Enabling seamless V2I communications towards developing cooperative automotive applications in VANET systems

Cooperative applications for VANET will require seamless communication between Vehicle to Infrastructure and Vehicle to Vehicle. IEEE 802.11p has been developed to facilitate this effort. However, in order to have seamless communication for these applications, it is necessary to look at handover as vehicles move between Road-side Units. Traditional models of handover used in normal mobile environments are unable to cope with the high velocity of the vehicle and the relatively small area of coverage with regard to vehicular environments. The YComm framework has yielded techniques to calculate the Time Before Vertical Handover and the Network Dwell Time for any given network topology. Furthermore, by knowing these two parameters, it is also possible to improve channel allocation and resource management in network infrastructure such as base-stations, relays, etc. In this article we explain our overall approach by describing the VANET Testbed and show that in Vehicular environments it is necessary to consider a new handover model which is based on a probabilistic rather than a fixed coverage approach. Finally, we show a new performance model for proactive handover which is then compared with traditional approaches

Entanglement Dynamics of Two Independent Cavity-Embedded Quantum Dots

We investigate the dynamical behavior of entanglement in a system made by two solid-state emitters, as two quantum dots, embedded in two separated micro-cavities. In these solid-state systems, in addition to the coupling with the cavity mode, the emitter is coupled to a continuum of leaky modes providing additional losses and it is also subject to a phonon-induced pure dephasing mechanism. We model this physical configuration as a multipartite system composed by two independent parts each containing a qubit embedded in a single-mode cavity, exposed to cavity losses, spontaneous emission and pure dephasing. We study the time evolution of entanglement of this multipartite open system finally applying this theoretical framework to the case of currently available solid-state quantum dots in micro-cavities.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Topical Issue of Physica Scripta on proceedings of CEWQO 201

“ECT should never stop”: Exploring the experiences and recommendations of ECT clinical directors and anesthetists about ECT during the COVID-19 pandemic

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment option for severe, treatment-resistant, and life-threating psychiatric illness. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted ECT services. Services across North America, Europe, and Australia have reported decreased ECT delivery, and changes in the ways ECT is delivered. This study aimed to identify the impacts of COVID-19 on ECT services globally by exploring clinicians' experiences about ECT during the pandemic, and their recommendations for reducing the negative impacts of the pandemic. Data were collected using an electronic, cross-sectional survey, which included elicitation of free-text responses. The survey was open from March to November 2021. Clinical directors in ECT services, their delegates, and anesthetists were invited to participate. This paper reports the qualitative analysis of responses provided. Fifty-two participants provided qualitative response/s; 74.5% were clinical directors or their delegates, and 25.5% were anesthetists. Greater than one-third of participants were from Australia/New Zealand, and there was also representation from North America, Europe, and the UK. Participants' responses were detailed, averaging 43 words. Three themes were identified: (1) Service provision, about the importance of ECT services continuing during the pandemic, (2) Preparedness, through guidelines and environmental design, and (3) Personal protection, about strategies to increase staff safety. This is the first multi-site, international study to document the experiences and recommendations of ECT clinical directors and anesthetists about the effect of COVID-19 on ECT practice. The findings inform evidence-based practice, and ensure people with major psychiatric illnesses continue to receive ECT during the pandemic

Fast and Efficient Malware Detection with Joint Static and Dynamic Features Through Transfer Learning

In malware detection, dynamic analysis extracts the runtime behavior of malware samples in a controlled environment and static analysis extracts features using reverse engineering tools. While the former faces the challenges of anti-virtualization and evasive behavior of malware samples, the latter faces the challenges of code obfuscation. To tackle these drawbacks, prior works proposed to develop detection models by aggregating dynamic and static features, thus leveraging the advantages of both approaches. However, simply concatenating dynamic and static features raises an issue of imbalanced contribution due to the heterogeneous dimensions of feature vectors to the performance of malware detection models. Yet, dynamic analysis is a time-consuming task and requires a secure environment, leading to detection delays and high costs for maintaining the analysis infrastructure. In this paper, we first introduce a method of constructing aggregated features via concatenating latent features learned through deep learning with equally-contributed dimensions. We then develop a knowledge distillation technique to transfer knowledge learned from aggregated features by a teacher model to a student model trained only on static features and use the trained student model for the detection of new malware samples. We carry out extensive experiments with a dataset of 86709 samples including both benign and malware samples. The experimental results show that the teacher model trained on aggregated features constructed by our method outperforms the state-of-the-art models with an improvement of up to 2.38% in detection accuracy. The distilled student model not only achieves high performance (97.81% in terms of accuracy) as that of the teacher model but also significantly reduces the detection time (from 70046.6 ms to 194.9 ms) without requiring dynamic analysis.Comment: Accepted for presentation and publication at the 21st International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security (ACNS 2023

Concave Plasmonic Particles: Broad-Band Geometrical Tunability in the Near Infra-Red

Optical resonances spanning the Near and Short Infra-Red spectral regime were exhibited experimentally by arrays of plasmonic nano-particles with concave cross-section. The concavity of the particle was shown to be the key ingredient for enabling the broad band tunability of the resonance frequency, even for particles with dimensional aspect ratios of order unity. The atypical flexibility of setting the resonance wavelength is shown to stem from a unique interplay of local geometry with surface charge distributions

