cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Probing interfacial pair breaking in tunnel junctions based on the first and the second harmonics of the Josephson current
Creators: name: Barash, Yu. S.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: It will be shown that a pronounced interfacial pair breaking can be identified in Josephson tunnel junctions provided the first j_{1c} and the second j_{2c} harmonics of the supercurrent, as well as the depairing current in the bulk j_{dp}, are known. Namely, within the Ginzburg-Landau theory a strong interfacial pair breaking results in the relation j_{2c}j_{dp}>>j_{1c}^2, while in standard junctions, with negligibly small pair breaking, the relation of opposite character takes place.
description: 6 pages, published version
Against Three Arguments for a Free Market in Healthcare
Creators: name: Tumasz-Jordan, Elena
Publisher: name: Arts
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Healthcare
subject: Free Market
subject: Philosophy
subject: FOS: Philosophy, ethics and religion
subject: Economics
subject: Philosophy
subject: Economics
subject: Public Health

description: Healthcare is not like other commodities. Central features of healthcare undermine the benefits of a free market. A free market in healthcare fails to exhibit the same virtues as markets in other goods and services. Proponents of free markets in healthcare often argue for their position based on efficiency, moral hazard, and innovation. I will address these arguments in turn to show that each one relies on unstable assumptions and unstated definitions. According to the first argument, competitive free markets are efficient, so a free market in healthcare would be efficient; I demonstrate that free markets in healthcare are not competitive and thus do not promote efficiency. The second arguments states that in a healthcare free market, patients must pay for medical services, so will not use more healthcare than they need; I point out that on a medical definition of “appropriate use of healthcare,” a free market fails to solve the problem of overuse and may introduce a problem of underuse. The third argument asserts that through competitive pressure and profit-based motivations, free markets foster innovation; I will argue that the on a free market, companies can only generate profitable innovations, which may leave research deficiencies in crucial areas of healthcare. The way in which healthcare is distributed impacts the lives of the people who must access medical services: ostensibly everyone at some time or another. This project seeks to carefully examine and question the assumptions that underlie arguments in favor of a free market in healthcare in the hopes that a considered, informed debate can shape a better healthcare system.
How Does Usable Security (Not) End Up in Software Products? Results From a Qualitative Interview Study
Creators: name: Gutfleisch, Marco
name: Klemmer, Jan H.
name: Busch, Niklas
name: Acar, Yasemin
name: Sasse, M. Angela
name: Fahl, Sascha
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: For software to be secure in practice, users need to be willing and able to appropriately use security features. These features are usually implemented by software professionals during the software development process (SDP), who may be unable to consider the usability of these mechanisms. While research has made progress in supporting developers in creating secure software products, very little attention has been paid to whether and how these security features are made usable. In a semi-structured interview study with 25 software professionals (software developers, designers, architects), we explored how they and other decision-makers encounter and deal with security and usability during the software development process in their companies. Based on 37 hours of interview recordings, we qualitatively analyzed and investigated 23 distinct development contexts in detail. In addition to individual awareness and factors that directly influence the implementation phase, we identify a high impact of contextual factors, such as stakeholder pressure, presence of expertise, and collaboration culture, and the specific implementation of the SDP on usable security in software products. We conclude our work by highlighting important gaps, such as studying and improving contextual factors that contribute to usable security and discussing potential improvements of the status quo.
title: Current coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic approaches
title: an updated review until June 2020
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Nabil, Ahmed
name: Uto, Koichiro
name: Elshemy, Mohamed M.
name: Soliman, Reham
name: Hassan, Ayman A.
name: Ebara, Mitsuhiro
name: Shiha, Gamal
Publisher: name: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: COVID-19
subject: SARS-CoV-2
subject: Remdesivir
subject: Diagnosis
subject: Epidemiology
subject: Therapy
subject: 610

description: Coronaviruses are a group of enveloped viruses with non-segmented, single-stranded, and positive-sense RNA genomes. In December 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), in Wuhan City, China. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global pandemic in March 2020. Fever, dry cough and fatigue are found in the vast majority of all COVID-19 cases. Early diagnosis, treatment and future prevention are keys to COVID-19 management. Currently, the unmet need to develop cost-effective point-of-contact test kits and efficient laboratory techniques for confirmation of COVID-19 infection has powered a new frontier of diagnostic innovation. No proven effective therapies or vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 currently exist. The rapidly increasing research regarding COVID-19 virology provides a significant number of potential drug targets. Remdesivir may be the most promising therapy up till now. On May 1, 2020, Gilead Sciences, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for the investigational Remdesivir as a potential antiviral for COVID-19 treatment. On May 7, 2020, Gilead Sciences, announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has granted regulatory approval of Veklury® (Remdesivir) as a treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19 acute respiratory syndrome, under an exceptional approval pathway. Also, Corticosteroids are recommended for severe cases only to suppress the immune response and reduce symptoms, but not for mild and moderate patients where they are associated with a high-risk side effect. Based on the currently published evidence, we tried to highlight different diagnostic approaches, side effects and therapeutic agents that could help physicians in the frontlines.
