Utilization balancing algorithms for dynamic multicast scheduling problem in EON

Dynamic data transfer demands are often being a challenge for present communication networks, as they appear in unpredictable time and must be satisfied prior to deadline. Important kind are the multi-target demands occurring in task of replication, backup, database synchronization or file transferring in pear-to-pear networks. Optimal scheduling usually depends of the nature of transport network. In the paper we consider dynamic deadline-driven multicast scheduling problem over elastic optical network. We propose the method for improving link utilization by traffic balance for multicast demands. We present few heuristic algorithms and results of experiments, proving the benefits of balancing concept

Patterns of year-to-year variation in haemoglobin and glucose concentrations in the blood of nestling Pied Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca

Physiological tools can be used to identify the sources and consequences of stressors on animals. Understanding the influences of variation in habitat quality and anthropogenic disturbance on organism condition and health may improve future management and conservation. We present results concerning variation in haemoglobin and glucose concentrations in the blood of about 14-day-old nestling Pied FlycatchersFicedula hypoleuca in central Poland over a 4-year period, 2011–2014, in a deciduous forest. The most important findings of the study are: (1) the concentration of haemoglobin and glucose of the nestlings from the same brood tended to be consistently similar, with much variation occurring among broods; (2) repeatability of haemoglobin concentration was higher than repeatability of glucose concentration; (3) mean levels of haemoglobin and glucose varied among years; (4) haemoglobin and glucose concentrations were negatively correlated; and (5) there was a positive relationship between haemoglobin levels and breeding success.All procedures were approved by the Local Ethical Committee and the State Office for Environment Protection. We thank A. Jaksa, D. Man´kowska, M. Janiszewska and J. Białek for their help and consent in conducting research in the areas under their administration. The study was founded by a grant from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education No. N N304 045136 and University of Ło´dz´ (No. 506/829). We are obliged to P. Procter for linguistic consultation. We thank both reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments

Epidermal differentiation complex (locus 1q21) gene expression in head and neck cancer and normal mucosa

Epidermal differentiation complex (EDC) comprises a number of genes associated with human skin diseases including psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and hyperkeratosis. These genes have also been linked to numerous cancers, among them skin, gastric, colorectal, lung, ovarian and renal carcinomas. The involvement of EDC components encoding S100 proteins, small proline-rich proteins (SPRRs) and other genes in the tumorigenesis of head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) has been previously suggested. The aim of the study was to systematically analyze the expression of EDC components on the transcript level in HNSCC. Tissue specimens from 93 patients with HNC of oral cavity and 87 samples from adjacent or distant grossly normal oral mucosawere analyzed. 48 samples (24 tumor and 24 corresponding surrounding tissue) were hybridized to Affymetrix GeneChip Human 1.0 ST Arrays. For validation by quantitative real-time PCR (QPCR) the total RNA from all 180 samples collected in the study was analyzed with Real-Time PCR system and fluorescent amplicon specific-probes. Additional set of samples from 14 patients with laryngeal carcinoma previously obtained by HG-U133 Plus 2.0 microarray was also included in the analyses. The expression of analyzed EDC genes was heterogeneous. Two transcripts (S100A1 and S100A4) were significantly down-regulated in oral cancer when compared to normal mucosa (0.69 and 0.36-fold change, respectively), showing an opposite pattern of expression to the remaining S100 genes. Significant up-regulation in tumors was found for S100A11, S100A7, LCE3D, S100A3 and S100A2 genes. The increased expression of S100A7 was subsequently validated by QPCR, confirming significant differences. The remaining EDC genes, including all encoding SPRR molecules, did not show any differences between oral cancer and normal mucosa. The observed differences were also assessed in the independent set of laryngeal cancer samples, confirming the role of S100A3 and LCE3D transcripts in HNC. In HNC of oral cavity only one family of EDC genes (S100 proteins) showed significant cancer-related differences. A number of other transcripts which showed altered expression in HNC require further validation.

Avian Feathers as Bioindicators of the Exposure to Heavy Metal Contamination of Food

The aim of this study was to determine the possibility of using feathers of blue tit nestlings to assess the level of endogenous accumulation of lead. For this purpose we conducted an experiment with lead application to randomly chosen nestlings from eight randomly drawn broods. Five days after the exposure, feathers of lead-treated nestlings had significantly higher lead concentrations than control nestlings. This result suggests that feathers can be used as reliable non-destructive bioindicators to assess the level of heavy metals originating from contaminated food, which is of great significance for comparative studies on ecological consequences of pollution

High-coverage whole-genome analysis of 1220 cancers reveals hundreds of genes deregulated by rearrangement-mediated cis-regulatory alterations.

