Data center resilience assessment : storage, networking and security.

Data centers (DC) are the core of the national cyber infrastructure. With the incredible growth of critical data volumes in financial institutions, government organizations, and global companies, data centers are becoming larger and more distributed posing more challenges for operational continuity in the presence of experienced cyber attackers and occasional natural disasters. The main objective of this research work is to present a new methodology for data center resilience assessment, this methodology consists of: • Define Data center resilience requirements. • Devise a high level metric for data center resilience. • Design and develop a tool to validate and the metric. Since computer networks are an important component in the data center architecture, this research work was extended to investigate computer network resilience enhancement opportunities within the area of routing protocols, redundancy, and server load to minimize the network down time and increase the time period of resisting attacks. Data center resilience assessment is a complex process as it involves several aspects such as: policies for emergencies, recovery plans, variation in data center operational roles, hosted/processed data types and data center architectures. However, in this dissertation, storage, networking and security are emphasized. The need for resilience assessment emerged due to the gap in existing reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) measures. Resilience as an evaluation metric leads to better proactive perspective in system design and management. The proposed Data center resilience assessment portal (DC-RAP) is designed to easily integrate various operational scenarios. DC-RAP features a user friendly interface to assess the resilience in terms of performance analysis and speed recovery by collecting the following information: time to detect attacks, time to resist, time to fail and recovery time. Several set of experiments were performed, results obtained from investigating the impact of routing protocols, server load balancing algorithms on network resilience, showed that using particular routing protocol or server load balancing algorithm can enhance network resilience level in terms of minimizing the downtime and ensure speed recovery. Also experimental results for investigating the use social network analysis (SNA) for identifying important router in computer network showed that the SNA was successful in identifying important routers. This important router list can be used to redundant those routers to ensure high level of resilience. Finally, experimental results for testing and validating the data center resilience assessment methodology using the DC-RAP showed the ability of the methodology quantify data center resilience in terms of providing steady performance, minimal recovery time and maximum resistance-attacks time. The main contributions of this work can be summarized as follows: • A methodology for evaluation data center resilience has been developed. • Implemented a Data Center Resilience Assessment Portal (D$-RAP) for resilience evaluations. • Investigated the usage of Social Network Analysis to Improve the computer network resilience

EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCES FOR THE PROMISING HERAPEUTIC ROLE OF VITIS VINIFERA SEED EXTRACT AGAINST NONALCOHOLIC STEATOHEPATITIS

Objective: The present study was planned to investigate the possible therapeutic effect of methanolic extract of Vitis vinifera seeds on high fat diet-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in forty adult female Wistar rats.Methods: The animals were divided into four groups, (G1)was served as healthy control group and the other three groups received high fat diet for 32 weeks for induction of NASH were assigned as follow: (G2) in which the animals bearing NASH were left untreated, (G3) in which the animals bearing NASH were treated with Vitis vinifera seed extract in a dose of 0.28g/kg b. wt (GSH) and (G4) in which the animals bearing NASH were treated with Vitis vinifera seed extract in a dose of 0.14g/kg b. wt (GSL).Results: The results revealed significant increase in serum ALT activity, plasma glucose, insulin levels, serum resist in, NF-κB, TNF-α, HGF levels, hepatic TNF-α and HGF gene expression levels. While, serum albumin, adiponectin levels and hepatic adiponectin gene expression level were decreased significantly in NASH group. Conversely, treatment of NASH groups with GSH or GSL resulted in significant decrease in serum ALT activity, plasma glucose, insulin levels, serum resist in, NF-κB, TNF-α, HGF levels, hepatic TNF-α and HGF gene expression levels. However, serum albumin, adiponectin levels and hepatic adiponectin gene expression level were increased significantly as a consequence of treatment with GSH or GSL.Conclusions: The efficacy of Vitis vinifera extract against NASH might be attributed to its strong hepatoprotective potential and powerful anti-inflammatory activity in addition to its potent role in ameliorating insulin resistance indices.Â

