Genetic programming of conventional features to detect seizure precursors

This paper presents an application of genetic programming (GP) to optimally select and fuse conventional features (C-features) for the detection of epileptic waveforms within intracranial electroencephalogram (IEEG) recordings that precede seizures, known as seizure precursors. Evidence suggests that seizure precursors may localize regions important to seizure generation on the IEEG and epilepsy treatment. However, current methods to detect epileptic precursors lack a sound approach to automatically select and combine C-features that best distinguish epileptic events from background, relying on visual review predominantly. This work suggests GP as an optimal alternative to create a single feature after evaluating the performance of a binary detector that uses: (1) genetically programmed features; (2) features selected via GP; (3) forward sequentially selected features; and (4) visually selected features. Results demonstrate that a detector with a genetically programmed feature outperforms the other three approaches, achieving over 78.5% positive predictive value, 83.5% sensitivity, and 93% specificity at the 95% level of confidence.     

A comparison of MNT curves and supersingular curves

We compare both the security and performance issues related to the choice of MNT curves against supersingular curves in characteristic three, for pairing based systems. We pay particular attention to equating the relevant security levels and comparing not only computational performance and bandwidth performance. The paper focuses on the BLS signature scheme and the Boneh–Franklin encryption scheme, but a similar analysis can be applied to many other pairing based schemes.     

Effect of Visual Cues and a Mixture of Isothiocyanates on Trap Capture of Cabbage Seed Weevil, Ceutorhynchus assimilis

The effect of trap design, trap color, and a mixture of isothiocyanates on the capture of Ceutorhynchus assimilis (Paykull) was studied in a series of field experiments. Unbaited yellow water traps, a yellow sticky box trap, and a yellow sticky card trap, mounted vertically, or at 45° to the vertical with the yellow card facing upwards were effective for capturing seed weevils, but a horizontal yellow sticky card trap caught few. White, green, and black traps were unattractive. During migratory periods, trap catch could be enhanced two to four times with a lure consisting of a mixture of allyl, 3-butenyl, 4-pentenyl, and 2-phenylethyl isothiocyanates, but this bait did not attract in a trap with ineffective design. The sticky card trap, mounted at 45° to the vertical and baited with the isothiocyanate mixture, may be useful for monitoring movement of C. assimilis during migratory periods. However, during the colonization phase, lures of either a mixture of isothiocyanates or of allyl isothiocyanate alone were not attractive.     

光纤表面等离子体波共振温度传感器的研究

根据液体折射率随温度变化而改变的特性，提出了一种基于表面等离子体波共振(SPR)效应的新型光纤温度传感器，分析了表面等离子体波共振光纤探头感应环境温度变化的原理。对表面等离子体波共振探头结构进行了优化设计，并进行了相关实验，为实现高折射率液体介质的感温测试和扩大测温范围提供依据。通过自行设计的一套光纤温度传感测试系统，得到系统输出的表面等离子体波共振光谱信号随温度变化的特性曲线，并提出对共振波长和最小光强反射率进行实时双参数测量的方法。实验结果表明，该测试系统具有结构简单、全光纤化、易远程测量等优点。     

Anonymous attestation with user-controlled linkability

This paper is motivated by the observation that existing security models for direct anonymous attestation (DAA) have problems to the extent that insecure protocols may be deemed secure when analysed under these models. This is particularly disturbing as DAA is one of the few complex cryptographic protocols resulting from recent theoretical advances actually deployed in real life. Moreover, standardization bodies are currently looking into designing the next generation of such protocols. Our first contribution is to identify issues in existing models for DAA and explain how these errors allow for proving security of insecure protocols. These issues are exhibited in all deployed and proposed DAA protocols (although they can often be easily fixed). Our second contribution is a new security model for a class of “pre-DAA scheme”, that is, DAA schemes where the computation on the user side takes place entirely on the trusted platform. Our model captures more accurately than any previous model the security properties demanded from DAA by the trusted computing group (TCG), the group that maintains the DAA standard. Extending the model from pre-DAA to full DAA is only a matter of refining the trust models on the parties involved. Finally, we present a generic construction of a DAA protocol from new building blocks tailored for anonymous attestation. Some of them are new variations on established ideas and may be of independent interest. We give instantiations for these building blocks that yield a DAA scheme more efficient than the one currently deployed, and as efficient as the one about to be standardized by the TCG which has no valid security proof.     

