Empirical Investigation of Factors influencing Function as a Service Performance in Different Cloud/Edge System Setups

Experimental data can aid in gaining insights about a system operation, as well as determining critical aspects of a modelling or simulation process. In this paper, we analyze the data acquired from an extensive experimentation process in a serverless Function as a Service system (based on the open source Apache Openwhisk) that has been deployed across 3 available cloud/edge locations with different system setups. Thus, they can be used to model distribution of functions through multi-location aware scheduling mechanisms. The experiments include different traffic arrival rates, different setups for the FaaS system, as well as different configurations for the hardware and platform used. We analyse the acquired data for the three FaaS system setups and discuss their differences presenting interesting conclusions with relation to transient effects of the system, such as the effect on wait and execution time. We also demonstrate interesting trade-offs with relation to system setup and indicate a number of factors that can affect system performance and should be taken under consideration in modelling attempts of such systems.Comment: 24 pages, 14 Figures, Journal pape

Efficient Certification Path Discovery for MANET

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is characterized by the lack of any infrastructure, absence of any kind of centralized administration, frequent mobility of nodes, network partitioning, and wireless connections. These properties make traditional wireline security solutions not straightforwardly applicable in MANETs, and of course, constitute the establishment of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) in such networks a cumbersome task. After surveying related work, we propose a novel public key management scheme using the well-known web-of-trust or trust graph model. Our scheme is based on a binary tree formation of the network's nodes. The binary tree structure is proved very effective for building certificate chains between communicating nodes that are multihops away and the cumbersome problem of certificate chain discovery is avoided. We compare our scheme with related work and show that it presents several advantages, especially when a fair balancing between security and performance is desirable. Simulations of the proposed scheme under different scenarios demonstrate that it is effective in terms of tree formation, join and leave occurrences, and certificate chain establishment

Abnormal mitochondrial respiration in skeletal muscle in patients with peripheral arterial disease

AbstractObjectiveDiscrete morphologic, enzymatic and functional changes in skeletal muscle mitochondria have been demonstrated in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). We examined mitochondrial respiration in the gastrocnemius muscle of nine patients (10 legs) with advanced PAD and in nine control patients (nine legs) without evidence of PAD.MethodsMitochondrial respiratory rates were determined with a Clark electrode in an oxygraph cell containing saponin-skinned muscle bundles. Muscle samples were obtained from the anteromedial aspect of the gastrocnemius muscle, at a level 10 cm distal to the tibial tuberosity. Mitochondria respiratory rate, calculated as nanoatoms of oxygen consumed per minute per milligram of noncollagen protein, were measured at baseline (V0), after addition of substrates (malate and glutamate; (VSUB), after addition of adenosine diphosphate (ADP) (VADP), and finally, after adenine nucleotide translocase inhibition with atractyloside (VAT). The acceptor control ratio, a sensitive indicator of overall mitochondrial function, was calculated as the ratio of the respiratory rate after the addition of ADP to the respiratory rate after adenine nucleotide translocase inhibition with atractyloside (VADP/ VAT).ResultsRespiratory rate in muscle mitochondria from patients with PAD were not significantly different from control values at baseline (0.31 ± 0.06 vs 0.55 ± 0.12; P = .09), but Vsub was significantly lower in patients with PAD compared with control subjects (0.43 ± 0.07 vs 0.89 ± 0.20; P < .05), as was VADP (0.69 ± 0.13 vs 1.24 ± 0.20; P < .05). Respiratory rates after atractyloside inhibition in patients with PAD were no different from those in control patients (0.47 ± 0.07 vs 0.45 ± P = .08). Compared with control values, mitochondria from patients with PAD had a significantly lower acceptor control ratio (1.41 ± 0.10 vs 2.90 ± 0.20; P < .001).ConclusionMitochondrial respiratory activity is abnormal in lower extremity skeletal muscle in patients with PAD. When considered in concert with the ultrastructural and enzymatic abnormalities previously documented in mitochondria of chronically ischemic muscle, these data support the concept of defective mitochondrial function as a pathophysiologic component of PAD

A Right Atrial Hemangioma Mimicking Thrombus In A Patient With Atrial Arrhythmias

