Distributed Hypothesis Testing with Privacy Constraints

We revisit the distributed hypothesis testing (or hypothesis testing with communication constraints) problem from the viewpoint of privacy. Instead of observing the raw data directly, the transmitter observes a sanitized or randomized version of it. We impose an upper bound on the mutual information between the raw and randomized data. Under this scenario, the receiver, which is also provided with side information, is required to make a decision on whether the null or alternative hypothesis is in effect. We first provide a general lower bound on the type-II exponent for an arbitrary pair of hypotheses. Next, we show that if the distribution under the alternative hypothesis is the product of the marginals of the distribution under the null (i.e., testing against independence), then the exponent is known exactly. Moreover, we show that the strong converse property holds. Using ideas from Euclidean information theory, we also provide an approximate expression for the exponent when the communication rate is low and the privacy level is high. Finally, we illustrate our results with a binary and a Gaussian example

Synthesis, structural and antibacterial study of new silver complex with 3-acetyl-2H chromene-2-one

A new silver complex [Ag(C11H8O3)2]NO3 was synthesized by the reaction of silver nitrateand coumarin based ligand (3-acetyl-2H-chromene-2-one) through solution method. The product was characterized using different analytical techniques like melting point, Infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, atomic absorption spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. An antibacterial study of the complex was also studied for its possible use in medical treatment. KEY WORDS: Silver complex, Acetyl coumarin, Vibrational analysis, Antibacterial study Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2016, 30(3), 403-411DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v30i3.

Studies on Buddleja asiatica antibacterial, antifungal, antispasmodic and Ca++ antagonist activities

Crude extract of Buddleja asiatica Lour and its fractions, chloroform (F1), ethyl acetate (F2) and nbutanol (F3) were evaluated for antibacterial, antifungal, antispasmodic and Ca++ antagonist activities. The antibacterial activity was performed against 11 types of bacteria. The crude extract and fractions F2 and F3 exhibited significant activity, while F1 showed low activity in killing the Shigella flexenari, Sternostoma boydi and Escherichia coli. In the rest bacteria, the crude extract and all the fractions (F1 to F3) revealed minimum to nil inhibitory effect. The fungicidal activity of the crude extract and all the fractions (F1 to F3) was also performed against six different fungi. The crude extract and fractions F1 and F3 displayed significant activity, while fraction F2 showed moderate activity against Fusarium solani. In the case of Microsporum canis, the crude extract and fraction F3 showed high activity but in the other four fungi, the inhibition area exhibited optimum to nil activity in crude extract and all the fractions (F1 to F3). In isolated rabbit jejunum preparations, B. asiatica crude extract caused concentration-dependent (0.03 to 1.0 mg/ml) relaxation of spontaneous and high K+ (80 mM)-induced contractions. The results indicate the antibacterial, antifungal, antispasmodic and Ca++ antagonist potential of B. asiatica Lour.Key words: Buddleja asiatica, antibacterial, antifungal, antispasmodic, Ca++ channel blocker

Literature-Based Character Development & Islamic Children’s Fiction: A Study with American Muslim Children, American Muslim Writers and Middle Eastern Muslim Children

