Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An adaptive authentication and authorization scheme for IoT’s gateways: a blockchain based approach

Security of the Internet of Things represents a field that strongly attracts academia and industry since it represents one of the main obstacles in its adoption. In this area, authentication and authorization methods holds a golden place in priority rank. Indeed, current approaches suffers from numerous limits. Moreover, generally, deployment systems use separately two methods one dedicated to the authentication and the other to the authorization, while the number of methods that combine both requirements is limited. In this work we propose an adaptive blockchain based authentication and authorization approach for IoT use cases. We provided a real implementation of our approach using Java language. The extensive evaluation provided, shows clearly the ability of our scheme in meeting the different requirements, as well as its ability in ensuring a very lightweight cost.
Fault Tolerant Cholesky Factorization on GPUs

Direct Cholesky-based solvers are typically used to solve large linear systems where the coefficient matrix is symmetric positive definite. These solvers offer faster performance in solving such linear systems, compared to other more general solvers such as LU and QR solvers. In recent days, graphics processing units (GPUs) have become a popular platform for scientific computing applications, and are increasingly being used as major computational units in supercomputers. However, GPUs are susceptible to transient faults caused by events such as alpha particle strikes and power fluctuations. As a result, the possibility of an error increases as more and more GPU computing nodes are used. In this paper, we introduce two efficient fault tolerance schemes for the Cholesky factorization method, and study their performance using a direct Cholesky solver in the presence of faults. We utilize a transient fault injection mechanism for NVIDIA GPUs and compare our schemes with a traditional checksum fault tolerance technique, and show that our proposed schemes have superior performance, good error coverage and low overhead.
Joint Optimization of Transmit Waveform and Mismatched Filter with Expanded Mainlobe for Delay-Doppler Sidelobes Suppression

Low range sidelobe level is a main pursuit in radar waveform optimization, especially at the target searching mode. In this paper, we propose an approach to jointly optimize a transmit waveform and its mismatched filter to suppress range sidelobes even with slight Doppler mismatch under constant modulus constraint. Specifically, we propose a minimization criterion to suppress delay-Doppler sidelobes and control signal-to-noise ratio loss. Since the design criterion is a non-convex optimization problem, we exploit a double least-pth minimax algorithm to solve it. Numerical results indicate that the approach can efficiently suppress delay-Doppler sidelobes over different specifications of the Doppler mismatch.
A niosome formulation modulates the Th1/Th2 bias immune response in mice and also provides protection against anthrax spore challenge

Introduction In this study, we have investigated the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a niosomal formulation encapsulating protective antigen (PA) and PA domain 4 (D4) of Bacillus anthracis. Methods Nonionic surfactant–based vesicles (NISV) + PA and NISV + D4 were prepared from span-60 and cholesterol by reverse-phase evaporation method and were evaluated for in vitro characteristics and immunological studies. Results Particle characterization using transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy analysis showed that the niosomal formulation was spherical in shape. The entrapment efficiency values were calculated to be 58.5% and 44.75% for PA and D4, respectively. Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry studies showed an enhanced uptake of antigen in THP1 macrophages by niosome as compared to antigen only. An in vitro release assay showed a burst release of antigen from niosome within 24 hours followed by a gradual release for 144 hours. Immunological studies showed that both PA- and D4-encapsulated niosome elicited a robust IgG titer. Antibody isotyping and cytokine profile showed that NISV + PA and NISV + D4 enhanced both Th1 and Th2 responses in mice, suggesting a mixed Th1/Th2 response. Both NISV + PA and NISV + D4 elicited high levels of anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 with low levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α, suggesting the anti-inflammatory property of niosome. Both the niosomal formulations were also able to confer protection against BA infection as compared to only PA and D4. Conclusion PA and D4 encapsulated NISV formulation could modulate both the Th1 and Th2 adaptive immune system and was found to be a better prophylactic against anthrax.
Estimating the Acoustic Intensity of Typhoon Shanshan at Very Low Frequencies

Double frequency (DF) microseisms (0.12–0.4 Hz) are believed to be generated by nonlinear interaction between ocean waves traveling in opposite directions, and are often more energetic than the single frequency microseisms. Based on the traveling time for long period (LP) DF microseismic signals generated by typhoon Shanshan to the closest seismic stations, the mean velocity is estimated to be on the order of 20 m/s suggesting that the LPDF signals are generated near the coastal area. The typhoon intensity is estimated as a function of time. It seems to show a cubic power dependence on the maximum wind speed, in agreement with the previous finding based on data at 10–50 Hz.
Control of Delta-Connected Cascaded Converter in the Railway Power Conditioner Application

