Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social moralities and discursive constructions of female sex offenders

This article explores legal, scholarly and social responses to women identified as sex offenders. While much has been written on the male paedophile, rapist and sex offender, little research has been done on the role of gender and sexuality in sex offending. This article examines the ways in which the female sex offender is currently theorized and the discourses surrounding policy, legislative and media responses to their crimes. We identify contradictory public discourses where perceptions of female child abusers in particular often succumb to moral panic, in spite of many such offenders being given lenient sentences for their crimes. An examination of the discursive construction of female child abusers suggests that these contradictions are informed by underlying assumptions concerning harm and subjectivity in sex crimes. In exploring these contradictions we illustrate the ways in which such discourses are impacted by social moralities, and how social moralities construct offender and victim subjectivities differently, based on differences in gender, age and sexuality.
The Modified Object Buffer: A Storage Management Technique for Object-Oriented Databases

Object-oriented databases store many small objects on disks. Disks perform poorly when reading and writing individual small objects. This thesis presents a new storage management architecture that substantially improves disk performance of a distributed object-oriented database system. The storage architecture is built around a large modified object buffer (MOB) that is stored in primary memory. The MOB provides volatile storage for modified objects. Modified objects are placed in the MOB instead of being immediately written out to disk. Modifications are written to disk lazily as the MOB fills up and space is required for new modifications. The MOB improves performance because even if an object is modified many times in a short period of time, the object has to be written out to disk only once. Furthermore, by the time an object modification has to be flushed from the MOB, many modifications to other objects on the same page may have accumulated. All of these modifications can be written to disk with a single disk write. This thesis evaluates the modified object buffer in combination with a number of disk layout policies that make different tradeoffs between read performance and write performance. The MOB has been implemented as part of the Thor object-oriented database. Results from simulations and from this implementation show that the MOB improves the performance of a read-optimized disk layout that preserves clustering by over 200%. As a result, the read-optimized disk layout consistently out-performs a write-optimized disk layout that does not preserve clustering. The readoptimized disk layout provides better overall performance on a wide range of workloads, including workloads that write a lot of data. Performance results also show that for typical object-oriented database access patterns, the modified object buffer architecture out-performs the traditional page based organization of server memory used in many databases and file systems.
Ethics education and scientific and engineering research : what's been learned? what should be done? : summary of a workshop

Increasing complexity and competitiveness in research environments, the prevalence of interdisciplinary and international involvement in research projects, and the close coupling of commerce and academia have created an ethically challenging environment for young scientists and engineers. For the past several decades, federal research agencies have supported projects to meet the need for mentoring and ethics training in graduate education in research, often called training in the responsible conduct of research. Recently, these agencies have supported projects to identify ethically problematic behaviors and assess the efficacy of ethics education in addressing them. With support from the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Engineering Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society held the workshop "Ethics Education and Scientific and Engineering Research: What's Been Learned? What Should Be Done? " on August 25 and 26, 2008. The workshop, summarized in this volume, discussed the social environment of science and engineering education; the need for ethics education for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in science and engineering; models for effective programs; and assessment of approaches to ethics education, among other topics.
A nested mutual authentication protocol

This paper describes an authentication protocol that is suited to modern, object-based, client-server systems. Each object in a chain, whether acting in a client or server role, handles authentication with its neighbours, without any need to be aware of the resultant global behaviour. Session keys are returned by an authentication server which services a client-server chain as a whole: nested requests are built along the forward chain; the final server presents the whole package to the authentication server; and sessions keys are delivered back down the chain. The protocol, as described, avoids entanglement with the politics of cryptography by using One-Way-Hash-Functions throughout. The authentication chain might traverse different legal jurisdictions, but adjacent applications can use returned session keys for any legitimate purpose, including message sealing or encryption.
Std1 and Mth1 Proteins Interact with the Glucose Sensors To Control Glucose-Regulated Gene Expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT The Std1 protein modulates the expression of glucose-regulated genes, but its exact molecular role in this process is unclear. A two-hybrid screen for Std1-interacting proteins identified the hydrophilic C-terminal domains of the glucose sensors, Snf3 and Rgt2. The homologue of Std1, Mth1, behaves differently from Std1 in this assay by interacting with Snf3 but not Rgt2. Genetic interactions between STD1, MTH1, SNF3, andRGT2 suggest that the glucose signaling is mediated, at least in part, through interactions of the products of these four genes. Mutations in MTH1 can suppress the raffinose growth defect of a snf3 mutant as well as the glucose fermentation defect present in cells lacking both glucose sensors (snf3 rgt2). Genetic suppression by mutations in MTH1 is likely to be due to the increased and unregulated expression of hexose transporter genes. In media lacking glucose or with low levels of glucose, the hexose transporter genes are subject to repression by a mechanism that requires the Std1 and Mth1 proteins. An additional mechanism for glucose sensing must exist since a strain lacking all four genes (snf3 rgt2 std1 mth1) is still able to regulateSUC2 gene expression in response to changes in glucose concentration. Finally, studies with green fluorescent protein fusions indicate that Std1 is localized to the cell periphery and the cell nucleus, supporting the idea that it may transduce signals from the plasma membrane to the nucleus.
WWP2-WWP1 Ubiquitin Ligase Complex Coordinated by PPM1G Maintains the Balance between Cellular p73 and ΔNp73 Levels

