Performance analysis of Energy Efficient Ethernet on video streaming servers

[EN] Current trends on traffic growth oversee a steady increase of video streaming services, and the subsequent development of the associated infrastructure to allocate and distribute such contents. One of the operational costs associated to this infrastructure is the power bill. Therefore any mechanism used to decrease it, reducing also the carbon footprint asso- ciated to it, is welcome. In this work we investigate the suitability of the recently standard- ized IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) for video traffic generated by video- streaming servers. The conclusion of the analysis is positive about the achievable energy savings, due to the inherent features of traffic patterns of video-streaming servers which help reducing the number of transitions between active and low-power modes in EEE.Part of the research leading to these received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-ICT-2009-5) under Grant agreement No. 258053 (MEDIEVAL project). Additionally, the authors would like to acknowledge the support to this work by the CAM-UC3M Greencom Research Grant (under code CCG10-UC3M/TIC-5624), the FIERRO Spanish project (TEC2010-12250-E) and the Google Research Award "New Protocol Semantics and Scheduling Primitives for Energy Efficiency: Burst Coalescing at the Link and Application Layers".De La Oliva, A.; Vargas Hernández, TR.; Guerri Cebollada, JC.; Alberto Hernandez, J.; Reviriego, P. (2012). Performance analysis of Energy Efficient Ethernet on video streaming servers. Computer Networks. 57(3):599-608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2012.09.019S59960857

Toward a Fault-Tolerant Star Tracker for Small Satellite Applications

Star trackers are autonomous, high-accuracy electronic systems used to determine the attitude of a spacecraft. In recent years, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based star trackers are growing in importance for low-cost and short-duration missions, but their fault tolerance against soft errors has not been studied in detail. In this paper, we propose a self-healing system protected with ad hoc techniques that can be used as the first step to implement a fault-tolerant COTS-based star tracker for smallsat applications.The authors would like to thank E. Palombo from ESA/ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, for providing the star tracker images used in this paper

A Method to Construct Low Delay Single Error Correction Codes for Protecting Data Bits Only

Abstract—Error correction codes (ECCs) have been used for decades to protect memories from soft errors. Single error correction (SEC) codes that can correct 1-bit error per word are a common option for memory protection. In some cases, SEC codes are extended to also provide double error detection and are known as SEC-DED codes. As technology scales, soft errors on registers also became a concern and, therefore, SEC codes are used to protect registers. The use of an ECC impacts the circuit design in terms of both delay and area. Traditional SEC or SEC-DED codes developed for memories have focused on minimizing the number of redundant bits added by the code. This is important in a memory as those bits are added to each word in the memory. However, for registers used in circuits, minimizing the delay or area introduced by the ECC can be more important. In this paper, a method to construct low delay SEC or SEC-DED codes that correct errors only on the data bits is proposed. The method is evaluated for several data block sizes, showing that the new codes offer significant delay reductions when compared with traditional SEC or SEC-DED codes. The results for the area of the encoder and decoder also show substantial savings compared to existing codes. Index Terms—Double error detection, error correction codes (ECCs), single error correction (SEC), soft errors. I

