Critical Infrastructure, Terrorism, and the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards: The Need for Collaboration

In response to 9/11 and the increasing concerns over chemical sector security, Congress gave the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the authority to regulate the safety and security of U.S. chemical facilities. In April of 2007, DHS passed the interim final rule called the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) in order to secure the U.S. chemical infrastructure. Unfortunately, the latest update on CFATS progress by DHS indicated that very few chemical facilities have completed the CFATS process. The slow implementation of CFATS perpetuates the inherent vulnerabilities of U.S. chemical infrastructure and does not augur well for the safety and security of the U.S. population. We argue that collaboration between DHS and the chemical industry can help to speed up CFATS and that communities should not wait for CFATS to ramp up before developing preparedness and response plans in anticipation of future chemical disasters

On compliance of business processes with business contracts

This paper addresses the problem of ensuring compliance of business processes, implemented within and across organisational boundaries, with the constraints stated in related business contracts. In order to deal with the complexity of this problem we propose two solutions that allow for a systematic and increasingly automated support for addressing two specific compliance issues. One solution provides a set of guidelines for progressively transforming contract conditions into business processes that are consistent with contract conditions thus avoiding violation of the rules in contract. Another solution compares rules in business contracts and rules in business processes to check for possible inconsistencies. Both approaches rely on a computer interpretable representation of contract conditions that embodies contract semantics. This semantics is described in terms of a logic based formalism allowing for the description of obligations, prohibitions, permissions and violations conditions in contracts. This semantics was based on an analysis of typical building blocks of many commercial, financial and government contracts. The study proved that our contract formalism provides a good foundation for describing key types of conditions in contracts, and has also given several insights into valuable transformation techniques and formalisms needed to establish better alignment between these two, traditionally separate areas of research and endeavour. The study also revealed a number of new areas of research, some of which we intend to address in near future

On Optimal Route Computation of Mobile Sink in a Wireless Sensor Network

There is evidence of a range of sensor networks applications where a mobile sink entity (node) is utilised for data collection from statically positioned sensor nodes in a sensor field. The mobile sink is typically required to cover the sensor field by physical motion in order to obtain the values from the sensor nodes in a periodic fashion. This characteristic leads to a very interesting problem of determining the optimal route of the mobile sink, in terms of distance travelled, to accomplish the data collection from all the sensor nodes. This minimum distance problem that is spanned from the design nature of the network has very intriguing and motivating connections with a set of classic computational problems. These cohesions and similarities are explored in this paper, and the computational complexity is analysed. The applicability of numerical solutions to the current problem is discussed and a numerical heuristic is provided to arrive at an approximate answer that is 'close' to the actual solution. An evaluation of the proposed approach is also provided through experimental results

Solvent-free protocol for the green synthesis of benzamide analogs of dibenzoazepine

Dibenzoazepine represents an important class of heterocycles, exhibiting potent antidepressant and anticonvulsant activities. Beside, various modifications on this nucleus, amide analogs at N-5 position showed potent antidepressant activities. A previously reported method for the synthesis of benzamide analogs of dibenzoazepine use hazardous and toxic solvents. Herein, we report a new, efficient and solvent-free green method for the synthesis of dibenzoazepine benzamides (6-21)

Effect of Corporate Governance and Financial Leverage on Market value Added in Pakistan

This paper examines the impact of corporate governance rules and regulations and financial leverage on the market value added in Pakistan. Market value added (MVA) is our dependent variable and corporate governance and financial leverage are our independent variables and examine their combined effect on the market value added. This study will help the Pakistani firms who are going to lever their firms and going to practicing the corporate governance rules and regulations. For this purpose we have taken the listed non-financial companies of Pakistan from 2006-2015 because they are actively practicing the corporate governance rules and regulations. The results indicate that the proxy variable of corporate governance which is board size also have the significant and negative impact on the MVA in Pakistan. Interest coverage ratio indicates that if the firm's ability to pay its interest expenses increases as results MVA also increases. Debt ratio is the proxy variable of financial leverage which is our next independent variable. By the help of our regression model we concluded that Debt also have the positive significant effect on the market value added on the firms in Pakistan. It means if a firm wants to increase their market value they should go for the debt instead of equity. Debt will help firms in Pakistan to increase their market value

Cross-sectional study identifying forms of tobacco used by Shisha smokers in Pakistan

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the frequency of different forms of tobacco intake such as smoker\u27s tobacco, chewable tobacco and snuff tobacco among shisha smoker\u27s and to study the patterns and predictors of shisha smoking affecting youth from different cities of Pakistan. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted including youth from four cities. Participants were asked to fill out a data collection tool at shisha cafes, shopping malls and restaurants. Data was analyzed using SPSSv.18. RESULTS: A total of 406 participants, 296 (73%) males and 110 (27%) females were included in the study. There were 163 (40%) cigarette smokers; 65 (16%) chewed tobacco and 33 (8%) snuffed it. The median age at initiation of Shisha smoking was 20 years. 280 (69%) considered Shisha smoking to be less deleterious to health than cigarettes. Respiratory disease was the most commonly cited health effect reported. Most 248 (61%) of the participants were infrequent shisha smokers. CONCLUSION: There is high frequency of tobacco usage in the form of cigarettes, chewable tobacco and snuff tobacco among shisha smokers of Pakistan. The highest frequency is for cigarette smoking. The rise in Shisha smoking as a trendy social habit appears to be occurring despite emerging scientific evidence of its potential health risks

Left atrial volumes and associated stroke subtypes.

Background: Cardio embolism and cerebrovascular atherosclerosis are two major mechanisms of stroke. Studies investigating associations between advanced echocardiographic parameters and stroke mechanisms are limited. Methods: This study is a standardized review of 633 patients admitted to the stroke service of a tertiary care hospital following a standardized stroke investigation and management pathway. Stroke subtypes were characterized using the Causative Classification System, using the hospitals online radiologic archival system with CCS certified stroke investigators. Patients with two mechanisms were excluded. Results: Patients with cardioembolic stroke had a higher proportion of atrial fibrillation (p \u3c 0.001), acute myocardial infarction (p \u3c 0.001) and ischemic heart disease (p \u3c 0.001). On electrocardiogram (ECG) and transthoracic Echo (TTE), patients with cardioembolic stroke had a greater atrial fibrillation (p \u3c .00), left ventricular thrombus (p \u3c .00), left ventricular ejection fraction \u3c30% (p \u3e\u3c .00) and global hypokinesia (p \u3c .00) Patients with cardioembolic stroke had higher mean left atrial volume indices (LAVi) (p \u3c 0.001), mean left ventricular mass indices (LVMi) (p \u3c 0.05) and mean left atrial diameters (LAD) (p \u3c 0.05). At LAVi of 29–33 ml/m2 , the risk of atherothrombotic stroke increased. The risk of cardioembolic stroke increased with LAVi of 34 ml/m2 and above. Conclusion: Left atrial volume indices may be linked to specific stroke phenotype. At mild increases in left atrial dimensions, the risks of atherosclerotic stroke are high, and probably reflect hypertension as the unifying mechanism. Further increases in left atrial dimensions shifts the risk towards cardioembolic stroke

Human diversity in Jordan: polymorphic alu insertions in general jordanian and bedouin groups

Jordan, located in the Levant region, is an area crucial for the investigation of human migration between Africa and Eurasia. However, the genetic history of Jordanians has yet to be clarified, including the origin of the Bedouins today resident in Jordan. Here, we provide new genetic data on autosomal independent markers in two Jordanian population samples (Bedouins and the general population) to begin to examine the genetic diversity inside this country and to provide new information about the genetic position of these populations in the context of the Mediterranean and Middle East area. The markers analyzed were 18 Alu polymorphic insertions characterized by their identity by descent, known ancestral state (lack of insertion), and apparent selective neutrality. The results indicate significant genetic differences between Bedouins and general Jordanians (p = 0.038). Whereas Bedouins show a close genetic proximity to North Africans, general Jordanians appear genetically more similar to other Middle East populations. In general, these data are consistent with the hypothesis that Bedouins had an important role in the peopling of Jordan and constitute the original substrate of the current population. However, migration into Jordan in recent years likely has contributed to the diversity among current Jordanian population groups

Preclinical anti-cancer activity and multiple mechanisms of action of a cationic silver complex bearing N-heterocyclic carbene ligands

Organometallic complexes offer the prospect of targeting multiple pathways that are important in cancer biology. Here, the preclinical activity and mechanism(s) of action of a silver-bis(N-heterocyclic carbine) complex (Ag8) were evaluated. Ag8 induced DNA damage via several mechanisms including topoisomerase I/II and thioredoxin reductase inhibition and induction of reactive oxygen species. DNA damage induction was consistent with cytotoxicity observed against proliferating cells and Ag8 induced cell death by apoptosis. Ag8 also inhibited DNA repair enzyme PARP1, showed preferential activity against cisplatin resistant A2780 cells and potentiated the activity of temozolomide. Ag8 was substantially less active against non-proliferating non-cancer cells and selectively inhibited glycolysis in cancer cells. Ag8 also induced significant anti-tumour effects against cells implanted intraperitoneally in hollow fibres but lacked activity against hollow fibres implanted subcutaneously. Thus, Ag8 targets multiple pathways of importance in cancer biology, is less active against non-cancer cells and shows activity in vivo in a loco-regional settin