Education and Training Module in Alertness Management

The education and training module (ETM) in alertness management has now been integrated as part of the training regimen of the Pilot Proficiency Awards Program ("WINGS") of the Federal Aviation Administration. Originated and now maintained current by the Fatigue Countermeasures Group at NASA Ames Research Center, the ETM in Alertness Management is designed to give pilots the benefit of the best and most recent research on the basics of sleep physiology, the causes of fatigue, and strategies for managing alertness during flight operations. The WINGS program is an incentive program that encourages pilots at all licensing levels to participate in recurrent training, upon completion of which distinctive lapel or tie pins (wings) and certificates of completion are awarded. In addition to flight training, all WINGS applicants must attend at least one FAA-sponsored safety seminar, FAA-sanctioned safety seminar, or industry recurrent training program. The Fatigue Countermeasures Group provides an FAA-approved industry recurrent training program through an on-line General Aviation (GA) WINGS ETM in alertness management to satisfy this requirement. Since 1993, the Fatigue Countermeasures Group has translated fatigue and alertness information to operational environments by conducting two-day ETM workshops oriented primarily toward air-carrier operations subject to Part 121 of the Federal Aviation Regulations pertaining to such operations. On the basis of the information presented in the two-day ETM workshops, an ETM was created for GA pilots and was transferred to a Web-based version. To comply with the requirements of the WINGS Program, the original Web-based version has been modified to include hypertext markup language (HTML) content that makes information easily accessible, in-depth testing of alertness-management knowledge, new interactive features, and increased informational resources for GA pilots. Upon successful completion of this training module, a participant receives a computer- screen display of a certificate of completion. The certificate, which includes the pilot s name and an identifying number, can be printed out and submitted, for ground training credit, with the pilot s WINGS application

ISUMS: Indoor Space Usage Monitoring System for Sustainable Built Environment Using LoRaWAN

In this work we investigate how IoT in conjunction with the data-driven Circular Economy (CE) model can contribute towards a more sustainable Built Environment (). We address longstanding challenges related to the distribution of resources and the multi-sectoral impact of the buildings sector. We first discuss recent developments in policy making that underpin the recently introduced Green Deal by the European Commission and the paradigm of Circular Economy. This motivates the development of ISUMS; an Indoor Space Usage Monitoring System. The system provides the facilities and the estates management teams of commercial and office buildings with an IoT-enabled system able to provide fine grained and timely data on occupancy rates of shared building spaces. This type of data can then be used to develop new or inform existing action plans towards increasing building sustainability. The development of the system comprises a) a Pre-Analysis Plan (PAP) for a smart campus use case at the Talbot Campus of Bournemouth University; b) a proof of concept IoT end-device that can be integrated in pieces of furniture for occupancy monitoring; and c) a measurements campaign for evaluating the use of LoRaWAN in indoor environments. ISUMS expands the notions of smart buildings and buildings management beyond interconnected actuators and towards adaptive space management with dynamic changes in the use requirements

Giant liposarcoma of the back with 4 types of histopathology: a case report

The incidence of soft tissue tumours, both malignant and benign, is very common. However, the coexistence of 4 types of histopathology is rare and the aim of this article is to present one treated in our Department. An 87-year-old Greek man was treated in our Department for a huge tumour on his back, under local anaesthesia. The pathology report of the specimen referred 4 types of neoplasia. This case represents this incidence in a giant liposarcoma of the back

Data Sanitisation and Redaction for Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing Platforms

The recent technological advances and the recent changes in the daily human activities increased the production and sharing of data. In the ecosystem of interconnected systems, data can be circulated among systems for various reasons. This could lead to exchange of private or sensitive information between entities. Data Sanitisation involves processes and practices that remove sensitive and private information from documents before sharing them with entities that should not be exposed to the removed information. This paper presents the design and development of a data sanitisation and redaction solution for a Cyber Threat Intelligence sharing platform. The Data Sanitisation and Redaction Plugin has been designed with the purpose of operating as a plugin for the ECHO Project’s Early Warning System platform and enhancing its operative capabilities during information sharing. This plugin aims to provide automated security and privacy-based controls to the concept of CTI sharing over a ticketing system. The plugin has been successfully tested and the results are presented in this paper

On the assessment of completeness and timeliness of actionable cyber threat intelligence artefacts

In this paper we propose an approach for hunting adversarial tactics technics and procedures (TTPs) by leveraging information described in structured cyber threat intelligence (CTI) models. We focused on the properties of timeliness and completeness of CTI indicators to drive the discovery of TTPs placed highly on the so-called Pyramid of Pain (PoP). We used the unit42 playbooks dataset to evaluate the proposed approach and illustrate the limitations and opportunities of a systematic intelligence sharing process for high pain TTP discovery

