Distributed Heuristic Algorithm for Migration and Replication of Self-organized Services in Future Networks

أصبحت شبكات الاتصالات المحمولة في الوقت الحاضر جزءًا متأصلاً في حياتنا اليومية من خلال الكميات الهائلة من البيانات التي يتم تناقلها عبر أجهزة الاتصال، مما يقود إلى تحديات جديدة. وسيتم حسب مؤشر سيسكو للشبكات، توصيل أكثر من 29.3 بليون جهاز عبر  الشبكة خلال العام 2023.من الواضح أن البنى التحتية الموجودة في الشبكات الحالية لن تكون قادرة على دعم جميع البيانات التي يتم تبادلها بسبب عرض الحزمة المحدود وكلفة عمليات الإرسال والمعالجة. ومن أجل التعامل مع هذه المشكلات، يجب أن تحقق شبكات الاتصالات المحمولة المستقبلية متطلبات عالية من أجل إنقاص كمية البيانات المنقولة وتقليل زمن الوصول وكلفة عمليات المعالجة. تتمثّل إحدى التحديّاتِ العلميّةِ الهامّة ضمن هذا السياق في التوضيع المثالي للخدماتِ ذاتيّة التّأقلمِ.تمّ في هذه الورقة البحثية تقديم خوارزمية استدلالية لتوضيع الخدمات في الشبكات المستقبلية. تحقق هذه الخوارزميّة التوضيع المثالي لنسخ الخدمات من خلال مراقبة الحمل داخل عقدة المخدم وجوارها، واختيار العقدة التي يتمّ تلقّي الحمل الأكبر منها، ونسخ الخدمة أو تهجيرها إليها بناءً على معايير محددة، فتصبح بالتالي المسافة التي تعبرها الطلبات الواردة من العقد الزبائن صغيرة قدر الإمكان بسبب توضيع الخدمات في مواقع قريبة منها. تمّ الإثبات أنّ الخوارزميّة المقترحة من قبلنا تحقّق أداءً محسّنًا من ناحية تلبية الخدمات خلال زمن أقصر، وعرض حزمة أصغر وبالتالي كلفة اتصال أقلّ. أُجريت مقارنة بين هذه الخوارزمية وكل من نموذج الزبون-مخدّم التقليدي وخوارزميّة التوضيع العشوائي. أثبتت النتائج التجريبية أنّ الخوارزميّة الاستدلاليّة تتفوّق على الطرق الأخرى وتحقّق الأداء الأمثل من أجل شبكاتٍ بأحجامٍ مختلفة وسيناريوهات بأحمالٍ متنوعة.Nowadays, the mobile communication networks have become a consistent part of our everyday life by transforming huge amount of data through communicating devices, that leads to new challenges. According to the Cisco Networking Index, more than 29.3 billion networked devices will be connected to the network during the year 2023. It is obvious that the existing infrastructures in current networks will not be able to support all the generated data due to the bandwidth limits, processing and transmission overhead. To cope with these issues, future mobile communication networks must achieve high requirements to reduce the amount of transferred data, decrease latency and computation costs. One of the essential challenging tasks in this subject area is the optimal self-organized service placement. In this paper a heuristic-based algorithm for service placement in future networks was presented. This algorithm achieves the ideal placement of services replicas by monitoring the load within the server and its neighborhood, choosing the node that contributes with the highest received load, and finally replicating or migrating the service to it based on specific criteria, so that the distance of requests coming from clients becomes as small as possible because of placing services within nearby locations. It was proved that our proposed algorithm achieves an improved performance by meeting the services within a shorter time, a smaller bandwidth, and thus a lower communication cost. It was compared with the traditional client-server approach and the random placement algorithm. Experimental results showed that the heuristic algorithm outperforms other approaches and meets the optimal performance with different network sizes and varying load scenarios

