Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust Contrast Enhancement Forensics Using Pixel and Histogram Domain CNNs

Contrast enhancement (CE) forensics has always been ofconcern to image forensics community. It can provide aneffective tool for recovering image history and identifyingtampered images. Although several CE forensic algorithmshave been proposed, their robustness against some processingis still unsatisfactory, such as JPEG compression and anti-forensic attacks. In order to attenuate such deficiency, inthis paper we first present a discriminability analysis of CEforensics in pixel and gray level histogram domains. Then, insuch two domains, two end-to-end methods based on convo-lutional neural networks (P-CNN, H-CNN) are proposed toachieve robust CE forensics against pre-JPEG compressionand anti-forensics attacks. Experimental results show that theproposed methods achieve much better performance than thestate-of-the-art schemes for CE detection in the case of noother operation and comparable performance when pre-JPEGcompression and anti-foresics attacks is used.
Hash Functions and Benchmarks for Resource Constrained Passive Devices: A Preliminary Study

Recently, we have witnessed the emergence of intermittently powered computational devices, an early example is the Intel WISP (Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform). How we engineer basic security services to realize mutual authentication, confidentiality and preserve privacy of information collected, stored and transmitted by, and establish the veracity of measurements taken from, such devices remain an open challenge; especially for batteryless and intermittently powered devices. While the cryptographic community has significantly progressed lightweight (in terms of area overhead) security primitives for low cost and power efficient hardware implementations, lightweight software implementations of security primitives for resource constrained devices are less investigated. Especially, the problem of providing security for intermittently powered computational devices is unexplored. In this paper, we illustrate the unique challenges posed by an emerging class of intermittently powered and energy constrained computational IoT devices for engineering security solutions. We focus on the construction and evaluation of a basic hash primitive—both existing cryptographic hash functions and non-cryptographic hash functions built upon lightweight block ciphers. We provide software implementation benchmarks for eight primitives on a low power and resource limited computational device, and outline an execution model for these primitives under intermittent powering.
Revisiting Anti-tuberculosis Therapeutic Strategies That Target the Peptidoglycan Structure and Synthesis

Tuberculosis (TB), which is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is one of the leading cause of death by an infectious diseases. The biosynthesis of the mycobacterial cell wall (CW) is an area of increasing research significance, as numerous antibiotics used to treat TB target biosynthesis pathways of essential CW components. The main feature of the mycobacterial cell envelope is an intricate structure, the mycolyl-arabinogalactan-peptidoglycan (mAGP) complex responsible for its innate resistance to many commonly used antibiotics and involved in virulence. A hallmark of mAGP is its unusual peptidoglycan (PG) layer, which has subtleties that play a key role in virulence by enabling pathogenic species to survive inside the host and resist antibiotic pressure. This dynamic and essential structure is not a target of currently used therapeutics as Mtb is considered naturally resistant to most β-lactam antibiotics due to a highly active β-lactamase (BlaC) that efficiently hydrolyses many β-lactam drugs to render them ineffective. The emergence of multidrug- and extensive drug-resistant strains to the available antibiotics has become a serious health threat, places an immense burden on health care systems, and poses particular therapeutic challenges. Therefore, it is crucial to explore additional Mtb vulnerabilities that can be used to combat TB. Remodeling PG enzymes that catalyze biosynthesis and recycling of the PG are essential to the viability of Mtb and are therefore attractive targets for novel antibiotics research. This article reviews PG as an alternative antibiotic target for TB treatment, how Mtb has developed resistance to currently available antibiotics directed to PG biosynthesis, and the potential of targeting this essential structure to tackle TB by attacking alternative enzymatic activities involved in Mtb PG modifications and metabolism.
Vagal Nerve Stimulation Attenuates Ischemia-Reperfusion Induced Retina Dysfunction in Acute Ocular Hypertension

Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate whether cervical vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) could prevent retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss and retinal dysfunction after ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Methods: First, rats were randomly divided into sham group (n = 4) and VNS group (n = 12). Activation of the nodose ganglia (NOG), nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), superior salivatory nucleus (SSN), and pterygopalatine ganglion (PPG) neural circuit were evaluated by c-fos expression at 0 h after sham VNS and at 0 h (n = 4), 6 h (n = 4), 72 h (n = 4) after VNS. Secondly, rats were randomly assigned to I/R group (pressure-induced retinal ischemia for 1 h and reperfusion for 1 h in the right eye, n = 16) and I/R+VNS group (right cervical VNS for 2 h during the I/R period, n = 16). The left eye of each rat served as a control. Electroretinogram (ERG), RGC numbers, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) levels in retina were determined. Additionally, the level of VIP in PPG was evaluated. Results: In the first part of the study, compared with the sham group, the VNS group exhibited significantly increased expression of c-fos in NOG, NTS, SSN, and PPG tissues at 0, 6, and 72 h. In the second part of the study, compared with left eyes, retinal function in right eyes (as assessed by the a-wave, b-wave and the oscillatory potential amplitudes of ERG and RGC data) was significantly decreased by I/R. The decreased retinal function was attenuated by VNS. In addition, I/R induced an increase in inflammation, which was reflected by elevated TNF-α expression in the retina. VNS significantly attenuated the increase in I/R-induced inflammation. Moreover, VIP expression in the retina and PPG, which may contribute to the inhibition of the inflammatory response, was significantly increased after VNS. Conclusion: VNS could protect against retinal I/R injury by downregulating TNF-α. Upregulation of VIP expression due to activation of the NOG-NTS-SSN-PPG neural circuit may underlie to the protective effects of VNS.
UAV Data Collection Over NOMA Backscatter Networks: UAV Altitude and Trajectory Optimization

The recent evolution of ambient backscattering technology has the potential to provide long-range and low-power wireless communications. In this work, we study the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted backscatter networks where the UAV acts both as a mobile power transmitter and as an information collector. We aim to maximize the number of successfully decoded bits in the uplink while minimizing the UAV's flight time by optimizing its altitude. Power-domain NOMA scheme is employed in the uplink. An optimization framework is presented to identify the trade-off between numerous network parameters, such as UAV's altitude, number of backscatter devices, and backscatter coefficients. Numerical results show that an optimal altitude is computable for various network setups and that the impact of backscattering reflection coefficients on the maximum network throughput is significant. Based on this optimal altitude, we also show that an optimal trajectory plan is achievable.
ARM2GC: Succinct Garbled Processor for Secure Computation

We present ARM2GC, a novel secure computation framework based on Yao’s Garbled Circuit (GC) protocol and the ARM processor. It allows users to develop privacy-preserving applications using standard high-level programming languages (e.g., C) and compile them using off-the-shelf ARM compilers, e.g., gcc-arm. The main enabler of this framework is the introduction of SkipGate, an algorithm that dynamically omits the communication and encryption cost of a gate when its output is independent of the private data. SkipGate greatly enhances the performance of ARM2GC by omitting costs of the gates associated with the instructions of the compiled binary, which is known by both parties involved in the computation. Our evaluation on benchmark functions demonstrates that ARM2GC outperforms the prior best solution by $156 \times $. CCS CONCEPTS• Security and privacy $\rightarrow $ Privacy-preserving protocols;
Non-Stationary Streaming PCA

We consider the problem of streaming principal component analysis (PCA) when the observations are noisy and generated in a non-stationary environment. Given $T$, $p$-dimensional noisy observations sampled from a non-stationary variant of the spiked covariance model, our goal is to construct the best linear $k$-dimensional subspace of the terminal observations. We study the effect of non-stationarity by establishing a lower bound on the number of samples and the corresponding recovery error obtained by any algorithm. We establish the convergence behaviour of the noisy power method using a novel proof technique which maybe of independent interest. We conclude that the recovery guarantee of the noisy power method matches the fundamental limit, thereby generalizing existing results on streaming PCA to a non-stationary setting.
Modeling and Control of Soft Robots Using the Koopman Operator and Model Predictive Control

Controlling soft robots with precision is a challenge due in large part to the difficulty of constructing models that are amenable to model-based control design techniques. Koopman Operator Theory offers a way to construct explicit linear dynamical models of soft robots and to control them using established model-based linear control methods. This method is data-driven, yet unlike other data-driven models such as neural networks, it yields an explicit control-oriented linear model rather than just a "black-box" input-output mapping. This work describes this Koopman-based system identification method and its application to model predictive controller design. A model and MPC controller of a pneumatic soft robot arm was constructed via the method, and its performance was evaluated over several trajectory following tasks in the real-world. On all of the tasks, the Koopman-based MPC controller outperformed a benchmark MPC controller based on a linear state-space model of the same system.
The Success and Failure of the Schwann Cell Response to Nerve Injury

The remarkable plasticity of Schwann cells allows them to adopt the Remak (non-myelin) and myelin phenotypes, which are specialized to meet the needs of small and large diameter axons, and differ markedly from each other. It also enables Schwann cells initially to mount a strikingly adaptive response to nerve injury and to promote regeneration by converting to a repair-promoting phenotype. These repair cells activate a sequence of supportive functions that engineer myelin clearance, prevent neuronal death, and help axon growth and guidance. Eventually, this response runs out of steam, however, because in the long run the phenotype of repair cells is unstable and their survival is compromised. The re-programming of Remak and myelin cells to repair cells, together with the injury-induced switch of peripheral neurons to a growth mode, gives peripheral nerves their strong regenerative potential. But it remains a challenge to harness this potential and devise effective treatments that maintain the initial repair capacity of peripheral nerves for the extended periods typically required for nerve repair in humans.
A programmer's view of the intel 432 system. mcgraw hill

The architecture study …begins in Chapter 4 where a number of topics related to object structures and object addressing are treated. Chapter 5 introduces the hardware and system software support for interprocess communication. Here the i432 Port Objects and port operations (SEND, RECEIVE, etc.) are introduced and illustrated. Chapter 6 revisits the architectural and Ada-language support for object structure, emphasizing type management and access control. Many features of the supporting operating system, known as iMAX, especially several of its important “user-interfaces,” are introduced beginning with Chapter 5. The importance of input/output peripheral subsystems and their relationship with the central object-based architecture of the i432 system is recognized by treating this topic separately in Chapter 7. This chapter introduces the reader to the architecture of the i432 Interface Processor and its use as a key component in the Peripheral Subsystem Interface for the Intel 432 System. A message-based model for input/output using this interface is also introduced, along with a discussion of abstractions for I/O device interfaces, both asynchronous and synchronous. The topics of process management, memory management, and object filing, which ma y be of primary interest to system developers and architects, are treated in Chapters 8, 9, and 10. Each chapter describes the iMAX implementations of these services and the user interfaces to these facilities. In the case of process management an iMAX provided “template” is described whose use enab les system programmers to implement their own process managers as needed. Chapter 9 describes the extensive memory management facilities of iMAX and the supporting hardware. These include facilities to support the stack and heap memory resources required, for example, by executing Ada programs. In addition, memory management supports an on-the-fly garbage collector, dynamic memory compaction, and, where configured, a virtual memory management subystem. Chapter 10, as already noted, provides a complete introduction to object filing as it is currently planned. —From the Author's Summary
The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit: Expert Methods for Designing, Developing and Deploying Data Warehouses with CD Rom

From the Publisher: In The Data Warehouse Toolkit, Ralph Kimball showed you how to use dimensional modeling to design effective and usable data warehouses. Now, he carries these techniques to the larger issues of delivering complete data marts and data warehouses. Drawing upon their experiences with numerous data warehouse implementations, he and his coauthors show you all the practical details involved in planning, designing, developing, deploying, and growing data warehouses.
First Language Subtitles: Help or Hindrance?.

Two studies investigated what instructional issues may be involved when second-language television recordings with first-language subtitles are used in the second-language classroom. The experiments were conducted in an English-as-a-Second-Language class in advanced listening for native Chinese-speakers. In the first experiment, conducted at mid-term, 14 students watched British mysteries, subtitled in Chinese, and summarized them, transcribed a portion word-for-word, commented on the utility or hindrance of subtitles, and commented on their own listening ability with regard to the program. In the second experiment, conducted as a final project, ten of the students were given recordings of "X-Files" programs in English with Chinese subtitles and asked to perform the same tasks. Results indicate that: (1) most technical and semi-technical vocabulary can be accessed through subtitles; (2) idioms, slang, and culture-specific referents were more difficult to comprehend; and (3) perfect tenses and subjunctive forms, already difficult for the students, were often contracted in conversations and difficult to understand. Students with good listening skills found subtitles slowed their progress, but did benefit from them. Students with lesser listening skills depended more on subtitles. Some found errors in the subtitles. (MSE) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************
Efficient intra-node Communication for Chip Multiprocessors

The microprocessor industry has reached limitations of sequential processing power due to power-efficiency and heat problems. With the integrated-circuit technology moving forward, chip-multithreading has become the trend, increasing parallel processing power. The shift of focus has resulted in the vast majority of supercomputers having chip-multiprocessors. While the high performance computing community has long written parallel applications using libraries such as MPI, the performance-characteristics have changed from the traditional uni-core cluster, to the current generation of multi-core clusters; more communication is between processes on the same node, and processes run on cores sharing hardware resources, such as cache and memory bus. We explore the possibilities of optimizing a widely used MPI implementation, Open MPI, to minimize communication overhead for communication between processes running on a single node. We take three approaches for optimization: First we measure the message-passing latency between the different cores, and reduce latency for large messages by keeping the sender and receiver synchronized. Second, we increase scalability by using two new queue-designs, reducing the number of communication queues that need to be polled to receive messages. Third, we experiment with mapping a parallel application to different cores, using only a single node. The mapping is done dynamically during runtime, with no prior knowledge of the application’s communication pattern. Our results show that for large messages sent between cores sharing cache, message-passing latency can be significantly reduced. Results from running the NAS Parallel Benchmarks using the new queue-designs show that Open MPI can increase its scalability when running more than 64 processes on a single node. Our dynamic mapper performs close to our manual mapping, but rarely increases performance. We see from the experimental results, that the three techniques give performance increase in different scenarios. Combining techniques like these with other techniques, can be a key to unlocking the parallel performance for a broader range of parallel applications.
Evaluation of a Text Entry Method for Mobile Devices

An improved, essentially scrap-free, solid-phase process for making thermoplastic articles directly from resinous powder. The process can be particularly advantageous to forming large parts from thermoplastic resinous powders. The method essentially comprises taking resinous powder, briquetting the powder, sintering the briquette, repressing the powder in a warm state and then shaping the briquette into a preform or a blank which can then be thermoformed into a resulting container or other product, assuming the blank itself is not the desired end product. Alternatively, sintering can take place after repressing with preheating of the briquette prior to the repressing step.
Pattern Usage in an Avionics Mission Processing Product Line

Factory create single objects, or singlerooted trees of related objects. Destruction can then follow the containment tree. In some cases, however, the object dependencies are more complex directed graphs that benefit from direct destruction of intermediary objects which may be project specific and therefore unknown to common facades. In these cases, component configurators were created which control all lifecycle functions and provide necessary object references to the common facade. 4.2. 2 Distributed Configuration The factory solutions described above address component-centric concerns about creation and initialization. Solutions involving the configuration and connections of the system as a whole also evolved. Originally, we leveraged our use of the Layers pattern and instantiated and configured the system layer by layer from the lowest layer (fewest dependencies) to the highest layer with the exception of the Configurator layer at the top, which was the manager of the configuration execution tree. In this way, creation and resolution of direct local dependencies between facades could be accomplished in one pass, specifically calling the facade constructor of each component to be instantiated and creating the necessary connections to components in the same or lower layers. As our architecture evolved to fully address issues of distribution, the need for a much more flexible approach arose. We therefore eliminated the ordering dependencies for configuration by developing a Distributed Configuration pattern. In this solution, component facade creation and component supplier registration with Infrastructure services occur in one pass and consumer registration and consumer local and remote dependencies on other components are resolved in the second pass. This provided the assurance that a remote supplier component existed before attempting to resolve a dependency. As we began to use the Proxy pattern extensively to support clients of distributed components, the Distributed Configuration pattern allowed masters and proxies to be created in the first pass and connected in the second pass. While this approach provided more flexible configuration, its primary motivation was performance. Remote communication is typically orders of magnitude slower than local communication. The multi-pass initialization sequence requires much less remote communication and synchronization between processors. In the ideal case, a single set of instantiated component information from the first pass can be exchanged just prior to the second pass. This greatly increases initialization performance. This approach also provided other benefits. We gained greater flexibility by supporting limited bi-directional dependencies and relationships to higher layer component objects (through interfaces
Slowmation as a Pedagogical Scaffold for Improving Science Teaching and Learning

In this study, two classes of General Science Teaching Method preservice secondary teachers at Monash University (n = 38 in 2007 and n = 34 in 2008) developed Slowmation movies as part of their course work, then introduced Slowmation into the their science classrooms during their school practicum. On returning to university following their practicum these preservice teachers shared the Slowmations created by their students during the practicum, and discussed the impact of introducing this procedure on their students’ learning about science concepts. The classroom presentations and discussions of school students’ Slowmation movies post practicum provided valuable feedback to the preservice teachers about their teaching and their students’ learning. The data illustrated that these preservice teachers became aware of a range of conceptions held by their learners about particular science concepts through their students’ Slowmation movies and in so doing, influenced their understanding of science teaching and learning.
Desempeño de una Red Neuronal Convolucional para Clasificación de Señales de Tránsito

The Deep Learning paradigm has benefited from the data increase of today. Convolutional Neural Networks or CNN’s, are among the most widely used algorithms of this paradigm. In the last five years, CNN's have been leading in pattern recognition applications using images or video because of the advantages they have compared to other techniques; even beating human capacity, Graham [2015]. Traffic signals employed in Mexico are utilized in this article to investigate the training time and classification error (performance) of a CNN. Where the architecture of the network has been fixed with two layers of convolution, and the training and testing are carried out on a CPU.