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The EU funded FP7 project T-NOVA, with the specific goal of accelerating the evolution of NFV, proposes an open architecture to provide Virtual Network Functions as a Service (VNFaaS), together with a dynamic, and flexible platform for the management of Network Services (NSs) composed by those Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). The proposed architecture allows operators to deploy distinct virtualized network functions, not only for their internal operational needs, but also to offer them to their customers, as value-added services. Virtual network appliances (e.g. gateways, proxies or even traffic analyzers) can be provided on-demand, eliminating the need to acquire, install, and maintain specialized hardware at customer premises. This demo illustrates work carried out on the deployment of a VNF on a Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) using resource aware scheduling methods to ensure optimal use of resources and performance while we focus also on business-related and customer front-end aspects, i.e. how the stakeholders interact with the services, which T-NOVA identifies as the marketplace layer.

International audience; In this study, an inverse modeling technique is applied to obtain, at a regional scale, top-down emission estimates for nitrogen oxides utilizing tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) columns retrieved by the OMI/Aura instrument and estimated by the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions (CAMx). The main idea, applied previously using models with coarse spatial resolution, is to combine the a priori information from the bottom up emission inventory used in an air quality simulation that covers the Balkan peninsula in a high resolution grid (0.1° × 0.1°) with the tropospheric NO2 quantities estimated for one complete year by CAMx and the tropospheric NO2 columns retrieved by satellite observations in order to identify missing emissions sources on a regional scale. The results have identified biases between the a priori and a posteriori emission inventories due to the missing emission sources or over-estimation of the spread and quantity of certain emission sources. In such a fine resolution grid we have also analyzed and considered the horizontal transport on the a posteriori NOx emissions. The deduced a posteriori NOx emissions, dominated by the fossil fuel emissions, were found to be1.11 ± 0.30 Tg N/y, compared to 0.87 ± 0.43 Tg N/y found in the a priori Balkan emission inventory. Soil emissions over the extended Greek domain, omitted in the a priori inventory, were estimated to account for almost 20% of the total emitted amount, while for the year 2009 the biomass burning NOx emission flux was also estimated and the average rate accounted for 0.5 × 10-6 Tg N/km2.

In this paper, we present how we could benefit from the transmitted data of a broadcast link in order to achieve optimized performance of P2P content distribution. In this context, the paper elaborates on a prototype broadcast-aware P2P mechanism (namely BAP2P) that assists content distribution among users located in different CMNs by minimising redundant traffic in the downlink stream, thus providing enhanced scalability and optimised performance. The mechanism is evaluated based on ‘Download Completion Time’ and the ‘Block exchanged’ over the DVB-T network and the results indicate the validity of the Mechanism presented.

MPEG-DASH is the first international standardisation effort in the area of HTTP Adaptive Streaming, but as its vendor counterparts suffers from the QoE unfairness issue: alike MPEG-DASH users, sharing the same net and requesting the same video service, receive segments from different Quality Profiles. Being interested to exploit MPEG-DASH paradigm for transferring video services over interactive digital broadcasting networks, we discuss, in this paper, how these broadcasting networks can provide QoE fairness to their MPEG-DASH users. In more detail, we propose the elevation of the broadcasting networks' edge routers to QoE fairness nodes able to enforce any QoE fairness policy to their MPEG-DASH users. Towards validating our approach, we integrated in each edge router a Traffic Shaper, to be used as a QoE fairness module, and run several experiments that verified the QoE unfairness issue, besides revealing ours solution capacity to eliminate it.

The paper presents a hybrid P2P-IP/Digital Video Broadcasting platform where user-generated content and services can be enrolled in the frame designated by interactive broadcasting, thus making optimum resource exploitation and become widely available to users with maximum possible QoS. For optimised resource exploitation especially in the backbone segment (DVB-T) the paper elaborates on a prototype broadcast-aware mechanism that assists P2P content distribution among prosumers located in different CMNs by minimising redundant traffic in the downlink stream, thus providing for enhanced scalability and optimised performance. Performance evaluation tests, conducted under real transmission/reception conditions on a prototype that conforms to the design specifications, verified the validity of the Mechanism presented.

In this paper, we show how Active Window Management (AWM) technique can be exploited for providing QoE fairness to the HTTP Adaptive Streaming users of an interactive digital broadcasting network. Furthermore, we test AWM's efficiency against another QoE fairness provision solution, presented in other research efforts, namely the Traffic Shaping. Towards these, we firstly describe the deployment of AWM and Traffic Shaping software modules in each intermediate node (Cell Main Node-CMN) of the broadcasting network and secondly we proceed with the experimental evaluation. The experimental results showed not only AWM's efficiency to achieve the set fairness goal but also revealed AWM's capacity, when compared to Traffic Shaping, to provide for much lower TCP Round Trip Times (88% less) and zero retransmissions; a result which could, in principle, lead to less TCP rate variations and thus less Quality Profile fluctuations.

