bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Detection of Natural and Simulated Periodontal Defects Using Cone-Beam Computed Tomography and Digital Intraoral Radiography
Authors: Misirli Melis , Aksoy Secil , İçen Murat , Tumer Hayriye , Bilginaylar Kani , Karaoglulari Suzan , Berberoglu Atilla , Orhan Kaan
Published: March 2022

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to compare the diagnostic value of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and digital intraoral periapical imaging methods in the diagnosis of periodontal defects, and the comparison of observers practicing dentistry in the field of periodontology and 3 other observers specialized in various branches was evaluated.
Methods: 7 dry mandible and 5 dry maxilla were used in this study. A total of 111 artificial and natural defects (dehiscence, furca, fenestration, vertical defects) on the anterior, premolar and molar region were imaged with digital imaging techniques using different exposure parameters and scanned with CBCT.
Results: According to the results of this study, CBCT is a more reliable method in the evaluation of all periodontal defects compared to CCD and PSP. 60 and 70 kVp with 0.01 irradiation time in CCD and 70 kVp 0.25 irradiation time in PSP is not suitable for detecting defects owing to high contrast. In the evaluation of periodontal defects, there was no single observer who had good results, different imaging methods and varying results were obtained in different defects.
Conclusion: This study showed that the CBCT method has some diagnostic value for detecting all natural and simulated periodontal defects but it should only be used in cases where clinical evaluation and conventional radiographic imaging do not provide the information necessary for an adequate diagnosis and proper periodontal treatment planning.
Mental Health Wellbeing of School Age Children is Matter: A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a School-Based Mental Health Awareness Program in The Middle Schools in Oman
Authors: Al Nasiri Yusra , Al Abri Aisha , Al Rawahi Afra , Al Harrasi Al Anood , Al Shuaibi Amal , Al Owisi Amina , Al Rashdi Arwa , Al Shabibi Atheer , Al Hakmani Balaqis , Al Harthi Shamsa
Published: March 2022

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a school-based mental health awareness program among school age children.
Methods: This was a quantitative study that recruited 178 parents and 150 students from different levels (Grades 5-10) attended the awareness activity at two middle schools in Oman. A convenient sampling approach was utilized.
Results: There was a significant different in mood and feelings score between the grades (p=0.001); with grade 10 being the highest disturbed mood changes (M= 23.25, SD= 5.54). The results also showed that 55% of students experienced anxiety. From the analysis, it was found that grade 10 (M=36.15, SD= 18.43, p=0.05) reported higher anxiety than others groups. The results indicated also a strong correlation between experience of bullying and mental health problems (r=0.85). The evaluation of awareness program indicated that 91% of parents reported improvement in knowledge; 89% suggested that many information they were not aware of before. 92% rated the video as informative. 93% agreed that the program activities were entertaining and informative. 92% reported that the activity increased their awareness to observe the changes in their children emotional wellbeing. 98% of parents enjoyed the activities and rated the overall program as effective and very interesting.
Conclusion: There is a dire need to conduct various awareness programs in the community. Such programs are not only helpful in improving the community knowledge on the factors influencing childrenâ€™s mental health, but also assist in identifying the mental health problems at early stage; which may empower them to seek early management for their children. This study suggests an establishment of a mental health program for children in Oman to identify the cases, assess the mental problems affecting children at different ages and refer them for further support and management.
A spectacular case of penetrating craniocerebral trauma from a rake
Authors: Somrani Kaouther , Rkhami Mouna , Gader Ghassen , Bedioui Aziz , Zammel Ihsen
Published: March 2022

We present a case of a 30-years-old man who was victim of aggression
with a rake blow to the head. The surgery was delicate since two of the
rake’s teeth plunged into the superior sagittal sinus. Postoperatively,
the patient was discharged with only a right upper limb monoparesia.
Quantifying trade-offs of land multifunctionality evaluated by set pair analysis in ecologically vulnerable areas of northwestern China: Implications for sustainable land use
Authors: Han Ziyan , Meng Jijun , Zhu Likai , Cheng Haoran , Wu Yingdi , Wei Chanjuan
Published: March 2022

