Winter 2007/08

TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW
Winter 2007/08
DIMES, a TAU-led project
headed by Prof. Yuval Shavitt
of the Department of
Electrical Engineering–
Systems, is the largest of
its kind in the world for
measuring the Internet
and could improve interactive
media.
The Internet can be seen as an
enormous circle made up of layer
upon layer of networks, where the
“core” networks are located in the
center and the smaller ones on the periphery.
When private users hook up
to the Internet, their connection is often
channeled via the core networks,
regardless of the location of their own
Internet service provider. This roundabout
method can make the Internet
connection slower than connecting
to peripheral networks located in or
A More Efficient Internet
closer to their own “layer.”
Initiated by Shavitt, the DIMES
project aims to redress this problem
and make the Internet more efficient.
Findings could lead to more advanced
applications that require a fast Internet
connection, in areas such as online
gaming and video streaming.
DIMES relies on the participation
of thousands of
volunteers worldwide who
download a small program
to their home computers
that periodically sends
information on how they
are connected to the Internet
back to the TAU team. Shavitt’s
group has developed a new method
for measuring the Internet and
generated previously-unknown information
about the Internet’s topological
structure. “We want to be the
major source of Internet mapping
and to share our knowledge with the
world,” says Shavitt. DIMES findings
are already being used by leading
researchers in the field in the US
and Europe.
Diabetes and
S t r e s s
People who suffer from stress in
the workplace may be more likely to
develop Type 2 diabetes, says TAU’s
Prof. Samuel Melamed of the Sackler
Faculty of Medicine. Type 2 typically
occurs after the age of 40 and involves
excessively high sugar levels in
the body due to inadequate supplies
of insulin and to insulin resistance in
the cells.
Melamed’s research suggests that
stressful work conditions could boost
the risk of illness by a “magnitude
similar to other risk factors, such as
high body mass index, smoking and
lack of physical exercise,” he says. His
team analyzed the experiences of 677
Israeli workers from 1998 through
2003. Seventeen of the subjects developed
Type 2 diabetes during the
study period, but the team found that
those who experienced job burnout
were nearly twice as likely to develop
the disease, regardless of factors such
as age, sex and weight. In a separate
analysis designed to check for the
possible effect of blood pressure levels
among subjects, the stressed-out
employees turned out to be four and
a half times more likely to become
Type 2 diabetics.
Nonetheless, Melamed notes that
job stress may not be the only factor
involved, and that other life stresses
could also contribute to the development
of diabetes. The research was
published in the journal Psychosomatic
Medicine.
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