Ozone and PM2.5 concentrations over the city of Paris are modeled with the CHIMERE air-quality model at 4 km × 4 km horizontal resolution for two future emission scenarios. High-resolution (1 km × 1 km) emission projection until 2020 for the greater Paris region is developed by local experts (AIRPARIF) and is further extended to year 2050 based on regional scale emission projections developed by the Global Energy Assessment. Model evaluation is performed based on a 10 yr control simulation. Ozone is in very good agreement with measurements while PM2.5 is underestimated by 20% over the urban area mainly due to a large wet bias in wintertime precipitation. A significant increase of maximum ozone relative to present time levels over Paris is modeled under the "business as usual" scenario (+7 ppb) while a more optimistic mitigation scenario leads to moderate ozone decrease (−3.5 ppb) in year 2050. These results are substantially different to previous regional scale projections where 2050 ozone is found to decrease under both future scenarios. A sensitivity analysis showed that this difference is due to the fact that ozone formation over Paris at the current, urban scale study, is driven by VOC-limited chemistry, whereas at the regional scale ozone formation occurs under NOx-sensitive conditions. This explains why the sharp NOx reductions implemented in the future scenarios have a different effect on ozone projections at different scales. In rural areas projections at both scales yield similar results showing that the longer time-scale processes of emission transport and ozone formation are less sensitive to model resolution. PM2.5 concentrations decrease by 78% and 89% under "business as usual" and "mitigation" scenarios respectively compared to present time period. The reduction is much more prominent over the urban part of the domain due to the effective reductions of road transport and residential emissions resulting in the smoothing of the large urban increment modelled in the control simulation.

International audience; A modeling system based on the air quality model CAMx driven off-line by the regional climate model RegCM3 is used for assessing the impact of chemical lateral boundary conditions (LBCs) on near surface ozone over Europe for the period 1996-2000. The RegCM3 and CAMx simulations were performed on a 50. km. ×. 50. km grid over Europe with RegCM3 driven by the NCEP meteorological reanalysis fields and CAMx with chemical LBCs from ECHAM5/MOZART global model. The recent past period (1996-2000) was simulated in three experiments. The first simulation was forced using time and space invariant LBCs, the second was based on ECHAM5/MOZART chemical LBCs fixed for the year 1996 and the third was based on ECHAM5/MOZART chemical LBCs with interannual variability. Anthropogenic and biogenic emissions were kept identical for the three sensitivity runs.In order to evaluate the ability of the RegCM3/CAMx modeling system and assess the impact of varying chemical LBCs, simulated surface ozone concentrations are compared against measurements from the EMEP network using various statistical metrics. The evaluation indicates that implementation of time and space variant chemical LBCs of a global chemistry transport model (CTM) improves the RegCM/CAMx performance with respect to seasonal variability, especially at stations close to the borders of the model domain over north and northwestern Europe. The modeling system reproduces the seasonal variability of ozone when LBCs from ECHAM5/MOZART model are applied for the vast majority of stations. On a seasonal basis, the varying chemical LBCs resulted in improvement of both model bias and variance of simulated versus observed ozone for all seasons. Finally taking into account all the statistical measures assessed for the comparison of RegCM3/CAMx and ECHAM5/MOZART with observed ozone, a slight improvement for the regional air quality model is indicated but this finding should be perceived with caution as the regional scale simulation and the global scale simulation have a different meteorological forcing. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

A fast moving infrared excess source (G2) which is widely interpreted as a core-less gas and dust cloud approaches Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) on a presumably elliptical orbit. VLT K_s-band and Keck K'-band data result in clear continuum identifications and proper motions of this about 19m Dusty S-cluster Object (DSO). In 2002-2007 it is confused with the star S63, but free of confusion again since 2007. Its near-infrared (NIR) colors and a comparison to other sources in the field speak in favor of the DSO being an IR excess star with photospheric continuum emission at 2 microns than a core-less gas and dust cloud. We also find very compact L'-band emission ($, Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proc. of a Conf. on IAU Symposium No.303: The GC: Feeding and Feedback in a Normal Galactic Nucleus 2013 September 30 - October 4, Santa Fe New Mexico (USA)

A method was developed to separate, detect, and quantitate erythromycin (ERY) and tylosin (TYL) in animal feeds in the presence of 11 other drugs: 3 nitrofurans, 2 tetracycline antibiotics, 3 sulfonamides, 2 coccidiostats, and 1 antibacterial growth promoter. ERY and TYL were separated from coexisting drugs, detected by thin-layer chromatography, and quantitated microbiologically by an agar diffusion method. Analysis of 125 experimental animal feed samples fortified at 5 levels (7.5–400 ppm) with ERY and TYL and at 1 level (50 ppm) with the rest of the drugs gave limits of quantitation of 2 and 5 ppm, recoveries of 90.3 and 92.4%, and relative standard deviations of 4.3–7.3% and 3.6–6.1%, respectively.