Abstract: Land systems in drylands have been experiencing increasing
conflicts among different land functions due to ecological vulnerability
and growing demands. The improvement of one function is often at the
cost of other functions, which causes trade-offs of functions.
Understanding land multifunctionality and its trade-offs are
prerequisites to alleviate land use conflicts and achieve land
sustainability. But research often cannot well address the fuzziness and
uncertainty within assessments, and neglect the nonlinear feature when
quantifying the trade-offs. Taking the Heihe River Basin (HRB), a
typical arid ecologically vulnerable area in China, as the study area,
we applied the set pair analysis (SPA) to develop a novel framework for
assessing land multifunctionality at a fine scale from the
production-living-ecological angle. We then utilized the constraint line
fitted with segmented quantile regression to identify the trade-offs
among land functions and understand the bidirectional interaction
between land systems. The results showed that the overall land
multifunctionality in HRB showed an upward trend during 2000-2015, and
especially the production and living functions had a larger magnitude.
We used the coupling coordination degree to comprehensively indicate the
interaction and found that the degree was high in the south and low in
the north, which was mainly controlled by ecological function. The
effects of different drivers on land functions showed nonlinear
characteristics, and thresholds existed for some influencing factors.
Our research provides reliable and detailed information to coordinated
the development of land systems, which is helpful for sustainable land
use and territorial spatial planning.
VISUALIZATION AND ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION ON WORKPLACE ERGONOMICS BASED ON COMPUTER DESIGN PROTOTYPING MINE EXCAVATOR CAB
Authors: VELIKANOV VLADIMIR S. , ILYINA ELENA A. , KOCHERZHINSKAYA YULIA V.
Published: March 2022

The authors conducted a study of the systemic relationships in the indicators of the driver's workplace ergonomics. The research focused on improving the efficiency of mining excavator control. The application of modern information processing methods, such as computer prototyping, allowed visualizing control objects with preliminary calculation of visibility, illumination, overall dimensions and the capsule-type cabin design of a mining excavator including an anthropomorphic manikin. As a result, the ergonomic designing system, that takes into account the industry-specific features of industrial mining equipment, has been developed and registered.
Robotic-Assisted Mini-Gastric By-Pass for Diabetes in Children: A First Case Report and Review of the Literature
Authors: Cag Murat , Ozdemir Yesim , Civilibal Mahmut , Korkmaz Askin Ali , Silay Mesrur Selcuk
Published: March 2022

Objectives: Obesity is one of the most common diseases of children across the globe with repercussion because of comorbidities like diabetes for the future followed by premature deaths. We aimed to report the world first case of robotic-assisted mini-gastric by-pass in 15 years old boy to treat diabetes and obesity. Surgical technique and review of the literature has been presented. Patient and Methods: Fifteen years old male with Body Mass Index (BMI) 58.6 at 125 percentile, and the patient was followed by dietetic counseling and with increasing metformin dosage treatment because of insulin resistance in his country. After 3 years of follow up the patient’s treatment was not successful and therefore the family addressed to our obesity council. Our genetic consultant assured the boy doesn’t have MC4R mutation. Other endocrinologic comorbidities was evaluated by a pediatrician specialist on obesity and referred to a pediatric endocrinologist. The Type 2 diabetes was diagnosed. Robotic assisted mini-gastric by-pass was planned. Under general anesthesia five instrument ports were placed. Then the robot was docked. The stomach was divided with stapler at the junction of the body and antrum, at a location where the jejunal loop can be brought up comfortably. The jejunal loop is brought up antecolic, and the stapler is used to anatomose the stomach and the small bowel at this point. The distal end of the gastric tube is anastomosed to the side of the small bowel. Methylene blue was given to ensure there was no leakage at the anastomosis and the stapling sites. The antidiabetics were stopped by the operation. The patient was followed for a month with a normalization of blood glucose levels and without medical nor surgical complication. Results: Operative time was 105 minutes. No intraoperative complication was encountered. The patient started walking 6 hours postoperatively. The first postoperative day glucose levels were within the normal limits. Oral contrast CT demonstrated neither leakage nor obstruction on the first day. Patient started oral intake within 24 hours and was discharged in 3 days without any postoperative complication. After 1 month of follow up we didn`t saw any perturbation on blood glucose level. Conclusion: Robotic-assisted mini gastric by-pass is feasible in diabetic children. The main postoperative advantages are early recovery, less pain and better cosmesis with a easily revisable and reversible operation.
Cloud Computing Applications in Universities
Authors:   Department of Computing, North China Electric Power University, No. 619 Yonghua North Street, Baoding, China, Yan Lei , Wang Yan , Hao Jiaqi
Published: March 2022

Information technology plays an important role in education, and our country pays more and more attention to the application of information technology. Cloud computing is a technology that has emerged and spread rapidly in recent years. It is an on-demand computing service based on the Internet. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the significance of cloud computing in universities. This paper introduces the paradigms, concepts, levels, types and characteristics of cloud computing. Cloud computing technology has improved the performance of universities and played an important role in reducing costs. In addition, this paper presents the factors that influence universities' adoption of cloud computing.
Pulsar Star Detection: A Comparative Analysis of Classification Algorithms using SMOTE
Authors: Sadhu Apratim
Published: March 2022

