bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Computed tomographic evaluation of pancreatic perfusion in 10 dogs with acute pancreatitis
Authors: von Stade Lauren , Rao Sangeeta , Marolf Angela J.
Published: June 2023

Severe canine acute pancreatitis can be fatal; imaging features that can predict the clinical course of disease are useful for clinicians. On computed tomography (CT), both pancreatic heterogeneous contrast enhancement and portal vein thrombosis have been correlated with poorer outcome. Perfusion CT is used in human medicine to evaluate pancreatic microcirculation to predict the future development of severe sequela to pancreatitis; this technology has yet to be explored in dogs with acute pancreatitis. The objective of this prospective, case‐control study is to evaluate pancreatic perfusion using contrast‐enhanced CT in dogs with acute pancreatitis and compare it with previously established values obtained in healthy dogs. Ten client‐owned dogs preliminarily diagnosed with acute pancreatitis received a full abdominal ultrasound, specific canine pancreatic lipase (Spec cPL), and perfusion CT. Computer software calculated pancreatic perfusion, peak enhancement index, time to peak enhancement, and blood volume for 3‐mm and reformatted 6‐mm slices. The data was analyzed using Shapiro–Wilk test, linear mixed model, and Spearman's rho. Values for 3‐mm slices were similar to 6‐mm slices (all P < 0.05). Dogs with acute pancreatitis had a faster time to peak enhancement than healthy dogs (P = 0.04–0.06). Dogs with acute pancreatitis and homogeneous pancreatic enhancement had higher perfusion, faster time to peak enhancement, and greater blood volume compared to healthy dogs and dogs with acute pancreatitis and heterogeneous pancreatic enhancement (all P = / < 0.05). Pancreatic perfusion decreased with increased pancreatitis severity. No correlation was identified between Spec cPL and pancreatic perfusion (all P > 0.05). These findings preliminarily support perfusion CT in dogs with acute pancreatitis.
Atomic layer deposition of calcium fluoride for barrier coating applications
Authors: Hennessy John , Rodríguez Robin E. , West William C. , Brandon Erik J.
Published: June 2023

We report on the development of an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process for calcium fluoride thin films using bis(N,N-di-i-propylformamidinato)calcium(II) and anhydrous HF as reactants. Deposition rates were observed to be linear versus the number of ALD cycles performed, varying between 0.4 and 0.3 Å/cycle at substrate temperatures ranging from 175 to 250 °C, respectively. The optical properties of the resulting nanocrystalline CaF2 films were characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry and show good transparency down to a UV wavelength of 193 nm, and good agreement with reference refractive index parameters. One motivation for the development of this ALD process is for chemical barrier applications in fluorine-containing chemistries. The robustness of the coating was tested by reactive ion etching of CaF2 films deposited on silicon in an SF6 plasma, yielding an Si:CaF2 etch ratio of greater than 2000:1 at a plasma power of 300 W.
Insight into the effect of coexistence of CO2 and H2 on stoichiometric and defective PuO2 surfaces hydriding from first-principles study
Authors: Shi Jingli , Gao Tao , Li Gan , Wang Hailiang , Luo Wenhua
Published: June 2023

Studying the effect of coexistence of CO2 and H2 on plutonium hydriding is of great significance for nuclear safety storage and disposal. In this work, we studied the microscopic adsorption morphology of CO2 and H2 molecules with low and high coverage on stoichiometric PuO2 (111) and (110) surfaces. The adsorption energy results showed that both CO2 and H2 have relatively strong reactivity with the (110) surface. The CO2 molecule may be dominant in competitive adsorption with H2. The influences of the coexistence of CO2 and H2 on the adsorption and dissociation behavior for H2 on stoichiometric and defective surfaces were further researched. The CO2 adsorption configuration on the defect surface reveals that the O atom attempts to “heal” the oxygen vacancy. The results show that the presence of CO2 can weaken the interface interaction between H2 and the surface, and increase the H2 dissociation energy barrier on the surface from about 0.518 eV to about 0.791 eV. The electronic properties and work function show that the adsorbed CO2 hinders the electron interaction between H2 and surface resulting in the blocking of hydrogen adsorption and dissociation, which may be the reason for inhibiting the hydrogenation of plutonium. Our study could provide new insights into the CO2 effect on the hydriding process of active metals.
Broad Sarbecovirus Neutralizing Antibodies Obtained by Computational Design and Synthetic Library Screening
Authors: Yang Xuehua , Duan Huarui , Liu Xiuying , Zhang Xinhui , Pan Shengnan , Zhang Fangyuan , Gao Peixiang , Liu Bo , Yang Jian , Chi Xiaojing , Yang Wei
Published: June 2023

The subgenus
Sarbecovirus
includes human SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and hundreds of genetically related bat viruses. The continuous evolution of SARS-CoV-2 has led to the striking evasion of neutralizing antibody (NAb) drugs and convalescent plasma.
Prophage identification and molecular analysis in the genomes of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
strains isolated from critical care patients
Authors: González de Aledo Manuel , Blasco Lucia , Lopez Maria , Ortiz-Cartagena Concha , Bleriot Inés , Pacios Olga , Hernández-García Marta , Cantón Rafael , Tomas Maria
Published: June 2023

