query: Raziel: Private and Verifiable Smart Contracts on Blockchains

positive: Multiparty Computation from Somewhat Homomorphic Encryption We propose a general multiparty computation protocol secure against an active adversary corrupting up to n−1 of the n players. The protocol may be used to compute securely arithmetic circuits over any finite field Fpk . Our protocol consists of a preprocessing phase that is both independent of the function to be computed and of the inputs, and a much more efficient online phase where the actual computation takes place. The online phase is unconditionally secure and has total computational (and communication) complexity linear in n, the number of players, where earlier work was quadratic in n. Moreover, the work done by each player is only a small constant factor larger than what one would need to compute the circuit in the clear. We show this is optimal for computation in large fields. In practice, for 3 players, a secure 64-bit multiplication can be done in 0.05 ms. Our preprocessing is based on a somewhat homomorphic cryptosystem. We extend a scheme by Brakerski et al., so that we can perform distributed decryption and handle many values in parallel in one ciphertext. The computational complexity of our preprocessing phase is dominated by the public-key operations, we need O(n/s) operations per secure multiplication where s is a parameter that increases with the security parameter of the cryptosystem. Earlier work in this model needed Ω(n) operations. In practice, the preprocessing prepares a secure 64-bit multiplication for 3 players in about 13 ms.

positive: How To Exchange Secrets with Oblivious Transfer As this paper puts forward the notion of “Oblivious Transfers” and is a well-known and frequently cited paper, I felt I should typeset the manuscript, and here is the result. While typesetting, I tried to stick to the original manuscript as much as possible. However, there were some cases, such as a few typos or punctuation marks, which were changed. As in many papers on cryptography, Alice and Bob play the role of participants of the given cryptographic protocols. For the sake of readability, Alice’s and Bob’s messages were printed in red and blue ink, respectively. This work was carefully proofread by my colleague Y. Sobhdel (sobhdel@ce.sharif.edu). Thanks also to H. M. Moghaddam for mentioning a minor mistake in an earlier version. That said, I will be thankful if you inform me of any possible mistakes.

positive: Proving the TLS Handshake Secure (As It Is) The TLS Internet Standard features a mixed bag of cryptographic algorithms and constructions, letting clients and servers negotiate their use for each run of the handshake. Although many ciphersuites are now well-understood in isolation, their composition remains problematic, and yet it is critical to obtain practical security guarantees for TLS. We experimentally confirm that all mainstream implementations of TLS share key materials between different algorithms, some of them of dubious strength. We outline attacks in their handling of resumption and renegotiation, stressing the need to model multiple related instances of the handshake. We study the provable security of the TLS handshake, as it is implemented and deployed. To capture the details of the standard and its main extensions, we rely on miTLS, a verified reference implementation of the protocol. miTLS inter-operates with mainstream browsers and servers for many protocol versions, configurations, and ciphersuites; and it provides application-level, provable security for some. We propose new agile security definitions and assumptions for the signatures, key encapsulation mechanisms (KEM), and key derivation algorithms used by the TLS handshake. By necessity, our definitions are stronger than those expected with simple modern protocols. To validate our model of key encapsulation, we prove that both RSA and Diffie-Hellman ciphersuites satisfy our definition for the KEM. In particular, we formalize the use of PKCS#1v1.5 encryption in TLS, including recommended countermeasures against Bleichenbacher attacks, and build a 3,000-line EasyCrypt proof of the security of the resulting master secret KEM against replayable chosen-ciphertext attacks under the assumption that ciphertexts are hard to re-randomize. Based on our new agile definitions, we construct a modular proof of security for the miTLS reference implementation of the handshake, including ciphersuite negotiation, key exchange, renegotiation, and resumption, treated as a detailed 3,600-line executable model. We present our main definitions, constructions, and proofs for an abstract model of the protocol, featuring series of related runs of the handshake with different ciphersuites. We also describe its refinement to account for the whole reference implementation, based on automated verification tools.

positive: Founding Cryptography on Oblivious Transfer - Efficiently We present a simple and efficient compiler for transforming secure multi-party computation (MPC) protocols that enjoy security only with an honest majority into MPC protocols that guarantee security with no honest majority, in the oblivious-transfer (OT) hybrid model. Our technique works by combining a secure protocol in the honest majority setting with a protocol achieving only security against semi-honest parties in the setting of no honest majority. Applying our compiler to variants of protocols from the literature, we get several applications for secure two-party computation and for MPC with no honest majority. These include: • Constant-rate two-party computation in the OT-hybrid model. We obtain a statistically UC-secure two-party protocol in the OT-hybrid model that can evaluate a general circuit C of size s and depth d with a total communication complexity of O(s)+ poly(k, d, log s) and O(d) rounds. The above result generalizes to a constant number of parties. • Extending OTs in the malicious model. We obtain a computationally efficient protocol for generating many string OTs from few string OTs with only a constant amortized communication overhead compared to the total length of the string OTs. • Black-box constructions for constant-round MPC with no honest majority. We obtain general computationally UC-secure MPC protocols in the OT-hybrid model that use only a constant number of rounds, and only make a black-box access to a pseudorandom generator. This gives the first constant-round protocols for three or more parties that only make a black-box use of cryptographic primitives (and avoid expensive zero-knowledge proofs).

positive: Better Key Sizes (and Attacks) for LWE-Based Encryption We analyze the concrete security and key sizes of theoretically sound lattice-based encryption schemes based on the “learning with errors” (LWE) problem. Our main contributions are: (1) a new lattice attack on LWE that combines basis reduction with an enumeration algorithm admitting a time/success tradeoff, which performs better than the simple distinguishing attack considered in prior analyses; (2) concrete parameters and security estimates for an LWE-based cryptosystem that is more compact and efficient than the well-known schemes from the literature. Our new key sizes are up to 10 times smaller than prior examples, while providing even stronger concrete security levels.

negative: Time-series detection of perspiration as a liveness test in fingerprint devices Fingerprint scanners may be susceptible to spoofing using artificial materials, or in the worst case, dismembered fingers. An anti-spoofing method based on liveness detection has been developed for use in fingerprint scanners. This method quantifies a specific temporal perspiration pattern present in fingerprints acquired from live claimants. The enhanced perspiration detection algorithm presented here improves our previous work by including other fingerprint scanner technologies; using a larger, more diverse data set; and a shorter time window. Several classification methods were tested in order to separate live and spoof fingerprint images. The dataset included fingerprint images from 33 live subjects, 33 spoofs created with dental material and Play-Doh, and fourteen cadaver fingers. Each method had a different performance with respect to each scanner and time window. However, all the classifiers achieved approximately 90% classification rate for all scanners, using the reduced time window and the more comprehensive training and test sets.

negative: Applying WinWin to Quality Requirements: A Case Study This paper describes the application of the WinWin paradigm to identify and resolve conflicts in a series of real-client, student-developer digital library projects. The paper is based on a case study of the statistical analysis of 15 projects and an in-depth analysis of one representative project. These analyses focus on the conflict resolution process, stakeholders' roles and their relationships to quality artifacts, and tool effectiveness. We show that stakeholders tend to accept satisfactory rather than optimal resolutions. Users and customers are more proactive in stating win conditions, whereas developers are more active in working toward resolutions. Further, we suggest that knowledge-based automated aids have potential to significantly enhance process effectiveness and efficiency. Finally, we conclude that such processes and tools have theoretical and practical implications in the quest for better software requirements elicitation.

