Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and Analysis of Symmetric Primitives

The subject of this thesis is the study of symmetric cryptographic primitives. We investigate these objects from three different perspectives: cryptanalysis, design and implementation aspects. The first part deals with cryptanalysis of symmetric primitives, where one tries to leverage a property of the design to achieve some adversarial goal. Two of the most successful types of cryptanalysis are differentialand linear attacks. We apply variants of differential cryptanalysis to the lightweight block cipher SIMON which was proposed by researchers from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013. In particular, we present a search heuristic to find differentials of high probability, and we investigate the clustering of characteristics known as the differential effect. Finally, we apply impossible differential attacks using truncated differentials to a number of SIMON variants. Next, we define a theoretical model for key-less linear distinguishers, which captures the meaning of distinguishing a block cipher from an ideal permutation using linear cryptanalysis, when the key is either known or chosen by the adversary. Such models exist using differential properties but were never before defined using linear cryptanalysis. We apply this model to the standardized block cipher PRESENT. Finally, we present very generic attacks on two authenticated encryption schemes, AVALANCHE and RBS, by pointing out severe design flaws that can be leveraged to fully recover the secret key with very low complexity. In the second part, we delve into the matter of the various aspects of designing a symmetric cryptographic primitive. We start by considering generalizations of the widely acclaimed Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) block cipher. In particular, our focus is on a component operation in the cipher which permutes parts of the input to obtain dependency between the state bits. With this operation in focus, we give a range of theoretical results, reducing the possible choices for the operation in generalized ciphers to a particular set of classes. We then employ a computer-aided optimization technique to determine the best choices for the operation in terms of resistance towards differentialand linear cryptanalysis. Also in the vein of symmetric primitive design we present PRØST, a new and highly secure permutation. Employing existing third-party modes of operation, we present six proposals based on PRØST for the ongoing CAESAR competition for authenticated encryption with associated data. We describe the design criteria, the usage modes and give proofs of security. Finally, in the third part, we consider implementation aspects of symmetric cryptography, with focus on high-performance software. In more detail, we analyze and implement modes recommended by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as well as authenticated encryption modes from the CAESAR competition, when instantiated with the AES. The data processed in our benchmarking has sizes representative to that of typical Internet traffic. Motivated by a significant improvement to special AES instructions in the most recent microarchitecture
Data for benchmarking in nonlinear system identification

System identification is a fundamentally experimental field of science in that it deals with modeling of system dynamics using measured data. Despite this fact many algorithms and theoretical results are only tested with simulations at the time of publication. One reason for this may be a lack of easily available live data. This paper therefore presents three sets of data, suitable for development, testing and benchmarking of system identification algorithms for nonlinear systems. The data sets are collected from laboratory processes that can be described by block – oriented dynamic models, and by more general nonlinear difference and differential equation models. All data sets are available for free download.
1 Novel nanomaterials and nanofabrication 2 techniques for flexible electronic systems 3

Recent progress in the fabricating flexible electronics has been developed significantly 9 due to the increased interest of the flexible electronics which can be applied to enormous fields not 10 only to conventional electronic devices but to bio/eco electronic devices. Flexible electronics can be 11 applied to wide range of fields such as flexible display, flexible power storage, flexible solar cells, 12 wearable electronics and healthcare monitoring devices. Recently, flexible electronics are being 13 attached on the skin and even implanted into human body to monitor the bio-signals and for 14 treatment purpose. To improve the electrical characteristic and the mechanical properties of flexible 15 electronics, nanoscale fabrications using novel nano-materials are required. Advanced in nanoscale 16 fabrication methods allow construction of the active materials that can combine with the ultra-thin 17 soft substrate to form flexible electronics with high performances and reliability. In this review, wide 18 range of nanoscale fabrication methods for flexible electronics classified in either top-down or 19 bottom-up approaches such as conventional photolithography, soft lithography, nanoimprint 20 lithography, growth, assembly and chemical vapor deposition(CVD) will be reported with specific 21 fabrication processes and results. Here, our aim is to introduce various fabrication methods that can 22 be used to fabricate the flexible electronics. 23
HerMES: THE CONTRIBUTION TO THE COSMIC INFRARED BACKGROUND FROM GALAXIES SELECTED BY MASS AND REDSHIFT

