bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Tutorial on the instrumentation of sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy: Using a Ti:sapphire based system as an example
Authors: Yang Lujuan , Zhang Wenkai , Bian Hongtao , Ma Gang
Published: September 2022

Sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS) is an intrinsically surface-selective vibrational spectroscopic technique based on the second-order nonlinear optical process. Since its birth in the 1980s, SFG-VS has been used to solve interfacial structure and dynamics in a variety of research fields including chemistry, physics, materials sciences, biological sciences, environmental sciences, etc. Better understanding of SFG-VS instrumentation is no doubt an essential step to master this sophisticated technique. To address this need, here we will present a Tutorial with respect to the classification, setup layout, construction, operation, and data processing about SFG-VS. We will focus on the steady state Ti:sapphire based broad bandwidth SFG-VS system and use it as an example. We hope this Tutorial is beneficial for newcomers to the SFG-VS field and for people who are interested in using SFG-VS technique in their research.
The spindle assembly checkpoint is a therapeutic vulnerability of CDK4/6 inhibitor–resistant ER
+
breast cancer with mitotic aberrations
Authors: Soria-Bretones Isabel , Thu Kelsie L. , Silvester Jennifer , Cruickshank Jennifer , El Ghamrasni Samah , Ba-alawi Wail , Fletcher Graham C. , Kiarash Reza , Elliott Mitchell J. , Chalmers Jordan J. , Elia Andrea C. , Cheng Albert , Rose April A. N. , Bray Mark R. , Haibe-Kains Benjamin , Mak Tak W. , Cescon David W.
Published: September 2022

Inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6i) are standard first-line treatments for metastatic ER
+
breast cancer. However, acquired resistance to CDK4/6i invariably develops, and the molecular phenotypes and exploitable vulnerabilities associated with resistance are not yet fully characterized. We developed a panel of CDK4/6i-resistant breast cancer cell lines and patient-derived organoids and demonstrate that a subset of resistant models accumulates mitotic segregation errors and micronuclei, displaying increased sensitivity to inhibitors of mitotic checkpoint regulators TTK and Aurora kinase A/B.
RB1
loss, a well-recognized mechanism of CDK4/6i resistance, causes such mitotic defects and confers enhanced sensitivity to TTK inhibition. In these models, inhibition of TTK with CFI-402257 induces premature chromosome segregation, leading to excessive mitotic segregation errors, DNA damage, and cell death. These findings nominate the TTK inhibitor CFI-402257 as a therapeutic strategy for a defined subset of ER
+
breast cancer patients who develop resistance to CDK4/6i.
Connexins orchestrate progression of breast cancer metastasis to the brain by promoting FAK activation
Authors: Lorusso Girieca , Wyss Christof B. , Kuonen François , Vannini Nicola , Billottet Clotilde , Duffey Nathalie , Pineau Raphael , Lan Qiang , Wirapati Pratyaksha , Barras David , Tancredi Alessandro , Lyck Ruth , Lehr Hans-Anton , Engelhardt Britta , Delorenzi Mauro , Bikfalvi Andreas , Rüegg Curzio
Published: September 2022

Brain metastasis is a complication of increasing incidence in patients with breast cancer at advanced disease stage. It is a severe condition characterized by a rapid decline in quality of life and poor prognosis. There is a critical clinical need to develop effective therapies to prevent and treat brain metastases. Here, we describe a unique and robust spontaneous preclinical model of breast cancer metastasis to the brain (4T1-BM
2
) in mice that has been instrumental in uncovering molecular mechanisms guiding metastatic dissemination and colonization of the brain. Key experimental findings were validated in the additional murine D2A1-BM
2
model and in human MDA231-BrM
2
model. Gene expression analyses and functional studies, coupled with clinical transcriptomic and histopathological investigations, identified connexins (Cxs) and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) as master molecules orchestrating breast cancer colonization of the brain. Cx31 promoted homotypic tumor cell adhesion, heterotypic tumor-astrocyte interaction, and FAK phosphorylation. FAK signaling prompted NF-κB activation inducing Lamc2 expression and laminin 332 (laminin 5) deposition, α6 integrin–mediated adhesion, and sustained survival and growth within brain parenchyma. In the MDA231-BrM
2
model, the human homologous molecules CX43, LAMA4, and α3 integrin were involved. Systemic treatment with FAK inhibitors reduced brain metastasis progression. In conclusion, we report a spontaneous model of breast cancer metastasis to the brain and identified Cx-mediated FAK–NF-κB signaling as a mechanism promoting cell-autonomous and microenvironmentally controlled cell survival for brain colonization. Considering the limited therapeutic options for brain metastatic disease in cancer patients, we propose FAK as a therapeutic candidate to further pursue in the clinic.
Advances toward transformative therapies for tendon diseases
Authors: Freedman Benjamin R. , Mooney David J. , Weber Eckhard
Published: September 2022

