Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Confidentiality as a Service -- Usable Security for the Cloud

There is an increasing number of easy-to-use cloud services to store and share information with others. Facebook, Dropbox, iCloud, Googlemail, Amazon S3, Windows SkyDrive and similar services encourage users to entrust the companies' servers with a large variety of information: from their holiday pictures to corporate documents. However, both private and corporate users commonly fail to take account of possible privacy consequences. Even though there are approaches to provide confidentiality for the users' data in the cloud, these are not widely adopted due to both awareness and usability issues. Therefore, we propose the novel Confidentiality as a Service (CaaS) paradigm to provide usable confidentiality and integrity for the bulk of users, for whom the current security mechanisms are too complex or require too much effort. The CaaS paradigm combines data security with usability by design and integrates effortlessly into available cloud service applications and workflows. We leverage the splitting of trust between the cloud service provider and one or more CaaS providers to improve usability. CaaS focuses on unobtrusive confidentiality by hiding all cryptographic artefacts from the prevalently non-technical users. Data protection is based on symmetric encryption and invisible key-management mechanisms. We present an integration for multiple popular cloud services to demonstrate the seamless applicability of CaaS.
Why it is time for a HyPE: A Hybrid Query Processing Engine for Efficient GPU Coprocessing in DBMS

GPU acceleration is a promising approach to speed up query processing of database systems by using low cost graphic processors as coprocessors. Two major trends have emerged in this area: (1) The development of frameworks for scheduling tasks in heterogeneous CPU/GPU platforms, which is mainly in the context of coprocessing for applications and does not consider specifics of database-query processing and optimization. (2) The acceleration of database operations using efficient GPU algorithms, which typically cannot be applied easily on other database systems, because of their analytical-algorithm-specific cost models. One major challenge is how to combine traditional database query processing with GPU coprocessing techniques and efficient database operation scheduling in a GPU-aware query optimizer. In this thesis, we develop a hybrid query processing engine, which extends the traditional physical optimization process to generate hybrid query plans and to perform a cost-based optimization in a way that the advantages of CPUs and GPUs are combined. Furthermore, we aim at a portable solution between different GPU-accelerated database management systems to maximize applicability. Preliminary results indicate great potential.
Factor analysis of the Scale of Prodromal Symptoms: data from the Early Detection and Intervention for the Prevention of Psychosis Program

The Scale of Prodromal Symptoms (SOPS) was developed to identify individuals experiencing early signs of psychosis, a critical first step towards early intervention. Preliminary dimension reduction analyses suggested that psychosis‐risk symptoms may deviate from the traditional symptom structure of schizophrenia, but findings have been inconsistent. This study investigated the phenomenology of psychosis risk symptoms in a large sample from a multi‐site, national study using rigorous factor analysis procedure.
Getting Healed from a Globalised Age: A Study of the New Age Movement in Taiwan

The aim of this qualitative study of the New Age Movement (NAM) in Taiwan was to test the ideas about 'self-religion', 'reflexive modernisation' and 'globalisation' that underlie many sociological accounts of the New Age phenomena. It also explored the neglected issues of emotions and embodiment in New Age practices. By means of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 40 participants in New Age activities, participant observation in two New Age courses about healing and documentary analysis, my project produced the following four conclusions. First, the characteristics of New Age spiritualities in Taiwan, such as 'spiritual but not religious' and 'transformational but not salvational', differ from those of the country's main religions and new religious groups. But many people in the NAM seek a new balance between 'tradition and modernity' or 'new age spiritualities and "old age" religions'. Second, changes in emotional states are critical for participants in New Age activities in terms of 'being healed' through a process of self-transformation. Participants experience emotional identification, display and experience, whilst also internalising a set of feeling rules based on the 'emotion ideology' of New Age spiritualities. Third, analysis of interviewees' biographical reconstructions of their experiences shows that the New Age can be regarded as an integral part of late modern society in Taiwan. Not only is the NAM mainly about self-reflexivity but it also influences the life politics of its followers. It can therefore serve as a source of 'alternative' expert knowledge in late-modern society. Fourth, the structure of the NAM in Taiwan can be described as a loose, web-like network. Furthermore, the globalised aspects of the movement cannot be regarded simply as an expression of 'Westernisation' or 'Americanisation', but should be properly understood as a process of 'parallel glocalization'. This thesis is an original combination of conceptual analysis, theoretical ideas and empirical investigation. Its main contributions are, on the one hand, to have integrated the New Age in Taiwan into theorising about late-modernity and globalisation and, on the other, to have placed emotions and healing at the center of the study of New Age activities.
Incidence and nature of epidemiological injuries to elite South African cricket players.

