The Internet from a Teletraffic Perspective:Future Directions and Challenges

The Internet from a Teletraffic Perspective:

Future Directions and Challenges

16 January 2009 (Friday) 10.30 am – 11.30 am

Lecture Theatre 25, South Spine, Basement 2, between S1 and S2

Nanyang Technological University

Speaker: Professor Moshe Zukerman

Visiting NTU as a Michael Fam Endowed Professor from the Electronic Engineering Department, City University of Hong Kong

Abstracts

This talk begins with a general overview on the growth of Internet traffic and a short tutorial on fundamental principles underpinning the effects of traffic behaviour on network performance, quality of service provision and efficiency. Considering the power constraint on Internet growth, the profile of Internet traffic and the high utilization achievable by dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), conclusion can be drawn about efficient design of telecommunications network based on increasing the role of circuit switching in the future Internet.

Biography

Professor Moshe Zukerman received his B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management and his M.Sc. in Operation Research from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of California Los Angeles in 1985. Dr. Zukerman was an independent consultant with IRI Corporation and a post-doctoral fellow at UCLA during 1985-1986. During 1986-1997 he served in Telstra Research Laboratories (TRL), first as a research engineer and between 1988-1997 as a project leader managing a team of researchers providing expert advice to Telstra on network design and traffic engineering. During 1997-2008 he was with The University of Melbourne responsible for promoting and expanding telecommunications research and teaching, first as a senior research fellow and between 2001-2008 as a professor. In Dec 2008, he joined City University of Hong Kong where he is a Chair Professor of Information Engineering and a Group Leader. He has served on the editorial boards of various journals such as IEEE JSAC, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and IEEE Communications Magazine. Prof. Zukerman has over 200 publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings, has been awarded several national and international patents, two conference best paper awards and honorary Professorships at CCNU, Wuhan; CityU, Hong Kong; and BJTU, Beijing. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and has served as a member and Chair of the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award Committee.

- wong chee tat :)

How Bed Bugs Outsmart Poisons Designed To Control Them

How Bed Bugs Outsmart Poisons Designed To Control Them

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2009) — Bed bugs, once nearly eradicated in the built environment, have made a big comeback recently, especially in urban centers such as New York City. In the first study to explain the failure to control certain bed bug populations, toxicologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Korea’s Seoul National University show that some of these nocturnal blood suckers have developed resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, in particular deltamethrin, that attack their nervous systems.


The study by senior researcher John Clark and colleagues in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology reveals that these pests have evolved to outsmart the latest generation of chemicals used to control them since DDT was banned. In providing this first look at a mechanism, the researchers summarize that diagnostic tools to detect the relevant mutation in bed bug populations have been “urgently needed for effective control and resistance management.”

Specifically, Clark and colleagues found that bed bugs in New York City have acquired mutations in their nerve cells, which blunt the neurotoxic effect of the pyrethroid toxins used against them. The mutations affect sodium channels (resembling pores) in the neurons’ outer membrane, where electrical nerve impulses are produced. In the past, these nervous system poisons could effectively paralyze and kill the bugs, but this is no longer always the case.

Resistance means mutations are acquired over time by selection with pyrethroids, so the neuronal pores no longer respond to their toxic effects. Clark and colleagues found that these pores in New York City bed bugs are now as much as 264 times more resistant to deltamethrin (Deltamethrin is toxic to humans). This means that even if treated, New York City bed bugs go on to suck blood from unsuspecting sleepers for many more nights.

The researchers are not sure how widely this resistance has spread, that is, whether the bugs that infest hotels, apartment buildings and homes in places other than New York City have developed the same type of immunity to chemical control. But as Clark states, “This type of pyrethroid resistance is common in many pest insects and the failure of the pyrethroids to control bed bug populations across the United States and elsewhere indicates that resistance is already widespread.”

For this study, the researchers collected hard-to-control bed bugs from New York City, plus easy-to-control bed bugs from an untreated colony in Florida, Clark explains. The New York population was determined to be highly resistant (264 times more resistant) to deltamethrin compared to the Florida population by contact exposure. Further, they found that resistance was not due to the increased breakdown of deltamethrin (enzymatic metabolism) by the resistant bed bugs but appeared to be due to an insensitive nervous system.

Using molecular techniques, they sequenced genes related to the sodium ion channel’s operation in both groups and identified two mutations found only in the resistant population. Similar mutations have been found in other pyrethroid-resistant insects and are likely the cause of the resistance in bed bugs, Clark and colleagues note. This helps to narrow the focus of the next set of experiments designed to reveal more about the acquired resistance.

There are several kinds of bed bugs but the one best adapted to the human environment is known in Latin as Cimex (“a bug”) lectularius (“lying down at home”), which shows how long they’ve been with us. Bed bugs arrived here with the earliest European visitors. These nocturnal pests feed about once every five to 10 days but are not thought to spread disease. They use two tubes, one to inject an anticoagulant and mild anesthetic, the other to suck blood.

- wong chee tat :)

140-year-old lobster's tale has a happy ending

140-year-old lobster's tale has a happy ending

20-pounder dubbed 'George' released into wild after restaurant spares him
George, a 140-year-old lobster, got a second shot at life after a New York restaurant agreed to release him back into the wild.

updated 1:05 p.m. ET Jan. 10, 2009

NEW YORK - A 140-year-old lobster that was destined to adorn a dinner plate is back in the ocean after a seafood restaurant in New York City granted him a reprieve.

The 20-pound crustacean, named George, was returned to the wild Saturday in a rocky cove in Kennebunkport, Maine, less than a mile from the summer home of former President George H.W. Bush.

George the lobster was transported to Maine by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which had beseeched City Crab and Seafood to allow the lobster to go free.

"We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace," said Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA spokesman Michael McGraw said the group asked the Park Avenue restaurant to return George to the Atlantic Ocean after a diner saw him at the restaurant, where steamed Maine lobster sells for $27 per pound.

The giant lobster had been caught off Newfoundland, Canada, and lived in the restaurant's tank for about 10 days before his release.

Some scientists estimate lobsters can live to be more than 100 years old. PETA and the restaurant guessed George's age at about 140, using a rule of thumb based on the creature's weight.

As long as George remains in Maine, he won't have to worry about ending his life in a pot of boiling water. Fishermen are barred from keeping lobsters that exceed the state's legal size limit.

- wong chee tat :)