cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Developing and validating 'e-health readiness assessment tools' for public and private healthcare institutions in Pakistan
Creators: name: Khoja, Shariq R.
Publisher: name: University of Calgary
Year: 2006

description: Bibliography: p. 155-162
description: Some pages are in colour.
description: A copy of the thesis on CD-Rom is included.
description: Background: e-Readiness refers to the preparedness of a community or an institution to implement successfully any program that involves information and communications technology (ICT). Assessment of e-readiness can facilitate the process of change for individuals and organizations to adopt ICT, and avoid chances of relapse and failure. Various e-readiness assessment tools have been developed and tested in different fields, but very few have been created for healthcare environments. Those tools created for healthcare have only focused on the issues in developed countries. This study was designed to develop e-health? readiness assessment tools for healthcare environments (hereafter referred as e-health readiness) in developing countries. Objectives: To develop instruments to measure “e-health readiness” of healthcare institutions in developing countries, and to test their validity and reliability in Pakistan. Methods: The investigator used a mixed methods approach by applying a sequential exploratory design to develop and validate e-health readiness assessment tools. Tools were developed using participatory action research to capture partners’ opinions, reviewing existing tools, and focusing on the determinants of access to e-health. A qualitative method, borrowed from the tradition of case-study, was used to test the face and content validity of the tools in four institutions. Internal consistency reliability was ? Use of ICTs in the health care environment is referred to as telemedicine, telehealth, or e-health. These terms are not strictly interchangeable, but ‘e-health’ has been selected as the term used in this document. tested by asking healthcare providers and managers to complete the tools. Results were integrated for interpretation. Results: Separate tools were developed to obtain the perspectives of managers and of healthcare providers for e-health readiness within their organizations. Participants endorsed the face and content validity of the tools during the in-depth interviews. The ehealth readiness assessment tools were then modified based on responses from the participants. The final tools were tested for reliability in fourteen institutions across two provinces. A Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.91 was found for the healthcare providers’ tool, whereas a score of 0.94 was found for the managers’ tool. Results obtained from different methods showed good relationship. Conclusion: e-Health readiness assessment tools for healthcare providers and managers have been developed and demonstrated to be valid and reliable in the healthcare institutions in Pakistan. These tools are ready for further testing in healthcare institutions in other developing countries.
Privacy-Preserving Similar Patient Queries for Combined Biomedical Data
Creators: name: Salem, Ahmed
name: Berrang, Pascal
name: Humbert, Mathias
name: Backes, Michael
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: The decreasing costs of molecular profiling have fueled the biomedical research community with a plethora of new types of biomedical data, enabling a breakthrough towards more precise and personalized medicine. Naturally, the increasing availability of data also enables physicians to compare patients’ data and treatments easily and to find similar patients in order to propose the optimal therapy. Such similar patient queries (SPQs) are of utmost importance to medical practice and will be relied upon in future health information exchange systems. While privacy-preserving solutions have been previously studied, those are limited to genomic data, ignoring the different newly available types of biomedical data. In this paper, we propose new cryptographic techniques for finding similar patients in a privacy-preserving manner with various types of biomedical data, including genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic data as well as their combination. We design protocols for two of the most common similarity metrics in biomedicine: the Euclidean distance and Pearson correlation coefficient. Moreover, unlike previous approaches, we account for the fact that certain locations contribute differently to a given disease or phenotype by allowing to limit the query to the relevant locations and to assign them different weights. Our protocols are specifically designed to be highly efficient in terms of communication and bandwidth, requiring only one or two rounds of communication and thus enabling scalable parallel queries. We rigorously prove our protocols to be secure based on cryptographic games and instantiate our technique with three of the most important types of biomedical data – namely DNA, microRNA expression, and DNA methylation. Our experimental results show that our protocols can compute a similarity query over a typical number of positions against a database of 1,000 patients in a few seconds. Finally, we propose and formalize strategies to mitigate the threat of malicious users or hospitals.
Quantum backreaction in string theory
Creators: name: Evnin, Oleg
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: There are situations in string theory when a finite number of string quanta induce a significant backreaction upon the background and render the perturbation theory infrared-divergent. The simplest example is D0-brane recoil under an impact by closed strings. A more physically interesting case is backreaction on the evolution of a totally compact universe due to closed string gas. Such situations necessitate qualitative amendments to the traditional formulation of string theory in a fixed classical background. In this contribution to the proceedings of the XVII European Workshop on String Theory in Padua, I review solved problems and current investigations in relation to this kind of quantum backreaction effects.
