Statistical analysis driven optimized deep learning system for intrusion detection

Attackers have developed ever more sophisticated and intelligent ways to hack information and communication technology systems. The extent of damage an individual hacker can carry out upon infiltrating a system is well understood. A potentially catastrophic scenario can be envisaged where a nation-state intercepting encrypted financial data gets hacked. Thus, intelligent cybersecurity systems have become inevitably important for improved protection against malicious threats. However, as malware attacks continue to dramatically increase in volume and complexity, it has become ever more challenging for traditional analytic tools to detect and mitigate threat. Furthermore, a huge amount of data produced by large networks has made the recognition task even more complicated and challenging. In this work, we propose an innovative statistical analysis driven optimized deep learning system for intrusion detection. The proposed intrusion detection system (IDS) extracts optimized and more correlated features using big data visualization and statistical analysis methods (human-in-the-loop), followed by a deep autoencoder for potential threat detection. Specifically, a pre-processing module eliminates the outliers and converts categorical variables into one-hot-encoded vectors. The feature extraction module discard features with null values and selects the most significant features as input to the deep autoencoder model (trained in a greedy-wise manner). The NSL-KDD dataset from the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity is used as a benchmark to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed architecture. Simulation results demonstrate the potential of our proposed system and its outperformance as compared to existing state-of-the-art methods and recently published novel approaches. Ongoing work includes further optimization and real-time evaluation of our proposed IDS.Comment: To appear in the 9th International Conference on Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems (BICS 2018

Elevated expression of artemis in human fibroblast cells is associated with cellular radiosensitivity and increased apoptosis

Copyright @ 2012 Nature Publishing GroupThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: The objective of this study was to determine the molecular mechanism(s) responsible for cellular radiosensitivity in two human fibroblast cell lines 84BR and 175BR derived from two cancer patients. Methods: Clonogenic assays were performed following exposure to increasing doses of gamma radiation to confirm radiosensitivity. γ-H2AX foci assays were used to determine the efficiency of DNA double strand break (DSB) repair in cells. Quantitative-PCR (Q-PCR) established the expression levels of key DNA DSB repair proteins. Imaging flow cytometry using Annexin V-FITC was used to compare artemis expression and apoptosis in cells. Results: Clonogenic cellular hypersensitivity in the 84BR and 175BR cell lines was associated with a defect in DNA DSB repair measured by the γ-H2AX foci assay. Q-PCR analysis and imaging flow cytometry revealed a two-fold overexpression of the artemis DNA repair gene which was associated with an increased level of apoptosis in the cells before and after radiation exposure. Over-expression of normal artemis protein in a normal immortalised fibroblast cell line NB1-Tert resulted in increased radiosensitivity and apoptosis. Conclusion: We conclude elevated expression of artemis is associated with higher levels of DNA DSB, radiosensitivity and elevated apoptosis in two radio-hypersensitive cell lines. These data reveal a potentially novel mechanism responsible for radiosensitivity and show that increased artemis expression in cells can result in either radiation resistance or enhanced sensitivity.This work was supported in part by The Vidal Sassoon Foundation USA. This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

Drawbacks of ovarian ablation with goserelin in women with breast cancer

In the last few years, ovarian ablation with GnRH agonists has been used as first-line adjuvant therapy in pre and perimenopausal breast cancer. These drugs suppress ovarian function in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis and they have adverse effects in other end-organs. A retrospective study was conducted on 35 premenopausal women, with breast cancer, and treated with goserelin, in order to investigate the effects of iatrogenic estrogen suppression. All women complaint of amenorrhea and only half of them referred hot-flashes, weight gain or arthralgias. Hot-flushes and arthralgias remit spontaneously in the end of the treatment. Osteodensitometry was used to access bone mass. There was a reduction in mineral bone mass and T-score at femoral neck and lumbar spine after the treatment with goserelin, but without statistical significance, except for the T-score in lumbar spine

Comparative numerical analysis for cost and embodied carbon optimisation of steel building structures

The study investigates an area of sustainable structural design that is often overlooked in practical engineering applications. Specifically, a novel method to optimise the cost and embodied carbon performance of steel building structures simultaneously is explored in this paper. To achieve this, a parametric design model was developed to rapidly analyse code compliant structural configurations based on project specific constraints and rigorous testing of multiple steel beams (UB sections), floor construction typologies (precast or composite) and column layouts that could not be performed manually by engineering practitioners. Detailed objective functions are embedded in the model to compute the cost and life cycle carbon emissions of different material types used in the structure. Results from a comparative numerical analysis of a real case study illustrate that the proposed optimisation approach could guide structural engineers towards areas of the solution space with realistic design configurations, enabling them to effectively evaluate cost and carbon trade-offs. This significant contribution implies that the optimisation model could reduce the time required for the design and analysis of multiple structural configurations especially during the early stages of a project. Overall, the paper suggests that the deployment of automated design procedures can enhance the quality as well as the efficiency of the optimisation analysis.The research described in this paper was financially supported by Innovate UK through the ‘Innovative engineering approach for material, carbon and cost efficiency of steel buildings’ project with reference number 10247

