Ubic: Bridging the gap between digital cryptography and the physical world

Advances in computing technology increasingly blur the boundary between the digital domain and the physical world. Although the research community has developed a large number of cryptographic primitives and has demonstrated their usability in all-digital communication, many of them have not yet made their way into the real world due to usability aspects. We aim to make another step towards a tighter integration of digital cryptography into real world interactions. We describe Ubic, a framework that allows users to bridge the gap between digital cryptography and the physical world. Ubic relies on head-mounted displays, like Google Glass, resource-friendly computer vision techniques as well as mathematically sound cryptographic primitives to provide users with better security and privacy guarantees. The framework covers key cryptographic primitives, such as secure identification, document verification using a novel secure physical document format, as well as content hiding. To make a contribution of practical value, we focused on making Ubic as simple, easily deployable, and user friendly as possible.Comment: In ESORICS 2014, volume 8712 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 56-75, Wroclaw, Poland, September 7-11, 2014. Springer, Berlin, German

Synthesis of Aryl-sulphinyl Acetic Acids and Sulphoximides, and CD of their in situ Complexes with [MO2(OAc)4]

The syntheses of several optically active aryl-sulphinyl acetic acids and sulphoximides are described. They all give two or more Cotton effects in the presence of the metal cluster [MO2(OAc)4]in DMSO solution above 300 nm, from which their absolute configuration can be determined unequivocally

Contact Profiles in Eight European Countries and Implications for Modelling the Spread of Airborne Infectious Diseases

BACKGROUND: For understanding the spread of infectious diseases it is crucial to have knowledge of the patterns of contacts in a population during which the infection can be transmitted. Besides contact rates and mixing between age groups, the way individuals distribute their contacts across different locations may play an important role in determining how infections spread through a population. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Representative surveys were performed in eight countries to assess the number of social contacts (talking to another person at close distance either with or without physical contact), using a diary approach in which participants recorded individual contacts. The overall sample size was 7290 respondents. We analyzed the reported numbers of contacts per respondent in six different settings (household, work, school, leisure, transportation and others) to define different contact profiles. The identification of the profiles and classification of respondents according to these profiles was conducted using a two-step cluster analysis algorithm as implemented in SPSS. We identified seven distinct contact profiles: respondents having (1) mixed: contacts predominantly at school, during transportation and leisure time, (2) contacts during leisure time, (3) contacts mainly in the household (large family), (4) contacts at work, (5) contacts solely at school, (6) contacts in other places and finally (7) respondents having a low number of contacts in any setting. Similar contact profiles can be found in all eight European countries which participated in the study. The distributions of respondents across the profiles were similar in all countries. The profiles are dominated by work, school and household contacts. But also contacts during leisure activities play an important role in the daily lives of a large fraction of individuals. A surprisingly large number of individuals has only few contacts in all locations. There was a distinct age-dependence in the distribution of the population across contact profiles. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast with earlier studies that focussed on the contribution of different age groups to the spread of an infectious disease, our results open up the opportunity to analyze how an infection spreads between locations and how locations as work or school are interconnected via household contacts. Mathematical models that take these local contact patterns into account can be used to assess the effect of intervention measures like school closure and cancelling of leisure activities on the spread of influenza

Real-Time Object Recognition Based on Cortical Multi-scale Keypoints

In recent years, a large number of impressive object categorisation algorithms have surfaced, both computational and biologically motivated. While results on standardised benchmarks are impressive, very few of the best-performing algorithms took run-time performance into account, rendering most of them useless for real-time active vision scenarios such as cognitive robots. In this paper, we combine cortical keypoints based on primate area V1 with a state-of-the-art nearest neighbour classifier, and show that such a system can approach state-of-the-art categorisation performance while meeting the real-time constraint

Anti‐atherosclerotic effect of the angiotensin 1–7 mimetic AVE0991 is mediated by inhibition of perivascular and plaque inflammation in early atherosclerosis

