Baguette:towards end-to-end service orchestration in heterogeneous networks

Network services are the key mechanism for operators to introduce intelligence and generate profit from their infrastructures. The growth of the number of network users and the stricter application network requirements have highlighted a number of challenges in orchestrating services using existing production management and configuration protocols and mechanisms. Recent networking paradigms like Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), provide a set of novel control and management interfaces that enable unprecedented automation, flexibility and openness capabilities in operator infrastructure management. This paper presents Baguette, a novel and open service orchestration framework for operators. Baguette supports a wide range of network technologies, namely optical and wired Ethernet technologies, and allows service providers to automate the deployment and dynamic re-optimization of network services. We present the design of the orchestrator and elaborate on the integration of Baguette with existing low-level network and cloud management frameworks

Randomized clinical trial comparing percutaneous closure of patent foramen ovale (PFO) using the Amplatzer PFO Occluder with medical treatment in patients with cryptogenic embolism (PC-Trial): rationale and design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several studies have shown an association of cryptogenic stroke and embolism with patent foramen ovale (PFO), but the question how to prevent further events in such patients is unresolved. Options include antithrombotic treatment with warfarin or antiplatelet agents or surgical or endovascular closure of the PFO. The PC-Trial was set up to compare endovascular closure and best medical treatment for prevention of recurrent events.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The PC-Trial is a randomized clinical trial comparing the efficacy of percutaneous closure of the PFO using the Amplatzer PFO occluder with best medical treatment in patients with cryptogenic embolism, i.e. mostly cryptogenic stroke. Warfarin for 6 months followed by antiplatelet agents is recommended as medical treatment. Randomization is stratified according to patients age (<45 versus ≥45 years), presence of atrial septal aneurysm (ASA yes or no) and number of embolic events before randomization (one versus more than one event). Primary endpoints are death, nonfatal stroke and peripheral embolism.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>patients were randomized in 29 centers of Europe, Canada, and Australia. Randomization started February 2000. Enrollment of 414 patients was completed in February 2009. All patients will be followed-up longitudinally. Follow-up is maintained until the last enrolled patient is beyond 2.5 years of follow-up (expected in 2011).</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>Trial listed in ClinicalTrials.gov as <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00166257">NCT00166257</a> and sponsored by AGA Medical, Plymouth, MN, USA</p

The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra–West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the steppe

Constraint Propagation in Propositional Planning

Planning as Satisfiability is a most successful approach to optimal propositional planning. It draws its strength from the efficiency of state-of-the-art propositional satisfiability solvers, combined with the utilization of constraints that are inferred from the problem planning graph. One of the recent improvements of the framework is the addition of long-distance mutual exclusion (londex) constraints that relate facts and actions which refer to different time steps. In this paper we compare different encodings of planning as satisfiability wrt the constraint propagation they achieve in a modern SAT solver. This analysis explains some of the differences observed in the performance of different encodings, and leads to some interesting conclusions. For instance, the Blackbox encoding achieves more propagation than the one of Satplan06, and therefore is a stronger formulation of planning as satisfiability. Moreover, our investigation suggests a new more compact and stronger model for the problem. We prove that in this new formulation many of the londex constraints are redundant in the sense that they do not add anything to the constraint propagation achieved by the model. Experimental results suggest that the theoretical results obtained are practically relevant

A semi-automatic process for estimating fetus velocity using ultrasound imaging and videos

Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS, Volume 2015-November, 4 November 2015, Article number 7319840, Pages 6330-6333Contemporary technologies have positively affected everyday medical practice for the benefit of faster and more objective diagnoses. Image and video processing techniques have added potential to this effort, but still there is a long road ahead. In this paper a specially developed video processing methodology is described which determines the fetus velocity using B-mode ultrasonic video imaging. For that purpose, a semi-automated process using advanced computer vision and image processing tools is presented and evaluated. The results are presented with a detailed statistical analysis to verify the repeatability ad reliability of the method

Influence of cutting conditions on the machined surface quality and on cutting forces in ball end milling

Περίληψη: Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία διεξήχθη μία σειρά πειραμάτων. Σκοπός των πειραμάτων αυτών ήταν ο προσδιορισμός της προκύπτουσας τραχύτητας και των δυνάμεων κοπής που αναπτύσσονται κατά το φραιζαρίσμα με εργαλείο σφαιρικής απόληξης και σε συγκεκριμένες συνθήκες. Η διαφοροποίηση των πειραμάτων έγκειται στις συνθήκες κοπής που επιλέχθηκαν για την κατεργασία τους. Συγκεκριμένα, οι συνθήκες που καθόρισαν την πειραματική διαδικασία ήταν: η ταχύτητα κοπής, η πρόωση του κοπτικού εργαλείου, το αξονικό και το ακτινικό βάθος κοπής, η γωνία κλίσης κάθετη στην πρόωση και στην κατεύθυνση αυτής, καθώς επίσης και η στρατηγική φραιζαρίσματος. Κατά το σχηματισμό κάθε πειραματικής περιοχής έγινε μέτρηση των δυνάμεων κοπής που αναπτύσσονται και στη συνέχεια υπολογισμός της τραχύτητας της επιφάνειας. Τα αποτελέσματα των μετρήσεων σε συνδυασμό με τη δημιουργία και τη μελέτη διαγραμμάτων, οδήγησαν στη διεξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων ως προς τις βέλτιστες συνθήκες κατεργασίας του υλικόυ που επιλέχθηκε

Recent Advances in Genome-Engineering Strategies

In October 2020, the chemistry Nobel Prize was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for the discovery of a new promising genome-editing tool: the genetic scissors of CRISPR-Cas9. The identification of CRISPR arrays and the subsequent identification of cas genes, which together represent an adaptive immunological system that exists not only in bacteria but also in archaea, led to the development of diverse strategies used for precise DNA editing, providing new insights in basic research and in clinical practice. Due to their advantageous features, the CRISPR-Cas systems are already employed in several biological and medical research fields as the most suitable technique for genome engineering. In this review, we aim to describe the CRISPR-Cas systems that have been identified among prokaryotic organisms and engineered for genome manipulation studies. Furthermore, a comprehensive comparison between the innovative CRISPR-Cas methodology and the previously utilized ZFN and TALEN editing nucleases is also discussed. Ultimately, we highlight the contribution of CRISPR-Cas methodology in modern biomedicine and the current plethora of available applications for gene KO, repression and/or overexpression, as well as their potential implementation in therapeutical strategies that aim to improve patients’ quality of life