This method was developed to separate, detect, and quantitate oxytetracycline (OTC) or chlortetracycline hydrochloride (CTC HCI) in animal feeds in thepresence of 11 otherdrugs: 3 nitrofurans, 2 macrolideantibiotics,3 sulfonamides, 2 coccidiostatics, and 1 antibacterial growth promoter. OTC or CTC HCI was separated from coexisting drugs and detected by thin-layer chromatography, then quantitated microbiologically by the agar diffusion method. Analysis of 125 experimental animal feed samples fortified at 5 levels (7.5-400 ppm) with OTC or CTC HCI and at 1 level (50 ppm) with the rest of the drugs, respectively, gave a limit of quantitation of 1.25 or 0.625 ppm, a recovery of 90.6 or 92.9%, and a coefficient of variation of 2.9-6.1 or 2.3-4.4%.

This paper discusses how Content Adaptation of IPTV Services may enable decentralized Interactive DVB-T systems (IDVB-T) to optimize the utilization of their network resources, while offering End Users the higher possible QoE. The paper describes the design and overall architecture of a regenerative IDVB-T infrastructure, where content adaptation processes are performed following either a centralized or a distributed approach, setting the basis for a real time accommodation of IPTV services to the available network resources (i.e. bandwidth) and capabilities of End Users terminals (i.e. processing power, screen resolution, codec support). Validity of both Content Adaptation approaches is experimentally verified, with the initial test-results indicating similar performance.

This paper presents a novel multipath routing concept for content-aware networks, enabling better resource utilization and end-to-end QoS provision. Based on random utility theory and traffic identification techniques it delves into multinomial-type probability for efficient packet distribution among intra domain paths, by exploiting the capability of edge nodes to identify the content in transit, and proposes a network architecture where this concept may be applied. We focus on the methodology alterations that content-awareness will impose on the calculation of the utility that a corresponding packet will inherit in choosing a specific path, assuming that packets of “premium” content will have demanding QoS-centric network “taste” when they will have to choose a specific path.

This paper propose an overlay interoperability technology for introducing the concept of Peer to peer (P2P) communications in the context of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) enabled interactive broadcasting networks (iDVB-T), bearing the following: a) user initiated conception of communication applications paradigms and deployment, b) access of users on P2P applications from any rural-access network, and c) creation of a new ecosystem of users, emerging different behaviour from the traditional consumers, gearing-up new business and revenue prospects. The overall assessment of the proposed P2P-IMS architecture is evaluated by Real transmission reception experiments justifying the interoperability and validity of the iDVB-T environment proposed.

A modeling system based on the air quality model CAMx driven off-line by the regional climate model RegCM3 is used for assessing the impact of lateral boundary conditions and anthropogenic emissions on tropospheric ozone over Europe for the period 1996–2006. The RegCM3 and CAMx simulations were performed on a 50 km × 50 km grid over Europe with RegCM3 driven by NCEP reanalysis fields. Average monthly concentration values obtained from the global chemistry climate model ECHAM5-MOZ were used as chemical boundary conditions for the CAMx simulations. The present period (1996–2006) was simulated four times. The first run was forced with time and space invariable lateral chemical boundary conditions and EMEP emissions based on the year 1996. The second decadal simulation was based on ECHAM5-MOZ chemical boundary conditions and emissions both fixed for the year 1996. The third decadal simulation was based on ECHAM5-MOZ chemical boundary conditions with interannual variation but fixed emissions from the year 1996. Finally, the fourth decadal simulation was based on ECHAM5-MOZ chemical boundary conditions and emissions, both having interannual variation. Simulated ozone concentrations are compared against measurements from the EMEP network in order to evaluate the modeling system.

The important improvements in the quality of space-born tropospheric trace gas estimates have permitted their use, in combination with inverse atmospheric modelling, to obtain evolved top-down pollutant emission estimates. In this study, inverse modeling is applied to the case of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) columns as seen by the OMI/Aura instrument and estimated by the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions (CAMx). The main idea is to use the a priori information from the bottom up emission inventory used in the CAMx model, the tropospheric NO2 quantities estimated by the CAMx runs and the tropospheric NO2 columns deduced by the satellite observations to create an a posteriori NOx emission inventory. This new inventory, constrained in the top-down manner by the satellite estimates, can be used anew in the CAMx model to produce a new modeled NOx product. This work has identified biases in the original emission inventory for instance due to missing emission sources or over-estimation of the spread of emission sources and has proved an improved bottom-up emissions inventory.