We quantify the fraction of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) that originates from galaxies identified in the UV/optical/near-infrared by stacking 81,250 (∼35.7 arcmin−2) K-selected sources (KAB < 24.0) split according to their rest-frame U − V versus V − J colors into 72,216 star-forming and 9034 quiescent galaxies, on maps from Spitzer/MIPS (24 μm), Herschel/PACS (100, 160 μm), Herschel/SPIRE (250, 350, 500 μm), and AzTEC (1100 μm). The fraction of the CIB resolved by our catalog is (69% ± 15%) at 24 μm, (78% ± 17%) at 70 μm, (58% ± 13%) at 100 μm, (78% ± 18%) at 160 μm, (80% ± 17%) at 250 μm, (69% ± 14%) at 350 μm, (65% ± 12%) at 500 μm, and (45% ± 8%) at 1100 μm. Of that total, about 95% originates from star-forming galaxies, while the remaining 5% is from apparently quiescent galaxies. The CIB at λ ≲ 200 μm appears to be sourced predominantly from galaxies at z ≲ 1, while at λ ≳ 200 μm the bulk originates from 1 ≲ z ≲ 2. Galaxies with stellar masses log(M/M☉) = 9.5–11 are responsible for the majority of the CIB, with those in the log(M/M☉) = 9.5–10 bin contributing mostly at λ < 250 μm, and those in the log(M/M☉) = 10–11 bin dominating at λ > 350 μm. The contribution from galaxies in the log(M/M☉) = 9.0–9.5 (lowest) and log(M/M☉) = 11.0–12.0 (highest) stellar-mass bins contribute the least—both of order 5%—although the highest stellar-mass bin is a significant contributor to the luminosity density at z ≳ 2. The luminosities of the galaxies responsible for the CIB shifts from combinations of “normal” and luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) at λ ≲ 160 μm, to LIRGs at 160 ≲ λ ≲ 500 μm, to finally LIRGs and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies at λ ≳ 500 μm. Stacking analyses were performed using simstack, a novel algorithm designed to account for possible biases in the stacked flux density due to clustering. It is made available to the public at www.astro. caltech.edu/∼viero/viero_homepage/toolbox.html.
Quenching autofluorescence in tissue immunofluorescence

Background: Immunofluorescence (IF) is one of the most important techniques where fluorochromes conjugated to antibodies are used to detect specific proteins or antigens. In tissue sections, autofluorescence (AF) can lead to poor quality images that impair assessment. The placenta is a pivotal extra-embryonic organ in embryo development, where trophoblasts make up a large proportion of the cells. Teratoma formation is one of the critical assays for pluripotent stem cells. Methods: We tested whether ultraviolet (UV), ammonia (NH3), copper (II) sulfate (CuSO4), Trypan Blue (TB), Sudan Black B (SB), TrueBlack™ Lipofusin Autofluorescence Quencher (TLAQ) and combinations of these treatments could reduce AF in paraffin and frozen sections of placenta and teratoma in FITC, Texas Red and Cy5.5 channels. Results: We found that UV, NH3, TB and CuSO4 quenched AF to some extent in different tissue and filters, but increased AF in Texas Red or Cy5.5 channels in some cases. SB and TLQA exhibited the most consistent effects on decreasing AF, though TLQA reduced the overall IF signal in placenta sections. Not all combined treatments further reduced AF in both placenta and teratoma sections. Conclusions: SB and TLAQ can effectively quench AF in placenta and teratoma IF.
ASVspoof 2017 Version 2.0: meta-data analysis and baseline enhancements

The now-acknowledged vulnerabilities of automatic speaker verification (ASV) technology to spoofing attacks have spawned interests to develop so-called spoofing countermeasures. By providing common databases, protocols and metrics for their assessment, the ASVspoof initiative was born to spear-head research in this area. The first competitive ASVspoof challenge held in 2015 focused on the assessment of countermeasures to protect ASV technology from voice conversion and speech synthesis spoofing attacks. The second challenge switched focus to the consideration of replay spoofing attacks and countermeasures. This paper describes Version 2.0 of the ASVspoof 2017 database which was released to correct data anomalies detected post-evaluation. The paper contains as-yet unpublished meta-data which describes recording and playback devices and acoustic environments. These support the analysis of replay detection performance and limits. Also described are new results for the official ASVspoof baseline system which is based upon a constant Q cesptral coefficient frontend and a Gaussian mixture model backend. Reported are enhancements to the baseline system in the form of log-energy coefficients and cepstral mean and variance normalisation in addition to an alternative i-vector backend. The best results correspond to a 48% relative reduction in equal error rate when compared to the original baseline system.
Suppressing phonon decoherence of high performance single-photon sources in nanophotonic waveguides

The fundamental process limiting the coherence of quantum-dot based single-photon sources is the interaction with phonons. We study theoretically the effect of phonon decoherence on the indistinguishability of single photons emitted from a quantum dot embedded in a suspended nanobeam waveguide. At low temperatures, the indistinguishability is limited by the coupling between the quantum dot and the fundamental vibrational modes of the waveguide and is sensitive to the quantum-dot position within the nanobeam cross-section. We show that this decoherence channel can be efficiently suppressed by clamping the waveguide with a low refractive index cladding material deposited on the waveguide. With only a few microns of cladding material, the coherence of the emitted single photons is drastically improved. We show that the degree of indistinguishability can reach near unity and become independent of the quantum-dot position. We finally show that the cladding material may serve dual purposes since it can also be applied as a means to efficiently outcouple single photons from the nanophotonic waveguide into an optical fiber. Our proposal paves the way for a highly efficient fiber-coupled source of indistinguishable single photons based on a planar nanophotonic platform.
Explorer An Introduction to Slippery Chicken

This article introduces a new open-source algorithmic composition system, slippery chicken, which enables a top-down approach to musical composition. Specific techniques in slippery chicken are introduced along with examples of their usage in the author’s compositions. The software was originally tailormade to encapsulate the author's personal composition techniques, however many general-purpose algorithmic composition tools have been programmed that should be useful to a range of composers. The main goal of the project is to facilitate a melding of electronic and instrumental sound worlds, not just at the sonic but at the structural level. Techniques for the innovative combination of rhythmic and pitch data—arguably one of the most difficult aspects of making convincing musical algorithms—are also offered. The software was developed by the author in the Common Lisp Object System and released as opensource software in May 2012; see http://www.michael-edwards.org/sc.
Indian Investor ’ s Perception towards Mutual Funds

Abstract The concept of mutual fund emerged in Netherlands in 18th century and introduced in India by Unit Trust of India in1960s. As the mutual fund industry provides an option of diversified investment structure with varying degree of risk, it was supposed to be the most lucrative market for Indian investors. It was believed that it will surely tap the savings of common man. But in practice it failed to become a primary choice for investment to Indian investor. During almost six decades (1965-2011) the value of assets under management of mutual fund industry experienced great swings. As against the developed countries where almost every second investor is a mutual unit holder, the product could not get much popularity in India. In this reference, the present paper attempts to investigate the reasons responsible for lesser recognition of mutual fund as a prime investment option. It examines the investor’s perception with reference to distinct features provided by mutual fund companies to attract them for investing in specific funds/schemes. The study uses principal component analysis as a tool for factor reduction. The paper explored three factors named as fund/scheme related attributes, monetary benefits and sponsor’s related attributes (having respectively six, four and four variables) which may be offered to investors for securing their patronage. The results are expected to provide fruitful insight to mutual fund companies for tailoring their offers suitable to cater the needs and expectations of Indian investors.
A unified theory for construction of arbitrary speeds (0 ≤ v < ∞) solutions of the relativistic wave equations

