A Dynamic Buffer Management Scheme for End-to-End QoS Enhancement of Multi-flow Services in HSDPA

End-user multi-flow services support is a crucial aspect of current and next generation mobile networks. This paper presents a dynamic buffer management strategy for HSDPA end-user multi-flow traffic with aggregated real-time and non-real-time flows. The scheme incorporates dynamic priority switching between the flows for transmission on the HSDPA radio channel. The end-to-end performance of the proposed strategy is investigated with an end-user multi-flow session of simultaneous VoIP and TCP-based downlink traffic using detailed HSDPA system-level simulations. Compared to an equivalent static buffer management scheme, the results show that end-to-end throughput performance gains in the non-real-time flow and better HSDPA channel utilization is attainable without compromising the real-time VoIP flow QoS constraints

Routledge International Handbook of Rural Studies.:Understanding the association between rural ethnicity and inequalities

Rural areas are facing demographic transformation. Some localities have experienced significant levels of (internal and international) immigration in recent decades. In other rural places, a shifting minority: majority ratio (arising mainly from increased minority fertility and decreases in the majority population) is altering the rural landscape. It is this context of increasingly diverse rural societies that frames this chapter. It begins by examining inequalities arising from ethnicity in a rural context. The review proceeds by identifying how different factors, including recent patterns of international migration and historical legacies of ethnic diversity, intertwine to produce multi-cultural rural areas. First of all an overview of the significance of the ‘ethnic’ label is presented, recognizing its limitations and also its usefulness. Having established this context the chapter proceeds by highlighting the way in which rural ethnic inequalities are measured and also the particular challenges of measuring rural poverty. The processes that produce inequalities among ethnic groups are examined, with particular attention on migration and space and place, but mindful of historical legacies along with economic transformations and associated recent migration patterns. Finally, the conclusion of the chapter highlights gaps and identifies areas for future research agendas.

Packet classification by multi-level cutting of the classification space: An algorithmic-architectural solution for IP packet classification in next generation networks

Traditionally, the Internet provides only a “best-effort” service, treating all packets going to the same destination equally. However, providing differentiated services for different users based on their quality requirements is increasingly becoming a demanding issue. For this, routers need to have the capability to distinguish and isolate traffic belonging to different flows. This ability to determine the flow each packet belongs to is called packet classification. Technology vendors are reluctant to support algorithmic solutions for classification due to their non-deterministic performance. Although CAMs are favoured by technology vendors due to their deterministic high lookup rates, they suffer from the problems of high power dissipation and high silicon cost. This paper provides a new algorithmic-architectural solution for packet classification that mixes CAMs with algorithms based on multi-level cutting the classification space into smaller spaces. The provided solution utilizes the geometrical distribution of rules in the classification space. It provides the deterministic performance of CAMs, support for dynamic updates, and added flexibility for system designers.

A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental investigation of the findspot of an Iron Age bog body from Oldcroghan, Co. Offaly, Ireland

In 2003, the remains of an Early Iron Age bog body, known as ‘Oldcroghan Man’, were recovered during the cutting of a drainage ditch in a bog in the Irish Midlands. Only some fingernails and a withe fragment remained undisturbed in situ in the drain face, providing the sole evidence for the original position of the body. A detailed reconstruction of the depositional context of the body has been undertaken through multi-proxy analyses of a peat monolith collected at the findspot. The palynological record shows that the surrounding area was the focus of intensive human activity during the Later Bronze Age, but was largely abandoned during the Bronze Age–Iron transition in the mid-first millennium BC. In the mid-4th century BC, a bog pool developed at the site, evidenced in the stratigraphic, plant macrofossil, testate amoebae and coleopteran records. Plant macrofossil and pollen analysis of peat samples associated with the fingernails suggests that the body was deposited in this pool most likely during the 3rd century BC. The absence of carrion beetle fauna points to complete submergence of the body within the pool. Deposition occurred shortly before or around the time that the surrounding area again became the focus of woodland clearance, as seen in the extended pollen record from the peat monolith. This period corresponds to the Early Iron Age in Ireland, during which renewed cultural connections with Britain and continental Europe can be seen in the archaeological record and widespread forest clearance is recorded in pollen records from across Ireland. The palaeoenvironmental results indicate, therefore, that the demise of Oldcroghan Man took place at a pivotal time of socio-economic and perhaps political change.

Frequency of participation of 8-12 year old children with cerebral palsy: a multi-centre cross sectional European study

Participation in home, school and community is important for all children; and little is known about the frequency of participation of disabled children. Frequency of participation is a valuable outcome measure for evaluating habilitation programmes for disabled children and for planning social and health services.

We investigated how frequency of participation varied between children with cerebral palsy and the general population; and examined variation across countries to understand better how the environmental factors such as legislation, public attitudes and regulation in different countries might influence participation.

We undertook a multi-centre, population-based study in children with and without cerebral palsy. Working from the Life-H instrument, we developed a questionnaire to capture frequency of participation in 8–12-year-old children. In nine regions of seven European countries, parents of 813 children with cerebral palsy and 2939 children from the general populations completed the questionnaire.

Frequency of participation for each question was dichotomised about the median; multivariable logistic regressions were carried out.

In the general population, frequency of participation varied between countries. Children with cerebral palsy participated less frequently in many but not all areas of everyday life, compared with children from the general population. There was regional variation in the domains with reduced participation and in the magnitude of the differences. We discuss how this regional variation might be explained by the different environments in which children live. Attending a special school or class was not associated with further reduction in participation in most areas of everyday life.

Packet classification by multi-level cutting of the classification space

Traditionally, the Internet provides only a “best-effort” service, treating all packets going to the same destination equally. However, providing differentiated services for different users based on their quality requirements is increasingly becoming a demanding issue. For this, routers need to have the capability to distinguish and isolate traffic belonging to different flows. This ability to determine the flow each packet belongs to is called packet classification. Technology vendors are reluctant to support algorithmic solutions for classification due to their nondeterministic performance. Although content addressable memories (CAMs) are favoured by technology vendors due to their deterministic high-lookup rates, they suffer from the problems of high-power consumption and high-silicon cost. This paper provides a new algorithmic-architectural solution for packet classification that mixes CAMs with algorithms based on multilevel cutting of the classification space into smaller spaces. The provided solution utilizes the geometrical distribution of rules in the classification space. It provides the deterministic performance of CAMs, support for dynamic updates, and added flexibility for system designers.

Dublin docklands. The urban fabric as cultural heritage

Introduction

Since the 1980s there have been major policies and projects for the redevelopment of Dublin Docklands. These projects were mainly aimed at profitable development of office, commercial and residential space, without a sound plan that would preserve the identity or community of the area. The recent shift in policies and urban design principles in the Dublin Docklands Area Master Plan 2008 shows that policy makers have acknowledged that mistakes were made in the last decades of the 20th century. The current map of the Dublin Docklands Area Master Plan 2008 gives us useful information about these changes. The Ringsend/ Irishtown area, which has kept a great part of its urban form and community identity throughout centuries, is described as an ‘area of protection of residential and services amenities’ (DDDA, 2008, map A). Meanwhile, the area of the Grand Canal Docks, recently developed, is described with the objective ‘to seek the social, economic and physical development or rejuvenation
within an area of mixed use of which residential and enterprise facilities would be the predominant uses’ (DDDA, 2008, map A). This classification shows that recent development has been unable to achieve the cohesion and complexity of existing neighbourhoods, revealing flaws not only in policy, but also in the built environment and approaches to urban design.

The shift towards the consideration of more community participation reveals a need to understand the tradition and past of these communities, while the urban fabric of small plots in the existing neighbourhoods, therefore, seems to have a very important role in the conservation of identity of place and providing the opportunity for difference within regularity. On the other hand, the new fabric of residential block developments in the docklands denies the possibility of developing a sense of community, and by providing only regularity, does not leave space for difference.

This paper will address questions related to urban morphology and town analysis in the case of Ringsend and Irishtown. This will provide a tool to learn from the past and perhaps find new models of development that might be less detrimental for the heritage of cities and urban communities. One of the ideas of this paper is to adhere to the new tendency in conservation policies to provide a broader analysis of urban areas, not only considering individual monuments in cities, but also analysing the significance of urban morphology and intangible heritage. It forms part of an OPW Post- Doctoral Fellowship in Conservation Studies and Environmental History.1 Research has been carried out in different areas of urban history of Dublin’s southern waterfront, including infrastructure history and a thorough analysis of the letters of the Pembroke Estate of the 19th century, which included the areas of Ringsend and Irishtown. However, this paper focuses on the study of urban form of the area and its significance to Dublin’s heritage.

Generalized social trust across 22 European countries: A multi-level analysis of four competing models

Concern with what can explain variation in generalized social trust has led to an abundance of theoretical models. Defining generalized social trust as a belief in human benevolence, we focus on the emancipation theory and social capital theory as well as the ethnic diversity and economic development models of trust. We then determine which dimensions of individuals’ behavior and attitudes as well as of their national context are the most important predictors. Using data from 20 countries that participated in round one of the European Social Survey, we test these models at their respective level of analysis, individual and/or national. Our analysis revealed that individuals’ own trust in the political system as a moral and competent institution was the most important predictor of generalized social trust at the individual level, while a country’s level of affluence was the most important contextual predictor, indicating that different dimensions are significant at the two levels of analysis. This analysis also raised further questions as to the meaning of social capital at the two levels of analysis and the conceptual equivalence of its civic engagement dimension across cultures.

Reasoning about orchestrations of web services using partial correctness

A service is a remote computational facility which is made available for general use by means of a wide-area network. Several types of service arise in practice: stateless services, shared state services and services with states which are customised for individual users. A service-based orchestration is a multi-threaded computation which invokes remote services in order to deliver results back to a user (publication). In this paper a means of specifying services and reasoning about the correctness of orchestrations over stateless services is presented. As web services are potentially unreliable the termination of even finite orchestrations cannot be guaranteed. For this reason a partial-correctness powerdomain approach is proposed to capture the semantics of recursive orchestrations.

A constraints-based resource discovery model for multi-provider cloud environments

Increasingly infrastructure providers are supplying the cloud marketplace with storage and on-demand compute resources to host cloud applications. From an application user's point of view, it is desirable to identify the most appropriate set of available resources on which to execute an application. Resource choice can be complex and may involve comparing available hardware specifications, operating systems, value-added services, such as network configuration or data replication, and operating costs, such as hosting cost and data throughput. Providers' cost models often change and new commodity cost models, such as spot pricing, have been introduced to offer significant savings. In this paper, a software abstraction layer is used to discover infrastructure resources for a particular application, across multiple providers, by using a two-phase constraints-based approach. In the first phase, a set of possible infrastructure resources are identified for a given application. In the second phase, a heuristic is used to select the most appropriate resources from the initial set. For some applications a cost-based heuristic is most appropriate; for others a performance-based heuristic may be used. A financial services application and a high performance computing application are used to illustrate the execution of the proposed resource discovery mechanism. The experimental result shows the proposed model could dynamically select an appropriate set of resouces that match the application's requirements.