Treatment failures of cefotaxime and latamoxef in meningitis caused by Enterobacter and Serratia spp

Despite the apparent success of several new cephalosporins in the treatment of Gram-negative bacterial meningitis, four treatment failures with cefotaxime or latamoxef were encountered (two caused by Enterobacter and two by Serratia spp.). In-vitro parameters of susceptibility of these clinical isolates were compared with those of a meningeal Ent. cloacae isolate from a successfully treated patient. The MIC and MBC values, degrees of inoculum effect, and amounts of β-lactamase produced correlated poorly with the observed clinical outcome. However, the extent to which an isolate was killed by the cephalosporin used for treatment, in a 6-h in-vitro incubation, showed good correlation. We suggest that such a test should be used to predict clinical outcome of therapy because the other parameters such as the MIC and MBC values are not sufficiently discriminator

Measuring Information Leakage in Website Fingerprinting Attacks and Defenses

Tor provides low-latency anonymous and uncensored network access against a local or network adversary. Due to the design choice to minimize traffic overhead (and increase the pool of potential users) Tor allows some information about the client's connections to leak. Attacks using (features extracted from) this information to infer the website a user visits are called Website Fingerprinting (WF) attacks. We develop a methodology and tools to measure the amount of leaked information about a website. We apply this tool to a comprehensive set of features extracted from a large set of websites and WF defense mechanisms, allowing us to make more fine-grained observations about WF attacks and defenses.Comment: In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS '18

Circularity and decarbonization in steel plants: valorization of waste streams for bio-char production

openSteel plants are large emitters of greenhouse gases due to their high-power demand and the necessity to include a carbon source in the production process, being steel an alloy of Fe and C; therefore, they fall into the hard-to-abate category. This thesis explores the feasibility and challenges of the substitution of electrical arc furnace (EAF) steel plants fossil coal by employing a carbonaceous man-made and renewable material called hydrochar, produced coupling waste streams with an innovative industrial process called Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC). The findings of the study reveal mixed results: wastewater-grown microalgae char, even adopting more performing heterotrophic mode, is too costly, whereas the use of food waste and digestate proved more feasible and competitive. The work contributes valuable insight into advancing eco-friendly and economically sustainable alternatives to fossil source of carbon, paving the way for further investigation on the use of this material in the steel industry and beyond

The Eleatics and the Projects of Ontology

Parmenides provides the earliest surviving Greek example of a thematic reflection on to eon, being or what-is; and on mē eon, not-being or what-is-not. His work was crucial to the framing of ontological questions and statements in later work. Zeno and Melissus made what-is or being (to on or to eon) a central focus and engaged directly with Parmenides’ reasoning and concerns.        Within philosophy, the term ‘ontology’ may signify a study of the nature of being, or of what it is to be. Another important use of ‘ontology’ signifies a set of claims about the nature and number of being or what is, a kind of cataloguing.        How best can we characterize what the Eleatics’ work has to do with ontology? In what if any ways, and in what if any contexts, can Parmenides, Zeno, or Melissus be said to study the nature of being or of what is? In what if any senses can Parmenides, Zeno, or Melissus be said to provide an account of the nature or number of being or of what is? Does any of the three espouse such an account; or do they engage with that kind of account in some other way?         I will argue that we find in the Eleatics three distinct approaches to ontological questions. I will suggest that Parmenides and Zeno, and likely Melissus, investigated the possibility of research into the nature and number of being as a problem; and cautioned against espousing direct unconditional accounts of the nature of what-is.I frammenti di Parmenide offrono i più antichi esemplari di testi greci arrivati sino a noi con una riflessione tematica su to eon, essere oppure ciò-che-è, e su to mē eon, non essere oppure ciò-che-non-è. La sua opera ebbe un ruolo cruciale nella contestualizzazione di questioni e affermazioni ontologiche nei lavori che l’avrebbero seguito. Zenone e Melisso fanno di ciò-che-è o essere (to on o to eon) un punto centrale di discussione e si occupano direttamente dei ragionamenti e delle tematiche di Parmenide.In filosofia, il termine ‘ontologia’ può significare lo studio della natura dell’essere o di ciò che l’essere è. Un altro importante uso di ‘ontologia’ fa riferimento a un insieme di affermazioni sulla natura e sul numero dell’essere o ciò-che-è, formando una specie di catalogo. Ma come possiamo caratterizzare meglio gli aspetti della produzione eleatica relativa all’ontologia? In quali modi e in quali contesti, se ci sono, si può dire che Parmenide, Zenone e Melisso studiano la natura dell’essere o di ciò-che-è? In che senso, se ce n’è uno, si può dire che Parmenide, Zenone e Melisso offrono un resoconto della natura e del numero dell’essere o di ciò-che-è? C’è qualcuno dei tre che adotta tale resoconto oppure essi se ne occupano in altro modo?Sosterrò che negli Eleati si trovano tre impostazioni distinte, ma collegate, delle questioni ontologiche. Suggerirò che Parmenide e Zenone, e probabilmente Melisso, indagarono la possibilità di ricerca della natura e del numero dell’essere come un problema, mettendo in guardia contro l’adozione di una esposizione diretta e incondizionata della natura di ciò-che-è

