Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cheap Intrusion-Tolerant Protection for CRUTIAL Things

Today’s critical infrastructures like the power grid are essentially physical processes controlled by computers connected by networks. They are usually as vulnerable as any other interconnected computer system, but their failure has a high socio-economic impact. The report describes a new construct for the protection of these infrastructures, based on distributed algorithms and mechanisms implemented between a set of devices called CIS. CIS collectively ensure that incoming/outgoing traffic satisfies the security policy of an organization facing accidents and attacks. However, they are not simple firewalls but distributed protection devices based on a sophisticated access control model and designed with intrusion-tolerant capabilities. The report discusses the rationale behind the use of CIS to improve the resilience of critical infrastructures, and it describes and evaluates two CIS implementations, one using physical replicas, and another using virtual machine (VM) based replicas. Our intrusion-tolerant solution is cheap in four different ways: it uses less replicas than other intrusion-tolerant services; it does not requires expensive consensus protocols; the performance overhead is minimal; and it can be deployed in a single physical machine through the use of VM technology.
Towards an aspect-oriented agile requirements approach

The success of the application of agile software development approaches on building evolvable systems depends on how efficiently the changeable requirements are elicited and structured by software engineers. Current agile methods provide suitable approaches to define requirements of such systems in a systematic and simple way. Nevertheless, the crosscutting nature of some requirements is not dealt with by these approaches. Aspect-oriented requirements engineering tackles the problem of crosscutting requirements, and its concepts can be used to address this problem in the context of agile software development. This work describes how aspects could be integrated to an agile software development approach at requirements level.
Staphylococcal toxic-shock-syndrome-toxin-1 as a risk factor for disease relapse in Wegener's granulomatosis.

OBJECTIVES Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus constitutes a risk factor for disease exacerbation in Wegener's granulomatosis (WG). We hypothesized that staphylococcal superantigens (SAg) are a determinant of S. aureus-related risk for disease relapse in WG. METHODS In a retrospective longitudinal cohort study in 62 WG patients, we investigated the presence of the staphylococcal SAg genes sea, seb, sec, sed, see, tsst-1 and eta in S. aureus strains isolated from WG patients during an observation period of seven years. Subsequently, we assessed whether relapses of WG were associated with the presence of SAg-positive staphylococci. RESULTS Of 1718 swab cultures analysed, 709 (41.2%) were S. aureus-positive. Fifty-one patients carried S. aureus, of whom 37 (72.5%) patients carried at least one SAg-positive S. aureus strain. Of the 709 S. aureus-positive cultures, 326 (46%) contained at least one SAg gene. Except for see, all assessed SAg genes were detected. sea was found most frequently, followed by sec, tsst-1 and eta and finally, by sed and seb. Using a multivariate, time-dependent Cox regression analysis we found that the presence of S. aureus was associated with relapses of WG (RR 3.2; 95% CI 1.2-8.4). The risk for relapse was modulated by the presence and type of SAg, with tsst-1 being associated with an increased risk for relapse (RR 13.3, 95% CI 4.2-42.6). CONCLUSION The risk for relapse of WG increases with the presence of tsst-1-positive S. aureus. Eradication of tsst-1-positive S. aureus in WG may show whether disease relapses can be prevented.
Differential transient MEG and fMRI responses to visual stimulation onset rate

While recent analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data utilize a generalized nonlinear convolution model (e.g., dynamic causal modeling), most conventional analyses of local responses utilize a linear convolution model (e.g., the general linear model). These models assume a linear relationship between the blood oxygenated level dependent (BOLD) signal and the underlying neuronal response. While previous studies have shown that this “neurovascular coupling” process is approximately linear, short stimulus durations are known to produce a larger fMRI response than expected from a linear system. This divergence from linearity between the stimulus time‐course and BOLD signal could be caused by neuronal onset and offset transients, rather than a nonlinearity in the hemodynamics related to BOLD contrast. We tested this hypothesis by measuring MEG and fMRI responses to stimuli with ramped contrast onsets and offsets in place of abrupt transitions. MEG results show that the ramp successfully reduced the transient onset of neural activity. However, the nonlinearity in the fMRI response, while also reduced, remained. Predictions of fMRI responses from MEG signals show a weaker nonlinearity than observed in the actual fMRI data. These results suggest that the fMRI BOLD nonlinearity seen with short duration stimuli is not solely due to transient neuronal activity. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 18, 17–28, 2008
A retrospective cross-sectional study of risk factors and clinical spectrum of children admitted to hospital with pandemic H1N1 influenza as compared to influenza A

