Abstract: An inedible and dry dormant state encapsulated probiotic core-shell particle for external, non-mucosal skin application is provided. From inside out, the core-shell particle has a structure of a carrier particle core serving as a nutrient source for probiotics, a first layer including a dormant probiotic species for affecting epidermal biome and at least one prebiotic as a food source for the probiotic, a polymer layer positioned over the first layer, and a dissolvable protective layer for protecting the probiotic core-shell particle from oxidation, heat and humidity. By co-applying with a releasing medium, the dissolvable protective layer and the polymer layer are dissolved to expose the dormant probiotic containing layer, the first layer. Further, the releasing medium also is able to activate and reconstitute the dormant probiotic to a live probiotic on the applied non-mucosal epidermal surface.

Abstract: In a large-scale video-on-demand (VOD) system, the scalability and the provision of truly interactive functions are two difficult problems which have not been resolved satisfactorily. It is easy to provide fully interactive functions using unicast streams but these systems are limited in their scalability which affect the cost of service provisioning. Batching systems based on multicast streaming, on the other hand, can increase the scalability but it is difficult to provide interactive functions on these systems. This invention provides a media delivery system having a novel architecture aiming at serving millions of users in a metropolitan area. It features hybrid multicast-unicast streaming to achieve both scalability and full interactivity through the provision of distributed interactive servers, which cached the multicast media streams generated by the media servers. The interactive servers may also provide fault tolerant routing and error recovery.

Abstract: In a large-scale video-on-demand (VOD) system, the scalability and the provision of truly interactive functions are two difficult problems which have not been resolved satisfactorily. It is easy to provide fully interactive functions using unicast streams but these systems are limited in their scalability which affect the cost of service provisioning. Batching systems based on multicast streaming, on the other hand, can increase the scalability but it is difficult to provide interactive functions on these systems. This invention provides a media delivery system having a novel architecture aiming at serving millions of users in a metropolitan area. It features hybrid multicast-unicast streaming to achieve both scalability and full interactivity through the provision of distributed interactive servers, which cached the multicast media streams generated by the media servers. The interactive servers may also provide fault tolerant routing and error recovery.