negative: Neuronal correlates of a perceptual decision THE relationship between neuronal activity and psychophysical judgement has long been of interest to students of sensory processing. Previous analyses of this problem have compared the performance of human or animal observers in detection or discrimination tasks with the signals carried by individual neurons, but have been hampered because neuronal and perceptual data were not obtained at the same time and under the same conditions1–4. We have now measured the performance of monkeys and of visual cortical neurons while the animals performed a psychophysical task well matched to the properties of the neurons under study. Here we report that the reliability and sensitivity of most neurons on this task equalled or exceeded that of the monkeys. We therefore suggest that under our conditions, psychophysical judgements could be based on the activity of a relatively small number of neurons.

negative: Value Sensitive Design and Information Systems Value Sensitive Design is a theoretically grounded approach to the design of technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner throughout the design process. It employs an integrative and iterative tripartite methodology, consisting of conceptual, empirical, and technical investigations. We explicate Value Sensitive Design by drawing on three case studies. The first study concerns information and control of web browser cookies, implicating the value of informed consent. The second study concerns using high-definition plasma displays in an office environment to provide a window to the outside world, implicating the values of physical and psychological well-being and privacy in public spaces. The third study concerns an integrated land use, transportation, and environmental simulation system to support public deliberation and debate on major land use and transportation decisions, implicating the values of fairness, accountability, and support for the democratic process, as well as a highly diverse range of values that might be held by different stakeholders, such as environmental sustainability, opportunities for business expansion, or walkable neighborhoods. We conclude with direct and practical suggestions for how to engage in Value Sensitive Design.

negative: Development of sEMG-driven assistive devices based on twisted string actuation A twisted string actuation module with an integrated force sensor based on optoelectronic components is presented in this paper. This solution is especially suited for very compact, light-weight and wearable robotic devices, such as exoskeletons, but is appropriate for various robotic applications. An in-depth presentation of the proposed actuation module, the description and the basic sensor working principle of the integrated force sensor are portrayed and discussed. Extensive experimental measures have been carried out to verify the actuation module compliant frame design and the related finite element analysis results. Therefore, the proposed actuation module has been used for the implementation of a simple assistive application where surface-electromyographic signals are used to detect the user's muscle activity in order to control the support action provided by the actuator, thus reducing his/her effort.

negative: Linear dimensionality reduction: survey, insights, and generalizations Linear dimensionality reduction methods are a cornerstone of analyzing high dimensional data, due to their simple geometric interpretations and typically attractive computational properties. These methods capture many data features of interest, such as covariance, dynamical structure, correlation between data sets, input-output relationships, and margin between data classes. Methods have been developed with a variety of names and motivations in many fields, and perhaps as a result the connections between all these methods have not been highlighted. Here we survey methods from this disparate literature as optimization programs over matrix manifolds. We discuss principal component analysis, factor analysis, linear multidimensional scaling, Fisher’s linear discriminant analysis, canonical correlations analysis, maximum autocorrelation factors, slow feature analysis, sufficient dimensionality reduction, undercomplete independent component analysis, linear regression, distance metric learning, and more. This optimization framework gives insight to some rarely discussed shortcomings of well-known methods, such as the suboptimality of certain eigenvector solutions. Modern techniques for optimization over matrix manifolds enable a generic linear dimensionality reduction solver, which accepts as input data and an objective to be optimized, and returns, as output, an optimal low-dimensional projection of the data. This simple optimization framework further allows straightforward generalizations and novel variants of classical methods, which we demonstrate here by creating an orthogonal-projection canonical correlations analysis. More broadly, this survey and generic solver suggest that linear dimensionality reduction can move toward becoming a blackbox, objective-agnostic numerical technology.

negative: The complex dielectric constant of pure and sea water from microwave satellite observations We provide a new fit for the microwave complex dielectric constant of water in the salinity range between 0-40 ppt using two Debye relaxation wavelengths. For pure water, the fit is based on laboratory measurements in the temperature range between -20/spl deg/C and +40/spl deg/C including supercooled water and for frequencies up to 500 GHz. For sea water, our fit is valid for temperatures between -2/spl deg/C and +29/spl deg/C and for frequencies up to at least 90 GHz. At low frequencies, our new model is a modified version of the Klein-Swift model. We compare the results of the new fit with various other models and provide a validation using an extensive analysis of brightness temperatures from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager.

negative: Supporting Cloud Computing in Thin-Client/Server Computing Model This paper addresses the issue of how to support cloud computing in thin-client/server computing model. We describe the design and implementation of the multiple-application-server thin-client/server computing (MAS TC/S) model that allows users with thin-client devices to roam around a wide area network whilst experiencing transparent working environments. MAS TC/S can be applied to a wide variety of applications in wide area network, such as pervasive software rental, service-oriented infrastructure for an Internet service provider, and office automation for transnational corporations. The MAS TC/S architecture model comprises five major components: the display protocol, the multiple-application-server topology, the application-server discovery protocol, the distributed file system, and the network input/output protocol. We discuss problems and present solutions in the design of each constituent component. A prototype of the MAS TC/S that spans the campuses of two universities in Taiwan has been built – we also report our experiences in constructing this prototype.

negative: ANMPI-BASED PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED MACHINE LEARNING PLATFORM ON LARGE-SCALE HPC CLUSTERS This paper presents the design of an MPI-based parallel and distributed machine learning platform on large-scale HPC clusters. Researchers and practitioners can implement easily a class of parallelizable machine learning algorithms on the platform, or port quickly an existing non-parallel implementation of a parallelizable algorithm to the platform with only minor modifications. Complicated functions in parallel programming such as scheduling, caching and load balancing are handled automatically by the platform. The platform performance was evaluated in a series of stress tests by using a k-means clustering task on 7,500 hours of speech data (about 2.7 billion 52dimensional feature vectors). Good scalability is demonstrated on an HPC cluster with thousands of CPU cores.

negative: Unmanned surface vehicles: An overview of developments and challenges

negative: Concept-Based Information Retrieval Using Explicit Semantic Analysis Information retrieval systems traditionally rely on textual keywords to index and retrieve documents. Keyword-based retrieval may return inaccurate and incomplete results when different keywords are used to describe the same concept in the documents and in the queries. Furthermore, the relationship between these related keywords may be semantic rather than syntactic, and capturing it thus requires access to comprehensive human world knowledge. Concept-based retrieval methods have attempted to tackle these difficulties by using manually built thesauri, by relying on term cooccurrence data, or by extracting latent word relationships and concepts from a corpus. In this article we introduce a new concept-based retrieval approach based on Explicit Semantic Analysis (ESA), a recently proposed method that augments keyword-based text representation with concept-based features, automatically extracted from massive human knowledge repositories such as Wikipedia. Our approach generates new text features automatically, and we have found that high-quality feature selection becomes crucial in this setting to make the retrieval more focused. However, due to the lack of labeled data, traditional feature selection methods cannot be used, hence we propose new methods that use self-generated labeled training data. The resulting system is evaluated on several TREC datasets, showing superior performance over previous state-of-the-art results.

negative: Measuring and Analyzing Write Amplification Characteristics of Solid State Disks Write amplification brings endurance challenges to NAND Flash-based solid state disks (SSDs) such as impacts upon their write endurance and lifetime. A large write amplification degrades program/erase cycles (P/Es) of NAND Flashes and reduces the endurance and performance of SSDs. The write amplification problem is mainly triggered by garbage collections, wear-leveling, metadata updates, and mapping table updates. Write amplification is defined as the ratio of data volume written by an SSD controller to data volume written by a host. In this paper, we propose a four-level model of write amplification for SSDs. The four levels considered in our model include the channel level, chip level, die level, and plane level. In light of this model, we design a method of analyzing write amplification of SSDs to trace SSD endurance and performance by incorporating the Ready/Busy (R/B) signal of NAND Flash. Our practical approach aims to measure the value of write amplification for an entire SSD rather than NAND Flashes. To validate our measurement technique and model, we implement a verified SSD (vSSD) system and perform a cross-comparison on a set of SSDs, which are stressed by micro-benchmarks and I/O traces. A new method for SSDs is adopted in our measurements to study the R/B signals of NAND Flashes in an SSD. Experimental results show that our model is accurate and the measurement technique is generally applicable to any SSDs.

