bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the Difficulties of Disclosure Prevention in Statistical Databases or The Case for Differential Privacy
Authors: Dwork Cynthia , Naor Moni
Published: February 2018

In 1977 Tore Dalenius articulated a desideratum for statistical databases: nothing about

an individual should be learnable from the database that cannot be learned without access to the

database. We give a general impossibility result showing that a natural formalization of Dalenius’

goal cannot be achieved if the database is useful. The key obstacle is the side information that

may be available to an adversary. Our results hold under very general conditions regarding the

database, the notion of privacy violation, and the notion of utility.

Contrary to intuition, a variant of the result threatens the privacy even of someone not in

the database. This state of affairs motivated the notion of differential privacy [15, 16], a strong

ad omnia privacy which, intuitively, captures the increased risk to one’s privacy incurred by

participating in a database.
Releasing Private Contingency Tables
Authors: Nabar Shubha U. , Mishra Nina
Published: February 2018

Statistical agencies routinely publish aggregate data in the form of contingency tables.

In this paper, we consider the problem of releasing private contingency tables so that

the privacy of individual respondents in the table is preserved. We first uncover funda-

mental problems with existing cell suppression algorithms that are used for this purpose.

We then present a rigorous definition of privacy and a generic algorithmic framework

for cell suppression given this definition. Using this framework we build a complete

cell suppression solution for the special case of boolean private attributes. We study

both theoretically and experimentally the utility of our approach. Along the way, we

demonstrate a connection to the query auditing problem in statistical databases and

make a foundational contribution to this problem as well. In particular, we analyze an

unexamined assumption from the literature regarding the prior knowledge of attackers.
Anonymous Authentication
Authors: Lindell Yehuda
Published: February 2018

In this paper, we study the seemingly paradoxical notion of anonymous authentication: authenticating yourself without revealing your identity. Before studying the technical aspects of anonymous Internet connections and anonymous authentication, we begin with a discussion of privacy and why it is important. Although the necessity of privacy is well accepted in the computer security community, the concrete reasons as to why are often not understood. We will demonstrate that such an understanding is crucial for providing technical solutions that solve the real problems at hand. Given this background, we briefly survey the known technologies for constructing anonymous Internet connections. Finally, we study how it is possible to achieve anonymous authentication (on top of anonymous Internet connections). We present definitions and a number of different protocols with different properties. In addition to the basic problem, we also show how it is possible (in a certain model) to achieve revocable anonymity, and explain why this is of importance.
Polynomial-time Attack on Output Perturbation Sanitizers for Real-valued Databases
Authors: Merener Martin M.
Published: February 2018

We review the attack given by Dinur and Nissim [6] on the output perturbation sanitizer, and generalize it to a setting that includes, as particular cases, databases with values in {0,1}---with the metric considered in [6]---and databases with real values, with other appropriate metrics (hence the binary case is not included in the real case). Previous works [12, 14] on the binary case gave results more efficient than ours. Those results could be used to extend the binary case to the real-valued case, hence implying our results. The contributions of this paper are: to make the implication explicit, and to give an alternative general proof. We state a property about the function dist that measures the error of the attacker's approximation of the database, which is satisfied in our cases of interest, and is sufficiently strong to prove the impossibility results regarding the privacy provided by the output-perturbation sanitizer, in both the real and binary cases. In this general context we establish an inequality (an upper bound to the probability of adversary's failure) that relates all the parameters of the problem---the size of the database, the relative error of the adversary, the number of queries made by the adversary (which determines its time complexity), its probability of failure, and the perturbation of the sanitizer---making explicit the trade-offs among them. From this inequality we deduce that for binary and real valued databases, the adversary described in [6] can defeat perturbation o(n1/2) with time complexity determined by o(n log n) number of queries (instead of O(n log2 n) as in [6]).
Privacy Violations Using Microtargeted Ads: A Case Study
Authors: Korolova Aleksandra
Published: February 2018

We propose a new class of attacks that breach user privacy by exploiting advertising systems offering microtargeting capabilities. We study the advertising system of the largest online social network, Facebook, and the risks that the design of the system poses to the privacy of its users. We propose, describe and provide experimental evidence of several novel approaches to exploiting the advertising system in order to obtain private user information.
The work illustrates how a real-world system designed with an intention to protect privacy but without rigorous privacy guarantees can leak private information, and motivates the need for further research on the design of microtargeted advertising systems with provable privacy guarantees. Furthermore, it shows that user privacy may be breached not only as a result of data publishing using improper anonymization techniques, but also as a result of internal data-mining of that data.   
We communicated our findings to Facebook on July 13, 2010, and received a very prompt response. On July 20, 2010, Facebook launched a change to their advertising system that made the kind of attacks we describe much more difficult to implement in practice, even though, as we discuss, they remain possible in principle. We conclude by discussing the broader challenge of designing privacy-preserving microtargeted advertising systems.
On Privacy and Public Data: a Study of data.gov.uk
Authors: Simpson Andrew C.
Published: February 2018

