ProFaaStinate: Delaying Serverless Function Calls to Optimize Platform Performance

Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) enables developers to run serverless applications without managing operational tasks. In current FaaS platforms, both synchronous and asynchronous calls are executed immediately. In this paper, we present ProFaaStinate, which extends serverless platforms to enable delayed execution of asynchronous function calls. This allows platforms to execute calls at convenient times with higher resource availability or lower load. ProFaaStinate is able to optimize performance without requiring deep integration into the rest of the platform, or a complex systems model. In our evaluation, our prototype built on top of Nuclio can reduce request response latency and workflow duration while also preventing the system from being overloaded during load peaks. Using a document preparation use case, we show a 54% reduction in average request response latency. This reduction in resource usage benefits both platforms and users as cost savings.Comment: Accepted for publication in Proc. of 9th International Workshop on Serverless Computing (WoSC 23

Global myocardial longitudinal strain in a general population—associations with blood pressure and subclinical heart failure: The Tromsø Study

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-019-01741-3.The early detection of subclinical myocardial dysfunction can contribute to the treatment and prevention of heart failure (HF). The aim of the study was to (i) describe myocardial global longitudinal strain (GLS) patterns in a large general population sample from Norway and their relation to established cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors; (ii) to determine its normal thresholds in healthy individuals and (iii) ascertain the relation of myocardial GLS to stage A subclinical heart failure (SAHF). Participants (n = 1855) of the 7th survey of the population-based Tromsø Study of Norway (2015–2016) with GLS measurements were studied. Linear and logistic regression models were used for assessment of the associations between CVD risk factors and GLS. Mean GLS (SD) in healthy participants was − 15.9 (2.7) % in men and − 17.8 (3.1) % in women. Among healthy subjects, defined as those without known cardiovascular diseases and comorbidities, GLS declined with age. An increase of systolic blood pressure (SBP) of 10 mm Hg was associated with a 0.2% GLS reduction. Myocardial GLS in individuals with SAHF was 1.2% lower than in participants without SAHF (p < 0.001). Mean myocardial GLS declines with age in both sexes, both in a general population and in the healthy subsample. SBP increase associated with GLS decline in women. Our findings indicate high sensitivity of GLS for early subclinical stages of HF

Self-reported health as a predictor of mortality: A cohort study of its relation to other health measurements and observation time.

Self-reported health (SRH) is widely used as an epidemiological instrument given the changes in public health since its introduction in the 1980s. We examined the association between SRH and mortality and how this is affected by time and health measurements in a prospective cohort study using repeated measurements and physical examinations of 11652 men and 12684 women in Tromsø, Norway. We used Cox proportional hazard regression to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of death for SRH, controlling for pathology, biometrics, smoking, sex and age. SRH predicted mortality independently of other, more objective health measures. Higher SRH was strongly associated with lower mortality risk. Poor SRH had HR 2.51 (CI: 2.19, 2.88). SRH is affected by disease, mental health and other risk factors, but these factors had little impact on HRs (Poor SRH: HR 1.99; CI: 1.72, 2.31). SRH predicted mortality, but with a time-dependent effect. Time strongly affected the hazard ratio for mortality, especially after ten-year follow-up (Poor SRH HR 3.63 at 0-5 years decreased to HR 1.58 at 15-21 years). SRH has both methodological and clinical value. It should not be uncritically utilised as a replacement instrument when measures of physical illness and other objective health measures are lacking

Management of patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in Russian hospitals adheres to international guidelines

Objective - Russia has one of the highest cardiovascular mortality rates. Modernisation of the Russian health system has been accompanied by a substantial increase in uptake of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), which substantially reduces the risk of mortality in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). This paper aims to describe contemporary Hospital treatment of acute STEMI among patients in a range of hospitals in the Russian Federation. Methods - This study used data from a prospective observational cohort of 1128 suspected patients with myocardial infarction recruited in both PCI and non-PCI hospitals across 13 regions and multiple levels of the health system in Russia. The primary objective was to examine the use of reperfusion strategies in patients with STEMI. Results - Among patients reaching PCI centres within 12 hours of symptom onset, the vast majority received angiography and PCI, regardless of age, sex and comorbidity, in line with current European Society of Cardiology guidelines. Conclusion- Patients reaching Russian hospitals are very likely to receive appropriate treatment, although performance varies. The best hospitals can serve as beacons of good practice as PCI facilities continue to expand across Russia where geography allows

Online-Panel: Communities und Netzwerke als Treiber des digitalen Wandels: Erfahrungen, Perspektiven und Ausblick

Enterprise Social Networks und Corporate Communities sind zentrale Elemente von Unternehmensinitiativen im Bereich der Digitalen Transformation (Brück, 2018; Schirmer, 2016; Wagner et al., 2016). Sie fungieren als virtuelle Begegnungsräume und helfen dabei, Mitarbeiter und deren Wissen über Abteilungsbzw. Organisationsgrenzen hinweg besser zu vernetzen sowie die Qualität und Geschwindigkeit der Zusammenarbeit zu verbessern (Clauss et al., 2019). Das geschieht zum Beispiel, indem sich Mitarbeiter in Communities zusammenfinden und gemeinsam an neuen Ideen oder Produkten arbeiten. Auch kann schneller und gezielter auf Expertenwissen zugegriffen werden (Wagner & Schirmer, 2016; Wagner et al., 2017). Damit stellen Enterprise Social Networks und Corporate Communities wichtige Instrumente moderner Wissensarbeit (Wagner et al., 2014) und Katalysatoren des strategischen Wandels dar (Wagner & Schirmer, 2016; Wagner & Brück 2020)

