Title: Towards Intelligent Intrusion Detection Systems for Cloud Computing Author: Mohammed J Aljebreen Major Advisor: William Allen, Ph.D. Statistics presented in the background chapter show the tremendous number of security breaches that occurred in recent years. Furthermore, securing the new advanced technologies has become more challenging. Cloud computing and containers are among those emerging technologies that have introduced security challenges, and it is necessary that they be addressed. One of the main features of both cloud and container technologies is the sharing of resources of both hardware and software. The challenge becomes more complex when running containers in a cloud environment. Thus, advancing the security of container in the cloud environment is necessary, especially becasause of the lack of research in this area. This dissertation advances the current technologies for securing containers running in the cloud by proposing and implementing intelligent intrusion detection systems. Also, a data representation mechanism is proposed to speed up the process of modeling the classifiers and forming the samples. The results of the proposed systems meet the requirements of designing cloud-based intrusion detection systems and maintaining high True Positive Rates and low False Positive Rates.


Conservation laws in ideal gas dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) associated with fluid relabeling symmetries are derived using Noether's first and second theorems. Lie dragged invariants are discussed in terms of the MHD Casimirs. A nonlocal conservation law for fluid helicity applicable for a non-barotropic fluid involving Clebsch variables is derived using Noether's theorem, in conjunction with a fluid relabeling symmetry and a gauge transformation. A nonlocal cross helicity conservation law involving Clebsch potentials, and the MHD energy conservation law are derived by the same method. An Euler–Poincaré variational approach is also used to derive conservation laws associated with fluid relabeling symmetries using Noether's second theorem.


Notions of youth 'leadership', partnership or collaborating with young people as 'service users', are currently being endorsed and elaborated across a very broad spectrum of thinking, policymaking and provision. This paper
argues that if we want to understand this phenomenon, we should not look in the first instance to young people as the prime source of commentary or agency: instead, we need to understand it as a way of 'doing' – in this
instance - the arts or education differently. The paper draws on research into how one organisation, the flagship English 'creative learning' programme, Creative Partnerships, run in schools between 2002 and 2011, attempted
to 'put young people at the heart' of its work. It argues that youth leadership should be analysed as it is enacted within and through specific sites and practices, and in terms of the subjectivities, capacities and narratives it
offers to teachers, students, artists and others involved. The result is a more ambivalent account of participatory approaches, acknowledging their dilemmas as well as their achievements, and observing that they reconfigure power relations in sometimes unexpected, and sometimes all-too-familiar, ways.


Background/Aims: Idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS) is a serious and life-threatening lung complication following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) and currently no effective therapies exist. This study was designed to determine whether transplantation of allogeneic murine compact bone derived- mesenchymal stem cells (CB-MSCs) could prevent the development of IPS. Methods: We tested the effects of CB-MSCs transplantation on IPS using an established murine model of C57BL/6 (H-2b)→BALB/c (H-2d). Survival rates, body weight change, clinical GVHD scores, lung histological changes were assessed after IPS induction. Mechanistically, concentrations of cytokines (TNF-α, IFN-γ and IL-4) and chemokines (CCL5, CXCL9 and CXCL10) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from the recipient mice were measured at different time point post-transplantation. CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cell (Treg) percentage, CCR5, CXCR3 and CCR7 expression on CD3+ T cells, and lung CXCR3, CCR5, CCR7, T-bet and GATA-3 mRNA levels were also evaluated at different time point post-transplantation. Results: Co-transplantation of CB-MSCs significantly attenuated the severity of lung injuries and increased survival rate of mice compared to non-cotransplanted mice. A higher Treg percentage, reduction of TNF-α, IFN-γ, CCL5, CXCL9 and CXCL10 levels, down-regulation of CXCR3 and CCR5, as well as up-regulation of CCR7, were observed in MSCs co-transplantation mice. Also, the prophylactic effect of CB-MSCs was associated with a shift of Th1/Th2 balance toward anti-inflammatory Th2 polarization. Conclusions: Allogeneic CB-MSCs effectively controlled the occurrence of IPS due to its profound immunomodulatory capacity. This may offer a novel prophylactic approach for IPS after allo-HSCT.


We analyze credible forward guidance policies in a sticky-price model with an effective lower bound (ELB) constraint on nominal interest rates by solving a series of optimal sustainable policy problems indexed by the duration of reputational loss. Lower-for-longer policies— while effective in stimulating the economy at the ELB—are potentially time-inconsistent, as the associated overheating of the economy in the aftermath of a crisis is undesirable ex post. However, if reneging on a lower-for-longer promise leads to a loss of reputation and prevents the central bank from effectively using lower-for-longer policies in future crises, these policies can be time-consistent. We find that, even without an explicit commitment technology, the central bank can still credibly keep the policy rate at the ELB for an extended period— though not as extended under the optimal commitment policy—and meaningfully mitigate the adverse effects of the ELB constraint on economy activity. JEL: E32, E52, E61, E62, E63


The main objective of this paper is to estimate the relationship between telecommunication and the volume of trade. More specifically, we estimate the effect of improved telecommunication on bilateral trade of agricultural and non-agricultural goods among the OECD countries in each year from 1997 to 2001.The results indicate that per capita GDPs, geographical sizes, and telecommunication investments in both exporting and importing countries are significant and positively related to the value of bilateral trade between them. In agricultural trade, the investment in telecommunication in importing countries is more important than that of exporting countries. The geographical size of the exporting country is more important in agricultural trade than that of the importing country; but it is not the case in non-agricultural trade. This indicates that land is one of essential factors in agricultural trade. In non-agricultural trade, telecommunication investment of the exporting country is more important than that of the importing country. Moreover, the size of the selling market (exporting country) is more important than that of the importing country, relative to non-agricultural trade. In addition, the distance between trading countries is significant and negatively related to the bilateral trade value. The other dummy variables, representing the EU, NAFTA, common language, and common border, are also significant and positively related to bilateral trade values.