ABSTRACT The balance between transcription factor p73 and its functionally opposing N-terminally truncated ΔNp73 isoform is critical for cell survival, but the precise mechanism that regulates their levels is not clear. In our study, we identified WWP2, an E3 ligase, as a novel p73-associated protein that ubiquitinates and degrades p73. In contrast, WWP2 heterodimerizes with another E3 ligase, WWP1, which specifically ubiquitinates and degrades ΔNp73. Further, we identified phosphatase PPM1G as a functional switch that controls the balance between monomeric WWP2 and a WWP2/WWP1 heterodimeric state in the cell. During cellular stress, WWP2 is inactivated, leading to upregulation of p73, whereas WWP2-WWP1 complex is intact to degrade ΔNp73, thus playing an important role in shifting the balance between p73 and ΔNp73. Collectively, our results reveal a new functional E3 ligase complex controlled by PPM1G that differentially regulates cellular p73 and ΔNp73.
Statistical Image Reconstruction and Motion Estimation for Image-Guided Radiotherapy

Statistical Image Reconstruction and Motion Estimation fo r Image-Guided Radiotherapy by Yong Long Co-Chairs: Jeffrey A. Fessler and James M. Balter Image reconstruction and motion estimation are very import ant for image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). Three-dimensional reconstruction of patient anat omy using X-ray computed tomography (CT) allows identification of the location of a tumor prior to treatment. The locations of tumors may change during actual treatment due to movement such as respi ratory motion. Motion estimation helps optimize the accuracy and precision of radiotherapy s o that more of the normal surrounding tissue can be spared. This dissertation addresses several i mportant issues related to these two core components of IGRT. Firstly, we developed two new separable footprint (SF) proj ector methods for X-ray conebeam CT. The SF projectors approximate the voxel footprint f u ctions as 2D separable functions. The SF-TR projector uses trapezoid functions in the transax ial direction and rectangular functions in the axial direction, whereas the SF-TT projector uses tra pezoid functions in both directions. Both SF projector methods are more accurate than the distanc e-driven (DD) projector, which is a xiii current state-of-the-art method in the field. The SF-TT proj ector is more accurate than the SF-TR projector for rays associated with large cone angles. In add ition, the SF-TR projector has similar computation speed with the DD projector and the SF-TT projec t r is about two times slower. Secondly, we proposed a statistical penalized weighted lea st-squares (PWLS) method with edge-preserving regularization to reconstruct two basis m aterials from a single-energy CT scan acquired with differential filtration, such as a split filter or a bow-tie filter. It requires only the use of suitable filters between the X-ray tube and the patient. Fo r both filtration methods, the proposed PWLS method reconstructed soft tissue and bone images with l ower RMS errors, reduced the beam-hardening artifacts much more effectively and produc e lower noise, as compared with the traditional non-iterative Joseph and Spital method. Thirdly, we conducted an objective characterization of the influence of rotational arc length on accuracy of motion estimation for projection-to-volume ta rgeting during rotational therapy. Simulations illustrate the potential accuracy of limited-angl e projection-to-volume alignment. Registration accuracy can be sensitive to angular center, tends to be lower along direction of the projection set, and tends to decrease away from the rotation center.
Signal Enhancement of the Central-Transition Signal in Solid-State NMR of Quadrupolar Nuclei with Spin I =5/2 Using Fast Amplitude-Modulated (FAM) Pulse Trains: A Computational Study