Aim of this work is to study the impact of the intense forest fires that tookplace in Greece at the end of summer 2007 on the air quality in the Eastern Mediterranean. For this reason the meteorological model MM5 and the photochemical model CAMx are applied over the study area with 10 km spatial resolution. CAMx model is implemented for two emission scenarios; with and without biomass burning emissions. High spatial resolution wildfire emission data are used that are based on the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED3). The CAMx chemical boundary conditions are taken from the TM4 global model. The nonradiative impact on the composition of the atmosphere and on environmental indices (e.g. Aggregate Risk Index) is quantified in regional scale. The impact of the atmospheric processes on the air pollution levels due to the biomass burning event is also studied giving more emphasis on the boundary layer. The intense biomass burning event in the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of August 2007 results in an enhancement of the CO, NOx and PM2.5 concentrations over almost all the study area, which can range from several times to two order of magnitude over the fire hot spots. The increases in O3 levels are less pronounced and are found mainly downwind the burnt areas. On the 25th August 2007, when fire counts in the study area are maximum, in the daytime boundary layer, the inclusion of biomass burning emissions results in a change of the chemical regime from O3 destruction to O3 production.

This paper proposes the utilisation of peer-to-peer (P2P) concept in interactive broadcasting environments, as an enabling technology for optimised network resource exploitation. Building upon a regenerative DVB-T platform, it presents a decentralised architecture that exploits the broadcasting stream as part of the core/backbone network, providing interactive IP services to rural/urban citizens. Towards enhancing the scalability as well as the performance of the entire network, the paper studies the realisation of IP overlays by exploiting P2P technology, and proposes a prototype configuration for optimum resource exploitation and increased Service/Bandwidth gain both at the core and access segments. Performance evaluation experiments carried-out under real transmission/reception conditions with a number of real users verified the validity of the proposed architecture, besides outlining fields for future research.

The impact of ambient temperature on the levels and chemical composition of aerosols over the Eastern Mediterranean in July 2004 is investigated using the WRF/CMAQ model system coupled with the MEGAN biogenic emissions model. CMAQ is able to capture the observed mean aerosol concentrations over the studied period. Non-sea-salt sulfate (nss-SO4 2� ) is calculated to be the major aerosol component contributing by 63%, 16% and 40% to the fine (PM2.5), coarse (PM2.5e10) and total particulate matter mass (PM10), respectively. PM2.5 to PM10 mass ratios reach more than 80% over the large urban agglomerations but decrease to 45% at downwind locations suggesting coagulation and condensation on coarse particles. Higher temperatures increase biogenic emissions, enhance spatially-averaged biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA, by 0.01 � 0.00 m gm

This paper presents a novel DVB/IP infrastructure that exploits P2P technology for optimised resource exploitation in interactive services' provision. Building upon a prototype DVB-T regenerative platform, it presents a decentralised architecture that exploits the broadcasting stream as part of the core/backbone network, providing interactive IP services to rural/urban citizens. Users access the provided IP services via intermediate communication nodes (access network), which are responsible for managing/controlling both uplink and downlink flows. Towards enhancing the scalability as well as the performance of the entire network, the paper studies the realisation of IP overlays by exploiting P2P technology, and proposes a prototype configuration for optimum resource exploitation and increased Service/Bandwidth gain both at the core and access segments. Performance evaluation experiments carried-out under real transmission/reception conditions verified the validity of the proposed architecture, besides outlining fields for future research.

The presented work is aiming at climate change impacts and vulnerability assessment in Bulgaria Climate change may affect exposures to air pollutants by affecting weather and thereby local and regional pollution concentrations Local weather patterns influence atmospheric chemical reactions and can also affect atmospheric transport and deposition processes. US EPA Models-3 System for a region with resolution of 10 km covering Bulgaria is exploited here The meteorological background is produced by the climatic version of ALADIN weather forecast system TNO emission inventory for 2000 is used The chemical boundary conditions are extracted from 50-km resolution runs over Europe made in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Calculations for the period 1991-2000 are performed, results presented in a study For year 2000, some scenarios are run, results compared with measured data.

