Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trust me, I'm a Root CA! Analyzing SSL Root CAs in Modern Browsers and Operating Systems

The security and privacy of our online communications heavily relies on the entity authentication mechanisms provided by SSL. Those mechanisms in turn heavily depend on the trustworthiness of a large number of companies and governmental institutions for attestation of the identity of SSL services providers. In order to offer a wide and unobstructed availability of SSL-enabled services and to remove the need to make a large amount of trust decisions from their users, operating systems and browser manufactures include lists of certification authorities which are trusted for SSL entity authentication by their products. This has the problematic effect that users of such browsers and operating systems implicitly trust those certification authorities with the privacy of their communications while they might not even realize it. The problem is further complicated by the fact that different software vendors trust different companies and governmental institutions, from a variety of countries, which leads to an obscure distribution of trust. To give insight into the trust model used by SSL this thesis explains the various entities and technical processes involved in establishing trust when using SSL communications. It furthermore analyzes the number and origin of companies and governmental institutions trusted by various operating systems and browser vendors and correlates the gathered information to a variety of indexes to illustrate that some of these trusted entities are far from trustworthy. Furthermore it points out the fact that the number of entities we trust with the security of our SSL communications keeps growing over time and displays the negative effects this might have as well as shows that the trust model of SSL is fundamentally broken.
A Study on Fingerprint Loop-Ridge Count in Relation to Gender

Abstract Gender classification from fingerprints is an important step in forensic anthropology in order to identify the gender of a criminal and minimize the list of suspects search. The objective of the present study was to study the differences in the finger loop ridge count among male and female subjects. ANOVA analysis revealed no significant mean difference in the finger loop ridge counts among gender in the present study.
The galaxy populations from the centers to the infall regions in z 0.25 clusters

Context. In the local universe, the relative fractions of galaxy types differs in galaxy clusters in comparison to the field. Observations at higher redshift provide evidence that cluster galaxies evolve with lookback time. This could be due either to the late assembly of clusters, which is predicted by bottom-up scenarios of structure formation, or to cluster-specific interaction processes. Aims. To disentangle various effects, we explore the evolutionary status of galaxies from the center of clusters out to their infall regions in z ≈ 0.25 clusters. Methods. We conducted a panoramic spectroscopic campaign with MOSCA at the Calar Alto observatory. We acquired low-resolution spectra of more than 500 objects. Approximately 150 of these spectra were of galaxies that are members of six different clusters, which differ in intrinsic X-ray luminosity. The wavelength range allows us to quantify the star formation activity by using the [Oii ]a nd the Hα emission lines. This activity is examined in terms of the large-scale environment expressed by the clustercentric distance of the galaxies as well as on local scales given by the spatial galaxy densities. Results. The general decline in star-formation activity observed for galaxies inside nearby clusters is also seen at z ≈ 0.25. A global suppression of star-formation is detected in the outskirts of clusters, at about 3Rvirial, where the galaxy densities are low and the intracluster medium is very shallow. Galaxies with ongoing star-formation have similar activity, regardless of the environment. Therefore, the decline of the star-formation activity inside the investigated clusters is driven mainly by the significant change in the fraction of active versus passive populations. This suggests that the suppression of the star-formation activity occurs on short timescales. We detect a significant population of red star-forming galaxies whose colors are consistent with the red-sequence of passive galaxies. They appear to be in an intermediate evolutionary stage between active and passive types. Conclusions. Since a suppression of star-formation activity is measured at large clustercentric distances and low projected densities, purely cluster-specific phenomena cannot fully explain the observed trends. Therefore, as suggested by other studies, group preprocessing may play an important role in transforming galaxies before they enter into the cluster environment. Since models predict that a significant fraction of galaxies observed in the outskirts may have already transversed through the cluster center and intracluster media, the effects of ram-pressure stripping cannot, however, be neglected; this is, in addition, true because ram-pressure stripping may even be effective, under certain conditions, inside group environments.
Safety of Eptifibatide for Subcortical Stroke Progression

Background: There is no proven treatment for stroke progression in patients with subcortical infarcts. Eptifibatide, a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor, might halt stroke progression by improving flow in the microcirculation. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients with subcortical stroke who experienced deterioration and were treated with eptifibatide (loading dose 180 μg/kg; infusion 2 μg/kg/min) for 24–48 h. Oral antiplatelet agents were started 6 h before discontinuation of eptifibatide. Results: Twenty-four patients with subcortical strokes were treated. The median admission NIHSS score was 5.0, which worsened to 8.5 (motor 5.0) before starting eptifibatide. The median NIHSS score 24 h after starting eptifibatide was 5.5. At 24 h, 42% had motor NIHSS scores less than or equal to pre-deterioration scores (50% for total NIHSS), and 50% had improved at least 1 motor point compared to pre-eptifibatide scores, which was sustained until hospital discharge. At discharge, the median total NIHSS score was 4.5. Ninety-two percent of patients were discharged home or to inpatient rehabilitation. Treatment was stopped early in 1 case due to a platelet drop <100,000/μl. No systemic or intracerebral bleeding occurred. Conclusions: Eptifibatide infusion may be safe in patients with subcortical ischemic strokes. Future studies are needed to test the safety and potential efficacy of this agent in subcortical stroke progression.
Rate-optimal graphon estimation

