FOUGERE: User-Centric Location Privacy in Mobile Crowdsourcing Apps

International audienceMobile crowdsourcing is being increasingly used by industrial and research communities to build realistic datasets. By leveraging the capabilities of mobile devices, mobile crowdsourcing apps can be used to track participants' activity and to collect insightful reports from the environment (e.g., air quality, network quality). However, most of existing crowdsourced datasets systematically tag data samples with time and location stamps, which may inevitably lead to user privacy leaks by discarding sensitive information. This paper addresses this critical limitation of the state of the art by proposing a software library that improves user privacy without compromising the overall quality of the crowdsourced datasets. We propose a decentralized approach, named Fougere, to convey data samples from user devices to third-party servers. By introducing an a priori data anonymization process, we show that Fougere defeats state-of-the-art location-based privacy attacks with little impact on the quality of crowd-sourced datasets

The Effects of Incongruent Feedback on Bimanual Task Performance

Previous studies analyzing the effects of incongruent visual and haptic feedback have found differences in the perceived stiffness of an object depending on what modality was delayed. These studies required only unilateral performance of the individual and did not measure functional task completion. Our study evaluated the effects of incongruent visual and haptic feedback during a bimanual pick and place task within a virtual environment using two Phantom Omnis. Subjects were asked to place three different colored spheres into matching colored baskets under various testing conditions. The testing conditions included various temporal delays in either the haptic feedback, visual feedback or both feedback modalities simultaneously. The amount of time required to complete the task as well as the number of spheres broken were recorded for each trial. The results show that delays in either or both of the feedback modalities had a negative effect on the subject\u27s ability to complete the task. The most detrimental effects on task performance were observed when both feedback modalities were simultaneously delayed 133 ms for both the completion time and number of broken spheres

Synthesis and Reactivity of Precolibactin 886

The clb gene cluster encodes the biosynthesis of metabolites known as precolibactins and colibactins. The clb pathway is found in gut commensal E. coli, and clb metabolites are thought to initiate colorectal cancer via DNA cross-linking. Precolibactin 886 (1) is one of the most complex isolated clb metabolites; it contains a 15-atom macrocycle and an unusual 5-hydroxy-3-oxazoline ring. Here we report confirmation of the structural assignment via a biomimetic synthesis of precolibactin 886 (1) proceeding through the amino alcohol 9. Double oxidation of 9 afforded the unstable α-ketoimine 2 which underwent macrocyclization to precolibactin 886 (1) upon HPLC purification (3% from 9). Studies of the putative precolibactin 886 (1) biosynthetic precursor 2, the model α-ketoimine 25, and the α-dicarbonyl 26 revealed that these compounds are susceptible to nucleophilic rupture of the C36–C37 bond. Moreover, cleavage of 2 produces other known clb metabolites or biosynthetic intermediates. This unexpected reactivity explains the difficulties in isolating full clb metabolites and accounts for the structure of a recently identified colibactin–adenine adduct. The colibactin peptidase ClbP deacylates synthetic precolibactin 886 (1) to form a non-genotoxic pyridone, suggesting precolibactin 886 (1) lies off-path of the major biosynthetic route.</div