Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Numerical Schemes for the Solution of the Ice-Thickness Equation in a Dynamic/Thermodynamic Ice-Sheet Model

A general finite-difference marching scheme for the numerical solution of the ice-thickness equation in ice sheets is considered. From this scheme, a variety of explicit, ADI, implicit and over-implicit methods can be derived. These methods are compared for stability and accuracy within the dynamic/thermodynamic ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS for two different problems: (i) a simple axi-symmetric steady-state ice sheet which rests on a flat bedrock, and (ii) the time-dependent paleo-glaciation of the northern hemisphere. As expected, over-implicit methods turn out to be most stable. For the simple problem, all schemes provide a good accuracy, whereas for the northern hemisphere simulations, the accuracy of the over-implicit scheme is not satisfactory, so that the implicit technique without over-weighing appears favorable for this application.
Delegated Private Matching for Compute

Private matching for compute (PMC) establishes a match between two databases owned by mutually distrusted parties ( C and P ) and allows the parties to input more data for the matched records for arbitrary downstream secure computation without rerunning the private matching component. The state-of-the-art PMC protocols only support two parties and assume that both parties can participate in computationally intensive secure computation. We observe that such operational overhead limits the adoption of these protocols to solely powerful entities as small data owners or devices with minimal computing power will not be able to participate. We introduce two protocols to delegate PMC from party P to untrusted cloud servers, called delegates , allowing multiple smaller P parties to provide inputs containing identifiers and associated values. Our Delegated Private Matching for Compute protocols, called DPMC and D S PMC , establish a join between the databases of party C and multiple delegators P based on multiple identifiers and compute secret shares of associated values for the identifiers that the parties have in common. We introduce a novel rerandomizable encrypted oblivious pseudorandom function (OPRF) construction, called EO , which allows two parties to encrypt, mask, and shuffle their data and is secure against semi-honest adversaries. Note that EO may be of independent interest. Our D S PMC protocol limits the leakages of DPMC by combining our novel EO scheme and secure three-party shuffling. Finally, our implementation demonstrates the efficiency of our constructions by outperforming related works by approximately 10 × for the total protocol execution and by at least 20 × for the computation on the delegators.
RMC-PVC: A Multi-Client Reusable Verifiable Computation Protocol

The verification of computations performed by an untrusted server is a cornerstone for delegated computations, especially in multi-clients setting where inputs are provided by different parties. Assuming a common secret between clients, a garbled circuit offers the attractive property to ensure the correctness of a result computed by the untrusted server while keeping the input and the function private. Yet, this verification can be guaranteed only once. Based on the notion of multi-key homomorphic encryption (MKHE), we propose RMC-PVC a multi-client verifiable computation protocol, able to verify the correctness of computations performed by an untrusted server for inputs (encoded for a garbled circuit) provided by multiple clients. Thanks to MKHE, the garbled circuit is reusable an arbitrary number of times. In addition, each client can verify the computation by its own. Compared to a single-key FHE scheme, the MKHE usage in RMC-PVC allows to reduce the workload of the server and thus the response delay for the client. It also enforce the privacy of inputs, which are provided by different clients.
Exploring multi-task learning in the context of two masked AES implementations

This paper investigates diﬀerent ways of applying multi-task learning in the context of two masked AES implementations (via the ASCAD-r and ASCAD-v2 databases). Enabled by multi-task learning, we propose novel architectures that signiﬁcantly increase the consistency and performance of deep neural networks in a context where the attacker can not access the randomness of the countermeasures during proﬁling. Our work provides a wide range of experiments to understand the bene-ﬁts of multi-task strategies against the current single-task state of the art. We show that multi-task learning is signiﬁcantly more performant than single-task models on all our experiments. Furthermore, such strategies achieve novel milestones against protected implementations as we pro-pose a new best attack on ASCAD-r and ASCAD-v2, along with models that defeat for the ﬁrst time all masks of the aﬃne masking on ASCAD-v2.
Complete Knowledge: Preventing Encumbrance of Cryptographic Secrets

