Electoral cycle timing and popular support for a treaty are crucial in determining whether parties advocate referendums on European integration

David Cameron is committed to holding a referendum on the UK’s EU membership should he win a majority at the next general election. In an effort to understand why parties call for referendums on European integration, Andreas Dür and Nikitas Konstantinidis look at data from the ratification of the EU’s Constitutional Treaty in 2004. They find that the amount of time until the next election has a significant impact on whether parties choose to support referendums or not, and that parties are far more likely to advocate a referendum on unpopular and controversial issues

Seismic Evaluation of R/C Buildings Using High Performance Materials

The performance of reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings made of high performance materials (HPM) in seismic areas is evaluated through the parametric analysis of twenty-two buildings designed and detailed according to the current (prEN) version of Eurocode 8, for ductility classes (DC) \u27\u27Medium\u27\u27 and \u27\u27High\u27\u27, in combination with the current (prEN) version of Eurocode 2. Seismic assessment of the buildings is carried out by means of nonlinear static (pushover) analysis and nonlinear dynamic (time-history) analysis

Managing big data experiments on smartphones

The explosive number of smartphones with ever growing sensing and computing capabilities have brought a paradigm shift to many traditional domains of the computing field. Re-programming smartphones and instrumenting them for application testing and data gathering at scale is currently a tedious and time-consuming process that poses significant logistical challenges. Next generation smartphone applications are expected to be much larger-scale and complex, demanding that these undergo evaluation and testing under different real-world datasets, devices and conditions. In this paper, we present an architecture for managing such large-scale data management experiments on real smartphones. We particularly present the building blocks of our architecture that encompassed smartphone sensor data collected by the crowd and organized in our big data repository. The given datasets can then be replayed on our testbed comprising of real and simulated smartphones accessible to developers through a web-based interface. We present the applicability of our architecture through a case study that involves the evaluation of individual components that are part of a complex indoor positioning system for smartphones, coined Anyplace, which we have developed over the years. The given study shows how our architecture allows us to derive novel insights into the performance of our algorithms and applications, by simplifying the management of large-scale data on smartphones

Android Malware Detection with Unbiased Confidence Guarantees

The impressive growth of smartphone devices in combination with the rising ubiquity of using mobile platforms for sensitive applications such as Internet banking, have triggered a rapid increase in mobile malware. In recent literature, many studies examine Machine Learning techniques, as the most promising approach for mobile malware detection, without however quantifying the uncertainty involved in their detections. In this paper, we address this problem by proposing a machine learning dynamic analysis approach that provides provably valid confidence guarantees in each malware detection. Moreover the particular guarantees hold for both the malicious and benign classes independently and are unaffected by any bias in the data. The proposed approach is based on a novel machine learning framework, called Conformal Prediction, combined with a random forests classifier. We examine its performance on a large-scale dataset collected by installing 1866 malicious and 4816 benign applications on a real android device. We make this collection of dynamic analysis data available to the research community. The obtained experimental results demonstrate the empirical validity, usefulness and unbiased nature of the outputs produced by the proposed approach

Coalescence-induced jumping of microdroplets on superhydrophobic surfaces – A numerical study

We develop a numerical framework for simulating the coalescence and jumping of microdroplets on superhydrophobic surfaces. The framework combines the VOF method with models for advancing and receding contact angles on a number of superhydrophobic surfaces. We demonstrate the temporal and spatial convergence of the framework and show agreement between our numerical results and other experimental studies. The capillary-inertial scaling is investigated together with the existence of a cut-off behaviour frequently observed in the lower size-range of that regime. We investigate findings in some of the previous studies that the cut-off behaviour can be attributed to viscosity effects and dissipation due to interaction with surface microstructures. We exemplify specific features related to the jumping process and the corresponding energy budget analysis when microdroplets coalesce and jump. We have tested droplets of a radius as small as 0.5 μm that are still jumping but recorded a decrease in the jumping velocity and the degree of energy conversion compared to the jumping of larger droplets. We argue and prove that strong capillary forces originating from the high curvature oscillations dissipate the energy of the system significantly faster in the case of microdroplets

Cutaneous metastasis to the face from colon adenocarcinoma. Case report

BACKGROUND: Facial skin metastases from colorectal cancer are extremely rare and appear several years after resection of the primary tumour. They are an important finding, often being the first sign of metastasis from a previously treated colon cancer. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe a case of a 69 year old patient with cutaneous metastasis to the chin from a previously treated adenocarcinoma of the colon. The patient presented with dyspnoea, pleuritic pain and loss of weight. A chest x-ray revealed a right upper lobe mass of the lung which on subsequent surgical exploration proved to be metastatic from colorectal adenocarcinoma resected three years ago. During the postoperative course, a nodule was noted on the chin and excision biopsy revealed it was also a metastasis from the initial colorectal cancer. Palliative chemoradiotherapy was administered and the patient survived 8 months. CONCLUSION: High index of suspicion is necessary for the early detection of facial cutaneous metastases from colorectal cancer. The aim is to start treatment as soon as possible before widespread visceral metastases occur. Cutaneous metastases from colorectal cancer carry a better prognosis in comparison to those of other epithelial tumours

