Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TrustAV: Practical and Privacy Preserving Malware Analysis in the Cloud

While the number of connected devices is constantly growing, we observe an increased incident rate of cyber attacks that target user data. Typically, personal devices contain the most sensitive information regarding their users, so there is no doubt that they can be a very valuable target for adversaries. Typical defense solution to safeguard user devices and data, are based in malware analysis mechanisms. To amortize the processing and maintenance overheads, the outsourcing of network inspection mechanisms to the cloud has become very popular recently. However, the majority of such cloud-based applications usually offers limited privacy preserving guarantees for data processing in third-party environments. In this work, we propose TrustAV, a practical cloud-based malware detection solution destined for a plethora of device types. TrustAV is able to offload the processing of malware analysis to a remote server, where it is executed entirely inside, hardware supported, secure enclaves. By doing so, TrustAV is capable to shield the transfer and processing of user data even in untrusted environments with tolerable performance overheads, ensuring that private user data are never exposed to malicious entities or honest-but-curious providers. TrustAV also utilizes various techniques in order to overcome performance overheads, introduced by the Intel SGX technology, and reduce the required enclave memory --a limiting factor for malware analysis executed in secure enclave environments-- offering up to 3x better performance.
Predicting student success in a blended learning environment

Blended learning is gaining ground in contemporary education. However, studies on predictive learning analytics in the context of blended learning remain relatively scarce compared to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), where such applications have gained a strong foothold. Data sets obtained from blended learning environments suffer from a high dimensionality and typically expose a limited number of instances, which makes predictive analysis a challenging task. In this work, we explore the log data of a master-level blended course to predict the students' grades based entirely on the data obtained from an online module (a small private online course), using and comparing logistic regression and random forest-based predictive models. The results of the analysis show that, despite the limited data, success vs. fail predictions can be made as early as in the middle of the course. This could be used in the future for timely interventions, both for failure prevention as well as for reinforcing positive learning behaviours of students.
Inspiration cards workshops with primary teachers in the early co-design stages of learning analytics

Despite the recognition of the need to include practitioners in the design of learning analytics (LA), especially teacher input tends to come later in the design process rather than in the definition of the initial design agenda. This paper presents a case study of a design project tasked with developing LA tools for a reading game for primary school children. Taking a co-design approach, we use the Inspiration Cards Workshop to promote meaningful teacher involvement even for participants with low background in data literacy or experience in using learning analytics. We discuss opportunities and limitations of using the Inspiration Cards Workshops methodology, and particularly Inspiration Cards as a design tool, to inform future LA design efforts.
Quantifying the performance of holographic tomography systems using the 3D-printed biological cell phantom

Holographic tomography (HT) is a measurement technique utilizing refractive index (RI) as imaging contrast and enabling wide spectrum of applications in modern cell biology. Acquired 3D RI distribution, however, is strongly influenced by the measurement setup and data processing, which calls for reliable tools and methods to characterize and compare metrological parameters of the resulting reconstruction. In this paper we demonstrate and analyze the differences in reconstructions of a 3D-printed test object, which has the optical and structural features of a typical biological (mammalian) cell and has been fabricated at the sufficient level of accuracy for both the geometrical shape and RI distribution metrology. Experimental results have been acquired using commercial and research HT systems and further compared with reference data in an attempt to show the contribution of hardware and software components to the total error. The metrological performance is quantified and discussed in the context of the parameters that are usually of interest during the biomedical interpretation stage such as 3D resolution, volume, RI and dry mass of subcellular structures.
Coupling of WGM modes of two ZnO microspheres in contact: experiment and simulation

