Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stack layout transformation: Towards diversity for securing binary programs

Despite protracted efforts by both researchers and practitioners, security vulnerabilities remain in modern software. Artificial diversity is an effective defense against many types of attack, and one form, address-space randomization, has been widely applied. Present artificial diversity implementations are either coarse-grained or require source code. Because of the widespread use of software of unknown provenance, e.g., libraries, where no source code is provided or available, building diversity into the source code is not always possible. I investigate an approach to stack layout transformation that operates on x86 binary programs, which would allow users to obfuscate vulnerabilities and increase their confidence in the software's dependability. The proposed approach is speculative: the stack frame layout for a function is inferred from the binary and assessed by executing the transformed program. Upon assessment failure, the inferred layout is refined in hopes to better reflect the actual function layout.
Speech Analysis Methodologies towards Unobtrusive Mental Health Monitoring

The human voice encodes a wealth of information about emotion, mood and mental states. With the advent of pervasively available speech collection methods (e.g., mobile phones) and the low-computation costs of speech analysis, it suggests that non-invasive, relatively reliable, and modestly inexpensive platforms are available for mass and long-term deployment of a mental health monitor. In the thesis, I describe my investigation pathway on speech analysis to measure a variety of mental states, including affect and those triggered by psychological stress and sleep deprivation. This work has contributions in many folds, and it brings together techniques from several areas, including speech processing, psychology, human-computer interaction, and mobile computing systems. First, I revisited emotion recognition methods by building an affective model with a naturalistic emotional speech dataset, which is consisted of a realistic set of emotion labels for real world applications. Then, leveraging the speech production theory I verified that the glottal vibrational cycles, the source of speech production, are physically affected by psychological states, e.g., mental stress. Finally, I built the AMMON (Affective and Mental health MONitor) library, a low footprint C library designed for widely available phones as an enabler of applications for richer, more appropriate, and more satisfying human-computer interaction and healthcare technologies.
Vesicular transport of a ribonucleoprotein to mitochondria

ABSTRACT Intracellular trafficking of viruses and proteins commonly occurs via the early endosome in a process involving Rab5. The RNA Import Complex (RIC)-RNA complex is taken up by mammalian cells and targeted to mitochondria. Through RNA interference, it was shown that mito-targeting of the ribonucleoprotein (RNP) was dependent on caveolin 1 (Cav1), dynamin 2, Filamin A and NSF. Although a minor fraction of the RNP was transported to endosomes in a Rab5-dependent manner, mito-targeting was independent of Rab5 or other endosomal proteins, suggesting that endosomal uptake and mito-targeting occur independently. Sequential immunoprecipitation of the cytosolic vesicles showed the sorting of the RNP away from Cav1 in a process that was independent of the endosomal effector EEA1 but sensitive to nocodazole. However, the RNP was in two types of vesicle with or without Cav1, with membrane-bound, asymmetrically orientated RIC and entrapped RNA, but no endosomal components, suggesting vesicular sorting rather than escape of free RNP from endosomes. In vitro, RNP was directly transferred from the Type 2 vesicles to mitochondria. Live-cell imaging captured spherical Cav1− RNP vesicles emerging from the fission of large Cav+ particles. Thus, RNP appears to traffic by a different route than the classical Rab5-dependent pathway of viral transport.
Adaptive frequency-domain equalization for single-carrier multiple-input multiple-output wireless transmissions

Channel estimation and tracking pose real problems in broadband single-carrier wireless communication systems employing multiple transmit and receive antennas. An alternative to estimating the channel is to adaptively equalize the received symbols. Several adaptive equalization solutions have been researched for systems operating in the time domain. However, these solutions tend to be computationally intensive. A low-complexity alternative is to adaptively equalize the received message in the frequency domain. In this paper, we present an adaptive frequency-domain equalization (FDE) algorithm for implementation in single-carrier (SC) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Furthermore, we outline a novel method of reducing the overhead required to train the proposed equalizer. Finally, we address the issues of complexity and training sequence design. Other computationally efficient adaptive FDE algorithms for use in SC systems employing single transmit and receive antennas, receive diversity, or space-time block codes (STBC) can be found in the literature. However, the algorithm detailed in this paper can be implemented in STBC systems as well as in broadband spatial multiplexing systems, making it suitable for use in high data rate MIMO applications.
Molecular Pathways Molecular Pathways : Regulation and Therapeutic Implications of Multidrug Resistance

