Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
InfoSec Cinema: Using Films for Information Security Teaching

We present InfoSec Cinema, a film-based teaching activity that uses commercial films to teach information security. We analyse ten films to verify their suitability and build a public and editable database of information security events from films. Our findings show that most films embed enough security events to be used as a teaching tool. This could be used to produce information security teaching activities for a very wide range of audiences. Our experience in running two sessions of InfoSec Cinema was positive. Students were able to identify the most relevant events and even designed mitigations to avoid the problems that were depicted during the film. We also learned that the identification of security events greatly depends on the background and personality of the viewer.
An Occlusion-Aware Framework for Real-Time 3D Pose Tracking

Random forest-based methods for 3D temporal tracking over an image sequence have gained increasing prominence in recent years. They do not require object’s texture and only use the raw depth images and previous pose as input, which makes them especially suitable for textureless objects. These methods learn a built-in occlusion handling from predetermined occlusion patterns, which are not always able to model the real case. Besides, the input of random forest is mixed with more and more outliers as the occlusion deepens. In this paper, we propose an occlusion-aware framework capable of real-time and robust 3D pose tracking from RGB-D images. To this end, the proposed framework is anchored in the random forest-based learning strategy, referred to as RFtracker. We aim to enhance its performance from two aspects: integrated local refinement of random forest on one side, and online rendering based occlusion handling on the other. In order to eliminate the inconsistency between learning and prediction of RFtracker, a local refinement step is embedded to guide random forest towards the optimal regression. Furthermore, we present an online rendering-based occlusion handling to improve the robustness against dynamic occlusion. Meanwhile, a lightweight convolutional neural network-based motion-compensated (CMC) module is designed to cope with fast motion and inevitable physical delay caused by imaging frequency and data transmission. Finally, experiments show that our proposed framework can cope better with heavily-occluded scenes than RFtracker and preserve the real-time performance.
Single‐Step Selective Laser Writing of Flexible Photodetectors for Wearable Optoelectronics

The increasing demand for wearable optoelectronics in biomedicine, prosthetics, and soft robotics calls for innovative and transformative technologies that permit facile fabrication of compact and flexible photodetectors with high performance. Herein, by developing a single‐step selective laser writing strategy that can finely tailor material properties through incident photon density control and lead to the formation of hierarchical hybrid nanocomposites, e.g., reduced graphene oxide (rGO)–zinc oxide (ZnO), a highly flexible and all rGO–ZnO hybrid‐based photodetector is successfully constructed. The device features 3D ultraporous hybrid films with high photoresponsivity as the active detection layer, and hybrid nanoflakes with superior electrical conductivity as interdigitated electrodes. Benefitting from enhanced photocarrier generation because of the ultraporous film morphology, efficient separation of electron–hole pairs at rGO–ZnO heterojunctions, and fast electron transport by highly conductive rGO nanosheets, the photodetector exhibits high, linear, and reproducible responsivities to a wide range of ultraviolet (UV) intensities. Furthermore, the excellent mechanical flexibility and robustness enable the photodetector to be conformally attached to skin, thus intimately monitoring the exposure dosage of human body to UV light for skin disease prevention. This study advances the fabrication of flexible optoelectronic devices with reduced complexity, facilitating the integration of wearable optoelectronics and epidermal systems.
Evaluation of different visual method used, to enhance communication skills between dental care providers and speech and hearing impaired patients

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and retentiveness of various communication methods among speech and hearing impaired patients and dental practitioners. Materials and Methods: A group of 33 school participants were selected for this study. An experimental task required the participants to follow routine dental instructions in the form of videotape and photographic charts and answer the questionnaire based on visual instructions. School participants were visited two times at an interval of 1 month. Participants were randomly divided into three groups, each consisting of 11 school participants, irrespective of gender and age. Group 1 received visual instructions without showing video and charts, Group 2 received video instructions, and Group 3 received photographic instructions. The questionnaires were assessed immediately and after 1 month. Results: The study results were assessed in terms of improvement in knowledge concerning communication skills and long-term retention of the instructions for 1 month. ANOVA followed by post hoc Tukey test revealed a significant difference between Group 1 and other groups. However, there was no statistically significant difference between Group 2 and Group 3. The paired t-test revealed that there was a significant difference between the two visits in Group 1. However, there was no significant difference between visit 1 and visit 2 in Group 2 and Group 3. Conclusion: Health-care workers and patients with special needs like hearing-impaired patients should overcome communication barriers that may hinder proper diagnosis and treatment planning.
Further characterization of bovine hepacivirus: Antibody response, course of infection, and host tropism

Bovine hepacivirus (BovHepV) is a recently added member to the growing genus Hepacivirus within the family Flaviviridae. Animal hepaciviruses are rarely characterized so far. Apart from norway rat hepacivirus which represents a promising HCV surrogate model, only equine hepaciviruses have been studied to some extent. BovHepV has been initially identified in bovine samples and was shown to establish persistent infections in cattle. However, consequences of those chronic infections, humoral immune response and the possibility of an extended host spectrum have not been explored so far. Therefore, we here investigated (a) the presence of anti-NS3-antibodies and viral RNA in cattle herds in Germany, (b) the course of infection in cattle, and (c) the host tropism including zoonotic potential of bovine hepaciviruses. Our results show that 19.9% of investigated bovine serum samples had antibodies against BovHepV. In 8.2% of investigated samples, viral RNA was detected. Subsequent genetic analysis revealed a novel genetic cluster of BovHepV variants. For 25 selected cattle in a BovHepV positive herd the presence of viral genomic RNA was monitored over one year in two to three months intervals by RT-PCR in order to discriminate acute versus persistent infection. In persistently infected animals, no serum antibodies were detected. Biochemical analyses could not establish a link between BovHepV infection and liver injury. Apart from a single sample of a pig providing a positive reaction in the antibody test, neither BovHepV-specific antibodies nor viral RNA were detected in porcine, equine or human samples implying a strict host specificity of BovHepV.
Performance of database-derived severe exacerbations and asthma control measures in asthma: responsiveness and predictive utility in a UK primary care database with linked questionnaire data

Background Observational research is essential to evaluate the real-life effectiveness of asthma treatments and can now make use of outcomes derived from electronic medical records. Aim The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of several database outcome measures in asthma. Methods This study identified cohorts of patients with active asthma from a UK primary care database – Optimum Patient Care Research Database – approximately 10% of which was prospectively supplemented with questionnaire data. The “Questionnaire cohort” included patients aged 18–60 years with valid questionnaire data and 1 year of continuous primary care data. Separate “ICS initiation” and “ICS step-up” cohorts included patients aged 5–60 years initiated on inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs), who had 1 year of continuous primary care data before, and after, this index visit. Database measures of asthma symptom control and exacerbations were identified in the Optimum Patient Care Research Database and cross-tabulated with corresponding patient-reported (questionnaire) data. Responsiveness of the database outcomes was analyzed, using McNemar’s and Wilcoxon’s signed rank tests, and Poisson regression was used to estimate the association between database outcomes and future risk of database exacerbations, in the ICS initiation cohort. Results The final study included 2,366 Questionnaire cohort patients and 51,404 ICS initiation patients. Agreement between patient-reported and database-recorded exacerbations was fair (kappa 0.35). Following the initiation of ICS, database risk domain asthma control (based on exacerbations) improved (proportion of patients with uncontrolled asthma decreased from 24.9% to 18.6%; P<0.001) and mean number of database exacerbations decreased from 0.09 to 0.08 per patient per year (P=0.001). However, another measure of asthma control which includes short-acting beta-agonist prescription as part of the definition did not show this improvement. Patients with prior exacerbations had a higher risk of future exacerbation (rate ratio [95% confidence interval], 3.23 [3.03–3.57]). Conclusion Asthma control and exacerbations derived from primary care databases were responsive, with the exception of short-acting beta-agonist prescriptions, and useful for risk prediction.
Algorithm for Real-Time Comparison of Audio Streams for Broadcast Supervision

The paper deals with an efficient method of comparison of audio streams that can be compressed using lossy compression algorithms and, as well, delayed by an unspecified number of samples due to transmission and processing. The algorithm bases on the signal envelope correlation between audio streams. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using different acceleration methods available in modern desktop computers.
Scalable mm-Wave 4-Channel Radar SoC with Vector Modulators and Demodulators for MIMO and Phased Array Applications

This paper describes a scalable 120-GHz multichannel radar system-on-chip in a SiGe BiCMOS technology. The chip includes a 4-channel transceiver (TRX) and folded-dipole antennas with a high radiation efficiency due to the use of the selective localized-backside etching technique. The TRX is equipped with vector modulators as well as demodulators and can be used for analog as well as digital beamforming. Several of these multi-channel TRXs can be cascaded to form a daisy chain and used to build phased array as well as MIMO radar applications. A frequency-division multiplexing MIMO radar system with single-sideband delta-sigma modulation was created using the implemented chip to show its applicability.
Interactive sequences modulate the selection of expressive forms in cross-signing

This study looks at how linguistic conventions arise in the context of face-to-face, real-time interaction. This topic is difﬁcult to study because initial contact events for most languages happened long ago. Two approaches try to tackle this. The ﬁrst is experimental semiotics: putting people in a situation where they need to improvise a new communication system. Studies have considered the relative role of different biases in this process (Tamariz, et al., 2014) such as frequency bias (where the more frequent signs prevail), content bias (where the more icon-ically - motivated, and/or easily - articulated form is selected), and coordination bias (where participants attempt to match each other’s usage). However, these experiments typically involve an artiﬁcial language or a restricted or unfamiliar communication medium which are used by participants who already share a common language and culture. This limits the ecological validity of these experiments, especially relating to face-to-face interaction. Another approach has been to study the emergence of new signed languages which emerge spontaneously from scratch, allowing study formation human languages real life.
Gene therapy in cardiovascular diseases: A review of recent updates

Gene therapy is considered as a promising approach for treating cardiac dysfunction. In this review, we evaluated the clinical trials assessing gene therapy in cardiovascular diseases (CVD) from 2000 to 2017. PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov (only English language) were searched for clinical trials published between January 2000 and May 2017, using the search terms “gene transfer” OR “gene therapy” and “cardiovascular diseases” and related terms. The trials with sample size lower than 10 patients were excluded. Twenty‐six clinical trials on human and animals, including 1543 patients were listed and evaluated. The sample size in 14 trials was lower than 100 patients and in seven trials lower than 20 patients. Eleven trials used plasmid DNA and eight trials used adenovirus, one study used plasmid DNA, adenovirus, and liposome. We detected that gene therapy was a safe approach and improved the symptoms of CVD; however, the effect of gene therapy on the cardiac dysfunction is controversial.
Incremental Learning in Person Re-Identification

Person Re-Identification is still a challenging task in Computer Vision due to a variety of reasons. On the other side, Incremental Learning is still an issue since deep learning models tend to face the problem of over catastrophic forgetting when trained on subsequent tasks. In this paper, we propose a model that can be used for multiple tasks in Person Re-Identification, provide state-of-the-art results on a variety of tasks and still achieve considerable accuracy subsequently. We evaluated our model on two datasets Market 1501 and Duke MTMC. Extensive experiments show that this method can achieve Incremental Learning in Person ReID efficiently as well as for other tasks in computer vision as well.
Reflectance Pulse Oximetry for Blood Oxygen Saturation Measurement from Diverse Locations-A Preliminary Analysis

Blood oxygen saturation level (SpO2) is a clinically accepted vital sign for patient care and diagnostics. Oximeters are widely used by people suffering from asthma, congestive heart failures and pulmonary disorders as part of their routine care. Transmittance and reflectance pulse oximeters play a pivotal role in patient care and clinical decision making. In this paper, we study the feasibility of using reflectance photo plethysmography (PPG) for SpO2 monitoring from various measurement sites on body. A preliminary study was conducted in a clinical setting on 10 subjects with pulmonary disorders. Arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis was used as a reference measure in the study. An SpO2 data acquisition platform was developed, which uses custom-made dual wavelength reflectance SpO2 sensor probes, Nellcor™ transmittance probe for beat to beat SpO2 measurement. The preliminary analysis of beat to beat reflectance PPG signal from finger, forehead, wrist and chest concur well with the reference measurement and gives enough scope to measure SpO2 from various measurement sites like finger, forehead, wrist and chest.
Therapy of Skin, Hair and Nail Fungal Infections

Treatment of superficial fungal infections has come a long way. This has, in part, been through the development and evaluation of new drugs. However, utilising new strategies, such as identifying variation between different species in responsiveness, e.g., in tinea capitis, as well as seeking better ways of ensuring adequate concentrations of drug in the skin or nail, and combining different treatment methods, have played equally important roles in ensuring steady improvements in the results of treatment. Yet there are still areas where we look for improvement, such as better remission and cure rates in fungal nail disease, and the development of effective community treatment programmes to address endemic scalp ringworm.
A Study on Speech Enhancement Using Exponent-Only Floating Point Quantized Neural Network (EOFP-QNN)

Numerous studies have investigated the effectiveness of neural network quantization on pattern classification tasks. The present study, for the first time, investigated the performance of speech enhancement (a regression task in speech processing) using a novel exponent-only floating-point quantized neural network (EOFP-QNN). The proposed EOFP-QNN consists of two stages: mantissa-quantization and exponent-quantization. In the mantissa-quantization stage, EOFP-QNN learns how to quantize the mantissa bits of the model parameters while preserving the regression accuracy in the least mantissa precision. In the exponent-quantization stage, the exponent part of the parameters is further quantized without any additional performance degradation. We evaluated the proposed EOFP quantization technique on two types of neural networks, namely, bidirectional long short-term memory (BLSTM) and fully convolutional neural network (FCN), on a speech enhancement task. Experimental results showed that the model sizes can be significantly reduced (the model sizes of the quantized BLSTM and FCN models were only 18.75% and 21.89%, respectively, compared to those of the original models) while maintaining a satisfactory speech-enhancement performance.
Cysteine residues in mitochondrial intermembrane space proteins: more than just import