The influence of photoluminescence (PL) spectra from two same-sized zinc oxide (ZnO) microspheres (MS), made by hydrothermal growth, coupling with each other is studied. It is shown that the difference of the PL spectra between single ZnO MS and coupling ZnO MSs can be observed. Coupled ZnO MSs leads to peak splitting of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) for both TE and TM polarization. The PL spectra were obtained by illuminating coupled ZnO MSs directly by 325 nm laser source via a micro-PL setup. First, we inject the laser into the one of the coupling ZnO MSs with 1.72 μm diameter, the PL spectra has few difference between single ZnO MS because the other MS makes less influence on the spherical resonator. Second, by injecting the laser which covers the coupling ZnO MSs, it’s surprising that the PL spectra shows various splitting peaks in the visible region. The phenomenon tells these two coupling MSs lose their symmetry which exist if they are separated, thus, the angular momentum of one ZnO MS is destroyed by another attached ZnO MS. To sum up, the PL spectra of ZnO MS is sensitive to the surface-decorated particles, which can be applied in biosensing to detect various molecules.
An implantable light source for in-vivo fluorescence image sensor

An implantable image sensor device is extremely small and lightweight owing to the use of a specially designed complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. It is intended to be applied in in-vivo brain function imaging under free behavior of an observation target such as a mouse. Because of its low invasiveness, it is suitable for the simultaneous imaging of the deep brain along with several other regions of the brain, and for long-term observations. In order to realize low invasiveness, it is required to perform contact imaging without using a lens. This gives rise to a different set of challenges from that faced by microscope systems that use a general lens. In this study, we developed a light source suited for the in-vivo implantation of a fluorescence imaging system to facilitate green fluorescence observation. A thinned InGaN-based blue LED was used as an excitation light source. Normally, an LED has an emission bandwidth that is too broad for fluorescence imaging. In the proposed device, in addition to the interference filter, absorption layers are added in order to remove the unwanted light emission component by using a different strategy. The interference filter used was obtained by transferring a long-pass filter formed on a quartz glass filter image onto a fiber optic plate (FOP) with a low numerical aperture (NA) by the laser lift-off (LLO) method. The interference filter showed sufficiently high performance as an excitation filter even after it was transferred to the light source. The absorption layers composed of a low-NA FOP and a blue absorption layer are used to remove unwanted components. Light rays with a high incident angle, leak through the interference filter when the absorption layers are not present. On the other hand, the unwanted components in the emission bandwidth were successfully reduced in the proposed structure.
Acute Sleep Loss Upregulates the Synaptic Scaffolding Protein, Homer1a, in Non-canonical Sleep/Wake Brain Regions, Claustrum, Piriform and Cingulate Cortices

Homer proteins are a component of the post-synaptic density of neurons that are necessary for the maintenance and consolidation of behavioral state. The dominant negative protein homer1a is rapidly increased by neuronal activity and sleep loss. Homer1a knockout mice with globally absent homer1a have reduced ability to sustain wakefulness during the active period. It is not known whether homer1a is required globally or in very specific brain regions or neurons for its role in maintaining wake. In this study, we examined the expression of homer1a, an immediate early gene involved in intracellular signaling cascades, in mice subjected to extended wakefulness. We found that mice displayed increased expression of homer1a in the claustrum, a brain region thought to be involved in consciousness, as well as the cingulate and piriform cortices compared to non-sleep deprived mice. In situ hybridization (ISH) studies also indicate that homer1a is not induced in the known wake promoting regions with sleep deprivation, but is instead upregulated primarily in the claustrum and piriform cortex. Examination of homer1a expression levels with recovery sleep after sleep deprivation indicate that baseline homer1a expression levels were restored. Further, we have identified that homer1a is upregulated in excitatory neurons of the claustrum suggesting that homer1a promotes wakefulness through activating excitatory neurons. This work identifies regions previously unknown to be involved in sleep regulation that respond to acute sleep deprivation or enhanced waking.
ProximiTEE: Hardened SGX Attestation by Proximity Verification

