Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Framework of Coordinated Defense Shuyuan

Coordinated defense in cyber warfare has emerged to protect information as assets through the use of technologies, policy, and best management practices for defending against coordinated attacks. However, combining massive security technologies, policies, procedures and security staff does not guarantee the effectiveness of defense. Without a well-defined and structured element of coordination, an organization can not stand firm during coordinated attacks. The “culture” of coordinated defense must evolve within an organization over time. Organizations that adopt the framework of coordinated defense can develop a set of common assumptions regarding the organizational operations, and build a social firewall through well-structured coordination. The framework forms unique characteristics of an information security culture for that organization. This paper adopts Coordination Theory, and conceptualizes implicit coordination elements in the realm of monitoring-based coordinated defense in a dynamic online environment. While there is little research done in coordinated defense, this paper contributes to the information systems security by providing a framework for approaching coordinated defense. Through analyzing coordination dependencies, a culture of collaboration in a virtual world could be enhanced. Future studies in this area may include empirical analysis of an existing coordinated defense, such as incident response reporting systems against attacks, from the coordination theory perspective.
Lorentzian hard thresholding pursuit for compressed sensing in the presence of impulsive noise

The Lorentzian hard thresholding pursuit algorithm is proposed in this paper to achieve efficient reconstruction for compressed sensing in the presence of impulsive noise. In the Lorentzian hard thresholding pursuit algorithm, the minimum LL2 norm problem is solved with respect to a support which is obtained through the hard thresholding operator. The convergence and reconstruction performance of the Lorentzian hard thresholding pursuit algorithm is proved in theory in this paper. Experimental results show that the reconstruction performance of the Lorentizian hard thresholding pursuit algorithm is superior to the Lorentzian iterative hard thresholding algorithm which is also an effective algorithm for sparse reconstruction of compressed sensing in the impulsive noise environment.
Online Assessment of Training in Virtual Reality Simulators Based on General Bayesian Networks

 Virtual reality systems for training provide significant benefits over other methods, mainly in critical procedures. The evaluation of simulations is necessary to assess the training quality and provide some feedback about the user performance. An online evaluator for training simulators based on virtual reality must have a low complexity algorithm to do not compromise the performance of the simulator. Several approaches to perform that evaluation for online or offline training simulators based on virtual reality have been proposed. We propose a new approach for an online evaluation based on a General Bayesian Network. This network was used for modeling and classification of user’s skills in pre-defined classes of performance. This method provides the use of continuous variables without lost of information. Then, it solves the problem of low complexity in online evaluators without compromise performance of the simulator.
International Journal of Computer Vision Image Restoration via Bayesian Structured Sparse Coding: Where Structured Sparsity Meets Gaussian Scale Mixture Powered by Editorial Manager® and Produxion Manager® from Aries Systems Corporation Image Restoration via Bayesian Structured Sparse Coding: Where 

Sparse coding has been shown to be relevant to both variational and Bayesian approaches. The regularization parameter in variational image restoration is intrinsically connected with the shape parameters of sparse coefficients' distributions in Bayesian methods. How to tune those parameters in a principled yet spatially adaptive fashion turns out a challenging problem especially for the class of nonlocal image models. In this work, we propose a Bayesian structured sparse coding (BSSC) framework to address this issue-more specifically, a nonlocal extension of Gaussian scale mixture (GSM) model is developed based on structured sparsity and its related maximum a posterior (MAP) estimation problem is tackled. It is shown that the variances of sparse coefficients (the field of scalar multipliers of Gaussian)-if treated as a latent variable-can be jointly estimated along with the unknown sparse coefficients via the the method of alternating optimization. Unlike previous attacks to MAP estimation, ours leads to closed-form solutions involving iterative shrinkage/filtering only and therefore admits computationally efficient implementation. Our solution to BSSC can be viewed as an exemplar of demonstrating a new variational approach toward empirical Bayesian inference with parametric models, which has computational advantages over the existing variational Bayesian approaches. When applied to image restoration, our experimental results have shown that BSSC can both preserve the sharpness of edges and suppress undesirable artifacts. Thanks to its capability of achieving a better spatial adaptation, BSSC-based image restoration often delivers reconstructed images with higher subjective/objective qualities than other competing approaches. Abstract Sparse coding has been shown to be relevant to both variational and Bayesian approaches. The regulariza-tion parameter in variational image restoration is intrinsi-cally connected with the shape parameters of sparse coeffi-cients' distributions in Bayesian methods. How to tune those parameters in a principled yet spatially adaptive fashion turns out a challenging problem especially for the class of non-local image models. In this work, we propose a Bayesian structured sparse coding (BSSC) framework to address this issue-more specifically, a nonlocal extension of Gaussian scale mixture (GSM) model is developed based on struc-tured sparsity and its related maximum a posterior (MAP) estimation problem is tackled. It is shown that the variances of sparse coefficients (the field of scalar multipliers of Gaus-sian)-if treated as a latent variable-can be jointly estimated along with the unknown sparse coefficients via the method of alternating optimization. Unlike previous attacks to MAP estimation, ours leads to closed-form solutions involving iterative shrinkage/filtering only and therefore admits …
Warm Molecular Gas in Galaxy-Galaxy Merger NGC 6090

We present Submillimeter Array observations of the CO (2-1) and (3-2) transitions toward the merging galaxies of NGC 6090. The high-resolution CO data reveal three gas concentrations. The main component is peaking in the overlap region between the two galaxies, where the near-IR and radio continuum emission are weak. The CO (2-1) emission from the face-on galaxy NGC 6090E is somewhat stronger than that from the edge-on galaxy NGC 6090W. The CO (3-2) emission peaks in the overlap region, similar to the CO (2-1) emission. More than 50% of the CO (3-2) emission arises from the 2'' (1.2 kpc) area of the overlap region. There appears to be CO (3-2) emission toward the nuclear region and the northwest arm of NGC 6090E, while no CO (3-2) emission is detected toward NGC 6090W. Unlike the CO gas, most of the radio continuum emission comes from NGC 6090E. The strong CO emission, together with the weak radio continuum emission, suggests that star formation in the overlap region has not proceeded long enough to produce significant numbers of supernovae that would be detectable from their radio continuum emission.
Ticking Bombs: Defusing Violence in the Workplace

Violent crime is rapidly spreading to the places where people work, including offices, factories, schools, post offices, and hospitals. Businesses everywhere are becoming more concerned about protecting their employees and their assets from work-place crime. This book provides a seven-step benchmark model for dealing with work-place violence, covering every issue from prevention and protection, to coping with the aftermath of crimes. This resource offers: a background on the many forms of work-place violence - including how to recognize the warning signs; a chapter on security precautions; and ways to provide emotional, physical, legal and psychological support to employees after a violent episode occurs.
Human resource management practices in a transition economy

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which organizations in Nigeria use various human resource management (HRM) practices, and the perceived challenges and prospects of these practices.Design/methodology/approach – A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods was employed to gather information. Specifically, data were collected from 253 managers in selected firms. Descriptive data analysis is presented with respect to the use and execution of HRM practices such as recruitment, selection, performance appraisal and training and development. In addition, information was collected and analyzed with regard to the challenges and prospects of HRM.Findings – This study provides significant current information on HRM knowledge and practices in Nigeria. The findings reveal that HRM practices, such as training, recruitment, compensation, performance appraisal and reward systems, are still in place. However, issues of tribalism, AIDS, training and development and corruptio.
Verning Relted Modultion of Funtionl Retrievl Networks in Mn

The medial temporal lobe has been implicated in studies of episodic memory tasks involving spatio-temporal context and object-location conjunctions. We have previously demonstrated that an increased level of practice in a free-recall task parallels a decrease in the functional activity of several brain regions, including the medial temporal lobe, the prefrontal, the anterior cingulate, the anterior insular, and the posterior parietal cortices, that in concert demonstrate a move from elaborate controlled processing towards a higher degree of automaticity. Here we report data from two experiments that extend these initial observations. We used a similar experimental approach but probed for effects of retrieval paradigms and stimulus material. In the first experiment we investigated practice related changes during recognition of object-location conjunctions and in the second during free-recall of pseudo-words. Learning in a neural network is a dynamic consequence of information processing and network plasticity. The present and previous PET results indicate that practice can induce a learning related functional restructuring of information processing. Different adaptive processes likely subserve the functional re-organisation observed. These may in part be related to different demands for attentional and working memory processing. It appears that the role(s) of the prefrontal cortex and the medial temporal lobe in memory retrieval are complex, perhaps reflecting several different interacting processes or cognitive components. We suggest that an integrative interactive perspective on the role of the prefrontal and medial temporal lobe is necessary for an understanding of the processing significance of these regions in learning and memory. It appears necessary to develop elaborated and explicit computational models for prefrontal and medial temporal functions in order to derive detailed empirical predictions, and in combination with an efficient use and development of functional neuroimaging approaches, to further the understanding of the processing significance of these regions in memory.
Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells Participate in the Regenerative Response to Perinatal Hypoxia/Ischemia

