The indolent lambdification of Java

As Java 8 introduced functional interfaces and lambda expressions to the Java programming language, the JDK API was changed to introduce support for lambda expressions, thus allowing consumers to define lambda functions when using Java’s collections. While the JDK API allows for a functional paradigm, for API consumers to be able to completely embrace Java’s new functional features, third-party APIs must also support lambda expressions. To understand the current state of the Java ecosystem, we investigate (i) the extent to which third-party Java APIs have changed their interfaces, (ii) why or why not they introduce functional interface support and (iii) in the case the API has changed its interface how it does so. We also investigate the consumers’ perspective, particularly their ease in using lambda expressions in Java with APIs. We perform our investigation by manually analyzing the top 50 popular Java APIs, conducting in-person and email interviews with 23 API producers, and surveying 110 developers. We find that only a minority of the top 50 APIs support functional interfaces, the rest does not support them, predominantly in the interest of backward compatibility. Java 7 support is still greatly desirable due to enterprise projects not migrating to newer versions of Java. This suggests that the Java ecosystem is stagnant and that the introduction of new language features will not be enough to save it from the advent of new languages such as Kotlin (JVM based) and Rust (non-JVM based).

Exploring STR sequencing for forensic DNA intelligence databasing using the Austrian National DNA Database as an example

Here, we present the results from a population study that evaluated the performance of massively parallel sequencing (MPS) of short tandem repeats (STRs) with a particular focus on DNA intelligence databasing purposes. To meet this objective, 247 randomly selected reference samples, earlier being processed with conventional capillary electrophoretic (CE) STR sizing from the Austrian National DNA Database, were reanalyzed with the PowerSeq 46Y kit (Promega). This sample set provides MPS-based population data valid for the Austrian population to increase the body of sequence-based STR variation. The study addressed forensically relevant parameters, such as concordance and backward compatibility to extant amplicon-based genotypes, sequence-based stutter ratios, and relative marker performance. Of the 22 autosomal STR loci included in the PowerSeq 46GY panel, 99.98% of the allele calls were concordant between MPS and CE. Moreover, 25 new sequence variants from 15 markers were found in the Austrian dataset that are yet undescribed in the STRSeq online catalogue and were submitted for inclusion. Despite the high degree of concordance between MPS and CE derived genotypes, our results demonstrate the need for a harmonized allele nomenclature system that is equally applicable to both technologies, but at the same time can take advantage of the increased information content of MPS. This appears to be particularly important with regard to database applications in order to prevent false exclusions due to varying allele naming based on different analysis platforms and ensures backward compatibility.

A Review on Coexistence Issues of Broadband Millimeter-Wave Communications

<div>With higher frequencies and broader spectrum than conventional frequency bands, the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band is suitable for next-generation wireless networks featuring short-distance high-rate communications. As a newcomer, mmWaves are expected to have the backward compatibility with existing services and collaborate with other technologies in order to enhance system performances. Therefore, the coexistence issues become an essential topic for next-generation wireless communications. In this paper, we systematically review the coexistence issues of broadband mmWave communications and their corresponding solutions proposed in the literature, helping shed light on the insights of the mmWave design. Particularly, the works surveyed in this paper can be classified into four categories: coexistence with microwave communications, coexistence with fixed services, coexistence with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and other coexistence issues. Results of numerical evaluations inspired by the literature are presented for a deeper analysis. We also point out some challenges and future directions for each category as a roadmap to further investigate the coexistence issues of broadband mmWave communications.</div>

A Review on Coexistence Issues of Broadband Millimeter-Wave Communications

<div>With higher frequencies and broader spectrum than conventional frequency bands, the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band is suitable for next-generation wireless networks featuring short-distance high-rate communications. As a newcomer, mmWaves are expected to have the backward compatibility with existing services and collaborate with other technologies in order to enhance system performances. Therefore, the coexistence issues become an essential topic for next-generation wireless communications. In this paper, we systematically review the coexistence issues of broadband mmWave communications and their corresponding solutions proposed in the literature, helping shed light on the insights of the mmWave design. Particularly, the works surveyed in this paper can be classified into four categories: coexistence with microwave communications, coexistence with fixed services, coexistence with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and other coexistence issues. Results of numerical evaluations inspired by the literature are presented for a deeper analysis. We also point out some challenges and future directions for each category as a roadmap to further investigate the coexistence issues of broadband mmWave communications.</div>

Performance of Core Genome Multilocus Sequence Typing Compared to Capillary-Electrophoresis PCR Ribotyping and SNP Analysis of Clostridioides difficile

Clostridioides difficile is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated gastrointestinal infections. Capillary-electrophoresis (CE)-PCR ribotyping is currently the gold standard for C. difficile typing but lacks discriminatory power to study transmission and outbreaks in detail. New molecular methods have the capacity to differentiate better, but backward compatibility with CE-PCR ribotyping must be assessed. Using a well-characterized collection of diverse strains (N=630; 100 unique ribotypes [RTs]), we aimed to investigate PCR ribotyping prediction from core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST). Additionally, we compared the discriminatory power of cgMLST (SeqSphere & EnteroBase) and whole genome MLST (wgMLST) (EnteroBase) with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis). A unique cgMLST profile (>6 allele differences) was observed in 82/100 ribotypes, indicating sufficient backward compatibility. Intra-RT allele difference varied per ribotype and MLST clade. Application of cg/wgMLST and SNP analysis in two outbreak settings with ribotypes RT078 and RT181 (known with a low intra-ribotype allele difference) showed no distinction between outbreak- and non-outbreak strains, in contrast to wgMLST and SNP analysis. We conclude that cgMLST has the potential to be an alternative to CE-PCR ribotyping. The method is reproducible, easy to standardize and offers higher discrimination. However, in some ribotype complexes adjusted cut-off thresholds and epidemiological data are necessary to recognize outbreaks. We propose to decrease the current threshold of 6 to 3 alleles to better identify outbreaks.

AES-LBBB: AES Mode for Lightweight and BBB-Secure Authenticated Encryption

In this paper, a new lightweight authenticated encryption scheme AESLBBB is proposed, which was designed to provide backward compatibility with advanced encryption standard (AES) as well as high security and low memory. The primary design goal, backward compatibility, is motivated by the fact that AES accelerators are now very common for devices in the field; we are interested in designing an efficient and highly secure mode of operation that exploits the best of those AES accelerators. The backward compatibility receives little attention in the NIST lightweight cryptography standardization process, in which only 3 out of 32 round-2 candidates are based on AES. Our mode, LBBB, is inspired by the design of ALE in the sense that the internal state size is a minimum 2n bits when using a block cipher of length n bits for the key and data. Unfortunately, there is no security proof of ALE, and forgery attacks have been found on ALE. In LBBB, we introduce an additional feed from block cipher’s output to the key state via a certain permutation λ, which enables us to prove beyond-birthday-bound (BBB) security. We then specify its AES instance, AES-LBBB, and evaluate its performance for (i) software implementation on a microcontroller with an AES coprocessor and (ii) hardware implementation for an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to show that AES-LBBB performs better than the current state-of-the-art Remus-N2 with AES-128.

EVALUASI PENERAPAN TEKNOLOGI DIGITAL SUBSTATION DI INDONESIA

Perkembangan pemanfaatan teknologi informasi dalam sektor ketenagalistrikan mendorong perkembangan teknologi gardu induk konvensional ke arah Digital substation. Sebagai pertimbangan sebelum diimplementasikan di PT PLN (Persero), maka dilakukan kajian literatur terkait standar, protokol komunikasi, network redundancy, time synchronization, serta kelebihan dan isu pada teknologi tersebut seperti yang disajikan pada makalah ini; selain itu, diskusi dengan pabrikan Digital substation yang ada di Indonesia juga dilakukan untuk memperkaya studi literatur yang dilakukan. Teknologi Digital substation mengacu pada standar IEC 61850, dapat dilengkapi dengan network redundancy berupa parallel redudancy protocol (PRP) atau high-availability seamless redudancy (HSR), serta precission time protocol (PTP) untuk kebutuhan sinkronisasi waktunya. Digital substation memiliki banyak kelebihan diantaranya yaitu kebutuhan copper wire yang rendah, transportasi dan space yang lebih sedikit, instalasi peralatan sekunder lebih singkat, penghematan biaya (instalasi, operasi, dan pemeliharaan), pemadaman lebih singkat, peningkatan keamanan dan utilisasi aset. Sedangkan isu yang ada pada Digital substation diantaranya maturity, interoperability, reliability, time synchronisation, network configuration dan bandwith management, cyber security, mixed mode, backward compatibility, suhu dan kelembaban. Selain itu, masih terdapat permasalahan pada substation automation system (SAS) yang sudah terpasang dalam rangka menuju teknologi Digital substation, namun belum tertangani dengan baik. Maturity level dari teknologi Digital substation menjadi bahan pertimbangan dalam penerapan teknologi tersebut di sistem ketenagalistrikan.

