Testing and evaluating virus detectors for handheld devices

The widespread use of personal digital assistants and smartphones gives securing these devices a high priority. Yet little attention has been placed on protecting handheld devices against viruses. Currently available antivirus software for handhelds is few in number. At this stage, the opportunity exists for the evaluation and improvement of current solutions. By pinpointing weaknesses in the current antivirus software, improvements can be made to properly protect these devices from a future tidal wave of viruses. This research evaluates four currently available antivirus solutions for handheld devices. A formal model of virus transformation that provides transformation traceability is presented. Two sets of ten tests each were administered; nine tests from each set involved the modification of source code of two known viruses for handheld devices. The testing techniques used are well established in PC testing; thus the focus of this research is solely on handheld devices. Statistical analysis of the test results show high false negative production rates for the antivirus software and an overall false negative production rate of 47.5% with a 95% confidence interval between 36.6% and 58.4%. This high rate shows that current solutions poorly identify modified versions of a virus. The virus is left undetected and capable of spreading, infecting and causing damage.     

Geobag Performance as Scour Countermeasure for Bridge Abutments

This paper presents observations and data from a sequence of laboratory experiments conducted to evaluate geobags as a countermeasure to protect bridge-abutment foundations from failure attributable to scour of the alluvial-river channel in which they are placed. Geobags comprise geotextile cloth bags filled with local sediment or concrete. The experiments focused on the performance of geobags placed as an apron around pile-supported wing-wall abutments retaining erodible embankments, and subject to live-bed and clear-water flow conditions. Though an apron of geobags is shown to substantially reduce or eliminate scour immediately at the abutment, the apron must be formed flexibly of linked geobags. Moreover, a performance concern is that the apron may shift scour to a location flanking or downstream of the apron, and in so doing imperil a nearby pier or riverbank. The experiments indicate the importance of protecting the embankment region beneath and immediately behind the abutment’s pile cap. Live-bed conditions proved to be the more critical for abutment protection, owing to the capacity of dunes to destabilize geobags around the edges of the apron. Design guidelines are given and include using current riprap configurations for sizing and placing geobags.     

Inductive transfer for learning Bayesian networks

In several domains it is common to have data from different, but closely related problems. For instance, in manufacturing, many products follow the same industrial process but with different conditions; or in industrial diagnosis, where there is equipment with similar specifications. In these cases it is common to have plenty of data for some scenarios but very little for others. In order to learn accurate models for rare cases, it is desirable to use data and knowledge from similar cases; a technique known as transfer learning. In this paper we propose an inductive transfer learning method for Bayesian networks, that considers both structure and parameter learning. For structure learning we use conditional independence tests, by combining measures from the target task with those obtained from one or more auxiliary tasks, using a novel weighted sum of the conditional independence measures. For parameter learning, we propose two variants of the linear pool for probability aggregation, combining the probability estimates from the target task with those from the auxiliary tasks. To validate our approach, we used three Bayesian networks models that are commonly used for evaluating learning techniques, and generated variants of each model by changing the structure as well as the parameters. We then learned one of the variants with a small dataset and combined it with information from the other variants. The experimental results show a significant improvement in terms of structure and parameters when we transfer knowledge from similar tasks. We also evaluated the method with real-world data from a manufacturing process considering several products, obtaining an improvement in terms of log-likelihood between the data and the model when we do transfer learning from related products.     

Bayesian Approach for Estimating the Distribution of Magnitudes,Interevent Times and Distances of Earthquake Sequences

Abstract

A Bayesian approach has been applied to estimate the distribution of magnitudes, interevent distances and times of earthquakes occurred in 2017 in central Italy by using a small amount of random samples drawn from the distribution of the same seismic parameters for the earthquakes occurred in 2014-2016. We applied the method to the whole and aftershock-depleted seismicity by using the exponential and the normal model to fit the distributions of the seismic parameters. Our findings indicate that the exponential model fits the distributions of the seismic parameters much better than the normal model. Furthermore, in the whole seismicity case, the method requires at least 2100 to 2300 random samples to estimate the distributions of the seismic parameters of earthquakes occurred in 2017 with an estimation error less than 0.01; while in the aftershock-depleted case, a minimum number of random samples varying between 360 and 1470 occurred in 2014-2017 is required to estimate the distributions of the seismic parameters of earthquakes occurred in 2017 with an estimation error less than 0.01.     

