Fixing Smart Contract Vulnerabilities: A Comparative Analysis of Literature and Developer's Practices

Smart Contracts are programs running logic in the Blockchain network by executing operations through immutable transactions. The Blockchain network validates such transactions, storing them into sequential blocks of which integrity is ensured. Smart Contracts deal with value stakes, if a damaging transaction is validated, it may never be reverted, leading to unrecoverable losses. To prevent this, security aspects have been explored in several fields, with research providing catalogs of security defects, secure code recommendations, and possible solutions to fix vulnerabilities. In our study, we refer to vulnerability fixing in the ways found in the literature as guidelines. However, it is not clear to what extent developers adhere to these guidelines, nor whether there are other viable common solutions and what they are. The goal of our research is to fill knowledge gaps related to developers' observance of existing guidelines and to propose new and viable solutions to security vulnerabilities. To reach our goal, we will obtain from Solidity GitHub repositories the commits that fix vulnerabilities included in the DASP TOP 10 and we will conduct a manual analysis of fixing approaches employed by developers. Our analysis aims to determine the extent to which literature-based fixing strategies are followed. Additionally, we will identify and discuss emerging fixing techniques not currently documented in the literature. Through qualitative analysis, we will evaluate the suitability of these new fixing solutions and discriminate between valid approaches and potential mistakes.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, MSR 202

Integrating Blockchain technology within an Information Ecosystem

Context: Blockchain-based Information Ecosystems (BBIEs) are a type of information ecosystem in which blockchain technology is used to provide a trust mechanism among parties and to manage shared business logic, breaking the traditional scheme of Information Ecosystems dominated by a leading company and leveraging the decentralization of data management, information flow, and business logic. Objective: In this paper, we propose architecture and technical aspects concerning the creation of a BBIE, underlining the advantages supplied and the logic decomposition among the business and storage components. Method: The requirements are derived from the current needs of the collaborative business and the data collected by surveying practitioners. To get these needs we followed the Grounded Theory research approach. We validate our architectural schema against a case study dealing with the management of a wine supply chain, also involving different companies and supervision authorities. Results: The proposed solution integrates blockchain-based applications with the existing information system as a module of the ecosystem, leveraging on the low costs, scalability, and high-level security because of the restricted access to the network. Conclusion: We must go a long way in deepening and refining the possibilities offered by technology in supporting innovative multi-organizational business models. BBIEs can contribute substantially to paving the way in such a direction.Comment: 37 pages, 3 figure

Audiometric Characteristics in Patients With Noise-Induced Hearing Loss After Sodium Enoxaparin Treatment

OBJECTIVES:The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of sodium enoxaparin treatment on patients with noise-induced hearing loss. METHODS: Sixty patients with noise-induced hearing loss were included and randomly divided into two numerically equal groups. Group A underwent therapy with sodium enoxaparin for 10 days, followed by an additional 10 days of treatment after 10 days of no treatment. Group B received placebo as a control. Before treatment, at the end of treatment, and 2 months after the end of treatment, all patients underwent evaluation by laboratory tests, pure tone audiometry, transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) testing, distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) testing, and auditory brain stem response testing. RESULTS: In contrast to group B, at the end of the treatment in group A pure tone audiometry showed a significant (p < 0.05) improvement of the audiometric thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 kHz. Depending on the air and bone conduction thresholds, TEOAEs and DPOAEs, which had previously been absent, were evoked at the frequencies examined. These improvements were confirmed at last follow-up. We found no significant differences in auditory brain stem responses or laboratory results. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary data encourage further studies to collect additional evidence on the effect of sodium enoxaparin in preventing the development of noise-induced hearing loss

Septal Nasal Extramedullary Plasmacytoma: A Rare Tumor in an Unusual Area

We present an extreme rare case of extramedullary nasal plasmacitoma that arise from nasal septum. The mass surgically removed was analyzed by a pathologist who diagnosed an extramedullary nasal plasmacytoma. The patient did not present systemic involvement. A short cycle of radiotherapy was performed after the surgery. At 9-month follow-up, the patient is recurrence free

On the effectiveness of mitigation strategies for cryogenic applications

The need for sustainable energy sources, as well as the current energetic crisis involving the majority of markets, has promoted the use of cryogenic liquefaction for the transportation and storage of natural gas (i.e., LNG). To guarantee the development of a robust and safe infrastructure, a complete understanding of the main phenomena occurring at low temperatures is paramount. In this sense, the largest grey areas are the characterization of the combustion at low-initial temperature and the interactions between water and cryogenic liquid. For these reasons, this work presents an experimental campaign on the possible mitigation strategies for the mitigation of consequences related to the accidental release of LNG. Particular emphasis was posed on the direct and indirect effects of water on cryogenic pool fire. The former resulted in a significant increase in the dimensions of fire (∼+50%) and burning rate (∼300%) with respect to the case with no direct contact between water and LNG, whereas the latter generated an abrupt decrease in the measured temperatures (&lt;100 °C). The use of an emergency flare to empty an LNG tank was tested, as well. The spatial distribution of temperature was monitored along with the time to guarantee the safe operability of this equipment in the case of LNG combustion. The explanations for the observed phenomena and trends were provided, allowing for the development of safe procedures for the emergency response related to cryogenic fuels

Surgical management of pleomorphic adenoma of parotid gland in elderly patients: Role of morphological features.

The neoplasms of the salivary glands account for 2% of head and neck tumors and the most common form is the Pleomorphic Adenoma (PA). Parotid gland is affected from 80% to 90% of cases. In elderly this tumors occurs mostly in females. These benign tumors are composed of epithelial and myoepithelial cells that are arranged with various morphological patterns and subtypes. The classification of these tumors is also based on the amount and nature of the stroma. In literature there is a almost complete consensus that, in the major salivary glands, PAs are enclosed by a layer of fibrous tissue often called "capsule" but there is disagreement about the form, extention and thickness of this layer. The treatment is surgical and there are two main different surgical approaches: an enucleation (local dissection) or so-called subtotal superficial parotidectomy and lateral or superficial total parotidectomy. Histopathological characteristics of PAs especially of capsular alterations such as thin capsule areas, capsule-free regions, capsule penetration, satellite nodules and pseudopodia in the different subtypes are important for the choice of surgical treatment and the first explanation for tumor recurrence. In our study we describe a morphological features of 84 cases of pleomorphic adenoma of parotid gland from elderly patients treated by a surgical "enucleation like" method called nucleoresection

In vivo learning-based control of microbial populations density in bioreactors

A key problem toward the use of microorganisms as bio-factories is reaching and maintaining cellular communities at a desired density and composition so that they can efficiently convert their biomass into useful compounds. Promising technological platforms for the real time, scalable control of cellular density are bioreactors. In this work, we developed a learning-based strategy to expand the toolbox of available control algorithms capable of regulating the density of a \textit{single} bacterial population in bioreactors. Specifically, we used a sim-to-real paradigm, where a simple mathematical model, calibrated using a few data, was adopted to generate synthetic data for the training of the controller. The resulting policy was then exhaustively tested in vivo using a low-cost bioreactor known as Chi.Bio, assessing performance and robustness. In addition, we compared the performance with more traditional controllers (namely, a PI and an MPC), confirming that the learning-based controller exhibits similar performance in vivo. Our work showcases the viability of learning-based strategies for the control of cellular density in bioreactors, making a step forward toward their use for the control of the composition of microbial consortia.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure