FLTrojan: Privacy Leakage Attacks against Federated Language Models Through Selective Weight Tampering

Federated learning (FL) is becoming a key component in many technology-based applications including language modeling -- where individual FL participants often have privacy-sensitive text data in their local datasets. However, realizing the extent of privacy leakage in federated language models is not straightforward and the existing attacks only intend to extract data regardless of how sensitive or naive it is. To fill this gap, in this paper, we introduce two novel findings with regard to leaking privacy-sensitive user data from federated language models. Firstly, we make a key observation that model snapshots from the intermediate rounds in FL can cause greater privacy leakage than the final trained model. Secondly, we identify that privacy leakage can be aggravated by tampering with a model's selective weights that are specifically responsible for memorizing the sensitive training data. We show how a malicious client can leak the privacy-sensitive data of some other user in FL even without any cooperation from the server. Our best-performing method improves the membership inference recall by 29% and achieves up to 70% private data reconstruction, evidently outperforming existing attacks with stronger assumptions of adversary capabilities.Comment: 22 pages (including bibliography and Appendix), Submitted to USENIX Security '2

Fractional calculus analysis: investigating Drinfeld-Sokolov-Wilson system and Harry Dym equations via meshless procedures

In this study, we present two meshless schemes, namely the radial basis function (RBF) method and the polynomial method, for the numerical investigation of the time-fractional Harry Dym equation and the Drinfeld-Sokolov-Wilson system. In both methods, the temporal derivatives are estimated using the Caputo operator, while the spatial derivatives are approximated either through radial basis functions or polynomials. Additionally, a collocation approach is employed to convert the system of equations into a system of linear equations that is easier to solve. The accuracy of the methods is assessed by calculating the $L_{\infty}$ error norm, and the outcomes are displayed through tables and figures. The simulation results indicate that both methods exhibit strong performance in handling the fractional partial differential equations (PDEs) under investigation

Abugida Normalizer and Parser for Unicode texts

This paper proposes two libraries to address common and uncommon issues with Unicode-based writing schemes for Indic languages. The first is a normalizer that corrects inconsistencies caused by the encoding scheme https://pypi.org/project/bnunicodenormalizer/ . The second is a grapheme parser for Abugida text https://pypi.org/project/indicparser/ . Both tools are more efficient and effective than previously used tools. We report 400% increase in speed and ensure significantly better performance for different language model based downstream tasks.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur

The Optimization of Gelatin Extraction from Chicken Feet and the Development of Gelatin Based Active Packaging for the Shelf-Life Extension of Fresh Grapes

Synthetic plastics are causing serious environmental and health problems due to which the concept of developing biodegradable food packaging has gained considerable attention. In this study, extraction of gelatin from chicken feet was optimized followed by characterization of gelatin. Chicken feet gelatin was used to develop biodegradable nanocomposite films by the incorporation of chitosan (CS) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs). Gelatin nanocomposite films were used to increase the shelf-life of fresh grapes by determining the browning index, weight loss, and microbial profile of fresh grapes. A high yield (7.5%) of gelatin and Bloom strength (186 g) were obtained at optimized extraction conditions (pretreatment with 4.2% acetic acid and extraction at 66 °C for 4.2 h). Electrophoretic analysis of gelatin revealed the presence of α (130–140 kDa) and β chains (195–200 kDa), whereas a Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectrometer confirmed the presence of amide A and B and amide I, II, and III. Incorporation of ZnO NPs in a gelatin–CS matrix improved the barrier and the mechanical and the thermal properties of films. Gelatin nanocomposite films with 0.3% ZnO NPs significantly reduced the weight loss (23.88%) and the browning index (53.33%) of grapes in comparison to control treatments. The microbial count in artificially inoculated grapes wrapped in gelatin nanocomposite films remained below 4 log CFU/mL until the fifth storage day in comparison to control treatments. The gelatin from poultry byproducts such as chicken feet can serve as an efficient biopolymer to develop biodegradable food packaging to enhance the shelf-life of perishable food products

Vancomycin conjugated iron oxide nanoparticles for magnetic targeting and efficient capture of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria

International audienceDrug conjugated iron oxide magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles are of great interest in the field of biomedicine. In this study, vancomycin (Van) conjugated magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles were envisioned to capture and inhibit the growth of bacteria. Hydrophobic Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by using co-precipitation of ferrous (Fe2+) and ferric (Fe3+) ions following a surface modification step with oleic acid as stabilizers. Thereafter, a ligand exchange technique was employed to displace oleic acid with hydrophilic dopamine (DOPA) molecules which have a catechol group for anchoring to the iron oxide surface to prepare water dispersible nanoparticles. The surface of the resulting Fe3O4/DOPA nanoparticles contains amino (–NH2) groups that are conjugated with vancomycin via a coupling reaction between the –NH2 group of dopamine and the –COOH group of vancomycin. The prepared vancomycin conjugated Fe3O4/DOPA nanoparticles were named Fe3O4/DOPA/Van and exhibited a magnetic response to an external magnetic field due to the presence of magnetite Fe3O4 in the core. The Fe3O4/DOPA/Van nanoparticles showed bactericidal activity against both Gram positive Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) and Streptococcus and Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli). Maximum inhibition zones of 22 mm, 19 mm and 18 mm were found against B. subtilis, Streptococcus and E. coli respectively. Most importantly, the vancomycin conjugated nanoparticles were effectively bound to the cell wall of the bacteria, promoting bacterial separation and growth inhibition. Therefore, the prepared Fe3O4/DOPA/Van nanoparticles can be promising for effective bacterial separation and killing in the dispersion medi

A decade of progress in rhizoengineering to exploit plant microbiome for salt stress amelioration

The increasing salinization of soils and resulting degradation of irrigated lands have directly affected 2.6 billion hectares of dryland agriculture worldwide. This phenomenon has led to significant qualitative and quantitative losses in crop production. The absorption and accumulation of ions adversely affect plants by disrupting photosynthetic machinery, damaging tissues, disturbing the ionic balance of cells, and inducing oxidative stress. Rhizobacteria-induced salinity tolerance is a promising tool in crop plants that works by modulating the plant metabolism. Among rhizobacteria, halotolerant plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) stand out as particularly significant because they can extend salinity tolerance in crop plants through various mechanisms, including secondary metabolite production, osmolyte accumulation, and modulation of plant metabolism via certain localized and systemic defense functions. Furthermore, the volatile organic compounds produced by PGPR play a vital role in salinity amelioration by regulating root ions uptake, promoting osmolyte related genes expression, reducing the level of oxidative stress markers such as electrolyte leakage, and maintaining endogenous hormonal levels. These novel salt-ameliorating mechanisms and their ability to improve plant fitness and enhance tolerance to salinized soils highlight halotolerant PGPR as eco-friendly and cost-effective tools for salt stress tolerance. This review focuses on elucidating the novel mechanisms used by halotolerant PGPR, their production of secondary metabolites under salinity stress, their application as bioinoculants for crop plants in salinized soils and the development of novel bioformulations for the bioremediation of agricultural soils facing salt stress-related challenges

Evaluation of groundwater simulations in Benin from the ALMIP2 project

International audienceA comprehensive estimation of water budget components, particularly groundwater storage (GWS) and fluxes, is crucial. In this study, we evaluate the terrestrial water budget of the Donga basin (Benin, West Africa), as simulated by three land surface models (LSMs) used in the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis Land Surface Model Intercomparison Project, phase 2 (ALMIP2): CLM4, Catchment LSM (CLSM), and Minimal Advanced Treatments of Surface Interaction and Runoff (MATSIRO). All three models include an unconfined groundwater component and are driven by the same ALMIP2 atmospheric forcing from 2005 to 2008. Results show that all three models simulate substantially shallower water table depth (WTD) with smaller seasonal variations, approximately 1-1.5 m compared to the observed values that range between 4 and 9.6 m, while the seasonal variations of GWS are overestimated by all the models. These seemingly contradictory simulation results can be explained by the overly high specific yield prescribed in all models. All models achieve similar GWS simulations but with different fractions of precipitation partitioning into surface runoff, base flow, and evapotranspiration (ET), suggesting high uncertainty and errors in the terrestrial and groundwater budgets among models. The poor performances of models can be attributed to bias in the hydrological partitioning (base flow vs surface runoff) and sparse subsurface data. This analysis confirms the importance of subsurface hydrological processes in the current generation of LSMs and calls for substantial improvement in both surface water budget (which controls groundwater recharge) and the groundwater system (hydrodynamic parameters, vertical geometry)