123 research outputs found
Rezension: Calhoun, Craig/Gaonkar, Dilip Parameshwar/Taylor, Charles: Degenerations of Democracy
No full textVerhoeven R. Rezension: Calhoun, Craig/Gaonkar, Dilip Parameshwar/Taylor, Charles: Degenerations of Democracy. Zeitschrift für Politik. 2023;70(1):92-94
The Arab Avant-Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East
No full textIn the early nineteenth century, the term “avant-garde” began to capture greater semantic territory. Once purely a military phrase used to distinguish crack troops, it then assumed a high-ranking position within cultural expression, marking out art work that forged ahead and broke new ground. What can it mean to conjoin this French phrase with the word “Arab”? French forces, along with other imperial intruders, are no strangers to Arab terrain. The colonisation of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Greater Syria followed in the wake of the brief Napoleonic “mission” to Egypt between 1798 and 1801. It was during this military foray that some of modern Europe’s most expansive data on Egyptian music was collected, information that comprised two whole volumes of Guillaume André Villoteau’s Description de l’Egypte. The Napoleonic campaign gathered not only military, but also cultural intelligence, if the two can be so easily separated
Advancements in Feature Engineering for Enhanced Threat Detection in Cybersecurity
No full textFeature engineering is an essential aspect of threat detection in cybersecurity, particularly when utilizing machine learning models to identify potential threats. In the article "Feature Engineering for Effective Threat Detection" by Parameshwar Reddy Kothamali, Subrata Banik, and Siddhartha Varma Nadimpalli, the authors discuss how strategic feature engineering can improve the performance of threat detection models by enhancing accuracy, reducing false positives, and providing actionable insights for cybersecurity professionals. This paper explores key techniques such as feature selection, transformation, and creation, emphasizing their role in improving model performance. The authors also highlight the integration of domain knowledge in feature engineering and its relevance in handling sophisticated cyber threats
Securing Agile Development: A Framework for Integrating Security Into the Software Lifecycle
No full textThis paper explores the integration of security practices in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) through an end-to-end Quality Assurance (QA) strategy, emphasizing the early identification of security requirements, risk mitigation, and compliance. The approach includes insights from Subrata Banik and Parameshwar Reddy Kothamali, who highlight the importance of incorporating security from the initial stages of project planning. Their framework outlines practical steps for embedding security in design, development, testing, and maintenance. The findings are complemented by comparisons to other relevant security methodologies, demonstrating the efficacy of a comprehensive QA strategy for secure software development
National survey of the prevalence, incidence, primary care burden, and treatment of heart failure in Scotland
No full textObjective: To examine the epidemiology, primary care burden, and treatment of heart failure in Scotland, UK.
Design: Cross sectional data from primary care practices participating in the Scottish continuous morbidity recording scheme between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2000.
Setting: 53 primary care practices (307 741 patients).
Subjects: 2186 adult patients with heart failure.
Results: The prevalence of heart failure in Scotland was 7.1 in 1000, increasing with age to 90.1 in 1000 among patients 85 years. The incidence of heart failure was 2.0 in 1000, increasing with age to 22.4 in 1000 among patients 85 years. For older patients, consultation rates for heart failure equalled or exceeded those for angina and hypertension. Respiratory tract infection was the most common co-morbidity leading to consultation. Among men, 23% were prescribed a ß blocker, 11% spironolactone, and 46% an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor. The corresponding figures for women were 20% (p = 0.29 versus men), 7% (p = 0.02), and 34% (p < 0.001). Among patients < 75 years 26% were prescribed a β blocker, 11% spironolactone, and 50% an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor. The corresponding figures for patients 75 years were 19% (p = 0.04 versus patients < 75), 7% (p = 0.04), and 33% (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Heart failure is a common condition, especially with advancing age. In the elderly, the community burden of heart failure is at least as great as that of angina or hypertension. The high rate of concomitant respiratory tract infection emphasises the need for strategies to immunise patients with heart failure against influenza and pneumococcal infection. Drugs proven to improve survival in heart failure are used less frequently for elderly patients and women
Multi-State Models for Panel Data: The msm Package for R
No full textPanel data are observations of a continuous-time process at arbitrary times, for example, visits to a hospital to diagnose disease status. Multi-state models for such data are generally based on the Markov assumption. This article reviews the range of Markov models and their extensions which can be fitted to panel-observed data, and their implementation in the msm package for R. Transition intensities may vary between individuals, or with piecewise-constant time-dependent covariates, giving an inhomogeneous Markov model. Hidden Markov models can be used for multi-state processes which are misclassified or observed only through a noisy marker. The package is intended to be straightforward to use, flexible and comprehensively documented. Worked examples are given of the use of msm to model chronic disease progression and screening. Assessment of model fit, and potential future developments of the software, are also discussed.
