Backward Compatibility Research Articles

SATLAS2: An update to the package for analysis of counting data

SATLAS2 is a Python library that enables the user to fit counting data from laser spectroscopy experiments, in particular those that measure atomic hyperfine structures. In this analysis, the user can choose how the uncertainties are treated and can also opt to generate a random walk in order to present a fuller picture of the parameter space. The major upgrade compared to the previous version of SATLAS [1] is the different architecture of the codebase, which enabled a performance boost, with speed-up factors ranging from 20 to 300 times for various use cases. For backward compatibility, a translation layer between the two architectures is available, implementing only the core functionality of SATLAS. New version program summaryProgram Title: SATLAS2CPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/3hr8f5nkhb.2Developer's repository link:https://github.com/IKS-nm/satlas2Licensing provisions: MITProgramming language: PythonJournal reference of previous version: Computer Physics Communications, Volume 222, 2018, Pages 286-294, ISSN 0010-4655, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2017.09.012Does the new version supersede the previous version?: YesReasons for the new version: Improved and more stable performanceSummary of revisions: The architecture of the SATLAS package has been completely changed. Instead of operating on Models, using SumModel and LinkedModel for various analysis options, SATLAS2 works with a central Fitter object to which Sources get assigned, which themselves get assigned Models. This structure improves the performance by streamlining the code and benefits from using a pass by reference approach for changing the parameters, rather than a pass by value. Most of the functionality is maintained, with a small interface for most basic things available so SATLAS2 can be used as a drop-in replacement.Nature of problem: The analysis of specifically counting data has some special considerations compared to more common datasets with Gaussian-distributed uncertainties. Application of Bayesian inference through random walk exploration is useful for more accurate exploration of parameter space. The fitting of multiple models with shared parameters can be desirable for either fitting multiple datasets with the same parameters or imposing additional restrictions on the parameters.Solution method: SATLAS2 implements the correct statistical costs for fitting of both counting data and Gaussian distributed uncertainties, and allows an easy implementation of custom cost functions.. Through the implementation of multiple Sources and Models, a natural extension of the fitting is made, so multiple models can be both summed together to fit to the same data and multiple fits can be linked together through parameter linking, using the underlying LMFIT [2] library. The ability to fit simultaneously increases the possibilities for extensive statistical analyses, and the interface through LMFIT with the emcee [3] library enables Bayesian exploration of the parameter space.

The social readjustment rating scale: Updated and modernised.

The Social Readjustment Rating Scale, originally devised in 1967 by Holmes and Rahe, measures the impact of life events stress. At the time, the SRRS advanced its field of research by standardising the impact of stress with a set of independently derived weights called 'life change units' (LCUs) for 43 life events found to predict illness onset. The scale has been criticised for being outdated, e.g. "Mortgage over $10,000" and biased, e.g. "Wife begin or stop work". The aim of this cross-sectional survey study is to update and improve the SRRS whilst allowing backwards compatibility. We successfully updated the SRRS norms/LCUs using the ratings of 540 predominantly UK adults aged 18 to 84. Moreover, we also updated wording of 12 SRRS items and evaluated the impact of demographics, personal experience and loneliness. Using non-parametric frequentist and Bayesian statistics we found that the updated weights were higher but broadly consistent with those of the original study. Furthermore, changes to item wording did not affect raters' evaluations relative to the original thereby ensuring cross-comparability with the original SRRS. The raters were not unduly influenced by their personal experiences of events nor loneliness. The target sample was UK rather than US-based and was proportionately representative regarding age, sex and ethnicity. Moreover, the age range was broader than the original SRRS. In addition, we modernised item wording, added one optional extra item to the end of the scale to evaluate the readjustment to living alone and identified 3 potential new items proposed by raters. Backwards-compatibility is maintained.