description: 8 pages, proceedings of XVII European Workshop on String Theory
The influence of thiamin additions on the germination and growth of certain grasses and of white clover
Creators: name: Ahlgren, Gilbert Harold
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 1941

description: Within the past several years, the utilization of thiamin in the growth of certain of the higher plants has, according to some investigators, resulted in marked increases in total dry matter produced by these plants. Further investigations have proven that thiamin is produced in the leaves of all green plants. Our knowledge concerning its specific function in plant responses is negligible at present. Recent investigations indicate that the slow growing perennial species respond most markedly to additions of thiamin. The important fast-growing annual crop plants such as corn, wheat, and tomatoes do not seem to respond at all to added thiamin. It is the purpose of these experiments to demonstrate the effect of thiamin supplements to perennial forage and turf species. Some of the species studied are rapid in their growth and sod forming action whereas others require several years to produce a mature, healthy turf. It is further proposed to clarify our knowledge regarding the influence which applications of thiamin and of natural and artificial fertilizers have on the thiamin content of these turf and forage species.
Framework for discrete-time quantum walks and a symmetric walk on a binary tree
Creators: name: Dimcovic, Zlatko
name: Rockwell, Daniel
name: Milligan, Ian
name: Burton, Robert M.
name: Nguyen, Thinh
name: Kovchegov, Yevgeniy
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We formulate a framework for discrete-time quantum walks, motivated by classical random walks with memory. We present a specific representation of the classical walk with memory 2 on which this is based. The framework has no need for coin spaces, it imposes no constraints on the evolution operator other than unitarity, and is unifying of other approaches. As an example we construct a symmetric discrete-time quantum walk on the semi-infinite binary tree. The generating function of the amplitude at the root is computed in closed-form, as a function of time and the initial level n in the tree, and we find the asymptotic and a full numerical solution for the amplitude. It exhibits a sharp interference peak and a power law tail, as opposed to the exponentially decaying tail of a broadly peaked distribution of the classical symmetric random walk on a binary tree. The probability peak is orders of magnitude larger than it is for the classical walk (already at small n). The quantum walk shows a polynomial algorithmic speedup in n over the classical walk, which we conjecture to be of the order 2/3, based on strong trends in data.
description: 13 pages, 8 pdf figures, revtex4-1. Published version (minor editorial changes throughout; "log" changed to "ln" in Appendix). This arXiv version contains some hyperlinks (to references) not available in the journal. 12 journal pages
Lord of the x86 Rings: A Portable User Mode Privilege Separation Architecture on x86
Creators: name: Lee, Hojoon
name: Song, Chihyun
name: Kang, Brent Byunghoon
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: Modern applications often involve processing of sensitive information. However, the lack of privilege separation within the user space leaves sensitive application secret such as cryptographic keys just as unprotected as a "hello world" string. Cutting-edge hardware-supported security features are being introduced. However, the features are often vendor-specific or lack compatibility with older generations of the processors. The situation leaves developers with no portable solution to incorporate protection for the sensitive application component. We propose LOTRx86, a fundamental and portable approach for user-space privilege separation. Our approach creates a more privileged user execution layer called PrivUser by harnessing the underused intermediate privilege levels on the x86 architecture. The PrivUser memory space, a set of pages within process address space that are inaccessible to user mode, is a safe place for application secrets and routines that access them. We implement the LOTRx86 ABI that exports the privcall interface to users to invoke secret handling routines in PrivUser. This way, sensitive application operations that involve the secrets are performed in a strictly controlled manner. The memory access control in our architecture is privilege-based, accessing the protected application secret only requires a change in the privilege, eliminating the need for costly remote procedure calls or change in address space. We evaluated our platform by developing a proof-of-concept LOTRx86-enabled web server that employs our architecture to securely access its private key during an SSL connection. We conducted a set of experiments including a performance measurement on the PoC on both Intel and AMD PCs, and confirmed that LOTRx86 incurs only a limited performance overhead.
De la república de las letras a la república oriental del Uruguay : el neoclasicismo en la formación del estado y el sujeto nacionales (1811-1837)
Creators: name: Karamán Chaparenco, Julio Omar
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2011

description: This dissertation examines the role played by Neoclassicism in the nation-building process in Uruguay during the first third of the 19th century (1811-1837). Strongly influenced by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, literary Neoclassicism celebrated the dreams of modernity of the ruling class and its intellectuals. Sophisticated literary texts, political materials and propaganda loaded with references to the Graeco-Roman culture appealed to the most educated individuals to enlist them in the ranks of the revolution, first, and later as active members of the civil society. One of those Neoclassic writers, Bartolomé Hidalgo, also developed a different poetic language, the Gaucho genre, to include illiterate rural masses into the modernity project. My study investigates the way literary Neoclassicism worked on pre-existing cultural materials to create a set of symbols, references and role models both for the citizen and the state. My working hypothesis suggests that being Neoclassicism a closed, strictly organized system, it was very well suited to express concepts like institutional order, political stability and reign of the law to set the foundations of the state. Gaucho genre, on the other hand, operated as a counterbalance to those perspectives, both in terms of its literary language as well as in its criticism to the task of inserting a bourgeois modernity into a pre-capitalistic society. The dialogue and tension between Neoclassicism and Gaucho genre can therefore be read as the confrontation of two different projects related to the role of the learned and the popular. The dissertation is divided in four chapters. Chapter 1, “Los letrados, gestores de sueños”, explores the influence of European thought in the building of the state as well as the role of the learned. Chapter 2, “El estado y la institucionalidad”, studies the use of Graeco-Roman references in the writing of the liberal agenda and how it was contested by the Gaucho literature. Chapter 3, “La construcciôn del sujeto republicano”, discusses the way the inclusion/exclusion of individuals as citizens was processed. Chapter 4, “El legado del Neoclasicismo fundacional”, links public spaces and popular demonstrations to show the dialogue between Neoclassicism and popular culture in contemporary politics.
