Reducing Flow Table Update Costs in Software-Defined Networking.

In software-defined networking (SDN), the traffic forwarding delay highly depends on the latency associated with updating the forwarding rules in flow tables. With the increase in fine-grained flow control requirements, due to the flexible control capabilities of SDN, more rules are being inserted and removed from flow tables. Moreover, the matching fields of these rules might overlap since multiple control domains might generate different rules for similar flows. This overlap implies dependency relationships among the rules, imposing various restrictions on forwarding entries during updates, e.g., by following update orders or storing entries at specified locations, especially in flow tables implemented using ternary content addressable memory (TCAM); otherwise, mismatching or packet dropping will occur. It usually takes a while to resolve and maintain dependencies during updates, which hinders high forwarding efficiency. To reduce the delay associated with updating dependent rules, in this paper, we propose an updating algorithm for TCAM-based flow tables. We formulate the TCAM maintenance process as an NP-hard problem and analyze the inefficiency of existing moving approaches. To solve the problem, we propose an optimal moving chain for single rule updates and provide theoretical proof for its minimum moving steps. For multiple rules arriving at a switch simultaneously, we designed a dynamic approach to update concurrent entries; it is able to update multiple rules heuristically within a restricted TCAM region. As the update efficiency concerns dependencies among rules, we evaluate our flow table by updating algorithms with different dependency complexities. The results show that our approach achieves about 6% fewer moving steps than existing approaches. The advantage is more pronounced when the flow table is heavily utilized and rules have longer dependency chains.

Lower haemoglobin-to-red blood cell distribution width ratio is independently associated with frailty in community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: The importance of blood cell markers in frailty has been studied. However, research on haemoglobin-to-red blood cell distribution width ratio (HRR) and frailty in older persons is still limited. We investigated the association between HRR and frailty in older adults. DESIGN: Cross-sectional population-based study. SETTING: Community-dwelling older adults older than 65 years were recruited from September 2021 to December 2021. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1296 community-dwelling older adults (age ≥65 years) in Wuhan were included in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcome was the presence of frailty. The Fried Frailty Phenotype Scale was used to evaluate the frailty status of the participants. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between HRR and frailty. RESULTS: A total of 1296 (564 men) older adults were included in this cross-sectional study. Their mean age was 70.89±4.85 years. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that HRR is a good predictor of frailty in older people, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.802 (95% CI: 0.755 to 0.849), and the highest sensitivity was 84.5% and the specificity was 61.9% with the optimal critical values 9.97 (p<0.001). Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that lower HRR (<9.97) (OR: 3.419, 1.679 to 6.964, p=0.001) is independently associated with frailty in older people, even after adjusting confounding factors. CONCLUSION: Lower HRR is closely associated with an increased risk of frailty in older people. Lower HRR may be an independent risk factor for frailty in community-dwelling older adults.

Comprehensive analysis of the tumor-promoting effect and immune infiltration correlation MAZ from pan-cancer to hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Myc-associated zinc-finger protein (MAZ) is a transcription factor, which has been confirmed to be abnormally expressed in many tumors and involved in regulating the proliferation, migration, apoptosis, and autophagy of tumor cells. Currently, there is a lack of comprehensive analysis of MAZ in pan-cancer, and the mechanism of MAZ in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its association with immunotherapy remains unclear. METHODS: The expression, prognostic mutation, sCNA, and tumor immunity characteristics of MAZ in 33 types of tumors were analyzed by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), GEPIA, and TIMER databases. The association of MAZ expression levels with drug sensitivity, immunotherapy, immune checkpoints, and HLA-associated genes was further analyzed. Transwell, CCK-8, wound healing, and flow cytometry verified that MAZ affected the malignant cell behavior of HCC. The signaling pathways and cellular functions affected by MAZ in HCC were revealed by GSEA enrichment analysis. RESULTS: The expression level of MAZ was up-regulated, and the high expression of MAZ indicated a high-risk prognostic factor in most tumors, including ACC, BLCA, KIRP, LIHC, PRAD, SKCM, and THCA (p < 0.05). MAZ expression was positively correlated with the sensitivity of most chemotherapy drugs (p < 0.05). HLA-DQB2, HLA-H, and most immune checkpoint genes were remarkably up-regulated in the high MAZ expression group (p < 0.05). GSEA analysis revealed that MAZ expression was highly correlated with the intracellular immune-related functions and cancer-related signaling pathway, including the B cell receptor signaling pathway, complement activation, humoral immune response, TGF-ß signaling pathway, and Wnt signaling pathway. The overexpression of MAZ in HCC cells could promote the abilities of cell proliferation and migration and inhibit tumor cell apoptosis. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that MAZ might play a role in promoting the progression of HCC. It was closely related to the tumor microenvironment, immune cell infiltration, and immune escape in pan-cancer. Moreover, this study provides new insights into MAZ as a prognostic marker and potential therapeutic target in HCC.

Hydrophobicity of Polyacrylate Emulsion Film Enhanced by Introduction of Nano-SiO2 and Fluorine.

This study proposes to utilize modified Nano-SiO2/fluorinated polyacrylate emulsion that was synthesized with a semi-continuous starved seed emulsion polymerization to improve the hydrophobicity, thermal stability, and UV-Vis absorption of polyacrylate emulsion film. To verify the proposed method, a series inspection had been conducted to investigate the features of the emulsion film. The morphological analysis indicated that Nano-SiO2 was surrounded by a silane molecule after modification, which can efficiently prevent silica nanoparticles from aggregating. Fourier transform infrared spectra confirmed that modified SiO2 and dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate (DFMA) were successfully introduced to the copolymer latex. The particle size of latex increased with the introduction of modified Nano-SiO2 and DFMA. UV-Vis absorption spectra revealed that modified silicon nanoparticles can improve the ultraviolet shielding effect obviously. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy illustrated that the film⁻air interface was richer in fluorine than film section and the glass side. The contact angle of modified Nano-SiO2/fluorinated polyacrylate emulsion containing 3 wt % DFMA was 112°, slightly lower than double that of polyacrylate emulsion, indicating composite emulsion films possess better hydrophobicity. These results suggest that introducing modified Nano-SiO2 and fluorine into polyacrylate emulsion can significantly enhance the thermal stability of emulsion films.