The intermembrane space (IMS) is a very small mitochondrial sub‐compartment with critical relevance for many cellular processes. IMS proteins fulfil important functions in transport of proteins, lipids, metabolites and metal ions, in signalling, in metabolism and in defining the mitochondrial ultrastructure. Our understanding of the IMS proteome has become increasingly refined although we still lack information on the identity and function of many of its proteins. One characteristic of many IMS proteins are conserved cysteines. Different post‐translational modifications of these cysteine residues can have critical roles in protein function, localization and/or stability. The close localization to different ROS‐producing enzyme systems, a dedicated machinery for oxidative protein folding, and a unique equipment with antioxidative systems, render the careful balancing of the redox and modification states of the cysteine residues, a major challenge in the IMS. In this review, we discuss different functions of human IMS proteins, the involvement of cysteine residues in these functions, the consequences of cysteine modifications and the consequences of cysteine mutations or defects in the machinery for disulfide bond formation in terms of human health.
The aftermath of a crypto-ransomware attack at a large academic institution

In 2016, a large North American university was subject to a significant crypto-ransomware attack and did not pay the ransom. We conducted a survey with 150 respondents and interviews with 30 affected students, staff, and faculty in the immediate aftermath to understand their experiences during the attack and the recovery process. We provide analysis of the technological, productivity, and personal and social impact of ransomware attacks, including previously unaccounted secondary costs. We suggest strategies for comprehensive cyber-response plans that include human factors, and highlight the importance of communication. We conclude with a Ransomware Process for Organizations diagram summarizing the additional contributing factors beyond those relevant to individual infections.
Energy Efficient Power Allocation for Carrier Aggregation in Heterogeneous Networks: Partial Feedback and Circuit Power Consumption

The energy-efficient power allocation for carrier aggregation (CA) in heterogeneous networks (HetNets) is studied in this paper. We assume that multiple component carriers belong to HetNets and, thus, inter-band CA is considered, where both full and partial feedback scenarios are investigated. For the latter, we consider quantized channel state information at the transmitter and the corresponding power allocation policies are derived. Next, we derive energy-efficient optimal power allocation policies by assuming circuit power consumption for the transmitter that account for the multiple radio frequency (RF) chains required to support massive inter-band CA. The resulting algorithms are then used in order to investigate the relation between optimal energy efficiency (EE) and design parameters such as the number of frequency bands, antennas and feedback allocation through controlling the quantized information. A greedy optimization algorithm is also introduced to jointly optimize the aforementioned parameters. By carrying out simulations, it is observed that the achievable EE gains for massive CA in HetNets is further limited by either the number of feedback bits or the increase in RF circuits power consumption.
Eavesdropping of Magnetic Secure Transmission Signals and Its Security Implications for a Mobile Payment Protocol

Magnetic secure transmission (MST) is a technology that emulates the action of swiping a magstripe card in a card reader in that it artificially generates the magnetic signal produced when a card is swiped. MST provides extremely high backward compatibility, i.e., mobile payment using an MST device is possible through most conventional magstripe readers. However, MST devices transmit magnetic signals to a remote magstripe card reader. Hence, it is possible to eavesdrop on such signals. We developed a device that can remotely eavesdrop on magnetic signals emitted by MST devices. Thus, we could obtain the one-time payment token contained in such signals at a maximum distance of 2.7 m. We successfully performed a wormhole attack against Samsung Pay, a widely used MST-based mobile payment service, and we were able to execute payment a few kilometers from where the eavesdropped one-time token was actually created.
Characterization of a portable and low cost system for practical dielectric spectroscopy

A portable setup for measurements of complex permittivity based on ad-hoc arrangements is proposed and its performance compared to the ones of a bench system. The measurement setup consists of a portable spectrum analyzer (used as vector network analyzer, VNA) connected to an open-end coaxial cable for S11 acquisition. Scattering parameters were processed using custom Labview software specifically developed to obtain complex permittivity of liquids and soft materials in real-time. A suitable calibration procedure, based on a differential principle, enables accurate measurements. Raw results showed that the portable setup provides noisier traces if compared to the performance of a high precision laboratory VNA. However, accurate permittivity data have been achieved introducing filtering to eliminate signal oscillations and spurious noise without loss of information associated to liquid dielectric relaxations. This procedure, applied to standard liquids (ethanol, ethanediol, 2-propanol) showed good performance in terms of bias and precision. Water solutions, used for cell culturing purposes, both conductive and non-conductive, were also successfully measured. The obtained results are a proof of concept that the proposed procedure is a reliable technique to perform fast, low-cost and on site permittivity measurements, useful for diagnostic or therapeutic applications.