A logic-based reasoner for discovering authentication vulnerabilities between interconnected accounts

With users being more reliant on online services for their daily activities, there is an increasing risk for them to be threatened by cyber-attacks harvesting their personal information or banking details. These attacks are often facilitated by the strong interconnectivity that exists between online accounts, in particular due to the presence of shared (e.g., replicated) pieces of user information across different accounts. In addition, a significant proportion of users employs pieces of information, e.g. used to recover access to an account, that are easily obtainable from their social networks accounts, and hence are vulnerable to correlation attacks, where a malicious attacker is either able to perform password reset attacks or take full control of user accounts. This paper proposes the use of verification techniques to analyse the possible vulnerabilities that arises from shared pieces of information among interconnected online accounts. Our primary contributions include a logic-based reasoner that is able to discover vulnerable online accounts, and a corresponding tool that provides modelling of user ac- counts, their interconnections, and vulnerabilities. Finally, the tool allows users to perform security checks of their online accounts and suggests possible countermeasures to reduce the risk of compromise

Women's reproductive rights in the inter-American system of human rights: conclusions from the Field, June - September 2014

The Inter-American System of Human Rights has proven to be a forum for the advancement of women’s reproductive rights in the Inter-American region. However, the Inter-American System faces significant challenges in promoting structural transformative change that enables women’s enjoyment of their reproductive health rights. This report examines three reproductive rights cases from the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: María Mamerita Mestanza Chávez v. Peru; Paulina Ramirez Jacinto v. Mexico; and Artavia Murillo et al. v. Costa Rica. In the summer of 2014, interviews were conducted with representatives in each of the case study countries, with the objective of the research being two-fold: (1) to understand how each of the cases developed, and the subsequent challenges and advancements; and (2) to learn from these cases in order to suggest recommendations for how actors can make better use of the Inter-American System as one of several avenues for protecting, promoting and fulfilling women’s reproductive rights. The report first discusses challenges in implementing women’s reproductive health rights, and then explores how the Inter-American System can strengthen its work on women’s reproductive health rights

Quantum Size Effects in the Magnetic Susceptibility of a Metallic Nanoparticle

We theoretically study quantum size effects in the magnetic response of a spherical metallic nanoparticle (e.g. gold). Using the Jellium model in spherical coordinates, we compute the induced magnetic moment and the magnetic susceptibility for a nanoparticle in the presence of a static external magnetic field. Below a critical magnetic field the magnetic response is diamagnetic, whereas above such field the magnetization is characterized by sharp, step-like increases of several tenths of Bohr magnetons, associated with the Zeeman crossing of energy levels above and below the Fermi sea. We quantify the robustness of these regimes against thermal excitations and finite linewidth of the electronic levels. Finally, we propose two methods for experimental detection of the quantum size effects based on the coupling to superconducting quantum interference devices.Comment: 5+6 pages, 3+3 figure

Long Noncoding Mitochondrial RNAs (LncmtRNAs) as Targets for Cancer Therapy

Mitochondria are traditionally been viewed as the cell’s powerhouse, generating most of its ATP. However, besides this fundamental metabolic role, mitochondria are implicated in diverse other processes, including apoptosis, inflammation and metastasis. These functions are exerted in part by the growing class of long noncoding mitochondrial RNAs (lncmtRNAs). We found that normal human proliferating cells express a family of noncoding mitochondrial RNAs (ncmtRNAs), comprised of sense (SncmtRNA) and antisense (ASncmtRNA). However, tumor cells express only sense transcripts, suggesting that ASncmtRNA downregulation as a cancer new hallmark. The few ASncmtRNAs copies in tumor cells seem essential to tumor cell viability: knockdown of these transcripts with antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) causes massive apoptotic death of tumor cells, preceded by cell cycle arrest. Preclinical assays show that systemic administration of ASO delayed tumor growth in melanoma and renal cancer models and, caused total remission in subcutaneous renal cancer tumors. The same treatment, however, does not affect normal tissue, suggesting this approach for the development of an efficient and safe therapeutic strategy for several cancer types