This study was an investigation of whether Islamic children’s literature could empower children’s personal, social and spiritual understanding. The research question was further delineated into three objectives a. What is Islamic children’s fiction? b. To what extent does current Islamic children’s literature contribute to this through understanding the motives and purposes of those who wrote it? c. What insight can we draw from social/moral/multicultural education? This study arose from an awareness and concern for individual, community and global harmony. The promulgation of human kindness and consideration is essential in order to respect the rights of all individuals. If children can recognise the fundamentals of human rights and understand that human rights are inviolable for themselves and for others, then they are in a much stronger and more informed position to contribute to and create a better world. The initial focus group for this study was Islamic school children in Western lands and Western Islamic writers. As a result the reconnaissance phase was conducted in the USA with Muslim children. However, the research was later moved to the Middle East. Although the Middle Eastern children like the American children were a homologous group in the sense that they were all Muslim, they were also a heterologous group because of their parent’s diverse national origins. Since the study sought to determine whether Islamic children’s fiction could empower Muslim children to change their negative behaviour the study did not alter from its initial focus despite the change of geographical location. However, the geographical location did create a difference because of some cultural behaviours and attitudes in the Middle East being different to those in America. As this study was initially concerned with literature-based character development in Western Islamic school settings, Western Muslim writers constituted the focus group. The motives and purposes of the writers had relevance for the Western Muslim child mostly in terms of sense of place, visibility, positive identity and bibliotherapy. These elements were also transferable to the Middle Eastern child especially those who were marginalised through having different nationality. The methodological approach for the study utilized action research. Action research was conducted with female Muslim children aged between eight and ten. A baseline assessment was conducted using a questionnaire. A cycle of specifically written stories were used to engage thought and discussion on oppression and empowerment. Data was gathered through pupils’ work, parent questionnaires, field notes, interviews and observations. In addition teachable moments were reflected on and carpet discussions were held daily to encourage familiarisation and application of the terms ‘right thought’, ‘right speech’, ‘right action’ and ‘wrong thought’, ‘wrong speech’ and ‘wrong action’. It was found that a combination of these interventions allowed most students to develop their personal, social and spiritual understanding. The methodological approach for the second objective used life story methodology. Six writers from the USA, one writer from Canada and one from the UK took part in the study and responded to various questions about their lives. The responses illuminated interesting points about the development of Islamic children’s fiction and its purpose. This study also focused on what insight could be drawn from social / moral / multicultural education. As a result this study has introduced a new term, qissa-ihsan or biblioihsan which is complementary to bibliotherapy and aligned to the personal, social and spiritual development of Muslim children. The concept of qissa-ihsan or biblioihsan was formed as a means of empowering Muslim children who are suffering difficulty and hardship. Finally, in the absence of a theory that promotes an Islamic Weltanschauung, Islamic Critical Theory was adapted from Critical Theory to give an Islamic worldview. This was developed using Horkheimer’s three criteria definition of a critical theory. It can be argued that Islamic Critical Theory is a new theory in as much as textbooks on theories do not include it. This study outlines the characteristics of Islamic Critical Theory showing Islam has an emancipatory proclivity and ties these to give historic origins dating to the re-emergence of the Islamic message in the Arabian Peninsula. Islamic Critical Theory was used to underpin this study

A molecular phylogeny of selected species of Genus Prunus L. (Rosaceae) from Pakistan using the TRN-L & TRN-F spacer DNA

The genus Prunus L. is an important plant for fruit production and it includes plums, apricots, cherries, almonds and peaches that are sources of food for the local people. The family Rosaceae is not yet published in Flora of Pakistan and there is a lot of taxonomic work that is yet to be done for the proper classification and placement of different genera under different sub-families. Prunus is found in almost all the four provinces of Pakistan including Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (former NWFP), Sindh and Baluchistan which includes Azad Kashmir region. In the present study, the genus Prunus was studied in detail to find out the phylogenetic relationship among the 12 species of Prunus selected from different regions of Pakistan and GenBank using the maximum parsimony analysis of sequence polymorphism in chloroplast TRN-L and TRN-F spacer DNA. The results for the TRN-L and TRN-F primers confirm the work done by early phylogenetists including Potter and Bortiri with additions to new species from Pakistan including Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb. (Syn. Prunus amygdalus) and Prunus cornuta (Wall. ex. Royle) Steudel. which are indigenous to Pakistan.Key Words: Prunus, chloroplast, TRN-L, TRN-F, Pakistan

Experimental and Theoretical Study of Phase Equilibria in Aqueous Mixtures of Lactic Acid with Benzyl Alcohol and p-Xylene at Various Temperatures

Liquid-liquid equilibria for the (water + lactic acid + benzyl alcohol or p-xylene) ternary systems were investigated at atmospheric pressure and in the temperature range from 298.15-318.15 K. The studied systems exhibit two types of liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) behavior. The system consisting of benzyl alcohol displays type-1 LLE behavior, while a type-2 behavior is exhibited by the other system. The quality of the experimental tie line data was determined using the Othmer-Tobias and Hand equations. Distribution coefficients and separation factors were calculated over the biphasic region. The experimental tie line data were regressed using the UNIQUAC and NRTL models and the binary interaction parameters were obtained

Antispasmodic and vasodilator activities of Morinda citrifolia root extract are mediated through blockade of voltage dependent calcium channels

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Morinda citrifolia </it>(Noni) is an edible plant with wide range of medicinal uses. It occurs exclusively in tropical climate zone from India through Southeast Asia and Australia to Eastern Polynesia and Hawaii. The objective of this study was to explore the possible mode(s) of action for its antispasmodic, vasodilator and cardio-suppressant effects to rationalize its medicinal use in gut and cardiovascular disorders.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Isolated tissue preparations such as, rabbit jejunum, rat and rabbit aorta and guinea pig atria were used to test the antispasmodic and cardiovascular relaxant effects and the possible mode of action(s) of the 70% aqueous-ethanolic extract of <it>Morinda citrifolia </it>roots (Mc.Cr).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Mc.Cr produced a concentration-dependent relaxation of spontaneous and high K⁺induced contractions in isolated rabbit jejunum preparations. It also caused right ward shift in the concentration response curves of Ca⁺⁺, similar to that of verapamil. In guinea-pig right atria, Mc.Cr caused inhibition of both atrial force and rate of spontaneous contractions. In rabbit thoracic aortic preparations, Mc.Cr also suppressed contractions induced by phenylephrine (1.0 μM) in normal- Ca⁺⁺and Ca⁺⁺-free Kerb's solutions and by high K⁺, similar to that of verapamil. In rat thoracic aortic preparations, Mc.Cr also relaxed the phenylephrine (1.0 μM)-induced contractions. The vasodilatory responses were not altered in the presence of L-NAME (0.1 mM) or atropine (1.0 μM) and removal of endothelium.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that the spasmolytic and vasodilator effects of Mc.Cr root extract are mediated possibly through blockade of voltage-dependent calcium channels and release of intracellular calcium, which may explain the medicinal use of <it>Morinda citrifolia </it>in diarrhea and hypertension. However, more detailed studies are required to assess the safety and efficacy of this plant.</p

The eyes know it: FakeET -- An Eye-tracking Database to Understand Deepfake Perception

We present \textbf{FakeET}-- an eye-tracking database to understand human visual perception of \emph{deepfake} videos. Given that the principal purpose of deepfakes is to deceive human observers, FakeET is designed to understand and evaluate the ease with which viewers can detect synthetic video artifacts. FakeET contains viewing patterns compiled from 40 users via the \emph{Tobii} desktop eye-tracker for 811 videos from the \textit{Google Deepfake} dataset, with a minimum of two viewings per video. Additionally, EEG responses acquired via the \emph{Emotiv} sensor are also available. The compiled data confirms (a) distinct eye movement characteristics for \emph{real} vs \emph{fake} videos; (b) utility of the eye-track saliency maps for spatial forgery localization and detection, and (c) Error Related Negativity (ERN) triggers in the EEG responses, and the ability of the \emph{raw} EEG signal to distinguish between \emph{real} and \emph{fake} videos.Comment: 8 page

Reconciling social norms with personal interests: indigenous styles of identity formation among Pakistani youth

Research on identity formation has been conducted mostly in Western contexts. We extend and complement such research by exploring qualitatively the strategies and styles of identity formation employed by emerging adults in Pakistan. Whereas Western theories of identity formation often provide a negative view of normative orientation as “blind obedience” without exploring alternatives, our thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 12 Pakistani emerging adults suggests a much more complex interplay between personal interests and normative influences on identity formation. Participants described various ways of reconciling normative expectations (parental, religious, and cultural) with their personal interests, preferences, and explorations, when deciding about their careers, relationships, and values. In Pakistani culture, normative influences seem to play a more positive and flexible role in identity formation than is suggested by previous Western research

Do you really follow them? Automatic detection of credulous Twitter users

Online Social Media represent a pervasive source of information able to reach a huge audience. Sadly, recent studies show how online social bots (automated, often malicious accounts, populating social networks and mimicking genuine users) are able to amplify the dissemination of (fake) information by orders of magnitude. Using Twitter as a benchmark, in this work we focus on what we define credulous users, i.e., human-operated accounts with a high percentage of bots among their followings. Being more exposed to the harmful activities of social bots, credulous users may run the risk of being more influenced than other users; even worse, although unknowingly, they could become spreaders of misleading information (e.g., by retweeting bots). We design and develop a supervised classifier to automatically recognize credulous users. The best tested configuration achieves an accuracy of 93.27% and AUC-ROC of 0.93, thus leading to positive and encouraging results.Comment: 8 pages, 2 tables. Accepted for publication at IDEAL 2019 (20th International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning, Manchester, UK, 14-16 November, 2019). The present version is the accepted version, and it is not the final published versio