High resolution model estimations of tropospheric NO2 column amounts from the Comprehensive Air Quality Model (CAMx) were simulated for the Balkan Peninsula and were compared with satellite data for a period of one year, in order to study the characteristics of the spatial and temporal variability of pollution in the area. The Balkan area is considered a crossroad of different pollution sources and therefore has been divided in urban, industrial and rural regions, aiming to investigate the consistency of satellite retrievals and model predictions at high spatial resolution. Satellite measurements of tropospheric NO2 are available daily at 13:30 LT since 2004 from OMI/Aura with a resolution of 13×24 km. The anthropogenic emissions used in CAMx for the domain under study, was compiled employing bottom‐up approaches (road transport sector, off‐road machinery) as well as other national registries and international databases. High resolution GIS maps (road network, landuses, population) were also used in order...

Intensive long‐term meteorological modeling took place over an area covering Bulgaria with resolution of 10 km. The climatic version of the operational weather forecast model ALADIN was applied for simulating 3 time slices: 1960–2000, 2020–2050 and 2070–2100, following the IPCC scenario A1B. The differences of climatic fields for the 3 periods are presented and interpreted. The created met‐data base is used to estimate the impact of climate changes on air quality, as well. A respective modeling System was created on the base of US EPA Models‐3 tool (MM5, CMAQ and SMOKE). Calculations for the last 10 years of each time slice are performed. Grid technology in the frame of SEE‐GRID‐SCI project is used to perform this enormous volume of calculations as an application abbreviated to CCIAQ (Climate Change Impact on Air Quality). The results are presented and interpreted in the study.

The paper discusses a converged DVB/IP environment capable to provide differentiated services at a guaranteed quality. Towards this the paper presents the design, implementation and integration of QoS aware mechanisms in the DVB/IP environment in order to enhance its capability as an IP networking infrastructure, optimizing the system's for the provision of IP heterogeneous services. The capability of the proposed QoS aware DVB/IP network environment is validated through experimental tests that were conducted under real transmission/reception conditions at a prototype infrastructure that conforms to the discussed architectural design issues.

This paper introduces and validates an experimental infrastructure of a fusion IP/DVB networking environment for the provision of triple play services at remote areas exploiting the synergy of Broadcasting, Internet and Telecommunication sectors technologies. This synergy constitutes a challenge for creating a networking platform which exploits the particularities and complementarities of these sectors for the support of ubiquitous services and always-on connectivity enabling passive rural citizens to become active Information Society participants. This paper describes important directions for exploiting the proposed unified platform alleviating the digital divide that currently exists not only among countries but also within most regions of the same country.

NGC 3718 is a low-ionization nuclear emission line region (LINER) L 1.9 galaxy, lying at a distance of about ~17.4 Mpc from the Earth; its similarities with NGC 5128 often award it the name northern Centaurus A. The presence of a compact radio source with a candidate jet structure, a prominent dust lane, and a strongly warped molecular and atomic gas disk are indications that NGC 3718 has undergone some sort of a large-scale gravitational interaction sometime in the recent past, which channeled gas towards the center, feeding the black hole and igniting the central engine. One proposed scenario involves an encounter with the close neighboring galaxy NGC 3729, while other authors favor a merging event with mass ratio ≥(3−4):1 as the origin of NGC3718. We use high angular resolution (~100 mas) e-Merlin radio and Subaru near-IR (NIR) (~170 mas) data to take a detailed view of the processes taking place in its central region. In order to preserve some objectivity in our interpretation, we combine our results with literature values and findings from previous studies. Our NIR maps suggest, on the one hand, that towards the stellar bulge there are no large-scale absorption phenomena caused by the apparent dust lane and, on the other, that there is a significant (local) contribution from hot (~1000 K) dust to the nuclear NIR emission. The position where this takes place appears to be closer to the offset compact radio emission from our e-Merlin 6 cm map and is offset by ~4.25 pc from the center of the underlying stellar bulge. The shape of the radio map suggests the presence of one (or possibly two, forming an X-shape) bipolar structure(s) ~1 (~0.6) arcsec across, which combined with the balance between the gas and the stellar velocity dispersions and the presence of hard X-ray emission, point towards effects expected by AGN feedback. We also argue that NGC 3718 has a core in its surface brightness profile, although it is a gas-rich galaxy and we discuss its mixed photometric and spectroscopic characteristics. These characteristics combined with the observed spatial NIR and radio emission offsets, the relative redshift between the broad and the narrow Hα line, the limited star formation activity, and AGN feedback strongly imply the existence of a supermassive black hole recoil. Finally, we discuss a possible interpretation that could naturally incorporate all these findings into one physically consistent picture.

We present preliminary results of the first near-infrared variability study of the Arches cluster, using adaptive optics data from NIRI/Gemini and NACO/VLT. The goal is to discover eclipsing binaries in this young (2.5 +- 0.5 Myr), dense, massive cluster for which we will determine accurate fundamental parameters with subsequent spectroscopy. Given that the Arches cluster contains more than 200 Wolf-Rayet and O-type stars, it provides a rare opportunity to determine parameters for some of the most massive stars in the Galaxy., Comment: 2 pages, to appear in the proceedings of the IAUS 272 on "Active OB stars: structure, evolution, mass loss and critical limits" (Paris, July 19-23, 2010), Cambridge University Press. Editors C. Neiner, G. Wade, G. Meynet and G. Peters

To formulate an empirically derived model of empathic communication in medical interviews by describing the specific behaviors and patterns of interaction associated with verbal expressions of emotion.A descriptive, qualitative study of verbal exchanges using 11 transcripts and 12 videotapes of primary care office visits to a total of 21 physicians.An urban health maintenence organization (HMO), an urban university-based general medicine clinic, and an urban community hospital general medicine clinic. ANALYTIC METHOD: Individual review of transcripts by each research team member to identify instances of expressed or implied emotional themes and to observe the physicians' responses. Individual ratings were compared in group discussions to achieve consensus about the classifications. Similar consensus-based classification was used for review of videotapes.We observed that patients seldom verbalize their emotions directly and spontaneously, tending to offer clues instead. If invited to elaborate, patients may then express the emotional concern directly, and the physician may respond with an accurate and explicit acknowledgment. In most of the interviews, the physicians allowed both clues and direct expressions of affect to pass without acknowledgment, returning instead to the preceding topic, usually the diagnostic exploration of symptoms. With emotional expression so terminated, some patients attempted to raise the topic again, sometimes repeatedly and with escalating intensity. We noted a parallel dynamic for encounters in which patients sought praise. We summarized the full interactional sequence in a simple descriptive model.This empirically derived model of empathic communication has practical implications for clinicians and students who want to improve their communication and relationship skills. Based on our observations, the basic empathic skills seem to be recognizing when emotions may be present but not directly expressed, inviting exploration of these unexpressed feelings, and effectively acknowledging these feelings so the patient feels understood. The frequent lack of acknowledgment by physicians of both direct and indirect expressions of affect poses a threat to the patient-physician relationship and warrants further study.

A method was developed to separate, detect, and quantitate erythromycin (ERY) and tylosin (TYL) in animal feeds in the presence of 11 other drugs: 3 nitrofurans, 2 tetracycline antibiotics, 3 sulfonamides, 2 coccidiostats, and 1 antibacterial growth promoter. ERY and TYL were separated from coexisting drugs, detected by thin-layer chromatography, and quantitated microbiologically by an agar diffusion method. Analysis of 125 experimental animal feed samples fortified at 5 levels (7.5-400 ppm) with ERY and TYL and at 1 level (50 ppm) with the rest of the drugs gave limits of quantitation of 2 and 5 ppm, recoveries of 90.3 and 92.4%, and relative standard deviations of 4.3-7.3% and 3.6-6.1%, respectively.

To further investigate the mechanisms by which the antineoplastic agent cisplatin interferes with immune function, we studied its effect on the biosynthesis of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and its alpha-chain receptor (IL-2Ralpha). Normal human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were activated in vitro with phytohemagglutinin (PHA), and anti-CD3 antibody in the presence of various concentrations of cisplatin. Purified T cells were also cultured with anti-CD3 antibody and costimulated by CD80 (B7-1, B7/BB1)-transfected P815 mastocytoma cells in the presence of cisplatin. Tritiated thymidine incorporation assays, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for soluble IL-2Ralpha determination, and RNA dot-blot analysis and hybridization with IL-2- and IL-2Ralpha-specific probes were used. PHA-induced and anti-CD3 antibody-induced proliferation of PBL were significantly inhibited by cisplatin at concentrations attainable in vivo. This inhibition was not due to direct cell death as shown by the absence of trypan blue uptake in the presence of high concentrations of cisplatin. Therapeutic concentrations of cisplatin (1 microgram/ml) also inhibited the IL-2-dependent proliferation of purified T cells, mediated via the CD28-CD80 costimulatory pathway. In addition, the amount of soluble IL-2Ralpha released in the T cell culture supernatants was decreased by cisplatin in a dose-dependent fashion, suggesting that inhibition of cell proliferation was associated with a parallel decrease in IL-2Ralpha production. These effects correlated with a specific cisplatin-induced downregulation of both IL-2 and IL-2Ralpha messenger RNA accumulation in PHA-stimulated PBL that was dependent on the concentration of the drug. These findings suggest that the immunomodulatory effects of cisplatin may result in part from its capacity to directly downregulate the IL-2/IL-2R system in activated lymphocytes.