Representing the relativistic physical fields as sections of the Clifford Bundle (or of the Spin-Clifford Bundle) of Minkowski spacetime we show that all the relativistic wave equations satisfied by these fields possess solutions traveling with arbitrary speeds $0 \leq v 1$ solutions of, e.g., the Maxwell equations imply in a breakdown of the PR, but in no contradiction at all with known physical facts.
ecent trends in surface metrology

This paper describes future trends in surface metrology. Measurement techniques are briefly mentioned. A special attention was paid to tactile and optical methods. Selected problems of surface topography characterization are described. The effects of sampling and filtering on surface topography representation are analysed. Structured surfaces are becoming both technologically and economically critical. Therefore vailable online 11 June 2010
Transport of LDL-derived cholesterol from the NPC 1 compartment to the ER involves the trans-Golgi network and the SNARE protein complex

COMMENTARY. For the article ‘‘Reprogramming stem cells is a microenvironmental task,’’ by Mina J. Bissell and Jamie Inman, which appeared in issue 41, October 14, 2008, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (105:15637–15638; first published October 8, 2008; 10.1073 pnas.0808457105), the authors note that due to a printer’s error, ref. 4 was omitted and refs. 6–8 appeared out of order. The corrected references appear below.
A stability catalogue of the habitable zones in extrasolar planetary systems

In the near future, space missions will be launched (e.g. COROT, KEPLER) to detect Earth-like extrasolar planets. The orbital elements of these (still hypothetic) planets will contain some uncertainties that can only be eliminated by careful dynamical investigations of the hosting planetary systems. The proportion of extrasolar planetary systems with one known giant planet is high (∼90 per cent). Therefore, as a first step we have investigated the possible existence of terrestrial planets in these systems. In this paper, the development of a stability catalogue of the habitable zones of exoplanetary systems is reported. This catalogue is formed by a series of stability maps, which can help to establish where Earth-like planets could exist in extrasolar planetary systems having one giant planet. After a description of the dynamical model and the numerical methods, details of the stability maps are discussed. An application of the stability catalogue to 15 known exoplanetary systems is also shown, and a characterization of the stability properties of their habitable zones is given.
A Review and Synthesis of the Economic Value-Added Literature

With increasing pressure on firms to deliver shareholder value, there has been a renewed emphasis on devising measures of corporate financial performance and incentive compensation plans that encourage managers to increase shareholder wealth. One professedly recent innovation in the field of internal and external performance measurement is a trade-marked variant of residual income known as economic value-added (EVA ). This paper attempts to provide a synoptic survey of EVA’s conceptual underpinnings and the comparatively few empirical analyses of value-added performance measures. Special attention is given to the GAAP-related accounting adjustments involved in EVA-type calculations.
Author ' s personal copy Sedimentary Corg : P ratios , paleocean ventilation , and Phanerozoic atmospheric pO 2

