Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling Web Services Interoperability

With the development of the semantic Web, the specification of Web services has evolved from a "remote procedure call" style to a behavioral description including standard constructors of programming languages. Such a transformation introduces new problems since traditional clients will not be able to interact with these sophisticated services. In this work, we develop a generic agent capable to fully control the interaction process with a Web service given its XLANG behavioral description (XLANG being one of these languages). At first, we give an operational semantic to XLANG in terms of timed transition systems. Then we define a relation between two communicating systems which formalizes the concept of a correct interaction and we propose an algorithm which either detects ambiguity of the Web service or generates a timed deterministic automaton which controls the agent behavior during the interaction with the service. Starting from these theoretical developments we have built a platform which ensures to a user the correct handling of any complex Web service dynamically discovered through the Web.
Off the Wall: Lightweight Distributed Filtering to Mitigate Distributed Denial of Service Attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are hard to deal with, due to the fact that it is difficult to distinguish legitimate traffic from malicious traffic, especially since the latter is from distributed sources. To accurately filter malicious traffic one needs (strong but costly) packet authentication primitives which increase the design complexity and typically affect throughput. It is a challenge to keep a balance between throughput and security/protection of the network core and end resources. In this paper, we propose SIEVE, a lightweight distributed filtering protocol/method. Depending on the attacker's ability, SIEVE can provide a standalone filter for moderate adversary models and a complementary filter which can enhance the performance of strong and more complex methods for stronger adversary models.
Group buying based on social aware in D2D networks: A game theoretic approach

Spectrum market which brings a win-win situation both to spectrum owners and buyers has drawn attention recently. Spectrum market mechanism improves the spectrum efficiency effectively but sometimes it also may bring a waste when the spectrum price is too high to be affordable by a single user. The problem is modeled into a coalition formation game with the group buying mechanism. To reduce the users' cost further, we focus on the repeated traffic content of the coalition users. Instead of transmitting the data again and again, the users share the content and afford the cost equally based on their traffic. Compared with the Pareto order, a selfish and non-Pareto order is proposed to achieve better performance. The existence of the stable coalition partition and the convergence of the proposed algorithm are both proved. The simulation results also show the better performance of the selfish preference order in different situations.
Augmentation of respiratory muscle activities in preterm infants with feeding desaturation

Purpose Frequent desaturation due to immature incoordination of suck-swallow-breathing in preterm infants can influence multiple organs such as the heart, lungs, and brain, which can then affect growth and development. Most notably in preterm infants, feeding desaturation may even affect pulmonary function during gavage feeding. Because respiratory muscle activities may reflect the work required during respiration, we evaluated the differences in these activities between full-term and preterm infants with feeding desaturation, and investigated the correlations with clinical variables. Methods Nineteen preterm infants with feeding desaturation (group 1) and 19 age-matched full-term infants (group 2) were evaluated. Oromotor function was evaluated using video recording. The root-mean-squre (RMS) envelope of the electromyography signal was calculated to quantify the activities of muscles involved in respiration. The differences in RMS between both groups and the correlation with clinical variables including gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW), and Apgar scores (AS) at 1 and 5 minutes after birth were evaluated. Results The RMS values of the diaphragm (RMS-D) and rectus abdominis (RMS-R) were significantly greater in group 1 compared to group 2, and the 1- and 5-min AS were significantly lower in group 1 compared to group 2. RMS-D and RMS-R were inversely correlated with GA, BW, 1- and 5-min AS in all infants. Conclusion This study showed that respiratory muscle activities were augmented during feeding in preterm infants compared to full-term infants. Additionally, respiratory muscle activities were inversely correlated with all clinical variables.
Demystifying Authentication Concepts in Smartphones: Ways and Types to Secure Access

Smartphones are the most popular and widespread personal devices. Apart from their conventional use, that is, calling and texting, they have also been used to perform multiple security sensitive activities, such as online banking and shopping, social networking, taking pictures, and e-mailing. On a positive side, smartphones have improved the quality of life by providing multiple services that users desire, for example, anytime-anywhere computing. However, on the other side, they also pose security and privacy threats to the users’ stored data. User authentication is the first line of defense to prevent unauthorized access to the smartphone. Several authentication schemes have been proposed over the years; however, their presentation might be perplexing to the new researchers to this domain, under the shade of several buzzwords, for example, active, continuous, implicit, static, and transparent, being introduced in academic papers without comprehensive description. Moreover, most of the reported authentication solutions were evaluated mainly in terms of accuracy, overlooking a very important aspect—the usability. This paper surveys various types and ways of authentication, designed and developed primarily to secure the access to smartphones and attempts to clarify correlated buzzwords, with the motivation to assist new researchers in understanding the gist behind those concepts. We also present the assessment of existing user authentication schemes exhibiting their security and usability issues.
RETICULA: Real-time code quality assessment

Code metrics can be used to assess the internal quality of software systems, and in particular their adherence to good design principles. While providing hints about code quality, metrics are difficult to interpret. Indeed, they take a code component as input and assess a quality attribute (e.g., code readability) by providing a number as output. However, it might be unclear for developers whether that value should be considered good or bad for the specific code at hand. We present RETICULA (REal TIme Code qUaLity Assessment), a plugin for the IntelliJ IDE to assist developers in perceiving code quality during software development. RETICULA compares the quality metrics for a project (or a single class) under development in the IDE with those of similar open source systems (classes) previously analyzed. With the visualized results, developers can gain insights about the quality of their code. A video illustrating the features of RETICULA can be found at: https://reticulaplugin.github. io/.
System-Wide Expression and Function of Olfactory Receptors in Mammals

Olfactory receptors (ORs) in mammals are generally considered to function as chemosensors in the olfactory organs of animals. They are membrane proteins that traverse the cytoplasmic membrane seven times and work generally by coupling to heterotrimeric G protein. The OR is a G protein‒coupled receptor that binds the guanine nucleotide-binding Gαolf subunit and the Gβγ dimer to recognize a wide spectrum of organic compounds in accordance with its cognate ligand. Mammalian ORs were originally identified from the olfactory epithelium of rat. However, it has been recently reported that the expression of ORs is not limited to the olfactory organ. In recent decades, they have been found to be expressed in diverse organs or tissues and even tumors in mammals. In this review, the expression and expected function of olfactory receptors that exist throughout an organism’s system are discussed.
Towards ad hoc mobile multi-display environments on commodity mobile devices

We present a demonstration of HeadPhones (Headtracking + smart-Phones), a novel approach for the spatial registration of multiple mobile devices into an ad hoc multi-display environment. We propose to employ the user's head as external reference frame for the registration of multiple mobile devices into a common coordinate system. Our approach allows for dynamic repositioning of devices during runtime without the need for external infrastructure such as separate cameras or fiducials. Specifically, our only requirements are local network connections and mobile devices with built-in front facing cameras. This way, HeadPhones enables spatially-aware multi-display applications in mobile contexts.
In-situ processing and visualization for ultrascale simulations

The growing power of parallel supercomputers gives scientists the ability to simulate more complex problems at higher fidelity, leading to many high-impact scientific advances. To maximize the utilization of the vast amount of data generated by these simulations, scientists also need scalable solutions for studying their data to different extents and at different abstraction levels. As we move into peta- and exa-scale computing, simply dumping as much raw simulation data as the storage capacity allows for post-processing analysis and visualization is no longer a viable approach. A common practice is to use a separate parallel computer to prepare data for subsequent analysis and visualization. A naive realization of this strategy not only limits the amount of data that can be saved, but also turns I/O into a performance bottleneck when using a large parallel system. We conjecture that the most plausible solution for the peta- and exa-scale data problem is to reduce or transform the data in-situ as it is being generated, so the amount of data that must be transferred over the network is kept to a minimum. In this paper, we discuss different approaches to in-situ processing and visualization as well as the results of our preliminary study using large-scale simulation codes on massively parallel supercomputers.
Full-wave electromagnetic characterization of 3D interconnects using a surface integral formulation

This paper presents an accurate surface integral equation formulation for modeling interconnects. It accurately captures the skin effect inside conductors using a recently-developed 3D differential surface admittance operator. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed formulation is significantly more efficient than existing volumetric techniques in terms of computational time and memory consumption.
Clinical, Haematological, and Neurocognitive Findings in Lead-Exposed Workers of a Battery Plant in Iran

Abstract The aim of this comparative cross-sectional study was to assess neurocognitive impairment, haematological findings, and clinical symptoms of lead exposure among 316 male battery plant workers aged between 20 and 61 years. Compared to 123 matched controls (matching in age and years of work), the exposed workers showed significantly higher mean blood lead level (BLL) and lower haematocrit, haemoglobin, and red blood cell count. Mean BLL significantly correlated with clinical symptoms such as nocturia, increased urination frequency, oedema, drop in deep tendon reflex, concentration impairment, agitation, headache, depression, abdominal pain, palpitation, fatigue, and diminished sex drive. Workers with clinical disorders had higher BLL and lower haematological parameters. These findings warn that silent toxicological problems caused by lead might go unnoticed by health professionals. Sažetak Cilj je ovog usporednog, presječnog ispitivanja bio ocijeniti oštećenje neurokognitivne funkcije, hematološke nalaze i kliničke simptome izloženosti olovu u 316 radnika u dobi od 20 do 61 godine uposlenih u tvornici akumulatora. U odnosu na odgovarajuću kontrolnu skupinu (po dobi i stažu) od 123 ispitanika, izloženi su radnici iskazali značajno više razine olova u krvi te niže razine hematokrita, hemoglobina i eritrocita. Srednja razina olova u krvi značajno je kolerilala s kliničkim simptomima poput nokturije, učestalog mokrenja, edema, slabijeg dubokog tetivnog refleksa, smanjenom koncentracijom, psihomotoričkom uzbuđenosti, glavoboljom, depresijom, bolom u trbuhu, palpitacijama, zamorom i smanjenim spolnim nagonom. Radnici s kliničkim poremećajima imali su više razine olova u krvi i slabiju krvnu sliku. Ovi nalazi upozoravaju na to da toksikološki poremećaji uzrokovani olovom mogu promaknuti zdravstvenim radnicima.
Narcotic Use and Postoperative Doctor Shopping in the Orthopaedic Trauma Population.

BACKGROUND The negative consequences of narcotic use and diversion for nonmedical use are on the rise. A growing number of narcotic abusers obtain narcotic prescriptions from multiple providers ("doctor shopping"). This study sought to determine the effects of multiple postoperative narcotic providers on the number of narcotic prescriptions, duration of narcotics, and morphine equivalent dose per day in the orthopaedic trauma population. METHODS Our prospective cohort study used the state-controlled substance monitoring database to identify all narcotic prescriptions filled three months prior to admission and six months following discharge for enrolled patients. Patients were assigned into two groups: a single narcotic provider group with prescriptions only from the treating surgeon (or extenders) or a multiple narcotic provider group with prescriptions from both the treating surgeon and an additional provider or providers. RESULTS Complete data were available for 130 of 151 eligible patients. Preoperative narcotic use, defined by three or more narcotic prescriptions within three months of admission, was noted in 8.5% of patients. Overall, 20.8% of patients sought multiple narcotic providers postoperatively. There were significant increases in postoperative narcotic prescriptions (p < 0.001) between the single narcotic provider group (two prescriptions) and the multiple narcotic provider group (seven prescriptions), in duration of postoperative narcotic use (p < 0.001) between the single narcotic provider group (twenty-eight days) and the multiple narcotic provider group (110 days), and in morphine equivalent dose per day (p = 0.002) between the single narcotic provider group (26 mg) and the multiple narcotic provider group (43 mg). Patients with a high school education or less were 3.2 times more likely to seek multiple providers (p = 0.02), and patients with a history of preoperative narcotic use were 4.5 times more likely to seek multiple providers (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS There is a 20.8% prevalence of postoperative doctor shopping in the orthopaedic trauma population. Patients with multiple postoperative narcotic providers had a significant increase in postoperative narcotic prescriptions, duration of narcotics, and morphine equivalent dose per day.
Associations of Fine Particulate Matter Species with Mortality in the United States: A Multicity Time-Series Analysis

Background: Epidemiological studies have examined the association between PM2.5 and mortality, but uncertainty remains about the seasonal variations in PM2.5-related effects and the relative importance of species. Objectives: We estimated the effects of PM2.5 species on mortality and how infiltration rates may modify the association. Methods: Using city–season specific Poisson regression, we estimated PM2.5 effects on approximately 4.5 million deaths for all causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and respiratory diseases in 75 U.S. cities for 2000–2006. We added interaction terms between PM2.5 and monthly average species-to-PM2.5 proportions of individual species to determine the relative toxicity of each species. We combined results across cities using multivariate meta-regression, and controlled for infiltration. Results: We estimated a 1.18% (95% CI: 0.93, 1.44%) increase in all-cause mortality, a 1.03% (95% CI: 0.65, 1.41%) increase in CVD, a 1.22% (95% CI: 0.62, 1.82%) increase in MI, a 1.76% (95% CI: 1.01, 2.52%) increase in stroke, and a 1.71% (95% CI: 1.06, 2.35%) increase in respiratory deaths in association with a 10-μg/m3 increase in 2-day averaged PM2.5 concentration. The associations were largest in the spring. Silicon, calcium, and sulfur were associated with more all-cause mortality, whereas sulfur was related to more respiratory deaths. County-level smoking and alcohol were associated with larger estimated PM2.5 effects. Conclusions: Our study showed an increased risk of mortality associated with PM2.5, which varied with seasons and species. The results suggest that mass alone might not be sufficient to evaluate the health effects of particles. Citation: Dai L, Zanobetti A, Koutrakis P, Schwartz JD. 2014. Associations of fine particulate matter species with mortality in the United States: a multicity time-series analysis. Environ Health Perspect 122:837–842; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1307568
Exploring parameter space in reinforcement learning

This paper discusses parameter-based exploration methods for reinforcement learning. Parameter-based methods perturb parameters of a general function approximator directly, rather than adding noise to the resulting actions. Parameter-based exploration unifies reinforcement learning and black-box optimization, and has several advantages over action perturbation. We review two recent parameter-exploring algorithms: Natural Evolution Strategies and Policy Gradients with Parameter-Based Exploration. Both outperform state-of-the-art algorithms in several complex high-dimensional tasks commonly found in robot control. Furthermore, we describe how a novel exploration method, State-Dependent Exploration, can modify existing algorithms to mimic exploration in parameter space.
A PVT-compensated sinusoidal wave generator with phase modulation for multi-channel sensor applications

This paper presents a PVT-compensated sinusoidal wave generator exploiting phase modulation for multi-channel sensor applications. The sinusoidal wave is generated by a DDFS with a PVT-compensated relaxation oscillator. The sinusoidal wave generator is fabricated in 0.18 μm CMOS technology, occupying an active area of 1.099 mm2 with a power consumption of1.55 mW.
A Fast and Universal Vlasov Solver for Beam Dynamics Simulations in 3D

The Vlasov equation can describe the evolution of a particle density under the effects of electromagnetic fields and thus it is possible to describe the evolution of a charged particle beam within an accelerator beam line. The Vlasov equation forms a partial differential equation in a 6D phase space witch renders it very expensive if it is solved via classical methods. A more efficient approach consists in representing the particle distribution function by a discrete set of characteristic moments. For each moment a time evolution equation can be stated. These ordinary differential equations can then be integrated efficiently by means of numerical methods if all acting forces together with a proper initial condition are given. The beam dynamics simulation tool V-Code has been implemented at TEMF on the basis of the moment approach. In this paper the numerical model, main features and designated use cases of the V-Code will be presented.
Adaptive Sampling and Tessellation for Displacement Mapping Hardware

In this thesis, new algorithms and architectures are presented for the acquisition and rendering of displacement maps. Displacement mapping is a popular rendering technique commonly found in commercial rendering packages, it modifies the surface of an otherwise flat triangle by displacing its points according to a height field, giving the impression of a structured surface. Although widely used in software renderers for many years, hardware accelerated rendering was long missing, because of the difficulties involved. The main focus of this work is on adaptively rendering techniques, especially adaptively tessellating triangular meshes to improve rendering performance and reduce bandwidth requirements. Following a general definition of displacement maps, possible sources of displacement maps are presented and examples are given. To allow adaptive tessellation, sophisticated sampling techniques are required, and multiple sampling strategies are described and compared with respect to quality and ease of implementation. The presented strategies range from locally defined geometry tests to image-based methods like edge-detection. Possible modifications to available graphics hardware pipelines are discussed to enable support for adaptive tessellation with as little modifications as possible. With the latest generation of commodity graphics chips, it has become possible to approximate displacement mapping by a variation of ray-casting. Sample implementations are given and compared to other approaches, implemented on the same hardware platform.
A Mechanically Reconfigurable Reflectarray With Slotted Patches of Tunable Height

Design of a C-band reconfigurable reflectarray antenna (RRA) is presented. The RRA element consists of a fixed upper patch and a tunable slotted patch. By mechanically controlling the height of the slotted patch, the RRA element has a phase shift range of 324° with small element loss. A prototype with 408 elements is designed and fabricated. The measurements show that the gain of the 20° scanned beam is 25.7 dB and the aperture efficiency is 48.6%. The large-angle beam-scanning capability of the RRA is also verified within ±60° angular range, and well-defined scanned beams are obtained with maximum scan gain loss of 3.4 dB.