Hyper Converged Infrastructures: Beyond virtualization

Hyper Convergence has brought virtualization and IT strategies to a new level. Datacenters are undergoing a deep paradigm shift from a hardware-centric to an application-centric approach which leverages on software defined architectures, while IT is more and more being delivered as services rather than assets or products. Throughout different evolving phases since the initial attempts to convergence, the concept has been refined down to a level where,ultimately, a whole datacenter could be fully managed from a centralized single point, abstracting the whole hardware layer and exposing it to the administrators as a transparent pool of resources. This paper analyzes the evolution of infrastructures and tries to dig into the reality and convenience of Hyper Convergence

Project Success in Agile Development Projects

The paper explains and clarifies the differences between Waterfall and Agile development methodologies, establishes what criteria could be taken into account to properly define project success within the scope of software development projects, and finally tries to clarify if project success is the reason why many organizations are moving to Agile methodologies from other ones such as Waterfall. In the form of a literature review, it analyses several, publications, investigations and case studies that point out the motives why companies moved to Agile, as well as the results they observed afterward. It also analyses overall statistics of project outcomes after companies evolved from traditional methodologies such as Waterfall to Agile development approaches

Applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Network Security.pdf

<div>Attacks to networks are becoming more complex and sophisticated every day. Beyond the so-called script-kiddies and hacking newbies, there is a myriad of professional attackers seeking to make serious profits infiltrating in corporate networks. Either hostile governments, big corporations or mafias are constantly increasing their resources and skills in cybercrime in order to spy, steal or cause damage more effectively. With the ability and resources of hackers growing, the traditional approaches to Network Security seem to start hitting their limits and it’s being recognized the need for a smarter approach to threat detections.</div><div><br></div><div>This paper provides an introduction on the need for evolution of Cyber Security techniques and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be of application to help solving some of the problems. It provides also, a high-level overview of some state of the art AI Network Security techniques, to finish analysing what is the foreseeable future of the application of AI to Network Security.</div

Decentralized Coordination of Converged Tactile Internet and MEC services in H-CRAN Fiber Wireless Networks

In order to meet the requirements of services and applications envisioned for post-5G and 6G networks, research efforts are heading towards the convergence of architectures aiming to support the wide variety of new compute-demanding and latency-sensitive applications in the context of Tactile Internet. In this article, we study the resource allocation and association of users with different delay requirements in a shared-backhaul fiber-wireless (FiWi) enhanced Heterogeneous Cloud Radio Access Network (h-cran) with Multi-access Edge Computing (mec) and offloading. As opposed to traditional resource and association management, we propose a decentralized algorithm based on a full dual decomposition of the optimization problem to operate the network. Results show that this approach outperforms the traditional one in terms of average delay and energy consumption, achieving up to 80% average delay improvement in high-load scenarios.Gabriel Otero Perez would like to acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport by means of the FPU grant he holds (Grant No. FPU16/01760). Universidad Carlos III de Madrid would like to acknowledge the support of EU projects PASSION (grant no. 780326) and BlueSpace (Grant No. 762055), and the Spanish project TEXEO (grant no. TEC2016-80339-R). Martin Maier acknowledges the support of the U. Carlos III de Madrid - Banco de Santander Excellence Chair programme

Cardiorespiratory fitness cutoff points for early detection of present and future cardiovascular risk in children: A 2-year follow-up study

On behalf of the UP&DOWN Study Group.[Objective]: To examine the association between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) at baseline and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in 6- to 10-year-olds (cross-sectional) and 2 years later (8- to 12-year-olds [longitudinal]) and whether changes with age in CRF are associated with CVD risk in children aged 8 to 12 years. [Patients and Methods]: Spanish primary schoolchildren (n=236) aged 6 to 10 years participated at baseline. Of the 23 participating primary schools, 22% (n=5) were private schools and 78% (n=18) were public schools. The dropout rate at 2-year follow-up was 9.7% (n=23). The 20-m shuttle run test was used to estimate CRF. The CVD risk score was computed as the mean of 5 CVD risk factor standardized scores: sum of 2 skinfolds, systolic blood pressure, insulin/glucose, triglycerides, and total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. [Results]: At baseline, CRF was inversely associated with single CVD risk factors (all P0.85; P<.001) and to predict CVD risk 2 years later (P=.004). Persistent low CRF or the decline of CRF from 6-10 to 8-12 years of age is associated with increased CVD risk at age 8 to 12 years (P<.001). [Conclusion]: During childhood, CRF is a strong predictor of CVD risk and should be monitored to identify children with potential CVD risk.This work was supported by grant DEP 2010-21662-C04-00 (DEP 2010-21662-C04-01: DEP 2010-21662-C04-02: DEP 2010-21662-C04-03: DEP 2010-21662-C04-04) from the National Plan for Research: Development and Innovation (R+D+i) MICINN and by grant FPU15/05337 from the Spanish Ministry of Education.Peer Reviewe

Management practices for postdural puncture headache in obstetrics: a prospective, international, cohort study

© 2020 British Journal of AnaesthesiaBackground: Accidental dural puncture is an uncommon complication of epidural analgesia and can cause postdural puncture headache (PDPH). We aimed to describe management practices and outcomes after PDPH treated by epidural blood patch (EBP) or no EBP. Methods: Following ethics committee approval, patients who developed PDPH after accidental dural puncture were recruited from participating countries and divided into two groups, those receiving EBP or no EBP. Data registered included patient and procedure characteristics, headache symptoms and intensity, management practices, and complications. Follow-up was at 3 months. Results: A total of 1001 patients from 24 countries were included, of which 647 (64.6%) received an EBP and 354 (35.4%) did not receive an EBP (no-EBP). Higher initial headache intensity was associated with greater use of EBP, odds ratio 1.29 (95% confidence interval 1.19–1.41) per pain intensity unit increase. Headache intensity declined sharply at 4 h after EBP and 127 (19.3%) patients received a second EBP. On average, no or mild headache (numeric rating score≤3) was observed 7 days after diagnosis. Intracranial bleeding was diagnosed in three patients (0.46%), and backache, headache, and analgesic use were more common at 3 months in the EBP group. Conclusions: Management practices vary between countries, but EBP was more often used in patients with greater initial headache intensity. EBP reduced headache intensity quickly, but about 20% of patients needed a second EBP. After 7 days, most patients had no or mild headache. Backache, headache, and analgesic use were more common at 3 months in patients receiving an EBP