A Pulsar is a highly magnetized rotating compact star whose magnetic poles emit beams of radiation. The application of pulsar stars has a great application in the field of astronomical study. Applications like the existence of gravitational radiation can be indirectly confirmed from the observation of pulsars in a binary neutron star system. Therefore, the identification of pulsars is necessary for the study of gravitational waves and general relativity. Detection of pulsars in the universe can help research in the field of astrophysics. At present, there are millions of pulsar candidates present to be searched. Machine learning techniques can help detect pulsars from such a large number of candidates. The paper discusses nine common classification algorithms for the prediction of pulsar stars and then compares their performances using various classification metrics such as classification accuracy, precision and recall value, ROC score and f-score on both balanced and unbalanced data. SMOTE-technique is used to balance the data for better results. Among the nine algorithms, XGBoosting algorithm achieved the best results. The paper is concluded with prospects of machine learning for pulsar detection in the field of astronomy.
Digital Technologies and Their Application in a Child’s Life
Authors: Gužíková Žaneta , Chicevič Simona , Kostrub Dušan , Brychová Sylvia
Published: March 2022

Introduction: This research aims to examine pedagogically significant applications of digital technologies and attempt to identify certain principles of educational influence in pre-primary education. A qualitative methodology was used for this purpose.

Methods: The research is focused on in-depth interpretive analysis and identification of the meanings of the use of digital technologies for didactic purposes from a pedagogical point of view. The research was conducted in a kindergarten in Šaľa, Slovakia; the research group consisted of 12 children aged 5-6 years and 10 parents of children of preschool age from 3 to 6 years.

Results: The results have shown that through the constant comparative strategy and the sampling of extreme and similar cases we were able to analyse particular occurrences and mutual connections between them as interpreted by children and parents.

Discussion: We know that there are disagreements and conflicts between parents and children in the area of using digital technologies by children. In the application of digital technologies, we see not only a typical feature of contemporary society´s behaviour (communicating, presenting, etc.) but also certain support of development-forming aspects of children’s personalities.

Limitations: The research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic when the kindergartens were attended by a limited number of children. The interviews with parents were carried out online without a closer social contact.

Conclusion: We identified identical and non-identical categories in opinions between children and parents relating to the use of digital technologies by children. We discovered that parental educational principles related to the use of digital technologies are opinion-determined.
Formation of Art Design Skills (Crossover Point) in the Process of University Education
Authors: Humenyuk Tetiana
Published: March 2022

Introduction: The actualization of crossover point design activities in modern artistic practice is due to the growing mass demand for entertainment. The musical and theater project involves the introduction of new technologies. Creation of synthesized art “crossover-projects” requires the efforts of a group of managers and performers, taking into account the demands of the art market, their complex perception by a wide audience, and non-traditional approaches to staging classical works, taking into account the peculiarities of the location.

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to characterize art “crossover-projects” in the context of present culture and to reveal the method of preparation of future specialists to art design during getting university education. The article analyzes the methodology of training future specialists for art design in the process of their university education. The need for such an approach is due to the fact that the functioning of artistic culture in public practice is carried out in accordance with the laws of business, in which the commercial component is of decisive importance. Modern art projects have a high cost, as they involve the support and participation of creative individuals and groups.

Results: The growing demand for modern cultural projects containing a creative search, creative component has made it necessary to introduce the corresponding disciplines into the KNUKiM (Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts) curriculum for master students of creative specialties (audiovisual art and production, theatrical art, musical art, choreographic art), as well as design protection of graduation work in the form of a master’s creative project. The formation of a creative project within the framework of a master’s program is an important element of the formation of skills of the theorist and the practice of artistic culture in their harmonious combination.

Discussion: The phenomenon of design activity - “crossover point” and its distribution in modern artistic practice are characterized. Their polyfunctionalism, “manufacturability” and focus on mass character induce to creative methods that are not burdened with the experience of the past. Indicative in this respect is the design activity of Filevskaya - art manager, sponsor of many projects dedicated to Ukrainian avant-garde art, founder of the public organization “Malevich Institute”. Her work fits into the concept of “crossover projects”.

Conclusion: Preparation for art design within the framework of university education provides for the necessary lines of intersection of various art branches, specialties and specializations, encouraging students to create a synthetic artistic product at the intersection of various types of arts and aesthetic and artistic traditions, since the “purity” of art is no longer a criterion for creativity and professional success.
The Importance of Environmental Certificates for Green Hotel: Bibliometric and Network Analysis
Authors: Qubbaj Abdullah , Signes Angel Peiro
Published: March 2022