The impact of somatic structural variants (SVs) on gene expression in cancer is largely unknown. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole-genome sequencing data and RNA sequencing from a common set of 1220 cancer cases, we report hundreds of genes for which the presence within 100 kb of an SV breakpoint associates with altered expression. For the majority of these genes, expression increases rather than decreases with corresponding breakpoint events. Up-regulated cancer-associated genes impacted by this phenomenon include TERT, MDM2, CDK4, ERBB2, CD274, PDCD1LG2, and IGF2. TERT-associated breakpoints involve ~3% of cases, most frequently in liver biliary, melanoma, sarcoma, stomach, and kidney cancers. SVs associated with up-regulation of PD1 and PDL1 genes involve ~1% of non-amplified cases. For many genes, SVs are significantly associated with increased numbers or greater proximity of enhancer regulatory elements near the gene. DNA methylation near the promoter is often increased with nearby SV breakpoint, which may involve inactivation of repressor elements

Heuristic algorithms for joint optimization of unicast and anycast traffic in elastic optical network–based large–scale computing systems

In recent years elastic optical networks have been perceived as a prospective choice for future optical networks due to better adjustment and utilization of optical resources than is the case with traditional wavelength division multiplexing networks. In the paper we investigate the elastic architecture as the communication network for distributed data centers. We address the problems of optimization of routing and spectrum assignment for large-scale computing systems based on an elastic optical architecture; particularly, we concentrate on anycast user to data center traffic optimization. We assume that computational resources of data centers are limited. For this offline problems we formulate the integer linear programming model and propose a few heuristics, including a meta-heuristic algorithm based on a tabu search method. We report computational results, presenting the quality of approximate solutions and efficiency of the proposed heuristics, and we also analyze and compare some data center allocation scenarios

Heroes of Various Epochs in the Collective Memory of the 20th Century Lublin

The beginning of the 20th century brought the world the First World War and the break-up of European powers. It also brought Poland independence, after more than one hundred and twenty years when it had been partitioned between three neighboring empires. A large increase in the number of Lublin's inhabitants, along with the development of the area of the city that followed the increase, caused an increase in the number of newly designed streets. The new lines of communication needed new names. Several, or even several dozen streets came into existence at one time, which favored giving them names connected with history. Additionally, the area of the town increased by absorbing the neighboring villages whose streets already had names. This caused overlapping of the names, which, in turn, made the town authorities solve the problem by giving one of the streets a new name. In the course of the 20th century the political situation in Poland changed, and this influenced the life of Lublin. Each new authority tried to make a sign of its presence in the town by organizing places of collective memory. Names of streets are a special area in the topography of the town, in which historical memory has always been handed down to next generations. The last period when Lublin belonged to the Polish Kingdom, which was part of the Russian Empire, comprises the years 1901-1915. In that time only two streets were given names commemorating important Poles: Frédéric Chopin and Wincenty Pol. Commemorative names started being given in Lublin when the Russian authorities were replaced by Austrian ones at the end of July 1915. The three years of Austrian rule in Lublin brought an increase in the area of the town and new names given to six communication lines. At that time five commemorative names were given in Lublin. In the twenty-year period between the World Wars the number of commemorative names increased from seven in 1918 to seventy-eight just before the outbreak of World War II. In 1919 a special commission was established in the town whose task was to prepare suggestions for changing street names in Lublin. After regaining independence the first changes in the names of Lublin streets were effected in August 1923. Forty-six streets were named or renamed then. In 1923 all the streets that had not had names received ones. The people after whom the streets were named in the period between the two World Wars may be divided into four groups: outstanding Poles, people connected with Lublin, poets and artists; a separate group was constituted by historical events. Among the groups the people who rendered service to the country are most numerous. Giving names to streets that could be ascribed to one of the five groups was especially frequent in the 1930s, when the village Dziesiąta was included into the town, and on both sides of Aleja Racławicka new streets were marked out for houses designed for military officers and civil servants. On the example of a few streets, like Narutowicza Street, Norwida Street or Staszica Street it is easy to see that the changes were also suggested by Lublin inhabitants. After establishing the General Government the Germans gave new names to Lublin streets and squares. They mainly changed those streets names that were connected with the Poles' fight against Germans. During the occupation a total of thirty-three street names were changed, and the remaining ones were translated into German, or the German words Strasse or Gasse were added to the Polish names. New names were given to the streets in the center of the town. Lublin's main square – Plac Litewski – was given the name of the leader of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler. One of the obvious possibilities of erasing the Polish character of the town was changing the names of those streets that had been named after Poles. In this way the names of nine streets were changed, leaving only Chopin Street under the name of Chopin Strasse. After Lublin was liberated from the German rule in July 1944 the new authorities started changing the names of streets that had been introduced by the German authorities. Between July and November almost all the streets in Lublin were given back their pre-war names. Only three streets were an exception to this rule: Bychawska, Spokojna and Zamojska were renamed to Kunickiego, 22 Lipca and Buczka, respectively. The next changes were to take place in October 1945. On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of establishing the Polish Committee of National Liberation a common meeting was held of the Provincial National Council and the Town National Council. It was then that four socialist activists: Stanisław Dubois, Georgi Dimitrov, Małgorzata Fornalska, Marceli Nowotko, and the hero of socialist labor Wincenty Pstrowski were commemorated. In December 1949, on the occasion of Joseph Stalin's 70th birthday, the Club of Councilmen of the Polish United Workers' Party put forward a proposal concerning commemorating “the Leader of Humanity” by giving the name of Comrade Stalin to Lublin's main square, Plac Litewski. During the extensive change of names effected in March 1951 as many as twenty-one street names connected with the Church were changed. Among the new street names four commemorated heroes of the new political system: Rosa Luxemburg, Hanka Sawicka, Lucjan Szenwald and Ludwik Waryński, and one concerned the Communist ideology: Heroes of Labor Street. In the Stalinist period, in the years 1944-1956, twenty commemorative names that the new system considered right were given to streets. Among them only two did not survive the test of time and disappeared from the town plans in the autumn of 1956. In the Stalinist period people connected with the struggle for independence during the First World War and the Polish-Bolshevik War disappeared from street names for the whole period of the Polish People's Republic. During Władysław Gomułka's rule sixteen commemorative names connected with the workers' movement were given in Lublin. In the center of the town six streets received new names, including one that was newly marked out (Jana Hempla Street). In the decade of Edward Gierek's rule thirteen names connected with the ideology of the Polish People's Republic were given. Most of them commemorated heroes of the Communist Party of Poland. In the first half of the 1970s the country prepared for celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the PPR. The new housing estate in Kalinowszczyzna was given the status of the Estate of the Thirty Years of the Polish People's Republic. During the last decade of the PPR only two streets were given names connected with the Communist ideology. In 1989 party ideologists who gave new names to streets were replaced by experts. In the period of transformation from the socialist system to the democratic one a special team was established consisting of nine people headed by dr. Mieczysław Buczyński who in 1964 had written a master's dissertation at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. The subject of the thesis was the etymology of Lublin street names, and later he also worked on the names of parts of Lublin, as well as on Slavonic geographical names. Despite the systemic transformation and a lot of changes in the names of streets effected in the years 1989-1991, ten heroes of the Communist system have survived as patrons of Lublin streets. Analyzing the plan of Lublin of 2001 we can find thirteen names of streets that because of their ideological meaning would be more adequate for the previous epoch