A Complete Key Management Scheme for LoRaWAN v1.1

Security is one of the major concerns of the Internet of Things (IoT) wireless technologies. LoRaWAN is one of the emerging Low Power Wide Area Networks being developed for IoT applications. The latest LoRaWAN release v.1.1 has provided a security framework that includes data confidentiality protection, data integrity check, device authentication and key management. However, its key management part is only ambiguously defined. In this paper, a complete key management scheme is proposed for LoRaWAN. The scheme addresses key updating, key generation, key backup, and key backward compatibility. The proposed scheme was shown not only to enhance the current LoRaWAN standard, but also to meet the primary design consideration of LoRaWAN, i.e., low power consumption.

ARTYCUL: A Privacy-Preserving ML-Driven Framework to Determine the Popularity of a Cultural Exhibit on Display

We present ARTYCUL (ARTifact popularitY for CULtural heritage), a machine learning(ML)-based framework that graphically represents the footfall around an artifact on display at a museum or a heritage site. The driving factor of this framework was the fact that the presence of security cameras has become universal, including at sites of cultural heritage. ARTYCUL used the video streams of closed-circuit televisions (CCTV) cameras installed in such premises to detect human figures, and their coordinates with respect to the camera frames were used to visualize the density of visitors around the specific display items. Such a framework that can display the popularity of artifacts would aid the curators towards a more optimal organization. Moreover, it could also help to gauge if a certain display item were neglected due to incorrect placement. While items of similar interest can be placed in vicinity of each other, an online recommendation system may also use the reputation of an artifact to catch the eye of the visitors. Artificial intelligence-based solutions are well suited for analysis of internet of things (IoT) traffic due to the inherent veracity and volatile nature of the transmissions. The work done for the development of ARTYCUL provided a deeper insight into the avenues for applications of IoT technology to the cultural heritage domain, and suitability of ML to process real-time data at a fast pace. While we also observed common issues that hinder the utilization of IoT in the cultural domain, the proposed framework was designed keeping in mind the same obstacles and a preference for backward compatibility.

Sentiment analysis of user feedback on the HSE’s Covid-19 contact tracing app

Background Digital Contact Tracing is seen as a key tool in reducing the propagation of Covid-19. But it requires high uptake and continued participation across the population to be effective. To achieve sufficient uptake/participation, health authorities should address, and thus be aware of, user concerns. Aim This work manually analyzes user reviews of the Irish Heath Service Executive’s (HSE) Contact Tracker app, to identify user concerns and to lay the foundations for subsequent, large-scale, automated analyses of reviews. While this might seem tightly scoped to the Irish context, the HSE app provides the basis for apps in many jurisdictions in the USA and Europe. Methods Manual analysis of (1287) user reviews from the Google/Apple playstores was performed, to identify the aspects of the app that users focused on, and the positive/negative sentiment expressed. Results The findings suggest a largely positive sentiment towards the app, and that users thought it handled data protection and transparency aspects well. But feedback suggests that users would appreciate more targeted feedback on the incidence of the virus, and facilities for more proactive engagement, like notifications that prompt users to submit their health status daily. Finally, the analysis suggests that the “android battery” issue and the backward-compatibility issue with iPhones seriously impacted retention/uptake of the app respectively. Conclusion The HSE have responded to the public’s desire for targeted feedback in newer versions, but should consider increasing the app’s proactive engagement. The results suggest they should also raise the backward compatibility issue, regarding older iPhones, with Apple.