Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Access control reinforcement over searchable encryption

Ensuring data confidentiality in Cloud Computing is a very challenging task. Encryption is one of the most secure techniques in use for this purpose. However, it remains vulnerable to indiscretions and various attacks. Many flaws appear particularly when searching over data even if the latter are encrypted. In this article, we propose to improve the level of confidentiality of outsourced data. We are particularly interested in reinforcing access control on the search result, when the search is performed over encrypted data. The properly behind this aspect of security is known as ACAS (Access Control Aware Search) principle. We present a hybridization of Searchable Encryption and Attribute Based Encryption methods in order to satisfy ACAS. The efficiency of the proposed model is evaluated according to data size.
Fast GPU-based reuse of paths in radiosity

We present in this paper a GPU-based strategy that allows a fast reuse of paths in the context of shooting random walk applied to radiosity. Given an environment with diffuse surfaces, we aim at computing a basis of n radiosity solutions, corresponding to n light-source positions. Thanks to the reuse, paths originated at each of the positions are used to also distribute power from every other position. The visibility computations needed to make possible the reuse of paths are drastically accelerated using graphic hardware, resulting in a theoretical speed-up factor of n with regard to the computation of the independent solutions. Our contribution has application to the fields of interior design, animation, and videogames.
Spontaneous Activity Promotes Synapse Formation in a Cell-Type-Dependent Manner in the Developing Retina

Spontaneous activity is thought to regulate synaptogenesis in many parts of the developing nervous system. In vivo evidence for this regulation, however, is scarce and comes almost exclusively from experiments in which normal activity was reduced or blocked completely. Thus, whether spontaneous activity itself promotes synaptogenesis or plays a purely permissive role remains uncertain. In addition, how activity influences synapse dynamics to shape connectivity and whether its effects among neurons are uniform or cell-type-dependent is unclear. In mice lacking the cone–rod homeobox gene (Crx), photoreceptors fail to establish normal connections with bipolar cells (BCs). Here, we find that retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in Crx−/− mice become rhythmically hyperactive around the time of eye opening as a result of increased spontaneous glutamate release from BCs. This elevated neurotransmission enhances synaptogenesis between BCs and RGCs, without altering the overall circuit architecture. Using live imaging, we discover that spontaneous activity selectively regulates the rate of synapse formation, not elimination, in this circuit. Reconstructions of the connectivity patterns of three BC types with a shared RGC target further revealed that neurotransmission specifically promotes the formation of multisynaptic appositions from one BC type without affecting the maintenance or elimination of connections from the other two. Although hyperactivity in Crx−/− mice persists, synapse numbers do not increase beyond 4 weeks of age, suggesting closure of a critical period for synaptic refinement in the inner retina. Interestingly, despite their hyperactivity, RGC axons maintain normal eye-specific territories and cell-type-specific layers in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus.
Impulsiveness and Antisocial Behaviors in Men and Women: An Epidemiological General Population Study in the Southwest of Montreal

There is a dearth of literature on the interplay between impulsivity, gender and antisocial behaviors in the general population. Using data from the Montreal Epidemiological Catchment Area study, we sought to identify gender differences in impulsivity and assess whether gender moderates associations between impulsivity and antisocial behaviors. No gender differences were found in impulsivity. Among both men and women, impulsivity was correlated with criminality, aggression and substance dependence. Gender was correlated with criminality, self-aggression, and substance dependence, but did not moderate the relation between impulsivity and any of the outcomes. This study demonstrates that impulsivity is associated with antisocial behaviors equally in both men and women.
Using the Technology Acceptance Model to Explore Online Shopping Behavior: Online Experiences as a Moderator

This study examines the causal relationship of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude, trust, behavior intention and actual behavior, which occur online shopping with the moderating effects of online experience. An estimated model discusses building an effective relationship with online shoppers. The survey was conducted with 600 undergraduates in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was employed to validate the measures and confirm the hypothesized model. All variables have significant and positive impact, and online experiences moderate the causal relationship.
Some empirical estimates of the H 2 formation rate in photon-dominated regions