Increasing the Level of Automation in the Forestry Logging Process with Crane Trajectory Planning and Control

Working with forestry machines requires a great deal of training to be sufficiently skilled to operate forestry cranes. In view of this, it would be desirable within the forestry industry to introduce automated motions, such as those seen in robotic arms, to shorten the training time and make the work of the operator easier. Motivated by this fact, we have developed two experimental platforms for testing control systems and motion‐planning algorithms in real time. They correspond to a laboratory setup and a commercial version of a hydraulic manipulator used in forwarder machines. The aim of this article is to present the results of this development by providing an overview of our trajectory‐planning algorithm and motion‐control method, with a subsequent view of the experimental results. For motion control, we design feedback controllers that are able to track reference trajectories based on sensor measurements. Likewise, we provide arguments to design controllers in an open‐loop for machines that lack sensing devices. Relying on the tracking efficiency of these controllers, we design time‐efficient reference trajectories of motions that correspond to logging tasks. To demonstrate performance, we provide an overview of extensive testing done on these machines.     

A quality evaluation methodology for health-related websites based on a 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic approach

Nowadays, the patients and physicians use the health-related websites as an important information source and, therefore, it is critical the quality evaluation of health- related websites. The quality assessment of health-related websites becomes especially relevant because their use imply the existence of a wide range of threats which can affect people’s health. Additionally, website quality evaluation can also contribute to maximize the exploitation of invested resources by organizations in the development of user-perceived quality websites. But there is not yet a clear and unambiguous definition of the concept of website quality and the debate about quality evaluation on the Web remains open. In this paper, we present a qualitative and user-oriented methodology for assessing quality of health-related websites based on a 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic approach. To identify the quality criteria set, a qualitative research has been carried out using the focus groups technique. The measurement method generates linguistic quality assessments considering the visitors’ judgements with respect to those quality criteria. The combination of the linguistic judgements is implemented without a loss of information by applying a 2-tuple linguistic weighted average operator. This methodology means an improvement on quality evaluation of health websites through the commitment to put users first.     

Diagonal polynomials for small dimensions

HereR andN denote respectively the real numbers and the nonnegative integers. Also 0 <n εN, ands(x) =x ₁+...+x _n when x = (x ₁,...,x _n) εR ⁿ. Adiagonal function of dimensionn is a mapf onN ⁿ (or any larger set) that takesN ⁿ bijectively ontoN and, for all x, y inN ⁿ, hasf(x) <f(y) whenevers(x) <s(y). We show that diagonalpolynomials f of dimensionn all have total degreen and have the same terms of that degree, so that the lower-degree terms characterize any suchf. We call two polynomialsequivalent if relabeling variables makes them identical. Then, up to equivalence, dimension two admits just one diagonal polynomial, and dimension three admits just two.     

An enlarged family of packing polynomials on multidimensional lattices

HereN = {0, 1, 2, ...}, while a functionf onN ^m or a larger domain is apacking function if its restrictionf|N ^m is a bijection ontoN. (Packing functions generalize Cantor's [1]pairing polynomials, and yield multidimensional-array storage schemes.) We call two functionsequivalent if permuting arguments makes them equal. Alsos(x) =x ₁ + ... +x _m when x = (x ₁,...,x _m); and such anf is adiagonal mapping iff(x) <f(y) whenever x, y εN ^m ands(x) <s(y). Lew [7] composed Skolem's [14], [15] diagonal packing polynomials (essentially one for eachm) to constructc(m) inequivalent nondiagonal packing polynomials on eachN ^m. For eachm > 1 we now construct 2^m−2 inequivalent diagonal packing polynomials. Then, extending the tree arguments of the prior work, we obtaind(m) inequivalent nondiagonal packing polynomials, whered(m)/c(m) → ∞ asm → ∞. Among these we count the polynomials of extremal degree.     

A systematic literature review of the Teleo-Reactive paradigm

The Teleo-Reactive approach designed by N. J. Nilsson offers a high-level programming model for the development of reactive systems such as robotic vehicles. Teleo-Reactive programs are written in a way that allows engineers to define behaviour taking account of goals and changes in the state of the environment. Since Nilsson’s original definition, published in 1994, various researchers have used the Teleo-Reactive paradigm, either applied to a particular domain or extended by adding more capabilities to the original definition. This article provides a systematic literature review of 53 previous Teleo-Reactive-based studies in journals, conference proceedings and the like. The aim of this paper is to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all this high-quality research evidence relating to the use of the Teleo-Reactive paradigm. The literature has been systematically reviewed to offer an overview of the present state of this field of study and identify the principal results that have been obtained thanks to the Teleo-Reactive approach. Finally, this article details the challenges and difficulties that have to be overcome to ensure further advances in the use of this technique.     

The effect of interfacial adhesion and morphology on the mechanical properties of polypropylene composites containing different acid surface treated sepiolites

The study of the microstructure of polymeric composites and its relationship to mechanical properties, are of great importance. In the present study vv8 have carried out a study of the microstructure of polymeric composites of polypropylene and different sepiolites treated with organic acids, in order to determine the mesophase produced around We filler particles and its relationship with the mechanical properties of the composites. This study was made using scanning electron microscopy, differential Scanning calorimetry and mechanical tests.