Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Privacy-Preserving Linear Regression on Distributed Data by Homomorphic Encryption and Data Masking

Linear regression is a basic method that models the relationship between an outcome value and some explanatory values using a linear function. Traditionally, this method is conducted on a clear dataset provided by one data owner. However, in today’s ever-increasingly digital world, the data for regression analysis are likely distributed among multiple parties and even contain sensitive information about the data owners. In this case, data owners are not willing to share their data unless data privacy is guaranteed. In this paper, we propose a novel protocol for conducting privacy-preserving linear regression (PPLR) on horizontally partitioned data. Our system architecture includes multiple clients and two noncolluding servers. In our protocol, each client submits its data in encrypted form to a server, and two servers collaboratively determine the regression model on pooled data without learning its contents. We construct our protocol with Paillier homomorphic encryption and a new data masking technique. This data masking technique can perturb data by multiplying a rational number while the data are encrypted. Due to the use of the data masking technique, the efficiency of our protocol is greatly improved. We provide an error bound of the protocol and prove it rigorously. We also provide security analysis of the protocol. Finally, we implement our system in C++ and Java, and then we evaluate our protocol using real datasets provided by UCI. The experiments show our protocol is one of the most effective approaches to date and has negligible errors compared with performing linear regression on clear data.
A Rotating Restart Method for Scalar (v/f) Controlled Synchronous Reluctance Machine Drives Using a Single DC-Link Current Sensor

This paper presents a rotating restart method for $v/f$ scalar controlled Synchronous Reluctance Machines (SynRMs) using a single DC-link current sensor. In such a case, the initial rotor position and speed are required to restart the machine due to the absence of a position sensor. The method proposes to inject three active voltage vectors in the stationary reference frame to induce the phase currents required for estimating the rotor position and speed. In addition, the phase current reconstruction method is proposed to reduce the distortion of the measured phase currents caused by adopting a single DC-link current sensor and to consequently enhance the rotor position estimation accuracy. With the proposed method, the appropriate voltage vector can be applied to the machine, thus minimizing the inrush current during the restart. Furthermore, the proposed method only requires the machine parameters on the nameplate, and it does not require any additional machine-specific tuning processes. This paper proposes a simple restart method suitable for scalar-controlled SynRM drives with a single DC-link current sensor. The effectiveness of the proposed restart scheme is validated through the simulation and experimental results.
Cluster-based Random Access Scheme for 5G URLLC

The massive deployment of machine type communication devices (MTCDs) on the 5G wireless network without proper access control will result in congestion and network overload in the front haul. The envisaged deployment is also expected to generate large power consumption due to high signaling which poses a major problem for machine type communication (MTC). The challenge of meeting the latency requirement for one of the usage scenarios in fifth generation (5G) which is ultra-reliable and low-latency communication(URLLC) is compounded during massive access for MTC. To address the massive access needs of MTCDs while considering their different service requirement, we propose a priority-based spatial aggregation algorithm to adequately maintain a balanced trade-off between the power consumed by MTCDs and their quality of service (QoS) requirements. The proposed scheme gives priority to URLLC devices (UMTCDs) through power ramping in the physical random access channel (PRACH). The performance measures show a decrease in the average power consumed by UMTCDs during uplink massive access and a significant reduction in their latency without barring access to non-delay sensitive MTCDs.
A Frequency-Domain Optofluidic Dissolved Oxygen Sensor With Total Internal Reflection Design For in Situ Monitoring

Continuous measurement of dissolved oxygen (DO) variation is important in water monitoring and biomedical applications, which require low-cost and low-maintenance sensors capable of automated operation. A frequency-domain optofluidic DO sensor with total internal reflection (TIR) design has been developed based on fluorescence quenching of Ruthenium complex (Ru(dpp)3Cl2). To minimize artifacts causing drift in fluorescence measurements such as background autofluorescence, photobleaching, optical alignment variation, a low-cost frequency-domain approach is implemented in an optofluidic platform to measure the phase shift between the excitation and emission light. We show that the frequency domain optofluidic DO sensor provides absolute DO concentrations in repeated measurements. TIR design can enhance fluorescence signal in the integrated device and minimize background autofluorescence in the sample, which can subsequently improve overall sensitivity. Furthermore, photobleaching in the samples would be mitigated as the incident light does not enter the microfluidic channel. Our results demonstrate a measurement resolution of 0.2 ppm and response times of less than one minute. In accelerated photobleaching conditions, the long-term drift is shown to be less than ±0.4 ppm. These results suggest the potential of this optofluidic DO sensor as an in situ platform for water monitoring and biomedical applications.
Utilization Of Banana Peel And Water Hyacinth Leaves As Adsorbent For Removal Of Copper From Wastewater