Iterative Filtering PAPR Reduction Method for OFDM Modulation in Fifth-generation Cellular Networks

Background & Objective: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is an ordinarily used waveform in the fifth generation (5G) cellular networks for uplink links. However, there is a prominent disadvantage in the form of a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) which yields distortion in the timing signal generated at the output of the high-power amplifier (HPA). Methods: A new method called Iterative Filtering PAPR Reduction (IFP) has been suggested in this paper and maintains backward compatibility. The basic concept behind this algorithm is to obtain a filter based on a constant-envelope signal that is intimate to the original signal as far as power is concerned. The constant-envelope signal is then compared to the output between the product of the convolution of the original signal with the filter in question, allowing for the calculation of the impulse response of the filter. Such a process can be repeated several times with different filters to realize the best reduction in PAPR. Results: The simulated results of the IFP method proved better performance in terms of PAPR reduction, Bit Error Rate (BER), and computational complexity requiring two iterations only. We can see a gain of 3.1dB in terms of PAPR reduction, 17dB in terms of BER, and a factor of 33 times in terms of computational complexity compared to the TR method. The Complementary Cumulative Complementary Density Function (CCDF) has assisted in measuring and improving the PAPR performance of the system. Conclusion: The theoretical analysis shows that a single iteration (NF= 1) is sufficient, and the simulation results exposed in this paper show a gain of 3.1 dB in PAPR reduction.

Recommendations of the DNA Commission of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) on short tandem repeat sequence nomenclature

The DNA Commission of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) has developed a set of nomenclature recommendations for short tandem repeat (STR) sequences. These recommendations follow the 2016 considerations of the DNA Commission of the ISFG, incorporating the knowledge gained through research and population studies in the intervening years. While maintaining a focus on backward compatibility with the CE data that currently populate national DNA databases, this report also looks to the future with the establishment of recommended minimum sequence reporting ranges to facilitate interlaboratory comparisons, automated solutions for sequence-based allele designations, a suite of resources to support bioinformatic development, guidance for characterizing new STR loci, and considerations for incorporating STR sequences and other new markers into investigative databases.

A formal model of Checked C1

We present a formal model of Checked C, a dialect of C that aims to enforce spatial memory safety. Our model pays particular attention to the semantics of dynamically sized, potentially null-terminated arrays. We formalize this model in Coq, and prove that any spatial memory safety errors can be blamed on portions of the program labeled unchecked; this is a Checked C feature that supports incremental porting and backward compatibility. While our model’s operational semantics uses annotated (“fat”) pointers to enforce spatial safety, we show that such annotations can be safely erased. Using PLT Redex we formalize an executable version of our model and a compilation procedure to an untyped C-like language, as well as use randomized testing to validate that generated code faithfully simulates the original. Finally, we develop a custom random generator for well-typed and almost-well-typed terms in our Redex model, and use it to search for inconsistencies between our model and the Clang Checked C implementation. We find these steps to be a useful way to co-develop a language (Checked C is still in development) and a core model of it.

(R)Unicode: Encoding and Sustainability Issues in Runology

In this article, the basic premises of reading a runic inscription and transferring the data into digital formats are discussed. Particular attention will be on the Runic block in the Unicode standard for digital character encoding, which currently does not suit the needs of the academic runological community. The proposed solution builds upon the existing standard without adding unnecessary additional characters, but with the ability to encode form-variants on top of the base character while retaining backwards compatibility, an approach from which other archaic scripts like Cuneiform or Khitan that suffer of similar encoding issues, could also benefit.

The CV is dead, long live the CV!