description: EXCLI Journal;Vol. 19. 2020, pp. 992-1016
A Serial Communication-Based FPGA Co-Emulation Test Bench
Creators: name: Cao, Dingcheng
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: FPGA Co-emulation
subject: FPGA Co-emulation test bench
subject: Serial communication-based test bench
subject: Computer Science
subject: Engineering--Electronics and Electrical

description: FPGA designs are verified first with the simulation testing on a computer to check their behavior, and next verified with the emulation tested in an actual FPGA system to check its functional and timing performance. Co-emulation technology has been introduced to combine the simulation and emulation verification into one step which verifies the design by running the simulation test case directly on an FPGA board. Current co-emulation test benches accelerate the verification speed but need complex hardware to support its parallel communication interface. This research proposes to replace the parallel communication interface with a serial design to reduce the complexity of the hardware design. According to this proposal, the thesis introduces the hierarchy and architecture of the serial communication-based co-emulation test framework. It develops the proposed test bench based on the framework. Finally, it demonstrates the simulation and co-emulation test result to prove the feasibility of the proposed test bench
3Rs toxicity testing and disease modeling projects in the European Horizon 2020 research and innovation program
Creators: name: Vinken, Mathieu
Publisher: name: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: 3Rs
subject: Animal-free
subject: In vitro
subject: In silico
subject: Europe
subject: Horizon 2020
subject: 610

description: The 3Rs concept, calling for replacement, reduction and refinement of animal experimentation, is receiving increasing attention around the world, and has found its way to legislation, in particular in the European Union. This is aligned by growing efforts of the European Commission to support development and implementation of 3Rs methods. The present paper gives an overview of European 3Rs initiatives as part of the different pillars of the Horizon 2020 framework program for research and innovation. Focus is hereby put on projects that address the 3Rs concept in the context of toxicity testing, chemical risk assessment and disease modeling.
description: EXCLI Journal;Vol. 19. 2020, pp. 775-784
Intracluster Medium reheating by relativistic jets
Creators: name: Perucho, Manel
name: Quilis, Vicent
name: Martí, José María
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Galactic jets are powerful energy sources reheating the intra-cluster medium in galaxy clusters. Their crucial role in the cosmic puzzle, motivated by observations, has been established by a great number of numerical simulations missing the relativistic nature of these jets. We present the first relativistic simulations of the very long term evolution of realistic galactic jets. Unexpectedly, our results show no buoyant bubbles, but large cocoon regions compatible with the observed X-ray cavities. The reheating is more efficient and faster than in previous scenarios, and it is produced by the shock wave driven by the jet, that survives for several hundreds of Myrs. Therefore, the X-ray cavities in clusters produced by powerful relativistic jets would remain confined by weak shocks for extremely long periods, whose detection could be an observational challenge.
description: Accepted for publication in ApJ
Security at the End of the Tunnel: The Anatomy of VPN Mental Models Among Experts and Non-Experts in a Corporate Context
Creators: name: Binkhorst, Veroniek
name: Fiebig, Tobias
name: Krombholz, Katharina
name: Pieters, Wolter
name: Labunets, Katsiaryna
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: With the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 necessitating working from home, corporate Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have become an important item securing the continued operation of companies around the globe. However, due to their different use case, corporate VPNs and how users interact with them differ from public VPNs, which are now commonly used by end-users. In this paper, we present a first explorative study of eleven experts' and seven non-experts' mental models in the context of corporate VPNs. We find a partial alignment of these models in the high-level technical understanding while diverging in important parameters of how, when, and why VPNs are being used. While, in general, experts have a deeper technical understanding of VPN technology, we also observe that even they sometimes hold false beliefs on security aspects of VPNs. In summary, we show that the mental models of corporate VPNs differ from those for related security technology, e.g., HTTPS. Our findings allow us to draft recommendations for practitioners to encourage a secure use of VPN technology (through training interventions, better communication, and system design changes in terms of device management). Furthermore, we identify avenues for future research, e.g., into experts' knowledge and balancing privacy and security between system operators and users.
Prognostic role of immune cells in hepatocellular carcinoma
Creators: name: Sachdeva, Meenakshi
name: Arora, Sunil K.