This research aims to compare the performance of adsorption of copper heavy metal by banana peel and water hyacinth leaves as adsorbent. Heavy metal pollution is one of the most pervasive environmental problems globally. Adsorption of heavy metals on conventional adsorbents such as activated carbon, that produced by carbonizing organic materials, have been used widely in many applications. Some of the low cost adsorbents that were tested in the study for the dye sorption process were banana peel and water hyacinth leaves, focus on the effect of mixing speed, contact time, and weight of the adsorbent on the efficiency of Cu removal. A maximum removal of 99.55% was observed at the adsorbent mass of 5 grams and contact time of 30 minutes using banana peel adsorbent, while using water hyacinth leaves, a maximum removal of 98.39% was observed at mass of the adsorbent of 15 grams and contact time of 60 minutes. Both the observed adsorbents fit the Langmuir isotherm model of adsorption. The quality of water produced after the adsorption process using the adsorbent of banana peel and water hyacinth leaves has met the quality standard according to the Regulation of the Minister of Environment of the Republic Indonesia Number 5 of 2014 concerning quality standards for wastewater in the paint industry. It could be concluded that the organic waste like banana peel and water hyacinth leaves were promising biosorbents and solving the heavy metal pollution in environment.
Improving of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine Control Efficiency

The paper describes the problem of permanent magnet synchronous machine control efficiency improving. The main goal is to evaluate rotor temperature, stator yoke, tooth and winding temperature. To solve the problem, mathematical modeling method was chosen. The method has number of economical and operation advantages in comparison with injection method and flow tracking method. Machine’s heat temperature forecast was based on solution trees gradient boosting model. Nowadays this model is popular in forecasting models because of its high generalization ability. In order to get mathematical model, data about environmental temperature, cooling agent temperature, machine’s speed, current rate and voltage power is taken into account. Experiment result is the comparison between input and forecast values of rotor and stator temperature on different sections. Determination coefficient lies in range from 0,953 to 0,985. The result is satisfactory for rotor and stator temperature evaluation. Suggested approach for machine’s temperature evaluation can be a part of the control system. Such system will be useful during operator’s work with electric drive, because the forecast of drive’s parts overheat allows operator to make relevant actions to eliminate emergency situation. Reduction, and in perspective exception of situations, when the temperature of the machine is about to high permissible limit, can safe winding quality. In general, suggested system should increase operational life of the electric drive.
Performance Evaluation of Kuznyechik and Magma Symmetric Ciphers on AMD and NVIDIA GPUs

In this paper we study the efficiency of GPU-based implementations of Kuznyechik and Magma symmetric ciphers written in CUDA and a new cross-platform framework called HIP. We tested our implementations using AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080Ti and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080Ti. We measured the clear encryption speed and the actual encryption speed on three different data transfer modes: an explicit copy mode, a zero-copy memory mode and copy overlapping using multiple command streams. Achieved results show that AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 outperforms both NVIDIA graphics processing units and delivers 178 Gbps of a clear encryption speed for Kuznyechik and 940 Gbps for Magma. A zero-copy memory mode is more efficient than explicit copy mode and allows to achieve the encryption speed around 70-75 Gbps for both ciphers on all used graphics processing units. Overlapping an encryption and a data transfer using 32 command streams allows to achieve the encryption speed around 79 Gbps for both ciphers on all used devices.
Comparing online and paper-based testing for physics courses at HCT, UAE

online testing was introduced for the Physics 1 course at the Higher Colleges of Technology; Fujairah Men's College in the Fall 2016 semester. The students wrote an online test 1 in Blackboard Learn and a paper-based test 2. The validity of the online testing was assessed by comparing the performance of students, relative to the other students in their section, for the paper-based and online tests. Analysis of the results did not show any measurable difference in relative student performance for the online test compared to the paper-based version. An online system-wide Physics 1 final exam for all the seventeen colleges in the Higher Colleges of Technology system was introduced in the Fall semester of 2018. The results for this final exam and those from the subsequent two semesters are shown and briefly discussed. These results indicate a general improvement in grades subsequent to the Fall 2018 semester. Current and future work is described.
Patterns of genetic diversity in related taxa of Antirrhinum L. assessed using allozymes

