Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cyber Forensics through Program Analysis

My research interests lie in cyber forensics, systems security, and the vetting of untrusted software. More specifically, I have developed novel capabilities for the investigation of advanced cyber crimes and the analysis and prevention of next-generation malware attacks, particularly in mobile and cloud computing environments. Underpinning this research is the development of fundamental techniques for binary program analysis and instrumentation, modeling of temporal and spatial forensic evidence, and virtualization-based defenses. In addition, I have been involved in many highly successful research collaborations in the design of efficient and reliable cloud computing systems. In recognition of my research contributions, I have been honored with two prestigious fellowships: the 2016 Symantec Research Labs Graduate Fellowship and the inaugural Emil Stefanov Memorial Fellowship in Computer Science. In the field of cyber forensics, my research has introduced new paradigms in evidence acquisition via memory image analysis [1, 2, 3, 4] and execution projection investigation [5, 6]. My research in this area has received a Best Paper Award from the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS’15) [3] and a Best Student Paper Award from the 2014 USENIX Security Symposium [1], both toptier cyber security conferences. My work is widely regarded as breaking from traditional data-recoveryoriented forensics and instead proposing innovative techniques, based on retargeting program executions, for recovering spatial-temporal evidence. Further, the practical impact of this work has garnered acclaim from highly regarded media outlets such as the Stanford Cyber Initiative, The Register, NSF News, ACM TechNews, IEEE Electronics360, and Homeland Preparedness News (a full list is available on my webpage). In the field of software and systems security, my work develops new program analysis techniques for the vetting and hardening of untrusted software [7, 8, 9] and virtualization-based technologies for the detection, monitoring, and prevention of attacks against cloud platforms [10, 11]. My work in mobile app vetting [7] has led to the identification and removal of hundreds of privacy-violating iOS apps from the Apple App Store. Further, the practical solutions built from this research have led to a number of tech-transfers and real world deployments with industry partners (e.g., Intelligent Automation Inc., Cisco Systems, and Vencore Labs).
Social Class and Undergraduate Degree Subject in the UK

Although past research has established the existence of strong social class effects on the decision to undertake higher education in the UK, there is only sparse empirical work investigating social class influences on the choice of degree subject at the undergraduate level. We estimate trinomial probit models of undergraduate degree subject enrolled for the period 1981-1991 using Universities’ Statistical Record data and generally find no social class effect. This finding is robust to different ways to aggregate degree subjects and the use of alternative econometric models. Our analysis suggests that in a period pre-dating the mass expansion of higher education, the replacement of student grants with student loans and the introduction of undergraduate student tuition fees, the UK university system granted equal opportunities to students from different social classes in terms of the degree subject enrolled.
Secure and Usable Bio-Passwords based on Confidence Interval

The most popular user-authentication method is the password. Many authentication systems try to enhance their security by enforcing a strong password policy, and by using the password as the first factor, something you know, with the second factor being something you have. However, a strong password policy and a multi-factor authentication system can make it harder for a user to remember the password and login in. In this paper a bio-password-based scheme is proposed as a unique authentication method, which uses biometrics and confidence interval sets to enhance the security of the log-in process and make it easier as well. The method offers a user-friendly solution for creating and registering strong passwords without the user having to memorize them. Here we also show the results of our experiments which demonstrate the efficiency of this method and how it can be used to protect against a variety of malicious attacks.
Discovery of a Metal-Line Absorber Associated with a Local Dwarf Starburst Galaxy

