Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stalling Live Migrations on the Cloud

Live migration is commonly employed by cloud providers for performance reasons (e.g., ensuring load balancing). Recently, migration has been considered as a countermeasure against cloud-based side-channel attacks. In this paper, we discover an attack using which an adversary can effectively stall a live migration; this can not only hurt performance but also hurt the usage of virtual machine (VM) migration as a defense against cloudbased side channel attacks. Specifically, we discover a KVM vulnerability which, if exploited by a co-resident attacker, can suspend or stall the live migration time by up to 3x in some scenarios. The attacker can also delay her own VM migration, indefinitely to ensure sustained co-residency. The attacks that we propose are essentially based on increasing the volume of dirty pages and creating bus contention, leading to delaying the migration process. We show that this approach does not cause significant interference to side channel attacks such as the Flush+reload attack, which the attacker can continue to carry out in parallel. In fact, the success rates of the Flush+reload can increase by about 100 % (when the defender invokes migrations), if a stalling attack is simultaneously launched.
A place for visual research methods in the field of leisure studies? Evidence from two studies of older adults’ active leisure

Few researchers have explored perceptions of the local environment as a potential precursor to older adults’ active leisure participation; fewer still have employed visual research methods as a tool for examining the modalities of environmental influences on leisure behaviour. This article introduces leisure researchers to the visual research techniques of Q method with photographs and photovoice and highlights the opportunities and challenges resulting from the use of visual techniques with populations of older adults. Data obtained in two visual research studies undertaken in 2008 and 2011 reveal the importance of home and local environment as a nexus for leisure participation and identify conditions that may facilitate activity participation in later life. Environmental conditions that are particularly significant in the case of older adults include the home garden, natural and aesthetically pleasing settings, the local social network and functional neighbourhood facilities. Visual research methods were used to generate these findings. Such research methods provide rich and nuanced data in studies concerning environment-behaviour interactions, which may be difficult to attain using conventional research methods.
Image alignment for precise camera fixation and aim

Two important problems in camera control are how to keep a moving camera fixated on a target point, and how to precisely aim a camera, whose approximate pose is known, towards a given 3D position. This paper describes how electronic image alignment techniques can be used to solve these problems, as well as provide other benefits such as stabilized video. Hence, stabilized, fixated imagery is obtained despite large latencies in the control loop, even for simple control strategies. These techniques have been tested using an airborne camera and real-time affine image alignment.
Driver fatigue monitoring system using video face images & physiological information

This paper is focused on driving impairment, due to fatigue of a driver. Both face features and physiological signal were used to monitor the fatigue. Analyzing the images from the video, we applied Active Shape Models (ASM) algorithm to get the changes on the face, such as degrees of eye closure, eye closure duration, blink frequency, degrees of mount opening, yawn duration. We analyzed Heart Rate Variability to evaluate the driver's level of fatigue using photoplethysmography signal. These parameters were combined using a fuzzy classifier to infer the level of driver fatigue. The system has been tested with different environment both night and day by simulation in the laboratory and with different users.
RBRA: A Simple and Efficient Rating-Based Recommender Algorithm to Cope with Sparsity in Recommender Systems

Recommender systems have become an important research area both in industry and academia over the last decade. Memory-based collaborative filtering methods include user-based and item-based methods have been explored in many product domains for their simplicity. Memory-based collaborative filtering methods compute the average ratings between similar users or items to predict unrated entries. As a consequence, it is difficult to find similar users or items when the rating data is sparse. The recommendation quality can be poor. This paper proposed an efficient Rating-Based Recommender Algorithm named RBRA. With a new model based on user behavior and item features, RBRA can achieve results that are more accurate even when the rating data is sparse. In the prediction phase, RBRA takes an adaptively weighted prediction, which utilizes both ratings of the same item by different users and different items by the same user. The final ratings are evaluated from two sources, user-based and item-based approaches. Experimental results show that RBRA achieves 400% faster recommendation speed with better accuracy.
Forced Perspectives: Evaluating an SSL Trust Enhancement at Scale

The certificate authority (CA) PKI system has been used for decades as a means of providing domain identity verification services throughout the Internet, but a growing body of evidence suggests that our trust in this system is misplaced. A recently proposed CA alternative, Convergence, extends the Network Perspectives system of multi-path probing to perform certificate verification. Unfortunately, adoption of Convergence and other SSL/TLS trust enhancements has been slow, in part because it is unknown how these systems perform against large workloads and realistic conditions. In this work we ask the question "What if all certificates were validated with Convergence? " We perform a case study of deploying Convergence under realistic workloads with a university-wide trace of real-world HTTPS activity. By synthesizing Convergence requests, we effectively force perspectives-based verification on an entire university in simulation. We demonstrate that through local and server caching, a single Convergence deployment can meet the requirements of millions of SSL flows while imposing under 0.1% network overhead and requiring as little as 108 ms to validate a certificate, making Convergence a worthwhile candidate for further deployment and adoption.
An efficient implementation of fuzzy edge detection using GPU in MATLAB

