Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Securing RTP Packets Using Per‐Packet Key Exchange for Real‐Time Multimedia

For secure multimedia communications, existing encryption techniques use an online session key for the key exchange, for which key size is limited to less than 10 digits to accommodate the latency condition caused by user devices only being able to handle low computational loads. This condition results in poor security of recorded encrypted data. In this letter, we propose a packet key scheme that encrypts real‐time packets using a different key per packet for multimedia applications. Therefore, a key of a relatively small size can provide after‐transmission confidentiality to data of a real‐time session.
Heat Shock Transcriptional Responses in an MC-Producing Cyanobacterium (Planktothrix agardhii) and Its MC-Deficient Mutant under High Light Conditions

Microcystins (MCs) are the most commonly-reported hepatotoxins produced by various cyanobacterial taxa in fresh waters to constitute a potential threat to human and animal health. The biological role of MCs in the producer organisms is not known, and it would be very useful to understand the driving force behind the toxin production. Recent studies have suggested that MCs may have a protective function in cells facing environmental stress. Following this starting premise, we speculate that under adverse conditions the expression of stress-related genes coding for Heat Shock Proteins (Hsp) might be different in an MC-producing strain and its MC-deficient mutant. We therefore used RT-qPCR to compare the expression of 13 hsp genes of an MC-producing strain of Planktothrix agardhii (CYA126/8) and its MC-deficient ΔmcyD mutant over different periods of exposure to high light stress (HL). Three reference genes (RGs) were selected from six candidates to normalize the RT-qPCR data. Of these three RGs (rsh, rpoD, and gltA), gltA is used here for the first time as an RG in prokaryotes. Under HL stress, five genes were found to be strongly up-regulated in both strains (htpG, dnaK, hspA, groES, and groEL). Unexpectedly, we found that the MC-producing wild type strain accumulated higher levels of htpG and dnaK transcripts in response to HL stress than the MC-deficient mutant. In addition, a significant increase in the mcyE transcript was detected in the mutant, suggesting that MCs are required under HL conditions. We discuss several possible roles of MCs in the response to HL stress through their possible involvement in the protective mechanisms of the cells.
Towards rich multimodal behavior in spoken dialogues with embodied agents

Spoken dialogue frameworks have traditionally been designed to handle a single stream of data - the speech signal. Research on human-human communication has been providing large evidence and quantifying the effects and the importance of a multitude of other multimodal nonverbal signals that people use in their communication, that shape and regulate their interaction. Driven by findings from multimodal human spoken interaction, and the advancements of capture devices and robotics and animation technologies, new possibilities are rising for the development of multimodal human-machine interaction that is more affective, social, and engaging. In such face-to-face interaction scenarios, dialogue systems can have a large set of signals at their disposal to infer context and enhance and regulate the interaction through the generation of verbal and nonverbal facial signals. This paper summarizes several design decision, and experiments that we have followed in attempts to build rich and fluent multimodal interactive systems using a newly developed hybrid robotic head called Furhat, and discuss issues and challenges that this effort is facing.
Mediating exposure in public interactions

Mobile computing and public interactions together open up a new range of challenges in interaction design. To date a very gregarious model of interaction has been assumed. However, the public setting will invoke feelings of shyness and a desire to control the personal exposure associated with interactions. In this paper we discuss these issues and our initial tests of a system which affords a control beyond "engage or don't engage".
A power electronic transformer (PET) with multiport bidirectional resonant DC-DC converters for electric traction applications

A novel power electronic transformer (PET) topology with multiport bidirectional resonant DC-DC converters is proposed where several medium-frequency multi-winding transformers is applied to realize the isolation. The topology is with high power density as well as high efficiency, which is a appropriate solution for electric tracton application like locomotives and high speed EMU trains. The power balancing could be realized by common flux linkage of the transformer, so that the load of the PET ports can be different from each other. Three control strategies of the multiport bidirectional LLC resonant DC-DC converters are proposed for either independent and paralleled secondary DC links with small LC parameter difference. Simulation and experimental results are given to validate the proposed topology and control strategies.
A Study of Translation Rule Classification for Syntax-based Statistical Machine Translation

Recently, numerous statistical machine translation models which can utilize various kinds of translation rules are proposed. In these models, not only the conventional syntactic rules but also the non-syntactic rules can be applied. Even the pure phrase rules are includes in some of these models. Although the better performances are reported over the conventional phrase model and syntax model, the mixture of diversified rules still leaves much room for study. In this paper, we present a refined rule classification system. Based on this classification system, the rules are classified according to different standards, such as lexicalization level and generalization. Especially, we refresh the concepts of the structure reordering rules and the discontiguous phrase rules. This novel classification system may supports the SMT research community with some helpful references.
Effective Active Learning Strategies for the Use of Large-Margin Classifiers in Semantic Annotation: An Optimal Parameter Discovery Perspective

