Service-aware network slice trading in a shared multi-tenant infrastructure

Maintaining service guarantees in a dynamic multi- tenant network, while ensuring an economically sustainable sharing platform, is a non-trivial problem. This paper, extending our previous work, develops a dynamic slicing and trading framework that can satisfy a variety of service guarantees. This framework not only determines the size of the network resource slices required for various active services, but it also adapts resource prices in accordance with the microeconomic laws of supply and demand. The proposed framework also ensures service continuity by learning the variations in the traffic mix as well as in the channel conditions, and by adjusting the slice assignments accordingly

Simultaneous Determination of Cyclosporine A, Tacrolimus, Sirolimus, and Everolimus in Whole-Blood Samples by LC-MS/MS

Objectives. Cyclosporine A (CyA), tacrolimus (TRL), sirolimus (SIR), and everolimus (RAD) are immunosuppressive drugs frequently used in organ transplantation. Our aim was to confirm a robust sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for determination of CyA, TRL, SIR, and RAD in whole-blood samples. Materials and Methods. We used an integrated online solid-phase extraction-LC-MS/MS system and atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry (API-MS/MS) in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) detection mode. CyA, TRL, SIR, and RAD were simultaneously analyzed in whole blood treated with precipitation reagent taken from transplant patients. Results. System performance parameters were suitable for using this method as a high-throughput technique in clinical practice. The high concentration of one analyte in the sample did not affect the concentration of other analytes. Total analytical time was 2.5 min, and retention times of all analytes were shorter than 2 minutes. Conclusion. This LC-MS/MS method can be preferable for therapeutic drug monitoring of these immunosuppressive drugs (CyA, TRL, SRL, and RAD) in whole blood. Sample preparation was too short and simple in this method, and it permits robust, rapid, sensitive, selective, and simultaneous determination of these drugs

Data-Driven Capacity Planning for Vehicular Fog Computing

The strict latency constraints of emerging vehicular applications make it unfeasible to forward sensing data from vehicles to the cloud for processing. To shorten network latency, vehicular fog computing (VFC) moves computation to the edge of the Internet, with the extension to support the mobility of distributed computing entities (a.k.a fog nodes). In other words, VFC proposes to complement stationary fog nodes co-located with cellular base stations with mobile ones carried by moving vehicles (e.g., buses). Previous works on VFC mainly focus on optimizing the assignments of computing tasks among available fog nodes. However, capacity planning, which decides where and how much computing resources to deploy, remains an open and challenging issue. The complexity of this problem results from the spatio-temporal dynamics of vehicular traffic, varying computing resource demand generated by vehicular applications, and the mobility of fog nodes. To solve the above challenges, we propose a data-driven capacity planning framework that optimizes the deployment of stationary and mobile fog nodes to minimize the installation and operational costs under the quality-of-service constraints, taking into account the spatio-temporal variation in both demand and supply. Using real-world traffic data and application profiles, we analyze the cost efficiency potential of VFC in the long term. We also evaluate the impacts of traffic patterns on the capacity plans and the potential cost savings. We find that high traffic density and significant hourly variation would lead to dense deployment of mobile fog nodes and create more savings in operational costs in the long term

Agreement of Turkish Physiatrists with the Assessment in Spondyloarthritis International Society and the European League Against Rheumatism Recommendations for the Management of Ankylosing Spondylitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background: New developments in the field of targeted therapies or biologic agents led more effective management of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recommendations for the management of rheumatic diseases propose to reduce inappropriate use of medications, minimize variations among countries, and enable cost-effective use of health care resources. Objective: The aim this study was to evaluate conceptual agreement of ASsessment in SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) and the EUropean League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendations for the management of AS and EULAR recommendations for RA and to assess the rate of application among Turkish physiatrists in daily clinical practice. Methods: An online survey link has been sent to 1756 Turkish physiatrists with e-mails asking to rate agreement on 11-item ASAS/EULAR AS recommendations and 15-item EULAR RA recommendations with synthetic and biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. Also barriers and difficulties for using biologic agents were assessed. Results: Three hundred nine physiatrists (17.5%) completed the survey. The conceptual agreement with both recommendations was very high (Level of agreement; mean 8.35±0.82 and 8.90± 0.67 for RA and AS recommendations, respectively), and the self-declared application of overall recommendations in the clinical practice was also high for both RA and AS (72.42% and 75.71%, respectively). Conclusion: Turkish physiatrists are in good conceptual agreement with the evidence-based recommendations for the management of AS and RA. These efforts may serve to disseminate the knowledge and increase the current awareness among physicians who serve to these patients and also implementation of these recommendations is expected to increase as well.PubMedScopu

Evaluation of the effect of mitral stenosis severity on the left ventricular systolic function using isovolumic myocardial acceleration

