Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
I3FS: An In-Kernel Integrity Checker and Intrusion Detection File System

Today, improving the security of computer systems has become an important and difficult problem. Attackers can seriously damage the integrity of systems. Attack detection is complex and time-consuming for system administrators, and it is becoming more so. Current integrity checkers and IDSs operate as user-mode utilities and they primarily perform scheduled checks. Such systems are less effective in detecting attacks that happen between scheduled checks. These user tools can be easily compromised if an attacker breaks into the system with administrator privileges. Moreover, these tools result in significant performance degradation during the checks.Our system, called I3FS, is an on-access integrity checking file system that compares the checksums of files in real-time. It uses cryptographic checksums to detect unauthorized modifications to files and performs necessary actions as configured. I3FS is a stackable file system which can be mounted over any underlying file system (like Ext3 or NFS). I3FS's design improves over the open-source Tripwire system by enhancing the functionality, performance, scalability, and ease of use for administrators. We built a prototype of I3FS in Linux. Our performance evaluation shows an overhead of just 4% for normal user workloads.
Cardio-Respiratory Reference Data in 4631 Healthy Men and Women 20-90 Years: The HUNT 3 Fitness Study

Purpose To provide a large reference material on key cardio-respiratory variables in a healthy population of Norwegian men and women aged 20–90 years. Methods Sub maximal and peak levels of cardio-respiratory variables were measured using cardiopulmonary exercise testing during treadmill running. Results The highest peak ventilation among men (141.9±24.5 L·min−1) and women (92.0±16.5 L·min−1) was observed in the youngest age group (20–29 years, sex differences p<0.001) with an average 7% reduction per decade. The highest tidal volumes were observed in the 30–39 and 40–49 year age groups among men (2.94±0.46 L) and women (2.06±0.32 L) (sex differences p<0.001), with a subsequent average 6% reduction per decade. Ventilatory threshold and respiratory compensation point were observed at approximately 77% and 87% of peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) among men and women, respectively. The best ventilatory efficiency (EqVCO2Than) was observed in the youngest age group (20–29 years) in both men (26.2±2.8) and woman (27.5±2.7) (sex differences p<0.001) with an average 3% deterioration in ventilatory efficiency per decade. Conclusion This is the largest European reference material of cardio-respiratory variables in healthy men and women aged 20–90 years, establishing normal values for, and associations between key cardio-respiratory parameters. This will be useful in clinical decision making when evaluating cardiopulmonary health in similar populations.
Helicobacter westmeadii sp. nov., a new species isolated from blood cultures of two AIDS patients

A slowly growing anaerobic Helicobacter species was isolated from the blood cultures of two human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients admitted to Westmead Hospital, Westmead, Australia, with fevers. The morphology of the isolates was consistent with Helicobacter cinaedi or Helicobacter fennelliae. The results of culture growth conditions, biochemical tests, gas chromatography data, ribotyping, and 16S rDNA sequencing showed that these isolates represent a new Helicobacter species, for which the name Helicobacter westmeadii has been proposed.
Tracking Extended Moving Objects with a Mobile Robot

Tracking moving objects is of central interest in mobile robotics. It is a prerequisite for providing a robot with cooperative behaviour. Most algorithms assume punctiform targets, which is not always suitable. In this work we extend the problem to extended objects and compare the algorithms that have been developed by our research group. These algorithms are capable of tracking extended objects
On-chip analog output response compaction

In this paper, we propose a technique for on-chip analog output response compaction in order to implement self-test capabilities in analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits. The integration function is identified as a powerful analog compression scheme and an analog signature analyzer is proposed. The op amp-based implementation allows one to define single and multiple-input versions. The multiple-input analyzer permits the monitoring of some extra internal nodes in addition to the classical output nodes, or the concurrent control of both voltage and current levels. This ability leads to an improvement of the circuit testability and consequently, the on-chip response evaluation gives a higher fault coverage than the off-chip one.
Effect of adenosine A1 receptor agonist on the enhanced excitability of spinal dorsal horn neurons after peripheral nerve injury

Neuronal hyperactivity has been implicated in abnormal pain sensation following peripheral nerve injuries. Previous studies have indicated that the activation of adenosine A1 receptors (A1R) in the central and peripheral nervous systems produces an antinociceptive effect. However, the mechanisms involved in the peripheral effect are still not fully understood. The effects of the local application of the selective A1R agonist, 2-chloro-N(6)-cyclopentyladenosine (CCPA) on neuronal hyperactivity were examined in this study using a neuropathic pain model induced by a tibial nerve injury. We utilized Fos protein-like immunoreactivity induced by noxious heat stimulation to examine changes in the number of Fos protein like immunoreactive (Fos-LI) neuron profiles in the spinal dorsal horn, and behavioral analysis for mechanical and thermal sensitivities. The nerve injury induced an exaggerated Fos response to noxious heat stimulation. The number of Fos-LI neuron profiles was significantly decreased and their distribution was restricted to the central terminal field of the spared peroneal nerve 3 days after the injury. The number of Fos-LI neuron profiles returned to control levels and a large number of these profiles were observed in the central terminal field of the injured tibial nerve 14 days after the injury. These enhanced Fos responses were attenuated by the local application of CCPA. The nerve injury also resulted in mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia. The local application of CCPA inhibited thermal hyperalgesia, but was less effective against mechanical allodynia. These results indicated that activation of peripheral A1R plays a role in the regulation of nerve injury-induced hyperalgesia.
The Formation of Stellar Clusters: Time-Varying Protostellar Accretion Rates

Identifying the processes that determine strength, duration, and variability of protostellar mass growth is a fundamental ingredient of any theory of star formation. I discuss protostellar mass accretion rates from numerical models that follow molecular cloud evolution from turbulent fragmentation toward the formation of stellar clusters. In a dense cluster environment, is strongly time varying and influenced by the mutual interaction of protostellar cores and their competition for accretion from the common cluster gas reservoir. Even for protostars with similar final mass, the accretion histories may differ dramatically. High-mass stars build up in the central parts of dense, cluster-forming cloud regions. They begin to form in the early phases of cluster evolution and continue to grow at a high rate until the available gas is exhausted or expelled by feedback. Lower mass stars tend to form at later phases, and declines rapidly after a short initial phase of strong growth. I present a simple fit formula for the time evolution of the average for protostars of different masses in a dense cluster environment.
Usability and Feasibility of PmEB: A Mobile Phone Application for Monitoring Real Time Caloric Balance

Obesity is a major public health challenge with over 65% of US adults either overweight or obese. Estimated annual costs of obesity are $78.5 billion. Self-monitoring is a critical skill for successful weight management. However, self-monitoring is labor-intensive, and compliance is often difficult. In this paper, the authors describe the Patient-Centered Assessment and Counseling Mobile Energy Balance (PmEB) mobile phone application that allows users to self-monitor caloric balance in real time. The application was developed and applied in a four-phase iterative research and development methodology. A usability study and a preliminary feasibility study were conducted. The 1 month feasibility study measured compliance and satisfaction among a sample of 15 participants randomized to one of three groups: (1) a paper diary group, (2) a PmEB group with one daily prompt, and (3) a PmEB group with three daily prompts. PmEB scored highly on usability, compliance, and satisfaction. In addition, mobile phone group users scored PmEB the same as or better than Paper Group members scored the paper diary in nearly all categories. Thematic analysis of comments revealed very positive reviews of PmEB as well as areas for improvement. PmEB is both usable and feasible for weight management self-monitoring, and the iterative pilot study methodology was effective in improving its usability.
Saliency map augmentation with facial detection

Visual attention is very important in human visual perception. It is the ability of a vision system to detect salient objects in an observed scene. This scientific discipline has been studied for over a century. Nowadays it is involved in the disciplines of psychophysics, cognitive neuroscience and computer science. This paper describes several visual attention models for detecting salient objects in complex scene and focuses on a model based on local context suppression of multiple cues. Although this model is useful to capture visual attention in images containing small objects, it fails in detecting faces as salient objects. For this reason we improved the model by adding more attention cues. We propose a method for detecting salient objects based on texture, where face detection is used as an additional attention cue.
TRAPPC9 Mediates the Interaction between p150Glued and COPII Vesicles at the Target Membrane

Background The transport of endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-derived COPII vesicles toward the ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC) requires cytoplasmic dynein and is dependent on microtubules. p150Glued, a subunit of dynactin, has been implicated in the transport of COPII vesicles via its interaction with COPII coat components Sec23 and Sec24. However, whether and how COPII vesicle tether, TRAPP (Transport protein particle), plays a role in the interaction between COPII vesicles and microtubules is currently unknown. Principle Findings We address the functional relationship between COPII tether TRAPP and dynactin. Overexpressed TRAPP subunits interfered with microtubule architecture by competing p150Glued away from the MTOC. TRAPP subunit TRAPPC9 bound directly to p150Glued via the same carboxyl terminal domain of p150Glued that binds Sec23 and Sec24. TRAPPC9 also inhibited the interaction between p150Glued and Sec23/Sec24 both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that TRAPPC9 serves to uncouple p150Glued from the COPII coat, and to relay the vesicle-dynactin interaction at the target membrane. Conclusions These findings provide a new perspective on the function of TRAPP as an adaptor between the ERGIC membrane and dynactin. By preserving the connection between dynactin and the tethered and/or fused vesicles, TRAPP allows nascent ERGIC to continue the movement along the microtubules as they mature into the cis-Golgi.
A CMOS imager with on-pixel gray-scale erosion

This paper presents a new method, based on gray-scale mathematical morphology, called bitwise decomposition. Aimed at visual prosthetics, the design is compact and portable. The use of the proposed gray-scale erosion allows for on-pixel image processing and a higher fill factor. The design is based on digital pixel sensors, where analog-to-digital conversion is carried out next to the photodiode. The advantages are faster readout and better reliability. Implemented in 0.13 mum CMOS technology, the design achieves a fill factor of 22%. The pixel array needs only a minimum of external control and processing circuitry to produce an edge image.
Double Approximation and Complete Lattices

A representation theorem for complete lattices by double approximation systems proved in [Gunji, Y. -P., Haruna, T. , submitted] is analyzed in terms of category theory. A double approximation system consists of two equivalence relations on a set. One equivalence relation defines the lower approximation and the other defines the upper approximation. It is proved that the representation theorem can be extended to an equivalence of categories.
Evaluation Results From Prospective Drug Utilization Review: Medicaid Demonstrations

In 1992 HCFA awarded two cooperative agreements for demonstrations of prospective drug utilization review (PDUR). Iowa tested an on-line prospective drug utilization review (OPDUR) system. Washington tested payments to pharmacists for providing non-dispensing “cognitive services” (CS). In this article the authors report on an evaluation of these demonstrations and on three assessments of retrospective drug utilization review (RDUR) interventions. The evaluation failed to detect effects of either State PDUR demonstration on the frequency of drug problems, utilization of prescription drugs and other health services, and clinical outcomes. However, the State RDUR interventions had immediate effects on prescribing physicians.
A sensitive Twitter earthquake detector

This paper describes early work at developing an earthquake detector for Australia and New Zealand using Twitter. The system is based on the Emergency Situation Awareness (ESA) platform which provides all-hazard information captured, filtered and analysed from Twitter. The detector sends email notifications of evidence of earthquakes from Tweets to the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre. The earthquake detector uses the ESA platform to monitor Tweets and checks for specific earthquake related alerts. The Tweets that contribute to an alert are then examined to determine their locations: when the Tweets are identified as being geographically close and the retweet percentage is low an email notification is generated. The earthquake detector has been in operation since December 2012 with 31 notifications generated where 17 corresponded with real, although minor, earthquake events. The remaining 14 were a result of discussions about earthquakes but not prompted by an event. A simple modification to our algorithm results in 20 notifications identifying the same 17 real events and reducing the false positives to 3. Our detector is sensitive in that it can generate alerts from only a few Tweets when they are determined to be geographically close.
Extracting Ontologies from Relational Databases

The use of a conceptual model or an ontology over data sources has been shown to be necessary to overcome many important database problems (for a survey see [1]). Since ontologies provide a conceptual view of the application domain, the recent trend to employ such ontologies for navigational (and reasoning) purposes when accessing the data gives additional motivation for the problem of extracting the ontology from database schema [2]. When such an ontology exists, modelling the relation between the data sources and an ontology is a crucial aspect in order to capture the semantics of the data. In this paper we define the framework for extracting from a relational database an ontology that is to be used as a conceptual view over the data, where the semantic mapping between the database schema and the ontology is captured by associating a view over the source data to each element of the ontology. Thus, the vocabulary over the ontology can be seen as a set of (materialised) views over the vocabulary of the data source; i.e., a technique known as GAV approach in the information integration literature [3]. To describe the extracted conceptual model, we provide an expressive ontology language which can capture features from Entity-Relationship and UML class diagrams, as well as variants of Description Logics. The heuristics underlying the ontology extraction process are based on ideas of standard relational schema design from ER diagrams in order to uncover the connections between relational constructs and those of ontologies. Besides the latter assumption the procedure presented in this paper takes into consideration relations being in third normal form (3NF). Under this assumption we can formally prove that the conversion preserves the semantics of the constraints in the relational database. Therefore, there is no data loss, and the extracted model constitutes a faithful wrapper of the relational database.
Bootstrap Signal-to-Noise Confidence Intervals: An Objective Method for Subject Exclusion and Quality Control in ERP Studies

Analysis of event-related potential (ERP) data includes several steps to ensure that ERPs meet an appropriate level of signal quality. One such step, subject exclusion, rejects subject data if ERP waveforms fail to meet an appropriate level of signal quality. Subject exclusion is an important quality control step in the ERP analysis pipeline as it ensures that statistical inference is based only upon those subjects exhibiting clear evoked brain responses. This critical quality control step is most often performed simply through visual inspection of subject-level ERPs by investigators. Such an approach is qualitative, subjective, and susceptible to investigator bias, as there are no standards as to what constitutes an ERP of sufficient signal quality. Here, we describe a standardized and objective method for quantifying waveform quality in individual subjects and establishing criteria for subject exclusion. The approach uses bootstrap resampling of ERP waveforms (from a pool of all available trials) to compute a signal-to-noise ratio confidence interval (SNR-CI) for individual subject waveforms. The lower bound of this SNR-CI (SNRLB) yields an effective and objective measure of signal quality as it ensures that ERP waveforms statistically exceed a desired signal-to-noise criterion. SNRLB provides a quantifiable metric of individual subject ERP quality and eliminates the need for subjective evaluation of waveform quality by the investigator. We detail the SNR-CI methodology, establish the efficacy of employing this approach with Monte Carlo simulations, and demonstrate its utility in practice when applied to ERP datasets.
clag9 Is Not Essential for PfEMP1 Surface Expression in Non-Cytoadherent Plasmodium falciparum Parasites with a Chromosome 9 Deletion

Background The expression of the clonally variant virulence factor PfEMP1 mediates the sequestration of Plasmodium falciparum infected erythrocytes in the host vasculature and contributes to chronic infection. Non-cytoadherent parasites with a chromosome 9 deletion lack clag9, a gene linked to cytoadhesion in previous studies. Here we present new clag9 data that challenge this view and show that surface the non-cytoadherence phenotype is linked to the expression of a non-functional PfEMP1. Methodology/Principal Findings Loss of adhesion in P. falciparum D10, a parasite line with a large chromosome 9 deletion, was investigated. Surface iodination analysis of non-cytoadherent D10 parasites and COS-7 surface expression of the CD36-binding PfEMP1 CIDR1α domain were performed and showed that these parasites express an unusual trypsin-resistant, non-functional PfEMP1 at the erythrocyte surface. However, the CIDR1α domain of this var gene expressed in COS-7 cells showed strong binding to CD36. Atomic Force Microscopy showed a slightly modified D10 knob morphology compared to adherent parasites. Trafficking of PfEMP1 and KAHRP remained functional in D10. We link the non-cytoadherence phenotype to a chromosome 9 breakage and healing event resulting in the loss of 25 subtelomeric genes including clag9. In contrast to previous studies, knockout of the clag9 gene from 3D7 did not interfere with parasite adhesion to CD36. Conclusions/Significance Our data show the surface expression of non-functional PfEMP1 in D10 strongly indicating that genes other than clag9 deleted from chromosome 9 are involved in this virulence process possibly via post-translational modifications.
The Reduced Ceiling Protocol for Concurrency Control in Real-time Databases with Mixed Transactions

This paper proposes a real-time concurrency control protocol called Reduced Ceiling Protocol (RCP) for real-time database systems (RTDBS) consisting of hard and soft real-time transactions. The schedulability of hard real-time transactions can be improved by bounding the blocking time from soft real-time transactions. Different concurrency control strategies are proposed to resolve data conflicts between different combinations of hard and soft real-time transactions, and the properties of the RCP schedules are shown. In the RCP, methodologies are proposed to reduce the number of aborts for soft real-time transactions due to data conflicts with hard real-time transactions. Simulation experiments have been performed to study the performance of the RCP as compared with the optimistic concurrency control with wait 50 (OCC wait-50) under different workloads of soft real-time transactions, various ratios of read/write operations, and deadline constraints. It has been found that the RCP can not only guarantee the performance of hard real-time transactions but also reduce the number of deadlines missed of the soft real-time transactions under all situations.
Screening of biological actives extracts from Annona squamosa

The aim of the present study is to focus on the cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activities from Annona squamosa plant seed extracts. The plant A. squamosa seed was extracted with various solvents like chloroform, methanol, hexane, petroleum ether and acetone. The antimicrobial activities of all these extracts were determined by disc diffusion method against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteius vulgaries, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli pathogens. Methanol, hexane and acetone extracts of A. squamosa showed highest antimicrobial activity against all pathogens. Cytotoxic activity of A. squamosa seed extract was tested using Artemia salina (Brine shrimp) bioassay. In cytotoxicity study, extract caused 86% mortality of Brine shrimp larvae after 24 h at a concentration of 500 µg/mL.
Design and Implementation of an “Approximate” Communication System for Wireless Media Applications

All practical wireless communication systems are prone to errors. At the symbol level, such wireless errors have a well-defined structure: When a receiver decodes a symbol erroneously, it is more likely that the decoded symbol is a good “approximation” of the transmitted symbol than a randomly chosen symbol among all possible transmitted symbols. Based on this property, we define approximate communication, a method that exploits this error structure to natively provide unequal error protection to data bits. Unlike traditional [forward error correction (FEC)-based] mechanisms of unequal error protection that consume additional network and spectrum resources to encode redundant data, the approximate communication technique achieves this property at the PHY layer without consuming any additional network or spectrum resources (apart from a minimal signaling overhead). Approximate communication is particularly useful to media delivery applications that can benefit significantly from unequal error protection of data bits. We show the usefulness of this method to such applications by designing and implementing an end-to-end media delivery system, called Apex. Our Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based experiments reveal that Apex can improve video quality by 5-20 dB [peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR)] across a diverse set of wireless conditions when compared to traditional approaches. We believe that mechanisms such as Apex can be a cornerstone in designing future wireless media delivery systems under any error-prone channel condition.