Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical Study of Tolerating Denial-of-Service Attacks with a Proxy Network

Proxy networks have been proposed to protect applications from Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks. However, since large-scale study in real networks is infeasible and most previous simulations have failed to capture detailed network behavior, the DoS resilience and performance implications of such use are not well understood in large networks. While post-mortems of actual large-scale attacks are useful, only limited dynamic behavior can be understood from these single instances. Our work provides the first detailed and broad study of this problem in large-scale realistic networks. The key is that we use an online network simulator to simulate a realistic large-scale network (comparable to several large ISPs). We use a generic proxy network, and deploy it in a large simulated network using typical real applications and DoS tools directly. We study detailed system dynamics under various attack scenarios and proxy network configurations. Specific results are as follows. First, rather than incurring a performance penalty, proxy networks can improve users' experienced performance. Second, proxy networks can effectively mitigate the impact of both spread and concentrated large-scale DoS attacks in large networks. Third, proxy networks provide scalable DoS-resilience - resilience can be scaled up to meet the size of the attack, enabling application performance to be protected. Resilience increases almost linearly with the size of a proxy network; that is, the attack traffic that a given proxy network can resist, while preserving a particular level of application performance, grows almost linearly with proxy network size. These results provide empirical evidence that proxy networks can be used to tolerate DoS attacks and quantitative guidelines for designing a proxy network to meet a resilience goal.
The Relationship Between Geriatric Depression and Health-Promoting Behaviors Among Community-Dwelling Seniors

Background:People older than 65 years old account for about 10.9% of Taiwan’s total population; it is also known that the older adults experience a higher incidence of depression. Public health nurses play an important role in promoting community health. Policymaking for community healthcare should reflect the relationship between health-promoting behavior and depression in community-dwelling seniors. Therefore, the encouragement of healthy aging requires strategic planning by those who provide health promotion services. Objective:This study was designed to elicit the health-promoting behaviors of community seniors and investigate the relationship between geriatric depression and health-promoting behaviors among seniors who live in rural communities. Methods:We used a cross-sectional, descriptive design and collected data using a demographic information datasheet, the Health Promotion for Seniors and Geriatric Depression Scale short forms. Results:The study included 427 participants. Most were women; mean age was 75.8 years. Most were illiterate; roughly half engaged in a limited number of health-promoting activities. The Geriatric Depression Scale score was negatively associated with health-promoting behavior. Social participation, health responsibility, self-protection, active lifestyle, and total Health Promotion for Seniors score all reached statistical significance. Multivariate analysis indicated that geriatric depression and physical discomfort were independent predictors of health-promoting behavior after controlling the confounding factors. Conclusions/Implications for Practice:Participants practiced less than the recommended level of health-promoting behaviors. We found a negative correlation between the geriatric depression score and health-promoting behavior. Results can be referenced to develop strategies to promote healthy aging in the community, especially with regard to promoting greater social participation and increased activity for community-dwelling older adults experiencing depression.
The endothelial adrenomedullin-RAMP2 system regulates vascular integrity and suppresses tumour metastasis.

AIMS Controlling vascular integrity is expected to be a novel therapeutic target of cancers as well as cardiovascular diseases. Adrenomedullin (AM) and its receptor-modulating protein, RAMP2, have been identified as essential mediators of cardiovascular homeostasis. In this study, we used inducible vascular endothelial cell-specific RAMP2 knockout (DI-E-RAMP2(-/-)) mice to clarify the contribution made by the endogenous AM-RAMP2 system to angiogenesis and metastasis. METHODS AND RESULTS Subcutaneously transplanted sarcoma or melanoma cells showed less growth and angiogenesis in DI-E-RAMP2(-/-) than in control mice. On the other hand, after the transplantation of B16BL6 melanoma cells into hindlimb footpads, spontaneous metastasis to the lung was enhanced in DI-E-RAMP2(-/-) mice. Early after RAMP2 gene deletion, DI-E-RAMP2(-/-) mice showed enhanced vascular permeability, endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndMT)-like change, and systemic oedema. Within the lungs of DI-E-RAMP2(-/-) mice, pulmonary endothelial cells were deformed, and inflammatory cells infiltrated the vessel walls and expressed the chemotactic factors S100A8/9 and SAA3, which attract tumour cells and mediate the formation of a pre-metastatic niche. Conversely, the overexpression of RAMP2 suppressed tumour cell adhesion to endothelial cells, tumour metastasis, and improved survival. CONCLUSION These findings indicate that the AM-RAMP2 system regulates vascular integrity, whereas RAMP2 deletion promotes vascular permeability and EndMT-like change within primary lesions and formation of pre-metastatic niches in distant organs by destabilizing the vascular structure and inducing inflammation. Vascular integrity regulated by the AM-RAMP2 system could thus be a hopeful therapeutic target for suppressing tumour metastasis.
EFFECTIVE BIO‐EVENT EXTRACTION USING TRIGGER WORDS AND SYNTACTIC DEPENDENCIES

The scientific literature is the main source for comprehensive, up‐to‐date biological knowledge. Automatic extraction of this knowledge facilitates core biological tasks, such as database curation and knowledge discovery. We present here a linguistically inspired, rule‐based and syntax‐driven methodology for biological event extraction. We rely on a dictionary of trigger words to detect and characterize event expressions and syntactic dependency based heuristics to extract their event arguments. We refine and extend our prior work to recognize speculated and negated events. We show that heuristics based on syntactic dependencies, used to identify event arguments, extend naturally to also identify speculation and negation scope. In the BioNLP’09 Shared Task on Event Extraction, our system placed third in the Core Event Extraction Task (F‐score of 0.4462), and first in the Speculation and Negation Task (F‐score of 0.4252). Of particular interest is the extraction of complex regulatory events, where it scored second place. Our system significantly outperformed other participating systems in detecting speculation and negation. These results demonstrate the utility of a syntax‐driven approach. In this article, we also report on our more recent work on supervised learning of event trigger expressions and discuss event annotation issues, based on our corpus analysis.
Impact of body mass on hospital resource use in total hip arthroplasty

Abstract Objective To determine the impact of BMI on post-operative outcomes and resource utilization following elective total hip arthroplasty (THA). Design A retrospective cohort analysis on all primary elective THA patients between 1996 and 2004. Primary outcomes investigated using regression analyses included length of stay (LOS) and costs (US dollars). Setting Mayo Clinic Rochester, a tertiary care centre. Subjects Patients were stratified by pre-operative BMI as normal (18·5–24·9 kg/m2), overweight (25·0–29·9 kg/m2), obese (30·0–34·9 kg/m2) and morbidly obese (≥35·0 kg/m2). Of 5642 patients, 1362 (24·1 %) patients had a normal BMI, 2146 (38·0 %) were overweight, 1342 (23·8 %) were obese and 792 (14·0 %) were morbidly obese. Results Adjusted LOS was similar among normal (4·99 d), overweight (5·00 d), obese (5·02 d) and morbidly obese (5·17 d) patients (P = 0·20). Adjusted overall episode costs were no different (P = 0·23) between the groups of normal ($17 211), overweight ($17 462), obese ($17 195) and morbidly obese ($17 655) patients. Overall operative and anaesthesia costs were higher in the morbidly obese group ($5688) than in normal ($5553), overweight ($5549) and obese ($5593) patients (P = 0·03). Operating room costs were higher in morbidly obese patients ($3418) than in normal ($3276), overweight ($3291) and obese ($3340) patients (P < 0·001). Post-operative costs were no different (P = 0·30). Blood bank costs differed (P = 0·002) and were lower in the morbidly obese group ($180) compared with the other patient groups (P < 0·05). Other differences in costs were not significant. Morbidly obese patients were more likely to be transferred to a nursing home (24·1 %) than normal (18·4 %), overweight (17·9 %) or obese (16·0 %) patients (P = 0·001 each). There were no differences in the composite endpoint of 30 d mortality, re-admissions, re-operations or intensive care unit utilization. Conclusions BMI in patients undergoing primary elective THA did not impact LOS or overall institutional acute care costs, despite higher operative costs in morbidly obese patients. Obesity does not increase resource utilization for elective THA.
Morphing Banner Advertising

textabstractResearchers and practitioners devote substantial effort to targeting banner advertisements to consumers, but they focus less effort on how to communicate with consumers once targeted. Morphing enables a website to learn, automatically and near optimally, which banner advertisements to serve to consumers to maximize click-through rates, brand consideration, and purchase likelihood. Banners are matched to consumers based on posterior probabilities of latent segment membership, which are identified from consumers' clickstreams. This paper describes the first large-sample random-assignment field test of banner morphing-more than 100,000 consumers viewed more than 450,000 banners on CNET.com. On relevant Web pages, CNET's clickthrough rates almost doubled relative to control banners. We supplement the CNET field test with an experiment on an automotive information-and-recommendation website. The automotive experiment replaces automated learning with a longitudinal design that implements morph-to-segment matching. Banners matched to cognitive styles, as well as the stage of the consumer's buying process and body-type preference, significantly increase click-through rates, brand consideration, and purchase likelihood relative to a control. The CNET field test and automotive experiment demonstrate that matching banners to cognitive-style segments is feasible and provides significant benefits above and beyond traditional targeting. Improved banner effectiveness has strategic implications for allocations of budgets among media.
SPORULATION IN PROTOPLASTS AND ITS DEPENDENCE ON PRIOR FORESPORE DEVELOPMENT