Environmental problem has become a popular research area. Efforts are being made at an international level for creating a sustainable environment. Hospitality industry is considered to be one of the main industries of a country. It makes contributions in the development of sustainable environment. Hospitality industry is adopting environmental certifications and green hotels concept rapidly. In this research, we performed bibliometric analysis of 49 articles on the topic of importance of environmental certificates for green hotels. Results indicate that majority of the journals have articles with a large number of citations, which indicates that they are high-quality journals. The results indicate that Cornell University, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and George Washington University are the institutes producing high-quality research work, as 28% of the researchers cited the articles published by the researchers of these universities. Results indicate that universities of Spain and USA are the largest contributors, as they have published 52% the total articles in the area under this study. USA and Spain are considered to be the world superpowers; their interest in this area of research unveils the importance of the topic. The authors Verma, Chan, and Rivera are the core researchers of this area, as they published 20% of the overall articles discussed in this study, which makes them the gurus of the research area.
An Experimenter's Experiences in Early Commercial Suborbital Flight
Authors: Collicott Steven H.
Published: March 2022

The emerging commercial suborbital rocket industry in the U.S. presents new opportunities for research and education missions. Some companies have been publicized by the world's media and others are lower-profile. Additionally, some companies were created for the space tourism market and others have no current plans to fly humans at all. Most companies already have a Payload User's Guide published at their websites. The time for experimenters to take note of this industry is now, because in early 2014 a number of these companies were already operational or in flight test phase of their business development. When thousands of dollars, instead of millions for traditional NASA or European Space Agency (ESA) sounding rockets, are needed for a suborbital flight, many more researchers will be able to afford suborbital testing and research. In general, these rocket companies seek to provide at least three minutes of high-quality weightless test times from approximately 60 km to 100 km in altitude, and back to 60 km. Purdue University has been fortunate to have secured numerous launches for small payloads during these developmental and early operational years of the industry. Lessons from these launches include lessons in design, payload environment, procedures, launch site infrastructure, and travel preparations.
A new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for serological diagnosis of seal parapoxvirus infection in marine mammals
Authors: Badr Yassien , Rahman Md. Matiur , Ohno Yoshito , Ishijima Keita , Maeda Ken , Kohyama Kaoru , Kamatari Yuji O. , Shimizu Kaori , Okada Ayaka , Inoshima Yasuo
Published: March 2022

Introduction

Seal parapoxvirus (SPPV) infection has been reported among pinnipeds in aquaria in Japan; however, its seroprevalence is unknown. Therefore, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for serological diagnosis of SPPV infection.

Material and Methods

The gene encoding the major envelope protein of SPPV was cloned into the eukaryotic expression vector pAcGFP1-N1, which encodes the green fluorescence protein (GFP), thereby producing a fusion protein (Env-GFP). Parental and cloned vector DNA was independently transfected into cultured seal cells for the expression of GFP and Env-GFP. The wells of an ELISA plate were coated with either GFP- or Env-GFP-transfected cell lysates. The light absorbance of each serum sample was adjusted by subtracting the absorbance of GFP-coated wells from that of Env-GFP-coated wells. Sera from two spotted seals (Phoca largha), six beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas), three Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens), and ten bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from an aquarium in Japan were examined using the ELISA.

Results

Positive reactions were not observed, except in one preserved sample collected ten years ago from a naturally SPPV-infected spotted seal.

Conclusion

The established ELISA could be useful in screening marine mammal sera for anti-SPPV antibodies.
Prevalence of infectious diseases on dairy farms classified on the basis of their biosecurity score
Authors: Perillo Laura , Cascone Giuseppe , Antoci Francesco , Piccione Giuseppe , Giannetto Claudia , Salonia Rosario , Salina Felice , Giudice Elisabetta , Monteverde Vincenzo , Licitra Francesca
Published: March 2022

Introduction

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between biosecurity as scored on the Italian National Animal Welfare Reference Centre (Centro di Referenza Nazionale per il Benessere Animale – CReNBA) checklist and the prevalence of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, Chlamydophila abortus and Neospora caninum on dairy farms located in Ragusa, Italy.

Material and Methods

The checklist was used to assign an animal welfare score to 31 dairy farms. Twenty-one farms with a moderate score (>33%, <66%) formed group 1, and 10 farms with a high score (>66%) were group 2. Blood samples were collected from all cows on each farm to investigate the titres of antibodies against the relevant pathogens. Two-way analysis of variance was applied to assess differences between the two experimental groups and the Mann–Whitney test was applied to evaluate prevalence differences in the tested parasites between the groups.

Results

All tested farms had a score that classified them as either good or excellent. A higher incidence of Neospora caninum was observed in group 1. The incidences of the other two parasites were no different between the two groups.