Multidrug transporters constitute major mechanisms of MDR in human cancers. The ABCB1 (MDR1) gene encodes a well-characterized transmembrane transporter, termed P-glycoprotein (P-gp), which is expressed in many normal human tissues and cancers. P-gp plays a major role in the distribution and excretion of drugs and is involved in intrinsic and acquired drug resistance of cancers. The regulation of ABCB1 expression is complex and has not been well studied in a clinical setting. In this review, we elucidate molecular signaling and epigenetic interactions that governABCB1 expression and thedevelopment ofMDR in cancer. We focus on acquired expression of ABCB1 that is associated with genomic instability of cancer cells, including mutational events that alter chromatin structures, gene rearrangements, and mutations in tumor suppressor proteins (e.g., mutant p53), which guard the integrity of genome. In addition, epigenetic modifications of the ABCB1 proximal and far upstream promoters by either demethylation of DNA or acetylation of histone H3 play a pivotal role in inducing ABCB1 expression. We describe a molecular network that coordinates genetic and epigenetic events leading to the activation of ABCB1. These mechanistic insights provide additional translational targets and potential strategies to deal with clinical MDR. Clin Cancer Res; 18(7); 1863–9. 2012 AACR.
A Solution to the Problem of Nonequilibrium Acid/Base Gas-Particle Transfer at Long Time Step

A stable numerical solution to the unsolved problem of nonequilibrium growth/evaporation at long time step of multiple dissociating acids (e.g., nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, carbonic acid, sulfuric acid, etc.) and a base (ammonia) is discussed. The solution eliminates most oscillatory behavior observed in previous solutions at long time step. The solution is applicable across the entire relative humidity range, both in the presence and absence of solids and among multiple aerosol size bins and distributions. It involves solving growth/evaporation of semivolatile acids with a dissolutional growth scheme at high liquid water content (LWC), semivolatile acids with a condensational growth scheme at low LWC, involatile acids with a condensation scheme at all LWCs, then equilibrating ammonia and pH simultaneously between gas and solution phases at all LWCs based on updated acid contents, and finally solving internal-aerosol composition, final pH, and LWC with an operator-split equilibrium calculation. The new method at long time step (150–300 s) compares well with, and is 10–60 times faster than, a previous solution at short time step over the entire size distribution. Solutions at short and long time steps converge to equilibrium solutions when unique equilibrium solutions exist, even in the presence of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and carbonate. The new scheme is referred to as PNG-EQUISOLV II, where PNG is Predictor of Nonequilibrium Growth. Analysis with the scheme suggests that, under some conditions of high relative humidity and concentration, some coarse-mode particles (< 6 μ m diameter) may reach equilibrium on time scales < 1 h.
Efficient and optimal selling procedures with private information acquisition costs

In auctions with private information acquisition costs, we completely characterize efficient and optimal two-stage selling procedures, with the first stage being the prescreening or entry right allocation mechanism, and the second stage being the traditional private good provision mechanism. Both efficiency and optimality require the second stage mechanism to be ex post efficient. For the first stage of entry allocation, both efficient and optimal mechanisms admit the most efficient bidders (the bidders with the least information acquisition costs), while the optimal mechanism admits fewer entrants. The efficient entry right allocation rule maximizes the expected total surplus, while the optimal entry right allocation rule maximizes the expected "virtual" total surplus, which is the total surplus adjusted for the information rent. We show that both efficient and optimal entry right allocation rules can be truthfully implemented in dominant strategies. We also demonstrate that the optimal entry right allocation mechanism can be implemented through an all-pay auction.
An L-band Direct-Digital QPSK Modulator in CMOS

A new direct-digital quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulator is proposed for portable wireless applications. Its compact yet effective design includes passive phase shifters, active baluns and pass transistors for low-power operation. The integrated circuit (IC) has been implemented in a low-cost 0.18 um complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process with a 1.8 V supply. Experimental results at 1.7 GHz show solid performance with the data transmission rate and carrier rejection exceeding 20 Mbps and 40 dB respectively.
Globalization and the Gender Wage Gap

There are several theoretical reasons why globalization will have a narrowing as well as widening effect on the gender wage gap, but little is known about the actual impact, except for a number of country studies. The author provides a cross-country study of the impact of globalization on the occupational gender wage gap, based on the rarely used but most far-ranging survey of wages around the world, the International Labour Organization's October Inquiry. This annual survey was started in 1924 and contains a wealth of information on wages and the gender wage gap. For the period 1983-99, there is information on the gender wage gap in 161 narrowly defined occupations in more than 80 countries around the world. The author finds the following: (i) The occupational gender wage gap appears to be narrowing with increases in GDP per capita; (ii) There is a significantly narrowing impact of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) net inflows on the occupational gender wage gap for low-skill occupations, both in poorer and richer countries, and for high-skill occupations in richer countries; (iii) There is no evidence of a narrowing impact of trade, but there is evidence of a widening impact of FDI net inflows on the high-skill occupational gender wage gap in poorer countries; (iv) Wage-setting institutions have a strong impact on the occupational gender wage gap in richer countries.
Patients' endogenous flora as the source of "nosocomial" Enterobacter in cardiac surgery.