Intel SGX enables protected enclaves on untrusted computing platforms. An important part of SGX is its remote attestation mechanism that allows a remote verifier to check that the expected enclave was correctly initialized before provisioning secrets to it. However, SGX attestation is vulnerable to relay attacks where the attacker, using malicious software on the target platform, redirects the attestation and therefore the provisioning of confidential data to a platform that he physically controls. Although relay attacks have been known for a long time, their consequences have not been carefully examined. In this paper, we analyze relay attacks and show that redirection increases the adversary's abilities to compromise the enclave in several ways, enabling for instance physical and digital side-channel attacks that would not be otherwise possible. We propose ProximiTEE, a novel solution to prevent relay attacks. Our solution is based on a trusted embedded device that is attached to the target platform. Our device verifies the proximity of the attested enclave, thus allowing attestation to the intended enclave regardless of malicious software, such as a compromised OS, on the target platform. The device also performs periodic proximity verification which enables secure enclave revocation by detaching the device. Although proximity verification has been proposed as a defense against relay attacks before, this paper is the first to experimentally demonstrate that it can be secure and reliable for TEEs like SGX. Additionally, we consider a stronger adversary that has obtained leaked SGX attestation keys and emulates an enclave on the target platform. To address such emulation attacks, we propose a second solution where the target platform is securely initialized by booting it from the attached embedded device.
Analyzing the consistency in within-activity learning patterns in blended learning

Performance and consistency play a large role in learning. This study analyzes the relation between consistency in students' online work habits and academic performance in a blended course. We utilize the data from logs recorded by a learning management system (LMS) in two information technology courses. The two courses required the completion of monthly asynchronous online discussion tasks and weekly assignments, respectively. We measure consistency by using Data Time Warping (DTW) distance for two successive tasks (assignments or discussions), as an appropriate measure to assess similarity of time series, over 11-day timeline starting 10 days before and up to the submission deadline. We found meaningful clusters of students exhibiting similar behavior and we use these to identify three distinct consistency patterns: highly consistent, incrementally consistent, and inconsistent users. We also found evidence of significant associations between these patterns and learner's academic performance.
ANP32B Deficiency Protects Mice From Lethal Influenza A Virus Challenge by Dampening the Host Immune Response

Deciphering complex virus-host interactions is crucial for pandemic preparedness. In this study, we assessed the impact of recently postulated cellular factors ANP32A and ANP32B of influenza A virus (IAV) species specificity on viral pathogenesis in a genetically modified mouse model. Infection of ANP32A−/− and ANP32A+/+ mice with a seasonal H3N2 IAV or a highly pathogenic H5N1 human isolate did not result in any significant differences in virus tropism, innate immune response or disease outcome. However, infection of ANP32B−/− mice with H3N2 or H5N1 IAV revealed significantly reduced virus loads, inflammatory cytokine response and reduced pathogenicity compared to ANP32B+/+ mice. Genome-wide transcriptome analyses in ANP32B+/+ and ANP32B−/− mice further uncovered novel immune-regulatory pathways that correlate with reduced pathogenicity in the absence of ANP32B. These data show that ANP32B but not ANP32A promotes IAV pathogenesis in mice. Moreover, ANP32B might possess a yet unknown immune-modulatory function during IAV infection. Targeting ANP32B or its regulated pathways might therefore pose a new strategy to combat severe influenza.
The Association Between Vitamin D Values and Psoriasis: A Literature Review

Abstract The Vitamin D deficiency could be involved in the development of psoriasis, Vitamin D defficiency being considerd to be involved in the development of disorders related to cellular immune system. The aim of this study is to review the literature in order to find if there is an association between the Vitamin D level in the serum and psoriasis. A search for relevant articles was performed using PubMed, Web of Science and Springer databases. A total of 19 articles fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in this review. 14 studies revealed statistically significant lower levels of Vitamin D in psoriatic patients when compared to healthy controls. The other 5 studies did not found a statistically significant difference between 25-hydroxycholecalciferol levels in psoriasis group and in control group.
Durable Transactional Memory Can Scale with Timestone

