Spare capacity modelling and its applications in survivable iP-over-optical networks

As the interest in IP-over-optical networks are becoming the preferred core network architecture, survivability has emerged as a major concern for network service providers; a result of the potentially huge traffic volumes that will be supported by optical infrastructure. Therefore, implementing recovery strategies is critical. In addition to the traditional recovery schemes based around protection and restoration mechanisms, pre-allocated restoration represents a potential candidate to effect and maintain network resilience under failure conditions. Preallocated restoration technique is particularly interesting because it provides a trade-off in terms of recovery performance and resources between protection and restoration schemes. In this paper, the pre-allocated restoration performance is investigated under single and dual-link failures considering a distributed GMPLSbased IP/WDM mesh network. Two load-based spare capacity optimisation methods are proposed in this paper; Local Spare Capacity Optimisation (LSCO) and Global Spare Capacity Optimisation (GSCO)

THE EFFECTS OF NATURAL RESOURCE DEPENDENCE AND DEMOCRACY ON THE INCREMENTAL BUDGETING THEORY AND PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM WITHIN A BUDGETARY CONTEXT

I contribute to the literature by providing additional factors that could affect the incremental budgeting theory and punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) within a budgetary context. Because of the fluctuation in the price of natural resources, I argue that dependence on natural resources could lead to less stable budgets than ones not dependent on natural resources. I also argue that democracy is another source that leads to stability in the budget, relative to countries that are not democratic. I theorize that countries with no democracy and heavy dependence on natural resources will have budgets with more volatility than the rest of the countries. Most of the extant literature focuses on countries that are democratic and not dependent on natural resources. My theory expects these to have the most stable budgets. I extend the literature by comparing the Kuwaiti National Budget (dependent on natural resources and not democratic) to the U.S. Federal Budget (democratic and not dependent on natural resources). The results of all tests are consistent with the expectations of the theory that countries with no democracy and heavy dependence on natural resources have less incremental budgets than nations that are democratic and not dependent on natural resources

Evaluation of the Surgical and Pharmacological Treatment of Diabetic Foot Infection: A Retrospective Study

BACKGROUND: Diabetic foot infection is a major cause of patient disabilities and lowers limb amputations, with high treatment costs and hospitalisation requirements. AIM: Aim of this study was to evaluate surgical wound care plus antibiotic effects in the treatment of mild and moderate diabetic foot infections. METHODS: This retrospective study involved 60 patients with diabetic foot infections with or without osteomyelitis. The patients were categorised as group 1 mild and group 2 moderate. Both groups were treated using local wound debridement and the systemic administration of antibiotics. Group 1 (16) patients were treated with two regimens of oral antibiotics in two regimens, A (amoxicillin/clavulanate + metronidazole) and B (clindamycin + metronidazole), for 10-14 days. Group 2 (42) patients were treated with oral plus intravenous antibiotics in two regimens, A (ampicillin + cloxacillin + metronidazole) and B (lincomycin + metronidazole), for 6 weeks. The patients followed-up with local wound care specialists for 3 months to evaluate the treatment outcomes (cure, improvement, or failure). RESULTS: Group 1 had an 80% cure rate under regimen A and a 100% cure rate under regimen B. Group 2 regimen A patients had a 61.5% cure rate and 11.53% improved, while regimen B patients had a 68.75% cure rate and 12.5% improved. Failure in both regimens was 23.8% in 20 patients with osteomyelitis, while 35% were cured and 20% improved during the study period. CONCLUSION: Local surgical wound care for 3 months with antibiotic regimens for 6 weeks resulted in good response and cure rates, with lower costs and fewer instances of hospitalisation. Intravenous lincomycin and oral metronidazole achieved higher cure responses for moderate diabetic foot infections

Evaporation and Potential Evapotranspiration in Central Iraq

The principal objectives of this study were to compare several formulas for estimating pan evaporation and evapotranspiration and to derive new formulas or modify existing formulas that will better fit the data for central Iraq. Computed evaporation was compared with measured evaporation by determining the differences and the ratios. The pan evaporation formulas were also compared by expressing them all in the form Ev = K CRCTCWCHCDTCSCMThree pan evaporation formulas were modified. For the Meyer and Utah formulas, the constants were changed and expressions were derived for monthly coefficients. For the Blaney-Criddle formula, an expression for k was derived in which k is a function of the mean temperature, wind velocity, and the month. For potential evapotranspiration, two formulas were modified to give reasonable values for January and July. For the Blaney- Criddle formula, an expression for k was derived in which k is a function of ternperature. Grassi\u27s formula 3a, which expresses evapotranspiration as a function of pan evaporation, was rnodified by deriving a new expression for the temperature coefficient. From these rnodified forrnulas, potential evapotranspiration and pan evaporation can be estimated from climatic data without applying any judgrnent factor, as is ordinarily necessary in using the Blaney-Criddle formula

Service level agreement framework for differentiated survivability in GMPLS-based IP-over-optical networks

In the next generation optical internet, GMPLS based IP-over-optical networks, ISPs will be required to support a wide variety of applications each having their own requirements. These requirements are contracted by means of the SLA. This paper describes a recovery framework that may be included in the SLA contract between ISP and customers in order to provide the required level of survivability. A key concern with such a recovery framework is how to present the different survivability alternatives including recovery techniques, failure scenario and layered integration into a transparent manner for customers. In this paper, two issues are investigated. First, the performance of the recovery framework when applying a proposed mapping procedure as an admission control mechanism in the edge router considering a smart-edge simple-core GMPLS-based IP/WDM network is considered. The second issue pertains to the performance of a pre-allocated restoration and its ability to provide protected connections under different failure scenarios

The potential for liquid biopsies in the precision medical treatment of breast cancer.

