Computation offloading for fast and energy-efficient edge computing

In recent years, the demand for computing power has increased considerably due to the popularity of applications that involve computationally intensive tasks such as machine learning or computer vision. At the same time, users increasingly run such applications on smartphones or wearables, which have limited computational power. The research community has proposed computation offloading to meet the demand for computing power. Resource-constrained devices offload workload to remote resource providers. These providers perform the computations and return the results via the network. Computation offloading has two major benefits. First, it accelerates the execution of computationally intensive tasks and therefore reduces waiting times. Second, it decreases the energy consumption of the offloading device, which is especially attractive for devices that run on battery. After years in which cloud servers were the primary resource providers, computation offloading in edge computing systems is currently gaining popularity. Edge-based systems leverage end-user devices such as smartphones, laptops, or desktop PCs instead of cloud servers as computational resource providers. Computation offloading in such environments leads to lower latencies, better utilization of end-user devices, and lower costs in comparison to traditional cloud computing. In this thesis, we present a computation offloading approach for fast and energy-efficient edge computing. We build upon the Tasklet system – a middleware-based computation offloading system. The Tasklet system allows devices to offload heterogeneous tasks to heterogeneous providers. We address three challenges of computation offloading in the edge. First, many applications are data-intensive, which necessitates a time-consuming transfer of input data ahead of a remote execution. To overcome this challenge, we introduce DataVinci – an approach that proactively places input data on suitable devices to accelerate task execution. DataVinci additionally offers task placement strategies that exploit data locality. Second, modern applications are often user-facing and responsive. They require sub-second execution of computationally intensive tasks to ensure proper user experience. We design the decentralized scheduling approach DecArt for such applications. Third, deciding whether a local or remote execution of an upcoming task will consume less energy is non-trivial. This decision is particularly challenging as task complexity and result data size vary across executions, even if the source code is similar. We introduce the energy-aware scheduling approach Voltaire, which uses machine learning and device-specific energy profiles for making precise offloading decisions. We integrate DataVinci, DecArt, and Voltaire into the Tasklet system and evaluate the benefits in extensive experiments

Zelluläre Ersatztherapie unter Verwendung von Knochenmarkzellen beim Herzinfarkt in der Maus

In dieser Arbeit wurde das Potential adulter Knochenmarkzellen, speziell hämatopoetischer (HSC) und mesenchymaler (MSC) Stammzellen, für eine Gewebeersatztherapie des Herzinfarktes untersucht. Durch die Verwendung direkter Nachweismethoden mittels transgener Mausmodelle wurde eine eindeutige Detektion der transplantierten Zellen und deren Differenzierung zu Kardiomyozyten ermöglicht. Dabei konnten wichtige neue Erkenntnisse über die Mechanismen und Risiken einer Zellersatztherapie mit Knochenmark-abgeleiteten Zellen gewonnen werden. Es zeigte sich, daß die Knochenmarkzellen nur vorübergehend in dem Infarktareal überlebten. Allerdings konnte eine massivere und längerfristige Integration, wie sie für klinische Anwendungen unabdingbar ist, durch die Methode der Mobilisierung etabliert werden. Dennoch wurde im Gewebe und auf Einzelzellebene belegt, daß eine Differenzierung der Knochenmarkzellen zu Kardiomyozyten oder Endothelzellen nicht stattgefunden hatte, sondern die Zellen ihren hämatopoetischen Charakter behielten. Zudem wurden keine Anzeichen für eine Verbesserung der linksventrikulären Herzfunktion nach direkter Injektion oder Mobilisierung von Knochenmarkzellen gefunden. Diese Befunde stellen die Basis für eine zelluläre Ersatztherapie am Herzen in Frage. Vereinzelt wurden Knochenmark-abgeleitete Kardiomyozyten im Randbereich des Infarktes detektiert. Durch die gleichzeitige Verwendung zweier transgener Mausstämme konnte hier zweifelsfrei demonstriert werden, daß diese Zellen ausnahmslos durch Fusion einer nativen mit einer transplantierten Zelle entstanden waren. Durch diese Erkenntnisse über den biologischen Mechanismus können viele kontrovers diskutierte Differenzierungsstudien erklärt werden. Ein überraschender und für die Klinik bedeutender Befund dieser Studie war die Entdeckung massiver Kalkablagerungen in den Infarktarealen nach Transplantation von Gesamtknochenmark und mesenchymalen Stammzellen. Als Ursache dieser Kalzifizierungen wurde eine Knochenbildung durch die Differenzierung der eingebrachten Zellen zu Osteoblasten immunhistochemisch nachgewiesen. Die Verwendung unterschiedlicher Zellpopulationen und vor allem die Mobilisierungsexperimente, in denen hämatopoetische, nicht aber mesenchymale Zellen in das periphere Blut freigesetzt wurden, identifizierten eindeutig die MSCs als die dafür verantwortliche Zellfraktion. Das umgebende Milieu im Infarktgewebe reicht alleine demnach nicht aus, um eine Herzdifferenzierung der Knochenmarkzellen zu initiieren. Vielmehr entwickeln sich die transplantierten Zellen gemäß ihrer natürlichen Bestimmung zu Blut- und Knochenzellen. Das birgt zumindest im Falle einer Transplantation mesenchymaler Stammzellen erhebliche Risiken für die Patienten. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit stellen somit die biologische Grundlage und die Sicherheit einer zellulären Ersatztherapie des Herzinfarktes mit Knochenmarkabgeleiteten Zellen in Frage. Besonders in Anbetracht einer fehlenden Funktionsverbesserung ist die weitere klinische Anwendung dieser Behandlungsmethode zumindest zweifelhaft

PENGARUH KONSENTRASI TINTA CUMI-CUMI DAN TAPIOKA TERHADAP KARAKTERISTIK PEMPEK HITAM CUMI-CUMI (Loligo sp.)

