Adding value to Physics Education Technology simulations

The Physics Education Technology (PhET) group at the University of Colorado, Boulder has created more than 60 open source, research based simulations that cover concepts in basic physics to state of the art research. We have added value to some of the PhET simulations by tinkering with the source code. The modified simulations are easily embedded into collaborative learning environments and online assessment systems. We believe this will lead to enhanced student interaction and learning outcomes. Examples of how we use these simulations in two open source environments will be presented. The first is a MediaWiki (the software that runs Wikipedia) wiki installation and the second is an Online ASsessment and Integrated Study (OASIS) installation

RNA sequencing analysis of human podocytes reveals glucocorticoid regulated gene networks targeting non-immune pathways

Glucocorticoids are steroids that reduce inflammation and are used as immunosuppressive drugs for many diseases. They are also the mainstay for the treatment of minimal change nephropathy (MCN), which is characterised by an absence of inflammation. Their mechanisms of action remain elusive. Evidence suggests that immunomodulatory drugs can directly act on glomerular epithelial cells or ‘podocytes’, the cell type which is the main target of injury in MCN. To understand the nature of glucocorticoid effects on non-immune cell functions, we generated RNA sequencing data from human podocyte cell lines and identified the genes that are significantly regulated in dexamethasone-treated podocytes compared to vehicle-treated cells. The upregulated genes are of functional relevance to cytoskeleton-related processes, whereas the downregulated genes mostly encode pro-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors. We observed a tendency for dexamethasone-upregulated genes to be downregulated in MCN patients. Integrative analysis revealed gene networks composed of critical signaling pathways that are likely targeted by dexamethasone in podocytes

Effect of channel impairments on the performance of RF Fingerprinting using low-end receivers

Radio Frequency (RF) Fingerprinting Problem definition Objective Experiment setup Results Conclusion Radio fingerprinting is the process of identifying a radio transmitter by the unique characteristics present in its signal. This unique characteristics are due to the imperfections of the analog components present in the transmitter chain.These active and passive components present in the transmitter chain contribute to a unique radio fingerprint. A transmitter can be identified by these unique characteristics. The results so far has investigated the impact of transmitter but no one has considered the impairments of the receiver. As receivers front-end is also made up of low noise amplifier, oscillators, mixer and filters etc. Therefore, they also have an effect on accuracy. This paper has performed experiments with multiple low-end receivers in order to cross validate our findings. In this paper, low end means inexpensive receivers built with off the shelf components

Analysis of impersonation attacks on systems using RF fingerprinting and low-end receivers

Recently, physical layer security commonly known as Radio Frequency (RF) fingerprinting has been proposed to provide an additional layer of security for wireless devices. A unique RF fingerprint can be used to establish the identity of a specific wireless device in order to prevent masquerading/impersonation attacks. In the literature, the performance of RF fingerprinting techniques is typically assessed using high-end (expensive) receiver hardware. However, in most practical situations receivers will not be high-end and will suffer from device specific impairments which affect the RF fingerprinting process. This paper evaluates the accuracy of RF fingerprinting employing low-end receivers. The vulnerability to an impersonation attack is assessed for a modulation-based RF fingerprinting system employing low-end commodity hardware (by legitimate and malicious users alike). Our results suggest that receiver impairment effectively decreases the success rate of impersonation attack on RF fingerprinting. In addition, the success rate of impersonation attack is receiver dependent

Fourth Report on Chicken Genes and Chromosomes 2022

International audienc