Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obtaining the Integrity of Your Virtual Machine in the Cloud

Infrastructure-as-a-service(IaaS) cloud provides the user the ability to use the computing resource of the cloud provider through renting a virtual machine(VM). At the same time it becomes an essential requirement for the user to verify the integrity of his VM. In this paper we designed and implemented TCG(trusted computing group)-based remote attestation for the Xen VM under the assumption that the trusted platform module(TPM) and hyper visor are secure and the privileged domain0 may be malicious. Firstly we realized load-time integrity measurement of the guest OS(operating system) kernel in the hyper visor directly and built the trust chain that is independent of the domain0. Secondly we realized the virtualized AIK(attestation identity key) and PCR(platform configuration register) that simulated the security functions of TPM AIK and PCR and supported VM migration, save and restore operations. Finally through the prototype implementation it is shown that the code complexity and the performance overhead are acceptable for the real system.
ASSESSING CONTINUOUS CONTAMINATION DISCHARGE FROM A COMBINED SEWER OUTFALL (CSO) INTO A TIDAL WETLAND CREEK: BACTERIOLOGICAL AND HEAVY METALS INDICATORS

Continuous discharge from a combined sewer overflow (CSO) into a tidal wetland creek in the New York City urban area was analyzed to assess the extent of water quality degradation during both dry and wet weather. A combination of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), total suspended solids, and dissolved metals were used to infer the presence of sewage and fecal pollution from the CSO discharge and to constrain the spatial and temporal impact on water quality and dry season creek flows. Upstream of the CSO, creek flow was dominated by groundwater input, and FIB levels were very low or undetected, indicating the absence of contamination. Low-volume loading was detected in dry weather, in contrast to the expected impact when a CSO is operating as designed (flowing only following wet weather). In wet weather, a "first flush" peak was detected for some contaminants, followed by diluted contaminant concentrations due to increased flow volume but resulting in greater total loading that affected a larger area. The correlation of bacteriological and metal indicators in paired spatial and temporal samples revealed a positive relationship between the concentration of some metals (e.g. Na, Fe) and FIB. Variable patterns of peak metal concentration in the creek, with respect to precipitation and FIB level, also suggest changes in contaminant source and the influence of tidal backwater. Permanent URL: http://hdl.handle. net/2047/d20003377
New vacuum-ultraviolet absorption data for lead vapour obtained by spin-polarisation measurements

The photoelectrons emitted by lead atoms exposed to circularly-polarised VUV radiation are partially spin polarised. Unlike the photoionisation cross section, the measured polarisation does not show autoionisation resonances as a function of wavelength. The polarisation and the known cross section results together yield new absorption data, which can be compared with the oscillator strengths of the Rydberg series in the discrete spectrum. Full information about the first three autoionisation resonances is also given. Some selected parts of the apparatus used for the spin-polarisation measurements are discussed in detail.
PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS OF DEFOCUS-IMAGE MODULATION PROCESSING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY

Principles of defocus-image modulation processing (DIMP) are described from a view point of three-dimensional image formation in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Two types of defocus-image modulation processing electron microscopes (DIMP-EM) have been constructed for realizing spherical aberration-free observation. They are based on changing the objective lens current and modulating the acceleration voltage for defocussing, respectively. The former one has an advantage of practical use that the DIMP-system developed can be easily applied to a commercial type electron microscope without any modifications. The second one enables a real-time image processing to be realized by controlling the irradiation time by the primary electron beam during recording each defocused image. The performance of the two DIMP-EMs are reported and discussed with some new experimental results.
Challenges in modeling demand for inventory optimization of slow-moving items

This paper presents the concept of inventory optimization and the role of demand distributions. Slow-moving item demand receives special emphasis. Simulations of several popular discrete distributions illustrate the difficulties of probability modeling with the quantity and quality of demand history typically available. Results of experiments with a state-of-the-art probability modeling tool (EXpertFit/sup TM/) highlight the practical difficulties of data-fitting. Finally, inventory optimization over a simulated data set with the "wrong" assumed demand distribution suggests a business case for accurately identifying demand distributions.
REPEAT PURCHASE THEORY AND WEBSITE REVISITATION FRAMEWORKS