Edge detection is one of the most important concepts in image processing which is used as an indicator for processing and extraction of some of border characteristics at low levels, also for detection and finding objects at high levels. Due to the inherently parallel nature of edge detection algorithms, they suit well for implementation on a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). First part of this paper aims to detect and retouch image edges using fuzzy inference system. In the first step RGB images converted to gray scale images. In the second step the input images are converted from unit 8 class to double class. In the third step, fuzzy inference system is defined with two inputs. Fuzzy inference system rules and membership function are applied on these two inputs. The output with black pixels indicates areas with edge and the output with white pixels indicates areas without edge. The second part of this paper, the performance of fuzzy edge detection algorithm is improved using GPU platform by exploiting data-level parallelism and scatter/gather parallel communication pattern in Matlab environment. The experimental results show that the performance is improved for different image sizes of up to 11.8x.
Giving Voice to Children's Voices: Practices and Problems, Pitfalls and Potentials

In this article, I explore the lessons that the anthropological debates of the 1980s about writing culture might have for contemporary childhood research within anthropology and the social sciences more generally. I argue that the current rhetoric about “giving voice to children,” commonplace both inside and outside the academy, poses a threat to the future of childhood research because it masks a number of important conceptual and epistemological problems. In particular, these relate to questions of representation, issues of authenticity, the diversity of children's experiences, and children's participation in research, all of which need to be addressed by anthropologists in their own research practices with children. Unless anthropologists do so, childhood research risks becoming marginalized once more and will fail to provide an arena within which children are seen as social actors who can provide a unique perspective on the social world about matters that concern them as children.
The Effects of Partial Retirement on Health

Recent studies analyzed the effect of retirement on mental and physical health. Some of them find that retirement yields a loss in cognitive skills while others find that retirement preserves physical health. These studies do not account for partial retirement or part-time work. This paper aims to fill this gap. We study how the amount of work hours affects the physical or mental health conditions of US residents between 50 and 75 years old in eight waves (1994-2008) of the Health and Retirement Study. To avoid the potential bias due to the fact that deteriorating health conditions can cause employees to work fewer hours, retirement eligibility ages are used as instruments for part-time or full-time work decisions. We also control for, possibly health related, unobserved heterogeneity across individuals. We find that working part-time or full-time deteriorates overall health and memory skills. On the other hand, part-time and full-time working reduces body weight, and part-time white-collar work substantially improves the word recall score. Part-time and full-time workers are also less prone to depression. In general, health status of the elderly responds to working part-time much more than it responds to working full-time, suggesting that the effect of number of hours worked on health outcomes is nonlinear.
Impact of the Northridge Earthquake on the Mental Health of Veterans: Results From a Panel Study

ABSTRACT Objective: The 1994 earthquake that struck Northridge, California, led to the closure of the Veterans Health Administration Medical Center at Sepulveda. This article examines the earthquake's impact on the mental health of an existing cohort of veterans who had previously used the Sepulveda Veterans Health Administration Medical Center. Methods: From 1 to 3 months after the disaster, trained interviewers made repeated attempts to contact participants by telephone to administer a repeated measures follow-up design survey based on a survey that had been done preearthquake. Postearthquake data were obtained on 1144 of 1800 (64%) male veterans for whom there were previous data. We tested a predictive latent variable path model of the relations between sociodemographic characteristics, predisaster physical and emotional health measures, and postdisaster emotional health and perceived earthquake impact. Results: Perceived earthquake impact was predicted by predisaster emotional distress, functional limitations, and number of health conditions. Postdisaster emotional distress was predicted by preexisting emotional distress and earthquake impact. The regression coefficient from earthquake impact to postearthquake emotional distress was larger than that of the stability coefficient from preearthquake emotional distress. Postearthquake emotional distress also was affected indirectly by preearthquake emotional distress, health conditions, younger age, and lower socioeconomic status. Conclusions: The postdisaster emotional health of veterans who experienced greater earthquake impact would have likely benefited from postdisaster intervention, regardless of their predisaster emotional health. Younger veterans and veterans with generally poor physical and emotional health were more vulnerable to greater postearthquake emotional distress. Veterans of lower socioeconomic status were disproportionately likely to experience more effects of the disaster because they had more predisaster emotional distress, more functional limitations, and a greater number of health conditions. Because many veterans use non–Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care providers for at least some of their health needs, future disaster planning for both VA and non-VA providers should incorporate interventions targeted at these groups. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2011;5:S220-S226)
Determination of the Number and Distribution of Macrophages, Lymphocytes, and Granulocytes in the Mouse Uterus From Mating Through Implantation

