Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vulnerable GPU Memory Management: Towards Recovering Raw Data from GPU

Abstract According to previous reports, information could be leaked from GPU memory; however, the security implications of such a threat were mostly over-looked, because only limited information could be indirectly extracted through side-channel attacks. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for recovering raw data directly from the GPU memory residues of many popular applications such as Google Chrome and Adobe PDF reader. Our algorithm enables harvesting highly sensitive information including credit card numbers and email contents from GPU memory residues. Evaluation results also indicate that nearly all GPU-accelerated applications are vulnerable to such attacks, and adversaries can launch attacks without requiring any special privileges both on traditional multi-user operating systems, and emerging cloud computing scenarios.
Organotypic Culture of Breast Tumor Explants as a Multicellular System for the Screening of Natural Compounds with Antineoplastic Potential

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women worldwide. The search for novel compounds with antitumor activity, with less adverse effects and higher efficacy, and the development of methods to evaluate their toxicity is an area of intense research. In this study we implemented the preparation and culture of breast tumor explants, which were obtained from precision-cut breast tumor slices. In order to validate the model we are proposing to screen antineoplastic effect of natural compounds, we selected caffeic acid, ursolic acid, and rosmarinic acid. Using the Krumdieck tissue slicer, precision-cut tissue slices were prepared from breast cancer samples; from these slices, 4 mm explants were obtained and incubated with the selected compounds. Viability was assessed by Alamar Blue assay, LDH release, and histopathological criteria. Results showed that the viability of the explants cultured in the presence of paclitaxel (positive control) decreased significantly (P < 0.05); however, tumor samples responded differently to each compound. When the explants were coincubated with paclitaxel and compounds, a synergic effect was observed. This study shows that ex vivo culture of breast cancer explants offers a suitable alternative model for evaluating natural or synthetic compounds with antitumor properties within the complex microenvironment of the tumor.
Dehn-Sommerville relations, upper bound theorem, and levels in arrangements

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Identification of novel microRNAs regulating HLA-G expression and investigating their clinical relevance in renal cell carcinoma

The non-classical human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) is expressed at a high frequency in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and is associated with a higher tumor grade and a poor clinical outcome. This might be caused by the HLA-G-mediated inhibition of the cytotoxicity of T and NK cells. Therefore a selective targeting of HLA-G might represent a powerful strategy to enhance the immunogenicity of RCC lesions. Recent studies identified a number of HLA-G-regulating microRNAs (miRs) and demonstrated an inverse expression of some of these miRs with HLA-G in RCC in vitro and in vivo. However, it was postulated that further miRs might exist contributing to the tightly controlled selective HLA-G expression. By application of a miR enrichment assay (miTRAP) in combination with in silico profiling two novel HLA-G-regulatory miRs, miR-548q and miR-628-5p, were identified. Direct interactions of both miRs with the 3′ untranslated region of HLA-G were confirmed with luciferase reporter gene assays. In addition, qPCR analyses and immunohistochemical staining revealed an inverse, expression of miR-628-5p, but not of miR-548q to the HLA-G protein in primary RCC lesions and cell lines. Stable overexpression of miR-548q and miR-628-5p caused a downregulation of HLA-G mRNA and protein. This leads in case of miR-548q to an enhanced NK cell-mediated HLA-G-dependent cytotoxicity, which could be reverted by ILT2 blockade suggesting a control of the immune effector cell activity at least by this miR. The identification of two novel HLA-G-regulatory miRs extends the number of HLA-G-relevant miRs tuning the HLA-G expression and might serve as future therapeutic targets.
TPACK Goes to Sixth Grade

Abstract This is a qualitative study addressing the question: In what ways does a sixth grade middle school teacher show evidence of behaviors that fit the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework in the classroom? The researcher observed in this class, interviewed the teacher, and looked for evidence of the interplay between components of the framework. This teacher’s class was particularly appropriate for this study because she was an experienced teacher her school district selected to pilot a classroom with many technologies, including one laptop for each student. Applying the TPACK theoretical framework to her classroom helps us better understand how the framework is translated into practice. Findings indicate that the teacher provided a foundation for the use of technology in content (language arts) and pedagogy (project-based learning). The teacher demonstrated technological pedagogical knowledge through well-planned classroom management practices as well as the interplay between components of the framework. Recommendations include the use of the TPACK framework as a lens for classroom observation and the need for additional cases to be used in professional development.
Configuration spaces and limits of voronoi diagrams

The Voronoi diagram of n distinct generating points divides the plane into cells, each of which consists of points most close to one particular generator. After introducing ‘limit Voronoi diagrams’ by analyzing diagrams of moving and coinciding points, we deﬁne compactiﬁcations of the conﬁguration space of n distinct, labeled points. On elements of these compactiﬁcations we deﬁne Voronoi diagrams.
Perceptual "vowel spaces" of cochlear implant users: implications for the study of auditory adaptation to spectral shift.