MCU Tolerance in SRAMs through Low Redundancy Triple Adjacent Error Correction

(c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.[EN] Static random access memories (SRAMs) are key in electronic systems. They are used not only as standalone devices, but also embedded in application specific integrated circuits. One key challenge for memories is their susceptibility to radiation-induced soft errors that change the value of memory cells. Error correction codes (ECCs) are commonly used to ensure correct data despite soft errors effects in semiconductor memories. Single error correction/double error detection (SEC-DED) codes have been traditionally the preferred choice for data protection in SRAMs. During the last decade, the percentage of errors that affect more than one memory cell has increased substantially, mainly due to multiple cell upsets (MCUs) caused by radiation. The bits affected by these errors are physically close. To mitigate their effects, ECCs that correct single errors and double adjacent errors have been proposed. These codes, known as single error correction/double adjacent error correction (SEC-DAEC), require the same number of parity bits as traditional SEC-DED codes and a moderate increase in the decoder complexity. However, MCUs are not limited to double adjacent errors, because they affect more bits as technology scales. In this brief, new codes that can correct triple adjacent errors and 3-bit burst errors are presented. They have been implemented using a 45-nm library and compared with previous proposals, showing that our codes have better error protection with a moderate overhead and low redundancy.This work was supported in part by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain, through the DesTT Research Project under Grant SP20120806; in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education under Project AYA-2009-13300-C03; in part by the Arenes Research Project under Grant TIN2012-38308-C02-01; and in part by the Research Project entitled Manufacturable and Dependable Multicore Architectures at Nanoscale within the framework of COST ICT Action under Grant 1103.Saiz-Adalid, L.; Reviriego, P.; Gil, P.; Pontarelli, S.; Maestro, JA. (2015). MCU Tolerance in SRAMs through Low Redundancy Triple Adjacent Error Correction. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems. 23(10):2332-2336. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVLSI.2014.2357476S23322336231

A Spectroscopic study of colchicine in the solid state and in solution by multinuclear magnetic resonance and vibrational circular dichroism

Although almost 200-years-old, several unknown aspects remain to be explored of colchicine, the unique available drug for acute flares of gout. In this article, we report density-functional theory (DFT) studies of geometry, energy, and NMR; 1H-, 13C-, and 15N-NMR chemical shifts and some spin-spin coupling constants, including the complete analysis of the saturated part (ring B); the assignment of both enantiomers by NMR using a chiral solvating agent; solid-state NMR experiments of the different forms of natural and racemic colchicine, and IR and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) studies of these same forms. Copyright © 2014 Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta AG, Zürich.Peer Reviewe

Health-related Quality of Life in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Pediatric Patients and Their Caregivers in Spain: An Observational Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives: This study assessed the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of pediatric patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and their caregivers.Methods: CHRYSTAL was an observational cross-sectional study conducted in Spain in 2014 on 275 patients under 18 years old diagnosed with T1DM. Patient/caregiver pairs were stratified by patients' HbA1c level (?7.5% versus <7.5%) and by presence or absence of T1DM complications and/or comorbidities. EQ-5D and PedsQL questionnaires were administered to patients and caregivers.Results: On the EQ-5D, according to caregivers' perception, 17.7% of children experienced moderate pain or discomfort, 9.7% suffered problems performing usual activities, and 13.2% demonstrated moderate anxiety or depression. Mean EQ-5D index score was 0.95 and mean visual analog scale (VAS) score was 86.1. By HbA1c level (?7.5% versus <7.5%), mean index scores were 0.94 and 0.95, and mean VAS scores were 82.8 and 89.2, respectively. Mean index scores were 0.91 for children with complications and/or comorbidities and 0.96 for children without. Mean VAS scores were 83.7 and 87.2, respectively. HRQOL per the PedsQL tool ranged from 68.1 (ages 2-4) to 73.1 (ages 13-18). EQ-5D index and VAS scores were significantly correlated (rho = 0.29-0.43) with several age groups of the PedsQL. EQ-5D scales showed significant moderate correlation between EQ-5D-Y and EQ-5D-3L proxy VAS score (rho = 0.45; p < .001).Conclusions: Patients with few complications and controlled HbA1c reported a relatively high HRQOL. The results suggest that parent-proxy EQ-5D ratings are valid for use as part of an overall health outcomes assessment in clinical studies of T1DM in pediatric patients

Promising hit compounds against resistant trichomoniasis: Synthesis and antiparasitic activity of 3-(ω-aminoalkoxy)-1-benzyl-5-nitroindazoles

