Cicada: Predictive Guarantees for Cloud Network Bandwidth

In cloud-computing systems, network-bandwidth guarantees have been shown to improve predictability of application performance and cost. Most previous work on cloud-bandwidth guarantees has assumed that cloud tenants know what bandwidth guarantees they want. However, application bandwidth demands can be complex and time-varying, and many tenants might lack sufficient information to request a bandwidth guarantee that is well-matched to their needs. A tenant's lack of accurate knowledge about its future bandwidth demands can lead to over-provisioning (and thus reduced cost-efficiency) or under-provisioning (and thus poor user experience in latency-sensitive user-facing applications). We analyze traffic traces gathered over six months from an HP Cloud Services datacenter, finding that application bandwidth consumption is both time-varying and spatially inhomogeneous. This variability makes it hard to predict requirements. To solve this problem, we develop a prediction algorithm usable by a cloud provider to suggest an appropriate bandwidth guarantee to a tenant. The key idea in the prediction algorithm is to treat a set of previously observed traffic matrices as "experts" and learn online the best weighted linear combination of these experts to make its prediction. With tenant VM placement using these predictive guarantees, we find that the inter-rack network utilization in certain datacenter topologies can be more than doubled

Chemoenzymatic Synthesis and Chemical Recycling of Poly(ester-urethane)s

Novel poly(ester-urethane)s were prepared by a synthetic route using a lipase that avoids the use of hazardous diisocyanate. The urethane linkage was formed by the reaction of phenyl carbonate with amino acids and amino alcohols that produced urethane-containing diacids and hydroxy acids, respectively. The urethane diacid underwent polymerization with polyethylene glycol and α,ω-alkanediols and also the urethane-containing hydroxy acid monomer was polymerized by the lipase to produce high-molecular-weight poly(ester-urethane)s. The periodic introduction of ester linkages into the polyurethane chain by the lipase-catalyzed polymerization afforded chemically recyclable points. They were readily depolymerized in the presence of lipase into cyclic oligomers, which were readily repolymerized in the presence of the same enzyme. Due to the symmetrical structure of the polymers, poly(ester-urethane)s synthesized in this study showed higher Tm, Young’s modulus and tensile strength values

CloudMirror: Application-Aware Bandwidth Reservations in the Cloud

Cloud computing providers today do not offer guarantees for the network bandwidth available in the cloud, preventing tenants from running their applications predictably. To provide guarantees, several recent research proposals offer tenants a virtual cluster abstraction, emulating physical networks. Whereas offering dedicated virtual network abstractions is a significant step in the right direction, in this paper we argue that the abstractions exposed to tenants should aim to model tenant application structures rather than aiming to mimic physical network topologies. The fundamental problem in providing users with dedicated network abstractions is that the communication patterns of real applications do not typically resemble the rigid physical network topologies. Thus, the virtual network abstractions often poorly represent the actual communication patterns, resulting in overprovisioned/wasted network resources and underutilized computational resources. We propose a new abstraction for specifying bandwidth guarantees, which is easy to use because it closely follows application models; our abstraction specifies guarantees as a graph between application components. We then propose an algorithm to efficiently deploy this abstraction on physical clusters. Through simulations, we show that our approach is significantly more efficient than prior work for offering bandwidth guarantees.

Application-driven Bandwidth Guarantees in Datacenters

Providing bandwidth guarantees to specific applications is be-coming increasingly important as applications compete for shared cloud network resources. We present CloudMirror, a solution that provides bandwidth guarantees to cloud applications based on a new network abstraction and workload placement algorithm. An effective network abstraction would enable applications to easily and accurately specify their requirements, while simultaneously enabling the infrastructure to provision resources efficiently for deployed applications. Prior research has approached the bandwidth guarantee specification by using abstractions that resemble physical network topologies. We present a contrasting approach of deriving a network abstraction based on application communication structure, called Tenant Application Graph or TAG. CloudMirror also incorporates a new workload place-ment algorithm that efficiently meets bandwidth requirements specified by TAGs while factoring in high availability consider-ations. Extensive simulations using real application traces and datacenter topologies show that CloudMirror can handle 40% more bandwidth demand than the state of the art (e.g., the Ok-topus system), while improving high availability from 20 % to 70%

New insight into the effects of lead modulation on antioxidant defense mechanism and trace element concentration in rat bone

Risks of heavy metals-induced severe bone disorders generate interest to their toxicity. The present study was undertaken to monitor the biochemical and antioxidant status of bone of 30 and 80 days old male Wistar rats exposed to 5 week lead treatment. At the end of study, the rats were sacrificed, their long bone i.e. femur were excised, cleaned of soft tissue, minced and homogenized. Nucleic acid content, alkaline phosphatase, lipid peroxidation, catalase, glutathione S-transferase and superoxide dismutase were determined in bone. In both groups of treated animals lead treatment increased the production of malondialdehyde, while reducing activities of catalase, glutathione S-transferase and superoxide dismutase, indicating that it causes oxidative stress. Parallely with these effects lead significantly reduced the nucleic acid content and the activity of alkaline phosphatase, considered as biomarkers of osteoblast's function, conditions and development of bones. Moreover the concentrations of copper, zinc, iron and sodium were reduced in the excised bones. The present study indicates that the lead induced bone toxicity and its deteriorated development is the consequence of a primary oxidative stress. Our results may be helpful in understanding the modulation of biochemical parameters under lead toxicity

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

Towards richer descriptions of our collection of genomes andmetagenomes

In this commentary, we advocate building a richer set of descriptions about our invaluable and exponentially growing collection of genomes and metagenomic datasets through the construction of consensus-driven data capture and exchange mechanisms. Standardization activities must proceed within the auspices of open-access and international working bodies, and to tackle the issues surrounding the development of better descriptions of genomic investigations we have formed the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC). Here, we introduce the 'Minimum Information about a Genome Sequence' specification in the hopes of gaining wider participation in its development and discuss the resources that will be required to support it (standardization of annotations through the use of ontologies and mechanisms of metadata capture, exchange). As part of its wider goals, the GSC also strongly supports improving the 'transparency' of the information contained in existing genomic databases that contain calculated analyses and genomic annotations

A History of Universalism: Conceptions of the Internationality of Science from the Enlightenment to the Cold War

That science is fundamentally universal has been proclaimed innumerable times. But the precise geographical meaning of this universality has changed historically. This article examines conceptions of scientific internationalism from the Enlightenment to the Cold War, and their varying relations to cosmopolitanism, nationalism, socialism, and 'the West'. These views are confronted with recent tendencies to cast science as a uniquely European product