TOWARDS FULLY AUTOMATED DIGITAL ALIBIS WITH SOCIAL INTERACTION

Digital traces found on local hard drives as a result of online activities have become very valuable in reconstructing events in digital forensic investigations. This paper demonstrates that forged alibis can be created for online activities and social interactions. In particular, a novel, automated framework is presented that uses social interactions to create false digital alibis. The framework simulates user activity and supports communications via email as well as instant messaging using a chatbot. The framework is evaluated by extracting forensic artifacts and comparing them with the results obtained from a human user study

Het komkommervisje: Onopvallende spil in het IJsselmeer dreigt te verdwijnen

Het spieringbestand daalt al twee decennia gestaag. De spiering is geen gewaardeerde consumptievis, maar als schakel tussen plankton en predatoren wel een belangrijk onderdeel in het voedselweb. Mogelijke oorzaken die een rol spelen in de teruggang van de spiering zijn de temperatuurstijging en het helder worden van wateren. Nader onderzoek moet uitwijzen welke maatregelen deze vissoort er weer bovenop kunnen helpe

Use of Xpert MTB/RIF in Decentralized Public Health Settings and Its Effect on Pulmonary TB and DR-TB Case Finding in India

Background Xpert MTB/RIF, the first automated molecular test for tuberculosis, is transforming the diagnostic landscape in high-burden settings. This study assessed the impact of up-front Xpert MTB/RIF testing on detection of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and rifampicin-resistant PTB (DR-TB) cases in India. Methods This demonstration study was implemented in 18 sub-district level TB programme units (TUs) in India in diverse geographic and demographic settings covering a population of 8.8 million. A baseline phase in 14 TUs captured programmatic baseline data, and an intervention phase in 18 TUs had Xpert MTB/RIF offered to all presumptive TB patients. We estimated changes in detection of TB and DR-TB, the former using binomial regression models to adjust for clustering and covariates. Results In the 14 study TUs, which participated in both phases, 10,675 and 70,556 presumptive TB patients were enrolled in the baseline and intervention phase, respectively, and 1,532 (14.4%) and 14,299 (20.3%) bacteriologically confirmed PTB cases were detected. The implementation of Xpert MTB/RIF was associated with increases in both notification rates of bacteriologically confirmed TB cases (adjusted incidence rate ratio [aIRR] 1.39; CI 1.18-1.64), and proportion of bacteriological confirmed TB cases among presumptive TB cases (adjusted risk ratio (aRR) 1.33; CI 1.6-1.52). Compared with the baseline strategy of selective drug-susceptibility testing only for PTB cases at high risk of drug-resistant TB, Xpert MTB/RIF implementation increased rifampicin resistant TB case detection by over fivefold. Among, 2765 rifampicin resistance cases detected, 1055 were retested with conventional drug susceptibility testing (DST). Positive predictive value (PPV) of rifampicin resistance detected by Xpert MTB/RIF was 94.7% (CI 91.3-98.1), in comparison to conventional DST. Conclusion Introduction of Xpert MTB/RIF as initial diagnostic test for TB in public health facilities significantly increased case-notification rates of all bacteriologically confirmed TB by 39% and rifampicin-resistant TB case notification by fivefold

Monte Carlo evaluation of FADE approach to anomalous kinetics

In this paper we propose a comparison between the CTRW (Monte Carlo) and Fractional Derivative approaches to the modelling of anomalous diffusion phenomena in the presence of an advection field. Galilei variant and invariant schemes are revised.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Interfacial tension and nucleation in mixtures of colloids and long ideal polymer coils

Mixtures of ideal polymers with hard spheres whose diameters are smaller than the radius of gyration of the polymer, exhibit extensive immiscibility. The interfacial tension between demixed phases of these mixtures is estimated, as is the barrier to nucleation. The barrier is found to scale linearly with the radius of the polymer, causing it to become large for large polymers. Thus for large polymers nucleation is suppressed and phase separation proceeds via spinodal decomposition, as it does in polymer blends.Comment: 4 pages (v2 includes discussion of the scaling of the interfacial tension along the coexistence curve and its relation to the Ginzburg criterion

Hydrous Phase Relations and Trace Element Partitioning Behaviour in Calcareous Sediments at Subduction-Zone Conditions

