Provisioning On-line Games: A Traffic Analysis of a Busy Counter-Strike Server

This paper describes the results of a 500 million packet trace of a popular on-line, multi-player, game server. The results show that the traffic behavior of this heavily loaded game server is highly predictable and can be attributed to the fact that current game designs target the saturation of the narrowest, last-mile link. Specifically, in order to maximize the interactivity of the game itself and to provide relatively uniform experiences between players playing over different network speeds, on-line games typically fix their usage requirements in such a way as to saturate the network link of their lowest speed players. While the traffic observed is highly predictable, the trace also indicates that these on-line games provide significant challenges to current network infrastructure. As a result of synchronous game logic requiring an extreme amount of interactivity, a close look at the trace reveals the presence of large, highly periodic, bursts of small packets. With such stringent demands on interactivity, routers must be designed with enough capacity to quickly route such bursts without delay. As current routers are designed for bulk data transfers with larger packets, a significant, concentrated deployment of on-line game servers will have the potential for overwhelming current networking equipment

Lutein Protects against Methotrexate-Induced and Reactive Oxygen Species-Mediated Apoptotic Cell Injury of IEC-6 Cells

Purpose High-dose chemotherapy using methotrexate (MTX) frequently induces side effects such as mucositis that leads to intestinal damage and diarrhea. Several natural compounds have been demonstrated of their effectiveness in protecting intestinal epithelial cells from these adverse effects. In this paper, we investigated the protection mechanism of lutein against MTX-induced damage in IEC-6 cells originating from the rat jejunum crypt. Methods: The cell viability, induced-apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and mitochondrial membrane potential in IEC-6 cells under MTX treatment were examined in the presence or absence of lutein. Expression level of Bcl2, Bad and ROS scavenging enzymes (including SOD, catalase and Prdx1) were detected by quantitative RT-PCR. Results: The cell viability of IEC-6 cells exposed to MTX was decreased in a dose- and time-dependent manner. MTX induces mitochondrial membrane potential loss, ROS generation and caspase 3 activation in IEC-6 cells. The cytotoxicity of MTX was reduced in IEC-6 cells by the 24 h pre-treatment of lutein. We found that pre-treatment of lutein significantly reduces MTX-induced ROS and apoptosis. The expression of SOD was up-regulated by the pre-treatment of lutein in the MTX-treated IEC-6 cells. These results indicated that lutein can protect IEC-6 cells from the chemo-drugs induced damage through increasing ROS scavenging ability. Conclusion: The MTX-induced apoptosis of IEC-6 cells was shown to be repressed by the pre-treatment of lutein, which may represent a promising adjunct to conventional chemotherapy for preventing intestinal damages

PVW: Designing Virtual World Server Infrastructure

This paper presents a high level overview of PVW (Partitioned Virtual Worlds), a distributed system architecture for the management of virtual worlds. PVW is designed to support arbitrarily large and complex virtual worlds while accommodating dynamic and highly variable user population and content distribution density. The PVW approach enables the task of simulating and managing the virtual world to be distributed over many servers by spatially partitioning the environment into a hierarchical structure. This structure is useful both for balancing the simulation load across many nodes, as well as features such as geometric simplification and distribution of dynamic content

Inhibitory Effects of Resveratrol on PDGF-BB-Induced Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cell Migration via PDGFRβ, PI3K/Akt and MAPK Pathways