OBJECTIVES The study investigated the incidence and nature of injuries sustained by elite cricketers during a season and the possible risk factors associated with these injuries. METHODS Fourteen physiotherapists and three doctors recorded 163 injuries sustained by 88 cricketers. RESULTS Bowling accounted for 40.5% of the injuries, while fielding and batting accounted for 25.6% and 21.5% of the injuries, respectively. The injuries occurred while practising for or playing in club (3.7%), provincial 'B' (8.0%), provincial (51.5%) and international (36.8%) matches and occurred primarily during 4- and 5-day (33.1%) and 1-day (27.0%) matches. First-time injuries made up 63.6% of the injuries, recurrent injuries from previous seasons made up 28.4% and 8.0% of the injuries recurred again at a later stage during the season. Of the injuries 62.6% were acute, 14.7% chronic and 22.7% were acute injuries on existing chronic injuries. The majority of the injuries were muscle (37.4%), joint (20.9%) and tendon (15.3%) injuries. The primary mechanisms of injury were as a result of overuse (30.7%); running to catch or field (15.3%); during the bowling delivery or follow-through (12.3%); and being struck by the ball while batting (11.0%). CONCLUSIONS Coaches, players and the medical support team need to be aware of the incidence, nature and cause of injuries, so that the risk of injury can be further reduced.
Quantitative evaluation of violin solo performance

Evaluation of performances of musical instruments is usually subjective. It may be easier for keyboard instruments. For bowed-string instruments such as a violin, delicate articulations are required in its performance such that there exhibit much complexities in its sound, making the evaluation more difficult. In this paper, a note separation algorithm based on spectral domain factorization is used to extract the notes from recordings of violin solo performances. Each note can then be quantitatively evaluated based on a set of metrics that is designed to provide various aspects of violin performances including pitch accuracy, bowing steadiness, vibrato depth/rate, bowing intensity, tempo, and timbre characteristics and so on. The tools should be useful in musical instrument performance education.
The Antidiabetic Potentials of the Methanolic Seed Extract of Buchhlozia Coriacea