In solid-state NMR of quadrupolar nuclei with half-integer spin I, a variety of fast amplitude-modulated (FAM) pulse trains have been used to enhance the intensity of the central-transition signal, by transferring spin population from the satellite transitions. Here, we describe the results of extensive numerical calculations using the Simpson program package to evaluate and compare the signal enhancing performance of FAM-I, SW( )-FAM, and SW(1/ )-FAM sequences under both static and MAS conditions for nuclei with I =5/2. The comparative calculations were performed for a two-dimensional grid of the quadrupolar interaction parameters, namely =0.5 . 4 MHz, =0 . 1, and a range of MAS spinning speeds, i.e. 0 kHz (static), 2.5 kHz, 5 kHz and 10 kHz. In agreement with previously published experimental data, the best signal enhancement of static spectra is delivered by the SW(1/ )-FAM sequence, whereas under MAS conditions, SW( )-FAM and FAM-I give better results.
A Primary Shift Protocol for Improving Availability in Replication Systems

Backup Replication (PBR) is the most common technique to achieve availability in distributed systems. However, primary failure remains a crucial problem that threatens availability. When the primary fails, backup nodes in the system have to elect a new primary node in order to maintain adequate system's operation. During election, the system suffers from transaction loss, communication overhead due to messages exchange necessary to preserve data consistency, and a notable delay caused by the execution of Leader Election Algorithms (LEA). Primary failures can be unpredictable (i.e., unplanned), such as primary node crashes and network outages, or predictable (i.e., planned), such as primary's scheduled shutdown to perform routine maintenance or software upgrade. Traditionally, PBR employ LEA to recover from both unplanned and planned outages. In this paper, we propose a novel protocol, called Primary Shift Replication (PSR), to avoid election during planned outages. PSR shifts the primary role from the current primary to another scheduled node (without election) when a planned outage is about to occur. Number of messages and communication time required to shift the primary node to another node is much less than number of messages and time required to perform leader election; therefore, PSR improves system's availability. Moreover, PSR guarantees no transactions loss during the shift mode, hence, it preserves data consistency.
Improving Write Performance by Controlling Target Resistance Distributions in MLC PRAM

Multi-level cell (MLC) phase change RAM (PRAM) is expected to offer lower cost main memory than DRAM. However, poor write performance is one of the most critical problems for practical applications of MLC PRAM. In this article, we present two schemes to improve write performance by controlling the target resistance distribution of MLC PRAM cells. First, we propose multiple RESET/SET operations that relax the target resistance bands of intermediate logic levels with additional RESET/SET operations, which reduces the program time of intermediate logic levels, thereby improving write performance. Second, we propose a two-step write scheme consisting of lightweight write and idle-time completion write that exploits the fact that hot dirty data tend to be overwritten in a short time period and the MLC PRAM often has long idle times. Experimental results show that the multiple RESET/SET and two-step write schemes result in an average IPC improvement of 15.7% and 10.4%, respectively, on a hybrid DRAM/PRAM main memory subsystem. Furthermore, their integrated solution results in an average IPC improvement of 23.2% (up to 46.4%).
Bendamustine/mitoxantrone/rituximab: a short remission induction chemoimmunotherapy for elderly patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia

We have evaluated all outpatients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who were treated with bendamustine/mitoxantrone/rituximab (BMR) between May 1999 and December 2008. Treatment consisted of bendamustine 90 mg/m2 on day 1 + 2, Mitoxantrone 6 mg/m2 on day 1, and Rituximab 375 mg/m2 on day 8, 15, 22 + 29. Thirty-nine patients (19 males, 20 females) received BMR with a median age of 69 years (46–81). Nineteen patients (49%) were above 70 years and 13 patients (33%) were 75 years or above. Performance score ranged between 0 and 2. The median number of previous therapies was 2 (1–4). Therapy was tolerated well with two observed therapy-associated hospitalizations. A reversible grade 3 or 4 hematotoxicity was seen in 30 patients (77%). Other reversible grade 3 or 4 toxicities were seen in two patients (5%). The overall response rate was 92% (10% complete remission, 82% partial remission). Median time to next CLL-therapy was 13 months (0–69). We conclude that BMR is a short and effective outpatient chemoimmunotherapy for patients with relapsed or refractory CLL, which can be used safely in elderly patients.
The Effect of Sample Handling on Cross Sectional HIV Incidence Testing Results

Objective(s) To determine if mishandling prior to testing would make a sample from a chronically infected subject appear recently infected when tested by cross-sectional HIV incidence assays. Methods Serum samples from 31 subjects with chronic HIV infection were tested. Samples were subjected to different handling conditions, including incubation at 4°C, 25°C and 37°C, for 1, 3, 7 or 15 days prior to testing. Samples were also subjected to 1,3, 7 and 15 freeze-thaw cycles prior to testing. Samples were tested using the BED capture enzyme immuno assay (BED-CEIA), Vironostika-less sensitive (V-LS), and an avidity assay using the Genetic Systems HIV-1/HIV-2 plus O EIA (avidity assay). Results Compared to the sample that was not subjected to any mishandling conditions, for the BED-CEIA, V-LS and avidity assay, there was no significant change in test results for samples incubated at 4°C or 25°C prior to testing. No impact on test results occurred after 15 freeze-thaw cycles. A decrease in assay results was observed when samples were held for 3 days or longer at 37°C prior to testing. Conclusions Samples can be subjected up to 15 freeze-thaw cycles without affecting the results the BED-CEIA, Vironostika-LS, or avidity assays. Storing samples at 4°C or 25°C for up to fifteen days prior to testing had no impact on test results. However, storing samples at 37°C for three or more days did affect results obtained with these assays.
Western Australian Marsupials Are Multiply Infected with Genetically Diverse Strains of Toxoplasma gondii