Intelligent search in social communities of smartphone users

Social communities of smartphone users have recently gained significant interest due to their wide social penetration. The applications in this domain,however, currently rely on centralized or cloud-like architectures for data sharing and searching tasks, introducing both data-disclosure and performance concerns. In this paper, we present a distributed search architecture for intelligent search of objects in a mobile social community. Our framework, coined SmartOpt, is founded on an in-situ data storage model, where captured objects remain local on smartphones and searches then take place over an intelligent multi-objective lookup structure we compute dynamically. Our MO-QRT structure optimizes several conflicting objectives, using a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm that calculates a diverse set of high quality non-dominated solutions in a single run. Then a decision-making subsystem is utilized to tune the retrieval preferences of the query user. We assess our ideas both using trace-driven experiments with mobility and social patterns derived by Microsoft’s GeoLife project, DBLP and Pics ‘n’ Trails but also using our real Android SmartP2P3 system deployed over our SmartLab4 testbed of 40+ smartphones. Our study reveals that SmartOpt yields high query recall rates of 95%, with one order of magnitude less time and two orders of magnitude less energy than its competitors

Privacy on the Web: Analysing Online Advertising Networks

Το θέμα της διπλωματικής αφορά ζητήματα ιδιωτικότητας στο Διαδίκτυο, με έμφαση την ιχνηλάτηση χρηστών για το σκοπό στοχευμένων διαφημίσεων. Θα μελετηθούν οι τεχνολογίες που χρησιμοποιούνται σε αυτήν την κατεύθυνση, και θα αξιολογηθεί η τρέχουσα κατάσταση υπό το πρίσμα του σχετικού νομικού πλαισίου, που είναι ο Γενικός Κανονισμός Προστασίας Δεδομένων(GDPR- 2016/679) της ΕΕ, αλλά και η e-Privacy οδηγία. Πιο συγκεκριμένα αναλύονται οι προσπάθειες των διαφημιστικών δικτύων, ώστε να λαμβάνουν όσο το δυνατόν περισσότερες προσωπικές πληροφορίες από τους χρήστες, οι οποίες χρησιμοποιούνται κυρίως για εμπορικούς σκοπούς, οι οποίες ωστόσο μπορεί και να υπερβαίνουν τη στοχευμένη διαφήμιση. Υπάρχει μια εκτεταμένη ανάλυση σχετικά με την υποδομή, τις αλληλεπιδράσεις μεταξύ των στοιχείων και τις τεχνολογίες που επιτρέπουν την προβολή διαφημίσεων και την ανταλλαγή προσωπικών δεδομένων. Τέλος, αναλύονται ορισμένες πιθανές λύσεις σχετικά με την παρακολούθηση των χρηστών, έπειτα από την κατάργηση των third party data λόγω των αυστηρών μέτρων σχετικά με τη συλλογή προσωπικών δεδομένων, που εφαρμόζει η ΕΕ.This thesis mainly focuses on the big picture of the current stage of user data collection and protection and at the same time discuss scientific solutions that aim at protecting web users from numerous privacy threats which are caused by the online advertising industry. There is an extensive analysis about the infrastructure, the interactions among the elements, and the technologies enabling the delivery of ads and the use of personal data. The paper provides scientific details in order the reader to understand the present advertising ecosystem, and the privacy risks users are exposed to. There is a detailed discussion about the measures taken by European Union with a single purpose, to put in order the chaos that exists in the global system of interconnected computer networks called Internet. Except of the analysis of the GDPR, there is an investigation about the trackers that use our data while we access any domain and the results are provided precisely. Finally, there is a part, where some possible solutions of tracking users are discussed, after the fade of third party data due to the strict measures regarding users data collection, announced by the EU

Managing Smartphone Testbeds with SmartLab

The explosive number of smartphones with ever growing sensing and computing capabilities have brought a paradigm shift to many traditional domains of the computing field. Re-programming smartphones and instrumenting them for application testing and data gathering at scale is currently a tedious and time-consuming process that poses significant logistical challenges. In this paper, we make three major contributions: First, we propose a comprehensive architecture, coined SmartLab1, for managing a cluster of both real and virtual smartphones that are either wired to a private cloud or connected over a wireless link. Second, we propose and describe a number of Android management optimizations (e.g., command pipelining, screen-capturing, file management), which can be useful to the community for building similar functionality into their systems. Third, we conduct extensive experiments and microbenchmarks to support our design choices providing qualitative evidence on the expected performance of each module comprising our architecture. This paper also overviews experiences of using SmartLab in a research-oriented setting and also ongoing and future development efforts