Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RAPTOR: Routing Attacks on Privacy in Tor

The Tor network is a widely used system for anonymous communication. However, Tor is known to be vulnerable to attackers who can observe traffic at both ends of the communication path. In this paper, we show that prior attacks are just the tip of the iceberg. We present a suite of new attacks, called Raptor, that can be launched by Autonomous Systems (ASes) to compromise user anonymity. First, AS-level adversaries can exploit the asymmetric nature of Internet routing to increase the chance of observing at least one direction of user traffic at both ends of the communication. Second, AS-level adversaries can exploit natural churn in Internet routing to lie on the BGP paths for more users over time. Third, strategic adversaries can manipulate Internet routing via BGP hijacks (to discover the users using specific Tor guard nodes) and interceptions (to perform traffic analysis). We demonstrate the feasibility of Raptor attacks by analyzing historical BGP data and Traceroute data as well as performing real-world attacks on the live Tor network, while ensuring that we do not harm real users. In addition, we outline the design of two monitoring frameworks to counter these attacks: BGP monitoring to detect control-plane attacks, and Traceroute monitoring to detect data-plane anomalies. Overall, our work motivates the design of anonymity systems that are aware of the dynamics of Internet routing.
From the cultural hegemony of English to online informal learning: Cluster frequency as an indicator of relevance in authentic documents

La recherche sur l’apprentissage informel de l’anglais en ligne porte souvent sur la description des loisirs d’apprenants ayant un lien avec l’anglais et leur impact sur l’apprentissage formel. L’hegemonie culturelle de l’anglais dans les medias de masse en France fait que ces pratiques sont frequentes parmi des etudiants specialistes de disciplines autres que l’anglais. Le telechargement ou visionnage en streaming de series televisees en version originale figure souvent parmi les activites informelles d’ecoute, mais la pertinence des contenus langagiers de ces emissions pour l’apprentissage de la langue-cible reste a demontrer. Dans cette etude, nous construisons un corpus de transcriptions de series televisees correspondant a une annee de visionnage par un etudiant du secteur LANSAD. Le corpus est analyse afin de faire ressortir les groupes de quatre mots les plus frequents. Nous analysons le contenu linguistique de ces constructions et le classement par frequence est ensuite compare avec celui des memes constructions dans le British National Corpus. La correlation entre ces deux classements permet de conclure que les constructions les plus frequentes du corpus constituent des exemples pertinents de la langue cible.
Genetic parameters for production traits and measures of residual feed intake in large white swine.

The purpose of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for ADG, backfat thickness and loin eye area (LEA), and measures of feed intake and efficiency for purebred Large White boars born from 1990 to 1997. Boars from 60% of the litters were culled at weaning based on a maternal breeding value (index) of the dam, and remaining boars (n = 26,706) were grown to 100 d of age. Selection of boars for individual pen testing was based on a combination of growth and maternal indices. Boars were fed a corn-soybean meal diet that was 1.14% lysine, 19% protein, and 3,344 kcal/kg ME for approximately 77 d. Boars were weighed at the beginning and end of the test, and feed intake was recorded. Daily feed intake (DFI), ADG, and feed:gain ratio (FG) were computed. Four measures of residual feed intake (RFI) were estimated as the difference between actual feed intake and that predicted from models that included 1) initial test age and weight and test ADG (RFI1); 2) initial test age and weight, test ADG, and backfat (RFI2); 3) initial test age and weight, test ADG, and LEA (RFI3); and 4) initial test age and weight, test ADG, backfat, and LEA (RFI4). Genetic parameters were estimated using an animal model and single- or multiple-trait DFREML procedures. Models included fixed effects of contemporary groups and initial test age as a covariate and random animal and litter effects. Heritability estimates for test ADG, DFI, FG, backfat, LEA, RFI1, RFI2, RFI3, and RFI4 were . 24, . 23, . 16, . 36, . 24, . 17, . 11, . 15, and . 10, respectively. Genetic correlations between ADG and backfat, ADG and LEA, ADG and DFI, and ADG and FG were . 37, . 36, . 82, and -. 32, respectively. Genetic correlations between ADG and measures of residual feed intake ranged from . 11 to . 18. Genetic correlations of backfat with LEA, DFI, and FG were -. 27, . 64, and . 40, respectively. Genetic correlations of backfat with RFI measures were higher when backfat was not included in the estimation of RFI. Genetic correlations for LEA with DFI and FG were 0 and -. 52, respectively. Genetic correlations for LEA with RFI measures were all negative and ranged from -. 31 to -. 51. Genetic correlations indicate that selection for reduced RFI could be made without adversely affecting ADG. Backfat should also decrease, and LEA should increase. The amount of change in backfat or LEA would depend on the measure of RFI used.
Cyclic stretch activates p38 SAPK2-, ErbB2-, and AT1-dependent signaling in bladder smooth muscle cells.

