Predicting global usages of resources endowed with local policies

The effective usages of computational resources are a primary concern of up-to-date distributed applications. In this paper, we present a methodology to reason about resource usages (acquisition, release, revision, ...), and therefore the proposed approach enables to predict bad usages of resources. Keeping in mind the interplay between local and global information occurring in the application-resource interactions, we model resources as entities with local policies and global properties governing the overall interactions. Formally, our model takes the shape of an extension of pi-calculus with primitives to manage resources. We develop a Control Flow Analysis computing a static approximation of process behaviour and therefore of the resource usages.Comment: In Proceedings FOCLASA 2011, arXiv:1107.584

Acceleration of hemiacetal cleavage through hydrogen bonding : a new synthetic catalyst with balanced conformational flexibility and preorganization

Hemiacetal cleavage catalyst 1 was designed, synthesized, and shown to be effective in promoting glycolaldehyde dimer dissociation and tetramethylglucose mutarotation

A decidable policy language for history-based transaction monitoring

Online trading invariably involves dealings between strangers, so it is important for one party to be able to judge objectively the trustworthiness of the other. In such a setting, the decision to trust a user may sensibly be based on that user's past behaviour. We introduce a specification language based on linear temporal logic for expressing a policy for categorising the behaviour patterns of a user depending on its transaction history. We also present an algorithm for checking whether the transaction history obeys the stated policy. To be useful in a real setting, such a language should allow one to express realistic policies which may involve parameter quantification and quantitative or statistical patterns. We introduce several extensions of linear temporal logic to cater for such needs: a restricted form of universal and existential quantification; arbitrary computable functions and relations in the term language; and a "counting" quantifier for counting how many times a formula holds in the past. We then show that model checking a transaction history against a policy, which we call the history-based transaction monitoring problem, is PSPACE-complete in the size of the policy formula and the length of the history. The problem becomes decidable in polynomial time when the policies are fixed. We also consider the problem of transaction monitoring in the case where not all the parameters of actions are observable. We formulate two such "partial observability" monitoring problems, and show their decidability under certain restrictions

Atomic Information Disclosure of Off-Chained Computations Using Threshold Encryption

Public Blockchains on their own are, by definition, incapable of keeping data private and disclosing it at a later time. Control over the eventual disclosure of private data must be maintained outside a Blockchain by withholding and later publishing encryption keys, for example. We propose the Atomic Information Disclosure (AID) pattern based on threshold encryption that allows a set of key holders to govern the release of data without having access to it. We motivate this pattern with problems that require independently reproduced solutions. By keeping submissions private until a deadline expires, participants are unable to plagiarise and must therefore generate their own solutions which can then be aggregated and analysed to determine a final answer. We outline the importance of a game-theoretically sound incentive scheme, possible attacks, and other future work

Identification of recurrent genetic patterns from targeted sequencing panels with advanced data science: a case-study on sporadic and genetic neurodegenerative diseases

open8noThis work is funded by the University of Bologna, the IRCCS Institute of Neurological sciences of Bologna, and by the European Grants H2020 GenoMed4All [AM1] (Grant N. 101017549) and H2020 MSCA-ITN IMforFUTURE (Grant N. 721815).Background Targeted Next Generation Sequencing is a common and powerful approach used in both clinical and research settings. However, at present, a large fraction of the acquired genetic information is not used since pathogenicity cannot be assessed for most variants. Further complicating this scenario is the increasingly frequent description of a poli/oligogenic pattern of inheritance showing the contribution of multiple variants in increasing disease risk. We present an approach in which the entire genetic information provided by target sequencing is transformed into binary data on which we performed statistical, machine learning, and network analyses to extract all valuable information from the entire genetic profile. To test this approach and unbiasedly explore the presence of recurrent genetic patterns, we studied a cohort of 112 patients affected either by genetic Creutzfeldt–Jakob (CJD) disease caused by two mutations in the PRNP gene (p.E200K and p.V210I) with different penetrance or by sporadic Alzheimer disease (sAD). Results Unsupervised methods can identify functionally relevant sources of variation in the data, like haplogroups and polymorphisms that do not follow Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, such as the NOTCH3 rs11670823 (c.3837 + 21 T > A). Supervised classifiers can recognize clinical phenotypes with high accuracy based on the mutational profile of patients. In addition, we found a similar alteration of allele frequencies compared the European population in sporadic patients and in V210I-CJD, a poorly penetrant PRNP mutation, and sAD, suggesting shared oligogenic patterns in different types of dementia. Pathway enrichment and protein–protein interaction network revealed different altered pathways between the two PRNP mutations. Conclusions We propose this workflow as a possible approach to gain deeper insights into the genetic information derived from target sequencing, to identify recurrent genetic patterns and improve the understanding of complex diseases. This work could also represent a possible starting point of a predictive tool for personalized medicine and advanced diagnostic applications.openTarozzi, M.; Bartoletti-Stella, A.; Dall’Olio, D.; Matteuzzi, T.; Baiardi, S.; Parchi, P.; Castellani, G.; Capellari, S.Tarozzi, M.; Bartoletti-Stella, A.; Dall’Olio, D.; Matteuzzi, T.; Baiardi, S.; Parchi, P.; Castellani, G.; Capellari, S