Combined use of monensin and virginiamycin to improve rumen and liver health and performance of feedlot-finished steers

Monensin and virginiamycin are included in beef cattle finishing diets as prophylaxis to minimize the incidence of ruminal acidosis and liver abscesses. Due to different and probably complementary modes of action, this study aimed to determine the effects of a combination of monensin and virginiamycin, both included in the diet at recommended doses, on ruminal health, the occurrence of liver abscesses, and growth performance of feedlot-finished cattle. One hundred and forty-four steers (6 animals/pen) were fed 1 of 3 corn-based finishing diets containing 30 mg of monensin (MN), 25 mg of virginiamycin (VM), or 30 and 25 mg of monensin and virginiamycin (MN + VM), respectively, per kilogram of dry matter. Ruminal pH probes were inserted into two animals per pen and set to record pH every 10 min. On d 100, animals were slaughtered, and rumens and livers were recovered, on which occurrence and degree of ruminal damage, prevalence and number of liver abscesses, and liver scores (A−: livers with no more than two small abscesses; A+: livers with at least one large abscess or more than four medium abscesses; A: any other abscessed liver) were determined. Simultaneous inclusion of monensin and virginiamycin resulted in a 4.3% decrease (P 0.13) average daily body weight gain (ADG; 1.49 ± 0.021 kg/d) and hot carcass weight (HCW; 269 ± 1.7 kg), compared with feeding diets containing one additive or the other. Therefore, in terms of ADG, a 9.4% improvement (P < 0.01) in feed efficiency was observed in MN + VM-fed animals. Backfat thickness (5.6 ± 0.08 mm) and ribeye area (69.9 ± 0.53 cm2) remained unaffected (P ≥ 0.74), as well as the minimum (4.98 ± 0.047), mean (6.11 ± 0.037), and maximum ruminal pH (7.23 ± 0.033) values and the time (125 ± 22.3 min/d), area (57.67 ± 12.383 pH × h), and episodes (22 ± 3.8 bouts) of pH below 5.6 (P ≥ 0.12). Overall, prevalence (24 ± 3.4%) and the number of liver abscesses (1.6 ± 0.14 abscesses/abscessed liver), liver scores (20 ± 3.1% of A− and 4 ± 1.8% of A livers), and prevalence (67 ± 3.5%) and degree of damage to the ruminal epithelium (2.5 ± 0.22% affected surface) were similar (P ≥ 0.18) across treatments; however, the occurrence of ruminal lesions tended (P ≤ 0.07) to be associated with that of liver abscesses and reduced ADG when feeding monensin alone.EEA General VillegasFil: Ceconi, Irene. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria General Villegas; ArgentinaFil: Viano, Sergio. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria General Villegas; ArgentinaFil: Méndez, Daniel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria General Villegas; ArgentinaFil: González, Lucas. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria General Villegas; ArgentinaFil: Davies, Patricio. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria General Villegas; ArgentinaFil: Elizalde, J. C. Actividad privada; ArgentinaFil: Bressan, Elbio. Phibro Animal Health; ArgentinaFil: Grandini, Danilo. Phibro Animal Health; BrasilFil: Nagaraja, T.G. Kansas State University. Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology; Estados UnidosFil: Tedeschi, Luis O. Texas A&M University. Department of Animal Science; Estados Unido

ESTIMACIÓN DE LA VELOCIDAD DEL MOTOR DE INDUCCIÓN UTILIZANDO REDES NEURONALES

Resumen: En este artículo se presenta una forma de medir la velocidad del motor de inducción y es estimándola (no midiéndola directamente del rotor del motor) y para tal fin se va a utilizar redes neuronales artificiales; el desarrollo del articulo inicia con el modelado del motor de inducción obteniendo las ecuaciones de las tensiones en los ejes q y d referidas al estator y al rotor respectivamente. Teniendo ya el modelo del motor se procede a hacer el entrenamiento de la red neuronal con la data obtenida de la simulación del modelo del motor en SIMULINK. Y finalmente se presentan los resultados del proceso para la estimación de la velocidad. Palabras clave: Motor de Inducción, Estimación de velocidad, redes neuronales artificiales