We combine recent ISO observations of the vibrational ground state lines of H 2 towards Photon-Dominated Regions (PDRs) with observations of vibrationally excited states made with ground–based telescopes in order to constrain the formation rate of H 2 on grain surfaces under the physical conditions in the layers responsible for H 2 emission. We briefly review the data available for five nearby PDRs. We use steady state PDR models in order to examine the sensitivity of different H 2 line ratios to the H 2 formation rate R f . We show that the ratio of the 0–0 S(3) to the 1–0 S(1) line increases with R f but that one requires independent estimates of the radiation field incident upon the PDR and the density in order to infer R f from the H 2 line data. We confirm earlier work by [CITE] on the Oph W PDR which showed that an H 2 formation rate higher than the standard value of $3 \times 10^{-17}$ cm 3 s -1 inferred from UV observations of diffuse clouds is needed to explain the observed H 2 excitation. From comparison of the ISO and ground-based data, we find that moderately excited PDRs such as Oph W, S140 and IC 63 require an H 2 formation rate of about five times the standard value whereas the data for PDRs with a higher incident radiation field such as NGC 2023 and the Orion Bar can be explained with the standard value of R f . We compare also the H 2 1–0 S(1) line intensities with the emission in PAH features and find a rough scaling of the ratio of these quantities with the ratio of local density to radiation field. This suggests but does not prove that formation of H 2 on PAHs is important in PDRs. We also consider some empirical models of the H 2 formation process with the aim of explaining these results. Here we consider both formation on classical grains of size roughly 0.1 μ m and on very small (~10 A) grains by either direct recombination from the gas phase (Eley–Rideal mechanism) or recombination of physisorbed H atoms with atoms in a chemisorbed site. We conclude that indirect chemisorption where a physisorbed H-atom scans the grain surface before recombining with a chemisorbed H-atom is most promising in PDRs. Moreover small grains which dominate the total grain surface and spend most of their time at relatively low (below 30 K for χ ≤ 3000) temperatures may be the most promising surface for forming H 2 in PDRs.
Variability of Gene Expression Identifies Transcriptional Regulators of Early Human Embryonic Development

An analysis of gene expression variability can provide an insightful window into how regulatory control is distributed across the transcriptome. In a single cell analysis, the inter-cellular variability of gene expression measures the consistency of transcript copy numbers observed between cells in the same population. Application of these ideas to the study of early human embryonic development may reveal important insights into the transcriptional programs controlling this process, based on which components are most tightly regulated. Using a published single cell RNA-seq data set of human embryos collected at four-cell, eight-cell, morula and blastocyst stages, we identified genes with the most stable, invariant expression across all four developmental stages. Stably-expressed genes were found to be enriched for those sharing indispensable features, including essentiality, haploinsufficiency, and ubiquitous expression. The stable genes were less likely to be associated with loss-of-function variant genes or human recessive disease genes affected by a DNA copy number variant deletion, suggesting that stable genes have a functional impact on the regulation of some of the basic cellular processes. Genes with low expression variability at early stages of development are involved in regulation of DNA methylation, responses to hypoxia and telomerase activity, whereas by the blastocyst stage, low-variability genes are enriched for metabolic processes as well as telomerase signaling. Based on changes in expression variability, we identified a putative set of gene expression markers of morulae and blastocyst stages. Experimental validation of a blastocyst-expressed variability marker demonstrated that HDDC2 plays a role in the maintenance of pluripotency in human ES and iPS cells. Collectively our analyses identified new regulators involved in human embryonic development that would have otherwise been missed using methods that focus on assessment of the average expression levels; in doing so, we highlight the value of studying expression variability for single cell RNA-seq data.
Series connection of IGBTs with active voltage balancing

This paper describes a gate drive circuit for series-connected IGBTs in high voltage applications. The control criterion of the gate drive circuit is to actively limit the voltages during switching transients, while minimizing the switching transient and losses. In order to achieve the control criterion, a closed loop control scheme is adopted. The closed loop control injects current to an IGBT gate as required to limit the IGBT collector-emitter voltage to a predefined level. The performance of the gate drive circuit is examined experimentally by the series connection of three IGBTs with conventional snubber circuits. The experimental results show the voltage balancing by an active control with wide variations in loads and imbalance conditions.
On secure network coding with uniform wiretap sets

This paper studies secure unicast communication over a network with uniform wiretap sets and shows that, when network nodes can independently generate randomness, determining the secrecy capacity is at least as difficult as the k-unicast network coding problem. In particular, we show that a general k-unicast problem can be reduced to the problem of finding the secrecy capacity of a corresponding single unicast network with uniform link capacities and any one wiretap link. We propose a low-complexity linear optimization-based achievable strategy involving global random keys that can be generated anywhere in the network, and an efficient greedy algorithm that further improves achievable rate by exploiting local random keys.
Sleep disturbance in adopted children with a history of maltreatment

