Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rekeying for Encrypted Deduplication Storage

Rekeying refers to an operation of replacing an existing key with a new key for encryption. It renews security protection, so as to protect against key compromise and enable dynamic access control in cryptographic storage. However, it is non-trivial to realize efficient rekeying in encrypted deduplication storage systems, which use deterministic content-derived encryption keys to allow deduplication on ciphertexts. We design and implement REED, a rekeying-aware encrypted deduplication storage system. REED builds on a deterministic version of all-or-nothing transform (AONT), such that it enables secure and lightweight rekeying, while preserving the deduplication capability. We propose two REED encryption schemes that trade between performance and security, and extend REED for dynamic access control. We implement a REED prototype with various performance optimization techniques. Our trace-driven testbed evaluation shows that our REED prototype maintains high performance and storage efficiency.
Designing an HMAC-Hash Unit on FPGAs Using Handel-C

In this paper, we utilize an emerging system design methodology in designing a reconfigurable HMAC-hash unit. This new methodology directly maps a design described in a high level language, Handel-C, to FPGA platforms. The Handel-C approach narrows the gap between performance and flexibility, and thus, reduces the risk of translating a high level prototype into HDLs. It provides a high degree of flexibility from two viewpoints: the language level of abstraction and the hardware reconfiguration. We consider a detailed case study: a reconfigurable HMAC-hash unit that implements six standard hash functions, MD5, SHA-1, RIPEMD-160, HMAC-MD5, HMAC-SHA-1, and HMAC-RIPEMD-160. Using Handel-C, we enhanced the performance of the designed unit by applying pipelining, parallelism, and reconfigurability. The use of Handel-C resulted in an HMAC-hash unit architecture that is better in speed than most of the previously designed units. At the same time, the area cost for putting the six standard algorithms on the same hardware core is also kept as low as possible
New multivariate test for linkage, with application to pleiotropy: Fuzzy Haseman‐Elston

We propose a new method of linkage analysis based on using the grade of membership scores resulting from fuzzy clustering procedures to define new dependent variables for the various Haseman‐Elston approaches. For a single continuous trait with low heritability, the aim was to identify subgroups such that the grade of membership scores to these subgroups would provide more information for linkage than the original trait. For a multivariate trait, the goal was to provide a means of data reduction and data mining. Simulation studies using continuous traits with relatively low heritability (H=0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) showed that the new approach does not enhance power for a single trait. However, for a multivariate continuous trait (with three components), it is more powerful than the principal component method and more powerful than the joint linkage test proposed by Mangin et al. ([1998] Biometrics 54:88–99) when there is pleiotropy. Genet Epidemiol 24:253–264, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The PPARγ Pro12Ala variant is associated with insulin sensitivity in Russian normoglycaemic and type 2 diabetic subjects

The second isoform of the PPARγ2 is specific for adipose tissue. In adipocytes, this isoform is involved in the regulation of adipogenesis and lipid storage, insulin and glucose metabolism. Pro12Ala, a missense mutation in exon 2 of PPARG, reduces transcriptional activity of PPARγ2 and is shown to be associated with increased insulin sensitivity and protection from T2D. Previously, this polymorphism has never been assessed in a Russian population for its relationship to T2D, insulin resistance, and diabetes-related metabolic traits. In this study, we tested 588 Russian T2D patients and 597 normoglycaemic controls. Carriers of the Pro12 allele and subjects homozygous for Pro/Pro had significantly increased risk of developing T2D (OR 1.43 and 2.04, respectively). In Pro/Pro homozygotes, adjustment for potential confounding risk factors resulted in reducing the OR value from 2.04 to 1.69, but the association remained significant (p=0.046). The Pro/Pro genotype also showed association with increased levels of fasting insulin (p=0.019) in non-diabetic controls and elevated serum triglycerides (p=0.019) in T2D patients. Compared with other genotypes, non-diabetic and diabetic subjects homozygous for Pro/Pro had a significantly higher HOMA-IR score and reduced ISI value. This observation strongly supports the implication of the PPARG Pro12Ala in insulin resistance and T2D in a Russian population.
Time-Slotted Round-Trip Carrier Synchronization for Distributed Beamforming

