Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient web information retrieval based on usage mining

The objective of this paper is to analyze web logs using data mining so as to present users with more personalized web content. We classify users based on their internet usage patterns and for each class, maintain a cache of web documents. Searching is performed based on term set analysis and direction cosine distance approach. Finally a more personalized and relevant result set is generated for the query.
Retinal projections in mice with inherited retinal degeneration: Implications for circadian photoentrainment

The availability of naturally occurring and transgenic retinal mutants has made the mouse an attractive experimental model to address questions regarding photoentrainment of circadian rhythms. However, very little is known about the retinal cells and the retinal projections to the nuclei of the murine circadian timing system. Furthermore, the effect of inherited retinal degeneration on these projections is not understood. In this report, we have used pseudorabies virus as a neuroanatomical tract tracer in mice to address a series of questions: Which retinal cells mediate circadian responses to light? What is the nature of the retinohypothalamic projection? What is the impact of the inherited retinal disorder, retinal degenerate (rd/rd), on the structures of the photoentrainment pathway?
SEX CHROMOSOME LINKED GENETIC VARIANCE AND THE EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM OF QUANTITATIVE TRAITS

Theory predicts that sex chromsome linkage should reduce intersexual genetic correlations thereby allowing the evolution of sexual dimorphism. Empirical evidence for sex linkage has come largely from crosses and few studies have examined how sexual dimorphism and sex linkage are related within outbred populations. Here, we use data on an array of different traits measured on over 10,000 individuals from two pedigreed populations of birds (collared flycatcher and zebra finch) to estimate the amount of sex‐linked genetic variance (h2z). Of 17 traits examined, eight showed a nonzero h2Z estimate but only four were significantly different from zero (wing patch size and tarsus length in collared flycatchers, wing length and beak color in zebra finches). We further tested how sexual dimorphism and the mode of selection operating on the trait relate to the proportion of sex‐linked genetic variance. Sexually selected traits did not show higher h2Z than morphological traits and there was only a weak positive relationship between h2Z and sexual dimorphism. However, given the relative scarcity of empirical studies, it is premature to make conclusions about the role of sex chromosome linkage in the evolution of sexual dimorphism.
Segmentation of characters in an arc-form-text

The wok presented in this paper, focuses on an attempt made to solve a typical problem of arcform-text noticed in documents. The paper describes the method developed for segmentation of characters from an arc-form-text in documents. The method involves three stages. Two binding arcs are searched to enclose the arc-form-text from a segmented region within a document image in the first stage. The second stage proceeds with demarcation(segmentation) of characters of the text by the process of linear cut with the help of appropriate lines between the arcs enclosing the text. Finally, each of the segmented character is extracted through a transformation to a linear form and then extracted characters are concatenated horizontally. The method has been tested with different kinds of circular and elliptical arc-form-text inputs from various languages.
A survey of Named Entity Recognition in English and other Indian Languages

In this paper, a survey is done on various approaches used to recognize name entity in various Indian languages. Firstly, the introduction is given about the work done in the NER task. Then a survey is given about the work done in recognition of name entities in English and other foreign languages like Spanish, Chinese etc. In English language, lots of work has been done in this field, where capitalization is a major clue for making rules. Secondly, a survey is given regarding the work done in Indian Languages. As Punjabi is one of the Indian languages and also the official language of Punjab. In next part, survey is given on Punjabi Language regarding what work is done and what work is
Martingale approximations for sums of stationary processes

Approximations to sums of stationary and ergodic sequences by martingales are investigated. Necessary and sufficient conditions for such sums to be asymptotically normal conditionally given the past up to time 0 are obtained. It is first shown that a martingale approximation is necessary for such normality and then that the sums are asymptotically normal if and only if the approximating martingales satisfy a Lindeberg-Feller condition. Using the explicit construction of the approximating martingales, a central limit theorem is derived for the sample means of linear processes. The conditions are not sufficient for the functional version of the central limit theorem. This is shown by an example, and a slightly stronger sufficient condition is given.
An artificial immune system architecture for computer security applications

With increased global interconnectivity and reliance on e-commerce, network services and Internet communication, computer security has become a necessity. Organizations must protect their systems from intrusion and computer virus attacks. Such protection must detect anomalous patterns by exploiting known signatures while monitoring normal computer programs and network usage for abnormalities. Current anti-virus and network intrusion detection (ID) solutions can become overwhelmed by the burden of capturing and classifying new viral strains and intrusion patterns. To overcome this problem, a self-adaptive distributed agent-based defense immune system based on biological strategies is developed within a hierarchical layered architecture. A prototype interactive system is designed, implemented in Java and tested. The results validate the use of a distributed-agent biological system approach toward the computer security problems of virus elimination and ID.
Systematic Review and Analysis of Postdischarge Symptoms after Outpatient Surgery