Dominant by demand: an historical investigation of the role for the party leader in Canada's federal political parties
Creators: name: Young, Laura Josephine
Publisher: name: University of Calgary
Year: 2006

description: Bibliography: p. 115-119
description: Canada's federal party leaders enjoy a place of pre-eminence in the country's current day politics. No other politicians are better recognized, their words more listened to or their influence more substantial than those who claim this job description for their own. But why do party leaders enjoy such pre-eminence? And why, despite differences in persons, parties, and periods, is this pre-eminence so constant, characterized always by a dominance in elections, policy, and Parliament. The following is an historical investigation of the dominant role for the party leader from its origins to the present, with emphasis both on the continuity of the role and on the fate of parties that have tried to defy the norm. The results reveal a role motivated by Canada's institutions of responsible parliamentary government; a response by Canada's political parties to what these institutions require in order that parties achieve their greatest political success.
Comparative Survival Analysis of Deinococcus Radiodurans and the Haloarchaea Natrialba Magadii and Haloferax Volcanii, Exposed to Vacuum Ultraviolet Irradiation
Creators: name: Abrevaya, Ximena C.
name: Paulino-Lima, Ivan G.
name: Galante, Douglas
name: Rodrigues, Fabio
name: Mauas, Pablo J. D.
name: Corton, Eduardo
name: Lage, Claudia de Alencar Santos
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The haloarchaea Natrialba magadii and Haloferax volcanii, as well as the radiation-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, were exposed to vacuum-UV (V-UV) radiation at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS). Cell monolayers (containing 105 - 106 cells per sample) were prepared over polycarbonate filters and irradiated under high vacuum (10-5 Pa) with polychromatic synchrotron radiation. N. magadii was remarkably resistant to high vacuum with a survival fraction of ((3.77 \pm 0.76) x 10-2), larger than the one of D. radiodurans ((1.13 \pm 0.23) x 10-2). The survival fraction of the haloarchaea H. volcanii, of ((3.60 \pm 1.80) x 10-4), was much smaller. Radiation resistance profiles were similar between the haloarchaea and D. radiodurans for fluencies up to 150 J m-2. For fluencies larger than 150 J m-2 there was a significant decrease in the survival of haloarchaea, and in particular H. volcanii did not survive. Survival for D. radiodurans was 1% after exposure to the higher V-UV fluency (1350 J m-2) while N. magadii had a survival lower than 0.1%. Such survival fractions are discussed regarding the possibility of interplanetary transfer of viable micro-organisms and the possible existence of microbial life in extraterrestrial salty environments such as the planet Mars and the Jupiter's moon Europa. This is the first work reporting survival of haloarchaea under simulated interplanetary conditions.
description: Draft version (without figures), Accepted for publication in Astrobiology
THE SCOPES MONKEY TRIAL: Eugenics, White Supremacy, & Utopian Socialism
Creators: name: A.E. Samaan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Eugenics
The Holocaust
Eugenical Sterilization
Scientific Racism
Progressivism and Racism
Adolf Hitler
American Jurisprudence
National Socialism
Origin of the Species
William Jennings Brian
Clarence Darrow
American Mercury
The Scopes' Monkey Trial
Hitler Youth
Populism
Journalistic Bias

description: The Scopes “Monkey Trials” was nothing more than a publicity stunt. The beneficiary of this stunt was the international eugenics movement. Some of the influential figures behind the impetus remain well known. What is not common knowledge is their ties to the eugenics lobby, and, by extension, the explicitly white supremacist views woven into the passages of the book at the center of the controversy. More to the point, it is incredible that this aspect of this famous trial has not been delved into much. Consider the implications. Several generations of America’s youth were taught the concepts Nazi Germany’s Hitler Youth were schooled in. EXCERPT FROM THE EUGENICS ANTHOLOGY - This paper is the extended version of chapters in Vol.1 and Vol.2 of The Eugenics Anthology. This paper goes beyond what was deemed necessary for the scope of those two volumes, but provides information worth preserving and sharing.