Mobility management in IP-Based Networks

Mobile communication networks experience a tremendous development clearly evident from the wide variety of new applications way beyond classical phone services. The tremendous success of the Internet along with the demand for always-on connectivity has triggered the development of All-IP mobile communication networks. Deploying these networks requires, however, overcoming many challenges. One of the main challenges is how to manage the mobility between cells connecting through an IP core in a way that satisfies real-time requirements. This challenge is the focus of this dissertation. This dissertation delivers an in-depth analysis of the mobility management issue in IP-based mobile communication networks. The advantages and disadvantages of various concepts for mobility management in different layers of the TCP/IP protocol stack are investigated. In addition, a classification and brief description of well-known mobility approaches for each layer are provided. The analysis concludes that network layer mobility management solutions seem to be best suited to satisfy the requirements of future All-IP networks. The dissertation, therefore, provides a comprehensive review of network layer mobility management protocols along with a discussion of their pros and cons. Analyses of previous work in this area show that the proposed techniques attempt to improve the performance by making constraints either on access networks (e.g. requiring a hierarchical topology, introducing of intermediate nodes, etc.) or mobile terminals (e.g. undertaking many measurements, location tracking, etc.). Therefore, a new technique is required that completes handoffs quickly without affecting the end-to-end performance of ongoing applications. In addition, it should place restrictions neither on access networks nor on mobiles. To meet these requirements, a new solution named Mobile IP Fast Authentication protocol (MIFA) is proposed. MIFA provides seamless mobility and advances the state of the art. It utilizes the fact that mobiles movements are limited to a small set of neighboring subnets. Thus, contacting these neighbors and providing them in advance with sufficient data related to the mobiles enable them to fast re-authenticate the mobiles after the handoff. The dissertation specifies the proposal for both IPv4 and IPv6. The specification of MIFA considers including many error recovery mechanisms to cover the most likely failures. Security considerations are studied carefully as well. MIFA does not make any restrictions on the network topology. It makes use of layer 2 information to optimize the performance and works well even if such information is not available.In order to analyze our new proposal in comparison to a wide range of well-known mobility management protocols, this dissertation proposes a generic mathematical model that supports the evaluation of figures such as average handoff latency, average number of dropped packets, location update cost and packet delivery cost. The generic model considers dropped control messages and takes different network topologies and mobility scenarios into account. This dissertation also validates the generic mathematical model by comparing its results to simulation results as well as results of real testbeds under the same assumptions. The validation proves that the generic model delivers an accurate evaluation of the performance in low-loaded networks. The accuracy of the model remains acceptable even under high loads. The validation also shows that simulation results lie in a range of 23 %, while results of real testbeds lie in a range of 30 % of the generic model?s results. To simplify the analysis using the generic mathematical model, 4 new tools are developed in the scope of this work. They automate the parameterization of mobility protocols, network topologies and mobility scenarios. This dissertation also evaluates the new proposal in comparison to well-known approaches (e.g. Mobile IP, Handoff-Aware Wireless Access Internet Infrastructure (HAWAII), etc.) by means of the generic mathematical model as well as simulation studies modeled in the Network Simulator 2. The evaluation shows that MIFA is a very fast protocol. It outperforms all studied protocols with respect to the handoff latency and number of dropped packets per handoff. MIFA is suitable for low as well as high speeds. Moreover, there is no significant impact of the network topology on its performance. A main advantage of MIFA is its robustness against the dropping of control messages. It remains able to achieve seamless handoffs even if a dropping occurs. The performance improvement is achieved, however, at the cost of introducing new control messages mainly to distribute data concerning mobile terminals to neighbor subnets. This results in more location update cost than that resulting from the other mobility management protocols studied. Due to excluding any constraints on the network topology, MIFA generates the same packet delivery cost as Mobile IP and less than other protocols.An additional focus of this dissertation is the development of an adaptive eLearning environment that personalizes eLearning contents conveying the topics of this dissertation depending on users? characteristics. The goal is to allow researchers to quickly become involved in research on mobility management, while learners such as students are able to gain information on the topics without excess detail. Analyses of existing eLearning environments show a lack of adaptivity support. Existing environments focus mainly on adapting either the navigation or the presentation of contents depending on one or more selected users? characteristics. There is no environment that supports both simultaneously. In addition, many user characteristics are disregarded during the adaptivity process. Thus, there is a need to develop a new adaptive eLearning environment able to eliminate these drawbacks. This dissertation, therefore, designs a new Metadata-driven Adaptive eLearning Environment (MAeLE). MAeLE generates personalized eLearning courses along with building an adequate navigation at run-time. Adaptivity depends mainly on providing contents with their describing metadata, which are stored in a separate database, thus enabling reusing of eLearning contents. The relation between the metadata that describe contents and those describing learners are defined accurately, which enables a dynamic building of personalized courses at run-time. A prototype for MAeLE is provided in this dissertation as well

A concerted and multi-criterion approach for helping to choose a Structure- Foundation system of building

The research of the best building design requires a concerted design approach of both structure and foundation. Our work is an application of this approach. Our objective is also to create an interactive tool, which will be able to define, at the early design stages, the orientations of structure and foundation systems that satisfy as well as possible the client and the architect. If the concerns of these two actors are primarily technical and economical, they also wish to apprehend the environmental and social dimensions of their projects. Thus, this approach bases on alternative studies and on a multi-criterion analysis. In this paper, we present the context of our work, the problem formulation, which allows a concerted design of Structure and Foundation systems and the feasible solutions identifying process

Hydroboration of Methyl Esters of Fatty Acids

Hydroboration addition reactions of a boron atom, and hydrogen over unsaturated, have been widely studied. They have excellent access routes to organoborans which have proven to be a very useful synthetic intermediate (Brown et al.; Matteson, 1987; Smith, 1994). The bill might be on one or other of the two carbons of the unsaturation. It is carried out preferentially along the least congested carbon (anti-Markownikov addition). This regioselectivity can be changed against steric effects (Brown & Zweifel, 1960; Brown & Sharp, 1968; Brown et al., 1974). The existence of two active sites in methyl esters of fatty acids, FAME: the carbon-carbon unsaturation and the ester, make their hydroboration reactions more difficult to achieve. However, it has been demonstrated that reducing the ester groups is much slower than that of olefins (Brown & Keblys, 1964). By using suitable operating conditions, it is possible to limit this secondary reaction and to obtain a selective reaction of carboncarbon double bond (Fore & Bickford, 1959). Others have protecting ester function by a silyl group in order to have a single reactive site (Kabalka & Bierer, 1989)

HDL composition, heart failure, and its comorbidities

Although research on high-density lipoprotein (HDL) has historically focused on atherosclerotic coronary disease, there exists untapped potential of HDL biology for the treatment of heart failure. Anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and endothelial protective properties of HDL could impact heart failure pathogenesis. HDL-associated proteins such as apolipoprotein A-I and M may have significant therapeutic effects on the myocardium, in part by modulating signal transduction pathways and sphingosine-1-phosphate biology. Furthermore, because heart failure is a complex syndrome characterized by multiple comorbidities, there are complex interactions between heart failure, its comorbidities, and lipoprotein homeostatic mechanisms. In this review, we will discuss the effects of heart failure and associated comorbidities on HDL, explore potential cardioprotective properties of HDL, and review novel HDL therapeutic targets in heart failure

Curricula Management and ABET Alignment at the Lebanese International University School of Engineering

Since 2011, the School of Engineering (SoE) at the Lebanese International University has been actively engaged in the development and constant evolution of engineering programs that are aligned with an assessment protocol aimed at determining how well graduating students achieve intended learning outcomes of their respective programs.  This is all done with the intention of having programs that are fully compatible with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and in anticipation of future accreditation. This paper highlights the curriculum management approach that has emerged from the collaboration between the various engineering departments, the development of program students’ outcomes (PSOs) and their indices, and the results from the preliminary outcomes reporting that involves the collection of data in line with best practices, well established key performance indicators and standardized benchmarking in the engineering education community.  All of which has been done as a part of education quality management and continual improvement purposes. A novel approach was adopted dependent on students’ evaluation of the PSOs.  The evaluation process is used in a feedback loop to enhance the rankings of the PSOs.  Preliminary Results indicate the usefulness of this technique.  More data will be collected in the coming years to be able to establish statistical significance. Keywords: Curricula management, ABET accreditation, PSO, KPI, benchmarking, academic assessment, reporting, engineering education

Self-Organized Disjoint Service Placement in Future Mobile Communication Networks