The web-site data.gov.uk (the UK's counterpart to the US's data.gov site) was launched in January 2010. The site proclaims that ``transparency is at the heart of this Government'' and that ``data.gov.uk is home to national & local data for free re-use.'' As part of an assignment for a masters-level course on Data Security at the University of Oxford, 18 part-time post-graduate students were asked to give consideration to the benefits and drawbacks of releasing public data, with particular focus being given to data.gov.uk. In this paper we describe the findings of four of these students and show how the issues raised---both in isolation and when taken in combination---may be a cause for concern, both to those responsible for releasing such data and to those to whom the data pertains. The discussion is not intended to be a critique of data.gov.uk per se; rather, our hope is that this contribution may play a role in the wider debate pertaining to the issues surrounding the release of public data.
Learning in a Large Function Space: Privacy-Preserving Mechanisms for SVM Learning
Authors: Rubinstein Benjamin I. P. , Bartlett Peter L. , Huang Ling , Taft Nina
Published: February 2018

The ubiquitous need for analyzing privacy-sensitive information—including health records, personal communications, product ratings and social network data—is driving significant interest in privacy-preserving data analysis across several research communities. This paper explores the release of Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers while preserving the privacy of training data. The SVM is a popular machine learning method that maps data to a high-dimensional feature space before learning a linear decision boundary. We present efficient mechanisms for finite-dimensional feature mappings and for (potentially infinite-dimensional) mappings with translation-invariant kernels. In the latter case, our mechanism borrows a technique from large-scale learning to learn in a finite-dimensional feature space whose inner-product uniformly approximates the desired feature space inner-product (the desired kernel) with high probability. Differential privacy is established using algorithmic stability, a property used in learning theory to bound generalization error. Utility—when the private classifier is pointwise close to the non-private classifier with high probability—is proven using smoothness of regularized empirical risk minimization with respect to small perturbations to the feature mapping. Finally we conclude with lower bounds on the differential privacy of any mechanism approximating the SVM.
Confidentialising Survival Analysis Output in a Remote Data Access System
Authors: O'Keefe Christine M. , Sparks Ross Stewart , McAullay Damien , Loong Bronwyn
Published: February 2018

A remote analysis system addresses the challenge of enabling the use of confidential or private data while maintaining standards of confidentiality and privacy. Traditional approaches typically involve reducing the risk of disclosure by modifying or confidentialising data before releasing it to users. In contrast, a remote analysis system enables users to submit statistical queries and receive output without direct access to the data. A remote analysis system may involve confidentialisation of the underlying data itself or the system outputs, or both.

In this paper we discuss the implementation of a remote analysis system enabling survival analysis. In this system the underlying data are not confidentialised, although for some analyses a random sample of the data is used, and the system outputs are modified to protect confidentiality and privacy. We describe confidentiality objectives for the system outputs, and describe measures for achieving them. To illustrate the effect of the methods, we provide a comprehensive example comparing confidentialised output with traditional output for a range of common survival analyses.

We believe that the confidentialised output of the remote analysis system for survival analysis as described in this paper is still useful for survival analysis in some situations, provided the user understands the confidentialisation process and its potential impact. If the remote analysis system user requires more detailed information such as outlier values, event times and/or and standard errors, then they would need to apply for access to the underlying data.
Differential Privacy Applications to Bayesian and Linear Mixed Model Estimation
Authors: Abowd John M. , Schneider Matthew J. , Vilhuber Lars
Published: February 2018

We consider a particular maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and a computationally intensive Bayesian method for differentially private estimation of the linear mixed-effects model (LMM) with normal random errors. The LMM is important because it is used in small-area estimation and detailed industry tabulations that present significant challenges for confidentiality protection of the underlying data. The differentially private MLE performs well compared to the regular MLE, and deteriorates as the protection increases for a problem in which the small-area variation is at the county level. More dimensions of random effects are needed to adequately represent the time dimension of the data, and for these cases the differentially private MLE cannot be computed. The direct Bayesian approach for the same model uses an informative, reasonably diffuse prior to compute the posterior predictive distribution for the random effects. The empirical differential privacy of this approach is estimated by direct computation of the relevant odds ratios after deleting influential observations according to various criteria.
Intruder Testing on the 2011 UK Census: Providing Practical Evidence for Disclosure Protection
Authors: Tudor Caroline , Cornish George , Spicer Keith
Published: February 2018

Reflecting the international movement to widen access to public datasets, NSIs need to provide solid evidence not to publish data they believe may represent a disclosure risk. Under complementary legislation such as the UK Freedom of Information Act, theoretical risk assessments alone are often not enough to satisfy a court of law. The 2011 UK Census is a high-profile and rich data resource and outputs include detailed multivariate statistics down to local area level presenting potentially abundant disclosure risk. There is strong user demand for small cell counts unobscured by disclosure control. This paper uses the 2011 UK Census as an example to demonstrate the use of intruder testing in obtaining specific and practical evidence for disclosure protection. Using a structured approach with real people as intruders, original insight is gained into notions of disclosure and perceptions of how the data are protected.
Persebaran Sarana dan Prasarana Perpustakaan Sekolah Dasar Berbasis Sistem Informasi Geografis
Authors: Bramasta Dhi , Irawan Dedi
Published: February 2018