The Corg:P ratios of organic-rich facies (TOCN1%) exhibit considerable variation through the Phanerozoic, from b10:1 in the Permian Phosphoria Formation to N1000:1 in some Devonian black shales. Relative to the composition of phytoplankton (C:P ∼106:1), which provide the bulk of organic C and P to organic-rich marine sediments, the range of Phanerozoic sedimentary Corg:P ratios largely reflects the influence of benthic redox conditions on diagenetic pathways of C and P remobilization. Enhanced preservation of organic C at lower redox potentials combined with enhanced sedimentary retention of remineralized organic P at higher redox potentials results in a strong relationship between benthic redox conditions and sedimentary Corg:P ratios. The strong secular coherence of the Phanerozoic Corg:P record (i.e., limited variation within narrow time slices) suggests that these ratios are controlled primarily by factors influencing benthic redox conditions on a global scale, such as atmospheric pO2. Inversion and scaling of the Phanerozoic Corg:P record yields a new atmospheric pO2 model that has strong similarities to existing models based on elemental and isotopic mass balances, yet differs in some potentially significant respects. In particular, the new model suggests that atmospheric pO2 wasmarkedly lower during the Early toMiddle Paleozoic than previously inferred. Duringmost of theDevonian, atmospheric O2 levels may have been sufficiently low (b13%) as to prevent the sustained combustion of plant material. This feature of themodel may account for an anomalous gap in the fossil charcoal record during the Devonian. The redox-dependent burial of P in the ocean results in positive and negative feedback mechanisms that tend to stabilize atmospheric oxygen concentrations on geologic timescales. Temporal variations in the burial of P relative to C suggest that the strength of these feedback mechanisms varied over the Phanerozoic. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Role of hybrid external fixator in proximal tibial fractures: A prospective analysis

Introduction: The proximal tibial fractures are associated with high energy trauma and present with difficulty in treatment due to poor skin condition. In our study, we have operated 32 patients with hybrid external fixator for definitive treatment of these fractures. This technique gives good reduction, adequate stability, early mobilization and less complications. Aim: To assess the functional and radiological outcome after application of hybrid external fixator in proximal tibial fractures. Material and Methods: Prospective analysis of 32 patients was done with proximal tibial fractures classified according to Schatzker classification in our institute who were treated by application of hybrid external fixator. Results: In our study, Road traffic accident was the most common mechanism of injury (n=23). There was a male preponderance (n=23) in our study. The mean age was 39.2±11.0 years. Functional and radiological outcome was assessed using Rasmussen functional and radiological criteria at final followup. 16 patients had an excellent functional outcome and 13 patients had excellent radiological outcome. Superficial pin tract infection was seen in 4 patients which healed uneventfully. Varus malalignment was seen in 2 patients. Conclusion: Hybrid external fixator is a simple way to treat proximal tibial fractures with a low complication rate and good clinical outcomes.
Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Thermal Transport at the Nano-Scale

This chapter presents an overview of the Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation technique to predict thermal transport properties of nanostructured materials. This covers systems having characteristic lengths of the order of a few nanometers like carbon nanotubes, nanowires and also superlattices, i.e. composite materials made of submicronic thickness of solid layers. The common features of these systems is the small ratio between their characteristic system size and the phonon mean free path, which leads to ballistic heat transport and deviations from the classical Fourier law. Also when the density of interfaces gets large, the energy transport properties of the materials can not longer be described solely by the thermal conductivities of the constituents of the material, but depend also on the thermal boundary resistance which measures the transmission of phonons across an interface. In this context, molecular dynamics was proven to be a very useful technique to study heat transport in nanostructured materials. The main reasons are; the length scale probed by the method is in the nanometer range, and it does not make any assumption on the phonons dynamics except their classical nature.
The Effect of Task Distribution Model on Student Learning and Performance in Collaborative Virtual Environment

In this paper, we used task distribution framework in a typical educational environment to enhance the learning capability and user performance of collaborative users. We emphasize on the design of Collaborative Virtual Learning Laboratory. As a case study, we describe how interactive 3D virtual learning laboratory can be used to understand the laboratory experiments in a collaborative mode while providing the learners with the ability to control these laboratory animations in real time interaction and enhance their learning capability and performance based on task distribution model. We also stress the need for an educational Collaborated Virtual Learning Environment (CVLE) to be more convenient and pleasurable, which will enhance its usability and flexibility in various situations. We conducted experiments in virtual chemistry laboratory on different college students to check the learning capability and performance of the students based on task distribution model in CVLE. We reported the results of a precise experiment containing of 22 virtual teams of 44 entities.