Strengthening Data Security: an Holistic Approach

In the light of heightened concern around data security, this paper highlights some of the measures that can be used to develop and strengthen security in data archiving. The paper includes discussion of the different approaches that can be taken towards the construction of firm and resilient data and information security policies within the social science data archiving communities. While international standards can provide theoretical guidelines for the construction of such a policy, procedures need to be informed by more practical considerations. Attention is drawn to the necessity of following a holistic approach to data security, which includes the education of data creators in the reduction of disclosure risk, the integration of robust and appropriate data processing, handling and management procedures, the value of emerging technological solutions, the training of data users in data security, and the importance of management control, as well as the need to be informed by emerging government security and digital preservation standards

Simulation of a finishing operation : milling of a turbine blade and influence of damping

Milling is used to create very complex geometries and thin parts, such as turbine blades. Irreversible geometric defects may appear during finishing operations when a high surface quality is expected. Relative vibrations between the tool and the workpiece must be as small as possible, while tool/workpiece interactions can be highly non-linear. A general virtual machining approach is presented and illustrated. It takes into account the relative motion and vibrations of the tool and the workpiece. Both deformations of the tool and the workpiece are taken into account. This allows predictive simulations in the time domain. As an example the effect of damping on the behavior during machining of one of the 56 blades of a turbine disk is analysed in order to illustrate the approach potential

A study of the degree to which satellite- derived gravitational data can be related to the anomalous surface gravity field and other anomalous geophysical parameters Final report

Satellite-derived gravitational data related to anomalous surface gravity field and other geophysical parameters of Solomon Islands are

TLR7 activation at epithelial barriers promotes emergency myelopoiesis and lung antiviral immunity

Monocytes are heterogeneous innate effector leukocytes generated in the bone marrow and released into circulation in a CCR2-dependent manner. During infection or inflammation, myelopoiesis is modulated to rapidly meet the demand for more effector cells. Danger signals from peripheral tissues can influence this process. Herein we demonstrate that repetitive TLR7 stimulation via the epithelial barriers drove a potent emergency bone marrow monocyte response in mice. This process was unique to TLR7 activation and occurred independently of the canonical CCR2 and CX3CR1 axes or prototypical cytokines. The monocytes egressing the bone marrow had an immature Ly6C-high profile and differentiated into vascular Ly6C-low monocytes and tissue macrophages in multiple organs. They displayed a blunted cytokine response to further TLR7 stimulation and reduced lung viral load after RSV and influenza virus infection. These data provide insights into the emergency myelopoiesis likely to occur in response to the encounter of single-stranded RNA viruses at barrier sites

Matching disease and phenotype ontologies in the ontology alignment evaluation initiative

Background: The disease and phenotype track was designed to evaluate the relative performance of ontology matching systems that generate mappings between source ontologies. Disease and phenotype ontologies are important for applications such as data mining, data integration and knowledge management to support translational science in drug discovery and understanding the genetics of disease. Results: Eleven systems (out of 21 OAEI participating systems) were able to cope with at least one of the tasks in the Disease and Phenotype track. AML, FCA-Map, LogMap(Bio) and PhenoMF systems produced the top results for ontology matching in comparison to consensus alignments. The results against manually curated mappings proved to be more difficult most likely because these mapping sets comprised mostly subsumption relationships rather than equivalence. Manual assessment of unique equivalence mappings showed that AML, LogMap(Bio) and PhenoMF systems have the highest precision results. Conclusions: Four systems gave the highest performance for matching disease and phenotype ontologies. These systems coped well with the detection of equivalence matches, but struggled to detect semantic similarity. This deserves more attention in the future development of ontology matching systems. The findings of this evaluation show that such systems could help to automate equivalence matching in the workflow of curators, who maintain ontology mapping services in numerous domains such as disease and phenotype

Extracellular bacterial lymphatic metastasis drives Streptococcus pyogenes systemic infection