Publisher: name: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Immune cells
subject: Hepatocellular carcinoma
subject: Prognosis
subject: Immune checkpoint molecules
subject: Review
subject: 610

description: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with rising incidence rates, is the most commonly occurring malignancy of the liver that exerts a heavy disease burden particularly in developing countries. A dynamic cross-talk between immune cells and malignant cells in tumor microenvironment governs the hepatocarcinogenesis. Monitoring immune contexture as prognostic markers is quite relevant and essential to evaluate clinical outcomes and to envisage response to therapy. In this review, we present an overview of the prognostic value of various tumor infiltrating immune cells and the continually evolving immune checkpoints as novel biomarkers during HCC. Tumor infiltration by immune cells such as T cells, NK cells and dendritic cells is linked with improved prognosis and favorable outcome, while the intra-tumoral presence of regulatory T cells (Tregs) or myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) on the other hand is associated with poor clinical outcome. In addition to these, the overexpression of negative regulatory molecules on tumor cells also provides inhibitory signals to T cells and is associated with poor prognosis. The limitation of a single marker can be overcome by advanced prognostication models and algorithms that evaluate multiple prognostic factors and ultimately aid the clinician in improving the disease free and overall survival of HCC patients.
description: EXCLI Journal;Vol. 19. 2020, pp. 718-733
Thermal and mechanical denaturation properties of a DNA model with three sites per nucleotide
Creators: name: Florescu, Ana-Maria
name: Joyeux, Marc
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph)
subject: Biomolecules (q-bio.BM)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: In this paper, we show that the coarse grain model for DNA, which has been proposed recently by Knotts, Rathore, Schwartz and de Pablo (J. Chem. Phys. 126, 084901 (2007)), can be adapted to describe the thermal and mechanical denaturation of long DNA sequences by adjusting slightly the base pairing contribution. The adjusted model leads to (i) critical temperatures for long homogeneous sequences that are in good agreement with both experimental ones and those obtained from statistical models, (ii) a realistic step-like denaturation behaviour for long inhomogeneous sequences, and (iii) critical forces at ambient temperature of the order of 10 pN, close to measured values. The adjusted model furthermore supports the conclusion that the thermal denaturation of long homogeneous sequences corresponds to a first-order phase transition and yields a critical exponent for the critical force equal to sigma=0.70. This model is both geometrically and energetically realistic, in the sense that the helical structure and the grooves, where most proteins bind, are satisfactorily reproduced, while the energy and force required to break a base pair lie in the expected range. It therefore represents a promising tool for studying the dynamics of DNA-protein specific interactions at an unprecedented detail level.
title: Serotonergic system modulation holds promise for L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesias in hemiparkinsonian rats
title: A systematic review
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Farajdokht, Fereshteh
name: Sadigh-Eteghad, Saeed
name: Majdi, Alireza
name: Pashazadeh, Fariba
name: Vatandoust, Seyyed Mehdi
name: Ziaee, Mojtaba
name: Safari, Fatemeh
name: Karimi, Pouran
name: Mahmoudi, Javad
Publisher: name: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: L-DOPA
subject: Levodopa-induced dyskinesias
subject: 6-hydroxydopamine
subject: Rat
subject: Serotonergic system
subject: 610

description: The alleged effects of serotonergic agents in alleviating levodopa-induced dyskinesias (LIDs) in parkinsonian patients are debatable. To this end, we systematically reviewed the serotonergic agents used for the treatment of LIDs in a 6-hydroxydopamine model of Parkinson’s disease in rats. We searched MEDLINE via PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, and Proquest for entries no later than March 2018, and restricted the search to publications on serotonergic agents used for the treatment of LIDs in hemiparkinsonian rats. The initial search yielded 447 citations, of which 49 articles and one conference paper met our inclusion criteria. The results revealed ten different categories of serotonergic agents, including but not limited to 5-HT1A/BR agonists, 5-HT2AR antagonists, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRIs), and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), all of which improved LIDs without imposing considerable adverse effects. Although there is promising evidence regarding the role of these agents in relieving LIDs in hemiparkinsonian rats, further studies are needed for the enlightenment of hidden aspect of these molecules in terms of mechanisms and outcomes. Given this, improving the quality of the pre-clinical studies and designing appropriate clinical trials will help fill the bench-to-bedside gap.