Cyclic mechanical stretch of bladder smooth muscle cells (SMC) increases rates of DNA synthesis and stimulates transcription of the gene for heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF), an ErbB1/EGF receptor ligand that has been linked to hypertrophic bladder growth. In this study we sought to clarify the signaling pathways responsible for mechanotransduction of the stretch stimulus. HB-EGF mRNA levels, DNA synthesis, and AP-1/Ets DNA binding activities were induced by repetitive stretch of primary culture rat bladder SMC. Inhibitors of the p38 SAPK2 pathway, the angiotensin receptor type 1 (AT1), and the ErbB2 tyrosine kinase reduced each of these activities, while an inhibitor of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase mitogen-activated protein kinase (Erk-MAPK) pathway had no effect. Stretch rapidly activated stress-activated protein kinase 2 (p38 SAPK2) and Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK)/SAPK pathways but not the Erk-MAPK pathway and induced ErbB2 but not ErbB1 phosphorylation. Angiotensin II (ANG II) a bladder SMC mitogen previously linked to the stretch response, did not activate ErbB2, and ErbB2 activation occurred in response to stretch in the presence of an ANG receptor inhibitor, indicating that activation of the AT1-mediated pathway and the ErbB2-dependent pathway occurs by independent mechanisms. p38 SAPK2 and JNK/SAPK signaling also appeared to be independent of the ErbB2 and AT1 pathways. These findings indicate that stretch-stimulated DNA synthesis and gene expression in normal bladder SMC occur via multiple independent receptor systems (e.g., AT1 and ErbB2) and at least one MAPK pathway (p38 SAPK2). Further, we show that the Erk-MAPK pathway, which in most systems is linked to receptor-dependent cell growth responses, is not involved in progression to DNA synthesis or in the response of the HB-EGF gene to mechanical forces.
Extraction of community transition rules from social bookmark data as graph sequence

In this study, we use transaction data collected from a data stream regarded as a graph representing the change in structure and sequence data for each relevant time period to analyze the changes in the sequence graph of a community. The algorithm proposed in this paper uses the hierarchical clustering method combined with a graph kernel extension to analyze the relationship among the chart series of the entire community. Extracted community rules appear occasionally, and then are shown to disappear in the middle of the series. The results of experiments using synthetic datasets and real social bookmark data show that changes in the community captured occasional occurrence of the proposed algorithm.
The Poetics of Politics: "Theirs" and "Ours"

Events of political communication define issues and create spaces of action that position people with respect to them. How? Political talk is not effective in these ways just because it describes the world--as it is or as it might be. In various ways, effective talk in political events forms a diagrammatic microcosm of its targeted field of action, linking events of political process in which it thrives with varying degrees of compelling effectiveness. Political talk of the "factional" politics of Indo-Fijians draws on principles we can see--and discerning participants can hear! --as well in our own agonistic electoral politics of recognition.
Workload Characterization of the 1998 World Cup Web Site

World-Wide Web, workload characterization, performance, servers, caching, World Cup This paper presents a detailed workload characterization study of the 1998 World Cup Web site. Measurements from this site were collected over a three month period. During this time the site received 1.35 billion requests, making this the largest Web workload analyzed to date. By examining this extremely busy site and through comparison with existing characterization studies we are able to determine how Web server workloads are evolving. We find that improvements in the caching architecture of the World-Wide Web are changing the workloads of Web servers, but that major improvements to that architecture are still necessary. In particular, we uncover evidence that a better consistency mechanism is required for World-Wide Web caches.
An Illumination Model for a Skin Layer Bounded by Rough Surfaces

In this paper we present a novel illumination model that takes into account multiple anisotropic scattering in a layer bounded by two rough surfaces. We compute the model by a discrete-ordinate solution of the equation of radiative transfer. This approach is orders of magnitude faster than a Monte Carlo simulation and does not suffer from any noisy artifacts. By fitting low order splines to our results we are able to build analytical shaders. This is highly desirable since animators typically want to texture map the parameters of such a shader for higher realism. We apply our model to the important problem of rendering human skin. Our model does not seem to have appeared before in the optics literature. Most previous models did not handle rough surfaces at the skin's boundary. Also we introduce a simple analytical bidirectional transmittance distribution function (BTDF) for an isotropic rough surface by generalizing the Cook-Torrance model.
On the Formation and Relationship of Ad and Brand Attitudes: An Experimental and Causal Analysis

The unique influence of attitude toward the ad on brand attitude often has been viewed as simply reflecting the impact of peripheral persuasion. The authors’ research challenges such a conception. Ad attitude is shown to have a significant influence on brand attitude even in the absence of peripheral persuasion. The feasibility and usefulness of decomposing ad attitude into evaluations of particular ad elements also are explored.
The application of tetracyclineregulated gene expression systems in the validation of novel drug targets in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Although efforts to identify novel therapies for the treatment of tuberculosis have led to the identification of several promising drug candidates, the identification of high-quality hits from conventional whole-cell screens remains disappointingly low. The elucidation of the genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) facilitated a shift to target-based approaches to drug design but these efforts have proven largely unsuccessful. More recently, regulated gene expression systems that enable dose-dependent modulation of gene expression have been applied in target validation to evaluate the requirement of individual genes for the growth of Mtb both in vitro and in vivo. Notably, these systems can also provide a measure of the extent to which putative targets must be depleted in order to manifest a growth inhibitory phenotype. Additionally, the successful implementation of Mtb strains engineered to under-express specific molecular targets in whole-cell screens has enabled the simultaneous identification of cell-permeant inhibitors with defined mechanisms of action. Here, we review the application of tetracycline-regulated gene expression systems in the validation of novel drug targets in Mtb, highlighting both the strengths and limitations associated with this approach to target validation.
Asynchronous Bayesian algorithm for object classification: Application to pedestrian detection in urban areas

This paper considers the problem of the classification of objects observed by vehicle embedded sensors. We propose a general architecture and an algorithm to perform multisensor fusion for the classification purpose. The proposed solution has to be robust and flexible. The robustness is essential because this system is for safety applications. The flexibility is ensured by a modular architecture alongside with a feature-level data fusion algorithm. This algorithm is based on the Bayesian formalism. Therefore, the classification of a detected object becomes the computation of a recognition probability given a set of features. This formalism allows an asynchronous data fusion, that is to say each sensor information is taken into account as soon as it is available. The proposed approach is applied to combine information from a laser scanner and video camera in order to detect pedestrians moving in the equipped vehicle path. The experimental results present pedestrians detected in urban areas. These results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
HourGlass: Predictable Time-based Cache Coherence Protocol for Dual-Critical Multi-Core Systems