Contemporary personal mobile devices support a variety of authentication approaches, featuring different levels of security and usability. With cameras embedded in smart glasses, seamless, hands-free mobile authentication based on gaze is possible. Gaze authentication relies on knowledge as a secret, and gaze passwords are composed from a series of gaze points or gaze gestures. This paper investigates the concept of free-form mobile gaze passwords. Instead of relying on gaze gestures or points, free-form gaze gestures exploit the trajectory of the gaze over time. We collect and investigate a set of 29 different free-form gaze passwords from 19 subjects. In addition, the practical security of the approach is investigated in a study with 6 attackers observing eye movements during password input to subsequently perform spoofing. Our investigation indicates that most free-form gaze passwords can be expressed as a set of common geometrical shapes. Further, our free-form gaze authentication yields a true positive rate of 81% and a false positive rate with other gaze passwords of 12%, while targeted observation and spoofing is successful in 17.5% of all cases. Our usability study reveals that further work on the usability of gaze input is required as subjects reported that they felt uncomfortable creating and performing free-form passwords.


Robots have gained relevance in society, increasingly performing critical tasks. Nonetheless, robot security is being underestimated. Robotics security is a complex landscape, which often requires a cross-disciplinar perspective to which classical security lags behind. To address this issue, we present the Robot Security Framework (RSF), a methodology to perform systematic security assessments in robots. We propose, adapt and develop specific terminology and provide guidelines to enable a holistic security assessment following four main layers (Physical, Network, Firmware and Application). We argue that modern robotics should regard as equally relevant internal and external communication security. Finally, we advocate against "security by obscurity". We conclude that the field of security in robotics deserves further research efforts.


The Transonic Small Disturbance (TSD) Equation is a common model equation for describing subsonic and supersonic flow close to the local speed of sound (transonic). In transonic flow there is an embedded region of locally supersonic flow inside an otherwise subsonic flow. The supersonic region is usually terminated by a shock discontinuity. The success of a numerical scheme for transonic flow prediction depends on its capability of capturing all the flow details and non-linearities including sharp shock profiles without oscillations near the shock. Most of the important phenomena in the TSD equation occur in the stream-wise direction. The nonlinearity and changes in the region of influence depend only on the stream-wise derivation. A suitable one-dimensional model equation derived from the TSD Equation is used. The one-dimensional equation is written in conservation law form. This nonlinear system of equations models the transition from supersonic to subsonic flow. In the numerical calculations the discretised problem is treated as a series of Riemann problems. We will investigate various techniques for solving these Riemann problems. It will be shown that the techniques do not allow non-physical expansion shocks to develop and that the techniques smooth out expansion shocks when these non-physical shocks are present in the initial velocity profile. A comparison will be made between the schemes based on the sharpness of the resulting shock profiles.


This work, with the exception of logos, photographs and images and any other content marked with a separate copyright notice, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License The use of logos in the work is licensed for use only on non-derivative copies. Under this licence you are free to copy this work and to make derivative works as long as you give the original author credit. The copyright is owned by Nottingham Trent University.


Multi-item, multi-period production systems are prevalent in traditional production and distribution settings. A dynamic lot size production scheduling model (DLSPM) for multi-Production/inventory item multi-period production system with parallel machines is proposed in this paper. A mathematical framework that extends the DLSPM to multi-Production/inventory item-multi-period production planning constrained by storage space was built. The criteria of DLSPM explore optimal production schedule with the constraints of inventory, backlogs, production and demand to minimize the total inventory costs over finite planning horizon. Demand analogous to a typical production environment considered includes dynamic deterministic and fuzzy demand. The model was tested with both deterministic and fuzzy demand spread over ten years, for five equal planning periods, with a two Production/inventory item and two parallel machine test bed. From the various demand types, several iterations (sub problems) were generated and optimality condition was then verified. To capture the imprecision that is often inherent in the estimated future demand, demand was specified by fuzzy numbers and modeled using the triangular membership function distribution. Centre of gravity defuzzification scheme was used within finite intervals to obtain defuzzified demand. Tora Operations Research software was used to run the model using a test problem. Computational results vindicate the robustness and flexibility of the approach based on the quality of the solutions obtained.


ABSTRACT: In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of an online learning resource for introductory financial accounting students using a suite of online multiple choice questions (MCQ) for summative and formative purposes. We found that the availability and use of an online resource resulted in improved examination performance for those students who actively used the online learning resource. Further, we found a positive relationship between formative MCQ and unit content related to challenging financial accounting concepts. However, better examination performance was also linked to other factors, such as prior academic performance, tutorial participation, and demographics, including gender and attending university as an international student. JEL Classifications: I20; M41.


India's population passed one billion in 1999 and is growing by nearly 1.8% annually. The United Nations' "medium" projection has the country's population exceeding 1.5 billion in 2050 and reaching over 1.6 billion before it stabilises. 1 2 The assumptions underlying the projections can be questioned: fertility is certainly falling and this may accelerate, and the course of mortality may not be smooth. But clearly substantial growth lies ahead, and a population of 1.5 billion at some point in the next century is plausible.

One might ask how can India possibly cope? But India's population has almost trebled in the past 50 years. Perhaps a more useful question is whether the future will resemble the past. Will adding half a billion in the next 50 years be harder to manage than adding just over 650 million in the past 50?

#### Summary points

India's population has risen by 650 million in the past 50 years and could rise to 1.5 billion in the next century

Many of India's problems are due to social and economic conditions and policy failure rather than to rises in population

More environmentally friendly food production, more efficient use of water, and reduced pollution are urgently needed and for the most part affordable

The fertility decline needs to be accelerated by improving literacy and child survival and extending family planning services; there is no case for draconian measures

This article is based on background research for a three year research project on population issues in India which we have just started with other colleagues. We have used electronic literature searches and also drawn on our past research and publications.