We present optical and near-infrared images, H I 21 cm emission maps, optical spectroscopy, and Hubble Space Telescope Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph ultraviolet spectroscopy of the QSO/galaxy pair SBS 1122+594/IC 691. The QSO sight line lies at a position angle of 27° from the minor axis of the nearby dwarf starburst galaxy IC 691 (czgal = 1204 ± 3 km s-1, LB ∼ 0.09L*, current star formation rate = 0.08-0.24 h M⊙ yr-1) and 33 h kpc (6.′6) from its nucleus. We find that IC 691 has an H I mass of M = (3.6 ± 0.1) × 108 M⊙ and a dynamical mass of Mdyn = (3.1 ± 0.5) × 1010 h M⊙. The UV spectrum of SBS 1122+594 shows a metal-line (Lyα+C IV) absorber near the redshift of IC 691 at czabs = 1110 ± 30 km s-1. Since IC 691 is a dwarf starburst and the SBS 1122+594 sight line lies in the expected location for an outflowing wind, we propose that the best model for producing this metal-line absorber is a starburst wind from IC 691. We place consistent metallicity limits on IC 691 ([Z/Z⊙] ∼ -0.7) and the metal-line absorber ([Z/Z⊙] < -0.3). We also find that the galaxy's escape velocity at the absorber location is vesc = 80 ± 10 km s-1 and derive a wind velocity of vw = 160 ± 50 km s-1. Thus, the evidence suggests that IC 691 produces an unbound starburst wind that escapes from its gravitational potential to transport metals and energy to the surrounding intergalactic medium.
A Taxonomy of Multiple Window Coordinations

In current windowing environments, individual windows are treated independently, making it difficult for users to coordinate information across multiple windows. While coordinated multi-window strategies are increasingly used in visualization and web user interfaces, designs are inflexible and haphazard. The space of such linkedwindow strategies is not well understood and largely unexplored. This paper presents a taxonomy of coordinations, identifies important components, and reviews example interfaces. This 2x3 taxonomy provides guidelines for designers of applications, user interface toolkits, and window managers. We hope to encourage construction of generalized, end-user programmable, robust, multiple-window coordination capabilities.
A Novel Cooperative Caching Scheme for Unstructured Peer-to-Peer Networks

Unstructured peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have power-law topology, and the number of content requests also follows power-law distributions. These properties cause two problems: the high-load of high-degree peers and the quick deletion of rarely requested contents. We propose a new caching scheme that replaces the cache on the basis of the number of request messages per unit of time. It significantly reduces the load of high-degree peers and improves the hit rate. Moreover, we use a simulation to show the effectivity of our proposed method.
Some Are Born With White Space, Some Achieve White Space, and Some Have White Space Thrust Upon Them

A few steps from Shakespeare's spiritual home The Globe Theatre in London, the U.K. regulator Ofcom is formulating its own well-crafted play based on TV white spaces (TVWSs). Such work comfortably fits into the Shakespearean analogy of “some achieve white space” through implementation of clever twists to make white space available while not causing harmful interference to incumbents, noting that the U.K. is extremely busy in terms of spectrum usage. This paper reports on some of the work of by our trial within the Ofcom TVWS Pilot, building key observations on beneficial usage scenarios for TVWS through link testing examples. It also particularly investigates performance of TVWS in terms of availability and capacity, through these scenarios and more generally, strongly focusing on aggregation of TVWS resources. A number of key observations result from this paper, some of which we highlight here. First, in the U.K., and in Europe in general where local DTT deployment characteristics and landscapes are similar to the U.K., TVWS has most benefit potential in below-rooftop receiver and indoor deployments. This is even more so if local white space device (WSD) deployment is extensive. Given this, we define and assess key baseline scenarios that we term as “mobile broadband downlink” and “indoor broadband provisioning” (akin to Wi-Fi or small cells in TVWS). We also argue comparison with other scenarios/topologies through parameter changes, and we further demonstrate the strength of TVWS for the indoor case through link performance tests. A second key observation is that good TVWS availability is achieved through the sophisticated regulatory approach of Ofcom, noting that the same approach to TVWS is harmonized across Europe through the ETSI EN 301 598 standard. However, this is affected by scenario: high power, high transmitter (e.g., 30 m above ground level) scenarios have a particularly reduced and variable availability. Further, high capacities are achieved by aggregating TVWS channels, especially if non-contiguous aggregation is supported; and moreover, profound implications for WSD RF design are derived based on such results, particularly under contiguous aggregation or channel bonding. A third key observation is that TVWS yields significant future potential, despite headwinds such as the WRC 2015 decision to allocate 694-790 MHz to mobile broadband on a co-primary basis in ITU region 1.
A hybrid DPSO-SA approach to assembly sequence planning

