Essential phospholipids protection against mercury uptake and histopathological changes in the intestine of fish, Oreochromis mossambicus (Trewavas)

Histochemical examination of fingerlings and adults of freshwater teleost Oreochromis mossambicus (Trewavas) exposed to sublethal concentration of HgCl2 (0.15 mg/l) for 30 days revealed considerable uptake of mercury by their respective intestines. Simultaneous co-administration of Essential phospholipids (EPL) along with food to the fishes, significantly supressed mercury uptake by the intestinal tissues, except the goblet cells which were still loaded with Hg in both stages. Due to accumulated mercury visible histopathological damage was seen in muscle layers, lamina propria and basement membrane of columnar cells. No noticeable damage in intestine was seen, when EPL was simultaneously fed to fishes along with HgCl2 exposure. Results suggest that EPL plays prophylactic role against metal uptake and structural damage in fish intestine exposed to inorganic mercury

Security Toolbox for Detecting Novel and Sophisticated Android Malware

This paper presents a demo of our Security Toolbox to detect novel malware in Android apps. This Toolbox is developed through our recent research project funded by the DARPA Automated Program Analysis for Cybersecurity (APAC) project. The adversarial challenge ("Red") teams in the DARPA APAC program are tasked with designing sophisticated malware to test the bounds of malware detection technology being developed by the research and development ("Blue") teams. Our research group, a Blue team in the DARPA APAC program, proposed a "human-in-the-loop program analysis" approach to detect malware given the source or Java bytecode for an Android app. Our malware detection apparatus consists of two components: a general-purpose program analysis platform called Atlas, and a Security Toolbox built on the Atlas platform. This paper describes the major design goals, the Toolbox components to achieve the goals, and the workflow for auditing Android apps. The accompanying video (http://youtu.be/WhcoAX3HiNU) illustrates features of the Toolbox through a live audit.Comment: 4 pages, 1 listing, 2 figure

Security Toolbox for Detecting Novel and Sophisticated Android Malware *

Abstract-This paper presents a demo of our Security Toolbox to detect novel malware in Android apps. This Toolbox is developed through our recent research project funded by the DARPA Automated Program Analysis for Cybersecurity (APAC) project. The adversarial challenge ("Red") teams in the DARPA APAC program are tasked with designing sophisticated malware to test the bounds of malware detection technology being developed by the research and development ("Blue") teams. Our research group, a Blue team in the DARPA APAC program, proposed a "human-in-the-loop program analysis" approach to detect malware given the source or Java bytecode for an Android app. Our malware detection apparatus consists of two components: a general-purpose program analysis platform called Atlas, and a Security Toolbox built on the Atlas platform. This paper describes the major design goals, the Toolbox components to achieve the goals, and the workflow for auditing Android apps. The accompanying video illustrates features of the Toolbox through a live audit. Video: http://youtu.be/WhcoAX3HiN

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Multi-faceted Practical Modeling Education for Software Engineering

Abstract. It is a challenge to teach modeling to undergraduates. Primarily, the difficulty is of teaching abstract concepts because it is hard for students to digest and appreciate abstractions. This paper is about developing a curriculum in which students can experience how models enable one to: find solutions, verify solutions, and be able to experiment with possible solutions. In this paper we present two modeling topics covered in an undergraduate course taught at Iowa State University (ISU). These topics are chosen for their practical importance. Our primary goal is to enable students to learn how to apply modeling to solve practical problems of large software and be familiar with state-of-the-art modeling tools used in industry. Model-based problem solving makes it easier for students to appreciate and learn modeling.

Parallel EST Clustering

Expressed sequence tags, abbreviated ESTs, are DNA fragments experimentally derived from expressed portions of genes. Clustering of ESTs is essential for gene recognition and understanding important genetic variations such as those resulting in diseases. In this paper, we present the design and development of a parallel software system for EST clustering. The novel features of our approach include 1) space efficient algorithms to keep the space requirement linear in the size of the input data set, 2) a combination of algorithmic techniques to reduce the total work without sacrificing the quality of EST clustering, and 3) use of parallel processing to reduce the run-time and facilitate the clustering of large data sets. Using a combination of these techniques, we report the clustering of 50,000 maize ESTs in 16 minutes on a 32-processor IBM SP. To our knowledge, this is the first effort in building a parallel software system for EST clustering