Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Security policy refinement using data integration: a position paper

In spite of the wide adoption of policy-based approaches for security management, and many existing treatments of policy verification and analysis, relatively little attention has been paid to policy refinement: the problem of deriving lower-level, runnable policies from higher-level policies, policy goals, and specifications. In this paper we present our initial ideas on this task, using and adapting concepts from data integration. We take a view of policies as governing the performance of an action on a target by a subject, possibly with certain conditions. Transformation rules are applied to these components of a policy in a structured way, in order to translate the policy into more refined terms; the transformation rules we use are similar to those of `global-as-view' database schema mappings, or to extensions thereof. We illustrate our ideas with an example.
Adhesion and reliability of underfill/subtrate interfaces in flip chip BGA packages: metrology and characterization

This paper discusses the methodologies of fracture mechanics that are used to study interfacial delamination by modeling delamination as a crack propagating along the interface between two materials. Specifically, adhesion and subcritical debonding at interface between silicon nitride passivated Silicon die and silica/alumina filled epoxy underfill are investigated. Adhesion was measured in terms of a critical value of the applied strain energy release rate, G (J/m/sup 2/). Subcritical debond growth rates were characterized as a function of applied G. Adhesion and subcritical debonding were studied by varying interfacial chemistry, process and environmental factors. Interfacial chemistry was modified by using different adhesion promoters and by varying the COOH acid content. Process variable such as filler bead settling was studied. The effects of environmental variables were studied with temperature and humidity controlled environments.
HIV antibody testing among those at risk for infection. The National AIDS Behavioral Surveys.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of testing for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody among adults with various risk factors for infection, particularly those residing in large metropolitan areas where the bulk of cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have occurred. DESIGN A nationwide, population-based telephone survey eliciting testing, sexual, and injection drug use histories. PARTICIPANTS A total of 2673 randomly chosen US residents and 8263 randomly chosen residents of 23 metropolitan areas containing 64% of reported cases of AIDS. INTERVENTIONS None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Testing for HIV antibody. MAIN RESULTS Overall, rates of individuals ever tested were only slightly higher in the urban areas (23%) than in the nation as a whole (21%). Testing frequencies were low among all risk groups (less than 40%), except men engaging in same-sex sexual activity (60%) and male and female injection drug users (46% and 73%, respectively). The low rate of testing (35%) among the largest risk group, heterosexual men and women engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse with multiple partners, was particularly worrisome. CONCLUSIONS To encourage antibody testing among the many at risk for infection who have not yet been tested, promotional campaigns should explain the universal susceptibility to infection among those at risk, and the availability of prophylactic medical therapies and social support services to persons who are HIV-seropositive. As there were comparable levels of risk-taking behavior among subjects in both samples, these campaigns must be designed to reach all segments of the population.
Investigation of deep beams with various load configurations

This paper reports on a series of tests that investigate the application of strut-and-tie models (STM) to beams with uniform loads. The tests also examined the impact of load distribution and shear reinforcement on the behavior of the beams. Specimens were subjected to single or double concentrated loads or uniformly distributed loads. The nominal strengths of the specimens were determined using STM provisions of two U.S. codes and then compared with the measured strengths. The application of STM produced conservative values of strength. Test results indicate differences in behavior among specimens subjected to different load distributions. The differences were apparent in the cracking patterns, failure modes, ultimate strengths, and strain distributions within the beams. Those differences indicate that distributed loads are a much less severe loading type than concentrated loads. Two concentrated loads appeared to be sufficient to generate the same load-resisting mechanism present with a true uniform load, depending on the details of the member.
Short-term treadmill running as a model for studying cell-free DNA kinetics in vivo.

BACKGROUND Increased plasma concentrations of cell-free DNA (cf-DNA) are considered a hallmark of various clinical conditions. Despite intensive research in this field, limited data are available concerning the time course of release and clearance of cf-DNA in vivo. METHODS We extracted cf-DNA from plasma samples taken before and immediately after a 10-km cross-country run, and from samples taken before, immediately after, and 30 min after exhaustive short-term treadmill exercise. The contribution of nuclear (nDNA) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was measured by quantitative real-time PCR. The incremental treadmill exercise setup was exploited to delineate the precise sequencing and timing of cf-nDNA, lactate, and high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) release during the exercise and recovery phases. RESULTS Postexercise plasma cf-nDNA concentrations in cross-country and treadmill runners were significantly increased, by 7.6-fold and 9.9-fold, respectively (P < 0.001). cf-nDNA concentrations were not correlated with age, sex, or body mass index. Plasma concentrations of cf-nDNA and HMGB1 in postexercise samples of treadmill runners were significantly correlated (r = 0.84; P = 0.004). cf-mtDNA concentrations were not affected by treadmill exercise. Time-course analyses demonstrated that cf-nDNA is released within minutes after the onset of exercise and is rapidly cleared from the circulation after the cessation of exercise. Nearly congruent kinetics for cf-nDNA, lactate, and HMGB1 were observed during the exercise phase. CONCLUSIONS A single bout of exhaustive short-term treadmill exercise constitutes a versatile model system suitable for addressing basic questions about cf-DNA biology.
Human-Oriented Interaction With an Anthropomorphic Robot

