VoIP Service Model for Multi-objective Scheduling in Cloud Infrastructure

Voice over IP (VoIP) is very fast growing technology for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia data over internet with lower cost. Early technical solutions mirrored the architecture of the legacy telephone network. Now, they have adopted the concept of distributed cloud VoIP. These solutions typically allow dynamic interconnection between users on any domains. However, providers face challenges to use infrastructure in the best efficient and cost-effective ways. Hence, efficient scheduling and load balancing algorithms are a fundamental part of this approach, especially in presence of the uncertainty of a very dynamic and unpredictable environment. In this paper, we formulate the problem of dynamic scheduling of VoIP services in distributed cloud environments and propose a model for bi-objective optimisation. We consider it as the special case of the bin packing problem, and discuss solutions for provider cost optimisation while ensuring quality of service

Measurement of the α ratio and (n, γ) cross section of 235U from 0.2 to 200 eV at n_TOF

We measured the neutron capture-to-fission cross-section ratio (α ratio) and the capture cross section of 235U between 0.2 and 200 eV at the n_TOF facility at CERN. The simultaneous measurement of neutron-induced capture and fission rates was performed by means of the n_TOF BaF2 Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC), used for detection of γ rays, in combination with a set of micromegas detectors used as fission tagging detectors. The energy dependence of the capture cross section was obtained with help of the 6 Li(n,t) standard reaction determining the n_TOF neutron fluence; the well-known integral of the 235U(n, f ) cross section between 7.8 and 11 eV was then used for its absolute normalization. The α ratio, obtained with slightly higher statistical fluctuations, was determined directly, without need for any reference cross section. To perform the analysis of this measurement we developed a new methodology to correct the experimentally observed effect that the probabilities of detecting a fission reaction in the TAC and the micromegas detectors are not independent. The results of this work have been used in a new evaluation of 235U performed within the scope of the Collaborative International Evaluated Library Organisation (CIELO) Project, and are consistent with the ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF-3.3 capture cross sections below 4 eV and above 100 eV. However, the measured capture cross section is on average 10% larger between 4 and 100 eV.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad de España. FPA2014-53290-C2-1, FPA2016-76765- P y FPA2017-82647-P7º Programa Marco CHANDA de la Comisión Europea. FP7-60520

Human-carnivore relations: conflicts, tolerance and coexistence in the American West

Carnivore and humans live in proximity due to carnivore recovery efforts and ongoing human encroachment into carnivore habitats globally. The American West is a region that uniquely exemplifies these human-carnivore dynamics, however, it is unclear how the research community here integrates social and ecological factors to examine human-carnivore relations. Therefore, strategies promoting human-carnivore coexistence are urgently needed. We conducted a systematic review on human-carnivore relations in the American West covering studies between 2000 and 2018. We first characterized human-carnivore relations across states of the American West. Second, we analyzed similarities and dissimilarities across states in terms of coexistence, tolerance, number of ecosystem services and conflicts mentioned in literature. Third, we used Bayesian modeling to quantify the effect of social and ecological factors influencing the scientific interest on coexistence, tolerance, ecosystem services and conflicts. Results revealed some underlying biases in humancarnivore relations research. Colorado and Montana were the states where the highest proportion of studies were conducted with bears and wolves the most studied species. Non-lethal management was the most common strategy to mitigate conflicts. Overall, conflicts with carnivores were much more frequently mentioned than benefits. We found similarities among Arizona, California, Utah, and New Mexico according to how coexistence, tolerance, services and conflicts are addressed in literature. We identified percentage of federal/private land, carnivore family, social actors, and management actions, as factors explaining how coexistence, tolerance, conflicts and services are addressed in literature. We provide a roadmap to foster tolerance towards carnivores and successful coexistence strategies in the American West based on four main domains, (1)the dual role of carnivores as providers of both beneficial and detrimental contributions to people, (2)social-ecological factors underpinning the provision of beneficial and detrimental contributions, (3)the inclusion of diverse actors, and (4) cross-state collaborative management

Effectiveness of an intervention for improving drug prescription in primary care patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy:Study protocol of a cluster randomized clinical trial (Multi-PAP project)

This study was funded by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias ISCIII (Grant Numbers PI15/00276, PI15/00572, PI15/00996), REDISSEC (Project Numbers RD12/0001/0012, RD16/0001/0005), and the European Regional Development Fund ("A way to build Europe").Background: Multimorbidity is associated with negative effects both on people's health and on healthcare systems. A key problem linked to multimorbidity is polypharmacy, which in turn is associated with increased risk of partly preventable adverse effects, including mortality. The Ariadne principles describe a model of care based on a thorough assessment of diseases, treatments (and potential interactions), clinical status, context and preferences of patients with multimorbidity, with the aim of prioritizing and sharing realistic treatment goals that guide an individualized management. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a complex intervention that implements the Ariadne principles in a population of young-old patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. The intervention seeks to improve the appropriateness of prescribing in primary care (PC), as measured by the medication appropriateness index (MAI) score at 6 and 12months, as compared with usual care. Methods/Design: Design:pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial. Unit of randomization: family physician (FP). Unit of analysis: patient. Scope: PC health centres in three autonomous communities: Aragon, Madrid, and Andalusia (Spain). Population: patients aged 65-74years with multimorbidity (≥3 chronic diseases) and polypharmacy (≥5 drugs prescribed in ≥3months). Sample size: n=400 (200 per study arm). Intervention: complex intervention based on the implementation of the Ariadne principles with two components: (1) FP training and (2) FP-patient interview. Outcomes: MAI score, health services use, quality of life (Euroqol 5D-5L), pharmacotherapy and adherence to treatment (Morisky-Green, Haynes-Sackett), and clinical and socio-demographic variables. Statistical analysis: primary outcome is the difference in MAI score between T0 and T1 and corresponding 95% confidence interval. Adjustment for confounding factors will be performed by multilevel analysis. All analyses will be carried out in accordance with the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: It is essential to provide evidence concerning interventions on PC patients with polypharmacy and multimorbidity, conducted in the context of routine clinical practice, and involving young-old patients with significant potential for preventing negative health outcomes. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02866799Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The evolution of the ventilatory ratio is a prognostic factor in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 ARDS patients

Background: Mortality due to COVID-19 is high, especially in patients requiring mechanical ventilation. The purpose of the study is to investigate associations between mortality and variables measured during the first three days of mechanical ventilation in patients with COVID-19 intubated at ICU admission. Methods: Multicenter, observational, cohort study includes consecutive patients with COVID-19 admitted to 44 Spanish ICUs between February 25 and July 31, 2020, who required intubation at ICU admission and mechanical ventilation for more than three days. We collected demographic and clinical data prior to admission; information about clinical evolution at days 1 and 3 of mechanical ventilation; and outcomes. Results: Of the 2,095 patients with COVID-19 admitted to the ICU, 1,118 (53.3%) were intubated at day 1 and remained under mechanical ventilation at day three. From days 1 to 3, PaO2/FiO2 increased from 115.6 [80.0-171.2] to 180.0 [135.4-227.9] mmHg and the ventilatory ratio from 1.73 [1.33-2.25] to 1.96 [1.61-2.40]. In-hospital mortality was 38.7%. A higher increase between ICU admission and day 3 in the ventilatory ratio (OR 1.04 [CI 1.01-1.07], p = 0.030) and creatinine levels (OR 1.05 [CI 1.01-1.09], p = 0.005) and a lower increase in platelet counts (OR 0.96 [CI 0.93-1.00], p = 0.037) were independently associated with a higher risk of death. No association between mortality and the PaO2/FiO2 variation was observed (OR 0.99 [CI 0.95 to 1.02], p = 0.47). Conclusions: Higher ventilatory ratio and its increase at day 3 is associated with mortality in patients with COVID-19 receiving mechanical ventilation at ICU admission. No association was found in the PaO2/FiO2 variation

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Adaptive Energy Efficient Distributed VoIP Load Balancing in Federated Cloud Infrastructure

Abstract — Cloud computing is widely being adopted by many companies because it allows to maximize the utilization of resources. However, the complexity of cloud computing systems with the existence of many cloud providers makes infeasible for the end user the optimal or near-optimal resource provisioning and utilization, especially in presence of uncertainty of very dynamic and unpredictable environment. Hence, dynamic adaptive load balancing algorithms are a fundamental part of the research in cloud computing. We formulate the problem and propose an adaptive load balancing algorithm for distributed computer environments. We also discuss the energy efficiency of our solution for the domain of VoIP computations on federated clouds

Biobjective VoIP Service Management in Cloud Infrastructure

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) allows communication of voice and/or data over the internet in less expensive and reliable manner than traditional ISDN systems. This solution typically allows flexible interconnection between organization and companies on any domains. Cloud VoIP solutions can offer even cheaper and scalable service when virtualized telephone infrastructure is used in the most efficient way. Scheduling and load balancing algorithms are fundamental parts of this approach. Unfortunately, VoIP scheduling techniques do not take into account uncertainty in dynamic and unpredictable cloud environments. In this paper, we formulate the problem of scheduling of VoIP services in distributed cloud environments and propose a new model for biobjective optimization. We consider the special case of the on-line nonclairvoyant dynamic bin-packing problem and discuss solutions for provider cost and quality of service optimization. We propose twenty call allocation strategies and evaluate their performance by comprehensive simulation analysis on real workload considering six months of the MIXvoip company service

An Efficient Method for Comparing Numbers and Determining the Sign of a Number in RNS for Even Ranges

Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) permits processing information in the form of ciphertexts without decryption. It can ensure the security of information in common technologies used today, such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and machine learning, among others. A primary disadvantage for its practical application is the low efficiency of sign and comparison operations. Several FHE schemes use the Residue Number System (RNS) to decrease the time complexity of these operations. Converting from the RNS to the positional number system and calculating the positional characteristic of a number are standard approaches for both operations in the RNS domain. In this paper, we propose a new method for comparing numbers and determining the sign of a number in RNS. We focus on the even ranges that are computationally simple due to their peculiarities. We compare the performance of several state-of-art algorithms based on an implementation in C++ and relatively simple moduli with a bit depth from 24 to 64 bits. The experimental analysis shows a better performance of our approach for all the test cases; it improves the sign detection between 1.93 and 15.3 times and the number comparison within 1.55–11.35 times with respect to all the methods and configurations

An Efficient Method for Comparing Numbers and Determining the Sign of a Number in RNS for Even Ranges

Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) permits processing information in the form of ciphertexts without decryption. It can ensure the security of information in common technologies used today, such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and machine learning, among others. A primary disadvantage for its practical application is the low efficiency of sign and comparison operations. Several FHE schemes use the Residue Number System (RNS) to decrease the time complexity of these operations. Converting from the RNS to the positional number system and calculating the positional characteristic of a number are standard approaches for both operations in the RNS domain. In this paper, we propose a new method for comparing numbers and determining the sign of a number in RNS. We focus on the even ranges that are computationally simple due to their peculiarities. We compare the performance of several state-of-art algorithms based on an implementation in C++ and relatively simple moduli with a bit depth from 24 to 64 bits. The experimental analysis shows a better performance of our approach for all the test cases; it improves the sign detection between 1.93 and 15.3 times and the number comparison within 1.55&ndash;11.35 times with respect to all the methods and configurations