Mapping and mining interictal pathological gamma (30-100 Hz) oscillations with clinical intracranial EEG in patients with epilepsy

Localizing an epileptic network is essential for guiding neurosurgery and antiepileptic medical devices as well as elucidating mechanisms that may explain seizure-generation and epilepsy. There is increasing evidence that pathological oscillations may be specific to diseased networks in patients with epilepsy and that these oscillations may be a key biomarker for generating and indentifying epileptic networks. We present a semi-automated method that detects, maps, and mines pathological gamma (30-100 Hz) oscillations (PGOs) in human epileptic brain to possibly localize epileptic networks. We apply the method to standard clinical iEEG (<100 Hz) with interictal PGOs and seizures from six patients with medically refractory epilepsy. We demonstrate that electrodes with consistent PGO discharges do not always coincide with clinically determined seizure onset zone (SOZ) electrodes but at times PGO-dense electrodes include secondary seizure-areas (SS) or even areas without seizures (NS). In 4/5 patients with epilepsy surgery, we observe poor (Engel Class 4) postsurgical outcomes and identify more PGO-activity in SS or NS than in SOZ. Additional studies are needed to further clarify the role of PGOs in epileptic brain.     

Context Dependent Sulf1/Sulf2 Functional Divergence in Endothelial Cell Activity

Signalling activities are tightly regulated to control cellular responses. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) at the cell membrane and extracellular matrix regulate ligand availability and interaction with a range of key receptors. SULF1 and SULF2 enzymes modify HSPG sulfation by removing 6-O sulfates to regulate cell signalling but are considered functionally identical. Our in vitro mRNA and protein analyses of two diverse human endothelial cell lines, however, highlight their markedly distinct regulatory roles of maintaining specific HSPG sulfation patterns through feedback regulation of HS 6-O transferase (HS6ST) activities and highly divergent roles in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) cell signalling activities. Unlike Sulf2, Sulf1 over-expression in dermal microvascular HMec1 cells promotes TGFβ and VEGF cell signalling by simultaneously upregulating HS6ST1 activity. In contrast, Sulf1 over-expression in venous ea926 cells has the opposite effect as it attenuates both TGFβ and VEGF signalling while Sulf2 over-expression maintains the control phenotype. Exposure of these cells to VEGF-A, TGFβ1, and their inhibitors further highlights their endothelial cell type-specific responses and integral growth factor interactions to regulate cell signalling and selective feedback regulation of HSPG sulfation that additionally exploits alternative Sulf2 RNA-splicing to regulate net VEGF-A and TGFβ cell signalling activities.     

An improved HPLC method for single‐run analysis of the spectrum of hop bittering compounds usually encountered in beers

A single‐run reverse phase‐high performance liquid chromatography method for the quantification of humulinones, α‐acids, iso‐α‐acids and reduced iso‐α‐acids (where present) in commercial beer samples is presented. The method utilizes a binary solvent system consisting of (A) 1% v/v acetic acid and (B) 0.1% v/v orthophosphoric acid in acetonitrile. Separation was achieved on a Purospher® star RP‐18 column (250 × 46 mm, 3 µm) with a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. The compounds of interest eluted within 32 min. The method was fully validated according to International Conference on Harmonization guidelines and subsequently applied to monitor degradation of hop acids in a storage trial where four lager beers were aged at 28 and 38 °C for 70 and 60 days, respectively. Results confirmed the widely reported degradation through storage of trans‐iso‐α‐acids whilst demonstrating that the HLPC method was sufficiently sensitive to monitor and model this degradation. One beer exhibited a significantly lower (P < 0.05) rate of trans‐iso‐α‐acid degradation than the other conventionally hopped beers in the study, which might have been linked to its higher pH (4.71 vs 4.36). The relative stability of reduced iso‐α‐acids during ageing was also confirmed.