Allozyme diversity was studied within and among populations of five related taxa of Antirrhinum L. endemic to the Iberian Peninsula (A. graniticum Rothm. ssp. graniticum, ssp. brachycalyx Sutton and ssp. ambiguum (Lange) Mateu & Segarra, A. boissieri Rothm. and A. onubensis (Fdez. Casas) Fdez. Casas). All of the studied taxa are obligate outcrossing endemic perennial herbs which form isolated populations. However, the taxa vary in range and population sizes, and are found on different soil types. The level and distribution of allozyme diversity differed widely between taxa: A. graniticum ssp. brachycalyx had the lowest level of allozyme diversity (H T = 0.09), whilst the highest level was detected in A. boissieri (H T = 0.25). Total variation was partitioned into within- and among-population variation. The proportion attributable to variation within populations varied from about 67% up to 84.3% and 89.5% in A. graniticum ssp. brachycalyx and A. graniticum ssp. ambiguum, respectively. Both these subspecies also showed little population divergence (G ST = 0.10 and 0.09, respectively) and had high levels of estimated gene flow (Nm = 2.18 and 2.62, respectively). These results are discussed in relation to geographical proximity of populations and habitat continuity. Isolation by distance was not detected in any of the studied taxa. This result suggests that divergence among populations is due to random genetic drift.
Sensing and Control of Friction Mode for Contact Area Variable Surfaces (Friction-variable Surface Structure)

Robotic hands with soft surfaces can perform stable grasping, but the high friction of the soft surfaces makes it difficult to release objects, or to perform operations that require sliding. To solve this issue, we previously developed a contact area variable surface (CAVS), whose friction changed according to the load. However, only our fundamental results were previously presented, with detailed analyses not provided. In this study, we first investigated the CAVS friction anisotropy, and demonstrated that the longitudinal direction exhibited a larger ratio of friction change. Next, we proposed a ‘sensible’ CAVS, capable of providing a variable-friction mechanism, and tested its sensing and control systems in operations requiring switching between sliding and stable-grasping modes. Friction sensing was performed using an embedded camera, and we developed a gripper using the sensible CAVS, considering the CAVS friction anisotropy. In CAVS, the low-friction mode corresponds to a small grasping force, while the high-friction mode corresponds to a greater grasping force. Therefore, by controlling only the friction mode, the gripper mode can be set to either the sliding or stable-grasping mode. Based on this feature, a methodology for controlling the contact mode was constructed. We demonstrated a manipulation involving sliding and stable grasping, and thus verified the efficacy of the developed sensible CAVS.
A 0.03-3GHz Inductorless Wideband Low Noise Amplifier in 65nm CMOS

An inductorless wideband Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) supporting multiple wireless communication standards from 0.03GHz to 3GHz is presented in this paper. It adopts common gate structure to achieve such wide input matching range. Capacitor Cross Coupling (CCC) technique and Multiple Gated Transistors (MGTR) technique are introduced for noise and linearity improvement, respectively. This wideband LNA is fabricated in TSMC 65nm CMOS process, occupying 0.095mm2. The post-layout simulation results achieve a maximum gain of 11.6dB and a minimum noise figure (NF) of 2.7dB. The LNA consumes 5.7mW under 1.2V supply.
Aerodynamics of wind pollination in a zoophilous flower, Brassica napus

Summary 1 The flower of Brassica napus L. appears to be typically zoophilous (suited to animal pollination) because of its visually attractive petals, robust stigma and nectaries. Pollination by wind is feasible, however, and its likely effectiveness is not immediately foreseeable because of the complexity of interactions between objects and windborne particles. 2 Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind-tunnel experiments were used to investigate the aerodynamic interactions between the flower and a windborne suspension of its pollen. 3 The flower's petals handicapped wind pollination by reducing the target efficiency of the upwind-facing stigma. For downwind-facing flowers, pollen reception was negligible. 4 Several aspects of the plant's architecture (floral structure, pollen cohesiveness, inflorescence structure) are uncompromisingly zoophilous. Estimates of the amount of wind pollination suggest that it is unlikely to be important for the long-distance dispersal of B. napus genes such as those from genetically modified varieties. 5 This study illustrates how CFD may become a powerful tool in future analyses of wind pollination.
PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF PLANTS TO SALINITY : A REVIEW

Root-zone salinization presents a challenge to plant productivity that is effectively countered by salt-tolerant halophytic plants, but unfortunately, much less successfully by major crop plants. The way in which salt affects plant metabolism is reviewed. Cellular events triggered by salinity, namely salt compartmentation, osmotic adjustment and cell wall hardening are connected to the whole plant responses, namely leaf necrosis, altered phenology and ultimately plant death. The roles of ion exclusion and K/Na discrimination in mediating crop response to salt appear to be central to the tolerance response, but they are by no means essential. The processes involved in regulating ion uptake at the membrane level are considered. Recent work elucidating the interaction between calcium and salinity tolerance is reviewed. Key words: Cell growth, cell turgor, ion regulation, K+/Na+ discrimination, osmotic adjustment, salt tolerance
Effect of Fasting under Different Temperature Conditions on Nucleic Acid Ratios in the Opossum Shrimp Mysis relicta: a Calibration Approach

