Biosafety of RNA silencing and genome editing technologies in crop plants: Malaysian and Australian research perspectives

Research in agricultural biotechnology can produce novel solutions to address the ever growing demand for food, feed, renewable materials and renewable energy using increasingly limited resources. Yet research is expensive with long timelines before implementation can disseminate the benefits to society, so there is a need to maximise co-operation and communication between scientists, stakeholders and their governments, to optimise research, its development and the implementation of research outcomes, into mainstream applications. Recognising the impacts of regulations on biosafety, biosecurity and intellectual property policy on strategies for research, senior and early career researchers from two research intensive universities in Malaysia and Australia, held a workshop to identify and to deliberate over two key areas of technology that offer much promise for agriculture, namely RNA silencing and genome editing. A major focus of the workshop was the regulation of new breeding technologies, and how the regulations need to take into account these new technologies. Themes discussed were the need for harmonisation of international legal frameworks and careful use of terminology, standards and guidelines; and the need for good communication and consensus within and between groups of stakeholders and law-makers. This mini-review highlights the deliberations and recommendations from the workshop

Irradiation Maintains Functional Components of Dry Hot Peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) under Ambient Storage

Hot peppers used as natural flavoring and coloring agents are usually irradiated in prepacked form for decontamination. The effects of gamma radiation on the stability of functional components such as capsaicinoids and antioxidant compounds (carotenoids, ascorbic acid and total phenolics) were investigated in hot peppers (Capsicum annuum). Whole dried peppers packed in polyethylene bags were gamma irradiated at 0 (control), 2, 4, and 6 kGy and subsequently stored at 25 °C for 90 days. The irradiation dose did not substantially affect the initial contents of capsaicinoids, ascorbic acid and total phenolics, though the concentration of carotenoids declined by 8% from the control (76.9 mg/100 g) to 6 kGy radiation dose (70.7 mg/100 g). Similarly, during storage for 90 days at ambient temperature the concentrations of capsaicinoids and total phenolics remained fairly stable with mean percent reductions from 3.3% to 4.2%, while the levels of total carotenoids and ascorbic acid significantly (p < 0.05) declined by 12% and 14%, respectively. Overall, neither irradiation nor subsequent ambient storage could appreciably influence the contents of functional components in hot peppers. These results revealed that gamma irradiation up to 6 kGy can be safely used for decontamination to meet the needs for overseas markets without compromising product quality

Data-driven curation, learning and analysis for inferring evolving IoT botnets in the wild

The insecurity of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) paradigm continues to wreak havoc in consumer and critical infrastructure realms. Several challenges impede addressing IoT security at large, including, the lack of IoT-centric data that can be collected, analyzed and correlated, due to the highly heterogeneous nature of such devices and their widespread deployments in Internet-wide environments. To this end, this paper explores macroscopic, passive empirical data to shed light on this evolving threat phenomena. This not only aims at classifying and inferring Internet-scale compromised IoT devices by solely observing such one-way network traffic, but also endeavors to uncover, track and report on orchestrated "in the wild" IoT botnets. Initially, to prepare the effective utilization of such data, a novel probabilistic model is designed and developed to cleanse such traffic from noise samples (i.e., misconfiguration traffic). Subsequently, several shallow and deep learning models are evaluated to ultimately design and develop a multi-window convolution neural network trained on active and passive measurements to accurately identify compromised IoT devices. Consequently, to infer orchestrated and unsolicited activities that have been generated by well-coordinated IoT botnets, hierarchical agglomerative clustering is deployed by scrutinizing a set of innovative and efficient network feature sets. By analyzing 3.6 TB of recent darknet traffic, the proposed approach uncovers a momentous 440,000 compromised IoT devices and generates evidence-based artifacts related to 350 IoT botnets. While some of these detected botnets refer to previously documented campaigns such as the Hide and Seek, Hajime and Fbot, other events illustrate evolving threats such as those with cryptojacking capabilities and those that are targeting industrial control system communication and control services

Comprehensive performance analysis of flexible asynchronous AC link under various unbalanced grid voltage conditions

A flexible asynchronous AC link (FASAL) system is a technology that interconnects two power system networks operating at the same or different frequencies. The FASAL system is a newly developed technology; therefore, it requires a thorough investigation under different unbalanced grid voltage conditions for better behavioral understanding and appropriate future controller design. In this paper, the FASAL system is analyzed under various symmetrical and asymmetrical unbalanced grid voltage conditions. Moreover, the performance of the back-to-back voltage source converter (VSC) based HVDC link is also analyzed to establish its comparison with the FASAL system under the same conditions. The FASAL and VSC-HVDC systems are modeled in PSCAD/EMTDC software environment. The simulation results illustrate that the FASAL system performance is better under transient as well as steady-state conditions. Furthermore, the reduction in power at the receiving end side is also lesser in the FASAL system. For example, a 10% sag contributes only a 15% dip in power in the FASAL system, whereas VSC-HVDC reports a 30% power dip for the same sag condition.The APC is funded by the Qatar National Library, Qatar.Scopu