Prophages are bacteriophages integrated into the bacterial host’s chromosome. This research aims to analyze and characterize the existing prophages within a collection of 53
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
strains from intensive care units (ICUs) in Portugal and Spain. A total of 113 prophages were localized in the collection, with 18 of them being present in more than one strain simultaneously. After annotation, five of them were discarded as incomplete, and the 13 remaining prophages were characterized. Of 13, 10 belonged to the siphovirus tail morphology group, 2 to the podovirus tail morphology group, and 1 to the myovirus tail morphology group. All prophages had a length ranging from 20,199 to 63,401 bp and a GC% between 56.2% and 63.6%. The number of open reading frames (ORFs) oscillated between 32 and 88, and in 3/13 prophages, more than 50% of the ORFs had an unknown function. With our findings, we show that prophages are present in the majority of the
P. aeruginosa
strains isolated from Portuguese and Spanish critically ill patients, many of them found in more than one circulating strain at the same time and following a similar clonal distribution pattern. Although a great sum of ORFs had an unknown function, number of proteins in relation to viral defense (anti-CRISPR proteins, toxin/antitoxin modules, proteins against restriction-modification systems) as well as to prophage interference into their host’s quorum sensing system and regulatory cascades were found. This supports the idea that prophages have an influence in bacterial pathogenesis and anti-phage defense.

IMPORTANCE

Despite being known for decades, prophages remain understudied when compared to the lytic phages employed in phage therapy. This research aims to shed some light into the nature, composition, and role of prophages found within a set of circulating strains of
Pseudomas aeruginosa
, with special attention to high-risk clones. Given the fact that prophages can effectively influence bacterial pathogenesis, prophage basic research constitutes a topic of growing interest. Furthermore, the abundance of viral defense and regulatory proteins within prophage genomes detected in this study evidences the importance of characterizing the most frequent prophages in circulating clinical strains and in high-risk clones if phage therapy is to be used.
Wnt-Independent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Pulmonary Epithelial Cells
Authors: Koval Alexey , Xu Jiabin , Williams Nathalia , Schmolke Mirco , Krause Karl-Heinz , Katanaev Vladimir L.
Published: June 2023

The development of inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 infection remains a need of utmost importance. The Wnt signaling pathway in host cells is often implicated in infections by bacteria and viruses. In this work, we show that, despite previous indications, pharmacological modulation of the Wnt pathway does not represent a promising strategy to control SARS-CoV-2 infection in lung epithelia.
Switch from intravenous-to-oral antibiotics in neonatal probable and proven early-onset infection: a prospective population-based real-life multicentre cohort study
Authors: Malchau Carlsen Emma Louise , Dungu Kia Hee Schultz , Lewis Anna , Vissing Nadja Hawwa , Aunsholt Lise , Trautner Simon , Stanchev Hristo , Dayani Gholamreza Krog , Pedersen Anne-Janet L , Bjerager Mia , De Salas Maria , Vestergaard Kristian , Pedersen Pernille , Frimodt-Møller Niels , Greisen Gorm , Hansen Bo Mølholm , Nygaard Ulrikka
Published: June 2023

Objective

To evaluate the implementation of switch from intravenous-to-oral antibiotic therapy with amoxicillin in neonates with early-onset infection (EOI).

Design, setting and patients

A population-based multicentre cohort study. All term-born neonates with EOI were prospectively included between 1 December 2018 to 30 November 2020.

Intervention

Intravenous-to-oral switch antibiotic therapy in clinically stable neonates.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcome was readmission due to infection. Secondary outcomes were days of hospitalisation and antibiotic use in the pre-implementation versus post implementation period.

Results

During 2 years, 835 neonates commenced antibiotics for EOI (1.5% (95% CI 1.4% to 1.6%)) of all term live births). Of those, 554 (66%) underwent a full course of treatment. There were 23 episodes of culture-proven infection (0.42 per 1000 term live births (95% CI 0.27 to 0.63)). A total of 478 of 531 (90%) neonates with probable infection underwent switch therapy. None was readmitted due to infection. The median duration of hospitalisation was 3.0 days (IQR 2.5–3.5) and 7.4 days (IQR 7.0–7.5) in the switch and intravenous therapy groups, respectively. According to antibiotic surveillance data, 1.2% underwent a full course of treatment following implementation of oral switch therapy (2019–2020), compared with 1.2% before (2017–2018).

Conclusion

In clinical practice, switch therapy was safe and used in 9 of 10 neonates with probable EOI. Knowledge of the safety of antibiotic de-escalation is important as home-based oral therapy ameliorates the treatment burden for neonates, caregivers and healthcare systems. Despite the ease of oral administration, implementation of switch therapy did not increase the overall use of antibiotics.
Utilisation of services along the continuum of maternal healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic in Lubumbashi, DRC: findings from a cross-sectional household survey of women
Authors: Galle Anna , Kavira Gladys , Semaan Aline , Malonga Kaj Françoise , Benova Lenka , Ntambue Abel
Published: June 2023

Objectives

The continuum of maternal care along antenatal (ANC), intrapartum and postnatal care (PNC) is fundamental for protecting women’s and newborns’ health. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the provision and use of these essential services globally. This study examines maternal healthcare utilisation along the continuum during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Design

This is a cross-sectional study using data collected on a survey of 599 households in Lubumbashi, DRC, using stratified random sampling.