description: EXCLI Journal;Vol. 19. 2020, pp. 268-295
Mental Models of the Internet and Its Online Risks: Children and Their Parent(s)
Creators: name: Mai, Alexandra
name: Guelmino, Leonard
name: Pfeffer, Katharina
name: Weippl, Edgar
name: Krombholz, Katharina
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: Today, children have access to the Internet from an early age and are therefore considered digital natives. This paper investigates how children (aged five to eight) and their parents perceive and deal with the Internet and the privacy and security risks of being online. Therefore, we extended prior studies of Internet mental models of children. We used a two-fold study design by including drawing tasks in addition to a verbal interview. The drawings allowed us to uncover the tacit knowledge underlying children’s and parents’ mental models. So far, research focused mainly on the threat models of “being online”, while our study has a more holistic view, investigating general perceptions of the Internet in-depth. In contrast to prior studies, which were mainly conducted outside of Europe with highly-educated participants, we recruited participants in Central Europe with a diverse educational background. We found that children’s mental models start to take shape beyond physically tangible components between the age of seven to eight years. Hence, we argue that it is important to educate children about the Internet as well as security and privacy issues before that age. For younger children, we suggest using secure and privacy-preserving applications, as they are not yet able to grasp the bigger picture.
Inscribing identities on the landscape : a spatial exploration of archaeological rock features in the Lower Fraser River Canyon
Creators: name: Supernant, Kisha Marie
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2011

description: The research presented in this study is an archaeological exploration of the role of monumental rock features in the formation and maintenance of community identity in the past among the Coast Salish peoples of the Lower Fraser River Canyon region of south-western British Columbia. An area of intensive seasonal aggregation during the height of the salmon fishing season, the Lower Fraser River Canyon is an area where ownership and access to valuable commodities has been paramount through time. This central place is marked by a type of archaeological feature rarely found anywhere on the Northwest Coast – large scale, stacked rock walls, terraces, and other constructions. I apply a landscape approach to understand the cultural dynamics of social interaction in this region and argue that people evoke identities at various scales and defend their territory on the landscape through the construction of these features. Since only preliminary research had been undertaken on the rock features, I conducted a survey of the Lower Fraser River Canyon and located 82 rock features along a 7 km stretch of river. Characteristics of these features, along with three-dimensional maps of several sites where features cluster, form the basis of my analysis. I outline uses for the rock features, including fishing, defense, living surfaces, and ownership makers, before applying spatial analyses to evaluate whether or not these features formed a defensive network throughout the Canyon. The results of the Defensive Index, a quantitative measure of site defensibility, illustrate that the building of the rock features, even if their primary use was not defensive, enhances the defensibility of village sites. In addition, viewshed analyses indicate that sites with and without rock features are intervisible, supporting the hypothesis that signals could be sent through the Canyon as a warning of impending raids from either upriver or downriver (Schaepe 2006). I conclude that while rock features were a result of co-ordinated community activity and had an impact on the identities of people living in the Canyon in the past, assigning ownership of a place to a family or community has always been an active and ongoing process.
Alignment of Freehand 2-D Ultrasound Images for 3-D Volumetric Reconstruction
Creators: name: Onyejekwe, Nwanneka Okeoghene
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Computer Science

description: Ultrasound is an imaging modality used in many medical procedures including the diagnosis of diseases in Neonates. We aim to develop a Computer simulation using 3-D ultrasound to teach clinicians how to perform Neonatal head Ultrasound. To achieve this, we need to align a series of 2-D ultrasound data to reconstruct the 3-D volume. The source data was acquired by freehand movement of the ultrasound probe which results in misalignment and incorrect spacing/angle of the 3-D data. Previous techniques used to solve this problem rely on speckles in the ultrasound images. We devised an algorithm to automatically correct the misalignment using 2-D registration and estimate the elevational spacing/angle by optimizing a cost function against a perpendicular reference Image. After running the algorithm on the dataset, we observed significant improvement in the alignment and 3-D structure. This algorithm will facilitate generating 3-D volume data needed to develop a high quality Simulator.
X-Rays from Supernova Shocks in Dense Mass Loss
Creators: name: Chevalier, Roger A.
name: Irwin, Christopher M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Type IIn and related supernovae show evidence for an interaction with a dense circumstellar medium that produces most of the supernova luminosity. X-ray emission from shock heated gas is crucial for the energetics of the interaction and can provide diagnostics on the shock interaction. Provided that the shock is at an optical depth tau_w\la c/v_s in the wind, where c is the speed of light and v_s is the shock velocity, a viscous shock is expected that heats the gas to a high temperature. For tau_w\ga 1, the shock wave is in the cooling regime; inverse Compton cooling dominates bremsstrahlung at higher densities and shock velocities. Although tau_w\ga 1, the optical depth through the emission zone is \la 1 so that inverse Compton effects do not give rise to significant X-ray emission. The electrons may not reach energy equipartition with the protons at higher shock velocities. As X-rays move out through the cool wind, the higher energy photons are lost to Compton degradation. If bremsstrahlung dominates the cooling and Compton losses are small, the energetic radiation can completely photoionize the preshock gas. However, inverse Compton cooling in the hot region and Compton degradation in the wind reduce the ionizing flux, so that complete photoionization is not obtained and photoabsorption by the wind further reduces the escaping X-ray flux. We conjecture that the combination of these effects led to the low observed X-ray flux from the optically luminous SN 2006gy.