Fitz-James, Philip C. (University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada). Sporulation in protoplasts and its dependence on prior forespore development. J. Bacteriol. 87:667–675. 1964. —Phase-contrast and electron microscopy were used to decide whether cells from late growth or sporulating cultures could, where converted into protoplasts, complete the process of sporulation. The cell wall was found essential to the development of the forespore. Incomplete forespores formed a satellite protoplast. Completed forespores were enclosed by the sporangial protoplast, and only these or later forms were able to complete sporulation in protoplasts.
SGF: A state-free gradient-based forwarding protocol for wireless sensor networks

Limitation on available resources is a major challenge in wireless sensor networks. Due to high rates of unexpected node/link failures, robust data delivery through multiple hops also becomes a critical issue. In this article we present a state-free gradient-based forwarding (SGF) protocol to address these challenges. Nodes running SGF do not maintain states of neighbors or network topology and thus can scale to very large networks. Without using routing tables, SGF builds a cost field called gradient that provides each node the direction to forward data. The maintenance of gradient is purely driven by data transmissions and hence incurs little overhead. To adapt to transient channel variations and topology changes, the forwarder of a routing node is selected opportunistically among multiple candidate nodes through a distributed contention process. Simulation results show that SGF achieves significant energy savings and outperforms several existing data forwarding protocols in terms of packet delivery ratio and end-to-end delay.
Incorporating Learner Experience into the Design of Multimedia Instruction.

In Experiment 1, inexperienced trade apprentices were presented with one of four alternative instructional designs: a diagram with visual text, a diagram with auditory text, a diagram with both visual and auditory text, or the diagram only. An auditory presentation of text proved superior to a visual-only presentation but not when the text was presented in both auditory and visual forms. The diagram-only format was the least intelligible to inexperienced learners. When participants became more experienced in the domain after two specifically designed training sessions, the advantage of a visual diagram-auditory text format disappeared. In Experiment 2, the diagram-only group was compared with the audio-text group after an additional training session. The results were the reverse of those of Experiment 1: The diagram-only group outperformed the audio-text group. Suggestions are made for multimedia instruction that takes learner experience into consideration. The experiments reported in this article were designed to test some hypotheses generated on the basis of cognitive load theory (see Sweller, 1999, and Sweller, van Merrienboer, & Paas, 1998, for a recent review of the theoretical model). Central to the theory is the notion that working memory limitations should be a major consideration when designing instruction. Although working memory considerations are often overlooked, storage and processing limita
Formulation and evaluation of ketorolac tromethamine-loaded albumin microspheres for potential intramuscular administration

The objective of this work was to prepare and evaluate ketorolac tromethamine-loaded albumin microspheres using a factorial design. Albumin microspheres were prepared by emulsion cross-linking method. Selected formulations were characterized for their entrapment efficiency, particle size, surface morphology, and release behavior. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for entrapment efficiency indicated that entrapment efficiency is best fitted to a response surface linear model. From the statistical analysis it was observed that as the drug:polymer (D∶P) ratio and volume of glutaraldehyde increased, there was a significant increase in the encapsulation efficiency. Scanning electron microscopy of the microspheres revealed a spherical, nonporous and uniform appearance, with a smooth surface. Based on the entrapment efficiency and physical appearance, 9 formulations were selected for release study. The maximum particle size observed was below 40 μm. The release pattern was biphasic, characterized by an initial burst effect followed by a slow release. All selected microspheres, except those having less polymer proportion (D∶P ratio is 1∶1), exhibited a prolonged release for almost 24 hours. On comparingr2 values for Higuchi and Peppas kinetic models, different batches of microspheres showed Fickian, non-Fickian, and diffusion kinetics. The release mechanism was regulated by D∶P ratio and amount of cross-linking agent. From the experimental data obtained with respect to particle size and extent of drug relaase, it could be concluded that the prepared microspheres are useful for once-a-day intramuscular administration of ketorolac tromethamine.
The Small G-protein Rac Mediates Depolarization-induced Superoxide Formation in Human Endothelial Cells*