Boundary phenomena and phase transitions in strongly correlated one dimensional systems
No full textOne dimensional quantum systems exhibit many interesting physical phenomena as a result of strong correlations. The gapped systems with symmetries exhibit exotic phases and are categorized as spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) or symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases. The systems with SSB such as the spin ½ XXZ chain have non vanishing local order parameter and a discrete symmetry is spontaneously broken leading to degenerate pairing in the spectrum. In contrast the systems with SPT such as charge conserving spin-triplet superconductors exhibit non-local order parameter and robust ground state degeneracy associated with protected fractionalized gapless excitations at the edges. In this work we consider one dimensional charge conserving superconductors and show that the SPT phases that arise not only depend on the bulk but rather it depends on the interplay of the bulk and the boundary conditions. We also show that the edge modes that arise in the system are robust to a certain extent against the boundary fields that break the symmetries protecting the SPT phase. We show that when the edges of a superconductor corresponding to a trivial phase are coupled to spin ½ quantum impurities, the system exhibits a very interesting phase structure, which arises due to the interplay between the Kondo effect and the bulk superconductivity. We consider the spin ½ antiferromagnetic XXZ chain in the gapped regime which exhibits SSB, and apply boundary fields which explicitly break the discrete symmetry which is spontaneously broken in the bulk. We find that the system exhibits a rich phase diagram and show that certain phases exhibit spin fractionalization associated with strong Majorana zero modes at the edges similar to the SPT phases. We then consider the isotropic XXX limit which corresponds to the Heisenberg spin chain, where the system becomes gapless and does not fall into either the SPT or SSB phases. We show that it exhibits a rich phase diagram and contains Majorana zero modes which arise at high energies. We show that in all the systems described above the Hilbert space is comprised of a certain number of towers of excited states, and they exhibit a new type of phase transition named Hilbert space or eigenstate phase transition where the number of towers of the Hilbert space changes.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference
Does cytomegalovirus status influence acute and chronic rejection in heart transplantation during the ganciclovir prophylaxis era?
No full textBACKGROUND: The effect of cytomegalovirus (CMV) status on acute rejection in heart transplantation is not well understood. Furthermore, there is some evidence to suggest that CMV antibody positivity is associated with cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV). METHODS: This study compared the effect of CMV antibody status in heart transplant donors (D) and recipients (R) on acute and chronic rejection episodes during the ganciclovir prophylaxis era. RESULTS: All heart transplant recipients at Papworth Hospital during the ganciclovir prophylaxis era were included (n = 374). They were grouped according to recipients and their respective donor CMV serology: R(-)/D(-) (n = 82); R(+)/D(-) (n = 114); R(-)/D(+) (n = 73); and R(+)/D(+) (n = 105). Ganciclovir prophylaxis was administered to the R(-)/D(+) group. The mean (SD) recipient and donor ages were 46 (11), 51 (9), 47 (11) and 52 (8) years (p 0.05) There was no statistical difference in the development of CAV as assessed by angiography (p = 0.92). At 2 years, the "freedom from CAV" rates were 96%, 97%, 97% and 98%, respectively. The 5-year post-operative survival rates were 83%, 79%, 67% and 73% (p = 0.08 overall). CONCLUSIONS: CMV status of heart transplant recipients and their respective donors does not influence acute or chronic rejection in terms of cardiac allograft vasculopathy
IMPACT OF CHANGE ORDERS ON THE COST PERFORMANCE OF MASS TIMBER CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
No full textThesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Construction Management - Master of Science, 2024One of the major barriers to the widespread adoption of mass timber as a material is lack of knowledge. This lack of knowledge further promotes issues like high production and construction costs. The construction industry in the United States has been reluctant to accept mass timber as a new technology owing to these higher initial costs. Consequently, the most critical factor affecting the selection of a construction material is its cost performance. A successful construction project is governed by its cost performance. Although, the cost performance of a project can be affected by cost overruns and change orders. These project costs can be optimized by reducing the time. Owing to its prefabricated nature, mass timber construction can cut down time. While change orders negatively affect the time of a project, there is a need to understand their impact on mass timber construction. This study analyzes the impact of change orders on the cost performance of mass timber construction projects. The expected deliverables are to quantify and understand the most common causes of change orders in mass timber projects. The researcher believes that this study is a steppingstone toward the widespread adoption of mass timber as a construction material. Project data was collected for 34 projects from General Contractors around the country. Pearson\u2019s correlation, descriptive statistics, and ANOVAs were used to analyze the data collected. This study observed the relationship between the mass timber scope and the mass timber change orders. Along with that the project delivery methods and their impact on the construction costs was studied. The author believes a more widespread adoption of mass timber is beneficial through project team integration and reduction of change order costs.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
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