Trust Model for Semantic Sensor and Social Networks: A Preliminary Report

Trust is an amorphous concept that is becoming Increasingly important in many domains, such as P2P networks, E-commerce, social networks, and sensor networks. While we all have an intuitive notion of trust, the literature is scattered with a wide assortment of differing definitions and descriptions; often these descriptions are highly dependent on a single domain or application of interest. In addition, they often discuss orthogonal aspects of trust while continuing to use the general term “trust”. In order to make sense of the situation, we have developed an ontology of trust that integrates and relates its various aspects into a single model

Molecular docking analysis on 16 therapeutic ligands of Ocimum tenuiflorum L. (Tulasi) and their prospects in drug design for COVID-19

The PyRx software and Discovery studio were used in the present molecular docking studies of the 16 ligands of Ocimum tenuiflorum L., selected based on their high therapeutic potentials, viz., (E)-6-hydroxy-4,6-dimethylhept-3-en-2-one, Apigenin, Bieugenol, Cirsilineol, Cirsimaritin, β-Caryophyllene epoxide, Dehydrodieugenol B, Eugenol, Ferulaldehyde, Isothymonin, Isothymusin, Linalool, Luteolin, Ocimarin, Rosmarinic acid, and Thymol. Saquinavir was used as a positive control. The binding affinities of the 16 ligands to the main proteases of COVID-19 6LU7 and 6Y2E (critical for viral replication) and their ability to arrest the virus replication were recorded. The binding affinities of the ligands to 6LU7 and 6Y2E ranged from -4.3 and -4.7 kcal/mol (for (E)-6-hydroxy-4,6-dimethylhept-3-en-2-one) to -7.6 (for Rosmarinic acid to both target proteins). While the corresponding values for the control drug Saquinavir were -7.8 and -7.6 respectively. The Rosmarinic acid, in binding with both the proteases (-7.6 and -7.6 kcal/mol) showed six conventional hydrogen bonds, one carbon hydrogen bond (ASP 153 had one conventional hydrogen bond and one carbon hydrogen bond), one Pi-alkyl bond, one Pi-Pi stacked bond, eight van der waals bonds for 6LU7 protease; it formed three conventional hydrogen bonds, two Pi-alkyl bonds, one unfavourable donor – donor bond and 14 van der waals bonds with 6Y2E protease. The control drug – Saquinavir in binding with 6LU7 protease showed 12 van der waals, one alkyl, one Pi-alkyl, one Pi-cation, one Pi-stacked and four conventional hydrogen bonds, which indicates that it has less affinity when compared with Rosmarinic acid. Similarly, the control drug on binding with 6Y2E protease exhibited ten van der waals, four Pi-alkyl, one cation and three hydrogen bonds. The results are in conformity to similar other studies, and herald a promising scope for Rosmarinic acid as lead molecule in the drug discovery for COVID-19

Demonstration: Dynamic Sensor Registration and Semantic Processing for ad-hoc MOBile Environments (SemMOB)

SemMOB enables dynamic registration of sensors via mobile devices, search, and near real-time inference over sensor observations in ad-hoc mobile environments (e.g., fire fighting). We demonstrate SemMOB in the context of an emergency response use case that requires automatic and dynamic registrations of sensor devices and annotation of sensor observations, decoding of latitude-longitude information in terms of human sensible names, fusion and abstraction of sensor values using background knowledge, and their visualization using mash-up

Generation, annotation, and analysis of ESTs from midgut tissue of adult female Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria is a tropical disease caused by protozoan parasite, <it>Plasmodium</it>, which is transmitted to humans by various species of female anopheline mosquitoes. <it>Anopheles stephensi </it>is one such major malaria vector in urban parts of the Indian subcontinent. Unlike <it>Anopheles gambiae</it>, an African malaria vector, transcriptome of <it>A. stephensi </it>midgut tissue is less explored. We have therefore carried out generation, annotation, and analysis of expressed sequence tags from sugar-fed and <it>Plasmodium yoelii </it>infected blood-fed (post 24 h) adult female <it>A. stephensi </it>midgut tissue.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We obtained 7061 and 8306 ESTs from the sugar-fed and <it>P. yoelii </it>infected mosquito midgut tissue libraries, respectively. ESTs from the combined dataset formed 1319 contigs and 2627 singlets, totaling to 3946 unique transcripts. Putative functions were assigned to 1615 (40.9%) transcripts using BLASTX against UniProtKB database. Amongst unannotated transcripts, we identified 1513 putative novel transcripts and 818 potential untranslated regions (UTRs). Statistical comparison of annotated and unannotated ESTs from the two libraries identified 119 differentially regulated genes. Out of 3946 unique transcripts, only 1387 transcripts were mapped on the <it>A. gambiae </it>genome. These also included 189 novel transcripts, which were mapped to the unannotated regions of the genome. The EST data is available as ESTDB at <url>http://mycompdb.bioinfo-portal.cdac.in/cgi-bin/est/index.cgi</url>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>3946 unique transcripts were successfully identified from the adult female <it>A. stephensi </it>midgut tissue. These data can be used for microarray development for better understanding of vector-parasite relationship and to study differences or similarities with other malaria vectors. Mapping of putative novel transcripts from <it>A. stephensi </it>on the <it>A. gambiae </it>genome proved fruitful in identification and annotation of several genes. Failure of some novel transcripts to map on the <it>A. gambiae </it>genome indicates existence of substantial genomic dissimilarities between these two potent malaria vectors.</p