OVER the past decade, the percentage of surgical procedures being performed in outpatient centers has increased. In response, outpatient anesthetic practice and research have focused on providing anesthetics that minimize symptoms (e.g., nausea and vomiting) in the postanesthesia care unit and hasten time to discharge. Much effort has been placed on development of newer agents with a more favorable recovery profile. Similarly, examination of the economic parameters (e.g., length of recovery room stay, cost-effectiveness of drugs) after ambulatory surgery has focused on the immediate predischarge, postoperative period. A significant portion of research in this area has concentrated on minimizing immediate postoperative symptoms to facilitate patient discharge from the hospital. On the other hand, relatively few studies have evaluated the impact of patient-reported symptoms after discharge from the postanesthesia care unit. Postdischarge symptoms (those occurring after discharge from the ambulatory surgical unit) may have an important impact on patient recovery after ambulatory surgery and the economic burden on patients and their caregivers; however, there has not been a systematic examination of postdischarge symptoms. It is important to know the frequency with which patients experience postdischarge symptoms so that providers can better inform patients and researchers can better estimate the burden of these symptoms and potential for the incidence of postdischarge symptoms to serve as a measure of quality of care. Quantification of the incidence of postdischarge symptoms would be the first step in the process in determining the extent of the problem and if perioperative interventions (e.g., intraoperative anesthetic technique, multimodal analgesia, or pharmacologic agents) would be effective in diminishing the impact of these patient-related symptoms on functional recovery and health-related quality of life. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and analysis to evaluate the incidence of patient-reported symptoms after outpatient surgery.
Committee-based Decision Making in Probabilistic Partial Parsing

This paper explores two directions for the next step beyond the state of the art of statistical parsing: probabilistic partial parsing and committee-based decision making. Probabilistic partial parsing is a probabilistic extension of the existing notion of partial parsing, which enables fine-grained arbitrary choice on the trade-off between accuracy and coverage. Committee-based decision making is to combine the out-puts from different systems to make a better decision. While various committee-based techniques for NLP have recently been investigated, they would need to be further extended so as to be applicable to probabilistic partial parsing. Aiming at this coupling, this paper gives a general framework to committee-based decision making, which consists of a set of weighting functions and a combination function, and discusses how it can be coupled with probabilistic partial parsing. Our experiments have so far been producing promising results.
Cryptosporidium parvum: infectivity and pathogenicity of the ‘porcine’ genotype

Genetic studies have demonstrated profound differences between the ‘porcine’ genotype of Cryptosporidium parvum, versus ‘human’ and ‘bovine’ genotypes. The study analysed infectivity and pathogenicity of the ‘porcine’ genotype (CPP-13 isolate) of C. parvum, and compared the results with published data on the ‘bovine’ genotype (CPB-0 isolate). This was investigated in calves and piglets from commercial herds. Piglets were mildly affected by the CPP-13 isolate, contrary to piglets infected with the CPB-0 isolate, which caused diarrhoea of a mean duration of 3·5 days. CPP-13 produced no or very mild clinical signs in piglets despite the excretion of high numbers of oocysts. Concomitant infection with rotavirus, however, caused a dramatic aggravation of the clinical signs, and 5 of 6 experimentally infected piglets died. CPP-13 appeared to be adapted to porcine hosts as illustrated by the lack of infectivity to 1 experimentally inoculated calf, and the absence of clinical signs, the long pre-patent period (15 days), and the excretion of very low numbers of oocysts following experimental infection of another calf. Thus, in accordance with other molecular studies, our results support the genetic evidence for the existence of a new species of Cryptosporidium adapted to pigs.
Immunocytochemical evidence for translocation of protein kinase C in human megakaryoblastic leukemic cells: synergistic effects of Ca2+ and activators of protein kinase C on the plasma membrane association

Immunological analysis using monoclonal antibodies against subspecies of protein kinase C revealed the predominant expression of the isozyme, type II, in human megakaryoblastic leukemic cells. We investigated the effects of phorbol diester 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate (TPA), the Ca2+ ionophore ionomycin and synthetic diacylglycerol 1-oleoyl-2- acetylglycerol (OAG) on the immunocytochemical localization of protein kinase C in these cells. Indirect immunofluorescence techniques revealed the enzyme to be located in a diffuse cytosolic pattern, in the intact cells. When the cells were exposed to 100 nM TPA, the immunofluorescent staining was translocated from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane. The translocation was protracted and staining on the membrane decreased in parallel with the Ca2+, phospholipid-dependent protein kinase activity. Treatment of the cells with 500 nM ionomycin caused an apparent translocation comparable with that seen with TPA, however, this translocation was transient and most of the cytosolic staining was within 60 min. We also found that 30 micrograms/ml OAG did not have significant effects on distribution of the staining, but rather acted synergistically on the translocation with the suboptimal concentration of 100 nM ionomycin. A similar synergism was also observed with 10 nM TPA and 100 nM ionomycin. These results obtained in situ provide evidence that intracellular Ca2+ and diacylglycerol regulate membrane binding of the enzyme in vivo.
Securely Hiding the Real Servers from DDoS Floods