negative: Dietary phenolics: chemistry, bioavailability and effects on health. There is much epidemiological evidence that diets rich in fruit and vegetables can reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and stroke. These protective effects are attributed, in part, to phenolic secondary metabolites. This review summarizes the chemistry, biosynthesis and occurrence of the compounds involved, namely the C6-C3-C6 flavonoids-anthocyanins, dihydrochalcones, flavan-3-ols, flavanones, flavones, flavonols and isoflavones. It also includes tannins, phenolic acids, hydroxycinnamates and stilbenes and the transformation of plant phenols associated with food processing (for example, production of black tea, roasted coffee and matured wines), these latter often being the major dietary sources. Events that occur following ingestion are discussed, in particular, the deglycosylation, glucuronidation, sulfation and methylation steps that occur at various points during passage through the wall of the small intestine into the circulatory system and subsequent transport to the liver in the portal vein.We also summarise the fate of compounds that are not absorbed in the small intestine, but which pass into the large intestine where they are degraded by the colonic microflora to phenolic acids, which can be absorbed into the circulatory system and subjected to phase II metabolism prior to excretion. Initially, the protective effect of dietary phenolics was thought to be due to their antioxidant properties which resulted in a lowering of the levels of free radicals within the body.However, there is now emerging evidence that themetabolites of dietary phenolics,which appear in the circulatory systemin nmol/L to low mmol/L concentrations, exertmodulatory effects in cells through selective actions on different components of the intracellular signalling cascades vital for cellular functions such as growth, proliferation and apoptosis. In addition, the intracellular concentrations required to affect cell signalling pathways are considerably lower than those required to impact on antioxidant capacity. The mechanisms underlying these processes are discussed.

negative: Visual Event Recognition in Videos by Learning from Web Data We propose a visual event recognition framework for consumer videos by leveraging a large amount of loosely labeled web videos (e.g., from YouTube). Observing that consumer videos generally contain large intraclass variations within the same type of events, we first propose a new method, called Aligned Space-Time Pyramid Matching (ASTPM), to measure the distance between any two video clips. Second, we propose a new transfer learning method, referred to as Adaptive Multiple Kernel Learning (A-MKL), in order to 1) fuse the information from multiple pyramid levels and features (i.e., space-time features and static SIFT features) and 2) cope with the considerable variation in feature distributions between videos from two domains (i.e., web video domain and consumer video domain). For each pyramid level and each type of local features, we first train a set of SVM classifiers based on the combined training set from two domains by using multiple base kernels from different kernel types and parameters, which are then fused with equal weights to obtain a prelearned average classifier. In A-MKL, for each event class we learn an adapted target classifier based on multiple base kernels and the prelearned average classifiers from this event class or all the event classes by minimizing both the structural risk functional and the mismatch between data distributions of two domains. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework that requires only a small number of labeled consumer videos by leveraging web data. We also conduct an in-depth investigation on various aspects of the proposed method A-MKL, such as the analysis on the combination coefficients on the prelearned classifiers, the convergence of the learning algorithm, and the performance variation by using different proportions of labeled consumer videos. Moreover, we show that A-MKL using the prelearned classifiers from all the event classes leads to better performance when compared with A-MKL using the prelearned classifiers only from each individual event class.

negative: Averaged Collapsed Variational Bayes Inference This paper presents the Averaged CVB (ACVB) inference and offers convergence-guaranteed and practically useful fast Collapsed Variational Bayes (CVB) inferences. CVB inferences yield more precise inferences of Bayesian probabilistic models than Variational Bayes (VB) inferences. However, their convergence aspect is fairly unknown and has not been scrutinized. To make CVB more useful, we study their convergence behaviors in a empirical and practical approach. We develop a convergence-guaranteed algorithm for any CVB-based inference called ACVB, which enables automatic convergence detection and frees non-expert practitioners from the difficult and costly manual monitoring of inference processes. In experiments, ACVB inferences are comparable to or better than those of existing inference methods and deterministic, fast, and provide easier convergence detection. These features are especially convenient for practitioners who want precise Bayesian inference with assured convergence.

negative: Measuring Machine Intelligence Through Visual Question Answering As machines have become more intelligent, there has been a renewed interest in methods for measuring their intelligence. A common approach is to propose tasks for which a human excels, but one which machines find difficult. However, an ideal task should also be easy to evaluate and not be easily gameable. We begin with a case study exploring the recently popular task of image captioning and its limitations as a task for measuring machine intelligence. An alternative and more promising task is Visual Question Answering that tests a machine’s ability to reason about language and vision. We describe a dataset unprecedented in size created for the task that contains over 760,000 human generated questions about images. Using around 10 million human generated answers, machines may be easily evaluated.

negative: Issues in User Authentication 1 CHI 2007 Workshop: Security user studies: methodol gies and best practices, April 2007. ABSTRACT In this brief paper we outline our recent work on u sability studies of user authentication systems. In particul ar, we have conducted studies on password managers and graphical password systems, using in-lab experiment s, interviews, and broader field studies. We then disc us some of the important issues arising, including mental m odels of security, the role of persuasion, and the nature of identify theft.

negative: Network Traffic Management The purposes of this paper have to discuss issues related to Network Traffic Management. A relatively new category of network management is fast becoming a necessity in converged business Networks. Mid-sized and large organizations are finding they must control network traffic behavior to assure that their strategic applications always get the resources they need to perform optimally. Controlling network traffic requires limiting bandwidth to certain applications, guaranteeing minimum bandwidth to others, and marking traffic with high or low priorities. This exercise is called Network Traffic Management.

negative: Internal Uniplanar Antenna for LTE/GSM/UMTS Operation in a Tablet Computer With the use of an internal printed loop matching circuit, a small-size uniplanar antenna with eight-band LTE/GSM/UMTS operation in the tablet computer is proposed. The obtained impedance bandwidth across the operating bands can reach about 262/1610 MHz for the LTE/GSM/UMTS bands, respectively. Only with the antenna size of $40\times 15\times 0.8\ {\rm mm}^{3}$, the proposed planar antenna has the compact operation with more than 30% antenna size reduction. Furthermore, the measured peak gains and antenna efficiencies are about 2.81/4.97 dBi and 79/87% for the LTE/GSM/UMTS bands, respectively.

negative:
Novice Programmers and the Problem Description Effect It is often debated whether a problem presented in a straightforward minimalist fashion is better, or worse, for learning than the same problem presented with a "real-life" or "concrete" context. The presentation, contextualization, or "problem description" has been well studied over several decades in disciplines such as mathematics education and psychology; however, little has been published in the field of computing education. In psychology it has been found that not only the presence of context, but the type of context can have dramatic results on problem success. In mathematics education it has been demonstrated that there are non-mathematical factors in problem presentation that can affect success in solving the problem and learning. The contextual background of a problem can also impact cognitive load, which should be considered when evaluating the effects of context. Further, it has been found that regarding cognitive load, computer science has unique characteristics compared to other disciplines, with the consequence that results from other disciplines may not apply to computer science, thus requiring investigation within computer science.
 This paper presents a multi-national, multi-institutional study of the effects of problem contextualization on novice programmer success in a typical CS1 exercise.