The concentration and distribution of F4‐80 positive cells (macrophages) and common leukocyte antigen (CLA) positive (bone marrow derived) cells were assessed in mouse uterus between days 1 and 8 of pregnancy. High numbers of polymorphonuclear leukocytes and lymphocytes were present on days 1 and 2, but not thereafter. Granulocytes were found both in the endometrium and within the luminal epithelium. The percentage of total cells contributed by macrophages was high on days 1 and 2. That percentage decreased significantly on day 3, then increased again on day 5 and remained high through day 8. Macrophages always were found in myometrial stroma. Macrophages were found throughout the endometrium on days 2 through 8. High numbers of macrophages were observed near epithelia, particularly on days 1,2,4, and 5. Few F4‐80+ or CLA+ cells were observed within the developing primary and secondary decidua. The results demonstrate that an inflammation‐like cellular response occurs in the uterus following mating and that macrophages are a major cellular component of the uterus during early pregnancy.
Tumor Cell Metabolism Imaging

Molecular imaging of tumor metabolism has gained considerable interest, since preclinical studies have indicated a close relationship between the activation of various oncogenes and alterations of cellular metabolism. Furthermore, several clinical trials have shown that metabolic imaging can significantly impact patient management by improving tumor staging, restaging, radiation treatment planning, and monitoring of tumor response to therapy. In this review, we summarize recent data on the molecular mechanisms underlying the increased metabolic activity of cancer cells and discuss imaging techniques for studies of tumor glucose, lipid, and amino acid metabolism.
Register-based studies on migration, ethnicity, and health

Introduction: Researchers in Denmark have unique possibilities of register-based research in relation to migration, ethnicity, and health. This review article outlines how these opportunities have been used, so far, by presenting a series of examples. Research topics: We selected six registers to highlight the process of how migrant study populations have been established and studied in relation to different registers: The Danish Cancer Registry, the Danish Central Psychiatric Research Register, the Danish National Patient Register, the Danish National Health Service Register, the Danish Injury Register, and the Danish Medical Birth Register. Conclusion: Our paper documents the unique opportunities to study migration, ethnicity, and health through Danish national registers. Our examples show that in Denmark ‘‘country of birth’’ is the most commonly used measure. It renders information on whether the person is an immigrant or not, and on ethnic background. Data on migration background (i.e. refugee status vs. family reunification, etc.) is more difficult to obtain and therefore less used. It has been debated if ethnicity should be registered upon using health services; however, some consider it discriminatory. Although, we do not register ethnicity in relation to use of health care in Denmark, our possibilities of linkage between population registers and registers on diseases and healthcare utilisation appear to render the same potentials.
Heart Rate Analysis and Telemedicine: New concepts & Maths

Our paper deals with some new aspects of ambulatory (Holter) ECG monitoring extending its indications and using for risk management purpose. Remote sensing consists of the transmittal of patient information, such as ECG, X-rays, or patient records, from a remote site to a collaborator in a distant site. Our earlier developed internet based ECG system was unique for on/off-line analysis of long-term ECG registrations. After the 5-year experience in a smaller region of Budapest, Hungary involving a municipal hospital and the surrounding outpatient cardiology departments and general practitioners, we decided to integrate into our new ECG equipment, the CardioClient the results. In the first clinical study of the four was a wavelet, non-linear heart rate analysis in sudden cardiac death patients using the Internet and the GPRS mobile communication. After the wavelet transformation by the Haar wavelet and the Daubechies 10-tap wavelet, the phase-space of the wavelet-coefficient standard deviation and the scale parameters showed an excellent separation in the scale-range of 3-6 between the two groups: in that region, the average scaling exponents was 0.14plusmn0. 04 for Group-A, and 1.22plusmn0. 27 for Group-B (p<0.001). In the next study, we used the Internet database of long-term ambulatory, mobile, GPRS electrocardiograms for the for risk stratification of patients through the cardiovascular continuum. From our ambulatory mobile GPRS ECG database the following a priori groups were defined after a 24 months follow-up: G1: N=227 patients (without manifest cardiovascular disease, clusterized "boxes" based on the age, sex, cholesterol level, diabetes, hypertension ); G2: N=89 patients (postinfarction group); G3: N=66 (patients with chronic heart failure) with (+) or without (-): all-cause death (acD), myocardial infarction (MI), malignant ventricular arrhythmia (MVA), sudden cardiac death (SCD). The actual vs. predicted values were analyzed with chi-square test. The best significance levels (p<0.001) were found with method in G1/MI+, G2/SCD+, G3/acD+, G3/SCD+ groups. In the third study a wavelet analysis of late potentials based on long-term, high-resolution, mobile, GPRS ECG data was performed. These pathological changes were also detected by the Haar and Daubechies_4 wavelets, but in a narrower space (110-128 ms and 180-240) and with lesser significance (p<0.01). Late potentials were found in Group-A (N=21) in 18 cases with Morlet, 16 with Haar, 19 with Daub-4 analysis, and in 15 cases using all the 3 waves; for Group-B the data were 5, 9, 8, 5, respectively. In the fourth clinical study the prognostic value of the nonlinear dynamicity measurement of atrial fibrillation waves detected by GPRS Internet long-term ECG monitoring were analyzed. The multivariate discriminant model selects the best parameters stepwise, the entry or removal based on the minimalization of the Wilks' lambda. Three variables remained finally: x1 = CI mean-value at log r=-1.0 (m9-14), x2 = CI mean-value at log r=-0.5 (m12-17), and x3 = CD_cg. The Wilks' lambda was 0.011, chi-square 299.68, significancy: p<0.001.
Melissopalynological Characterization of North Algerian Honeys

