Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning a new distance metric to improve an SVM-clustering based intrusion detection system

In the recent decades, many intrusion detection systems (IDSs) have been proposed to enhance the security of networks. A class of IDSs is based on clustering of network traffic into normal and abnormal according to some features of the connections. The selected distance function to measure the similarity and dissimilarity of sessions' features affect the performance of clustering based IDSs. The most popular distance metric, which is used in designing these IDSs is the Euclidean distance function. In this paper, we argue that more appropriate distance functions can be deployed for IDSs. We propose a method of learning an appropriate distance function according to a set of supervision information. This metric is derived by solving a semi-definite optimization problem, which attempts to decrease the distance between the similar, and increases the distances between the dissimilar feature vectors. The evaluation of this scheme over Kyoto2006+ dataset shows that the new distance metric, can improve the performance of a support vector machine (SVM) clustering based IDS in terms of normal detection and false positive rates.
Granular Decision Tree and Evolutionary Neural SVM for Protein Secondary Structure Prediction

A new sliding window scheme is introduced with multiple windows to form the protein data for SVM. Two new tertiary classifiers are introduced; one of them makes use of support vector machines as neurons in neural network architecture and the other tertiary classifier is a granular decision tree based on granular computing, decision tree and SVM. Binary classifier using multiple windows is compared with single window scheme. The accuracy levels of the new classifiers are better than most available techniques.
A methodology of vehicle speed estimation based on optical flow

It has great significance to acquire vehicle speed for active safety system. This paper presents a methodology for identifying vehicle speed by obtaining a sparse optical flow from image sequences. Distinct corners can be detected by Harris corner detector after image enhancement. Then, Lucas-Kanade method for optical flow calculation is utilized to match the sparse feature set of one frame on the consecutive frame. In order to improve the accuracy of optical flow, RANSAC algorithm is introduced to optimize the matched corners. Finally, the vehicle speed can be determined by averaging all the speeds estimated by every optimized matched corner. The results of field test indicated that the computation time of the developed method to execute for one time was 59ms, and the mean error of speed estimation relative to the measurement of GPS was 0.121 m/s. The developed method can achieve satisfying performance, such as accuracy and output frequency.
Extended timing diagrams as a specification language

Hardware designs increasingly evolve to distributed systems composed of multiple interacting components working in parallel. Extended Timing Diagrams presented in this paper are an intelligible graphical speci cation language especially suited for the description of such communicating systems. The formal semantics of extended timing diagrams is de ned in terms of a process calculus. This formalization permits applying the language as an entrance to formal design systems.
Gamma-Ray Bursts and Type Ic Supernova SN 1998bw

Recently a Type Ic supernova, SN 1998bw, was discovered coincident with a gamma-ray burst, GRB 980425. The supernova had unusual radio, optical, and spectroscopic properties. Among other things, it was especially bright for a Type Ic both optically and in the radio, and it rose quickly to maximum. We explore here models based upon helium stars in the range 9-14 M☉ and carbon-oxygen stars 6-11 M☉, which experience unusually energetic explosions (kinetic energy 0.5-2.8 × 1052 ergs). Bolometric light curves and multiband photometry are calculated and compared favorably with observations. No spectroscopic data are available at this time, but both LTE and non-LTE spectra are calculated for the model that agrees best with the light curve, a carbon-oxygen core of 6 M☉ exploded with a kinetic energy of 2.2 × 1052 ergs. We also examine potential mechanisms for producing the observed gamma-ray burst (GRB)—shock breakout and relativistic shock deceleration in circumstellar material. For spherically symmetric models, both fail to produce a GRB of even the low luminosity inferred for GRB 980425. However, the high explosion energies required to understand the supernova are in contrast to what is expected for such massive stars and indicate that a new sort of explosion may have been identified, possibly the consequence of a collapsar. Indeed a more likely explanation for what was seen is a highly asymmetric explosion in which the GRB was produced by mildly relativistic matter (Γ≈5) running into circumstellar matter along the line of sight to the Earth. The explosion itself was powered by black hole accretion and jets, but unlike "ordinary" gamma-ray bursts, the jets were not of sufficient energy and duration to effectively reach large values of Γ. They may also not have been oriented in our direction. The ejected mass (but not the 56Ni mass) and explosion energy are then smaller. Other associations between luminous Type Ic supernovae and GRBs may exist and should be sought, but most Type Ib and Type Ic supernovae do not make GRBs.
Adaptive Performance Isolation Middleware for Multi-tenant SaaS

SaaS providers typically adopt a multi-tenant architecture to leverage economies of scale. By maximizing the sharing of resources among multiple customer organizations, called tenants, operational costs are reduced. However, this high degree of resource sharing complicates performance isolation between tenants: different tenants have different requirements regarding performance and ensuring compliance with these co-existing and competing performance constraints within a shared application remains a challenge. This paper presents an adaptive middleware that enables SaaS providers to efficiently enforce different and competing performance constraints in multi-tenant SaaS applications. It can manage a combination of performance constraints in terms of latency, throughput and deadlines at a fine-grained level, and enables rapid response on changing circumstances, while preserving the resource usage efficiency of application-level multi-tenancy. We focus on service-oriented applications that asynchronously process small units of work, as supported by many cloud platforms via queues or simple workflows (e.g. Google App Engine, Amazon AWS). We have implemented a prototype on top of a private cloud platform, based on OpenStack and JBoss. The evaluation shows the effectiveness and flexibility of our solution in the context of an industry-relevant SaaS application, with minimal performance overhead.
Visible Light Imaging K.1.1. Design Approach

The function of the visible light imaging subsystem is to measure visibility magnitudes for all 21 baselines of the CHARA Array. In order to have the most complete imaging data set possible it would be advantageous to also measure fringe phase. Unfortunately, due to the random phase shifts introduced by the atmosphere, individual phases will be overwhelmed by noise, and the phase closure technique developed for radio interferometry Thomson et al. 1986 will need to be employed. The modes of operation planned for the imaging subsystem are: 1. Visibility Magnitude and Phase Closure With Long Samples When enough light i s a vailable for the fringe tracker to lock o n to the fringes the imaging subsystem can integrate over sample times that are long compared with the fringe tracking sample time and establish phase closure and visibility magnitudes for all baselines. If the fringe tracker loses phase lock, the integration can be stopped until the fringes are once again stable. 2. Visibility Magnitude and Phase Closure With Short Samples When too little light i s a vailable to lock o n to the fringes, it should still be possible to track within a small part of the fringe envelope. The fringe phase will be changing at the time scale of the atmospheric turbulence t 0. If each sample was of this time scale or less, the magnitudes and closure phases can be measured by i n tegrating over many samples. 3. Visibility Magnitude Only In this case so little light i s a vailable that all phase information will be lost, but visibility magnitudes can still be measured. For even lower photon uxes the fringe tracker itself will be used to measure visibility magnitudes. Refer to Appendix I on the visible fringe tracker for a more detailed discussion of the various modes of operation planned for the interferometer. The imaging subsystem design employs single mode bers to create a non-redundant linear output pseudo-array. The output of this array then passes through a dispersive element and an imaging lens assembly. T h us the fringes are formed in the image plane and are encoded spatially. A single-dimension output pseudo-array w as chosen so that the second dimension o f a t wo-dimensional detector could be used in a spectroscopic mode. In reaching this design decision many connicting requirements had to be balanced. Some of the design issues considered were: K …
Three dimensional evaluation of the aortic annulus using multislice computer tomography: are manufacturer's guidelines for sizing for percutaneous aortic valve replacement helpful?

AIMS To evaluate the effects of applying current sizing guidelines to different multislice computer tomography (MSCT) aortic annulus measurements on Corevalve (CRS) size selection. METHODS AND RESULTS Multislice computer tomography annulus diameters [minimum: D(min); maximum: D(max); mean: D(mean) = (D(min) + D(max))/2; mean from circumference: D(circ); mean from surface area: D(CSA)] were measured in 75 patients referred for percutaneous valve replacement. Fifty patients subsequently received a CRS (26 mm: n = 22; 29 mm: n = 28). D(min) and D(max) differed substantially [mean difference (95% CI) = 6.5 mm (5.7-7.2), P < 0.001]. If D(min) were used for sizing 26% of 75 patients would be ineligible (annulus too small in 23%, too large in 3%), 48% would receive a 26 mm and 12% a 29 mm CRS. If D(max) were used, 39% would be ineligible (all annuli too large), 4% would receive a 26 mm, and 52% a 29 mm CRS. Using D(mean), D(circ), or D(CSA) most patients would receive a 29 mm CRS and 11, 16, and 9% would be ineligible. In 50 patients who received a CRS operator choice corresponded best with sizing based on D(CSA) and D(mean) (76%, 74%), but undersizing occurred in 20 and 22% of which half were ineligible (annulus too large). CONCLUSION Eligibility varied substantially depending on the sizing criterion. In clinical practice both under- and oversizing were common. Industry guidelines should recognize the oval shape of the aortic annulus.
Human semen quality in the new millennium: a prospective cross-sectional population-based study of 4867 men

Objectives Considerable interest and controversy over a possible decline in semen quality during the 20th century raised concern that semen quality could have reached a critically low level where it might affect human reproduction. The authors therefore initiated a study to assess reproductive health in men from the general population and to monitor changes in semen quality over time. Design Cross-sectional study of men from the general Danish population. Inclusion criteria were place of residence in the Copenhagen area, and both the man and his mother being born and raised in Denmark. Men with severe or chronic diseases were not included. Setting Danish one-centre study. Participants 4867 men, median age 19 years, included from 1996 to 2010. Outcome measures Semen volume, sperm concentration, total sperm count, sperm motility and sperm morphology. Results Only 23% of participants had optimal sperm concentration and sperm morphology. Comparing with historic data of men attending a Copenhagen infertility clinic in the 1940s and men who recently became fathers, these two groups had significantly better semen quality than our study group from the general population. Over the 15 years, median sperm concentration increased from 43 to 48 million/ml (p=0.02) and total sperm count from 132 to 151 million (p=0.001). The median percentage of motile spermatozoa and abnormal spermatozoa were 68% and 93%, and did not change during the study period. Conclusions This large prospective study of semen quality among young men of the general population showed an increasing trend in sperm concentration and total sperm count. However, only one in four men had optimal semen quality. In addition, one in four will most likely face a prolonged waiting time to pregnancy if they in the future want to father a child and another 15% are at risk of the need of fertility treatment. Thus, reduced semen quality seems so frequent that it may impair the fertility rates and further increase the demand for assisted reproduction.
A Helium Spread among the Main-Sequence Stars in NGC 2808

We have made a detailed study of the color distribution of the main sequence of the globular cluster (GC) NGC 2808, based on new deep HST WFPC2 photometry of a field in the uncrowded outskirts of the cluster. The observed color distribution of main-sequence stars is not Gaussian and is wider than expected for a single stellar population, given our (carefully determined) measurement errors. About 20% of the sample stars are much bluer than expected and are most plausibly explained as a population having a much larger helium abundance than the bulk of the main sequence. Using synthetic color-magnitude diagrams based on new stellar models, we estimate that the helium mass fraction of these stars is Y ~ 0.4. The newly found anomaly on the main sequence gives credence to the idea that GCs like NGC 2808 have undergone self-enrichment and that different stellar populations were born from the ejecta of the intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars of the first generation. The enhancement and spread of helium among the stars in NGC 2808 have recently been suggested as a simple way to explain the very peculiar morphology of its horizontal branch. We find that if in addition to the Y = 0.40 stars, roughly 30% of the stars have Y distributed between 0.26-0.29, while 50% have primordial Y, this leads to a horizontal-branch morphology similar to that observed. In this framework, three main stages of star formation are identified, the first with primordial helium content Y ≃ 0.24, the second born from the winds of the most massive AGBs of the first stellar generation (~6-7 M☉), with Y ~ 0.4, and a third born from the matter ejected from less massive AGBs (~3.5-4.5 M☉), with Y ~ 0.26-0.29. There could have been a long hiatus (several times 107 yr), between the second and third generation in which no star formed in the protocluster. We suggest that during this period, star formation has been inhibited by the explosion of late Type II supernovae deriving from binary evolution.
Continuous parallax adjustment for 3D-TV

This paper presents a method to continuously adjust the parallax in 3D-TV visualization. It is based on a generic framework for novel view synthesis from two uncalibrated reference views that allows to move a virtual camera along a path that is obtained starting from the epipolar geometry of the reference views. The scene is described by its relative affine structure from which new views are extrapolated and interpolated. The main contribution of this paper is an automatic method for specifying virtual camera locations in an uncalibrated setting. Experiments with synthetic and real images illustrate the approach.
Adaptive bandwidth object tracking using sparse approximation

In this paper, a novel adaptive bandwidth object tracking using sparse approximation is proposed in mean shift framework. In this framework, occlusion, illumination and other challenging issues are addressed seamlessly in real time through bandwidth approximation. To find the tracking target at a new frame, a two step method is used iteratively to find the most probable target candidate position. The first step is to find an appropriate bandwidth which best describes the region range of the object using sparse representation, and the second step is to find the target position using mean shift object tracking framework which has been given the appropriate bandwidth in the first step. In addition, we improve the convergence properties of the mean-shift by approximating the region range of target in the iterative update mechanism. The proposed approach shows excellent performance in comparison with originally proposed trackers.
Topical knowledge in L2 speaking assessment: Comparing independent and integrated speaking test tasks

Integrated speaking test tasks (integrated tasks) provide reading and/or listening input to serve as the basis for test-takers to formulate their oral responses. This study examined the influence of topical knowledge on integrated speaking test performance and compared independent speaking test performance and integrated speaking test performance in terms of how each was related to topical knowledge. The researchers derived four integrated tasks from TOEFL iBT preparation materials, developed four independent speaking test tasks (independent tasks), and validated four topical knowledge tests (TKTs) on a group of 421 EFL learners. For the main study, they invited another 352 students to respond to the TKTs and to perform two independent tasks and two integrated tasks. Half of the test takers took the independent tasks and integrated tasks on one topic combination while the other half took tasks on another topic combination. Data analysis, drawing on a series of path analyses, led to two major findings. First, topical knowledge significantly impacted integrated speaking test performance in both topic combinations. Second, the impact of topical knowledge on the two types of speaking test performances was topic dependent. Implications are proposed in light of these findings.
Sex differences in guessing and item omission

R taking can be perceived as environmental adaptation. People successfully adapt by systematically taking certain risks whilst avoiding others (Byrnes, 1998). From such a perspective, test-taking strategy can be conceptualised as an adaptation to a testing situation. In the test situation, student knowledge and problem solving skills are pitted against scoring rules, which may either penalise them or not for guessing and item omission. For example, if the scoring rules penalise an incorrect answer, a student might be less likely to take the risk of providing an uncertain answer. However, if the student can make an educated guess, the risk of providing an incorrect answer is reduced and might be considered as worth taking. Omitting test items may be considered as an indicator of the tendency to avoid this risk. When a student has insufficient knowledge and skills, and nevertheless answers an item, while this answer turns
Semantic Aspect Discovery for Online Reviews

The number of opinions and reviews about different products and services is growing online. Users frequently look for important aspects of a product or service in the reviews. Usually, they are interested in semantic (i.e., sentiment-oriented) aspects. However, extracting semantic aspects with supervised methods is very expensive. We propose a domain independent unsupervised model to extract semantic aspects, and conduct qualitative and quantitative experiments to evaluate the extracted aspects. The experiments show that our model effectively extracts semantic aspects with correlated top words. In addition, the conducted evaluation on aspect sentiment classification shows that our model outperforms other models by 5-7% in terms of macro-average F1.
GPU accelerated relational hash join operation

Most of the modern applications involves organization and quick processing of data which demands the use of a database management system. GPUs are now considered the future of computing and the promise that they deliver in the field of image processing and graphics rendering, along with their computation capability nominates them to be used for high performance computing. Modern GPUs are now being used, on a larger scale to solve non-graphical problems taking advantage of their availability and affordability. This has opened new avenues for the exploitation of parallel architecture to accelerate massive data processing operations. This paper looks ahead to parallelize hash join algorithm which is an efficient method practiced to carry out join operation in database management systems. The algorithm is parallelized using CUDA and the results on a NVIDIA 9600 GT exhibits a speedup of up to 45x depending on the size of input relations and result set.
Review paper on Cognitive Radio Networking and Communications

-Cognitive radio (CR) is the enabling technology for supporting dynamic spectrum access: the policy that addresses the spectrum scarcity problem that is encountered in many countries. The spectrum sensing problem has gained new aspects with cognitive radio networks. Radio spectrum is the most valuable resource in wireless communication. The cognitive radio and cognitive based networking are transforming the static spectrum allocation based communication systems in to dynamic spectrum allocation. Cognitive radios are intelligent devices with ability to sense environmental conditions and can change its parameters according to the requirements to get the optimized performance at the individual nodes or at network level Thus, CR is widely regarded as one of the most promising technologies for future wireless communications.
Template-based scoring functions for visualizing biological insights of H-2Kb-peptide-TCR complexes

Class-I major histocompatibility complex (MHC), peptide, and T-cell receptor (TCR) play an essential role of adaptive immune responses. Many prediction servers are available for identification of peptides that bind to MHC class I molecules. These servers are often lack of detailed interacting residues and binding models for analyzing MHC-peptide-TCR interaction mechanisms. This study numerously enhanced the template-based scoring function derived from protein-protein interactions for identifying MHC-peptide-TCR binding models. The scoring function considers both the template similarity and interacting force to ensure the statistically significant interface similarity between the peptide candidates and structure templates. The result shows that our scoring function is comparative to the public websites for identifying MHC binding peptides. Our model, considering both the MHC-peptide and peptide-TCR interfaces, is able to provide visualization and the biological insights of MHC-peptide-TCR binding models. We believe that our model is useful for the development of peptide-based vaccines.
Automatic Cache Tuning for Energy-Efficiency using Local Regression Modeling

Configuration of an application-specific instruction-set processor (ASIP) through an exhaustive search of the design space is computationally prohibitive. We propose a novel algorithm that models the design space using local regressions. With only a small subset of the design space sampled, our model uses statistical inference to estimate all remaining points. We used our approach to tune a two-level cache with 19,278 legal configurations. Only 1% of the design space was simulated resulting in a 100times speedup over a brute-force approach, hi doing so, we were able to identify near optimal configurations for most benchmarks and reduce the overall power of the processor by 13.9% on average, with one benchmark as high as 53%.