Coherent and consistent tracking of provenance data and in particular update history information is a crucial building block for any serious information system architecture. Version Control Systems can be a part of such an architecture enabling users to query and manipulate versioning information as well as content revisions. In this paper, we introduce an RDF versioning approach as a foundation for a full featured RDF Version Control System. We argue that such a system needs support for all concepts of the RDF specification including support for RDF datasets and blank nodes. Furthermore, we placed special emphasis on the protection against unperceived history manipulation by hashing the resulting patches. In addition to the conceptual analysis and an RDF vocabulary for representing versioning information, we present a mature implementation which captures versioning information for changes to arbitrary RDF datasets.

Background: The Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway is activated in arrhythmogenic heart diseases such as myocardial infarction and heart failure, but it is unclear if the pathway regulates cardiac ion channels and thus may play a role in arrhythmogenesis. Previous PCR array screening from our lab showed that the transcript level of the T-type calcium channel gene Cacna1g was reduced in primary culture of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) after activation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling with Wnt3a protein (100 ng/ml) or a small molecule activator of the pathway, CHIR (3 µM) (n=3, p<0.01). In this study, we examined the effects of Wnt/β-catenin signalling on T-type calcium channels (Caᴠ3.1), which play a key role in the pacemaker function of the sinoatrial node (SAN). Results: RT-qPCR and western blot demonstrated dose-dependent reductions in Cacna1g mRNA (n=7, p<0.01) and Cav3.1 protein (n=4, p<0.01) in NRVMs after treatment with CHIR (3 μM). There was also a decrease in Cacna1g mRNA in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) after treatment with CHIR (5 μM) (n=4; p<0.001). Patch-clamp recording demonstrated reduced T-type calcium current (ICa,T) in NRVMs after Wnt3a treatment (3 μg/ml) (n=5, p<0.05). In isolated mouse SAN tissue, perfusion with an ICa,T blocker, ML-218 (30 µM), led to dose-dependent reductions in spontaneous beating rate (n=4, p<0.0001) indicating a critical role of ICa,T in SAN pacemaking. In adult rats, activation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling through the application of CHIR in a poloxamer gel to the SAN region did not alter the in vivo heart rate in electrocardiogram (ECG) (n=8, p=0.12). However, ex vivo culture of SAN tissue from the in vivo experiments revealed a reduction intrinsic beating rate in the CHIR treated group (n=7) compared to the control (DMSO) (n=8) (p<0.05). Summary: Wnt/β-catenin signalling inhibits T-type Ca²⁺ current in cardiomyocytes by, at least partly, reduced Cacna1g mRNA and Cav3.1 protein. Activation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling reduces the intrinsic heart rate likely by inhibition of T-type Ca²⁺ current in SAN pacemaker cells.

This thesis proposes a convex network utility maximization (NUM) problem that can be solved to optimize a cross-layer network based on user and system defined requirements for quality and link capacity of multimedia applications. The problem can also be converged to a distributed solution using dual decomposition. Current techniques do not address the changing system's requirements for the network in addition to the user's requirements for an application when optimizing a cross-layer network, but rather focus on optimizing a dynamic network to conform to a real-time application or for a specific performance. Optimizing the cross-layer network for the changing system and user requirements allows a more accurate optimization of the overall cross-layer network of any given multi-node, ad-hoc wireless application for data transmission quality and link capacity to meet overall mission demands.

The peripheral nervous system can be seen as a huge network of neurons that prop-agates signals across the human body. In fact, as seen in [1] , "All the information streaming in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) is transmitted along axons byelectro-chemical signals called action potentials". The ordinary conduction of such nervous signals, or action potentials, can be prevented however due to nerve damage. In this context, the accurate passage of information to an intended destination or partwithin the organism is obstructed. Admittedly, it is understood that physiotherapy can be quite helpful in regaining correct functionality over a damaged part of the peripheral nervous system. Yet, it is still hard to visualize the nervous activity as it is achieved inside the human body. Simulating the nervous system would providea platform to visualize how the system works and how a damaged nerve can affect the PNS. Indeed, the purpose of this study is to simulate a virtual network that im-itates a general topology of the human peripheral nervous system e.g(simulate the nervous structure and behaviour of the human arm) that shows how the signals canbe routed to their correct destination and showcase how can the simulator created simulate biological nerve damage in its system.

Criminal networks exploit vulnerabilities in the global financial system, using it as a conduit to launder criminal proceeds. Law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, and regulatory organizations often scrutinize voluminous financial records for suspicious activities and criminal conduct as part of anti-money laundering investigations. However, such studies are narrowly focused on incidents and triggered by tip-offs rather than data mining insights. This research models cross-border financial flows using a network theoretic approach and proposes a symmetric-key encryption algorithm to preserve information privacy in multi-dimensional data sets. The newly developed tools will enable regulatory organizations, financial institutions, and law enforcement agencies to identify suspicious activity and criminal conduct in cross-border financial transactions. Anti-money laundering, which comprises laws, regulations, and procedures to combat money laundering, requires financial institutions to verify and identify their customers in various circumstances and monitor suspicious activity transactions. Instituting anti-money laundering laws and regulations in a country carries the benefit of creating a data-rich environment, thereby facilitating non-classical analytical strategies and tools. Graph theory offers an elegant way of representing cross-border payments/receipts between resident and non-resident parties (nodes), with links representing the parties' transactions. The network representations provide potent data mining tools, facilitating a better understanding of transactional patterns that may constitute suspicious transactions and criminal conduct. Using network science to analyze large and complex data sets to detect anomalies in the data set is fast becoming more important and exciting than merely learning about its structure. This research leverages advanced technology to construct and visualize the cross-border financial flows' network structure, using a directed and dual-weighted bipartite graph. Furthermore, the develops a centrality measure for the proposed cross-border financial flows network using a method based on matrix multiplication to answer the question, "Which resident/non-resident nodes are the most important in the cross-border financial flows network?" The answer to this question provides data mining insights about the network structure. The proposed network structure, centrality measure, and characterization using degree distributions can enable financial institutions and regulatory organizations to identify dominant nodes in complex multi-dimensional data sets. Most importantly, the results showed that the research provides transaction monitoring capabilities that allow the setting of customer segmentation criteria, complementing the built-in transaction-specific triggers methods for detecting suspicious activity transactions. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Banking Sector Education and Training Authority (BANKSETA) / UP Postgraduate Bursary / Industrial and Systems Engineering / PhD / Unrestricted