Website revisitation as a specific field of study emerged in the late 1990s. To date, studieshave focused on attitudes to websites and/or attitudes to visiting and revisiting websites. This attitude-based approach appears to be historical in that it has grown out of research in the early 1990s that was concerned with examining consumer perceptions of websites. Website use and reuse represents complex behaviour and is not sufficiently explained by the current models. None of the studies to date have given consideration to the fact that websites can perform very different functions that directly affect revisitation behaviour. This means that revisitation behaviour needs to be studied within specific website types. To do this we need a comprehensive taxonomy of websites. Although the attitude-based frameworks provide some understanding, they have limited explanatory power. This paper argues for and presents a website revisitation framework derived from the repeat purchase literature and offers a comprehensive taxonomy of websites.
Cutaneous Side Effects of BRAF Inhibitors in Advanced Melanoma: Review of the Literature

The incidence of melanoma has recently been increasing. BRAF mutations have been found in 40–60% of melanomas. The increased activity of BRAF V600E leads to the activation of downstream signaling through the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, which plays a key role as a regulator of cell growth, differentiation, and survival. The use of BRAF inhibitors in metastatic melanoma with BRAF mutation ensures clinical improvement of the disease. Vemurafenib and dabrafenib are two selective BRAF inhibitors approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Both drugs are well tolerated and successfully used in clinical practice. However, some adverse reactions have been reported in patients in the course of treatment. Cutaneous side effects are the most common adverse events among them with a broad spectrum. Both the case reports and several original clinical trials reported cutaneous reactions during the treatment with BRAF inhibitors. In this review, the common cutaneous side effects of BRAF inhibitors in the treatment of metastatic melanoma with BRAF V600E mutation were reviewed.
Neural Mechanisms Influencing Interlimb Coordination during Locomotion in Humans: Presynaptic Modulation of Forearm H-Reflexes during Leg Cycling

Presynaptic inhibition of transmission between Ia afferent terminals and alpha motoneurons (Ia PSI) is a major control mechanism associated with soleus H-reflex modulation during human locomotion. Rhythmic arm cycling suppresses soleus H-reflex amplitude by increasing segmental Ia PSI. There is a reciprocal organization in the human nervous system such that arm cycling modulates H-reflexes in leg muscles and leg cycling modulates H-reflexes in forearm muscles. However, comparatively little is known about mechanisms subserving the effects from leg to arm. Using a conditioning-test (C-T) stimulation paradigm, the purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that changes in Ia PSI underlie the modulation of H-reflexes in forearm flexor muscles during leg cycling. Subjects performed leg cycling and static activation while H-reflexes were evoked in forearm flexor muscles. H-reflexes were conditioned with either electrical stimuli to the radial nerve (to increase Ia PSI; C-T interval = 20 ms) or to the superficial radial (SR) nerve (to reduce Ia PSI; C-T interval = 37–47 ms). While stationary, H-reflex amplitudes were significantly suppressed by radial nerve conditioning and facilitated by SR nerve conditioning. Leg cycling suppressed H-reflex amplitudes and the amount of this suppression was increased with radial nerve conditioning. SR conditioning stimulation removed the suppression of H-reflex amplitude resulting from leg cycling. Interestingly, these effects and interactions on H-reflex amplitudes were observed with subthreshold conditioning stimulus intensities (radial n., ∼0.6×MT; SR n., ∼ perceptual threshold) that did not have clear post synaptic effects. That is, did not evoke reflexes in the surface EMG of forearm flexor muscles. We conclude that the interaction between leg cycling and somatosensory conditioning of forearm H-reﬂex amplitudes is mediated by modulation of Ia PSI pathways. Overall our results support a conservation of neural control mechanisms between the arms and legs during locomotor behaviors in humans.
Efficient implementation of hybrid automatic gain control algorithm for chirp spread spectrum

In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid automatic gain control (AGC) algorithm as a solution to improve the signal reception performance based on the IEEE 802.15. 4a chirp spread spectrum (CSS). The CSS signals are composed of a number of full-chirps, which are separated by long guard time. A full-chirp is composed of two low-band sub-chirps and two high-band sub-chirps whose frequency characteristics are different because of multipath fading in indoor environment. Due to long guard time and wideband properties of the CSS, it is not appropriate to make use of conventional AGC algorithm which only uses one window size in order to estimate the power of signal and regardless of the different bands. The proposed hybrid AGC algorithm is made up of two steps: the first step is synthetically to utilize large window size and small window size, simultaneously improving performance of adaptation time and stability; the second step is based on two AGCs which are designed to be matched well with low-band and high-band signals separately.
Output control for time-delay nonlinear system providing exponential stability