Variability of Affective Responses to Odors: Culture, Gender, and Olfactory Knowledge

Emotion and odor scales (EOS) measuring odor-related affective feelings were recently developed for three different countries (Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Singapore). The first aim of this study was to investigate gender and cultural differences in verbal affective response to odors, measured with EOS and the usual pleasantness scale. To better understand this variability, the second aim was to investigate the link between affective reports and olfactory knowledge (familiarity and identification). Responses of 772 participants smelling 56-59 odors were collected in the three countries. Women rated odors as more intense and identified them better in all countries, but no reliable sex differences were found for verbal affective responses to odors. Disgust-related feelings revealed odor-dependent sex differences, due to sex differences in identification and categorization. Further, increased odor knowledge was related to more positive affects as reported with pleasantness and odor-related feeling evaluations, which can be related to top-down influences on odor representation. These top-down influences were thought, for example, to relate to beliefs about odor properties or to categorization (edible vs. nonedible). Finally, the link between odor knowledge and olfactory affect was generally asymmetrical and significant only for pleasant odors, not for unpleasant ones that seemed to be more resistant to cognitive influences. This study, for the first time using emotional scales that are appropriate to the olfactory domain, brings new insights into the variability of affective responses to odors and its relationship to odor knowledg

Evidence for a Direct Harmful Effect of Alcohol on Myocardial Health: A Large Cross-Sectional Study of Consumption Patterns and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Biomarkers From Northwest Russia, 2015 to 2017.

Background Alcohol drinking is an increasingly recognized risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, there are few studies of the impact of harmful and hazardous drinking on biomarkers of myocardial health. We conducted a study in Russia to investigate the impact of heavy drinking on biomarkers of cardiac damage and inflammation. Methods and Results The Know Your Heart study recruited a random sample of 2479 participants from the population of northwest Russia (general population) plus 278 patients (narcology clinic subsample) with alcohol problems. The general population sample was categorized into harmful drinkers, hazardous drinkers, nonproblem drinkers, and nondrinkers, according to self-reported level of alcohol consumption, whereas the narcology clinic sample was treated as the separate group in the analysis. Measurements were made of the following: (1) high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T, (2) NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide), and (3) hsCRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein). The narcology clinic subsample had the most extreme drinking pattern and the highest levels of all 3 biomarkers relative to nonproblem drinkers in the general population: high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T was elevated by 10.3% (95% CI, 3.7%-17.4%), NT-proBNP by 46.7% (95% CI, 26.8%-69.8%), and hsCRP by 69.2% (95% CI, 43%-100%). In the general population sample, NT-proBNP was 31.5% (95% CI, 3.4%-67.2%) higher among harmful drinkers compared with nonproblem drinkers. Overall, NT-proBNP and hsCRP increased with increasing intensity of alcohol exposure (test of trend P<0.001). Conclusions These results support the hypothesis that heavy alcohol drinking has an adverse effect on cardiac structure and function that may not be driven by atherosclerosis

A Decision Support System to Predict Acute Fish Toxicity

We present a decision support system using a Bayesian network to predict acute fish toxicity from multiple lines of evidence. Fish embryo toxicity testing has been proposed as an alternative to using juvenile or adult fish in acute toxicity testing for hazard assessments of chemicals. The European Chemicals Agency has recommended the development of a so-called weight-of-evidence approach for strengthening the evidence from fish embryo toxicity testing. While weight-of-evidence approaches in the ecotoxicology and ecological risk assessment community in the past have been largely qualitative, we have developed a Bayesian network for using fish embryo toxicity data in a quantitative approach. The system enables users to efficiently predict the potential toxicity of a chemical substance based on multiple types of evidence including physical and chemical properties, quantitative structure-activity relationships, toxicity to algae and daphnids, and fish gill cytotoxicity. The system is demonstrated on three chemical substances of different levels of toxicity. It is considered as a promising step towards a probabilistic weight-of-evidence approach to predict acute fish toxicity from fish embryo toxicity.publishedVersio

Single-cell genomics identifies cell type-specific molecular changes in autism.

Despite the clinical and genetic heterogeneity of autism, bulk gene expression studies show that changes in the neocortex of autism patients converge on common genes and pathways. However, direct assessment of specific cell types in the brain affected by autism has not been feasible until recently. We used single-nucleus RNA sequencing of cortical tissue from patients with autism to identify autism-associated transcriptomic changes in specific cell types. We found that synaptic signaling of upper-layer excitatory neurons and the molecular state of microglia are preferentially affected in autism. Moreover, our results show that dysregulation of specific groups of genes in cortico-cortical projection neurons correlates with clinical severity of autism. These findings suggest that molecular changes in upper-layer cortical circuits are linked to behavioral manifestations of autism