Perinatal hypoxia/ischemia (H/I) is the leading cause of neurologic injury resulting from birth complications. Recent advances in critical care have dramatically improved the survival rate of infants suffering this insult, but ∼50% of survivors will develop neurologic sequelae such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy or cognitive deficits. Here we demonstrate that tripotential neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPs) participate in the regenerative response to perinatal H/I as their numbers increase 100% by 3 d and that they alter their intrinsic properties to divide using expansive symmetrical cell divisions. We further show that production of new striatal neurons follows the expansion of NSPs. Increased proliferation within the NSP niche occurs at 2 d after perinatal H/I, and the proliferating cells express nestin. Of those stem-cell related genes that change, the membrane receptors Notch1, gp-130, and the epidermal growth factor receptor, as well as the downstream transcription factor Hes5, which stimulate NSP proliferation and regulate stem cellness are induced before NSP expansion. The mechanisms for the reactive expansion of the NSPs reported here reveal potential therapeutic targets that could be exploited to amplify this response, thus enabling endogenous precursors to restore a normal pattern of brain development after perinatal H/I.
Optimal Monetary Policy and the Sources of Local-Currency Price Stability

We analyze the policy trade-offs generated by local currency price stability of imports in economies where upstream producers strategically interact with downstream firms selling the final goods to consumers. We study the effects of staggered price setting at the downstream level on the optimal price (and markup) chosen by upstream producers and show that downstream price movements affect the desired markup of upstream producers, magnifying their price response to shocks. We revisit the international dimensions of optimal monetary policy, unveiling an argument in favour of consumer price stability as the main prescription for monetary policy. Since stable consumer prices feed back into a low volatility of markups among upstream producers, this contains inefficient deviations from the law of one price at the border. However, efficient stabilization of different CPI components will not generally result into perfect stabilization of headline inflation. National policies optimally respond to the same shocks in a similar way, thus containing volatility of the terms of trade, but not necessarily of the real exchange rate. The latter will be more volatile, among other things, the larger the home bias in expenditure and the content of local inputs in consumer goods.
A Model of the U.K. Equity Premium

The paper analyses the behaviour of the equity premium in the UK. We find that lagged dividend ratios, bill returns and time series factors all play a statistically significant role in explaining the historical variation of the equity premium. Our analysis finds that the conditional variance of the equity premium also changes over time. A time series model which includes GARCH effects leads to a significant improvement in model fit.
Impact of Increased Technology Use on the Free-time Choices of Fifth and Seventh Grade Students in a Southern School District

The study sought to determine if increased technology use affects the free-time choices of students. While technology options have grown exponentially, time remains a fixed commodity. Therefore, it is suggested that students who increasingly use technology must draw time from more traditional childhood activities. Students' free-time activities were examined to document discernable patterns among the activities valued by students who use technology extensively and the activities valued by students who use technology less frequently. Study participants were fifth and seventh grade students in a semi-rural suburban county in the southeastern United States. The data collection instrument was a selfreporting survey in which students were asked to specify their relative interest in six traditional activities in comparison to specific technology-based alternatives. Students were also asked to estimate the number of minutes per week they spent on traditional and technology-related activities. Based on their time estimates, high and low quartiles of technology use were established. The forced-choice responses of students in the upper quartile of technology use were compared to the forced-choice responses of students in the lower quartile of technology use to determine if there were differences in their expressed preferences for the six traditional activities included in the study. Although findings revealed that students in the upper quartile of technology use were less interested in all six traditional activities studied than were students in the lower quartile of technology use, reading for fun, supervised activities, outdoor activities, and having a hobby were activities more
The Effects of Child-Bearing on Married Women's Labor Supply and Earnings: Using Twin Births as a Natural Experiment

Married women's decisions about child-bearing and market work are importantly interrelated. Although there are many estimates of the effects of fertility on female labor supply few of them have adequately addressed the problems of simultaneity inherent in these choices. In this paper, we use exogenous variations in fertility due to twin births to measure the impact of an unanticipated child on married women's labor supply and earnings. We find that the short-run effects of an unanticipated birth on labor supply are appreciable and have increased in magnitude as more mothers enter the labor market. It also appears that the impact of unanticipated births on earnings and wages has changed from 1980 to 1990. In 1980 reduced labor supply caused a temporary drop in earnings, but in 1990 earnings and wages remained depressed well after the labor supply effects of a twin birth had disappeared.
Presence of Pre-rRNAs before Activation of Polymerase I Transcription in the Building Process of Nucleoli during Early Development of Xenopus laevis

During the early development of Xenopus laevis, we followed in individual nuclei the formation of a nucleolus by examining simultaneously its structural organization and its transcriptional competence. Three distinct situations were encountered with different frequencies during development. During the first period of general transcriptional quiescence, the transcription factor UBF of maternal origin, was present in most nuclei at the ribosomal gene loci. In contrast, fibrillarin, a major protein of the processing machinery, was found in multiple prenucleolar bodies (PNBs) whereas nucleolin was dispersed largely in the nucleoplasm. During the second period, for most nuclei these PNBs had fused into two domains where nucleolin concentrated, generating a structure with most features expected from a transcriptionally competent nucleolus. However, RNA polymerase I–dependent transcription was not detected using run-on in situ assays whereas unprocessed ribosomal RNAs were observed. These RNAs were found to derive from a maternal pool. Later, during a third period, an increasing fraction of the nuclei presented RNA polymerase I–dependent transcription. Thus, the structural organization of the nucleolus preceded its transcriptional competence. We conclude that during the early development of X. laevis, the organization of a defined nucleolar structure, is not associated with the transcription process per se but rather with the presence of unprocessed ribosomal RNAs.
Association between IGF2BP2 Polymorphisms and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Case–Control Study and Meta-Analysis

Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) found that IGF2BP2 rs4402960 and rs1470579 polymorphisms were associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk. Many studies have replicated this association, but yielded inconsistent results. Materials and Methods: A case-control study consisting of 461 T2DM patients and 434 health controls was conducted to detect the genetic susceptibility of IGF2BP2 in a northern Han Chinese population. A meta-analysis was to evaluate the association more precisely in Asians. Results: In the case-control study, the carriers of TT genotype at rs4402960 had a higher T2DM risk than the G carriers (TG + GG) (adjusted odd ratio (AOR) = 1.962, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.065–3.612, p = 0.031]; CC carriers at rs1470579 were more susceptible to T2DM than A carriers (CA + AA) (AOR = 2.014, 95% CI = 1.114–3.642, p = 0.021). The meta-analysis containing 36 studies demonstrated that the two polymorphisms were associated with T2DM under the allele comparison, genetic models of dominant and recessive in Asians (p < 0.05). The rs4402960 polymorphisms were significantly associated with the T2DM risk after stratification by diagnostic criterion, size of sample and average age and BMI of cases, while there’re no consistent results for rs1470579. Conclusions: Our data suggests that IGF2BP2 polymorphisms are associated with T2DM in Asian populations.
The Coexistence of Common Pulmonary Diseases on the Histologic Type of Lung Cancer in Both Genders in Taiwan

AbstractEffects of pulmonary diseases [asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung tuberculosis (TB)] on subsequent lung cancer development have been reported. However, whether patients with coexisting pulmonary diseases are at greater risk of developing various histologic types of lung cancer remains elusive.Patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer between 2004 and 2008 were identified from National Health Insurance Research Database (Taiwan). The histologic types of lung cancer were further confirmed using Taiwan Cancer Registry Database. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) of coexisting asthma, COPD and/or TB to estimate lung cancer risk by histologic type.During the study period, 32,759 cases of lung cancer were identified from 15,219,024 residents age 20 years and older, who were free from the disease before 2003. Coexisting pulmonary diseases showed stronger association with lung cancer than specific lung disorders. Specifically, among men, the HRs for squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) were 3.98 (95% CI, 3.22–4.93), 2.68 (95% CI, 2.45–2.93), and 2.57 (95% CI, 2.10–3.13) for individuals with asthma+COPD+TB, asthma+COPD, and COPD+TB, respectively. Among women, the HRs for SqCC were 3.64 (95% CI, 1.88–7.05), 3.35 (95% CI, 1.59–7.07), and 2.21 (95% CI, 1.66–2.94) for individuals with TB, COPD+TB, and asthma+COPD, respectively. Adenocarcinoma HRs for men and women were 2.00 (95% CI, 1.54–2.60) and 2.82 (95% CI, 1.97–4.04) for individuals with asthma+COPD+TB, 2.28 (95% CI, 1.91–2.73) and 2.16 (95% CI, 1.57–2.95) for COPD+TB, and 1.76 (95% CI, 1.04–2.97) and 2.04 (95% CI, 1.02–4.09) for individuals with asthma+TB. Specifically, small cell carcinoma (SmCC) HRs among men were 3.65 (95% CI, 1.97–6.80), 2.20 (95% CI, 1.45–3.36), and 2.14 (95% CI, 1.86–2.47) for those with asthma+TB, asthma+COPD+TB, and asthma+ COPD, respectively. Among women, the HRs of SmCC were 8.97 (95% CI, 3.31–24.28), 3.94 (95% CI, 1.25–12.35) and 3.33 (95% CI, 2.23–4.97) for those with asthma+COPD+TB, COPD+TB, and asthma+COPD, respectively.Patients with coexistence of pulmonary diseases were more susceptible to lung cancer. Affected persons deserve greater attention while undergoing cancer screening.