Contribution to energy consumption modelling and forecast in next generation access networks

La contribución del sector de las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones (TICs) al consumo de energía a nivel global se ha visto incrementada considerablemente en la última década al mismo tiempo que su relevancia dentro de la economía global. Se prevé que esta tendencia continúe debido al uso cada vez más intensivo de estas tecnologías. Una de las principales causas es el tráfico de datos de banda ancha generado por el uso de las redes de telecomunicaciones. De hecho como respuesta a esta demanda de recursos por parte de los usuarios, de la industria de las telecomunicaciones está iniciando el despliegue de las redes de nueva generación. En cualquier caso, el consumo de energía es un factor generalmente ausente del debate sobre el despliegue de estas tecnologías, a pesar de la posible repercusión que pueda llegar a tener en los costes y la sostenibilidad de estos proyectos. A lo largo de este trabajo se desarrollan modelos para evaluar el consumo energético de las redes de acceso de nueva generación (NGAN). Estos servirán tanto para llevar a cabo cálculos en un escenario global estático, como en cualquiera otro que determine la potencial evolución de la red de acceso a lo largo de su despliegue. Estos modelos combinan tres factores: la penetración prospectiva de cada una de las tecnologías de banda ancha analizadas, el tráfico generado por usuario y su futura evolución, y el perfil de consumo de energía de cada uno de los dispositivos de red desplegados. Tras evaluar los resultados derivados de la aplicación de los modelos en el caso demográfico específico de España, se obtienen conclusiones acerca de las diferencias tecnológicas en cuanto al consumo energético, sus implicaciones económicas, y la sensibilidad de los cálculos atendiendo a posibles modificaciones en los valores de referencia de diferentes parámetros de diseño. Se destaca por tanto el efecto en el consumo energético de los desarrollos tecnológicos, tecno-económicos, y de las decisiones en el ámbito regulatorio. Aunque como se ha dicho, se ha ejemplificado el cálculo para un caso particular, tanto los modelos como las conclusiones extraídas se pueden extrapolar a otros países similares.

How much energy will your NGN consume? A model for energy consumption in next generation access networks: The case of Spain

The contribution to global energy consumption of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector has increased considerably in the last decade, along with its growing relevance to the overall economy. This trend will continue due to the seemingly ever greater use of these technologies, with broadband data traffic generated by the usage of telecommunication networks as a primary component. In fact, in response to user demand, the telecommunications industry is initiating the deployment of next generation networks (NGNs). However, energy consumption is mostly absent from the debate on these deployments, in spite of the potential impact on both expenses and sustainability. In addition, consumers are unaware of the energy impact of their choices in ultra-broadband services. This paper focuses on forecasting energy consumption in the access part of NGNs by modelling the combined effect of the deployment of two different ultra-broadband technologies (FTTH-GPON and LTE), the evolution of traffic per user, and the energy consumption in each of the networks and user devices. Conclusions are presented on the levels of energy consumption, their cost and the impact of different network design parameters. The effect of technological developments, techno-economic and policy decisions on energy consumption is highlighted. On the consumer side, practical figures and comparisons across technologies are provided. Although the paper focuses on Spain, the analysis can be extended to similar countries.

AALUMO: a user model ontology for ambient assisted living services supported in next-generation networks

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) services are emerging as context-awareness solutions to support elderly people?s autonomy. The context-aware paradigm makes applications more user-adaptive. In this way, context and user models expressed in ontologies are employed by applications to describe user and environment characteristics. The rapid advance of technology allows creating context server to relieve applications of context reasoning techniques. Specifically, the Next Generation Networks (NGN) provides by means of the presence service a framework to manage the current user's state as well as the user's profile information extracted from Internet and mobile context. This paper propose a user modeling ontology for AAL services which can be deployed in a NGN environment with the aim at adapting their functionalities to the elderly's context information and state.

How network operators can enhance ambient assisted living applications through next generation networks

Within the technological framework of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), consumers are currently requesting multimedia services with simplicity of use, reliability, security and service availability through mobile and fixed access. Network operators are proposing the Next Generation Networks (NGN) to address the challenges of providing both services and network convergence. Apart from these considerations, there is a need to provide social and healthcare assistance services in order to support the progressive aging in the elderly population. In order to achieve this objective, the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) initiative proposes ICT systems and services to promote autonomy and an independent life among the elderly. This paper describes the design and implementation of a group of services, called “service enablers”, which helps AAL applications to be supported in NGN. The presented enablers are identified to support the teleconsulting applications requirements in an NGN environment, involving the implementation of a virtual waiting room, a virtual whiteboard, a multimedia multiconference and a vital-signs monitoring presence status. A use case is defined and implemented to evaluate the developed enablers' performance.

Implications of data-intensive applications for next generation mobile networks

Lately, the mobile data market has moved into a growth stage triggered by two facts: affordability of mobile broadband, and availability of data-friendly devices. At this stage, market growth is no longer dependent on push strategies from suppliers; on the contrary, demand is now driving the market. However, it will not be easy for mobile operating companies to cope up with the demand to come in the near future. The infrastructure that is needed to support corresponding demand is far from completion. Operators are forced to make heavy investments to upgrade and expand their networks. To decide how to handle the present and upcoming demand, they need to identify and understand the characteristics of the scenarios they face. This is precisely the aim of this article, which provides figures on the consequences for mobile infrastructures of a generalised mobile media uptake. Data from the Spanish mobile deployment case have been used to arrive at practical figures and illustration of results, but the conclusions are easily extended to other countries and regions

A rural virtual health sciences library project: research findings with implications for next generation library services*

Purpose: The Shared Hospital Electronic Library of Southern Indiana (SHELSI) research project was designed to determine whether access to a virtual health sciences library and training in its use would support medical decision making in rural southern Indiana and achieve the same level of impact seen by targeted information services provided by health sciences librarians in urban hospitals.