Cumi-cumi (Loligo sp.) merupakan binatang lunak dengan tubuh berbentuk silindris. Sirip-siripnya berbentuk trianguler atau radar yang menjadi satu pada ujungnya. Pada kepalanya di sekitar lubang mulut terdapat 10 tentakel yang dilengkapi dengan alat penghisap. Tinta cumi-cumi merupakan cairan hitam yang mengandung protein cukup tinggi yang terdiri atas asam amino esensial maupun non esensial. Pempek merupakan produk hasil olahan daging ikan yang berbentuk sejenis gel protein yang homogen, berwarna putih, bertekstur kenyal dan elastis. Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu untuk memanfaatkan limbah tinta cumi-cumi yang biasanya dibuang sehingga tinta cumi-cumi dapat berguna dan memiliki nilai ekonomis. Metode penelitian yang dilakukan terdiri dari penelitian pendahuluan dan penelitian utama. Penelitian pendahulan dilakukan untuk mendapatkan tinta cumicumi terbaik dengan penambahan daun salam dengan konsentrasi daun salam 10%, 30% dan 50%. Penelitian utama dilakukan untuk mendapatkan konsentrasi tinta cumi-cumi dan konsentrasi tapioka terbaik untuk karakteristik pempek hitam cumi-cumi. Rancangan percobaan yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah Rancangan Acak Kelompok (RAK) pola faktorial 3x4 dengan dua kali ulangan. Faktor pertama penambahan konsentrasi tinta cumi-cumi (1%, 2%, 3% dan 4%) dan faktor kedua dengan penambahan konsentrasi tapioka (25%, 30% dan 35%). Variabel respon pada penelitian ini adalah uji organoleptik meliputi atribut warna, aroma, rasa dan kekenyalan. Respon kimia meliputi kadar protein dan lemak. Respon fisik meliputi analisis tekstur kekenyalan (chewiness). Hasil dari penelitian pendahuluan didapatkan tinta cumi-cumi terbaik yaitu dengan penambahan konsentrasi daun salam 30%. Hasil dari penelitian utama menunjukkan sampel terbaik yaitu pempek hitam dengan konsentrasi tinta cumicumi 1% dan konsentrasi tapioka 35%. Kemudian sampel tersebut dilakukan pegujian tingkat kekenyalan yang dibandingkan dengan pempek putih ikan tenggiri. Kata Kunci: Pempek Hitam, Konsentrasi Tinta Cumi-Cumi, Pempek Cumi-Cumi, Konsentrasi Tapioka

Athletic Trainers\u27 Perceptions and Experiences with Interprofessional Practice

INTRODUCTION Understanding athletic trainers’ (ATs) perceptions of and experiences with interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) can help improve their interactions with other healthcare professionals. The purpose of this study was to explore ATs’ perceptions (beliefs, benefits, barriers), experiences and recommended strategies related to IPCP. METHODS 314 ATs (139 male, 175 female) completed an online survey that collected participant demographics in addition to sections about participants’ perceptions experiences related to ICPC and recommended strategies implementation of IPCP. RESULTS Participants reported the primary sports medicine team should include ATs, orthopedic physicians and physical therapists (PTs) with the AT serving as the point person. Athletic trainers reported interacting most frequently with other ATs, orthopedic physicians and primary care physicians using a combination of direct and indirect communication methods. The primary benefits of IPCP included providing comprehensive patient care, building understanding of each other’s professions and professional growth. Barriers to collaboration centered on limited knowledge of providers’ scopes of training, inadequate communication, work setting, work schedules and providers’ attitudes toward each other and collaboration. Strategies to facilitate IPCP focused on building relationships with providers, establishing regular communication and understanding each other’s scope of training. CONCLUSIONS Currently, ATs interact with other healthcare providers and have positive perceptions of IPCP. It is recommended that ATs build on the current relationships and aim to enhance them through purposeful communication

A survey on engineering approaches for self-adaptive systems (extended version)

The complexity of information systems is increasing in recent years, leading to increased effort for maintenance and configuration. Self-adaptive systems (SASs) address this issue. Due to new computing trends, such as pervasive computing, miniaturization of IT leads to mobile devices with the emerging need for context adaptation. Therefore, it is beneficial that devices are able to adapt context. Hence, we propose to extend the definition of SASs and include context adaptation. This paper presents a taxonomy of self-adaptation and a survey on engineering SASs. Based on the taxonomy and the survey, we motivate a new perspective on SAS including context adaptation