Non-volatile main memory (NVMM) technologies promise byte addressability and near-DRAM access that allows developers to build persistent applications with common load and store instructions. However, it is difficult to realize these promises because NVMM software should also provide crash consistency while providing high performance, and scalability. Durable transactional memory (DTM) systems address these challenges. However, none of them scale beyond 16 cores. The poor scalability either stems from the underlying STM layer or from employing limited write parallelism (single writer or dual version). In addition, other fundamental issues with guaranteeing crash consistency are high write amplification and memory footprint in existing approaches. To address these challenges, we propose TimeStone: a highly scalable DTM system with low write amplification and minimal memory footprint. TimeStone uses a novel multi-layered hybrid logging technique, called TOC logging, to guarantee crash consistency. Also, TimeStone further relies on Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) mechanism to achieve high scalability and to support different isolation levels on the same data set. Our evaluation of TimeStone against the state-of-the-art DTM systems shows that it significantly outperforms other systems for a wide range of workloads with varying data-set size and contention levels, up to 112 hardware threads. In addition, with our TOC logging, TimeStone achieves a write amplification of less than 1, while existing DTM systems suffer from 2×-6× overhead.
A Tauberian theorem for the statistical generalized Nörlund-Euler summability method

Abstract Let (pn) and (qn) be any two non-negative real sequences with Rn:=∑k=0npkqn-k≠0 (n∈𝕅) {{\rm{R}}_{\rm{n}}}: = \sum\limits_{{\rm{k}} = 0}^{\rm{n}} {{{\rm{p}}_{\rm{k}}}{{\rm{q}}_{{\rm{n}} - {\rm{k}}}}} \ne 0\,\,\,\,\left( {{\rm{n}} \in {\rm\mathbb{N}}} \right) With En1 {\rm{E}}_{\rm{n}}^1 − we will denote the Euler summability method. Let (xn) be a sequence of real or complex numbers and set Np,qnEn1:=1Rn∑k=0npkqn-k12k∑v=0k(vk)xv {\rm{N}}_{{\rm{p}},{\rm{q}}}^{\rm{n}}{\rm{E}}_{\rm{n}}^1: = {1 \over {{{\rm{R}}_{\rm{n}}}}}\sum\limits_{{\rm{k}} = 0}^{\rm{n}} {{{\rm{p}}_{\rm{k}}}{{\rm{q}}_{{\rm{n - k}}}}{1 \over {{2^{\rm{k}}}}}\sum\limits_{{\rm{v}} = 0}^{\rm{k}} {\left( {_{\rm{v}}^{\rm{k}}} \right){{\rm{x}}_{\rm{v}}}} } for n ∈ ℕ. In this paper, we present necessary and sufficient conditions under which the existence of the st− limit of (xn) follows from that of st-Np,qnE n1 {\rm{st - N}}_{{\rm{p}},q}^{\rm{n}}{\rm{E}}_{\rm{n}}^1 − limit of (xn). These conditions are one-sided or two-sided if (xn) is a sequence of real or complex numbers, respectively.
Predicting disease recurrence in stage II colon cancer: expression signatures and other biomarkers

Colorectal carcinoma is the second most common cancer in females and the third most common in males, with an estimated 1.4 million cases and 693,900 cancer-related deaths in the year 2012 (1). The incidence of colorectal cancer is highest in developed, industrialized countries, with a generally higher incidence for men than women in most countries. Prediction of prognosis and treatment decisions in this disease entity rely strongly on the tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) classification for malignant tumors (UICC/AJCC), arguably the most well-established classification system worldwide (2).
Importance of Horizontally Loaded Movements to Sports Performance

ABSTRACT THE USE OF VERTICALLY LOADED EXERCISES, SUCH AS THE BACK SQUAT, DEADLIFT, AND OLYMPIC-STYLE LIFTS, ARE COMMONLY PRESCRIBED BY STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING PROFESSIONALS TO ENHANCE THE PHYSICAL QUALITIES OF ATHLETES. THESE METHODS HAVE BEEN SUPPORTED AS EFFECTIVE MEANS, MAINLY FOR NOVICE SUBJECTS, BUT THEIR EFFECTIVENESS AND TRANSFER HAS BEEN QUESTIONED IN MORE ADVANCED ATHLETES AND IN TRANSFER TO SPECIFIC PHYSICAL QUALITIES. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VERTICALLY LOADED EXERCISE TO ENHANCE SPRINTING SPEED AND CHANGE OF DIRECTION (COD) SPEED IS EQUIVOCAL IN ADVANCED ATHLETES, AND THE USE OF HORIZONTALLY LOADED MOVEMENT MAY HAVE BETTER TRANSFER FOR SPRINTING SPEED AND COD SPEED.
Learning analytics challenges: trade-offs, methodology, scalability