We prospectively studied Enterobacter colonization in cardiac surgery patients receiving cefazolin prophylaxis. Fifty-eight (67%) of 87 patients became colonized, 28 by the time of admission to a Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit. Enterobacter cloacae was four times more prevalent than Enterobacter aerogenes. We found increased Enterobacter colonization, after prophylaxis, in 45% of surgery patients. None of 25 control patients, who underwent coronary angioplasty and received no antibiotic prophylaxis, showed increased colonization (P = .001). Both groups had similar baseline rates of Enterobacter carriage. Typing showed 50 distinct strains of E. cloacae and 11 of E. aerogenes; 25% of patients carried greater than or equal to 2 strains simultaneously. In the nine cases of horizontal transmission, source patients were intubated for greater than or equal to 5 days and had heavy throat carriage of Enterobacter. No environmental sources of transmission were found. Clinical Enterobacter infection developed in 12 patients; at least nine of these were infected with a strain that had been isolated by surveillance culture. We conclude that Enterobacter, part of the patients' endogenous flora, becomes an important pathogen when amplified by prophylactic antibiotics and is less often transmitted horizontally.
A hybrid recommendation algorithm based on social networks

In the light of the problem of collaborative recommendation and content-based cold start, this paper proposes a hybrid recommendation system based on social network. The method is based on the user social relations network. According to the social behavior of user, by establishing the model of social network users, it puts forward the user similarity measure. Then it takes random walk algorithm as a basis and selects out N users who have the highest similarity with the users' interest. The test results show that this method can obtain better recommendation effect and customer satisfaction.
Evolution-based virtual content insertion

This demonstration presents an innovative framework for virtual content insertion in an interactive way. The virtual content is inserted into video with evolved animations according to predefined behaviors, and generates interactions with video contents. In order to reduce the intrusiveness and improve the impression for viewers, the evolution process is divided into distinct yet dependent phases, in which the virtual content evolves its appearances and behaviors according to the incremental interactions. Therefore, the augmented videos generated by the proposed system establish visually relevant connection between the inserted virtual content and the source videos, and increase the acceptability and the attractiveness at the same time. Moreover, the proposed system enables video owners to create entertaining personalized videos effectively, and engages viewers with the storyline.
A scalable NAT-based solution to Internet access denial by higher-tier ISPs

The Internet is an interconnection of autonomous systems (ASes) that are mostly controlled by Internet service providers (ISPs). ASes use Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to communicate routing information in the form of reachability paths. However, BGP does not guarantee that the advertised reachability paths will be exactly followed. As a result, traffic belonging to a specific network can be intentionally dropped as it is routed by BGP through a malicious ISP; a behavior we define as Internet access denial. The impact of Internet access denial, especially when performed by higher-tier ISPs, is significant. In this work, network address translation (NAT) is used as a solution to overcome the Internet access denial problem by hiding the traffic identity. The proposed solution is scalable to fit large networks, by using pools of IP addresses across several NAT routers. Moreover, the proposed solution addresses the server reachability problem that is associated with NAT routers by introducing a novel approach. The performance degradation of introducing NAT is significantly small as shown by our experiments' results. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Selective Modulation of the Therapeutic Efficacy of Anticancer Drugs by Selenium Containing Compounds against Human Tumor Xenografts