In this paper, an assembly sequence planning (ASP) approach is proposed with a multi-objective hybrid evolutionary search algorithm, which combines a discrete particle swarm optimization (DPSO) algorithm and a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm. Based on a special assembly sequence coding method and corresponding update strategy, the effects caused by the changes of parameters in the hybrid DPSO and SA (DPSO-SA) algorithm are investigated, and the performance of the proposed DPSO-SA algorithm is compared with the existing DPSO algorithm. Case study shows that the hybrid DPSO-SA approach can be more efficient to generate optimal assembly sequences, and can significantly increase the search capability and perform better than the DPSO algorithm.
Bien-être psychologique au travail et performance des équipes : une équipe heureuse est-elle performante ?

En psychologie, le concept de bien-etre, composante positive de la sante (Keyes, 2003), possede un long historique de recherche, le positionnant au croisement de plusieurs enjeux : distinction entre les conceptions hedoniste (Diener, 1999) et eudemonique (Ryff, 2014), existence d’une specificite du bien-etre psychologique au travail (Dagenais-Desmarais, 2012), evaluation par questionnaire des dimensions individuelle et collective (Heutte, 2010), etude du lien avec la performance d’equipe (Rousseau, Aube, & Savoie, 2006), integration dans les approches multi-niveaux de prevention de la sante au travail (Martin, 2015). Nous postulons qu’un questionnaire interrogeant simultanement l’individu sur son propre bien-etre et celui de son equipe apporte a la fois une appreciation juste de ces deux niveaux, tout en integrant une mesure pronostique de l’efficacite du groupe au travail. Cette proposition de methode prend la forme d’un questionnaire a double entree, s’appuyant sur la methode du « changement de referent » (Chan 1998). L’objectif etant d’eclairer le passage de la mesure du bien-etre psychologique au travail du niveau individuel au niveau du groupe, notre demarche de recherche (sous convention CIFRE) participe aux pratiques d’accompagnement et de prevention des problematiques de sante au travail par une focalisation originale sur les equipes de travail.Cinq etudes, reunissant 1101 reponses de professionnels en activite dans des entreprises et des institutions francaises, ont permis de montrer qu’un processus de comparaison sociale contribue aux reponses du sujet, tout en conservant la bonne qualite psychometrique des echelles de mesure utilisees. Le rapport individu / groupe induit par la methode, mettant en tension les besoins d’affiliation et de differenciation (Codol, 1973, 1975a, 1975b, 1984 ; Brewer, 1991, 2007, 2012), participe a operer une mise a distance entre soi et son equipe dans les reponses au questionnaire a double entree. Ce type de reponse nous offre une nouvelle voie d’analyse en pronostiquant le fonctionnement d’une equipe.Par ailleurs, cette these ouvre des perspectives de recherche dans le domaine des mesures multi-niveaux de la sante au travail et appelle un investissement complementaire sur les processus cognitifs propres a la methode.
Rcan1 Deficiency Impairs Neuronal Migration and Causes Periventricular Heterotopia

Periventricular heterotopia (PH) is a cortical malformation characterized by aggregation of neurons lining the lateral ventricles due to abnormal neuronal migration. The molecular mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of PH is unclear. Here we show that Regulators of calcineurin 1 (Rcan1), a Down syndrome-related gene, plays an important role in radial migration of rat cortical neurons. Downregulation of Rcan1 by expressing shRNA impaired neural progenitor proliferation and led to defects in radial migration and PH. Two isoforms of Rcan1 (Rcan1–1 and Rcan1–4) are expressed in the rat brain. Migration defects due to downregulation of Rcan1 could be prevented by shRNA-resistant expression of Rcan1–1 but not Rcan1–4. Furthermore, we found that Rcan1 knockdown significantly decreased the expression level of Flna, an F-actin cross-linking protein essential for cytoskeleton rearrangement and cell migration, mutation of which causes the most common form of bilateral PH in humans. Finally, overexpression of FLNA in Rcan1 knockdown neurons prevented migration abnormalities. Together, these findings demonstrate that Rcan1 acts upstream from Flna in regulating radial migration and suggest that impairment of Rcan1-Flna pathway may underlie PH pathogenesis.
PNBA * : A Parallel Bidirectional Heuristic Search Algorithm