The past five decades of population growth in India were accompanied by considerable progress. Living standards and life expectancy rose; the proportion of poor people fell from over 50% to …


Elevated expression of Bmi-1 is associated with many cancers, including breast cancer. Here, we examined the oncogenic potential of Bmi-1 in MCF10A cells, a spontaneously immortalized, nontransformed strain of human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC). Bmi-1 overexpression alone in MCF10A cells did not result in oncogenic transformation. However, Bmi-1 co-overexpression with activated H-Ras (RasG12V) resulted in efficient transformation of MCF10A cells in vitro. Although early-passage H-Ras-expressing MCF10A cells were not transformed, late-passage H-Ras-expressing cells exhibited features of transformation in vitro. Early- and late-passage H-Ras-expressing cells also differed in levels of expression of H-Ras and Ki-67, a marker of proliferation. Subsets of early-passage H-Ras-expressing cells exhibited high Ras expression and were negative for Ki-67, whereas most late-passage H-Ras-expressing cells expressed low levels of Ras and were Ki-67 positive. Injection of late-passage H-Ras-expressing cells in severe combined immunodeficient mice formed carcinomas with leiomatous, hemangiomatous, and mast cell components; these tumors were quite distinct from those induced by late-passage cells co-overexpressing Bmi-1 and H-Ras, which formed poorly differentiated carcinomas with spindle cell features. Bmi-1 and H-Ras co-overexpression in MCF10A cells also induced features of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Importantly, Bmi-1 inhibited senescence and permitted proliferation of cells expressing high levels of Ras. Examination of various growth-regulatory pathways suggested that Bmi-1 overexpression together with H-Ras promotes HMEC transformation and breast oncogenesis by deregulation of multiple growth-regulatory pathways by p16(INK4a)-independent mechanisms.


To identify desirable genotypes best suited to limited nitrogen availability based on stress selection indices, thirty wheat varieties were field tested under with (N+) and without nitrogen (N0) conditions at New Developmental Research Farm, The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan during 2013-14 crop season. Fifteen stress tolerance indices viz. tolerance index (TOL), mean productivity (MP), harmonic mean (HM), stress susceptibility index (SSI), geometric mean productivity (GMP), stress tolerance index (STI), yield index (YI), yield stability index (YSI), low nitrogen tolerance index (LNTI), nitrogen stress index (NSI), nitrogen index (NI), stress susceptibility percentage index (SSPI), modified stress tolerance index (MSTI= K1STI and K2STI), relative nitrogen index (RNI) were computed based on grain yield of each genotype under stress (N0) and non-stress (N+) conditions. Grain yield under both stress and non-stress condition had positive association with MP, GMP, HM, and STI and could be used as better indicator for screening wheat genotypes for nitrogen tolerance. In addition, TOL, SSI, LNTI, NSI, SDI, SSPI and K1STI had significant positive relationship with grain yield under non-stress, while NI had positive correlation with grain yield under stress condition. Cluster analysis showed genotypes Tatara-96, Pirsabak-05,and Shahkar-13 as tolerant, whereas, genotypes Faisalabad08, NARC-11, Aas-11-11, Khyber-87, Pirsabak-08, Punjab-11, Atta Habib, Ghaznavi-98, Saleem-2000, Sulaiman-96, Sehar-06, ARRI, and Janbaz-09 as semi tolerant and Pirsabak-04, Dharabi-11, Bathoor-08-08, Barsat-10, Watan-93, Pirsabak-13, Nowshehra-96, Amin-10, Siran-10, Pirsabak-85 and Kohat-2000 as semi susceptible. Similarly, Inqilab-91, Hasham-08 and Pak-81 as nitrogen stress sensitive. Principal component analysis (PCA) and three dimensional bi-plot partitioned genotypes into four groups. Group A included genotypesTatara-96, Shahkar-13, Pirsabak-05, Saleem-2000, Ghaznavi-98, Sehar-06, Janbaz-09 and Suleeman-96. Group-B included Khyber-87, Aas-11-11, NARC-11, Faisalabad08, Atta Habib, Punjab-11, ARRI, and Pirsabak-08. Group C included genotypes KT-2000, Pirsabak-85, Nowshehra-96, Amin-10, Siran-10, Pirsabak-13and Group D comprised genotypesInqilab-91, Hasham-08, Pak-81, Pirsabak-04, Dharabi-11, Barsat, Bathoor-08 and Watan-93. Based on multiple analysis, wheat genotypes viz.Tatara-96, Pirsabak-05, and Shahkar-13, were found tolerant to nitrogen stress and could be used as parents in hybridization scheme for development of nitrogen use efficient cultivars. Key word: Wheat, stress selection indices, nitrogen tolerance, principal component analysis.


Fanconi anemia (FA) is a recessive genetic disorder characterized by developmental defects, bone marrow failure, and cancer susceptibility. The complete set of FA genes has only been identified recently and seems to be uniquely conserved among vertebrates. Fanconi anemia proteins have been implicated in the repair of interstrand DNA crosslinks that block DNA replication and transcription. Although all thirteen FA complementation groups show similar clinical and cellular phenotypes, approximately 85% of patients presented defective FANCA, FANCC, or FANCG. The established DNA interacting components (FANCM, FANCI, FANCD2, and FANCJ) account only for approximately 5% of all FA patients, an observation that raises doubt concerning the roles of FA proteins in DNA repair. In recent years, rapid progress in the area of FA research has provided great insights into the critical roles of FA proteins in DNA repair. However, many FA proteins do not have identifiable domains to indicate how they contribute to biological processes, particularly DNA repair. Therefore, future biochemical studies are warranted to understand the biological functions of FA proteins and their implications in human diseases.