Background: Diabetes mellitus has remained a significant contributor to morbidities and mortalities in our environment despite all efforts to curb the trend. Regrettably, conventional, orthodox hypoglycemic agents have remained unaffordable. Consequently the need for available and affordable alternatives cannot be overemphasized. Objectives: To determine the effect of the methanolic seed extracts of Buchhlozia coriacea, on blood glucose levels in alloxan-induced diabetes mellitus. Methods: Hyperglycemia was induced by the injection of 120 mg/kg intrapetoneally (i.p.) of alloxan monohydrate freshly dissolved in distilled water. Three doses (100, 250, and 500 mg/kg) per os, of the extracts were administered in the study. The activity was compared with reference standard drug, glibenclamide (2 mg/kg, p.o.) and negative control. Results: Treatment of alloxan-induced diabetic mice with the crude extracts of B. coriacea seed brought down the raised blood glucose levels significantly (P = 0.043) in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion: B. coriacea seed was shown to possess significant antidiabetic potential.
Prevalence, Incidence Density, and Genotype Distribution of GB Virus C Infection in a Cohort of Recently HIV-1-Infected Subjects in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Background The results of previous studies elsewhere have indicated that GB virus C (GBV-C) infection is frequent in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) due to similar transmission routes of both viruses. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, incidence density and genotypic characteristics of GBV-C in this population. Methodology/Principal Findings The study population included 233 patients from a cohort primarily comprised of homosexual men recently infected with HIV-1 in São Paulo, Brazil. The presence of GBV-C RNA was determined in plasma samples by reverse transcriptase-nested polymerase chain reaction and quantified by real-time PCR. GBV-C genotypes were determined by direct sequencing. HIV viral load, CD4+ T lymphocyte and CD8+ T lymphocyte count were also tested in all patients. The overall prevalence of GBV-C infection was 0.23 (95% CI: 0.18 to 0.29) in the study group. There was no significant difference between patients with and without GBV-C infection and Glycoprotein E2 antibody presence regarding age, sex, HIV-1 viral load, CD4+ and CD8+T cell counts and treatment with antiretroviral drugs. An inverse correlation was observed between GBV-C and HIV-1 loads at enrollment and after one year. Also, a positive but not significant correlation was observed between GBV-C load and CD4+ T lymphocyte. Phylogenetic analysis of the GBV-C isolates revealed the presence of genotype 1 and genotype 2, these sub classified into subtype 2a and 2b. Conclusion/Significance GBV-C infection is common in recently HIV -1 infected patients in Sao Paulo, Brazil and the predominant genotype is 2b. This study provides the first report of the GBV-C prevalence at the time of diagnosis of HIV-1 and the incidence density of GBV-C infection in one year.
Scalable load disaggregation system using distributed electrical signature detection

We design and demonstrate a load disaggregation system that selectively uses high-frequency data from an add-on battery-powered mote hosting a current transducer (CT) sensor to complement low-frequency data from an infrastructure power meter. Our system learns, detects, and combines coarse electrical signatures from the infrastructure meter and finer signatures from the CT sensor to infer energy usage of targeted end-loads in real time. We demonstrate a proof-of-concept prototype of our system under a set of controlled experiments with various electrical loads.
Capsid protein from Indian isolate of chikungunya virus as a possible drug target: an in silico study

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a positive stranded alphavirus, causes epidemic febrile infections characterised by severe and prolonged arthralgia. The present work is focused on the analysis of the chikungunya genome for identification of potential drug target with Kerala 2008 strain as the basis. Multiple sequence alignment with s-27 African strain as the prototype and 14 other chikungunya isolates the capsid protein was found as a potential target, which was highly conserved in all the strains and it also plays an important role in the budding and maturation of new virion particles. A three-dimensional model of the target protein was generated by homology modelling and the lead compounds that competitively inhibit the serine endopeptidase activity were selected. With the generated model, an induced fit docking study was carried out using AUTODOCK4. The docking studies indicated that conserved residues were involved in binding with some of the selected inhibitors. So among the selected inhibitors leupeptin was the effective inhibitor based on the toxicity and docking studies using ADMETox online tool.
Dynamic Modeling of Cell Migration and Spreading Behaviors on Fibronectin Coated Planar Substrates and Micropatterned Geometries

