A glance of child’s play privacy in smart toys

© Springer International Publishing AG 2016. A smart toy is defined as a device consisting of a physical toy component that connects to one or more toy computing services to facilitate gameplay in the Cloud through networking and sensory technologies to enhance the functionality of a traditional toy. A smart toy in this context can be effectively considered an Internet of Things (IoT) with Artificial Intelligence (AI) which can provide Augmented Reality (AR) experiences to users. Referring to the direction of the United States Federal Trade Commission Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the European Union Data Protection Directive (EUDPD), this study adopts the definition of a child to be an individual under the age of 13 years old. In this study, the first assumption is that children do not understand the concept of privacy. The second assumption is that children will disclose as much information to smart toys as they can trust. Breaches of privacy can result in physical safety of child user, e.g., child predators. While the parents/legal guardians of a child strive to ensure their child’s physical and online safety and privacy, there is no common approach for these parents/guardians to study the information flow between their child and the smart toys they interact with. This paper discusses related privacy requirements for smart toys in a toy computing environment with a case study on a commercial smart toy called Hello Barbie from Mattel

Allocating the costs of multi-purpose water resource development: a case study of Chi-Chi Weir in Taiwan

Most multi-purpose water resources have been planned and constructed by governments in Taiwan to meet the water demands of different users. However, economic and solvency differences among parties using water create conflicts regarding the reasonable and equitable allocation of investment and operational costs. The Chi-Chi Weir in Nantou County, which was completed in 2002, meets the high water demand of residents and the needs of industrial growth in central Taiwan. Thus, multi-purpose water reservoirs are designed to serve agriculture, the public and industry. Three analytical methods, the quantity-based method, marginal cost method, and separable cost remaining benefit method (SCRB), are employed to compare the cost allocation for different parties using water. The quantity-based method indicates that proportional costs allocated to agriculture, the public, industry and new irrigated areas are 88.02, 3.63, 7.86, and 0.49%, respectively. Via the marginal cost method, the proportional costs allocated to agriculture, the public, hydropower, industry and new irrigated areas are 68.44, 2.51, 28.71, and 0.34%, respectively. The marginal cost price of water is NT$ 2.97 ton(-1); industrial use has the highest price. Based on the SCRB method, the proportional costs allocated to agriculture, the public, hydropower, and new irrigated areas are 18.2, 22.2, 51.8, 4.8, and 2.9%, respectively

Redox-Linked Domain Movements in the Catalytic Cycle of Cytochrome P450 Reductase

SummaryNADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase is a key component of the P450 mono-oxygenase drug-metabolizing system. There is evidence for a conformational equilibrium involving large-scale domain motions in this enzyme. We now show, using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and small-angle neutron scattering, that delivery of two electrons to cytochrome P450 reductase leads to a shift in this equilibrium from a compact form, similar to the crystal structure, toward an extended form, while coenzyme binding favors the compact form. We present a model for the extended form of the enzyme based on nuclear magnetic resonance and SAXS data. Using the effects of changes in solution conditions and of site-directed mutagenesis, we demonstrate that the conversion to the extended form leads to an enhanced ability to transfer electrons to cytochrome c. This structural evidence shows that domain motion is linked closely to the individual steps of the catalytic cycle of cytochrome P450 reductase, and we propose a mechanism for this

Intelligent multi-agent collaboration model for smart home IoT security

© 2018 IEEE. While the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to extend deeper into the daily lives of people, the domain of the smart home offers a unique need for security. Traditional firewalls and antivirus are not sufficient to protect the connected home from security threats, and to date, there have been limited solutions provided for this problem. This paper explores the recent works in this area and presents a new approach towards securing smart home networks through multi-agent collaboration. The model uses Beliefs, Desires, and Intentions (BDI) architecture for intelligent agent decision making, as well as a multi-agent collaboration model for achieving mutual security goals within the smart home network. For initial proof of concept, we provide a use case demonstrating the coordination of the threat response decision between operational availability and security risk agents as a qualitative coalitional game. This model can also be extended to other areas such as threat modeling, vulnerability scanning, and patching, as well as more advanced threat engagement and distraction. Throughout, we also consider operational goals of convenience and availability as required for a usability perspective within the smart home environment

Quantum optical coherence tomography with dispersion cancellation

We propose a new technique, called quantum optical coherence tomography (QOCT), for carrying out tomographic measurements with dispersion-cancelled resolution. The technique can also be used to extract the frequency-dependent refractive index of the medium. QOCT makes use of a two-photon interferometer in which a swept delay permits a coincidence interferogram to be traced. The technique bears a resemblance to classical optical coherence tomography (OCT). However, it makes use of a nonclassical entangled twin-photon light source that permits measurements to be made at depths greater than those accessible via OCT, which suffers from the deleterious effects of sample dispersion. Aside from the dispersion cancellation, QOCT offers higher sensitivity than OCT as well as an enhancement of resolution by a factor of 2 for the same source bandwidth. QOCT and OCT are compared using an idealized sample.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Disruption of Smad4 impairs TGF-β/Smad3 and Smad7 transcriptional regulation during renal inflammation and fibrosis in vivo and in vitro