The paper presents the concept significance-effect outlined in a Peircean inspired communication model, named DynaCom. The significance effect is a communicational effect; the formal conditions for the release of the significanceeffect are the following: (1) Communication has to take place within a universe of discourse; (2) Utterer and interpreter must share collateral experience; and (3) The cominterpretant must occur. If these conditions are met the meaning of the communicated sign is likely to be correctly interpreted by the interpreter. Here, correctly means in accordance with the intentions of the utterer. The scope of the significance-effect has changed from knowledge effects caused by technical terms to emotional effects caused by lifestyle values in brands, for example.


Political Research: Methods and Practical Skills provides a practical and relevant guide to the research process for students. It equips readers with the knowledge and skills needed to evaluate research findings and successfully carry out independent study and research. Taking a helpful step-by-step approach, the chapters guide the reader through the process of asking and answering research questions and the different methods used in political research, providing practical advice on how to be critical and rigorous in both evaluating and conducting research. Topics include research design, surveys, interviewing and focus groups, ethnography and participant observation, textual analysis, quantitative analysis, bivariate analysis, and multivariate analysis. With an emphasis throughout on how research can impact important political questions and policy issues, the book equips readers with the skills to formulate significant questions and develop meaningful and persuasive answers.


OBJECTIVE To analyze the association between human leukocyte antigen (HLA) and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in the Egyptian population for the first time and, thus, to determine the frequency of risk-associated alleles identified by a genomic HLA class II typing. Egyptians are genetically classified as North Africans and considered to be between Caucasoids and Africans (closer to Caucasoids). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS HLA class II typing was performed for 50 IDDM patients and 50 healthy control subjects by a restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) technique. The analysis of position 57 of the DQB1 molecules was conducted by polymerase chain reaction and specific sequence oligonucleotide hybridization. RESULTS The frequency of DRB1*0301-DRB3*0201-DQA1*0501-DQB1*0201 haplotype was 43.9% in the IDDM patients and 7.1% in the control subjects (P < 0.00001), reflecting the increased prevalence of DQA1*0501 susceptibility allele coding for arginine (Arg) in position 52 and DQB1*0201 susceptibility allele non-coding aspartic acid (Asp) at position 57. Alleles DQB1*0601 and 0603, both carrying Asp at position 57 of the β-chain, and DQA1*0103, encoding a non-Arg 52 alpha-chain, were significantly decreased among the IDDM patients. The presence of four susceptibility residues (two DQA1 Arg 52+ and two DQB1 Asp 57−) conferred the highest relative risk at 20.2. On the other hand, homozygous genotypes for DQA1 non-Arg 52 and DQB1 Asp 57 were found only in the control group. CONCLUSIONS IDDM susceptibility and resistance in the Egyptian population is strongly associated with the expressed DQ α- and β-heterodimers in a dose-effective manner, as already defined in many different ethnic groups.


We present the development version of BmcMT—a symbolic model checker for TLA+. It finds, whether a TLA+ specification satisfies an invariant candidate by checking satisfiability of an SMT formula that encodes: (1) an execution of bounded length, and (2) preservation of the invariant candidate in every state of the execution. Our tool is still in the experimental phase, due to a number of challenges posed by TLA+ semantics to SMT solvers. We will discuss these challenges and our current approach to them in the talk. Our preliminary experiments show that BmcMT scales better than the standard TLA+ model checker TLC for large parameter values, e.g., when a TLA+ specification models a system of 10 processes, though TLC is more efficient for tiny parameters, e.g., when the system has 3 processes.

We believe that early feedback from the TLA+ community will help us to focus on the most important language features and improve our tool.


Holocene reactivation of the aseismic Meers fault in southwestern Oklahoma illustrates the limitation of using the historical seismic record for identifying hazardous faults in the central United States. The 26- to 37-km-long fault scarp is one of the few known scamps recording Holocene movement in the central and eastern United States. Two documented late Holocene slip events, each with about 2.5 m of net slip and estimated M s ranging from 6¾ to 7¼, identify the Meers fault as a potentially hazardous fault. During Carboniferous and Early Permian tectonism, the Meers fault displaced rocks of sharply contrasting magnetic properties. Analysis of aeromagnetic data and twelve ground-magnetic profiles provides a detailed look at the fault within the magnetic basement. Because subsequent reactivation has been minor and of an opposite sense, the pronounced magnetic anomaly associated with the Meers fault reflects Paleozoic structures in the magnetic basement. The location of the Holocene fault scarp corresponds to the strong horizontal magnetic gradient caused by Paleozoic offset of magnetic basement, indicating that the Paleozoic fault controlled Holocene displacement. Two features apparent in both sets of magnetic data are splays of the Meers fault northwest of the Holocene scarp and dikelike bodies immediately south of the fault. Magnetic susceptibility measurements and rock magnetic data from unoriented core penetrating a dikelike body were incorporated into models of the ground-magnetic profiles. In most cases, secondary faults mapped or visible on low-sun-angle photographs correspond to faults modeled from magnetic data. This correlation shows that preexisting structures probably controlled secondary faulting. However, secondary faults at the southeastern end of the 26-km long continuous fault scarp, previously interpreted from low-sun-angle photography, are not apparent in the magnetic data. Of importance to seismic hazard evaluation, the magnetic models show that the northwestern splays probably begin at the northwestern end of the reactivated segment and may indicate a persistent rupture propagation barrier to the west. In addition, the models show the dip of the Meers fault to be nearly vertical to about 0.5 km depth. This dip is consistent with the nearly straight fault trace, results of trenching studies, interpretation of shallow seismicreflection data, and regional gravity and aeromagnetic models. In the present-day strike-slip regional stress field, the observed up-to-the-north Holocene displacement suggests that either the fault continues to dip steeply at depth or the regional stress field is approaching a normal-faulting stress regime. If the former is true, the scarcity of near-vertical faults with similar orientation within the area of the southern Oklahoma aulacogen implies that few are likely candidates for reactivation.