Participants

We included 604 women (15–49 years) who were pregnant between March 2020 and May 2021.

Outcome measures

A structured interview involved questions on sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes regarding COVID-19 and maternal service use and cost. Complete continuum of care was defined as receiving ANC 4+ consultations, skilled birth attendance and at least one PNC check for both mother and newborn. Data were analysed in SPSS using descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression.

Results

One-third (36%) of women who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic completed the continuum of maternal healthcare. Factors significantly associated with completing the continuum included higher education (aOR=2.6; p<0.001) and positive attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccination (aOR=1.9; p=0.04). Reasons for not seeking maternal care included lack of money and avoiding COVID-19 vaccination.

Conclusion

During the COVID-19 pandemic, maternal healthcare seeking behaviours were shaped by vaccine hesitancy and care unaffordability in Lubumbashi. Addressing the high cost of maternal healthcare and vaccine hesitancy appear essential to improve access to maternal healthcare.
Engagement with regular asymptomatic COVID-19 testing in young people in North West England: a qualitative focus group study
Authors: Thorpe Lisa , Carter Holly , Robin Charlotte
Published: June 2023

Objectives

Communities in North West England had some of the highest incidence of COVID-19, particularly in their younger populations. Test kits were provided to young people in Blackburn with Darwen to encourage regular testing and reduce COVID-19 transmission. The aim of this study was to identify barriers and facilitators to engaging in regular asymptomatic testing in young people.

Design

Focus groups.

Setting

Young people and parents of school-aged children in North West England.

Participants

14 participants aged 12–15 years, 13 participants aged 16–25 years and 9 participants who were parents of school-aged children.

Results

Six focus groups (36 participants) were conducted. Analysis identified young people were not against testing and many wanted to test to protect others; however, they felt their needs were not met when they were seeking information on the importance of testing and accessing tests. Young people also felt they wanted more autonomy to make decisions and access tests themselves, without having to rely on parents. Language barriers and challenges with the testing process, particularly reporting the results, were also identified as barriers for parents and young people. Parents were reluctant to test in the absence of symptoms and also noted that young people were very adaptable and testing became more acceptable to them as the pandemic progressed.

Conclusions

Tailored messaging for young people would help this group engage in regular testing and feel part of the COVID-19 response. Regular testing is not currently required in England, however, it is important to understand barriers to engaging in testing for young people, as testing may be reintroduced in response to this or future pandemics.
Development of a novel instrument for assessing intentional non-adherence to official medical recommendations (iNAR-12): a sequential mixed-methods study in Serbia
Authors: Purić D , Petrović M B , Živanović M , Lukić P , Zupan Z , Branković M , Ninković M , Lazarević L B , Stanković S , Žeželj I
Published: June 2023

Objectives

We aimed to (1) develop a novel instrument, suitable for the general population, capturing intentional non-adherence (iNAR), consisting of non-adherence to prescribed therapy, self-medication and avoidance of seeking medical treatment; (2) differentiate it from other forms of non-adherence, for example, smoking; and (3) relate iNAR to patient-related factors, such as sociodemographics, health status and endorsement of irrational beliefs (conspiratorial thinking and superstitions) and to healthcare-related beliefs and experiences ((mis)trust and negative experiences with the healthcare system, normalisation of patient passivity).

Design

То generate iNAR items, we employed a focus group with medical doctors, supplemented it with a literature search and invited a public health expert to refine it further. We examined the internal structure and predictors of iNAR in an observational study.

Setting

Data were collected online using snowball sampling and social networks.

Participants

After excluding those who failed one or more out of three attention checks, the final sample size was n=583 adult Serbian citizens, 74.4% female, mean age 39.01 years (SD=12.10).

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The primary, planned outcome is the iNAR Questionnaire, while smoking was used for comparison purposes.

Results

Factor analysis yielded a one-factor solution, and the final 12-item iNAR Questionnaire had satisfactory internal reliability (alpha=0.72). Health condition and healthcare-related variables accounted for 14% of the variance of iNAR behaviours, whereas sociodemographics and irrational beliefs did not additionally contribute.

Conclusions

We constructed a brief yet comprehensive measure of iNAR behaviours and related them to health and sociodemographic variables and irrational beliefs. The findings suggest that public health interventions should attempt to improve patients' experiences with the system and build trust with their healthcare practitioners rather than aim at specific demographic groups or at correcting patients’ unfounded beliefs.

Study registration

The design and confirmatory analyses plan were preregistered (https://osf.io/pnugm).
Preferences of patients with diabetes mellitus for primary healthcare institutions: a discrete choice experiment in China
Authors: Lv Yuyu , Qin Jingzhu , Feng Xia , Li ShunPing , Tang Chengxiang , Wang Haipeng
Published: June 2023

Objectives

To quantify the preference of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) for primary healthcare (PHC) institutions in China to redirect the patient flow and improve health outcomes.