AbstractThe aim of this research is to know the distribution of elementary school in Baturradensub-district of Banyumas Regency and to know the condition of library and facilities ofelementary school library in Baturraden Sub-district of Banyumas Regency. Theresearch was conducted in Baturraden Sub-district of Banyumas Regency. The subjectsof the study are primary school and the manager of elementary school library. Thisresearch is a qualitative descriptive research with spatial approach which is oneapproach in geography. Data collection techniques with observation, interview anddocumentation. Data analysis uses interactive analysis which includes reduction,display, verification and GIS. The results showed that the primary school distributionof Baturraden sub-district is clustered with distribution pattern following path oraccessibility path. The number of books and equipment in the library has not been inaccordance with the subjects and the number of students in the school, so that thecondition of the facilities and infrastructure of elementary school library in Baturradensub-district has not complied with the standard set by the government.Keywords: facilities and infrastructure, primary school library, geographic informationsystem
Aplikasi Media Bantu Pembelajaran Kriptografi Dengan Menggunakan Algoritma Message Digest 5 (MD5)
Authors: - Zein , Adil Ahmat
Published: February 2018

College of Informatics and Computer Management (STMIK) Bumigora Mataram, for Computer Network competencies are elective courses that network security system which addresses the cryptographic material using a lecture and power point as a medium while studying in the classroom. Those problems led to the idea to create teaching aids media applications using cryptographic message digest algorithm 5 (MD5). Cryptography is the science that is used to encrypt a message, so the message private. On the application every student can learn and try to direct the activities of the MD5 algorithm program in step by step. This algorithm has a characteristic that the message is converted into a message digest can not be restored into the original message. Two different messages always produce different hash values. So as to facilitate faculty to improve student comprehension. Based on theresults of questionnaires to the lecturer stated that the application can assist the lecturer delivered material MD5 cryptographic algorithm. And the results of the questionnaire of the student that can be assisted in doing to learn anytime and anywhere as long as the application can access media learning aids such as web-based applications online.
Sistem Informasi Pengadaan Barang Langsung Berbasis Client-Server (Study Kasus Di Universitas Mataram)
Authors: Musta'an Musta'an , Priyanto Dadang
Published: February 2018

The procurement of infrastructure for Faculty of Engineering, University of Mataram was conducted through the direct of purchasing, but the process as such often remain the administrative obstacle in the process. To avoid the intricate troubles, such as; the number of packets, limited resources, and time issued during the process as well, needed the client server-based information system rather than the computerization manually. The method implemented was the waterfall for information, and the result was the system of direct purchasing with the clientserver-based that implemented on Java Netbeasn 8.0 and PostgreSQL 9.0 using Model View Control (MVC)concept for diminishing the false.
Segmentasi Citra Mri Menggunakan Deteksi Tepi Untuk Identifikasi Kanker Payudara
Authors: Varijki Ervina , Triwijoyo Bambang Krismono
Published: February 2018

One type of cancer that is capable identified using MRI technology is breast cancer. Breast cancer is still the leading cause of death world. therefore early detection of this disease is needed. In identifying breast cancer, a doctor or radiologist analyzing the results of magnetic resonance image that is stored in the format of the Digital Imaging Communication In Medicine (DICOM). It takes skill and experience sufficient for diagnosis is appropriate, andaccurate, so it is necessary to create a digital image processing applications by utilizing the process of object segmentation and edge detection to assist the physician or radiologist in identifying breast cancer. MRI image segmentation using edge detection to identification of breast cancer using a method stages gryascale change the image format, then the binary image thresholding and edge detection process using the latest Robert operator. Of the20 tested the input image to produce images with the appearance of the boundary line of each region or object that is visible and there are no edges are cut off, with the average computation time less than one minute.
Analisa Dan Perancangan Sistem Absensi Siswa Berbasis Web Dan Sms Gateway
Authors: Santoso Heroe , Yulianto Ahmad Wilda
Published: February 2018

Dalam melakukan pengawasan kehadiran siswa/siswi di sekolah, merupakan kewajiban bersama antara pihak sekolah dengan orang tua/wali siswa. Terkadang ada beberapa siswa yang melakukan kecurangan tidak masuk sekolah tanpa sepengetahuan pihak sekolah atau orang tua/wali siswa. Padahal siswa tersebut berpamitan untuk pergi sekolah, tetapi pada kenyataannya siswa tersebut tidak masuk sekolah. Permasalahan seperti ini tentunya meresakan pihak sekolah ataupun orang tua/wali. Sistem absensi siswa yang dilakukan selama ini masih besifat manual dengan mempertimbangkan juga jumlah mata pelajaran dalam satu semester.Berkaitan dengan permasalahan di atas tentunya pihak orang tua/wali yang putra/putrinya belajar di sekolah, tentunya dapat memantau putra/putrinya masuk untuk mengikuti pelajaran, meninggalkan kelas tanpa izin atau tidak masuk. Memperhatikan permasalah tersebut, diperlukan sistem absensi siswa secara elektronik berbasis web dan sms gateway. Metode yang digunakan dalam membangun sistem ini adalah metode prototipe. Tahapan dalam metode prototipe : pengumpulan kebutuhan, membangun prototyping, evaluasi protoptyping, mengkodekan sistem, menguji sistem, evaluasi sistem dan menggunakan sistem.  Tujuan penelitian memberikan kontribusi dalam dunia pendidikan berupa mengelola absensi siswa secara elektronik, dalam upaya peningkatan efisiensi dan efektivitas pengolahan data serta meminimalkan terjadi kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh pengguna sistem.
Desain Dan Implementasi Web Smp Islam Ngebruk Menggunakan Php Dan Mysql
Authors: Hamzah Muchammad Ismail
Published: February 2018