An integrative cell migration model incorporating focal adhesion (FA) dynamics, cytoskeleton and nucleus remodeling, actin motor activity, and lamellipodia protrusion is developed for predicting cell spreading and migration behaviors. This work is motivated by two experimental works: (1) cell migration on 2-D substrates under various fibronectin concentrations and (2) cell spreading on 2-D micropatterned geometries. These works suggest (1) cell migration speed takes a maximum at a particular ligand density (∼1140 molecules/µm2) and (2) that strong traction forces at the corners of the patterns may exist due to combined effects exerted by actin stress fibers (SFs). The integrative model of this paper successfully reproduced these experimental results and indicates the mechanism of cell migration and spreading. In this paper, the mechanical structure of the cell is modeled as having two elastic membranes: an outer cell membrane and an inner nuclear membrane. The two elastic membranes are connected by SFs, which are extended from focal adhesions on the cortical surface to the nuclear membrane. In addition, the model also includes ventral SFs bridging two focal adhesions on the cell surface. The cell deforms and gains traction as transmembrane integrins distributed over the outer cell membrane bond to ligands on the ECM surface, activate SFs, and form focal adhesions. The relationship between the cell migration speed and fibronectin concentration agrees with existing experimental data for Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell migrations on fibronectin coated surfaces. In addition, the integrated model is validated by showing persistent high stress concentrations at sharp geometrically patterned edges. This model will be used as a predictive model to assist in design and data processing of upcoming microfluidic cell migration assays.
CGT Code-Based XML Data Compression Method

XML is a de-facto standard for exchanging and presenting information on the Web. However, XML data is also recognized as verbose since it heavily inflates the size of the data due to the repeated tags and structures. The data verbosity problem gives rise to many challenges of conventional query processing and data exchange. Compression techniques are the important way to overcome the verbosity problem. According to the features of XML document, we put forward a new XML data compression method called CGTXDC which uses XML Schema to construct XML document tree about the structure information of XML document and adopts CGT code to encode each tree node for maintaining the structure of the original XML document. CGTXDC requires only a single pass over the input XML document during the compression process and don't need to build the document tree in the memory. The experimental results show much better compression ratio than that of representative XML compression methods, such as Xpress and Xgrind.
Unsuitability of MALDI-TOF MS to discriminate Acinetobacter baumannii clones under routine experimental conditions

MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry) is now in the forefront for routine bacterial species identification methodologies, being its value for clonality assessment controversial. In this work we evaluated the potential of MALDI-TOF MS for assisting infection control by depicting Acinetobacter baumannii clones. Mass spectra of 58 A. baumannii clinical isolates belonging to the worldwide spread lineages (ST98, ST103, ST208, and ST218) isolated in our country, were obtained and analyzed with several chemometric tools (pseudo gel views, peakfind function, and partial least squares discriminant analysis). The clonal lineages were obtained using the “Oxford” scheme, belonging ST98, ST208, and ST218 to the international clone II and ST103 to an epidemic clonal lineage (SG5). Additionally, mass spectra of a highly diverse international collection of 38 isolates belonging to 22 sequence types (STs) were obtained for further comparisons. Pseudo gel views and direct peak pattern analysis did not allow the discrimination of A. baumannii isolates belonging to ST98, ST103, ST208, or ST218. Moreover, a partial least square discriminant analysis of the mass spectra considering two spectral ranges (2–20 kDa and 4–10 kDa) revealed a poor degree of discrimination with only 64.6 and 65.8% of correct ST assignments, respectively. Also, mass spectra of the international isolates (n = 38, 22STs) revealed a very congruent peak pattern among them as well as among the four lineages included in this work. Despite the increasing interest of MALDI-TOF MS for bacterial typing at different taxonomical levels, we demonstrated, using routine experimental conditions, the unsuitability of this methodology for A. baumannii clonal discrimination.
FPGA-realization of fuzzy speed controller for PMSM drives without position sensor

This work realizes the speed control for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives under the condition of without position sensor. Rotor flux angle and rotor speed are obtained by using the algorithm of sliding mode observer. And the fuzzy controller is adopted for controlling the speed of PMSM in order to increase the robust performance. In this paper, we provide an approach from modeling, system design, co-simulation in Modelsim/Simulink to experiment in FPGA which can be used to design and validate our proposed control system. Finally, both simulation and experiment results are confirmed the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed FPGA-based fuzzy speed controller for PMSM which is without position sensor.
AMIGOS: A Dataset for Affect, Personality and Mood Research on Individuals and Groups

