144 research outputs found
Playing outside the box:transformative works and computer games as participatory culture
The main purpose of this study is to examine the creative fan community as a paradigm of participatory culture, from a computer games perspective. A review of relevant literature is used to examine transformative works and the related subculture in its many diverse forms. The produced discussion seeks to respond to a number of questions, such as: What exactly constitutes transformative work, what is the legal status of such work, and how can it be improved? To what extent do transformative works constitute a part of the play experience and enjoyment of games? Does participation in associated creative activities influence, shape or redefine the aforementioned experience? Can transformative works be appreciated as valuable artistic pieces on their own merits, outside the communities in which they are produced? Does the existence of the transformative work benefit the wider gaming culture from an artistic, financial or other point of view
Designing Secure Ethereum Smart Contracts: A Finite State Machine Based Approach
The adoption of blockchain-based distributed computation platforms is growing
fast. Some of these platforms, such as Ethereum, provide support for
implementing smart contracts, which are envisioned to have novel applications
in a broad range of areas, including finance and Internet-of-Things. However, a
significant number of smart contracts deployed in practice suffer from security
vulnerabilities, which enable malicious users to steal assets from a contract
or to cause damage. Vulnerabilities present a serious issue since contracts may
handle financial assets of considerable value, and contract bugs are
non-fixable by design. To help developers create more secure smart contracts,
we introduce FSolidM, a framework rooted in rigorous semantics for designing
con- tracts as Finite State Machines (FSM). We present a tool for creating FSM
on an easy-to-use graphical interface and for automatically generating Ethereum
contracts. Further, we introduce a set of design patterns, which we implement
as plugins that developers can easily add to their contracts to enhance
security and functionality
Coordination of Dynamic Software Components with JavaBIP
JavaBIP allows the coordination of software components by clearly separating
the functional and coordination aspects of the system behavior. JavaBIP
implements the principles of the BIP component framework rooted in rigorous
operational semantics. Recent work both on BIP and JavaBIP allows the
coordination of static components defined prior to system deployment, i.e., the
architecture of the coordinated system is fixed in terms of its component
instances. Nevertheless, modern systems, often make use of components that can
register and deregister dynamically during system execution. In this paper, we
present an extension of JavaBIP that can handle this type of dynamicity. We use
first-order interaction logic to define synchronization constraints based on
component types. Additionally, we use directed graphs with edge coloring to
model dependencies among components that determine the validity of an online
system. We present the software architecture of our implementation, provide and
discuss performance evaluation results.Comment: Technical report that accompanies the paper accepted at the 14th
International Conference on Formal Aspects of Component Softwar
Miniaturized double-layer EBG structures for broadband mutual coupling reduction between UWB monopoles
Heart rate detection from the supratrochlear vessels using a virtual reality headset integrated PPG sensor
An increasing amount of virtual reality (VR) research is carried out
to support the vast number of applications across mental health,
exercise and entertainment fields. Often, this research involves the
recording of physiological measures such as heart rate recordings
with an electrocardiogram (ECG). One challenge is to enable remote, reliable and unobtrusive VR and heart rate data collection
which would allow a wider application of VR research and practice
in the field in future. To address the challenge, this work assessed
the viability of replacing standard ECG devices with a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that is directly integrated into a VR headset
over the branches of the supratrochlear vessels. The objective of
this study was to investigate the reliability of the PPG sensor for
heart-rate detection. A total of 21 participants were recruited. They
were asked to wear an ECG belt as ground truth and a VR headset
with the embedded PPG sensor. Signals from both sensors were
captured in free standing and sitting positions. Results showed that
VR headset with an integrated PPG sensor is a viable alternative
to an ECG for heart rate measurements in optimal conditions with
limited movement. Future research will extend on this finding by
testing it in more interactive VR settings
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Comparative design study of a diesel exhaust gas heat exchanger for truck applications with conventional and state of the art heat transfer enhancements
The exhaust gas of heavy duty diesel engines can provide an important heat source that may be used in a number of ways to provide additional power and improve overall engine efficiency. The sizing of a heat exchanger that can manage the heat load and still be of reasonable size and weight without excessive pressure drop is of significant importance especially for truck applications. This is the subject of the present work. To approach the problem, a total of five different configurations are investigated and a comparison of conventional and state of the art heat transfer enhancement technologies is included. Two groups of configurations are examined: (a) a classical shell and tube heat exchanger using staggered cross-flow tube bundles with smooth circular tubes, finned tubes and tubes with dimpled surfaces and (b) a cross-flow plate heat exchanger, initially with finned surfaces on the exhaust gas side and then with 10 ppi and 40 ppi metal foam material substituting for the fins. Calculations were performed, using established heat exchanger design methodologies and recently published data from the literature to size the aforementioned configurations. The solutions provided reduce the overall heat exchanger size, with the plate and fin type consisting of plain fins presenting the minimum pressure drop (up to 98% reduction compared to the other configurations), and the 40 ppi metal foam being the most compact in terms of size and weight. Durability of the solutions is another issue which will be examined in a future investigation. However, coupling of the exhaust heat exchanger after a particulate trap appears to be the most promising solution to avoid clogging from soot accumulation
solc-verify: A Modular Verifier for Solidity Smart Contracts
We present solc-verify, a source-level verification tool for Ethereum smart
contracts. Solc-verify takes smart contracts written in Solidity and discharges
verification conditions using modular program analysis and SMT solvers. Built
on top of the Solidity compiler, solc-verify reasons at the level of the
contract source code, as opposed to the more common approaches that operate at
the level of Ethereum bytecode. This enables solc-verify to effectively reason
about high-level contract properties while modeling low-level language
semantics precisely. The contract properties, such as contract invariants, loop
invariants, and function pre- and post-conditions, can be provided as
annotations in the code by the developer. This enables automated, yet
user-friendly formal verification for smart contracts. We demonstrate
solc-verify by examining real-world examples where our tool can effectively
find bugs and prove correctness of non-trivial properties with minimal user
effort.Comment: Authors' manuscript. Published in S. Chakraborty and J. A. Navas
(Eds.): VSTTE 2019, LNCS 12031, 2020. The final publication is available at
Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41600-3_1
A methodology for detecting the orthology signal in a PPI network at a functional complex level
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