Cochlear implant (CI) users differ in their ability to perceive and recognize speech sounds. Two possible reasons for such individual differences may lie in their ability to discriminate formant frequencies or to adapt to the spectrally shifted information presented by cochlear implants, a basalward shift related to the implant's depth of insertion in the cochlea. In the present study, we examined these two alternatives using a method-of-adjustment (MOA) procedure with 330 synthetic vowel stimuli varying in F1 and F2 that were arranged in a two-dimensional grid. Subjects were asked to label the synthetic stimuli that matched ten monophthongal vowels in visually presented words. Subjects then provided goodness ratings for the stimuli they had chosen. The subjects' responses to all ten vowels were used to construct individual perceptual "vowel spaces. " If CI users fail to adapt completely to the basalward spectral shift, then the formant frequencies of their vowel categories should be shifted lower in both F1 and F2. However, with one exception, no systematic shifts were observed in the vowel spaces of CI users. Instead, the vowel spaces differed from one another in the relative size of their vowel categories. The results suggest that differences in formant frequency discrimination may account for the individual differences in vowel perception observed in cochlear implant users.
Leadership for Social Justice and Equity: Weaving a Transformative Framework and Pedagogy

Although many agree that theory, research, and practice should be intertwined to support the type of schooling (and society) that values rather than marginalizes, few scholars offer ground-breaking, pragmatic approaches to developing truly transformative leaders. From a critical theorist perspective, this article offers a practical, process-oriented model that is responsive to the challenges of preparing educational leaders committed to social justice and equity. By weaving a tripartite theoretical framework together in support of an alternative, transformative pedagogy, students learn “to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality”. The three theoretical perspectives of Adult Learning Theory, Transformative Learning Theory, and Critical Social Theory are interwoven with the three pedagogical strategies of critical reflection, rational discourse, and policy praxis to increase awareness, acknowledgment, and action within preparation programs.
A novel stationary wavelet denoising algorithm for array-based DNA Copy Number data

High-throughput microarrays have recently been developed to detect DNA Copy Number (DCN) aberrations. The resulting DCN data is often very noisy. Previous denoising methods proposed for DCN data assumed uniform spacing between adjacent probes, which is not true and can potentially result in erroneous output. To address this issue, we developed a novel stationary wavelet denoising scheme for DCN data. Empirical results on synthetic data showed that our method outperformed the best previous method by 4.612. 7% in terms of the root mean squared error. Experiments on a real data set also confirmed the applicability of our method.
The accretion disk corona and disk atmosphere of 4U 1624-490 as viewed by the Chandra-HETGS

We present a detailed spectral study (photoionization modelling and variability) of the "Big Dipper" 4U 1624-490 based on a \chandra-High Energy Transmission Gratings Spectrometer (HETGS) observation over the $\sim76$ ks binary orbit of 4U 1624-490. While the continuum spectrum can be modeled using a blackbody plus power-law, a slightly better fit is obtained using a single $\Gamma=2.25$ power-law partially (71%) covered by a local absorber of column density $N_{\rm H, Local}=8. 1_{-0.6}^{+0.7}\times 10^{22} \rm cm^{-2}$. The data show a possible quasi-sinusoidal modulation with period $43_{-9}^{+13}$ ks that might be due to changes in local obscuration. Photoionization modeling with the {\sc xstar} code and variability studies of the observed strong \ion{Fe}{25} and \ion{Fe}{26} absorption lines point to a two-temperature plasma for their origin: a highly ionized component of ionization parameter $\xi_{\rm hot} \approx 10^{4.3} {\rm ergs cm s^{-1}}$ ($T\sim 3.0\times 10^{6}$ K) associated with an extended accretion disk corona of radius $R \sim3\times10^{10}$ cm, and a less ionized more variable component of $\xi \approx 10^{3.4} {\rm ergs cm s^{-1}}$ ($T\sim 1.0\times 10^{6}$ K) and $\rm \xi \approx 10^{3.1} ergs cm s^{-1}$ ($T\sim 0.9\times 10^{6}$ K) coincident with the accretion disk rim. We use this, with the observed \ion{Fe}{25} and \ion{Fe}{26} absorption line variations (in wavelength, strength, and width) to construct a viewing geometry that is mapped to changes in plasma conditions over the 4U 1624-490 orbital period.
A survey of geocast routing protocols

