Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Programme 16 : 00-16 : 10 Opening remarks 16 : 10-16 : 40 Challenges for trusted computing

This article identifies and discusses some of the key challenges that need to be addressed if the vision of Trusted Computing is to become reality. Topics addressed include issues with setting up and maintaining the PKI required to support the full set of Trusted Computing functionality, the practical use and verification of attestation evidence, and backwards compatibility, usability and compliance issues.
A screening for canine distemper virus, canine adenovirus and carnivore protoparvoviruses in Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Norway

ABSTRACT Canine distemper virus (CDV), canine adenovirus (CAdV) and canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2) cause disease in dogs (Canis familiaris). These, or closely related viruses, may also infect wild carnivores. The aim of this study was to investigate exposure to CDV, CAdV and CPV-2 among fox populations in Norway. Arctic foxes (n = 178) from High-Arctic Svalbard were investigated for antibodies against CDV. Arctic foxes (n = 301) from Svalbard and red foxes from Low-Arctic (n = 326) and sub-Arctic (n = 74) regions in Finnmark County, Norway, were investigated for antibodies against CAdV and for the presence of carnivore protoparvovirus DNA in spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes using polymerase chain reaction. Seroprevalence against CDV in Arctic foxes decreased from 25% (1995/96) to 6% (2001/02), whereas the seroprevalence against CAdV increased from 25–40% during the seasons 1995/96 to 2001/02 to 68% for the last study year (2002/03). In red foxes, the seroprevalence against CAdV varied between 31% and 67% for the seasons 2004/05 to 2007/08, increasing to 80% for the last study year. Carnivore protoparvovirus DNA was not detected in any of the 301 Arctic foxes and the 265 red foxes investigated. These results show that CDV and CAdV are enzootic in the Arctic fox population (Svalbard), and that CAdV is enzootic in both the Low-Arctic and sub-Arctic red fox populations (Finnmark). Further studies are needed to better understand the infection biology and the impact of CDV and CAdV in these fox populations, and if viruses may be shared between foxes and other carnivores, including dogs.
N-Dimensional Tensor Voting and Application to Epipolar Geometry Estimation

We address the problem of epipolar geometry estimation by formulating it as one of hyperplane inference from a sparse and noisy point set in an 8D space. Given a set of noisy point correspondences in two images of a static scene without correspondences, even in the presence of moving objects, our method extracts good matches and rejects outliers. The methodology is novel and unconventional, since, unlike most other methods optimizing certain scalar, objective functions, our approach does not involve initialization or any iterative search in the parameter space. Therefore, it is free of the problem of local optima or poor convergence. Further, since no search is involved, it is unnecessary to impose simplifying assumption to the scene being analyzed for reducing the search complexity. Subject to the general epipolar constraint only, we detect wrong matches by a computation scheme, 8D tensor voting, which is an instance of the more general N-dimensional tensor voting framework. In essence, the input set of matches is first transformed into a sparse 8D point set. Dense, 8D tensor kernels are then used to vote for the most salient hyperplane that captures all inliers inherent in the input. With this filtered set of matches, the normalized eight-point algorithm can be used to estimate the fundamental matrix accurately. By making use of efficient data structure and locality, our method is both time and space efficient despite the higher dimensionality. We demonstrate the general usefulness of our method using example image pairs for aerial image analysis, with widely different views, and from nonstatic 3D scenes. Each example contains a considerable number of wrong matches.
Determination of fatty acid profile in ram spermatozoa and seminal plasma

Fatty acids are important in male reproductive function because they are associated with membrane fluidity, acrosome reaction, sperm motility and viability, but limited information exists about the fatty acid profile of ram semen. Our aim was to determine the fatty acid composition in ram spermatozoa and seminal plasma. Sixty ejaculates were obtained from three ram (20 ejaculates/ram) using artificial vagina. Ram spermatozoa (RS) and seminal plasma (SP) were separated using centrifugation, and the fatty acids were analysed by gas chromatography. Total lipids obtained in ram spermatozoa were 1.8% and 1.6% in seminal plasma. Saturated fatty acid (SFA) was proportionally major in SP (66.6%) that RS (49.9%). The highest proportions of SFA corresponded to C4:0 (RS = 16.3% and SP = 28.8%) and C16:0 (RS = 16.3% and PS = 20%). The most important unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) was docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), 44.9% in RS and 31.5% in SP. The profile of fatty acid and their proportions showed differences between spermatozoa and seminal plasma.
Determination of the reaction plane in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions.

If the particles produced in a nuclear collision undergo collective flow, the reaction plane can in principle be determined through a global event analysis. We show here that collective flow can be identified by evaluating the reaction plane independently in two separate rapidity intervals, and studying the correlation between the two results. We give an analytical expression for the correlation function between the two planes as a function of their relative angle. We also discuss how this correlation function is related to the anisotropy of the transverse momentum distribution.
Spectrum Monitoring Using Energy Ratio Algorithm for OFDM-Based Cognitive Radio Networks

This paper presents a spectrum monitoring algorithm for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based cognitive radios by which the primary user reappearance can be detected during the secondary user transmission. The proposed technique reduces the frequency with which spectrum sensing must be performed and greatly decreases the elapsed time between the start of a primary transmission and its detection by the secondary network. This is done by sensing the change in signal strength over a number of reserved OFDM sub-carriers so that the reappearance of the primary user is quickly detected. Moreover, the OFDM impairments such as power leakage, Narrow Band Interference (NBI), and Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI) are investigated and their impact on the proposed technique is studied. Both analysis and simulation show that the energy ratio algorithm can effectively and accurately detect the appearance of the primary user. Furthermore, our method achieves high immunity to frequency-selective fading channels for both single and multiple receive antenna systems, with a complexity that is approximately twice that of a conventional energy detector.
Team Preceptorship Model: A Solution for Students' Clinical Experience

There is a shortage of registered nurses in developed countries, and this shortage is due to the aging nursing workforce, demand for healthcare services, and shortage of nursing professors to teach students. In order to increase the number of clinical placements for nursing students, the authors developed and implemented a collaborative preceptorship model between a Canadian University and Public Health Department to facilitate the clinical experiences of Bachelor of Science of Nursing (BScN) students. This paper describes the Team Preceptorship Model which guided the clinical experience of nine students and 14 preceptors. It also highlights the model's evaluation, strengths, and limitations.
Modularly assembled designer TAL effector nucleases for targeted gene knockout and gene replacement in eukaryotes

Recent studies indicate that the DNA recognition domain of transcription activator-like (TAL) effectors can be combined with the nuclease domain of FokI restriction enzyme to produce TAL effector nucleases (TALENs) that, in pairs, bind adjacent DNA target sites and produce double-strand breaks between the target sequences, stimulating non-homologous end-joining and homologous recombination. Here, we exploit the four prevalent TAL repeats and their DNA recognition cipher to develop a ‘modular assembly’ method for rapid production of designer TALENs (dTALENs) that recognize unique DNA sequence up to 23 bases in any gene. We have used this approach to engineer 10 dTALENs to target specific loci in native yeast chromosomal genes. All dTALENs produced high rates of site-specific gene disruptions and created strains with expected mutant phenotypes. Moreover, dTALENs stimulated high rates (up to 34%) of gene replacement by homologous recombination. Finally, dTALENs caused no detectable cytotoxicity and minimal levels of undesired genetic mutations in the treated yeast strains. These studies expand the realm of verified TALEN activity from cultured human cells to an intact eukaryotic organism and suggest that low-cost, highly dependable dTALENs can assume a significant role for gene modifications of value in human and animal health, agriculture and industry.
GALEX MEASUREMENTS OF THE BIG BLUE BUMP IN SOFT X-RAY–SELECTED ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS

We study the UV properties of Type I active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey that have been selected to show unusually soft X-ray continua. We examine a sample of 54 Seyfert 1 galaxies with detections in both Near-UV and Far-UV bands of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite. Our sample is systematically fainter in the UV than galaxies studied in similar work by previous authors. We look for correlations between their UV and X-ray properties as well as correlations of these properties with either black hole mass or Eddington ratio. The shape of the big blue bump (BBB) in the GALEX regime does not appear to correlate with its strength relative to the power-law continuum, which conflicts with results reported by previous authors. The strength of the BBB is correlated with the shape of the X-ray continuum, in agreement with previous work, but the slope of the correlation is different than previously reported. The properties of the accretion disks of Type I AGN in the GALEX regime are relatively independent of black hole mass and Eddington ratio. We compare our measurements to the predictions of alternative theories for the origin of the soft excess, but we are unable to distinguish between Comptonization of BBB photons by a hot plasma and absorption in relativistic winds as the most likely origins for the soft X-ray excess.
Multi-layer Resource Optimization and QoS Guarantee for Inter-working Wireless Networks

Next generation wireless networks are evolving from the interworking of existing wireless networks. The interworking of these networks conveniently brings about ubiquitous broadband internet access required by network users. However, the major concerns in interworking wireless networks include how to ensure effective resource dimensioning and quality of service (QoS) provisioning while optimizing the overall network's resources. Although traffic engineering (TE) frameworks are used to overcome such network issues, a few of these frameworks are suitable for wireless networks. More so, there is virtually no TE framework for interworking wireless networks. In addition most TE frameworks focus only on network layer metrics, which makes them inapplicable to wireless networks. Due to the stochastic nature of wireless networks, TE frameworks which capture metrics that affects QoS from other layers of the networkare needed. Hence, this paper proposes a multi-layer TE framework for QoS provisioning, resource dimensioning and optimization in interworking wireless networks. The proposed framework is based on stochastic network calculus.
Energy-efficient incremental integrity for securing storage in mobile cloud computing