Approved therapies for tendon diseases have not yet changed the clinical practice of symptomatic pain treatment and physiotherapy. This review article summarizes advances in the development of novel drugs, biologic products, and biomaterial therapies for tendon diseases with perspectives for translation of integrated therapies. Shifting from targeting symptom relief toward disease modification and prevention of disease progression may open new avenues for therapies. Deep evidence-based clinical, cellular, and molecular characterization of the underlying pathology of tendon diseases, as well as therapeutic delivery optimization and establishment of multidiscipline interorganizational collaboration platforms, may accelerate the discovery and translation of transformative therapies for tendon diseases.
EnhancedIn VitroandIn VivoPotency of a T Cell Epitope in the Ebola Virus Glycoprotein Following Amino Acid Replacement at HLA-A*02:01 Binding Positions
Authors: Chabot Sylvie , Gimie Yusra , Obeid Karam , Kim Jaekwan , Meseda Clement A. , Konduru Krishnamurthy , Kaplan Gerardo , Sheng Fowler Li , Weir Jerry P. , Peden Keith , Major Marian E.
Published: September 2022

Vaccine efficacy and immunity to viral infection are often measured by neutralizing antibody titers. T cells are specialized subsets of immune cells with antiviral activity, but this response is variable and difficult to track.
The Group B Streptococcal Adhesin BspC Interacts with Host Cytokeratin 19 To Promote Colonization of the Female Reproductive Tract
Authors: Manzer Haider S. , Nguyen Dustin T. , Park Joo Youn , Park Nogi , Seo Keun Seok , Thornton Justin A. , Nobbs Angela H. , Doran Kelly S.
Published: September 2022

Group BStreptococcus(GBS) asymptomatically colonizes the female reproductive tract (FRT) of up to one third of women, but GBS carriage can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes, including premature rupture of membranes, preterm labor, and chorioamnionitis. GBS colonization during pregnancy is also the largest predisposing factor for neonatal GBS disease, including pneumonia, sepsis, and meningitis.
Separate To Operate: the Centriole-Free Inner Core of the Centrosome Regulates the Assembly of the Intranuclear Spindle in
Toxoplasma gondii
Authors: Tomasina Ramiro , Gonzalez Fabiana C. , Martins-Duarte Érica S. , Bastin Philippe , Gissot Mathieu , Francia María E.
Published: September 2022

Toxoplasma gondii
parasites cause toxoplasmosis, arguably the most widespread and prevalent parasitosis of humans and animals. During the clinically relevant stage of its life cycle, the parasites divide by endodyogeny.
Global Distribution and Diversity of Prevalent Sewage Water Plasmidomes
Authors: Teudt Frederik , Otani Saria , Aarestrup Frank M.
Published: September 2022

Antimicrobial resistance is a global threat to human health, as it inhibits our ability to treat infectious diseases. This study utilizes sewage water plasmidomes to identify plasmid-derived features and highlights antimicrobial resistance genes, particularly macrolide resistance genes, as abundant in sewage water plasmidomes in Firmicutes andAcinetobacterhosts.
Supplemental Material: When knickzones limit upstream transmission of base-level fall: An example from Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i
Authors: Raming Logan Wren , Whipple Kelin X.
Published: September 2022

Additional details on topographic analysis, field methods, and stochastic threshold model.  
Reducing low-value care: what can we learn from eight de-implementation studies in the Netherlands?
Authors: Verkerk Eva W , van Dulmen Simone A , Westert Gert P , Hooft Lotty , Heus Pauline , Kool Rudolf B
Published: September 2022

Background

Reducing the overuse of care that is proven to be of low value increases the quality and safety of care. We aimed to identify lessons for reducing low-value care by looking at: (1) The effects of eight de-implementation projects. (2) The barriers and facilitators that emerged. (3) The experiences with the different components of the projects.

Methods

We performed a process evaluation of eight multicentre projects aimed at reducing low-value care. We reported the quantitative outcomes of the eight projects on the volume of low-value care and performed a qualitative analysis of the project teams’ experiences and evaluations. A total of 40 hospitals and 198 general practitioners participated.

Results

Five out of eight projects resulted in a reduction of low-value care, ranging from 11.4% to 61.3%. The remaining three projects showed no effect. Six projects monitored balancing measures and observed no negative consequences of their strategy. The most important barriers were a lack of time, an inability to reassure the patient, a desire to meet the patient’s wishes, financial considerations and a discomfort with uncertainty. The most important facilitators were support among clinicians, knowledge of the harms of low-value care and a growing consciousness that more is not always better. Repeated education and feedback for clinicians, patient information material and organisational changes were valued components of the strategy.

Conclusions

Successfully reducing low-value care is possible in spite of the powerful barriers that oppose it. The projects managed to recruit many hospitals and general practices, with five of them achieving significant results without measuring negative consequences. Based on our findings, we offer practical recommendations for successfully reducing low-value care.
Determining the feasibility of exercise therapy and activity modification for treating adolescents with heel pain: a study protocol
Authors: Hanlon Shawn L , Bley Bradley C , Silbernagel Karin Grävare
Published: September 2022

Calcaneal apophysitis and Achilles tendinopathy are common overuse injuries characterised by insidious posterior heel pain with activity. Calcaneal apophysitis is commonly diagnosed in adolescents, although Achilles tendinopathy is understudied in the adolescent population and is therefore rarely considered until adulthood. Exercise therapy and activity modification have the highest level of evidence for treating Achilles tendinopathy, while calcaneal apophysitis is treated with anecdotal and passive treatment or complete rest. It remains unknown whether exercise therapy is effective for adolescents with heel pain related to either diagnosis.