Design

Cross-sectional study. Discrete choice experiment (DCE) surveys asked patients with DM to choose between hypothetical institutions that differed in the medical service capacity, out-of-pocket (OOP) medical costs per month, travel time, the attitude of medical staff and the availability of diabetes drugs.

Setting

Shandong province, China.

Participants

The participants were 887 patients with DM from 36 urban communities and 36 rural villages in Shandong province. One participant did not provide any DCE answers and a further 57 patients failed the internal consistency test. 829 fully completed surveys were included in the final data analysis.

Main outcomes and measures

A mixed logit model was used to calculate the willingness to pay and predict choice probabilities for PHC institution attributes. Preference heterogeneity was also investigated.

Results

All five attributes were associated with the preferences of patients with DM. The OOP medical costs and the medical service capacity were the most influential attributes. Improvements simultaneously in the attitude of medical staff, drug availability and travel time increased the likelihood of a patient’s PHC institution choice. Preferences differed by region, annual household income and duration of diabetes.

Conclusions

Our patient preference data may help policymakers improve health services and increase acceptance of choosing PHC institutions. The OOP medical costs and medical service capacity should be regarded as a priority in decision-making.
Longitudinal trajectories of sedation level and clinical outcomes in patients who are mechanically ventilated based on a group-based trajectory model: a prospective, multicentre, longitudinal and observational study in Korea
Authors: Hyun Dong-gon , Ahn Jee Hwan , Gil Ha-Yeong , Nam Chung Mo , Yun Choa , Lim Chae-Man
Published: June 2023

Objectives

Changes in sedation levels over a long time in patients who are mechanically ventilated are unknown. Therefore, we investigated the long-term sedation levels of these patients by classifying them into different longitudinal patterns.

Design

This was a multicentre, prospective, longitudinal, and observational study.

Setting

Twenty intensive care units (ICUs) spanning several medical institutions in Korea.

Participants

Patients who received mechanical ventilation and sedatives in ICU within 48 hours of admission between April 2020 and July 2021.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The primary objective of this study was to identify the pattern of sedation practice. Additionally, we analysed the associations of trajectory groups with clinical outcomes as the secondary outcome.

Results

Sedation depth was monitored using Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS). A group-based trajectory model was used to classify 631 patients into four trajectories based on sedation depth: persistent suboptimal (13.2%, RASS ≤ −3 throughout the first 30 days), delayed lightening (13.9%, RASS ≥ −2 after the first 15 days), early lightening (38.4%, RASS ≥ −2 after the first 7 days) and persistent optimal (34.6%, RASS ≥ −2 during the first 30 days). ‘Persistent suboptimal’ trajectory was associated with delayed extubation (HR: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.16 to 0.32, p<0.001), longer ICU stay (HR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.26 to 0.51, p<0.001) and hospital mortality (HR: 13.62, 95% CI: 5.99 to 30.95, p<0.001) compared with ‘persistent optimal’. The ‘delayed lightening’ and ‘early lightening’ trajectories showed lower extubation probability (HR: 0.30, 95% CI: 0.23 to 0.41, p<0.001; HR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.59 to 0.87, p<0.001, respectively) and ICU discharge (HR: 0.44, 95% CI: 0.33 to 0.59, p<0.001 and HR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.65 to 0.97, p=0.024) compared with ‘persistently optimal’.

Conclusions

Among the four trajectories, ‘persistent suboptimal’ trajectory was associated with higher mortality.
Association of obstructive sleep apnoea with long-term cardiovascular events in patients with acute coronary syndrome with or without hypertension: insight from the OSA-ACS project
Authors: Wang Ge , Miao Huangtai , Hao Wen , Zhao Guanqi , Yan Yan , Gong Wei , Fan Jingyao , Ai Hui , Que Bin , Wang Xiao , Nie Shaoping
Published: June 2023

Background

A close relationship exists between obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and hypertension. However, the impact of hypertension on the prognostic significance of OSA in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains unclear.

Methods

This is a post hoc analysis of the OSA-ACS project, which consecutively included patients with ACS and receiving overnight sleep study from June 2015 to January 2020. OSA was defined as AHI ≥15 events/hour. The primary outcome was major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), including a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke, ischemia-driven revascularisation or hospitalisation for unstable angina or heart failure.

Results

A total of 1927 patients with ACS were finally enrolled in this study. The mean patient age was 56.4±10.5 years. Among them, 1247 (64.7%) patients had hypertension, and 1014 (52.6%) patients had OSA. During 2.9 (1.5, 3.6) years of follow-up, OSA was associated with an increased risk of MACCE among patients with hypertension (HR=1.35, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.75, p=0.02), but not in patients without hypertension (HR=1.15, 95% CI 0.79 to 1.68, p=0.47). The interaction between OSA and hypertension for MACCE was not statistically significant (interaction p=0.29). For patients with pre-existing hypertension, OSA was associated with an increased risk of MACCE only among those with grade 3 hypertension (HR 1.54, 95% CI 1.12 to 2.13, p=0.008), but not those with grade 1 or 2 hypertension.

Conclusions

OSA was associated with an increased risk of MACCE following ACS in patients with hypertension, especially in patients with pre-existing severe hypertension. These findings highlight the importance of identifying OSA in ACS patients with hypertension.

