Sybil tolerance and probabilistic databases to compute web services trust

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. This paper discusses how Sybil attacks can undermine trust management systems and how to respond to these attacks using advanced techniques such as credibility and probabilistic databases. In such attacks end-users have purposely different identities and hence, can provide inconsistent ratings over the same Web Services. Many existing approaches rely on arbitrary choices to filter out Sybil users and reduce their attack capabilities. However this turns out inefficient. Our approach relies on non-Sybil credible users who provide consistent ratings over Web services and hence, can be trusted. To establish these ratings and debunk Sybil users techniques such as fuzzy-clustering, graph search, and probabilistic databases are adopted. A series of experiments are carried out to demonstrate robustness of our trust approach in presence of Sybil attacks

Gender-Related Differences in the Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and their Correlates in Urban Tanzania.

\ud Urban areas in Africa suffer a serious problem with dual burden of infectious diseases and emerging chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes which pose a serious threat to population health and health care resources. However in East Africa, there is limited literature in this research area. The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors and their correlates among adults in Temeke, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Results of this study will help inform future research and potential preventive and therapeutic interventions against such chronic diseases. The study design was a cross sectional epidemiological study. A total of 209 participants aged between 44 and 66 years were included in the study. A structured questionnaire was used to evaluate socioeconomic and lifestyle characteristics. Blood samples were collected and analyzed to measure lipid profile and fasting glucose levels. Cardiovascular risk factors were defined using World Health Organization criteria. The age-adjusted prevalence of obesity (BMI > or = 30) was 13% and 35%, among men and women (p = 0.0003), respectively. The prevalence of abdominal obesity was 11% and 58% (p < 0.0001), and high WHR (men: >0.9, women: >0.85) was 51% and 73% (p = 0.002) for men and women respectively. Women had 4.3 times greater odds of obesity (95% CI: 1.9-10.1), 14.2-fold increased odds for abdominal adiposity (95% CI: 5.8-34.6), and 2.8 times greater odds of high waist-hip-ratio (95% CI: 1.4-5.7), compared to men. Women had more than three-fold greater odds of having metabolic syndrome (p = 0.001) compared to male counterparts, including abdominal obesity, low HDL-cholesterol, and high fasting blood glucose components. In contrast, female participants had 50% lower odds of having hypertension, compared to men (95%CI: 0.3-1.0). Among men, BMI and waist circumference were significantly correlated with blood pressure, triglycerides, total, LDL-, and HDL-cholesterol (BMI only), and fasting glucose; in contrast, only blood pressure was positively associated with BMI and waist circumference in women. The prevalence of CVD risk factors was high in this population, particularly among women. Health promotion, primary prevention, and health screening strategies are needed to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in Tanzania.\u

A comparative study on long-term evoked auditory and visual potential responses between Schizophrenic patients and normal subjects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The electrical signals measuring method is recommended to examine the relationship between neuronal activities and measure with the event related potentials (ERPs) during an auditory and a visual oddball paradigm between schizophrenic patients and normal subjects. The aim of this study is to discriminate the activation changes of different stimulations evoked by auditory and visual ERPs between schizophrenic patients and normal subjects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty-three schizophrenic patients were selected as experimental group patients, and 40 healthy subjects with no medical history of any kind of psychiatric diseases, neurological diseases, or drug abuse, were recruited as a control group. Auditory and visual ERPs were studied with an oddball paradigm. All the data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software version 10.0.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the comparative study of auditory and visual ERPs between the schizophrenic and healthy patients, P300 amplitude at Fz, Cz, and Pz and N100, N200, and P200 latencies at Fz, Cz, and Pz were shown significantly different. The cognitive processing reflected by the auditory and the visual P300 latency to rare target stimuli was probably an indicator of the cognitive function in schizophrenic patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study shows the methodology of application of auditory and visual oddball paradigm identifies task-relevant sources of activity and allows separation of regions that have different response properties. Our study indicates that there may be slowness of automatic cognitive processing and controlled cognitive processing of visual ERPs compared to auditory ERPs in schizophrenic patients. The activation changes of visual evoked potentials are more regionally specific than auditory evoked potentials.</p

The Role of Individual Variables, Organizational Variables and Moral Intensity Dimensions in Libyan Management Accountants’ Ethical Decision Making

