Safer asynchronous runtime monitoring using compensations

Asynchronous monitoring relieves the system from additional overheads induced through online runtime monitoring. The price paid with such monitoring approaches is that the system may proceed further despite having reached an anomalous state. Any actions performed by the system after the error occurring are undesirable, since for instance, an unchecked malicious user access may perform unauthorized actions. In this paper we investigate the use of compensations to enable the undoing of such undesired actions, thus enriching asynchronous monitoring with the ability to restore the system to the original state just after the anomaly had occurred. Furthermore, we show how adaptive synchronisation and desynchronisation of the monitor with the system can also be achieved and report on the use of the proposed approach on an industrial case study of a financial transaction handling system.     

“Greening Up” Cross-Coupling Chemistry

New methodologies that enable palladium catalyzed cross-coupling reactions to be performed under environmentally benign conditions (in water and/or at room temperature) have been developed. Described approaches involve in situ activation of carbon–halogen or carbon–hydrogen bonds using zinc metal, or cationic palladium, respectively.     

Analytical Models and Guidelines for the Ductility Enhancement of Circular Reinforced Concrete Single-Column Bents Using Fiber-Reinforced Polymers

The target displacement ductility requirements for circular RC single-column bridge bents are considered using a proposed multifailure mode algorithm to determine the required thickness of fiber-reinforced polymer wraps (FRPs). The procedure is developed using two in-house computer algorithms, PACCC (plastic analysis of circular concrete columns) and PACCC-FRP, to generate a moment-curvature analysis using circular segment slices and subsequent failure mode predictions in single-column bents for both FRP-wrapped and unwrapped circular RC sections. The results of the study showed good comparison to published experimental tests at the ultimate force-deflection states of RC sections and against three commercial “software test beds.” The study uses PACCC-FRP to show that single columns experiencing a brittle failure may be retrofitted with FRP wraps in order to increase the displacement ductility and satisfy target ductility values within the ductility wrap envelope, or wrap-saturation level, as established herein.     

Rumination as a vulnerability factor to depression during the transition from early to middle adolescence: A multiwave longitudinal study.

The current study examined vulnerability to depression during the transition from early to middle adolescence from the perspective of the response styles theory. During an initial assessment, 382 adolescents (ages 11–15 years) completed self-report measures assessing rumination and depressive symptoms as well as a semistructured clinical interview assessing current and past major depressive episodes. Every 3 months for the subsequent 2 years, adolescents completed self-report measures assessing depressive symptoms and negative events. Every 6 months, adolescents completed a semistructured clinical interview assessing the onset of new major depressive episodes. Higher levels of rumination were associated with a greater likelihood of exhibiting a past history of major depressive episodes, a greater likelihood of experiencing the onset of a future major depressive episode, and greater duration of future depressive episodes. Consistent with a vulnerability-stress perspective, rumination moderated the association between the occurrence of negative events and the development of future depressive symptoms and major depressive episodes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Daily Depression and Cognitions About Stress: Evidence for a Traitlike Depressogenic Cognitive Style and the Prediction of Depressive Symptoms in a Prospective Daily Diary Study.

The authors examined the stability and dynamic structure of negative cognitions made to naturalistic stressors and the prediction of depressive symptoms in a daily diary study. Young adults reported on dispositional depression vulnerabilities at baseline, including a depressogenic cognitive style, dysfunctional attitudes, rumination, neuroticism, and initial depression, and then completed short diaries recording the inferences they made to the most negative event of the day along with their experience of depressive symptoms every day for 35 consecutive days. Daily cognitions about stressors exhibited moderate stability across time. A traitlike model, rather than a contextual one, explained this pattern of stability best. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that individuals' dispositional depressogenic cognitive style, neuroticism, and their daily negative cognitions about stressors predicted fluctuations in daily depressive symptoms. Dispositional neuroticism and negative cognitive style interacted with daily negative cognitions in different ways to predict daily depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Co-rumination predicts the onset of depressive disorders during adolescence.

The tendency to co-ruminate, or frequently discuss and rehash problems with peers, may serve as one mechanism in the dramatic rise in depression observed during adolescence, particularly among adolescent girls. In the current study, our goal was (a) to test the hypothesis that adolescents' levels of co-rumination would predict the onset of clinically significant depressive episodes over a 2-year follow-up and (b) to determine whether levels of co-rumination would mediate gender differences in risk for depression onset. Both hypotheses were supported. Results of survival analysis revealed that adolescents with higher levels of co-rumination at the initial assessments exhibited a significantly shorter time to depression onset. Levels of co-rumination also mediated the gender difference in time to depression onset. These results were maintained even when adolescents' baseline levels of depressive symptoms and rumination were covaried statistically. Finally, co-rumination also predicted the course of illness in terms of episode severity and duration. Results suggest that co-rumination contributes a unique risk for the development of depression in adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive vulnerability to depressive symptoms in adolescents in urban and rural Hunan, China: A multiwave longitudinal study.

The current multiwave longitudinal study examined the applicability of two cognitive vulnerability-stress models of depression—Beck's (1967, 1983) cognitive theory and the hopelessness theory (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989)—in two independent samples of adolescents from Hunan Province, China (one rural and one urban). During an initial assessment, participants completed measures assessing dysfunctional attitudes (Beck, 1967, 1983), negative cognitive style (Abramson et al., 1989), neuroticism (Costa & McCrae, 1992), depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. Once a month for the subsequent 6 months, participants completed measures assessing the occurrence of different types of negative events, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. Results provided support for cognitive vulnerability factors as predictors of increases in depressive symptoms following the occurrence of higher than average levels of negative events in Chinese adolescents. The results also supported the specificity of these two cognitive vulnerability factors as predictors of depressive versus anxiety symptoms following the occurrence of higher than average levels of negative events (i.e., symptom specificity), and the ability of cognitive vulnerability factors to predict prospective change in depressive symptoms above and beyond the effects of trait neuroticism (i.e., etiological specificity). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can energetic terahertz pulses initiate surface catalytic reactions on the picosecond time scale?

In preparation for picosecond pump-probe experiments at the SwissFEL X-ray laser facility, the feasibility of collectively initiating surface chemical reactions using energetic pulses of terahertz radiation is being tested.     

Effects of parathyroid hormone and serum calcium on the phenotype and function of mononuclear cells in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism

The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) and a smell ability questionnaire were administered to 167 Japanese volunteers ranging in age from 20 to 59 years. Of these subjects, 80 also received the T&T olfactometer threshold test. Of the latter subjects, 36 were patients tested before endoscopic nasal surgery for sinusitis and polyposis. The patients exhibited decreased smell function, as measured by the T&T olfactometer, the UPSIT, and a 30-item version of the UPSIT in which the 10 least familiar items were removed (ps < 0.001). Spearman correlations ranging from 0.53 to 0.70 were found between (i) scores on the 30- and 40-item UPSITs and (ii) the T&T detection and recognition threshold values. Significant correlations were found between scores on the smell ability questionnaire and the olfactory test measures (UPSIT30 r = 0.56; UPSIT40 r = 0.58; T&T detection r = 0.56; T&T recognition r = 0.69, p < 0.001), indicating that subjects are relatively accurate in assessing their olfactory ability. This study suggests that the 30 and 40-item UPSITs correlate well with measures derived from the T&T olfactometer, and that all three tests are sensitive to the smell loss of Japanese sinusitis/polyposis patients.