This is a pilot and feasibility study. Thirty participants between the ages of 7 years and 17 years with posterior heel pain will be recruited from the local community and club sports team and local physicians, school nurses, and athletic trainers through flyers and social media. Participants will be asked to complete evaluations and treatment sessions every 4 weeks with three virtual visits every 2 weeks in between for 12 weeks. All participants will receive standardised treatment consisting of daily Achilles tendon loading exercises and education on pain-guided activity modification. Feasibility outcomes will include recruitment, enrolment, retention and compliance. Clinical outcomes will include the measures of symptom severity, quality of life, tendon morphology and lower extremity function.

This protocol will provide preliminary data to inform a larger clinical trial based on the feasibility of the proposed intervention and methodology. Additionally, the results will provide preliminary evidence on whether Achilles tendon injury occurs in the adolescent population.

The trial is registered with clinicaltrials.gov (ID:1652996).
Genotype–phenotype correlations and clinical outcomes of patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease with large deletions
Authors: Zhang Kenan , Yang Wuping , Ma Kaifang , Qiu Jianhui , Li Lei , Xu Yawei , Zhang Zedan , Yu Chaojian , Zhou Jingcheng , Gong Yanqing , Cai Lin , Gong Kan
Published: September 2022

Background

Approximately 20%–40% of patients with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease, an autosomal dominant hereditary disease, exhibit large deletions (LDs). Few studies have focused on this population. Hence, we aimed to elucidate the genotype–phenotype correlations and clinical outcomes in VHL patients with LDs.

Methods

In this retrospective study, we included 119 patients with VHL disease from 50 unrelated families in whom LDs were detected using traditional and next-generation sequencing methods. Other germline mutations were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Genotype–phenotype correlations and survival were analysed in different groups using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression. We also evaluated therapeutic response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy.

Results

The overall penetrance of patients aged <60 was 95.2%. Two VHL patients with LDs also carriedCHEK2andFLCNgermline mutations. An earlier age of onset of retinal haemangioblastoma was observed in the next generation. Patients with exon 2 deletion ofVHLhad an earlier onset age of renal cell carcinoma and pancreatic lesions. The risk of renal cell carcinoma was lower in VHL patients with LDs and aBRK1deletion. The group with earlier age of onset received poorer prognosis. Four of eight (50%) patients showed partial response to TKI therapy.

Conclusion

The number of generations and the status of exon 2 could affect age of onset of VHL-related manifestations. Onset age was an independent risk factor for overall survival. TKI therapy was effective in VHL patients with LDs. Our findings would further support clinical surveillance and decision-making processes.
Triple therapy versus dual-antiplatelet therapy for dolichoectatic vertebrobasilar fusiform aneurysms treated with flow diverters
Authors: Siddiqui Adnan H , Monteiro Andre , Hanel Ricardo A , Kan Peter , Mohanty Alina , Cortez Gustavo M , Rabinovich Margarita , Matouk Charles , Sujijantarat Nanthiya , Romero Charles , Stone Jeremy , Ebersole Koji , Fry Lane , Natarajan Sabareesh K , Owusu-Adjei Brittany , Ortega-Gutierrez Santiago , Vivanco-Suarez Juan , Wakhloo Ajay K , Levy Elad I
Published: September 2022

Background

Dolichoectatic vertebrobasilar fusiform aneurysms (DVBFAs) have poor natural history when left untreated and high morbimortality when treated with microsurgery. Flow diversion (FD) with dual-antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) is feasible but carries high risk of perforator occlusion and progression of brainstem compression. Elaborate antithrombotic strategies are needed to preserve perforator patency while vessel remodeling occurs. We compared triple therapy (TT (DAPT plus oral anticoagulation)) and DAPT alone in patients with DVBFAs treated with FD.

Methods

Retrospective comparison of DAPT and TT in patients with DVBFAs treated with FD at eight US centers.

Results

The groups (DAPT=13, TT=14) were similar in age, sex, clinical presentation, baseline disability, and aneurysm characteristics. Radial access use was significantly higher in the TT group (71.4% vs 15.3%; P=0.006). Median number of flow diverters and adjunctive coiling use were non-different between groups. Acute ischemic stroke rate during the oral anticoagulation period was lower in the TT group than the DAPT group (7.1% vs 30.8%; P=0.167). Modified Rankin Scale score decline was significantly lower in the TT group (7.1% vs 69.2%; P=0.001). Overall rates of hemorrhagic complications (TT, 28.6% vs DAPT, 7.7%; P=0.162) and complete occlusion (TT, 25% vs DAPT, 54.4%; P=0.213) were non-different between the groups. Rate of moderate-to-severe disability at last follow-up was significantly lower in the TT group (21.4% vs 76.9%; P=0.007).