In accordance with the technological advances of web-based information delivery via the internet has more value, because the information can be delivered easily, quickly,  spacious and interactive. Because this way, information is simply inserted into the web and within seconds the information can be accessed globally.  Submission of this information has not been used in Ngebruk Islamic Junior High School, Sumberpucung District, Malang Regency. Submission of the information in these schools still use manual way, such as by mail, bulletin boards, or orally. Surely this way less effective and efficient, since it requires a lot of expenses such as the purchase of paper, printing machine and maintenance, ink, and its scope was limited to the scope of the school.To reduce the above problems, the delivery of information in this school need to use web media created with the PHP programming language and MySQL. PHP is a programming language that is used to allow users to process information on the web, while MySQL is the software used to store the information on the web. Once the web is run online, the school entered information to the web, can be accessed via intenet by anyone without the limited space and time
PEMODELAN JUMLAH UANG BEREDAR DAN INFLASI NASIONAL DENGAN VECTOR ERROR CORRECTION MODEL (VECM)
Authors: Hendayanti Ni Putu Nanik , Nurhidayati Maulida
Published: February 2018

AbstrakModel Vector Autoregressive (VAR) merupakan salah satu model deret waktu yang berbentuk simultan. VAR adalah suatu sistem persamaan dimana setiap peubah merupakan fungsi linier dari nilai lag (lampau) peubah itu sendiri serta nilai lag dari peubah lain dalam sistem. Seringkali pada model terdapat beberapa hubungan kointegrasi antar peubah, sehingga model VAR yang terbentuk menjadi tidak representatif. Salah satu metode yang dapat mengatasi masalah adanya hubungan kointegrasi antar peubah adalah model Vector Error Correction (VEC). Perekonomian menjadi salah satu pondasi utama kekuatan suatu negara. Namun, stabilitas ekonomi tidak selalu berjalan dengan mulus karena adanya banyak faktor, baik faktor eksternal maupun faktor internal. Salah satu indikator utama yang digunakan untuk melihat perkembangan perekonomian suatu negara adalah tingkat laju inflasi. Inflasi adalah kecenderungan dari harga-harga untuk meningkat secara umum terhadap kelompok barang kebutuhan masyarakat dan bersifat terus menerus. Ada banyak faktor yang mempengarui terjadinya inflasi salah satunya yaitu jumlah uang beredar. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memodelkan jumlah uang beredar dan inflasi nasional dengan model Vector Error Correction (VECM). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa estimasi VECM untuk fungsi inflasi jangka pendek terdapat nilai koreksi kesalahan dari jangka pendek ke jangka panjang sebesar 0,000235.  Pada analisis jangka pendek, perubahan jumlah uang beredar pada bulan sebelumnya memberikan pengaruh yang negatif terhadap perubahan inflasi bulan ini sebesar 0,207. Sedangkan perubahan inflasi bulan sebelumnya memberikan pengaruh yang positif terhada perubahan perubahan jumlah uang beredar pada bulan ini sebesar 0,000570.
Toward a Regulatory Framework for the Legalization of Cannabis: How Do We Get to There from Here?
Authors: Cyrenne Philippe , Shanahan Marian
Published: February 2018

This article discusses several issues related to the development of a regulatory system for the legalization of cannabis. We first outline a framework for considering how goods and services in general are treated from a legal and regulatory point of view. This is followed by a brief summary of the current legal treatment of cannabis in Canada and in several other countries. Next, we outline several possible motivations for government intervention in the cannabis industry, followed by a discussion of policy options available for realizing an optimal regulatory structure for cannabis in general. Finally, we summarize the nature of the policy choices facing the federal and provincial governments in developing a regulatory framework for the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada.
Comparison of seismic performance between thermal insulation concrete and normal concrete shear walls
Authors: Jiang Lu , Li Zhu , Liu Yuanzhen , Wang Wenjing , Zhang Yizhi , Chen Y. Frank
Published: February 2018

Thermal insulation concrete (TIC) with glazed hollow beads (GHBs) is a new type of building materials meeting the needs of energy-saving building. The TIC is advantageous in applications due to its excellent bearing capacity and thermal insulation properties. This paper discusses the seismic performance of the shear wall with TIC. Based on the seismic tests of two specimens under low frequency cyclic horizontal loads with constant vertical actions, the hysteretic behavior, energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation and failure pattern of the shear wall were investigated. A finite element model was developed and nonlinear analyses were made to simulate the quasi-static test of the shear wall using ABAQUS software. Both modal and time-history analyses of a test building with TIC were also performed using SAP2000 software. The test results show that, compared with the normal concrete shear wall (SW), the shear wall with TIC (specimens named GSW) has better energy dissipation capacity and ductility, while the failure pattern is similar.
Test procedure for stress damage of ferromagnetic materials based on metal magnetic memory effects
Authors: Wang Guoqing , Yang Lijian , Yan Ping , Wei Liwa
Published: February 2018

