An intelligent routing approach for multimedia traffic transmission over SDN

Nowadays, multimedia applications such as video streaming services have become significantly popular, especially with the rapid growth of users, various devices, and the increased availability and diversity of these services over the internet. In this case, service providers and network administrators have difficulties ensuring end-user satisfaction because the traffic generated by such services is more exposed to multiple network quality of service impairments, including bandwidth, delay, jitter, and loss ratio. This paper proposes an intelligent-based multimedia traffic routing framework that exploits the integration of a reinforcement learning technique with software-defined networking to explore, learn and find potential routes for video streaming traffic. Simulation results through a realistic network and under various traffic loads demonstrate the proposed scheme's effectiveness in providing a better end-user viewing quality, higher throughput and lower video quality switches when compared to the existing techniques

Deep learning approach for real-time video streaming traffic classification

Video streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and YouTube, continue to be of enormous demands in everyday peoples’ lives. This enticed research in new mechanisms to provide a clear image of network usage and ensure better Quality of Service (QoS) for these applications. This paper proposes an accurate video streaming traffic classification model based on deep learning (DL). We first collected a set of video traffic data from a real network. Video streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and YouTube, continue to be of enormous demands in everyday peoples’ lives. This enticed research in new mechanisms to provide a clear image of network usage and ensure better Quality of Service (QoS) for these applications. This paper proposes an accurate video streaming traffic classification model based on deep learning (DL). We first collected a set of video traffic data from a real network. Then, data was pre-processed to select the desired features for video traffic classification. Based on the performance evaluation, the model produces an overall accuracy of 99.3% when classifying video streaming traffic using a multi-layer feedforward neural network. This paper also evaluates the DL approach’s effectiveness compared to the Gaussian Naive Bayes algorithm (GNB), one of the most well-known machine learning techniques used in Internet traffic classification. The model is promising to be applied in a real-time scenario as it showed its ability to predict new unseen data with 98.4% overall accuracy

Fatty acid activated PPARγ promotes tumorigenicity of prostate cancer cells by up regulating VEGF via PPAR responsive elements of the promoter.

In previous work, it is suggested that the excessive amount of fatty acids transported by FABP5 may facilitate the malignant progression of prostate cancer cells through a FABP5-PPARγ-VEGF signal transduction axis to increase angiogenesis. To further functionally characterise the FABP5-PPARγ-VEGF signal transduction pathway, we have, in this work, investigated the molecular mechanisms involved in its tumorigenicity promoting role in prostate cancer. Suppression of PPARγ in highly malignant prostate cancer cells produced a significant reduction (up to 53%) in their proliferation rate, invasiveness (up to 89%) and anchorage-independent growth (up to 94%) in vitro. Knockdown of PPARγ gene in PC3-M cells by siRNA significantly reduced the average size of tumours formed in nude mice by 99% and tumour incidence by 90%, and significantly prolonged the latent period by 3.5 fold. Results in this study combined with some previous results suggested that FABP5 promoted VEGF expression and angiogenesis through PPARγ which was activated by fatty acids transported by FABP5. Further investigations showed that PPARγ up-regulated VEGF expression through acting with the PPAR-responsive elements in the promoter region of VEGF gene in prostate cancer cells. Although androgen can modulate VEGF expression through Sp1/Sp3 binding site on VEGF promoter in androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells, this route, disappeared as the cells gradually lost their androgen dependency; was replaced by the FABP5-PPARγ-VEGF signalling pathway. These results suggested that the FABP5-PPARγ-VEGF signal transduction axis, rather than androgen modulated route, may be a more important novel therapeutic target for angiogenesis-suppression treatment of castration resistant prostate cancer

Studying the Electrical Conductivity of Different Carbon Fillers Reinforced Polyvinyl Chloride Composite Materials