Evaluation of real-time delays for networked telerobotics

A real-time telerobotic system consisting of client station (operator) and server station (slave arm) interconnected by a computer network has been implemented using a distributed component framework. To minimize overall delays a multithreaded execution is proposed for pipelining of information processing and real-time transmission. Thread engineering allowed pipelining stereo grabbing and live transfer of stereo video data. Different scenarios are statistically analyzed to relate the effect of thread manipulation to overall time delays. Analysis of telerobotic delays through three campus routes with different network loads is presented. A sampling rate of 120 Hz is achieved for force feedback and 50 Hz for operator commands when network load is below 80%. Copying stereo images from cameras to memory is done in 24 ms. Stereo video transfer operates at a rate of 17 fps. Total reference delays for force and stereo are 8 ms and 83 ms, respectively. The environment interaction delay is 183 ms (5.5 Hz) when slave arm is operated at 10 Hz. However, short instantaneous traffic irregularities may cause deviation and scattering from above reference rates

PENGARUH INDEPENDENSI, KOMPETENSI DAN FEE AUDIT TERHADAP KUALITAS AUDIT (Survey pada 10 Kantor Akuntan Publik di Kota Bandung)

ABSTRAK Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui besarnya pengaruh independensi, kompetensi dan fee audit terhadap kualitas audit pada Kantor Akuntan Publik yang terdaftar pada IAPI di Kota Bandung. Pendekatan penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah analisis deskriptif dan verifikatif dengan menggunakan data primer. Teknik sampling yang digunakan adalah non probability sampling dengan metode simple random sampling. Analisis statistik yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah uji asumsi klasik, analisis regresi, korelasi, pengujian hipotesis dengan menggunakan uji t dan uji f serta analisis koefisien determinasi. Banyaknya populasi penelitian adalah 10 kantor akuntan publik (KAP) terdaftar pada IAPI Bandung, sampel penelitian yang digunakan adalah 72 orang dengan sumber data yang diperoleh melalui hasil pengisian kuesioner. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian yang dilakukan dapat diketahui bahwa secara parsial besarnya pengaruh independensi sebesar 15,2%, kompetensi sebesar 36,8%, dan fee audit sebesar 11,9% terhadap kualitas audit. Secara simultan pengaruh independensi, kompetensi, dan fee audit terhadap kualitas audit sebesar 63,9%, sedangkan sisanya 36,1% merupakan faktor lain di luar ketiga variabel independen yang sedang diteliti, seperti faktor profesionalisme, etika, rotasi auditor dan integritas auditor. Kata Kunci: Independensi, Kompetensi, Fee Audit dan Kualitas Audit

A higher non-severe hypoglycaemia rate is associated with an increased risk of subsequent severe hypoglycaemia and major adverse cardiovascular events in individuals with type 2 diabetes in the LEADER study

Aims/hypothesis Hypoglycaemia is a common side effect of insulin and some other antihyperglycaemic agents used to treat diabetes. Severe hypoglycaemia has been associated with adverse cardiovascular events in trials of intensive glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes. The relationship between non-severe hypoglycaemic episodes (NSHEs) and severe hypoglycaemia in type 2 diabetes has been documented. However, an association between more frequent NSHEs and cardiovascular events has not been verified. This post hoc analysis of the LEADER (Liraglutide Effect and Action in Diabetes: Evaluation of Cardiovascular Outcome Results) trial aimed to confirm whether there is an association between NSHEs and severe hypoglycaemic episodes in individuals with type 2 diabetes. In addition, the possible association between NSHEs and major adverse cardiac events (MACE), cardiovascular death and all-cause mortality was investigated. Methods LEADER was a double-blind, multicentre, placebo-controlled trial that found that liraglutide significantly reduced the risk of MACE compared with the placebo. In this post hoc analysis, we explored, in all LEADER participants, whether the annual rate of NSHEs (defined as self-measured plasma glucose <3.1 mmol/l [56 mg/dl]) was associated with time to first severe hypoglycaemic episode (defined as an episode requiring the assistance of another person), time to first MACE, time to cardiovascular death and time to all-cause mortality. Participants with <2 NSHEs per year were used as reference for HR estimates. Cox regression with a time-varying covariate was used. Results We demonstrate that there is an association between NSHEs (2–11 NSHEs per year and ≥12 NSHEs per year) and severe hypoglycaemic episodes (unadjusted HRs 1.98 [95% CI 1.43, 2.75] and 5.01 [95% CI 2.84, 8.84], respectively), which was consistent when baseline characteristics were accounted for. Additionally, while no association was found between participants with 2–11 NSHEs per year and adverse cardiovascular outcomes, higher rates of NSHEs (≥12 episodes per year) were associated with higher risk of MACE (HR 1.50 [95% CI 1.01, 2.23]), cardiovascular death (HR 2.08 [95% CI 1.17, 3.70]) and overall death (HR 1.80 [95% CI 1.11, 2.92]). Conclusions/interpretation The analysis of data from the LEADER trial demonstrated that higher rates of NSHEs were associated with both a higher risk of severe hypoglycaemia and adverse cardiovascular outcomes in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Therefore, irrespective of the cause of this association, it is important that individuals with high rates of hypoglycaemia are identified so that the potentially increased risk of cardiovascular events can be managed and steps can be taken to reduce NSHEs. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01179048)