Conclusions

Patients with DVBFAs treated with FD in the TT group had fewer ischemic strokes, less symptom progression, and overall better outcomes at last follow-up than similar patients in the DAPT group.
Differences in COVID-19 vaccination coverage by occupation in England: a national linked data study
Authors: Nafilyan Vahe , Dolby Ted , Finning Katie , Pawelek Piotr , Edge Rhiannon , Morgan Jasper , Glickman Myer , Pearce Neil , van Tongeren Martie
Published: September 2022

Background

Monitoring differences in COVID-19 vaccination uptake in different groups is crucial to help inform the policy response to the pandemic. A key data gap is the absence of data on uptake by occupation. This study investigates differences in vaccination rates by occupation in England, using nationwide population-level data.

Methods

We calculated the proportion of people who had received three COVID-19 vaccinations (assessed on 28 February 2022) by detailed occupational categories in adults aged 18–64 and estimated adjusted ORs to examine whether these differences were driven by occupation or other factors, such as education. We also examined whether vaccination rates differed by ability to work from home.

Results

Our study population included 15 456 651 adults aged 18–64 years. Vaccination rates differed markedly by occupation, being higher in health professionals (84.7%) and teaching and other educational professionals (83.6%) and lowest in people working in elementary trades and related occupations (57.6%). We found substantial differences in vaccination rates looking at finer occupational groups. Adjusting for other factors likely to be linked to occupation and vaccination, such as education, did not substantially alter the results. Vaccination rates were associated with ability to work from home, the rate being higher in occupations which can be done from home. Many occupations with low vaccination rates also involved contact with the public or with vulnerable people

Conclusions

Increasing vaccination coverage in occupations with low vaccination rates is crucial to help protecting the public and control infection. Efforts should be made to increase vaccination rates in occupations that cannot be done from home and involve contact with the public.
On the application limits and performance of the single-mode spectral analysis for seismic analysis of isolated bridges in Canada
Authors: Nguyen Xuan Dai , Guizani Lotfi
Published: September 2022

Single-mode spectral analysis (SMSA) is a simple procedure efficiently used to evaluate the seismic demands of base-isolated bridges, particularly suitable for the design of simple bridges or preliminary design of complex bridges. However, bridge design codes, notably the Canadian code CSA-S6:19 (CSA-S6 2019), specify many limitations on the use of the method for final design. This paper evaluates the performance of SMSA and the efficiency of its limits of application as specified in the current codes through the results of a parametric study. The hysteretic properties of seismic isolation systems and the stiffness of bridge substructures are varied. Seismic demands predicted by SMSA and nonlinear time-history analyses (NLTHAs) are then compared, both inside and outside the current specified limit range in CSA-S6:19 (CSA-S6 2019). Results show that the most effective application conditions are those related to the maximum equivalent viscous damping and minimum restoring force. The upper limits of the effective period and the post-elastic period can be ignored. Further, to complement SMSA, a relation is proposed to estimate the expected residual displacement as a function of the restoring force at the design displacement. Regression relations allowing estimating the expected mean and confidence interval of the relative displacement deviation predicted by SMSA from that based on NLTHA are also proposed.
Predictions on global properties in O+O collisions at the Large Hadron Collider using a multi-phase transport model
Authors: Behera Debadatta , Mallick Neelkamal , Tripathy Sushanta , Prasad Suraj , Mishra Aditya Nath , Sahoo Raghunath
Published: September 2022

Oxygen ($$^{16}$$

16

O) ions are planned to be injected at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in its next runs, and a day of physics run is anticipated for O+O collisions at $$\sqrt{s_\mathrm{{NN}}}$$

s
NN

= 7 TeV. As the system size of O+O collisions has the final state multiplicity overlap with those produced in pp, p+Pb and Pb+Pb collisions, the study of global properties in O+O collisions may provide a deeper insight into the heavy-ion-like behavior observed in small collision systems and its similarities/differences with a larger system like Pb+Pb collisions. In the present work, we report the predictions for global properties in O+O collisions at $$\sqrt{s_\mathrm{{NN}}}$$

s
NN

= 7 TeV using a multi-phase transport model (AMPT). We report the mid-rapidity charged-particle multiplicity, transverse mass, Bjorken energy density, pseudo-rapidity distributions, squared speed of sound, transverse momentum ($$p_\mathrm{T}$$

p
T

) spectra, the kinetic freeze-out parameters, and $$p_\mathrm{T}$$

p
T

-differential particle ratio as a function of collision centrality. Further, we have studied the transverse momentum-dependent elliptic flow of charged particles. The results are shown for Woods-Saxon and harmonic oscillator nuclear density profiles. In addition, we have compared the results with an $$\alpha $$
α
-clustered structure incorporated inside the oxygen nucleus. Average charged-particle multiplicity and the Bjorken energy density show a significant increase in most central collisions for the harmonic oscillator density profile, while other global properties show less dependence on the density profiles considered in this work. The results from the $$\alpha $$
α
-clustered structure incorporated inside the oxygen nucleus show similar initial energy density and final charged-particle multiplicity as observed for the harmonic oscillator density profile.
Geuine tripartite entanglement in three-flavor neutrino oscillations
Authors: Li Yu-Wen , Li Li-Juan , Song Xue-Ke , Wang Dong , Ye Liu
Published: September 2022