A very important aspect in developing robots capable of human-robot interaction (HRI) is the research in natural, human-like communication, and subsequently, the development of a research platform with multiple HRI capabilities for evaluation. Besides a flexible dialog system and speech understanding, an anthropomorphic appearance has the potential to support intuitive usage and understanding of a robot, e.g., human-like facial expressions and deictic gestures can as well be produced and also understood by the robot. As a consequence of our effort in creating an anthropomorphic appearance and to come close to a human- human interaction model for a robot, we decided to use human-like sensors, i.e., two cameras and two microphones only, in analogy to human perceptual capabilities too. Despite the challenges resulting from these limits with respect to perception, a robust attention system for tracking and interacting with multiple persons simultaneously in real time is presented. The tracking approach is sufficiently generic to work on robots with varying hardware, as long as stereo audio data and images of a video camera are available. To easily implement different interaction capabilities like deictic gestures, natural adaptive dialogs, and emotion awareness on the robot, we apply a modular integration approach utilizing XML-based data exchange. The paper focuses on our efforts to bring together different interaction concepts and perception capabilities integrated on a humanoid robot to achieve comprehending human-oriented interaction.
Significance of CAVI, hs-CRP and homocysteine in subclinical arteriosclerosis among a healthy population in China.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ability of cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels and homocysteine (Hcy) levels to screen for subclinical arteriosclerosis (subAs) in an apparently healthy population, with the view to obtaining an optimal diagnostic marker or profile for subAs. METHODS Subjects (152) undergoing routine health examinations were recruited and divided into two groups: carotid arteriosclerosis (CA) and non-carotid arteriosclerosis (NCA), according to carotid intima-media thickness (CMIT). CAVI was calculated based on blood pressure and pulse wave velocity. Serum hs-CRP and Hcy levels were also measured. A Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to evaluate the efficacy of each in carotid arteriosclerosis screening. Ten parameter combinations, designated W1 to W10, were compared in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV). RESULTS The levels of all three parameters were significantly higher in the CA group, compared with the NCA group. ROC curves showed that the area under the curve (AUC) for CAVI was 0.708 (95%CI: 0.615-0.800), which is significantly larger than that of either hs-CRP (0.622) or Hcy (0.630), respectively (P < 0.001). Maximum sensitivity (100%) and NPV (100%) were attained with W10, while maximum specificity (86.2%) and PPV (46.7%) were obtained with W7. With W9, the maximum Youden index (0.416) was obtained, with a sensitivity of 77.8% and specificity of 63.8%. CONCLUSIONS CAVI is more effective than hs-CRP or Hcy for subAs screening. The optimal profile was obtained with a combination of CAVI and other parameters.
Understanding broadcast based peer review on open source software projects

Software peer review has proven to be a successful technique in open source software (OSS) development. In contrast to industry, where reviews are typically assigned to specific individuals, changes are broadcast to hundreds of potentially interested stakeholders. Despite concerns that reviews may be ignored, or that discussions will deadlock because too many uninformed stakeholders are involved, we find that this approach works well in practice. In this paper, we describe an empirical study to investigate the mechanisms and behaviours that developers use to find code changes they are competent to review. We also explore how stakeholders interact with one another during the review process. We manually examine hundreds of reviews across five high profile OSS projects. Our findings provide insights into the simple, community-wide techniques that developers use to effectively manage large quantities of reviews. The themes that emerge from our study are enriched and validated by interviewing long-serving core developers.
Hyperspectral Data Characterization for Object Detection Applications

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) electro-optical sensors, with their hundreds of contiguous spectral bands, are a rich data source useful in a variety of applications. Numerous examples have demonstrated their potential. Understanding the characteristics of HSI data is important not only for algorithm design and assessment, but also for accurate modeling in a performance prediction context. Initial results are presented from an investigation exploring the applicability of characterizing the data with the first and second spectral statistical moments.
Regionalization of the Shark Hindbrain: A Survey of an Ancestral Organization

