Detection and characterization of CO2 leakage by multi-well pulse testing and diffusivity tomography maps

Bureau of Economic Geolog

Immunomodulatory effects of human umbilical cord wharton's Jelly-Derived mesenchymal stem cells on differentiation, maturation and endocytosis of monocyte-derived dendritic cells

The Wharton's jelly of the umbilical cord is believed to be a source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) which can be therapeutically applied in degenerative diseases. In this study, we investigated the immunomodulatory effect of umbilical cord derivedmesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) and bone marrow-derived-mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) on differentiation, maturation, and endocytosis of monocyte-derived dendritic cells in a transwell culture system under laboratory conditions. Monocytes were differentiated into immature dendritic cells (iDCs) in the presence of GM-CSF and IL-4 for 6 days and then differentiated into mature dendritic cells (mDCs) in the presence of TNF-for 2 days. In every stage of differentiation, immature and mature dendritic cells were separately cocultured with UC-MSCs and BM-MSCs. The findings showed that UC-MSCs and BM-MSCs inhibited strongly differentiation and maturation of dendritic cells at higher dilution ratios (1:1). The BM-MSCs and UC-MSCs showed more inhibitory effect on CD1a, CD83, CD86 expression, and dendritic cell endocytic activity, respectively. On the other hand, these cells severely up-regulated CD14 marker expression. We concluded that UC-MSCs and BM-MSCs could inhibit differentiation, maturation and endocytosis in monocyte-derived DCs through the secreted factors and free of any cellcell contacts under laboratory conditions. As DCs are believed to be the main antigen presenting cells for naive T cells in triggering immune responses, it would be logical that their inhibitory effect on differentiation, maturation and function can decrease or modulate immune and inflammatory responses. Copyright © Spring 2013, Iran J Allergy Asthma Immunol. All rights reserved

A note on belief structures and s-approximation spaces

We study relations between evidence theory and S-approximation spaces. Both theories have their roots in the analysis of Dempsterchr('39')s multivalued mappings and lower and upper probabilities, and have close relations to rough sets. We show that an S-approximation space, satisfying a monotonicity condition, can induce a natural belief structure which is a fundamental block in evidence theory. We also demonstrate that one can induce a natural belief structure on one set, given a belief structure on another set, if the two sets are related by a partial monotone S-approximation space

Measuring Performances of a White-Box Approach in the IoT Context

The internet of things (IoT) refers to all the smart objects that are connected to other objects, devices or servers and that are able to collect and share data, in order to "learn" and improve their functionalities. Smart objects suffer from lack of memory and computational power, since they are usually lightweight. Moreover, their security is weakened by the fact that smart objects can be placed in unprotected environments, where adversaries are able to play with the symmetric-key algorithm used and the device on which the cryptographic operations are executed. In this paper, we focus on a family of white-box symmetric ciphers substitution-permutation network (SPN)box, extending and improving our previous paper on the topic presented at WIDECOM2019. We highlight the importance of white-box cryptography in the IoT context, but also the need to have a fast black-box implementation (server-side) of the cipher. We show that, modifying an internal layer of SPNbox, we are able to increase the key length and to improve the performance of the implementation. We measure these improvements (a) on 32/64-bit architectures and (b) in the IoT context by encrypting/decrypting 10,000 payloads of lightweight messaging protocol Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT)

A note on belief structures and s-approximation spaces

We study relations between evidence theory and S-approximation spaces. Both theories have their roots in the analysis of Dempsterchr('39')s multivalued mappings and lower and upper probabilities, and have close relations to rough sets. We show that an S-approximation space, satisfying a monotonicity condition, can induce a natural belief structure which is a fundamental block in evidence theory. We also demonstrate that one can induce a natural belief structure on one set, given a belief structure on another set, if the two sets are related by a partial monotone S-approximation space

A Deontic Logic Analysis of Autonomous Systems' Safety

We consider the pressing question of how to model, verify, and ensure that autonomous systems meet certain \textit{obligations} (like the obligation to respect traffic laws), and refrain from impermissible behavior (like recklessly changing lanes). Temporal logics are heavily used in autonomous system design; however, as we illustrate here, temporal (alethic) logics alone are inappropriate for reasoning about obligations of autonomous systems. This paper proposes the use of Dominance Act Utilitarianism (DAU), a deontic logic of agency, to encode and reason about obligations of autonomous systems. We use DAU to analyze Intel's Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS) proposal as a real-world case study. We demonstrate that DAU can express well-posed RSS rules, formally derive undesirable consequences of these rules, illustrate how DAU could help design systems that have specific obligations, and how to model-check DAU obligations.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, In 23rd ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Contro

Xanthogranulomatous cystitis mimicking bladder tumor: A case report

Xanthogranulomatous inflammation, as a type of chronic granulomatous inflammation, typically occurs in the gall bladder and kidneys. In this paper, we present a 56-year-old man with Xanthogranulomatous cystitis mimicking bladder malignancy. He was referred to our clinic with the chief complaint of a one-year history of urgency and frequency. CT scan showed a solid lesion in the bladder. The patient underwent complete transurethral resection of the bladder tumor. Microscopic histopathology revealed xanthogranulomatous cystitis. The patient received a course of antibiotic therapy. Follow-up Cystourethroscopy showed normal bladder. © 202