Conclusion

The CReNBA checklist represents an impartial, reproducible, functional and smart instrument based on risk analysis and assigns a farm a mathematical animal welfare score. Among the parasites tested for, only Neospora caninum had prevalence influenced by biosecurity. Our preliminary results highlighted the positive associations between good animal welfare, high levels of biosecurity, and the prevention of the infectious diseases caused by the parasites in our focus, which are common on dairy farms.
Circular Economy and Strategic Management of the Construction Company
Authors: Marichova Aneta
Published: March 2022

One of the EU’s main priorities is sustainable development, which imposes the leading concept of a circular economy - an alternative economic model of the traditional linear economy. This poses new challenges to the company and managers and requires significant changes in strategic management, aimed at building competitive advantages by creating, offering and realizing additional economic, social and environmental value for the client, stakeholders and society as a whole. From this point of view, the research aims to: 1) Develop a model of strategic management - relationship between the circular development and the building of competitive company advantages, 2) Empirical study of the indicated connections and dependencies in the model and the influence on the process of building competitive advantages in companies operating on the construction market.
Considerations Regarding the Establishment of the Location for a Residential Building in the Project phase Based on Energy Consumption
Authors: Cîrstolovean Lucian
Published: March 2022

In this paper we propose to present the analysis of energy consumption for heating for a building in the design phase depending on the conditions of location in the field. We analyzed 3 variants of the location of the building. Establishing the location of the location for a building according to the estimation of energy consumption in the project phase is in accordance with the requirements established in Directive 2010/31 / EU. Design decisions can also have an impact on land use, resource use and the production of waste and emissions throughout the life cycle of the building.
Study of Susceptibility to Flash Floods in the Vărbilău River Catchment
Authors: Popescu Cristian , Ștefan Dumitriu Cristian
Published: March 2022

Identification of areas susceptible to flash floods is essential to establish measures that will help the population in case of a hazard. Therefore, the purpose of the present article is to identify the areas that present a high susceptibility to flash-floods in the Vărbilău catchment. The area, located in the Prahova region, was chosen due to the complexity of the hydrological phenomena. To determine the susceptibility to flash floods, the Flash Flood Susceptibility Index (FFSI) was calculated by integrating ten factors that play an essential role in the flash floods formation. Areas located downstream and in the middle of Vărbilău basin present a low risk, while locations in the northwest (upstream of Luţu Roşu and Scurteşti) present a high risk to flash-floods due to steep slope, narrow valleys, solid rocks, and land use.
On the Fractal Characteristics of Some Meteorological Extreme Series Recorded at Constanta, Romania
Authors: Bărbulescu Alina , Ștefan Dumitriu Cristian
Published: March 2022

The study of hydro-meteorological series is important for planning agricultural activities, managing water resources, and taking measures to prevent the effects of natural hazards. Therefore, here we analyze the fractal characteristics of the temperature series recorded at Constanta, Romania. The studied series are the annual mean maximum annual and minimum annual temperatures recorded during 1961-2018.
Tendencies of Adapting Building Materials and Constructive Solutions to the Present Climate Changes
Authors: Gabriela Draghici , Cosmin Filip , Nicolae Bizu Alexandru
Published: March 2022

The changes occurred on the climate are a reality that produces changes within the socio-economic environment. Climate change is largely due to greenhouse gas emissions generated by human, domestic and economic activities. In this climate, the constructive solutions of buildings must take into account climate changes and meet new requirements. In this context, building materials must improve and correspond to the new paradigm so as to fulfill their basic role, namely:

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creating an indoor climate corresponding to the hygienic-sanitary and thermal,

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comfort requirements in residential and socio-cultural buildings,

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ensuring the necessary indoor climate for carrying out economic activities reducing, as much as possible, the energy consumption for space heating.
Techniques and Materials Used in the Construction of the Mosques in the Dobrogea Area
Authors: Suliman Sever , Grămescu Ana Maria
Published: March 2022

In this paper the authors show the investigations importance on the constituent materials of the mosques, to understand their behaviour in the environment actions, but also for the using off efficient intervention measures. In this paper a comparative analysis is made between three mosques on the territory of Dobrogea, which were built in different periods, and located in areas with different location characteristics.
Traditional Methods and Techniques Used for Earthen Buildings
Authors: Șeitan Tudorel , Grămescu Ana Maria
Published: March 2022

In all arid regions of the globe, but also in those with temperate climates, earth was the predominant building material. In modern times, at least a third of the planet’s population lives in earthen houses. The task of providing the necessary construction materials is proving to be quite difficult, even in highly developed countries. Moreover, the irrational exploitation of resources and the elevated levels of production and consumption is not only a waste, but also a source of environmental pollution. In this context, we can talk about the earth as a naturally abundant material that could be the most important resource for construction. It can be both a low-cost building material, but also a material that can meet the current requirements for efficient, low-carbon emission and low-carbon footprint housing.
Criteria and Procedures of Analysis Applicable in the Evaluation of the Archaeological Heritage
Authors: Grămescu Ana Maria , Barbu Ana Maria Daniela , Ioniță Alexandru
Published: March 2022

