An Autonomic Reliability Improvement System for Cyber-Physical Systems

System reliability is a fundamental requirement of cyber-physical systems. Unreliable systems can lead to disruption of service, financial cost and even loss of human life. Typical cyber-physical systems are designed to process large amounts of data, employ software as a system component, run online continuously and retain an operator-in-the-loop because of human judgment and accountability requirements for safety-critical systems. This paper describes a data-centric runtime monitoring system named ARIS (Autonomic Reliability Improvement System) for improving the reliability of these types of cyber-physical systems. ARIS employs automated online evaluation, working in parallel with the cyber-physical system to continuously conduct automated evaluation at multiple stages in the system workflow and provide real-time feedback for reliability improvement. This approach enables effective evaluation of data from cyber-physical systems. For example, abnormal input and output data can be detected and flagged through data quality analysis. As a result, alerts can be sent to the operator-in-the-loop, who can then take actions and make changes to the system based on these alerts in order to achieve minimal system downtime and higher system reliability. We have implemented ARIS in a large commercial building cyber-physical system in New York City, and our experiment has shown that it is effective and efficient in improving building system reliability

Empirical Study of Concurrency Mutation Operators for Java

Mutation testing is a white-box fault-based software testing technique that applies mutation operators to modify program source code or byte code in small ways and then runs these modified programs (i.e., mutants) against a test suite in order to measure its effectiveness and locate the weaknesses either in the test data or in the program that are seldom or never exposed during normal execution. In this paper, we describe our implementation of a generic mutation testing framework and the results of applying three sets of concurrency mutation operators on four example Java programs through empirical study and analysis

A computational method for two-dimensional quantitative analysis of standing wave images of red blood cells

Standing wave (SW) microscopy allows for an improvement in the axial resolution that can be obtained in optical microscopy. In SW microscopy two counter propagating waves interfere producing a SW with anti-nodal planes that are separated by λ/2n and a FWHM of λ/4n which is the axial resolution, where λ is the excitation wavelength and n is the refractive index Multi-planar SW microscopy, with the addition of a mirror below the specimen, allows for selective plane contour mapping of one concave surface of a red blood cell (RBC). We report a computational method to extract SW anti-nodal plane and boundaries positions (x,y) and extract each pixel intensity value. By doing so, we can create 2D reconstruction of SW RBC images captured at video rate. In future, by utilising the positional information for the each of the anti-nodal SW planes, we aim to create 3D and 4D reconstruction of the RBCs concave surface. Additionally, applying the extended computational method to SW RBC images we aim to study healthy and diseased erythrocytes and the changes in the concave surface morphology over time

Tyrosyl kinase activity is inversely related to prostatic acid phosphatase activity in two human prostate carcinoma cell lines.

Alterations in prostatic acid phosphatase (PAcP), a phosphotyrosyl phosphatase, corresponded to changes in overall tyrosyl kinase activity. PAcP added to extracts of prostate carcinoma cells with a low endogenous level of PAcP activity and elevated tyrosyl kinase activity decreased the tyrosyl kinase activity. On the other hand, when PAcP activity was decreased by the addition of androgens to cells, there was a corresponding increase in tyrosyl kinase activity

A Software Checking Framework Using Distributed Model Checking and Checkpoint/Resume of Virtualized PrOcess Domains

Complexity and heterogeneity of the deployed software applications often result in a wide range of dynamic states at runtime. The corner cases of software failure during execution often slip through the traditional software checking. If the software checking infrastructure supports the transparent checkpoint and resume of the live application states, the checking system can preserve and replay the live states in which the software failures occur. We introduce a novel software checking framework that enables application states including program behaviors and execution contexts to be cloned and resumed on a computing cloud. It employs (1) EXPLODE's model checking engine for a lightweight and general purpose software checking (2) ZAP system for faster, low overhead and transparent checkpoint and resume mechanism through virtualized PODs (PrOcess Domains), which is a collection of host-independent processes, and (3) scalable and distributed checking infrastructure based on Distributed EXPLODE. Efficient and portable checkpoint/resume and replay mechanism employed in this framework enables scalable software checking in order to improve the reliability of software products. The evaluation we conducted showed its feasibility, efficiency and applicability

DICER-LIKE2 plays a primary role in transitive silencing of transgenes in Arabidopsis.