Ryan Baker presented in a LAK 2019 keynote a list of six grand challenges for learning analytics research. The challenges are specified as problems with clearly defined success criteria. Education is, however, a domain full of ill-defined problems. I argue that learning analytics research should reflect this nature of the education domain and focus on less clearly defined, but practically essential issues. As an illustration, I discuss three important challenges of this type: addressing inherent trade-offs in learning environments, the clarification of methodological issues, and the scalability of system development.
Photonic crystal based control of directionality in GaN based LEDs

LED surface structuring has been widely used to increase light extraction[1]. Due to the high refractive index of the thick GaN epitaxy layers, most emitted light becomes trapped and reabsorbed by the epitaxial layers. While random structuring can effectively scatter trapped light out of the LED, it gives little control over the resulting beam-shapef[2]. Photonic crystals however provide a means to simultaneously improve light extraction efficiency and control beam directionality. Furthermore, P-side up LEDs normally utilize a transparent top contact layer in order to allow top light emission whilst maintaining good electrical properties. In this paper we investigate a novel photonic crystal LED configuration with a nontransparent metal top contact layer, and cylindrical holes etched through the top contact layer and deep into the underlying epitaxy. In this novel configuration light emission is only possible from the etched holes giving rise to extreme beam steering effects. We utilize broadband spectroscopic reflectometry to experimentally investigate beam shape and optical properties from fabricated devices. We observe a range of achievable beam patterns with extreme deviations from the normal Lambertian. We investigate the effect of square and triangular photonic crystal lattices on beam directionality.
In vitro Activity of Apramycin Against Carbapenem-Resistant and Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates

Objective The emergence of carbapenem-resistant and hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-hvKp) strains poses a significant public threat, and effective antimicrobial therapy is urgently needed. Recent studies indicated that apramycin is a potent antibiotic with good activity against a range of multi-drug resistant pathogens. In this study, we evaluated the in vitro activity of apramycin against clinical CR-hvKp along with carbapenem-resistant non-hvKp (CR-non-hvKp) isolates. Methods Broth microdilution method was used to evaluate the in vitro activities of apramycin, gentamicin, amikacin, imipenem, meropenem, doripenem, ertapenem and other comparator “last-resort” antimicrobial agents, including ceftazidime-avibactam, colistin and tigecycline, against eighty-four CR-hvKp and forty CR-non-hvKp isolates collected from three Chinese hospitals. Multilocus Sequence typing (MLST), molecular capsule typing (wzi sequencing) and antimicrobial resistance genes were examined by PCR and Sanger sequencing. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and next generation sequencing were conducted on selected isolates. Results Among the 84 CR-hvKp isolates, 97.6, 100, 97.6, and 100% were resistant to imipenem, meropenem, doripenem and ertapenem, respectively. Apramycin demonstrated an MIC50/MIC90 of 4/8 μg/mL against the CR-hvKp isolates. In contrast, the MIC50/MIC90 for amikacin and gentamicin were >64/>64 μg/mL. All CR-hvKp isolates were susceptible to ceftazidime-avibactam, colistin and tigecycline with the MIC50/MIC90 values of 0.5/1, 0.25/0.5, 1/1, respectively. For CR-non-hvKp, The MIC50/90 values for apramycin, gentamicin and amikacin were 2/8, >64/>64, and >64/>64 μg/mL, respectively. There were no statistical significance in the resistance rates of antimicrobial agents between CR-hvKp and CR-non-hvKp groups (p > 0.05). Genetic analysis revealed that all CR-hvKp isolates harbored blaKPC–2, and 94% (n = 79) belong to the ST11 high-risk clone. 93.6% (44/47) of amikacin or gentamicin resistant strains carried 16S rRNA methyltransferases gene rmtB. Conclusion Apramycin demonstrated potent in vitro activity against CR-hvKp isolates, including those were resistant to amikacin or gentamicin. Further studies are needed to evaluate the applicability of apramycin to be used as a therapeutic antibiotic against CR-hvKp infections.