New bounds on neutrino magnetic moment and re-examination of plasma effect in neutrino spin light
Creators: name: Grigoriev, A. V.
name: Lokhov, A. V.
name: Studenikin, A. I.
name: Ternov, A. I.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Recent discussion on the possibility to obtain more stringent bounds on neutrino magnetic moment has stimulated new interest to possible effects induced by neutrino magnetic moment. In particular, in this note after a short review on neutrino magnetic moment we re-examine the effect of plasmon mass on neutrino spin light radiation in dense matter. We track the entry of the plasmon mass quantity in process characteristics and found out that the most substantial role it plays is the formation of the process threshold. It is shown that far from this point the plasmon mass can be omitted in all the corresponding physical quantities and one can rely on the results of massless photon spin light radiation theory in matter.
description: to appear in Nuovo Cimento 35 C, No. 1, 2012 (based on the talk presented at the 25th Rencontres de Physique de la Vallee d'Aoste on "Results and Perspectives in Particle Physics", La Thuile, February 27 - March 5, 2011
Evaluation of educational change in Kenya: adoption and implementation of the 8-4-4 system of education (1981-1989)
Creators: name: Rutto, Elizabeth Ednah Chepkoech
Publisher: name: University of Calgary
Year: 1990
Subjects: subject: Education - Kenya
subject: Curriculum change - Kenya
subject: Education and state - Kenya

description: Bibliography: p. 211-221.
Archaeoptilomera derlethi Zettel, 2009, sp. n.
Creators: name: Zettel, H.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Gerridae
Archaeoptilomera
Archaeoptilomera derlethi

description: Archaeoptilomera derlethi sp. n. (Figs. 25, 27–29, 31, 33) Holotype (apterous female). " Indonesie - Est Kalimantan \ Malinau bas., Seturan riv.\ Loc. Seturan (2000-bloc 45)\ 116°32'25" E, 03°00'09" N \ 29.06.2000. Derleth, P. (B0631)" (Kantonmuseum Lausanne). Type locality. Indonesia, Borneo, East Kalimantan, Malinau Basin, Seturan River at Seturan, 116° 32' 25" E, 03° 00' 09" N. Collected in a medium-sized stream (4–6 m wide, 0.05–0.25 m deep) with moderate flow (0.7 m /s); stream morphology mainly running, cascade, and riffle; substratum composed of gravel, boulder, and cobble; in unlogged primary forest (Pascale Derleth, pers. comm.). Description of apterous female. Genus characteristics are not repeated here. Dimensions. Body length 8.1 mm. Maximum body width at mesoacetabula 2.7 mm. Head width 1.38 mm. Length of second antennomere 0.99 mm. Length of mesofemur 11.0 mm. Colour. Pronotum with thin lateral stripes. Metanotum with black mark above and separated from spiracle. Acetabula with large black marks distally; metacetabulum with black mark at base in addition. Structural characteristics. Minimum distance of eyes 0.27 times head width. Relative lengths of antennomeres: 3.5: 1 (= 0.99 mm): 1.4: 0.9. Pronotum width 1.85 times median pronotum length. Lengths of leg segments relative to mesofemur: profemur 38, protibia 32, protarsus 9+6, mesofemur 100 (= 11.0 mm), mesotibia 59, mesotarsus 27+3, metafemur 102, metatibia 43, metatarsus 2. Profemur slender, length 9.5 times maximum width near base. Metafemur hardly longer than metafemur (1.02 times). Measured dorsally along midline, abdomen 1.05 times as long as thorax. Apex of abdomen comparatively high (Fig. 29). All tergites distinctly wider than long; tergite 1 almost flat and with shiny area in centre; tergite 7 larger than others, medially 1.7 times as long as tergite 6. Connexival spines (Figs. 29, 31) narrow and moderately long, slightly asymmetrical in the holotype (probably an artefact), not reaching convex hind margin of large tergite 8. Proctiger relatively small, elongate, with truncate hind margin. Gonocoxa plate-shaped except with distinct bend at posterior fourth, appearing angular in ventral view (Fig. 33). Medial lobe of sternite 7 comparatively large (Fig. 33), its ventral outline almost straight in lateral view (Fig. 29). Comparative notes. See A. kodadai sp. n. Distribution. Borneo: East Kalimantan, only known from the type locality. Etymology. The species is dedicated to Dr. Pascale Derleth (Lausanne, Switzerland) who collected the holotype. The epithet is a noun in the genitive case.
description: Published as part of Zettel, H., 2009, Three new genera of Ptilomerinae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gerridae) from Southeast Asia, pp. 26-42 in Zootaxa 2046 (1) on page 40, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2046.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/5321288
Ultra-high energy cosmic ray correlations with Active Galactic Nuclei in the world dataset
Creators: name: Rubtsov, G. I.
name: Tkachev, I. I.