Understanding the magnetic anomaly in terms of the subsurface causative source plays a pivotal role in mineral exploration as well as in other geological applications. Automatic modeling of such isolated profile data is still rising, and fundamental improvements are needed in analyzing the association of subsurface rocks with the magnetic anomaly in terms of various independent model parameters. Here, we propose a MATLAB-based simulated annealing algorithm to simplify the interpretation process of magnetic anomalies. The performance of the adopted approach over various synthetic models of simple geometries like spheres, dikes, sills, and prisms is analyzed with and without contaminated noise. These geometries are widely used for some specific types of ore bodies such as iron, base metals, and mineralization such as skarns, massive sulfides, etc. Finally, two different real deposits of Chromite Ore and Uranium Ore are taken along with their magnetic anomalies to interpret their subsurface geometries in terms of model parameters. The estimated structures are verified to have a great affinity with the structures obtained in previously published works of literature. Furthermore, the present computational algorithm provides a user-friendly approach without any computational difficulties with minimum cost.


Many systems must operate in the presence of bounded perturbations. In this paper we present a new robustness result for nonlinear systems. We use this result to show that for bounded perturbations, a simple adaptive controller with leakage can produce output regulation to a neighborhood with radius dependent upon the size of the perturbation. This regulation occurs in the presence of persistent disturbances and the convergence is exponential.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Here we review the rheumatologic and autoimmune features of primary immune deficiencies with a focus on recently recognized genetic diseases, the spectrum of autoimmunity in PID, and targeted therapies.

RECENT FINDINGS
Primary immune deficiencies (PIDs) were initially described as genetic diseases of the immune system leading to susceptibility to infection. It is now well recognized that immune dysfunction and dysregulation also cause noninfectious complications including autoimmunity. The increased application of molecular testing for PID has revealed the diversity of clinical disease. Recent discoveries of diseases with prominent autoimmunity include activated phosphoinositide 3-kinase δ syndrome and PIDs caused by gain-of-function in STAT1 and STAT3. Similarly, identification of larger cohorts of patients with molecular diagnoses in more common PIDs, such as common variable immune deficiency (CVID), has led to increased understanding of the range of autoimmunity in PIDs. Understanding the molecular basis of these PIDs has the potential to lead to targeted therapy to treat associated autoimmunity.

SUMMARY
Autoimmunity and rheumatologic disease can be presenting symptoms and/or complicating features of primary immunodeficiencies. Evaluation for PIDs in patients who have early-onset, multiple, and/or atypical autoimmunity can enhance diagnosis and therapeutic options.


As hunter-gatherers, it is unlikely that humans evolved psychological tendencies to extend high levels of concern for predator or prey species. Our coalitional psychology, which evolved to regulate human interactions with other humans, might be the basis for the extension of ethical concerns to non-humans. This research identified three variables (kinship, reciprocity, and conscious deliberation) that affect our altruistic tendencies toward humans and tested them to see if they also affected our concern toward non-humans. Using a sample of 119 respondents from participants at animal auctions, the researchers compared levels of concern to: perceived the animals as family; received benefits from the animals; and/or consciously contemplated appropriate levels of concern. The data supported the hypotheses that concerns rise when animals are re-categorized as kin and/or when individuals have previously considered appropriate levels of concern, but it did not support the hypothesized connection between concern and reciprocity.


The basic of programming is a very crucial competency for bachelor students in Information T echnology major. However in reality many students find it difficult to understand the basic principles of programming due to the gap between high school curriculum and bachelor degree curriculum. These difficulties faced by students also worsened by the instant life style happened nowadays where many students expect to see fast result first, before they gain interest in knowing the process. Game-Based Learning adds fun factors when learning programming subjects so that students will gain more interest and resulting in deeper understanding of programming concept compared to conventional methods. This paper describes the experience of Department of Information T echnology at Ciputra University in applying Game-Based Learning for Object Oriented Programming subject using Alice and statistical data of informal observations are summarized to show evidence of student performance as a result of this learning.


Career centers in South Korean universities have evolved to meet the career needs of college students and societal changes. The rapid increase in unemployment rates in the recent 20 years has heightened the importance of university career centers, yet a systematic career service model has not been devised to reflect the diverse career needs of college students. This article investigates the current situation of service delivery of university career centers in South Korea. A total of 15 career centers responded to the questions about how often they provided specific career services and how important each service was in their service delivery. Results showed that the career centers focused more on career placement than career exploration services. Also, there were discrepancies between the most frequently offered services and the most important services. Based on the results, future tasks for career centers are discussed in terms of the balance between career exploration and placement services, staff expertise, technology use, and tailored programs for specialized career fields.


Wireless sensor networks are poised to revolutionize our abilities in sensing and controlling our environment. Power conservation is a primary research concern for these networks. Often, the single most important savings can be obtained by switching off the wireless receiver when not needed. In this paper, we describe an algorithm which allows the nodes to learn the behavior of each other by only observing the transmission behaviors, and from this derive the schedule without external help. Our approach is robust to statistical variations in the nodal transmission periods. We draw important conclusions on the effect of quasi-periodicity on the scalability of the solution. We provide results of numerical simulations that show the effectiveness of our approach.