Cartilaginous fishes (chondrichthyans) represent an ancient radiation of vertebrates currently considered the sister group of the group of gnathostomes with a bony skeleton that gave rise to land vertebrates. This out-group position makes chondrichthyans essential in assessing the ancestral organization of the brain of jawed vertebrates. To gain knowledge about hindbrain evolution we have studied its development in a shark, the lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula by analyzing the expression of some developmental genes and the origin and distribution of specific neuronal populations, which may help to identify hindbrain subdivisions and boundaries and the topology of specific cell groups. We have characterized three developmental periods that will serve as a framework to compare the development of different neuronal systems and may represent a suitable tool for comparing the absolute chronology of development among vertebrates. The expression patterns of Pax6, Wnt8, and HoxA2 genes in early embryos of S. canicula showed close correspondence to what has been described in other vertebrates and helped to identify the anterior rhombomeres. Also in these early embryos, the combination of Pax6 with protein markers of migrating neuroblasts (DCX) and early differentiating neurons (general: HuC/D; neuron type specific: GAD, the GABA synthesizing enzyme) revealed the organization of S. canicula hindbrain in both transverse segmental units corresponding to visible rhombomeres and longitudinal columns. Later in development, when the interrhombomeric boundaries fade away, accurate information about S. canicula hindbrain subdivisions was achieved by comparing the expression patterns of Pax6 and GAD, serotonin (serotoninergic neurons), tyrosine hydroxylase (catecholaminergic neurons), choline acetyltransferase (cholinergic neurons), and calretinin (a calcium-binding protein). The patterns observed revealed many topological correspondences with other vertebrates and led to reconsideration of the current view of the elasmobranch hindbrain segmentation as peculiar among vertebrates.
Detailed Analysis of Extrinsic Plagiarism Detection System Using Machine Learning Approach (Naive Bayes and SVM)

In this report we proposed a detailed analysis method of plagiarism detection system using machine learning approach. We used Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine (SVM) as learning algorithms. Learning features used in the method are words similarity, fingerprints similarity, latent semantic analysis (LSA) similarity, and word pair. The purpose in selecting those features is to retrieve information from the state-of-the-art detailed analysis methods (words similarity, fingerprinting, and LSA) in order to integrate the strength of each method in detecting plagiarism. Several experiments were conducted to test the performance of the proposed method in detecting many cases of plagiarism. The experiments used data test that contains cases of literal plagiarism, partial literal plagiarism, paraphrased plagiarism, plagiarism with changed sentence structure, and translated plagiarism. The data test also contains cases of non-plagiarism of different topics and non-plagiarism of the same topic. The results obtained in experiments using SVM showed an average accuracy of 92.86% (reaching 95.71% without using words similarity feature). While the result obtained using Naive Bayes showed an average accuracy of 54.29% (reaching 84.29% without using the word pair features).
The Carboxyl Terminal Domain Regulates the Unitary Conductance and Voltage Dependence of Connexin40 Gap Junction Channels

Chemical regulation of connexin (Cx) 40 and Cx43 follows a ball-and-chain model, in which the carboxyl terminal (CT) domain acts as a gating particle that binds to a receptor affiliated with the pore. Moreover, Cx40 channels can be closed by a heterodomain interaction with the CT domain of Cx43 and vice versa. Here, we report similar interactions in the establishment of the unitary conductance and voltage-dependent profile of Cx40 in N2A cells. Two mean unitary conductance values (“lower conductance” and “main”) were detected in wild-type Cx40. Truncation of the CT domain at amino acid 248 (Cx40tr248) caused the disappearance of the lower-conductance state. Coexpression of Cx40tr248 with the CT fragment of either Cx40 (homodomain interactions) or Cx43 (heterodomain interactions) rescued the unitary conductance profile of Cx40. In the N2A cells, the time course of macroscopic junctional current relaxation was best described by a biexponential function in the wild-type Cx40 channels, but it was reduced to a single-exponential function after truncation. However, macroscopic junctional currents recorded in the oocyte expression system were not significantly different between the wild-type and mutant channels. Concatenation of the CT domain of Cx43 to amino acids 1 to 248 of Cx40 yielded a chimeric channel with unitary conductance and voltage-gating profile indistinguishable from that of wild-type Cx40. We conclude that residence of Cx40 channels in the lower-conductance state involves a ball-and-chain type of interaction between the CT domain and the pore-forming region. This interaction can be either homologous (Cx40 truncation with Cx40CT) or heterologous (with the Cx43CT).
EFFECTS OF COOKING METHODS ON TEXTURAL PROPERTIES AND WATER-HOLDING CAPACITY OF BROILER BREAST MEAT DEBONED AT VARIOUS POSTMORTEM TIMES