Network analysis is becoming one of the most active research areas in statistics. Significant advances have been made recently on developing theories, methodologies and algorithms for analyzing networks. However, there has been little fundamental study on optimal estimation. In this paper, we establish optimal rate of convergence for graphon estimation. For the stochastic block model with $k$ clusters, we show that the optimal rate under the mean squared error is $n^{-1}\log k+k^2/n^2$. The minimax upper bound improves the existing results in literature through a technique of solving a quadratic equation. When $k\leq\sqrt{n\log n}$, as the number of the cluster $k$ grows, the minimax rate grows slowly with only a logarithmic order $n^{-1}\log k$. A key step to establish the lower bound is to construct a novel subset of the parameter space and then apply Fano's lemma, from which we see a clear distinction of the nonparametric graphon estimation problem from classical nonparametric regression, due to the lack of identifiability of the order of nodes in exchangeable random graph models. As an immediate application, we consider nonparametric graphon estimation in a H\"{o}lder class with smoothness $\alpha$. When the smoothness $\alpha\geq1$, the optimal rate of convergence is $n^{-1}\log n$, independent of $\alpha$, while for $\alpha\in(0,1)$, the rate is $n^{-2\alpha/(\alpha+1)}$, which is, to our surprise, identical to the classical nonparametric rate.
DCTNet: A simple learning-free approach for face recognition

PCANet was proposed as a lightweight deep learning network that mainly leverages Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to learn multistage filter banks followed by binarization and block-wise histograming. PCANet was shown worked surprisingly well in various image classification tasks. However, PCANet is data-dependence hence inflexible. In this paper, we proposed a data-independence network, dubbed DCTNet for face recognition in which we adopt Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) as filter banks in place of PCA. This is motivated by the fact that 2D DCT basis is indeed a good approximation for high ranked eigenvectors of PCA. Both 2D DCT and PCA resemble a kind of modulated sine-wave patterns, which can be perceived as a bandpass filter bank. DCTNet is free from learning as 2D DCT bases can be computed in advance. Besides that, we also proposed an effective method to regulate the block-wise histogram feature vector of DCTNet for robustness. It is shown to provide surprising performance boost when the probe image is considerably different in appearance from the gallery image. We evaluate the performance of DCTNet extensively on a number of benchmark face databases and being able to achieve on par with or often better accuracy performance than PCANet.
Twitter and Facebook are not representative of the general population: Political attitudes and demographics of British social media users

A growing social science literature has used Twitter and Facebook to study political and social phenomena including for election forecasting and tracking political conversations. This research note uses a nationally representative probability sample of the British population to examine how Twitter and Facebook users differ from the general population in terms of demographics, political attitudes and political behaviour. We find that Twitter and Facebook users differ substantially from the general population on many politically relevant dimensions including vote choice, turnout, age, gender, and education. On average social media users are younger and better educated than non-users, and they are more liberal and pay more attention to politics. Despite paying more attention to politics, social media users are less likely to vote than non-users, but they are more likely to support the left leaning Labour Party when they do vote. However, we show that these apparent differences mostly arise due to the demographic composition of social media users. After controlling for age, gender, and education, no statistically significant differences arise between social media users and non-users on political attention, values or political behaviour.
Inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 4: a novel biomarker for environmental exposure to particulate air pollution in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory disease that is correlated with environmental stress. Particulate matter ≤10 μm (PM10) is considered to be a risk factor for COPD development; however, the effects of PM10 on the protein levels in COPD remain unclear. Fifty subjects with COPD and 15 healthy controls were recruited. Gene ontology analysis of differentially expressed proteins identified immune system process and binding as the most important biological process and molecular function, respectively, in the responses of PM10-exposed patients with COPD. Biomarkers for PM10 in COPD were identified and compared with the same in healthy controls and included proteoglycan 4 (PRG4), inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 4 (ITIH4), and apolipoprotein F (APOF). PRG4 and ITIH4 were associated with a past 3-year PM10 exposure level. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that ITIH4 is a sensitive and specific biomarker for PM10 exposure (area under the curve [AUC] =0.690, P=0.015) compared with PRG4 (AUC =0.636, P=0.083), APOF (AUC =0.523, P=0.766), 8-isoprostane (AUC =0.563, P=0.405), and C-reactive protein (CRP; AUC =0.634, P=0.086). ITIH4 levels were correlated with CRP (r=0.353, P=0.005), suggesting that ITIH4 may be involved in an inflammatory mechanism. In summary, serum ITIH4 may be a PM10-specific biomarker in COPD and may be related to inflammation.
Applying Kernel Methods to Argumentation Mining