Abstract In this paper we ask how a shrinking city responds when faced with a perforated urban fabric. Drawing on Manchester's response to its perforated eastern flank —and informed by a parallel study of Leipzig—we use the city's current approach to critique urban regeneration policy in England. Urban renaissance holds out the promise of delivering more sustainable—that is more compact, more inclusive and more equitable—cities. However, the Manchester study demonstrated that the attempt to stem population loss from the city is at best fragile, despite a raft of policies now in place to support urban renaissance in England. It is argued here that Manchester like Leipzig is likely to face an ongoing battle to attract residents back from their suburban hinterlands. This is especially true of the family market that we identify as being an important element for long-term sustainable population growth in both cities. We use the case of New East Manchester to consider how discourses linked to urban renaissance—particularly those that link urbanism with greater densities—rule out some of the options available to Leipzig, namely, managing the long-term perforation of the city. We demonstrate that while Manchester is inevitably committed to the urban renaissance agenda, in practice New East Manchester demonstrates a far more pragmatic—but equally unavoidable—approach. This we attribute to the gap between renaissance and regeneration described by Amin et al. (Cities for the Many Not for the Few. Bristol: Policy Press, 2000) who define the former as urbanism for the middle class and the latter as urbanism for the working class. While this opportunistic approach may ultimately succeed in producing development on the ground, it will not address the fundamental, and chronic, problem; the combination of push and pull that sees families relocating to suburban areas. Thus, if existing communities in East Manchester are to have their area buoyed up—or sustained—by incomers, and especially families, with greater levels of social capital and higher incomes urban policy in England will have to be challenged.


(01/01/2019) A study of SEC chromatograms on the basis of polymer structure properties Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC), widely used in polymer laboratories, provides a convenient method for the determination of full molecular weight distribution (MWD) of polymers. For linear homogeneous polymer samples, the procedure to estimate the true MWD based on the elution curve of SEC has already been well established, while for nonlinear polymer samples and mixtures of linear and nonlinear polymers, the measured SEC data are often used just qualitatively. The SEC separation process is rather complicated, and a detailed study using finite element method and/or Brownian Dynamics simulation technique is rather difficult without oversimplifying the problem dramatically. However, it has been known for long that SEC separates polymer molecules according to their size in dilute solutions, and experimental studies with well-defined linear and nonlinear polymer samples have shown that a universal curve may exist between the SEC retention volume and polymer structure properties such as hydrodynamic volume, hydrodynamic radius and radius of gyration. Those structure properties can be determined by intrinsic viscosity measurement, dynamic and static light scattering respectively, and the measured values are often certain statistical averages weighted by all the polymers present in the sample. On the other hand, those structure properties and many others can be reasonably estimated by computer simulation techniques such as random walk simulations, self avoiding walk simulations or detailed Monte Carlo simulations. Such calculations can be performed for polymer molecules with almost any kind of chain architectures, and can therefore be formulated into a model in the study of SEC chromatograms of complex polymer samples within the framework of universal calibration strategies. In this study, such a model is formulated and several experimentally obtained SEC chromatographs will be reinvestigated in detail.


For degraded coral reef systems with limited larval supply, active restoration techniques may provide a means of replenishing adult coral populations. Settling or seeding large numbers of sexually-produced larvae directly onto denuded substrate is a potential restoration tool that can eliminate the costs associated with rearing coral spat in culturing facilities. However, the long-term potential to enhance recruitment using seeding techniques has generally been limited due to high post-settlement mortality. Using the brooding coral Porites astreoides (Lamarck, 1816), we explored two potential strategies-choosing favorable substrate communities and caging recently settled spat-to enhance early post-settlement survival during seeding efforts. Larvae were collected from adult colonies in the laboratory and, once competent to settle, were seeded directly onto the reef substrate. Settled spat were individually mapped and monitored using fluorescence techniques, and found to have a low survivorship with <3%-15% surviving after 1 mo, and <1% after 5 mo. Techniques to enhance survival, including choice of substrate and post-settlement caging, did not significantly influence the high rates of natural mortality. These results underscore the general lack of knowledge regarding the major factors that drive the magnitude of early post-settlement mortality, and future identification of these mortality factors may lead to suitable techniques to enhance survival in seeding efforts.


A new molecular quantum topological index QT was constructed by molecular topological methods and quantum mechanics (QM), which together with Gibbs free energy(G), Constant volume mole hot melting(CV) that were calculated by density functional theory (DFT) at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level of theory for mercaptans. Index QT can not only efficiently distinguish molecular structures of mercaptans, but also possess good applications of QSPR/QSAR (quantitative structure-property/activity relationships). And most of the correlation coefficients of the models were over 0.99. The LOO CV (leave-one-out cross-validation) method was used to testify the stability and predictive ability of the models. The validation results verified the good stability and predictive ability of the models employing the cross-validation parameters: RCV, SCV and FCV, which demonstrated the wide potential of the index QT for applications to QSPR/ QSAR.


Crowdfunding is a way to raise funds for a specific cause or project by asking a large number of people to donate money, usually in small amounts. Crowdfunding is done online, often with social networks, which make it easy for supporters to share a cause or project cause with their social networks. Fundraising is the process of collecting money as donations for a cause from individuals and businesses. A person who raises the money from them is known as a fundraiser. It was usually used to gather money for non-profit organizations. Some crowdfunding platforms are Kickstarter, GoFundMe, Crowd funder, Charitable, Indiegogo etc. These causes may include anything, from helping a group of people who get injured in a war, support the religious causes and support those people who suffer from natural calamities. Even allowing the different users to collaborate for the causes. As the organization promise the natural calamities victims to give financial and material help from the localities but they can't do anything for the victim as they say. So the main objective of this platform that user get assurance from organisations work as they promised to user. And to eradicate completely the need of middlemen. Allowing the sponsorship and educational institute to collaborate various sponsors or host volunteers on the platform .It means creating only one platform for the user and it will be trustworthy for them with assurity and in secure way.  The motive is to develop an application that runs on IOS and Android devices along with all browser compatible web portals.