negative: A PVT-insensitive CMOS output driver with constant slew rate In this paper, we propose an output driver which has constant slew rate over PVT variation. To make output driver's slew rate to be constant, rising and failing time of pre-driving node of output driver is kept constant by predriver, which has constant pull-up and pull-down path resistance. To make output voltage swing level to be constant, another replica bias circuit was used with CMOS push-pull output driver. HSPICE simulations show that the slew rate is 3.21 V/nS on fast condition and 3.12V/nS on slow condition with 1.4K pre-driver's path resistance. This circuit was implemented with 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS process.

negative: Sensorless vector control of asynchronous machine based on reduced order Kalman filter The article describes sensorless vector control of the asynchronous machine based on Kalman filter. A control system block diagram is presented along with a functional scheme of the original speed observer using dynamic system state vector filter estimator. The synthesis of current regulator using machine parameters determined by inverse r model is shown. The method of a control matrix dimension reduction is proposed by removal the flux linkage calculations out of Kalman filter algorithms. Current and speed regulators, as well as a flux estimator, were implemented in the Mexbios Development Studio simulation environment. The robustness of a speed observer and the efficiency of the asynchronous machine sensorless control system were confirmed by the simulation results.

negative: Rapid solution of problems by nuclear-magnetic resonance quantum computation We offer an improved method for using a nuclear-magnetic-resonance quantum computer (NMRQC) to solve the Deutsch-Jozsa problem. Two known obstacles to the application of the NMRQC are exponential diminishment of density-matrix elements with the number of bits, threatening weak signal levels, and the high cost of preparing a suitable starting state. A third obstacle is a heretofore unnoticed restriction on measurement operators available for use by an NMRQC. Variations on the function classes of the Deutsch-Jozsa problem are introduced, both to extend the range of problems advantageous for quantum computation and to escape all three obstacles to use of an NMRQC. By adapting it to one such function class, the Deutsch-Jozsa problem is made solvable without exponential loss of signal. The method involves an extra work bit and a polynomially more involved Oracle; it uses the thermal-equilibrium density matrix systematically for an arbitrary number of spins, thereby avoiding both the preparation of a pseudopure state and temporal averaging.

negative: 3D Face Recognition using Kinect 2D Face recognition systems bound to fail on images with varying pose angles and occlusions. Many pose invariant methods are proposed in recent years but they are still not able to achieve very good accuracies. So in order to achieve a better accuracy we need to extend algorithms over 3D faces. Due to the high cost involved in acquisition of 3D faces we developed our approach for low-cost and low-quality Microsoft Kinect Sensor and propose an algorithm to produce better results than existing 2D Face recognition techniques even after compromising on the quality of the images from the sensor. Our proposed algorithm is based on modified SURF descriptors on RGB images combined with various enhancements on automatically generated training images using Depth and Color images. We compare our results obtained with State Of The Art Techniques obtained on publicly available RGB-D Face databases. Our System obtained recognition rate of 98.07% on 30° CurtinFace Database, 89.28% on EURECOM Database, 98.00% on 15° Internal Database and 81.00% on 30° Internal Database.

negative: Blockchain-based sharing services : What blockchain technology can contribute to smart cities Background: The notion of smart city has grown popular over the past few years. It embraces several dimensions depending on the meaning of the word “smart” and benefits from innovative applications of new kinds of information and communications technology to support communal sharing. Methods: By relying on prior literature, this paper proposes a conceptual framework with three dimensions: (1) human, (2) technology, and (3) organization, and explores a set of fundamental factors that make a city smart from a sharing economy perspective. Results: Using this triangle framework, we discuss what emerging blockchain technology may contribute to these factors and how its elements can help smart cities develop sharing services. Conclusions: This study discusses how blockchain-based sharing services can contribute to smart cities based on a conceptual framework. We hope it can stimulate interest in theory and practice to foster discussions in this area.

negative: DESC: enabling secure data exchange based on smart contracts Dear editor, As data are one of the most important factors of today’s intelligent systems but are relatively scarce, people try exchanging data with other organizations or public marketplaces. However, data exchange is now lack of a secure execution mechanism to automatically and fairly protect the rights which are seriously concerned by data owners. For instance, data owners cannot limit the identity of a data transferee who is banned to take the data by any way. Moreover, data transferees are also afraid that their applications for exchange may be unfairly treated. For instance, data owners could dynamically change data price when multiple transferees submit their applications at the same time. A data marketplace can take over the role of a trusted third party during data exchange, but single point failure is always a serious problem in a large-scale distributed system. Furthermore, these marketplaces usually use contracts based on natural languages which may be maliciously misinterpreted and cannot be automatically executed. Numerous researches have been presented to provide digital rights management (DRM) [1]. For instance, Zhu et al. [2] presented a privacypreserving video subscription scheme with the limitation of expire date. However, rights of data owners are more complex than rights of digital content owners. Decentralized and trustworthy enforcement for access control policies is a long-term issue. Han et al. [3] proposed an optimized mechanism which is a trusted and decentralized access control framework for the client/server architecture. These studies still need third party authorities which are used to execute or supervise the rights control, leading to a few trust and security issues. Existing studies [4] on attribute-based access control have been applied to many fields, such as e-commerce and Internet of Things. This article introduces attribute-based access control and proposes a secure framework for data exchange based on smart contracts (DESC) to enable automatic and fair access control. Featuring with decentralized, fair, transparent, immutable and traceable advantages, blockchain 2.0 [5] provides a generalized framework for implementing decentralized compute resources named smart contracts which define rights and policies in mathematical and programming forms. Once the predefined smart contract is triggered by a transaction, it can automatically execute the specific contractual clauses. To find out which data rights are seriously concerned by data owners, we investigate the DRM mechanisms and several data exchange platforms: GBDEX, national engineering lab for big data distribution and exchange technologies. Then,

negative: Blockchain and its uses Blockchain, the technology behind most cryptocurrencies that exist today, offers a paradigm shifting technology that has the potential to transform the way that we record and verify events on the Internet. By offering a decentralized, immutable, community verified record of transactions, regardless of what these transactions represent, blockchain technology promises to transform many industries. In this paper, we provide a survey of this very important technology and discuss its possible use-cases and its effect on society. The purpose of this paper is to familiarize the reader with the current state-of-the-art in the blockchain world both in terms of technology and social impact.

negative: Supply Chain Sourcing Under Asymmetric Information We study a supply chain with two suppliers competing over a contract to supply components to a manufacturer. One of the suppliers is a big company for whom the manufacturer’s business constitutes a small part of his business. The other supplier is a small company for whom the manufacturer’s business constitutes a large portion of his business. We analyze the problem from the perspective of the big supplier and address the following questions: What is the optimal contracting strategy that the big supplier should follow? How does the information about the small supplier’s production cost affect the profits and contracting decision? How does the existence of the small supplier affect profits? By studying various information scenarios regarding the small supplier’s and the manufacturer’s production cost, we show, for example, that the big supplier benefits when the small supplier keeps its production cost private. We quantify the value of information for the big supplier and the manufacturer. We also quantify the cost (value) of the alternative-sourcing option for the big supplier (the manufacturer). We determine when an alternative-sourcing option has more impact on profits than information. We conclude with extensions and numerical examples to shed light on how system parameters affect this supply chain.

negative: Emerging Trends in Smart Home Security, Privacy, and Digital Forensics Technology integration is becoming an impetus to everyday lives. This new interconnected world can be found from our most private spaces to the public ones. Smart homes, which is the use of Internet of Things (IoT) within a home, has become the utmost concern in the security and privacy domain. In this paper, we review the current literature from both research and practice and offer five research trends for security and privacy in smart homes: potential for remote security breaches, risks for smart home devices, privacy violations, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and digital forensics challenges. We integrated these five trends in a conceptual model showcasing their roles in the rapidly changing IoT landscape. Combining the trends and smart forensics, we elucidate the bimodal lenses in security and privacy: preventive and investigative. These discussions offer research directions and practitioners’ implications for further development of a safe and secured smart home.

negative: A Use Case Identification Framework and Use Case Canvas for identifying and exploring relevant Blockchain opportunities Blockchain is a new, foundational technology with a vast amount of application possibilities. However, practitioners might not be aware of which use cases in their own business model might benefit from blockchain technology. To aid them in analyzing their business regarding blockchain suitability, this paper introduces a use case identification framework for blockchain and a use case canvas. In the development process they have been evaluated with internal and external reviews in order to offer the best possible guidance. In combination they offer an analysis framework to help practitioners decide which use cases they should take into account for blockchain technology, which characteristics these blockchain implementations would have, and which specific advantages they would offer.

negative: Private memoirs of a smart meter Household smart meters that measure power consumption in real-time at fine granularities are the foundation of a future smart electricity grid. However, the widespread deployment of smart meters has serious privacy implications since they inadvertently leak detailed information about household activities. In this paper, we show that even without a priori knowledge of household activities or prior training, it is possible to extract complex usage patterns from smart meter data using off-the-shelf statistical methods. Our analysis uses two months of data from three homes, which we instrumented to log aggregate household power consumption every second. With the data from our small-scale deployment, we demonstrate the potential for power consumption patterns to reveal a range of information, such as how many people are in the home, sleeping routines, eating routines, etc. We then sketch out the design of a privacy-enhancing smart meter architecture that allows an electric utility to achieve its net metering goals without compromising the privacy of its customers.


query: First Demonstration of 28 GHz and 39 GHz Transmission Lines and Antennas on Glass Substrates for 5G Modules

positive: SiGe BiCMOS and eWLB packaging technologies for automotive radar solutions In this paper the evolution of silicon based automotive radar for the 76-81 GHz range is described. Starting with SiGe bare-die chips in 2009, today packaged MMICs are available for low-cost radar applications. Future SiGe BiCMOS technology will enable highly integrated single chip radars with superior performance at lower power consumption. This will pave the way for automotive radar safety for everyone and will be an important step towards autonomous driving.

positive: W-band scalable phased arrays for imaging and communications This article discusses the benefits and challenges associated with the design of multi-function scalable phased arrays at millimeter wave frequencies. First, applications for phased arrays with tens to hundreds of elements are discussed. Existing solutions for scaling silicon-based phased arrays from microwave to terahertz frequencies are reviewed. The challenges and tradeoffs associated with multiple integration options for W-band phased arrays are analyzed, with special consideration given to packaging and antenna performance. Finally, a solution based on SiGe ICs and organic packages for a 64-element dual-polarized 94 GHz phased array is described, along with associated measurement results.

positive: A 77GHz automotive radar receiver in a wafer level package In this paper, a 77-GHz radar receiver is presented, which comes in a wafer level package and thus eliminates the need for wire bonding yielding significant cost reduction. The high integration level available in the productive Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) technology used in this paper allows for implementation of in-system monitoring of the receiver conversion parameters. This facilitates the realization of ISO 26262 compliant radar sensors for automotive safety applications.

positive: A compact 4-chip package with 64 embedded dual-polarization antennas for W-band phased-array transceivers A fully-integrated antenna-in-package (AiP) solution for W-band scalable phased-array systems is demonstrated. We present a fully operational compact W-band transceiver package with 64 dual-polarization antennas embedded in a multilayer organic substrate. This package has 12 metal layers, a size of 16.2 mm × 16.2 mm, and 292 ball-grid-array (BGA) pins with 0.4 mm pitch. Four silicon-germanium (SiGe) transceiver ICs are flip-chip attached to the package. Extensive full-wave electromagnetic simulation and radiation pattern measurements have been performed to optimize the antenna performance in the package environment, with excellent model-to-hardware correlation achieved. Enabled by detailed circuit-package co-design, a half-wavelength spacing, i.e., 1.6 mm at 94 GHz, is maintained between adjacent antenna elements to support array scalability at both the package and board level. Effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) and radiation patterns are also measured to demonstrate the 64-element spatial power combining.

positive: Low-Cost High-Gain and Broadband Substrate- Integrated-Waveguide-Fed Patch Antenna Array for 60-GHz Band A low-cost high-gain and broadband substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)-fed patch antenna array is demonstrated at the 60-GHz band. A single-layered SIW feeding network with wideband T-junctions and wideband high-gain cavity-backed patch antennas are employed to achieve high gain and wideband performance simultaneously. Although the proposed antenna array has a multilayered structure, it can be fabricated by conventional low-cost single-layered printed circuit board (PCB) technology and then realized by stacking and fixing all of single layers together. The simulated and measured impedance bandwidths of a 4 × 4 antenna array are 27.5% and 22.6% for 10 dB. The discrepancy between simulation and measurement is analyzed. A gain up to 19.6 dBi, and symmetrical unidirectional radiation patterns with low cross polarization are also achieved. With advantages of low fabrication cost and good performances, the proposed antenna array is a promising candidate for millimeter-wave wireless communication systems.

negative: Design and Sensorless Control of a Novel Axial-Flux Permanent Magnet Machine for In-Wheel Applications This paper proposes an axial-flux-modulation permanent magnet (PM) machine and its sensorless control strategy for in-wheel application in electrical vehicles. A Vernier structure is integrated with the axial-flux PM machine to include the magnetic gear effect and improve output torque. The sensorless control strategy of the proposed machine, including initial rotor position estimation and rotating position estimation, is proposed for flux-modulation motors in this paper. The initial rotor position estimation is based on the technique of rectangular pulse voltage injection and the rotating rotor position estimation is based on the sliding mode observer (SMO). The saturation effect on inductances, which is the theoretical basis of the rectangular pulse voltage injection, makes the stator parameter variation in different loads and affects the SMO estimation. To overcome this problem, a novel online parameter self-adjustment procedure for the SMO is introduced. The machine design and its sensorless control performance are verified by simulation and prototype experiments.

negative: Deconstructing Dynamic Symbolic Execution Dynamic symbolic execution (DSE) is a well-known technique for automatically generating tests to achieve higher levels of coverage in a program. Two keys ideas of DSE are to: (1) seed symbolic execution by executing a program on an initial input; (2) using concrete values from the program execution in place of symbolic expressions whenever symbolic reasoning is hard or not desired. We describe DSE for a simple core language and then present a minimalist implementation of DSE for Python (in Python) that follows this basic recipe. The code is available at https://www.github.com/thomasjball/PyExZ3/ (tagged “v1.0”) and has been designed to make it easy to experiment with and extend.

negative: Unshackling evolution: evolving soft robots with multiple materials and a powerful generative encoding In 1994, Karl Sims' evolved virtual creatures showed the potential of evolutionary algorithms to produce natural, complex morphologies and behaviors [30]. One might assume that nearly 20 years of improvements in computational speed and evolutionary algorithms would produce far more impressive organisms, yet the creatures evolved in the field of artificial life today are not obviously more complex, natural, or intelligent. Fig. 2 demonstrates an example of similar complexity in robots evolved 17 years apart.

