Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Systematic Framework to Generate Invariants for Anomaly Detection in Industrial Control Systems

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) consisting of integrated hardware and software components designed to monitor and control a variety of industrial processes, are typically deployed in critical infrastructures such as water treatment plants, power grids and gas pipelines. Unlike conventional IT systems, the consequences of deviations from normal operation in ICS have the potential to cause significant physical damage to equipment, the environment and even human life. The active monitoring of invariant rules that define the physical conditions that must be maintained for the normal operation of ICS provides a means to improve the security and dependability of such systems by which early detection of anomalous system states may be achieved, allowing for timely mitigating actions – such as fault checking, system shutdown – to be taken. Generally, invariant rules are predefined by system engineers during the design phase of a given ICS build. However, this manually intensive process is costly, error-prone and, in typically complex systems, sub-optimal. In this paper we propose a novel framework that is designed to systematically generate invariant rules from information contained within ICS operational data logs, using a combination of several machine learning and data mining techniques. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated by experiments on two real world ICS testbeds: a water distribution system and a water treatment plant. We show that sets of invariant rules, far larger than those defined manually, can be successfully derived by our framework and that they may be used to deliver significant improvements in anomaly detection compared with the invariant rules defined by system engineers as well as the commonly used residual errorbased anomaly detection model for ICS. Keywords—industrial control systems, anomaly detection, invariant rules, machine learning.
The platform for privacy preference as a social protocol: An examination within the U.S. policy context

As a "social protocol" aimed at providing a technological means to address concerns over Internet privacy, the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) has been controversial since its announcement in 1997. In the U.S., critics have decried P3P as an industry attempt to avoid meaningful privacy legislation, while developers have portrayed the proposal as a tool for helping users make informed decisions about the impact of their Web surfing choices. This dispute touches upon the privacy model underlying P3P, the U.S. political context regarding privacy, and the technical components of the protocol. This article presents an examination of these factors, with an eye towards distilling lessons for developers of future social protocols.
Exploring Contrarian Degree in the Trading Behavior of China's Stock Market

We study the contrarian and trend-following trading behavior of market timers in China's stock market. Using a network model to describe interpersonal relationships, we deploy the Ising model to capture trading strategies for both contrarians and followers. With empirical data of China's stock market, we find that contrarians account for 12-14% of trading volume. We further compare the performance of contrarians and followers and demonstrate the inefficiency of China's stock market where timing arbitrage exists. We highlight the fact that while the actual return sequence is driven by followers, the contrarians seize a lot of profitable arbitrage opportunities.
Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback for Major Depression Depression and Autonomic Dysfunction Hrv Biofeedback Training for Depression

Heart rate variability for the treatment of major depression is a novel, alternative approach that can offer symptom reduction with minimal-to-no noxious side effects. The following material will illustrate some of the work being conducted at our laboratory to demonstrate the efficacy of heart rate variability. Namely, results will be presented regarding our published work on an initial open-label study and subsequent results of a small, unfinished randomized controlled trial. Autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction is thought to play a significant role in depression. Prior research indicates that individuals suffering from depression often show decreased vagal tone, increased heart rate, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and sympathetic arousal. Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback involves training subjects to adjust their breathing rate to a resonant frequency (RF), a breathing rate (usually slower than normal breathing) at which respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is maximized. Why HRV biofeedback for depression? Colleagues from our laboratory already have demonstrated that in healthy individuals, HRV biofeedback produces a significant increase in baroreflex gain (change in heart rate for each mm Hg change in blood pressure), presumably leading to improved homeostatic control over blood pressure and other processes associated with it (Lehrer et al., 2003; Vaschillo, Lehrer, Rishe, & Konstantinov, 2002). It also appears to produce an increase in vagus nerve activity. Indirectly, through anatomical projections from the baroreceptors to the hypothalamus and limbic system and increased parasympathetic activity, this method also would be expected to increase modulation of emotionally and autonomically mediated reflexes throughout the body, resulting in reduction of depressive symptoms. Autonomic dysfunction has been the target of numerous investigations and has been linked to generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and depression. Symptoms of depression often are accompanied by ANS abnormalities, including reductions in HRV, vagus nerve activity, and baroreflex sensitivity. Animal studies exploring the specific ANS mechanisms of depression by using the chronic mild stress rodent model of depression found that exposure to chronic stress decreased HRV and elevated sympathetic tone to the heart. Successful treatment of depression with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (Stein et al., 2000) tends to be accompanied by an increase in HRV HRV biofeedback training involves slowing the breathing rate to achieve RF, the frequency at which, in each individual, amplitude of HRV is maximized and the baroreflex is stimulated, apparently causing, indirectly, modulation of limbic system activity. Resonant properties in the cardiovascular system at ~. 1 Hz are …
Diagnostic utility and clinical value of postpercutaneous nephrolithotomy nephrostogram.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE After percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), the current standard of care is to obtain a nephrostogram before removal of the nephrostomy tube to rule out distal ureteral obstruction. The aim of this study was to determine whether nephrostogram findings predict prolonged urinary drainage and postoperative ureteral stent insertion. PATIENTS AND METHODS Data for all patients who had nephrostomy tubes inserted post-PCNL between January and December 2006 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients with radiolucent stones, concomitant procedures, or caliceal diverticula were excluded. All nephrostograms were reviewed to identify distal ureteral obstruction without evidence of residual fragments. The Fisher's exact test was used. RESULTS Fifty patients who underwent 51 PCNLs were included in the study (one patient had bilateral PCNLs). Nephrostograms were performed on median postoperative day (POD) 2 (range POD 2-8), and tubes were removed on median POD 2 (range POD 2-10). In 14 (27%) patients who had distal ureteral obstruction without ureteral stones, the nephrostomy tube was removed on the same day of nephrostography. Eight (16%) patients experienced a prolonged urinary leak (>24 hours). While obstruction on the nephrostogram predicted prolonged urinary leak (36% vs 8%; P = 0.02), none of these obstructed patients needed postoperative ureteral stent placement. A patient with a horseshoe kidney without distal ureteral obstruction had his nephrostomy removed on POD 2. He presented on POD 7 with prolonged urinary leakage and needed readmission with ureteral stent placement and Foley catheterization. CONCLUSION While distal obstruction seems to predict prolonged urinary leakage (more than 24 hours), it may not necessitate ureteral stent placement or prolonged nephrostomy drainage because blood clot or ureterovesical junction edema resolve spontaneously with expectant management.
OBFUSCURO: A Commodity Obfuscation Engine on Intel SGX