Psychometric Properties of the Brazilian Version of the Quality of Dying and Death for Adult Family Members of ICU Patients

Death is a complex, subjective phenomenon that requires an understanding of experiences to be qualified to provide care during the end-of-life process. This study aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version (Brazil) of the Quality of Dying and Death (QODD) scale on family members of patients who died in adult intensive care units. A methodological study was conducted with 326 family members of patients that died in three ICUs of public hospitals in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. For this study, the QODD 3.2a (25 items and six domains) was administered during the period from December 2020 to March 2022. The analysis was performed using the classic theory of the tests and the goodness of fit of the model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. We have used Spearman's correlation coefficients between the scores of the overall scale and domains. Cronbach's alpha coefficient and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were used for the evaluation of internal consistency and temporal stability, respectively. The Horn's parallel analysis indicated two factors that were not confirmed in the exploratory factor analysis. A single factor retained 18 of the initial 25 items and the analysis of the goodness of fit to the unidimensional model resulted in the following: CFI = 0.7545, TLI = 0.690, chi-squared = 767.33, df = 135, RMSEA = 0.121 with 90%CI, and p = 5.04409. The inter-item correlations indicated a predominance of weak correlations among the items of the instrument. The items with the largest number of moderate correlations were questions 13b, 9b, and 10b and a strong correlation was found between questions 15b and 16b. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.8 and the ICC was 0.9. The Quality of Dying and Death-Version 3.2a (intensive therapy) in Brazilian Portuguese has a unidimensional structure and acceptable reliability. However, it did not obtain a good fit to the proposed factorial model

On the Numerical Evaluation of Loop Integrals With Mellin-Barnes Representations

An improved method is presented for the numerical evaluation of multi-loop integrals in dimensional regularization. The technique is based on Mellin-Barnes representations, which have been used earlier to develop algorithms for the extraction of ultraviolet and infrared divergencies. The coefficients of these singularities and the non-singular part can be integrated numerically. However, the numerical integration often does not converge for diagrams with massive propagators and physical branch cuts. In this work, several steps are proposed which substantially improve the behavior of the numerical integrals. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated by calculating several two-loop examples, some of which have not been known before.Comment: 13 pp. LaTe

Quality of life of patients living with psoriasis: a qualitative study

Background: Psoriasis is a multifactorial inflammatory disease prevalent in dermatology. We aimed to understand the perceptions of patients living with psoriasis in relation to their quality of life and to identify aspects to improve it. Methods: This is qualitative research carried out in a dermatology outpatient clinic of the São Paulo State University (UNESP) medical school, Botucatu, Brazil, with 81 psoriasis patients. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using the Discourse of the Collective Subject method (DCS). Results: Quality of life was linked to well-being, happiness, leisure, good food and financial stability. However, disease symptoms, social and clothing restrictions, impairment of professional activities and the absence of a cure, negatively influenced their perceptions. Suggestions for improvements included an increase of public awareness, stress reduction, disease acceptance and multidisciplinary care. Conclusion: The meanings of quality of life revealed by the participants are subjective, multidimensional, linked to moments experienced by them and to the health-disease process. Public health policies promoting reduction in social stigma and stress as well as multidisciplinary approaches towards care can contribute to improvements of QoL in psoriasi

A Tree-Loop Duality Relation at Two Loops and Beyond

The duality relation between one-loop integrals and phase-space integrals, developed in a previous work, is extended to higher-order loops. The duality relation is realized by a modification of the customary +i0 prescription of the Feynman propagators, which compensates for the absence of the multiple-cut contributions that appear in the Feynman tree theorem. We rederive the duality theorem at one-loop order in a form that is more suitable for its iterative extension to higher-loop orders. We explicitly show its application to two- and three-loop scalar master integrals, and we discuss the structure of the occurring cuts and the ensuing results in detail.Comment: 20 pages. Few typos corrected, some additional comments included, Appendix B and one reference added. Final version as published in JHE

Infrared single spike pulses generation using a short period superconducting tape undulator at APEX

We report on the possibility of constructing an infrared FEL by combining a novel design super-conducting undu-lator developed at LBNL with the high brightness beam from the APEX injector facility. Calculations show that the resulting FEL is expected to deliver a saturated power of over a MW within a ∼4 m undulator length when operating in Self-Amplified-Spontaneus-Emission mode, with a single-spike of coherent radiation at ∼ 2 μm wavelength. The sub-cm undulator periods, associated with the relatively low energy of the APEX beam (20-25 MeV), forces the FEL to operate in a regime with unusual and interesting characteristics. The alternative option of laser seeding the FEL is also briefly examined, showing the potential to reduce the saturation length even further