Objective To compare risk factors for severe disease as measured by admission to hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) and other clinical outcomes in children with pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) versus those with seasonal influenza. Design Retrospective analysis of children admitted to hospital with pH1N1 versus seasonal influenza A. Setting Canadian tertiary referral children's hospital. Participants All laboratory-identified cases of pH1N1 in children younger than 18 years admitted to hospital in 2009 (n=176) and all seasonal influenza A cases admitted to hospital from influenza seasons 2004–2005 to 2008–2009 (n=200). Children with onset of symptoms more than 3 days after admission were excluded. Primary and secondary outcome measures Primary outcomes include admission to hospital and ICU and need for mechanical ventilation. Secondary outcomes include length of stay in hospital and duration of supplemental oxygen requirement. Results Children admitted with pH1N1 were older than seasonal influenza A admissions (hospital admission: 6.5 vs 3.3 years, p<0.01; ICU admission: 7.3 vs 3.6 years, p=0.02). Children hospitalised with pH1N1 were more likely to have a pre-existing diagnosis of asthma (15% vs 5%, p<0.01); however, there was no difference in the severity of pre-existing asthma between the two groups. After controlling for obesity, asthma (OR 4.59, 95% CI 1.42 to 14.81) and age ≥5 years (OR 2.87, 95% CI 1.60 to 5.16) were more common risk factors in admitted children with pH1N1. Asthma was a significant predictor of the need for intensive care in patients with pH1N1 (OR 4.56, 95% CI 1.16 to 17.89) but not in patients with seasonal influenza A. Conclusion While most pH1N1 cases presented with classic influenza-like symptoms, risk factors for severe pH1N1 disease differed from seasonal influenza A. Older age and asthma were associated with increased admission to hospital and ICU for children with pH1N1.
Reboxetine: its effects as measured by the Social Adaptation Self‐evaluation Scale

The determination of the outcome of treatment for depression is important both for the symptoms of depression and social functioning. The aim of this review is to evaluate the outcome of two clinical trials comparing reboxetine and fluoxetine on depressive symptoms and social functioning. These studies used both conventional measures of outcome such as the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM‐D) and the Social Adaptation Self‐evaluation Scale (SASS), a patient‐centred, disease non‐specific scale of social functioning, which was developed for measuring social functioning in depressed people. These findings, set against a background of all studies in which antidepressants have been compared using quality of life instruments, suggest that while some patients may appear to the clinician to have recovered, they may remain less than fully well and differences in selectivity for neurotransmitter systems may play a part in the degree of wellbeing that recovered patients might expect.
Predicting posttraumatic distress in hospitalized trauma survivors with acute injuries.

OBJECTIVE Each year approximately 2.5 million Americans are hospitalized after sustaining traumatic physical injuries. Few investigations have comprehensively screened for posttraumatic symptomatic distress or identified predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in representative samples of surgical inpatients. METHOD The subjects were 101 randomly selected survivors of motor vehicle crashes or assaults who were interviewed while hospitalized and 1, 4, and 12 months after injury. In the surgical ward, inpatients were screened for PTSD, depressive, and dissociative symptoms, for prior trauma, for pre-event functioning, and for alcohol and drug intoxication. Patient demographic and injury characteristics were also recorded. Random coefficient regression models were used to assess the association between these clinical, injury, and demographic characteristics and PTSD symptom levels over the year after the injury. RESULTS Of the 101 surgical inpatients, 73% screened positive for high levels of symptomatic distress and/or substance intoxication. At 1, 4, and 12 months after the injury, 30%-40% reported symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of PTSD. High ward PTSD symptom levels were the strongest and most parsimonious predictor of persistent symptoms over the course of the year. Greater prior trauma, stimulant intoxication, and female gender were also associated with higher symptom levels. Increasing injury severity, however, was not associated with higher PTSD symptom levels. CONCLUSIONS Clinical and demographic characteristics readily identifiable at the time of surgical inpatient hospitalization predict PTSD symptoms over the year after injury. Effectiveness trials that test screening and intervention procedures for at-risk inpatients should be developed.
Worksite Health Promotion in Six Varied US Sites: Beta Testing as a Needed Translational Step

