Questionnaire based approach to measure security in requirement engineering

The aim of this paper is to measure security in requirement engineering using questionnaire based approach. The questionnaire is applied in the four stages of requirement engineering (Elicitation, analyses, validation, management). The questionnaire based approach is composing of three main parts . First the security questions part . Second the evaluation part which should be filled by the stakeholders . Third the assessment part . Finally A case study conducted to apply Questionnaire based approach and to measure security in requirement engineering

Acute pancreatitis in children: efficacy of computed tomography severity index in the assessment, management, and prediction of complications

Aim The aim of the study was to describe the assessment and management aspects and the role of computed tomography severity index (CTSI) in children with acute pancreatitis.Materials and methods All the children (≤14 years) admitted to the pediatric surgery unit of our institution with acute pancreatitis from 2003 to 2014 were included. This retrospective analysis studied the demographic, clinical, diagnostic, and treatment aspects and the role of CTSI.Results The male-to-female ratio out of a total of 45 patients studied was 4 : 1. The differences in mean leukocyte count, mean serum amylase, and mean serum lipase were not significant in children with different CTSI scores. The children with higher CTSI scores are more likely to have both early and late complications, need for intensive care, and overall longer hospital stay.Conclusion CTSI plays an important role in early determination of the clinical severity, guiding the need for intensive care and in predicting the occurrence of early and late complications in children with acute pancreatitis. Keywords: acute pancreatitis, children, computed tomography severity inde

Non-Linear Adapted Spatio-Temporal Filter for Single-Trial Identification of Movement-Related Cortical Potential

The execution or imagination of a movement is reflected by a cortical potential that can be recorded by electroencephalography (EEG) as Movement-Related Cortical Potentials (MRCPs). The identification of MRCP from a single trial is a challenging possibility to get a natural control of a Brain–Computer Interface (BCI). We propose a novel method for MRCP detection based on optimal non-linear filters, processing different channels of EEG including delayed samples (getting a spatio-temporal filter). Different outputs can be obtained by changing the order of the temporal filter and of the non-linear processing of the input data. The classification performances of these filters are assessed by cross-validation on a training set, selecting the best ones (adapted to the user) and performing a majority voting from the best three to get an output using test data. The method is compared to another state-of-the-art filter recently introduced by our group when applied to EEG data recorded from 16 healthy subjects either executing or imagining 50 self-paced upper-limb palmar grasps. The new approach has a median accuracy on the overall dataset of 80%, which is significantly better than that of the previous filter (i.e., 63%). It is feasible for online BCI system design with asynchronous, self-paced applications

Goal-based hybrid filtering for user-to-user Personalized Recommendation

Recommendation systems are gaining great importance with e-Learning and multimedia on the internet. It fails in some situations such as new-user profile (cold-start) issue. To overcome this issue, we propose a novel goalbased hybrid approach for user-to-user personalized similarity recommendation and present its performance accuracy. This work also helps to improve collaborative filtering using k-nearest neighbor as neighborhood collaborative filtering (NCF) and content-based filtering as content-based collaborative filtering (CBCF). The purpose of combining k-nn with recommendation approaches is to increase the relevant recommendation accuracy and decrease the new-user profile (cold-start) issue. The proposed goal-based approach associated with nearest neighbors, compare personalized profile preferences and get the similarities between users. The paper discussed research architecture, working of proposed goal-based approach, its experimental steps and initial results.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v3i3.241

Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) levels, phosphate Intake and its association with Indices of renal handling of phosphate in healthy volunteers

FGF23 is a novel phosphaturic hormone; we aimed to assess the FGF23 levels and its association with dietary phosphate intake and indices of renal handling of phosphate in this study. Prospective study was conducted in which dietary phosphate intake was assessed by food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) along with blood and spot urine samples were collected after overnight fast for determining serum phosphate, FGF23, fractional excretion of phosphate (FePO4 ) and tubular maximum for phosphate (TmP/GFR). FGF23 (C-Term) was measured by a sandwich ELISA. The mean dietary phosphate intake of eighty healthy adults (mean age of 29 ± 5 years) was 1220 ± 426 mg; median FGF23 was 49.9 RU/ml (IQR=33, 76) and mean FePO4 was 7 ± 4.7. Subjects were stratified into two groups according to serum phosphate levels. Significant difference was not found in dietary phosphate intake and FGF23 levels in the two groups. However, TmP/GFR and creatinine were significantly different in the two groups. FePO4 was high in both the groups. Overall a rising pattern of FGF23 levels was seen with increasing serum phosphate levels. Significant positive correlation was found between FGF23 and dietary phosphate (r=0.22, p\u3c0.05) and negative correlation was seen between FGF23 and FePO4 (r=-0.260, p\u3c0.05)

Efficacy of a Single-Task ERP Measure to Evaluate Cognitive Workload During a Novel Exergame