The implementation of the European policy in the field of built heritage involved, for each country, the creation of the legal, administrative and financial means necessary for the implementation of the rehabilitation policy. The research procedures and the intervention measures must be correlated with the degree of damage (degradation) of the materials, as an effect of earthquakes that the construction has endured, of others specific exploitation actions, differential land settlements, uncontrolled human interventions or environmental factors. Archaeologists around the world have developed a procedure for evaluating archaeological resources, so it appeared in the early 1970s, an example being that developed by Schaffer and Gumerman in 1977. Archaeological sites have the ability to demonstrate how the society functioned at a given time, the level of civilization, the progress of science and technology, what processes have taken place, how the activity unfolded and the extent of a technological practice or other occupation history. They can demonstrate the main characteristics of a place or process that may be rare or common. In the article, the authors develop the principles that lie at the base of quantifying the values of archaeological heritage, presenting some case studies.
Using Earth as a Construction Material
Authors: Tudorel Șeitan
Published: March 2022

Traditionally, the greatest weaknesses of earthen constructions are water infiltration and freeze-thaw cycles. The purpose of this article is to analyze the characteristics of the soil in order to use it as a building material and the ways to improve it using various additives in the mixture or the possible treatment of exposed surfaces.
Establishing the Current State of Research on Urban Regeneration in Waterfront Cities
Authors: Mociu Nicolae-Costin
Published: March 2022

The purpose of this study is to combine two bodies of literature and theory: the first on urban change and coastal regeneration, and the second on the ideas of concerns that influence and shape urban regeneration practice. The goal of this paper is to conduct a review of the pertinent literature on this subject. It will analyze urban change theories as well as the key causes that have shaped transformation over the last few decades. Additionally, it aims to define urban regeneration functionally, to explain its principles and features, and to present a brief history of its growth in Romania. Finally, this work seeks to establish the research niche by examining the evolution of waterfront urban rehabilitation.
Risk and Vulnerability in the Analysis of Apartment Buildings
Authors: Grămescu Ana Maria , Pericleanu Mihaela , Pericleanu Dan , Dimofte Răzvan
Published: March 2022

The real estate funds in Romania in the category of condominiums presents an important subject to be analyzed after several considerastions. Securing apartment buildings raises issues of high complexity. The present study focuses on the presentation of the criteria of analisys, the earthquake as a degradation factor of these buildings, the evolution of norms regarding seismic actions concluding with an important study case building – the Simu apartments block in Bucharest. The authors also synthesized information from several publications over time in Romania.
Aspects Regarding Movila Verde-Independenta Water Supply Duct Protection from Water Hammer
Authors: Nițescu Claudiu , Constantin Anca
Published: March 2022

In the context of sustainable development effort, the water supply systems in the rural area of Constanta County should be optimally designed, so that their safe, efficient operation is assured. The results obtained by numerical simulation showed that Movila Verde -Independenta water supply duct might be subject of cavitation occurrence during hydraulic shock. Further investigations showed that the duct is adequately protected by a relatively short closing law of the check valve and three air valves mounted in the nodes where cavitation might occur. Minimal pressure increases from -10 mwc to -0.6 mwc because of these protection measures. Furthermore, the slight increase of maximal pressure does not require additional protection devices.
Assessment of Water Quality from Coastal Lakes for Use in Irrigation
Authors: Stănescu Mădălina , Buta Constantin , Mihai Geanina
Published: March 2022

The assessment of water quality from coastal lakes for irrigation purposes has emerged from the practical necessity of the land improvements companies, in order to determine the irrigation class of water from coastal lakes that could represent the water source for irrigation facilities in the coastal area. These assessments are the support for the hydro-saline dynamics of the soil, so that the intervention in the environment is harmoniously assimilated to it.
CoverDrop: Blowing the Whistle Through A News App
Authors: Ahmed-Rengers Mansoor , Vasile Diana A. , Hugenroth Daniel , Beresford Alastair R. , Anderson Ross
Published: March 2022

Whistleblowing is hazardous in a world of pervasive surveillance, yet many leading newspapers expect sources to contact them with methods that are either insecure or barely usable. In an attempt to do better, we conducted two workshops with British news organisations and surveyed whistleblowing options and guidelines at major media outlets. We concluded that the soft spot is a system for initial contact and trust establishment between sources and reporters. CoverDrop is a two-way, secure system to do this. We support secure messaging within a news app, so that all its other users provide cover traffic, which we channel through a threshold mix instantiated in a Trusted Execution Environment within the news organisation. CoverDrop is designed to resist a powerful global adversary with the ability to issue warrants against infrastructure providers, yet it can easily be integrated into existing infrastructure. We present the results from our workshops, describe CoverDrop’s design and demonstrate its security and performance.
Increasing Adoption of Tor Browser Using Informational and Planning Nudges
Authors: Story Peter , Smullen Daniel , Chen Rex , Yao Yaxing , Acquisti Alessandro , Cranor Lorrie Faith , Sadeh Norman , Schaub Florian
Published: March 2022