A series of 11 3-(ω-aminoalkoxy)-1-benzyl-5-nitroindazoles (2–12) has been prepared starting from 1-benzyl-5-nitroindazol-3-ol 13, and evaluated against sensitive and resistant isolates of the sexually transmitted protozoan Trichomonas vaginalis. Compounds 2, 3, 6, 9, 10 and 11 showed trichomonacidal profiles with IC50 < 20 µM against the metronidazole-sensitive isolate. Moreover, all these compounds submitted to cytotoxicity assays against mammalian cells exhibited low non-specific cytotoxic effects, except compounds 3 and 9 which displayed moderate cytotoxicity (CC50 = 74.7 and 59.1 µM, respectively). Those compounds with trichomonacidal effect were also evaluated against a metronidazole-resistant culture. Special mention deserve compounds 6 and 10, which displayed better IC50 values (1.3 and 0.5 µM respectively) than that of the reference drug (IC50 MTZ = 3.0 µM). The high activity of these compounds against the resistant isolate reinforces the absence of cross-resistance with the reference drug. The remarkable trichomonacidal results against resistant T. vaginalis isolates suggest the interest of 3-(ω-aminoalkoxy)-1-benzyl-5-nitroindazoles to be considered as good prototypes to continue in the development of new drugs with enhanced trichomonacidal activity, aiming to increase the non-existent drugs to face clinical resistance efficiently for those patients in whom therapy with 5-nitroimidazoles is contraindicated

Analytical RF Pulse Heating Analysis for High Gradient Accelerating Structures

The main aim of this work is to present a simple method, based on analytical expressions, for obtaining the temperature increase due to the Joule effect inside the metallic walls of an RF accelerating component. This technique relies on solving the 1-D heat-transfer equation for a thick wall, considering that the heat sources inside the wall are the ohmic losses produced by the RF electromagnetic fields penetrating the metal with finite electrical conductivity. Furthermore, it is discussed how the theoretical expressions of this method can be applied to obtain an approximation to the temperature increase in realistic 3-D RF accelerating structures, taking as an example the cavity of an RF electron photoinjector and a traveling wave linac cavity. These theoretical results have been benchmarked with numerical simulations carried out with commercial finite-element method (FEM) software, finding good agreement among them. Besides, the advantage of the analytical method with respect to the numerical simulations is evidenced. In particular, the model could be very useful during the design and optimization phase of RF accelerating structures, where many different combinations of parameters must be analyzed in order to obtain the proper working point of the device, allowing to save time and speed up the process. However, it must be mentioned that the method described in this article is intended to provide a quick approximation to the temperature increase in the device, which of course is not as accurate as the proper 3-D numerical simulations of the component.European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant 777431 (XLS CompactLight)Valencian Regional Government VALi+D Postdoctoral under Grant APOSTD/2019/155The main aim of this work is to present a simple method, based on analytical expressions, for obtaining the temperature increase due to the Joule effect inside the metallic walls of an RF accelerating component. This technique relies on solving the 1-D heat-transfer equation for a thick wall, considering that the heat sources inside the wall are the ohmic losses produced by the RF electromagnetic fields penetrating the metal with finite electrical conductivity. Furthermore, it is discussed how the theoretical expressions of this method can be applied to obtain an approximation to the temperature increase in realistic 3-D RF accelerating structures, taking as an example the cavity of an RF electron photoinjector and a traveling wave linac cavity. These theoretical results have been benchmarked with numerical simulations carried out with commercial finite-element method (FEM) software, finding good agreement among them. Besides, the advantage of the analytical method with respect to the numerical simulations is evidenced. In particular, the model could be very useful during the design and optimization phase of RF accelerating structures, where many different combinations of parameters must be analyzed in order to obtain the proper working point of the device, allowing to save time and speed up the process. However, it must be mentioned that the method described in this article is intended to provide a quick approximation to the temperature increase in the device, which of course is not as accurate as the proper 3-D numerical simulations of the component