Background. Dissemination of health promotion interventions generally has followed an efficacy, effectiveness to full scale paradigm, and most programs have failed to traverse that sequence. Objective. Report national dissemination of a health promotion program and juxtapose sequential case study observations with the current technology transfer literature. Design. Multiple department-level case studies using contact logs, transcribed interactions, augmented with field notes and validated by respondent review; at least two investigators independently generated site summaries, which were compared to formulate a final report. Results. Adoption was facilitated with national partners and designing branded materials. Critical site influences included departmental features, local champions, and liaison relationships. Achieving distal reach and fidelity required sequential process and program revisions based on new findings at each site. Conclusions. Beta testing to redesign program elements and modify process steps appears to be a needed and often ignored translational step between efficacy and more widespread dissemination.
Revisiting the Participatory Model of Development: Institutional Survival in Watershed Programmes in Four Indian States

The watershed development programmes have been hailed as an important agent for overall rural development in India by enhancing livelihoods through natural resource management. The tenure for these government-funded projects end after five years but the benefits of the project are expected to be taken forward beyond the project duration through the active participation of the community-based organisations. This study aims to address the relatively untouched area of post-project management of watershed programmes, and draws experience from a primary survey covering 201 watershed projects in four major states of India, 3 to 5 years after the completion of the project period. Through the lens of institutional survival after the withdrawal of government funding, this paper follows the debate around the community-based institutions created for the purpose of project ideally meant to promote development through a ‘neat’ bureaucratic design that seeks to remove ‘political’ interference referred widely to as ‘anti-politics machines’ in the academic discourse. In reality, they leave out large sections of the community in terms of their representation. This paper questions the institution-building process and its outcome, particularly with respect to survival of the core watershed institution, that is, the Watershed Committee.
Factors influencing singleton search and cognitive intervention with older adults

The current thesis aimed to investigate visual attention in relation to the effects of stored knowledge and ageing, as well as the contribution of top-down and bottom-up processes in visual search. A first set of experiments focused on ‘singleton search’. The performance of younger adults was compared to older adults. Results of these experiments revealed evidence that the presence of a singleton distractor can sometimes facilitate search as reported by Geng & DiQuattro (2010). Apparent differences between the groups were found to be attributable to the ageing process. In the second set of experiments examined the impact of stored knowledge and colour associations on search. Results of these experiments indicated an impact of stored knowledge. Again, apparent differences between the groups on these 2 experiments were found to be attributable to the ageing process. Finally I carried out a cognitive intervention aimed at improving attention and working memory in older adults, and compared the performance of an intervention group to a control group. Results demonstrated that this computerised attention training programme (CPAT) can improve cognitive functions which otherwise decline with age. The implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions made for future research.
To what extent do teachers in European countries differ in their professional community practices?

ABSTRACT Within comparative school effectiveness research facilitated by large-scale data across countries, this article presents the results of the testing for measurement invariance of the latent concept of Professional Community (PC) across 23 European countries and more than 35,000 teachers in secondary schools. The newly proposed Multiple-Group Factor Analysis Alignment method is applied to obtain the mean differences of the latent PC factor, while also identifying the non-invariant parameters in these different countries. After performing a number of robustness checks, including the Multiple-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA) exact scalar method, we conclude that teachers in Eastern European countries report the highest average perceived PC practices. The countries with smaller PC mean differences tend to shift places in the ranking when the 2 methods are applied; however, very few changes among the groups with significant latent mean differences are observed.
Image-based Vehicle Classification System

Electronic toll collection (ETC) system has been a common trend used for toll collection on toll road nowadays. The implementation of electronic toll collection allows vehicles to travel at low or full speed during the toll payment, which help to avoid the traffic delay at toll road. One of the major components of an electronic toll collection is the automatic vehicle detection and classification (AVDC) system which is important to classify the vehicle so that the toll is charged according to the vehicle classes. Vision-based vehicle classification system is one type of vehicle classification system which adopt camera as the input sensing device for the system. This type of system has advantage over the rest for it is cost efficient as low cost camera is used. The implementation of vision-based vehicle classification system requires lower initial investment cost and very suitable for the toll collection trend migration in Malaysia from single ETC system to full-scale multi-lane free flow (MLFF). This project includes the development of an image-based vehicle classification system as an effort to seek for a robust vision-based vehicle classification system. The techniques used in the system include scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) technique, Canny's edge detector, K-means clustering as well as Euclidean distance matching. In this project, a unique way to image description as matching medium is proposed. This distinctiveness of method is analogous to the human DNA concept which is highly unique. The system is evaluated on open datasets and return promising results.
Socioeconomic Status Is Significantly Associated with the Dietary Intakes of Folate and Depression Scales in Japanese Workers (J-HOPE Study)