Cardiac hemangiomas are rare tumors, accounting for only 2.8% of all benign primary cardiac tumors and occur at any age. Clinical presentations vary depending on the tumor location (myocardial, endocardial or pericardial). In many cases, this may be an incidental finding. We report the case of a patient with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation who had a right atrial hemangioma detected with transesophageal echocardiography prior to having percutaneous pulmonary vein isolation performe

Genetic prediction of ICU hospitalization and mortality in COVID-19 patients using artificial neural networks

There is an unmet need of models for early prediction of morbidity and mortality of Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). We aimed to a) identify complement-related genetic variants associated with the clinical outcomes of ICU hospitalization and death, b) develop an artificial neural network (ANN) predicting these outcomes and c) validate whether complement-related variants are associated with an impaired complement phenotype. We prospectively recruited consecutive adult patients of Caucasian origin, hospitalized due to COVID-19. Through targeted next-generation sequencing, we identified variants in complement factor H/CFH, CFB, CFH-related, CFD, CD55, C3, C5, CFI, CD46, thrombomodulin/THBD, and A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase with Thrombospondin motifs (ADAMTS13). Among 381 variants in 133 patients, we identified 5 critical variants associated with severe COVID-19: rs2547438 (C3), rs2250656 (C3), rs1042580 (THBD), rs800292 (CFH) and rs414628 (CFHR1). Using age, gender and presence or absence of each variant, we developed an ANN predicting morbidity and mortality in 89.47% of the examined population. Furthermore, THBD and C3a levels were significantly increased in severe COVID-19 patients and those harbouring relevant variants. Thus, we reveal for the first time an ANN accurately predicting ICU hospitalization and death in COVID-19 patients, based on genetic variants in complement genes, age and gender. Importantly, we confirm that genetic dysregulation is associated with impaired complement phenotype.- Pfizer Pharmaceuticals(undefined

Cytogenetic complexity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: definitions, associations and clinical impact

Recent evidence suggests that complex karyotype (CK) defined by the presence of 653 chromosomal aberrations (structural and/or numerical) identified by chromosome banding analysis (CBA) may be relevant for treatment decision-making in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). However, many challenges towards routine clinical application of CBA remain. In a retrospective study of 5290 patients with available CBA data, we explored both clinicobiological associations and the clinical impact of CK in CLL. We found that patients with 655 abnormalities, defined as high-CK, exhibit uniformly dismal clinical outcome, independently of clinical stage, TP53 aberrations (deletion of chromosome 17p and or TP53 mutations, TP53abs) and the expression of somatically hypermutated (M-CLL) or unmutated (U-CLL) immunoglobulin heavy variable genes (IGHV). Thus, they contrasted CK cases with 3 or 4 aberrations (low-CK and intermediate-CK, respectively) who followed aggressive disease courses only in the presence of TP53abs. At the other end of the spectrum, patients with CK and +12,+19 displayed an exceptionally indolent profile. Building upon CK, TP53abs and IGHV gene somatic hypermutation status, we propose a novel hierarchical model where patients with high-CK exhibit the worst prognosis, while M-CLL lacking CK or TP53abs as well as CK with +12,+19 show the longest overall survival. In conclusion, CK should not be axiomatically considered unfavorable in CLL, representing a heterogeneous group with variable clinical behavior. High-CK with 655 chromosomal aberrations emerges as prognostically adverse, independently of other biomarkers. Prospective clinical validation is warranted before finally incorporating high-CK in risk stratification of CLL

The Human Phenotype Ontology in 2024: phenotypes around the world.

The Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) is a widely used resource that comprehensively organizes and defines the phenotypic features of human disease, enabling computational inference and supporting genomic and phenotypic analyses through semantic similarity and machine learning algorithms. The HPO has widespread applications in clinical diagnostics and translational research, including genomic diagnostics, gene-disease discovery, and cohort analytics. In recent years, groups around the world have developed translations of the HPO from English to other languages, and the HPO browser has been internationalized, allowing users to view HPO term labels and in many cases synonyms and definitions in ten languages in addition to English. Since our last report, a total of 2239 new HPO terms and 49235 new HPO annotations were developed, many in collaboration with external groups in the fields of psychiatry, arthrogryposis, immunology and cardiology. The Medical Action Ontology (MAxO) is a new effort to model treatments and other measures taken for clinical management. Finally, the HPO consortium is contributing to efforts to integrate the HPO and the GA4GH Phenopacket Schema into electronic health records (EHRs) with the goal of more standardized and computable integration of rare disease data in EHRs