REACT-ION: A model-based runtime environment for situation-aware adaptations

Trends such as the Internet of Things lead to a growing number of networked devices and to a variety of communication systems. Adding self-adaptive capabilities to these communication systems is one approach to reducing administrative effort and coping with changing execution contexts. Existing frameworks can help reducing development effort but are neither tailored toward the use in communication systems nor easily usable without knowledge in self-adaptive systems development. Accordingly, in previous work, we proposed REACT, a reusable, model-based runtime environment to complement communication systems with adaptive behavior. REACT addresses heterogeneity and distribution aspects of such systems and reduces development effort. In this article, we propose REACT-ION—an extension of REACT for situation awareness. REACT-ION offers a context management module that is able to acquire, store, disseminate, and reason on context data. The context management module is the basis for (i) proactive adaptation with REACT-ION and (ii) self-improvement of the underlying feedback loop. REACT-ION can be used to optimize adaptation decisions at runtime based on the current situation. Therefore, it can cope with uncertainty and situations that were not foreseeable at design time. We show and evaluate in two case studies how REACT-ION’s situation awareness enables proactive adaptation and self-improvement

Engraftment of engineered ES cell–derived cardiomyocytes but not BM cells restores contractile function to the infarcted myocardium

Cellular cardiomyoplasty is an attractive option for the treatment of severe heart failure. It is, however, still unclear and controversial which is the most promising cell source. Therefore, we investigated and examined the fate and functional impact of bone marrow (BM) cells and embryonic stem cell (ES cell)–derived cardiomyocytes after transplantation into the infarcted mouse heart. This proved particularly challenging for the ES cells, as their enrichment into cardiomyocytes and their long-term engraftment and tumorigenicity are still poorly understood. We generated transgenic ES cells expressing puromycin resistance and enhanced green fluorescent protein cassettes under control of a cardiac-specific promoter. Puromycin selection resulted in a highly purified (>99%) cardiomyocyte population, and the yield of cardiomyocytes increased 6–10-fold because of induction of proliferation on purification. Long-term engraftment (4–5 months) was observed when co-transplanting selected ES cell–derived cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts into the injured heart of syngeneic mice, and no teratoma formation was found (n = 60). Although transplantation of ES cell–derived cardiomyocytes improved heart function, BM cells had no positive effects. Furthermore, no contribution of BM cells to cardiac, endothelial, or smooth muscle neogenesis was detected. Hence, our results demonstrate that ES-based cell therapy is a promising approach for the treatment of impaired myocardial function and provides better results than BM-derived cells

Back to the Future: Moving Beyond “Mesenchymal Stem Cells”

The last decade was dominated by dissemination of the notion that postnatal “mesenchymal stem cells,” found primarily in bone marrow but also in other tissues, can generate multiple skeletal and nonskeletal tissues, and thus can be exploited to regenerate a broad range of tissues and organs. The concept of “mesenchymal stem cells” and its applicative implications represent a significant departure from the solidly proven notion that skeletal stem cells are found in the bone marrow (and not in other tissues). Recent data that sharpen our understanding of the identity, nature, origin, and in vivo function of the archetypal “mesenchymal stem cells” (bone marrow skeletal stem cells) point to their microvascular location, mural cell identity, and function as organizers and regulators of the hematopoietic microenvironment/niche. These advances bring back the original concept from which the notion of “mesenchymal stem cells” evolved, and clarify a great deal of experimental data that accumulated in the past decade. As a novel paradigm emerges that accounts for many facets of the biology of skeletal stem cells, a novel paradigm independently emerges for their applicative/translational use. The two paradigms meet each other back in the future. J. Cell. Biochem. 112: 1713–1721, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Preclinical Evaluation of Oncolytic Vaccinia Virus for Therapy of Canine Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Virotherapy using oncolytic vaccinia virus (VACV) strains is one promising new strategy for canine cancer therapy. In this study we describe the establishment of an in vivo model of canine soft tissue sarcoma (CSTS) using the new isolated cell line STSA-1 and the analysis of the virus-mediated oncolytic and immunological effects of two different Lister VACV LIVP1.1.1 and GLV-1h68 strains against CSTS. Cell culture data demonstrated that both tested VACV strains efficiently infected and destroyed cells of the canine soft tissue sarcoma line STSA-1. In addition, in our new canine sarcoma tumor xenograft mouse model, systemic administration of LIVP1.1.1 or GLV-1h68 viruses led to significant inhibition of tumor growth compared to control mice. Furthermore, LIVP1.1.1 mediated therapy resulted in almost complete tumor regression and resulted in long-term survival of sarcoma-bearing mice. The replication of the tested VACV strains in tumor tissues led to strong oncolytic effects accompanied by an intense intratumoral infiltration of host immune cells, mainly neutrophils. These findings suggest that the direct viral oncolysis of tumor cells and the virus-dependent activation of tumor-associated host immune cells could be crucial parts of anti-tumor mechanism in STSA-1 xenografts. In summary, the data showed that both tested vaccinia virus strains and especially LIVP1.1.1 have great potential for effective treatment of CSTS