Classical supervised machine learning techniques have been explored for semantically annotating unstructured textual data such as consumers' comments archived at social media websites to extract business intelligence. However, these techniques often require a large number of manually labeled training examples to produce accurate annotations. Several active learning approaches that are designed based on probabilistic sequence models have been explored to minimize the number of labeled training examples for semantic annotation tasks. Recent research has shown that large-margin classifiers are viable alternatives to automated semantic annotation, given their strong generalization capabilities and the ability to process high-dimensional data. However, the existing active learning methods that are designed for probabilistic sequence models cannot be easily adapted and applied to large-margin classifiers. The main contribution of this paper is the development of novel active learning methods for large-margin cl.
Reversal of motor impairments in parkinsonian rats by continuous intrastriatal delivery of l-dopa using rAAV-mediated gene transfer

Intrastriatal delivery of the tyrosine hydroxylase gene by viral vectors is being explored as a tool for local delivery of l-dopa in animals with lesions of the nigrostriatal pathway. The functional effects reported using this approach have been disappointing, probably because the striatal l-dopa levels attained have been too low. In the present study, we have defined a critical threshold level of l-dopa, 1.5 pmol/mg of tissue, that has to be reached to induce any significant functional effects. Using new generation high-titer recombinant adeno-associated virus vectors, we show that levels of striatal l-dopa production exceeding this threshold can be obtained provided that tyrosine hydroxylase is coexpressed with the cofactor synthetic enzyme, GTP-cyclohydrolase-1. After striatal transduction with this combination of vectors, substantial functional improvement in both drug-induced and spontaneous behavior was observed in rats with either complete or partial 6hydroxydopamine lesions of the nigrostriatal pathway. However, complete reversal of motor deficits occurred only in animals in which part of the striatal dopamine innervation was left intact. Spared nigrostriatal fibers thus may convert l-dopa to dopamine and store and release dopamine in a more physiologically relevant manner in the denervated striatum to mediate better striatal output-dependent motor function. We conclude that intrastriatal l-dopa delivery may be a viable strategy for treatment and control of adverse side effects associated with oral l-dopa therapy such as on-off fluctuations and drug-induced dyskinesias in patients with Parkinson's disease.
Layered Separators for Queue Layouts, 3D Graph Drawing and Nonrepetitive Coloring

Graph separators are a ubiquitous tool in graph theory and computer science. However, in some applications, their usefulness is limited by the fact that the separator can be as large as Ω(√n) in graphs with n vertices. This is the case for planar graphs, and more generally, for proper minor-closed families. We study a special type of graph separator, called a layered separator, which may have linear size in n, but has bounded size with respect to a different measure, called the breadth. We prove that a wide class of graphs admit layered separators of bounded breadth, including graphs of bounded Euler genus. We use layered separators to prove Õ(log n) bounds for a number of problems where O(√n) was a long standing previous best bound. This includes the nonrepetitive chromatic number and queue-number of graphs with bounded Euler genus. We extend these results to all proper minor-closed families, with a O(log n) bound on the nonrepetitive chromatic number, and a logO(1)n bound on the queue-number. Only for planar graphs were logO(1)n bounds previously known. Our results imply that every graph from a proper minor-closed class has a 3-dimensional grid drawing with n logO(1)n volume, whereas the previous best bound was O(n3/2). Readers interested in the full details should consult arXiv:1302.0304 and arXiv:1306.1595, rather than the current extended abstract.
Secure Computation Under Network and Physical Attacks

Secure computation enables many parties to jointly compute a function of their private inputs. The security requirement is that the input privacy of any honest party is preserved even if other parties participating in the protocol collude or deviate from the protocol. In concurrent and physical attacks, adversarial parties try to break the privacy of honest parties by exploiting the network connection or physical weaknesses of the honest parties’ machine. This article provides an overview of the results for achieving secure computation in presence of concurrent and physical attacks contained in the phD thesis:”Secure Computation under concurrent and physical attacks", with emphasis to the relation of such results with the state of the art.
Data Warehouse Configuration

In the data warehousing approach to the integration of data from multiple information sources, selected information is extracted in advance and stored in a repository. A data warehouse (DW) can therefore be seen as a set of materialized views defined over the sources. When a query is posed, it is evaluated locally, using the materialized views, without accessing the original information sources. The applications using DWs require high query performance. This requirement is in conflict with the need to maintain in the DW updated information. The DW configuration problem is the problem of selecting a set of views to materialize in the DW that answers all the queries of interest while minimizing the total query evaluation and view maintenance cost. In this paper we provide a theoretical framework for this problem in terms of the relational model. We develop a method for dealing with it by formulating it as a state space optimization problem and then solving it using an exhaustive incremental algorithm as well as a *Research supported by the European Commission under the ESPRIT Program LTR project No 22469 “DWQ: Foundations of Data Warehouse Quality” Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the VLDB copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Very Large Data Base Endowment. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or special permission from the Endowment. Proceedings of the 23rd VLDB Conference Athens, Greece, 1997 heuristic one. We extend this method by considering the case where auxiliary views are stored in the DW solely for reducing the view maintenance cost.
Human leukocyte antigen-G polymorphism influences the age of onset and autoantibody status in rheumatoid arthritis.

