Age-related identification of emotions at different image sizes

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to determine whether older adults are placed at a unique disadvantage in identifying emotions at small image sizes. BACKGROUND: Technologies relevant to older adults often display small images, though no studies have examined whether these systems are usable for this population. Given the importance of successful emotional processing, we draw on research showing age-related difficulties in processing negative emotions to examine older adults' performance on images with reduced sizes. METHODS: Sixty participants, 20 in each age group, were shown the names of emotions, followed by a facial expression, and were asked to indicate as rapidly as possible if they matched. RESULTS: For response time we found an interaction of age and window size, showing that older adults, unlike younger adults, are slower with small sizes than with large sizes. For accuracy, we found an interaction of age and emotion, indicating that older adults are less accurate in the perception of fearful, sad, and surprised stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Only older adults are disadvantaged by smaller images. Also, interactions of age and emotion reflect older adults' difficulty processing negative emotions. APPLICATIONS: Our results have implications for the design of videoconferencing technology and mobile systems and extend previous research on aging and emotion.     

Remote virtual whiteboard assistance for improving task performance during lunar surface operations

Virtual Reality - During extravehicular activities (EVAs), astronauts are heavily dependent on the Mission Center (MCC) and their Intra-Vehicular Astronaut (IVA) counterparts. Each procedure step...     

Correction to: The role of information sharing on decision delay during multiteam disaster response

Cognition, Technology & Work -     

How do architecture patterns and tactics interact? A model and annotation

Software architecture designers inevitably work with both architecture patterns and tactics. Architecture patterns describe the high-level structure and behavior of software systems as the solution to multiple system requirements, whereas tactics are design decisions that improve individual quality attribute concerns. Tactics that are implemented in existing architectures can have significant impact on the architecture patterns in the system. Similarly, tactics that are selected during initial architecture design significantly impact the architecture of the system to be designed: which patterns to use, and how they must be changed to accommodate the tactics. However, little is understood about how patterns and tactics interact. In this paper, we develop a model for the interaction of patterns and tactics that enables software architects to annotate architecture diagrams with information about the tactics used and their impact on the overall structure. This model is based on our in-depth analysis of the types of interactions involved, and we show several examples of how the model can be used to annotate different kinds of architecture diagrams. We illustrate the model and annotation by showing examples taken from real systems, and describe how the annotation was used in architecture reviews. Tactics and patterns are known architectural concepts; this work provides more specific and in-depth understanding of how they interact. Its other key contribution is that it explores the larger problem of understanding the relation between strategic decisions and how they need to be tailored in light of more tactical decisions.     

Older Adults Talk Technology: Technology Usage and Attitudes

Older adults (n = 113) participated in focus groups discussing their use of and attitudes about technology in the context of their home, work, and healthcare. Participants reported using a wide variety of technology items, particularly in their homes. Positive attitudes (i.e., likes) outnumbered negative attitudes (i.e., dislikes), suggesting that older adults perceive the benefits of technology use to outweigh the costs of such use. Positive attitudes were most frequently related to how the technology supported activities, enhanced convenience, and contained useful features. Negative attitudes were most frequently associated with technology creating inconveniences, unhelpful features, as well as security and reliability concerns. Given that older adults reported more positive than negative attitudes about the technologies they use, these results contradict stereotypes that older adults are afraid or unwilling to use technology. These findings also highlight the importance of perceived benefits of use and ease of use for models of technology acceptance. Emphasizing the benefits of technology in education and training programs may increase future technology adoption.     

Graph-based malware detection using dynamic analysis

We introduce a novel malware detection algorithm based on the analysis of graphs constructed from dynamically collected instruction traces of the target executable. These graphs represent Markov chains, where the vertices are the instructions and the transition probabilities are estimated by the data contained in the trace. We use a combination of graph kernels to create a similarity matrix between the instruction trace graphs. The resulting graph kernel measures similarity between graphs on both local and global levels. Finally, the similarity matrix is sent to a support vector machine to perform classification. Our method is particularly appealing because we do not base our classifications on the raw n-gram data, but rather use our data representation to perform classification in graph space. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm on two classification problems: benign software versus malware, and the Netbull virus with different packers versus other classes of viruses. Our results show a statistically significant improvement over signature-based and other machine learning-based detection methods.     

Preface to a special section on verification,model checking,and abstract interpretation

This special section features six papers concerned with state-of-the-art research in verification, model checking, and abstract interpretation; three research areas that share the goal to provide mathematically well-founded techniques for sound semantic analysis of computer systems. While each area takes a particular view on this problem, there is a growing awareness that a closer collaboration is fruitful and in the last decade methods that combine ideas from different areas have been developed. The papers in this special section are carefully revised and extended versions of articles that have first been presented at the VMCAI 2009 conference.     

Using templates to distinguish multiplications from squaring operations

Since side channel analysis was introduced as a method to recover secret information from an otherwise secure cryptosystem, many countermeasures have been proposed to prevent leakage from secure devices. Among these countermeasures is side channel atomicity that makes operations indistinguishable using side channel analysis. In this paper, we present practical results of an attack on RSA signature generation, protected in this manner, based on the expected difference in Hamming weight between the result of a multiplication and a squaring operation. This work presents the first attack that we are aware of where template analysis can be used without requiring an open device to characterize an implementation of a given cryptographic algorithm. Moreover, an attacker does not need to know the plaintexts being operated on and, therefore, blinding and padding countermeasures applied to the plaintext do not hinder the attack in anyway.     

Flood energy dissipation in anabranching channels

This study examines the character of developing anabranched channel networks on the River Wear, north England, using metre‐scale aerial LiDAR. DSM‐DTM interpretation reveals a well‐developed vegetation structure and a locally diverse terrain, dominated by an interlinked channel network split by low‐elevation depositional areas with the gross morphology of the reach resembling that of a strongly active meandering/wandering channel suggesting that an anabranching network may develop within systems that were initially active meandering and wandering, evolving in line with floodplain vegetative succession. Utilization of the LiDAR DEM in the hydrological component of the CAESAR‐Lisflood (version 1.4) morphodynamic model has generated local hydraulic variable estimates through the anabranched reaches for a range of flows. These data clearly demonstrate how elevated flows are transferred out of the primary channel and distributed along the interconnected secondary channel network, creating a diverse set of hydraulic environments. Areas between the channels rapidly become inundated as flows increase, dissipating flow energy. Shear stress estimates throughout the study site reveal a generally reduced ability to mobilize sediments and erode channel margins, in comparison with a single‐thread reach immediately downstream. Anabranched secondary channels appear to operate in disequilibrium and act predominantly as aggradational zones, although with some evidence of scour at channel bifurcation and confluence points. It would appear that the topographic character of anabranching sites efficiently manages flood flow energy, activating secondary channels and low‐elevation areas to distribute flood flows. These findings contrast with the hydraulic data from an adjacent single‐thread reach, characterized by flood flows concentrated in‐channel creating a high erosive potential. We propose that anabranching rivers could play an important role in natural flood and sediment management in many U.K. river systems.