ECONOMICS OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

In this paper, we investigate economics of software development. We first identify several dimensions of software quality from user’s perspectives. We model the tradeoff between having more features and functionalities and the ease of learning in usability, and the tradeoffs among ease of use, ease of learning, and usage frequency. Based on the impacts of quality dimensions on user’s utility, we analyze the software monopoly’s economic incentives to provide high quality software products and build analytical model to analyze the software company’s optimal design decisions. (Keywords: Software, Usability, Economics

Efficacy of intravenous amphotericin B-polybutylcyanoacrylate nanoparticles against cryptococcal meningitis in mice

Amphotericin B deoxycholate (AmB), a classic antifungal drug, remains the initial treatment of choice for deep fungal infections, but it is not appropriate for treatment of cryptococcal meningitis due to its inability to pass through the blood–brain barrier (BBB). We examined the efficacy of amphotericin B-polybutylcyanoacrylate nanoparticles (AmB-PBCA-NPs) modified with polysorbate 80 that had a mean particle diameter less than 100 nanometers (69.0 ± 28.6 nm). AmB-PBCA-NPs were detected in the brain 30 minutes after systemic administration into BALB/c mice and had a higher concentration than systemically administered AmB liposome (AmB-L, P < 0.05); AmB was not detected in the brain. Following infection for 24 hours and then 7 days of treatment, the survival rate of mice in the AmB-PBCA-NP group (80%) was significantly higher than that of the AmB (0%) or AmB-L (60%) treatment groups. Fungal load was also lower when assessed by colony-forming unit counts obtained after plating infected brain tissue (P < 0.05). Our study indicates that AmB-PBCA-NPs with polysorbate 80 coating have the capacity to transport AmB across the BBB and is an efficient treatment against cryptococcal meningitis in a mouse model

Directly determining orbital angular momentum of ultrashort Laguerre-Gauss pulses via autocorrelation measurement

Autocorrelation measurement based on second-harmonic generation (SHG), the best-known technique for measuring the temporal duration of ultrashort pulses, could date back to the birth of ultrafast lasers. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate that such well-established technique can also be used to measure the orbital angular momentum of ultrashort Laguerre-Gauss (LG) pulses. By analysing the far-field pattern of the SHG signal, the full spatial structure of ultrashort LG pulses, including both azimuthal and radial indices, are unambiguously determined. Our results provide an important advancement for the well-established autocorrelation technique by extending it to reach its full potential in laser characterization, especially for structured ultrashort pulses

A new trapdoorindistinguishable public key encryption with keyword search

Abstract The public key encryption with keyword search (PEKS) provides a way for users to search data which are encrypted under the users&apos; public key on a storage system. However, the original schemes are based on the unrealistic assumption of a secure channel between the receiver and the server. Baek et al. [1] first proposed a secure channel-free public key encryption with keyword search (SCF-PEKS) to remove the assumption. However, Rhee et al

New insight into the role of fibroblasts in the epithelial immune microenvironment in the single-cell era

The skin is exposed to environmental challenges and contains heterogeneous cell populations such as epithelial cells, stromal cells, and skin-resident immune cells. As the most abundant type of stromal cells, fibroblasts have been historically considered silent observers in the immune responses of the cutaneous epithelial immune microenvironment (EIME), with little research conducted on their heterogeneity and immune-related functions. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics (ST) have overcome the limitations of bulk RNA sequencing and help recognize the functional and spatial heterogeneity of fibroblasts, as well as their crosstalk with other types of cells in the cutaneous EIME. Recently, emerging single-cell sequencing data have demonstrated that fibroblasts notably participate in the immune responses of the EIME and impact the initiation and progression of inflammatory skin diseases. Here, we summarize the latest advances in the role of fibroblasts in the cutaneous EIME of inflammatory skin diseases and discuss the distinct functions and molecular mechanisms of activated fibroblasts in fibrotic skin diseases and non-fibrotic inflammatory skin diseases. This review help unveil the multiple roles of fibroblasts in the cutaneous EIME and offer new promising therapeutic strategies for the management of inflammatory skin diseases by targeting fibroblasts or the fibroblast-centered EIME

Feasibility study on a robot-assisted procedure for tumor localization using needle-rotation force signals

Accurate tumor localization is critical to early-stage cancer diagnosis and therapy. The recent force-guided technique allows to determine the depth of a suspicious tumor on the insertion path, while the spatial localization is still a great challenge. In this paper, a novel force-guided procedure was proposed to identify spatial tumor location using force signals during needle rotation. When there is a harder tumorous tissue around the needle rotation, an abnormal force signal will point to the location of the suspicious tissue. Finite element simulation and phantom experiment were conducted to test the feasibility of the procedure for the tumor localization. The simulation results showed that the harder tumorous tissue made a significant difference on the stress and deformation distributions for the surroundings, changing the needle-rotation force signals when the needle rotated towards the harder tissue. The experimental results indicated that the direction of the tumor location can be identified by the rotation-needle force signals. The intersection point of the two identified directions, derived from force signals of twice needle rotations, determined the tumor location ultimately. Also, parametric sensitivity tests were performed to examine the effective distance of the tumor location centre and the needle insertion point for the tumor localization. This procedure is expected to be used in robot-assisted system for cancer biopsy and brachytherapy