Currently the clinical management of breast cancer relies on relatively few prognostic/predictive clinical markers (estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, HER2), based on primary tumor biology. Circulating biomarkers, such as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) or circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may enhance our treatment options by focusing on the very cells that are the direct precursors of distant metastatic disease, and probably inherently different than the primary tumor's biology. To shift the current clinical paradigm, assessing tumor biology in real time by molecularly profiling CTCs or ctDNA may serve to discover therapeutic targets, detect minimal residual disease and predict response to treatment. This review serves to elucidate the detection, characterization, and clinical application of CTCs and ctDNA with the goal of precision treatment of breast cancer

Optimization of square microneedle arrays for increasing drug permeability in skin

Microneedles array is a new transdermal drug delivery technique designed to create holes in the epidermis and penetrate the stratum corneum, thus avoiding the high resistance of this barrier. Microneedles have been shown to increase the skin permeability of drugs with no or little pain. However, the skin permeability of epidermis while using microneedle arrays has yet to be fully studied. In some cases, microneedle and microneedle array designs which were developed based on certain criteria (e.g., material of the microneedles) have to be related to other criteria (e.g., drug permeability in skin, skin thickness, etc.). Therefore, in order to determine the optimum design of the microneedle arrays, the effect of different factors (e.g., number of the microneedle, surface area of the patch, etc.) along with skin permeability by using microneedles should be determined accurately. In this work, an optimization framework for transdermal delivery of high molecular weight drug from microneedle is presented. The outputs of this framework have allowed us to identify the optimum design of various microneedles. Data from this optimization algorithm is then used to predict skin permeability of high molecular weight injected into the skin from a microneedle system. The effect of the optimized microneedles on blood drug concentration has been determined. The outcome of this study is useful to propose an optimum design based on different measurement (e.g., variation of skin thickness) for transdermal delivery of drugs

Towards a model for monitoring public services projects in Saudi Arabia

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been adopted by many governments around the world in the form of e-government to facilitate service delivery to the public. Saudi Arabia is an example of such a country that has adopted technology with these aims, but there is a failure in enabling the engagement of citizens with government to deliver public services projects with assured quality standards. The failings are blamed on the system's lack of support for stakeholder oversight. In light of these inadequacies, more effective monitoring of project construction and project implementation is required in order to improve public service quality from a long-term perspective. Fixes have been proposed to the lack of two-way communication between citizens and the government by inviting feedback from citizens through social media and other communication channels, however, a cohesive overarching model that enables the engagement of citizens with government projects has yet to be devised. There is a clear need for a model that can be applied to design official systems to facilitate consultation between the government and the public and to invite feedback from key stakeholders throughout each stage of the project lifecycle. This paper proposes a conceptual model to facilitate citizens in monitoring the quality of public services and the progress of public service projects. It is designed based on an in-depth analysis of the available systems on the market, e-participation studies and theoretical work presented in the literature. The paper also recommends technologies and features that will facilitate the implementation of the model in different contexts

Optimizing microneedle arrays for transdermal drug delivery: extension to non-square distribution of microneedles

The technology of fabricating microneedle arrays to deliver high molecular weight drugs across skin in a minimally invasive manner is receiving increasing attention. Microneedle arrays with different geometries have been manufactured using materials such as glass, polymer, metal, etc. However, a framework that can identify the optimum designs of these arrays seems to be lacking. This is important since by optimising the microneedles dimensions (e.g., surface area of the patch, microneedle radius, etc) the permeability of drugs in skin can be increased. To address this issue, this study presents an optimization framework for transdermal delivery of high molecular weight drug from microneedle. The optimization process is based on determining an optimisation function (g) for various microneedles patterns (e.g., square, diamond, triangular, etc). We argue that higher the value of g is the higher the drug permeability in skin is. The outputs of the developed framework have allowed us to identify the optimum design of both solid and hollow microneedles. In particular, the results have been used to predict skin permeability of high molecular weight using microneedle system. Also, optimum designs based on different classifications of skin thickness (e.g., race, age, etc) for transdermal delivery of drugs are suggested

The Oil Curse Validated: Evidence from Eurasia and Latin America

Many studies have found a negative relationship between oil abundance and democracy. However, recent studies have tried to upend this correlation by employing time-series techniques or finding a conditionality on other factors. This study contributes to the literature by employing an Arellano Bond model that corrects for fixed effects and adopts new variables from recent empirical studies. Comparing Eurasia and Latin America from the 1960s to 2010, we find that the theory of a negative relationship between an abundance of natural resources and democracy remains valid