We present a hardware mechanism called HourGlass to predictably share data in a multi-core system where cores are explicitly designated as critical or non-critical. HourGlass is a time-based cache coherence protocol for dual-critical multi-core systems that ensures worst-case latency (WCL) bounds for memory requests originating from critical cores. Although HourGlass does not provide either WCL or bandwidth guarantees for memory requests from non-critical cores, it promotes the use of timers to improve its bandwidth utilization while still maintaining WCL bounds for critical cores. This encourages a trade-off between the WCL bounds for critical cores, and the improved memory bandwidth for non-critical cores via timer configurations. We evaluate HourGlass using gem5, and with multithreaded benchmark suites including SPLASH-2, and synthetic workloads. Our results show that the WCL for critical cores with HourGlass is always within the analytical WCL bounds, and provides a tighter WCL bound on critical cores compared to the state-of-the-art real-time cache coherence protocol. Further, we show that HourGlass enables a trade-off between provable WCL bounds for critical cores, and improved bandwidth utilization for non-critical cores. The average-case performance of HourGlass is comparable to the state-of-the-art real-time cache coherence protocol, and suffers a slowdown of 1.43x and 1.46x compared to the conventional MSI and MESI protocols.
Prevalence of diabetes among men and women in China.

BACKGROUND Because of the rapid change in lifestyle in China, there is concern that diabetes may become epidemic. We conducted a national study from June 2007 through May 2008 to estimate the prevalence of diabetes among Chinese adults. METHODS A nationally representative sample of 46,239 adults, 20 years of age or older, from 14 provinces and municipalities participated in the study. After an overnight fast, participants underwent an oral glucose-tolerance test, and fasting and 2-hour glucose levels were measured to identify undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes (i.e., impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance). Previously diagnosed diabetes was determined on the basis of self-report. RESULTS The age-standardized prevalences of total diabetes (which included both previously diagnosed diabetes and previously undiagnosed diabetes) and prediabetes were 9.7% (10.6% among men and 8.8% among women) and 15.5% (16.1% among men and 14.9% among women), respectively, accounting for 92.4 million adults with diabetes (50.2 million men and 42.2 million women) and 148.2 million adults with prediabetes (76.1 million men and 72.1 million women). The prevalence of diabetes increased with increasing age (3.2%, 11.5%, and 20.4% among persons who were 20 to 39, 40 to 59, and > or = 60 years of age, respectively) and with increasing weight (4.5%, 7.6%, 12.8%, and 18.5% among persons with a body-mass index [the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters] of < 18.5, 18.5 to 24.9, 25.0 to 29.9, and > or = 30.0, respectively). The prevalence of diabetes was higher among urban residents than among rural residents (11.4% vs. 8.2%). The prevalence of isolated impaired glucose tolerance was higher than that of isolated impaired fasting glucose (11.0% vs. 3.2% among men and 10.9% vs. 2.2% among women). CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that diabetes has become a major public health problem in China and that strategies aimed at the prevention and treatment of diabetes are needed.
Pedicle screw-based posterior dynamic stabilisation of the lumbar spine: in vitro cadaver investigation and a finite element study

Pedicle screw-based dynamic constructs either benefit from a dynamic (flexible) interconnecting rod or a dynamic (hinged) screw. Both types of systems have been reported in the literature. However, reports where the dynamic system is composed of two dynamic components, i.e. a dynamic (hinged) screw and a dynamic rod, are sparse. In this study, the biomechanical characteristics of a novel pedicle screw-based dynamic stabilisation system were investigated and compared with equivalent rigid and semi-rigid systems using in vitro testing and finite element modelling analysis. All stabilisation systems restored stability after decompression. A significant decrease in the range of motion was observed for the rigid system in all loadings. In the semi-rigid construct the range of motion was significantly less than the intact in extension, lateral bending and axial rotation loadings. There were no significant differences in motion between the intact spine and the spine treated with the dynamic system (P>0.05). The peak stress in screws was decreased when the stabilisation construct was equipped with dynamic rod and/or dynamic screws.
Plant mating system transitions drive the macroevolution of defense strategies