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks still remains as one of the largest concerns for online businesses. Although an HTTPS compatible scheme is necessary for many online services, several previously proposed defense schemes fail to combine both HTTPS compatibility with practicality. In this paper, a novel defense architecture that blocks malicious traffic far from the protected servers is proposed. Protected servers are hidden inside a secure overlay network only accessible through a set of access-nodes (AN) with rate limiting and access control functionalities. Protected servers are required to provide at least one dummy public server as an initial connection step point. An experimental prototype is implemented and tested. Results show; system compatibility with e-commerce websites needs, also, the AN impact on the protected server performance is less than 10% reduction in file transfer throughput, in addition, the public server could survive attack rates more than 10 times higher than an ordinary server. Through discussion we demonstrate the system ability to protect the servers’ resources from all attack types without sacrificing data integrity or confidentiality. To the best of our knowledge, we offer the first practical DDoS protection scheme fully compatible with HTTPS.
Extracting Search Intentions from Web Search Logs

Web search users complain of inaccurate results of the current search engines. Most of inaccurate results are from failing to understand user? s search goal. This paper proposes a method to mine user? s intentions and to build an intention map representing their information needs. It selects intention features from search logs obtained from previous search sessions on a given query and extracts user? s intentions by using clustering and labeling algorithms. The mined user? s intentions on the query are represented in an intention map. For the efficiency analysis of intention maps, we extracted user intentions using 2,600 search log data of a current domestic commercial web search engine. The experimental results using a web search engine with the intention maps show statistically significant improvements in user satisfaction scores.
Composition and origin of nodules from the ≈20 ka Pomici di Base (PB)-Sarno eruption of Mt. Somma — Vesuvius, Italy

Nodules (coarse-grain “plutonic” rocks) were collected from the ca. 20 ka Pomici di Base (PB)-Sarno eruption of Mt. Somma-Vesuvius, Italy. The nodules are classified as monzonite-monzogabbro based on their modal composition. The nodules have porphyrogranular texture, and consist of An-rich plagioclase, K-feldspar, clinopyroxene (ferroan-diopside), mica (phlogopite-biotite) ± olivine and amphibole. Aggregates of irregular intergrowths of mostly alkali feldspar and plagioclase, along with mica, Fe-Ti-oxides and clinopyroxene, in the nodules are interpreted as crystallized melt pockets.Crystallized silicate melt inclusions (MI) are common in the nodules, especially in clinopyroxenes. Two types of MI have been identified. Type I consists of mica, Fe-Ti-oxides and/or dark green spinel, clinopyroxene, feldspar and a vapor bubble. Volatiles (CO2, H2O) could not be detected in the vapor bubbles by Raman spectroscopy. Type II inclusions are generally lighter in color and contain subhedral feldspar and/or glass and several opaque phases, most of which are confirmed to be oxide minerals by SEM analysis. Some of the opaque-appearing phases that are below the surface may be tiny vapor bubbles. The two types of MI have different chemical compositions. Type I MI are classified as phono-tephrite — tephri-phonolite — basaltic trachy-andesite, while Type II MI have basaltic composition. The petrography and MI geochemistry led us to conclude that the nodules represent samples of the crystal mush zone in the active plumbing system of Mt. Somma-Vesuvius that were entrained into the upwelling magma during the PB-Sarno eruption.
The Gold Standard Program for Smoking Cessation is Effective for Participants Over 60 Years of Age

Background: Tobacco smoking is more prevalent among the elderly than among the young, and the elderly also have the most frequent contact with the health care system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Gold Standard Program, which is an intensive six-week smoking cessation program, on continuous self-reported abstinence rates after six months, on participants over the age of 60 years in a real life setting. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study from the national Danish smoking cessation database. Results: The database registered 7369 participants over the age of 60 years (range 60–82) and 24,294 below 60 years (range 15–59). Continuous abstinence rate after six months was 37% for the elderly compared to 35% for the younger (p < 0.05). The significant variables for continuous abstinence were: living with another adult (OR 1.10), prior professional recommendation for smoking cessation (OR 1.12), being compliant with program (OR 1.35) and being abstinent at end of course (OR 13.3). Conclusions: Participants over the age of 60 years had significantly higher continuous abstinence rates after six months than the participants less than 60 years. It is never too late for health professionals to recommend and educate patients about smoking cessation programs even if they are over 60 years of age.
Skinny but imperishable truth: African religious heritage and the regeneration of Africa

The increasing popularity of the guest religions of Christianity and Islam on the continent of Africa seems to have created the erroneous but widespread impression that the religious insights, values and institutions of our African forbears have been superseded by “world religions”, whose spiritual strengths have triumphed over the inherent weaknesses and woeful spiritual inadequacies of the host religious heritage. This has led to the assumption of “voicelessness in religion, ethics and theology” with respect to the African heritage. But there is no such thing as “voicelessness”; every person, every tradition has a voice, only people who claim power or authority , and traditions that lay claim to universality or world domination, choose not to hear other voices but their own and devalue other traditions by calling them “voiceless”, because they either do not see any value in them or that they consider their own traditions to be absolute. This tendency to put others down in order to make one’s position or viewpoint absolute is wisely countered by African wisdom in the Swahili proverb: “It is not necessary to blow out the other person’s lantern to let yours shine”. Using an African voice to restate a perspective that has become “skinny” as a result of centuries of denigration and distortion, the paper argues that the regeneration of Africa cannot be fully achieved, and meaningful recovery and growth in the new millennium cannot be complete, without the input of the African heritage; and fruitful dialogue with other religious traditions can take place only when it is recognized that the African religious heritage is part of the entire unified landscape and that in religion, ethics and theology there is a valid African perspective.
Investigating social interaction strategies for bootstrapping lexicon development

This paper investigates how different modes of social interactions influence the bootstrapping and evolution of lexicons. This is done by comparing three language game models that differ in the type of social interactions they use. The simulations show that the language games, which use either joint attention or corrective feedback as a source of contextual input are better capable of bootstrapping a lexicon than the game without such directed interactions. The simulation of the latter game, however, does show that it is possible to develop a lexicon without using directed input when the lexicon is transmitted from generation to generation.
Image representation using Voronoi tessellation: adaptive and secure

An image is represented by the Voronoi tessellation generated from selected sampling points. Using a multiresolution approach, the density of the sampling points can be adaptive to image properties: smoother regions will have fewer sampling points than more detailed regions. The adaptation property results in better image quality than nonadaptive Voronoi representations, while preserving the property that only the holder of the seed of the pseudorandom number generator can reconstruct the original image. <<ETX>>
How to Automatically Identify the Homology of Different Malware

APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) attacks are developing rapidly and become severe threats nowadays. In this paper, homologous malware mean that they are developed and programmed by the same author or organization. To identify the homology of malware adopted by different APT attacks is conducive to constructing attack scenario, tracking attackers and even defending against new APT attacks. Currently, homology identification still relies on manual analysis and security experts' experience in the anti-malware industry. It is persuasive, but inefficient and time-consuming. In order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency, an automatic malware homology identification method is proposed in this paper. Six types of API (Application Programming Interface) call behaviors are defined according to programming habits, and extracted from the binary samples by static analysis. Based on the API call behaviors, the homologous degree of different malware is calculated using Jaccard similarity coefficient. Then the homology is identified by comparing the homologous degree with a threshold. Experimental evaluations on real-world samples show that this method achieves high accuracy rate and acceptable recall rate.
Exercise performance and differences in physiological response to pulmonary rehabilitation in severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with hyperinflation

Objective: Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) improves exercise capacity in most but not all COPD patients. The factors associated with treatment success and the role of chest wall mechanics remain unclear. We investigated the impact of PR on exercise performance in COPD with severe hyperinflation. Methods: We evaluated 22 COPD patients (age, 66 ± 7 years; FEV1 = 37.1 ± 11.8% of predicted) who underwent eight weeks of aerobic exercise and strength training. Before and after PR, each patient also performed a six-minute walk test and an incremental cycle ergometer test. During the latter, we measured chest wall volumes (total and compartmental, by optoelectronic plethysmography) and determined maximal workloads. Results: We observed significant differences between the pre- and post-PR means for six-minute walk distance (305 ± 78 vs. 330 ± 96 m, p < 0.001) and maximal workload (33 ± 21 vs. 39 ± 20 W; p = 0.02). At equivalent workload settings, PR led to lower oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production (VCO2), and minute ventilation. The inspiratory (operating) rib cage volume decreased significantly after PR. There were 6 patients in whom PR did not increase the maximal workload. After PR, those patients showed no significant decrease in VCO2 during exercise, had higher end-expiratory chest wall volumes with a more rapid shallow breathing pattern, and continued to experience symptomatic leg fatigue. Conclusions: In severe COPD, PR appears to improve oxygen consumption and reduce VCO2, with a commensurate decrease in respiratory drive, changes reflected in the operating chest wall volumes. Patients with severe post-exercise hyperinflation and leg fatigue might be unable to improve their maximal performance despite completing a PR program.