Evaluation of Poly(N-Ethyl Pyrrolidine Methacrylamide) (EPA) and Derivatives as Polymeric Vehicles for miRNA Delivery to Neural Cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, short RNA oligonucleotides that regulate the expression of hundreds of proteins to control cells' function in physiological and pathological conditions. miRNA therapeutics are highly specific, reducing the toxicity associated with off-target effects, and require low doses to achieve therapeutic effects. Despite their potential, applying miRNA-based therapies is limited by difficulties in delivery due to their poor stability, fast clearance, poor efficiency, and off-target effects. To overcome these challenges, polymeric vehicles have attracted a lot of attention due to their ease of production with low costs, large payload, safety profiles, and minimal induction of the immune response. Poly(N-ethyl pyrrolidine methacrylamide) (EPA) copolymers have shown optimal DNA transfection efficiencies in fibroblasts. The present study aims to evaluate the potential of EPA polymers as miRNA carriers for neural cell lines and primary neuron cultures when they are copolymerized with different compounds. To achieve this aim, we synthesized and characterized different copolymers and evaluated their miRNA condensation ability, size, charge, cytotoxicity, cell binding and internalization ability, and endosomal escape capacity. Finally, we evaluated their miRNA transfection capability and efficacy in Neuro-2a cells and rat primary hippocampal neurons. The results indicate that EPA and its copolymers, incorporating β-cyclodextrins with or without polyethylene glycol acrylate derivatives, can be promising vehicles for miRNA administration to neural cells when all experiments on Neuro-2a cells and primary hippocampal neurons are considered together.This research was supported by the Council of Education, Culture and Sports of the Regional Government of Castilla La Mancha (Spain) and Co-financed by the European Union (FEDER) “A way to make Europe” (project references SBPLY/17/000376 and SBPLY/21/180501/000097) and by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (RTI2018-096328-B-I00). Altea Soto was funded by the Council of Education, Culture and Sports of the Regional Government of Castilla La Mancha (Spain) M. Asunción Barreda-Manso is funded by the Council of Health of the Regional Government of Castilla La Mancha (Spain), through: “Convocatoria de Ayudas Regionales a la Investigación en Biomedicina y Ciencias de la Salud” (II-2020_05). Irene Novillo Algaba is funded by the Next Generation Funds of the European Union through the “Programa Investigo”.Peer reviewe

Assessment of a primary care-based telemonitoring intervention for home care patients with heart failure and chronic lung disease. The TELBIL study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Telemonitoring technology offers one of the most promising alternatives for the provision of health care services at the patient's home. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of a primary care-based telemonitoring intervention on the frequency of hospital admissions.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>A primary care-based randomised controlled trial will be carried out to assess the impact of a telemonitoring intervention aimed at home care patients with heart failure (HF) and/or chronic lung disease (CLD). The results will be compared with those obtained with standard health care practice. The duration of the study will be of one year. Sixty patients will be recruited for the study. In-home patients, diagnosed with HF and/or CLD, aged 14 or above and with two or more hospital admissions in the previous year will be eligible.</p> <p>For the intervention group, telemonitoring will consist of daily patient self-measurements of respiratory-rate, heart-rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, weight and body temperature. Additionally, the patients will complete a qualitative symptom questionnaire daily using the telemonitoring system. Routine telephone contacts will be conducted every fortnight and additional telephone contacts will be carried out if the data received at the primary care centre are out of the established limits. The control group will receive usual care. The primary outcome measure is the number of hospital admissions due to any cause that occurred in a period of 12 months post-randomisation. The secondary outcome measures are: duration of hospital stay, hospital admissions due to HF or CLD, mortality rate, use of health care resources, quality of life, cost-effectiveness, compliance and patient and health care professional satisfaction with the new technology.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The results of this study will shed some light on the effects of telemonitoring for the follow-up and management of chronic patients from a primary care setting. The study may contribute to enhance the understanding of alternative modes of health care provision for medically unstable elderly patients, who bear a high degree of physical and functional deterioration.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ISRCTN: <a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN89041993">ISRCTN89041993</a></p