Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ReconBin: Reconstructing Binary File from Execution for Software Analysis

Static analysis is one of the most popular approaches of software analysis. As more and more software protects their code by transformation or encryption, then releases them at runtime dynamically, it is hard to statically analyze these protected executables because of the failure of disassembling. In this paper, we propose a novel and general technique to reconstruct binary files for static analysis by monitoring the executions of protected executables. Our approach can identify and extract the dynamically released code at runtime, and at the same time record the control transfers information, and then reconstruct a binary file based on the original executable. The whole process does not depend on any prior knowledge on the protection methods. Experiments on our prototype ReconBin show that our approach can properly reconstruct the executables protected by SMC and packers, and the reconstructed binary files can be successfully analyzed by static analysis tools such as IDA Pro. We show that it also can be used to analyze the code dynamically generated by virtual machines, emulators, and buffer overflow attacks, which also dynamically inject attack code into stack and direct execution flow to it.
A Position Statement: An Approach to Measuring Large-Scale Distributed Systems

Realistic measurement of large-scale distributed systems poses unique challenges. Empirical measurements can capture the true behavior of a real system, but this approach is only feasible when the system is small in scale. Simulation is more scalable, but without running real software, it is difficult for simulation tools to capture all realistic effects. This paper explores a different approach to measuring large-scale distributed systems. We introduce an overloading technique that uses a relatively small number of physical machines but supports the deployment of a distributed system consisting of a large number of logical nodes. We discuss the challenges and advantages of this approach and demonstrate its use to measure the Revere security update dissemination system.
The pq-gram distance between ordered labeled trees

When integrating data from autonomous sources, exact matches of data items that represent the same real-world object often fail due to a lack of common keys. Yet in many cases structural information is available and can be used to match such data. Typically the matching must be approximate since the representations in the sources differ. We propose pq-grams to approximately match hierarchical data from autonomous sources and define the pq-gram distance between ordered labeled trees as an effective and efficient approximation of the fanout weighted tree edit distance. We prove that the pq-gram distance is a lower bound of the fanout weighted tree edit distance and give a normalization of the pq-gram distance for which the triangle inequality holds. Experiments on synthetic and real-world data (residential addresses and XML) confirm the scalability of our approach and show the effectiveness of pq-grams.
AGN Jet-induced Feedback in Galaxies. I. Suppression of Star Formation

Relativistic jets originating from Supermassive Black Holes (SBHs) can have a considerable impact on the Interstellar/Intergalactic Medium (ISM/IGM) within which they propagate. Here we study the interaction which a relativistic jet, and the cocoon associated with its penetration into the ISM, has on the evolution of a dense cloud, placed very near the cocoon’s path, by analyzing a series of high-resolution numerical simulations, and studying the dependence on jet input power, between Pjet = 10 41 − 10 erg/sec. The density Probability Distribution Function (PDF) within the cocoon can be described in terms of two distinct components, which are also spatially distinct: a lowand a high-density component. The former is associated with the shocked gas within the internal region of the cocoon, while the latter is associated with the outer, shocked region of the cocoon itself. The PDF of the post-shocked region is well approximated by a modified lognormal distribution, for all values of Pjet. During the active phase, when the jet is fed by the AGN, the cloud is subject both to compression and stripping, which tend to increase its density and diminish its total mass. When the jet is switched off (i.e. during the passive phase) the shocked cloud cools further and tends to become more filamentary, under the action of a back-flow which develops within the cocoon. We study the evolution of the star formation rate within the cloud, assuming this is determined by a Schmidt-Kennicutt law, and we analyze the different physical factors which have an impact on the star formation rate. We show that, although the star formation rate can occasionally increase, on time scales of the order of 10 − 10 yrs, the star formation rate will be inhibited and the cloud fragments. The cooling time of the environment within which the cloud is embedded is however very long: thus, star formation from the fragmented cloud remains strongly inhibited.
Proxy-Guided Texture Synthesis for Rendering Natural Scenes

Abstract: Landscapes and other natural scenes are easy to photograph but difficult to model and render. We present a proxy-guided pipeline which allows for simple 3D proxy geometry to be rendered with the rich visual detail found in a suitably pre-annotated example image. This greatly simplifies the geometric modeling and texture mapping of such scenes. Our method renders at near-interactive rates and is designed by carefully adapting guidancebased texture synthesis to our goals. A guidance-map synthesis step is used to obtain silhouettes and borders that have the same rich detail as the source photo, using a Chamfer distance metric as a principled way of dealing with discrete texture labels. We adapt an efficient parallel approach to the challenging guided synthesis step we require, providing a fast and scalable solution. We provide a solution for local temporal coherence, by introducing a reprojection algorithm, which reuses earlier synthesis results when feasible, as measured by a distortion metric. Our method allows for the consistent integration of standard CG elements with the texture-synthesized elements. We demonstrate near-interactive camera motion and landscape editing on a number of examples.
A Crowd-Powered System for Fashion Similarity Search