This study aimed to investigate whether children with a history of maltreatment and current behaviour problems demonstrate greater sleep disruption than controls; and also whether sleep disturbances are associated with these behavioural problems using standardised carer report measures. Sixty-three participants were assessed using the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) (Owens, Spirito and McGuinn, 2000) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, et al., 2003). Thirty-four participants aged 5–12 years were recruited via Adoption UK – Scotland. Inclusion criteria included a history of maltreatment (confirmed from social work documents) with associated social/behavioural problems. Twenty-nine controls with no psychiatric or maltreatment history, also aged 5–12 years, were recruited from two general practices. Mean CSHQ total sleep difficulty scores were significantly higher in maltreated children than in controls (48.9 vs 23.6, P < 0.001). Rates of clinically significant sleep problems (total sleep score>41) were also higher in the maltreatment group at 50% compared to 12% in controls (P = 0.002). There was a significant association between high scores on the CSHQ and the SDQ (P < 0.000). Overall, this study suggests that behaviourally disturbed children with a history of maltreatment experience significant sleep disruption, which is in turn associated with their behavioural disturbance. This has clear implications for both clinical assessment and intervention with this vulnerable group and is worthy of further research.
Does a Certain Rule Exist in the Long-Term Change of a City’s Livability? Evidence from New York, Tokyo, and Shanghai

Livability is the ultimate goal of city development. However, the question of whether the changing pattern of a city’s livability follows a certain rule or not has seldom been argued. To address the question, three cities, including New York, Tokyo, and Shanghai are selected for case studies. Based on a proposed assessment framework, the long-term trend and determinants of three cities’ livability are quantified and investigated. The results suggest that the livability of three cities demonstrates a similar changing pattern during the last decades, with the level going through a three-staged N-curve development, increasing at the beginning, then declining in the mid-term, and rebounding afterward. It implies that the staged development rule should be followed when constructing a livable city. Efforts should be targeted towards the most underlying aspects in different periods. The empirical analysis of the three cities ascertains the existence of a development rule regarding livability, and suggests many potential uses for decision-making support.
Submersible Spectrofluorometer for Real-Time Sensing of Water Quality

In this work, we present a newly developed submersible spectrofluorometer (patent pending) applied to real-time sensing of water quality, suitable for monitoring some important indicators of the ecological status of natural waters such as chlorophyll-a, oil and protein-like material. For the optomechanical realization of the apparatus, a novel conceptual design has been adopted in order to avoid filters and pumps while maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio. The elimination of filters and pumps has the advantage of greater system simplicity and especially of avoiding the risk of sample degradation. The use of light-emitting diodes as an excitation source instead of Xe lamps or laser diodes helped save on size, weight, power consumption and costs. For sensor calibration we performed measurements on water samples with added chlorophyll prepared in the laboratory. The sensor functionality was tested during field campaigns conducted at Albano Lake in Latium Region of Italy as well as in the Herzliya Harbor, a few kilometers North East of Tel Aviv in Israel. The obtained results are reported in the paper. The sensitivity achieved for chlorophyll-a detection was found to be at least 0.2 µg/L.
On EXIT-charts for space-time block codes

In this work, we consider the application of the well-known space-time block code (STBC), the Alamouti-scheme, as inner code within a "turbo" coding scheme for the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) Rayleigh fading channel. We analyze therefore the applicability of the Alamouti-scheme for iterative space-time detection and decoding applied at the receiver. To this end, we use extrinsic information transfer characteristics (EXIT-charts) in order to predict the performance of the Alamouti-scheme. Furthermore, we analyze the impact of different mapping strategies on the information transfer of the soft-input-soft-output (SISO) space-time detector and show analytically that it is possible to improve the performance by employing other mapping schemes than Gray mapping.
Acute ethanol potentiates the clock-speed enhancing effects of nicotine on timing and temporal memory.

BACKGROUND Acute ethanol administration potentiates some of the behavioral effects of nicotine, although the extent of this effect is unknown. The present investigation assessed the ability of ethanol to potentiate nicotine's effect on the overestimation of multisecond durations as a result of an increase in the speed of an internal clock. METHODS Adult male rats were exposed to the acute effects of ethanol (0.0, 0.5, 1.5, and 3.0 g/kg; IG) which was given 10 minutes prior to the administration of nicotine (0.0, 0.3, 0.6, and 1.0 mg/kg; IP). The effects of these combined treatments on timing and temporal memory were assessed using 18- and 36-second peak-interval procedures with separate visual/spatial cues for responding. RESULTS When administered alone, ethanol had no consistent effect on peak time, but decreased peak rate, and increased peak spread as a function of dose. In contrast, nicotine alone shifted the peak times of the response distributions leftward in a proportional manner as a function of dose. When administered after pretreatment with ethanol, nicotine's effect on the horizontal placement of the peak functions was potentiated. CONCLUSIONS The observation that ethanol pretreatment potentiates the clock-speed enhancing effects of subsequently administered nicotine is discussed in terms of the role of alpha7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and dopamine-glutamate interactions in cortico-striatal circuits thought to subserve interval timing.
The Nature and Limits of Discriminative Patterns

Discriminative pattern mining seeks patterns that are more prevalent in one class than another and provide good classification accuracy for the objects in which the patterns occur. A number of approaches have been proposed for finding such patterns, which are also known under a variety of names, e.g., contrast sets and emerging patterns. However, fundamental questions about the nature and limits of such patterns remain unanswered. For instance, a discriminative pattern is only interesting if it provides better discriminative power than any of its subpatterns, but it is not obvious, for example, how much additional discriminative power can be provided by a pattern over and above the discriminative power of its subpatterns. Also, what do the patterns that provide the most additional discrimination look like? And, what is the relationship of different measures for discrimination (e.g., mutual information and DiffSup, the difference of the supports in the two classes) In previous work, we made an initial attempt at analyzing the first two questions. In this paper we present several new developments. Specifically, we present a more elegant and efficient formulation of the problem of determining the best discriminative pattern that can be obtained for a particular number of variables. We also explore for the first time the limits of patterns that go beyond the ‘and’ logic of traditional pattern mining, e.g., patterns based on the logic of ‘or’, ‘n of k’ or ‘majority wins’. We show that the discriminative advantage of ‘and’ based patterns over their subpatterns is more limited than that of some of the other patterns, and hence, these patterns may represent a potential area for future development of discriminative pattern mining. Finally, we explore the relationship of various measures of discriminative pattern mining. We show that our results, although based on one of the measures (DiffSup) have implications for mutual information. More generally, we identify a potential avenue of exploration, which although challenging, may offer the opportunity for making a more definitive and general statement about a certain class of discriminative measures.
Seam effects in quantitative responses

The seam effect is an artifact of panel surveys in which respondents are interviewed every few months (for example) and asked for data about each of the intervening months. The effect is defined by small changes in responses between adjacent months within a reference period (i.e., within an interview) relative to large changes between adjacent months across reference periods (i.e., across interviews). In the present studies, we used an experimental method to examine the seam effect for quantitative questions about dollar amounts. The studies produced robust seam effects, accompanied by forgetting of correct amounts and constant responding (no change between months) within the reference periods. The results also showed decreases in the seam effect when questions about the same topic appeared in different parts of the interview. In some conditions, dependent interviewing (providing respondents with their earlier answers) also reduced the size of the seam effect. Neither manipulation, however, improved the overall accuracy of responses. Dependent feedback may encourage respondents to make less drastic changes at the seam. But since the earlier answers may themselves contain error, dependent interviewing can also perpetuate the same incorrect response from one reference period to the next.
Resident training in urology: bipolar transurethral resection of the prostate - a safe method in learning endoscopic surgical procedure.

INTRODUCTION Modern medicine uses increasingly innovative techniques that require more and more capabilities for acquisition. In the urological department is increasing the presence of patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is the standard of care in their surgical treatment. We report our surgical experience and learning curve of using bipolar plasmakinetic devices in the training of urological residents to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS 80 patients with benign prostatic enlargement due to BPH were enrolled in the study. TURP has been performed by three urological residents and by an expe- rienced urologist. Patients were evaluated before and 6 months after the endoscopic bipolar plasmakinetic resection using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), maximum uri- nary flow rate (Qmax), postvoid residual urine (PVR) and prostate specific antigen (PSA). RESULTS Overall 60 procedures were performed, 18 PlasmaKinetic (PK)-TURP procedures were completed by the three residents. In the other 42 cases the procedures were completed by the experienced urologist. In eight cases there was a capsular perforation and the experienced urol- ogist replaced the resident to complete the resection. No complications have been reported in the procedures completed by the senior urologist. All complications caused by the residents were man- aged intraoperatively without changing the course of the procedure. Statistical differences were observed regarding IPSS, quality of life (QoL), and PVR at 6-month follow-up when procedures completed by urological residents were compared to those completed by the senior urologist. CONCLUSION Bipolar device represents appropriate tools to acquire endoscopic skills. It is safe and it can be used at the first experience of BPH treatment by a resident who has not previ- ously approached this endoscopic surgical procedure.