Problems of Understanding and Embodiment in Parmenides B 16/D51

Parmenides B 16/D51 presents an account of human cognition and understanding. It is usually taken to form part of the account of the untrustworthy opinions of mortals. Regardless of its proper location within the poem, it invokes difference, movement, and multiplicity — features that the goddess describes as fundamental to mortals’ opinions and as incompatible with what one must say and conceive on the road of inquiry that she recommends. The tale of the journey and both parts of the goddess’s speech use negation, invoke difference and change and multiplicity, and in general conform in many ways to the conceptual framework the goddess attributes to mortals in B8.53-61/D8.58-66 and B9/D13. Does this reflect confidence in the Light-Night conception as a starting-point for an adequate account of what-is? Or does it produce a paradox, wherein the Light-Night conception undermines itself but we would have to use it in order to deny its adequacy? In sum, what kind of a claim about human understanding might the passage represent? What could B16/D51 say about the epistemological status of its own claims, and about the epistemological status of each part of the poem? Why does the passage mention humans (anthrōpoi) specifically, as opposed to all beings that have awareness? These questions will be the focus of this essay

Análise de componentes principais de atributos químicos e físicos do solo limitantes à produtividade de grãos.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar, por meio da análise dos componentes principais, a redução na dimensionalidade de atributos químicos e físicos do solo para a compreensão da variabilidade espacial e temporal da produtividade de culturas de grãos. A área experimental, de 54 ha, é manejada em agricultura de precisão há oito anos. Com base em seis mapas de colheita (soja - safra 2000/2001; milho - 2001/2002; soja - 2002/2003; trigo - 2003; soja - 2003/2004; e milho - 2004/2005), a área foi dividida em três zonas de produtividade de grãos (alta, média e baixa). Foram definidos 15 pontos georreferenciados representativos, para determinação de atributos químicos e físicos do solo, o que totalizou 63 variáveis analisadas. Entre os atributos químicos, o elevado teor de K no solo é o que melhor explica a variabilidade espacial da produtividade das culturas de grãos, provavelmente em razão do desbalanço das relações Ca:K e Mg:K. A zona de baixa produtividade apresentou baixa qualidade física do solo. Neste caso, a infiltração de água no solo, isoladamente, é a variável que melhor explica o desempenho das culturas de grãos. A análise dos componentes principais dos atributos químicos e físicos do solo é estratégia eficiente para explicar a variabilidade espacial e temporal da produtividade de culturas de grãos