—Program obfuscation is a popular cryptographic construct with a wide range of uses such as IP theft prevention. Although cryptographic solutions for program obfuscation impose impractically high overheads, a recent breakthrough leveraging trusted hardware has shown promise. However, the existing solution is based on special-purpose trusted hardware, restricting its use-cases to a limited few. In this paper, we first study if such obfuscation is feasible based on commodity trusted hardware, Intel SGX, and we observe that certain important security considerations are not afforded by commodity hardware. In particular, we found that existing obfuscation/obliviousness schemes are insecure if directly applied to Intel SGX primarily due to side-channel limitations. To this end, we present O BFUSCURO , the first system providing program obfuscation using commodity trusted hardware, Intel SGX. The key idea is to leverage ORAM operations to perform secure code execution and data access. Initially, O BFUSCURO transforms the regular program layout into a side-channel-secure and ORAM-compatible layout. Then, O BFUSCURO ensures that its ORAM controller performs data oblivious accesses in order to protect itself from all memory-based side-channels. Furthermore, O BFUSCURO ensures that the program is secure from timing attacks by ensuring that the program always runs for a pre-configured time interval. Along the way, O BFUSCURO also introduces a systematic optimization such as register-based ORAM stash. We provide a thorough security analysis of O BFUSCURO along with empirical attack evaluations showing that O BFUSCURO can protect the SGX program execution from being leaked by access pattern-based and timing-based
Endothelin receptor-A is required for the recruitment of antitumor T cells and modulates chemotherapy induction of cancer stem cells

Background: The endothelin receptor-A (ETRA) plays an important role in tumor cell migration, metastasis, and proliferation. The endothelin receptor B (ETRB) plays a critical role in angiogenesis and the inhibition of anti-tumor immune cell recruitment. Thus dual blockade of ETRA and ETRB could have significant anti-tumor effects. Results: Dual ETRA/ETRB blockade with macitentan (or the combination of the ETRA and ETRB antagonists BQ123 and BQ788) did not enhance antitumor immune cell recruitment. In vitro studies demonstrate that ETRA inhibition prevents the induction of ICAM1 necessary for immune cell recruitment. When used as a single agent against human tumor xenografts, macitentan demonstrated non-significant anti-tumor activity. However, when used in combination with chemotherapy, macitentan specifically reduced tumor growth in cell lines with CD133+ cancer stem cells. We found that ETRA is primarily expressed on CD133+ CSC in both cell lines and primary human tumor cells. ETRA inhibition of CSC prevented chemotherapy induced increases in tumor stem cells. Furthermore, ETRA inhibition in combination with chemotherapy reduced the formation of tumor spheres. Methods: We tested the dual ETRA/ETRB antagonist macitentan in conjunction with (1) an anti-tumor vaccine and (2) chemotherapy, in order to assess the impact of dual ETRA/ETRB blockade on anti-tumor immune cell infiltration and ovarian tumor growth. In vitro murine and human cell line, tumor sphere assays and tumor xenograft models were utilized to evaluate the effect of ETRA/ETRB blockade on cell proliferation, immune cell infiltration and cancer stem cell populations. Conclusions: These studies indicate a critical role for ETRA in the regulation of immune cell recruitment and in the CSC resistance to chemotherapy.
Detection of algorithmically generated domain names used by botnets: a dual arms race