Strategies from A Multi-National Sample of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Services: Managing Anesthesia for ECT during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is important in the management of severe, treatment-resistant, and life-threatening psychiatric illness. Anesthesia supports the clinical efficacy and tolerability of ECT. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted ECT services, including anesthesia. This study documents strategies for managing ECT anesthesia during the pandemic. Data were collected between March and November 2021, using a mixed-methods, cross-sectional, electronic survey. Clinical directors in ECT services, their delegates, and anesthetists worldwide participated. One hundred and twelve participants provided quantitative responses to the survey. Of these, 23.4% were anesthetists, and the remainder were ECT clinical directors. Most participants were from Australia, New Zealand, North America, and Europe. Most were located in a public hospital, in a metropolitan region, and in a ‘medium/high-risk’ COVID-19 hotspot. Half of the participants reported their services made changes to ECT anesthetic technique during the pandemic. Services introduced strategies associated with anesthetic induction, ventilation, use of laryngeal mask airways, staffing, medications, plastic barriers to separate staff from patients, and the location of extubation and recovery. This is the first multi-national, mixed-methods study to investigate ECT anesthesia practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are vital to inform practice during the next waves of COVID-19 infection, ensuring patients continue to receive ECT

One-dimensional collision carts computer model and its design ideas for productive experiential learning

We develop an Easy Java Simulation (EJS) model for students to experience the physics of idealized one-dimensional collision carts. The physics model is described and simulated by both continuous dynamics and discrete transition during collision. In the field of designing computer simulations, we discuss briefly three pedagogical considerations such as 1) consistent simulation world view with pen paper representation, 2) data table, scientific graphs and symbolic mathematical representations for ease of data collection and multiple representational visualizations and 3) game for simple concept testing that can further support learning. We also suggest using physical world setup to be augmented complimentary with simulation while highlighting three advantages of real collision carts equipment like tacit 3D experience, random errors in measurement and conceptual significance of conservation of momentum applied to just before and after collision. General feedback from the students has been relatively positive, and we hope teachers will find the simulation useful in their own classes. 2015 Resources added: http://iwant2study.org/ospsg/index.php/interactive-resources/physics/02-newtonian-mechanics/02-dynamics/46-one-dimension-collision-js-model http://iwant2study.org/ospsg/index.php/interactive-resources/physics/02-newtonian-mechanics/02-dynamics/195-elastic-collisionComment: 6 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, 1 L. K. Wee, Physics Education 47 (3), 301 (2012); ISSN 0031-912

Ribose 2′-O-methylation provides a molecular signature for the distinction of self and non-self mRNA dependent on the RNA sensor Mda5

The 5'-cap-structures of higher eukaryote mRNAs are ribose 2'-O-methylated. Likewise, a number of viruses replicating in the cytoplasm of eukayotes have evolved 2'-O-methyltransferases to modify autonomously their mRNAs. However, a defined biological role of mRNA 2'-O-methylation remains elusive. Here we show that viral mRNA 2'-O-methylation is critically involved in subversion of type-I-interferon (IFN-I) induction. We demonstrate that human and murine coronavirus 2'-O-methyltransferase mutants induce increased IFN-I expression, and are highly IFN-I sensitive. Importantly, IFN-I induction by 2'-O-methyltransferase-deficient viruses is dependent on the cytoplasmic RNA sensor melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5). This link between MDA5-mediated sensing of viral RNA and mRNA 2'-O-methylation suggests that RNA modifications, such as 2'-O-methylation, provide a molecular signature for the discrimination of self and non-self mRNA

The Impact of COVID-19 on Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Multisite, Retrospective Study from the Clinical Alliance and Research in Electroconvulsive Therapy and Related Treatments Network

Objectives The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to reported change in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) services worldwide. However, minimal data have been published demonstrating tangible changes across multiple ECT centers. This article aimed to examine changes in ECT patients and ECT service delivery during the pandemic. Methods We retrospectively assessed data collected on ECT patients within the Clinical Alliance and Research in Electroconvulsive Therapy and Related Treatments (CARE) Network during a 3-month period starting at the first COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and compared data with predicted values based on the corresponding 3-month period in 2019. Mixed-effects repeated-measures analyses examined differences in the predicted and actual number of acute ECT courses started and the total number of acute ECT treatments given in 2020. Sociodemographic, clinical, treatment factors, and ECT service delivery factors were compared for 2020 and 2019. Results Four Australian and 1 Singaporean site participated in the study. There were no significant differences between the predicted and actual number of acute ECT courses and total number of acute ECT treatments administered in 2020. During 2020, there were statistically significant increases in the proportion of patients requiring ECT under substitute consent and receiving ECT for urgent reasons compared with 2019. Conclusions This multisite empirical study is among the first that supports anecdotal reports of changes in the triaging and delivery of ECT during COVID-19. Results suggest that ECT was prioritized for the most severely ill patients. Further data assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on ECT are needed

LGP2 plays a critical role in sensitizing mda-5 to activation by double-stranded RNA.

The DExD/H box RNA helicases retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I) and melanoma differentiation associated gene-5 (mda-5) sense viral RNA in the cytoplasm of infected cells and activate signal transduction pathways that trigger the production of type I interferons (IFNs). Laboratory of genetics and physiology 2 (LGP2) is thought to influence IFN production by regulating the activity of RIG-I and mda-5, although its mechanism of action is not known and its function is controversial. Here we show that expression of LGP2 potentiates IFN induction by polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid [poly(I:C)], commonly used as a synthetic mimic of viral dsRNA, and that this is particularly significant at limited levels of the inducer. The observed enhancement is mediated through co-operation with mda-5, which depends upon LGP2 for maximal activation in response to poly(I:C). This co-operation is dependent upon dsRNA binding by LGP2, and the presence of helicase domain IV, both of which are required for LGP2 to interact with mda-5. In contrast, although RIG-I can also be activated by poly(I:C), LGP2 does not have the ability to enhance IFN induction by RIG-I, and instead acts as an inhibitor of RIG-I-dependent poly(I:C) signaling. Thus the level of LGP2 expression is a critical factor in determining the cellular sensitivity to induction by dsRNA, and this may be important for rapid activation of the IFN response at early times post-infection when the levels of inducer are low