RESOURCE-CENTRIC AND CONTEXT AWARE ENHANCED METRIC COLLECTION FOR ENRICHED APPLICATION PERFORMANCE VISIBILITY

In many cloud computing environments, cloud-native applications can be decoupled from the underlying hardware that operates such applications. Presented herein are techniques through which capabilities and metrics collected from a virtual/physical compute resource can be used to identify the presence of different accelerators and their capabilities in real time. The metrics that can be collected from within an application can be extended to include execution context awareness, which may be used to suggest a resource profile for the application. Further, holistic visualization of various metrics can be provided in some instances based on the accelerator from where a service is being executed

DYNAMIC TELEMETRY PROFILE ENFORCEMENT IN A CONTROLLER NETWORK

Because telemetry processing can involve high resource usage, such processing is typically provided via a cloud infrastructure. However, there are drawbacks to current implementations involving such cloud infrastructure processing. For example, such processing typically follows standard processing patterns. Yet, with the increasing complexity of different network use cases, there are scenarios that would benefit from dynamic telemetry processing. Presented herein are techniques through which multiple device telemetry profiles can allow a cloud controller to dynamically match a telemetry profile to specific conditions for a tenant network. Each telemetry profile may include selections for data processing through priority and secured queues. Additionally, the cloud controller may have reverse telemetry policies to push reverse telemetry to the customer edge when original usage telemetry data is retrieved, processed, and/or transferred

DYNAMIC RESOURCE PROFILE-BASED CONTAINER AND SERVERLESS CONSTRUCT FOR COMPOSABLE OBSERVABILITY TRACING

As a result of recent industry attention towards full-stack observability, there are various application performance monitoring (AMP) tools, runtime application self-protection (RASP) tools, and distributed tracing modules (such as OpenTelemetry (OTel), the Distributed Application Runtime (Dapr), etc.) available for different programming languages which may be injected as instrumentation code into an actual application to support a very detailed trace or log collection for subsequent analysis. Using a no- or low-code construct, the observability instrumentation code and the application code may be dynamically bundled together to create the function that is required to execute the relevant transactions. Techniques are presented herein that support a new dynamic, traffic-aware Composable Function that leverages an inbound traffic request (comprising metadata and various attributes with, for example, the relevant tracing context header, custom Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) header, or OTel header with baggage) to identify and determine whether a function bundle should be composed with observability, APM, or RASP tools for the efficient utilization of the resource. Such a dynamically composed function may, in turn, be hosted as one or more containers within a pod or as a serverless function to provide more flexibility across different application and cluster environments

Compositional fluctuations mediated by excess of tellurium in bismuth antimony telluride nanocomposite yields high thermoelectric performance

A high thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) in state-of-the-art bismuth antimony telluride (BST) composites was attained by an excess tellurium-assisted liquid-phase compaction approach. Herein, we report a maximum ZT of approximate to 1.4 at 500 K attained for BST bulk nanocomposites fabricated by spark plasma sintering of colloidally synthesized (Bi,Sb)(2)Te-3 platelets and Te-rich rods. The Terich nanodomains and antimony precipitation during sintering result in compositional fluctuations and atomic ordering within the BST-Te eutectic microstructure, which provides additional phonon scattering and hole contributions. The electrical transport measurement and theoretical calculations corroborate the altered free carrier density via lattice defects and atomic ordering under Te-rich conditions, resulting in a higher power factor. Microstructural studies suggest that reduction in lattice thermal conductivity is due to composite interfaces and defects in the closely packed (Bi,Sb)(2)Te-3 matrix with unevenly distributed Sband Te-rich nanodomains. This work provides an unconventional chemical synthesis route with large scalability for developing high-performance chalcogenide-based bulk nanocomposites for thermoelectric applications.- We thank the members of the Nanochemistry Research Group (http://nanochemgroup.org) at INL for insightful discussions and support. This work was supported by the Portuguese national funding agency for science, research, and technology (FCT) under the UT-BORN-PT project (UTAP-EXPL/CTE/0050/2017), strategic project UID/FIS/04650/2020, Project SATRAP (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028108) and Advanced Computing Project CPCA/A2/4513/2020 for access to MACC-BOB HPC resources. B.A.K. acknowledges funding of this work by the Robert A. Welch Foundation (grant no. F1464). N.S.C. and T.M. acknowledge SERB, India (project no. SPO/SERB/MET/2018547) for financial support

Challenges and opportunities for implementing integrated mental health care: a district level situation analysis from five low- and middle-income countries.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about how to tailor implementation of mental health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to the diverse settings encountered within and between countries. In this paper we compare the baseline context, challenges and opportunities in districts in five LMICs (Ethiopia, India, Nepal, South Africa and Uganda) participating in the PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME). The purpose was to inform development and implementation of a comprehensive district plan to integrate mental health into primary care. METHODS: A situation analysis tool was developed for the study, drawing on existing tools and expert consensus. Cross-sectional information obtained was largely in the public domain in all five districts. RESULTS: The PRIME study districts face substantial contextual and health system challenges many of which are common across sites. Reliable information on existing treatment coverage for mental disorders was unavailable. Particularly in the low-income countries, many health service organisational requirements for mental health care were absent, including specialist mental health professionals to support the service and reliable supplies of medication. Across all sites, community mental health literacy was low and there were no models of multi-sectoral working or collaborations with traditional or religious healers. Nonetheless health system opportunities were apparent. In each district there was potential to apply existing models of care for tuberculosis and HIV or non-communicable disorders, which have established mechanisms for detection of drop-out from care, outreach and adherence support. The extensive networks of community-based health workers and volunteers in most districts provide further opportunities to expand mental health care. CONCLUSIONS: The low level of baseline health system preparedness across sites underlines that interventions at the levels of health care organisation, health facility and community will all be essential for sustainable delivery of quality mental health care integrated into primary care