A novel music browsing framework : the AMBIF project

LAUREA MAGISTRALENegli ultimi anni grandi cambiamenti hanno coinvolto la musica da un punto di vista sociale e tecnologico. L'incremento della capacità di memoria dei dispositivi elettronici ha portato ad un aumento della dimenisone di collezioni musicali private e industriali. Questo processo ha portato le dimensioni delle collezioni musicali ad un livello tale per cui gli utenti si sentono persi nella loro stessa musica. Da qui nasce la necessità di un sistema di navigazione che aiuti gli utenti a trovare contenuto musicale adatto a loro. Tuttavia i più popolari music browser non sono cambiati poi molto e tuttora si basano su liste di metadati basati sul contesto. Questo approccio presenta molti problemi, uno su tutti è che non è disponibile alcuna informazione sul contenuto del file audio. Music Information Retrieval (MIR) è il campo di ricerca che si occupa di estrarre informazioni utili dal contenuto musicale. Può essere anche applicato alla navigazione di una libreria musicale per fornire un'esperienza di navigazione basata sul contenuto musicale. Lo scopo di questa tesi è proporre un nuovo framework per costruire un sistema di navigazione musicale in uno spazio multidimensionale secondo un approccio ibrido basato su contenuto e contesto. Abbiamo sviluppato AMBIF (Advanced Music Browsing Interactive Framework) con l'utilizzo di Unreal Engine 4.7. Questo sistema permette di navigare fino a cinque dimensioni di una canzone contemporaneamente in uno spazio basato su contenuto e contesto. Ogni canzone nello spazio è rappresentata da un segnaposto sferico la cui posizione e il cui colore dipendono dai descrittori della canzone che l'utene ha scelto. Abbiamo proposto un'istanza di AMBIF basata su descrittori di alto livello del contenuto musicale a 33 utenti e ne abbiamo valutato l'usabilità. Il riscontro è stato decisamente positivo e i risultati promettenti.In recent years, great changes has involved music from a social and a technological point of view. The increase of the capacity of memory devices led an impressive increase of the size of both personal and industrial music repositories. This process brought the size of collections to a level where users get lost in their own music. From here comes the need of new browsing systems to help the user in finding suitable musical content. However, mainstream music browsers did not change that much and still rely only on lists of context-based metadata. This approach has many issues, the most important is that no information about the audio content is available. Music Information Retrieval (MIR) is the research field that deals with the retrieval of useful information from music content. It can also be applied to music browsing to provide a content-based music browsing experience. The purpose of this thesis is to propose a new framework to build hybrid content-based and context-based music browsers using a multidimensional space. We developed AMBIF (Advanced Music Browsing Interactive Framework) using Unreal Engine 4.7. It allows users to browse up to five song dimensions at the same time in a mixed content-based and context-based space. Each song in this space is represented by a spherical placeholder and its position and color depend on the song descriptors that the user chose. We proposed a music browser instance made with AMBIF that relies on content-based high-level music descriptors to 33 users and we evaluated its usability. The feedback was great and results are promising

Do Zeno\u27s Arguments Challenge Aristotle\u27s Account of Motion?

What is the relationship between the arguments that Aristotle and Simplicius attribute to Zeno of Elea, and the account of motion that Aristotle presents in the Physics? Do the considerations that Aristotle raises in Physics Z.9 overcome the arguments about motion that he attributes to Zeno? Do they show the Zenonian arguments to be inapplicable or ill formed? Or do considerations that Zeno raises in the discussions attributed to him instead undermine Aristotle\u27s account of motion? Do they undermine the possibility of physics as epistëmë? And why does Aristotle not treat Zeno\u27s arguments about magnitude and plurality in his account of motion? After all, motion involves distances and multiple positions and times. What is at stake here is phusikë as epistëmë: If it can be shown that his conception of motion is incoherent or self-contradictory, then there is for Aristotle small prospect of a science of physics, an account of phusis through its archai. If it can be shown that problems of the sort Zeno raised with respect to plurality and magnitude will surface in the account of motion that Aristotle proposes, then we shall need to ask whether or to what extent this undermines the possibility of an epistëmë of phusis