This paper proposes a compensation strategy for the railway transaction system with Scott and V/V transformers by the delta-connected cascaded converter. The compensation approach is different from the conventional compensation method due to the secondary side of the transaction transformer is composed of two single-phase grid systems. The detailed relations between primary and secondary sides of the Scott and V/V transformers are discussed in this paper. Besides, the compensation influence of the cascaded converter is described as well. The compensation strategies are designed based on these analyses. The simulation results are given to verify the proposed method.
Blind Deblurring via a Novel Recursive Deep CNN Improved by Wavelet Transform

Blind image deconvolution is an ill-posed problem, which is mainly addressed by the regularization methods. Wavelet transform is an effective denoising method related to regularized inversion. In this paper, wavelet transform is utilized to decompose and extract the low- and high-frequency information of the blurred image, which is taken as the first step of the presented deblurring methods in this paper. However, when the process highlights the approximate portion of the image feature, the blurry image will be smoothed so that the image is distorted. Simultaneously, the overall wavelet transform will result in excessive data redundancy for the image. Thus, in the second step, based upon the recursive convolution neural network, a deep recursive convolutional neural network (R-DbCNN) is designed, which can eliminate or weaken the characteristics of high data redundancy and image smoothness caused by wavelet transform to remove the blur of corrupted image. Comparing with the traditional convolution neural network in image restoration, R-DbCNN has better performance in deblurring with fast training speed. Thereafter, a novel loss function is built to attain the best deblurring effect of the proposed method based on the $L_{2}$ regularization term. The experiment results demonstrate that our method has practical applicability for image restoration with different blurs, such as the motion blur, Gaussian blur, and out-of-focus by camera.
Exact modeling of the flexible slewing link

The exact eigenfunctions for the slewing link of a robot are found, taking into account a rotating inertia at the base and a payload at the tip. These derive from two equivalent formulations (pseudoclamped and pseudopinned) of the boundary value problem relative to the flexible slewing beam. The exactness of the solution makes it possible to prove the equivalence of these two approaches, which differ in the choice of the noninertial rotating frame. The two related dynamic linear models are then found, and a change of coordinates is given. Experimental measurements validate the theoretical results. <<ETX>>
The Effectiveness of Using Sexual Appeals in Advertising: Memory for Sexual and Nonsexual Visual Content Across Genders

This study empirically investigates the effectiveness of using visual sexual appeals on the memory of men and women. It examines memory for the commercials activated by sexual versus nonsexual visual appeals. A mixed-factorial experiment was conducted. Visual recognition and free recall were recorded in 146 participants (males = 71 and females = 75). The results substantiate the evolutionary psychology claims. Support for the motivational information-processing and the distraction hypothesis was found in male viewers. The results indicate that sexual appeals enhance memory for the advertisements themselves, but they distract men from processing brand-related information. Male participants encoded and recalled less brand-related information from advertisements with sexual appeals. The study offers guidelines for advertisers and marketing producers while also providing insight into gender/sex differences in processing sexual stimuli. It also makes a key theoretical contribution to the field by parsing out the influence of sexual versus nonsexual visual content from the confounding impact of visual sexual versus verbal nonsexual memory.
Weaponizing the haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation

Political discourse on social media is seen by many as polarized, vitriolic and permeated by falsehoods and misinformation. Political operators have exploited all of these aspects of the discourse for strategic purposes, most famously during the Russian social media influence campaign during the 2016 presidential election in the United States and current, similar efforts targeting the U.S. elections in 2018 and 2020. The results of the social media study presented in this paper presents evidence that political influence through manipulation of social media discussions is no longer exclusive to political debate but can now also be found in pop culture. Specifically, this study examines a collection of tweets relating to a much-publicized fan dispute over the Star Wars franchise film Episode VII: The Last Jedi. This study finds evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments. The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society. Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation. The results of this study show that among those who address The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson directly on Twitter to express their dissatisfaction, more than half are bots, trolls/sock puppets or political activists using the debate to propagate political messages supporting extreme right-wing causes and the discrimination of gender, race or sexuality. A number of these users appear to be Russian trolls. The paper concludes that while it is only a minority of Twitter accounts that tweet negatively about The Last Jedi, organized attempts at politicizing the pop culture discourse on social media for strategic purposes are significant enough that users should be made aware of these measures, so they can act accordingly.
An Empirical Comparison of Fixed-Strength and Mixed-Strength for Interaction Coverage Based Prioritization

Test case prioritization (TCP) plays an important role in identifying, characterizing, diagnosing, and correcting faults quickly. The TCP has been widely used to order test cases of different types, including model inputs (also called abstract test cases). Model inputs are constructed by modeling the program according to its input parameters, values, and constraints, and has been used in different testing methods, such as combinatorial interaction testing and software product line testing. The Interaction coverage-based TCP (ICTCP) uses interaction coverage information derived from the model input to order inputs. Previous studies have focused generally on the fixed-strength ICTCP, which adopts a fixed strength (i.e., the level of parameter interactions) to support the ICTCP process. It is generally accepted that using more strengths for ICTCP, i.e., mixed-strength ICTCP, may give better ordering than fixed-strength. To confirm whether mixed-strength is better than fixed-strength, in this paper, we report on an extensive empirical study using five real-world programs (written in C), each of which has six versions. The results of the empirical studies show that mixed-strength has better rates of interaction coverage overall than fixed-strength, but they have very similar rates of fault detection. Our results also show that fixed-strength should be used instead of the mixed-strength at the later stage of software testing. Finally, we offer some practical guidelines for testers when using interaction coverage information to prioritize model inputs, under different testing scenarios and resources.
A Review of Manufacturing Materials and Production Methods for Frequency-Selective Structures [Wireless Corner]

This article presents a review of frequency-selective structure (FSS) manufacturing materials and production methods ranging from the common printed circuit board (PCB)-based designs to textile, ink, metal, or fluid prototypes. Our work gathers some of the most relevant solutions published by the scientific community and considers several examples depicted for each case. Additionally, the main physical parameters that may have a significant impact on FSS performance have been identified, e.g., electrical conductivity of the FSS conductive element and the relative permittivity and thickness of the FSS dielectric material. Finally, a comparative analysis of the materials and techniques is presented, which highlights the benefits and limitations of each solution.
Model-based control with quantitative feedback theory

A form of robust model-based control for a robotic arm is proposed and experimentally evaluated. The model-based with quantitative feedback theory (MBQFT) technique replaces the proportional-derivative feedback loop with a controller design based on pseudocontinuous time analog quantitative feedback theory. MBQFT design produces a feedback controller that can be implemented by a series of simple backwards difference equations. MBQFT high-speed tracking accuracy was experimentally evaluated on the first three links of a PUMA-560. This robust technique increased tracking accuracy by up to a factor of four over the model-based controller performance baseline. The MBQFT tracking performance was robust to both unmodeled drive system dynamics and payload uncertainty. The nonheuristic nature of MBQFT design and tuning should allow application to a wide range of manipulators. <<ETX>>
Budget impact analysis of sarilumab for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in patients with an inadequate response to conventional synthetic DMARD or TNF inhibitor therapies

Objective To estimate the 5-year budget impact (BI) on a US health plan of introducing sarilumab – a human immunoglobulin G1 anti-IL-6 receptor α monoclonal antibody – as combination treatment with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) or monotherapy in patients with moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods BI analysis was conducted from a commercial payer perspective. Treatment-eligible populations included adult patients with moderate-to-severe RA and inadequate response (IR) to csDMARDs or tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitors-IR. All licensed biologic treatments recommended by the American College of Rheumatology guidelines were included. Results For a hypothetical plan of one million members, 409 csDMARD-IR and 345 TNF-IR patients were annually eligible for combination therapy and 226 csDMARD and TNF-IR patients for monotherapy with sarilumab. Based on 2018 US direct treatment costs, the introduction of sarilumab was estimated to save $526,424, $322,637 and $264,306 over 5 years for csDMARD-IR combination therapy patients, TNF-IR combination therapy patients, and csDMARD-IR/TNF-IR monotherapy patients, respectively. As sarilumab absorbed a greater market share over the horizon, annual savings increased from years 1 to 5, $28,610 (−0.14%) to $194,646 (−0.83%) in csDMARD-IR, $16,986 (−0.11%) to $120,893 (−0.67%) in TNF-IR, and $14,256 (−0.13%) to $98,040 (−0.79%) in monotherapy. One-way sensitivity analyses revealed that the model was most sensitive to variations in sarilumab adherence. Conclusion Total cost savings of introducing sarilumab to a health-care plan accrued from years 1 to 5, attributable to the lower treatment cost, stable dosing paradigm, and price parity for the two available doses (150 and 200 mg every 2 weeks) compared with alternative biologic DMARDs that have substantial variability in dose titration/schedules.
Expanding the role of medical retina virtual clinics using multimodal ultra-widefield and optical coherence tomography imaging

Background An increasingly elderly population with a corresponding increase in ophthalmic conditions has led to increased pressure on hospital eye services (HES). In this study, we evaluated the use of a medical retina virtual clinic (MRVC), which has expanded into assessing all new medical retina referrals, where the need for urgent treatment was not clear. Methods Retrospective analysis of all new patients who were seen in the MRVC between April 2016 and May 2018. Pro forma sheets were used in the MRVC to record the patient history, visual acuity, and type of imaging required. Two consultants reviewed the completed pro formas and images and provided a final diagnosis and management plan. These results and reasons for face-to-face (F2F) clinic appointment requests were analyzed. Results Six hundred ten new referrals were enrolled in the virtual clinic. The most common diagnosis was diabetic eye disease (59.9%). In the virtual clinic 44.1% were followed up, 28.1% were discharged, and 27.8% were booked an F2F clinic appointment (urgent/routine). The main reason for F2F clinic was to offer treatment. Urgent F2F appointments took place on average 11.9 days after virtual clinic attendance. In only two cases was the image quality felt to be inadequate to assess the retina. Conclusions MRVC is an effective way of triaging medical retina referrals to allow those patients needing treatment to be seen promptly in the medical retinal service. The use of multimodal ultra-widefield and optical coherence tomography imaging allows assessment of a wide range of retinal pathologies and is a promising solution to alleviate the burden on HES.
Adaptive Nonsingular Fixed-Time Attitude Stabilization of Uncertain Spacecraft