Driven by the needs of customers and industry, online fashion search and analytics are recently gaining much attention. As fashion is mostly expressed by visual content, the analysis of fashion images in online social networks is a rich source of possible insights on evolving trends and customer preferences. Although a plethora of visual content is available, the modeling of clothes’ physics and movement, the implicit semantics in fashion designs, and the subjectivity of their interpretation pose difficulties to fully automated solutions for fashion search and analysis. In this article, we present the design and evaluation of a crowd-powered system for fashion similarity search from Twitter, supporting trend analysis for fashion professionals. The system enables fashion similarity search based on specific human-based similarity criteria. This is achieved by implementing a novel machine--crowd workflow that supports complex tasks requiring highly subjective judgments where multiple true solutions may coexist. We discuss how this leads to a novel class of crowd-powered systems for which the output of the crowd is not used to verify the automatic analysis but is the desired outcome. Finally, we show how this kind of crowd involvement enables a novel kind of similarity search and represents a crucial factor for the acceptance of system results by the end user.
Stochastic models of evolution in genetics, ecology and linguistics

We give an overview of stochastic models of evolution that have found applications in genetics, ecology and linguistics for an audience of non-specialists, especially statistical physicists. In particular, we focus mostly on neutral models in which no intrinsic advantage is ascribed to a particular type of the variable unit, for example a gene, appearing in the theory. In many cases these models are exactly solvable and furthermore go some way to describing observed features of genetic, ecological and linguistic systems.
Time reversibility in short-term heart period variability

We propose a simple normalized index (i.e. the percentage of positive variations between two successive samples, PV%) and a procedure based on surrogate data to detect irreversible time series. This index was applied to short term heart period variability series (-300 cardiac beats) derived from 10 young healthy humans at rest (R), during head-up tilt (T) and controlled respiration at 10, 15 and 20 breaths/minute (R10, R15 and R20). We found that heart period variability is time irreversible in 30%, 60%, 60%, 60% and 40% of the subjects at R, T, R10, R15 and R20 respectively. Mostly during T, RIO, R15 and R20 the values of PV% indicate the presence of bradycardie runs (i.e. sequences characterized by heart period lengthening) lasting less than tachycardic ones, thus indicating a specific asymmetry of the temporal features present in the heart period variability series.
Auxetic Cardiac Patches with Tunable Mechanical and Conductive Properties toward Treating Myocardial Infarction

An auxetic conductive cardiac patch (AuxCP) for the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI) is introduced. The auxetic design gives the patch a negative Poisson's ratio, providing it with the ability to conform to the demanding mechanics of the heart. The conductivity allows the patch to interface with electroresponsive tissues such as the heart. Excimer laser microablation is used to micropattern a re‐entrant honeycomb (bow‐tie) design into a chitosan‐polyaniline composite. It is shown that the bow‐tie design can produce patches with a wide range in mechanical strength and anisotropy, which can be tuned to match native heart tissue. Further, the auxetic patches are conductive and cytocompatible with murine neonatal cardiomyocytes in vitro. Ex vivo studies demonstrate that the auxetic patches have no detrimental effect on the electrophysiology of both healthy and MI rat hearts and conform better to native heart movements than unpatterned patches of the same material. Finally, the AuxCP applied in a rat MI model results in no detrimental effect on cardiac function and negligible fibrotic response after two weeks in vivo. This approach represents a versatile and robust platform for cardiac biomaterial design and could therefore lead to a promising treatment for MI.
Big versus Little : Who will trip ?

Since the marginal cost of operating powerful monolithic single core systems has become prohibitive, horizontal scaling has become the de-facto method for expanding computational power and maintaining acceptable levels of energy efficiency. While horizontal scaling is now the accepted means, there is still a debate as to whether this should be done with ”big” or ”little” architectures. While this subject has typically been approached from the perspective of performance or power, we choose to analyze it in the light of reliability. In recent years reliability has joined performance and power as a first-order design constraint in microprocessor design. The sensitivity of microprocessors to voltage fluctuations is a major concern in designing efficient low-power, reliable microarchitectures. Voltage fluctuations beyond a certain threshold can cause timing errors and operational failures in processors, risking the reliability of systems. While this has traditionally been studied in the context of few-core systems, compounding effects may be experienced by larger parallel and distributed systems which have become the mainstream in desktop/server class computing. In this paper, we perform a detailed evaluation of the characteristics of voltage noise in large many-core systems, comparing the differences in future many-core out-oforder (OOO) and inorder configurations. We find that single out-of-order cores experience larger voltage variations when compared to inorder cores, but also have a clear advantage in terms of performance. Based on our evaluation using parsec benchmarks, we find that for processes that scale with the number of cores, a number of OOO cores may be replaced by a larger number of inorder cores to achieve the same powerefficiency and performance with improved reliability. Keywords-Reliability; Voltage Noise; Out-of-order cores; Inorder cores; Power Efficiency
PET 18F-FDG kinetic modeling using the iterative two-stage population approach for the assessment of left ventricular function in case of small animal heart failure