Transmit beamforming is an energy-efficient wireless communication technique that allows a transmitter with two or more antennas to focus its bandpass signal in an intended direction. The idea of transmit beamforming has been extended to networks of single-antenna cooperative transmitters that pool their antenna resources and behave as a ldquodistributed beamformer.rdquo Unlike conventional transmit beamforming, however, the carriers of the single-antenna transmitters in a distributed beamformer are each synthesized from independent and imperfect local oscillators; carrier phase and frequency synchronization among the transmitters is necessary to ensure that a beam is aimed in the desired direction. In this paper, a new time-slotted round-trip carrier synchronization protocol is proposed to enable distributed beamforming in multiuser wireless communication systems. Numerical results for a distributed beamformer with two transmitters show that the parameters of the round-trip synchronization protocol can be selected such that a desired level of phase accuracy and reliability is achieved during beamforming and such that the synchronization overhead is small with respect to the amount of time that reliable beamforming is achieved. The impact of mobility on the performance of the round-trip carrier synchronization protocol is also shown to be small when the synchronization timeslots are short.
Is it Possible to be a Constructionist Consultant?

This article explores difficulties of employing a constructionist stance when confronted with the institutionalized expectations of managers. The difficulty reveals itself to be grounded in a contrast between the logic of representation, conventionally used in contacts between researchers and managers, and the logic of practice, which is the medium of everyday organizational life and the focus of constructionist interest. The final discussion raises the question of whether the two kinds of logic can be reconciled with the logic of theory and the contract between managerial practice and managerial theory rewritten along new lines.
Distributed reconfigurable Battery System Management Architectures

This paper presents an overview of recent trends in Battery System Management Architectures (BSMAs). After introducing the main characteristics of large battery packs, the state of the art in BSMAs is discussed. Two emerging concepts are in the focus of this contribution. On the one hand, there is a development from centralized battery management architectures with a single control entity towards decentralized management where the computational resources are distributed across the battery pack and, hence, move closer to the individual battery cells. This enables a more scalable and modular battery system architecture, while, at the same time, posing challenges regarding hardware and management algorithm design. On the other hand, the static setup of the series- and parallel-connected cells forming the battery pack may be developed towards a reconfigurable architecture such that the electrical topology of the pack can be adaptively changed. Such reconfigurability could increase the reliability of battery packs and reduce management efforts such as cell balancing. At the same time, limited energy efficiency of the additional hardware poses a challenge. We give an outlook how these two trends could be combined into distributed reconfigurable BSMAs. This introduces a set of challenges which have to be solved in order to benefit from the increased scalability, reliability and safety such designs could offer.
Towards a Dedicated Database Management System for Dictionaries

This paper argues that a lexical database should be implemented with a special kind of database management system (DBMS) and outlines the design of such a system. The major difference between this proposal and a general purpose DBMS is that its data definition language (DDL) allows the specification of the entire morphology, which turns the lexical database from a mere collection of 'static data into a real-time word-analyser. Moreover, the dedication of the system conduces to the feasibility of user interfaces with very comfortable monitor-and manipulation functions.
Sequestering HMGB1 via DNA-Conjugated Beads Ameliorates Murine Colitis

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that affects millions of people worldwide. Although the etiology of IBD is not clear, it is known that products from stressed cells and enteric microbes promote intestinal inflammation. High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), originally identified as a nuclear DNA binding protein, is a cytokine-like protein mediator implicated in infection, sterile injury, autoimmune disease, and IBD. Elevated levels of HMGB1 have been detected in inflamed human intestinal tissues and in feces of IBD patients and mouse models of colitis. Neutralizing HMGB1 activity by administration of anti-HMGB1 antibodies or HMGB1-specific antagonist improves clinical outcomes in animal models of colitis. Since HMGB1 binds to DNA with high affinity, here we developed a novel strategy to sequester HMGB1 using DNA immobilized on sepharose beads. Screening of DNA-bead constructs revealed that B2 beads, one linear form of DNA conjugated beads, bind HMGB1 with high affinity, capture HMGB1 ex vivo from endotoxin-stimulated RAW 264.7 cell supernatant and from feces of mice with colitis. Oral administration of B2 DNA beads significantly improved body weight, reduced colon injury, and suppressed colonic and circulating cytokine levels in mice with spontaneous colitis (IL-10 knockout) and with dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis. Thus, DNA beads reduce inflammation by sequestering HMGB1 and may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of IBD.
Search Based Software Engineering: A Review from the Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering

Search Based Software Engineering (SBSE) is the field of software engineering research and practice that applies search based techniques to solve different Software Engineering problems. SBSE contributes to reduce efforts and costs associated to software development since the solutions found by search techniques satisfy constraints that are usually in conflict and, in general, are very difficult to be obtained for software engineers. The field is emerging in Brazil, the number of published works and research groups have significantly increased in the last three years. The goal of this paper is to divulge SBSE, serving as a reference to this novel field and contributing to its consolidation in Brazil. The paper introduces SBSE concerns and provides a review of works produced by the Brazilian community, related to the Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (SBES), discussing trends, challenges, and open research problems for this emergent area.
Psychological health and employment status in an island community