Abstract Biology has an increasing need to reconsider the tools used to assess the variability of measurements, in addition to their central tendency. More than 100 years after Pearson's publication, most biologists still use the “good old” Pearson's coefficient of variation, PCV, despite its documented flaws such as sensitivity to excess zero values and/or irrelevant low mean values, which may compromise its use in some biological applications. A new statistic was developed in 2017 by Kvålseth, KCV, which is easy to implement. Unlike PCV, KCV is bounded (between 0 and 1), and it can be computed from PCV, ensuring backward compatibility with past studies. In addition to simulated data, we used the recent MASTREE+ database comprising the time series of the fruiting dynamics of perennial plants worldwide to compare the properties of PCV and KCV. Using as a benchmark the loose hump‐shaped relationship between the interannual variability of fruiting and latitude, KCV led to significant increase in statistical power as it required almost half as many time series as PCV to detect the relationship. Perhaps most importantly, simulated data showed that KCV allows huge reductions in the length of time series required to estimate the population true variability, saving more than half the duration of long‐term monitoring if fruiting fluctuations are very large, which is common in perennial plant species. Compared to the widely used PCV, KCV has great accuracy for estimating and analysing variability in biology, while strongly increasing statistical power. Selecting appropriate tools to assess the variability of measurements is crucial, particularly where the variability is of primary biological interest. Using Kvålseth's KCV is a promising avenue to circumvent the well‐known issues of the former Pearson’ PCV, its properties remain to be explored in other fields of biology, for purposes other than purely statistical ones (e.g. estimating heritability or evolvability of traits).

Distributed and Lightweight Software Assurance in Cellular Broadcasting Handshake and Connection Establishment

With developments in OpenRAN and software-defined radio (SDR), the mobile networking implementations for radio and security control are becoming increasingly software-based. We design and build a lightweight and distributed software assurance scheme, which ensures that a wireless user holds the correct software (version/code) for their wireless networking implementations. Our scheme is distributed (to support the distributed and ad hoc networking that does not utilize the networking-backend infrastructure), lightweight (to support the resource-constrained device operations), modular (to support compatibility with the existing mobile networking protocols), and supports broadcasting (as mobile and wireless networking has broadcasting applications). Our scheme is distinct from the remote code attestation in trusted computing, which requires hardwarebased security and real-time challenge-and-response communications with a centralized trusted server, thus making its deployment prohibitive in the distributed and broadcasting-based mobile networking environments. We design our scheme to be prover-specific and incorporate the Merkle tree for the verification efficiency to make it appropriate for a wireless-broadcasting medium with multiple receivers. In addition to the theoretical design and analysis, we implement our scheme to assure srsRAN (a popular open-source software for cellular technology, including 4G and 5G) and provide a concrete implementation and application instance to highlight our scheme’s modularity, backward compatibility to the existing 4G/5G standardized protocol, and broadcasting support. Our scheme implementation incorporates delivering the proof in the srsRAN-implemented 4G/5G cellular handshake and connection establishment in radio resource control (RRC). We conduct experiments using SDR and various processors to demonstrate the lightweight design and its appropriateness for wireless networking applications. Our results show that the number of hash computations for the proof verification grows logarithmically with the number of software code files being assured and that the verification takes three orders of magnitude less time than the proof generation, while the proof generation overhead itself is negligible compared to the software update period.

Automation of Customer Support System (Chatbot) to Solve Web Based Financial and Payment Application Service

One of the most important features of any online service is the quality of its customer care. However, with the development of NLP tools, businesses are considering automated chatbot solutions to keep up with the increasing demand for their products and services. In view of this, the chatbot was developed using AIML java interpreter library Program AB which helps match input and output predefined in the AIML file. AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) was used to preprocess and train the bot using ready-made AIML file for FAQ questions. Also, vaadin was used to build a web UI to interact with the trained AIML bot. Finally, a google script was written to translate from any language to English for the bot to understand and send the response in the preferred language of the user. Findings showed that the response time of the bot is dependent of the network, as the design gave a score of 70%, 80%, 90% and 90% for load testing, stability, reliability testing and usability testing, respectively. Also, the bot is compatible with different operating systems, both for forward compatibility and backward compatibility having a score of 95%. The bot was able to answer customer questions, enquiries and complaints and the response time of the bot depends on the strength of the network since it is web based. Hence, the system provided a simple, cheaper, and durable customer financial and payment application service. Since chatbots cannot answer all questions, businesses that decide to implement them should ensure that they have enough protections in place against attacks and that routine requests are standardised to ensure optimal performance.