Background: Isovolumic acceleration (IVA) is a new tissue Doppler parameter in the as­sessment of systolic function of both left and right ventricles. It remains unaffected with the changes in pre- and after-load within the physiological range. The aim of our study was to assess the effect of mitral stenosis degree, which is determined by echocardiography, on the left ventricular (LV) function using IVA. Methods: A total number of 62 patients with mitral stenosis (MS) and 32 healthy controls were examined. The severity of MS (mild, moderate, and severe) was determined on the basis of mitral valve area (MVA) and the mean diastolic mitral gradient findings. The peak myocardial velocities during isovolumic contraction, systole, early diastole and late diastole were measured by using tissue Doppler imaging (TDI). Results: All TDI-derived global LV basal wall systolic (peak myocardial isovolumic contra­ction velocity, peak myocardial systolic velocity and IVA), and diastolic velocities (peak early and late diastolic velocities) were significantly decreased in the patients with MS, compared to the healthy patients (p < 0.001, for all). However, IVA was not different when the degree of MS was evaluated (p = 0.114). In addition, IVA was not correlated with the MVA (r = 0.185, p = 0.150). Conclusions: Left ventricular function is impaired in patients with MS regardless of the severity of the disease.

ANTINEPHROLITHIATIC ACTIVITY OF PERSEA AMERICANA (AVOCADO) AND VIBURNUM OPULUS (GUELDER ROSE) AGAINST ETHYLENE GLYCOL-INDUCED NEPHROLITHIASIS IN RATS

Background: Nephrolithiasis is a severe health problem causing morbidity. Chemolisis, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL), percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL), retrograde ureterorenoscopy (URS), and open and laparoscopic surgery are used for treatment with various success rates. Medical treatments with fewer complications were investigated thoroughly. Materials and Methods: In this study, we evaluated the effects of Persea americana (avocado) leaves and Viburnum opulus (guelder rose) fruits on nephrolithiasis in an animal model and used 42 rats. The groups received both low and high doses of Persea americana leaves and Viburnum opulus fruit ethanol extracts orally for 28 days. These two plants have been used for years in Turkey for their nephrolithiatic effect. Results: Avocado and guelder rose increased the urine volume and urine citrate levels, decreased urine cystine and oxalate levels, and lowered the crystal deposits in kidney tissue. Avocado and guelder rose also prevented oxidant damage and crystal formation in kidney tissue samples. Conclusion: The two plants that have been used for years for nephrolithiasis treatment in Turkey can safely be used for kidney stones

Prognostic factors for regorafenib treatment in patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer: A real-life retrospective multi-center study

Regorafenib, an oral multikinase inhibitor, has improved survival in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients who have progressed on standard therapies. Our study aimed to evaluate prognostic factors influencing regorafenib treatment and assess the optimal dosing regimen in a real-life setting. We retrospectively analysed 263 patients with mCRC from multiple medical oncology clinics in Turkey. Treatment responses and prognostic factors for survival were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analysis. Of the patients, 120 were male, and 143 were female; 28.9% of tumors were located in the rectum. RAS mutations were present in 3.0% of tumors, while BRAF, K-RAS, and N-RAS mutations were found in 3.0%, 29.7%, and 25.9% of tumor tissues, respectively. Dose escalation was preferred in 105 (39.9%) patients. The median treatment duration was 3.0 months, with an objective response rate (ORR) of 4.9%. Grade ≥ 3 treatment-related toxicity occurred in 133 patients, leading to discontinuation, interruption, and modification rates of 50.6%, 43.7%, and 79.0%, respectively. Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 3.0 and 8.1 months, respectively. RAS/RAF mutation (hazard ratio [HR] 1.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1-2.3; P = 0.01), pretreatment carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels (HR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.3; P = 0.008), and toxicity-related treatment interruption or dose adjustment (HR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.4; P = 0.01) were identified as independent prognostic factors for PFS. Dose escalation had no significant effect on PFS but was associated with improved OS (P < 0.001). Independent prognostic factors for OS were the initial TNM stage (HR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0-1.9; P = 0.04) and dose interruption/adjustment (HR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2-0.9; P = 0.03). Our findings demonstrate the efficacy and safety of regorafenib. Treatment line influences the response, with dose escalation being more favorable than adjustment or interruption, thus impacting survival

Anticipatory Resource Allocation and Trading in a Sliced Network

Dynamically sharing network resources in a sliced multi-tenant network can provide cost efficient solutions that are able to guarantee specific service requirements for 5G networks and beyond. By automatizing the negotiations between tenants and infrastructure providers over the shared resources, it is possible to maximize the flexibility of the network in a very short time frame, thus increase efficiency. However, negotiating resources in a reactive manner can bring risks to the tenants due to traffic variations, and can also limit the gain in terms of spectral efficiency for the infrastructure provider. In this paper, we focus on how to exploit anticipatory strategies relying on predicted information on users’ conditions in order to improve the efficiency of the proposed dynamic network slicing and trading framework. In particular, we analyse how to integrate a prediction algorithm into our scheme and analyse the techno-economic impacts of the anticipatory approach. Finally, we introduce a novel filtering algorithm to limit the impacts of prediction errors. Our results prove that using anticipatory strategies in dynamic negotiations and resource allocation increases tenants’ utilities, while allows the infrastructure provider to accommodate more requests