This method was developed to separate, detect, and quantitate oxytetracycline (OTC) or chlortetracycline hydrochloride (CTC.HCl) in animal feeds in the presence of 11 other drugs: 3 nitrofurans, 2 macrolide antibiotics, 3 sulfonamides, 2 coccidiostatics, and 1 antibacterial growth promoter. OTC or CTC.HCl was separated from coexisting drugs and detected by thin-layer chromatography, then quantitated microbiologically by the agar diffusion method. Analysis of 125 experimental animal feed samples fortified at 5 levels (7.5-400 ppm) with OTC or CTC.HCl and at 1 level (50 ppm) with the rest of the drugs, respectively, gave a limit of quantitation of 1.25 or 0.625 ppm, a recovery of 90.6 or 92.9%, and a coefficient of variation of 2.9-6.1 or 2.3-4.4%.

We describe 2 patients with adult Still's disease who developed thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and were successfully treated. Although TTP has been associated with autoimmune diseases, usually with systemic lupus erythematosus or various forms of vasculitis, it has rarely been observed in patients with adult Still's disease. This uncommon coexistence of 2 clinical entities may indicate similar pathogenetic mechanisms.

The four core skills--active listening, soliciting attribution, providing support, and establishing agreement--are at the heart of the model of co-participation between physician and patient. Used effectively, they provide a mutually satisfying environment in which psychosocial as well as biologic aspects of a problem can be explored in a humane, caring, and surprisingly efficient way.

The EC FP6 project CECILIA (http://www.cecilia-eu.org) aims at climate change impacts and vulnerability assessment in targeted areas of Central and Eastern Europe. Emphasis is given to regional climate change modeling at resolution of 10 km. The respective weather patterns influence local air quality. For its assessment EPA Models-3 (MM5, CMAQ, SMOKE) is used. The meteorological input is produced by the climatic version of ALADIN weather forecast system. TNO emission inventory for 2000 is exploited. The boundary conditions are extracted from 50-km runs over Europe made in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Calculations for the period 1991–2000 are performed, results presented.

Machine learning (ML) algorithms are already transforming the way data are collected and processed in the data center, where some form of AI has permeated most areas of computing. The integration of AI algorithms at the edge is the next logical step which is already under investigation. However, harnessing such algorithms at the edge will require more computing power than what current platforms offer. In this paper, we present an FPGA system-on-chip-based architecture that supports the acceleration of ML algorithms in an edge environment. The system supports dynamic deployment of ML functions driven either locally or remotely, thus achieving a remarkable degree of flexibility . We demonstrate the efficacy of this architecture by executing a version of the well-known YOLO classifier which demonstrates competitive performance while requiring a reasonable amount of resources on the device.

Current emergency systems and 112 services are based on legacy telecommunication technologies, which cannot cope with IP-based services that European citizens use every day. Some of the related limitations are partial media support, the lack of integration of social media, and the use of an analog modem for providing eCall services with limited data amounts. As most operators have started migrating toward broadband IP-based infrastructures, current emergency systems also need to be upgraded and adapted in order to fulfill regulatory requirements in terms of next generation emergency services. This article presents the EMYNOS project, the goal of which is the design and implementation of a next generation platform capable of accommodating rich-media emergency calls that combine voice, text, and video, thus constituting a powerful tool for coordinating communication among citizens, call centers, and first responders. Additionally, issues such as call routing/redirection t o the closest available call center, retrieval of caller location, support for people with disabilities, and integration of social media are detailed.

Today is the era of the Internet of Things (IoT). The recent advances in hardware and information technology have accelerated the deployment of billions of interconnected, smart and adaptive devices in critical infrastructures like health, transportation, environmental control, and home automation. Transferring data over a network without requiring any kind of human-to-computer or human-to-human interaction, brings reliability and convenience to consumers, but also opens a new world of opportunity for intruders, and introduces a whole set of unique and complicated questions to the field of Digital Forensics. Although IoT data could be a rich source of evidence, forensics professionals cope with diverse problems, starting from the huge variety of IoT devices and non-standard formats, to the multi-tenant cloud infrastructure and the resulting multi-jurisdictional litigations. A further challenge is the end-to-end encryption which represents a trade-off between users' right to privacy and the success of the forensics investigation. Due to its volatile nature, digital evidence has to be acquired and analyzed using validated tools and techniques that ensure the maintenance of the Chain of Custody. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the main issues involved in the complex process of IoT-based investigations, particularly all legal, privacy and cloud security challenges. Furthermore, this work provides an overview of the past and current theoretical models in the digital forensics science. Special attention is paid to frameworks that aim to extract data in a privacy-preserving manner or secure the evidence integrity using decentralized blockchain-based solutions. In addition, the present paper addresses the ongoing Forensics-as-a-Service (FaaS) paradigm, as well as some promising cross-cutting data reduction and forensics intelligence techniques. Finally, several other research trends and open issues are presented, with emphasis on the need for proactive Forensics Readiness strategies and generally agreed-upon standards.

Smart phones are equipped with a variety of sensors (accelerometer, light sensor, etc.), as well as other specialized hardware (camera, flashlight, etc.), giving them this way a plethora of value-added capabilities, apart from the conventional phone call and message exchange. They are able to turn every user into a data gathering agent, since information can be collected from both the environment outside of the device, as well as be retrieved from the digital world. Although smart phones have become an indispensable gadget in data gathering and telecommunication, the features that they provide can also be taken advantage for improving the living conditions of people around the world. The various sensors that are embedded in mobile phones nowadays can accurately measure, monitor, and keep track of their surroundings, as well as transmit any gathered information from their environment to designated individuals or organizations. This way, a smart phone can be used for remotely monitoring, and keeping an eye, on people that are in need of someone looking after them. This paper presents the steps that were taken for the development of a location-based Android application which can be used for the tracking purpose. of people that are in need of such services. It will be able to inform a number of the users chosen peers about their whereabouts in case the owned device is located in an area where it is not expected to be in. The application will also be capable of sensing a few simplified movements the user performs with the device and fire particular events based on the user's gesture, giving this way a context awareness aspect to the application.

Following up the success story of the OS-Specific App Stores, we present a new business case in network function virtualization (NFV), where function provider (FP) can publish, broke, trade, offer, and advertise their developed functions inside a novel Marketplace for NFV. This novel approach is able to attract new entrants to the networking market, including among other, a Novel Brokerage Platform, allowing Service Providers to transact with the FP. Finally, via the Marketplace, customers can browse and select services and virtual appliances that best match their needs, as well as negotiate Service Level Agreements and be charged under various billing models browse and select the services and virtual appliances that best match their needs.

Forty-four elements (Al, Sb, As, Ba, Be, B, Br, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Eu, Ga, Au, Hf, In, Ir, Fe, La, Lu, Mn, Hg, Mo, Nd, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sm, Sc, Se, Ag, Sr, Ta, Tb, Tl, Th, Sn, W, U, V, Zn, Zr) have been determined in the dialysate for hemodialysis (HD) and fluids for hemofiltration (HF) and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). Multiple determinations have been performed for each dialysis fluid. Several trace elements (TE) showed remarkably elevated average levels; moreover, different bathes of the same commercial product may present a wide variability in TE concentration. The data point out the pivotal role of dialysis fluids in contributing to TE imbalance in dialysis patients and allow the assessment of the potential element exposure of patients on regular dialytic treatment. Patients on HD treatment would be exposed on a weekly basis to milligrams of Al, B, Ba, Br, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sr and Zn; on HF, the highest exposures are due to Al, B, Br, Fe, Pb and Zn; on CAPD to B, Br, Fe and Zn. The weekly exposure for several TE appears to be 50- to 12,000-fold higher than the corresponding values on the amount absorbed via the diet (HD: Au, Ba, Be, Ce, Ga, La, Sc, Ta, Th, V, Zr; HF: Be, Ce, Ta, Th, V, Zr; CAPD: Au, Be, Ce, Ga, V, Zr).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

In this chapter, we present a cross-layer fog-enabled framework that offers visitors of small venues; such as museums, malls, convention centres, hospitals, and so on; enhanced context-aware experience and navigation services over 5G small-cell infrastructure. Distributed fog-enabled devices provide 5G networking throughout the surrounding establishment. The visitor, after signing into the network, is able to view various information and multimedia content concerning the narrow points of interest (POIs). The infrastructure also provides the ability to navigate the visitor throughout the establishment, using well-known positioning techniques. The positioning takes place with the mobile device receiving and juxtaposing the signal strength of small RF beacons sculling the local area. Finally, the network proposes other nearby POIs, depending on the user's preferences, based on the meta-data information stored inside the user's mobile device. The framework logic and calculations are transferred and sent back to the user through the cloud.

Reducing vehicle energy demand has been the subject of academic research for several years. Distributing energy equally and efficiently among vehicle wheels addresses challenges that may have an impact on energy consumption. Therefore, this chapter aims to contribute through the proposal of a novel system by integrating smart panels. The effects of road’s change of gradient and anomalies motivate us to work on more torque at the wheel joints that demand more energy procurement. Though the supply affects all the wheels equally, which interprets for the engine as more consumption. We approach the emerging issue by developing a V2SP (Vehicle to Smart-Panel) system in fluid dynamics. Based on fundamental mathematics equations of fluid flow from Navier–Stokes, we implement an algorithm that could run in real-time on the grid that will be integrated on panels and interact accordingly with a vehicle’s operational system. The objective is the distribution of the appropriate energy among wheels based on their needs.