negative: Statistical limits of spiked tensor models We study the statistical limits of both detecting and estimating a rank-one deformation of a symmetric random Gaussian tensor. We establish upper and lower bounds on the critical signal-to-noise ratio, under a variety of priors for the planted vector: (i) a uniformly sampled unit vector, (ii) i.i.d. ±1 entries, and (iii) a sparse vector where a constant fraction ρ of entries are i.i.d. ±1 and the rest are zero. For each of these cases, our upper and lower bounds match up to a 1+o(1) factor as the order d of the tensor becomes large. For sparse signals (iii), our bounds are also asymptotically tight in the sparse limit ρ → 0 for any fixed d (including the d = 2 case of sparse PCA). Our upper bounds for (i) demonstrate a phenomenon reminiscent of the work of Baik, Ben Arous and Péché: an ‘eigenvalue’ of a perturbed tensor emerges from the bulk at a strictly lower signal-to-noise ratio than when the perturbation itself exceeds the bulk; we quantify the size of this effect. We also provide some general results for larger classes of priors. In particular, the large d asymptotics of the threshold location differs between problems with discrete priors versus continuous priors. Finally, for priors (i) and (ii) we carry out the replica prediction from statistical physics, which is conjectured to give the exact information-theoretic threshold for any fixed d. Of independent interest, we introduce a new improvement to the second moment method for contiguity, on which our lower bounds are based. Our technique conditions away from rare ‘bad’ events that depend on interactions between the signal and noise. This enables us to close √ 2-factor gaps present in several previous works.

negative: Mobile application testing matrix and challenges The adoption of smart phones and the usages of mobile applications are increasing rapidly. Consequently, within limited time-range, mobile Internet usages have managed to take over the desktop usages particularly since the first smart phone-touched application released by iPhone in 2007. This paper is proposed to provide solution and answer the most demandable questions related to mobile application automated and manual testing limitations. Moreover, Mobile application testing requires agility and physically testing. Agile testing is to detect bugs through automated tools, whereas the compatibility testing is more to ensure that the apps operates on mobile OS (Operation Systems) as well as on the different real devices. Moreover, we have managed to answer automated or manual questions through two mobile application case studies MES (Mobile Exam System) and MLM (Mobile Lab Mate) by creating test scripts for both case studies and our experiment results have been discussed and evaluated on whether to adopt test on real devices or on emulators? In addition to this, we have introduced new mobile application testing matrix for the testers and some enterprises to obtain knowledge from.

negative: X-ray: Automating Root-Cause Diagnosis of Performance Anomalies in Production Software Troubleshooting the performance of production software is challenging. Most existing tools, such as profiling, tracing, and logging systems, reveal what events occurred during performance anomalies. However, users of such tools must infer why these events occurred; e.g., that their execution was due to a root cause such as a specific input request or configuration setting. Such inference often requires source code and detailed application knowledge that is beyond system administrators and end users. This paper introduces performance summarization, a technique for automatically diagnosing the root causes of performance problems. Performance summarization instruments binaries as applications execute. It first attributes performance costs to each basic block. It then uses dynamic information flow tracking to estimate the likelihood that a block was executed due to each potential root cause. Finally, it summarizes the overall cost of each potential root cause by summing the per-block cost multiplied by the cause-specific likelihood over all basic blocks. Performance summarization can also be performed differentially to explain performance differences between two similar activities. X-ray is a tool that implements performance summarization. Our results show that X-ray accurately diagnoses 17 performance issues in Apache, lighttpd, Postfix, and PostgreSQL, while adding 2.3% average runtime overhead.

negative: An Improving Deception Detection Method in Computer-Mediated Communication Online deception is disrupting our daily life, organizational process, and even national security. Existing deception detection approaches followed a traditional paradigm by using a set of cues as antecedents, and used a variety of data sets and common classification models to detect deception, which were demonstrated to be an accurate technique, but the previous results also showed the necessity to expand the deception feature set in order to improve the accuracy. In our study, we propose a novel feature selection method of the combination of CHI statistics and hypothesis testing, and achieve the accuracy level of 86% and F-measure of 0.84 by using the novel feature sets and SVM classification models, which exceeds the previous experiment results.

negative: When learning about the real world is better done virtually : A study of substituting computer simulations for laboratory equipment This paper examines the effects of substituting a computer simulation for real laboratory equipment in the second semester of a large-scale introductory physics course. The direct current circuit laboratory was modified to compare the effects of using computer simulations with the effects of using real light bulbs, meters, and wires. Two groups of students, those who used real equipment and those who used a computer simulation that explicitly modeled electron flow, were compared in terms of their mastery of physics concepts and skills with real equipment. Students who used the simulated equipment outperformed their counterparts both on a conceptual survey of the domain and in the coordinated tasks of assembling a real circuit and describing how it worked.

negative: Progressive Gaussian filtering using explicit likelihoods In this paper, we introduce a new sample-based Gaussian filter. In contrast to the popular Nonlinear Kalman Filters, e.g., the UKF, we do not rely on linearizing the measurement model. Instead, we take up the Gaussian progressive filtering approach introduced by the PGF 42 but explicitly rely on likelihood functions. Progression means, we incorporate the information of a new measurement gradually into the state estimate. The advantages of this filtering method are on the one hand the avoidance of sample degeneration and on the other hand an adaptive determination of the number of likelihood evaluations required for each measurement update. By this means, less informative measurements can be processed quickly, whereas measurements containing much information automatically receive more emphasis by the filter. These properties allow the new filter to cope with the demanding problem of very narrow likelihood functions in an efficient way.

negative: Distributed Edge Cloud R-CNN for Real Time Object Detection Cloud computing infrastructures have become the de-facto platform for data driven machine learning applications. However, these centralized models of computing are unqualified for dispersed high-volume real-time edge data intensive applications such as real time object detection, where video streams may be captured at multiple geographical locations. While many recent advancements in object detection have been made using Convolutional Neural Networks, these performance improvements only focus on a single, contiguous object detection model. In this paper, we propose a distributed Edge-Cloud R-CNN pipeline. By splitting the object detection pipeline into components and dynamically distributing these components in the cloud, we can achieve optimal performance to enable real time object detection. As a proof of concept, we evaluate the performance of the proposed system on a distributed computing platform including cloud servers and edge-embedded devices for real-time object detection on live video streams.

negative: A Novel Multi-Stack Device Structure and its Analysis for High Power CMOS Switch Design A novel multi-stack CMOS device structure is proposed, the operation of the structure is fully analyzed for high power CMOS switch design. The structure is also implemented in a standard 0.18-um triple-well CMOS process, and its performance is fully characterized. The proposed switch device incorporates multi-stack NMOS switches, one of which has a switch at the bulk and the others of which have a connection between the bulk and the source in order to provide high power handling capability to the transmit switch side. In order to demonstrate the improvement of power handling capability, performance of the conventional structure and the proposed structure are fully analyzed, compared from various simulation results, and verified with measurement results in detail. Experimental data show that the isolation of the proposed test structure is 25 dB higher at 30 dBm input power level than that of conventional structures, which was caused by the significant reduction of leakage current of the switch device in OFF state. In addition, insertion loss of the Rx switch can be maintained as 1.5 dB by applying body switching technique in 900 MHz.

negative: QUOTA: The Quantile Option Architecture for Reinforcement Learning In this paper, we propose the Quantile Option Architecture (QUOTA) for exploration based on recent advances in distributional reinforcement learning (RL). In QUOTA, decision making is based on quantiles of a value distribution, not only the mean. QUOTA provides a new dimension for exploration via making use of both optimism and pessimism of a value distribution. We demonstrate the performance advantage of QUOTA in both challenging video games and physical robot simulators.

negative: A Dual-Band Dual-Polarized Nested Vivaldi Slot Array With Multilevel Ground Plane In this paper, we present a systematic approach to the design, optimization and characterization of a broadband 5:1 bandwidth (0.8 to 4.0 GHz) antenna subarray. The array element is an optimized-taper antipodal Vivaldi slot with a bandwidth of 2.5:1. Two such elements of different sizes and with 0.4 GHz (10% of the highest frequency) overlapping bandwidths are arrayed in a nested lattice above a multilevel ground plane that shields the feeds and electronics. Return loss, radiation patterns, cross-polarization and mutual coupling are measured from 0.5–5.0 GHz. This array demonstrates E plane patterns with 50 and 45 3-dB beamwidths in the lower and upper frequency bands, respectively. The coupling between the elements is characterized for different relative antenna positions in all three dimensions.