Browsing privacy tools can help people protect their digital privacy. However, tools which provide the strongest protections—such as Tor Browser—have struggled to achieve widespread adoption. This may be due to usability challenges, misconceptions, behavioral biases, or mere lack of awareness. In this study, we test the effectiveness of nudging interventions that encourage the adoption of Tor Browser. First, we test an informational nudge based on protection motivation theory (PMT), designed to raise awareness of Tor Browser and help participants form accurate perceptions of it. Next, we add an action planning implementation intention, designed to help participants identify opportunities for using Tor Browser. Finally, we add a coping planning implementation intention, designed to help participants overcome challenges to using Tor Browser, such as extreme website slowness. We test these nudges in a longitudinal field experiment with 537 participants. We find that our PMT-based intervention increased use of Tor Browser in both the short- and long-term. Our coping planning nudge also increased use of Tor Browser, but only in the week following our intervention. We did not find statistically significant evidence of our action planning nudge increasing use of Tor Browser. Our study contributes to a greater understanding of factors influencing the adoption of Tor Browser, and how nudges might be used to encourage the adoption of Tor Browser and similar privacy enhancing technologies.
Differentially Private Simple Linear Regression
Authors: Alabi Daniel , McMillan Audra , Sarathy Jayshree , Smith Adam , Vadhan Salil
Published: March 2022

Economics and social science research often require analyzing datasets of sensitive personal information at fine granularity, with models fit to small subsets of the data. Unfortunately, such fine-grained analysis can easily reveal sensitive individual information. We study regression algorithms that satisfy differential privacy, a constraint which guarantees that an algorithm’s output reveals little about any individual input data record, even to an attacker with side information about the dataset. Motivated by the Opportunity Atlas, a high-profile, small-area analysis tool in economics research, we perform a thorough experimental evaluation of differentially private algorithms for simple linear regression on small datasets with tens to hundreds of records—a particularly challenging regime for differential privacy. In contrast, prior work on differentially private linear regression focused on multivariate linear regression on large datasets or asymptotic analysis. Through a range of experiments, we identify key factors that affect the relative performance of the algorithms. We find that algorithms based on robust estimators—in particular, the median-based estimator of Theil and Sen—perform best on small datasets (e.g., hundreds of datapoints), while algorithms based on Ordinary Least Squares or Gradient Descent perform better for large datasets. However, we also discuss regimes in which this general finding does not hold. Notably, the differentially private analogues of Theil–Sen (one of which was suggested in a theoretical work of Dwork and Lei) have not been studied in any prior experimental work on differentially private linear regression.
Privacy-preserving training of tree ensembles over continuous data
Authors: Adams Samuel , Choudhary Chaitali , de Cock Martine , Dowsley Rafael , Melanson David , Nascimento Anderson , Railsback Davis , Shen Jianwei
Published: March 2022

Most existing Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) protocols for privacy-preserving training of decision trees over distributed data assume that the features are categorical. In real-life applications, features are often numerical. The standard “in the clear” algorithm to grow decision trees on data with continuous values requires sorting of training examples for each feature in the quest for an optimal cut-point in the range of feature values in each node. Sorting is an expensive operation in MPC, hence finding secure protocols that avoid such an expensive step is a relevant problem in privacy-preserving machine learning. In this paper we propose three more efficient alternatives for secure training of decision tree based models on data with continuous features, namely: (1) secure discretization of the data, followed by secure training of a decision tree over the discretized data; (2) secure discretization of the data, followed by secure training of a random forest over the discretized data; and (3) secure training of extremely randomized trees (“extra-trees”) on the original data. Approaches (2) and (3) both involve randomizing feature choices. In addition, in approach (3) cut-points are chosen randomly as well, thereby alleviating the need to sort or to discretize the data up front. We implemented all proposed solutions in the semi-honest setting with additive secret sharing based MPC. In addition to mathematically proving that all proposed approaches are correct and secure, we experimentally evaluated and compared them in terms of classification accuracy and runtime. We privately train tree ensembles over data sets with thousands of instances or features in a few minutes, with accuracies that are at par with those obtained in the clear. This makes our solution more efficient than the existing approaches, which are based on oblivious sorting.
Checking Websites’ GDPR Consent Compliance for Marketing Emails
Authors: Kubíček Karel , Merane Jakob , Cotrini Carlos , Stremitzer Alexander , Bechtold Stefan , Basin David
Published: March 2022

The sending of marketing emails is regulated to protect users from unsolicited emails. For instance, the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive states that marketers must obtain users’ prior consent, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) specifies further that such consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous.

Based on these requirements, we design a labeling of legal characteristics for websites and emails. This leads to a simple decision procedure that detects potential legal violations. Using our procedure, we evaluated 1000 websites and the 5000 emails resulting from registering to these websites. Both datasets and evaluations are available upon request. We find that 21.9% of the websites contain potential violations of privacy and unfair competition rules, either in the registration process (17.3%) or email communication (17.7%). We demonstrate with a statistical analysis the possibility of automatically detecting such potential violations.
Knowledge Cross-Distillation for Membership Privacy
Authors: Chourasia Rishav , Enkhtaivan Batnyam , Ito Kunihiro , Mori Junki , Teranishi Isamu , Tsuchida Hikaru
Published: March 2022

Amembership inference attack (MIA)poses privacy risks for the training data of a machine learning model. With an MIA, an attacker guesses if the target data are a member of the training dataset. The state-of-the-art defense against MIAs, distillation for membership privacy (DMP), requires not only private data for protection but a large amount of unlabeled public data. However, in certain privacy-sensitive domains, such as medicine and finance, the availability of public data is not guaranteed. Moreover, a trivial method for generating public data by using generative adversarial networks significantly decreases the model accuracy, as reported by the authors of DMP. To overcome this problem, we propose a novel defense against MIAs that uses knowledge distillation without requiring public data. Our experiments show that the privacy protection and accuracy of our defense are comparable to those of DMP for the benchmark tabular datasets used in MIA research, Purchase100 and Texas100, and our defense has a much better privacy-utility trade-off than those of the existing defenses that also do not use public data for the image dataset CIFAR10.
Updatable Private Set Intersection
Authors: Badrinarayanan Saikrishna , Miao Peihan , Xie Tiancheng
Published: March 2022

Private set intersection (PSI) allows two mutually distrusting parties each with a set as input, to learn the intersection of both their sets without revealing anything more about their respective input sets. Traditionally, PSI studies the static setting where the computation is performed only once on both parties’ input sets. We initiate the study of updatable private set intersection (UPSI), which allows parties to compute the intersection of their private sets on a regular basis with sets that also constantly get updated. We consider two specific settings. In the first setting called UPSI with addition, parties can add new elements to their old sets. We construct two protocols in this setting, one allowing both parties to learn the output and the other only allowing one party to learn the output. In the second setting called UPSI with weak deletion, parties can additionally delete their old elements every t days. We present a protocol for this setting allowing both parties to learn the output. All our protocols are secure against semi-honest adversaries and have the guarantee that both the computational and communication complexity only grow with the set updates instead of the entire sets. Finally, we implement our UPSI with addition protocols and compare with the state-of-the-art PSI protocols. Our protocols compare favorably when the total set size is sufficiently large, the new updates are sufficiently small, or in networks with low bandwidth.
d3p - A Python Package for Differentially-Private Probabilistic Programming
Authors: Prediger Lukas , Loppi Niki , Kaski Samuel , Honkela Antti
Published: March 2022

We present d3p, a software package designed to help fielding runtime efficient widely-applicable Bayesian inference under differential privacy guarantees. d3p achieves general applicability to a wide range of probabilistic modelling problems by implementing the differentially private variational inference algorithm, allowing users to fit any parametric probabilistic model with a differentiable density function. d3p adopts the probabilistic programming paradigm as a powerful way for the user to flexibly define such models. We demonstrate the use of our software on a hierarchical logistic regression example, showing the expressiveness of the modelling approach as well as the ease of running the parameter inference. We also perform an empirical evaluation of the runtime of the private inference on a complex model and find a ~10 fold speed-up compared to an implementation using TensorFlow Privacy.
Nutritional Composition of Plant-Based Texture: Modified Foods for Dysphagia Patients
Authors: Kampuse Solvita , Ozola Liene , Krūma Zanda , Kļava Dace , Galoburda Ruta , Straumīte Evita , Siksna Inese
Published: March 2022

There are approximately 590 million people in the world with swallowing disorders (dysphagia), who need texture-modified foods to ensure nutritional intake on a daily basis. The aim of this research was to create new texture-modified products and to evaluate their bioactive and mineral compound concentration. Nine new products (five desserts and four puree-soups) were developed from plant-based ingredients with addition of a source of protein, canola oil, ascorbic acid, and other ingredients. Obtained samples were vacuum-cooked, sterilised at 115 °C for 5 min and tested for their bioactive compound concentration (total carotene and phenol concentration, and ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging activity), and concentration of seven vitamins and thirteen minerals important in human nutrition. The obtained data showed that bioactive compound concentration varied from sample to sample, which was expected due to the varied ingredients of each product. Mineral compound concentration analysis showed low levels of iodine, molybdenum, and selenium. The vitamin analysis showed traces of vitamin D3 and low levels of B group vitamins. Overall, the analysed product composition indicated that the natural background of these products is insufficient for ensuring the human body with all of the necessary vitamins and minerals, and the best solution could be the supplementation of these products with complexes of vitamins and minerals.