Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploiting temporal locality in network traffic using commodity multi-cores

Network traffic has traditionally exhibited temporal locality in the header field of packets. Such locality is intuitive and is very well studied over the years. In this work we study temporal locality in the packet payload. Temporal locality can also be viewed as redundancy and we observe significant redundancy in the packet payload. We investigate mechanisms to exploit temporal locality in a networking application and choose Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) as a case study. An IDS like the popular Snort [4] operates by scanning packet payload for known attack strings. It first builds a Finite State Machine (FSM) from a database of attack strings, and traverses this FSM using bytes from the packet payload. So we propose a redundancy-aware FSM traversal that skips the processing of redundant bytes. We have deployed our redundancy-aware FSM traversal in Snort, and we observe important performance benefits.
Energy efficiency in cognitive radio with cooperative MME (Maximum to Minimum Eigenvalue) spectrum sensing method

Cognitive radio is one way to overcome the limitations of the frequency spectrum. Cognitive radio users can utilize the frequency spectrum that is not being used (white space) by detect the frequency spectrum. Spectrum sensing is done periodically to ensure there is no interference, in that sense spectrum sensing activity in cognitive radio will increase energy consumption. Therefore, energy efficiency is very important to consider in cognitive radio technology. This research is study on energy efficiency in cognitive radio with cooperative MME (Maximum to Minimum Eigenvalue) spectrum sensing method. Energy efficiency is implemented by finding the optimal values of probability of a user wait or switch/handoff to another channel while the primary user is using the current channel. Cooperative MME spectrum sensing detection process which is not depend on the uncertainty of noise shows better performance than the energy detection method.
Examination of Hedonism in TAM Research

Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) remains a dominant model that is used extensively for addressing issues of user acceptance (Davis, 1989). Recently, hedonic 1 nature of information systems was proposed as a boundary condition for TAM (van der Heijden, 2004). This paper attempts to review and evaluate the existing TAM research in light of this new boundary condition. This is accomplished by reviewing 41 articles published in six premier journals. It is argued that two types of mismatches, i.e. ‘errors of inclusion’ and ‘errors of exclusion’ could occur if the nature of system is not considered. The implications of these errors on the cumulative results of TAM research stream and directions for future research are discussed.
Scaling Average-reward Reinforcement Learning for Product Delivery

Reinforcement learning in real-world domains suffers from three curses of dimensionality: explosions in state space and action space, and high stochasticity. We give partial solutions to each of these curses that provide order-of-magnitude speedups in execution time over standard approaches. We demonstrate our methods in the domain of product delivery. We present experimental results on refinements of a model-based averagereward algorithm called H-Learning.
Receptor-interacting protein kinase 3-mediated programmed cell necrosis in rats subjected to focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury

In the current study, the activation of tumor necrosis factor-α receptor 1 (TNFR1) and receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (RIP3) were investigated following cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (CIRI). Healthy SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: Sham operation group, model group and inhibitor group. The model group and inhibitor group were further divided into 4 subgroups of 6, 12, 24 and 72 h following CIRI. Using right middle cerebral artery embolization, the CIRI model was generated. To confirm that the CIRI model was established, neurological scores, TTC staining and brain water content measurements were conducted. Immunohistochemistry and western blotting were conducted to investigate the expression of TNFR1 and RIP3 in the cerebral cortex. It was observed that nerve cell necrosis occurred following 6 h of CIRI. The appearance of necrotic cells was gradually increased with increasing CIRI duration. TNFR1 and RIP3 were positively expressed following 6 h of CIRI. With increasing durations of CIRI, the protein expression levels of TNFR1 and RIP3 were significantly increased. Pre-administration with Z-VAD-FMK (zVAD) significantly increased the protein level of RIP3, however, had no effect on the levels of TNFR1, and was accompanied by a reduction in necrosis. In conclusion, RIP3-mediated cell necrosis was enhanced by caspase blockade zVAD and the function of zVAD was independent of TNFR1 signaling following IR.
Evolution of stellar-gaseous disks in cosmological halos

INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova. Vicolo Osservatorio 5 - 35122 Padova. Italy. e-mail: paola.mazzei@oapd.inaf. itReceived/AcceptedABSTRACTAims.We explore the growth and the evolution of the bar instability in stellar-gaseous disks embedded in a suitable dark matter halo evolvingin a fully consistent cosmological framework. The aim of this paper is to point out the impact of diﬀerent gas fractions on the bar formation,inside disks of diﬀerent disk-to-halo mass ratio, and the role of the cosmological framework.Methods. We perform cosmological simulations with the same disk-to-halo mass ratios as in a previous work where the gas was not taken intoaccount. We compare results of the new simulations with the previous ones to investigate the eﬀect of the gas by analysing the morphology ofthe stellar and gaseous components, the stellar bar strength and the behaviour of its pattern speed.Results. In our cosmological simulations, inside dark-matter dominated disks, a stellar bar, lasting 10 Gyr, is still living at z = 0 even if thegaseous fraction exceeds half of the disk mass. However, in the most massive disks we ﬁnd a threshold value (0.2) of the gas fraction able todestroy the bar.The stellar bar strength is enhanced by the gas and in the more massive disks higher gas fractions increase the bar pattern speed.Key words. galaxies: spirals, structure, evolution, halos, kinematics and dynamics
Gene expression profiling reveals differences in microenvironment interaction between patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia expressing high versus low ZAP70 mRNA

ZAP70 is a strong indicator of poor prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In this study, using gene expression profiles associated with ZAP70 expression, the importance of microenvironmental interaction for tumor behavior is revealed. See related perspective article on page 752. Background Zeta-associated protein 70 (ZAP70) is a widely recognized prognostic factor in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but mechanisms by which its higher expression leads to a poor outcome must still be fully explained. Design and Methods In an attempt to unveil unfavorable cellular properties linked to high ZAP70 expression, we used gene expression profiling to identify genes associated with disparities in B cells from chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients expressing high versus low ZAP70 mRNA, measured by quantitative real-time PCR. Two groups of 7 patients were compared, selected on the basis of either high or low ZAP70 mRNA expression. Results Twenty-seven genes were differentially expressed with an FDR<10%, and several genes were significant predictors of treatment-free survival (TFS) and/or overall survival; PDE8A and FCRL family genes (down-regulated in ZAP70+ patients) could predict TFS and overall survival; ITGA4 mRNA (up-regulated in ZAP70+ patients) could significantly predict overall survival. Importantly, gene set enrichment analysis revealed overrepresentation of adhesion/migration genes. We therefore investigated in vitro adhesion/migration capacity of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells into a stromal microenvironment or in response to conditioned medium. We showed that ZAP70+ cells had better adhesion/migration capacities and only ZAP70+ patient cells responded to microenvironment contact by CXCR4 downregulation. Conclusions We concluded that several prognostic factors are the reflection of microenvironment interactions and that the increased adhesion/migratory capacity of ZAP70+ cells in their microenvironment can explain their better survival and thus the aggressiveness of the disease.
Impact of using linear optimization models in dose planning for HDR brachytherapy.

PURPOSE Dose plans generated with optimization models hitherto used in high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy have shown a tendency to yield longer dwell times than manually optimized plans. Concern has been raised for the corresponding undesired hot spots, and various methods to mitigate these have been developed. The hypotheses upon this work is based are (a) that one cause for the long dwell times is the use of objective functions comprising simple linear penalties and (b) that alternative penalties, as these are piecewise linear, would lead to reduced length of individual dwell times. METHODS The characteristics of the linear penalties and the piecewise linear penalties are analyzed mathematically. Experimental comparisons between the two types of penalties are carried out retrospectively for a set of prostate cancer patients. RESULTS When the two types of penalties are compared, significant changes can be seen in the dwell times, while most dose-volume parameters do not differ significantly. On average, total dwell times were reduced by 4.2%, with a reduction of maximum dwell times by 25%, when the alternative penalties were used. CONCLUSIONS The use of linear penalties in optimization models for HDR brachytherapy is one cause for the undesired long dwell times that arise in mathematically optimized plans. By introducing alternative penalties, a significant reduction in dwell times can be achieved for HDR brachytherapy dose plans. Although various measures for mitigating the long dwell times are already available, the observation that linear penalties contribute to their appearance is of fundamental interest.
Automated system for macula detection in digital retinal images

In the field of medicines, medical image processing plays a vital role to detect the abnormalities of eye or eye diseases like glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. Macular degeneration is one of the medical conditions that affect the vision of elder people. If not detected in early stages it causes loss of eye sight. This paper presents an automated system for the localization and detection of macula in digital retinal images. In this paper, macula is first localized by making use of localized optic disc centre and enhanced blood vessels. Finally macula is detected by taking the distance from center of optic disk and thresholding, then combining it with enhanced blood vessels image to locate the darkest pixel in this region, making clusters of these pixels. The largest pixel is located as macula. This methodology is tested on publically available DRIVE and STARE database of retinal images which enable us to check the results of macula localization and detection. Our algorithm performs well in localizing and detecting macula on these databases.
An Modified Approximate Internal Model-based Neural Control

An modification of the Approximate Internal Modelbased Neural Control (AIMNC), using Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural networks is proposed. A necessary condition that the system provides zero steady-state error for a constant reference and constant disturbances is derived. In the proposed control strategy only one neural network, which is the neural model of the plant, needs to be trained off-line. An inverse neural controller can be directly obtained from the neural model without need for a further training. Simulations demonstrate performance improvement of the proposed AIMNC modification. Keywords-input-output approximation; neural networks; nonlinear internal model control; zero steady-state error;
Evaluation of Cluster Analysis Algorithms Enhanced by Using R*-Trees

R* tree is a useful data structure for handling spatial data. However, although objects stored in the same R* tree leaf node enjoys spatial proximity, it is well-known that R* trees cannot be used directly for cluster analysis. Nevertheless, R* tree’s indexing feature can be used to assist existing cluster analysis methods, thus enhancing their performance or cluster quality. In this paper, we explore how to use R* trees to improve well-known Kmeans and hierarchical clustering methods. Based on R*Tree’s feature of indexing Minimum Bounding Box (MBB) according to spatial proximity, we extend R*-Tree’s application to cluster analysis of time series. Two improved algorithms, KMeans-R and Hierarchy-R, are proposed. The performance of these two methods is evaluated against K-Means and K-Means with sampling technique (KMeans-S) using similarity-oriented, supervised measures of cluster validity. Rand Index (RI), Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) and Information Gain (IG) are used as evaluation measures in our experiments. Compared with K-Means and KMeans-S, the clustering results from different data sets have shown that KMeans-R and Hierarchy-R have achieved better clustering quality.
Stimulus Dependence of Local Field Potential Spectra: Experiment versus Theory

The local field potential (LFP) captures different neural processes, including integrative synaptic dynamics that cannot be observed by measuring only the spiking activity of small populations. Therefore, investigating how LFP power is modulated by external stimuli can offer important insights into sensory neural representations. However, gaining such insight requires developing data-driven computational models that can identify and disambiguate the neural contributions to the LFP. Here, we investigated how networks of excitatory and inhibitory integrate-and-fire neurons responding to time-dependent inputs can be used to interpret sensory modulations of LFP spectra. We computed analytically from such models the LFP spectra and the information that they convey about input and used these analytical expressions to fit the model to LFPs recorded in V1 of anesthetized macaques (Macaca mulatta) during the presentation of color movies. Our expressions explain 60%–98% of the variance of the LFP spectrum shape and its dependency upon movie scenes and we achieved this with realistic values for the best-fit parameters. In particular, synaptic best-fit parameters were compatible with experimental measurements and the predictions of firing rates, based only on the fit of LFP data, correlated with the multiunit spike rate recorded from the same location. Moreover, the parameters characterizing the input to the network across different movie scenes correlated with cross-scene changes of several image features. Our findings suggest that analytical descriptions of spiking neuron networks may become a crucial tool for the interpretation of field recordings.
Adult literacy education in Botswana: Planning between reproduction and resistance

Abstract This article explores how planning the Botswana National Literacy Programme aided the state in maintaining its power and control over the past two decades. Using critical educational theory as the theoretical framework, it demonstrates how the planning of literacy education promotes conventional views of literacy and perpetuates state hegemony. It analyses how educational planners addressed competing choices of language, audience, and instructional design based on issues such as social status, gender, ethnic differences, and geographical location. The state views planning as a non-contested exercise representing different interests and common concerns. It has, however, met with some defiance from planners and facilitators who engaged in overt and quiet dissent from its hegemony. Consequently, the article explores ways to decentralise decision-making and devolve power to the district levels through using a participatory approach to involve all stakeholders in planning for the programme to respond to the learners' life tasks.
Segregation and racial disparities in post-stop outcomes: insights from New York City

ABSTRACT This research assesses the relationships of five dimensions of racial segregation with the likelihood of being subject to frisk, search, police force, and arrest in New York City. Specifically, we attempt to answer the following research questions: (1) Does segregation affect post-stop policing outcomes for blacks and Hispanics? (2) If the answer to the first question is positive, which dimension of segregation matters? (3) Is the relationship between segregation and policing outcomes moderated by neighborhoods’ racial/ethnic composition? Using the stop-and-frisk data published by the New York Police Department and census tract level socio-demographic data from various sources, we conducted negative binomial regressions to explore research questions. Results suggest that the association of segregation with policing outcomes is not uniform and it differs by segregation dimension, race of suspects, and the particular outcome studied. Generally, segregation increases the odds of the studied policing outcomes, making blacks and Hispanics more vulnerable during police contacts. Additionally, mixed moderation effects were found. This paper strongly indicates that segregation should be seriously considered in policing studies and each dimension is worthy of being examined individually.
Transendocardial cell injection is not superior to intracoronary infusion in a porcine model of ischaemic cardiomyopathy: a study on delivery efficiency

