466 research outputs found
Continuous Authentication for Voice Assistants
Voice has become an increasingly popular User Interaction (UI) channel,
mainly contributing to the ongoing trend of wearables, smart vehicles, and home
automation systems. Voice assistants such as Siri, Google Now and Cortana, have
become our everyday fixtures, especially in scenarios where touch interfaces
are inconvenient or even dangerous to use, such as driving or exercising.
Nevertheless, the open nature of the voice channel makes voice assistants
difficult to secure and exposed to various attacks as demonstrated by security
researchers. In this paper, we present VAuth, the first system that provides
continuous and usable authentication for voice assistants. We design VAuth to
fit in various widely-adopted wearable devices, such as eyeglasses,
earphones/buds and necklaces, where it collects the body-surface vibrations of
the user and matches it with the speech signal received by the voice
assistant's microphone. VAuth guarantees that the voice assistant executes only
the commands that originate from the voice of the owner. We have evaluated
VAuth with 18 users and 30 voice commands and find it to achieve an almost
perfect matching accuracy with less than 0.1% false positive rate, regardless
of VAuth's position on the body and the user's language, accent or mobility.
VAuth successfully thwarts different practical attacks, such as replayed
attacks, mangled voice attacks, or impersonation attacks. It also has low
energy and latency overheads and is compatible with most existing voice
assistants
Atherosusceptible Shear Stress Activates Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress to Promote Endothelial Inflammation.
Atherosclerosis impacts arteries where disturbed blood flow renders the endothelium susceptible to inflammation. Cytokine activation of endothelial cells (EC) upregulates VCAM-1 receptors that target monocyte recruitment to atherosusceptible regions. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress elicits EC dysregulation in metabolic syndrome. We hypothesized that ER plays a central role in mechanosensing of atherosusceptible shear stress (SS) by signaling enhanced inflammation. Aortic EC were stimulated with low-dose TNFα (0.3 ng/ml) in a microfluidic channel that produced a linear SS gradient over a 20mm field ranging from 0-16 dynes/cm2. High-resolution imaging of immunofluorescence along the monolayer provided a continuous spatial metric of EC orientation, markers of ER stress, VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 expression, and monocyte recruitment. VCAM-1 peaked at 2 dynes/cm2 and decreased to below static TNFα-stimulated levels at atheroprotective-SS of 12 dynes/cm2, whereas ICAM-1 rose to a maximum in parallel with SS. ER expansion and activation of the unfolded protein response also peaked at 2 dynes/cm2, where IRF-1-regulated VCAM-1 expression and monocyte recruitment also rose to a maximum. Silencing of PECAM-1 or key ER stress genes abrogated SS regulation of VCAM-1 transcription and monocyte recruitment. We report a novel role for ER stress in mechanoregulation at arterial regions of atherosusceptible-SS inflamed by low-dose TNFα
The Enzymatic Microestimation of Urea
Peer Reviewe
Composition-tuned smeared phase transitions
Phase transitions in random systems are smeared if individual spatial regions
can order independently of the bulk system. In this paper, we study such
smeared phase transitions (both classical and quantum) in substitutional alloys
AB that can be tuned from an ordered phase at composition to
a disordered phase at . We show that the ordered phase develops a
pronounced tail that extends over all compositions . Using optimal
fluctuation theory, we derive the composition dependence of the order parameter
and other quantities in the tail of the smeared phase transition. We also
compare our results to computer simulations of a toy model, and we discuss
experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 4 eps figures included, final version as publishe
Laminaria japonica Extract Enhances Intestinal Barrier Function by Altering Inflammatory Response and Tight Junction-Related Protein in Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Caco-2 Cells.
In the normal physiological state, intestinal epithelial cells act as a defensive frontline of host mucosal immunity to tolerate constant exposure to external stimuli. In this study, we investigated the potential anti-inflammatory and gut permeability protective effects of Laminaria japonica (LJ) water extract (LJE) and three types of fermented Laminaria japonica water extracts (LJE-F1, LJE-F2, and LJE-F3) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated Caco-2, human intestinal epithelial cells. All four extracts significantly decreased the production of nitric oxide and interleukin-6 induced by LPS stimulus. In addition, LJE and the three types of LJE-Fs also inhibited LPS-induced loss of monolayer permeability, as assessed by changes in transepithelial electrical resistance. All four LJ extracts significantly prevented the inhibition of the protein levels of occludin, whereas LJE, LJE-F1, and LJE-F3 significantly attenuated the reduction in phosphorylation of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase compared with the LPS-treated group in Caco-2 cells. In conclusion, LJE and its fermented water extracts appear to have potential gut health-promoting effects by reducing inflammation and partially regulating the tight junction-related proteins in human intestinal epithelial cells. Thus, additional studies are warranted to evaluate Laminaria japonica as a therapeutic agent for inflammatory bowel diseases
(-)-Epicatechin improves insulin sensitivity in high fat diet-fed mice
Obesity constitutes a major public health concern, being frequently associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Evidence from studies in humans and experimental animals suggest that consumption of the flavan-3-ol (-)-epicatechin (EC) and of EC-rich foods may improve insulin sensitivity. To further understand the potential benefits of dietary EC consumption on insulin resistance, this study investigated the capacity of EC supplementation to prevent high fat diet (HFD)-induced insulin resistance in mice. To assess the underlying mechanisms, the effects of HFD and EC consumption on the activation of the insulin cascade and of its negative modulators were evaluated. HFD consumption for 15 w caused obesity and insulin resistance in C57BL/6J mice as evidenced by high fasted and fed plasma glucose and insulin levels, and impaired ITT and GTT tests. This was associated with alterations in the activation of components of the insulin-triggered signaling cascade (insulin receptor, IRS1, ERK1/2, Akt) in adipose and liver tissues. EC supplementation prevented/ameliorated all these parameters. EC acted improving insulin sensitivity in the HFD-fed mice in part through a downregulation of the inhibitory molecules JNK, IKK, PKC and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B). Thus, the above results suggest that consumption of EC-rich foods could constitute a dietary strategy to mitigate obesity-associated insulin resistance.Fil: Cremonini, Eleonora. University of California at Davis; Estados UnidosFil: Bettaieb, Ahmed. University of California at Davis; Estados Unidos. University of Tennessee; Estados UnidosFil: Haj, Fawaz G.. University of California at Davis; Estados UnidosFil: Fraga, CĂ©sar Guillermo. University of California at Davis; Estados Unidos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y BioquĂmica. Departamento de QuĂmica Analitica y FisicoquĂmica. CĂĄtedra de FisicoquĂmica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Oficina de CoordinaciĂłn Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de BioquĂmica y Medicina Molecular. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y BioquĂmica. Instituto de BioquĂmica y Medicina Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Oteiza, Patricia Isabel. University of California at Davis; Estados Unido
Automatic alignment of surgical videos using kinematic data
Over the past one hundred years, the classic teaching methodology of "see
one, do one, teach one" has governed the surgical education systems worldwide.
With the advent of Operation Room 2.0, recording video, kinematic and many
other types of data during the surgery became an easy task, thus allowing
artificial intelligence systems to be deployed and used in surgical and medical
practice. Recently, surgical videos has been shown to provide a structure for
peer coaching enabling novice trainees to learn from experienced surgeons by
replaying those videos. However, the high inter-operator variability in
surgical gesture duration and execution renders learning from comparing novice
to expert surgical videos a very difficult task. In this paper, we propose a
novel technique to align multiple videos based on the alignment of their
corresponding kinematic multivariate time series data. By leveraging the
Dynamic Time Warping measure, our algorithm synchronizes a set of videos in
order to show the same gesture being performed at different speed. We believe
that the proposed approach is a valuable addition to the existing learning
tools for surgery.Comment: Accepted at AIME 201
PriBots: Conversational Privacy with Chatbots
Traditional mechanisms for delivering notice and enabling choice have so far failed to protect usersâ privacy. Users are continuously frustrated by complex privacy policies, unreachable privacy settings, and a multitude of emerging standards. The miniaturization trend of smart devices and the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoTs) will exacerbate this problem further. In this paper, we propose Conversational Privacy Bots (PriBots) as a new way of delivering notice and choice through a two-way dialogue between the user and a computer agent (a chatbot). PriBots improve on state-of-the-art by offering users a more intuitive and natural interface to inquire about their privacy settings, thus allowing them to control their privacy. In addition to presenting the potential applications of PriBots, we describe the underlying system needed to support their functionality. We also delve into the challenges associated with delivering privacy as an automated service. PriBots have the potential for enabling the use of chatbots in other related fields where users need to be informed or to be put in control
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