Mobile integrated conditional access system

This paper presents design of a novel security architecture integrating mobile and broadcasting technologies in the Pay-TV system. The security architecture proposed herein is a state-of-the-art solution to tackle well-known problems challenging current Pay-TV systems including but not limited to interoperability amongst service providers, relatively high cost of the service deployment, the security compromise, limited interactivity and bespoken services offered to subscribers. It also proposes the Follow-me service that enables subscribers to access their entitlements via an arbitrary set-top box

Security architectures in mobile integrated pay-TV

This paper presents the design and describes the advantage of the state-of-the-art Mobile Integrated Conditional Access System (MICAS) concerning interoperability, personalisation, security and operational costs in Pay-TV systems. The Message Handling Subsystem is proposed and outlined together with ‘Follow-Me’ service, which proposed herewith to extend mobility and personalisation concepts on Pay-TV service

Maternal and child health indicators in a rural South African health district

Objective. To measure important maternal and child health indicators in a rural health district as part of the process of developing a comprehensive district health information system. Design. A modified Expanded Programme on Immunisation cluster sample survey, Setting. Hlabisa health district, KwaZulu-Natal. Participants. 480 mothers (or carers) of children aged 12 - 35 months surveyed in 32 clusters. Interventions. A questionnaire was administered and Road-to-Health cards were examined. Main outcome measures. Proportion of women receiving antenatal care and delivering in a health facility; knowledge and understanding of vaccination; and recall of vaccination history, Proportion of children with a Road-to-Health card, overall coverage of each vaccine, coverage at 12 months of age and proportion receiving an immunogenic dose. Results. Most mothers (91%) had attended antenatal care, 77% had received tetanus toroid and 83% delivered in a health facility, Only 14 children (3%) had never received a Road-to-Health card and 73% had one available at the time of the survey. Overall immunisation coverage was high (80 - 98%), as was the proportion receiving an immunogenic dose of each vaccine (78 - 98%), However, only 76% had received all the vaccines due to a 12-month-old child, and only 88% of these had received all doses by 12 months of age. Conclusions. While the key maternal health indicators measured here are reassuring, there is still room for improvement in the child health indicators, The proportion of women receiving antenatal care and delivering in a health facility is very high, but the proportion of children receiving all vaccines can be improved upon, as can the timing of immunisation, The results of this survey are being used to strengthen further the primary health care services in the district.4 page(s

Next Generation Sequencing Assay for Detection of Circulating HPV DNA (cHPV-DNA) in Patients Undergoing Radical (Chemo)Radiotherapy in Anal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ASCC).

Background: Following chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) for human papilloma virus positive (HPV+) anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC), detection of residual/recurrent disease is challenging. Patients frequently undergo unnecessary repeated biopsies for abnormal MRI/clinical findings. In a pilot study we assessed the role of circulating HPV-DNA in identifying "true" residual disease. Methods: We prospectively collected plasma samples at baseline (n = 21) and 12 weeks post-CRT (n = 17). Circulating HPV-DNA (cHPV DNA) was measured using a novel next generation sequencing (NGS) assay, panHPV-detect, comprising of two primer pools covering distinct regions of eight high-risk HPV genomes (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45, 52, and 58) to detect circulating HPV-DNA (cHPV DNA). cHPV-DNA levels post-CRT were correlated to disease response. Results: In pre-CRT samples, panHPV-detect demonstrated 100% sensitivity and specificity for HPV associated ASCC. PanHPV-detect was able to demonstrate cHPV-DNA in 100% (9/9) patients with T1/T2N0 cancers. cHPV-DNA was detectable 12 weeks post CRT in just 2/17 patients, both of whom relapsed. 1/16 patients who had a clinical complete response (CR) at 3 months post-CRT but relapsed at 9 months and 1/1 patient with a partial response (PR). PanHPV-detect demonstrated 100% sensitivity and specificity in predicting response to CRT. Conclusion: We demonstrate that panHPV-detect, an NSG assay is a highly sensitive and specific test for the identification of cHPV-DNA in plasma at diagnosis. cHPV-DNA post-treatment may predict clinical response to CRT

The emergence of thinking in systems

Geospatial data and the developments that characterise Geospatial 2.0 provide a thread that will link disparate systems into a comprehensive system-of-systems fit for the future

Omnivorousness in sport: The importance of social capital and networks

There has been for some time a significant and growing body of research around the relationship between sport and social capital. Similarly, within sociology there has been a corpus of work that has acknowledged the emergence of the omnivore–univore relationship. Surprisingly, relatively few studies examining sport and social capital have taken the omnivore–univore framework as a basis for understanding the relationship between sport and social capital. This gap in the sociology of sport literature and knowledge is rectified by this study that takes not Putnam, Coleman or Bourdieu, but Lin’s social network approach to social capital. The implications of this article are that researchers investigating sport and social capital need to understand more about how social networks and places for sport work to create social capital and, in particular, influence participating in sporting activities. The results indicate that social networks both facilitate and constrain sports participation; whilst family and friendship networks are central in active lifestyles, those who are less active have limited networks

Geographic Distribution: \u3ci\u3eAnolis sagrei\u3c/i\u3e (Brown Anole). USA: Arizona.

We discovered the first distributional records for the exotic, Caribbean lizard, Anolis sagrei (Brown Anole), in Arizona

Using BioMart as a framework to manage and query pancreatic cancer data

We describe the Pancreatic Expression Database (PED), the first cancer database originally designed based on the BioMart infrastructure. The PED portal brings together multidimensional pancreatic cancer data from the literature including genomic, proteomic, miRNA and gene expression profiles. Based on the BioMart 0.7 framework, the database is easily integrated with other BioMart-compliant resources, such as Ensembl and Reactome, to give access to a wide range of annotations alongside detailed experimental conditions. This article is intended to give an overview of PED, describe its data content and work through examples of how to successfully mine and integrate pancreatic cancer data sets and other BioMart resources

IMPaCT - Integration of Missions, Programs, and Core Technologies

IMPaCT enables comprehensive information on current NASA missions, prospective future missions, and the technologies that NASA is investing in, or considering investing in, to be accessed from a common Web-based interface. It allows dependencies to be established between missions and technology, and from this, the benefits of investing in individual technologies can be determined. The software also allows various scenarios for future missions to be explored against resource constraints, and the nominal cost and schedule of each mission to be modified in an effort to fit within a prescribed budget

Physics Beyond the Standard Model

I briefly summarize the prospects for extending our understanding of physics beyond the standard model within the next five years.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX. Presented at the 1999 UK Phenomenology Workshop, Durham, September 1999. To be published in Journal of Physics