Abstract 2407 Poster Board II-384 Introduction: Although sarcoidosis is far from being a classical cause of secondary-immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), isolated thrombocytopenia may occur during the course of the disease. To better assess the main characteristics and outcome of patients with a sarcoidosis-associated ITP, a survey was initiated throughout the French study group on sarcoidosis and the national referral center for adult9s immune cytopenias. The data of the 20 first cases are reported. Patients and Methods: To be included, all patients had to fulfil the following criteria: 1) Definite diagnosis of sarcoidosis according to the standard international criteria (Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1999; 736-55) and 2) Presence of an immune thrombocytopenia according to the ASH criteria twith platelet count below 100 × 109/L on at least two separate occasions 2 weeks. Drug-induced thrombocytopenia were excluded as well as patients with a hypogammaglobulinemia suggesting a underlying common variable immunodeficiency (CVI) and thrombocytopenia related to hypersplenism. All clinical and biological data were reviewed and analyzed by the same investigator by using a standard form. A complete response (CR) was defined as sustained (> 3months) platelet count > 100 × 109/L with at least a twofold increase for baseline. A partial response (PR) was defined as a platelet count 30×109/L or more and at least twice the initial value. Results: Twenty patients (50% men) were included. Median age at ITP diagnosis was 37.5 years (21 to 83) and median age at sarcoidosis diagnosis was 36 yrs (10 to 83). In 4 patients, ITP preceded the diagnosis of sarcoidosis (median: 67.5 months; 15 to 153). In 11 patients (55%), ITP occurred in the course of prior diagnosed sarcoidosis with a median of 48 mths (6 to 216), and concomitantly with the diagnosis of sarcoidosis in 5 patients (25%). In 13 patients (65%), an active localization of sarcoidosis was present at the diagnosis of ITP. Median platelet count at onset was 11×109/L (3 to 90) and nadir platelet count was 10×109/L (1 to 60). Seven patients (35%) had severe (mucosal) bleeding manifestations and a bleeding score ≥ 8 (described by Khellaf et al). Regarding sarcoidosis, during the follow up, 17 patients (85%) had thoracic involvement, and an extra-thoracic involvement was found in 14 patients (70%) including: eye (n=7), liver (n=5), sinus (n=4), peripheral lymph nodes (n=4), skin (n=3), salivary gland (n=2), spleen (n=1) and kidney (n=1). Nineteen out of the 20 patients were treated specifically for their secondary ITP. After the first line therapy (prednisone at 1mg/kg/day for at least 3 consecutive weeks in all patients associated with IVIg in 10 patients), 12/19 (63%) patients achieved a complete response (CR), 6 a partial response (PR) (32%) and only 1 patient failed to respond. The course of ITP was chronic in 4 patients, among them 2 underwent splenectomy and achieved a CR and 2 were treated with Rituximab (375mg/m2, 4 infusions) and achieved a PR at one year. After a median follow up of 70 months (12 to142), 18 patients (90%) were in CR and 2 in PR with chronic ITP. Eight patients were in remission off therapy whereas 12 patients (60%) were still on corticosteroids at time of analysis with a median dose of 10mg/day (5 to 30). During the follow-up period, 11 patients (55%) had a relapse or flare of sarcoidosis (intra thoracic in 5 patients, extra-thoracic in 6 patients). In 2 patients, a simultaneous relapse of both sarcoidoisis and associated-ITP was observed. Comments: Our preliminary data suggest that the association of sarcoidosis and ITP is not fortuitous and that sarcoidosis should be considered as a potential cause of secondary ITP. ITP in this setting is frequently initially severe and symptomatic and therefore requiring treatment. The overall response rate to treatments commonly used in primary ITP is however good and the long term outcome is favorable suggesting that patients with sarcoidosis-associated ITP should be managed as patients with primary ITP. In contrast, relapse of sarcoidosis is frequent and frequently affect extra-thoracic sites. That a majority of the patients had an active and/or relapsing sarcoidosis during the course of ITP suggests that granuloma may be a predisposing condition for triggering autoimmunity and especially ITP as observed in some cases of CVI-associated immune thrombocytopenia. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Author(s): Egerer, Monika H | Advisor(s): Philpott, Stacy M | Abstract: This dissertation examines the local and landscape drivers of biodiversity, ecosystem service provisioning and human well-being in urban agricultural systems (agroecosystems). I explore three major themes: 1) urban biodiversity and ecosystem services; 2) climate change, water management and sustainability; and 3) urban gardens as socioecological systems. In an interdisciplinary approach, I use quantitative and qualitative methods in natural and social systems.In the first section, I examine the local and landscape scale drivers of biodiversity and pest control within urban gardens. I focus on the abundance and species richness of ladybird beetles – an important and mobile natural enemy of garden pests. I measure ladybeetle diversity within gardens, and experimentally test factors predicted to influence ladybeetle fidelity to gardens. I find that ladybeetle dispersal is higher from gardens in more impervious landscapes, albeit overall high taxonomic richness supported by these habitats. In comparison to other contexts, these results may be unique to California due to water availability maintained through garden irrigation.In the second section, I investigate how gardens become irrigated oases in an otherwise drought landscape. I use citizen science to collect water use data and ask how environmental concern and water governance are affecting water use behavior by gardeners. I also investigate how climate variability and increasing extremes influence water management and plant species cultivated in gardens. I find that gardeners lack an understanding of water use, are responding to weather patterns by changing watering behavior, and that garden rules can limit water use. Moreover, research participation can improve gardeners' water conservation literacy. This work informs our understanding of how climate change may impact urban agriculture sustainability and alludes to the socioecological complexity of gardens.In the third section, I focus on the social aspects of urban gardens and their management. I show that gardens provide many well-being benefits to gardeners, and are used more by people in urban areas. Yet I explain that there are crucial issues that undermine social and ecological sustainability in these gardens: the resources that create a habitat for biodiversity dually create social-political rifts within gardener communities. Gardens, and their biophysical and social elements, are relatively novel in the scope of contemporary land use transformations.In summary, I show that urban gardens are sites of biodiversity, climate challenges, and social-ecological complexity that add to urban novelty. Using our understanding of complexity can inform management to improve urban and agricultural sustainability.


