NetServ: Early Prototype Experiences

This paper describes a work-in-progress to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating services in the Internet core. The project aims to reduce or eliminate so called ossification of the Internet. Here we discuss the recent contributions of two of the team members at Columbia University. We will describe experiences setting up a Juniper router, running packet forwarding tests, preparing for the GENI demo, and starting prototype 2 of NetServ

NetServ: Reviving Active Networks

In 1996, Tennenhouse and Wetherall proposed active networks, where users can inject code modules into network nodes. The proposal sparked intense debate and follow-on research, but ultimately failed to win over the networking community. Fifteen years later, the problems that motivated the active networks proposal persist. We call for a revival of active networks. We present NetServ, a fully integrated active network system that provides all the necessary functionality to be deployable, addressing the core problems that prevented the practical success of earlier approaches. We make the following contributions. We present a hybrid approach to active networking, which combines the best qualities from the two extreme approaches — integrated and discrete. We built a working system that strikes the right balance between security and performance by leveraging current technologies. We suggest an economic model based on NetServ between content providers and ISPs. We built four applications to illustrate the model

Easy Freshness with Pequod Cache Joins

Pequod is a distributed application-level key-value cache that supports declaratively defined, incrementally maintained, dynamic, partially-materialized views. These views, which we call cache joins, can simplify application development by shifting the burden of view maintenance onto the cache. Cache joins define relationships among key ranges; using cache joins, Pequod calculates views on demand, incrementally updates them as required, and in many cases improves performance by reducing client communication. To build Pequod, we had to design a view abstraction for volatile, relationless key-value caches and make it work across servers in a distributed system. Pequod performs as well as other inmemory key-value caches and, like those caches, outperforms databases with view support.Engineering and Applied Science

NetServ Framework Design and Implementation 1.0

Eyeball ISPs today are under-utilizing an important asset: edge routers. We present NetServ, a programmable node architecture aimed at turning edge routers into distributed service hosting platforms. This allows ISPs to allocate router resources to content publishers and application service pro\-vi\-ders motivated to deploy content and services at the network edge. This model provides important benefits over currently available solutions like CDN. Content and services can be brought closer to end users by dynamically installing and removing custom modules as needed throughout the network. Unlike previous programmable router proposals which focused on customizing features of a router, NetServ focuses on deploying content and services. All our design decisions reflect this change in focus. We set three main design goals: a wide-area deployment, a multi-user execution environment, and a clear economic benefit. We built a prototype using Linux, NSIS signaling, and the Java OSGi framework. We also implemented four prototype applications: ActiveCDN provides publisher-specific content distribution and processing; KeepAlive Responder and Media Relay reduce the infrastructure needs of telephony providers; and Overload Control makes it possible to deploy more flexible algorithms to handle excessive traffic

In the dedicated pursuit of dedicated capital: restoring an indigenous investment ethic to British capitalism

Tony Blair’s landslide electoral victory on May 1 (New Labour Day?) presents the party in power with a rare, perhaps even unprecedented, opportunity to revitalise and modernise Britain’s ailing and antiquated manufacturing economy.* If it is to do so, it must remain true to its long-standing (indeed, historic) commitment to restore an indigenous investment ethic to British capitalism. In this paper we argue that this in turn requires that the party reject the very neo-liberal orthodoxies which it offered to the electorate as evidence of its competence, moderation and ‘modernisation’, which is has internalised, and which it apparently now views as circumscribing the parameters of the politically and economically possible

The periodic table of data structures

http://sites.computer.org/debull/A18sept/p64.pdfPublished versio

The Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS) for AKARI

The Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS) is one of two focal plane instruments on the AKARI satellite. FIS has four photometric bands at 65, 90, 140, and 160 um, and uses two kinds of array detectors. The FIS arrays and optics are designed to sweep the sky with high spatial resolution and redundancy. The actual scan width is more than eight arcmin, and the pixel pitch is matches the diffraction limit of the telescope. Derived point spread functions (PSFs) from observations of asteroids are similar to the optical model. Significant excesses, however, are clearly seen around tails of the PSFs, whose contributions are about 30% of the total power. All FIS functions are operating well in orbit, and its performance meets the laboratory characterizations, except for the two longer wavelength bands, which are not performing as well as characterized. Furthermore, the FIS has a spectroscopic capability using a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS). Because the FTS takes advantage of the optics and detectors of the photometer, it can simultaneously make a spectral map. This paper summarizes the in-flight technical and operational performance of the FIS.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in the AKARI special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japa

Gym-Goers Preference Analysis of Fitness Centers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Conjoint Analysis Approach for Business Sustainability

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the fitness centers industry. The purpose of this study is to analyze the preference of gym-goers on fitness centers in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing a conjoint analysis approach. One thousand gym-goers voluntarily participated in this study and answered 22 queries created from the orthogonal design. The results indicated that Price was the highest attribute considered (21.59%), followed by Ventilation (17.56%), Service (16.59%), Trainer (14.63%), Payment Method (11.95%), Operating Hours (8.90%), and Login (8.70%). The results also indicated that comfort, security, and fitness center services were the main aspects that gym-goers would consider as their main preference. The study highlighted how gym-goers are sensitive to the price set by the fitness centers. Moreover, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ventilation and size are considered highly important attributes among gym-goers. Comfort, safety, and security are the main consideration to have sustainable fitness centers during and even after the COVID-19 pandemic. The outcome of this study may benefit fitness centers and increase their business market by considering the preference of customers. Finally, the result of this study can be utilized by fitness centers to promote a generalized fitness center for gym-goers of different generations, statuses, and even socioeconomic status during and even after the COVID-19 pandemic

Adenovirus-5-Vectored P. falciparum Vaccine Expressing CSP and AMA1. Part B: Safety, Immunogenicity and Protective Efficacy of the CSP Component

Background: A protective malaria vaccine will likely need to elicit both cell-mediated and antibody responses. As adenovirus vaccine vectors induce both these responses in humans, a Phase 1/2a clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of an adenovirus serotype 5-vectored malaria vaccine against sporozoite challenge.\ud \ud Methodology/Principal Findings: NMRC-MV-Ad-PfC is an adenovirus vector encoding the Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 circumsporozoite protein (CSP). It is one component of a two-component vaccine NMRC-M3V-Ad-PfCA consisting of one adenovector encoding CSP and one encoding apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA1) that was evaluated for safety and immunogenicity in an earlier study (see companion paper, Sedegah et al). Fourteen Ad5 seropositive or negative adults received two doses of NMRC-MV-Ad-PfC sixteen weeks apart, at 1x1010 particle units per dose. The vaccine was safe and well tolerated. All volunteers developed positive ELISpot responses by 28 days after the first immunization (geometric mean 272 spot forming cells/million[sfc/m]) that declined during the following 16 weeks and increased after the second dose to levels that in most cases were less than the initial peak (geometric mean 119 sfc/m). CD8+ predominated over CD4+ responses, as in the first clinical trial. Antibody responses were poor and like ELISpot responses increased after the second immunization but did not exceed the initial peak. Pre-existing neutralizing antibodies (NAb) to Ad5 did not affect the immunogenicity of the first dose, but the fold increase in NAb induced by the first dose was significantly associated with poorer antibody responses after the second dose, while ELISpot responses remained unaffected. When challenged by the bite of P. falciparum-infected mosquitoes, two of 11 volunteers showed a delay in the time to patency compared to infectivity controls, but no volunteers were sterilely protected.\ud \ud Significance: The NMRC-MV-Ad-PfC vaccine expressing CSP was safe and well tolerated given as two doses, but did not provide sterile protection