Unassisted metastasis through the lymphatic system is a mechanism of dissemination thus far ascribed only to cancer cells. Here, we report that Streptococcus pyogenes also hijack lymphatic vessels to escape a local infection site, transiting through sequential lymph nodes and efferent lymphatic vessels to enter the bloodstream. Contrasting with previously reported mechanisms of intracellular pathogen carriage by phagocytes, we show S. pyogenes remain extracellular during transit, first in afferent and then efferent lymphatics that carry the bacteria through successive draining lymph nodes. We identify streptococcal virulence mechanisms important for bacterial lymphatic dissemination and show that metastatic streptococci within infected lymph nodes resist and subvert clearance by phagocytes, enabling replication that can seed intense bloodstream infection. The findings establish the lymphatic system as both a survival niche and conduit to the bloodstream for S. pyogenes, explaining the phenomenon of occult bacteraemia. This work provides new perspectives in streptococcal pathogenesis with implications for immunity

Ontology mapping for semantically enabled applications

In this review, we provide a summary of recent progress in ontology mapping (OM) at a crucial time when biomedical research is under a deluge of an increasing amount and variety of data. This is particularly important for realising the full potential of semantically enabled or enriched applications and for meaningful insights, such as drug discovery, using machine-learning technologies. We discuss challenges and solutions for better ontology mappings, as well as how to select ontologies before their application. In addition, we describe tools and algorithms for ontology mapping, including evaluation of tool capability and quality of mappings. Finally, we outline the requirements for an ontology mapping service (OMS) and the progress being made towards implementation of such sustainable services

Determination of the response function for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant criticality accident alarm system neutron detectors

Neutron-sensitive radiation detectors are used in the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant`s (PORTS) criticality accident alarm system (CAAS). The CAAS is composed of numerous detectors, electronics, and logic units. It uses a telemetry system to sound building evacuation horns and to provide remote alarm status in a central control facility. The ANSI Standard for a CAAS uses a free-in-air dose rate to define the detection criteria for a minimum accident-of-concern. Previously, the free-in-air absorbed dose rate from neutrons was used for determining the areal coverge of criticality detection within PORTS buildings handling fissile materials. However, the free-in-air dose rate does not accurately reflect the response of the neutron detectors in use at PORTS. Because the cost of placing additional CAAS detectors in areas of questionable coverage (based on a free-in-air absorbed dose rate) is high, the actual response function for the CAAS neutron detectors was determined. This report, which is organized into three major sections, discusses how the actual response function for the PORTS CAAS neutron detectors was determined. The CAAS neutron detectors are described in Section 2. The model of the detector system developed to facilitate calculation of the response function is discussed in Section 3. The results of the calculations, including confirmatory measurements with neutron sources, are given in Section 4

Preliminary Studies on Immune Response and Viral Pathogenesis of Zika Virus in Rhesus Macaques

Zika Virus (ZIKV) is primarily transmitted through mosquito bites. It can also be transmitted during sexual intercourse and in utero from mother to fetus. To gain preliminary insight into ZIKV pathology and immune responses on route of transmission, rhesus macaques (RMs) were inoculated with ZIKV (PRVABC59) via intravaginal (IVAG) (n = 3) or subcutaneous (sub Q) (n = 2) routes. Systemic ZIKV infection was observed in all RMs, regardless of the route of inoculation. After 9 days postinfection (dpi), ZIKV was not detected in the plasma of IVAG- and sub-Q-inoculated RMs. Importantly, RMs harbored ZIKV up to 60 dpi in various anatomical locations. Of note, ZIKV was also present in several regions of the brain, including the caudate nucleus, parietal lobe, cortex, and amygdala. These observations appear to indicate that ZIKV infection may be systemic and persistent regardless of route of inoculation. In addition, we observed changes in key immune cell populations in response to ZIKV infection. Importantly, IVAG ZIKV infection of RMs is associated with increased depletion of CD11C hi myeloid cells, reduced PD-1 expression in NK cells, and elevated frequencies of Ki67⁺ CD8⁺ central memory cells as compared to sub Q ZIKV-infected RMs. These results need to interpreted with caution due to the small number of animals utilized in this study. Future studies involving large groups of animals that have been inoculated through both routes of transmission are needed to confirm our findings

Mutations in GATA2 cause primary lymphedema associated with a predisposition to acute myeloid leukemia (Emberger syndrome).

We report an allelic series of eight mutations in GATA2 underlying Emberger syndrome, an autosomal dominant primary lymphedema associated with a predisposition to acute myeloid leukemia. GATA2 is a transcription factor that plays an essential role in gene regulation during vascular development and hematopoietic differentiation. Our findings indicate that haploinsufficiency of GATA2 underlies primary lymphedema and predisposes to acute myeloid leukemia in this syndrome