The aim of this study is development the electrical conductivity of composite materials which used three fillers of carbon reinforced PVC at different weight fractions. The experimental results showed that carbon black was more effective than carbon fiber and synthetic graphite at low weight fractions, it reached (0.229 S/cm) whereas it was (0.109 S/cm) and (0.104 S/cm) of each carbon fiber and synthetic graphite respectively. At (40%) weight fraction the electrical conductivity was increased to (0.216 S/cm) and (0.226 S/cm) of each carbon fiber and synthetic graphite while it was inattentive with carbon black. Hybrid composites were investigated also; the result appears that maximum value of the electrical conductivity at combination of (20%) weight fraction of fillers, it was (0.592 S/cm)

Proceedings of the Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC) 2011

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2011 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference(SPARC). It includes papers from PhD students in the arts and social sciences, business, computing, science and engineering, education, environment, built environment and health sciences. Contributions from Salford researchers are published here alongside papers from students at the Universities of Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City, Chester,De Montfort, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester

Inactivated FABP5 suppresses malignant progression of prostate cancer cells by inhibiting the activation of nuclear fatty acid receptor PPARγ

© Al-Jameel et al. Previous study has suggested that the FABP5-PPARγ-signalling transduction pathway gradually replaces the androgen receptor activated pathway in promoting malignant progression of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) cells. To interfere with this newly discovered FABP5-related signalling pathway, we have produced a highly efficient recombinant FABP5 inhibitor, named dmrFABP5. Treatment with dmrFABP5 significantly supressed the proliferation, migration, invasion and colony formation of the highly malignant prostate cancer cells PC3-M in vitro. To test dmrFABP5’s suppressive effect in CRPC, the human PC3-M cells were implanted orthotopically into the prostate gland of immunosuppressed mice to produce tumours. These mice were then treated with dmrFABP5 and produced a highly significant reduction of 100% in metastatic rate and a highly significant reduction of 13-fold in the average size of primary tumours. Immunocytochemial staining showed that the staining intensity of dmrFABP5 treated tumours was reduced by 67%. When tested in vitro, dmrFABP5 suppressed the cancer cells by blocking fatty acid stimulation of PPARγ, and thereby prevented it activating down-stream cancer-promoting or inhibiting cancer-suppressing genes. Our results show that the FABP5 inhibitor dmrFABP5 is a novel molecule for treatment of experimental CRPC and its inhibitory effect is much greater than that produced by SB-FI-26 reported in our previous work

Prevalence of Hepatitis E Virus in Swine Fed on Kitchen Residue

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of swine hepatitis E virus (HEV) in pigs fed different feedstuffs (kitchen residue or mixed feeds) and genetic identification of HEV isolated in Hebei province, China. Serum and fecal samples were collected from adult swine. Anti-HEV antibody was evaluated by double sandwich antigen enzyme immunoassay. HEV RNA was extracted from fecal samples and amplified by nested RT-PCR. The reaction products were sequenced, and the sequence analyzed. Virus-like particles were distinguishable by negative staining in the electron microscope. Histopathological observation and immunohistochemical localization were used in the animal models. Overall, the anti-HEV positive percentage of serum samples from pigs fed on kitchen residue was 87.10% (27/31), and 53.06% (130/245) from pigs fed on complete feed. The HEV RNA positivity rate of fecal samples from pigs fed on kitchen residue was 61.54% (8/13), but zero for pigs fed on complete feed. Sequence analysis of these eight samples and comparison with the published sequence showed that there were eight groups that belonged to genotype 4 d and the nucleotide identity was 95.6–99.3%. swHE11 is most closely related to strain CCC220, and the other seven HEV isolates were most closely related to strains swGX40, SwCH189 and V0008ORF3, which are isolates from human and pigs. Histopathological observation showed that there was liver damage in the experimental group, and immunohistochemistry indicated that the HEV antigens were strongly positive at 7 days after infection. The results demonstrated that the prevalence of HEV in pigs fed on kitchen residue was higher than in those fed on complete feed (P<0.05)

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10&nbsp;years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37&nbsp;years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020