The area of argumentation theory is an increasingly important area of artificial intelligence and mechanisms that are able to automatically detect the argument structure provide a novel area of research. This paper considers the use of kernel methods for argumentation detection and classification. It shows that a classification accuracy of 65%, can be attained using Natural Language Processing based kernel approaches, which do not require any heuristic choice of features.
Optimal workload of Wingate test: A comparison between normal and minor overfat young adults

We compared the optimal workload of Wingate test (WAnT), which was assigned according to total body mass (TBM), between two groups of eight young male adults. The leg anaerobic power and fat free mass of these two groups were comparable while their percent body fat was either within (NOR) or above normal range (OF). The optimal WAnT workload was derived individually from the polynomial regression of power-workload against of 75, 100, 110, 125 and 140 g.kg -1 TBM. It was found that the maximum power elicited from the various workloads in the WAnT was not differ- ent (P>0.05) between NOR and OF groups. Further, there was no difference in the optimal workload between the two groups (NOR: 120.7 ±13.6; OF: 114.0 ±7.2 g.kg -1 TBM, P>0.05). The findings suggest that the counting of fat mass in workload assignment in the WAnT may not affect the maximum power output in minor overfat adults.
Gusev-Style Alteration: Unique or Ubiquitous on Mars?

Introduction: Evidence for hydrous alteration on Mars has in recent years become unequivocal. The identification by a combination of orbital and landed instruments of water-derived hematite, sulfates, phyl-losilicates, Fe-oxides, and hydrated silica is robust. Even carbonates are now recognized [1, 2]. In some cases, it is possible to ascertain an environmental context for the alteration. Gusev Crater, which is still being explored by the Spirit rover more than five years after its arrival, displays a range of altered materials and secondary phases. Sulfates, Fe-oxides, phosphates, and hydrated silica have been identified using a combination of measurements from the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), Mössbauer spectrometer (MB), and Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES). No phyllosilicates have been identified definitively. Most enigmatic is a phase or phases that resemble an amorphous silicate of basaltic composition [3]. No terrestrial analog has been identified for this material. Despite a powerful payload and a capable rover platform, the environmental conditions that have produced the range of alteration present in Gusev Crater are not well understood. From this lack of understanding comes an opportunity for modeling. Investigating the conditions that could produce the style of alteration observed in Gusev will lead to a better understanding of the range of hydrous environments across Mars. Alteration on the Plains: The rocks encountered by Spirit on the traverse across the plains to the Co-lumbia Hills are only lightly altered in most cases. The Adirondack-class basalts are the dominant rock type. Their primary mineralogy is that of a picritic basalt, with olivine (Fo50-60) clearly evident in the spectra from Mini-TES and MB [e.g., 4, 5]. Sulfur enrichment identified by the APXS that decreases with depth in the rocks [e.g., 6] recently has been characterized using Mini-TES spectra as a sulfate phase that most resembles kieserite [7]. This sulfate phase is a persistent spectral component among all Adirondack-class basalts observed with Mini-TES across the plains. Twenty-seven examples of these rocks have been identified as " exotics " in the Colum-bia Hills, likely lofted there by meteorite impacts onto the plains. The exotics also display the same sulfate phase. Combined with the observation that many Adi-rondack-class rocks have a ventifact morphology indicative of aeolian abrasion, the presence of sulfate at
A Fault-Tolerant Dynamic Scheduling Algorithm for Multiprocessor Real-Time Systems and Its Analysis

Scheduling multiple versions of the tasks on different processors can provide fault tolerant. One of the models that is used for fault-tolerant scheduling of real–time tasks, namely, is the Primary backup (PB) model. In this approach, two versions are executed serially on two different processors and an acceptance test is used to check the result. The backup version is executed only if the output of the primary version fails the acceptance test, either due to the processor or the software fault. In this work, we address the scheduling of dynamically arriving real-time tasks with PB fault-tolerant requirements onto a set of processors in such a way that the versions of the tasks are feasible in the schedule. The objective of any dynamic real-time scheduling algorithm is to improve the guarantee ratio which is defined as the percentage of tasks, that arrived into the system, whose deadlines are met.
Improving target cell specificity using a novel monovalent bispecific IgG design