We report the results of experiments on two natural marine sediments with different carbonate contents (calcareous clay: CO2 = 6·1 wt %; marl: CO2 = 16·2 wt %) at subduction-zone conditions (3 GPa, 750-1200°C). Water (7-15 wt %) was added to the starting materials to simulate the effects of external water addition from within the subducting slab. The onset of melting is at 760°C in water-rich experiments; melt becomes abundant by 800°C. In contrast, the onset of melting in published, water-poor experiments occurs at variable temperatures with the production of significant melt fractions being restricted to more than 900°C (phengite-out). The different solidus temperatures (Tsolidus) can be ascribed to variable fluid XH2O [H2O/(CO2 + H2O)], which, in turn, depends on bulk K2O, H2O and CO2. Partial melts in equilibrium with residual garnet, carbonate, quartz/coesite, epidote, rutile, kyanite, phengite, and clinopyroxene are granitic in composition, with substantial dissolved volatiles. Supersolidus runs always contain both silicate melt and solute-rich fluid, indicating that experimental conditions lie below the second critical endpoint in the granite-H2O-CO2 system. Carbonatite melt coexists with silicate melt and solute-rich fluid above 1100°C in the marl. The persistence of carbonate to high temperature, in equilibrium with CO2-rich hydrous melts, provides a mechanism to both supply CO2 to arc magmas and recycle carbon into the deep Earth. The trace element compositions of the experimental glasses constrain the potential contribution of calcareous sediment to arc magmas. The presence of residual epidote and carbonate confers different trace element characteristics when compared with the trace element signal of Ca-poor marine sediments (e.g. pelagic clays). Notably, epidote retains Th and light rare earth elements, such that some melts derived from calcareous sediments have elevated Ba/Th and U/Th, and low La/SmPUM, thereby resembling fluids conventionally ascribed to altered oceanic crust. Our results emphasize the importance of residual mineralogy, rather than source lithology, in controlling the trace element characteristics of slab-derived fluid

Bottom-up or top-down: unit cost estimation of tuberculosis diagnostic tests in India.

SETTING: Of 18 sites that participated in an implementation study of the Xpert® MTB/RIF assay in India, we selected five microscopy centres and two reference laboratories. OBJECTIVE: To obtain unit costs of diagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB. DESIGN: Laboratories were purposely selected to capture regional variations and different laboratory types. Both bottom-up and the top-down methods were used to estimate unit costs. RESULTS: At the microscopy centres, mean bottom-up unit costs were respectively US$0.83 (range US$0.60-US$1.10) and US$12.29 (US$11.61-US$12.89) for sputum smear microscopy and Xpert. At the reference laboratories, mean unit costs were US$1.69 for the decontamination procedure, US$9.83 for a solid culture, US$11.06 for a liquid culture, US$29.88 for a drug susceptibility test, and US$18.18 for a line-probe assay. Top-down mean unit cost estimates were higher for all tests, and for sputum smear microscopy and Xpert these increased to respectively US$1.51 and US$13.58. The difference between bottom-up and top-down estimates was greatest for tests performed at the reference laboratories. CONCLUSION: These unit costs for TB diagnostics can be used to estimate resource requirements and cost-effectiveness in India, taking into account geographical location, laboratory type and capacity utilisation

Химиотерапия взрослых больных с саркомами мягких тканей

В обзоре рассмотрены общие принципы цитостатического лечения взрослых больных с саркомами мягких тканей. Роль химиотерапии при этом заболевании на протяжении последних лет повышается. Hаиболее эффективными цитостатиками являются доксорубицин и ифосфамид, причем у обоих препаратов установлена зависимость эффективности от дозы. Химиотерапию применяют как элемент радикального комбинированного лечения, а также как паллиативный метод при метастатическом процессе. При рабдомиосаркоме химиотерапия эффективна практически при любой стадии заболевания.Chemotherapy has an increasing role in the therapy of soft tissue sarcomas. Meanwhile, chemotherapy of these tumors is frequently considered in general without taking into account the peculiar clinical features of various subtypes. Doxorubicin and ifosfamide are the most active drugs in the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas. Chemotherapy could be used both for radical and for palliative treatment. For rhabdomyosarcoma, chemotherapy is effective in all the stages of such disease