Pollen extract in association with vitamins provides early pain relief in patients affected by chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome

The therapeutic efficacy for chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is currently unsatisfactory. The aim of the present study was to assess the safety and efficacy of pollen extract in association with vitamins (DEPROX 500®) in males with CP/CPPS. All patients with a diagnosis of CP/CPPS attending the same urologic centre between March and October 2012 were enrolled in this randomised controlled phase III study. Participants were randomised to receive oral capsules of DEPROX 500® (two capsules every 24 h) or ibuprofen (600 mg, one tablet three times a day) for four weeks. The National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI), International Prostate Symptom Score and Quality of Well-Being (QoL) questionnaires were used. In the intention-to-treat analysis, 87 males (25 class IIIa and 62 class IIIb) with a mean age of 33.6±5.9 years were randomly allocated to the DEPROX 500® (n=41) or ibuprofen (n=46) treatment groups. At the follow-up examination (following one month of treatment), in the DEPROX 500® group, 31/41 patients (75.6%) reported an improvement in quality of life, defined as a reduction of the NIH-CPSI total score by ≥25%, compared with 19/46 (41.3%) in the control group (P=0.002). The greater improvement in the DEPROX 500® group compared with the ibuprofen group was statistically significant (treatment difference in the NIH-CPSI pain domain, -2.14±0.51, P<0.001; QoL scores, P=0.002). All patients were negative at the Meares-Stamey test evaluation. Adverse events were less frequent in the DEPROX 500® group than in the ibuprofen group. The DEPROX 500® treatment significantly improved total symptoms, pain and quality of life compared with ibuprofen in patients with CP/CPPS, without severe side-effects

Validation of Decentralised Smart Contracts Through Game Theory and Formal Methods

Decentralised smart contracts represent the next step in the development of protocols that support the interaction of independent players without the presence of a coercing authority. Based on protocols a` la BitCoin for digital currencies, smart contracts are believed to be a potentially enabling technology for a wealth of future applications. The validation of such an early developing technology is as necessary as it is complex. In this paper we combine game theory and formal models to tackle the new challenges posed by the validation of such systems

Immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura: Personalized therapy using ADAMTS-13 activity and autoantibodies

Recently, treatment of immune-mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITTP) has changed with the advent of caplacizumab in clinical practice. The International Working Group (IWG) has recently integrated the ADAMTS-13 activity/autoantibody monitoring in consensus outcome definitions. We report three ITTP cases during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, that received a systematic evaluation of ADAMTS-13 activity and autoantibodies. We describe how the introduction of caplacizumab and ADAMTS-13 monitoring could change the management of ITTP patients and discuss whether therapeutic choices should be based on the clinical response alone. ADAMTS-13 activity/antibodies were assessed every 5 days. Responses were evaluated according to updated IWG outcome definitions. These kinetics, rather than clinical remission, guided the therapy, allowing early and safe caplacizumab discontinuation and sensible administration of rituximab. Caplacizumab was cautiously discontinued after achieving ADAMTS-13 complete remission. These cases illustrate that prospective ADAMTS-13 evaluation and use of updated IWG definitions may improve real-life patients’ management in the caplacizumab era

Finite element and in vitro study on biomechanics behavior of endodontically treated premolars restored with direct or indirect composite restorations

Objectives of the study were to investigate biomechanical properties of severely compromised premolars restored with composite restorations using finite element analysis (FEA), and in vitro fracture resistance test. A 3-D model of an endodontically treated premolar was created in Solidworks. Different composite restorations were modelled (direct restoration-DR; endo-crown-EC; post, core, and crown-C) with two different supporting tissues: periodontal ligament/alveolar bone (B), and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). Models were two-point axially loaded occlusally (850 N). Von Mises stresses and strains were calculated. The same groups were further tested for static fracture resistance in vitro (n = 5, 6.0 mm-diameter ball indenter, vertical load). Fracture resistance data were statistically analyzed (p < 0.050). The highest stresses and strains in all FEA models were observed on occlusal and vestibular cervical surfaces, corresponding to fracture propagation demonstrated in vitro. C showed the lowest stress in dentin, while EC showed lower stresses and strains in crown cement. B models demonstrated larger high stress areas in the root than PMMA models. No significant differences in fracture resistance (N) were observed between groups (DR: 747.7 ± 164.0, EC: 867.3 ± 108.1, C: 866.9 ± 126.3; p = 0.307). More conservative restorations seem a feasible alternative for endodontically treated premolars to conventional post-core-crown