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Sensing Your Touch: Strengthen User Authentication via Touch Dynamic Biometrics
No full textMobile devices are increasingly used to store private and sensitive data, and this has led to an increased demand for more secure and usable authentication services. Currently, mobile device authentication services mainly use a knowledge-based method, e.g. a PIN-based authentication method, and, in some cases, a fingerprint-based authentication method is also supported. The knowledge-based method is vulnerable to impersonation attacks, while the fingerprintbased method can be unreliable sometimes. To make the authentication service more secure and reliable for mobile device users, this paper describes our efforts in investigating the benefits of integrating a touch dynamics authentication method into a PIN-based authentication method. It describes the design, implementation and evaluation of this method. Experimental results show that this approach can significantly reduce the success rate of impersonation attempts; in the case of a 4-digit PIN, the success rate is reduced from 100% (if only the PIN is used) to 9.9% (if both the PIN and the touch dynamics are used)
Errors and Poor Practices of Software Engineering Students in Using Git
No full textGit is one of the most popular version control systems used by software developers to work collaboratively. Using Git in an educational context allows students to gain skills for reallife projects but they also face challenges when interacting with Git. In this paper, we present a list of errors and poor practices obtained through a focus group study with teaching staff. This list can be used to improve the learning experience and to help teach Git in a more efficient way. The list includes many more items, and has a wider coverage of the elements of collaborative software development, than other studies in this field
Modeling of cumulative effects of time-varying drug exposures on within-subject changes in a continuous outcome
No full textAn accurate assessment of the safety or effectiveness of drugs in pharmaco-epidemiological studies requires defining an etiologically correct time-varying exposure model, which specifies how previous drug use affects the outcome of interest. To address this issue, we develop, and validate in simulations, a new approach for flexible modeling of the cumulative effects of time-varying exposures on repeated measures of a continuous response variable, such as a quantitative surrogate outcome, or a biomarker. Specifically, we extend the linear mixed effects modeling to estimate how past and recent drug exposure affects the way individual values of the outcome change throughout the follow-up. To account for the dosage, duration and timing of past exposures, we rely on a flexible weighed cumulative exposure (WCE) methodology to model the cumulative effects of past drug use, as the weighted sum of past doses. Weights, modeled with unpenalized cubic regression B splines, reflect the relative importance of doses taken at different times in the past. In simulations, we evaluate the performance of the model under different assumptions concerning (i) the shape of the weight function, (ii) the sample size, (iii) the number of the longitudinal observations and (iv) the intra-individual variance. Results demonstrate the accuracy of our estimates of the weight function and of the between- and within- patients variances, and good correlation between the observed and predicted longitudinal changes in the outcome. We then apply the proposed method to re-assess the association between time-varying glucocorticoid exposure and weight gain in people living with rheumatoid arthritis.<br/
Growing up healthy in families across the globe: cross-cultural harmonization of childhood riskfactors using longitudinal studies from Ireland, Scotland and New Zealand
No full textThe Growing Up Healthy in Families Across the Globe project is an international collaboration examining the potential for harmonised analysis using five longitudinal studies (from New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland). All five studies follow the lives of children, are interested in the dynamics of family change and work to inform policy to potentially improve population well-being across the lifecourse. Comparative analysis from harmonised longitudinal studies, where change over time is emphasised, provides a unique view to determine how and why environments change, which environments are supportive and which are not. This paper discusses the challenges and tasks involved when preparing and conducting harmonised analysis, and initial findings from the Growing Up Healthy project are discussed
Assessment of disease-associated missense variants in RYR2 on transcript splicing
No full textHeterozygous RYR2 missense variants cause catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. Rarely, loss of function variants can result in ventricular arrhythmias. We used splice prediction tools and an ex vivo splicing assay to investigate whether RYR2 missense variants result in altered splicing. Ten RYR2 variants were consistently predicted to disrupt splicing, however none altered splicing in the splicing assay. In summary, missense RYR2 variants are unlikely to cause disease by altered splicing
Characterisation, Selection and Micro-Assembly of Nanowire Laser Systems
No full textSemiconductor nanowire (NW) lasers are a promising technology for the realisation of coherent optical sources with extremely small footprint. To fully realize their potential as building blocks in on-chip photonic systems, scalable methods are required for dealing with large populations of inhomogeneous devices that are typically randomly distributed on host substrates. In this work two complementary, high-throughput techniques are combined: the characterisation of nanowire laser populations using automated optical microscopy, and a high accuracy transfer printing process with automatic device spatial registration and transfer. In this work a population of NW lasers is characterised, binned by threshold energy density and subsequently printed in arrays onto a secondary substrate. Statistical analysis of the transferred and control devices show that the transfer process does not incur measurable laser damage and the threshold binning can be maintained. Analysis is provided on the threshold and mode spectra of the device populations to investigate the potential for using NW lasers for integrated systems fabrication
A core outcome set for future endometriosis research: an international consensus development study
No full textObjective To develop a core outcome set for endometriosis. Design Consensus development study. Setting International. Population One hundred and sixteen healthcare professionals, 31 researchers, and 206 patient representatives. Methods Modified Delphi method and modified Nominal Group Technique. Results The final core outcome set includes three core outcomes for trials evaluating potential treatments for pain and other symptoms associated with endometriosis: overall pain, improvement in the most troublesome symptom, and quality of life. In addition, eight core outcomes for trials evaluating potential treatments for infertility associated with endometriosis were identified: viable intrauterine pregnancy confirmed by ultrasound, pregnancy loss including ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, and termination of pregnancy, live birth, time to pregnancy leading to live birth, gestational age at delivery, birth weight, neonatal mortality, and major congenital abnormalities. Two core outcomes applicable to all trials were also identified: adverse events and patient satisfaction with treatment. Conclusions Using robust consensus science methods, healthcare professionals, researchers, and women with endometriosis have developed a core outcome set to standardise outcome selection, collection, and reporting across future randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews evaluating potential treatments for endometriosis
Casein phosphopeptide amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP ACP) containing products may be effective but not significantly greater than using fluorides alone, in preventing and treating white spot lesions around orthodontic brackets
No full textRapeseed meal valorization strategies via nitrogen- and oxygen-limited production of polyhydroxyalkanoates with Pseudomonas putida
No full textRapeseed meal (RSM) is a candidate for biopolymer production due to its abundance, low cost and potential integration with other rapeseed-derived products. However, existing studies pursuing such schemes are limited. The feasibility of different strategies for RSM valorization via protein extraction and polyhydroxyalkanoate production were evaluated. Nitrogen-limited RSM media was produced from hydrolysis of residues which had undergone extensive protein extraction using sodium hydroxide. A study of oxygen-limited fermentation was also performed on hydrolysate of untreated RSM via fed-batch. The typical strategy of using a high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio may not be the most suitable route for polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production using nitrogen-rich biomass as a feedstock. Central composite design-based experiments show that due to mass transfer limitations protein extraction at 1-L scale could only achieve yields around 50% and 69%, at room temperature and 60°C, respectively. Protein extraction yields reduced with successive extractions, meaning that whilst the RSM hydrolysate is viable for growth, designing a valorization scheme which has the fermentation step dictated by the protein extraction may not be practical/economical. A better route which utilized oxygen-limitation to initially induce stationary phase was identified, giving accumulation of polyhydroxyalkanoate once the oxygen levels began to recover; 8.93% and 1.75% PHA accumulation in fed-batch cultures of synthetic and RSM media, respectively. Findings demonstrate that decoupling of protein extraction performance from PHA synthesis is feasible. This study provides important insight into the degrees of freedom available in the design of a holistic valorization scheme of rapeseed meal, and high protein lignocellulosic biomass in general