Kinetic modeling is widely used to measure micro and macro physiologic parameters from dynamic positron emission tomography (PET). The estimation of the unknown parameters is provided by use of time-activity curves (TACs) calculated from dynamic data and compartmental models. The conventional method used to fit the compartmental models to TACs is the weighted nonlinear least squares (WNLS). This method could be applied either in any given region of interest (ROI) or at the pixel level depending on the radiotracer used. However, in the case of low signal-noise ratio (SNR), WNLS does not yield to a reliable parameter estimation. To overcome this issue, we propose in this paper the iterative two-stage (ITS) method. Unlike WNLS, the ITS method operates all ROIs drawn on PET images of explored organs to estimate parameters in a given ROI. In this work, we study the performance of ITS versus WNLS in the case of heart failure induced by liguature of the left coronary artery. The images are segmented in four tissue regions, that is the anterior wall, the posterior wall, the lateral wall, and the septal wall. In addition, one region was drawn around the blood pool region and used to extract the input function (IF). We conclude that, contrary to the WNLS approach, the ITS approach improves assessment of micro parameters in the septal wall region where SNR is low.
A method for detecting buffer overflow vulnerabilities

Buffer overflow vulnerabilities are currently the most prevalent security vulnerability. The paper presents a method that combines static analysis with dynamic test to deal with the problem on buffer overflow vulnerabilities detecting. By using the method we can identify potential weakness locations. A buffer overflow vulnerabilities testing system was developed. The experiment results tested and verified that the new methodology is feasibility and availability.
Sequential testing in classifier evaluation yields biased estimates of effectiveness

It is common to develop and validate classifiers through a process of repeated testing, with nested training and/or test sets of increasing size. We demonstrate in this paper that such repeated testing leads to biased estimates of classifier effectiveness. Experiments on a range of text classification tasks under three sequential testing frameworks show all three lead to optimistic estimates of effectiveness. We calculate empirical adjustments to unbias estimates on our data set, and identify directions for research that could lead to general techniques for avoiding bias while reducing labeling costs.
Chemical Profiling (HPLC-NMR & HPLC-MS), Isolation, and Identification of Bioactive Meroditerpenoids from the Southern Australian Marine Brown Alga Sargassum paradoxum

A phytochemical investigation of a southern Australian marine brown alga, Sargassum paradoxum, resulted in the isolation and identification of four new (5, 9, 10, and 15) and nine previously reported (1, 2, 6–8, and 11–14) bioactive meroditerpenoids. HPLC-NMR and HPLC-MS were central to the identification of a new unstable compound, sargahydroquinal (9), and pivotal in the deconvolution of eight (1, 2, 5–7, and 10–12) other meroditerpenoids. In particular, the complete characterization and identification of the two main constituents (1 and 2) in the crude dichloromethane extract was achieved using stop-flow HPLC-NMR and HPLC-MS. This study resulted in the first acquisition of gHMBCAD NMR spectra in the stop-flow HPLC-NMR mode for a system solely equipped with a 60 μL HPLC-NMR flow cell without the use of a cold probe, microcoil, or any pre-concentration.
Cathepsin L protease (CPL-1) is essential for yolk processing during embryogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans

Cysteine proteases are involved in the degradation of intracellular and extracellular proteins, although their precise roles in vivo are not well understood. Here we characterise a genetic mutant of the Caenorhabditis elegans cathepsin L protease gene cpl-1. CPL-1 is provided maternally and is essential for C. elegans embryogenesis. Immunofluorescence and electron microscopy data show that yolk endocytosis and initial yolk platelet formation occur normally in cpl-1 mutant oocytes and embryos. However, at around the 8-12 cell stage of embryogenesis, yolk platelets begin to aggregate and these enlarged yolk platelets fill the cytoplasm of cpl-1 mutant embryos. Coincident with this aggregation is loss of fluorescence from a yolk green fluorescent protein (YP170::GFP). This suggests that loss of CPL-1 activity leads to aberrant processing and/or conformational changes in yolk proteins, resulting in abnormal platelet fusion. This study has relevance to the abnormal fusion and aggregation of lysosomes in cathepsin L-deficient mice and to other lysosomal disorders.
Study of the Stability of a Direct Stator Current Controller for a Doubly Fed Induction Machine Using the Complex Hurwitz Test