Association of dopamine D4 receptor gene variants with autism

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heritable neurodevelopmental disorder with poorly understood and complex etiology. The central dopaminergic system is strongly implicated in ASD pathogenesis. Genes encoding various elements of this system have been linked to ASD. This study aimed to estimate the distribution frequency of dopamine D4 receptor-exon III repeat region polymorphic genotypes among Egyptian children with autism.Methods: This case-control study included 178 children with autism (mean age 4.46±1.72 years) (118 males and 60 females) and a normal control group (n=128) of matching age and gender. Assessments by DSMIV- TR criteria, Stanford-Binet intelligence scale and childhood autism rating scale (CARS) were done. Assay for DRD4 48 bp VNTR genotypes was performed on amplified DNA by RFLP-PCR.Results: The 4/4 allele had the highest frequency among both autistic (39.32%) and control children (62.5%), with no significant difference between them. The 7/7 allele had also a high frequency (33.7%) among autistic patients, which was significantly different (p˂0.05) from the control group (12.5%) Furthermore, 70% of the patients carrying the 7/7 allele had the lowest IQ scores (58.5±6.5).Conclusions: There is a strong evidence that the DRD4 7/7 allele might be a risk factor for autism.

Reduced graphene oxide-multiwalled carbon nanotubes hybrid film with low Pt loading as counter electrode for improved photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells

In this work, the role of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with hyperbranched surfactant and its hybridisation with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) as counter electrode (CE) were investigated to determine the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). Sodium 1,4-is(neopentyloxy)-3-(neopentyloxycarbonyl)- 1,4-dioxobutane-2-sulphonate (TC14) surfactant was utilised as dispersing and stabilising agent in electrochemical exfoliation to synthesise graphene oxide (GO) as initial solution for rGO production prior to its further hybridisation and fabrication as thin film. A chemical reduction process utilising hydrazine hydrate was conducted to produce rGO due to the low temperature process and water-based GO solution. Subsequently, hybrid solution was prepared by mixing 1 wt% MWCNTs into the produced rGO solution. TC14-rGO and TC14-rGO_MWCNTs hybrid solution were transferred into fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate to fabricate thin film by spraying deposition method. Finally, the CE films were prepared by coating with thin Pt NPs. Photoanode film was prepared by a two-step process: hydrothermal growth method to synthesise titanium dioxide nanowires (TiO2 NWs) and subsequent squeegee method to apply TiO2 NPs. According to solar simulator measurement, the highest energy conversion efficiency (η) was achieved by using CE-based TC14-rGO_MWCNTs/Pt (1.553%), with the highest short current density of 4.424 mA/cm2. The highest η was due to the high conductivity of CE hybrid film and the morphology of fabricated TiO2 NWs/TiO2 NPs. Consequently, the dye adsorption was high, and the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs was increased. This result also showed that rGO and rGO_MWCNTs hybrid can be used as considerable potential candidate materials to replace Pt gradually

A multi-band MIMO antenna system with coupled-fed modified rectangular patch elements for 5G systems

A four-port multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna system constructed of four compact dual-band (38/60 GHz) microstrip patch antennas is proposed for 5G mobile applications. Each individual element is optimized to achieve the desired performance of the overall MIMO system. Numerical and experimental investigations are achieved to assess the performance of both the single-element antenna and the four-port MIMO antenna system. It is shown that the simulation results agree with the experimental measurements, and both show good performance of the proposed MIMO antenna system. The bandwidths achieved around 38 GHz and 60 GHz are about 2 GHz and 3.2 GHz, respectively. The performance of the MIMO antenna system including the return loss at each antenna port and the coupling coefficients between the different ports are investigated. The radiation patterns produced when each port is excited alone are shown to be suitable for spatial diversity scheme. They have a high radiation efficiency exhibited by a balloon-like shaped radiation pattern for both the upper and lower frequency bands. It is shown that the envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) and the diversity gain (DG) are suitable for performance for the targeted 5G bands.</p

Effects of sun-drying and exogenous enzymes on nutrients intake, digestibility and nitrogen utilization in sheep fed Atriplex halimus foliages