Purpose: In diseases such as proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration, retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells proliferate and migrate. Moreover, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) has been shown to enhance proliferation and migration of RPE cells in PVR. Even resveratrol can suppress the migration and adhesion of many cell types, its effects on RPE cell migration and adhesion remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of resveratrol on RPE cell migration induced by PDGF-BB, an isoform of PDGF, and adhesion to fibronectin, a major ECM component of PVR tissue. Methods: The migration of RPE cells was assessed by an electric cell-substrate impedance sensing migration assay and a Transwell migration assay. A cell viability assay was used to determine the viability of resveratrol treated-cells. The cell adhesion to fibronectin was examined by an adhesion assay. The interactions of resveratrol with PDGF-BB were analyzed by a dot binding assay. The PDGF-BB-induced signaling pathways were determined by western blotting and scratch wound healing assay. Results: Resveratrol inhibited PDGF-BB-induced RPE cell migration in a dose-dependent manner, but showed no effects on ARPE19 cell adhesion to fibronectin. The cell viability assay showed no cytotoxicity of resveratrol on RPE cells and the dot binding assay revealed no direct interactions of resveratrol with PDGF-BB. Inhibitory effects of resveratrol on PDGF-BB-induced platelet-derived growth factor receptor β (PDGFRβ) and tyrosine phosphorylation and the underlying pathways of PI3K/Akt, ERK and p38 activation were found; however, resveratrol and PDGF-BB showed no effects on PDGFRα and JNK activation. Scratch wound healing assay demonstrated resveratrol and the specific inhibitors of PDGFR, PI3K, MEK or p38 suppressed PDGF-BB-induced cell migration. Conclusions: These results indicate that resveratrol is an effective inhibitor of PDGF-BB-induced RPE cell migration via PDGFRβ, PI3K/Akt and MAPK pathways, but has no effects on the RPE cell adhesion to fibronectin

Cross-Domain Employability Related to E-Business in Printing Industry

The study aims at introducing the cross-domain employability of Electronic Business (E-Business) that the printing industry professionals should have in Taiwan. The pilot study aims at confirming and developing a questionnaire based on indicator of employability on E-Business in Printing Industry. Secondly, designing Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) questionnaire and builds its weight. The study presents the cross-domain employability indicators related to E-Business. The contribution can benefit the printing industry when recruiting human resources, and to serve as reference for the printing related departments in higher education

A Retrospective Cohort Study Comparing Stroke Recurrence Rate in Ischemic Stroke Patients With and Without Acupuncture Treatment.

Little was known about the effects of acupuncture on stroke recurrence. The aim of this study is to investigate whether ischemic stroke patients receiving acupuncture treatment have a decreased risk of stroke recurrence. A retrospective cohort study of 30,058 newly diagnosed cases of ischemic stroke in 2000 to 2004 was conducted based on the claims of Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The use of acupuncture treatment and stroke recurrence were identified during the follow-up period from 2000 to 2009. This study compared the risk of stroke recurrence between ischemic stroke cohorts with and without acupuncture treatment by calculating adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of acupuncture associated with stroke recurrence in the Cox proportional hazard model. The stroke recurrence rate per 1000 person-years decreased from 71.4 without to 69.9 with acupuncture treatment (P < 0.001). Acupuncture treatment was associated with reduced risk of stroke recurrence (HR 0.88; 95% CI 0.84-0.91). The acupuncture effect was noted in patients with or without medical treatment for stroke prevention but its impact decreased with aging of stroke patients. Compared with stroke patients without acupuncture treatment and medication therapy, the hazard ratios of stroke recurrence for those had medication therapy only, acupuncture only, and both were 0.42 (95% CI 0.38-0.46), 0.50 (95% CI 0.43-0.57), and 0.39 (95% CI 0.35-0.43), respectively. This study raises the possibility that acupuncture might be effective in lowering stroke recurrence rate even in those on medications for stroke prevention. Results suggest the need of prospective sham-controlled and randomized trials to establish the efficacy of acupuncture in preventing stroke

Different immune responses to three different vaccines following H6N1 low pathogenic avian influenza virus challenge in Taiwanese local chicken breeds.