We present an energy-efficient protocol for ensuring the integrity of storage services in mobile cloud computing. The proposed protocol applies the concepts of incremental cryptography and trusted computing to design secure integrity data structures that protect the customer data while highly reducing the mobile client energy consumption and efficiently supporting dynamic data operations. The system design is analytically analyzed and experimentally implemented to demonstrate the energy savings it provides on mobile clients.
Transductive Methods for the Distributed Ensemble Classification Problem

We consider ensemble classification for the case where there is no common labeled training data for jointly designing the individual classifiers and the function that aggregates their decisions. This problem, which we call distributed ensemble classification, applies when individual classifiers operate (perhaps remotely) on different sensing modalities and when combining proprietary or legacy classifiers. The conventional wisdom in this case is to apply fixed rules of combination such as voting methods or rules for aggregating probabilities. Alternatively, we take a transductive approach, optimizing the combining rule for an objective function measured on the unlabeled batch of test data. We propose maximum likelihood (ML) objectives that are shown to yield well-known forms of probabilistic aggregation, albeit with iterative, expectation-maximization-based adjustment to account for mismatch between class priors used by individual classifiers and those reflected in the new data batch. These methods are extensions, for the ensemble case, of the work of Saerens, Latinne, and Decaestecker (2002). We also propose an information-theoretic method that generally outperforms the ML methods, better handles classifier redundancies, and addresses some scenarios where the ML methods are not applicable. This method also well handles the case of missing classes in the test batch. On UC Irvine benchmark data, all our methods give improvements in classification accuracy over the use of fixed rules when there is prior mismatch.
PLP: Protecting Location Privacy Against Correlation-Analysis Attack in Crowdsensing

Crowdsensing applications require individuals toshare local and personal sensing data with others to produce valuableknowledge and services. Meanwhile, it has raised concernsespecially for location privacy. Users may wish to prevent privacyleak and publish as many non-sensitive contexts as possible.Simply suppressing sensitive contexts is vulnerable to the adversariesexploiting spatio-temporal correlations in users' behavior.In this work, we present PLP, a crowdsensing scheme whichpreserves privacy while maximizes the amount of data collectionby filtering a user's context stream. PLP leverages a conditionalrandom field to model the spatio-temporal correlations amongthe contexts, and proposes a speed-up algorithm to learn theweaknesses in the correlations. Even if the adversaries are strongenough to know the filtering system and the weaknesses, PLPcan still provably preserves privacy, with little computationalcost for online operations. PLP is evaluated and validated overtwo real-world smartphone context traces of 34 users. Theexperimental results show that PLP efficiently protects privacywithout sacrificing much utility.
High-Speed Transmission in Multimode Fibers

High-speed transmission in multimode fibers (MMF) is becoming attractive for the realization of high-capacity transmission systems at low cost. This paper discusses the theoretical background of MMF transmission and gives an overview on system characterization and existing standards. The authors review latest achievements in component development for highest-speed MMF systems and discuss the challenges on reach, speed, and capacity-extension techniques for next generations of MMF systems.
DECKARD: Scalable and Accurate Tree-Based Detection of Code Clones

Detecting code clones has many software engineering applications. Existing approaches either do not scale to large code bases or are not robust against minor code modifications. In this paper, we present an efficient algorithm for identifying similar subtrees and apply it to tree representations of source code. Our algorithm is based on a novel characterization of subtrees with numerical vectors in the Euclidean space Rnmiddot and an efficient algorithm to cluster these vectors w.r. t. the Euclidean distance metric. Subtrees with vectors in one cluster are considered similar. We have implemented our tree similarity algorithm as a clone detection tool called DECKARD and evaluated it on large code bases written in C and Java including the Linux kernel and JDK. Our experiments show that DECKARD is both scalable and accurate. It is also language independent, applicable to any language with a formally specified grammar.
MTP regulated by an alternate promoter is essential for NKT cell development

Microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP), an endoplasmic reticulum lipid transfer protein critical for apolipoprotein B (apoB) secretion, regulates CD1d antigen presentation. We identified MTP variant 1 (MTPv1), a novel splice variant of mouse MTP, by polymerase chain reaction and Northern analysis in non–apoB-secreting tissues, including thymocytes and antigen-presenting cells (APCs). Edman degradation of MTPv1 isolated from transfected cells revealed three unique residues; however, recombinant MTP and MTPv1 had an equivalent protein disulfide isomerase association, subcellular localization, triglyceride transfer, phospholipid transfer, response to inhibitors, and ability to support apoB secretion. MTP and MTPv1 efficiently transferred phosphatidylethanolamine to CD1d in vitro. NKT cells fail to develop in fetal thymic organ culture (FTOC) treated with MTP antagonists. MTP-inhibited FTOCs produced negligible numbers of CD1d tetramer–positive cells and exhibited marked defects in IL-4 production upon stimulation with anti-CD3 or α-galactosylceramide–pulsed APCs. CD1d expression on CD4+CD8+ FTOC cells was unaffected by MTP inhibition. Thus, our results demonstrate that MTPv1 in thymocytes is critical to NKT cell development. We hypothesize that, when MTP is inactive, CD1d traffics to the cell surface and presents no lipid or a lipid that is incapable of mediating NKT cell selection and/or is refractory to lysosomal editing.
Facilitating Reusable and Scalable Automated Testing and Analysis for Android Apps

Mobile apps are prevalent in everyone's daily life. However, apps are oftentimes defective, undermining their convenience, and therefore automated testing and analysis of apps are developed to enhance apps' quality. As these advanced technologies become increasingly effective and complicated, prototyping such a tool also becomes a challenge. To facilitate easy development of high-quality testing and analysis tools that work with real-world apps, we in this paper present the design and implementation of ATT (Android Testing Toolkit), for crafting reusable and scalable testing and analysis on Android apps. ATT consists of integrated tools and APIs for event generation, profiling and program instrumentation, and can be distributed over cloud platforms for scalable testing and analysis. We qualitatively evaluated the applicability of ATT by demonstrating implementation of a series of existing and enhanced work (RERAN, Monkey+ and UGA) upon ATT, and quantitatively studied the scalability of parallelized UGA on a cloud platform with five real-world apps. We believe that our ATT tool would facilitate development of more advanced testing and analysis approaches for Android apps.
Extracellular Matrix Fibronectin Mechanically Couples Skeletal Muscle Contraction With Local Vasodilation

During exercise, local mechanisms in tissues cause arterioles to rapidly dilate to increase blood flow to tissues to meet the metabolic demands of contracting muscle. Despite decades of study, the mechanisms underlying this important aspect of blood flow control are still far from clear. We now report a novel mechanism wherein fibronectin fibrils in connective tissue matrices transduce signals from contracting skeletal muscle to local blood vessels to increase blood flow. Using intravital microscopy, we show that local vasodilation in response to skeletal muscle contraction is specifically inhibited by an antibody that recognizes the matricryptic site in the first type III repeat of fibronectin (FNIII-1). In the absence of skeletal muscle contraction, direct application of FNIII-1-containing fibronectin fragments to cremaster muscle arterioles in situ, triggered a rapid, specific, and reversible local dilation that was mediated by nitric oxide and required the cryptic, heparin-binding sequence of FNIII-1. Furthermore, application of function-blocking FNIII-1 peptides to cremaster muscle arterioles rapidly and specifically decreased their diameter, indicating that the matricryptic site of fibronectin also contributes to resting vascular tone. Alexa fluor 488-labeled fibronectin, administered intravenously, was rapidly assembled into elongated, branching fibrils in the extracellular matrix of intact cremaster muscle, demonstrating active polymerization of fibronectin in areas adjacent to blood vessels. Together, these data provide the first evidence that a matricryptic, heparin-binding site within fibronectin fibrils of adult connective tissue plays a dynamic role in regulating both vascular responses and vascular tone.
Application of the Human Activity Assistive Technology model for occupational therapy research.

BACKGROUND/AIM Theoretical models provide a framework for describing practice and integrating evidence into systematic research. There are few models that relate specifically to the provision of assistive technology in occupational therapy practice. The Human Activity Assistive Technology model is an enduring example that has continued to develop by integrating a social model of disability, concepts from occupational therapy theory and principles of assistive technology adoption and abandonment. METHODS This study first describes the core concepts of the Human Activity Assistive Technology model and reviews its development over three successive published versions. A review of the research literature reflects application of the model to clinical practice, study design, outcome measure selection and interpretation of results, particularly among occupational therapists. An evaluative framework is used to critique the adequacy of the Human Activity Assistive Technology model for practice and research, exploring attributes of clarity, simplicity, generality, accessibility and importance. Finally, recommendations are proposed for continued development of the model and research applications. RESULTS Most of the existing research literature employs the Human Activity Assistive Technology model for background and study design; there is emerging evidence to support the core concepts as predictive factors. Although the concepts are generally simple, clear and applicable to occupational therapy practice and research, evolving terminology and outcomes become more complex with the conflation of integrated theories. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE The development of the Human Activity Assistive Technology model offers enhanced access and application for occupational therapists, but poses challenges to clarity among concepts. Suggestions are made for further development and applications of the model.