Most likely paths to error when estimating the mean of a reflected random walk

It is known that simulation of the mean position of a Reflected Random Walk (RRW) $\{W_n\}$ exhibits non-standard behavior, even for light-tailed increment distributions with negative drift. The Large Deviation Principle (LDP) holds for deviations below the mean, but for deviations at the usual speed above the mean the rate function is null. This paper takes a deeper look at this phenomenon. Conditional on a large sample mean, a complete sample path LDP analysis is obtained. Let $I$ denote the rate function for the one dimensional increment process. If $I$ is coercive, then given a large simulated mean position, under general conditions our results imply that the most likely asymptotic behavior, $\psi^*$, of the paths $n^{-1} W_{\lfloor tn\rfloor}$ is to be zero apart from on an interval $[T_0,T_1]\subset[0,1]$ and to satisfy the functional equation \begin{align*} \nabla I\left(\ddt\psi^*(t)\right)=\lambda^*(T_1-t) \quad \text{whenever } \psi(t)\neq 0. \end{align*} If $I$ is non-coercive, a similar, but slightly more involved, result holds. These results prove, in broad generality, that Monte Carlo estimates of the steady-state mean position of a RRW have a high likelihood of over-estimation. This has serious implications for the performance evaluation of queueing systems by simulation techniques where steady state expected queue-length and waiting time are key performance metrics. The results show that na\"ive estimates of these quantities from simulation are highly likely to be conservative.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Chip-Firing and Rotor-Routing on Directed Graphs

We give a rigorous and self-contained survey of the abelian sandpile model and rotor-router model on finite directed graphs, highlighting the connections between them. We present several intriguing open problems.Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures. v2 has additional references, v3 corrects figure 9, v4 corrects several typo

Very early invasive strategy in higher risk non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome: the RAPID NSTEMI trial

Objective To investigate whether a very early invasive strategy (IS)±revascularisation improves clinical outcomes compared with standard care IS in higher risk patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS). Methods Multicentre, randomised, controlled, pragmatic strategy trial of higher risk patients with NSTE-ACS, defined by Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events 2.0 score of ≥118, or ≥90 with at least one additional high-risk feature. Participants were randomly assigned to very early IS±revascularisation (<90 min from randomisation) or standard care IS±revascularisation (<72 hours). The primary outcome was a composite of all-cause mortality, new myocardial infarction or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. Results The trial was discontinued early by the funder due to slow recruitment during the COVID-19 pandemic. 425 patients were randomised, of whom 413 underwent an IS: 204 to very early IS (median time from randomisation: 1.5 hours (IQR: 0.9–2.0)) and 209 to standard care IS (median: 44.0 hours (IQR: 22.9–72.6)). At 12 months, there was no significant difference in the primary outcome between the early IS (5.9%) and standard IS (6.7%) groups (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.42 to 2.09; p=0.86). The incidence of stroke and major bleeding was similar. The length of hospital stay was reduced with a very early IS (3.9 days (SD 6.5) vs 6.3 days (SD 7.6), p<0.01). Conclusions A strategy of very early IS did not improve clinical outcomes compared with a standard care IS in higher risk patients with NSTE-ACS. However, the primary outcome rate was low and the trial was underpowered to detect such a difference

The Finnish Cardiovascular Study (FINCAVAS): characterising patients with high risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the Finnish Cardiovascular Study (FINCAVAS) is to construct a risk profile – using genetic, haemodynamic and electrocardiographic (ECG) markers – of individuals at high risk of cardiovascular diseases, events and deaths. METHODS AND DESIGN: All patients scheduled for an exercise stress test at Tampere University Hospital and willing to participate have been and will be recruited between October 2001 and December 2007. The final number of participants is estimated to reach 5,000. Technically successful data on exercise tests using a bicycle ergometer have been collected of 2,212 patients (1,400 men and 812 women) by the end of 2004. In addition to repeated measurement of heart rate and blood pressure, digital high-resolution ECG at 500 Hz is recorded continuously during the entire exercise test, including the resting and recovery phases. About 20% of the patients are examined with coronary angiography. Genetic variations known or suspected to alter cardiovascular function or pathophysiology are analysed to elucidate the effects and interactions of these candidate genes, exercise and commonly used cardiovascular medications. DISCUSSION: FINCAVAS compiles an extensive set of data on patient history, genetic variation, cardiovascular parameters, ECG markers as well as follow-up data on clinical events, hospitalisations and deaths. The data enables the development of new diagnostic and prognostic tools as well as assessments of the importance of existing markers

Efficiency Theory: a Unifying Theory for Information, Computation and Intelligence

The paper serves as the first contribution towards the development of the theory of efficiency: a unifying framework for the currently disjoint theories of information, complexity, communication and computation. Realizing the defining nature of the brute force approach in the fundamental concepts in all of the above mentioned fields, the paper suggests using efficiency or improvement over the brute force algorithm as a common unifying factor necessary for the creation of a unified theory of information manipulation. By defining such diverse terms as randomness, knowledge, intelligence and computability in terms of a common denominator we are able to bring together contributions from Shannon, Levin, Kolmogorov, Solomonoff, Chaitin, Yao and many others under a common umbrella of the efficiency theory