This study aimed to validate the efficacy of single-task event-related potential (ERP) measures of cognitive workload to be implemented in exergame-based rehabilitation. Twenty-four healthy participants took part in a novel gamified balance task where task-irrelevant auditory tones were presented in the background to generate ERPs in the participants’ electroencephalogram (EEG) as a measure of cognitive workload. For the balance task, a computer-based tilt-ball game was combined with a balance board. Participants played the game by shifting their weight to tilt the balance board, which moved a virtual ball to score goals. The game was manipulated by adjusting the size of the goalposts to set three predefined levels of game difficulty (easy, medium, and hard). The participant’s experience of game difficulty was evaluated based on the number of goals scored and their subjective reporting of perceived difficulty. Participants experienced a significant difference in the three levels of task difficulty based on the number of goals scored and perceived difficulty (p < 0.001). Post hoc analysis revealed the lowest performance for the hardest level. The mean amplitude of the N1 ERP component was used to measure the cognitive workload associated with the three difficulty levels. The N1 component’s amplitude decreased significantly (p < 0.001), with an increase in the task difficulty. Moreover, the amplitude of the N1 component for the hard level was significantly smaller compared to medium (p = 0.0003) and easy (p < 0.001) levels. These results support the efficacy of the N1 ERP component to measure cognitive workload in dynamic and real-life scenarios such as exergames and other rehabilitation exercises

Pattern of drugs of abuse identified in chemical samples

OBJECTIVE: To determine the pattern of drugs of abuse in urine and blood samples processed at referral laboratory in Pakistan so that information on the type of drugs used can be identified and used for ready reference for future strategy. Study Design: Observational study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Clinical Laboratory of The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from July 2006 to March 2008. Methodology: Retrospective review of records were done for the common drugs that are used for screening at the Clinical Laboratory include alcohol, amphetamine, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cannabinoids, cocaine and opiates. Alcohol was tested in blood and others were identified using urine. Percentages of tests screened positive and negative for individual drugs were computed by using SPSS 16.0. The ratio between male and female users was also established. RESULTS: A total of 17,714 tests were performed for drugs. The mean age of the patients whose samples were processed was 30+/-14.84 years. Majority used benzodiazepines 520/1317 (39.5%) among the samples tested for drug of abuse, followed by cannabinoids 423/5450 (7.8%), alcohol 75/1302 (5.8%), barbiturates 32/1148 (2.8%), opiates 137/5640 (2.4%), cocaine 5/1655 (0.3%) and amphetamine 3/1202 (0.2%). In all, males 15411 (87%) were tested more frequently as compared to females 2303 (13%). CONCLUSION: Males were more frequently tested for drug abuse; however, drug abuse is increasingly seen among females. Benzodiazepines are the most frequently used. The same pattern of drugs abuse existed in different gender and age group. There is a need to explore the pattern and type of drug abuse on national scale

The utility of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) as a marker of acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically Ill patients

In current clinical practice, Serum Creatinine (SCr) is a commonly used marker for the diagnosis of acute kidney injury (AKI). Unfortunately, due to a delayed increase in SCr, it is unable to accurately estimate the timing of the injury. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (pNGAL) to predict AKI in critically ill adult patients. The study was conducted at the Section of Chemical Pathology, Department of Pathology& Laboratory Medicine in collaboration with Department of Anesthesiology, at Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Subjects in the age groups of18 to 60, that were admitted into the intensive care unit (ICU) with suspected sepsis were enrolled in this study.AKI was labeled by using Risk-Injury-Failure-loss-End Stage (RIFLE) criteria. Forty-eight patients, mean age being 46.5 ± 16.3, were recruited over a nine-month period. Multiple blood samples were collected from each patient at 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h. A total of 52.1% (n = 24) of ICU patients suspected of sepsis had developed AKI. Baseline characteristics of subjects with AKI were compared to those without AKI. Statistically significant difference was noted in gender (p-value\u3c 0.05) and pNGAL (p-value\u3c 0.001). However, no significant differences were seen with respect to age, in patients with and without AKI. The area under the curve (AUC) at12hr was 0.82 (95% CI 0.68-0.96) with a sensitivity of 70.8% and specificity of 90.9%.While AUCs at 24 h was 0.86(95% CI 0.74-0.97) with a sensitivity of 78.5% and specificity of 88.8%. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between pNGAL and the length of ICU stay (r = 0.98). Non-survivors or expired patients had higher median pNGAL170 (202-117) ng/ml as compared to survivors 123(170-91) ng/ml. In conclusion, pNGAL is an early predictor of AKI in a heterogeneous adult ICU population. Plasma NGAL allows the diagnosis of AKI 48 h prior to a clinical diagnosis based on RIFLE criteria. Early identification of high-risk AKI in patients may allow earlier initiation of therapies and improve patient outcome

Critical issue to consider while developing SQL injection prevention mechanism

SQL injection vulnerability is the one of the most common web-based application vulnerabilities that can be exploited by SQL injection attack to gain access to restricted data, bypass authentication mechanism and execute unauthorized data manipulation language. Defensive coding is the simple and affordable way to tackle this problem, by applying secure coding in each an every queries used in application. In this paper we provide a detailed background of SQLI attack, we classify defensive coding into different categories, review existing techniques that are related to each technique, and also evaluate such techniques based on number of attacks they were able to stop.We also evaluated each category of approach based on it's deployment requirement related to inheritance. Currently, to the best of our knowledge no papers have classied defensive coding as we do