ABSTRACT The opossum shrimp Mysis relicta is an important component of the diet of benthivorous and planktivorous fish in the Great Lakes. The invasion of the Great Lakes by exotic invertebrates (Bythotrephes longimanus, Cercopagis pengoi, Dreissena polymorpha, and D. bugensis) has altered the base and intermediate levels of the foodweb. Thus, information about the condition of M. relicta may reveal the extent of indirect effects of these changes on this trophically-important invertebrate. Biochemical indices based on nucleic acid ratios have been shown to be suitable proxies for the growth and condition of aquatic organisms. These indices are affected by multiple factors, such as; food level, temperature, body size, sex/life stage, maturation, and moult stage and need to be calibrated before field data can be interpreted on a quantitative basis. In this study, we investigated the effect of fasting under different temperature conditions on the nucleic acid ratios RNA/DNA, RNA/protein and protein/DNA in M. relicta. Juvenile M. relicta were exposed to fasting conditions for 11 and 21 d in two controlled laboratory experiments at 3°C and 8°C. Several effects of time and temperature on the condition indices of fasting M. relicta were observed; however, we concluded that, of the various metrics tested, only RNA/DNA ratios provide a suitable index of metabolism and condition in fasting animals. RNA concentrations declined in response to fasting on the order of 3–4 d at 8°C and between 4 and 11 d at 3°C. Juvenile M. relicta with RNA/DNA ratios < 1.5–1.8 were clearly identified as fasting animals. Field-caught animals having RNA/DNA ratios near these levels are demonstrating clear signs of metabolic stress.
Development and comparison of predictive models based on learning management system data

: - This study introduces and evaluates different feature reduction and supervised machine learning approaches to predict the students` academic success. Our analysis is based on data about students` activities in the learning management system. We found that neural networks based approach with principal component analysis in feature reduction is the most effective for learning management system data.
Robust and High-Performance 12-T Interlocked SRAM for In-Memory Computing

In this paper, we analyze the existing SRAM based In-Memory Computing(IMC) proposals and show through exhaustive simulations that they fail under process variations. 6-T SRAM, 8-T SRAM, and 10-T SRAM based IMC architectures suffer from compute-disturb (stored data flips during IMC), compute-failure (provides false computation results), and half-select failures, respectively. To circumvent these issues, we propose a novel 12-T Dual Port Dual Interlockedstorage Cell (DPDICE) SRAM. DPDICE SRAM based IMC architecture(DPDICE-IMC) can perform essential boolean functions successfully in a single cycle and can perform basic arithmetic operations such as add and multiply. The most striking feature is that DPDICE-IMC architecture can perform IMC on two datasets simultaneously, thus doubling the throughput. Cumulatively, the proposed DPDICE-IMC is 26.7%, 8×, and 28% better than 6-T SRAM, 8-T SRAM, and 10-T SRAM based IMC architectures, respectively.
Genotype differences in photosynthetic characteristics and nitrogen efficiency of new-type oilseed rape responding to low nitrogen stress

SUMMARY New-type oilseed rape (Brassica napus, ArArCcCc) with introgressed exotic subgenomic components from Brassica rapa (ArAr) and Brassica carinata (BcBcCcCc) showed strong heterosis in both vegetative and reproductive growth. The aim of the current study was to analyse the tolerance of the new-type B. napus with different exotic subgenomic contents to low nitrogen (N) stress. Under hydroponic culture and pot experiments, root system parameters, photosynthetic parameters, relative chlorophyll concentration (SPAD values), biomass, seed yield, seed yield components, N concentration and expressions of genes involved in N transport and assimilation were determined with two new-type B. napus genotypes (N-efficient genotype D4-15 and N-inefficient genotype D1-1) under high-N and low-N levels. Furthermore, N accumulation, N transfer efficiency and N use efficiency (NUE) were analysed in the two genotypes. The hydroponic and potted growth tests showed consistent characteristics in N uptake and utilization efficiency at the seedling stage, and N-efficient genotype (D4-15) showed better growth phenotypes across cultured conditions and N levels. Under the low-N condition, D4-15 produced a larger root system and accumulated more N, and had higher N transfer efficiency and NUE than D1-1. Moreover, D4-15 had significantly higher photosynthetic parameters, photosynthetic NUE and expression levels of the N transporter genes, BnNRT1·1, BnNRT2·5, BnNRT2·7 and BnAMT1·1, in roots or leaves, as well as higher seed yield than that of D1-1 under low-N supply. These results indicated that the N-efficient new-type B. napus D4-15 possessed excellent adaptability to low-N stress, which may be attributed to the highly introgressed exotic subgenomic components from B. rapa and B. carinata, suggesting the possibility of identifying high-nutrient-efficiency germplasm from inter-specific hybrids.