Geocasting is the delivery of a message to nodes within a geographical region. With geocast, new services and applications are feasible like finding friends that are nearby, geographic advertising and accident or wrong–way driver warning on a motorway. In this paper we present a survey on geocast routing protocols. The protocols mainly differ in whether they are based on flooding, directed flooding or on routing without flooding and whether they are suitable for ad hoc networks or for infrastructure networks. Based on these criteria we propose a classification of geocast protocols. Our protocol comparison includes the message and memory complexity, the robustness and the ability to deliver geocast packets in partially partitioned networks. Finally, we present simulations to compare the approaches based on flooding, directed flooding and routing without flooding.
Automatic measurement of crystal size distribution using image processing.

In sugar production the optimal control of sugar crystal growth during the crystallisation stages is essential for producing sugar crystals having the required size specification. The growth process is usually monitored using a variety of indirect measurement techniques in addition to visual inspection. Such indirect measurements are subjective and hence prone to operator variability. For this reason, a more quantitative automatic system is required. Software routines were developed for the automated measurement of crystal size using classical image analysis techniques. Five algorithms have been evaluated to automatically determine the size distribution from images of crystal samples captured by a digital camera attached to a microscope. The accuracy of the segmentation depends on the technique used to mark every crystal in the image. The parameters of interest which were calculated from the size distribution include the mean aperture (MA) and coefficient of variance (CV). Mathematical morphology has been used as a tool to develop the algorithms. The results obtained using these algorithms were compared with each other and with a manually clicked measurement. The mean aperture was measured with an error of less than 20%. The accuracy of the results mainly depended on the number of crystals counted and the degree of crystal overlap.
Scalable Distributed Meta-Data Management in Parallel NFS

High performance computing (HPC) applications demand high I/O throughput from file systems to match their fast processing requirements. These HPC applications create large amounts of file meta-data that can overwhelm current single meta-data server file systems leading to performance bottlenecks. We address this problem with a multiple meta-data server (M-MDS) design using standard parallel NFS (pNFS). We utilize NFS directory referrals mechanism with hashing to efficiently distribute meta-data across a cluster of metadata servers. We show through a large scale setup in Amazon EC2 that our pNFS M-MDS can scale almost linearly and outperform Lustre CMD (Clustered Metadata) by up to 3 times in some of the file system meta-data operation benchmarks.
A simple method to estimate actual evapotranspiration from a combination of net radiation, vegetation index, and temperature

Satellite remote sensing is a promising technique for estimating global or regional evapotranspiration (ET). A simple and accurate method is essential when estimating ET using remote sensing data. Such a method is investigated by taking advantage of satellite measurements and the extensive ground-based measurements available at eight enhanced surface facility sites located throughout the Southern Great Plains (SGP) area of the United States from January 2002 to May 2005. Data analysis shows that correlation coefficients between ET and surface net radiation are the highest, followed by temperatures (air temperature or land surface temperature, Ts), and vegetation indices (enhanced vegetation index (EVI) or normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)). A simple regression equation is proposed to estimate ET using surface net radiation, air or land surface temperatures and vegetation indices. ET can be estimated using daytime-averaged air temperature and EVI with a root mean square error (RMSE) of ~30 W m? 2 and a correlation coefficient of 0.91 across all sites and years. ET can also be estimated with comparable accuracy using NDVI and Ts. More importantly, the daytime-averaged ET can also be estimated using only one measurement per day of temperatures (the daytime maximum air temperature or Ts) with comparable accuracy. A sensitivity analysis shows that the proposed method is only slightly sensitive to errors of temperatures, vegetation indices and net surface radiation. An independent validation was made using the measurements colleted by the eddy covariance method at six AmeriFlux sites throughout the United States from 2001 to 2006. The land cover associated with the AmeriFlux sites varies from grassland, to cropland and forest. The results show that ET can be reasonably predicted with a correlation coefficient that varies from 0.84 to 0.95 and a bias that varies from 3 W m? 2 to 15 W m? 2 and RMSE varying from ~30 W m? 2 to ~40 W m? 2. The positive bias partly comes from the energy imbalance problem encountered in the eddy covariance method. The proposed method can predict ET under a wide range of soil moisture contents and land cover types.
Learning Semantic Graph Mapping for Document Summarization

We present a method for summarizing document by creating a semantic graph of the original document and identifying the substructure of such a graph that can be used to extract sentences for a document summary. We start with deep syntactic analysis of the text and, for each sentence, extract logical form triples, subject–predicate–object. We then apply cross-sentence pronoun resolution, co-reference resolution, and semantic normalization to refine the set of triples and merge them into a semantic graph. This procedure is applied to both documents and corresponding summary extracts. We train Support Vector Machine on the logical form triples to learn automatic creation of document summaries. Our experiments with the DUC 2002 data show that increasing the set of attributes to include semantic properties and topological graph properties of logical triples yields statistically significant improvement of the F1 measure for the extracted summaries.
Parental age and the risk of autism spectrum disorders: findings from a Swedish population-based cohort.

BACKGROUND The objectives of this study were to examine the independent and dependent associations of maternal and paternal age and risk of offspring autism spectrum disorders (ASD), with and without intellectual disability (ID). METHODS The sample consisted of 417 303 Swedish children born 1984-2003. ASD case status (N = 4746) was ascertained using national and regional registers. Smoothing splines in generalized additive models were used to estimate associations of parental age with ASD. RESULTS Whereas advancing parental age increased the risk of child ASD, maternal age effects were non-linear and paternal age effects were linear. Compared with mothers at the median age 29 years, those <29 had similar risk, whereas risk increased after age 30, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.75 [95% (CI): 1.63-1.89] at ages 40-45. For fathers, compared with the median age of 32 years, the OR for ages 55-59 was 1.39 (1.29-1.50). The risk of ASD was greater for older mothers as compared with older fathers. For example, mothers aged 40-45 (≥97.2th percentile) had an estimated 18.63 (95% CI: 17.25-20.01) ASD cases per 1000 births, whereas fathers aged 55-59 (≥99.7th percentile) had 16.35 (95% CI: 15.11-17.58) ASD cases per 1000 births. In analyses stratified by co-parental age, increased risk due to advancing paternal age was evident only with mothers ≤35 years. In contrast, advancing maternal age increased risk regardless of paternal age. Advancing parental age was more strongly associated with ASD with ID, compared with ASD without ID. CONCLUSIONS We confirm prior findings that advancing parental age increases risk of ASD, particularly for ASD with ID, in a manner dependent on co-parental age. Although recent attention has emphasized the effects of older fathers on ASD risk, an increase of n years in maternal age has greater implications for ASD risk than a similar increase in paternal age.
An evaluation of the effects of an autistic spectrum disorder-specificpost-graduate certificate continuing professional developmentprogramme on practice in six schools

The aim of the research was to establish whether valued outcomes could be identified with a particular autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)-specifc post-graduate certificate programme. The research investigated and compared the practice of six teachers who had participated in an ASD-specific continuing professional development (CPD) programme and four teachers who had not. A combined qualitative and quantitative case-study design was used in reviewing the literature, videoing classroom practice, conducting semi-structured interviews with class teachers, principals and other school staff. The data were interrogated through combining a specifically-constructed model for evaluating the aims, functions, impact and discrete elements of CPD with the concept o f grounded theory. The acquisition of a broad theoretical knowledge of ASDs, increased teacher-confidence, awareness of the autobiographical experiences o f individuals with ASDs and the development of lifelong learning, writing and research skills were identified as valued outcomes o f participating in the programme. An impact on promoting the principal’s management and instructional roles and employing a collaborative, inclusive whole-school approach was evident in schools where teachers had completed the programme. Bricolage and self-reflective practice also emerged as key contributing factors to teachers’ knowledge. The value o f access to a range of CPD models for teachers is affirmed provided that the quality o f programmes is assured. The research findings suggest that while initial teacher education (ITE) would benefit from further special education input, the contribution o f ITE to teachers’ repertoire of pedagogical knowledge in meeting the needs o f pupils with ASDs should not be underestimated. Significantly the research findings suggest the possibility of incorporating the strategies used in behavioural approaches in naturalistic classroom settings. The findings indicate that it is critical that teachers are in a position to adopt an individualised responsive ASD-pedagogy that incorporates both an understanding of the common pedagogic needs o f all learners and the group-pedagogic needs of learners with ASDs. The research findings further corroborate the fact that the literature to date, has failed to yield definitive conclusions in favour o f a specific intervention model for pupils with ASDs. It is suggested that an alternative approach based on isolating the effective elements o f common and ASD-specific teaching approaches may be more advantageous than pursuing the quest for a specific intervention model.