This study focuses on the relationship between psychological health and employment status in a rural island community. Comparisons are made between different groups within and between the island population and more urban populations reported in other studies. Within the island differences are reported between men and women. For men psychological health varied, especially between the employed and the unemployed. For women no such comparable differences emerged. Although the differences that were found in the island population were of the same kind as reported from urban populations, they were very much less pronounced. It is argued that the relationship between psychological health and employment status can be modified by and is better understood through reference to the local social and community context.
English in Malaysia

This article seeks to lay out the use and importance of English in Malaysia from the time when the British ruled what was then Malaya to the present moment. When the British came to colonize the country, they brought with them their culture, their language and their beliefs. They introduced the English language as the medium of instruction in the primary and secondary schools. After Independence, nationalistic sentiments arose and in 1970, Bahasa Malaysia was introduced as the medium of instruction in the schools. With the advancement in science and technology and the advent of globalization, English regained part of its lost status. It is now taught in the schools both at the primary and secondary school level and it is also used to teach Science and Mathematics. Besides, it is the medium of instruction in the private colleges. Currently, the mastery of the English language is much encouraged at all levels of education—from the primary to the tertiary level. Moreover, English is much needed in the commercial and business sectors and as a result, besides the government-sponsored schools, many private and commercial institutions have mushroomed and English is taught for specific purposes.
Single-sample expression-based chemo-sensitivity score improves survival associations independently from genomic mutations for ovarian cancer Patients

Platinum-based chemotherapies are first-line treatments for ovarian cancer (OC) patients. Although chemotherapy has a high initial response rate, some patients exhibit inherent chemo-resistance. With advancements of molecular and genomic profiling, it is of high interest to identify molecular and genomic signatures predictive of chemo- sensitivity priori to treatment initiation in order to better personalize care decisions. Previous efforts have made use of mRNA expression levels of selected genes responsible for repairing DNA damage, under the hypothesis that chemo efficacy is associated with their proficiency. However, the resulting scores have been difficult to interpret. In this study, we designed a single-sample based approach known as eCARD to investigate chemo-sensitivity in ovarian cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We demonstrated that the proposed single-sample based approach can lead to a molecular-based chemo-sensitivity score predictive of prognosis, which validates in 5 independent cohorts, and associates with increasing mutation burden and likelihood of BRCA1/2 mutation.
Clinical implications of C‐reactive protein as a predictor of vascular risk

Purpose: To describe the role of C‐reactive protein (CRP) as a marker of risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and its role in risk reduction and disease prevention for the primary care provider. Data sources: Extensive review of scientific literature on CRP and CHD. Conclusions: Despite the scientific knowledge we have gained about prevention, risk factors, detection, and treatment, there are still high rates of CHD and acute coronary syndromes in the United States. With greater understanding of the role of inflammation in atherothrombotic disease, much attention has been given to monitoring CRP as a marker of risk for CHD. Guidelines for the use of CRP in clinical practice have been developed by the American Heart Association and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; however, there is little specific guidance on how primary care providers should apply pharmaceutical strategies to reduce elevated levels of CRP. Implications for practice: There is increasing evidence that CRP is an independent risk factor for CHD, can be a valuable tool in assessing at‐risk populations, and provide additional information for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, which can assist the nurse practitioner target patients who may need lifestyle modifications that traditional screening tests may not identify.
Decrease in caudate glutamatergic concentrations in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder patients taking paroxetine.

OBJECTIVE To measure in vivo neurochemical changes in the caudate nucleus in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) before and after treatment. METHOD Single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic (1H-MRS) examinations of the left caudate were conducted in 11 psychotropic drug-naive children, aged 8 to 17 years, with OCD before and after 12 weeks of monotherapy with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor paroxetine (10-60 mg/day) and 11 healthy children aged 8 to 17 years. A different sample of 8 pediatric OCD patients and 8 healthy children had a 1H-MRS examination of occipital cortex. RESULTS Caudate glutamatergic concentrations (Glx) were significantly greater in treatment-naive OCD patients than in controls but declined significantly after paroxetine treatment to levels comparable with those of controls. Decrease in caudate Glx was associated with decrease in OCD symptom severity. Occipital Glx did not differ between OCD patients and controls. CONCLUSIONS These preliminary findings provide new evidence of Glx abnormalities in the caudate nucleus in pediatric OCD and suggest that paroxetine treatment may be mediated by a serotonergically modulated reduction in caudate Glx.
Verbal Communication in Museum Programs for Young Children: Perspectives From Greece and the U.K.

