Energy-Efficient VoD content delivery and replication in integrated metro/access networks

Today's growth in the demand for access bandwidth is driven by the success of the Video-on-Demand (VoD) bandwidth-consuming service. At the current pace at which network operators increase the end users' access bandwidth, and with the current network infrastructure, a large amount of video traffic is expected to flood the core/metro segments of the network in the near future, with the consequent risk of congestion and network disruption. There is a growing body of research studying the migration of content towards the users. Further, the current trend towards the integration of metro and access segments of the network makes it possible to deploy Metro Servers (MSes) that may serve video content directly from the novel integrated metro/access segment to keep the VoD traffic as local as possible. This paper investigates a potential risk of this solution, which is the increase in the overall network energy consumption. First, we identify a detailed power model for network equipment and MSes, accounting for fixed and load-proportional contributions. Then, we define a novel strategy for controlling whether to switch MSes and network interfaces on and off so as to strike a balance between the energy consumption for content transport through the network and the energy consumption for processing and storage in the MSes. By means of simulations and taking into account real values for the equipment power consumption, we show that our strategy is effective in providing the least energy consumption for any given traffic load

IL-4 inhibits LPS-, IL-1β- and TNFα-induced expression of tissue factor in endothelial cells and monocytes

AbstractInflammatory mediators such as endotoxin, interleukin-1β(IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factors-α (TNF-α) dose-dependently increased the expression of tissue factor on the surface of cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (ABAE), human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and human monocytes. In ABAE, endotoxin-, IL-1β- and TNFα-induced tissue factor expression was suppressed by interleukin-4 (IL-4) which also neutralized the pyrogenic effect of endotoxin in HUVEC and monocytes. IL-4 did not alter TNF-α-induced procoagulant changes in HUVEC and monocytes but strongly protected the monocyte surface against IL-1β-induced procoagulant changes

Drought versus heat: What's the major constraint on Mediterranean green roof plants?

Green roofs are gaining momentum in the arid and semi-arid regions due to their multiple benefits as compared with conventional roofs. One of the most critical steps in green roof installation is the selection of drought and heat tolerant species that can thrive under extreme microclimate conditions. We monitored the water status, growth and survival of 11 drought-adapted shrub species grown on shallow green roof modules (10 and 13cm deep substrate) and analyzed traits enabling plants to cope with drought (symplastic and apoplastic resistance) and heat stress (root membrane stability). The physiological traits conferring efficiency/safety to the water transport system under severe drought influenced plant water status and represent good predictors of both plant water use and growth rates over green roofs. Moreover, our data suggest that high substrate temperature represents a stress factor affecting plant survival to a larger extent than drought per se. In fact, the major cause influencing seedling survival on shallow substrates was the species-specific root resistance to heat, a single and easy measurable trait that should be integrated into the methodological framework for screening and selection of suitable shrub species for roof greening in the Mediterranean

A comparison of different approaches to detect the transitions from regular to chaotic motions in SMA oscillator

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Microwave characterization of polymer composite based on Biochar: A comparison of composite behaviour for Biochar and MWCNTs

In this work, Biochar is used as a filler in Epoxy resin for composite preparation. The electrical characteristics of composites are analyzed in function of different filler percentages. Results obtained are compared with composites based on multi-wall carbon nanotubes