Trial registration number

NCT03362385.
Solasonine Inhibits Cancer Stemness and Metastasis by Modulating Glucose Metabolism via Wnt/β-Catenin/Snail Pathway in Osteosarcoma
Authors: Wang Bangjun , Zhou Yi , Zhang Peng , Li Jun , Lu Xinyan
Published: June 2023

Solasonine (SS) is a natural glycoalkaloid compound that has been reported to possess a significant anticancer function. However, its anticancer effects and related mechanisms in osteosarcoma (OS) have not been studied. This study sought to investigate the impact of SS on the growth of OS cells. OS cells were treated with different concentrations of SS for 24[Formula: see text]h, and the results showed that SS attenuated the survival of OS cells in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, SS suppressed cancer stem-like properties and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) by inhibiting aerobic glycolysis in OS cells in an ALDOA-dependent manner. Additionally, SS reduced the levels of Wnt3a, [Formula: see text]-catenin, and Snail in OS cells in vitro. Furthermore, Wnt3a activation reversed the SS-induced inhibition of glycolysis in OS cells. Collectively, this study discovered a novel effect of SS in inhibiting aerobic glycolysis, in addition to cancer stem-like features and EMT, implying that SS could be a therapeutic candidate for OS treatment.
Turbulence Effects on Vortex-Induced Dynamic Response of a Twin-Box Bridge and Ride Comfort of the Vehicle
Authors: Zhang Guo-Qing , Xu You-Lin , Wang Bin , Zhu Qing
Published: June 2023

The rapid growth of suspension bridges’ span makes vortex-induced vibration (VIV) appears more and more frequently, and once it occurs the closure of the bridge results in considerable economic losses. Investigating the dynamic behavior of the bridge experiencing VIV and the vehicles running on it is thus imperative for providing a reliable guidance for the managers to make operation decisions. Nevertheless, most of the existing studies focus on VIV of bridges subjected to smooth winds, but a certain level of turbulence always exists in reality. The effects of turbulence on vortex-induced dynamic response of the bridge and ride comfort of the vehicles are not clear. This study thus develops a coupled vortex-vehicle-bridge system applicable to the multi-mode lock-in regions of a twin-box deck subjected to both vortex-induced forces and buffeting forces in a turbulent flow. The system is then applied to a real long suspension bridge with three types of vehicles subjected to either smooth or turbulent winds. The results from the case study show that the increasing turbulence mitigates vortex-induced responses of both the bridge and the vehicles and reasonably improves the vehicles’ ride comfort. However, the buffeting forces induced by turbulent wind component should not be ignored when turbulence intensity becomes high.
Bivariate Fractal Interpolation Functions on Triangular Domain for Numerical Integration and Approximation
Authors: Aparna M. P. , Paramanathan P.
Published: June 2023

The primary objectives of this paper are to present the construction of bivariate fractal interpolation functions over triangular interpolating domain using the concept of vertex coloring and to propose a double integration formula for the constructed interpolation functions. Unlike the conventional constructions, each vertex in the partition of the triangular region has been assigned a color such that the chromatic number of the partition is 3. A new method for the partitioning of the triangle is proposed with a result concerning the chromatic number of its graph. Following the construction, a formula determining the vertical scaling factor is provided such that the actual double integral coincides with the integral value calculated using fractal theory. Convergence of the proposed method to the actual integral value is proven with sufficient lemmas and theorems. Adequate examples are presented to illustrate the method of construction and to verify the value of double integration.
Asynchronous Automata Processing on GPUs
Authors: Liu Hongyuan , Pai Sreepathi , Jog Adwait
Published: June 2023

Finite-state automata serve as compute kernels for application domains such as pattern matching and data analytics. Existing approaches on GPUs exploit three levels of parallelism in automata processing tasks: 1) input stream level, 2) automaton-level, and 3) state-level. Among these, only state-level parallelism is intrinsic to automata while the other two levels of parallelism depend on the number of automata and input streams to be processed. As GPU resources increase, a parallelism-limited automata processing task can underutilize GPU compute resources. To overcome this, we propose AsyncAP, a low-overhead approach that optimizes scalability and throughput. Our insight is that most automata processing tasks have an additional source of parallelism originating from the input symbols which has not been leveraged before. By making the matching process asynchronous, which involves having parallel GPU threads process an input stream from different input locations instead of processing it serially, AsyncAP is able to significantly improve throughput and scale with input length. Detailed evaluation across 12 applications shows that AsyncAP achieves an average speedup of 58x speedup over the state-of-the-art GPU automata processing engine when the task does not have enough parallelism to utilize all GPU cores. When tasks have enough parallelism to utilize GPU cores, AsyncAP still achieves 2.4x speedup.
Characterizing Cryptocurrency-themed Malicious Browser Extensions
Authors: Wang Kailong , Ling Yuxi , Zhang Yanjun , Yu Zhou , Wang Haoyu , Bai Guangdong , Ooi Beng Chin , Dong Jin Song
Published: June 2023

