Reliable streaming protocol for lossy networks

This paper introduces REST, a reliable streaming protocol for lossy networks. REST ensures full reliability while recovering losses as soon as possible thanks to the proactive injection of redundancy packets encoded following an on-the-fly scheme. It dynamically adapts the sending of codes depending on the estimation of the packet error rate with periodic acknowledgments to limit feedback dependency and protocol overhead. Results show that data are smoothly delivered to the receiving application with minimum overhead when errors are uniform. For systems with limited processing capacity, we proposed to use a bounded encoding window to deliver data more uniformly while limiting the decoding matrix size. We study the performance of REST under different network conditions and highlight the underlying tradeoffs behind each system parameter. We show that an optimal acknowledgement frequency can be found to minimize overhead while meeting system requirements in terms of delivery delay and computational power

Pattern Recognition Analysis of Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra of Brain Tissue Extracts from Rats Anesthetized with Propofol or Isoflurane

BACKGROUND: General anesthesia is routinely used as a surgical procedure and its safety has been endorsed by clinical outcomes; however, its effects at the molecular level have not been elucidated. General anesthetics influence glucose metabolism in the brain. However, the effects of anesthetics on brain metabolites other than those related to glucose have not been well characterized. We used a pattern recognition analysis of proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectra to visualize the changes in holistic brain metabolic phenotypes in response to the widely used intravenous anesthetic propofol and the volatile anesthetic isoflurane. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Rats were randomized into five groups (n = 7 each group). Propofol and isoflurane were administered to two groups each, for 2 or 6 h. The control group received no anesthesia. Brains were removed directly after anesthesia. Hydrophilic compounds were extracted from excised whole brains and measured by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. All spectral data were processed and analyzed by principal component analysis for comparison of the metabolite profiles. Data were visualized by plotting principal component (PC) scores. In the plots, each point represents an individual sample. The propofol and isoflurane groups were clustered separately on the plots, and this separation was especially pronounced when comparing the 6-h groups. The PC scores of the propofol group were clearly distinct from those of the control group, particularly in the 6-h group, whereas the difference in PC scores was more subtle in the isoflurane group and control groups. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results of the present study showed that propofol and isoflurane exerted differential effects on holistic brain metabolism under anesthesia

The neurochemical profile quantified by in vivo 1H NMR spectroscopy.

Proton NMR spectroscopy is emerging from translational and preclinical neuroscience research as an important tool for evidence based diagnosis and therapy monitoring. It provides biomarkers that offer fingerprints of neurological disorders even in cases where a lesion is not yet observed in MR images. The collection of molecules used as cerebral biomarkers that are detectable by (1)H NMR spectroscopy define the so-called "neurochemical profile". The non-invasive quality of this technique makes it suitable not only for diagnostic purposes but also for therapy monitoring paralleling an eventual neuroprotection. The application of (1)H NMR spectroscopy in basic and translational neuroscience research is discussed here