Non-Blocking Signature of very large SOAP Messages

Data transfer and staging services are common components in Grid-based, or more generally, in service-oriented applications. Security mechanisms play a central role in such services, especially when they are deployed in sensitive application fields like e-health. The adoption of WS-Security and related standards to SOAP-based transfer services is, however, problematic as a straightforward adoption of SOAP with MTOM introduces considerable inefficiencies in the signature generation process when large data sets are involved. This paper proposes a non-blocking, signature generation approach enabling a stream-like processing with considerable performance enhancements.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Non-Blocking Signature of very large SOAP Messages

Data transfer and staging services are common components in Grid-based, or more generally, in service-oriented applications. Security mechanisms play a central role in such services, especially when they are deployed in sensitive application fields like e-health. The adoption of WS-Security and related standards to SOAP-based transfer services is, however, problematic as a straightforward adoption of SOAP with MTOM introduces considerable inefficiencies in the signature generation process when large data sets are involved. This paper proposes a non-blocking, signature generation approach enabling a stream-like processing with considerable performance enhancements.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Riccati-parameter solutions of nonlinear second-order ODEs

It has been proven by Rosu and Cornejo-Perez in 2005 that for some nonlinear second-order ODEs it is a very simple task to find one particular solution once the nonlinear equation is factorized with the use of two first-order differential operators. Here, it is shown that an interesting class of parametric solutions is easy to obtain if the proposed factorization has a particular form, which happily turns out to be the case in many problems of physical interest. The method that we exemplify with a few explicitly solved cases consists in using the general solution of the Riccati equation, which contributes with one parameter to this class of parametric solutions. For these nonlinear cases, the Riccati parameter serves as a `growth' parameter from the trivial null solution up to the particular solution found through the factorization procedureComment: 5 pages, 3 figures, change of title and more tex

Temporary Project Network and Innovation: a Research on Italian Regional Wine Industry

This study aims at exploring the characteristics of the Temporary Project Networks (TPNs) in small and medium-sized wine producing enterprises, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. It aims to discuss different types of temporary inter-firm collaboration clusters both in terms of structural/organizational features and in terms of innovation tasks development. It also aims to develop an empirically derived taxonomy of TPNs within the Sannio wine industry

Unilateral spatial neglect after stroke: Current insights

INTRODUCTION: Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is a disorder of contralesional space awareness which often follows unilateral brain lesion. Since USN impairs awareness of contralesional space/body and often of concomitant motor disorders, its presence represents a negative prognostic factor of functional recovery. Thus, the disorder needs to be carefully diagnosed and treated. Here, we attempted to present a clear and concise picture of current insights in the comprehension and rehabilitation of USN. METHODS: We first provided an updated overview of USN clinical and neuroanatomical features and then highlighted recent progresses in the diagnosis and rehabilitation of the disease. In relation to USN rehabilitation, we conducted a MEDLINE literature research on three of the most promising interventions for USN rehabilitation: prismatic adaptation (PA), non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), and virtual reality (VR). The identified studies were classified according to the strength of their methods. RESULTS: The last years have witnessed a relative decrement of interest in the study of neuropsychological disorders of spatial awareness in USN, but a relative increase in the study of potential interventions for its rehabilitation. Although optimal protocols still need to be defined, high-quality studies have demonstrated the efficacy of PA, TMS and tDCS interventions for the treatment of USN. In addition, preliminary investigations are suggesting the potentials of GVS and VR approaches for USN rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: Advancing neuropsychological and neuroscience tools to investigate USN pathophysiology is a necessary step to identify effective rehabilitation treatments and to foster our understanding of neurofunctional bases of spatial cognition in the healthy brain

Differential effects of canopy manipulation and shading of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Cabernet Sauvignon. Leaf gas exchange, photosynthetic electron transport rate and sugar accumulation in berries

Partial cluster and leaf removals were performed on Vitis vinifera L. cv. Cabernet Sauvignon at veraison during two years to give 4 treatments: control (C), cluster thinning (CT), leaf removal (LR) and cluster thinning + leaf removal (CT+LR). A half of each plot was shaded by a 50 % shading net at veraison (40 % berries coloured). Shading significantly reduced stomatal conductance but not CO2 assimilation rate (Pn) and carboxylation efficiency. Pn was decreased by cluster thinning and enhanced by leaf removal. Leaves of CT vines showed a photosynthetic decay 2 days after the treatment while LR leaves presented an afternoon photosynthetic enhancement 3 days after the treatment probably due to a higher photoassimilate requirement of the bunches (sink). Stomatal conductance did not totally contribute to the P-n depression or enhancement. Electron transport rate and maximum Rubisco activity were strongly affected by CT and LR suggesting that photochemical and biochemical processes were affected to a greater extent than physical processes. Juice sugar concentration was reduced by shading, an effect explained straightforwardly by the lessening of stomatal conductance. CT and LR had large effects on biochemical and photochemical processes but these were in the opposite direction to the expected effects on juice sugar concentration. It is suggested that CT increased sugar concentration because of the low fruit sink load per vine, and that LR decreased sugar concentration because of the low leaf area per vine. If cluster thinning is to be used by growers to gain increased sugar concentration it is recommended to do it at veraison; the sugar accumulation rate is then high and the adaptation of photosynthetic processes to thinning takes several days

A comprehensive assessment of personality traits and psychosocial functioning in parents with bipolar disorder and their intimate partners

