Pancreatic Perfusion CT in Early Stage of Severe Acute Pancreatitis

Early intensive care for severe acute pancreatitis is essential for improving SAP mortality rates. However, intensive therapies for SAP are often delayed because there is no ideal way to accurately evaluate severity in the early stages. Currently, perfusion CT has been shown useful to predict prognosis of SAP in the early stage. In this presented paper, we would like to review the clinical usefulness and limitations of perfusion CT for evaluation of local and systemic complications in early stage of SAP

Oxidative degradation of Beta-carotene

The role of beta-carotene degradations in the development of off-flavors in milk and milk products has not been established. The purpose of this investigation was to study the oxidation of beta-carotene and to identify volatile compounds arising from autoxidizing beta-carotene. Pure cyrstalline beta-carotene, mixed with Celite to accelerate oxidation, was oxidized at 50°C by molecular oxygen in two different systems. The peroxide value and loss of beta-carotene were measured after controlled oxidation periods. In one system the maximum peroxide value, 295 milliequivalents per 1,000 grams, occurred after three hours of oxidation. In the other system the maximum peroxide value, 586 milliequivalents per 1,000 grams, was observed after six hours of oxidation. Approximately 80 percent of the beta-carotene was decomposed within the first ten hours of oxidation. Volatile compounds from autoxidizing beta-carotene were collected by a cold-trap gas-entrainment technique. The collected compounds were subjected to gas-liquid chromatography and rapidscan mass spectrometry, and the following compounds were identified: n-pentane, ethyl ether, acetaldehyde, acetone, propanal, methyl vinyl ketone, toluene, isobutanal, 2-octanone and acetic acid. Compounds tentatively identified included diacetyl, 3-methyl- 2-pentanone, 4-methyl-3-pentan-2-one, 2-methylfuran, 1,3,3-trimethylcyclohexene, rnethyl formate, butanone, 2-methyl-2-heptenal, 1, 3-dimethyl-2-ethylcyclohexane, 2-ethyl-2-hexenal, 2-formyl-3, 3- dimethylcyclohexene, 1, 1, 3-trimethyl-2-n-propylcyclohexane, 2- methyl-3-nonene and 3, 5, 5-trimethyl-4-(4'-butyl-3'-en-2'-onyl) cyclohexa-1, 3-diene. A fraction possessing a strong "nutty" aroma was tentatively identified as 2-methyl-2-heptenal. The volatile compounds identified can be predicted as degradation products of beta-carotene oxidation

Detecting Phishing Sites Using ChatGPT

The rise of large language models (LLMs) has had a significant impact on various domains, including natural language processing and artificial intelligence. While LLMs such as ChatGPT have been extensively researched for tasks such as code generation and text synthesis, their application in detecting malicious web content, particularly phishing sites, has been largely unexplored. To combat the rising tide of automated cyber attacks facilitated by LLMs, it is imperative to automate the detection of malicious web content, which requires approaches that leverage the power of LLMs to analyze and classify phishing sites. In this paper, we propose a novel method that utilizes ChatGPT to detect phishing sites. Our approach involves leveraging a web crawler to gather information from websites and generate prompts based on this collected data. This approach enables us to detect various phishing sites without the need for fine-tuning machine learning models and identify social engineering techniques from the context of entire websites and URLs. To evaluate the performance of our proposed method, we conducted experiments using a dataset. The experimental results using GPT-4 demonstrated promising performance, with a precision of 98.3% and a recall of 98.4%. Comparative analysis between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 revealed an enhancement in the latter's capability to reduce false negatives. These findings not only highlight the potential of LLMs in efficiently identifying phishing sites but also have significant implications for enhancing cybersecurity measures and protecting users from the dangers of online fraudulent activities

PhishReplicant: A Language Model-based Approach to Detect Generated Squatting Domain Names