Trends in adult asthma hospitalization: gender-age effect

BACKGROUND: Hospital admissions due to asthma are a reliable source of information on the morbidity of the disease which, after the increase observed in the last quarter of the last century, shows a declining trend in the last few years. The aim of this study was to look at hospital admission trends due to asthma in our community and analyze some of its associated factors. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of all hospital admissions involving adults aged 15 years and older with asthma as the primary or secondary diagnosis (if the first diagnosis was respiratory failure or respiratory infection) in Public Health Service hospitals in the Galician region of Spain between the years 1995-2009 (total 24,766 admissions). RESULTS: The majority of patients admitted were female (71%), over 60 years of age (64%), and admission occurred predominantly in the winter months. The hospitalization rate due to asthma tripled over the period studied, this being mainly accounted for by women aged over 60 years. Mean hospital stay was 9.2 days, longer in older patients or those admitted over the weekend. CONCLUSIONS: A significant increase in hospital admissions due to asthma over the last few years has been observed in our community, mainly involving older women. The mean stay seems long, increasing with patients' age and admission over the weekend

Fatal parvoviral myocarditis: A case report and review of literature

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Supervised Learning Based Real-Time Adaptive Beamforming On-board Multibeam Satellites

Satellite communications (SatCom) are crucial for global connectivity, especially in the era of emerging technologies like 6G and narrowing the digital divide. Traditional SatCom systems struggle with efficient resource management due to static multibeam configurations, hindering quality of service (QoS) amidst dynamic traffic demands. This paper introduces an innovative solution - real-time adaptive beamforming on multibeam satellites with software-defined payloads in geostationary orbit (GEO). Utilizing a Direct Radiating Array (DRA) with circular polarization in the 17.7 - 20.2 GHz band, the paper outlines DRA design and a supervised learning-based algorithm for on-board beamforming. This adaptive approach not only meets precise beam projection needs but also dynamically adjusts beamwidth, minimizes sidelobe levels (SLL), and optimizes effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP).Comment: conference pape

Monitoring and Data Analytics for Optical Networking:Benefits, Architectures, and Use Cases

Operators' network management continuously measures network health by collecting data from the deployed network devices; data is used mainly for performance reporting and diagnosing network problems after failures, as well as by human capacity planners to predict future traffic growth. Typically, these network management tools are generally reactive and require significant human effort and skills to operate effectively. As optical networks evolve to fulfil highly flexible connectivity and dynamicity requirements, and supporting ultra-low latency services, they must also provide reliable connectivity and increased network resource efficiency. Therefore, reactive human-based network measurement and management will be a limiting factor in the size and scale of these new networks. Future optical networks must support fully automated management, providing dynamic resource re-optimization to rapidly adapt network resources based on predicted conditions and events; identify service degradation conditions that will eventually impact connectivity and highlight critical devices and links for further inspection; and augment rapid protection schemes if a failure is predicted or detected, and facilitate resource optimization after restoration events. Applying automation techniques to network management requires both the collection of data from a variety of sources at various time frequencies, but it must also support the capability to extract knowledge and derive insight for performance monitoring, troubleshooting, and maintain network service continuity. Innovative analytics algorithms must be developed to derive meaningful input to the entities that orchestrate and control network resources; these control elements must also be capable of proactively programming the underlying optical infrastructure. In this article, we review the emerging requirements for optical network management automation, the capabilities of current optical systems, and the development and standardization status of data models and protocols to facilitate automated network monitoring. Finally, we propose an architecture to provide Monitoring and Data Analytics (MDA) capabilities, we present illustrative control loops for advanced network monitoring use cases, and the findings that validate the usefulness of MDA to provide automated optical network management