysis. In our evaluation, we used two real-world traffic datasets collected in California and Los Angeles. We compare our results against both classical and average-degreebased SIR models. Our results show better agreement between the model and actual congestion conditions and shed light on how congestion propagates across a road network. We see the potential application of insights gained from this work on the development of traffic congestion mitigation strategies

Design and Experimental Validation of an LTE-based Synchrophasor Network in a Medium Voltage Distribution Grid

We present and experimentally validate in a real-scale medium voltage (MV) grid a synchrophasor network that exploits the availability of a public 4G LTE communication infrastructure. An 18 buses, 10\,kV feeder located in Huissen, The Netherlands, has been equipped with 10 Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) connected to the MV grid by means of dedicated voltage and current sensors. The PMUs stream synchrophasor data through a public 4G LTE network via an information-centric networking-based middleware, named C-DAX. The measurements are received and time-aligned at a phasor data concentrator and fed to a real-time state estimation application. The paper presents the various field-trial components and validates the feasibility of exploiting the 4G LTE technology for PMU-based applications. Specifically we assess the performance of the adopted wireless telecommunication infrastructure with and without the C-DAX middleware, as well as the accuracy of the real-time state estimation process

Effectiveness of national cervical cancer screening programme in Taiwan: 12-year experiences

BACKGROUND: We examined cervical cancer incidence before and after nationwide cervical cancer screening was initiated in Taiwan in mid-1995. RESULTS: The invasive cancer incidence decreased by 47.8% during 1995-2006 . The carcinoma in situ incidence increased 1.7-fold during 1995-2000, and decreased by 19.6% during 2000-2006. CONCLUSION: The Taiwan national programme has significantly decreased invasive cervical cancer

Conceivable security risks and authentication techniques for smart devices

With the rapidly escalating use of smart devices and fraudulent transaction of users’ data from their devices, efficient and reliable techniques for authentication of the smart devices have become an obligatory issue. This paper reviews the security risks for mobile devices and studies several authentication techniques available for smart devices. The results from field studies enable a comparative evaluation of user-preferred authentication mechanisms and their opinions about reliability, biometric authentication and visual authentication techniques

It's not only about technology, it's about people: interpersonal skills as a part of the IT education.

Proceedings of: Second World Summit on the Knowledge Society (WSKS 2009), Chania, Crete, Greece, September 16-18, 2009.The importance of what have been termed the "soft skills" for the professional development of IT professionals is beyond any doubt. Taking account of this circumstance, the objective of the current research may be phrased as two separate questions. In the first place, determining the importance which IT related degree students place on these types of competencies for their professional future. In the second place, the importance which the development of the mentioned competencies has been given during their studies. The realization of an empirical study has fulfilled the two objectives described. The results demonstrate, on the one side, the moderate relevance which students assign to interpersonal competencies, especially emotional competencies, in contrast to the international curricular recommendations and studies concerning labor markets. On the other hand, the results indicate the scarce emphasis which lecturers have placed on the development of such competencies.Publicad