description: 11 pages, 1 figure, ApJL, accepted, minor revisions to agree with accepted version
title: Artificial sweeteners are related to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
title: Microbiota dysbiosis as a novel potential mechanism
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Emamat, Hadi
name: Ghalandari, Hamid
name: Tangestani, Hadith
name: Abdollahi, Afsoun
name: Hekmatdoost, Azita
Publisher: name: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
subject: NAFLD
subject: Microbiome
subject: Microbiota
subject: Artificial sweeteners
subject: 610

description: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a systemic and wide-spread disease characterized by accumulation of excess fat in the liver of people who drink little or no alcohol. Artificial sweeteners (ASs) or sugar substitutes are food additives that provide a sweet taste, and are also known as low-calorie or non-calorie sweeteners. Recently people consume increasingly more ASs to reduce their calorie intake. Gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem where 1014 microorganisms play several roles in host nutrition, bone mineralization, immune system regulation, xenobiotics metabolism, proliferation of intestinal cells, and protection against pathogens. A disruption in composition of the normal microbiota is known as ‘gut dysbiosis’ which may adversely affect body metabolism. It has recently been suggested that dysbiosis may contribute to the occurrence of NAFLD. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of ASs on the risk of NAFLD. The focus of this review is on microbiota changes and dysbiosis. Increasing evidence shows that ASs have a potential role in microbiota alteration and dysbiosis. We speculate that increased consumption of ASs can further raise the prevalence of NAFLD. However, further human studies are needed to determine this relationship definitively.
description: EXCLI Journal;Vol. 19. 2020, pp. 620-626
The New Look pMSSM with Neutralino and Gravitino LSPs
Creators: name: Cahill-Rowley, Matthew W.
name: Hewett, JoAnne L.
name: Hoeche, Stefan
name: Ismail, Ahmed
name: Rizzo, Thomas G.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The pMSSM provides a broad perspective on SUSY phenomenology. In this paper we generate two new, very large, sets of pMSSM models with sparticle masses extending up to 4 TeV, where the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is either a neutralino or gravitino. The existence of a gravitino LSP necessitates a detailed study of its cosmological effects and we find that Big Bang Nucleosynthesis places strong constraints on this scenario. Both sets are subjected to a global set of theoretical, observational and experimental constraints resulting in a sample of \sim 225k viable models for each LSP type. The characteristics of these two model sets are briefly compared. We confront the neutralino LSP model set with searches for SUSY at the 7 TeV LHC using both the missing (MET) and non-missing ET ATLAS analyses. In the MET case, we employ Monte Carlo estimates of the ratios of the SM backgrounds at 7 and 8 TeV to rescale the 7 TeV data-driven ATLAS backgrounds to 8 TeV. This allows us to determine the pMSSM parameter space coverage for this collision energy. We find that an integrated luminosity of \sim 5-20 fb^{-1} at 8 TeV would yield a substantial increase in this coverage compared to that at 7 TeV and can probe roughly half of the model set. If the pMSSM is not discovered during the 8 TeV run, then our model set will be essentially void of gluinos and lightest first and second generation squarks that are \lesssim 700-800 GeV, which is much less than the analogous mSUGRA bound. Finally, we demonstrate that non-MET SUSY searches continue to play an important role in exploring the pMSSM parameter space. These two pMSSM model sets can be used as the basis for investigations for years to come.
description: 54 pages, 22 figures; typos fixed, references added
Self-consistent continuum random phase approximation calculations of $^4$He electromagnetic responses
Creators: name: De Donno, V.
name: Anguiano, M.
name: Co', G.
name: Lallena, A. M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study the electromagnetic responses of $^4$He within the framework of the self-consistent continuum random phase approximation theory. In this approach the ground state properties are described by a Hartree-Fock calculation. The single particle basis constructed in this manner is used in the calculations of the continuum responses of the system. Finite-range interactions are considered in the calculations. We compare our results with photon absorption cross sections and electron scattering quasi-elastic data. From this comparison, and also from the comparison with the results of microscopic calculations, we deduce that our approach describes well the continuum excitation.