Features of Idebenone and Related Short-Chain Quinones that Rescue ATP Levels under Conditions of Impaired Mitochondrial Complex I

Short-chain quinones have been investigated as therapeutic molecules due to their ability to modulate cellular redox reactions, mitochondrial electron transfer and oxidative stress, which are pathologically altered in many mitochondrial and neuromuscular disorders. Recently, we and others described that certain short-chain quinones are able to bypass a deficiency in complex I by shuttling electrons directly from the cytoplasm to complex III of the mitochondrial respiratory chain to produce ATP. Although this energy rescue activity is highly interesting for the therapy of disorders associated with complex I dysfunction, no structure-activity-relationship has been reported for short-chain quinones so far. Using a panel of 70 quinones, we observed that the capacity for this cellular energy rescue as well as their effect on lipid peroxidation was influenced more by the physicochemical properties (in particular logD) of the whole molecule than the quinone moiety itself. Thus, the observed correlations allow us to explain the differential biological activities and therapeutic potential of short-chain quinones for the therapy of disorders associated with mitochondrial complex I dysfunction and/or oxidative stress

Global Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cerebral Venous Thrombosis and Mortality

Background and purpose: Recent studies suggested an increased incidence of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We evaluated the volume of CVT hospitalization and in-hospital mortality during the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the preceding year. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional retrospective study of 171 stroke centers from 49 countries. We recorded COVID-19 admission volumes, CVT hospitalization, and CVT in-hospital mortality from January 1, 2019, to May 31, 2021. CVT diagnoses were identified by International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) codes or stroke databases. We additionally sought to compare the same metrics in the first 5 months of 2021 compared to the corresponding months in 2019 and 2020 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04934020). Results: There were 2,313 CVT admissions across the 1-year pre-pandemic (2019) and pandemic year (2020); no differences in CVT volume or CVT mortality were observed. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT volumes compared to 2019 (27.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 24.2 to 32.0; P<0.0001) and 2020 (41.4%; 95% CI, 37.0 to 46.0; P<0.0001). A COVID-19 diagnosis was present in 7.6% (132/1,738) of CVT hospitalizations. CVT was present in 0.04% (103/292,080) of COVID-19 hospitalizations. During the first pandemic year, CVT mortality was higher in patients who were COVID positive compared to COVID negative patients (8/53 [15.0%] vs. 41/910 [4.5%], P=0.004). There was an increase in CVT mortality during the first 5 months of pandemic years 2020 and 2021 compared to the first 5 months of the pre-pandemic year 2019 (2019 vs. 2020: 2.26% vs. 4.74%, P=0.05; 2019 vs. 2021: 2.26% vs. 4.99%, P=0.03). In the first 5 months of 2021, there were 26 cases of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), resulting in six deaths. Conclusions: During the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic, CVT hospitalization volume and CVT in-hospital mortality did not change compared to the prior year. COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with higher CVT in-hospital mortality. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT hospitalization volume and increase in CVT-related mortality, partially attributable to VITT

Global disparities in surgeons’ workloads, academic engagement and rest periods: the on-calL shIft fOr geNEral SurgeonS (LIONESS) study

: The workload of general surgeons is multifaceted, encompassing not only surgical procedures but also a myriad of other responsibilities. From April to May 2023, we conducted a CHERRIES-compliant internet-based survey analyzing clinical practice, academic engagement, and post-on-call rest. The questionnaire featured six sections with 35 questions. Statistical analysis used Chi-square tests, ANOVA, and logistic regression (SPSS® v. 28). The survey received a total of 1.046 responses (65.4%). Over 78.0% of responders came from Europe, 65.1% came from a general surgery unit; 92.8% of European and 87.5% of North American respondents were involved in research, compared to 71.7% in Africa. Europe led in publishing research studies (6.6 ± 8.6 yearly). Teaching involvement was high in North America (100%) and Africa (91.7%). Surgeons reported an average of 6.7 ± 4.9 on-call shifts per month, with European and North American surgeons experiencing 6.5 ± 4.9 and 7.8 ± 4.1 on-calls monthly, respectively. African surgeons had the highest on-call frequency (8.7 ± 6.1). Post-on-call, only 35.1% of respondents received a day off. Europeans were most likely (40%) to have a day off, while African surgeons were least likely (6.7%). On the adjusted multivariable analysis HDI (Human Development Index) (aOR 1.993) hospital capacity > 400 beds (aOR 2.423), working in a specialty surgery unit (aOR 2.087), and making the on-call in-house (aOR 5.446), significantly predicted the likelihood of having a day off after an on-call shift. Our study revealed critical insights into the disparities in workload, access to research, and professional opportunities for surgeons across different continents, underscored by the HDI