With mobile usage on the rise developers are more than ever faced with the issue of developing for multiple platforms. With Google's introduction of Progressive Web Applications (PWA) it is possible to build app-like web applications that can run on any platform. This study aims to investigate if PWA is mature enough to replace an already developed native iOS application. Specifically it aims to investigate if a PWA can achieve the same functionality and security as a native application, as well as what technologies are needed to do so.  To verify this question an iOS application called iHug developed by a software company called Cloud Enablers was used as a reference point. With this reference a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) copy was developed as a PWA to verify that the functionality could be achieved. This PWA was not intended to replace the existing native application, but instead coexist with it. That means that the PWA must be able to communicate with the original application. In addition an investigation was done to see what measures needed to be taken to achieve security. The results showed that the same functionality was achievable, as was the security. Even though the results are promising, due to the native application not being developed with a PWA in mind there was a lot of extra work that had to be done to replicate certain functionalities and SDK choices. On this basis, while it is certainly possible to achieve the same functionality it is much harder to do so when the counterpart was not developed to be able to communicate with a PWA.

Objective: Background: Rare disease An epithelial inclusion cyst within a lymph node denotes a heterotopic phenomenon. Nodal epithelial inclusion cysts have been reported in a variety of anatomical locations including pelvic, abdominal, mediastinal, and axillary regions. While nodal melanocytic nevus (also known as nevus cell aggregates) is the most common heterotopic phenomena involving the axillary lymph nodes, the presence of benign epithelial inclusion cysts in axillary lymph nodes is a rare but well-reported finding. Such documentation is in part due to assessment of sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer becoming standard of care. These epithelial inclusion cysts offer a diagnostic pitfall in evaluation of sentinel lymph node in the setting of breast carcinoma. They also complicate assessment of sentinel lymph node during intraoperative frozen sections analysis. Case Report: We report a case of co-existent of benign squamous-type and glandular-type epithelial inclusions cysts in 2 sentinel lymph nodes in a patient with grade III invasive ductal carcinoma involving the left breast. There have been at least 4 cases reported in literature in which benign epithelial inclusion cysts in sentinel lymph nodes were first mistakenly diagnosed as metastatic carcinoma both during intraoperative frozen section analysis and during review of permanent sections. The missed diagnosis could potentially occur intraoperatively during frozen section sentinel lymph node analysis secondarily due to lack of availability of the primary tumor for comparison and inability to use immunohistochemical stains. Conclusions: Pathologists should be aware of this pitfall especially in frozen section analysis of sentinel lymph node to avoid misdiagnosis and its associated potential grave consequences.

Symptomatic sinus bradycardia, due to either sick sinus syndrome or vagotonia, can be familial, affecting several members of a family. We report an 18-year-old male patient with palpitations and limited exercise capacity who was noted to have severe sinus bradycardia. His resting heart rate was 40/min, with normal PR and corrected QT intervals, and sinus pauses up to 6 seconds during sleep. Exercise treadmill test and pharmacologic autonomic blockade during electrophysiologic studies abolished the bradycardia, suggestive of vagotonia rather than intrinsic sinus node dysfunction. This patient's father and a female cousin had a similar clinical history but associated with syncope and severe sinus bradycardia. The mode of transmission appeared to be autosomal dominant. All three have permanent demand pacemakers implanted and are asymptomatic.

Many wireless sensor-based applications use LEACH as a preferred routing protocol owing to its unique features such as optimal sleeping time, minimum packet collisions, dynamic channel selection, and least power consumption. The traditional LEACH protocol wastes the transmission opportunities as it processes data only in an event occurring, leading to wastage of resources. To resolve this issue, this paper proposes a more robust Energy Enhanced Threshold Routing Protocol (ETH-LEACH) for WSNs. The working of ETH-LEACH is conceptualized in two parts. In the first part, TDMA is implemented to estimate the opportunistic paths to remove network overhead. Furthermore, in the second part, a threshold value is calculated for choosing the forwarder nodes. The proposed technique minimizes the energy usage of the sensor nodes and consequently enhances the network's lifetime by extending the duration of node death. The ETH-LEACH protocol is contrasted with the different variants of LEACH to verify its effectiveness. The experimental results show that the proposed ETH-LEACH protocol outperforms the traditional routing protocols. In this paper, the ETH-LEACH protocol performs nearly 54.6% efficient than LEACH, 47.6% efficient than Q-LEACH, 41.3% efficient than NR-LEACH, 33.6% efficient than LEACH-GA, and 29.7% efficient than LEACH-POS in reducing the usage of energy in the overall simulation.

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