This study was conducted to assess effects of sun-drying and/or addition of an exogenous enzyme (ENZ) preparation on intake, digestibility of nutrients and recovery values of secondary metabolites (SM) in the gastrointestinal tract of sheep fed Atriplex halimus (AH) foliages. A randomized block design for 28 d was used for four experimental treatments based on either fresh (AH-F) or sun-dried (AH-S) A. halimus foliages in the absence (−ENZ) or presence (+ENZ) of 10 g/sheep/d of the exogenous of ZADO® enzyme preparation. Three adult sheep weighing 51 ± 2.7 kg were fed for each experimental treatment. The ENZ was added daily with a small amount of concentrate to help balance the dietary metabolizable energy concentration. Nutrient intake and digestibility, N balance and recovery of SM (i.e., total phenolics (TP), saponins (SP), alkaloids (AK), aqueous fraction (AF)) in the gastrointestinal tract were determined. Levels of most nutrients did not differ between AH-F and AH-S foliages, but the AH-S contained less than half of the SM in AH-F. Drying of A. halimus and ENZ addition increased (P=0.001) intake as well as OM and NDFom digestibility (P=0.02). Feed intake and digestibility were higher (P=0.01) in AH-S with ENZ addition. Intake of N by sheep fed the treatment diets depended on DM intake as the dietary concentration of N in the diets was similar. Thus AH-S sheep supplemented with ENZ had higher (P=0.001) N intake. Digestibility of N was similar to DM and OM digestibility, and was higher (P=0.03) in AH-S sheep supplemented with ENZ. Drying and ENZ addition to the diet increased (P=0.004) recovery of all SM. The fate of these compounds in the rumen needs to be evaluated considering that SM have been implicated in fiber and protein degradation in the rumen. The study showed that there are beneficial impacts of sun-drying and/or dietary exogenous enzyme addition for sheep fed A. halimus

Clinical characteristics of depression among adolescent females: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adolescents rarely seek psychiatric help; they even hesitate to disclose their feelings to their parents. However; the adolescents especially the females experience depressive symptoms more frequently than general population. Do they experience classic depressive symptoms? Are there symptoms specific to this subpopulation?</p> <p>Aim of the study</p> <p>Through this study, the authors aimed to estimate the prevalence of depressive disorders in Egyptian adolescent female students. They also expected a characteristic profile of symptoms for the adolescent females. However available literature provides no guidance in the description of this profile of symptoms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A number of 602 adolescent females were interviewed, and subjected to General Health Questionnaire (GHQ); Children Depression Inventory (CDI), Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis-I Disorders (SCID-I), then Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Ham-D). Results were analyzed by the use of SPSS-15.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The study revealed the prevalence of depression in the sample of the study to be 15.3% (measured by CDI), and 13.3% (measured by SCID-I). Fatigue was the most common presenting depressive symptom (81.3%), in addition to other emotional, cognitive and physiological symptoms. Suicidal ideations were the most common suicidal symptoms in depressed adolescent females (20%), with 2.5% serious suicidal attempts.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The somatic symptoms were by far the most common presenting symptom for female adolescents suffering from depressive disorders. Depressive phenomena including unexplained fatigue, decreased energy, psychomotor changes, lack of concentration, weight changes and suicidal ideations may be the presenting complaints instead of the classic sad mood.</p

Relationships between the Parity and Pelvimetry of Egyptian Buffalo Cows: Prediction of Dystocia and Estimation of Age

Background: The current study aimed to determine the most strongly correlated variable of pelvimetry with the parity in our native breed Egyptian buffaloes. Methods: The study was conducted on 36 female buffaloes (nullipara, n=14, primipara n=6 and pluripara, n=16 with 2-4 births) aged between &lt;15 months, n=15 and 65 months, n=21. The internal and external pelvic measurements were obtained using the rice pelvimeter and Freeman’s measuring tape. Results: Strong positive linear relationships were found for the distance between ischiatic tuberosities and the distance between sacral tubercles with the correlation coefficients of 0.64 and 0.62, respectively. The conjugate diameter increased progressively with the age and number of births, with a correlation coefficient of 0.96. The pelvic area had a very strong positive linear relationship with a correlation coefficient of 0.89. The linear combination of the predictor variable (conjugate diameter), to predict the number of birth was developed successfully. Conclusion: The strong relationship between the conjugate diameter and the number of births could be employed to predict the dystocia and estimate the age of female buffalo. Furthermore, these findings could be aid paleontologists in studying buffalo fossils

Extubation and Weaning: Implementing a Standard Weaning Protocol

Purpose The purpose of this project is to determine if implementation of a standardized weaning protocol on mechanically ventilated patients affects reintubation rates and decreases adverse outcomes