The violation of Leggett–Garg inequalities tested the quantumness of neutrino oscillations (NOs) across macroscopic distances. The quantumness can be quantified by using the tools of the quantum resource theories. Recently, a new genuine tripartite entanglement measure (Xie et al. in Phys Rev Lett 127:040403, 2021), concurrence fill, is defined as the square root of the area of the concurrence triangle satisfying all genuine multipartite entanglement conditions. It has several advantages compared to other existing tripartite measures. Here, we focus on using concurrence fill to quantify the tripartite entanglement in three-flavor NOs. Concurrence fill can reach its maximum 0.89 for the experimentally-observed electron antineutrino oscillations, but it cannot for the muon antineutrino oscillations. In both cases, we compare its performance with other three tripartite entanglement measures, including the generalized geometric measure (GGM), the three-$$\pi $$πentanglement, and the genuinely multipartite concurrence (GMC), in the neutrino propagation, and accordingly show that concurrence fill contains the most quantum resource. Furthermore, concurrence fill and the three-$$\pi $$πentanglement are always smooth, while GGM and GMC measures have several sharp peaks. The genuine tripartite quantification of the quantumness of three-flavor NOs represents the first step towards the further potential application of neutrinos on quantum information processing.
On finite time singularities in scalar field dark energy models based in the RS-II Braneworld
Authors: Trivedi Oem , Khlopov Maxim
Published: September 2022

The quest of deciphering the true nature of dark energy has proven to be one of the most exciting in recent times in cosmology. Various ideas have been put forward in this regard besides the usual cosmological constant approach, ranging from scalar field based models like Quintessence and Phantom dark energy to various modified gravity approaches as well. A very interesting idea then is to consider scalar field dark energy models in quantum gravitationally corrected cosmologies with the RS-II Braneworld being one of the most well known in this regard. So in this work, we consider RS-II Braneworld based scalar field dark energy models and try to look out for the existence of finite time singularities in these regimes both through a dynamical system perspective, for which we employ the Goriely–Hyde singularity analysis method, and a physical perspective. Our approach is general in the sense that it is not limited to any particular class of potentials or for any constrained parameter region for the brane tension and is valid for both Quintessence and phantom dark energy regimes. We firstly show through Goriely–Hyde procedure that finite time singularities can exist in these models for a limited set of initial conditions and that this result would hold irrespective of any consideration given to the swampland dS conjecture. We then discuss the physical nature of the singularities that can occur in this regime, where we use a well motivated ansatz for the Hubble parameter and show that these models of dark energy can allow for weak singularities like those of Type III and Type IV and can also allow for strong singularities like the Big Rip (Type I).
Excited Q-balls
Authors: Almumin Yahya , Heeck Julian , Rajaraman Arvind , Verhaaren Christopher B.
Published: September 2022

Complex scalars in U(1)-symmetric potentials can form stable Q-balls, non-topological solitons that correspond to spherical bound-state solutions. If the U(1) charge of the Q-ball is large enough, it can support a tower of unstable radial excitations with increasing energy. Previous analyses of these radial excitations were confined to fixed parameters, leading to excited states with different charges Q. In this work, we provide the first characterization of the radial excitations of solitons for fixed charge, providing the physical spectrum for such objects. We also show how to approximately describe these excited states analytically and predict their global properties such as radius, energy, and charge. This enables a complete characterization of the radial spectrum. We also comment on the decay channels of these excited states.
Stability analysis before and after support of a multi-stage structural surfaces landslide mass
Authors: Xue Yu , Zhu Shuyun
Published: September 2022

A typical multi-stage structural surfaces landslide mass located in Sichuan Province, SW China, is used as the research object. Based on the site survey and related data collection and analysis, the topography, geomorphology, stratigraphic lithology and geological structure of the study area were identified, and the engineering geological conditions and signs of deformation and damage of the landslide mass were analysed and studied. The stability characteristics of four levels of structural slip surfaces on the main section of the landslide mass under natural, rainstorm and earthquake conditions were comprehensively analysed using the transfer coefficient method and Geo5 geotechnical analysis software. The results show that the stability of the four slip surfaces (
ab
,
bc
,
ad
and
ae
) of the landslide mass is basically stable, basically stable, stable and stable under natural conditions; basically stable, less stable, stable and stable under earthquake conditions; and less stable, unstable, stable and stable under rainstorm conditions. It is found that the stability of the two shallow slip surfaces (
ab
and
bc
) is relatively poor. An anchor support design was chosen to reinforce the landslide mass, and the stability of the supported landslide mass was verified by Geo5 software.
Mutexion: Mutually Exclusive Compression System for Mitigating Compression Side-Channel Attacks
Authors: Moon Taegeun , Kim Hyoungshick , Hyun Sangwon
Published: September 2022

To enhance the performance of web services, web servers often compress data to be delivered. Unfortunately, the data compression technique has also introduced a side effect called
compression side-channel attacks (CSCA)
. CSCA allows eavesdroppers to unveil secret strings included in the encrypted traffic by observing the length of data. A promising defense technique called Debreach was recently proposed to mitigate CSCA by excluding all secret data in a web page during the compression process. Although Debreach has proven to be safe against CSCA and outperforms other approaches, the exclusion of all secret data from compression eventually resulted in a decreased compression efficiency. In this paper, we present a highly efficient CSCA mitigation system called
“Mutexion”
(