This paper deals with the output stabilization of time-delay systems with sector-bounded nonlinearity. In this paper we will consider the problem of absolute stability for a class of time-delay systems which can be represented as a feedback connection of a linear dynamical system with unknown parameters and a uncertain nonlinearity satisfying a sector constraint. For a class of output control algorithms a controller providing output exponential stability of equilibrium position is proposed.
Wikipedia-based semantic query enrichment

We deal, in this paper, with the short queries (containing one or two words) problem. Short queries have no sufficient information to express their semantics in a non ambiguous way. Pseudo-relevance feedback (PRF) approach for query expansion is useful in many Information Retrieval (IR) tasks. However, this approach does not work well in the case of very short queries. Therefore, we present instead of PRF a semantic query enrichment method based on Wikipedia. This method expands short queries by semantically related terms extracted from Wikipedia. Our experiments on cultural heritage corpora show significant improvement in the retrieval performance.
SMART VOTING SYSTEM WITH FACE RECOGNITION

Manual voting system has been deployed for many years in our country. However in many parts of our country people cannot attend the voting because of several reasons. In order to solve these problems there is a need of online election voting system in addition to manual voting system. The long-term goal of this project is to greatly reduce the cost and complexity of running elections and increase the accuracy of results by removing the direct involvement of humans in gathering and counting of votes. The voters will be able to give their votes at any field areas by using the system if they prefer online voting In this system, the user votes using android application which can be downloaded over internet. The user has to login before giving his vote. Authentication will be done using SMS confirmation and face recognition. Users can view parties, enter votes, can verify vote via SMS or e-mail and can view result after result is declared.
SUPPORTING MOBILE ROBOT LOCALIZATION BY VISUAL BAR CODE RECOGNITION

Self-localization as precondition for goal-oriented behavior is a fundamental property an autonomous mobile robot needs to be equipped with. This paper addresses the self-localization problem from a pragmatical point of view since it argues for using passive artificial landmarks in order to support mobile robot localization in indoor environments. The idea is to further improve already existing localization capabilities by providing relevant environmental spots with semantic information. In order to facilitate the detection of these landmarks the employment of bar codes is proposed. Experimental results concerning the detection and identification of bar code labels by means of vision are presented.
Rethinking low extra delay background transport protocols

BitTorrent has recently introduced LEDBAT, a novel application-layer congestion control protocol for data exchange. The protocol design starts from the assumption that network bottlenecks are at the access of the network, and that thus user traffic competes creating self-inducing congestion. To relieve from this phenomenon, LEDBAT is designed to quickly infer that self-induced congestion is approaching (by detecting relative changes of the one-way delay in the transmission path), and to react by reducing the sending rate prior that congestion occurs. Prior work has however shown LEDBAT to be affected by a latecomer advantage, where newly arriving connections can starve already existing flows. In this work, we propose modifications to the congestion window update mechanism of the LEDBAT protocol that aim at solving this issue, guaranteeing thus intra-protocol fairness and efficiency. Closed-form expressions for the stationary throughput and queue occupancy are provided via a fluid model, whose accuracy is confirmed by means of ns2 packet level simulations. Our results show that the proposed change can effective solve the latecomer issue, without affecting the other original LEDBAT goals at the same time.
Toxicological Assessment of Inhaled Nanoparticles: Role of in Vivo, ex Vivo, in Vitro, and in Silico Studies

The alveolar epithelium of the lung is by far the most permeable epithelial barrier of the human body. The risk for adverse effects by inhaled nanoparticles (NPs) depends on their hazard (negative action on cells and organism) and on exposure (concentration in the inhaled air and pattern of deposition in the lung). With the development of advanced in vitro models, not only in vivo, but also cellular studies can be used for toxicological testing. Advanced in vitro studies use combinations of cells cultured in the air-liquid interface. These cultures are useful for particle uptake and mechanistic studies. Whole-body, nose-only, and lung-only exposures of animals could help to determine retention of NPs in the body. Both approaches also have their limitations; cellular studies cannot mimic the entire organism and data obtained by inhalation exposure of rodents have limitations due to differences in the respiratory system from that of humans. Simulation programs for lung deposition in humans could help to determine the relevance of the biological findings. Combination of biological data generated in different biological models and in silico modeling appears suitable for a realistic estimation of potential risks by inhalation exposure to NPs.
A NEW METHOD OF NORMAL APPROXIMATION

We introduce a new version of Stein's method that reduces a large class of normal approximation problems to variance bounding exercises, thus making a connection between central limit theorems and concentration of measure. Unlike Skorokhod embeddings, the object whose variance must be bounded has an explicit formula that makes it possible to carry out the program more easily. As an application, we derive a general CLT for functions that are obtained as combinations of many local contributions, where the definition of "local" itself depends on the data. Several examples are given, including the solution to a nearest-neighbor CLT problem posed by P. Bickel.
Genetic Learning of Computer Programs Represented by Straight Line Code

