Measuring and modeling energy consumption to design a green NetFPGA giga-router

One of the most weighty matter in the Internet today is the waste of energy due to the fact that consumption of network nodes is not tuned with the input traffic. For this reason, the implementation of rate adaptation facilities in the routers constitutes a challenging problem to make the network energy efficient. Rate adaptation in the green routers is usually achieved by scaling the processing power according to the data rate the router has to manage; at this purpose the clock frequency driving the router processes can be modified according to the input data rate. In this context this paper, starting from a measurement study of the Reference Router implemented on the NetFPGA platform, defines a model of the consumed power as a function of both the managed input traffic and the available clock frequencies. As demonstrated in the paper, the model can be applied by router designers to choose the main router platform parameters, i.e. the number of clock frequencies and the clock frequency switching time, while respecting a given tradeoff between the percentage of energy saved and the maximum tolerated loss probability due to frequency switch

Power control and management in the NetFPGA Gigabit Router

Improving energy efficiency in Internet equipments is becoming an increasingly important research topic. In this paper, we discuss the lesson gained by experimenting a power management mechanism aimed at reducing the power consumption while guaranteeing the Quality of Service (QoS). To this purpose, we drive the clock frequency of an open flexible and high-performance router, the NetFPGA, according to the measured input bit rate. An evaluation of the proposed power management policy is provided

Multidisciplinary Care for Patients with Cardiac Amyloidosis: a Lesson from the 2023 American College of Cardiology Expert Consensus

Amyloidosis is a rare and varied group of diseases defined by the misfolding, aggregation, and deposition of highly structured fibrils made of low molecular weight protein subunits known as amyloid deposits throughout different tissues. Depending on their form and location, amyloid deposits can produce a variety of clinical manifestations resulting in considerable morbidity, death, and a deterioration in quality of life. "Cardiac amyloidosis" refers to the clinical condition associated with cardiac amyloid infiltration of the heart. The American College of Cardiology has issued an expert consensus addressing cardiological management of cardiac amyloidosis, the need for an interdisciplinary approach to extra-cardiac manifestations and highlighting the importance of removing barriers to equitable care for patients with amyloidosis. In this editorial we summarize and discuss on relevant issues addressed in the consensus

A module for packet hijacking in NetFPGA platform

The reference router implementation on the NetFPGA platform has been changed in order to hijack the incoming packets according to rules specified by the user through NetFPGA registers. This means that we are able to change any field of any incoming packets; of course, depending on whether we are changing TCP or IP header fields, we need to recompute the TCP or IP checksum and store them back into the packets. It might be useful to change information of the IP or TCP header or the data itself. For example, we could crypto the data, change the URL address in order to point to the desired web site or for URL filtering, change the priority information of a bunch of data, and much more. Our implementation works at user data path level and modifies packet fields if certain conditions defined by the user through NetFPGA registers are satisfied. The project has been implemented as a fully open-source project and serves as an exemplar project on how to build and distribute NetFPGA applications. All the code (Verilog, system software, graphical user interface, verification scripts, makefiles, and support tools) can be freely downloaded from the NetFPGA.org website

Long-Term Effects of Hospitalization for COVID-19 on Frailty and Quality of Life in Older Adults ≥80 Years

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the effects of frailty and the perceived quality of life (QOL) on the long-term survival (at least 1 year) of patients ≥ 80 years hospitalized for COVID-19 and the predictors of frailty and QOL deterioration in survivors. Design: This is a single-center, prospective observational cohort study. Setting and Participants: The study was conducted in a teaching hospital and enrolled all COVID-19 patients ≥80 years old consecutively hospitalized between April 2020 and March 2021. Methods: Clinical variables assessed in the Emergency Department (ED), and during hospitalization, were evaluated for association with all-cause death at a follow-up. Frailty was assessed by the clinical frailty scale (CFS), and the QOL was assessed by the five-level EuroQol EQ-5d tool. Multivariate Cox regression analyses and logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent factors for poor outcomes. Results: A total of 368 patients aged ≥80 years survived the index hospitalization (age 85 years [interquartile range 82–89]; males 163 (44.3%)). Compared to non-frail patients (CFS 1–3), patients with CFS 4–6 and patients with CFS 7–9 had an increased risk of death (hazard ratio 6.75 [1.51, 30.2] and HR 3.55 [2.20, 5.78], respectively). In patients alive at the 1-year follow-up, the baseline QOL was an independent predictor of an increase in frailty (OR 1.12 [1.01, 1.24]). Male sex was associated with lower odds of QOL worsening (OR 0.61 [0.35, 1.07]). Conclusions and Implications: In older adults ≥80 years hospitalized for COVID-19, the frailty assessment by the CFS could effectively stratify the risk of long-term death after discharge. In survivors, the hospitalization could produce a long-term worsening in frailty, particularly in patients with a pre-existing reduced baseline QOL. A long-term reduction in the perceived QOL is frequent in ≥80 survivors, and the effect appears more pronounced in female patients