In this brief, a new control scheme is presented for the doubly fed induction machine (DFIM). The proposed control algorithm offers the advantages of proven stability and remarkable simplicity. In contrast to the classical vector control method, where the DFIM is represented in a stator-flux-oriented frame, a model with orientation of the stator voltage is adopted. This approach allows the decomposition of the active and reactive powers on the stator side and their regulation on the rotor side. A main contribution of this brief is the use of the Hurwitz test for polynomials with complex coefficients that has had little prior application in control theory. This results in a proof that a proportional-integral (PI) control regulating the stator currents ensures global stability for a feedback-linearized DFIM. The specific condition that the PI gains must satisfy is derived as a simple inequality. The PI controller has a particular structure that directly relates the d-component of the rotor voltages to the q-component of the stator currents and vice versa. The feedback linearization stage only uses the direct measurement of the rotor and stator currents and is thus easily implementable. Furthermore, it is also shown that the PI controller (without the feedback linearization terms) is also stable for a large range of control gains and does not require the knowledge of the machine parameters. Finally, the control system is validated in simulations and in experiments.
An Exploration of Extensions to the RMA Algorithm

There is frequently a requirement to analyze microarray data at one or more interim stages throughout the course of a study. The RMA algorithm for pre-processing Affymetrix microarray data has an undesirable property that the gene expression intensities on a microarray change when re-pre-processing is necessary due to the inclusion of additional microarrays at different stages of the study. The use of the RMA algorithm can also be limited by available computer memory. We describe and explore the properties of the RMA+ algorithm based on building an RMA model on a reference set of microarrays and storing the parameters of this model fit. The gene expression values for subsequent microarrays are calculated from these parameters without changing the gene expression values of previously calculated microarrays. We also propose an extension of the RMA+ method, RMA++, which makes lower demands on computer memory than RMA. Evaluating these methods on data in Bhattacharjee et al. (1) shows that RMA+ and RMA++ give a close approximation to RMA.
High Gain Observer for backstepping control of a MRI-guided therapeutic microrobot in blood vessels

This paper reports precise modeling and controller/ observer design for a microsized polymer aggregate of magnetic particles inside an artery, using a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) device for supplying propulsion in order to achieve targeted chemotherapy. Non-Newtonian behaviour of blood is taken into account, as well as wall effects and interactions, resulting in a highly nonlinear model. A High Gain Observer is designed to reconstruct the unmeasured state, so that a backstepping controller can be synthesized. Efficiency and robustness to noise of this controller/observer pair is then illustrated through simulations results.
Traits of Heracleum sosnowskyi Plants in Monostand on Invaded Area

The ability of giant hogweeds to form monodominant communities and even pure monostands in invaded areas has been well documented. Understanding of the mechanisms leading to monostand formation can aid in determining the limitations of existing community ecology models and establishing an effective management plan for invasive species elimination. The aim of this observational study was to investigate traits of Heracleum sosnowskyi plants (demography, canopy structure, morphology and physiology) of the plants in a pure stand in an invaded area useful for understanding potential monostand formation mechanisms. All measurements were performed in one typical Heracleum sosnowskyi monostand located in an abandoned agriculture field located in Syktyvkar city suburb (North-east Russia). This monostand consisted of five main plant growth stages: seed, seedling, juvenile, vegetative adult, and generative adult. Plants of all stages began to grow simultaneously shortly after the snowmelt, at the same time as spring ephemeral plant species grew. The density of generative plants did not change during the vegetation period, but the density of the other plant stages rapidly decreased after the formation of a tall (up to 2–2.5 m) and dense (Leaf area index up to 6.5) canopy. The canopy captured approximately 97% of the light. H. sosnowskyi showed high (several orders of magnitude higher than average taiga zone grasses) photosynthetic water use efficiency (6–7 μM CO2/μM H2O). Formation of H. sosnowskyi monostands occurs primarily in disturbed areas with relatively rich and well-moistened soils. Early commencement of growth, rapid formation of a dense canopy, high efficiency of light and water use during photosynthesis, ability of young plants to survive in low light conditions, rapid recovery of above-ground plant parts after damage, and the high density of the soil seed bank are the most important traits of H. sosnowskyi plants for monostand formation in invaded areas.