The association of socioeconomic status (SES) with nutrient intake attracts public attention worldwide. In the current study, we examined the associations of SES with dietary intake of folate and health outcomes in general Japanese workers. This Japanese occupational cohort consisted off 2266 workers. SES was assessed by a self-administered questionnaire. Intakes of all nutrients were assessed with a validated, brief and self-administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ). The degree of depressive symptoms was measured by the validated Japanese version of the K6 scale. Multiple linear regression and stratified analysis were used to evaluate the associations of intake with the confounding factors. Path analysis was conducted to describe the impacts of intake on health outcomes. Education levels and household incomes were significantly associated with intake of folate and depression scales (p < 0.05). After adjusting for age, sex and total energy intake, years of education significantly affect the folate intake (β = 0.117, p < 0.001). The structural equation model (SEM) shows that the indirect effect of folate intake is statistically significant and strong (p < 0.05, 56% of direct effect) in the pathway of education level to depression scale. Our study shows both education and income are significantly associated with depression scales in Japanese workers, and the effort to increase the folate intake may alleviate the harms of social disparities on mental health.
Factor Endowments, Wage Growth, and Changing Food Self-Sufficiency: Evidence from Country-Level Panel Data

Asian countries have witnessed a sharp increase in real wage as a result of rapid economic growth and structural transformation in recent years. Using a country level panel data from 1980 to 2010, this paper examines the effects of real wage increase on Asian agriculture that traditionally used family labor intensively on small farms. The empirical evidence supports our hypothesis that an increase in real wages, along with absorptions of labor into nonagricultural sectors, has been inducing the substitution of labor by machines in agriculture. However, this process is less successful in the countries that are constrained by their small operational land sizes, resulting in lowered land productivity. We also demonstrated that dynamic changes in yield are an important determinant of food self-sufficiency ratio. The above findings imply that in the near future, Asian agriculture can face a challenge in maintaining domestic food production. Given the large size of consumer demands in the region and its increasing trend, the future path of Asian agriculture could be a significant constraint on the global food supply-demand balance.
Fundamental Uncertainty, Portfolio Choice, and Liquidity Preference Theory

One of Keynes' core issues in his liquidity preference theory is how fundamental uncertainty affects the propensity to hold money as a liquid asset. The paper critically assesses various formal representations of fundamental uncertainty and provides an argument for a more boundedly rational approach to portfolio choice between liquidity and risky assets. The choice is made on the basis of individual beliefs which are subject to mental representations of the underlying economic structure. Self-consciousness arises when the agent is aware of the fact that beliefs are dispersed among agents due to the absence of a "true" model. Responding to this fact by increasing liquidity preference is rationalized by the higher ex post performance of choice. Moreover, we analyze the case that the portfolio is partially financed by debt. It is explored how fundamental uncertainty affects the volume of the portfolio and hence money and credit demand as well as the probability of debt failures.
Neural Correlates of Verb Argument Structure Processing

Neuroimaging and lesion studies suggest that processing of word classes, such as verbs and nouns, is associated with distinct neural mechanisms. Such studies also suggest that subcategories within these broad word class categories are differentially processed in the brain. Within the class of verbs, argument structure provides one linguistic dimension that distinguishes among verb exemplars, with some requiring more complex argument structure entries than others. This study examined the neural instantiation of verbs by argument structure complexity: one-, two-, and three-argument verbs. Stimuli of each type, along with nouns and pseudowords, were presented for lexical decision using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging design. Results for 14 young normal participants indicated largely overlapping activation maps for verbs and nouns, with no areas of significant activation for verbs compared to nouns, or vice versa. Pseudowords also engaged neural tissue overlapping with that for both word classes, with more widespread activation noted in visual, motor, and peri-sylvian regions. Examination of verbs by argument structure revealed activation of the supramarginal and angular gyri, limited to the left hemisphere only when verbs with two obligatory arguments were compared to verbs with a single argument. However, bilateral activation was noted when both two- and three-argument verbs were compared to one-argument verbs. These findings suggest that posterior peri-sylvian regions are engaged for processing argument structure information associated with verbs, with increasing neural tissue in the inferior parietal region associated with increasing argument structure complexity. These findings are consistent with processing accounts, which suggest that these regions are crucial for semantic integration.
Career Commitment in STEM

In this article, we draw insights from the employee–organization framework to test a model linking offered inducements and expected contributions to career commitment through organizational commitment. Data were collected from 396 full-time chemists and laboratory specialists who work in a large health-care organization in China. Results revealed that organizational commitment mediated the relationships between employee–organization framework (i.e., offered inducements and expected contributions) and career commitment. Moderated mediation analyses further revealed that the conditional indirect effects of offered inducements in predicting career commitment via organizational commitment were stronger for high as opposed to low expected contributions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.