This study investigates the association of a broad set of variables with the ethical decision making of management accountants in Libya. Adopting a cross-sectional methodology, a questionnaire including four different ethical scenarios was used to gather data from 229 participants. For each scenario, ethical decision making was examined in terms of the recognition, judgment and intention stages of Rest’s model. A significant relationship was found between ethical recognition and ethical judgment and also between ethical judgment and ethical intention, but ethical recognition did not significantly predict ethical intention—thus providing support for Rest’s model. Organizational variables, age and educational level yielded few significant results. The lack of significance for codes of ethics might reflect their relative lack of development in Libya, in which case Libyan companies should pay attention to their content and how they are supported, especially in the light of the under-development of the accounting profession in Libya. Few significant results were also found for gender, but where they were found, males showed more ethical characteristics than females. This unusual result reinforces the dangers of gender stereotyping in business. Personal moral philosophy and moral intensity dimensions were generally found to be significant predictors of the three stages of ethical decision making studied. One implication of this is to give more attention to ethics in accounting education, making the connections between accounting practice and (in Libya) Islam. Overall, this study not only adds to the available empirical evidence on factors affecting ethical decision making, notably examining three stages of Rest’s model, but also offers rare insights into the ethical views of practising management accountants and provides a benchmark for future studies of ethical decision making in Muslim majority countries and other parts of the developing world

Cardiac-resynchronization therapy in heart failure with a narrow QRS complex.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac-resynchronization therapy (CRT) reduces morbidity and mortality in chronic systolic heart failure with a wide QRS complex. Mechanical dyssynchrony also occurs in patients with a narrow QRS complex, which suggests the potential usefulness of CRT in such patients. METHODS: We conducted a randomized trial involving 115 centers to evaluate the effect of CRT in patients with New York Heart Association class III or IV heart failure, a left ventricular ejection fraction of 35% or less, a QRS duration of less than 130 msec, and echocardiographic evidence of left ventricular dyssynchrony. All patients underwent device implantation and were randomly assigned to have CRT capability turned on or off. The primary efficacy outcome was the composite of death from any cause or first hospitalization for worsening heart failure. RESULTS: On March 13, 2013, the study was stopped for futility on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring board. At study closure, the 809 patients who had undergone randomization had been followed for a mean of 19.4 months. The primary outcome occurred in 116 of 404 patients in the CRT group, as compared with 102 of 405 in the control group (28.7% vs. 25.2%; hazard ratio, 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.92 to 1.57; P=0.15). There were 45 deaths in the CRT group and 26 in the control group (11.1% vs. 6.4%; hazard ratio, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.11 to 2.93; P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with systolic heart failure and a QRS duration of less than 130 msec, CRT does not reduce the rate of death or hospitalization for heart failure and may increase mortality. (Funded by Biotronik and GE Healthcare; EchoCRT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00683696.)

Assessment of predicted enzymatic activity of α‐N‐acetylglucosaminidase variants of unknown significance for CAGI 2016

The NAGLU challenge of the fourth edition of the Critical Assessment of Genome Interpretation experiment (CAGI4) in 2016, invited participants to predict the impact of variants of unknown significance (VUS) on the enzymatic activity of the lysosomal hydrolase α‐N‐acetylglucosaminidase (NAGLU). Deficiencies in NAGLU activity lead to a rare, monogenic, recessive lysosomal storage disorder, Sanfilippo syndrome type B (MPS type IIIB). This challenge attracted 17 submissions from 10 groups. We observed that top models were able to predict the impact of missense mutations on enzymatic activity with Pearson's correlation coefficients of up to .61. We also observed that top methods were significantly more correlated with each other than they were with observed enzymatic activity values, which we believe speaks to the importance of sequence conservation across the different methods. Improved functional predictions on the VUS will help population‐scale analysis of disease epidemiology and rare variant association analysis

Measurement of the Relative Branching Fraction of Υ(4S)\Upsilon(4S) to Charged and Neutral B-Meson Pairs

We analyze 9.7 x 10^6 B\bar{B}$ pairs recorded with the CLEO detector to determine the production ratio of charged to neutral B-meson pairs produced at the Y(4S) resonance. We measure the rates for B^0 -> J/psi K^{(*)0} and B^+ -> J/psi K^{(*)+} decays and use the world-average B-meson lifetime ratio to extract the relative widths f+-/f00 = Gamma(Y(4S) -> B+B-)/Gamma(Y(4S) -> B0\bar{B0}) = = 1.04 +/- 0.07(stat) +/- 0.04(syst). With the assumption that f+- + f00 = 1, we obtain f00 = 0.49 +/- 0.02(stat) +/- 0.01(syst) and f+- = 0.51 +/- 0.02(stat) +/- 0.01(syst). This production ratio and its uncertainty apply to all exclusive B-meson branching fractions measured at the Y(4S) resonance.Comment: 11 pages postscript, also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