The metal magnetic memory effect is highly sensitive to stress. This experimental investigation of the magnetic memory signal characteristic of a ferromagnetic material at different stress-strain states has been performed using X80 steel specimens. The magnetic signals were measured in accordance with these procedures at twice the elastic deformation and once the elastic deformation to fracture under the tensile load. The results indicate that magnetic memory signals linearly decrease with increasing tensile load in the elastic state and the reverse in the plastic stage. The intensity clearly increases when damage occurs which can be taken as evidence for damage caused by stress. The test was performed on an actual pipeline with a crack created by a special device. The effect of metal magnetic memory for the evaluation of damage caused by stress has thus been verified by this engineering procedure.
Fifty years of progress in understanding ice sheets
Authors: Robin Gordon de Q. , Swithinbank Charles
Published: February 2018

Over the past 50 years, ideas relating to the physical features and dynamics of ice sheets have evolved materially, primarily due to modern technological advances in the acquisition of basic data. This paper therefore does not review contemporary knowledge but records how our perception of ice sheets has changed with time. Rather than dealing with individual contributions to the understanding of ice sheets, major topics and concepts are considered against a background of earlier ideas and theories.

Both the form and extent of the surface features of ice sheets have been defined more clearly by the relatively recent use of satellite studies (imagery and altimetry). In an analogous way, radio echo-sounding has enabled the accurate calculation of ice thicknesses and the mapping of the sub-ice bedrock contours, and hence estimation of the ice volume. Studies on the dynamics of ice sheets have been enhanced by bore-hole sampling of deep ice and the determination of ice-temperature distributions, coupled with measurements of mass balance and both surface and internal ice movement. Internal deformation of ice sheets, surging, and various flow theories are considered in relation to recent modelling studies. Global geophysics inevitably includes the role of ice sheets, and therefore climatological studies and new atmospheric chemistry data, together with information on the distribution of meteorites on the Antarctic ice sheet, are considered critically.

Modern concepts of the evolution of ice sheets have substantially modified earlier ideas of the glacial geologists and have explained much that had previously mystified them.
Fifty years of progress in ice physics
Authors: Glen John W.
Published: February 2018

Our understanding of the basic physics underlying the properties of ice has dramatically changed during the last half century. At the beginning of this period it was known that the water molecules in ice were arranged with tetrahedral hydrogen bonding, and it had just been established that the hydrogens were not crystallographically arranged on these bonds; however, the way in which water molecules could re-orient was unknown and the implications of this for the mechanical properties and hence for glacier flow were unexplored. The suggestion of electrical point defects in ice, the L and D defects of Bjerrum and the ionic defects, pointed the way to an understanding first of the dielectric relaxation and electrical conductivity of ice and then to a possible interaction between these electrical properties and the movement of dislocations, and hence the plastic deformation of ice.

Menwhile, much work was done to study the behaviour of ice under various physical conditions and to establish more rigorous laws for many physical properties of single crystals of ice and of various forms of polycrystalline ice, and much work was done to find the crystallographic structures of the various phases of ice including those already known to exist at high pressures. The intriguing appearance of a cubic form of ice at low temperatures was also investigated together with vitreous ice formed at even lower temperatures.

Many of these properties are of great interest to meteorologists trying to understand cloud physics and the physics of thunderstorm electricity as well as to astronomers thinking about ice in space, comets, the icy satellites of the planets, or even on the planets themselves.
Technology in the advancement of glaciology
Authors: Zwally H. Jay
Published: February 2018

Many of the major advances in glaciology during the past 50 years have followed the development and application of new technology for viewing and measuring various characteristics of ice. Microscopes to study ice crystals, radars to probe the internal structure of large ice masses, mass spectrometers to analyze the atomic composition of ice cores, and satellite sensors to measure the global distribution of ice are some of the tools readily adapted by glaciologists. Today, new tools include microcomputers for automatic data logging, large-memory computers for data processing and numerical modeling, sensitive instruments for ice analysis, and satellite sensors for large-scale ice observations. In the future, continued advances in key technologies will help guide the evolution of science questions considered by glaciologists, expanding our view of ice, its fundamental properties, its interactions within the ice–ocean–land–atmosphere system, and its role in the evolution of our global environment.
Remediation of heavy metal polluted soil through organic amendments
Authors: Naser HM , Rahman MZ , Sultana S , Quddus MA , Haoque MA
Published: February 2018

This study was conducted to determine the effects of organic materials to remediate contaminated soil with heavy metals. A pot study was performed by growing maize (Zea mays) in metal contaminated soil (10 kg pot-1) and soils amendments with cow manure dust, poultry manure dust, vermicompost dust, fern dust, water hyacinth dust, mustard stover dust and barnyard grass dust each at 5 g kg-1 soil. The results showed that Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr and Co uptake by maize depended on the organic materials type. Water hyacinth dust, fern dust, mustard stover dust, and barnyard grass dust addition led to decreased metal content in maize, and this decrease was better expressed with 20.5 to 33.3% for fern dust, 17.3 to 22.0 % for water hyacinth, 18.6 to 21.3% for mustard stover dust, 17.33 to 20.5% for barnyard grass dust. Cow manure dust, poultry manure dust and vermicompost dust led to increased metal content in the maize, and this increase was 6.80 to 18.7 % for cow manure, 18.9 to 86.7 % for poultry manure and 17.4 to 16.0 % for vermicompost. The different effectiveness of organic amendment on metal uptake by maize plant could be due to the nature of organic matter where water hyacinth dust, fern dust, mustard stover dust, and barnyard grass dust were mainly originated from plant. On the other hand, cow manure, poultry manure and vermicompost were mainly the excreta collected from cattle, poultry and earthworms. However, immobilization and phytoextraction techniques might be used to remediate soils which are contaminated with heavy metal.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 42(4): 589-598, December 2017
Investigation on genetic control for yield and yield contributing traits in advanced generation of maize (Zea mays L.)
Authors: Begum S , Amiruzzaman M , Ahmed A , Omy SH , Rohman MM
Published: February 2018

Twenty five cross progeny of maize developed by Plant Breeding Division of BARI were evaluated by determining general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effects following line × tester design involving five female lines and five testers for grain yield and other yield contributing traits. Highly significant genotypic variances specified inclusive inconsistency existed among the genotypes. None of the lines showed significant GCA effects for all the characters, but the line Pac-60/S4-3 and Pac-60/S4-9 showed negative GCA effect for days to 50% tasseling and silking which is desirable to develop early variety. Additionally, the line Pac-60/S4-9, Pac-60/S4-18 and Pac-60/S4-21 showed negative GCA effect for plant and ear height which is also desirable to develop dwarf variety. Nevertheless, none of the cross showed significant SCA effect for any character studied, but crosses Pac-60/S4-21×BIL-113, Pac-60/S4-21×Utn/S4-15, Pac-60/S4-18×Utn/S4-8, Pac-60/S4-3×BIL-113, Pac-60/S4-3×Utn/S4-18, Pac-60/S4-9×Utn/S4-15, Pac-60/S4-9×BIL-113 and Pac-60/S4-21×Utn/S4-10 had higher yield with positive SCA effects. However, considering yield data along with lodging percentage, five crosses namely Pac-60/S4-21×BIL-113, Pac-60/S4-21×Utn/S4-15, Pac-60/S4-21×Utn/S4-10 Pac-60/S4-9×Utn/S4-15 and Pac-60/S4-3×BIL-113 showed better performance.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 42(4): 715-724, December 2017
Heterosis in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)
Authors: Simi F , Ivy NA , Saif HB , Akter S , Anik MFA
Published: February 2018

Heterosis for quantitative characters in 39 cucumber genotypes (19 parents and 20 F1 s) were investigated at the farm of Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University during March-November, 2013. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among the parents and hybrids for 19 characters studied. Considerable coefficient of variation were observed for branches per plant, flesh thickness, placental thickness, fruit length ,fruit width, male and female flowers per plant, leaf length, leaf breadth, vine length, fruits per plant , fruit yield per plant indicating the scope of selection for those characters. The characters like branches per plant, male and female flowers per plant, fruit length, fruit weight, fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant contributed the maximum variability towards divergence among cucumber genotypes. Heterosis study depicted that the crosses Sobujsathi × Baromashi, Sobujsathi × Khira, Himaloy × Khira, exhibited significant positive heterosis for 50 % female flowering; Himaloy × Baromashi, Baromashi× Greenking for fruit length; Baromashi × Hero, Yuvraj × Khira for single fruit weight. Where Sobujsathi × Baromashi, Shila× Khira , Modhumoti × Hero and Modhumoti × Khira exhibited significant positive heterosis and heterobeltiosis for yield per plant. The highest positive heterotic effect for no. of fruits per plant was observed in Modhumoti × Baromashi (20%). The highest heterobeltiosis effect was found in hybrid Himaloy × Yuvraj (24.5%) followed by Sobujsathi× Khira (11.2 %), Modhumoti × Baromashi (10.0 %). Four crosses exhibited significant positive better parent heterotic effect for this trait and the combination Sobujsathi × Baromashi had the maximum heterosis on yield (47.6%). The maximum heterobeltiosis effect was found in Shila × Khira (27.73 %) followed by Modhumoti × Hero (15.14%) and Modhumoti × Khira (10%) for fruit yield.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 42(4): 731-747, December 2017
Limits to the Biofortification of Leafy Brassicas with Zinc
Authors: White Philip , Pongrac Paula , Sneddon Claire , Thompson Jacqueline , Wright Gladys
Published: February 2018