Background: Individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) often possess maladaptive traits and present with various difficulties in psychosocial functioning. However, little is known about the intimate partners of adults with bipolar disorder (BD) and how mental illnesses other than BD within couples may further complicate the picture. Such knowledge is needed to inform both couple and family interventions. Methods: Participants were parents whose children were enrolled in a prospective study: 55 with BD and their partners, and 47 healthy control couples. All completed diagnostic interviews, and questionnaires describing personality traits, negative life events, coping skills, social support, marital adjustment and inter-partner verbal aggression. Parents with BD and healthy control parents were compared, as were the intimate partners. A series of exploratory analyses focused on the average measures within couples, with and without BD, and took account of comorbid personality disorders among those with BD and major depressive disorder among their partners. Results: Intimate partners of adults with BD, relative to healthy control partners, presented with more mental disorders, higher neuroticism, lower extraversion, more emotion-focused coping, smaller social networks, less satisfaction with their social networks, and little, satisfying social contact. Additionally, they reported less consensus and satisfaction in their marital relationships, and engaged in more verbal aggression towards their partners. Participants with BD showed similar, more extreme, characteristics. Marital distress and verbal aggression were greatest among couples with an adult having BD and a comorbid personality disorder or a partner with major depressive disorder. Conclusion: This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that both parents with BD and their intimate partners exhibit high levels of mental illness, maladaptive personality traits and psychosocial difficulties, thus limiting their partners’ ability to provide support and stability in the these high risk families. Moreover, mental illnesses other than BD may contribute to marital problems within couples. Some statistical analyses, particularly those involving comorbid conditions, were under-powered in this study. As clinical implications, the current study suggests that both individuals with BD and their partners could benefit from interventions aimed at lowering emotionality and verbal aggression, and increasing social support and effective coping skills

The two-layer skirted island

Author Posting. © Yale University, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of Yale University for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Research 69 (2011): 347-382, doi:10.1357/002224011798765222.The flow around a planetary scale island in a baroclinic ocean is examined when the island possesses a topographic skirt representing a steep continental slope and the ocean is modeled as a two-layer system in order to examine the role of stratification in the circulation. The study extends an earlier barotropic model of similar geometry and forcing to focus on the degree to which the topography, limited here to the lower of the two layers, affects the circulation and to what degree the circulation is shielded by stratification from the topographic effects noted in the simpler barotropic model. As in the barotropic model, the topography is steep enough to produce closed, ambient potential vorticity contours over the topography in the lower layer providing free "highways" for the deep flow in the presence of small forcing by the wind-driven upper layer flow. The flow is very weak outside the region of closed contours but can become of the same order, if somewhat smaller, as the upper layer flow on those contours in the presence of even weak coupling to the upper layer. A series of models, analytical and numerical, are studied. Linear theory is applied to two configurations. The first consists of a long, meridionally oriented island with a topographic skirt in the lower layer. The lower layer flow is driven by a hypothesized frictional coupling between the two layers that depends on the circulation of the upper layer velocity on a circuit defined by the closed potential vorticity contours of the lower layer. The largest part of the driving flow is identical on both sides of the island and cancels in the contour integration. The major part of the residual forcing comes from relatively small but effective forcing on the semi-circular tips of the topographic skirt. A circular island with a topographic skirt is also examined in which the coupling to the upper layer is stronger all around the island. Even in this case there is a delicate balance of the forcing of the lower layer on each side of the island. In all cases the flow on closed potential vorticity contours in the lower layer is much weaker than in the barotropic model but much stronger than in the flat region of the lower layer. A sequence of numerical calculations that both check and extend the analytic linear theory is presented demonstrating the subtlety of the force balances. Further nonlinear, eddy-containing experiments give a preview of the direction of future work.This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (JP) NSF OCE 0925061 and (MAS) NSF OCE 0926656

Durable resistance to crop pathogens: an epidemiological framework to predict risk under uncertainty.

Increasing the durability of crop resistance to plant pathogens is one of the key goals of virulence management. Despite the recognition of the importance of demographic and environmental stochasticity on the dynamics of an epidemic, their effects on the evolution of the pathogen and durability of resistance has not received attention. We formulated a stochastic epidemiological model, based on the Kramer-Moyal expansion of the Master Equation, to investigate how random fluctuations affect the dynamics of an epidemic and how these effects feed through to the evolution of the pathogen and durability of resistance. We focused on two hypotheses: firstly, a previous deterministic model has suggested that the effect of cropping ratio (the proportion of land area occupied by the resistant crop) on the durability of crop resistance is negligible. Increasing the cropping ratio increases the area of uninfected host, but the resistance is more rapidly broken; these two effects counteract each other. We tested the hypothesis that similar counteracting effects would occur when we take account of demographic stochasticity, but found that the durability does depend on the cropping ratio. Secondly, we tested whether a superimposed external source of stochasticity (for example due to environmental variation or to intermittent fungicide application) interacts with the intrinsic demographic fluctuations and how such interaction affects the durability of resistance. We show that in the pathosystem considered here, in general large stochastic fluctuations in epidemics enhance extinction of the pathogen. This is more likely to occur at large cropping ratios and for particular frequencies of the periodic external perturbation (stochastic resonance). The results suggest possible disease control practises by exploiting the natural sources of stochasticity.GL is funded by the ESPA award “Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium”. The work of FvdB is supported by Rothamsted Research, who receives grant aided assistance from the Biological and Biotechnological Research Council of the United Kingdom. CAG gratefully acknowledges the support of a BBSRC Professorial Fellowship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.100287