Stem cell therapy is a new strategy for chronic ischaemic heart disease in patients. However, no consensus exists on the most optimal delivery strategy. This randomized study was designed to assess cell delivery efficiency of three clinically relevant strategies: intracoronary (IC) and transendocardial (TE) using electromechanical mapping guidance (NOGA) compared to surgical delivery in a chronic pig model of ischaemic cardiomyopathy. Twenty‐four animals underwent delivery of 107 autologous Indium‐oxine‐labelled bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) 4 weeks after infarction and were randomized to one of three groups (n = 8 each group): IC, TE or surgical delivery (reference group). Primary endpoint was defined as percentage (%) of injected dose per organ and assessed by in vivo gamma‐emission counting. In addition, troponin and coronary flow were assessed before and after MSC injection. Blinded endpoint analysis showed no significant difference in efficiency after surgical (16 ± 4%), IC (11 ± 1%) and TE (11 ± 3%) (P = 0.52) injections. IC showed less variability in efficiency compared with TE and surgical injection. Overall, TE injection showed less distribution of MSC to visceral organs compared with other modalities. Troponin rise and IC flow did not differ between the percutaneous groups. This randomized study showed no significant difference in cell delivery efficiency to the myocardium in a clinically relevant ischaemic large animal model between IC and TE delivery. In addition, no differences in safety profile were observed. These results are important in view of the choice of percutaneous cell delivery modality in future clinical stem cell trials.
Overview of the TREC 2007 Enterprise Track

The collection consists of all the *. csiro.au (public) websites as they appeared in March 2007. The resulting data set consists of 370 715 documents, with total size 4.2 gigabytes. The web crawler visited the outward-facing pages of CSIRO in a fashion similar to the crawl used in CSIRO’s own search engine. In fact, the same crawler technology that CSIRO uses was used to gather the CSIRO documents (http://www.funnelback.com/). The corpus contains approximately 7.9 million hyperlinks, and 95% of pages have one or more outgoing links containing anchor text. One participant extracted email addresses of 3678 individuals, with 38% of documents containing at least one mailto field.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFLATION AND STOCK MARKET: EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIA, UNITED STATES AND CHINA.

This study was designed to examine the relative technical efficiency and its determinants on gender basis in maize production in Essien Udim Local Government area of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 100 maize farmers, (50 males and 50 females) from five out of eight clans in the Local Government Area. Data were collected using a well structured questionnaire and interview schedule administered on the respondents were analyzed using description tools and stochastic frontier production function. The estimated farm level technical efficiency for male and female farmers were 93 percent and 98 percent respectively. Results further indicated that the estimated production function revealed that farm size at 1 percent and quantity of fertilizer at 1 percent significantly influenced the maize production function for male farmers while farm size at 1 percent, labour at 5 percent, maize seeds at 10 percent and quantity of fertilizer at 10 percent significantly influenced that of the female farmers. Household size, extension contact, marital status, educational status, and credit access were found to be positively and significantly related to the technical efficiency of the male farmers while age, cooperative membership, and farm size were negatively but significantly related to their technical efficiency. For the female farmers, household size, credit access and farm size were positively significant while age and educational status were negative but significantly related to their technical efficiency. The results therefore call for policies aimed at encouraging the youths who are agile and young and experience to engage in maize production. Female farmers should be allowed access to farm land and other farm input and technologies for improved efficiency.
CATEGORIZATION OF NAMED ENTITIES IN INDIAN LANGUAGES USING HIDDEN MARKOV MODEL

Named Entity Recognition (NER) is the task in which proper nouns in a given document are discovered and then categorized into respective classes. The various classes of proper nouns may be name of location, name of person, Organization, River, Quantity, Time, Percentage etc. Today, there is a great need to perform NER in the Indian Languages, since not much work has been done in the field of Information retrieval in the Indian languages. In this paper, we have tried to explain NER, different approaches of NER and finally some results of NER in natural languages.
Weaknesses in Defenses Against Web-Borne Malware ( Extended Abstract )

Web-based mechanisms, often mediated by malicious JavaScript code, play an important role in malware delivery today, making defenses against web-borne malware crucial for system security. This paper explores weaknesses in existing approaches to the detection of malicious JavaScript code. These approaches generally fall into two categories: lightweight techniques focusing on syntactic features such as string obfuscation and dynamic code generation; and heavier-weight approaches that look for deeper semantic characteristics such as the presence of shellcode-like strings or execution of exploit code. We show that each of these approaches has its weaknesses, and that state-of-the-art detectors using these techniques can be defeated using cloaking techniques that combine emulation with dynamic anti-analysis checks. Our goal is to promote a discussion in the research community focusing on robust defensive techniques rather than ad-hoc solutions.