Dynamic searchable symmetric encryption (DSSE) has been widely recognized as a promising technique to delegate update and search queries over an outsourced database to an untrusted server while guaranteeing the privacy of data. Many efforts on DSSE have been devoted to obtaining a good tradeoff between security and performance. However, it appears that all existing DSSE works miss studying on what will happen if the DSSE client issues irrational update queries carelessly, such as duplicate update queries and delete queries to remove non-existent entries (that have been considered by many popular database system in the setting of plaintext). In this scenario, we find that (1) most prior works lose their claimed correctness or security, and (2) no single approach can achieve correctness, forward and backward security, and practical performance at the same time. To address this problem, we study for the first time the notion of robustness of DSSE. Generally, we say that a DSSE scheme is robust if it can keep the same correctness and security even in the case of misoperations. Then, we introduce a new cryptographic primitive named key-updatable pseudo-random function and apply this primitive to constructing ROSE, a robust DSSE scheme with forward and backward security. Finally, we demonstrate the efficiency of ROSE and give the experimental comparisons.

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Many practical secure systems have been designed to prevent real-world attacks via maximizing the attacking cost so as to reduce attack intentions. Inspired by this philosophy, we propose a new concept named delay encryption with keyword search (DEKS) to resist the notorious keyword guessing attack (KGA), in the context of secure cloud-based searchable services. Avoiding the use of complex (and unreasonable) assumptions, as compared to existing works, DEKS optionally leverages a catalyst that enables one (e.g., a valid data user) to easily execute encryption; without the catalyst, any unauthenticated system insiders and outsiders take severe time consumption on encryption. By this, DEKS can overwhelm a KGA attacker in the encryption stage before it obtains any advantage. We leverage the repeated squaring function, which is the core building block of our design, to construct the first DEKS instance. The experimental results show that DEKS is practical in thwarting KGA for both small and large-scale datasets. For example, in the Wikipedia, a KGA attacker averagely takes 7.23 years to break DEKS when the delay parameter T= 2 ²⁴. The parameter T can be flexibly adjusted based on practical needs, and theoretically, its upper bound is infinite.

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Mo is widely used as an effective microalloying element to improve mechanical performance of interphase precipitation steels, but the precise role of Mo in interphase precipitation behavior is not fully understood. In this contribution, interphase precipitation behavior in a series of Ti-Mo-bearing low carbon steels is systematically studied, and the role of Mo in interphase precipitates and its coarsening behavior is revisited. It is found that (Ti, Mo)C precipitates instead of TiC are formed in the Mo-containing alloys, and the average site fraction of Mo in (Ti, Mo)C is almost independent of the bulk Mo content. Moreover, the number density of interphase precipitates can be substantially enhanced by a minor addition of Mo, albeit it does not further rise with increasing the bulk Mo content. This is because the Mo fraction in (Ti, Mo)C rather than the bulk Mo content governs the driving force for precipitation nucleation and the interfacial energy of the (Ti, Mo)C/α and (Ti, Mo)C/γ interfaces. In addition to the reduced interfacial energy, decrease of Ti trans-interface diffusivity has been identified as another key reason for the enhanced carbide coarsening resistance in Mo-containing alloys.

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The research of comfort in urban public spaces has become increasingly important for improving environmental quality and encouraging people spend more time in outdoor activities. Among numerous approaches to understand comfort perception, the rational indices based on heat balance theory have prevailed to guide the research and practice in urban planning, design, and management. The limitations of a solely rational index-based approach reveal the necessity for a more comprehensive understanding of comfort by considering a wider range of influential factors from both individual and environmental perspectives during the assessing process. This study conceptualizes individuals’ comfort in urban public spaces as a latent construct, which is measured by indicators regarding perceptions on multifarious meteorological variables. The conceptual framework has been introduced involving hypothetical relationships among individuals’ comfort, attitudes, and environmental perceptions in urban public spaces. A series of field work including microclimate measurements and questionnaire-based surveys were carried out in two public squares in Changsha, China. Based on the dataset derived from 372 questionnaires and related meteorological measurements, this paper examines the relationships between the physical microclimatic variables, individuals’ socio-demographical characteristics and environmental attitudes and perceptions, and outdoor comfort assessment. The estimation results of the structural equation model quantitatively verified the conceptual framework at large, as many hypothetical relationships are identified, which indicates the importance of individuals’ role and the psychological factors in modeling comfort perception. This approach improves the understanding of comfort assessment, contributes to improving the quality of urban environment and the practices of urban planning and management.@en