description: 6 pages, 1 table, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review C
Are HTTPS Configurations Still a Challenge?: Validating Theories of Administrators' Difficulties with TLS Configurations
Creators: name: Mai, Alexandra
name: Schedler, Oliver
name: Weippl, Edgar
name: Krombholz, Katharina
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: HTTPS has been the standard for securing online communications for over 20 years. Despite the availability of tools to make the configuration process easier (e.g., Let’s Encrypt, Certbot), SSL Pulse scans show that still more than 50% of the most popular websites are poorly configured, which emphasizes room for improvement. Although a few recent studies looked at the remaining challenges for administrators in configuring HTTPS from a qualitative perspective, there is little work that produced quantitative results. Therefore, we conducted a survey with 96 experienced administrators (as opposed to a student sample) to investigate to which extent configuration problems revealed in prior studies actually exist in the wild. Our results confirm that Let’s Encrypt and ACME clients, such as Certbot, simplify configuration and maintenance for administrators, thus increasing the security of HTTPS configurations. Moreover, we extend the current body of work by examining the trust administrators put into Let’s Encrypt and Certbot. We found that trust and usability issues are currently barriers to the widespread adoption of Certbot.
title: Anaplastic thyroid cancer
title: How far can we go?
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Amaral, Mariana
name: Afonso, Ricardo A.
name: Gaspar, Maria Manuela
name: Reis, Catarina Pinto
Publisher: name: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Anaplastic thyroid cancer
subject: Treatments and obstacles
subject: Challenges for innovative therapies
subject: 610

description: Globally, thyroid cancer accounts for 2 % of all cancer diagnoses, and can be classified as well-differentiated or undifferentiated. Currently, differentiated thyroid carcinomas have good prognoses, and can be treated with a combination of therapies, including surgical thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine therapy and hormone-based therapy. On the other hand, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, a subtype of undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma characterized by the loss of thyroid-like phenotype and function, does not respond to either radioactive iodine or hormone therapies. In most cases, anaplastic thyroid carcinomas are diagnosed in later stages of the disease, deeming them inoperable, and showing poor response rates to systemic chemotherapy. Recently, treatment courses using multiple-target agents are being explored and clinical trials have shown very promising results, such as overall survival rates, progression-free survival and tumor shrinkage. This review is focused on thyroid carcinomas, with particular focus on anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, exploring its undifferentiated nature. Special interest will be given to the treatment approaches currently available and respective obstacles or drawbacks. Our purpose is to contribute to understand why this malignancy presents low responsiveness to current treatments, while overviewing novel therapies and clinical trials.
description: EXCLI Journal;Vol. 19. 2020, pp. 800-812
Guaranteed Bounds for Posterior Inference in Universal Probabilistic Programming
Creators: name: Beutner, Raven
name: Ong, C. H. Luke
name: Zaiser, Fabian
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: We propose a new method to approximate the posterior distribution of probabilistic programs by means of computing guaranteed bounds. The starting point of our work is an interval-based trace semantics for a recursive, higher-order probabilistic programming language with continuous distributions. Taking the form of (super-/subadditive) measures, these lower/upper bounds are non-stochastic and provably correct: using the semantics, we prove that the actual posterior of a given program is sandwiched between the lower and upper bounds (soundness); moreover, the bounds converge to the posterior (completeness). As a practical and sound approximation, we introduce a weight-aware interval type system, which automatically infers interval bounds on not just the return value but also the weight of program executions, simultaneously. We have built a tool implementation, called GuBPI, which automatically computes these posterior lower/upper bounds. Our evaluation on examples from the literature shows that the bounds are useful, and can even be used to recognise wrong outputs from stochastic posterior inference procedures.
title: Osteoporosis
title: pathophysiology and therapeutic options
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Föger-Samwald, Ursula
name: Dovjak, Peter
name: Azizi-Semrad, Ursula
name: Kerschan-Schindl, Katharina
name: Pietschmann, Peter
Publisher: name: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Osteoporosis
subject: Pathophysiology
subject: Osteoimmunology
subject: Gut microbiome
subject: Senescence
subject: Osteoporosis treatment
subject: 610

description: Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disease that, on a cellular level, results from osteoclastic bone resorption not compensated by osteoblastic bone formation. This causes bones to become weak and fragile, thus increasing the risk of fractures. Traditional pathophysiological concepts of osteoporosis focused on endocrine mechanisms such as estrogen or vitamin D deficiency as well as secondary hyperparathyroidism. However, research over the last decades provided exiting new insights into mechanisms contributing to the onset of osteoporosis, which go far beyond this. Selected mechanisms such as interactions between bone and the immune system, the gut microbiome, and cellular senescence are reviewed in this article. Furthermore, an overview on currently available osteoporosis medications including antiresorptive and bone forming drugs is provided and an outlook on potential future treatment options is given.