Five different organs from 16 asymptomatic free-ranging marsupial macropods (Macropus rufus, M. fuliginosus, and M. robustus) from inland Western Australia were tested for infection with Toxoplasma gondii by multi-locus PCR-DNA sequencing. All macropods were infected with T. gondii, and 13 had parasite DNA in at least 2 organs. In total, 45 distinct T. gondii genotypes were detected. Fourteen of the 16 macropods were multiply infected with genetically distinct T. gondii genotypes that often partitioned between different organs. The presence of multiple T. gondii infections in macropods suggests that native mammals have the potential to promote regular cycles of sexual reproduction in the definitive felid host in this environment.
Analytical Modeling of Ad Hoc Networks that Utilize Space-Time Coding

This paper presents the first analytical model for ad hoc networks equipped with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radios using space-time coding (STC) that considers the impact of the underlying radio-based topology on network performance. In particular, we consider the space-time block coding (STBC) technique known as the “Alamouti scheme. ” We derive the effective signal-to-interference-plus-noise density ratio (SINR) of the Alamouti scheme under multiple access interference (MAI), and we propose the moment generating function (MGF) method to derive closed-form expressions for its symbol error probability under different modulation schemes when fading paths are independent but not necessarily identically distributed. The impact of the Alamouti scheme on IEEE 802.11 ad hoc networks is studied by introducing a new analytical model for the IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC. The model we introduce takes into account the impact of errors in both control and data frames, the carrier-sensing activity, and the finite-retry limit of frame retransmissions. Both PHY- and MAC-layer analytical models are incorporated into our previously-designed, general analytical model for ad hoc networks based on interference matrices. We apply the Alamouti scheme to different antenna system configurations and compare their performance with respect to the basic single-input-single-output (SISO) IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC.
A NLOS localization algorithm based on constraint satisfaction optimization

Wireless localization has become an important issue in internet of things. However, the propagating signal from the mobile station to the base station usually encounters a variety of obstacles, resulting in the signal reflection and refraction, and therefore the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) path instead of the line-of-sight path (LOS). Generally, the NLOS error in the range measurement significantly affects the positioning accuracy. Thus, this paper investigates a novel localization algorithm based on the convex optimizations, where we exploit a constraint satisfaction optimization instead of the conventional objective optimizations. Moreover, we also discuss the validity issue of the constraints, and propose a controllable measurement error enlarging method to fully use the ranging information. The simulations have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Efficient parameter tuning for histogram of oriented gradients

This paper develops an efficient approach of object detection called Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) by taking the power of Self-adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization (SPSO). The HOG indicates locally normalized histogram of gradient orientations features in a dense overlapping grid gives very good results for object detection. The effects of the various HOG parameters overall human detection performance were evaluated; but, the most important difficulties in order to use HOG for object detection generally, is initializing its parameters for special task. The proposed tuning technique is based on finding suitable values for HOG predefined parameters using SPSO. In fact, it selects appropriate values for HOG predefined parameters, not necessarily the best amount. Experimental results show the superiority of this novelty over standard HOG.
Marionette mass-spring model for 3D gait biometrics

Though interest in gait biometrics continues to increase, there have as yet been few approaches which use modelbased algorithms with temporal 3D data. In this paper we describe a new 3D model-based approach using a marionette and mass-spring model to gait biometrics with 3D voxel gait dataset. To model the articulated human body, we use a stick-figure which emulates the marionettes' motion and joint structure. The stick-figure has 11 nodes representing the human joints of head, torso, and lower legs. Each node is linked with at least one other node by a spring. The voxel data points in the next frame have a role as attractor which able to generate forces for each node and then iteratively warp the model into the data. This process is repeated for successive frames for one gait period. The motion kinematics extracted from this tracking process are projected into the sagittal and the frontal plane and used as a gait feature via the discrete Fourier transform. We use 46 subjects where each subject has 4 sample sequences and report encouraging initial gait classification results.