We present AMIGOS– A dataset for Multimodal research of affect, personality traits and mood on Individuals and GrOupS. Different to other databases, we elicited affect using both short and long videos in two social contexts, one with individual viewers and one with groups of viewers. The database allows the multimodal study of the affective responses, by means of neuro-physiological signals of individuals in relation to their personality and mood, and with respect to the social context and videos’ duration. The data is collected in two experimental settings. In the first one, 40 participants watched 16 short emotional videos. In the second one, the participants watched 4 long videos, some of them alone and the rest in groups. The participants’ signals, namely, Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electrocardiogram (ECG) and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), were recorded using wearable sensors. Participants’ frontal HD video and both RGB and depth full body videos were also recorded. Participants emotions have been annotated with both self-assessment of affective levels (valence, arousal, control, familiarity, liking and basic emotions) felt during the videos as well as external-assessment of levels of valence and arousal. We present a detailed correlation analysis of the different dimensions as well as baseline methods and results for single-trial classification of valence and arousal, personality traits, mood and social context. The database is made publicly available.
Waypoint analysis for command and control

Command and Control (C2) in a military setting can be epitomized in battles‐of‐old when commanders would seek high ground to gain superior spatial‐temporal information; from this vantage point, decisions were made and relayed to units in the field. Although the fundamentals remain, technology has changed the practice of C2; for example, enemy units may be observed remotely, with instruments of varying positional accuracy. A basic problem in C2 is the ability to track an enemy object in the battlespace and to forecast its future position; the (extended) Kalman filter provides a straightforward solution. The problem changes fundamentally if one assumes that the moving object is headed for an (unknown) location, or waypoint. This article is concerned with the new problem of estimation of such a waypoint, for which we use Bayesian statistical prediction. The computational burden is greater than an ad hoc regression‐based estimate, which we also develop, but the Bayesian approach has a big advantage in that it yields both a predictor and a measure of its variability. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004
Fußgängernavigation im urbanen Raum - Designvorschlag

Basierend auf aktuellen Forschungsergebnissen entwickelten wir ein alternatives Fusgangernavigationssystem fur multimodale Fortbewegung im urbanen Raum. Dieses bezieht typische stadtische Nahverkehrsmittel wie Bus, U-Bahn oder S-Bahn mit ein. Bei der Entwicklung dieser Losung stand eine intuitive Bedienung sowie eine minimale Beanspruchung der Aufmerksamkeit des Benutzers im Vordergrund. Realisiert wurden diese Anforderungen durch ein visuelles und vibrotaktiles Interface.
Feedback Timing Synchronization for IF-sampled Systems

Digital Intermediate Frequency (IF) receivers are achieving a widespread use, also in satellite applications. By means of this paradigm the received RF spectrum is moved down to IF, and digitization occurs at the low IF. Thereafter, digital signal processing techniques are used to extract the signal. When it comes to synchronization, some new issues arise due to the possibly different sampling rates with respect to a conventional baseband receiver. In particular, a great deal of work has been carried out recently to study computationally feasible methods to reduce the sample rate before demodulation and detection [1], [2]. If we focus on timing recovery, conventional methods work with two or four samples per symbol, whether we talk of ad-hoc methods or we refer to maximum-likelihood based schemes [3], [4]. In any case, the number of samples per period is tried to keep at a minimum. The aim of this work is to analyze the timing recovery issue in IF-sampled systems, for which the number of samples per symbol is not dictated by the synchronization/equalization stages, but rather by other circumstances. The same occurs with variable symbol rate systems for which the clock samples the input signal at a fixed rate regardless the symbol rate [5].
Complex division with prescaling of operands

We adapt the radix-r digit-recurrence division algorithm to complex division. By prescaling the operands, we make the selection of quotient digits simple. This leads to a simple hardware implementation, and allows correct rounding of complex quotient. To reduce large prescaling tables required for radices greater than 4, we adapt the bipartite-table method to multiple-operand functions.