description: EXCLI Journal;Vol. 19. 2020, pp. 1017-1037
Prophecy Variables for Hyperproperty Verification
Creators: name: Beutner, Raven
name: Finkbeiner, Bernd
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: Temporal logics for hyperproperties like HyperLTL use trace quantifiers to express properties that relate multiple system runs. In practice, the verification of such specifications is mostly limited to formulas without quantifier alternation, where verification can be reduced to checking a trace property over the self-composition of the system. Quantifier alternations like $\forall \pi. \exists \pi'. \phi$, can either be solved by complementation or with an interpretation as a two-person game between a $\forall$-player, who incrementally constructs the trace $\pi$, and an $\exists$-player, who constructs $\pi'$ in such a way that $\pi$ and $\pi'$ together satisfy $\phi$. The game-based approach is significantly cheaper but incomplete, because the $\exists$-player does not know the future moves of the $\forall$-player. In this paper, we establish that the game-based approach can be made complete by adding ($\omega$-regular) temporal prophecies. Our proof is constructive, yielding an effective algorithm for the generation of a complete set of prophecies. We have implemented this construction in a prototype model checker called HyPro.
On the power pseudovariety $\mathbf{PCS}$
Creators: name: Auinger, K.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Group Theory (math.GR)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: Some new semantic and syntactic characterizations of the members of the power pseudovariety $\mathbf{PCS}$ are obtained. This leads in particular to new algorithms for deciding membership in $\mathbf{PCS}$.
title: Inorganic nitrate, a natural anti-obesity agent
title: a systematic review and meta-analysis of animal studies
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Bahadoran, Zahra
name: Jeddi, Sajad
name: Gheibi, Sevda
name: Mirmiran, Parvin
name: Kashfi, Khosrow
name: Ghasemi, Asghar
Publisher: name: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Nitrate
subject: Body weight
subject: Obesity
subject: Rats
subject: Systematic review
subject: Meta-analysis
subject: 610

description: Evidence for potential effects of inorganic nitrate (NO3) on body weight is limited to inconsistent findings of animal experiments. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to quantify the overall effect of inorganic NO3, administered via drinking water, on body weight gain in rats. We searched PubMed, Scopus, and Embase databases, and the reference lists of published papers. Experiments on male rats, reported data on body weight in NO3-treated animals and controls, were included for quality assessment, meta-analyses, subgroup analyses, and meta-regressions. Of 173 initially obtained studies, 11 were eligible to be included in the analyses, which covered the years 2004 to 2019 and included a total of 43 intervention (n=395) and 43 control (n=395) arms. Overall, the final body weights were significantly lower in the NO3-supplemented groups compared to controls (WMD= –16.8 g, 95 % CI= –27.38, –6.24; P=0.002). Doses of NO3 higher than the median (> 72.94 mg L-1 d-1) and longer NO3 exposure (> 8 weeks) resulted in greater mean differences (WMD= –31.92 g, 95 % CI= –52.90, –10.94 and WMD= –23.16 g, 95 % CI= –35.64, –10.68 g). After exclusion of experiments using high doses of NO3 (> 400 mg L-1 d-1), the overall mean differences in body weights between the groups decreased by approximately 37 % but remained statistically significant (WMD= –10.11 g, 95 % CI= –19.04, –1.19, P=0.026). Mean changes in body weight were affected by age, baseline values in body weight, and the duration of the studies. These preliminary experimental findings strongly support the hypothesis that NO3 can be considered as a natural anti-obesity agent.
description: EXCLI Journal;Vol. 19. 2020, pp. 972-983
An absorption-selected survey of neutral gas in the Milky Way halo
Creators: name: Bekhti, N. Ben
name: Winkel, B.
name: Richter, P.
name: Kerp, J.
name: Klein, U.
name: Murphy, M. T.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We aim at analysing systematically the distribution and physical properties of neutral and mildly ionised gas in the Milky Way halo, based on a large absorption-selected data set. Multi-wavelength studies were performed combining optical absorption line data of CaII and NaI with follow-up HI 21-cm emission line observations along 408 sight lines towards low- and high-redshift QSOs. We made use of archival optical spectra obtained with UVES/VLT. HI data were extracted from the Effelsberg-Bonn HI survey and the Galactic All-Sky survey. For selected sight lines we obtained deeper follow-up observations using the Effelsberg 100-m telescope. CaII (NaI) halo absorbers at intermediate and high radial velocities are present in 40-55% (20-35%) of the sightlines, depending on the column density threshold chosen. Many halo absorbers show multi-component absorption lines, indicating the presence of sub-structure. In 65% of the cases, absorption is associated with HI 21-cm emission. The CaII (NaI) column density distribution function follows a power-law with a slope of -2.2 (-1.4). Our absorption-selected survey confirms our previous results that the Milky Way halo is filled with a large number of neutral gas structures whose high column density tail represents the population of common HI high- and intermediate-velocity clouds seen in 21-cm observations. We find that CaII/NaI column density ratios in the halo absorbers are typically smaller than those in the Milky Way disc, in the gas in the Magellanic Clouds, and in damped Lyman-alpha systems. The small ratios (prominent in particular in high-velocity components) indicate a lower level of Ca depletion onto dust grains in Milky Way halo absorbers compared to gas in discs and inner regions of galaxies.