Monovalent bispecific IgGs cater to a distinct set of mechanisms of action but are difficult to engineer and manufacture because of complexities associated with correct heavy and light chain pairing. We have created a novel design, “DuetMab,” for efficient production of these molecules. The platform uses knobs-into-holes (KIH) technology for heterodimerization of 2 distinct heavy chains and increases the efficiency of cognate heavy and light chain pairing by replacing the native disulfide bond in one of the CH1-CL interfaces with an engineered disulfide bond. Using two pairs of antibodies, cetuximab (anti-EGFR) and trastuzumab (anti-HER2), and anti-CD40 and anti-CD70 antibodies, we demonstrate that DuetMab antibodies can be produced in a highly purified and active form, and show for the first time that monovalent bispecific IgGs can concurrently bind both antigens on the same cell. This last property compensates for the loss of avidity brought about by monovalency and improves selectivity toward the target cell.
Grieving Students: School Social Workers' Perspectives

Children and adolescents often experience a wide variety of loss and disruptive change throughout their lives. School is where children and adolescents are expected to perform at their best intellectual, emotional, social, and behavioral capacity; however, the reaction after a loss can impact a student’s academic performance and include regressive behavior. Schools are a fundamental place for the development of children, and school social workers in particular work with students who have experienced a wide variety of stressful incidents and are critical in improving the social-emotional well-being in students. The purpose of this study was to explore school social workers’ experiences working with grieving students. Using a qualitative design, 10 school social workers currently working in Minnesota elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools were interviewed regarding their experiences working with grieving students. The findings indicated a high prevalence of loss among students, leading school social workers to work with grieving students on a frequent basis. Additionally, students often experience wideranging types of losses, including both death and non-death losses. Findings also indicated various barriers that school social workers face in providing services to grieving students and the lack of grief and loss training for school social workers and teachers. These findings highlight the critical, multifaceted role of the school social worker in working with grieving students. GRIEVING STUDENTS: SCHOOL SOCIAL WORKERS’ PERSPECTIVES 3 Acknowledgements I want to extend my appreciation to my research committee chair, Dr. Melissa Lundquist, for your encouragement, wisdom, and guidance throughout this research project. I also want to thank my research committee members, Emily Velure and Ted Bowman, for your insight, support, and time put forth over the last nine months. Lastly, thank you to my family and friends for your love, reassurance, and patience throughout this process. I could not have done this without you all! GRIEVING STUDENTS: SCHOOL SOCIAL WORKERS’ PERSPECTIVES 4 Table of
Order estimation and sequential universal data compression of a hidden Markov source by the method of mixtures

We consider first the estimation of the order, i.e., the number of states, of a discrete-time finite-alphabet stationary ergodic hidden Markov source (HMS). Our estimator uses a description of the observed data in terms of a uniquely decodable code with respect to a mixture distribution, obtained by suitably mixing a parametric family of distributions on the observation space. This procedure avoids maximum likelihood calculations. The order estimator is shown to be strongly consistent with the probability of underestimation, decaying exponentially fast in the number n of observations, while the probability of overestimation does not exceed cn/sup -3/, where c is a constant. Next, we present a sequential algorithm for the uniquely decodable universal data compression of the HMS, which performs an on-line estimation of source order followed by arithmetic coding. This code asymptotically attains optimum average redundancy. >
Resuscitation with Lipid versus Epinephrine in a Rat Model of Bupivacaine Overdose

Background:Lipid emulsion infusion reverses cardiovascular compromise due to local anesthetic overdose in laboratory and clinical settings. The authors compared resuscitation with lipid, epinephrine, and saline control in a rat model of bupivacaine-induced cardiac toxicity to determine whether lipid provides a benefit over epinephrine. Methods:Bupivacaine, 20 mg/kg, was infused in rats anesthetized with isoflurane, producing asystole in all subjects. Ventilation with 100% oxygen and chest compressions were begun immediately, along with intravenous treatment with 30% lipid emulsion or saline (5-ml/kg bolus plus continuous infusion at 0.5 ml · kg−1 · min−1) or epinephrine (30 &mgr;g/kg). Chest compressions were continued and boluses were repeated at 2.5 and 5 min until the native rate–pressure product was greater than 20% baseline. Electrocardiogram and arterial pressure were monitored continuously and at 10 min, arterial blood gas, central venous oxygen saturation, and blood lactate were measured. Effect size (Cohen d) was determined for comparisons at 10 min. Results:Lipid infusion resulted in higher rate–pressure product (P < 0.001, d = 3.84), pH (P < 0.01, d = 3.78), arterial oxygen tension (P < 0.05, d = 2.8), and central venous oxygen saturation (P < 0.001, d = 4.9) at 10 min than did epinephrine. Epinephrine treatment caused higher lactate (P < 0.01, d = 1.48), persistent ventricular ectopy in all subjects, pulmonary edema in four of five rats, hypoxemia, and a mixed metabolic and respiratory acidosis by 10 min. Conclusions:Hemodynamic and metabolic metrics during resuscitation with lipid surpassed those with epinephrine, which were no better than those seen in the saline control group. Further studies are required to optimize the clinical management of systemic local anesthetic toxicity.