A* (A-star) is a heuristic search algorithm used in various domains, such as robotics, digital games, DNA alignment, among others. In spite of its large use, A* can be a computationally expensive depending on the characteristics of the state space and heuristics used. Aiming at improving its performance, in this paper we propose a parallel implementation of a bidirectional version of A*. Named PNBA* (Parallel New Bidirectional A*) the proposed algorithm combines the benefits of bidirectional search and parallel execution in the development of an efficient A* based search algorithm. Experiments performed in different domains show that PNBA* is more efficient than the original A* and NBA*, the bidirectional version of A* it is based on.
Simulated Binary Crossover with Lognormal Distribution

In this paper, we propose simulated binary crossover with lognormal probability distribution (SBX-l), a new recombination operator for real-coded GAs. It is a parent-centric operator uses lognormal distribution for spread factor. SBX-l operator with rigid and flexible bound is proposed. Experimental results using test functions, which are commonly used in studies of evolutionary algorithms, are obtained and compared with SBX operator. It is found that, within our test bench, the SBX-l operator works better than SBX operator.
MEASUREMENT AND ERROR EVALUATION OF ELECTRICAL PARAMETERS AT PLASMA RELEVANT FREQUENCIES AND IMPEDANCES

The errors present in electrical measurements at frequencies and impedances relevant to plasma processing in the semiconductor industry are studied. A theoretical bound on calculated delivered power error as a function of measured electrical values is derived. The derivation shows that for constant measurement error, power error is a linear function of load impedance expressed in terms of voltage standing wave ratio. This bound is supported by experimental data taken with both a directional coupler and a voltage- and current-based probe. Linear and nonlinear model based sensing methods are implemented which reduce power error by a factor of 5 over a standard calibration. Published results are cited which indicate that the voltage standing wave ratio of typical plasma processing and experimental regimes is high enough to cause small measurement errors to result in large calculated power errors.
Ultrashort Pulse Laser Technology Progress Towards Single-Cycle Optical Pulses Synthesis Ultrabroadband Beam Splitters with Matched Group Delay Dispersion Two-cycle Laser Pulses Directly from Prismless and Compact Laser Oscillators Design and Measurement of Dispersion Compensating Mirrors Silicon-Ge

Research Staff, Visiting Scientists and Affiliates Dr. Yu Chen, Dr. Linze Duan, Dr. Richard Ell, Dr. Ariel Gordon, Dr. Robert Huber, Dr. Faith Omer Ilday, Dr. Christian Jirauschek, Dr. David Kielpinski, Dr. Francisco Lopez-Royo, Dr. Shun-ichi Matsushita, Dr. Thorsten Mack, Dr. Oliver Muecke, Dr. Norihiko Nishizawa, Dr. Lelia A. Paunescu, Dr. Stefan Rausch, Dr. Luciano Socci, Dr. Hideyuki Sotobayoshi, Dr. Kenya Suzuki, Dr. Kenji Taira, Dr. Phillipp Wagenblast, Dr. Maciej Wojtkowski
A Combined Routing Layer for Wireless Sensor Networks and Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

In the near future, first responders such as firefighters might be supported by sensor nodes, both installed before the incident and placed by the responders themselves. To communicate with these sensor nodes, the first responders could be equipped with hand held devices, e.g. PDAs with wireless LAN, additionally equipped with a radio module of the same type as used by the sensor nodes. This scenario enables the usage of the PDAs as mobile communication backbone by the sensor nodes, as well as allowing the first responders to access nodes in the sensor network in an efficient way, both near and far. This paper presents a weighted routing protocol for heterogeneous networks, which could be used in such a scenario.
Maternal obesity is associated with the formation of small dense LDL and hypoadiponectinemia in the third trimester.