Dicer-like (DCL) enzymes play a pivotal role in RNA silencing in plants, processing the long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that triggers silencing into the primary short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that mediate it. The siRNA population can be augmented and silencing amplified via transitivity, an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDR)-dependent pathway that uses the target RNA as substrate to generate secondary siRNAs. Here we report that Arabidopsis DCL2-but not DCL4-is required for transitivity in cell-autonomous, post-transcriptional silencing of transgenes. An insertion mutation in DCL2 blocked sense transgene-induced silencing and eliminated accumulation of the associated RDR-dependent siRNAs. In hairpin transgene-induced silencing, the dcl2 mutation likewise eliminated accumulation of secondary siRNAs and blocked transitive silencing, but did not block silencing mediated by primary siRNAs. Strikingly, in all cases, the dcl2 mutation eliminated accumulation of all secondary siRNAs, including those generated by other DCL enzymes. In contrast, mutations in DCL4 promoted a dramatic shift to transitive silencing in the case of the hairpin transgene and enhanced silencing induced by the sense transgene. Suppression of hairpin and sense transgene silencing by the P1/HC-Pro and P38 viral suppressors was associated with elimination of secondary siRNA accumulation, but the suppressors did not block processing of the stem of the hairpin transcript into primary siRNAs. Thus, these viral suppressors resemble the dcl2 mutation in their effects on siRNA biogenesis. We conclude that DCL2 plays an essential, as opposed to redundant, role in transitive silencing of transgenes and may play a more important role in silencing of viruses than currently thought

Epilepsy Perception Amongst University Students: A Survey.

To evaluate the information that university students have on epilepsy and to compare the differences in attitudes and perception among groups with different levels of information. A questionnaire with 13 questions regarding knowledge, attitudes and perception about epilepsy was completed by first, third and sixth year medical students and to students from Arts and Science courses. First year medical students gave inadequate answers, especially with regard to information about epilepsy and actions to take during seizures. Answers of third and sixth year medical students were more adequate. Arts and Science students gave the poorest responses in relation to specialist information and attitudes regarding epilepsy. This study suggests that there is an inverse relationship between knowledge and stigma on epilepsy. Nevertheless, the best results did not reflect an ideal situation, revealing an urgent need for an improved level of overall health education programs. This can be achieved by implementing educational policies, training programs and the universal inclusion of these subjects in the global educational program.65 Suppl 143-

Stigma And Attitudes On Epilepsy A Study: With Secondary School Students.

To evaluate whether an inappropriate attitude towards a person having an epileptic seizure contributes to the stigma found in society and whether an appropriate attitude helps to diminish it in the short term; to perform a long term investigation about information remembered and stigma perception after an educational lecture. This study was performed in two steps: Step 1. Students of first year of high school of two schools in Campinas completed a questionnaire including the Stigma Scale of Epilepsy following a seizure demonstration. They were divided into three groups: a) one group had a demonstration of proper attitudes towards someone having an epileptic seizure; b) one group was shown incorrect procedures; c) control group. After the completion of the questionnaire, an educational lecture about epilepsy was given. Step 2: six months later, the questionnaire was re-administered. The comparison between the four groups (step 1 and step 2) show a significant difference (Anova (3,339)=2.77; p=0.042). Pairwise comparison using Fisher's Least-Significant-Difference Test showed a significant difference between the group shown incorrect procedures (step 1) versus step 2, and the control group (step 1) versus step 2, but no difference between the group shown correct procedures (step 1) versus step 2. Exhibiting proper attitudes towards a person experiencing an epileptic seizure may cause significant differences among the subjects degrees of stigma towards people with epilepsy. It is therefore fundamental that there should be de-stigmatization campaigns provided, to correct information and provide appropriate education.65 Suppl 149-5

Mixed Spices at Culinary Doses Have Prebiotic Effects in Healthy Adults: A Pilot Study.

Spices were used as food preservatives prior to the advent of refrigeration, suggesting the possibility of effects on microbiota. Previous studies have shown prebiotic activities in animals and in vitro, but there has not been a demonstration of prebiotic or postbiotic effects at culinary doses in humans. In this randomized placebo-controlled study, we determined in twenty-nine healthy adults the effects on the gut microbiota of the consumption daily of capsules containing 5 g of mixed spices at culinary doses by comparison to a matched control group consuming a maltodextrin placebo capsule. The 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing data were used for microbial characterization. Spice consumption resulted in a significant reduction in Firmicutes abundance (p < 0.033) and a trend of enrichment in Bacteroidetes (p < 0.097) compared to placebo group. Twenty-six operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were different between the spice and placebo groups after intervention. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between fecal short-chain fatty acid propionate concentration and Firmicutes abundance in spice intervention group (p < 0.04). The production of individual fecal short-chain fatty acid was not significantly changed by spice consumption in this study. Mixed spices consumption significantly modified gut microbiota, suggesting a prebiotic effect of spice consumption at culinary doses