Due to the surging popularity of various cryptocurrencies in recent years, a large number of browser extensions have been developed as portals to access relevant services, such as cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets. This has stimulated a wild growth of cryptocurrency-themed malicious extensions that cause heavy financial losses to the users and legitimate service providers. They have shown their capability of evading the stringent vetting processes of the extension stores, highlighting a lack of understanding of this emerging type of malware in our community. In this work, we conduct the first systematic study to identify and characterize cryptocurrency-themed malicious extensions. We monitor seven official and third-party extension distribution venues for 18 months (December 2020 to June 2022) and have collected around 3600 unique cryptocurrency-themed extensions. Leveraging a hybrid analysis, we have identified 186 malicious extensions that belong to five categories. We then characterize those extensions from various perspectives including their distribution channels, life cycles, developers, illicit behaviors, and illegal gains. Our work unveils the status quo of the cryptocurrency-themed malicious extensions and reveals their disguises and programmatic features on which detection techniques can be based. Our work serves as a warning to extension users, and an appeal to extension store operators to enact dedicated countermeasures. To facilitate future research in this area, we release our dataset of the identified malicious extensions and open-source our analyzer.
CoBF: Coordinated Beamforming in Dense mmWave Networks
Authors: Zhang Ding , Santhalingam Panneer Selvam , Pathak Parth , Zheng Zizhan
Published: June 2023

With MIMO and enhanced beamforming features, IEEE 802.11ay is poised to create the next generation of mmWave WLANs that can provide over 100 Gbps data rate. However, beamforming between densely deployed APs and clients incurs unacceptable overhead. On the other hand, the absence of up-to-date beamforming information restricts the diversity gains available through MIMO and multi-users, reducing the overall network capacity. This paper presents a novel approach of "coordinated beamforming" (called CoBF) where only a small subset of APs are selected for beamforming in the 802.11ay mmWave WLANs. Based on the concept of uncertainty, CoBF predicts the APs whose beamforming information is likely outdated and needs updating. The proposed approach complements existing per-link beamforming solutions and extends their effectiveness from link-level to network-level. Furthermore, CoBF leverages the AP uncertainty to create MU-MIMO groups through interference-aware scheduling in 802.11ay WLANs. With extensive experimentation and simulations, we show that CoBF can significantly reduce beamforming overhead and improve network capacity for 802.11ay WLANs.
Detecting and Measuring Security Risks of Hosting-Based Dangling Domains
Authors: Zhang Mingming , Li Xiang , Liu Baojun , Lu JianYu , Zhang Yiming , Chen Jianjun , Duan Haixin , Hao Shuang , Zheng Xiaofeng
Published: June 2023

Public hosting services offer a convenient and secure option for creating web applications. However, adversaries can take over a domain by exploiting released service endpoints, leading to hosting-based domain takeover. This threat has affected numerous popular websites, including the subdomains of microsoft.com. However, no effective detection system for identifying vulnerable domains at scale exists to date. This paper fills the research gap by presenting a novel framework, HostingChecker, for detecting domain takeovers. HostingChecker expands detection scope and improves efficiency compared to previous work by: (i) identifying vulnerable hosting services using a semi-automated method; and (ii) detecting vulnerable domains through passive reconstruction of domain dependency chains. The framework enables us to detect the subdomains of Tranco sites on a daily basis. It discovers 10,351 vulnerable subdomains under Tranco Top-1M apex domains, which is over 8× more than previous findings, demonstrating its effectiveness. Furthermore, we conduct an in-depth security analysis on the affected vendors (e.g., Amazon, Alibaba) and gain a suite of new insights, including flawed domain ownership validation implementation. In the end, we have reported the issues to the security response centers of affected vendors, and some (e.g., Baidu and Tencent) have adopted our mitigation. The full paper is provided in [2].
Go-to-Controller is Better: Efficient and Optimal LPM Caching with Splicing
Authors: Gozlan Itamar , Avin Chen , Einziger Gil , Scalosub Gabriel
Published: June 2023

Data center networks must support huge forwarding policies as they handle the traffic of the various tenants. Since such policies cannot be stored within the limited memory available at commodity switches, SDN controllers can manage the memory available at the switch as a cache, updating and changing the forwarding rules in the cache according to the policy and workloads dynamics. Most policies, such as Longest-prefix-match (LPM) policies, include dependencies between the forwarding rules, which introduce consistency constraints on the structure of the cached content, affecting the performance in terms of throughput and delay. Previous work suggested the concept of splicing to address such deficiencies, where modified Go-to-Controller rules can be inserted into the cache to improve performance while maintaining consistency.

We present the first optimal algorithm for determining the cache content with splicing, as well as several efficient heuristics with some performance guarantees. We evaluate our solutions using traces derived from real systems and traffic, and show that splicing can reduce the cache miss ratio by as much as 30%, without increasing the cache size. We further propose a new metric which can provide a quick estimate as to the potential benefits of splicing compared to classical LPM-caching. The full version of our work appeared in [2].
Mean-field Analysis for Load Balancing on Spatial Graphs
Authors: Rutten Daan , Mukherjee Debankur
Published: June 2023

A pivotal methodological tool behind the analysis of large-scale load balancing systems is mean-field analysis. The high-level idea is to represent the system state by aggregate quantities and characterize their rate of change as the system size grows large. An assumption for the above scheme to work is that the aggregate quantity is Markovian such that its rate of change can be expressed as a function of its current state. If the aggregate quantity is not Markovian, not only does this technique break down, the mean-field approximation may even turn out to be highly inaccurate.