—Most cryptographic protocols model a player’s knowledge of secrets in a simple way. Informally, the player knows a secret in the sense that she can directly furnish it as a (private) input to a protocol, e.g., to digitally sign a message. The growing availability of Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and secure multiparty computation, however, undermines this model of knowledge. Such tools can encumber a secret sk and permit a chosen player to access sk conditionally, without actually knowing sk . By permitting selective access to sk by an adversary, encumbrance of secrets can enable vote-selling in cryptographic voting schemes, illegal sale of credentials for online services, and erosion of deniability in anonymous messaging systems. Unfortunately, existing proof-of-knowledge protocols fail to demonstrate that a secret is unencumbered. We therefore introduce and formalize a new notion called complete knowledge (CK). A proof (or argument) of CK shows that a prover does not just know a secret, but also has fully unencumbered knowledge, i.e., unrestricted ability to use the secret. We introduce two practical CK schemes that use special- purpose hardware, speciﬁcally TEEs and off-the-shelf mining ASICs. We prove the security of these schemes and explore their practical deployment with a complete, end-to-end prototype that supports both. We show how CK can address encumbrance attacks identiﬁed in previous work. Finally, we introduce two new applications enabled by CK that involve proving ownership of blockchain assets.
Li abundance in young PMS associations: AB Dor

We present stellar parameters, Li abundances for 21 stars of the young ($\sim$50 Myears) AB Dor association, based on high-resolution spectra obtained with FEROS at the ESO 1.52m telescope, the Coudé Spectrograph at the OPD 1.6m telescope. These results are part of an ongoing project for the determination of stellar parameters, abundances for a large sample of T Tauri, post-T Tauri stars in PMS associations identified on the Search for Associations Containing Young Stars survey. The sample consists of G, K, M stars counterparts of ROSAT bright sources. Since we expect Li depletion for the K, M stars, but small Li depletion for the G stars, we can compare the upper values of Li abundances for these stars with the one of the Galactic disk interstellar mean, at the same time provide constrains for the study of Li depletion on a chemically homogeneous high metallicity sample.
On the continuous limits and integrability of a new coupled semidiscrete mKdV system

In this paper, we aim to get more insight on the relation between semidiscrete coupled mKdV system (where “semidiscrete” means that the system is discrete in the space variable and continuous in time) and the coupled mKdV equations; to this purpose, we propose a new coupled semidiscrete mKdV system. The Lax pairs, the Darboux transformation, soliton solutions and conservation laws for the coupled semidiscrete mKdV system are given. The coupled mKdV theory including the Lax pairs, the Darboux transformation, soliton solutions, and conservation laws is recovered through the continuous limits of corresponding theory for the new semidiscrete mKdV system.
HOS1 promotes plant tolerance to low-energy stress via the SnRK1 protein kinase

Plants need to integrate internal and environmental signals to mount adequate stress responses. The NUCLEAR PORE COMPLEX (NPC) component HIGH EXPRESSION OF OSMOTICALLY RESPONSIVE GENES 1 (HOS1) is emerging as such an integrator, affecting responses to cold, heat, light and salinity. Stress conditions often converge in a low-energy signal that activates SUCROSE NON-FERMENTING 1-RELATED KINASE 1 (SnRK1) to promote stress tolerance and survival. Here, we explored the role of HOS1 in the SnRK1-dependent response to low-energy stress in Arabidopsis thaliana, using darkness as a treatment and a combination of genetic, biochemical and phenotypic assays. We show that the induction of starvation genes and plant tolerance to prolonged darkness are defective in the hos1 mutant. HOS1 interacts physically with the SnRK1α1 catalytic subunit in yeast-two-hybrid and in planta, and the nuclear accumulation of SnRK1α1 is reduced in the hos1 mutant. Likewise, another NPC mutant, nup160, exhibits lower activation of starvation genes and decreased tolerance to prolonged darkness. Importantly, defects in low-energy responses in the hos1 background are rescued by fusing SnRK1α1 to a potent nuclear localization signal, or by sugar supplementation during the dark treatment. Altogether, this work demonstrates the importance of HOS1 for the nuclear accumulation of SnRK1α1, which is key for plant tolerance to low-energy conditions.
Animal influenza in the Caribbean: a systematic review of research and surveillance