BACKGROUND: H6N1 low pathogenic avian influenza virus (LPAIV) are frequently isolated in Taiwan and lead to significant economic losses, either directly or indirectly through association with other infectious diseases. This study investigates immune responses to three different vaccines following a H6N1 challenge in different local breeds. METHODS: Experimental animals were sampled from six local chicken breeds maintained at the National Chung-Hsing University, namely Hsin-Yi, Ju-Chi, Hua-Tung (Taiwan), Quemoy (Quemoy Island), Shek-Ki (China), Nagoya (Japan) and a specific pathogen free (SPF) White Leghorn line. A total number of 338 chickens have been distributed between a control and a challenge group, H6N1 challenge was performed at 7 weeks of age; vaccination against Newcastle Disease (ND), Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) and Infectious Bronchitis (IB) was performed at 11 weeks. The anti-H6N1 LPAIV antibody titers were measured by ELISA at days 0, 7, 14 and 21 after challenge, and the anti-ND, anti-IBD and anti-IB antibody titers were measured by inhibition of hemagglutination test and ELISA at days 0, 14, 28 after vaccination. RESULTS: There was no effect of the H6N1 LPAIV challenge at 7 weeks of age on the subsequent responses to ND and IBD vaccine at 11 weeks of age, but, surprisingly, the H6N1 LPAIV challenge significantly affected antibody levels to IB vaccine in some breeds, since IB0 and IB14 antibody titers were lower in the challenge groups. However, there was no significant difference in IB28 antibody titers among the experimental groups. CONCLUSIONS: Local breeds have different immune response to H6N1 LPAIV challenge and subsequent vaccines. Differences dealt mainly with kinetics of response and with peak values. Quemoy exhibited higher antibody levels to H6N1, ND and IBD. The negative effect of the H6N1 LPAIV challenge on IB vaccine response may be related to the fact that both viruses target the lung tissues, and the type of local immune response induced by LPAIV challenge may not be favourable for birds to make optimum IB-specific antibody response.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Serum total antioxidant capacity reflects severity of illness in patients with severe sepsis

INTRODUCTION: We conducted the present study to evaluate the changes in serum total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in patients with severe sepsis and to investigate the association between serum TAC and clinical severity. METHOD: This was a prospective observational study involving a sample of patients who met established criteria for severe sepsis and were admitted to the emergency department of a university teaching hospital. Serum TAC was determined using the total radical-trapping antioxidant parameter method. The levels of TAC, uric acid, albumin, and bilirubin in sera were obtained in the emergency department and evaluated to determine whether there were any correlations between the major antioxidant biomarkers and clinical severity of sepsis. The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score was used for clinical evaluation of the severity of sepsis. RESULTS: A total of 73 patients with sepsis, with a mean (± standard deviation) APACHE II score of 23.2 ± 8.2 and a mortality rate of 26.0%, were included. Seventy-six healthy individuals served as control individuals. Among the patients, serum TAC levels correlated significantly with APACHE II scores. Patients who died also had higher TAC than did those who survived. Serum uric acid levels correlated significantly with serum TAC and APACHE II scores in patients with severe sepsis. CONCLUSION: Elevated serum TAC level may reflect clinical severity of sepsis. In addition, serum uric acid levels appear to contribute importantly to the higher TAC levels observed in patients with severe sepsis

miRExpress: Analyzing high-throughput sequencing data for profiling microRNA expression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs of 19 to 25 nt, play important roles in gene regulation in both animals and plants. In the last few years, the oligonucleotide microarray is one high-throughput and robust method for detecting miRNA expression. However, the approach is restricted to detecting the expression of known miRNAs. Second-generation sequencing is an inexpensive and high-throughput sequencing method. This new method is a promising tool with high sensitivity and specificity and can be used to measure the abundance of small-RNA sequences in a sample. Hence, the expression profiling of miRNAs can involve use of sequencing rather than an oligonucleotide array. Additionally, this method can be adopted to discover novel miRNAs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This work presents a systematic approach, miRExpress, for extracting miRNA expression profiles from sequencing reads obtained by second-generation sequencing technology. A stand-alone software package is implemented for generating miRNA expression profiles from high-throughput sequencing of RNA without the need for sequenced genomes. The software is also a database-supported, efficient and flexible tool for investigating miRNA regulation. Moreover, we demonstrate the utility of miRExpress in extracting miRNA expression profiles from two Illumina data sets constructed for the human and a plant species.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We develop miRExpress, which is a database-supported, efficient and flexible tool for detecting miRNA expression profile. The analysis of two Illumina data sets constructed from human and plant demonstrate the effectiveness of miRExpress to obtain miRNA expression profiles and show the usability in finding novel miRNAs.</p