In load balancing systems, if servers are exchangeable, then the aggregate quantity is indeed Markovian. However, the growing heterogeneity in the types of tasks processed by modern data centers has recently motivated the research community to consider systems beyond the exchangeability assumption. The main reason stems from data locality, i.e., the fact that servers need to store resources to process tasks of a particular type locally and have only limited storage space. An emerging line of work thus considers a bipartite graph between task types and servers [2, 3, 5 -7]. In this compatibility graph, an edge between a server and a task type represents the server's ability to process these tasks. In practice, storage capacity or geographical constraints force a server to process only a small subset of all task types, leading to sparse network topologies. This motivates the study of load balancing in systems with suitably sparse bipartite compatibility graphs.
Noise in the Clouds: Influence of Network Performance Variability on Application Scalability
Authors: De Sensi Daniele , De Matteis Tiziano , Taranov Konstantin , Di Girolamo Salvatore , Rahn Tobias , Hoefler Torsten
Published: June 2023

Cloud computing represents an appealing opportunity for cost-effective deployment of HPC workloads on the best-fitting hardware. However, although cloud and on-premise HPC systems offer similar computational resources, their network architecture and performance may differ significantly. For example, these systems use fundamentally different network transport and routing protocols, which may introduce network noise that can eventually limit the application scaling. This work analyzes network performance, scalability, and cost of running HPC workloads on cloud systems. First, we consider latency, bandwidth, and collective communication patterns in detailed small-scale measurements, and then we simulate network performance at a larger scale. We validate our approach on four popular cloud providers and three on-premise HPC systems, showing that network (and also OS) noise can significantly impact performance and cost both at small and large scale. The full paper of this abstract can be found at https://doi.org/10.1145/3570609.
Online Fair Allocation of Perishable Resources
Authors: Banerjee Siddhartha , Hssaine Chamsi , Sinclair Sean R.
Published: June 2023

We consider a practically motivated variant of the canonical online fair allocation problem: a decision-maker has a budget of resources to allocate over a fixed number of rounds. Each round sees a random number of arrivals, and the decision-maker must commit to an allocation for these individuals before moving on to the next round. In contrast to prior work, we consider a setting in which resources are perishable and individuals' utilities are potentially non-linear (e.g., goods exhibit complementarities). The goal is to construct a sequence of allocations that is envy-free and efficient. We design an algorithm that takes as input (i) a prediction of the perishing order, and (ii) a desired bound on envy. Given the remaining budget in each period, the algorithm uses forecasts of future demand and perishing to adaptively choose one of two carefully constructed guardrail quantities. We characterize conditions under which our algorithm achieves the optimal envy-efficiency Pareto frontier. We moreover demonstrate its strong numerical performance using data from a partnering food bank.
Optimal Scheduling in the Multiserver-job Model under Heavy Traffic
Authors: Grosof Isaac , Scully Ziv , Harchol-Balter Mor , Scheller-Wolf Alan
Published: June 2023

Multiserver-job systems, where jobs require concurrent service at many servers, occur widely in practice. Essentially all of the theoretical work on multiserver-job systems focuses on maximizing utilization, with almost nothing known about mean response time. Our goal in this paper is to minimize mean response time in a multiserver-job setting. Minimizing mean response time requires prioritizing small jobs while simultaneously maximizing utilization. Our question is how to achieve these joint objectives.

We devise the ServerFilling-SRPT scheduling policy, which is the first policy to minimize mean response time in the multiserver-job model in the heavy traffic limit. In addition to proving this heavy-traffic result, we present empirical evidence that ServerFilling-SRPT outperforms all existing scheduling policies for all loads, with orders of magnitude improvements at high load.

Because ServerFilling-SRPT requires knowing job sizes, we also define the ServerFilling-Gittins policy, which is optimal when sizes are unknown or partially known.

For more detail, see the full paper https://doi.org/10.1145/3570612
Overcoming the Long Horizon Barrier for Sample-Efficient Reinforcement Learning with Latent Low-Rank Structure
Authors: Sam Tyler , Chen Yudong , Yu Christina Lee
Published: June 2023

Reinforcement learning (RL) methods have been increasingly popular in sequential decision making tasks due to its empirical success. However, large state and action spaces in real-world problems modeled as a Markov decision processes (MDPs) limit the use of RL algorithms. Given a standard finite-horizon MDP (S, A, P, R, H) with state space S, action space A, transition kernel P = {Ph} ∈ []H, reward function R = {R h} ∈ [H] bounded between zero and one, and time horizon H, one needs Ω (|S||A|H3/∈2 samples given a generative model to learn an optimal policy [3], which can be impractical when S and A are large. The above tabular RL framework does not capture the fact that many real-world systems in fact have additional structure that if exploited should improve computational and statistical efficiency. Moreover, [1] empirically verifies that optimal and near-optimal action-value functions (both viewed as |S|-by-|A| matrices) of classical stochastic control tasks have low rank. Thus, the critical question is what are the minimal low rank structural assumptions that allow for computationally and statistically efficient learning?
Real-time Spread Burst Detection in Data Streaming
Authors: Wang Haibo , Melissourgos Dimitrios , Ma Chaoyi , Chen Shigang
Published: June 2023