name: Dolgov, A. D.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Pierre Auger collaboration have recently put forward the hypothesis that the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays correlate with the subset of local active galactic nuclei (AGN). We perform a blind test of AGN hypothesis using publicly available event sets collected by Yakutsk, AGASA and HiRes experiments. The consistency of the procedure requires the event energies to be normalized towards the common energy scale. The number of correlating events in resulting data-set is 3 of 21 which is consistent with expected random background.
description: 3 pages, 1 figure. Journal version
Performance Analysis of Optimal Single Stream Beamforming in MIMO Dual-Hop AF Systems
Creators: name: Zhong, Caijun
name: Ratnarajah, Tharm
name: Jin, Shi
name: Wong, Kai Kit
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Information Theory (cs.IT)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: This paper investigates the performance of optimal single stream beamforming schemes in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) systems. Assuming channel state information is not available at the source and relay, the optimal transmit and receive beamforming vectors are computed at the destination, and the transmit beamforming vector is sent to the transmitter via a dedicated feedback link. Then, a set of new closed-form expressions for the statistical properties of the maximum eigenvalue of the resultant channel is derived, i.e., the cumulative density function (cdf), probability density function (pdf) and general moments, as well as the first order asymptotic expansion and asymptotic large dimension approximations. These analytical expressions are then applied to study three important performance metrics of the system, i.e., outage probability, average symbol error rate and ergodic capacity. In addition, more detailed treatments are provided for some important special cases, e.g., when the number of antennas at one of the nodes is one or large, simple and insightful expressions for the key parameters such as diversity order and array gain of the system are derived. With the analytical results, the joint impact of source, relay and destination antenna numbers on the system performance is addressed, and the performance of optimal beamforming schemes and orthogonal space-time block-coding (OSTBC) schemes are compared. Results reveal that the number of antennas at the relay has a great impact on how the numbers of antennas at the source and destination contribute to the system performance, and optimal beamforming not only achieves the same maximum diversity order as OSTBC, but also provides significant power gains over OSTBC.
description: to appear in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications special issue on Theories and Methods for Advanced Wireless Relays
Deep Chandra Observations of Edges and Bubbles in the NGC 5846 Galaxy Group
Creators: name: Machacek, M. E.
name: Jerius, D.
name: Kraft, R. P.
name: Forman, W. R.
name: Jones, C.
name: Randall, S.
name: Giancintucci, S.
name: Sun, M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We use a combined 120 ks Chandra exposure to analyze X-ray edges produced by non-hydrostatic gas motions (sloshing) from galaxy collisions, and cavities formed by AGN activity. Evidence for gas sloshing is seen in the spiral morphology and multiple cold front edges in NGC 5846's X-ray surface brightness distribution, while lack of spiral structure in the temperature map suggests the perturbing interaction was not in the plane of the sky. Density and spectral modeling across the edges indicate the relative motion of gas in the cold fronts is at most transonic. Evidence for AGN activity is seen in two inner bubbles at 0.6 kpc, filled with 5 GHz and 1.5 GHz radio plasma and coincident with Halpha emission, and in a ghost bubble at 5.2 kpc west of NGC 5846's nucleus. The outburst energy and ages for the inner (ghost) bubbles are ~10^{55} ergs and ~2 Myr (~ 5 x 10^{55} ergs and 12 Myr), respectively, implying an AGN duty cycle of 10 Myr. The inner bubble rims are threaded with 9 knots, whose total 0.5-2 keV X-ray luminosity is 0.3 x10^{40} ergs, a factor ~2-3 less than that of the surrounding rims, and 0.7 keV mean temperature is indistinguishable from that of the rims. We suggest that the knots may be transient clouds heated by the recent passage of a shock from the last AGN outburst. We also observe gas stripping from a cE galaxy, NGC 5846A, in a 0.5 kpc long (~10^5 Msolar) hot gas tail, as it falls towards NGC 5846.
description: 18 pages, 26 figures, ApJ, in press
Wavefunctios of log-periodic oscillators
Creators: name: Bessa, V.
name: Guedes, I.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We use the Lewis and Riesenfeld invariant method [\textit{J. Math. Phys.} \textbf{10}, 1458 (1969)] and a unitary transformation to obtain the exact Schrödinger wave functions for time-dependent harmonic oscillators exhibiting log-periodic-type behavior. For each oscillator we calculate the quantum fluctuations in the coordinate and momentum as well as the quantum correlations between the coordinate and momentum. We observe that the oscillator with $m=m_0t/t_0$ and $ω= ω_0t_0/t$, which exhibits an exact log-periodic oscillation, behaves as the harmonic oscillator with $m$ and $ω$ constant.
description: 15 pages, 3 figures
Electrodynamics on $κ$-Minkowski space-time
Creators: name: Harikumar, E.
name: Juric, T.