CONTEXT Maternal obesity is associated with high plasma triglyceride, poor vascular function, and an increased risk for pregnancy complications. In normal-weight pregnant women, higher triglyceride is associated with increased small, dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL). HYPOTHESIS In obese pregnancy, increased plasma triglyceride concentrations result in triglyceride enrichment of very low-density lipoprotein-1 particles and formation of small dense LDL via lipoprotein lipase. DESIGN Women (n = 55) of body mass index of 18-46 kg/m(2) were sampled longitudinally at 12, 26, and 35 weeks' gestation and 4 months postnatally. SETTING Women were recruited at hospital antenatal appointments, and study visits were in a clinical research suite. OUTCOME MEASURES Plasma concentrations of lipids, triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, lipoprotein lipase mass, estradiol, steroid hormone binding globulin, insulin, glucose, leptin, and adiponectin were determined. RESULTS Obese women commenced pregnancy with higher plasma triglyceride, reached the same maximum, and then returned to higher postnatal levels than normal-weight women. Estradiol response to pregnancy (trimester 1-3 incremental area under the curve) was positively associated with plasma triglyceride response (r(2) adjusted 25%, P < . 001). In the third trimester, the proportion of small, dense LDL was 2-fold higher in obese women than normal-weight women [mean (SD) 40.7 (18.8) vs 21.9 (10.9)%, P = . 014], and 35% of obese, 14% of overweight, and none of the normal-weight women displayed an atherogenic LDL subfraction phenotype. The small, dense LDL mass response to pregnancy was inversely associated with adiponectin response (17%, P = .013). CONCLUSIONS Maternal obesity is associated with an atherogenic LDL subfraction phenotype and may provide a mechanistic link to poor vascular function and adverse pregnancy outcome.
Connecting the dots from a distance: Does mentally traveling through space and time increase searching for life’s meaning?

Abstract As humans, we have the ability to travel beyond the present moment by considering past and future times as well as locations that are distant from oneself. An interesting possibility is that such mental travel to far-away times and places (vs. focusing on times and places closer to the present) may increase people’s desire to search for their lives’ meaning. Since searching for meaning involves the integration of separate life events into a coherent life story, mentally traveling farther away from the present may make people aware that their life stories include more than what is happening at this very minute. Such awareness, then, may increase their desire to ‘connect the dots’ between their life events by searching for some underlying meaning. Three experiments (N = 838) tested this prediction and found that greater (vs. lower) mental travel through space or time increased the search for life’s meaning.
Reading achievement growth across countries

International surveys of students like PIRLS and PISA provide comparisons of learning achievement across participating countries. Although country rankings usually receive considerable attention, other results are far less discussed. While ranking position of a country is clearly important when assessing the overall potential of its students, this is less informative for education policy as these differences might be strongly affected by other characteristics than just the performance of school systems. In national assessments, school mean score is rarely taken as a measure of school efforts and the so-called value added scores are often considered as much more reliable indicators of school performance. We provide similar estimates to value-added scores but at the country level. We compare reading achievement in primary schools as measured by PIRLS to reading achievement of 15-year-olds in the PISA survey. We discuss various issues related to comparability of the results of these two surveys. We adjust achievement growth estimates for differences in the distribution of student background characteristics and for the difference in testing age across countries and surveys. We also provide a direct test of how changing a pool of test items would affect country rankings in respect to achievement growth captured by our methods. Finally, we compare achievement growth at different student performance levels using quantile regression approach. Generally, the results demonstrate remarkable consistency suggesting noticeable differences across countries in the reading achievement growth between primary and secondary education levels. The quantile regression evidence demonstrates also in which countries the lowor high-achieving students are progressing relatively slower or faster. These results can be used to assess the effectiveness of different school systems in their work with students between the age of 10 and 15.