Background and Purpose: Inflammation plays a key role in atherosclerosis. A protective role of angiotensin-(1-7) in vascular pathologies opened a possibility for therapeutic use of small molecule non-peptide Ang-(1-7) mimetics, such as AVE0991. The mechanisms of these vaso-protective effects of a Mas receptor agonist, AVE0991, remain unclear. Experimental approach: We investigated the effects of AVE0991 on the spontaneous atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice, in the context of vascular inflammation and plaque stability. Key Results: AVE0991 has significant anti-atherosclerotic properties in ApoE-/- mice and increases plaque stability, by reducing plaque macrophage content, without effects on collagen. Using descending aorta of chow fed ApoE-/- mice, before significant atherosclerotic plaque develops, we gained insight to early events in atherosclerosis. Interestingly, perivascular adipose tissue (pVAT) and adventitial infiltration with macrophages and T cells precedes atherosclerotic plaque or the impairment of endothelium-dependent NO bioavailability as a measure of endothelial function. AVE0991 inhibited perivascular inflammation, through the reduction of chemokine expression in pVAT, as well as through direct actions on monocytes/macrophages inhibiting their activation, characterized by IL-1β, TNF-α, MCP-1 and CXCL10 and differentiation to M1 phenotype. Pre-treatment with AVE0991 inhibited migration of THP-1 monocytes towards supernatants of activated adipocytes (SW872). Mas receptors were expressed in pVAT and in THP-1 cells in vitro and anti-inflammatory effects of AVE0991 were partially Mas dependent. Conclusions & implications: Selective Mas receptor agonist AVE0991 possesses anti-atherosclerotic and anti-inflammatory properties, affecting monocyte/macrophage differentiation and recruitment to perivascular space at early stages of atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice

Automatic annotation of tennis games: an integration of audio, vision, and learning

Fully automatic annotation of tennis game using broadcast video is a task with a great potential but with enormous challenges. In this paper we describe our approach to this task, which integrates computer vision, machine listening, and machine learning. At the low level processing, we improve upon our previously proposed state-of-the-art tennis ball tracking algorithm and employ audio signal processing techniques to detect key events and construct features for classifying the events. At high level analysis, we model event classification as a sequence labelling problem, and investigate four machine learning techniques using simulated event sequences. Finally, we evaluate our proposed approach on three real world tennis games, and discuss the interplay between audio, vision and learning. To the best of our knowledge, our system is the only one that can annotate tennis game at such a detailed level

Nox1/4 inhibition exacerbates age dependent perivascular inflammation and fibrosis in a model of spontaneous hypertension

Hypertension is associated with oxidative stress and perivascular inflammation, critical contributors to perivascular fibrosis and accelerated vascular ageing. Oxidative stress can promote vascular inflammation, creating options for potential use of NADPH oxidase inhibitors in pharmacological targeting of perivascular inflammation and its consequences. Accordingly, we characterized age-related changes in oxidative stress and immune cell infiltration in normotensive (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Subsequently, we used pharmacological inhibitors of Nox1 (ML171) and Nox1/Nox4 (GKT137831; 60 mg/kg), to modulate NADPH oxidase activity at the early stage of spontaneous hypertension and investigated their effects on perivascular inflammation and fibrosis. Results: Ageing was associated with a progressive increase of blood pressure as well as an elevation of the total number of leukocytes, macrophages and NK cells infiltrating perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) in SHRs but not in WKY. At 1 month of age, when blood pressure was not yet different, only perivascular NK cells were significantly higher in SHR. Spontaneous hypertension was also accompanied by the higher perivascular T cell accumulation, although this increase was age independent. Aortic Nox1 and Nox2 mRNA expression increased with age only in SHR but not in WKY, while age-related increase of Nox4 mRNA in the vessels has been observed in both groups, it was more pronounced in SHRs. At early stage of hypertension (3-months) the most pronounced differences were observed in Nox1 and Nox4. Surprisingly, GKT137831, dual inhibitor of Nox1/4, therapy increased both blood pressure and perivascular macrophage infiltration. Mechanistically, this was linked to increased expression of proinflammatory chemokines expression (CCL2 and CCL5) in PVAT. This inflammatory response translated to increased perivascular fibrosis. This effect was likely Nox4 dependent as the Nox1 inhibitor ML171 did not affect the development of spontaneous hypertension, perivascular macrophage accumulation, chemokine expression nor adventitial collagen deposition. In summary, spontaneous hypertension promotes ageing-associated perivascular inflammation which is exacerbated by Nox4 but not Nox1 pharmacological inhibition