Domain squatting is a technique used by attackers to create domain names for phishing sites. In recent phishing attempts, we have observed many domain names that use multiple techniques to evade existing methods for domain squatting. These domain names, which we call generated squatting domains (GSDs), are quite different in appearance from legitimate domain names and do not contain brand names, making them difficult to associate with phishing. In this paper, we propose a system called PhishReplicant that detects GSDs by focusing on the linguistic similarity of domain names. We analyzed newly registered and observed domain names extracted from certificate transparency logs, passive DNS, and DNS zone files. We detected 3,498 domain names acquired by attackers in a four-week experiment, of which 2,821 were used for phishing sites within a month of detection. We also confirmed that our proposed system outperformed existing systems in both detection accuracy and number of domain names detected. As an in-depth analysis, we examined 205k GSDs collected over 150 days and found that phishing using GSDs was distributed globally. However, attackers intensively targeted brands in specific regions and industries. By analyzing GSDs in real time, we can block phishing sites before or immediately after they appear.Comment: Accepted at ACSAC 202

NOD1-Mediated Mucosal Host Defense against Helicobacter pylori

Infection of the stomach with Helicobacter pylori is an important risk factor for gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric carcinoma. Although it has been well established that persistent colonization by H. pylori is associated with adaptive Th1 responses, the innate immune responses leading to these Th1 responses are poorly defined. Recent studies have shown that the activation of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 1 (NOD1) in gastric epithelial cells plays an important role in innate immune responses against H. pylori. The detection of H. pylori-derived ligands by cytosolic NOD1 induces several host defense factors, including antimicrobial peptides, cytokines, and chemokines. In this paper, we review the molecular mechanisms by which NOD1 contributes to mucosal host defense against H. pylori infection of the stomach

DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW FATIGUE TESTING MACHINE FOR HIGH FREQUENCY FATIGUE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT

ABSTRACT A new simple fatigue testing machine, which can carry out fast and low-cost fatigue tests of welded joints subject to wave with high frequency vibration, has been developed. This machine is designed for plate bending type fatigue tests, and wave load is applied by using motors with eccentric mass. Springing vibration is superimposed by attaching an additional vibrator to the test specimen, and whipping vibration is superimposed by an intermittent hammering. Fatigue tests which simulate springing and whipping by a conventional servo-type fatigue testing machines are very expensive and use a large amount of electricity. If one uses these conventional machines, it is difficult to simulate superimposed stress wave forms at high speed, and it takes long hours of testing to examine the high frequency effect. In contrast, it is found that fatigue tests can be carried out in fast, i.e. waves with 10Hz or higher frequency for out-of-plane gusset welded joint specimens with 12mm plate thickness by using the developed machine. The electricity to be used for fatigue tests could be minimal, for example one thousandth of that needed for conventional machines. These results demonstrate the superiority of the developed machine

A Case of Severe Esophageal Intramural Pseudodiverticulosis Whose Symptoms Were Ameliorated by Oral Administration of Anti-Fungal Medicine

Esophageal intramural pseudodiverticulosis (EIPD) is a rare disease of unknown etiology that displays multiple pseudodiverticula radiologically, leading to benign esophageal stricture. Dysphagia, which sometimes slowly progresses, is the main symptom in the majority of cases. We here report a 59-year-old male EIPD patient who suffered from severe dysphagia. Radiography and endoscopy of this patient disclosed a severe constriction in the upper thoracic esophagus. Although we tried several endoscopic procedures including frequent endoscopic balloon dilatation (EBD), the effect was very limited and his dysphagia relapsed shortly after the treatments. During the procedures, we noticed some white, thick, creamy liquid emerging from the orifices of EIPD, and PAS staining of biopsy specimens revealed infection with Candida albicans. Hence, the patient was given anti-fungal medicine in addition to EBD. The additional treatment with anti-fungal medicine dramatically improved his symptoms and the esophageal constriction. This case suggests that anti-fungal treatment is an effective first-line therapy even against a severe form of esophageal constriction in EIPD