Alkali activated materials (AAMs) have received worldwide attention due to its lower embodied energy and environmental impact than that of traditional cementitious materials. However, the activators with high alkalinity may raise the risk of alkali silica reaction (ASR) induced deterioration when reactive aggregates are used, which thereby limits the commercial use of AAMs. Not speaking the ASR induced long-term expansion, the early-age reaction of AAMs prepared with reactive aggregates is largely unknown. In this paper, isothermal calorimetry, thermogravimetry (TG) and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) were adopted to study the heat evolution, mineralogical changes and pore structures of early-age ordinary Portland cement (OPC) mortar and water-glass activated slag/fly ash mortars. In each system, emphasis were made to understand the differences between mixtures prepared with standard inert quartz sands and reactive fine aggregates. The results show that the mortars prepared with reactive aggregates generated more heat in the wetting and dissolution stage. Particularly, the water-glass activated slag mortar presented the highest heat flow peak. Meanwhile, the results of TG illustrate that higher amount of reaction products were formed in water-glass activated mortars prepared with reactive aggregates than that with inert quartz sands. These findings suggest that the reactive aggregates are evidently involved in the early-age alkaline reaction of AAMs system.@en

Existing approaches to defending Use-After-Free (UAF) exploits are usually done using static or dynamic analysis. However, both static and dynamic analysis suffer from intrinsic deficiencies. The existing static analysis is limited in handling loops, optimization of memory representation. The existing dynamic analysis, which is characterized by lacking the maintenance of pointer information, may lead to flaws that the relationships between pointers and memory cannot be precisely identified. In this work, we propose a new method called UAF-GUARD without the above barriers, in the aim to defending against UAF exploits using fine-grained memory permission management. In particular, we design a key data structure to support the fine-grained memory permission management, which can maintain more information to capture the relationship between pointers and memory. Moreover, we design code instrumentation to enable UAF-GUARD to precisely locate the position of UAF vulnerabilities to further terminate malicious programs when anomalies are detected. We implement UAF-GUARD on a 64-bit Linux system. We carry out experiments to compare UAF-GUARD with the main existing approaches. The experimental results demonstrate that UAF-GUARD is able to effectively and efficiently defend against three types of UAF exploits with acceptable space overhead and time overhead.

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Sludge morphology considerably affects the mechanism underlying microbial anaerobic degradation of phenol. Here, we assessed the phenol degradation rate, specific methanogenic activity, electron transport activity, coenzyme F420 concentration, and microbial community structure of five phenol-degrading sludge of varying particle sizes (i.e., < 20, 20–50, 50–100, 100–200, and > 200 μm). The results indicated an increase in phenol degradation rate and microbial community structure that distinctly correlated with an increase in sludge particle size. Although the sludge with the smallest particle size (< 20 μm) showed the lowest phenol degradation rate (9.3 mg COD·gVSS−1 day−1), its methanogenic activity with propionic acid, butyric acid, and H2/CO2 as substrates was the best, and the concentration of coenzyme F420 was the highest. The small particle size sludge did not contain abundant syntrophic bacteria or hydrogenotrophic methanogens, but contained abundant acetoclastic methanogens. Moreover, the floc sizes of the different sludge varied in important phenol-degrading bacteria and archaea, which may dominate the synergistic mechanism. This study provides a new perspective on the role of sludge floc size on the anaerobic digestion of phenol.@en

Membrane fouling is still the main obstacle that hinders the development and implementation of anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR). In conventional upflow anaerobic reactors, sludge at different height usually presents certain differences in characteristics in terms of particle size, etc. The immersion depth of membrane modules in anaerobic reactors can also influence the fouling of membrane. Thus, it is of great interest to investigate the fouling mechanism with the membrane installed at different heights in reactors. The filtration performance and sludge properties were investigated at different heights of AnMBR. The fouling of membrane in the middle position was severer than that in the top and bottom positions. The total resistance of membrane in the top, middle, and bottom positions was 27.31 × 1011 m−1, 34.67 × 1011 m−1, and 25.29 × 1011 m−1, respectively. By comparing the characteristics and structure of bulk sludge and cake layer at three heights, the bulk sludge in the middle position presented higher content of soluble microbial products (SMP) and finer flocs, and the cake layer was also denser. The results obtained in this study indicated that small size of sludge flocs as well as adhesion of SMP might be the major factors governing membrane fouling at different height in the AnMBR.@en