Análise exômica em pacientes portadores de cardiomiopatia hipertrófica

A cardiomiopatia hipertrófica (CMH) é uma doença geneticamente determinada, caracterizada por hipertrofia ventricular primária, com prevalência estimada de 0.2% na população geral. Qualquer portador tem 50% de chance de transmitir esta doença para seus filhos, o que torna cada vez mais relevante a importância do estudo genético dos indivíduos acometidos e de seus familiares. Já foram descritas diversas mutações genéticas causadoras de CMH, a maioria em genes que codificam proteínas do sarcômero, e algumas mutações mais raras em genes não sarcoméricos. O objetivo desse estudo é sequenciar as regiões exônicas de genes candidatos, incluindo os principais envolvidos na hipertrofia miocárdica, utilizando o sequenciamento de nova geração (Generation Sequencing); testar a aplicabilidade e viabilidade deste sistema para identificar mutações já confirmadas e propor as prováveis novas mutações causadoras de CMH. Métodos e resultados: 66 pacientes não aparentados portadores de CMH foram estudados e submetidos à coleta de sangue para obtenção do DNA para analisar as regiões exômicas de 82 genes candidatos, utilizando a plataforma MiSeq (Illumina). Identificou-se 99 mutações provavelmente patogênicas em 54 pacientes incluídos no estudo (81,8%) relacionadas ou não a CMH, e distribuídas em 42 genes diferentes. Destas mutações 27 já haviam sido publicadas, sendo que 17 delas descritas como causadoras de CMH. Em 28 pacientes (42,4%) identificou-se mutação nos três principais genes sarcoméricos relacionados à CMH (MYH7, MYBPC3, TNNT2). Encontrou-se também um grande número de variantes não sonôminas de efeito clínico incerto e algumas mutações relacionadas a outras enfermidades. Conclusão: a análise da sequencia dos exônos de genes candidatos, demonstrou ser uma técnica promissora para o diagnóstico genético de CMH de forma mais rápida e sensível. A quantidade de dados gerados é o um fator limitante até o momento, principalmente em doenças geneticamente complexas com envolvimento de diversos genes e com sistema de bioinformática limitado.

Why is Europe lagging on next generation access networks? Bruegel Policy Contribution ISSUE 2015/14, September 2015

Why is Europe lagging on next generation access networks? Fibre-based next generation access (NGA) roll-out across the European Union is one of the goals of the European Commission’s Digital Agenda strategy, however, there remains considerable uncertainty about how the roll-out goal can best be achieved. The underlying differences between the economics of copper-based and new fibre-based broadband infrastructures should lead to a revision of the regulatory framework for telecommunications markets. While the current regulatory measures have been useful in the past decade to sustain competition and facilitate entry into a market with already-existing infrastructures, the need to create new, much faster broadband networks calls for a rethink of the scope and strictness of regulation.

Molecular Characterization of Three Canine Models of Human Rare Bone Diseases: Caffey, van den Ende-Gupta, and Raine Syndromes.

One to two percent of all children are born with a developmental disorder requiring pediatric hospital admissions. For many such syndromes, the molecular pathogenesis remains poorly characterized. Parallel developmental disorders in other species could provide complementary models for human rare diseases by uncovering new candidate genes, improving the understanding of the molecular mechanisms and opening possibilities for therapeutic trials. We performed various experiments, e.g. combined genome-wide association and next generation sequencing, to investigate the clinico-pathological features and genetic causes of three developmental syndromes in dogs, including craniomandibular osteopathy (CMO), a previously undescribed skeletal syndrome, and dental hypomineralization, for which we identified pathogenic variants in the canine SLC37A2 (truncating splicing enhancer variant), SCARF2 (truncating 2-bp deletion) and FAM20C (missense variant) genes, respectively. CMO is a clinical equivalent to an infantile cortical hyperostosis (Caffey disease), for which SLC37A2 is a new candidate gene. SLC37A2 is a poorly characterized member of a glucose-phosphate transporter family without previous disease associations. It is expressed in many tissues, including cells of the macrophage lineage, e.g. osteoclasts, and suggests a disease mechanism, in which an impaired glucose homeostasis in osteoclasts compromises their function in the developing bone, leading to hyperostosis. Mutations in SCARF2 and FAM20C have been associated with the human van den Ende-Gupta and Raine syndromes that include numerous features similar to the affected dogs. Given the growing interest in the molecular characterization and treatment of human rare diseases, our study presents three novel physiologically relevant models for further research and therapy approaches, while providing the molecular identity for the canine conditions.

What makes next generation members found their own firm: knowledge, contacts, or money?

To increase our understanding of the formation of students' intentions to found an own firm, research needs to systematically integrate theory of planned behavior, resource-based view, and family business literature. To date, however, an explicit and systematic integration of these perspectives cannot be found. We attempt to close this gap by explicitly investigating founding intentions of students with family business background. More specifically, we examine how the provision of human, social, and financial resources by the family affects students' desirability and feasibility perceptions, and ultimately founding intentions. Our analysis based on a sample of 14'290 students from 26 countries reveals that both desirability and feasibility perceptions mediate the relationships between all three types of resources and founding intentions. Interestingly, the provision of financial resources is negatively related to both desirability and feasibility perceptions. These findings illustrate the research potential of a combination of theory of planned behavior with the resource-based view, especially in the family business context. Our study thus offers valuable contributions to literature on career choices, theory of planned behavior, and family business, as well as to practice.

Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards: How Instructional Coaches Mediate Standards-Based Educational Reforms to Teacher Practice

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Modeling of Distributed Generation under Next Generation Interconnection Requirements

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06