Many humans lack sufficient zinc (Zn) in their diet for their wellbeing and increasing Zn concentrations in edible produce (biofortification) can mitigate this. Recent efforts have focused on biofortifying staple crops. However, greater Zn concentrations can be achieved in leafy vegetables than in fruits, seeds, or tubers. Brassicas, such as cabbage and broccoli, are widely consumed and might provide an additional means to increase dietary Zn intake. Zinc concentrations in brassicas are limited primarily by Zn phytotoxicity. To assess the limits of Zn biofortification of brassicas, the Zn concentration in a peat:sand (v/v 75:25) medium was manipulated to examine the relationship between shoot Zn concentration and shoot dry weight (DW) and thereby determine the critical shoot Zn concentrations, defined as the shoot Zn concentration at which yield is reduced below 90%. The critical shoot Zn concentration was regarded as the commercial limit to Zn biofortification. Experiments were undertaken over six successive years. A linear relationship between Zn fertiliser application and shoot Zn concentration was observed at low application rates. Critical shoot Zn concentrations ranged from 0.074 to 1.201 mg Zn g−1 DW among cabbage genotypes studied in 2014, and between 0.117 and 1.666 mg Zn g−1 DW among broccoli genotypes studied in 2015–2017. It is concluded that if 5% of the dietary Zn intake of a population is currently delivered through brassicas, then the biofortification of brassicas from 0.057 to > 0.100 mg Zn g−1 DW through the application of Zn fertilisers could increase dietary Zn intake substantially.
Quantification of Phenolic Compounds and In Vitro Radical Scavenging Abilities with Leaf Extracts from Two Varieties of Psidium guajava L.
Authors: Camarena-Tello Julio , Martínez-Flores Héctor , Garnica-Romo Ma. , Padilla-Ramírez José , Saavedra-Molina Alfredo , Alvarez-Cortes Osvaldo , Bartolomé-Camacho María , Rodiles-López José
Published: February 2018

Guava leaf (Psidium guajava L.) extracts are used in both traditional medicine and the pharmaceutical industry. The antioxidant compounds in P. guajava leaves can have positive effects including anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperglycemic, hepatoprotective, analgesic, anti-cancer effects, as well as protecting against cardiovascular diseases. In the present study, phenolic compounds and in vitro antioxidant capacity were measured in extracts obtained with polar and non-polar solvents from leaves of two varieties of guava, Calvillo Siglo XXI and Hidrozac. The quantity of total phenolics and total flavonoids were expressed as equivalents of gallic acid and quercetin, respectively. Hydroxyl radical, 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity using fluorescein (ORAC-FL) in vitro tests were used to assess the radical scavenging abilities of the extracts. The total phenolics were higher in the aqueous fraction of the variety Calvillo Siglo XXI, while in the Hidrozac variety total phenolics were higher in the acetone and chloroform fractions. Total flavonoids were higher in all fractions in the variety Calvillo Siglo XXI. Total phenolics showed a highly positive correlation for ORAC-FL, and a moderately positive correlation with hydroxyl radicals. Finally, total flavonoids showed a slightly positive correlation for ORAC-FL and hydroxyl radicals. Both varieties of guava leaf extract showed excellent antioxidant properties.
Perceptual Image Hashing Using Latent Low-Rank Representation and Uniform LBP
Authors: Yang Hengfu , Yin Jianping , Jiang Mingfang
Published: February 2018

Robustness and discriminability are the two most important features of perceptual image hashing (PIH) schemes. In order to achieve a good balance between perceptual robustness and discriminability, a novel PIH algorithm is proposed by combining latent low-rank representation (LLRR) and rotation invariant uniform local binary patterns (RiuLBP). LLRR is first applied on resized original images to the principal feature matrix and to the salient feature matrix, since it can automatically extract salient features from corrupted images. Following this, Riulocal bin features are extracted from each non-overlapping block of the principal feature matrix and of the salient feature matrix, respectively. All features are concatenated and scrambled to generate final binary hash code. Experimental results show that the proposed hashing algorithm is robust against many types of distortions and attacks, such as noise addition, low-pass filtering, rotation, scaling, and JPEG compression. It outperforms other local binary patterns (LBP) based image hashing schemes in terms of perceptual robustness and discriminability.
Applicability of Emotion Recognition and Induction Methods to Study the Behavior of Programmers
Authors: Wrobel Michal
Published: February 2018

Recent studies in the field of software engineering have shown that positive emotions can increase and negative emotions decrease the productivity of programmers. In the field of affective computing, many methods and tools to recognize the emotions of computer users were proposed. However, it has not been verified yet which of them can be used to monitor the emotional states of software developers. The paper describes a study carried out on a group of 35 participants to determine which of these methods can be used during programming. During the study, data from multiple sensors that are commonly used in methods of emotional recognition were collected. The participants were extensively questioned about the sensors’ invasiveness during programming. This allowed us to determine which of them are applicable in the work of programmers. In addition, it was verified which methods are suitable for use in the work environment and which are only suitable in the laboratory. Moreover, three methods for inducing negative emotions have been proposed, and their effectiveness has been verified.
Multi-Agent Decision Support Tool to Enable Interoperability among Heterogeneous Energy Systems
Authors: Teixeira Brígida , Pinto Tiago , Silva Francisco , Santos Gabriel , Praça Isabel , Vale Zita
Published: February 2018

Worldwide electricity markets are undergoing a major restructuring process. One of the main reasons for the ongoing changes is to enable the adaptation of current market models to the new paradigm that arises from the large-scale integration of distributed generation sources. In order to deal with the unpredictability caused by the intermittent nature of the distributed generation and the large number of variables that contribute to the energy sector balance, it is extremely important to use simulation systems that are capable of dealing with the required complexity. This paper presents the Tools Control Center (TOOCC), a framework that allows the interoperability between heterogeneous energy and power simulation systems through the use of ontologies, allowing the simulation of scenarios with a high degree of complexity, through the cooperation of the individual capacities of each system. A case study based on real data is presented in order to demonstrate the interoperability capabilities of TOOCC. The simulation considers the energy management of a microgrid of a real university campus, from the perspective of the network manager and also of its consumers/producers, in a projection for a typical day of the winter of 2050.
Comparative Spectroscopic Investigation of Tm3+:Tellurite Glasses for 2-μm Lasing Applications
Authors: Cankaya Huseyin , Gorgulu Adil , Kurt Adnan , Speghini Adolfo , Bettinelli Marco , Sennaroglu Alphan
Published: February 2018

We performed a comparative spectroscopic analysis on three novel Tm3+:tellurite-based glasses with the following compositions Tm2O3:TeO2-ZnO (TeZnTm), Tm2O3:TeO2-Nb2O5 (TeNbTm), and Tm3+:TeO2-K2O-Nb2O5 (TeNbKTm), primarily for 2-μm laser applications. Tellurite glasses were prepared at different doping concentrations in order to investigate the effect of Tm3+ ion concentration as well as host composition on the stimulated emission cross sections and the luminescence quantum efficiencies. By performing Judd–Ofelt analysis, we determined the average radiative lifetimes of the 3H4 level to be 2.55 ± 0.07 ms, 2.76 ± 0.03 ms and 2.57 ± 0.20 ms for the TeZnTm, TeNbTm and TeNbKTm samples, respectively. We clearly observed the effect of the cross-relaxation, which becomes significant at higher Tm2O3 concentrations, leading to the quenching of 1460-nm emission and enhancement of 1860-nm emission. Furthermore, with increasing Tm2O3 concentrations, we observed a decrease in the fluorescence lifetimes as a result of the onset of non-radiative decay. For the 3H4 level, the highest obtained quantum efficiency was 32% for the samples with the lowest Tm2O3 ion concentration. For the 1860-nm emission band, the average emission cross section was determined to measure around 6.33 ± 0.34 × 10−21 cm2, revealing the potential of thulium-doped tellurite gain media for 2-μm laser applications in bulk and fiber configurations.
Radiation Pressure-Driven Plasma Surface Dynamics in Ultra-Intense Laser Pulse Interactions with Ultra-Thin Foils
Authors: Gonzalez-Izquierdo Bruno , Capdessus Remi , King Martin , Gray Ross , Wilson Robbie , Dance Rachel , McCreadie John , Butler Nicholas , Hawkes Steve , Green James , Booth Nicola , Borghesi Marco , Neely David , McKenna Paul
Published: February 2018

The dynamics of the plasma critical density surface in an ultra-thin foil target irradiated by an ultra-intense (∼6 × 10 20 Wcm − 2 ) laser pulse is investigated experimentally and via 2D particle-in-cell simulations. Changes to the surface motion are diagnosed as a function of foil thickness. The experimental and numerical results are compared with hole-boring and light-sail models of radiation pressure acceleration, to identify the foil thickness range for which each model accounts for the measured surface motion. Both the experimental and numerical results show that the onset of relativistic self-induced transparency, in the thinnest targets investigated, limits the velocity of the critical surface, and thus the effectiveness of radiation pressure acceleration.
MAP-MRF-Based Super-Resolution Reconstruction Approach for Coded Aperture Compressive Temporal Imaging
Authors: Zhang Tinghua , Gao Kun
Published: February 2018

Coded Aperture Compressive Temporal Imaging (CACTI) can afford low-cost temporal super-resolution (SR), but limits are imposed by noise and compression ratio on reconstruction quality. To utilize inter-frame redundant information from multiple observations and sparsity in multi-transform domains, a robust reconstruction approach based on maximum a posteriori probability and Markov random field (MAP-MRF) model for CACTI is proposed. The proposed approach adopts a weighted 3D neighbor system (WNS) and the coordinate descent method to perform joint estimation of model parameters, to achieve the robust super-resolution reconstruction. The proposed multi-reconstruction algorithm considers both total variation (TV) and ℓ 2 , 1 norm in wavelet domain to address the minimization problem for compressive sensing, and solves it using an accelerated generalized alternating projection algorithm. The weighting coefficient for different regularizations and frames is resolved by the motion characteristics of pixels. The proposed approach can provide high visual quality in the foreground and background of a scene simultaneously and enhance the fidelity of the reconstruction results. Simulation results have verified the efficacy of our new optimization framework and the proposed reconstruction approach.