Quo Vadis IT Infrastructure: Decision Support for Cloud Computing Adoption From a Business Perspective (29)

Many IT organizations are confronted with the question whether to modernize their IT infrastructure. While most data centers run on a virtualized environment, Cloud Computing technology emerges with new characteristics on fast provision of standardized resources in a scalable IT infrastructure. Public cloud vendors offer IT services on demand, so that IT organizations do not have to operate their own hardware. Moreover, private cloud architectures gain influence, claiming to provide flexible and elastic IT infrastructure. The paper at hand guides the strategic decision for adoption of Cloud Computing on IT infrastructure. Therefore, we first introduce a taxonomy for IT infrastructure encompassing a technological and a sourcing perspective. Second, we evaluate selective areas of the taxonomy adopting the SWOT framework to understand both opportunities and challenges of Cloud Computing for IT infrastructure from a business perspective

Clinical characteristics of patients with tick-borne encephalitis (Tbe) : A European multicentre study from 2010 to 2017

Funding Information: Conflicts of Interest: W.Z. received financial support from GSK, Pfizer, Merck, and Sanofi for organizing the “Graz Vaccination Day”. Funding Information: Funding: This study was financially supported by Land Steiermark (Office of the Regional Government of Styria, Department of Health Care and Science, Unit of Science and Research, Austria). D.R., L.K. and M.P. were supported by the Czech Ministry of Health (grant No. NV19-05-00457). P.B. and F.S. were supported by the Slovenian Research Agency (grant. No P3-0296). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus is a major cause of central nervous system infections in endemic countries. Here, we present clinical and laboratory characteristics of a large international cohort of patients with confirmed TBE using a uniform clinical protocol. Patients were recruited in eight centers from six European countries between 2010 and 2017. A detailed description of clinical signs and symptoms was recorded. The obtained information enabled a reliable classification in 553 of 555 patients: 207 (37.3%) had meningitis, 273 (49.2%) meningoencephalitis, 15 (2.7%) meningomyelitis, and 58 (10.5%) meningoencephalomyelitis; 41 (7.4%) patients had a peripheral paresis of extremities, 13 (2.3%) a central paresis of extremities, and 25 (4.5%) had single or multiple cranial nerve palsies. Five (0.9%) patients died during acute illness. Outcome at discharge was recorded in 298 patients. Of 176 (59.1%) patients with incomplete recovery, 80 (27%) displayed persisting symptoms or signs without recovery expectation. This study provides further evidence that TBE is a severe disease with a large proportion of patients with incomplete recovery. We suggest monitoring TBE in endemic European countries using a uniform protocol to record the full clinical spectrum of the disease.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Global regulation of gene expression by OxyR in an important human opportunistic pathogen

Most bacteria control oxidative stress through the H2O2-responsive transactivator OxyR, a member of the LTTR family (LysR Type Transcriptional Regulators), which activates the expression of defensive genes such as those encoding catalases, alkyl hydroperoxide reductases and superoxide dismutases. In the human opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, OxyR positively regulates expression of the oxidative stress response genes katA, katB, ahpB and ahpCF. To identify additional targets of OxyR in P. aeruginosa PAO1, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation in combination with whole genome tiling array analyses (ChIP-chip). We detected 56 genes including all the previously identified defensive genes and a battery of novel direct targets of OxyR. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) for selected newly identified targets indicated that ∼70% of those were bound by purified oxidized OxyR and their regulation was confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Furthermore, a thioredoxin system was identified to enzymatically reduce OxyR under oxidative stress. Functional classification analysis showed that OxyR controls a core regulon of oxidative stress defensive genes, and other genes involved in regulation of iron homeostasis (pvdS), quorum-sensing (rsaL), protein synthesis (rpsL) and oxidative phosphorylation (cyoA and snr1). Collectively, our results indicate that OxyR is involved in oxidative stress defense and regulates other aspects of cellular metabolism as well

Plasma lipid profiles discriminate bacterial from viral infection in febrile children

Fever is the most common reason that children present to Emergency Departments. Clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of bacterial infection are often non-specific, and there is no definitive test for the accurate diagnosis of infection. The 'omics' approaches to identifying biomarkers from the host-response to bacterial infection are promising. In this study, lipidomic analysis was carried out with plasma samples obtained from febrile children with confirmed bacterial infection (n = 20) and confirmed viral infection (n = 20). We show for the first time that bacterial and viral infection produces distinct profile in the host lipidome. Some species of glycerophosphoinositol, sphingomyelin, lysophosphatidylcholine and cholesterol sulfate were higher in the confirmed virus infected group, while some species of fatty acids, glycerophosphocholine, glycerophosphoserine, lactosylceramide and bilirubin were lower in the confirmed virus infected group when compared with confirmed bacterial infected group. A combination of three lipids achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.911 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.98). This pilot study demonstrates the potential of metabolic biomarkers to assist clinicians in distinguishing bacterial from viral infection in febrile children, to facilitate effective clinical management and to the limit inappropriate use of antibiotics

Plasma lipid profiles discriminate bacterial from viral infection in febrile children