The Internet and its importance in election campaigns on the example of the elections in Poland from year 2015 to year 2019.

Celem niniejszej pracy było pokazanie na jakim poziomie znajduje się obecnie partycypacja publiczna w Polsce oraz jak zmienił się sposób prowadzenia kampanii wyborczych dzięki przeniesieniu kampanii wyborczych do Internetu. Została podjęta także próba oceny wpływu Internetu na funkcjonowanie społeczeństwa. W pracy omówione zostały najważniejsze czynniki kształtujące obecnie polskie społeczeństwo. Ponadto szczegółowo przeanalizowano zmiany w funkcjonowaniu społeczeństwa, do których doszło za sprawą rozwoju Internetu. Podjęto również próbę porównania dotychczasowych sposobów prowadzenia kampanii wyborczych, z tymi, które dzięki wykorzystaniu Internetu odniosły zaskakujące rezultaty.The purpose of the bachelor’s thesis was to show the level of the public participation in Poland, and how changes the process of running the election campaign because of placing it in the internet. The dissertation also includes the internet’s influence on the society. The most important factors which form Polish society were discussesd in the assignment as well. Furthermore, the changes in the functioning of the society which happened because of the internet’s progression were closely analised. A comparison of how the previous election campaigns were running and the present ones which were successful because of the internet usage, was made and included in the bachelor’s thesis

Assessment of medium parameters in a closed space for a Hyperloop transport capsule with reference to reducing the energy demand of a transport system

The increasing transport needs of societies are prompting manufacturers and inventors to seek new ways to satisfy them which are closely related to the development of new transport systems and means of transport. The current level of technological and social systems imposes limits on the implementation of new concepts which combine the advantages of existing systems currently functioning as separate entities. Combining the advantages of rail transport with the characteristics of air transport gave rise to the concept of a new transport system called Hyperloop, whose main purpose is to create a transport network combining the advantages of air and rail transport with low operating costs. The project assumes a pipeline structure and a transport capsule that moves inside its channels. To obtain high-velocity capsules, it is assumed that the pressure in the pipeline will be reduced, which will reduce in turn the losses resulting from the resistance of the moving capsule. Most means of transport in current use involve motion in open space. The proposed Hyperloop system involves different problems concerning the movement of the capsule as a means of transport within the confined space of the pipeline. These problems require specific analysis of conditions inside the system which depend on the velocity and shape of the capsule. These issues can be addressed using currently available numerical tools. An attempt to assess the phenomena associated with the flow of the capsule, using an important factor found in the pipeline space, was undertaken in the analyses conducted here. The study involved determination of the force acting on the nose of the capsule, an important component of its resistance to movement. The results and analyses were used to evaluate the differences in energy demand between two compared structures. On the basis of these results, conclusions were drawn regarding the directions for further modifications of the shape of the capsule aimed at reducing the energy demand necessary for its propulsion