Purpose: Studies were carried out in athymic nude mice bearing human squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (FaDu and A253) and colon carcinoma (HCT-8 and HT-29) xenografts to evaluate the potential role of selenium-containing compounds as selective modulators of the toxicity and antitumor activity of selected anticancer drugs with particular emphasis on irinotecan, a topoisomerase I poison. Experimental Design: Antitumor activity and toxicity were evaluated using nontoxic doses (0.2 mg/mouse/day) and schedule (14–28 days) of the selenium-containing compounds, 5-methylselenocysteine and seleno-l-methionine, administered orally to nude mice daily for 7 days before i.v. administration of anticancer drugs, with continued selenium treatment for 7–21 days, depending on anticancer drugs under evaluation. Several doses of anticancer drugs were used, including the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and toxic doses. Although many chemotherapeutic agents were evaluated for toxicity protection by selenium, data on antitumor activity were primarily obtained using the MTD, 2 × MTD, and 3 × MTD of weekly ×4 schedule of irinotecan. Results: Selenium was highly protective against toxicity induced by a variety of chemotherapeutic agents. Furthermore, selenium increased significantly the cure rate of xenografts bearing human tumors that are sensitive (HCT-8 and FaDu) and resistant (HT-29 and A253) to irinotecan. The high cure rate (100%) was achieved in nude mice bearing HCT-8 and FaDu xenografts treated with the MTD of irinotecan (100 mg/kg/week × 4) when combined with selenium. Administration of higher doses of irinotecan (200 and 300 mg/kg/week × 4) was required to achieve high cure rate for HT-29 and A253 xenografts. Administration of these higher doses was possible due to selective protection of normal tissues by selenium. Thus, the use of selenium as selective modulator of the therapeutic efficacy of anticancer drugs is new and novel. Conclusions: We demonstrated that selenium is a highly effective modulator of the therapeutic efficacy and selectivity of anticancer drugs in nude mice bearing human tumor xenografts of colon carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The observed in vivo synergic interaction is highly dependent on the schedule of selenium.
General design of disturbance observer for stable linear time-invariant single-input/single-output systems via an H∞ approach

In this paper, a generalized design of a disturbance observer is presented for a class of stable linear time-invariant single-input single-output (SISO) systems. First, a general configuration of a disturbance observer is proposed when control input and system output are available. Then, the design problem of minimizing the disturbance estimation error is generally formulated as an H∞ optimization problem in order to produce two design parameters stably. From the observation that a disturbance observer of conventional approach can be one of solutions of the optimization problem, the generality of the proposed approach is addressed. Numerical example validates the generality and systematicness of the proposed method.
Gastrointestinal Microflora and Mucins May Play a Critical Role in the Development of 5-Fluorouracil-Induced Gastrointestinal Mucositis

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is a commonly used chemotherapy agent in clinical oncology practice. Two of its major side effects are mucositis and diarrhoea. The structure of mucins offers mucosal protection, and allows maintenance of intestinal flora by providing attachment sites and preventing bacterial overgrowth and/or penetration. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in mucin secretion and microflora following treatment with 5-FU. Female DA rats were given a single 150 mg/ kg i.p. dose of 5-FU. Rats were killed at various time points after treatment. Control rats received no treatment. Jejunum, colon and faecal samples were collected. Standard microbiological culture techniques were used to identify bacteria, and real-time PCR was used to quantify bacteria in faecal samples. Goblet cells and cavitated goblet cells (having undergone mucus exocytosis) were also counted. Statistical analysis was carried out using Kruskal-Wallis test, a non-parametric method of testing equality of group medians. Following treatment with 5-FU, we showed decreases in Clostridium spp. , Lactobacillus spp. and Streptococcus spp. , and an increase in Escherichia spp. in the jejunum. In the colon, 5-FU caused decreases in Enterococcus spp. , Lactobacillus spp. and Streptococcus spp. Real-time PCR of faecal samples showed decreasing trends in Lactobacillus spp. and Bacteroides spp. , and an increasing trend in E. coli. Significant increases (P < 0.05) were seen in Clostridium spp. and Staphylococcus spp. at 24 h. Goblet cell numbers decreased significantly in the jejunum from 24–72 h, with a significant increase in the percentage of cavitated goblet cells. In conclusion, 5-FU treatment causes significant changes in intestinal flora and mucin secretion in rats. These changes could result in systemic effects and, in particular, may contribute to the development of chemotherapy-induced mucositis.
A few logs suffice to build (almost) all trees (I)

A phylogenetic tree (also called an "evolutionary tree") is a leaf-labelled tree which represents the evolutionary history for a set of species, and the construction of such trees is a fundamental problem in biology. Here we address the issue of how many sequence sites are required in order to recover the tree with high probability when the sites evolve under standard Markov-style i.i. d. mutation models. We provide analytic upper and lower bounds for the required sequence length, by developing a new (and polynomial time) algorithm. In particular we show that when the mutation probabilities are bounded the required sequence length can grow surprisingly slowly (a power of log n) in the number n of sequences, for almost all trees. A few logs suffice to build (almost) all trees (I) Peter L. Erdos Mathematical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest P.0. Box 127, Hungary-1364 E-mail: elp@math-inst.hu Michael A. Steel Biomathematics Research Centre University of Canterbury Christchurch, New Zealand E-mail: m. steel@math. canterbury. ac. nz Tandy J. Warnow Laszlo A. Szekely Department of Mathematics University of South Carolina Columbia, South Carolina E-mail: laszlo@math.sc. edu Department of Computer and Information Science University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA E-mail: tandy@central. cis. upenn. edu