Privacy-Preserving Facial Recognition Using Biometric-Capsules

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)In recent years, developers have used the proliferation of biometric sensors in smart devices, along with recent advances in deep learning, to implement an array of biometrics-based recognition systems. Though these systems demonstrate remarkable performance and have seen wide acceptance, they present unique and pressing security and privacy concerns. One proposed method which addresses these concerns is the elegant, fusion-based Biometric-Capsule (BC) scheme. The BC scheme is provably secure, privacy-preserving, cancellable and interoperable in its secure feature fusion design. In this work, we demonstrate that the BC scheme is uniquely fit to secure state-of-the-art facial verification, authentication and identification systems. We compare the performance of unsecured, underlying biometrics systems to the performance of the BC-embedded systems in order to directly demonstrate the minimal effects of the privacy-preserving BC scheme on underlying system performance. Notably, we demonstrate that, when seamlessly embedded into a state-of-the-art FaceNet and ArcFace verification systems which achieve accuracies of 97.18% and 99.75% on the benchmark LFW dataset, the BC-embedded systems are able to achieve accuracies of 95.13% and 99.13% respectively. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that the BC scheme outperforms or performs as well as several other proposed secure biometric methods

Probing a Set of Trajectories to Maximize Captured Information

We study a trajectory analysis problem we call the Trajectory Capture Problem (TCP), in which, for a given input set T of trajectories in the plane, and an integer k? 2, we seek to compute a set of k points ("portals") to maximize the total weight of all subtrajectories of T between pairs of portals. This problem naturally arises in trajectory analysis and summarization. We show that the TCP is NP-hard (even in very special cases) and give some first approximation results. Our main focus is on attacking the TCP with practical algorithm-engineering approaches, including integer linear programming (to solve instances to provable optimality) and local search methods. We study the integrality gap arising from such approaches. We analyze our methods on different classes of data, including benchmark instances that we generate. Our goal is to understand the best performing heuristics, based on both solution time and solution quality. We demonstrate that we are able to compute provably optimal solutions for real-world instances

Partnership with families in early childhood education: New Zealand's policy and professional content

Effective, authentic and meaningful relationships between early childhood teachers, parents, caregivers and extended family members is positioned as a central tenet of the Aotearoa/ New Zealand early childhood curriculum framework, Te Wha ̄riki. The introduction to Te Wha ̄riki declares the critical importance of such relationships. “Each child is on a unique journey. They come into the world eager to learn and into family, wha ̄nau or ‘aiga’ 1 that have high hopes for them. Teachers, educators and kaiako 2 in ECE settings work together in partnership with the family to realise these hopes” (Ministry of Education, 2017, p. 6). This chapter explores the way in which partnership with parents/ wha ̄nau is embedded as a core aspiration for early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa/ New Zealand, and how partnership with parents/ wha ̄nau is enacted in ways that are individually, contextually and culturally appropriate. It further explores how shifts in funding and policy have infl uenced both initial teacher education (ITE) for student teachers and continued provision of professional learning and development (PLD) opportunities for teachers, recognising that ITE and PLD are key drivers in teachers’ development of beliefs and practices in relation to engagement and partnership with parents/ wha ̄nau. In presenting the current policy and practice landscape in the Aotearoa/ New Zealand context, implications, challenges and possibilities for future practice are highlighted

A Prospective Study of Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis in Relation to Deployment in Support of Iraq and Afghanistan: The Millennium Cohort Study

The objective of this study was to prospectively assess the association between deployment in support of the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and newly reported lupus and rheumatoid arthritis while also considering the effects of demographic, behavioral, and occupational characteristics. A total of 77,047 (2001–2003) and 31,110 (2004–2006) participants completed the baseline Millennium Cohort questionnaire and were resurveyed approximately every 3 years. Longitudinal analyses were used to assess the adjusted association between deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan with and without combat exposures and newly reported disease. After adjusting, deployment was not significantly associated with newly reported lupus compared with nondeployers. However, compared with nondeployers, deployers with and without combat exposures were significantly less likely to newly report rheumatoid arthritis. Women, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic participants had a significantly elevated risk for both diseases. Overall, deployment was not associated with an increased risk of newly reported lupus or rheumatoid arthritis

On the Identification of High Mass Star Forming Regions using IRAS: Contamination by Low-Mass Protostars

We present the results of a survey of a small sample (14) of low-mass protostars (L_IR < 10^3 Lsun) for 6.7 GHz methanol maser emission performed using the ATNF Parkes radio telescope. No new masers were discovered. We find that the lower luminosity limit for maser emission is near 10^3 Lsun, by comparison of the sources in our sample with previously detected methanol maser sources. We examine the IRAS properties of our sample and compare them with sources previously observed for methanol maser emission, almost all of which satisfy the Wood & Churchwell criterion for selecting candidate UCHII regions. We find that about half of our sample satisfy this criterion, and in addition almost all of this subgroup have integrated fluxes between 25 and 60 microns that are similar to sources with detectable methanol maser emission. By identifying a number of low-mass protostars in this work and from the literature that satisfy the Wood & Churchwell criterion for candidate UCHII regions, we show conclusively for the first time that the fainter flux end of their sample is contaminated by lower-mass non-ionizing sources, confirming the suggestion by van der Walt and Ramesh & Sridharan.Comment: 8 pages with 2 figures. Accepted by Ap

Towards strange metallic holography

We initiate a holographic model building approach to `strange metallic' phenomenology. Our model couples a neutral Lifshitz-invariant quantum critical theory, dual to a bulk gravitational background, to a finite density of gapped probe charge carriers, dually described by D-branes. In the physical regime of temperature much lower than the charge density and gap, we exhibit anomalous scalings of the temperature and frequency dependent conductivity. Choosing the dynamical critical exponent $z$ appropriately we can match the non-Fermi liquid scalings, such as linear resistivity, observed in strange metal regimes. As part of our investigation we outline three distinct string theory realizations of Lifshitz geometries: from F theory, from polarised branes, and from a gravitating charged Fermi gas. We also identify general features of renormalisation group flow in Lifshitz theories, such as the appearance of relevant charge-charge interactions when $z \geq 2$. We outline a program to extend this model building approach to other anomalous observables of interest such as the Hall conductivity.Comment: 71 pages, 8 figure

A molecular insight into algal-oomycete warfare : cDNA analysis of Ectocarpus siliculosus infected with the basal oomycete Eurychasma dicksonii

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Dietary experience modifies horses' feeding behavior and selection patterns of three macronutrient rich diets

Choice feeding is often used to investigate an animal’s nutritional requirements and dietary preferences. A problem with this approach is that animals with long gut transit times, such as the horse, may find it difficult to associate a chosen food with its nutritional consequence when alternative foods are presented simultaneously. One solution is to present foods singly for a period of time before a simultaneous choice session to allow the development of learned associations. This method was used to determine if horse’s voluntary intake and feeding behavior was influenced by the macronutrient composition of the diet. Seven stabled horses, maintained on a low intensity exercise regimen, were allowed, on an ad libitum basis, haylage and 3 isocaloric forage based diets that were rich in 1 of 3 macronutrients (protein, lipid, and hydrolyzable carbohydrate). Initially, diets were presented as a 3-way choice for 5 d (self-selection a [SSa]), then singly (monadic phase) with exposure to each diet for 2 separate periods of 3 d each, and finally again as a choice for 5 d (self-selection b [SSb]). The total amount of trial diet offered differed with trial phase, with 2 to 2.5% of BW during SSa and the monadic phase, increasing to ad libitum access during SSb. To control differences in the total amount of trial diet offered, 2 measurements of voluntary intake were taken at 4 and 22 h postpresentation. Daily macronutrient and energy intakes were estimated from proximate analysis of the trial diets and batches of haylage fed. Feeding behavior was observed over a single 4-h period during both self-selection phases. Horses showed no initial preference after 4 h for any 1 diet during SSa. Following the monadic phase, horses demonstrated a preference for the protein and hydrolyzable carbohydrate rich diets over the lipid rich diet (P < 0.001). Dietary experience modified foraging behavior as the total number of visits to the diets decreased during SSb (P < 0.005). Analysis of 24 -h macronutrient consumption showed that protein and hydrolyzable carbohydrate intake increased during SSb, whereas lipid intake remained constant over both self-selection phases (P < 0.001). These data indicate for perhaps the first time that horses can respond to dietary macronutrient content and that single presentations during choice studies facilitates expression of dietary preferences

Parental transfer of the antimicrobial protein LBP/BPI protects Biomphalaria glabrata eggs against oomycete infections

Copyright: © 2013 Baron et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This work was funded by ANR (ANR-07-BLAN-0214 and ANR-12-EMMA-00O7-01), CNRS and INRA. PvW was financially supported by the BBSRC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD