Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
South Korean women leaders’ struggles for a work and family balance

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of women in leadership in Korea and to identify challenges and opportunities that they face in the process of balancing work and family life and developing leadership as women in the uniquely challenging Korean workplace where they face organizational and cultural constraints. Critical to this investigation was the understanding of concepts frequently represented in the previous literature about women in leadership: work–family life balance, women’s leadership development, and the cultural context. In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 women leaders selected through a purposeful and snowball sampling method. A thematic analysis of the interview data generated six themes including: (a) commitment to work, (b) struggles for a balance, (c) defining success, (d) gender identity, (e) being a role model, and (f) need for support. Based on the findings, we provide implications for research and practice.
The Requirements Apprentice: Automated Assistance for Requirements Acquisition

An automated tool called the Requirements Apprentice (RA) which assists a human analyst in the creation and modification of software requirements is presented. Unlike most other requirements analysis tools, which start from a formal description language, the focus of the RA is on the transition between informal and formal specifications. The RA supports the earliest phases of creating a requirement, in which ambiguity, contradiction, and incompleteness are inevitable. From an artificial intelligence perspective, the central problem the RA faces is one of knowledge acquisition. The RA develops a coherent internal representation of a requirement from an initial set of disorganized imprecise statements. To do so, the RA relies on a variety of techniques, including dependency-directed reasoning, hybrid knowledge representations and the reuse of common forms (cliches). An annotated transcript showing an interaction with a working version of the RA is given. >
A two level privacy preserving pseudonymous authentication protocol for VANET

Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is gaining significant popularity due to their role in improving traffic efficiency and safety. However, communication in VANET needs to be secure as well as authenticated. The vehicles in the VANET not only broadcast traffic messages known as beacons but also broadcast safety critical messages such as electronic emergency brake light (EEBL). Due to the openness of the network, a malicious vehicles can join the network and broadcast bogus messages that could result in accident. On one hand, a vehicle needs to be authenticated while on the other hand, its private data such as location and identity information must be prevented from misuse. In this paper, we propose an efficient pseudonymous authentication protocol with conditional privacy preservation to enhance the security of VANET. Most of the current protocols either utilize pseudonym based approaches with certificate revocation list (CRL) that causes significant communicational and storage overhead or group signature based approaches that are computationally expensive. Another inherent disadvantage is to have full trust on certification authorities, as these entities have complete user profiles. We present a new protocol that only requires honest-but-curious behavior from certification authority. We utilize a mechanism for providing a user with two levels of pseudonyms named as base pseudonym and short time pseudonyms to achieve conditional privacy. However, in case of revocation, there is no need to maintain the revocation list of pseudonyms. The inherent mechanism assures the receiver of the message about the authenticity of the pseudonym. In the end of the paper, we analyze our protocol by giving the communication cost as well as various attack scenarios to show that our approach is efficient and robust.
A Communication Theoretical Modeling and Analysis of Underwater Magneto-Inductive Wireless Channels

Underwater physical medium is a challenging environment for communication using radio frequency (RF) or acoustic waves due to strong attenuation, delay, multi-path fading, power and cost limitations. Discovered a century ago, magneto-inductive (MI) communication technique stands as a strong alternative paradigm due to its independence of environmental impairments including multi-path fading, dynamic channels and high propagation delays experienced by acoustic waves. Furthermore, MI technique yields networking solutions exploiting low-cost, easily-deployable and flexible antenna structures, and the possibility of forming networks of magnetic waveguides defeating path loss. In this work, highly power efficient and fully connected underwater communication networks (UWCNs) composed of transceiver and relay induction coils are presented. Three dimensional (3D) UWCNs are analysed in terms of basic communication metrics, i.e, signal-to-noise ratio, bit-error rate, connectivity and communication bandwidth. The performance studies of realistic 3D networks covering hundreds of meters sea depths and a few km2 areas show that fully connected multi-coil networks with communication bandwidths extending from a few to tens of KHz are possible. Furthermore, the performance dependence on coil properties and network size is theoretically modelled. Results show that MI wireless communication is a promising alternative for UWCNs and future research challenges are pointed out.
Carcinogenic effects of chronic exposure to very low levels of toxic substances.

The sort of situation that I wish to consider is contamination of the air around vinyl chloride plants with low levels of vinyl chloride monomer. People living nearby would be exposed to it continuously for however many decades they lived there. If some cancers are caused by ambient levels of (say) 0.01 ppm, I want to discuss the likely effects on the numbers of cancers and the age distribution of these cancers that would result from a different ambient concentration.OOI ppm, or 0.1 ppm, for example. I believe that what should in general be expected in such circumstances is that the age distribution of the cancers that are caused will be the same whatever the dose rate may be; lower dose rates will simply cause fewer cancers than higher dose rates would do, but the age distribution will be almost identical. Moreover, the actual number of extra cancers will, when the dose rate is sufElciently low, simply be proportional to the dose rate: if the dose rate IS low, halving it will halve the numbers of cancers, quartering it will just quarter the number of cancers, and so on; no "threshold" should be anticipated. I would, of course, expect to find the same sort of results in other circumstances where humans are exposed to chronic low doses of other toxic agents, and I would also expect to find this in animal experiments involving chronic exposure of animals to low dosage rates.
Effects of preservation and storage of microcrustaceans in RNAlater on RNA and DNA degradation

Methods of preserving nucleic acids are increasingly in demand because of the recent advances in molecular and biochemical approaches to ecology. The RNA storage reagent RNAlater® was tested as an alternative method to deep‐freezing for preserving RNA and DNA in zooplankton. Artemia spp. nauplii were used as test organisms. Individual RNA and DNA contents were monitored over a time period of 8 months to evaluate the effects of preservation and storage. Treatments included (1) freezing at −80±C, (2) preservation with RNAlater, followed by storage at 5±C, and (3) preservation with RNAlater and storage at room temperature. Freezing at −80±C was the only treatment that did not result in significant change from the initial values in any of the nucleic acids, nor at any time of the experiment. At 5±C, significant RNA degradation was not observed until 8 months after preservation while no significant changes in DNA were detected. In samples stored in RNAlater without refrigeration, RNA did not exhibit significant decrease for at least 1 month, and DNA for at least 2 months. As RNA and DNA degraded at roughly the same rate, this resulted in little or no changes in RNA:DNA ratios, but withintreatment variability increased strongly. Thus, RNAlater successfully preserved both RNA and DNA for up to 1 month at room temperature, and up to 4 months at 5±C, providing an alternative to the deep freezing. This method will enable a greater integration of molecular methods in ecological studies.
Efficient Computation of Equilibria for Extensive Two-Person Games

Abstract The Nash equilibria of a two-person, non-zero-sum game are the solutions of a certain linear complementarity problem (LCP). In order to use this for solving a game in extensive form, the game must first be converted to a strategic description such as the normal form. The classical normal form, however, is often exponentially large in the size of the game tree. If the game has perfect recall, a linear-sized strategic description is the sequence form. For the resulting small LCP, we show that an equilibrium is found efficiently by Lemke's algorithm, a generalization of the Lemke–Howson method. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: C72.
Local Adaptation in Community Perception

When observing an unfamiliar neighborhood, people use indicators of physical disorder to judge the local community (i.e., community perception), associating them with crime and weak relationships between neighbors. The authors argue that these judgments depend on people’s definition of disorder, which is adapted to their local community. This is tested with an experiment. Undergraduate students from across New York State rated the collective efficacy (i.e., social quality) of neighborhoods from a single city using images of physical structures. Participants reported which features they attended to when making these judgments. Participants were categorized as being from New York City (NYC), NYC suburbs, or the less densely populated upstate region. Images were from an upstate city. Those from NYC attended more to pavement than others. Ratings by those from upstate were most accurate and positive. These results supported the initial hypotheses and suggested that community perception combines heuristics and familiarity to make inferences.
Reliability and Validity of the Zephyr™ BioHarness™ to Measure Respiratory Responses to Exercise

The Zephyr™ BioHarness™ (Zephyr Technology, Auckland, New Zealand) is a wireless physiological monitoring system that has the ability to measure respiratory rate unobtrusively. However, the ability of the BioHarness™ to accurately and reproducibly determine respiratory rate across a range of intensities is currently unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the BioHarness™ to measure respiratory rate. Twelve physically active participants attended the laboratory on two separate occasions to perform an incremental treadmill test to volitional exhaustion. Respiratory rate (br.min−1) was measured continuously and simultaneously during both trials using both a Metamax 3b online gas-analysis system (Cortex, Leipzig, Germany) and the BioHarness™. The mean respiratory rate measured by the Metamax 3b and BioHarness™ did not differ statistically (p < .05) for most speeds, except for 70% of peak treadmill speed (p = .039). Mean absolute differences were small (2 to 3 br.min−1; typical error = 4.4%–8.7%). The typical errors for the test 1 versus the test 2 comparisons for respiratory rate ranged from 1.4 to 2.8 br.min−1 (typical error % = 4.3–7.3) for the BioHarness™. There were no significant differences between devices for the absolute respiratory rate, speed, and percent of respiratory rate maximum at the respiratory breakpoint (p > .05). The BioHarness™ is a valid and reliable device for determining respiratory rate and the respiratory breakpoint during exercise of varying intensity.
Evaluating vehicle network strategies for downtown Portland: opportunistic infrastructure and the importance of realistic mobility models

In an urban environment, vehicles can opportunistically exploit infrastructure through open Access Points (APs) to efficiently communicate with other vehicles. This is to avoid long wireless ad hoc paths, and to alleviate congestion in the wireless grid. Analytic and simulation models are used to optimize the communications and networking strategies. For realistic results, one important challenge is the accurate representation of traffic mobility patterns. In this paper we introduce realistic vehicular mobility traces of downtown Portland, Oregon, obtained fromextremely detailed large scale traffic simulations performed at the Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL). To the best of our knowledge, these are among the most accurate synthetic motion traces available for study, with the exception of actual car trace measurements. The new mobility model is used to evaluate AODV [1] in flat and opportunistic infrastructure routing. To assess the importance of a realistic mobility model for this evaluation, we compare these results with those obtained with CORSIM [2] traces. The paper makes the following contributions: (a) introduction of efficient, opportunistic strategies for extending the AP infrastructure to use vehicle to vehicle paths, and (b) assessment of different mobility models - CORSIM traces and LANL's realistic vehicular traces - in the modeling of different routing strategies.
A comparison of an accelerated technique for casting post-and-core restorations with conventional techniques.

PURPOSE This project compares an accelerated technique for the casting of post-and-core restorations with four traditional techniques. The accelerated technique uses two phosphate-bonded investments and the traditional techniques use a gypsum- and a phosphate-bonded investment. The study measures and compares the differences between the seating of the casting and the seating of the acrylic resin pattern. The effects of the techniques on the fit of castings with and without a ferrule are also compared. MATERIALS AND METHODS Six groups of 10 castings were made from plastic patterns formed on a stainless steel test die. A different investment and/or burnout method was used for each group. Each group had two subgroups: ferruled and nonferruled. The fit of the plastic patterns was measured at two time intervals after forming, 2 weeks and 3 months. The patterns were invested immediately after the 3-month measurement, and the difference in fit of the castings was calculated. An ANOVA and Tuckey-Kramer test were done to determine the statistical validity. RESULTS The seating of the patterns after 3 months of storage was consistently worse than the 2-week measurements of fit. The ferrule and nonferrule patterns were not statistically different in seating. Measurement of the castings showed that the ferruled castings seated significantly worse than the nonferrule castings. The difference in the seating of the castings as compared with the patterns was considered clinically unacceptable, showing a range of 0.301 mm to 0.528 mm. The nonferrule castings showed a significant difference in seating among groups. The difference ranged from -0.099 mm to 0.322 mm. CONCLUSIONS The castings of the ferrule subgroups were considered clinically unacceptable and were not analyzed for significance. Among the nonferrule castings, the group using a gypsum investment and conventional technique for investing and burnout but no ring liner showed the best seating. The accelerated technique was intermediate in seating with a difference of 0.148 mm from the seating of the patterns. This group was significantly different from the two best groups but not from the remaining three groups.
Exploring Malware Behaviors Based on Environment Constitution

Executing malware in a controlled environment is one of the most popular and effective methods of extracting the behavior characters of malware. In this paper, we propose a dynamic analysis technique to explore the different behaviors of malware. We utilized environment constitution to create comprehensive reports on malware. This allowed us to extract common paths and identify what seems to be typical malware behavior. We likewise used static analysis to document interactions between malware and environment, after which, based on environment constitution, we dynamically triggered different path selections that we observed have been pursued by malware. Different malware inputs were generated based on the reverse analysis of path selection conditions, a method that allowed for the exploration of all possible malware paths, and thereby permitted us to generate a relatively comprehensive report for this study. The method also allowed us to filter invalid data that we were unable to identify in the earlier process. The method became even more helpful when we implemented vulnerability analysis among the different types of commercial software; here, a prototype of the system was set up, and we have finished experiments to evaluate the system. The result showed that the system could identify typical behaviors of malware without exploring all its possible paths.
Comparative Evaluation of Low-Molecular-Mass Proteins fromMycobacterium tuberculosis Identifies Members of the ESAT-6 Family as Immunodominant T-Cell Antigens

ABSTRACT Culture filtrate from Mycobacterium tuberculosiscontains protective antigens of relevance for the generation of a new antituberculosis vaccine. We have identified two previously uncharacterized M. tuberculosis proteins (TB7.3 and TB10.4) from the highly active low-mass fraction of culture filtrate. The molecules were characterized, mapped in a two-dimensional electrophoresis reference map of short-term culture filtrate, and compared with another recently identified low-mass protein, CFP10 (F. X. Berthet, P. B. Rasmussen, I. Rosenkrands, P. Andersen, and B. Gicquel. Microbiology 144:3195–3203, 1998), and the well-described ESAT-6 antigen. Genetic analyses demonstrated that TB10.4 as well as CFP10 belongs to the ESAT-6 family of low-mass proteins, whereas TB7.3 is a low-molecular-mass protein outside this family. The proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli, and their immunogenicity was tested in cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from human tuberculosis (TB) patients, Mycobacterium bovisBCG-vaccinated donors, and nonvaccinated donors. The two ESAT-6 family members, TB10.4 and CFP10, were very strongly recognized and induced gamma interferon release at the same level (CFP10) as or at an even higher level (TB10.4) than ESAT-6. The non-ESAT-6 family member, TB7.3, for comparison, was recognized at a much lower level. CFP10 was found to distinguish TB patients from BCG-vaccinated donors and is, together with ESAT-6, an interesting candidate for the diagnosis of TB. The striking immunodominance of antigens within the ESAT-6 family is discussed, and hypotheses are presented to explain this targeting of the immune response during TB infection.
Mind the gap: An analysis of how quality assurance processes influence programme assessment patterns

This article explores the relationship between the lack of visible attention to formative assessment in degree specifications and its marginalization in practice. Degree specification documents form part of the quality apparatus emphasizing the accountability and certification duties of assessment. Ironically, a framework designed to assure quality may work to the exclusion of a pedagogic duty to students. This study draws on interview and documentary evidence from 14 programmes at a single UK university, supported by data from a national research project. The authors found that institutional quality frameworks focused programme leaders’ attention on summative assessment, usually atomized to the modular unit. The invisibility of formative assessment in documentation reinforced the tendency of modular programmes to have high summative demands, with optional, fragmented and infrequent formative assessment. Heavy workloads, modularity and pedagogic uncertainties compounded the problem. The article concludes with reflections about facilitating a more pervasive culture of formative assessment to improve student learning.
Back pressure based multicast scheduling for fair bandwidth allocation

We study fair allocation of resources in multicast networks with multirate capabilities. In multirate transmission, the session source hierarchically encodes its signal and the receivers subscribe to the appropriate number of layers. The objective of the network is to distribute the layers fairly. This can be attained either by computing the fair rates first, and then using a scheduling policy to attain the fair rates, or by using a scheduling policy which allocates the fair rates without computing them explicitly. The first requires knowledge of system parameters like link bandwidth, which are not generally known to the link schedulers. The second approach is more realistic. We present a scheduling policy which allocates the fair rates without computing them beforehand. We have presented analytical and experimental results demonstrating the fairness of the resulting rate allocation. In addition to guaranteeing the fair rates, this policy confines the packet losses to enhancement layers, and protects the more important base layers, when there is shortage of bandwidth. Furthermore, this policy does not require any knowledge of traffic statistics, is computationally simple, and is essentially local information based.
Column imprints: a secondary index structure

Large scale data warehouses rely heavily on secondary indexes, such as bitmaps and b-trees, to limit access to slow IO devices. However, with the advent of large main memory systems, cache conscious secondary indexes are needed to improve also the transfer bandwidth between memory and cpu. In this paper, we introduce column imprint, a simple but efficient cache conscious secondary index. A column imprint is a collection of many small bit vectors, each indexing the data points of a single cacheline. An imprint is used during query evaluation to limit data access and thus minimize memory traffic. The compression for imprints is cpu friendly and exploits the empirical observation that data often exhibits local clustering or partial ordering as a side-effect of the construction process. Most importantly, column imprint compression remains effective and robust even in the case of unclustered data, while other state-of-the-art solutions fail. We conducted an extensive experimental evaluation to assess the applicability and the performance impact of the column imprints. The storage overhead, when experimenting with real world datasets, is just a few percent over the size of the columns being indexed. The evaluation time for over 40000 range queries of varying selectivity revealed the efficiency of the proposed index compared to zonemaps and bitmaps with WAH compression.