The behaviour of square steel tube confined reinforced concrete columns after fire exposure was studied experimentally and numerically in this paper. Eighteen stub columns were first heated following the ISO 834 standard fire including both heating and cooling phases, and were subsequently loaded to failure after cooling to ambient temperature. Failure modes, temperatures in specimens, axial load versus deformation curves and strains in steel tube were monitored and discussed. A finite element model was developed using the sequentially coupled thermal-stress analysis method and was validated against tests found in literatures and this study. Parametric study was performed to identify influences of key parameters, where are heating time, cross-sectional dimension, strengths of materials, steel tube to concrete area ratio and reinforcement ratio, on residual capacity and compressive stiffness. Finally, a simplified method is proposed for predicting residual cross-sectional capacity and compressive stiffness of square steel tube confined reinforced concrete columns after fire exposure.@en

This study aimed to find an optimal measurement protocol of elbow and forearm kinematics using different modelling and tracking methods. Kinematic data of elbow flexion/extension and forearm pronation/supination was acquired using optical motion capture from 12 healthy male volunteers. Segment coordinate systems for humerus, forearm, radius, ulna, and hand were defined. Different tracking methods, using anatomical markers or rigid or point maker clusters, were used to compute the three-dimensional rotations. Marker placement errors were assessed to evaluate the rigid body assumption. Multiple comparisons demonstrated statistical differences between tracking methods: compared to using only anatomical markers, tracking using clusters reduced the estimated range of pronation/supination by 14.9%–43.2%, while it estimated increased flexion/extension by 5.3%–9.1%. The study suggests using only anatomical markers exerts the optimal estimation of elbow and forearm kinematics. Modelling using the coordinate systems of the humerus and forearm and of the humerus and ulna, respectively, demonstrated good consistency with literature and are correspondingly regarded as the most appropriate approach for measuring pronation/supination and flexion/extension. The results are valuable in establishing a measurement protocol for analysing elbow and forearm kinematics, avoiding confusions and misinterpretations in communicating results from different methodologies.

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The interaction between moving α/γ interfaces and interphase precipitated (IPd) carbides during the austenite (γ) to ferrite (α) and the ferrite (α) to austenite (γ) transformation has been systematically investigated through cyclic phase transformation experiments for a 0.1C-1.5Mn alloy containing 0.1 wt% Niobium (Nb) and its Nb-free counterpart. Shifts in the critical reaction temperatures during continuous heating and cooling are observed, which are attributed to the pinning force (PF) originating from the IPd carbides present. By applying the Gibbs energy balance (GEB) model to analyze experimental results, the PF was derived to be about 15 J/mol for the α→γ transformation and about 5 J/mol for the γ→α transformation, respectively, both of which are quite small compared to chemical driving force of phase transformations. Moreover, various modified Zener pinning equations have also been used to predict the PF, and it was found that these values are comparable with those obtained from experiments, which suggests that the classical Zener theory still has promising potential for carbide-interface interaction analysis.

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The data and services analysis are indispensable for the refined development of SDI. This paper, taking Chinese NSDI as a study case, analyzed the data and services advantages and shortcomings of Chinese NSDI and developed a recommendable data and services framework which could improve the Chinese NSDI better services for public and private sectors from known, attainable and usable aspects by using Backx model. And the recommendation framework can also be referenced by other national and local SDI for its better services and applications.@en