Understanding the factors that shape macroevolutionary patterns in functional traits is a central goal of evolutionary biology. Alternative strategies of sexual reproduction (inbreeding vs. outcrossing) have divergent effects on population genetic structure and could thereby broadly influence trait evolution. However, the broader evolutionary consequences of mating system transitions remain poorly understood, with the exception of traits related to reproduction itself (e.g., pollination). Across a phylogeny of 56 wild species of Solanaceae (nightshades), we show here that the repeated, unidirectional transition from ancestral self-incompatibility (obligate outcrossing) to self-compatibility (increased inbreeding) leads to the evolution of an inducible (vs. constitutive) strategy of plant resistance to herbivores. We demonstrate that inducible and constitutive defense strategies represent evolutionary alternatives and that the magnitude of the resulting macroevolutionary tradeoff is dependent on the mating system. Loss of self-incompatibility is also associated with the evolution of increased specificity in induced plant resistance. We conclude that the evolution of sexual reproductive variation may have profound effects on plant–herbivore interactions, suggesting a new hypothesis for the evolution of two primary strategies of plant defense.
More or less efficient agnostic learning of convex polygons

In this paper we present a polynomial time algorithm for agnostic PAC-learning with convex polygons. This hypothesis class is interesting for applied machine learning, where classification according to a simple rule based on few attributes (two in this case) is often an empirically good method. On the other hand, convex polygons allow a more accurate classification than simpler hypothesis like axis aligned rectangles. Unfortunately both running time and space requirements of this algorithm are quite high and make it infeasible even for moderately sized problems. We outline a heuristic approach which allows larger problems to be handled and produces an empirically good hypothesis.
Randomized , double-blind , placebo-controlled trial of iron supplementation in female soldiers during military training : effects on iron status , physical performance , and mood 1 – 5

Background: Decrements in iron status have been reported in female soldiers during military training. Diminished iron status adversely affects physical and cognitive performance. Objective: We wanted to determine whether iron supplementation could prevent decrements in iron status and improve measures of physical performance and cognitive status in female soldiers during basic combat training (BCT). Design: In this 8-wk randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, soldier volunteers (n = 219) were provided with capsules containing either 100 mg ferrous sulfate or a placebo. Iron status indicator assays were performed preand post-BCT. Two-mile running time was assessed post-BCT; mood was assessed by using the Profile of Mood States questionnaire preand post-BCT. Results: The BCT course affected iron status: red blood cell distribution width and soluble transferrin receptor were elevated (P , 0.05), and serum ferritin was lowered (P , 0.05) post-BCT. Iron supplementation attenuated the decrement in iron status; group-bytime interactions (P , 0.01) were observed for serum ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor. Iron supplementation resulted in improved (P , 0.05) vigor scores on the Profile of Mood States post-BCT and in faster running time (P , 0.05) in volunteers reporting to BCT with iron deficiency anemia. Conclusions: Iron status is affected by BCT, and iron supplementation attenuates the decrement in indicators of iron status in female soldiers. Furthermore, iron supplementation may prove to be beneficial for mood and physical performance during the training period. Future efforts should identify and treat female soldiers or athletes who begin training regimens with iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia. Am J Clin Nutr 2009;90:124–31.
Get Back! You Don't Know Me Like That: The Social Mediation of Fact Checking Interventions in Twitter Conversations

The prevalence of misinformation within social media and online communities can undermine public security and distract attention from important issues. Fact-checking interventions, in which users cite fact-checking websites such as Snopes.com and FactCheck.org, are a strategy users can employ to refute false claims made by their peers. While laboratory research suggests such interventions are not effective in persuading people to abandon false ideas, little work considers how such interventions are actually deployed in real-world conversations. Using approximately 1,600 interventions observed on Twitter between 2012 and 2013, we examine the contexts and consequences of fact-checking interventions.We focus in particular on the social relationship between the individual who issues the fact-check and the individual whose facts are challenged. Our results indicate that though fact-checking interventions are most commonly issued by strangers, they are more likely to draw user attention and responses when they come from friends. Finally, we discuss implications for designing more effective interventions against misinformation.