name: Meljanac, S.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In this paper, we derive Lorentz force and Maxwell's equations on kappa-Minkowski space-time up to the first order in the deformation parameter. This is done by elevating the principle of minimal coupling to non-commutative space-time. We also show the equivalence of minimal coupling prescription and Feynman's approach. It is shown that the motion in kappa space-time can be interpreted as motion in a background gravitational field, which is induced by this non-commutativity. In the static limit, the effect of kappa deformation is to scale the electric charge. We also show that the laws of electrodynamics depend on the mass of the charged particle, in kappa space-time.
description: 16 pages,minor changes, paragraph added on page 13, two new references added, to appear in Phys.Rev. D
CONFLLVM: Compiler-Based Information Flow Control in Low-Level Code
Creators: name: Brahmakshatriya, Ajay
name: Kedia, Piyus
name: Nemati, Hamed
name: McKee, Derrick
name: Bhatu, Pratik
name: Garg, Deepak
name: Lal, Akash
name: Rastogi, Aseem
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: No description available
Method for Optimizing Quantitative Temporal Lobe Epilepsy MR Imaging
Creators: name: Basiri, Reza
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: MRI
subject: Medical Imaging
subject: Relaxometry
subject: T2
subject: Epilepsy
subject: Education--Health
subject: Education--Sciences
subject: Biophysics--Medical
subject: Radiology
subject: Engineering--Biomedical
subject: Psychology--Clinical

description: Many neurological disorders such as epilepsy rely on MRI for detection of structural abnormalities. However, the current clinical MRI methods are insufficient and insensitive in detection of subtle abnormalities. MRI quantitative T2 mapping is a promising quantitative medical imaging technique as it is highly sensitive to tissue composition. The conventional approach for T2 mapping assumes mono-exponential signal decay; however, this is rarely observed due to transmit field inhomogeneity and miscalibration at high field MRIs. The nonexponentially results in poor fits and a systematic bias in estimated decay rates. A recently proposed fitting method, called stimulated echo correction, uses the same input data but estimates the major confounds associated with mono-exponential fitting. Optimal accuracy and non-optimal precision is achieved in this method. My first aim was to develop a stimulated echo correction based method with fewer parameters and higher precision relative to the original one. The second aim was to implement this new method in order to better identify abnormal brain regions in temporal lobe epilepsy that were poorly visualized on standard images. I hypothesized that my improved stimulated echo correction with fewer parameters would provide more accurate and reliable transverse relaxometry imaging than does conventional or the original stimulated echo correction fitting methods, and would improve our ability to detect subtle irregularities associated with epilepsy. The new method was evaluated with simulated and in-vivo data, in which up to 27% reduction in variance in the new method compared to the original stimulated echo correction was observed. Moreover, the new method had greater reliability in categorizing abnormalities in hippocampal regions when compared with exponential and stimulated echo correction methods. I concluded that the new method is able to reduce the variance in T2 relaxometry from multi-echo spin echo sequences; therefore, this method can potentially help in detection of those lesser obvious hippocampus abnormalities.
Increasing complexity with quantum physics
Creators: name: Anders, Janet
name: Wiesner, Karoline
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We argue that complex systems science and the rules of quantum physics are intricately related. We discuss a range of quantum phenomena, such as cryptography, computation and quantum phases, and the rules responsible for their complexity. We identify correlations as a central concept connecting quantum information and complex systems science. We present two examples for the power of correlations: using quantum resources to simulate the correlations of a stochastic process and to implement a classically impossible computational task.
description: 22 pages, 4 figures
Study of the pure annihilation $B_c \to A_2 A_3$ decays
Creators: name: Xiao, Zhen-Jun
name: Liu, Xin
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In this work, we calculate the {\it CP}-averaged branching ratios and the polarization fractions of the charmless hadronic $B_c \to A_2 A_3$ decays within the framework of perturbative QCD(pQCD) approach, where $A$ is either a light $^3P_1$ or $^1P_1$ axial-vector meson. These thirty two decay modes can occur through the annihilation topology only. Based on the perturbative calculations and phenomenological analysis, we find the following results: (a) the branching ratios of the considered thirty two $B_c\to A_2 A_3$ decays are in the range of $10^{-5}$ to $10^{-8}$; (b) $B_c\to a_1 b_1$, $\ov{K}_1^0 K_1^+$ and some other decays have sizable branching ratios and can be measured at the LHC experiments; (c) the branching ratios of $B_c \to A_2(^1P_1) A_3(^1P_1)$ decays are generally much larger than those of $B_c \to A_2(^3P_1) A_3(^3P_1)$ decays with a factor around (10 $\sim$ 100); (d) the branching ratios of $B_c \to \ov{K}_1^0 K_1^+$ decays are sensitive to the value of $θ_K$, which will be tested by the running LHC and forthcoming SuperB experiments; (e) the large longitudinal polarization contributions govern most considered decays and play the dominant role.
description: 19 pages, 1 eps figure. arXiv admin note: some text overlap with arXiv:1003.3929
Anomalous behavior of acoustic phonon mode and central peak in Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)0.85Ti0.15O3 single crystal studied using Brillouin scattering
Creators: name: Mishra, K. K.
name: Sivasubramanian, V.
name: Arora, A. K.
name: Pradhan, Dillip
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Brillouin spectroscopic measurements have been carried out on relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)0.85Ti0.15O3 (PZN-PT) single crystal over the temperature range 300-585 K. The longitudinal acoustic phonon begins to soften below 650 K, which is attributed to the Burns temperature (TB). On the other hand, the line width of the longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonon mode exhibits a sharp Landau-Khalatnikov-like maximum and an accompanying anomaly in the LA mode frequency around 463 K, the tetragonal-cubic phase transition temperature (Ttc). In addition, a broad central peak, found below the characteristic intermediate temperature T* ~ 525 K, exhibits critical slowing down upon approaching Ttc indicating an order-disorder nature of the phase transition. The relaxation time of polar nano regions estimated from the broad central peak is found to be same as that obtained for LA phonon mode suggesting an electrostrictive coupling between strain and polarization fluctuations. The activation energy for the PNRs relaxation-dynamics is found to be ~236 meV. Polarized nature of the central peak suggests that the polar nano regions have the tendency to form long-range polar ordering.
Carbon sp chains in graphene nanoholes
Creators: name: Castelli, Ivano E.
name: Ferri, Nicola
name: Onida, Giovanni
name: Manini, Nicola
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Nowadays sp carbon chains terminated by graphene or graphitic-like carbon are synthesized routinely in several nanotech labs. We propose an ab-initio study of such carbon-only materials, by computing their structure and stability, as well as their electronic, vibrational and magnetic properties. We adopt a fair compromise of microscopic realism with a certain level of idealization in the model configurations, and predict a number of properties susceptible to comparison with experiment.
description: 34 pages, 27 figures
Planetesimal Formation at the Boundary Between Steady Super/Sub-Keplerian Flow Created by Inhomogeneous Growth of Magnetorotational Instability
Creators: name: Kato, Mariko T.
name: Fujimoto, Masaki
name: Ida, Shigeru
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We have studied formation of planetesimals at a radial pressure bump in a protoplanetary disk created by radially inhomogeneous magnetorotational instability (MRI), through three-dimensional resistive MHD simulations including dust particles. In our previous papers, we showed that the inhomogeneous MRI developing in non-uniform structure of magnetic field or magnetic resistivity can transform the local gas flow in the disk to a quasi-steady state with local rigid rotation that is no more unstable against the MRI. Since the outer part of the rigid rotation is super-Keplerian flow, a quasi-static pressure bump is created and dust concentration is expected there. In this paper, we perform simulations of the same systems, adding dust particles that suffer gas drag and modulate gas flow via the back-reaction of the gas drag (dust drag). We use O(10^7) super-particles, each of which represents many dust particles with sizes of centimeter to meter. We have found that the dust drag suppresses turbulent motion to decrease the velocity dispersion of the dust particles while it broadens the dust concentrated regions to limit peaky dust concentration, compared with the simulation without the dust drag. We found that reduction in the velocity dispersion) is dominated over the suppression in particle concentration. For meter-size particles with the friction time ~1/Omega, where Omega is Keplerian frequency, the gravitational instability of the dust particles that may lead to planetesimal formation is expected. For such a situation, we further introduced the self-gravity of dust particles to the simulation to demonstrate that several gravitationally bound clumps are actually formed. Through analytical arguments, we found that the planetesimal formation from meter-sized dust particles can be possible at ~5AU, if dust spatial density is a few times larger than that in the minimum mass solar nebula.
description: ApJ, accepted
Investigating System Operators' Perspective on Security Misconfigurations
Creators: name: Dietrich, Constanze
name: Krombholz, Katharina
name: Borgolte, Kevin
name: Fiebig, Tobias
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: Nowadays, security incidents have become a familiar “nuisance,” and they regularly lead to the exposure of private and sensitive data. The root causes for such incidents are rarely complex attacks. Instead, the attacks are straight-forward, and they are enabled by simple misconfigurations, such as authentication not being required, or security updates not being installed. For example, the leak of over 140 million Americans’ private data from Equifax’s systems ranks among most severe misconfigurations in recent history: The underlying vulnerability was long known, and a security patch had been readily available for months, but it was never applied. Ultimately, Equifax blamed an employee for forgetting to update the affected system, highlighting the personal responsibility of that operator. In this paper, we investigate the operators’ perspective on security misconfigurations to approach the human component of this class of security issues. We focus our analysis on system operators, as although they are the relevant actors managing the affected systems, they have not yet received significant attention by prior research. We follow an inductive approach and apply a multi-step empirical methodology: (i) a qualitative study to understand how to approach the target group and measure the misconfiguration phenomenon, and (ii) a quantitative survey rooted in the qualitative data. We then provide the first analysis of system operators’ perspective on security misconfigurations, and we determine the factors that operators perceive as the root causes. Based on our findings, we provide practical recommendations on how to reduce security misconfigurations’ frequency and impact.
A Novel Fault Detection Approach combining Adaptive Thresholding and Fuzzy Reasoning
Creators: name: fliss, Imtiez
name: Tagina, Moncef
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Systems and Control (eess.SY)
subject: FOS: Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering

description: Fault detection methods have their pros and cons. Thus, it is possible that some methods can complement each other and offer consequently better diagnostic systems. The integration of various characteristics is a way to develop "hybrid" systems to overcome the limitations of individual strategies of each method. In this paper a novel detection module combining the use of adaptive threshold and fuzzy logic reasoning inspired by the Evsukoff's approach is proposed in order to reduce the rate of false alarms, guarantee more robustness to disturbances and assist the operator in making decisions. The proposed approach can be used in case of multiple faults detection. This approach is applied to a benchmark in diagnosis domain: the three-tank system. The results of the proposed detection module are then presented through a gradual palette of colors in the graphical interface of the system.
Optimal error correction in topological subsystem codes
Creators: name: Andrist, Ruben S.
name: Bombin, H.
name: Katzgraber, Helmut G.
name: Martin-Delgado, M. A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: A promising approach to overcome decoherence in quantum computing schemes is to perform active quantum error correction using topology. Topological subsystem codes incorporate both the benefits of topological and subsystem codes, allowing for error syndrome recovery with only 2-local measurements in a two-dimensional array of qubits. We study the error threshold for topological subsystem color codes under very general external noise conditions. By transforming the problem into a classical disordered spin model, we estimate using Monte Carlo simulations that topological subsystem codes have an optimal error tolerance of 5.5(2)%. This means there is ample space for improvement in existing error-correcting algorithms that typically find a threshold of approximately 2%.
description: 4 pages, 4 figures, 4 authors
New hadronic currents in TAUOLA: for confrontation with the experimental data
Creators: name: Was, Z.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The status of implementation of new hadronic currents into the Monte Carlo system for simulation of tau-lepton production and decay in high-energy accelerator experiments is reviewed. Since the tau-lepton conference in 2010 substantial progress was achieved: (i) For the TAUOLA Monte Carlo generator of tau-lepton decays, automated and simultaneous use of many versions of form factors for the calculation of optional weights for fits was developed and checked to work in the Belle and BaBar software environment. Alternative parameterizations of hadronic currents based on the Resonance Chiral approach are available now. This was achieved for more than 88% of the total tau hadronic width. (ii) the TAUOLA universal interface based on HepMC (the C++ event record) is available. This is the case for C++ users of PHOTOS Monte Carlo for radiative corrections in decays, as well. An algorithm for weighted events to explore spin effects in analysis of hard processes was prepared. (iii) Kernels featuring a complete first-order matrix element are available now for PHOTOS users interested in decays of Z and W bosons. New tests with different options of matrix elements for those and for Kl3 decays are available as well. Presented results illustrate the status of the projects performed in collaboration with Zofia Czyczula, Nadia Davidson, Tomasz Przedzinski, Olga Shekhovtsova, Elzbieta Richter-Was, Pablo Roig, Qingjun Xu and others.
description: 5 pages, 2 figures. Talk given in the 'From PHI to PSI 2011' Conference (Novosibirsk, Russia). To appear in the Proceedings
Ret2Spec: Speculative Execution Using Return Stack Buffers
Creators: name: Maisuradze, Giorgi
name: Rossow, Christian
Publisher: name: CISPA
Year: 2023

description: Speculative execution is an optimization technique that has been part of CPUs for over a decade. It predicts the outcome and target of branch instructions to avoid stalling the execution pipeline. However, until recently, the security implications of speculative code execution have not been studied. In this paper, we investigate a special type of branch predictor that is responsible for predicting return addresses. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study return address predictors and their consequences for the security of modern software. In our work, we show how return stack buffers (RSBs), the core unit of return address predictors, can be used to trigger misspeculations. Based on this knowledge, we propose two new attack variants using RSBs that give attackers similar capabilities as the documented Spectre attacks. We show how local attackers can gain arbitrary speculative code execution across processes, e.g., to leak passwords another user enters on a shared system. Our evaluation showed that the recent Spectre countermeasures deployed in operating systems can also cover such RSB-based cross-process attacks. Yet we then demonstrate that attackers can trigger misspeculation in JIT environments in order to leak arbitrary memory content of browser processes. Reading outside the sandboxed memory region with JIT-compiled code is still possible with 80% accuracy on average.