Malware typically uses Domain Generation Algorithms (DGAs) as a mechanism to contact their Command and Control server. In recent years, different approaches to automatically detect generated domain names have been proposed, based on machine learning. The first problem that we address is the difficulty to systematically compare these DGA detection algorithms due to the lack of an independent benchmark. The second problem that we investigate is the difficulty for an adversary to circumvent these classifiers when the machine learning models backing these DGA-detectors are known. In this paper we compare two different approaches on the same set of DGAs: classical machine learning using manually engineered features and a 'deep learning' recurrent neural network. We show that the deep learning approach performs consistently better on all of the tested DGAs, with an average classification accuracy of 98.7% versus 93.8% for the manually engineered features. We also show that one of the dangers of manual feature engineering is that DGAs can adapt their strategy, based on knowledge of the features used to detect them. To demonstrate this, we use the knowledge of the used feature set to design a new DGA which makes the random forest classifier powerless with a classification accuracy of 59.9%. The deep learning classifier is also (albeit less) affected, reducing its accuracy to 85.5%.
Five-year follow-up of a one-year self-management program for patients with COPD

Objective Investigate long-term effects 4 years after the end of a 1-year self-management program (SMP) with 30 hours of education and 16 hours of physical activity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods Prospective observational outcome study. SMP focused on improving disease related self-care skills. Main outcome measures were health-related quality of life, HRQoL, (St Georges Respiratory Questionnaire, SGRQ total) and exercise capacity (6-minute walk test, 6MWT). Results Thirty patients participated, 47% women. Baseline mean age was 67 years and mean pre-bronchodilator FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in 1 second) percentage predicted was 41.3. HRQoL showed a statistical significant improvement during the 1-year intervention. Four years after the end of the program SGRQ total was similar to baseline value, 1.4 points (95% CI: −3.6 to 6.3, P = 0.580). Also 6MWT was similar to baseline value at the same test point, −10 m (95% CI: −27 to 8, P = 0.262), and 63% reported having continued to exercise regularly a minimum of three times per week during the follow-up period. Conclusion The participants in a 1-year self-management program with additional training had maintained their pre-intervention level of HRQoL and exercise capacity 4 years after the end of the program. Two out of three participants had continued to exercise regularly.
Multicenter Study of Clinical Performance of the 3M Rapid Detection RSV Test

ABSTRACT This multicenter study evaluated the clinical performance of the 3M Rapid Detection RSV test (3MRSV) compared to a composite reference standard of R-Mix culture and direct specimen immunofluorescence for detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The performance of the BinaxNOW RSV test was also evaluated using this reference standard. In a secondary analysis, discordant results were arbitrated using the Gen-Probe/Prodesse ProFlu+ reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assay. Subjects were stratified into three groups as follows: group 1 (G1), all ages; G2, subjects <22 years old (FDA-cleared ages for 3MRSV testing); and G3, subjects <5 years old (FDA-cleared ages for BinaxNOW RSV testing). A total of 1,306 specimens (G1, n = 1,306; G2, n = 1,140; G3, n = 953) from subjects of all ages presenting with respiratory symptoms met study criteria for analysis. Sensitivities, specificities, positive predictive values, and negative predictive values of 3MRSV for G1 were 86.5%, 95.8%, 91.4%, and 93.2%, respectively, and those for G2 were 87.3%, 95.6%, 92.4%, and 92.5%, respectively. For those samples analyzed by both 3MRSV and BinaxNOW, the 3MRSV was more sensitive (G1, 86.3%; G2, 87.2%; and G3, 89.9%) than was BinaxNOW (G1, 70.84%; G2, 72.0%; and G3, 72.4%) (P < 0.05). Specificities for RSV detection from nasopharyngeal (NP) aspirates and NP swabs for all groups were comparable for 3MRSV and BinaxNOW, but 3MRSV was less specific than BinaxNOW when nasal washes/aspirates were tested (P < 0.05). The 3MRSV assay performed well for the detection of RSV, and the overall assay performance was superior to that of BinaxNOW. The 3MRSV reader eliminated user misinterpretation and provided test result and quality control documentation.
A Simple Derivation of the Refined SPB for the Constant Composition Codes