Evaluation of Electrochemotherapy with Bleomycin in the Treatment of Colorectal Hepatic Metastases in a Rat Model

Background: The available ablative procedures for the treatment of hepatic cancer have contraindications due to the heat-sink effect and the risk of thermal injuries. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) as a nonthermal approach may be utilized for the treatment of tumors adjacent to high-risk regions. We evaluated the effectiveness of ECT in a rat model. Methods: WAG/Rij rats were randomized to four groups and underwent ECT, reversible electroporation (rEP), or intravenous injection of bleomycin (BLM) eight days after subcapsular hepatic tumor implantation. The fourth group served as Sham. Tumor volume and oxygenation were measured before and five days after the treatment using ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging; thereafter, liver and tumor tissue were additionally analysed by histology and immunohistochemistry. Results: The ECT group showed a stronger reduction in tumor oxygenation compared to the rEP and BLM groups; moreover, ECTtreated tumors exhibited the lowest levels of hemoglobin concentration compared to the other groups. Histological analyses further revealed a significantly increased tumor necrosis of >85% and a reduced tumor vascularization in the ECT group compared to the rEP, BLM, and Sham groups. Conclusion: ECT is an effective approach for the treatment of hepatic tumors with necrosis rates >85% five days following treatment

The Effects of Ultra-Long-Range Flights on the Alertness and Performance of Aviators

This investigation assessed the impact of ultra-long-range (ULR) simulator flights, departing either in the morning or late evening, on the alertness and performance of 17 commercial aviators. Immediately prior to and throughout each flight, alertness and performance were assessed via a computerized test of sustained attention, subjective questionnaires, and "hand-flying" tasks. There were fatigue-related effects on the majority of assessments, and the nature of these effects was consistent across the vigilance and self-report measures. However, the operational "hand-flying" manuevers proved insensitive to the impact of fatigue probably due to procedural factors. Regardless, the results of the present study suggest that fatigue associated with prolonged wakefulness in ULR flight operations will interact with flight schedules due to circadian and homeostatic influences. In this study, the pilots departing at night were at a greater initial disadvantage (during cruise) than pilots who departed earlier in the day; whereas those who departed earlier tended to be most impaired towards the end of the flight prior to landing. In real-world operations, airlines should consider the ramifications of flight schedules and what is known about human sleep and circadian rhythms to optimize safety

Trust and quality computation for cyber threat intelligence sharing platforms

Information sharing has been considered a critical solution against the ever-increasing complexity of cyber-attacks. In this effort Cyber Threat Intelligence is undergoing a process of increasing its maturity levels. The quantification of the quality of shared information and the assessment of trust amongst information sharing entities is an important part of the process. The Trust and Quality Tool has been designed as a tool with the aim of improving the trust in the relevancy of shared information by enabling an option to assess its trustworthiness and defining a set of metrics for trust and quality

Molecular design of the γδT cell receptor ectodomain encodes biologically fit ligand recognition in the absence of mechanosensing

High-acuity αβT cell receptor (TCR) recognition of peptides bound to major histocompatibility complex molecules (pMHCs) requires mechanosensing, a process whereby piconewton (pN) bioforces exert physical load on αβTCR–pMHC bonds to dynamically alter their lifetimes and foster digital sensitivity cellular signaling. While mechanotransduction is operative for both αβTCRs and pre-TCRs within the αβT lineage, its role in γδT cells is unknown. Here, we show that the human DP10.7 γδTCR specific for the sulfoglycolipid sulfatide bound to CD1d only sustains a significant load and undergoes force-induced structural transitions when the binding interface-distal γδ constant domain (C) module is replaced with that of αβ. The chimeric γδ–αβTCR also signals more robustly than does the wild-type (WT) γδTCR, as revealed by RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis of TCR-transduced Rag2−/− thymocytes, consistent with structural, single-molecule, and molecular dynamics studies reflective of γδTCRs as mediating recognition via a more canonical immunoglobulin-like receptor interaction. Absence of robust, force-related catch bonds, as well as γδTCR structural transitions, implies that γδT cells do not use mechanosensing for ligand recognition. This distinction is consonant with the fact that their innate-type ligands, including markers of cellular stress, are expressed at a high copy number relative to the sparse pMHC ligands of αβT cells arrayed on activating target cells. We posit that mechanosensing emerged over ∼200 million years of vertebrate evolution to fulfill indispensable adaptive immune recognition requirements for pMHC in the αβT cell lineage that are unnecessary for the γδT cell lineage mechanism of non-pMHC ligand detection