To successfully apply evolutionary algorithms to the solution of increasingly complex problems we must develop effective techniques for evolving solutions in the form of interacting coadapted subcomponents. In this paper we present an architecture which involves cooperative coevolution of two subcomponents: a genetic program and an evolution strategy. As main difference with work previously done, our genetic program evolves straight line programs representing functional expressions, instead of tree structures. The evolution strategy searches for good values for the numerical terminal symbols used by those expressions. Experimentation has been performed over symbolic regression problem instances and the obtained results have been compared with those obtained by means of Genetic Programming strategies without coevolution. The results show that our coevolutionary architecture with straight line programs performs considerably better than traditional genetic programming.
SiGe HBT Nonlinear Phase Noise Modeling - X-band amplifier design

A nonlinear noise model of a SiGe bipolar transistor is presented. This model includes a nonlinear noise source and is able to predict the noise conversion phenomena in circuits using this transistor such as oscillator phase noise. It is based on two main low frequency noise sources, which are extracted thanks to noise measurements under large RF signal superposition. An original low phase noise X band amplifier is also presented. This amplifier features a phase noise performance of −160 dBrad2* Hz−1 at 10 kHz offset frequency together with a low DC power consumption of 50 mW.
Large-scale 3D scene modeling by registration of laser range data with Google Maps images

This work presents a novel approach to registering multiple range images on top of a Google Maps image. The fundamental concept behind the method is matching completely different types of input with each other using classification as a middleman. Range images and Google Maps images are separated into classes, and the range image is also projected into a 2D top-down template image. The template image can then be matched against the Google Maps image to find its location and orientation on the map, which can be used for registering the range images. An experiment comparing this technique against using GPS to find position and orientation showed that it is effective at automatically constructing a reasonable large-scale 3D model whereas GPS would be completely ineffective.
Usability problem identification using both low- and high-fidelity prototypes

In two experiments, each using a different product (either a CD-ROM based eleclxonic book or an interactive voice response system), we compared the usability problems uncovered using lowand high-fidelity prototypes. One group of subjects performed a series of tasks using a paperbased low-fidelity prototype, while another performed the same tasks using either a high-fidelity prototype or the actual product. In both experiments, substantially the same sets of usability problems were found in the lowand highfidelity conditions. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the proportion of subjects detecting particular problems in the lowand high-fidelity groups. In other words, individual problems were detected by a similar proportion of subjects in both the lowand high-fidelity conditions. We conclude that the use of low-fidelity prototypes can be effective throughout the product development cycle, not just during the initial stages of design.
Speech discrimination based on multiscale spectro-temporal modulations

A novel approach for content based audio classification is presented based on multiscale spectro-temporal modulation features extracted using a model of auditory cortex. The task is to discriminate speech from non-speech which consists of animal vocalizations, music and environmental sounds. Generalization of the system to signals in high level of additive noise and reverberation is evaluated and compared to two existing approaches. The results demonstrate the advantages of the auditory model over the other two systems, especially at low SNR and high reverberation.
Optic Vesicle‐like Structures Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Facilitate a Customized Approach to Retinal Disease Treatment

Differentiation methods for human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) typically yield progeny from multiple tissue lineages, limiting their use for drug testing and autologous cell transplantation. In particular, early retina and forebrain derivatives often intermingle in pluripotent stem cell cultures, owing to their shared ancestry and tightly coupled development. Here, we demonstrate that three‐dimensional populations of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) can be isolated from early forebrain populations in both human embryonic stem cell and hiPSC cultures, providing a valuable tool for developmental, functional, and translational studies. Using our established protocol, we identified a transient population of optic vesicle (OV)‐like structures that arose during a time period appropriate for normal human retinogenesis. These structures were independently cultured and analyzed to confirm their multipotent RPC status and capacity to produce physiologically responsive retinal cell types, including photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). We then applied this method to hiPSCs derived from a patient with gyrate atrophy, a retinal degenerative disease affecting the RPE. RPE generated from these hiPSCs exhibited a disease‐specific functional defect that could be corrected either by pharmacological means or following targeted gene repair. The production of OV‐like populations from human pluripotent stem cells should facilitate the study of human retinal development and disease and advance the use of hiPSCs in personalized medicine. STEM CELLS 2011;29:1206‐1218