Data streaming has many applications in network monitoring, web services, e-commerce, stock trading, social networks, and distributed sensing. This paper introduces a new problem of real-time burst detection in flow spread. It is a challenging problem because estimating flow spread requires us to remember all past data items and detecting bursts in real time requires us to minimize spread estimation overhead, which was not the priority in most prior work. This paper provides the first efficient, real-time solution for spread burst detection. It is designed based on a new real-time super spreader identifier, which outperforms the state of the art in terms of both accuracy and processing overhead. The super spreader identifier is in turn based on a new sketch design for real-time spread estimation, which outperforms the best existing sketches.
SLITS: Sparsity-Lightened Intelligent Thread Scheduling
Authors: Jin Wangkai , Peng Xiangjun
Published: June 2023

To make the most of hardware resources in multi-core architectures, effective thread scheduling is crucial. To achieve this, various scheduling objectives have been developed, such as reducing hardware resource contention [1, 11], allocating resources evenly for co-running threads [ 5, 6], and following priority-based policies [7]. Current thread scheduling designs can be categorized into two types. The first type involves fixed-rule scheduling1, which does not depend on workload characteristics and cannot meet the needs of different scheduling objectives. The second type takes the scheduling objectives into account by collecting run-time information on threads together with their correlations (e.g., Cache Miss Count [10, 13], Thread IPC [20], dynamic priority requirements like Earliest Deadline First [2 , 8, 17]), and making scheduling decisions based on thread-to-thread interactions.

A unified approach to these two types of scheduler designs can be achieved by focusing on Thread-Interaction statistics. To this end, we introduce the Thread-Interaction Matrix (TIM), which stores statistics on thread-to-thread interaction. These statistics can be any type of run-time statistics concerning the thread-to-thread pairs (e.g., Cache Miss Count [10 , 13], Thread IPC [20], dynamic priority requirements like Earliest Deadline First [2 , 8, 17])2. For fixed-rule scheduling, the TIM contains static values as the statistics do not affect the scheduling decisions. Based on the TIM, scheduling policies can be customized by specifying the rules of thread rescheduling, such as reschedule conditions and strategy. Combining the Thread-Interaction Matrix and scheduling policy provides a formalization of existing thread scheduler designs. Therefore, it is essential to design a general scheduler that can be tailored to different scheduling objectives by co-designing the Thread-Interaction Matrix and the scheduling policy in a synergistic manner.
Smash: Flexible, Fast, and Resource-efficient Placement and Lookup of Distributed Storage
Authors: Liu Yi , Shi Shouqian , Xie Minghao , Litz Heiner , Qian Chen
Published: June 2023

Smash is a new placement and lookup method for distributed storage systems. It achieves full placement flexibility and low DRAM cost to store ID-to-location mappings, two desired features that could not be achieved simultaneously by any prior method.
Report of a Complicated Case of Couvelaire Uterus
Authors: Parsapour Hamideh , Shafie Neda , Salehi Amir Mohammad , Assareh Zeinab
Published: June 2023

Couvelaire uterus (CU) is a rare complication in the life-threatening placental abruption (PA) that consists of a state of blood infiltration of the uterine myometrium and serosa. The incidence is around 1% and the treatment of choice is obstetric hysterectomy, however, in some cases, close monitoring and timely decision-making can prevent hysterectomy. Herein, we present a rare and serious case of CU with uterus preservation in a young multiparous with a high-risk pregnancy.
An Ethnobotanical Study of Wild Edible Plants in Tach Gayint District, South Gondar Zone, Amhara Region, Northwestern Ethiopia
Authors: Yiblet Yalew , Adamu Endale
Published: June 2023

The purpose of this study was to carry out an ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological investigation on wild edible plants and their value to households in the Tach Gayint district of South Gondar Zone of northwestern Ethiopia. A total of 175 informants (56 women and 119 males) were interviewed for ethnobotanical data, and 25 of them were key informants. Data collection techniques included semistructured interviews, guided field walks, and focus group discussions. Quantitative analytical tools were employed for ethnobotanical methods including preference ranking and direct matrix ranking techniques to analyse the data. 36 species of wild edible plants have been identified in the study area. Of these plant species, shrubs account for 15 (42%), followed by herbs 13 (36%) and trees 8 (22%). Regarding the edible parts, fruits account for 19 (53%) followed by young shoots, leaves, and flowers, 4 (11%) for each. These plant species are eaten raw (86%) or cooked (14%) and most are collected by younger people for herding cattle. According to the preference ranking analysis, the fruit of Opuntia ficus-indica is the most preferred plant species because its sweet taste. Although Cordia africana, the most commonly used multipurpose wild edible plant species, is mostly exploited due to human activity, activities such as the production of charcoal, the gathering of firewood, the construction of homes, and the use of agricultural tools all played a significant role in the plant’s eventual extinction. In the study area, agricultural expansion was the main cause of putting wild edible plants in danger. It is best to cultivate and manage edible plants in a backyard garden and to perform more research on popular edible plant species.