The study was conducted to investigate the frequency of three gene polymorphisms in the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of human leucocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) gene in south Indian patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and analyze their influence on disease susceptibility, phenotype and treatment response. HLA-G 14 bp insertion (Ins)/deletion (del) (rs66554220), HLA-G +3142G>C (rs1063320) and +3187A>G (rs9380142) polymorphism was analyzed in 221 RA patients and 200 healthy controls. Frequency of HLA-G genotypes or alleles did not differ between patients and controls. Analysis based on rheumatoid factor (RF) status revealed that the frequency of allele 'A' (rs9380142) was significantly higher in RF-positive than in RF-negative patients [84% vs 74%, Yates-corrected P value (Pc) = 0.04, odds ratio (OR) = 1.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.0-3.2]. A similar difference was maintained in RF-positive female patients than their RF-negative counterparts (83% vs 71%, Pc = 0.02, OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.0 to 3.4) and between RF-positive and RF-negative young onset RA (YORA) patients (84% vs 73%, Pc = 0.03, OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.0-3.2), suggesting that rs9380142 polymorphism influenced RF status. The 14 bp Ins allele of rs66554220 was significantly more prevalent in RF-positive YORA than in RF-positive late onset RA (LORA) patients (51% vs 25%, P = 0.03, OR = 3.1, 95% CI = 1.1-9.8). Frequency of the four major haplotypes [InsGA (48%), DelGA (22%), DelCG (18%), DelCA (9.7%)] observed did not differ between cases and controls. HLA-G does not appear to be a risk factor for development of RA in south Indian Tamils but may act as a genetic modifier of clinical phenotype in terms of autoantibody production, gender preference and age at disease onset.
The mechanisms of energy crisis in human astrocytes after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

BACKGROUND Calcium (Ca2+) is a cofactor of multiple cellular processes. The mechanisms that lead to elevated cytosolic Ca2+ concentration are unclear. OBJECTIVE To illuminate how bloody cerebrospinal fluid (bCSF) from patients with intraventricular hemorrhage causes cell death of cultured human astrocytes. METHODS Cultured astrocytes were incubated with bCSF. In control experiments, native CSF was used. Cytosolic Ca2+ concentration was measured by fura-2 fluorescence. Apoptosis and necrosis were evaluated by staining with Hoechst-3342 and propidium iodide. RESULTS Incubation of astrocytes with bCSF provoked a steep Ca2+ concentration peak that was followed by a slow Ca2+ rise during the observation period of 50 minutes. Necrosis, but not apoptosis, was induced. Blockade of ATP-sensitive P2 receptors with suramin inhibited the bCSF-induced initial Ca2+ peak and necrosis. Blockade of P1 receptors with 8-phenyltheophylline or of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors with D(-)-2-amino-5-phosphopentanoic acid had no significant effect. Preincubation with xestospongin D, a blocker of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors, prevented the initial Ca2+ rise and reduced the rate of necrosis. Preemptying of the endoplasmic reticulum with thapsigargin protected astrocytes from the bCSF-induced Ca2+ peak. Inhibition of mitochondrial permeability transition pores opening with cyclosporin A reduced the rate of astrocytic necrosis significantly, although it did not influence the initial Ca peak. CONCLUSION bCSF elicits a steep, transient Ca rise when administered to human astrocytes by activation of ATP-sensitive P2 receptors and subsequent inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate-dependent Ca release from endoplasmic reticulum. This massive Ca overload leads to subsequent mitochondrial permeability transition pores opening and necrosis of the cells.
Wavefront and nanostructure characterisation with X-ray ptychography

X-ray ptychography is a scanning diffraction microscopy technique suited for the phase-sensitive investigation of wavefronts and specimens. It returns complex-valued wave functions and transmission functions producing high-resolution (nanoscale) phasecontrast images. This work focuses on the implementation and application of X-ray ptychography in the context of synchrotron radiation facilities. It presents an experimental protocol developed for multiscale X-ray imaging and tested at the I13-1 Coherence Branchline at Diamond Light Source. This protocol combines both near-field and far-field ptychography with other imaging methods, providing a flexible way of conducting experiments on hierarchical structures at any high-brilliance X-ray facility. This work also reports ptychography experiments performed at free-electron lasers, aimed at characterising their pulsed beam. Both the average and individual wavefronts are retrieved through a novel application of a reconstruction algorithm based on singularvalue decomposition, giving direct insight on pulse-to-pulse fluctuations and confirming ptychography as a powerful beam diagnostics technique. Additional ptychography experiments are also discussed, which were carried out at storage rings on flat, weakly-scattering biogenic samples to characterise their 3D nanostructures. Their data analysis pipeline is presented in detail, from data acquisition to rendered volumes. Furthermore, one of these last experiments constitutes the first successful 3D ptychography experiment run on real-life samples at the I13-1 Coherence Branchline at Diamond Light Source.
High-density mapping of activation through an incomplete isthmus ablation line.

BACKGROUND Activation mechanisms through gaps in ablation lines and resulting electrograms are poorly understood. METHODS AND RESULTS Eight patients (all men; age, 59+/-9 years) were studied during a recurrence of typical atrial flutter (cycle length, 233+/-19 ms) after a previous catheter ablation in the cavotricuspid isthmus. High-density 3-dimensional mapping of the isthmus was performed with the Cordis-Biosense EP Navigation system, and local conduction velocity (CV) was estimated. Maps created with 96+/-19 points revealed 0.8+/-0.3-cm gaps of recovered conduction in the ablation line. A broad wave front entered the lateral isthmus with a CV of 1.8+/-0.7 m/s, halted on the lesion line, and penetrated slowly through the gap with a CV of 0.3+/-0.1 m/s. Activation then curved and returned antidromically to activate the downstream flank of the line with a CV of 1.1+/-0.7 m/s. This front fused downstream of the line with slow transverse activation (CV, 0.4+/-0.3 m/s) parallel to it. The ablation line was demarcated by an incomplete line of convergent double potentials with isoelectric intervals (from 123+/-34 to 62+/-16 ms); each potential corresponded to local activation upstream and downstream of the lesions, while the intervening delay was produced by slow conduction through the gap combined with the progressively longer curved pathway of downstream antidromic activation as a function of distance from the gap. CONCLUSIONS High-density isthmus mapping during recurrent flutter indicates slow conduction through gaps of recovered conduction of varying dimensions in the ablation line followed by a curved front of activation antidromically activating its downstream flank, this detour producing wide double potentials on the line.
Linearization of monolithic LNAs using low-frequency low-impedance input termination

This work investigates the linearization technique based on terminating the LNA input with low impedance at the low frequencies of the second-order mixing terms. This technique is analyzed using the Volterra series and is shown to be very effective in linearizing BJTs but not FETs if the latter are biased in the strong inversion region. Several methods to generate the low-frequency low-impedance input termination are reviewed. A SiGe BiCMOS cellular band CDMA LNA using this linearization technique is described. The LNA achieves +11.7dBm IIP3, 15.7dB gain and 1.4dB NF with a current consumption of only 3.9mA@3V.
Visual contrast and color in rapid learning of novel patterns by chicks

SUMMARY Biological communication signals often combine bright and dark colors, such as yellow and black, but it is unclear why such patterns are effective. The literature on aposematism suggests that high contrast patterns may be easily learnt or innately avoided, whereas studies of sexual signaling refer to their attractiveness or to their cost. Here, in experiments with poultry chicks trained to find food in patterned containers, we confirm that elevated contrast dramatically increases the rate of initial attack on novel stimuli, but this response is labile. The chicks pecked once at a novel unrewarded stimulus and then ignored it for at least 24 h. Such single trial learning has not previously been reported for birds without a positively aversive unconditioned stimulus such as quinine. We then tested and rejected two hypotheses about the function of high contrast patterns: first that the preferential responses are due to novelty, and second that elevated contrast enhances learning about a novel color. More generally, the observations are consistent with the idea that elevated contrast attracts attention, thereby enhancing both initial responses – whether positive or negative – and the rate of learning.
A Transport Layer Approach for Achieving Aggregate Bandwidths on Multi-Homed Mobile Hosts

Abstract Due to the availability of a wide variety of wireless access technologies, a mobile host can potentially have subscriptions and access to more than one wireless network at a given time. In this paper, we consider such a multi-homed mobile host, and address the problem of achieving bandwidth aggregation by striping data across the multiple interfaces of the mobile host. We show that both link layer striping approaches and application layer techniques that stripe data across multiple TCP sockets, do not achieve optimal bandwidth aggregation due to a variety of factors specific to wireless networks. We propose an end-to-end transport layer approach called pTCP that effectively performs bandwidth aggregation on multi-homed mobile hosts. We show through simulations that pTCP achieves the desired goals under a variety of network conditions.