Superoxide anions impair nitric oxide-mediated responses and are involved in the development of hypertensive vascular hypertrophy. The regulation of their production in the vascular system is, however, poorly understood. We investigated whether changes in membrane potential that occur in hypertensive vessels modulate endothelial superoxide production. In cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells, changes in membrane potential were induced by high potassium buffer, the non-selective potassium channel blocker tetrabutylammonium chloride (1 mm), and the non-selective cation ionophore gramicidin (1 μm). Superoxide formation was significantly elevated to a similar degree by all three treatments (by ∼60%, n = 23,p < 0.01), whereas hyperpolarization by theK ATP channel activator Hoe234 (1 μm) significantly decreased superoxide formation. Depolarization also induced an increased tyrosine phosphorylation of several not yet identified proteins (90–110 kDa) and resulted in a significant increase in membrane association of the small G-protein Rac. Accordingly, the Rac inhibitor Clostridium difficile toxin B blocked the effects of depolarization on superoxide formation. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein (30 μm, n = 15) abolished depolarization-induced superoxide formation and also prevented depolarization-induced Rac translocation associated with it. It is concluded that depolarization is an important stimulus of endothelial superoxide production, which involves a tyrosine phosphorylation-dependent translocation of the small G-protein Rac.
When bode meets shannon: control-oriented feedback communication schemes

In this paper, we show a general equivalence between feedback stabilization through an analog communication channel, and a communication scheme based on feedback which is a generalization of that of Schalkwijk and Kailath. We also show that the achievable transmission rate of the scheme is given by the Bode's sensitivity integral formula, which characterizes a fundamental limitation of causal feedback. Therefore, we can now use the many results and design tools from control theory to design feedback communication schemes providing desired communication rates, and to generate lower bounds on the channel feedback capacity. We consider single user Gaussian channels with memory and memory-less multiuser broadcast, multiple access, and interference channels. In all cases, the results we obtain either achieve the feedback capacity, when this is known, recover known best rates, or provide new best achievable rates.
Clue Insensitivity in Remote Associates Test Problem Solving

Does spreading activation from incidentally encountered hints cause incubation effects? We used Remote Associates Test (RAT) problems to examine effects of incidental clues on impasse resolution. When solution words were seen incidentally 3-sec before initially unsolved problems were retested, more problems were resolved (Experiment 1). When strong semantic associates of solutions were used as incidental clues, however, it did not improve resolution (Experiments 2 and 4). The semantic associates we used as incidental clues primed our RAT solution words in a lexical decision task, but they did not facilitate impasse resolution unless participants were explicitly instructed to use the associates as hints to the retested problems (Experiment 4). The results do not support the theory that spreading activation is a sufficient cause of incubation effects, and suggest that seren dipitously encountered clues (i.e., words that are semantically related to RAT solutions) have no automatic benefit on impasse resolution in RAT problem solving.
Diurnal changes in middle atmospheric H2O and O3: Observations in the Alpine region and climate models

In this paper we investigate daily variations in middle atmospheric water vapor and ozone based on data from two ground-based microwave radiometers located in the Alpine region of Europe. Temperature data are obtained from a lidar located near the two stations and from the SABER experiment on the TIMED satellite. This unique set of observations is complemented by three different three-dimensional (3-D) chemistry-climate models (Monitoring of Stratospheric Depletion of the Ozone Layer (MSDOL), Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique Reactive Processes Ruling the Ozone Budget in the Stratosphere (LMDz-REPROBUS), and Solar Climate Ozone Links (SOCOL)) and the 2-D atmospheric global-scale wave model (GSWM). The first part of the paper is focused on the first Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System (CAWSES) tidal campaign that consisted of a period of intensive measurements during September 2005. Variations in stratospheric water vapor are found to be in the order of 1% depending on altitude. Meridional advection of tidal nature is likely to be the dominant driving factor throughout the whole stratosphere, while vertical advection becomes more important in the mesosphere. Observed ozone variations in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere show amplitudes of several percent in accordance with photochemical models. Variations in lower stratospheric ozone are not solely governed by photochemistry but also by dynamics, with the temperature dependence of the photochemistry becoming more important. The second part presents an investigation of the seasonal dependence of daily variations. Models tend to underestimate the H2O diurnal amplitudes, especially during summer in the upper stratosphere. Good agreement between models and observations is found for ozone in the upper stratosphere, which reflects the fact that the O3 daily variations are driven by the photochemistry that is well modeled.
Bioactive glass-polycaprolactone fiber membrane and response of dental pulp stem cells in vitro

Abstract The study reports the fabrication and in vitro biological evaluation of a sol-gel derived bioactive glass (BG) / polycaprolactone (PCL) composite fiber membrane, as a potential candidate for bone regeneration applications. The non woven composite mats were prepared by introducing the glass particles into the electrospinning process. Adding the glass improved the homogeneity of the fibers. The apatite forming ability of the membranes in simulated body fluid were evaluated and showed that hydroxyapatite had formed within 21 days in SBF and completely covered the surface of the membrane. In cell culture, dental pulp stem cells adhered proliferated and produced mineralized matrix on the PCL/BG fiber membrane.