Mut

ually

ex

clusive compress

ion

) which allows us to fully take advantage of compression over an entire web page, including secret data. The key idea behind Mutexion is to fully take advantage of all the matching subsequences within a web page except only for those between secret data and user-controlled data (potentially controlled by an attacker) during the compression process. This approach of Mutexion effectively prevents side-channel leaks of secret data under CSCA misusing user-controlled data in a web page while minimizing the degradation in compression efficiency. It is required for our compressor to trace both secret data and user-controlled data in its compression process of web pages. To meet this requirement, we provide techniques to enable automated annotation of secret and user-controlled data in web pages. We implemented Mutexion as a fully working system to test live web pages and evaluated its performance with respect to security and compression efficiency. Our evaluation results demonstrated that Mutexion effectively prevents CSCA and also achieves almost the same compression ratio as the original zlib, which is vulnerable to CSCA, with a slight increase (0.032 milliseconds (7.9%) on average) in execution time.
Traditional African Dances Preservation Using Deep Learning Techniques
Authors: Odefunso Adebunmi E. , Bravo Esteban Garcia , Chen Yingjie V.
Published: September 2022

Human action recognition continues to evolve and improve through deep learning techniques. There have been studies with some success in the field of action recognition, but only a few of them have focused on traditional dance. This is because dance actions, especially in traditional African dance, are long and involve fast movements. This research proposes a novel framework that applies data science algorithms to the field of cultural preservation by applying various deep learning techniques to identify, classify, and model traditional African dances from videos. Traditional dances are an important part of African culture and heritage. Digital preservation of these dances in their multitude and form is a challenging problem. The dance dataset was constituted from freely available YouTube videos. Four traditional African dances were used for the dance classification process: Adowa, Swange, Bata, and Sinte dance. Five Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models were used for the classification and achieved an accuracy between 93% and 98%. Additionally, human pose estimation algorithms were applied to Sinte dance. A model of Sinte dance that can be exported to other environments was obtained.
A Tale of Two Productions
Authors: Gochfeld David , Coulombe Alex , Yeh Yu-Jun , Lester Robert , Fleming Robert Barry , Meicher-Buzzi Zachary , Tarr Ari
Published: September 2022

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many theatre companies began experimenting with new technologies and ways to bring their work to audiences. As theatres have resumed in-person performances, they are exploring how these new techniques can be incorporated into their productions. Recently one leading regional theatre company produced two versions of A Christmas Carol in parallel - one presented on stage, and the other entirely in virtual reality. They used virtual production tools including real-time motion capture, virtual humans, game engine rendering, and a new platform for multi-user VR experiences. We discuss the process, challenges, and creative decisions behind these shows, with an eye towards informing future theatrical productions.
Augmented Adversarial Learning for Human Activity Recognition with Partial Sensor Sets
Authors: Kang Hua , Huang Qianyi , Zhang Qian
Published: September 2022

Human activity recognition (HAR) plays an important role in a wide range of applications, such as health monitoring and gaming. Inertial sensors attached to body segments constitute a critical sensing system for HAR. Diverse inertial sensor datasets for HAR have been released with the intention of attracting collective efforts and saving the data collection burden. However, these datasets are heterogeneous in terms of subjects and sensor positions. The coupling of these two factors makes it hard to generalize the model to a new application scenario, where there are unseen subjects and new sensor position combinations. In this paper, we design a framework to combine heterogeneous data to learn a general representation for HAR, so that it can work for new applications. We propose an Augmented Adversarial Learning framework for HAR (AALH) to learn generalizable representations to deal with diverse combinations of sensor positions and subject discrepancies. We train an adversarial neural network to map various sensor sets' data into a common latent representation space which is domain-invariant and class-discriminative. We enrich the latent representation space by a hybrid missing strategy and complement each subject domain with a multi-domain mixup method, and they significantly improve model generalization. Experiment results on two HAR datasets demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms previous methods on unseen subjects and new sensor position combinations.
LITAR
Authors: Zhao Yiqin , Ma Chongyang , Huang Haibin , Guo Tian
Published: September 2022

An accurate understanding of omnidirectional environment lighting is crucial for high-quality virtual object rendering in mobile augmented reality (AR). In particular, to support reflective rendering, existing methods have leveraged deep learning models to estimate or have used physical light probes to capture physical lighting, typically represented in the form of an environment map. However, these methods often fail to provide visually coherent details or require additional setups. For example, the commercial framework ARKit uses a convolutional neural network that can generate realistic environment maps; however the corresponding reflective rendering might not match the physical environments. In this work, we present the design and implementation of a lighting reconstruction framework called LITAR that enables realistic and visually-coherent rendering. LITAR addresses several challenges of supporting lighting information for mobile AR.

First, to address the spatial variance problem, LITAR uses two-field lighting reconstruction to divide the lighting reconstruction task into the spatial variance-aware near-field reconstruction and the directional-aware far-field reconstruction. The corresponding environment map allows reflective rendering with correct color tones. Second, LITAR uses two noise-tolerant data capturing policies to ensure data quality, namely guided bootstrapped movement and motion-based automatic capturing. Third, to handle the mismatch between the mobile computation capability and the high computation requirement of lighting reconstruction, LITAR employs two novel real-time environment map rendering techniques called multi-resolution projection and anchor extrapolation. These two techniques effectively remove the need of time-consuming mesh reconstruction while maintaining visual quality. Lastly, LITAR provides several knobs to facilitate mobile AR application developers making quality and performance trade-offs in lighting reconstruction. We evaluated the performance of LITAR using a small-scale testbed experiment and a controlled simulation. Our testbed-based evaluation shows that LITAR achieves more visually coherent rendering effects than ARKit. Our design of multi-resolution projection significantly reduces the time of point cloud projection from about 3 seconds to 14.6 milliseconds. Our simulation shows that LITAR, on average, achieves up to 44.1% higher PSNR value than a recent work Xihe on two complex objects with physically-based materials.
MetaGanFi
Authors: Zhang Jin , Chen Zhuangzhuang , Luo Chengwen , Wei Bo , Kanhere Salil S. , Li Jianqiang
Published: September 2022

Human has an unique gait and prior works show increasing potentials in using WiFi signals to capture the unique signature of individuals' gait. However, existing WiFi-based human identification (HI) systems have not been ready for real-world deployment due to various strong assumptions including identification of known users and sufficient training data captured in predefined domains such as fixed walking trajectory/orientation, WiFi layout (receivers locations) and multipath environment (deployment time and site). In this paper, we propose a WiFi-based HI system, MetaGanFi, which is able to accurately identify unseen individuals in uncontrolled domain with only one or few samples. To achieve this, the MetaGanFi proposes a domain unification model, CCG-GAN that utilizes a conditional cycle generative adversarial networks to filter out irrelevant perturbations incurred by interfering domains. Moreover, the MetaGanFi proposes a domain-agnostic meta learning model, DA-Meta that could quickly adapt from one/few data samples to accurately recognize unseen individuals. The comprehensive evaluation applied on a real-world dataset show that the MetaGanFi can identify unseen individuals with average accuracies of 87.25% and 93.50% for 1 and 5 available data samples (shot) cases, captured in varying trajectory and multipath environment, 86.84% and 91.25% for 1 and 5-shot cases in varying WiFi layout scenarios, while the overall inference process of domain unification and identification takes about 0.1 second per sample.
Evaluating Three Touch Gestures for Moving Objects across Folded Screens
Authors: Li Dengyun , Ge Xin , Ma Qingzhou , Mehra Brinda , Liu Jie , Han Teng , Liu Can
Published: September 2022

Foldable screens are gaining popularity on mobile platforms as it features novel design schemes for view management and screen extension. However, challenges for performing touch input arises when it is folded in various angles and held in various ways. This paper is among the first to systematically evaluate how touch gestures perform under the influence of various fold angles and holding postures. Three gestures for moving objects on touch screens, namely Direct Drag, Hold & Tap, and Throw & Catch, were adopted from previous works and compared in a controlled experiment, where five fold angles and portrait vs landscape modes were varied. Results provide an in-depth understanding of how orientation, fold angle, target distance and direction affects the performance of each technique. Overall Direct Drag was the most accurate but highly inefficient and tiring. Hold & Tap was the most efficient technique with comparable accuracy, except being much more error-prone in Landscape than Portrait. Throw & Catch had a more balanced trade-off between efficiency and accuracy.
HaptiDrag
Authors: Mishra Abhijeet , Kumar Piyush , Shukla Jainendra , Parnami Aman
Published: September 2022

We presently rely on mechanical approaches to leverage drag (friction) effects for digital interaction as haptic feedback over real surfaces. Unfortunately, due to their mechanical nature, such methods are inconvenient, difficult to scale, and include object deployment issues. Accordingly, we present HaptiDrag, a thin (1 mm) and lightweight (2 gram) device that can reliably produce various intensities of on-surface drag effects through electroadhesion phenomenon. We first performed design evaluation to determine minimal size (5 cm x 5 cm) of HaptiDrag to enable drag effect. Further, with reference to eight distinct surfaces, we present technical performance of 2 sizes of HaptiDrag in real environment conditions. Later, we conducted two user studies; the first to discover absolute detection threshold friction spots of varying intensities common to all surfaces under test and the second to validate the absolute detection threshold points for noticeability with all sizes of HaptiDrag. Finally, we demonstrate device's utility in different scenarios.
Cellular-Assisted, Deep Learning Based COVID-19 Contact Tracing
Authors: Yi Fan , Xie Yaxiong , Jamieson Kyle
Published: September 2022

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused social and economic crisis to the globe. Contact tracing is a proven effective way of containing the spread of COVID-19. In this paper, we propose CAPER, a Cellular-Assisted deeP lEaRning based COVID-19 contact tracing system based on cellular network channel state information (CSI) measurements. CAPER leverages a deep neural network based feature extractor to map cellular CSI to a neural network feature space, within which the Euclidean distance between points strongly correlates with the proximity of devices. By doing so, we maintain user privacy by ensuring that CAPER never propagates one client's CSI data to its server or to other clients. We implement a CAPER prototype using a software defined radio platform, and evaluate its performance in a variety of real-world situations including indoor and outdoor scenarios, crowded and sparse environments, and with differing data traffic patterns and cellular configurations in common use. Microbenchmarks show that our neural network model runs in 12.1 microseconds on the OnePlus 8 smartphone. End-to-end results demonstrate that CAPER achieves an overall accuracy of 93.39%, outperforming the accuracy of BLE based approach by 14.96%, in determining whether two devices are within six feet or not, and only misses 1.21% of close contacts. CAPER is also robust to environment dynamics, maintaining an accuracy of 92.35% after running for ten days.
Individual and Group-wise Classroom Seating Experience
Authors: Gao Nan , Rahaman Mohammad Saiedur , Shao Wei , Ji Kaixin , Salim Flora D.
Published: September 2022

Seating location in the classroom can affect student engagement, attention and academic performance by providing better visibility, improved movement, and participation in discussions. Existing studies typically explore how traditional seating arrangements (e.g. grouped tables or traditional rows) influence students' perceived engagement, without considering group seating behaviours under more flexible seating arrangements. Furthermore, survey-based measures of student engagement are prone to subjectivity and various response bias. Therefore, in this research, we investigate how individual and group-wise classroom seating experiences affect student engagement using wearable physiological sensors. We conducted a field study at a high school and collected survey and wearable data from 23 students in 10 courses over four weeks. We aim to answer the following research questions: 1. How does the seating proximity between students relate to their perceived learning engagement? 2. How do students' group seating behaviours relate to their physiologically-based measures of engagement (i.e. physiological arousal and physiological synchrony)? Experiment results indicate that the individual and group-wise classroom seating experience is associated with perceived student engagement and physiologically-based engagement measured from electrodermal activity. We also find that students who sit close together are more likely to have similar learning engagement and tend to have high physiological synchrony. This research opens up opportunities to explore the implications of flexible seating arrangements and has great potential to maximize student engagement by suggesting intelligent seating choices in the future.
A Predictable QoS-aware Memory Request Scheduler for Soft Real-time Systems
Authors: N S Aswathy , Sarkar Arnab , Kapoor Hemangee
Published: September 2022

A memory controller manages the flow of data to and from attached memory devices. The order in which a set of contending memory requests from different tasks are serviced significantly influences the rate of progress and completion times of these tasks. This in turn may affect the Quality-of-Service (QoS) delivered by these tasks. In this article, we focus towards the design of a QoS-aware memory controller targeted towards soft real-time systems. The proposed memory controller tries to generate an urgency-based schedule for the contending memory requests based on the allowable response time latencies associated with each request. The objective is to improve task-level response time predictability while maximizing acquired QoS. Exhaustive experiments carried out using real memory traces and standard simulation tools exhibit the practical efficacy of the proposed memory controller design.
Identification and Extraction of Features from Malayalam Poems for Analyzing Syllable Duration Patterns
Authors: M P Jasir , Balakrishnan Kannan
Published: September 2022

Text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis is an active area of research to generate synthetic speech from the underlying text. Compared to English and many European languages, TTS is yet to mature in Malayalam, the principal language of the South Indian state of Kerala. A syllable has to be uttered with proper durational and prosodic characteristics to emulate natural speech. When it comes to poems in Malayalam, many of them have an inherent rhythm attached to them. In Malayalam, this property is characterized by the Vruta [28] in which the poem is written. Vruta decides the meter of narration of the poem. Therefore, it is only consequential that Vruta can give away vital cues about the durational and prosodic characteristics of the poem verses recited. This study intends to identify the features that determine the durational characteristics of a poem written in a particular Vruta and develop an algorithm to extract those features required to build a dataset to model the duration of syllable utterances for tuneful TTS in Malayalam. Poems written in three Vrutas, namely Kakali, Manjari, and Keka, are considered in this study. Nineteen extractible features from the orthographic representation of a poem are identified for this purpose. A standard dataset is built using these extracted features. Later, support vector machine and feed forward neural network based estimators are proposed to model the duration of Malayalam poem syllables for tuneful speech synthesis. The hyperparameters are optimized using the GridsearchCV algorithm from the Scikit-learn machine learning library [15].
Quantifying the Ocean's Biological Pump and Its Carbon Cycle Impacts on Global Scales
Authors: Siegel David A. , DeVries Timothy , Cetinić Ivona , Bisson Kelsey M.
Published: September 2022

The biological pump transports organic matter, created by phytoplankton productivity in the well-lit surface ocean, to the ocean's dark interior, where it is consumed by animals and heterotrophic microbes and remineralized back to inorganic forms. This downward transport of organic matter sequesters carbon dioxide from exchange with the atmosphere on timescales of months to millennia, depending on where in the water column the respiration occurs. There are three primary export pathways that link the upper ocean to the interior: the gravitational, migrant, and mixing pumps. These pathways are regulated by vastly different mechanisms, making it challenging to quantify the impacts of the biological pump on the global carbon cycle. In this review, we assess progress toward creating a global accounting of carbon export and sequestration via the biological pump and suggest a path toward achieving this goal.