A judicious application of the Berry-Esseen theorem via the concepts of Augustin information and mean is demonstrated to be sufficient for deriving the sphere packing bound with a prefactor that is $\Omega \left( {{n^{ - 0.5\left( {1 - E_{sp}^\prime \left( {R,W,p} \right)} \right)}}} \right)$ for the constant composition codes. The resulting non-asymptotic bounds have definite approximation error terms.
Exclusive Breastfeeding Rates and Factors Associated with Exclusive Breastfeeding Practices in Northern Tanzania: Measurement using Two Different Methodologies—24 Hours Recall and Recall Since Birth

Background: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) has many benefits to the child from mental to physical growth and development; however, methods of measuring EBF have raised a number of policy and programmatic questions. This study assesses EBF rates and factors associated with EBF practices in Northern Tanzania using two different methodologies, namely, the 24-hours recall and recall-since-birth. Methods: A cohort study was conducted from October 2013 to December 2015 among mother-infants’ pairs. Mothers with child delivery information (N=430) were followed and included in the analyses. We enrolled pregnant women who were in their third trimesters and interviewed them with the help of questionnaires at enrollment, delivery, 7 days and thereafter monthly up to nine months after delivery. At each visit after delivery, information on breastfeeding using the two methods (24 hours recall and recall-since-birth) was collected. Results: The prevalence of EBF dropped from one month to six months when using both the 24 hours recall and the recall since birth methods, but at different rates. At six months, 24.2% of the mothers practiced EBF when measured with the recall since birth method, compared to 38.8% when measured with the 24 hour recall. Predictors of EBF were also different. When using the recall since birth method, women who had received counseling on infant feeding had increased odds of practicing EBF compared to those who did not receive counseling, [AOR=2.3; 95% CI (1.2, 3.7)]. When using 24 hours recall, women who were unemployed had increased odds of practicing EBF compared to those who were employed [AOR=1.5;95% CI(1.1,2.5)], and women aged 35 - 49 years had decreased odds of practicing EBF compared to younger women[AOR=0.28; 95 % CI(0.1,0.7)]. Conclusions and Global Health Implications: The two methods for EBF give substantially different results, both in the prevalence of EBF and factors associated with EBF. The higher EBF obtained with 24 hours recall represents an overestimation and thereby an overly positive picture of the situation.
Alliumalbanicum (Amaryllidaceae), a new species from Balkans and its relationships with A.meteoricum Heldr. & Hausskn. ex Halácsy

Abstract A new species, Alliumalbanicum, is described and illustrated from Albania (Balkan Peninsula). It grows on serpentines or limestone in open rocky stands with a scattered distribution, mainly in mountain locations. Previously, the populations of this geophyte were attributed to A.meteoricum Heldr. & Hausskn. ex Halácsy, described from a few localities of North and Central Greece. These two species indeed show close relationships, chiefly regarding some features of the spathe valves, inflorescence and floral parts. They also share the same diploid chromosome number 2n =16 and similar karyotype, while seed testa micro-sculptures and leaf anatomy reveal remarkable differences. There are also several morphological features that allow them to be differentiated at specific level. The inclusion of both species into a newly described section Pseudoscorodon of the subgen. Allium is proposed. An analytic key to the species, included in the new section, is also provided.
Motor Control Deficits in Facial Synkinesis Patients: Neuroimaging Evidences of Cerebral Cortex Involvement

Objective Facial synkinesis is a severe sequelae of facial nerve malfunction. Once the synkinesis is established, it is extremely difficult for patients to recover. Given that the restoration of motor or sensory function after peripheral nerve injury was closely related with cortical plasticity, we investigated cortical plasticity in facial synkinesis patients by the frequency-specific data which remains largely uncharacterized. Materials and Methods Resting-state fMRI was conducted in 20 facial synkinesis patients and 19 healthy controls, and the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in five different frequency bands (slow-6: 0-0.01 Hz; slow-5: 0.01-0.027 Hz; slow-4: 0.027-0.073 Hz; slow-3: 0.073-0.167 Hz; and slow-2: 0.167-0.25 Hz) was calculated, respectively. And the relationship between ALFF and clinical outcomes was also analyzed. Results Comparing with the healthy controls, facial synkinesis patients showed significantly different ALFF values, mainly in the sensorimotor areas. Furthermore, increased ALFF of the ipsilateral insula in the slow-6 band was significantly related with better facial nerve function. Conclusion Increased ALFF values in the ipsilateral insula might reflect an abnormal state of hypercompensation in motor control of facial synkinesis patients. It provided valuable spatial information about the functionally aberrant regions, which implied the possible involvement of motor control system in facial synkinesis.