The brightness clustering transform and locally contrasting keypoints

In recent years a new wave of feature descriptors has been presented to the computer vision community, ORB, BRISK and FREAK amongst others. These new descriptors allow reduced time and memory consumption on the processing and storage stages of tasks such as image matching or visual odometry, enabling real time applications. The problem is now the lack of fast interest point detectors with good repeatability to use with these new descriptors. We present a new blob- detector which can be implemented in real time and is faster than most of the currently used feature-detectors. The detection is achieved with an innovative non-deterministic low-level operator called the Brightness Clustering Transform (BCT). The BCT can be thought as a coarse-to- fine search through scale spaces for the true derivative of the image; it also mimics trans-saccadic perception of human vision. We call the new algorithm Locally Contrasting Keypoints detector or LOCKY. Showing good repeatability and robustness to image transformations included in the Oxford dataset, LOCKY is amongst the fastest affine-covariant feature detectors

The chiral 1:2 adduct (S)S(S)C(-)589-ethyl 2-phenylbutyl sulphide-mercury (II) chloride:(-)589[(S)S(S)C-Et(2-PhBu)S.(HgCl2)2]. Stereoselective synthesis, asymmetric oxidation, crystal and molecular structure and circular dichroism spectra

Optically active (-)589ethyl (S)-2-phenylbutyl thioether, (-)(S)C-Et(PhBu)S (I), and its new diastereoisomeric mercury (II) chloride adduct, 1:2, (-)[(S)S(S)C-Et(PhBu)S.(HgCl2)2]2, (II) were stereoselectively synthesized; the absorbance (UV) and circular dichroism (CD) spectra were measured and the crystal and molecular structure of complex (II) was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Two different Hg centres are present whose coordination environments are built by two short bonds to chloride ligands in one case, and to one chloride and one sulphur in the other one. These originate digonal units. Electroneutrality is achieved by a further chlorine, which can be considered prevalently ionic and bonded to the two Hg centres, forming square bridging systems nearly perpendicular to the digonal molecules. The coordination polyhedra can be interpreted as 2 + 4 tetragonally-compressed octahedra with the four longer contacts lying in the equatorial plane. IR spectroscopic data are consistent with the presence of one bent and one linear Cl–Hg–Cl moiety. The absolute configurations at both stereogenic centres of the formed diastereoisomeric complex (II) are (S). The (S)S absolute configuration at the stereogenic sulphur atom bonded to the mercury(II) atom in complex (II) has been related with the negative Cotton effect assigned in its circular dichroism (CD) spectrum to a charge-transfer transition at ca. 230 nm. The stereoselective oxidation of (I) and (II) with hydrogen peroxide, induced by the stereogenic carbon atom (S)C of the enantiopure sulphide, gave (-)598ethyl (S)C-2-phenylbutyl(S)S-sulphoxide, (-)598[(S)S(S)C-Et(PhBu)SO], (III), having 18.1% de. Oxidations carried out in the presence of a 200 molar excess of mercury(II) chloride gave (-)598ethyl (S)C-2-phenylbutyl(R)S-sulphoxide, (-) 598[(R)S(S)C-Et(PhBu)SO], (IV) with 31% de, showing the cooperative influence of mercury(II) chloride on the selectivity of the oxidation reaction