Extending commercial tools for variability management is the problem addressed in this paper. IBM Rational DOORS is a well accepted tool in the area of requirements engineering and supports an Application Programming Interface (API) called DOORS extension Language (DXL). In this contribution we present a way of extending DOORS for product line requirements engineering based on a DXL plug-in called metadoc feature modeler. Established concepts in the community such as feature diagrams, instantiation of feature models, automatic deficit analysis and issue-based variability are introduced into DOORS. These concepts are abstracted using the DOORS meta-model. As DOORS is directly extended using new components, no special synchronizers are required between feature modeling environment and DOORS (which is a difference with respect to traditional feature modeling tools). We share our experience in using the feature modeler at a medium-sized company.


SARS-CoV-2 is a member of the family of coronaviruses. The first cases were recorded in Wuhan, China, between December 2019 and January 2020. Italy is one of the most affected countries in Europe. COVID-19 is a new challenge in modern dentistry. New guidelines are required in dental clinics to avoid contagion caused by cross-infections. A narrative review was performed using both primary sources, such as scientific articles and secondary ones, such as bibliographic indexes, web pages, and databases. The main search engines were PubMed, SciELO, and Google Scholar. Twelve articles were selected to develop the bibliographic review by applying pre-established inclusion and exclusion criteria. Precautionary measures should be applied to control COVID-19 in clinical practice. Several authors have highlighted the importance of telephone triage and/or clinic questionnaires, body temperature measurement, usage of personal protective equipment, surface disinfection with ethanol between 62% and 71%, high-speed instruments equipped with an anti-retraction system, four-handed work, and large-volume cannulas for aspiration. Clinically, the use of a rubber dam is essential. FFP2 (or N95) and FFP3 respirators, if compared to surgical masks, provide greater protection for health workers against viral respiratory infections. Further accurate studies are needed to confirm this.


The visual acuity, the difference in sensitivity of the two eyes to light (brightness ratio), and contrast sensitivity were assessed in 28 patients with chronic open angle glaucoma and compared with those of 41 normal controls of similar ages and visual acuity. The results obtained were related to the results of Tübingen visual field analysis in patients with glaucoma. Twenty-four of the 28 glaucoma patients (86%) had a significant disparity in brightness ratio between the two eyes. This was found to match the frequency of visual field loss. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the interocular differences in brightness sense and the difference in the degree of visual field loss between the two eyes. Of the glaucoma patients 39% had sum contrast sensitivities outside the normal range for age-matched normal controls. No significant correlation was found between the interocular difference in brightness sense and the visual acuity or the interocular difference in sum contrast sensitivity. It is concluded that, in the presence of a normal visual acuity, the brightness ratio test warrants evaluation as a potential screening test for chronic open angle glaucoma.


The analysis of work-related accidents is important for accident surveillance and prevention. Current methods of analysis seek to overcome reductionist views that see these occurrences as simple events explained by operator error. The objective of this paper is to analyze the Model of Analysis and Prevention of Accidents (MAPA) and its use in monitoring interventions, duly highlighting aspects experienced in the use of the tool. The descriptive analytical method was used, introducing the steps of the model. To illustrate contributions and or difficulties, cases where the tool was used in the context of service were selected. MAPA integrates theoretical approaches that have already been tried in studies of accidents by providing useful conceptual support from the data collection stage until conclusion and intervention stages. Besides revealing weaknesses of the traditional approach, it helps identify organizational determinants, such as management failings, system design and safety management involved in the accident. The main challenges lie in the grasp of concepts by users, in exploring organizational aspects upstream in the chain of decisions or at higher levels of the hierarchy, as well as the intervention to change the determinants of these events.


North China Plain is one of the most important grain-producing areas in China. Because of unevenly distributed precipitation in this semi-arid area, crop production largely relies on underground blue water (UBW) to irrigate, overexploitation of which causes a lot of environmental problems. In this paper, we first defined the representative division of winter wheat irrigation water production efficiency with a support vector machine and genetic algorithm coupling algorithm, then established a model for evaluating the comparative advantage of UBW production efficiency by combining the effective precipitation with the UBW depth, calculated its value in each city, and further proposed the reasonable irrigation water requirement and its distribution under different grain reserves at the targeting year. The result showed that when the typical precipitation ( P ) is 25% in a targeting year, there is no need to irrigate with UBW; when P = 50%, supplying 5% of total winter wheat production (TWP) could save 15% of UBW; when P = 75%, supplying 5% of TWP could save 11% of UBW; and when P = 75%, supplying 10% of TWP could save up to 28% of UBW.


We demonstrate lensless imaging of three-dimensional phantoms of fluorescent nanodiamonds in solution. Magnetofluorescence imaging is employed, which relies on a dependence of the fluorescence yield on the magnetic field, and pervading the object with an inhomogeneous magnetic field. This field provides a field-free field line, which is rastered through the object. A 3D image of the object is obtained by imaging a set of 2D slices. Each 2D slice image is computed from a set of 1D projections, obtained under different projection directions, using a backprojection algorithm. Reconstructed images containing up to 36 × 36 × 8 voxels are obtained. A spatial resolution better than 2 mm is achieved in three dimensions. The approach has the potential for scalability.


The peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) was studied in 20 matched pairs of children with homozygous sickle cell disease with either no episodes or six or more episodes of acute chest syndrome. The pairs were carefully matched for height and a highly significant reduction in PEFR was observed in children with multiple episodes of acute chest syndrome. Lateral and anteroposterior chest diameters and chest circumference correlated with PEFR but did not differ between index and control cases. The most likely cause of the reduced PEFR in children with multiple episodes of acute chest syndrome is an accumulating pulmonary fibrosis that decreases lung compliance.