Fever is the most common reason that children present to Emergency Departments. Clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of bacterial infection are often non-specific, and there is no definitive test for the accurate diagnosis of infection. The 'omics' approaches to identifying biomarkers from the host-response to bacterial infection are promising. In this study, lipidomic analysis was carried out with plasma samples obtained from febrile children with confirmed bacterial infection (n = 20) and confirmed viral infection (n = 20). We show for the first time that bacterial and viral infection produces distinct profile in the host lipidome. Some species of glycerophosphoinositol, sphingomyelin, lysophosphatidylcholine and cholesterol sulfate were higher in the confirmed virus infected group, while some species of fatty acids, glycerophosphocholine, glycerophosphoserine, lactosylceramide and bilirubin were lower in the confirmed virus infected group when compared with confirmed bacterial infected group. A combination of three lipids achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.911 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.98). This pilot study demonstrates the potential of metabolic biomarkers to assist clinicians in distinguishing bacterial from viral infection in febrile children, to facilitate effective clinical management and to the limit inappropriate use of antibiotics

Plasma lipid profiles discriminate bacterial from viral infection in febrile children

Fever is the most common reason that children present to Emergency Departments. Clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of bacterial infection ar

Comparison of different in situ product-removal methods to enhance the production of the aroma compound 2-phenylethanol

There is an increasing interest by the flavor industry for producing natural aroma compds. through biocatalysts. L-Phenylalanine is transformed by Saccharomyces cerevisiae into 2-phenylethanol, which has a rose-like odor. Unfortunately this product inhibits growth even at low concns. and therefore its max. concn. is 3.9 g/l. This problem of the inhibitory effect of the product on the cell can be tackled by different in-situ product removal (ISPR) techniques. The hydrophobicity of 2-phenylethanol differs from those of the precursor and culture medium. Therefore, extn. into a second org. phase seems to be an appropriate ISPR-technique. This method keeps the 2-phenylethanol concn. in the aq. reaction phase below an inhibitory level in order to sustain a high productivity of the system. In this work, three different integrated processes involving the solvent extn. of 2-phenylethanol from the fermn. broth are evaluated. The first case is a two-phase fermn., where a water-immiscible fatty acid, which shows neither a mol. nor a phase toxicity, is added directly into the reactor vessel. The inhibitory 2-phenylethanol preferably partitions in the org. phase and therefore its concn. in the aq. phase is reduced. In this way, the final concn. of 2-phenylethanol is increased up to 9.1 g/l. The second approach uses an ester as second water-immiscible phase that has more a favorable partitioning for 2-phenylethanol but reveals a phase toxicity towards the cells. Thus the yeast is immobilized in chitosan-alginate beads to protect them from the toxic extractant. The third integrated bioprocess, completely novel, uses alginate capsules that contain the extractant in the core. The capsules are added to the fermn. broth and ext. the inhibitory 2-phenylethanol while it is produced. In this way the encapsulated solvent is not in direct contact with the cells and can prevent the cells from the phase toxicity. Conclusion: Solvents that do not show a phase toxicity can be added directly into the reactor vessel, whereas solvents having a phase toxicity can be encapsulated in alginate capsules which prevent the direct contact of the cells with the solvent. [on SciFinder (R)

Warm Forming of Hot Rolled High Strength Steels with Enhanced Fatigue Resistance as a Lightweight Solution for Heavy Duty Vehicles

Most solutions for a lightweight design are based on the implementation of AHSS, Al alloys or CFRP. However, not all these strategies are susceptible to be applied to truck chassis parts. These components require high fatigue resistance and thick sheets. Additionally, they are usually trimmed and punched, which is known to affect fatigue resistance. This work addresses the lightweight con-struction of truck parts through the warm forming of steel grades tailored to show high formability and fatigue behaviour. The fatigue limit was evaluated for different edge conditions (polished and punched) and rationalized using the cracking resistance described by fracture toughness. The con-sideration of both mechanical properties, fatigue, and fracture toughness, gives an innovative and useful tool to develop and select materials for fatigue dimensioned parts.Funder: Research Fund for Coal and Steel RFCS (800649);ISBN för värdpublikation: 978-3-95735-150-0RFCS programme - Warmlight projec

Warm Forming of Hot Rolled High Strength Steels with Enhanced Fatigue Resistance as a Lightweight Solution for Heavy Duty Vehicles

Most solutions for a lightweight design are based on the implementation of AHSS, Al alloys or CFRP. However, not all these strategies are susceptible to be applied to truck chassis parts. These components require high fatigue resistance and thick sheets. Additionally, they are usually trimmed and punched, which is known to affect fatigue resistance. This work addresses the lightweight con-struction of truck parts through the warm forming of steel grades tailored to show high formability and fatigue behaviour. The fatigue limit was evaluated for different edge conditions (polished and punched) and rationalized using the cracking resistance described by fracture toughness. The con-sideration of both mechanical properties, fatigue, and fracture toughness, gives an innovative and useful tool to develop and select materials for fatigue dimensioned parts.Funder: Research Fund for Coal and Steel RFCS (800649);ISBN för värdpublikation: 978-3-95735-150-0RFCS programme - Warmlight projec