Current influenza surveillance and pandemic mitigation strategies, addressing One Health from a global perspective, demand a broader geographic capacity for research and surveillance on animal influenza viruses (IVs). The aim of this work was to characterize the temporal and geographic shape of research and surveillance on animal IVs in the Caribbean region. A retrospective study, based on the PRISMA statement, was conducted to systematically review the peer reviewed articles on animal IVs generated in Caribbean countries from January 1950 to March 2019. References were obtained from PubMed Central and Sciendirect databases, whereas Academic Google and some animal disease databases were used as supplementary data sources. The selection process identified 32 articles or disease reports generated from 2007 to March 2019, which averaged 2.66/year. There was an overall trend of increased numbers of articles over time, although it varied among topics. The diagnosis embodied the majority of studies (14, 43.75 %) and the scattering by species showed a vast predominance of those targeting avian (wild bird and poultry) species with respect to swine and horses. The disease reports were restricted to avian influenza (AIV) in poultry with five notifications submitted by three different countries (Dominican Republic, Haiti and Belize), which were all due to an H5N2 low pathogenic (LP) AIV. This systematic review suggested the need of a further increase in scientific studies on animal influenza generated in the Caribbean based on risk assessment and networking through international collaboration.
A smart IoMT based architecture for E-healthcare patient monitoring system using artificial intelligence algorithms

Generally, cloud computing is integrated with wireless sensor network to enable the monitoring systems and it improves the quality of service. The sensed patient data are monitored with biosensors without considering the patient datatype and this minimizes the work of hospitals and physicians. Wearable sensor devices and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) have changed the health service, resulting in faster monitoring, prediction, diagnosis, and treatment. Nevertheless, there have been difficulties that need to be resolved by the use of AI methods. The primary goal of this study is to introduce an AI-powered, IoMT telemedicine infrastructure for E-healthcare. In this paper, initially the data collection from the patient body is made using the sensed devices and the information are transmitted through the gateway/Wi-Fi and is stored in IoMT cloud repository. The stored information is then acquired, preprocessed to refine the collected data. The features from preprocessed data are extracted by means of high dimensional Linear Discriminant analysis (LDA) and the best optimal features are selected using reconfigured multi-objective cuckoo search algorithm (CSA). The prediction of abnormal/normal data is made by using Hybrid ResNet 18 and GoogleNet classifier (HRGC). The decision is then made whether to send alert to hospitals/healthcare personnel or not. If the expected results are satisfactory, the participant information is saved in the internet for later use. At last, the performance analysis is carried so as to validate the efficiency of proposed mechanism.
Abnormal posterior semicircular canal function may predict poor prognosis in patients with severe and profound ISSNHL