HER2 Assessment in Gastric Cancer Surgical Specimens: Proposal of a Work-Flow for Practical Routine Use

none12Background: In gastric cancer (GC) the expression of HER2 is known as a marker of prognosis and recently it has been confirmed as a predictive marker of response to Trastuzumab. Design: GC specimens of 100 patients were collected. Representative samples from both primary tumors (100 samples) and lymph node metastases (24 samples), were selected. In each case, 4B5 (Ventana), CB11 (kit Oracle Menarini), HercepTest (Dako) antibodies were tested in immunohistochemistry (IHC) and scored as proposed. HER2 gene status was studied by double probe fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in all cases. Concordance among IHC scoring results of the 3 antibodies and between FISH results and IHC (0/1+ and 2+/3+), independently from the percentage of positive cells, were evaluated using the Cohen-Fleiss’ kappa statistic (K). The number of specimens needed to be tested in cases with 3) on the results of FISH ratio was considered. Results: The 3 antibodies showed a K of 84% (p80% (p85% (p10% adding 2 more sections from different tissue blocks of the primary tumor. In our case series, the gain of CEP17 did not influence the final score ratio of FISH analysis. Conclusions: The HER2 analysis of surgical specimens of GC has to consider the tumor heterogeneity. When the IHC score is 0/1+ on 1 tissue block, we recommend to test 2 more tissue blocks, particularly in the cases were the negative score is related to the low percentage of positive cells (<10%). Our work flow protocol avoids working over-load and solves equivocal cases.mixedS Asioli; F Maletta; L Verdun di Cantogno; MA Satolli; M Schena; C Pecchioni; C Botta; G D’Angelo; D Recupero; G Ingravallo; E Maiorano; A SapinoS Asioli; F Maletta; L Verdun di Cantogno; MA Satolli; M Schena; C Pecchioni; C Botta; G D’Angelo; D Recupero; G Ingravallo; E Maiorano; A Sapin

Long-Term Effects of Hospitalization for COVID-19 on Frailty and Quality of Life in Older Adults ≥80 Years

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the effects of frailty and the perceived quality of life (QOL) on the long-term survival (at least 1 year) of patients &gt;= 80 years hospitalized for COVID-19 and the predictors of frailty and QOL deterioration in survivors. Design: This is a single-center, prospective observational cohort study. Setting and Participants: The study was conducted in a teaching hospital and enrolled all COVID-19 patients &gt;= 80 years old consecutively hospitalized between April 2020 and March 2021. Methods: Clinical variables assessed in the Emergency Department (ED), and during hospitalization, were evaluated for association with all-cause death at a follow-up. Frailty was assessed by the clinical frailty scale (CFS), and the QOL was assessed by the five-level EuroQol EQ-5d tool. Multivariate Cox regression analyses and logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent factors for poor outcomes. Results: A total of 368 patients aged &gt;= 80 years survived the index hospitalization (age 85 years [interquartile range 82-89]; males 163 (44.3%)). Compared to non-frail patients (CFS 1-3), patients with CFS 4-6 and patients with CFS 7-9 had an increased risk of death (hazard ratio 6.75 [1.51, 30.2] and HR 3.55 [2.20, 5.78], respectively). In patients alive at the 1-year follow-up, the baseline QOL was an independent predictor of an increase in frailty (OR 1.12 [1.01, 1.24]). Male sex was associated with lower odds of QOL worsening (OR 0.61 [0.35, 1.07]). Conclusions and Implications: In older adults &gt;= 80 years hospitalized for COVID-19, the frailty assessment by the CFS could effectively stratify the risk of long-term death after discharge. In survivors, the hospitalization could produce a long-term worsening in frailty, particularly in patients with a pre-existing reduced baseline QOL. A long-term reduction in the perceived QOL is frequent in &gt;= 80 survivors, and the effect appears more pronounced in female patients