description: 17 pages, 20 figures, accepted by A&A
Software Verification of Hyperproperties Beyond k-Safety
Creators: name: Beutner, Raven
name: Finkbeiner, Bernd
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: Temporal hyperproperties are system properties that relate multiple execution traces. For (finite-state) hardware, temporal hyperproperties are supported by model checking algorithms and tools for general temporal logics like HyperLTL exist. For (infinite-state) software, the analysis of temporal hyperproperties has, so far, been limited to $k$-safety properties, i.e., properties that stipulate the absence of a bad interaction between any set of up to $k$ traces. In this paper, we present the first method to verify $\forall^k\exists^l$ HyperLTL properties in infinite-state systems. A $\forall^k\exists^l$-property stipulates that for any $k$ traces there \emph{exist} $l$ traces such that the resulting $k+l$ traces do not interact badly. The combination of universal and existential quantification is key to express many properties beyond $k$-safety including, for example, generalized non-interference or program refinement. Our method is based on a strategic instantiation of the existential quantification combined with a program reduction; both in the context of a fixed predicate abstraction. In our framework the strategy and reduction \emph{collaborate}, giving a very general proof system.
Using machine learning methods to improve chronic disease case definitions in primary care electronic medical records
Creators: name: Lethebe, Brendan Cord
Publisher: name: Cumming School of Medicine
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Machine Learning
subject: Prediction
subject: Statistics
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: Case Definition
subject: Surveillance
subject: Chronic Disease
subject: Biostatistics
subject: Public Health
subject: Statistics
subject: Computer Science

description: Background: Chronic disease surveillance at the primary care level is becoming more feasible with the increased use of electronic medical records (EMRs). However, the quality of surveillance information is directly dependent on the quality of the case definitions that identify the conditions of interest. Purpose: To determine whether machine learning algorithms can produce chronic disease case definitions comparable to committee created case definitions in a primary care EMR setting. Methods: A chart review was conducted for the presence of hypertension, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and depression in a cohort of 1920 patients from the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network database. The results of this chart review were used as training data. The C5.0, Classification and Regression Tree, Chi-Squared Automated Interaction Detection decision trees, Forward Stepwise logistic regression, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator penalized logistic regression were compared using 10-fold cross validation. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were estimated and compared for the four chronic conditions of interest. Results: Validity measures were similar across algorithms. For hypertension, sensitivity ranged between 93.1-96.7%, while specificity ranged from 88.8-93.2%. For diabetes, sensitivities ranged from 93.5-96.3% with specificities between 97.1-99.0%. For osteoarthritis, sensitivities ranged from 82.0-84.4% with specificities between 92.7-94.0%. For depression, sensitivities went from 81.4-88.3%, and specificities ranged from 93.4-94.9%. Compared with the committee-created case definitions, these metrics were equivalent or better using the machine learning method. Conclusions: Machine learning algorithms produced accurate case definitions comparable to committee-created case definitions. It is possible to use machine learning techniques to develop high quality case definitions from EMR data.
title: Sulforaphane treatment for autism spectrum disorder
title: a systematic review
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: McGuinness, Greer
name: Kim, Yeonsoo
Publisher: name: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Sulforaphane
subject: Autism Spectrum Disorder
subject: Glucosinolates
subject: Treatment
subject: CAM
subject: 610

description: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined as a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social communication impairment, delayed development, social function deficit, and repetitive behaviors. The Center for Disease Control reports an increase in ASD diagnosis rates every year. This systematic review evaluated the use of sulforaphane (SFN) therapy as a potential treatment option for individuals with ASD. PubMed.gov, PubMed Central, Natural Medicines, BoardVitals, Google Scholar and Medline were searched for studies measuring the effects of SFN on behavior and cognitive function. All five clinical trials included in this systematic review showed a significant positive correlation between SFN use and ASD behavior and cognitive function. The current evidence shows with minimal side effects observed, SFN appears to be a safe and effective treatment option for treating ASD.
description: EXCLI Journal;Vol. 19. 2020, pp. 892-903