An Opiliones-specific ultraconserved element probe set with a near-complete family-level phylogeny

Sequence capture of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) has transformed molecular systematics across many taxa, with arachnids being no exception. The probe set available for Arachnida has been repeatedly used across multiple arachnid lineages and taxonomic levels, however more specific probe sets for spiders have demonstrated that more UCEs can be recovered with higher probe specificity. In this study, we develop an Opiliones-specific UCE probe set targeting 1915 UCEs using a combination of probes designed from genomes and transcriptomes, as well as the most useful probes from the Arachnida probe set. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this probe set across Opiliones with the most complete family-level phylogeny made to date, including representatives from 61 of 63 currently described families. We also test UCE recovery from historical specimens with degraded DNA, examine population-level data sets, and assess “backwards compatibility” with samples hybridized with the Arachnida probe set. The resulting phylogenies – which include specimens hybridized using both the Opiliones and Arachnida probe sets, historical specimens, and transcriptomes – are largely congruent with previous multi-locus and phylogenomic analyses. The probe set is also “backwards compatible”, increasing the number of loci obtained in samples previously hybridized with the Arachnida probe set, and shows high utility down to shallow population-level divergences. This probe set has the potential to further transform Opiliones molecular systematics, resolving many long-standing taxonomic issues plaguing this lineage.

Hybrid Smart Home using traditional & IOT Controls

Abstract: Now-a-days, IOT implementation has been a trend-worldwide. The ease of operation, power savings, and the analytical data that we gather from those devices has been a big boon for the industry. However, hassle-free adoption of newer systems, has always been an issue in terms of monetary costs as well as in regards to the familiarity with the original design. While there have been many studies which have focused on the aspects of costs, seldom they are with the objective of facilitating ease of transition from one familiar class of generation of products to the next. Our prototype product taps into this very aspect of familiarity. It is based on a microcontroller-based relay system, comprising of Node MCU - ESP-8266 microcontroller, relay module and household piano buttons. It facilitates ease of operation, while maintaining backwards compatibility. Our prototype is a blend of two systems, with traditional system working in conjunction with the new IOT based systems, making a hassle-free user experience, while at the same time increasing the safety and durability of the switches.

Darwinian Model Upgrades: Model Evolving with Selective Compatibility

The traditional model upgrading paradigm for retrieval requires recomputing all gallery embeddings before deploying the new model (dubbed as "backfilling"), which is quite expensive and time-consuming considering billions of instances in industrial applications. BCT presents the first step towards backward-compatible model upgrades to get rid of backfilling. It is workable but leaves the new model in a dilemma between new feature discriminativeness and new-to-old compatibility due to the undifferentiated compatibility constraints. In this work, we propose Darwinian Model Upgrades (DMU), which disentangle the inheritance and variation in the model evolving with selective backward compatibility and forward adaptation, respectively. The old-to-new heritable knowledge is measured by old feature discriminativeness, and the gallery features, especially those of poor quality, are evolved in a lightweight manner to become more adaptive in the new latent space. We demonstrate the superiority of DMU through comprehensive experiments on large-scale landmark retrieval and face recognition benchmarks. DMU effectively alleviates the new-to-new degradation at the same time improving new-to-old compatibility, rendering a more proper model upgrading paradigm in large-scale retrieval systems.Code: https://github.com/TencentARC/OpenCompatible.

Rust vs C++, a Battle of Speed and Efficiency

This study compares the performance of two excellent options for system-level development, the programming languages C++ and Rust. Through a series of tests and experiments using socket servers and various algorithms, this experiment analyses the speed and efficiency of code written in each language by looking at variables like memory management, and compilation times. The findings reveal that Rust has a number of advantages over C++, including quicker compilation times, improved memory safety, and in many situations equivalent or better performance. C++ still performs exceptionally well in several fields, nevertheless, such as low-level hardware programming and backward compatibility. Overall, the results indicate that Rust is a strong candidate for systems programming jobs, especially for new projects or those requiring a high level of performance and security

Inter-Tower Communications Network Signal Structure, and Interference Analysis for Terrestrial Broadcasting and Datacasting

This paper presents the Inter-Tower Communications Network (ITCN) signal structure using different combinations of multiplexing schemes, namely time-division multiplexing (TDM)/frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) and layer-division multiplexing (LDM). Data capacity is analyzed for mobile and fixed broadcasting services, as well as datacasting, inter-tower communication data, and SFN In-band Distribution Links (IDL). Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is investigated for ITCN and IDL to increase the data throughput and to improve spectrum efficiency. The proposed technology can be Digital television (DTV) standard agnostic. It can be implemented on all existing DTV standards while keeping backward compatibility with legacy broadcast services and legacy TV receivers. A hybrid broadcast SFN overlay with ITCN/IDL data network using LDM might be the best solution considering backward compatibility, data capacity, and co-channel interference.

Implementation of Wireless Backhaul and Inter-Tower Communications With MIMO in ATSC 3.0

Wireless backhaul, i.e., in-band distribution links (IDL) and inter-tower communications networks (ITCN) were previously proposed as key enabling technologies for the next-generation digital broadcasting systems, e.g., the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 system. Both ITCN/IDL can be operated in the spectrum-efficient in-band full-duplex (IBFD) mode and the same frequency band is shared between the broadcast service signal and the ITCN/IDL signals. It is desirable to integrate multi-input multi-output (MIMO) into ITCN/IDL transmission to increase the throughput and reduce the portion of spectrum occupation by ITCN/IDL. However, due to the backward compatibility constraint, conventional symmetrical MIMO techniques cannot be applied directly to the existing broadcast infrastructure without affecting legacy receivers. In this paper, the practical implementation of a non-symmetrical MIMO for ITCN/IDL while maintaining backward compatibility is considered. In addition to the existing broadcasting antenna, the non-symmetrical MIMO comprises an additional low-power RF feeder cable and one or more highly directional antennas to achieve low-cost MIMO implementation for high throughput data distribution and inter-tower communications. When the broadcast service signal and the MIMO signal are multiplexed in Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) format, the signal structure is ATSC 3.0 standard compliant. When the broadcast service signal and the MIMO signal are multiplexed in Layer Division Multiplexing (LDM) format, modification of the ATSC 3.0 standard, i.e., introducing a new pilot encoding scheme, is required. Moreover, MIMO self-interference cancellation (SIC) is investigated for IBFD operation.

Construction Method of Digital Twin System for Thin-Walled Workpiece Machining Error Control Based on Analysis of Machine Tool Dynamic Characteristics

In the intelligent optimization process of aerospace thin-walled parts, there are issues such as solidification of core knowledge base, high system coupling degree, and real-time evaluation and optimization feedback required for the knowledge base. These problems make it difficult to expand the functions of the digital twin system and meet the growing processing needs, ultimately hindering the application of digital twin technology. To address these issues, a digital twin system for controlling processing errors in thin-walled parts was built using a microservices architecture. In addition, a method for building a digital twin system at the processing unit level with the best coupling degree was proposed, mainly targeting the dynamic characteristics analysis knowledge base of thin-walled parts. Furthermore, to meet the requirements for backward compatibility of the processing unit level digital twin system, a comprehensive solution including the construction, operation, evaluation, optimization, and visualization of a knowledge base for the dynamic characteristics of the processing unit was proposed, providing guidance for the digital transformation and upgrading of CNC machine tools and the optimization of processing technology based on digital twin technology.

The Heat Index as a Measure of Future Heat Stress with Climate Change

The wet-bulb temperature and wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) have been widely used to forecast the physiological consequences of extreme heat associated with climate change. Unfortunately, those metrics are not based in any physiological model of thermoregulation, which means their values do not map one-to-one onto physiological states. In contrast, the widely used heat index is based on a model of human thermoregulation: each value of the heat index maps onto a unique state of the human body. This mapping is obscured in practical applications of the heat index, which use the National Weather Service's empirical fit to values tabulated in Robert Steadman's seminal 1979 paper. In addition, that empirical fit is used, without scientific justification, to extrapolate the heat index to high heat and humidity, where Steadman's paper gave no values because of an apparent failure in the underlying physiological model. In recent work, Steadman's model has been extended, allowing the heat index to be calculated for extreme heat and humidity while retaining full backward compatibility. This reveals that the extrapolation used by the National Weather Service underestimates the heat index during severe US heat waves by as much as 10 degrees Celsius. For example, the peak heat index at Chicago's Midway International Airport was underreported by 9 degrees Celsius during the July 1995 heat wave, which killed hundreds of people. This correction has important implications for physiology: these corrected values reveal that even walking in the shade would have brought a healthy person close to the point of hyperthermia. This highlights how close global warming is to making the most severe US heat waves a fatality risk for even young and healthy adults. Department of Energy's Atmospheric System Research Program This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Backward Compatible Identity-Based Encryption.

In this paper, we present a new identity-based encryption (IBE) system that is named Backward Compatible Identity-based Encryption (BC-IBE). Our BC-IBE is proposed to solve the problem caused by the out-of-synchronization between users' private keys and ciphertexts. Encryption systems such as revocable IBE or revocable Attribute-based Encryption (ABE) often require updating private keys to revoke users after a certain time period. However, in those schemes, an updated key can be used to decrypt the ciphertexts created only during the current time period. Once the key is updated and the previous keys are removed, the user, the owner of the updated key, will lose access to the past ciphertexts. In our paper, we propose BC-IBE that supports backward compatibility, to solve this problem. In our proposed system, user's private keys and ciphertexts can be updated periodically with time tags, and these processes can be used to revoke users who do not receive an updated key as the other revocable encryption does. However, in our proposed system, a private key newly issued to a user is backward compatible. This means that it decrypts not only the ciphertexts at the present time period but also all past ciphertexts. This implies that our proposed scheme guarantees the decryption of all encrypted data even if they are not synchronized. Compared to the existing revocable identity-based encryption system, our proposed BC-IBE has the advantage of simplifying key management and securely delegating ciphertext updates. Our proposed scheme only requires a single backward-compatible private key to decrypt all past ciphertexts created. Moreover, the ciphertext update process in our proposed scheme does not require any special privileges and does not require decryption. This means that this process can be securely delegated to a third-party server, such as a cloud server, and it prevents the potential leakage of secrets. For those reasons, BC-IBE is suitable for a system where users are more dynamic, such as the Internet-of-Things (IoT) network, or a system that regularly updates the data, like cloud data storage. In this paper, we provide the construction of BC-IBE and prove its formal security.

Validation of an indirect nonthermal plasma sterilization process for disposable medical devices packed in blisters and cartons

AbstractNowadays, the majority of the processes used to sterilize disposable medical devices have several drawbacks in terms of safety, energy consumption, and costs. In this work, a sterilization method based on an indirect nonthermal plasma treatment is presented. The main advantages of this method are low environmental impact, absence of harmful chemical compounds' storage, and backward compatibility relative to production, sterilization, and shipping chain. The sterilization of disposable devices, enclosed inside their protective packaging, is achieved by exploiting reactive species produced by a Dielectric Barrier Discharge plasma reactor. Various devices have been subjected to a 2‐h treatment, achieving complete sterilization based on USP and EU‐PHARMA protocols. Pretreatment of carton packaging has been necessary to guarantee a complete sterilization process.

Fat Pointers for Temporal Memory Safety of C

Temporal memory safety bugs, especially use-after-free and double free bugs, pose a major security threat to C programs. Real-world exploits utilizing these bugs enable attackers to read and write arbitrary memory locations, causing disastrous violations of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Many previous solutions retrofit temporal memory safety to C, but they all either incur high performance overhead and/or miss detecting certain types of temporal memory safety bugs. In this paper, we propose a temporal memory safety solution that is both efficient and comprehensive. Specifically, we extend Checked C, a spatially-safe extension to C, with temporally-safe pointers. These are implemented by combining two techniques: fat pointers and dynamic key-lock checks. We show that the fat-pointer solution significantly improves running time and memory overhead compared to the disjoint-metadata approach that provides the same level of protection. With empirical program data and hands-on experience porting real-world applications, we also show that our solution is practical in terms of backward compatibility---one of the major complaints about fat pointers.