Anammox process is considered as a promising technology for removing total nitrogen from low-strength ammonium and phenol-containing wastewater. However, it is still a challenge for the anammox process to treat high-strength ammonium and phenol-containing wastewater. A completely separated partial nitritation and anammox (CSPN/A) process was developed to remove total nitrogen from high-strength phenol-containing wastewater. About 92% of COD, 100% of phenol, and 82.4% of total nitrogen were successfully removed at a NH₄ ⁺-N concentration of 200 mg L⁻¹ with a phenol/NH₄ ⁺-N mass ratio of 0.5 in the CSPN/A process. Furthermore, a shock loading of 300 mg phenol L⁻¹ with a phenol/NH₄ ⁺-N mass ratio of 1.5 led to a complete failure of partial nitritation, but the performance was rapidly recovered by the increase of NH₄ ⁺-N concentration. Although the activities of ammonium-oxidizing bacteria and anammox bacteria were severely inhibited at a phenol/NH₄ ⁺-N mass ratio of 1.5, the enrichment of efficient phenol degraders in the CSPN stage could strengthen the performance robustness of partial nitritation and anammox process. Therefore, this study presented a new insight on the feasibility of the anammox process for treating high-strength ammonium and phenol-containing wastewater.

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For traffic flow models, calibration and validation are essential. Cellular automaton (CA) models are a special class of models, describing the movement of vehicles in discretised space and time. However, the previous work on calibration and validation does not discuss CA models systematically. This study calibrates and validates a stochastic CA model. The authors use a simple CA model, which only has two important parameters to be calibrated. The methodology for optimisation is to minimise the relative root mean square error between two properties: The averaged velocity and the variation of velocities in a platoon at a given density. Three different sites are used as cases to show the methodology, for which different types of data (video trajectories or GPS data) are available. The authors find that the best model parameters vary for the different locations. This may result from various driving strategies and potential tendencies. Thus, it is concluded that for CA models, various traffic flow phenomena need to be simulated by various parameters.@en

Methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) as a solvent is extensively used for the phenols extraction from the wastewater, so it is unavoidable to expose in the effluent due to the solubility and leakage problem. The present study evaluated the impact of MIBK on phenols degradation in an UASB reactor and analyzed its degradation properties. The results indicated that the continuous dosing (0.1 g L−1) and impact (10 g L−1) of MIBK had limited effect on phenols removal (1–2% reduction) in the UASB reactor, but the specific methanogenic activity (SMA) values of sludge decreased by 45–75% after MIBK exposure. Anaerobic degradation rate of MIBK fitted well to a pseudo-first-order kinetic equation with respect to the initial concentration of 35 mg L−1 (k = 0.0115 h−1, R2 = 0.9664). Furthermore, the relative methane generation rate constants of MIBK were 0.00816, 0.00613, 0.00273, and 0.00207 d−1 at the initial concentrations of 0.1, 0.5, 5, and 10 g L−1, respectively. MIBK showed higher inhibitory effect on the methanogenesis than on phenols degradation. This study pointed out that the industrial installations should consider the influence of solvent on anaerobic treatment of phenolic wastewater.@en

As a member of the aluminium composite, GLARE (GLAss fibre/epoxy REinforced aluminium laminates) was used in the upper fuselage of Airbus A380 because of its superior mechanical properties over monolithic aluminium alloys. Thermal processing is a potential method for materials recycling and reuse from GLARE scrap with the aim of environmental protection and economic benefits. Thermal delamination is a crucial pre-treatment step for GLARE recycling. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) tests have been used to identify the decomposition temperature range of epoxy resins under non-isothermal condition in our previous work [1]. To obtain an appropriate solution for GLARE thermal delamination, the thermal degradation behaviour of epoxy resins in GLARE under isothermal conditions were investigated and isothermal decomposition kinetic models were built up based on DSC and thermogravimetric analysis TGA. The thermal delamination process of GLARE is determined based on thermal analysis results and experimental optimization.@en

One of the most important tasks of aircraft vulnerability assessment is to rank vulnerable components so that proper actionscan beappliedtotheweaker componentstoimprovesurvivability.Currently, whencomparingthe contributions ofcomponentstothe overall aircraft vulnerabilityina military context, existingmethodsfocusedonthe aircraftkillstate without considering the intermediate states that are related to performance degradations. This work aims to investigate how performance-related importance measures in the field of reliability can be modified to rank the vulnerable components.Component vulnerability importance measures consideringperformance degradationsare proposed. Two applications, one with eight critical components and one consisting of 84 noncritical components and 28 critical components dealing with aircraft being hit by metallic fragments detonated from a missile, are provided. The analysis shows that the proposed method is useful for engineers to determine which components are more likely to cause aircraft performance degradations in the combat environment from the standpoint of vulnerability.@en