The mechanism by which TGF-β regulates renal inflammation and fibrosis is largely unclear; however, it is well accepted that its biological effects are mediated through Smad2 and Smad3 phosphorylation. Following activation, these Smads form heteromeric complex with Smad4 and translocate into the nucleus to bind and regulate the expression of target genes. Here we studied the roles of Smad4 to regulate TGF-β signaling in a mouse model of unilateral ureteral obstruction using conditional Smad4 knockout mice and in isolated Smad4 mutant macrophages and fibroblasts. Disruption of Smad4 significantly enhanced renal inflammation as evidenced by a greater CD45+ leukocyte and F4/80+ macrophage infiltration and upregulation of IL-1β, TNF-α, MCP-1, and ICAM-1 in the obstructed kidney and in IL-1β-stimulated macrophages. In contrast, deletion of Smad4 inhibited renal fibrosis and TGF-β1-induced collagen I expression by fibroblasts. Further studies showed that the loss of Smad4 repressed Smad7 transcription, leading to a loss of functional protein. This, in turn, inhibited IκBα expression but enhanced NF-κB activation, thereby promoting renal inflammation. Interestingly, deletion of Smad4 influenced Smad3-mediated promoter activities and the binding of Smad3 to the COL1A2 promoter, but not Smad3 phosphorylation and nuclear translocation, thereby inhibiting the fibrotic response. Thus, Smad4 may be a key regulator for the diverse roles of TGF-β1 in inflammation and fibrogenesis by interacting with Smad7 and Smad3 to influence their transcriptional activities in renal inflammation and fibrosis

The arguments of associations

This chapter considers associative solutions to “non‐linear” discrimination problems, such as negative patterning (A+ and B+ vs AB‐) and the biconditional discrimination (AB+ and CD+ vs AC‐ and BD‐). It is commonly assumed that the solution to these discriminations requires “configural” elements that are added to the compound of two stimuli. However, these discriminations can be solved by assuming that some elements of each stimulus are suppressed when two stimuli are presented in compound. Each of these approaches can solve patterning and biconditional discriminations because they allow some elements, as the arguments of associations, to have differential “presence” on reinforced versus nonreinforced trials, and thus differential associability and control over responding. The chapter then presents a more specific version of one of these models, describing how interactions between stimuli, particularly the competition for attention, provide a mechanism whereby some elements are more suppressed than others when stimuli are presented simultaneously as a compound

A study of children facial recognition for privacy in smart TV

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017. Nowadays Smart TV is becoming very popular in many families. Smart TV provides computing and connectivity capabilities with access to online services, such as video on demand, online games, and even sports and healthcare activities. For example, Google Smart TV, which is based on Google Android, integrates into the users’ daily physical activities through its ability to extract and access context information dependent on the surrounding environment and to react accordingly via built-in camera and sensors. Without a viable privacy protection system in place, however, the expanding use of Smart TV can lead to privacy violations through tracking and user profiling by broadcasters and others. This becomes of particular concern when underage users such as children who may not fully understand the concept of privacy are involved in using the Smart TV services. In this study, we consider digital imaging and ways to identify and properly tag pictures of children in order to prevent unwanted disclosure of personal information. We have conducted a preliminary experiment on the effectiveness of facial recognition technology in Smart TV where experimental recognition of child face presence in feedback image streams is conducted through the Microsoft’s Face Application Programming Interface

Tick size and price diffusion

A tick size is the smallest increment of a security price. It is clear that at the shortest time scale on which individual orders are placed the tick size has a major role which affects where limit orders can be placed, the bid-ask spread, etc. This is the realm of market microstructure and there is a vast literature on the role of tick size on market microstructure. However, tick size can also affect price properties at longer time scales, and relatively less is known about the effect of tick size on the statistical properties of prices. The present paper is divided in two parts. In the first we review the effect of tick size change on the market microstructure and the diffusion properties of prices. The second part presents original results obtained by investigating the tick size changes occurring at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). We show that tick size change has three effects on price diffusion. First, as already shown in the literature, tick size affects price return distribution at an aggregate time scale. Second, reducing the tick size typically leads to an increase of volatility clustering. We give a possible mechanistic explanation for this effect, but clearly more investigation is needed to understand the origin of this relation. Third, we explicitly show that the ability of the subordination hypothesis in explaining fat tails of returns and volatility clustering is strongly dependent on tick size. While for large tick sizes the subordination hypothesis has significant explanatory power, for small tick sizes we show that subordination is not the main driver of these two important stylized facts of financial market.Comment: To be published in the "Proceedings of Econophys-Kolkata V International Workshop on "Econophysics of Order-driven Markets" March 9-13, 2010, The New Economic Windows series of Springer-Verlag Italia

Strong subadditivity inequality for quantum entropies and four-particle entanglement

Strong subadditivity inequality for a three-particle composite system is an important inequality in quantum information theory which can be studied via a four-particle entangled state. We use two three-level atoms in $\Lambda$ configuration interacting with a two-mode cavity and the Raman adiabatic passage technique for the production of the four-particle entangled state. Using this four-particle entanglement, we study for the first time various aspects of the strong subadditivity inequality.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, RevTeX4, submitted to PR