First Observation of the Decays B0→D∗−ppˉπ+B^{0}\to D^{*-}p\bar{p}\pi^{+} and B^{0}\to D^{*-}p\bar{n}$

We report the first observation of exclusive decays of the type B to D^* N anti-N X, where N is a nucleon. Using a sample of 9.7 times 10^{6} B-Bbar pairs collected with the CLEO detector operating at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, we measure the branching fractions B(B^0 \to D^{*-} proton antiproton \pi^+) = ({6.5}^{+1.3}_{-1.2} +- 1.0) \times 10^{-4} and B(B^0 \to D^{*-} proton antineutron) = ({14.5}^{+3.4}_{-3.0} +- 2.7) times 10^{-4}. Antineutrons are identified by their annihilation in the CsI electromagnetic calorimeter.Comment: 9 pages postscript, also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

The Metabolic Syndrome and the immediate antihypertensive effects of aerobic exercise: a randomized control design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The metabolic syndrome (Msyn) affects about 40% of those with hypertension. The Msyn and hypertension have a common pathophysiology. Exercise is recommended for their treatment, prevention and control. The influence of the Msyn on the antihypertensive effects of aerobic exercise is not known. We examined the influence of the Msyn on the blood pressure (BP) response following low (LIGHT, 40% peak oxygen consumption, VO₂peak) and moderate (MODERATE, 60% VO₂peak) intensity, aerobic exercise.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Subjects were 46 men (44.3 ± 1.3 yr) with pre- to Stage 1 hypertension (145.5 ± 1.6/86.3 ± 1.2 mmHg) and borderline dyslipidemia. Men with Msyn (n = 18) had higher fasting insulin, triglycerides and homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) and lower high density lipoprotein than men without Msyn (n = 28) (p < 0.01). Subjects consumed a standard meal and 2 hr later completed one of three randomized experiments separated by 48 hr. The experiments were a non-exercise control session of seated rest and two cycle bouts (LIGHT and MODERATE). BP, insulin and glucose were measured before, during and after the 40 min experiments. Subjects left the laboratory wearing an ambulatory BP monitor for the remainder of the day. Repeated measure ANCOVA tested if BP, insulin and glucose differed over time among experiments in men without and with the Msyn with HOMA as a covariate. Multivariable regression analyses examined associations among BP, insulin, glucose and the Msyn.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Systolic BP (SBP) was reduced 8 mmHg (p < 0.05) and diastolic BP (DBP) 5 mmHg (p = 0.052) after LIGHT compared to non-exercise control over 9 hr among men without versus with Msyn. BP was not different after MODERATE versus non-exercise control between Msyn groups (p ≥ 0.05). The factors accounting for 17% of the SBP response after LIGHT were baseline SBP (β = -0.351, r²= 0.123, p = 0.020), Msyn (β = 0.277, r²= 0.077, p = 0.069), and HOMA (β = -0.124, r²= 0.015, p = 0.424). Msyn (r²= 0.096, p = 0.036) was the only significant correlate of the DBP response after LIGHT.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Men without the Msyn respond more favorably to the antihypertensive effects of lower intensity, aerobic exercise than men with the Msyn. If future work confirms our findings, important new knowledge will be gained for the personalization of exercise prescriptions among those with hypertension and the Msyn.</p

Study of the Decays B0 --> D(*)+D(*)-

The decays B0 --> D*+D*-, B0 --> D*+D- and B0 --> D+D- are studied in 9.7 million Y(4S) --> BBbar decays accumulated with the CLEO detector. We determine Br(B0 --> D*+D*-) = (9.9+4.2-3.3+-1.2)e-4 and limit Br(B0 --> D*+D-) < 6.3e-4 and Br(B0 --> D+D-) < 9.4e-4 at 90% confidence level (CL). We also perform the first angular analysis of the B0 --> D*+D*- decay and determine that the CP-even fraction of the final state is greater than 0.11 at 90% CL. Future measurements of the time dependence of these decays may be useful for the investigation of CP violation in neutral B meson decays.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.