This comparative study explores the verbal communication between museum educators and young children, based on principles of developmental psychology. In early developmental stages, when student learning is greatly dependent on verbal communications from the teacher, observation skills may be developed through purposeful instruction. Through the example of instructional strategies used during educational museum visits, the author illustrates the approach to guided instruction for observation. The approach uses the “child as a scientist model” to question established power relationships between adults and children in museum programs to ensure children's autonomous participation and choice in educational settings. Such relationships are akin to that of early childhood education institutions. These considerations are significant in understanding and ensuring children's rights in educational environments—rights to make decisions and express opinions about children's individual needs, interests, and situations.
The Application of Good Clinical Practice to Challenge Tests

both scientifically and ethically, and its aim is clearly to educate and raise standards. Those of us who conduct challenge tests in human subjects, both healthy volunteers and patients, do so to observe a response. It is more often than not the response that we are interested in, rather than the product used to produce it. Gijsman et al. (2003) have made us aware of the apparent perils of this action and, on reading their review, one wonders whether studies using m-chlorophenylpiperazine will ever receive ethical approval again. The ICH Guideline for Good Clinical Practice (GCP) is a document produced to ensure that international ethical and scientific standards are maintained in designing, conducting, recording and reporting clinical trials. It also serves to protect trial subjects and is consistent with the Declaration of Helsinki. The pharmaceutical industry have been applying GCP to their trials for many years, and certainly since the document was produced in 1996. Academia should have been following similar guidelines to ensure trial conduct, but may not have been if the research was not industrysponsored. Life will become more difficult. All research involving human subjects requires ethical approval and, up until recently, local research ethics committees have been variable in their standards, certainly within the UK. However, the European Directive will come into force in 2004, raising standards, but increasing paperwork and costs, thus decreasing research output Standardizing challenge tests is an interesting question. Our research involves conducting challenge tests in volunteer and patient groups. We have recently been using the inhalation of carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce psychological, physiological and neuroendocrine changes in healthy subjects. The inhalation of CO2 at various doses produces profound effects on the body (Argyropoulos et al., 2002; Bailey et al., 2003). Although not a pharmaceutical product, could the principles of producing a Clinical Investigator’s Brochure be applied to CO2? It probably could, but as pointed out by Gijsman et al. (2003), who should write and update such a document and who funds it? Will standardization remove ‘scientific licence’? The Journal of Psychopharmacology may well have a role to play in such areas. We shall be launching the new Educational section of the Journal in 2004 and this could certainly be used to include such debates as those raised by Gijsman et al. (2003). In addition, the British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP), via the Journal, have successfully published important guidelines in the use and indication of treatments in patient groups (Anderson et al., 2000; Goodwin, 2003). Perhaps the BAP should take the lead and set up a collaborative working group to coordinate the approach to take with pharmaceutical challenge tests? I congratulate the authors for producing this thought-provoking piece, since it is timely in the increasingly regulatory-driven scientific world. However, we do not want to lose the opportunity, as scientists, to explore, and so we shall watch this space with caution.
Valuing Imagination

How important a role does imagination play in nursing? Is it crucial to the delivery of effective and compassionate nursing care? The concept of imagination has been bouncing around in my mind as I searched for its connection or centrality to nursing. A lecture I attended recently on Human Imagination got me started on this as I began to consider its importance to nursing practice and research. Imagination has several different meanings (Oxford English Dictionary [OED], 2013b). In the lecture I attended, the speaker equated it with creativity or creative ability. In this sense it could be thought of as an original and innovative way to approach a situation or as a resourceful way to confront and deal with a problem. Imagination also has been associated with fancy or fantasy—a creation of the mind, especially an idealized creation, fondest hope, or what is sometimes called “wishful thinking. ” For instance, imagine that we could all soar like birds. This may be the stereotypic view of imagination—that it is not reality-directed. However, Williamson (2010) argues against this stereotype. He says that our imagination is not pure fantasy. Instead, imagination is reality-based; it is informed by our knowledge of the way things really happen (Williamson, 2010). From our knowledge of the past and present, we imagine form-justified expectations about a complex future. In science the obvious role of imagination is in discovery. In this respect, imagination works as a means to new knowledge (Williamson, 2010). The meaning of imagination that brings me closest to connecting it with nursing is this one: The human ability, act, or power to form a mental picture or impression of something that is not present to our senses or of something that we have never before wholly perceived in reality (OED, 2013b).