A pollen analysis of Algerian honey was conducted on a total of 10 honey samples. The samples were prepared using the methodology described by Louveaux et al., that was then further adapted by Ohe et al. The samples were subsequently observed using light microscopy. A total of 36 pollen taxa were discovered and could be identified in the analyzed honey samples. Seventy percent of the studied samples belonged to the group ofmonofloral honeys represented by Eucalyptus globulus, Thymus vulgaris, Citrus sp. and Lavandula angustifolia. Multifloral honeys comprised 30% of the honey samples, with pollen grains of Lavandula stoechas (28.49%) standing out as the most prevalent. Based on cluster analysis, two different groups of honey were observed according to different pollen types found in the samples. The identified pollen spectrum of honey confirmed their botanical origin.
Adaptation to British universities:homesickness and mental health of Chinese students

Abstract This paper examines the psychological reactions towards university transition with cultural relocation. Both personal factors (cognitive failures, locus of control) and environmental factors (perceived academic and social demands) are considered in this specific stressful context. General psychological symptoms and homesickness were measured. Result from a prospective study showed that homesickness is a common psychological reaction amongst Chinese students studying in Britain. This was quite separate from other psychological symptoms, and the two were influenced by different personality and environmental factors.
Understanding teachers’ ‘levels of use’ of learnscapes

All eight teachers and their principal, at an Australian regional primary school in New South Wales (NSW) accredited for its ongoing ‘learnscape’ developments, were interviewed. This was to ascertain their perceptions about the role of learnscapes and their self‐reported use of such outdoor areas to assist in the achievement of their State’s syllabus and environmental education learning outcomes. Teachers at the school (6) and their principal were (re)interviewed a year later to determine if changes in perceptions and practice had occurred and why. This paper interprets narratives derived from the combined interviews of these latter teachers and their principal from an educational change perspective in order to gain insight into their level of use of learnscapes. Teachers’ learnscape and environmental education content and pedagogical knowledge, their focus on the consequences of learnscape use for student learning, and awareness of multiple learning outcomes, including social learning, when using learnscapes, were among interdependent change factors identified which may assist in understanding why teachers embraced learnscapes to different degrees. Consequent avenues for increasing the future use of learnscapes for syllabus and environmental purposes are suggested.
Failure of Knowledge Management Systems in the Financial Services Industry Research-in-Progress

The success of information systems (IS) and especially knowledge management systems (KMS) is defined through the acceptance and usage of them. Directly after the implementation the initial success of such systems starts with a relatively good acceptance and usage. When the first hype is over the problems of the systems become evident and the acceptance and usage dwindles. But what kinds of problems lead to the decreasing acceptance and finally to the rejection of the system? Our research in progress approach is intended to investigate those reasons for changes in the beliefs, attitudes and satisfaction of KMS users. Therefore one longitudinal case study is conducted in the financial services industry. The main objective is to elucidate inhibitors and enablers of KMS usage over time. The first period of investigation will be conducted before the implementation of a new KMS replacing an old one implemented in 1999 which has been identified as a major reason for a declining job satisfaction within the organization observed. The second period of investigation is directly after the implementation and the third one after at least one year thereafter. Within our research-in-progress article we describe the theoretical background and research setting of our approach and present first results of the first data collection period.