One of the major concerns of IPTV network deployment is channel change delay (also known as zapping delay). This delay can add up to 2 s or more, and its main culprits are synchronisation and buffering of the media streams. Proving the importance of the problem is the already significant amount of literature addressing it. We start this paper with a survey of techniques proposed to reduce IPTV ...

A Video-on-Demand (VOD) system delivers videos on demand over an installed network. Due to the large size of digitized videos, expensive video servers with high I/O capability are needed in order to provide VoD services in metropolitan areas. In addition, there is a great need for efficient networking distribution/interaction schemes so that the video servers can serve as many clients as possib...

Pervasive coverage and continuous connectivity of Mobile Broadband (MBB) networks are common goals for regulators and operators. Given the increasing heterogeneity of technologies in the last mile of MBB networks, further support for seamless connectivity across multiple network types relies on understanding the prevalent network coverage profiles that capture different available technologies i...

With the increasing prevalence of versatile mobile devices and the fast deployment of broadband mobile networks, a huge volume of Mobile Broadband (MBB) data have been generated over time. The MBB data naturally contain rich information of a large number of mobile users, covering a considerable fraction of whole population nowadays, including the mobile applications they are using at different ...

This extended abstract describes a new platform for robotic manipulation research that was inspired by some of the first toys that human infants learn to manipulate. It summarizes the results of our existing research on pressing buttons and formulates some ideas for future work. Motivation and Inspiration Figure 1: My son in his Baby Gym. When my son was growing up I noticed that it took him al...

Genes encoding angiotensin-converting enzymes (Ace and Ace2) are essential for heart function regulation. Cardiac stress enhances Ace, but suppresses Ace2, expression in the heart, leading to a net production of angiotensin II that promotes cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis. The regulatory mechanism that underlies the Ace2-to-Ace pathological switch, however, is unknown. Here we report that the ...

During Epstein-Barr virus latent infection of B lymphocytes in vitro, six viral nuclear antigens (EBNAs) are expressed from one of two promoters, Cp or Wp, whose activities are mutually exclusive. Upon infection, Wp is initially active, followed by a switch to Cp for the duration of latency. In this study, the region upstream of Cp was analyzed for the presence of cis elements involved in regul...

A crucial step in adapting to urban habitat is switching to novel, often man-made, resources. Switching to a novel resource can influence the dynamics of species coexistence, particularly if it alters trade-offs in performance. While such switches are frequently documented, their influence on species coexistence has been difficult to assess because it requires knowledge of performance trade-off...

In this paper the simulation and design of a quantum-film electro-optic switch is considered. This photonic device, is made from a new organic dipolar material called MNA or 2-methyl-4 nitroaniline, which possesses a high merit in comparison with it's inorganic counterparts (e.g. LiNbO3, GaAs, InSb, Quartz, etc). Montecarlo method is used to simulate the photon-it-electron interaction in this m...