negative: Online and Linear-Time Attention by Enforcing Monotonic Alignments Recurrent neural network models with an attention mechanism have proven to be extremely effective on a wide variety of sequence-tosequence problems. However, the fact that soft attention mechanisms perform a pass over the entire input sequence when producing each element in the output sequence precludes their use in online settings and results in a quadratic time complexity. Based on the insight that the alignment between input and output sequence elements is monotonic in many problems of interest, we propose an end-to-end differentiable method for learning monotonic alignments which, at test time, enables computing attention online and in linear time. We validate our approach on sentence summarization, machine translation, and online speech recognition problems and achieve results competitive with existing sequence-tosequence models.

negative: User involvement: a review of the benefits and challenges Users can be involved in the design process in several ways. The author focuses on user-centred design, participatory design, ethnography, and contextual design. She briefly describes each approach and cites the corresponding literature. The expected benefits of these approaches highly overlap. Methods based on early user involvement promise to avoid the implementation of costly features that users do not want or cannot use. Participatory methods promise to improve the user satisfaction and the acceptance of a system. Nearly all approaches intend to improve the overall usability of the system and by this means increase the productivity and decrease the training costs and the need of user support.

negative: BabyTalk: Understanding and Generating Simple Image Descriptions We present a system to automatically generate natural language descriptions from images. This system consists of two parts. The first part, content planning, smooths the output of computer vision-based detection and recognition algorithms with statistics mined from large pools of visually descriptive text to determine the best content words to use to describe an image. The second step, surface realization, chooses words to construct natural language sentences based on the predicted content and general statistics from natural language. We present multiple approaches for the surface realization step and evaluate each using automatic measures of similarity to human generated reference descriptions. We also collect forced choice human evaluations between descriptions from the proposed generation system and descriptions from competing approaches. The proposed system is very effective at producing relevant sentences for images. It also generates descriptions that are notably more true to the specific image content than previous work.

negative: Kernel auto-encoder for semi-supervised hashing Hashing-based approaches have gained popularity for large-scale image retrieval in recent years. It has been shown that semi-supervised hashing, which incorporates similarity/dissimilarity information into hash function learning could improve the hashing quality. In this paper, we present a novel kernel-based semi-supervised binary hashing model for image retrieval by taking into account auxiliary information, i.e., similar and dissimilar data pairs in achieving high quality hashing. The main idea is to map the data points into a highly non-linear feature space and then map the non-linear features into compact binary codes such that similar/dissimilar data points have similar/dissimilar hash codes. Empirical evaluations on three benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over several existing unsupervised and semi-supervised hash function learning methods.

negative: An approach to online identification of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models An approach to the online learning of Takagi-Sugeno (TS) type models is proposed in the paper. It is based on a novel learning algorithm that recursively updates TS model structure and parameters by combining supervised and unsupervised learning. The rule-base and parameters of the TS model continually evolve by adding new rules with more summarization power and by modifying existing rules and parameters. In this way, the rule-base structure is inherited and up-dated when new data become available. By applying this learning concept to the TS model we arrive at a new type adaptive model called the Evolving Takagi-Sugeno model (ETS). The adaptive nature of these evolving TS models in combination with the highly transparent and compact form of fuzzy rules makes them a promising candidate for online modeling and control of complex processes, competitive to neural networks. The approach has been tested on data from an air-conditioning installation serving a real building. The results illustrate the viability and efficiency of the approach. The proposed concept, however, has significantly wider implications in a number of fields, including adaptive nonlinear control, fault detection and diagnostics, performance analysis, forecasting, knowledge extraction, robotics, behavior modeling.

negative:
Urogenital tract disorders in children suspected of being sexually abused. INTRODUCTION
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is generally defined as child exploitation that leads to achievement of sexual satisfaction. According to data from European countries, sexual abuse of children affects 10-40% of girls and 5-20% of boys.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The Medline, and Web of Science databases were searched with no date limitation on May 2015 using the terms 'child abuse' in conjunction with 'urinary tract', 'urologist', 'urological dysfunction', 'urologic symptoms', 'LUTS' or 'urinary infection'.

RESULTS
Awareness of the CSA problem among paediatricians and urologists is very important, because they are often the only physicians who are able to recognize the problem. CSA diagnosis is possible only through the proper collection of a medical history and a thorough physical examination. Urologists have to remember that children exposed to sexual abuse rarely exhibit abnormal genital findings. In fact, absence of genital findings is the rule rather than the exception. In most cases, the final diagnosis of sexual abuse is based on the child's history and behavior, along with the onset and exacerbation of urologic symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS
In this article, we present a review of studies and literature concerning urinary symptoms in sexually abused children to clarify the problem for a broad group of urologists. We present common symptoms and premises that can point to the right diagnosis and basic guidelines of proceeding after suspicion of abuse.

negative: The Three Layers Evaluation Model for Computer-Generated Plots This paper describes a model for evaluating a computer-generated plot. The main motivation of this project is to provide MEXICA, our plot generator, with the capacity of evaluating its own outputs as well as assessing narratives generated by other agents that can be employed to enrich its knowledge base. We present a description of our computer model as well as an explanation of our first prototype. Then, we show the results of assessing three computergenerated narratives. The outcome suggests that we are in the right direction, although much more work

negative: THE EFFECTS OF MYOFASCIAL RELEASE VS STATIC STRETCHING ON HAMSTRINGS RANGE OF MOTION The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of three days of foam rolling on the hamstrings range of motion in comparison with static stretching. Lower extremity injuries are prevalent in strength training and sports today. Poor flexibility has been found to increase the risk of overuse injuries and significantly affect the individual's level of function and performance. Self myofascial release (SMR), foam rolling, is a recent modality clinically used to increase flexibility. On the other hand, there are few research studies on the technique. Twenty college students participated in this study. Ten participants were in the static stretching group, while ten participants were in the SMR group. Participants received the treatment three times in one week with at least 48 hours between treatments. The treatments were static stretching and SMR for three minutes of stretching the hamstrings muscles. The wall sit-and-reach test was used to measure hamstrings range of motion. Measurements were made at the beginning of the study and after each treatment. iv The acute stretching programs increased hamstrings range of motion in the self myofascial release group (28.9%) and static group (33.2%) respectively. The Group by Time ANOVA for flexibility revealed that there was no main effect of Group (F(1,18) = 3.629, p = 0.0729), but that there was a main effect of Time (F(3,54) = 32.130, p =.0001). At the same time there was no Group by Time interaction (F(3,54) = 1.152, p =.3366). These data suggest that self myofascial release compared to static stretching did not have a greater effect on hamstrings range of motion, but both groups increased range of motion from pretest to posttest.

negative: SVM classifier on chip for melanoma detection Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a common classifier used for efficient classification with high accuracy. SVM shows high accuracy for classifying melanoma (skin cancer) clinical images within computer-aided diagnosis systems used by skin cancer specialists to detect melanoma early and save lives. We aim to develop a medical low-cost handheld device that runs a real-time embedded SVM-based diagnosis system for use in primary care for early detection of melanoma. In this paper, an optimized SVM classifier is implemented onto a recent FPGA platform using the latest design methodology to be embedded into the proposed device for realizing online efficient melanoma detection on a single system on chip/device. The hardware implementation results demonstrate a high classification accuracy of 97.9% and a significant acceleration factor of 26 from equivalent software implementation on an embedded processor, with 34% of resources utilization and 2 watts for power consumption. Consequently, the implemented system meets crucial embedded systems constraints of high performance and low cost, resources utilization and power consumption, while achieving high classification accuracy.