The effects of oven-baking (OB) and water-cooking (WC) methods on the textural properties and water-holding capacity (WHC) of broiler breast meat were investigated. A total of 1,008 broilers processed and deboned at nine different postmortem (0.25, 1.25, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 6.0 and 24.0 h) duration were cooked by two different cooking methods. Textural properties of cooked meat were predicted by the Meullenet–Owens razor shear method, descriptive analysis and consumer testing. Moisture and expressible moisture contents were also evaluated. Results showed that postmortem deboning time played more important roles on the development of texture in broiler breast meat than the cooking methods. The WC-cooked samples had higher moisture and expressible moisture contents across most of postmortem deboning times than the OB-cooked samples, indicating a better WHC for the WC method. Practical Applications This research provides practical information regarding how different cooking methods (oven baking and water cooking) relate to the textural properties and water-holding capacity (WHC) of broiler breast meat. Significant findings would include that quality of broiler breast meat was more significantly influenced by postmortem deboning times than the cooking methods. However, some of quality indicators associated with WHC varied according to the cooking methods. This information would be of benefit to poultry processors or users who would like to optimize the quality of broiler breast meat being cooked.
Uncertainty in Phylogenetic Tree Estimates

ABSTRACT Estimating phylogenetic trees is an important problem in evolutionary biology, environmental policy, and medicine. Although trees are estimated, their uncertainties are generally discarded in statistical models for tree-valued data. Here, we explicitly model the multivariate uncertainty of tree estimates. We consider both the cases where uncertainty information arises extrinsically (through covariate information) and intrinsically (through the tree estimates themselves). The latter case is applicable to any procedure for tree estimation, and thus has broad relevance to the entire field of phylogenetics. The importance of accounting for tree uncertainty in tree space is demonstrated in two case studies. In the first instance, differences between gene trees are small relative to their uncertainties, while in the second, the differences are relatively large. Our main goal is visualization of tree uncertainty, and we demonstrate advantages of our method with respect to reproducibility, speed, and preservation of topological differences compared to visualization based on multidimensional scaling. The proposal highlights that phylogenetic trees are estimated in an extremely high-dimensional space, resulting in uncertainty information that cannot be discarded. Most importantly, it is a method that allows biologists to diagnose whether differences between gene trees are biologically meaningful or due to uncertainty in estimation.
Human action recognition using Dynamic Time Warping

Human action recognition is gaining interest from many computer vision researchers because of its wide variety of potential applications. For instance: surveillance, advanced human computer interaction, content-based video retrieval, or athletic performance analysis. In this research, we focus to recognize some human actions such as waving, punching, clapping, etc. We choose exemplar-based sequential single-layered approach using Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) because of its robustness against variation in speed or style in performing action. For improving recognition rate, we perform body part tracking using depth camera to recover human joints body part information in 3D real world coordinate system. We build our feature vector from joint orientation along time series that invariant to human body size. Dynamic Time Warping is then applied to the resulted feature vector. We examine our approach to recognize several actions and we confirm our method can work well with several experiments. Further experiment for benchmarking the result will be held in near future.
Sandwiched hollow sphere structures: A study of ballistic impact behavior using numerical simulation

Sandwiched hollow sphere structure may have the potential to provide better ballistic impact protection as compared with monolithic plate based on the same weight and impact area. In the previous study of a sandwiched hollow sphere structure by the authors, a novel unit cell was created as a basic building unit of the structure, the tumbling effect was observed for significant impact energy absorption, and the existence of an optimal yield stress or hardness was proved for maximizing the impact energy absorption. However, the impact energy absorption ability of the sandwiched hollow sphere structure may also relate to many other factors. In this study, the diameter relation between the incoming projectile and the spheres in the sandwich core, the projectile initial impact velocity, and the sphere arrangement in the sandwich core are examined. It is revealed that the first layer sphere diameter should be comparable to the diameter of the incoming projectile, the diameter of spheres in different layers in one sandwich core should either decrease or increase monotonically, and there exists a critical impacting speed, at which the sandwiched sphere structure is most effective for impact energy absorption, etc. All these findings make the sandwiched hollow sphere structure a promising new member to the passive armor family.
Compass routing on geometric networks

Suppose that a traveler arrives to the City of Toronto, and wants to walk to the famous CN-Tower, one of the tallest free-standing structures in the world. Assume now that our visitor, lacking a map of Toronto, is standing at a crossing from which he can see the CN-tower, and several streets S1, . , Sm that he can choose to start his walk. A natural (and most likely safe assumption), is that our visitor must choose to walk first along the road that points closest in the direction of the CN-tower, see Figure 1. A close look at maps of numerous cities around the world, show us that the previous way to explore a new, and unknown city will in general yield walks that will be close enough to the optimal ones to travel from one location to another. In mathematical terms, we can model the map of many cities by geometric graphs in which street intersections are represented by the vertices of our graphs, and streets by straight line segments. Compass routing on geometric networks, in its most elemental form yields the following algorithm: