Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protecting Encrypted Signature Functions Against Intrusions on Computing Devices by Obfuscation

Digital signature schemes are widely used to protect information integrity in computer communications. However, conventional digital signature schemes are secure only in normal attack contexts. Technically, these schemes assume that the signing algorithm implementation is running in a perfectly secure platform protected from various kinds of attacks and intrusions. To complement existing studies, this paper studies how to securely generate identity-based signatures, key-insulated signatures, and fuzzy identity-based signatures in a more austere attack context, such as on a computing device that is potentially controlled by an attacker. We use program obfuscation for achieving a higher security level. Concretely, we give three specialized signature functions-encrypted identity-based signature, encrypted key-insulated signature, and encrypted fuzzy identity-based signature, and then propose an obfuscator for the three encrypted signature functions. The efficiency of the proposed obfuscator is theoretically analyzed, and the correctness and security are proved. Finally, we present experimental results that show the proposed scheme is efficient. As a result, the obfuscated implementations of these encrypted signature functions can be applied to many protocols and enhance their security.
Toward automatic transcription of Japanese broadcast news

In this paper, we report on the automatic recognition of Japanese broadcast-news speech. We have been working on largevocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) for Japanese newspaper speech transcription and have achieved good performance. We have recently applied our LVCSR system to transcribing Japanese broadcast-news speech. We extended the vocabulary from 7k words to 20k words and trained the language models using newspaper texts and broadcast-news manuscripts. These two language models were applied to our evaluation speech sets. The language model trained using broadcast-news manuscripts achieved better results for broadcast-news speech than the language model trained using newspaper texts, which achieved better results for newspaper speech. We achieved a word error rate of 19.7% for anchor-speaker’s speech by using a bigram language model and a trigram language model both trained using broadcast-news manuscripts.
Leptin levels in preterm human breast milk and infant formula.

OBJECTIVE Leptin, a hormone present in breast milk, is involved in energy regulation and metabolism. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether leptin is present in either preterm breast milk (PBM) or preterm formula (PF). The effects of delivery methods and pasteurization on leptin levels also were evaluated. METHODS PBM samples were obtained from 29 mothers who delivered infants at between 23 and 34 weeks' gestation. Leptin levels were measured in PBM and PF with the use of a radioimmunoassay specific for human and bovine leptin, respectively. Milk samples were pasteurized by fast- and slow-heating methods. PBM and PF spiked with human leptin were delivered through catheters by bolus and continuous administration to determine the effects of delivery method on recoverable leptin levels. RESULTS Median PBM leptin concentration was 5.28 ng/mL (intraquartile range: 24.79). Birth gestational age, birth weight, and gender of the infant did not significantly influence PBM leptin levels. Neither bolus nor continuous feeding practices affected leptin levels in PBM or spiked PF. However, pasteurization significantly reduced the amount of detectable leptin in PBM. CONCLUSIONS PBM leptin levels were highly variable and similar to levels reported for term breast milk. There was no effect of postnatal age on PBM leptin concentrations. Sterilization decreased detectable leptin levels, whereas feeding practices had no adverse effect on the quantity of leptin delivered. Although no infant formula contained leptin, leptin could be added to formula and delivered through various feeding methods without loss.
Risk based capital allocation

The present contribution reviews the procedures (absolute, incremental and marginal capital allocation) as well as the general principles (proportional allocation, covariance-principle, conditional expectation-principle, conditional value-at-risk principle, Euler-principle) for risk based capital allocation. The approaches discussed are applicable for the insurance case, the investment case and as well for credit risks.
Active Learning as Non-Convex Optimization

We propose a new view of active learning algorithms as optimization. We show that many online active learning algorithms can be viewed as stochastic gradient descent on non-convex objective functions. Variations of some of these algorithms and objective functions have been previously proposed without noting this connection. We also point out a connection between the standard min-margin offline active learning algorithm and non-convex losses. Finally, we discuss and show empirically how viewing active learning as non-convex loss minimization helps explain two previously observed phenomena: certain active learning algorithms achieve better generalization error than passive learning algorithms on certain data sets (Schohn and Cohn, 2000; Bordes et al., 2005) and on other data sets many active learning algorithms are prone to local minima (Sch¨ utze et al., 2006). 1 Background We address the active learning problem in this paper. We assume data points X 2 R d and labels Y 2 fi1;1g are drawn from some fixed unknown distribution p(x;y). We wish to choose the classifier f 2 F that minimizes the expected loss EX;Y [l(Y;f;X)] where l is a loss function. In general, the size of F may be uncountable. In standard passive supervised learning we approximately minimize this expected loss by minimizing instead the loss on a set or stream of i.i. d. labeled training examples (xi;yi) » p(x;y). In active learning, we also have access to i.i. d. xi, but we selectively query the labels yi for the examples. In
A Metamodel Integration for Metrics and Processes Correlation

Nowadays organizations need to improve their efficiency mainly due to the current economic situation. Several organizations are involved in process improvement initiatives in order to become more competitive in the market. These initiatives require processes definition and performance measurement activities. This paper describes briefly a metamodel integration between metrics metamodel and software and business execution metamodels in order to support this kind of improvement initiatives. In fact this integration implies to control coherently Software Metrics Metamodel for metrics, Software Process Engineering Metamodel 2.0 for defining processes and JBPM Process Definition Language for executing processes. This approach is supported by a prototype.
The serial nature of the masked onset priming effect revisited

Reading aloud is faster when target words/nonwords are preceded by masked prime words/nonwords that share their first sound with the target (e.g., s ave-SINK) compared to when primes and targets are unrelated to each other (e.g., farm-SINK). This empirical phenomenon is the masked onset priming effect (MOPE) and is known to be due to serial left-to-right processing of the prime by a sublexical reading mechanism. However, the literature in this domain lacks a critical experiment. It is possible that when primes are real words their orthographic/phonological representations are activated in parallel and holistically during prime presentation, so any phoneme overlap between primes and targets (and not just initial-phoneme overlap) could facilitate target reading aloud. This is the prediction made by the only computational models of reading aloud that are able to simulate the MOPE, namely the DRC1.2. 1, CDP+, and CDP++ models. We tested this prediction in the present study and found that initial-phoneme overlap ( b lip-BEST), but not end-phoneme overlap (flat-BEST), facilitated target reading aloud compared to no phoneme overlap (junk-BEST). These results provide support for a reading mechanism that operates serially and from left to right, yet are inconsistent with all existing computational models of single-word reading aloud.
The Leaderless Bacteriocin Enterocin K1 Is Highly Potent against Enterococcus faecium: A Study on Structure, Target Spectrum and Receptor

Enterocin K1 (EntK1), enterocin EJ97 (EntEJ97), and LsbB are three sequence related leaderless bacteriocins. Yet LsbB kills only lactococci while EntK1 and EntEJ97 target wider spectra with EntK1 being particularly active against Enterococcus faecium, including nosocomial multidrug resistant isolates. NMR study of EntK1 showed that it had a structure very similar to LsbB – both having an amphiphilic N-terminal α-helix and an unstructured C-terminus. The α-helix in EntK1 is, however, about 3–4 residues longer than that of LsbB. Enterococcal mutants highly resistant to EntEJ97 and EntK1 were found to have mutations within rseP, a gene encoding a stress response membrane-bound Zn-dependent protease. Heterologous expression of the enterococcal rseP rendered resistant cells of Streptococcus pneumoniae sensitive to EntK1 and EntEJ97, suggesting that RseP likely serves as the receptor for EntK1 and EntEJ97. It was also shown that the conserved proteolytic active site in E. faecalis RseP is partly required for EntK1 and EntEJ97 activity, since alanine substitutions of its conserved residues (HExxH) reduced the sensitivity of the clones to the bacteriocins. RseP is known to be involved in bacterial stress response. As expected, the growth of resistant mutants with mutations within rseP was severely affected when they were exposed to higher (stressing) growth temperatures, e.g., at 45°C, at which wild type cells still grew well. These findings allow us to design a hurdle strategy with a combination of the bacteriocin(s) and higher temperature that effectively kills bacteriocin sensitive bacteria and prevents the development of resistant cells.
Requires Efficient Long-Term Immune Semliki Forest Virus Expressing IL-12 Eradication of Liver-Implanted Tumors by Hervas

Semliki Forest virus vectors expressing IL-12 (SFV–IL-12) were shown to induce potent antitumor responses against s.c. MC38 colon adenocarcinomas in immunocompetent mice. However, when MC38 tumors were implanted in liver, where colon tumors usually metastasize, SFV–IL-12 efficacy was significantly reduced. We reasoned that characterization of immune responses against intrahepatic tumors in responder and nonresponder animals could provide useful information for designing more potent antitu-mor strategies. Remarkably, SFV–IL-12 induced a high percentage of circulating tumor-specific CD8 T cells in all treated animals. Depletion studies showed that these cells were essential for SFV–IL-12 antitumor activity. However, in comparison with non-responders, tumor-specific cells from responder mice acquired an effector-like phenotype significantly earlier, were recruited more efficiently to the liver, and, importantly, persisted for a longer period of time. All treated mice had high levels of functional specific CD8 T cells at 8 d posttreatment reflected by both in vivo killing and IFN-g–production assays, but responder animals showed a more avid and persistent IFN-g response. Interestingly, differences in immune responses between responders and nonresponders seemed to correlate with the immune status of the animals before treatment and were not due to the treatment itself. Mice that rejected tumors were protected against tumor rechallenge, indicating that sustained memory responses are required for an efficacious therapy. Interestingly, tumor-specific CD8 T cells of responder animals showed upregulation of IL-15Ra expression compared with nonresponders. These results suggest that SFV–IL-12 therapy could benefit from the use of strategies that could either upregulate IL-15Ra expression or activate this receptor. M etastatic liver cancer takes place when cancer originates in other organs, such as colon, stomach, pancreas, or breast, and spreads to the liver. This type of liver cancer is more common than primary liver cancer and is especially frequent in patients having colorectal carcinoma, where it develops in 35–55% of cases (1). In recent years, significant advances in detection , locoregional therapeutic options, and new chemothera-peutic agents have improved the management of colorectal liver metastasis (CLM) (2). Although there are still many incurable cases of CLM, the course of progression can be greatly slowed by a multimodality treatment encompassing surgery, chemotherapy, and interventional locoregional therapy (2, 3). This type of multimodality treatment could also benefit from immunotherapeutic approaches, because many tumors have the potential to be recognized by the immune system, and induction of an immune response against the tumor could, in theory, reach all cancer cells. This might be …
Inria IMEDIA2's Participation at ImageCLEF 2012 Plant Identification Task

This paper describes the participation of Inria IMEDIA2 Team, within the Pl@ntNet project 4 , at the ImageCLEF2012 plant iden- tication task. The runs used very distinct approaches, sometimes relying on similar extracted features. For Scan and Scan-like categories, the rst two runs combine distinct local and contour approaches in two ways (late and early fusion), while the third run explores the learning capacity of a multi-class SVM technique on a contour based descriptor. For Photo- graph our runs used local features positioned towards the center of the image to reduce the impact of background features. In the second run, an automatic segmentation with a rejection criterion was attempted. In the third run, points were associated with interesting zones. In general, even if they were distinct, the methods used performed very well.
Human Activity Recognition Using Sequences of Postures

This paper presents a system, which is able to recognize 15 dif f erent continuous human activ ities in real- time using a single stationary camera as input. The system can recognize activ ities such as raising or wav ing hand( s) , sitting down and bending down. The recognition is based on describing activ ities as a continuous sequence of discrete postures, which are deriv ed f rom af f ine inv ariant descriptors. Using af f ine inv ariant descriptors makes our system robust against such dif f erences in camera locations as distance f rom the obj ect and change in v iewing direction as these dif f erences can be considered to hav e the af f ect of near af f ine transf ormations as human silhouettes are considered.
The nucleocytoplasmic conflict, a driving force for the emergence of plant organellar RNA editing

RNA editing challenges the central dogma of molecular biology by changing the genetic information at the transcript level. In plant organelles, RNAs are modified by deamination of some specific cytosine residues, but the origin of this process remains puzzling. Different from the generally accepted neutral model to explain the emergence of RNA editing in plant organelles, we propose a new hypothesis based on the nucleocytoplasmic conflict theory. We assume that mutations in organellar genomes arose first and spread into the population provided they increased the transmission of their own maternally inherited genome. RNA editing appeared subsequently as a nuclear‐encoded correction mechanism to restore the transmission of the nuclear genome. In plants, a well‐known consequence of the nucleocytoplasmic conflict is cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) which is counteracted by the emergence of fertility restorer genes (Rf) belonging to the pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein family. Interestingly, RNA‐editing deficiency can lead to CMS, and it now clearly appears that PPR proteins are major players in RNA editing. This striking similarity between the mechanisms of fertility restoration and RNA editing can be explained if both reactions are the consequence of the same driving force, the nucleocytoplasmic conflict. Similarly, the prevalence of RNA editing in eukaryotic organellar genomes could also be a consequence of the genetic antagonism between organellar and nuclear genomes. © 2011 IUBMB Life, 2011
Genome of the Actinomycete Plant Pathogen Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus Suggests Recent Niche Adaptation

ABSTRACT Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus is a plant-pathogenic bacterium and the causative agent of bacterial ring rot, a devastating agricultural disease under strict quarantine control and zero tolerance in the seed potato industry. This organism appears to be largely restricted to an endophytic lifestyle, proliferating within plant tissues and unable to persist in the absence of plant material. Analysis of the genome sequence of C. michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus and comparison with the genome sequences of related plant pathogens revealed a dramatic recent evolutionary history. The genome contains 106 insertion sequence elements, which appear to have been active in extensive rearrangement of the chromosome compared to that of Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis. There are 110 pseudogenes with overrepresentation in functions associated with carbohydrate metabolism, transcriptional regulation, and pathogenicity. Genome comparisons also indicated that there is substantial gene content diversity within the species, probably due to differential gene acquisition and loss. These genomic features and evolutionary dating suggest that there was recent adaptation for life in a restricted niche where nutrient diversity and perhaps competition are low, correlated with a reduced ability to exploit previously occupied complex niches outside the plant. Toleration of factors such as multiplication and integration of insertion sequence elements, genome rearrangements, and functional disruption of many genes and operons seems to indicate that there has been general relaxation of selective pressure on a large proportion of the genome.
A ray tracing method for geodesic based tractography in diffusion tensor images

We present multi-valued solution algorithm for geodesic-based fiber tracking in a tensor-warped space given by diffusion tensor imaging data. This technique is based on solving ordinary differential equations describing geodesics by a ray tracing algorithm. The algorithm can capture all possible geodesics connecting two given points instead of a single geodesic captured by Hamilton-Jacobi based algorithms. Once the geodesics have been computed, using suitable connectivity measures, we can choose among all solutions the most likely connection pathways which correspond best to the underlying real fibrous structures. In comparison with other approaches, our algorithm gives the possibility of applying different cost functions in a fast post-processing. Moreover, the algorithm can be used for capturing possible multi-path connections between two points that can happen when, e.g., pathologies are presented. Synthetic second order diffusion tensor data in a two dimensional space are employed to illustrate the potential applications of the algorithm to fiber tracking.
Inflammatory Responses Are Not Sufficient to Cause Delayed Neuronal Death in ATP-Induced Acute Brain Injury

Background Brain inflammation is accompanied by brain injury. However, it is controversial whether inflammatory responses are harmful or beneficial to neurons. Because many studies have been performed using cultured microglia and neurons, it has not been possible to assess the influence of multiple cell types and diverse factors that dynamically and continuously change in vivo. Furthermore, behavior of microglia and other inflammatory cells could have been overlooked since most studies have focused on neuronal death. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the precise roles of microglia and brain inflammation in the injured brain, and determine their contribution to neuronal damage in vivo from the onset of injury. Methods and Findings Acute neuronal damage was induced by stereotaxic injection of ATP into the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and the cortex of the rat brain. Inflammatory responses and their effects on neuronal damage were investigated by immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, quantitative RT-PCR, and stereological counting, etc. ATP acutely caused death of microglia as well as neurons in a similar area within 3 h. We defined as the core region the area where both TH+ and Iba-1+ cells acutely died, and as the penumbra the area surrounding the core where Iba-1+ cells showed activated morphology. In the penumbra region, morphologically activated microglia arranged around the injury sites. Monocytes filled the damaged core after neurons and microglia died. Interestingly, neither activated microglia nor monocytes expressed iNOS, a major neurotoxic inflammatory mediator. Monocytes rather expressed CD68, a marker of phagocytic activity. Importantly, the total number of dopaminergic neurons in the SNpc at 3 h (∼80% of that in the contralateral side) did not decrease further at 7 d. Similarly, in the cortex, ATP-induced neuron-damage area detected at 3 h did not increase for up to 7 d. Conclusions Different cellular components (microglia, astrocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils) and different factors (proinflammatory and neurotrophic) could be produced in inflammatory processes depending on the nature of the injury. The results in this study suggest that the inflammatory responses of microglia and monocytes in response to ATP-induced acute injury could not be neurotoxic.
The C-reactive protein but not erythrocyte sedimentation rate is associated with clinical severity in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the association of C-reactive protein (CRP) with symptoms of clinical disease and demographic factors in osteoarthritis (OA). In addition, to compare CRP with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in their ability to associate with osteoarthritic symptoms and features. METHODS A total of 655 consecutive clinic patients with OA of the knee or hip underwent a rheumatic disease examination, completed a clinical health assessment questionnaire (CLINHAQ), and had laboratory tests performed, including hemoglobin, CRP, and ESR. RESULTS The median value of CRP was 5.9 micrograms/ml. CRP was significantly associated with functional disability, joint tenderness, pain, fatigue, global severity, and depression. In addition, correlations were noted for body mass index (BMI) and sex. ESR, by contrast, was unassociated with clinical signs or symptoms except for a weak association with functional disability. The best explanatory multiple regression model for CRP in OA includes BMI, functional disability, and joint tenderness count (R-squared 0.159). CONCLUSION CRP is elevated in OA compared to healthy individuals, and is correlated with rheumatic disease signs and symptoms, including HAQ disability, joint count, and pain. The associations, not seen with ESR, appear to be real, but are not strong. An inflammatory component associated with OA can be detected in the serum.