Us against the World: Detection of Radical Language in Online Platforms

In this paper, we have investigated if we can detect radical comments in an online social network. We used comments from 6 subreddits, 3 of which are considered radical and 3 non-radical. Using various structural features of the texts in the comments, we were able to obtain an F1-score of 91% when using SVM with a linear kernel and a precision of almost 98% when using Random Forest

Acoustical user identification based on MFCC analysis of keystrokes

This paper introduces a novel approach of person identification using acoustical monitoring of typing the required word on the monitored keyboard. This experiment was motivated by the idea of COST IC1106 (Integrating Biometrics and Forensics for the Digital Age) partners to acoustically analyse the captured keystroke dynamics database using widely used time-invariant mathematical models tools. The MFCC (Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients) and HMM (Hidden Markov Models) was introduced in this experiment, which gives promising results of 99.33% accuracy, when testing 25% of realizations (randomly selected from 100) identifying between 50 users/models. The experiment was repeated for different training/testing configurations and cross-validated, so this first approach could be a good starting point for next research including feature selection algorithms, biometric authentication score normalization, different audio & keyboard setup tests, et

Comparing Natural and Strong Typing Behavior for Keystroke Dynamics Multimodal Database Collection: Poster

In paper

Phosphorylation of NF-kappa B and I kappa B proteins: implications in cancer and inflammation

peer reviewedNuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) is a transcription factor that has crucial roles in inflammation, immunity, cell proliferation and apoptosis. Activation of NF-kappaB mainly occurs via IkappaB kinase (IKK)-mediated phosphorylation of inhibitory molecules, including IkappaBalpha. Optimal induction of NF-kappaB target genes also requires phosphorylation of NF-kappaB proteins, such as p65, within their transactivation domain by a variety of kinases in response to distinct stimuli. Whether, and how, phosphorylation modulates the function of other NF-kappaB and IkappaB proteins, such as B-cell lymphoma 3, remains unclear. The identification and characterization of all the kinases known to phosphorylate NF-kappaB and IkappaB proteins are described here. Because deregulation of NF-kappaB and IkappaB phosphorylations is a hallmark of chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer, newly designed drugs targeting these constitutively activated signalling pathways represent promising therapeutic tools.Insight into the oncogenic potential of BCL-

One-handed keystroke biometric identification competition

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. J. V. Monaco, G. Perez, C. C. Tappert, P. Bours, S. Modal, S. Rajkumar, A. Morales, J. Fierrez, and J. Ortega-Garcia, "One-handed Keystroke Biometric Identification Competition", in International Conference on Biometrics, ICB 2015, 58-64This work presents the results of the One-handed Keystroke Biometric Identification Competition (OhKBIC), an official competition of the 8th IAPR International Conference on Biometrics (ICB). A unique keystroke biometric dataset was collected that includes freely-typed long-text samples from 64 subjects. Samples were collected to simulate normal typing behavior and the severe handicap of only being able to type with one hand. Competition participants designed classification models trained on the normally-typed samples in an attempt to classify an unlabeled dataset that consists of normally-typed and one-handed samples. Participants competed against each other to obtain the highest classification accuracies and submitted classification results through an online system similar to Kaggle. The classification results and top performing strategies are described.The authors would like to acknowledge the support from the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1241585. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US government

Pseudo Identities Based on Fingerprint Characteristics

This paper presents the integrated project TURBINE which is funded under the EU 7th research framework programme. This research is a multi-disciplinary effort on privacy enhancing technology, combining innovative developments in cryptography and fingerprint recognition. The objective of this project is to provide a breakthrough in electronic authentication for various applications in the physical world and on the Internet. On the one hand it will provide secure identity verification thanks to fingerprint recognition. On the other hand it will reliably protect the biometric data through advanced cryptography technology. In concrete terms, it will provide the assurance that (i) the data used for the authentication, generated from the fingerprint, cannot be used to restore the original fingerprint sample, (ii) the individual will be able to create different "pseudo-identities" for different applications with the same fingerprint, whilst ensuring that these different identities (and hence the related personal data) cannot be linked to each other, and (iii) the individual is enabled to revoke an biometric identifier (pseudo-identity) for a given application in case it should not be used anymore

Dutch Founder SDHB Exon 3 Deletion in Patients with Pheochromocytoma-Paraganglioma in South Africa.

OBJECTIVE: Screening studies have established genetic risk profiles for diseases such as multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) and pheochromocytoma-paraganglioma (PPGL). Founder effects play an important role in regional/national epidemiology of endocrine cancers, particularly PPGL. Founder effects in the Netherlands have been described for various diseases, some of which established themselves in South Africa due to Dutch emigration. The role of Dutch founder effects in South Africa have not been explored in PPGL. DESIGN: We performed a single-center study in South Africa of the germline genetic causes of isolated/syndromic neuroendocrine tumors. METHODS: Next-generation panel and multiplex ligand-dependent probe amplification for endocrine neoplasia risk genes. RESULTS: From a group of 13 patients we identified six with PPGL, four with sporadic or familial isolated pituitary adenomas (FIPA), and three with clinical MEN1; genetic variants were identified in 9/13 cases. We identified the Dutch founder exon 3 deletion in SDHB in two apparently-unrelated individuals with distinct ethnic backgrounds that had metastatic PPGL. Asymptomatic carriers with this Dutch founder SDHB exon 3 deletion were also identified. Other PPGL patients had variants in SDHB, SDHD and three MEN1 variants were identified among MEN1 and young-onset pituitary adenoma patients. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first identification of a Dutch founder effect for PPGL in South Africa. Awareness of the presence of this exon 3 SDHB deletion could promote targeted screening at a local level. Insights into PPGL genetics in South Africa could be achieved by studying existing patient databases for Dutch founder mutations in SDHx genes

The incidence of fractures at various sites in newly treated patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Purpose: In this descriptive study, we examined the incidence of fractures in patients with newly treated type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) compared to matched reference population. Methods: Participants from the UK Clinical Practice research datalink (CPRD) GOLD (1987–2017), aged ≥30 years, with a T2D diagnosis code and a first prescription for a non-insulin anti-diabetic drug (n = 124,328) were included. Cases with T2D were matched by year of birth, sex and practice to a reference population (n = 124,328), the mean follow-up was 7.7 years. Crude fracture incidence rates (IRs) and incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were calculated. Analyses were stratified by fracture site and sex and additionally adjusted for BMI, smoking status, alcohol use and history of any fracture at index date. Results: The IR of all fractures and major osteoporotic fractures was lower in T2D compared to the reference population (IRR 0.97; 95%CI 0.94–0.99). The IRs were lower for clavicle (IRR 0.67; 0.56–0.80), radius/ulna (IRR 0.81; 0.75–0.86) and vertebral fractures (0.83; 0.75–0.92) and higher for ankle (IRR 1.16; 95%CI 1.06–1.28), foot (1.11; 1.01–1.22), tibia/fibula (1.17; 1.03–1.32) and humerus fractures (1.11; 1.03–1.20). Differences in IRs at various fracture sites between T2D and the reference population were more pronounced in women than in men. In contrast, BMI adjusted IRs for all fractures (IRR 1.07; 1.04–1.10) and most individual fracture sites were significantly higher in T2D, especially in women. Conclusion: The crude incidence of all fractures was marginally lower in patients with newly treated T2D compared to the matched reference population but differed according to fracture site, especially in women. BMI adjusted analyses resulted in higher incidence rates in T2D at almost all fracture sites compared to crude incidence rates and this was more pronounced in women than in men. This implies that BMI may have a protective impact on the crude incidence of fractures, especially in women with newly treated T2D