negative: Cultural Congruent Care : A Reflection on Patient Outcome The growing diverse multicultural population in the United States requires that healthcare workers develop cultural knowledge, awareness, and sensitivity to help diverse patient population receive quality health care. Personal belief has been identified as a significant contributor to professional care delivery and may influence the provision of culturally competent care. However, the relationship between cultural competence and the individual cognitive perception has been an uneasy one. This article explores the moral foundations of cultural competence and ultimately its impact on patient care outcome.

negative: Global supply chain design : A literature review and critique In this paper, we review decision support models for the design of global supply chains, and assess the fit between the research literature in this area and the practical issues of global supply chain design. The classification scheme for this review is based on ongoing and emerging issues in global supply chain management and includes review dimensions for (1) decisions addressed in the model, (2) performance metrics, (3) the degree to which the model supports integrated decision processes, and (4) globalization considerations. We conclude that although most models resolve a difficult feature associated with globalization, few models address the practical global supply chain design problem in its entirety. We close the paper with recommendations for future research in global supply chain modeling that is both forward-looking and practically oriented. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

negative: Causal Interventions for Fairness Most approaches in algorithmic fairness constrain machine learning methods so the resulting predictions satisfy one of several intuitive notions of fairness. While this may help private companies comply with non-discrimination laws or avoid negative publicity, we believe it is often too little, too late. By the time the training data is collected, individuals in disadvantaged groups have already suffered from discrimination and lost opportunities due to factors out of their control. In the present work we focus instead on interventions such as a new public policy, and in particular, how to maximize their positive effects while improving the fairness of the overall system. We use causal methods to model the effects of interventions, allowing for potential interference–each individual’s outcome may depend on who else receives the intervention. We demonstrate this with an example of allocating a budget of teaching resources using a dataset of schools in New York City.

negative: A honeycomb-shaped planar monopole antenna for broadband millimeter-wave applications This paper investigates a planar monopole antenna for fifth generation (5G) wireless communication networks. The proposed antenna has an ultra-wide band impedance response in millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum, 25–39 GHz covering Ka band. The antenna has unique structural layout resembling hexagonal honeycomb and has low profile (8×7 mm2) on 0.254 mm thick Rogers substrate, enabling the design for incorporation into future mobile phones. This antenna provides peak gain of 4.15 dBi along with 90% efficiency in the working band. The design is also extended to an 8×1 element array presenting maximum gain of 12.7 dBi at central frequency of the antenna.

negative: A New Compact Microstrip-Fed Dual-Band Coplanar Antenna for WLAN Applications A novel compact microstrip fed dual-band coplanar antenna for wireless local area network is presented. The antenna comprises of a rectangular center strip and two lateral strips printed on a dielectric substrate and excited using a 50 Omega microstrip transmission line. The antenna generates two separate resonant modes to cover 2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz WLAN bands. Lower resonant mode of the antenna has an impedance bandwidth (2:1 VSWR) of 330 MHz (2190-2520 MHz), which easily covers the required bandwidth of the 2.4 GHz WLAN, and the upper resonant mode has a bandwidth of 1.23 GHz (4849-6070 MHz), covering 5.2/5.8 GHz WLAN bands. The proposed antenna occupy an area of 217 mm2 when printed on FR4 substrate (epsivr=4.7). A rigorous experimental study has been conducted to confirm the characteristics of the antenna. Design equations for the proposed antenna are also developed

negative: Dual-wideband log-periodic antennas Two log-periodic (LP) antenna configurations able to suppress a specific frequency band are introduced in this paper. LP antennas belong to the class of frequency independent antennas and are able to achieve multi-decade wide bandwidths. We start with a parametric study of a traditional planar curved tooth LP antenna aimed in determining the means for achieving specific bandwidth. Two techniques for accomplishing consistent near/far-field dual-band performance are introduced next. The first is a LP antenna integrated with a dual-wideband feed line, and the second one is a LP with removed resonant teeth. Antennas and feeds are designed on a microstrip substrate and method of moments modeling within FEKO is used to demonstrate their performance. Required dual-band operation is 1.8-5 GHz and 7-11 GHz.

negative: Design of a dual circular polarization microstrip patch array antenna Design of a microstrip array antenna to achieve dual circular polarization is proposed in this paper. The proposed antenna is a 2×2 array antenna where each patch element is circularly polarized. The feed network has microstrip lines, cross slot lines and air-bridges. The array antenna can excite both right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) and left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) without using any 90° hybrid circuit or PIN diode. “Both-sided MIC Technology” is used to design the feed network as it provides flexibility to place several types of transmission lines on both sides of the dielectric substrate. The design frequency of the proposed array antenna is 10 GHz. The simulated return loss exhibits an impedance bandwidth of greater than 5% and the 3-dB axial ratio bandwidths for both RHCP and LHCP are approximately 1.39%. The structure and the basic operation along with the simulation results of the proposed dual circularly polarized array antenna are demonstrated in this paper.

negative: Design of wideband printed rectangular monopole patch antenna with band notch In this paper, a microstrip-line fed printed monopole rectangular microstrip patch antenna with wide bandwidth having frequency band-notch function for wireless communication have been proposed. Bandwidth enhancement is obtained by rounding the corners of rectangular patch and modifying the ground plane. By cutting rectangular slot on the radiating element, the frequency band-notch characteristic is obtained. FR-4 substrate having dielectric constant of 4.4 and thickness of 1.6 mm is used to simulate printed rectangular monopole antenna (PRMA) having an overall size of substrate 55 × 45 mm2. The designed antenna is simulated using CAD FEKO simulation software. The proposed antenna has impedance bandwidth of 6.61 GHz (2.11 GHz to 8.72 GHz) with a rejection band from 3.03 GHz to 3.48 GHz. The observed gain of proposed antenna is 2.42 dBi. The proposed microstrip patch antenna is fabricated, tested and measured result is presented in this paper.

negative: Super High Gain Substrate Integrated Clamped-Mode Printed Log-Periodic Dipole Array Antenna A compact, low profile, super high antenna gain, and broadband antenna, based on the printed log-periodic dipole array (PLPDA) antenna and the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technologies, has been proposed. It is so called substrate integrated waveguide clamped-mode printed log-periodic dipole array (SIW clamped-mode PLPDA) antenna. The arrangement of the dipole elements and feed lines in the SIW clamped-mode PLPDA antenna is designed and optimized. The proposed SIW clamped-mode PLPDA antenna was designed, fabricated, and tested, while a single SIW PLPDA antenna and a 2-element SIW PLPDA array were designed for comparison. The impedance bandwidth and the far-field radiation patterns in both E-plane and H-plane were measured. The measured results show that the performance of the SIW clamped-mode PLPDA antenna is similar to that of the 2-element SIW PLPDA array over the working frequency range 25 GHz-40 GHz, while the proposed antenna has only half the number of dipole elements and feed lines.

negative: Design of fractal based microstrip rectangular patch antenna for multiband applications In this paper a multiband fractal based rectangular microstrip patch antenna is designed. FR4 substrate having thickness of 1.58 mm is used as substrate material for the design of proposed antenna and microstrip feed line provides the excitation to the antenna. The antenna operating frequency range is from 1 to 10 GHz. The proposed antenna resonate at twelve different frequencies as 1.86, 2.33, 3.67, 4.57, 5.08, 6.06, 7.03, 7.75, 8.08, 8.84, 9.56 and 10 GHz and the return losses are -15.39, -16.48, -10.02, -17.29, -13.15, -23.41, -10.22, -11.28, -17.02, -10.94, -15.15 and -15.48 dB respectively. The proposed antenna is designed and simulated by using the Ansoft HFSS V13 (high frequency structure simulator) software.