Future mobile communication networks will offer many ubiquitous services to its clients such as voice and video communication, access to data and files, use of virtual resources in cloud, etc. The provision of these services will have to face the different challenges posed by future wireless networks such as changing network topology, variable load conditions, clients’ distribution, QoS requirements etc. is a very difficult task and requires a high degree of self-organization in network operations. One important problem in this context is the self-organized service placement which refers to the problem of finding optimal nodes in the network that are most suitable for hosting a particular service type. An optimal placement of a service and its instances (replicas) not only minimizes the service costs but also reduces the overall network traffic and improves connectivity between clients and servers. This paper proposes a novel network service called Self-Organized Disjoint Service Placement (SO-DSP) service which manages other network services and their instances in order to achieve overall network optimization while keeping the individual service’s quality at the same level for its clients. The clients of SO-DSP are not the end-users of the network but the offered network service

The Effect of Activity-Based Costing on Companies Financial Performance: A Study among Jordanian Industrial Shareholding Companies

The costs play important role in the growth of corporations’ especially industrial sector. In the low-income country like Jordan, the article aims to analyze the effect of adopting Activity Based Costing (ABC) on the financial performance of Jordanian industrial shareholding companies. The population of this study consists of (13) public shareholding industrial companies in Jordan out of (70) from the period of 2000-2014. Four years average before and after applying ABC system is taken for all variables and significance is tested with the help of paired sample t-test statistics. Dependent variable in this study is the implementing of ABC system, and independent variables are gross profit margin (GPM), margin before interest and tax ratio (MBIT), net profit margin ratio (ROS), return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and return on investment ratio (ROI) have been computed. The results show that 78 Performance variables shows that the direction for the improved ratios after implementing ABC system is 37 Performance variables (37/78, 47%), and remaining 41 (41/78, 53%) Performance variables direction shows deterioration in the after implementing ABC system period. Out of 37 improved ratios 4 Performance variables are statistically significant. In the other hand out of 41 deteriorated ratios 7 Performance variables are statistically significant. Keywords: Activity Based Costing (ABC), financial performance, industrial companies, Jordan

Levels of lateral thinking among a sample of graduate students at the Tishreen University

 Find mainly aims to know the levels of lateral thinking among a sample of graduate students in the School of Education, University of October and you know the difference between the average scores of the research sample in lateral thinking individuals depending on variables: jurisdiction, the school year. The study sample consisted of 84 students from the MBA students at Tishreen University College of Education is the most important findings of the research: - The lateral thinking among graduate students is located in the low and middle levels similar percentage - There is a difference between the sample in lateral thinking individuals depending on the variable year - There is a difference between the sample in lateral thinking individuals depending on the variable Specialization The search is over to a set of proposals: 1. Know the level of lateral thinking among other categories. 2. educational curriculum development to keep pace with scientific developments. 3. practice teachers to be able to transfer lateral thinking to students at universities and schools skills. 4. Work on the introduction of the principles of lateral thinking in the curriculum. 5. to conduct a study to reveal the relationship of lateral thinking other types of thinking 6. study the relationship with some lateral thinking and cognitive psychological variables such as: Personal Styles Emotional intelligence 7. conduct a study to uncover the factors affecting the lateral thinking

Development of leukocytoclastic vasculitis during long-term methotrexate therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: description of two clinical cases

Leukocytoclastic vasculitis (LCV) is a small vessel vasculitis characterized by immune complex depositions involving dermal post-capillary venules. Cutaneous small vessel vasculitis is most often idiopathic but may be aggravated by secondary causes, such as inflammatory conditions, infections, neoplasms, and drugs exposure.Herein, we describe two patients with a long history of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with methotrexate (MTX) for more than ten years, who later developed generalized LCV with pancytopenia after a viral infection, one with herpes simplex virus, and the other with SARS-CoV-2 virus. Because of the worldwide use of MTX in treatment of RA, strict follow-up and preventive measures are needed nowadays, especially during COVID-19 pandemic, in order to avoid any infection which may provoke LCV with or without systemic manifestations. So, using MTX for treating RA or other similar disorders may be considered a double-edged sword, especially during COVID-19 pandemic.