This paper addresses the problem of adaptive fixed-time attitude stabilization for uncertain rigid spacecraft with inertia uncertainties, external disturbances, actuator saturations, and faults. A nonsingular fixed-time sliding mode surface is constructed so that the settling time of the established surface is independent of the system initial states. By employing an exponential function in the controller design, an adaptive fixed-time control scheme is proposed to shorten the time during which the system states reach the sliding mode surface. With the proposed control method, the information on the bound of the lumped uncertainty is not needed in prior but estimated by the designed update laws. The fixed-time convergence of both the attitude and angular velocity is established, and comparative simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.
Stator Short-Circuit Diagnosis in Induction Motors Using Mutual Information and Intelligent Systems

This paper proposes a novel approach for detection of stator short-circuit faults in three-phase induction motors. The method is based on two stages: feature extraction and classification by intelligent systems. First, mutual information is estimated from delayed stator current signals, which are used as inputs of C4.5 decision trees and multilayer perceptron neural networks in the second step. Several offline and online experimental tests are presented considering voltage unbalance, load torque variations, and 1% to 10% short-circuit levels. The obtained results corroborate the effectiveness of this new diagnostic approach.
Complete Genome Sequence of Sinorhizobium Phage ΦM6, the First Terrestrial Phage of a Marine Phage Group

Sinorhizobium phage ΦM6 infects the nitrogen-fixing rhizobial bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti. ΦM6 most closely resembles marine phages, such as Puniceispirillum phage HMO-2011, rather than previously sequenced rhizobial phages. ABSTRACT Sinorhizobium phage ΦM6 infects the nitrogen-fixing rhizobial bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti. ΦM6 most closely resembles marine phages, such as Puniceispirillum phage HMO-2011, rather than previously sequenced rhizobial phages. The 68,176-bp genome is predicted to encode 121 open reading frames, only 10 of which have similarity to those of otherwise-unrelated Sinorhizobium phages.
Multichannel, Low Nonlinearity Time-to-Digital Converters Based on 20 and 28 nm FPGAs

This paper presents low nonlinearity, compact, and multichannel time-to-digital converters (TDC) in Xilinx 28 nm Virtex 7 and 20 nm UltraScale field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The proposed TDCs integrate several innovative methods that we have developed: 1) the subtapped delay line averaging topology; 2) tap timing tests; 3) a direct compensation architecture; and 4) a mixed calibration method. The code density tests show that the proposed TDCs have much better linearity performances than previously reported ones. Our approach is cost-effective in terms of the consumption of logic resources. To demonstrate this, we implemented 96 channel TDCs in both FPGAs, using less than 25% of the logic resources. The achieved least significant bit (LSB) is 10.5 ps for Virtex 7 and 5.0 ps for UltraScale FPGAs. After the compensation and calibration, the differential nonlinearity (DNL) is within [–0.05, 0.08] LSB with σDNL = 0.01 LSB, and the integral nonlinearity (INL) is within [–0.09, 0.11] LSB with σINL = 0.04 LSB for the Virtex 7 FPGA. The DNL is within [–0.12, 0.11] LSB with σDNL = 0.03 LSB, and the INL is within [–0.15, 0.48] LSB with σINL = 0.20 LSB for the UltraScale FPGA.
Low band continuous speech system for voice pathologies identification

This paper describes the impact of the signal bandwidth reduction in the identification of voice pathologies. The implemented systems evaluate the identification of 3 classes divided by healthy subjects, subjects diagnosed with physiological larynx pathologies and subjects diagnosed with neuromuscular larynx pathologies. Continuous speech signals are down-sampled to 4 kHz and the extracted spectral parameters are applied to a GMM classifier. No significant change in accuracy occurs, being possible to conclude that the low frequencies contain sufficient information to allow the classification of pathologies. A second objective is to test the effects of suppressing the voice activity detection and the increasing the analysis window length. In both cases the accuracy increases. In conclusion, a pathological voice identification system based on signals sampled at 4 kHz, without voice activity detection and with an analysis window length of 40 ms is proposed, getting 81.8% accuracy. The proposed system has also the advantage of reduces the storage memory and the processing time.