Background Severe and profound idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) generally leads to unfavorable prognosis, and has a considerable impact on patient quality of life. However, related prognostic factors remain controversial. Objective To elaborate the relationship between vestibular function impairment and the prognosis of patients with severe and profound ISSNHL, and investigated the relevant factors affecting prognosis. Methods Forty-nine patients with severe and profound ISSNHL were divided into good outcome group [GO group, pure tone average (PTA) improvement > 30 dB] and poor outcome group (PO group, PTA improvement ≤ 30 dB) according to hearing outcomes. The clinical characteristics and the proportion of abnormal vestibular function tests in these two groups were analyzed by univariate analysis, and multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed for parameters with significant differences. Results Forty-six patients had abnormal vestibular function test results (46/49, 93.88%). The number of vestibular organ injuries was 1.82 ± 1.29 in all patients, with higher mean numbers in PO group (2.22 ± 1.37) than in GO group (1.32 ± 0.99). Univariate analysis revealed no statistical differences between the GO and PO groups in terms of gender, age, side of the affected ear, vestibular symptoms, delayed treatment, instantaneous gain value of horizontal semicircular canal, regression gain value of vertical semicircular canal, abnormal rates of oVEMP, cVEMP, caloric test and vHIT in anterior and horizontal semicircular canal, however, significant differences were found in the initial hearing loss and abnormal vHIT of posterior semicircular canal (PSC). Multivariable analysis revealed that only PSC injury was an independent risk factor for predicting the prognosis of patients with severe and profound ISSNHL. Patients with abnormal PSC function had worse initial hearing impairment and prognosis than patients with normal PSC function. The sensitivity of abnormal PSC function in predicting poor prognosis in patients with severe and profound ISSNHL was 66.67%, specificity was 95.45%, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were 14.65 and 0.35, respectively. Conclusion Abnormal PSC function is an independent risk factor for poor prognosis in patients with severe and profound ISSNHL. Ischemia in the branches of the internal auditory artery supplying the cochlea and PSC may be the underlying mechanism.
Attainment of Zero Emission Targets by Transition Towards sustainable development of value of creative products

Wind, hydropower, solar, and other renewable energy (RE) replace conventional energy sources when the global green and low-carbon transition is broadly considered. Therefore, the current study investigates the core determinants of renewable energy development (RED) in China from 1990 to 2020: carbon emissions efficiency (CEE), green finance (GF), urbanization (URB), openness (Op), and gross domestic product (GDP). However, advanced econometric techniques are used to investigate the desired objectives, such as an interactive fixed effects panel test, threshold panel regression, Pooled Mean Group, and Bootstrap Panel causality test. The research findings shows a negative association of CEE with renewable energy development. According to these findings, which are in line with the optimization method, it seems that RED is doing an outstanding job of reaching carbon neutrality. However, there found an increase in RED via green finance and economic growth over time. Also, a negative relationship exists between urbanization and openness with energy development. In comparison, zero-emission competition is expected to reshape the globe’s demographics.
Detection and quantification of viable but non-culturable Legionella pneumophila from water samples using flow cytometry-cell sorting and quantitative PCR

Legionella pneumophila is a waterborne pathogen and, as the causative agent of Legionnaires’ disease, a significant public health concern. Exposure to environmental stresses, and disinfection treatments, promotes the formation of resistant and potentially infectious viable but non-culturable (VBNC) Legionella. The management of engineered water systems to prevent Legionnaires’ disease is hindered by the presence of VBNC Legionella that cannot be detected using the standard culture (ISO11731:2017-05) and quantitative polymerase reaction (ISO/TS12869:2019) methods. This study describes a novel method to quantify VBNC Legionella from environmental water samples using a “viability based flow cytometry-cell sorting and qPCR” (VFC + qPCR) assay. This protocol was then validated by quantifying the VBNC Legionella genomic load from hospital water samples. The VBNC cells were unable to be cultured on Buffered Charcoal Yeast Extract (BCYE) agar; however, their viability was confirmed through their ATP activity and ability to infect amoeba hosts. Subsequently, an assessment of the ISO11731:2017-05 pre-treatment procedure demonstrated that acid or heat treatment cause underestimation of alive Legionella population. Our results showed that these pre-treatment procedures induce culturable cells to enter a VBNC state. This may explain the observed insensitivity and lack of reproducibility often observed with the Legionella culture method. This study represents the first time that flow cytometry-cell sorting in conjunction with a qPCR assay has been used as a rapid and direct method to quantify VBNC Legionella from environmental sources. This will significantly improve future research evaluating Legionella risk management approaches for the control of Legionnaires’ disease.
Association between vitamin A and asthma: A meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis

Objective: To explore the association between vitamin A (vit A) status and risk of asthma. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and the Cochrane Library were electronically searched to identify related studies that reported the association between vit A status and asthma. All databases were searched from inception to November 2022. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed risk bias of included studies. Meta-analysis was performed on R software Version 4.1. 2 and STATA Version 12.0. Results: A total of 19 observational studies were included. A pooled analysis showed that the serum vit A concentrations in patients with asthma was lower than that in healthy controls (standard mean difference (SMD)= −2.479, 95% confidence interval (CI): −3.719, −. 239, 95% prediction interval (PI): −7.510, 2.552), and relatively higher vit A intake in pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of asthma at age 7 years (risk ratio (RR)= 1.181, 95% CI: 1.048, 1.331). No significant correlation was observed between serum vit A levels or vit A intake and the risk of asthma. Conclusion: Our meta-analysis confirms that serum vit A levels are lower in patients with asthma than in healthy controls. Relatively higher vit A intake during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of asthma at age 7 years. There is no significant correlation between vit A intake and asthma risk in children, nor between serum vit A levels and asthma risk. The effect of vit A may depend on age or developmental stage, diet and genetics. Therefore, further studies are needed to explore the association of vit A and asthma. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd. york.ac. uk/prospero/CRD42022358930, identifier CRD42022358930
Prerequisites for implementing physical activity on prescription for children with obesity in paediatric health care: A cross-sectional survey

Background Physical inactivity is a main driver of childhood obesity that tracks into adulthood, making it crucial to address early in life. Swedish physical activity on prescription (PAP) is an effective intervention for increasing physical activity levels in adults and is being implemented in primary care in Sweden. Before implementing PAP for children, both intervention effectiveness and implementation prerequisites need to be examined. Framed by the Normalization Process Theory (NPT) domains, this study aimed to investigate perceptions of PAP amongst paediatric staff and managers working with children with obesity, as well as acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, and barriers and facilitators for implementing PAP in paediatric health care. Methods Staff and managers in 28 paediatric outpatient clinics in western Sweden were surveyed using validated implementation instruments and open-ended questions. Data were analysed using Mann–Whitney U tests and Kruskal–Wallis tests. Qualitative data were categorised into NPT domains. Results The survey response rate was 54% (125/229). Most respondents (82%) reported PAP to be familiar and many (56%) perceived it as a normal part of work; nurses and physiotherapists to a greater extent (p < 0.001). This was anticipated to increase in the future (82%), especially amongst those with the longest work experience (p = 0.012). Respondents reported seeing the potential value in their work with PAP (77%), being open to working in new ways to use PAP (94%), and having confidence in their colleagues' ability to use PAP (77%). Barriers and facilitators were found in all the NPT domains, mainly collective action and reflexive monitoring, where, for example, inadequacies of education, resources, and research on PAP for children were reported as barriers. Most respondents agreed that PAP was acceptable, appropriate, and feasible (71% to 88%). Conclusions PAP is familiar and perceived as an acceptable, appropriate, and feasible intervention, and by many viewed as a normal part of clinical routines in paediatric outpatient clinics in western Sweden, especially by physiotherapists and nurses. Barriers and faciliators are mainly related to collective action and reflexive monitoring. The wide acceptance demonstrates receptiveness to PAP as an intervention to promote an active lifestyle for children with obesity.
Optical knife-edge technique for nanomechanical displacement detection

We describe an optical knife-edge technique for nanomechanical displacement detection. Here, one carefully focuses a laser spot on a moving edge and monitors the reflected power as the edge is displaced sideways. To demonstrate nanomechanical displacement detection using the knife-edge technique, we have measured in-plane resonances of nanometer scale doubly clamped beams. The obtained displacement sensitivity is in the ∼1pm∕Hz range—in close agreement with a simple analytical model.