Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Decentralized Cloud Firewall Framework with Resources Provisioning Cost Optimization

Cloud computing is becoming popular as the next infrastructure of computing platform. Despite the promising model and hype surrounding, security has become the major concern that people hesitate to transfer their applications to clouds. Concretely, cloud platform is under numerous attacks. As a result, it is definitely expected to establish a firewall to protect cloud from these attacks. However, setting up a centralized firewall for a whole cloud data center is infeasible from both performance and financial aspects. In this paper, we propose a decentralized cloud firewall framework for individual cloud customers. We investigate how to dynamically allocate resources to optimize resources provisioning cost, while satisfying QoS requirement specified by individual customers simultaneously. Moreover, we establish novel queuing theory based model M/Geo/1 and M/Geo/m for quantitative system analysis, where the service times follow a geometric distribution. By employing Z-transform and embedded Markov chain techniques, we obtain a closed-form expression of mean packet response time. Through extensive simulations and experiments, we conclude that an M/Geo/1 model reflects the cloud firewall real system much better than a traditional M/M/1 model. Our numerical results also indicate that we are able to set up cloud firewall with affordable cost to cloud customers.
Membrane proteomics: Use of additive main effects with multiplicative interaction model to classify plasma membrane proteins according to their solubility and electrophoretic properties

Recent efforts at the proteomic level were employed to describe the protein equipment of the plasma membrane of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. These studies had revealed that the plasma membrane is rich in extrinsic proteins but came up against two major problems: (i) few hydrophobic proteins were recovered in two‐dimensional electrophoresis gels, and (ii) many plasma membrane proteins had no known function or were unknown in the database despite extensive sequencing of the Arabidopsis genome. In this paper, several methods expected to enrich a membrane sample in hydrophobic proteins were compared. The optimization of solubilization procedures revealed that the detergent to be used depends on the lipid content of the sample. The corresponding proteomes were compared with the statistical model AMMI (additive main effects with multiplicative interaction) that aimed at regrouping proteins according to their solubility and electrophoretic properties. Distinct groups emerged from this analysis and the identification of proteins in each group allowed us to assign specific features to several of them. For instance, two of these groups regrouped very hydrophobic proteins, one group contained V‐ATPase subunits, another group contained proteins with one transmembrane domain as well as proteins known to interact with membrane proteins. This study provides methodological tools to study particular classes of plasma membrane proteins and should be applicable to other cellular membranes.
The Phosphatidylinositol 3-Phosphate Phosphatase Myotubularin- Related Protein 6 (MTMR6) Is a Negative Regulator of the Ca2+-Activated K+ Channel KCa3.1

ABSTRACT Myotubularins (MTMs) belong to a large subfamily of phosphatases that dephosphorylate the 3′ position of phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate [PI(3)P] and PI(3,5)P2. MTM1 is mutated in X-linked myotubular myopathy, and MTMR2 and MTMR13 are mutated in Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. However, little is known about the general mechanism(s) whereby MTMs are regulated or the specific biological processes regulated by the different MTMs. We identified a Ca2+-activated K channel, KCa3.1 (also known as KCa4, IKCa1, hIK1, or SK4), that specifically interacts with the MTMR6 subfamily of MTMs via coiled coil (CC) domains on both proteins. Overexpression of MTMR6 inhibited KCa3.1 channel activity, and this inhibition required MTMR6's CC and phosphatase domains. This inhibition is specific; MTM1, a closely related MTM, did not inhibit KCa3.1. However, a chimeric MTM1 in which the MTM1 CC domain was swapped for the MTMR6 CC domain inhibited KCa3.1, indicating that MTM CC domains are sufficient to confer target specificity. KCa3.1 was also inhibited by the PI(3) kinase inhibitors LY294002 and wortmannin, and this inhibition was rescued by the addition of PI(3)P, but not other phosphoinositides, to the patch pipette solution. PI(3)P also rescued the inhibition of KCa3.1 by MTMR6 overexpression. These data, when taken together, indicate that KCa3.1 is regulated by PI(3)P and that MTMR6 inhibits KCa3.1 by dephosphorylating the 3′ position of PI(3)P, possibly leading to decreased PI(3)P in lipid microdomains adjacent to KCa3.1. KCa3.1 plays important roles in controlling proliferation by T cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, and some cancer cell lines. Thus, our findings not only provide unique insights into the regulation of KCa3.1 channel activity but also raise the possibility that MTMs play important roles in the negative regulation of T cells and in conditions associated with pathological cell proliferation, such as cancer and atherosclerosis.
Atomic force microscopy investigations of peptide self-assembly

The ability of short peptide fragments to self-assemble in isolation as amyloid and amyloid-like structures has prompted their use as model systems for the study of amyloid formation and recently also for their utilisation as novel nanofibrillar material. The atomic force microscope (AFM) is used here to investigate the self-assembly of two peptide systems and the development of strategies to directly manipulate and control the structures they form. The studies presented in Chapter 2 address the self-assembly of a peptide fragment of the human amylin polypeptide; amylin (20-29). In the opening study we use ex situ AFM imaging to characterise the early stages of amylin (20-29) fibril formation. High-resolution images reveal that following an initial lag phase, fibrils displaying a globular appearance are formed, which over time are replaced by flat ribbon-like fibrils with no periodicity displaying a range of polymorphic structures and assemblies. Following on from these findings, we investigate the influence of solution conditions on amylin (20-29) fibril formation utilising in situ AFM imaging. Altering the pH and electrolyte composition affords a range of morphologies including, truncated and long branched or unbranched flexible fibrils and globular aggregates. Following on from this characterisation chapter, in Chapter 3 a strategy to assemble specifically functionalised fibrillar material from chemically modified amylin (20-29) peptides was investigated. Azide and alkyne moieties were successfully coupled to the amylin (20-29) peptides. Ex situ AFM imaging and Congo red binding confirmed that the additional steric bulk had no detrimental effects on the fibril forming capacity of the peptides. Finally, in Chapter 4 the focus turns to the self-assembly of a dipeptide of phenylalanine which corresponds to the core recognition motif of the beta-amyloid polypeptide. Here, the AFM is used to study the physical properties of the well-ordered, discrete, hollow nanotubes which are formed. Their chemical stability in organic solvents and considerable thermal stability under both dry and wet heating conditions is revealed. Finally, the use of strong magnetic fields to directly control and orientate the diphenylalanine nanotubes was examined by AFM. The results presented throughout this thesis demonstrate the versatility of self-assembling peptides for the generation of fibrillar nanostructures that can be directly modified and controlled to generate novel architectures and functionalised well ordered nanomaterials.
Development of an Exercise Meter using Triaxial Acceleration Data

Shinshu University and an NPO "JTRC" (Jukunen Taiiku Daigaku Research Center; a health promotion and support organization) provide exercise guidance focused on walking activity with the object of enhancing strength among elderly individuals. Sanyo Electric has developed an exercise meter as a tool to promote these efforts effectively. This exercise meter is equipped with a function providing estimates of energy consumption, leg muscle strength, and endurance based on triaxial acceleration data from the lumbar region. In this paper, we provide an outline of the estimation techniques and present an application of this exercise meter
Design and Analysis of Cross-Layer Tree Algorithms for Wireless Random Access

In this paper, we develop a random access scheme which combines the widely used binary exponential backoff (BEB) algorithm with a cross-layer tree algorithm (TA) that relies on successive interference cancellation (SIC) with first success (FS). BEB and SICTA/FS complement each other nicely in enabling the novel protocol to attain a maximum stable throughput (MST) as high as 0.6 without packet loss. Although BEB-SICTA/FS avoids the deadlock problem caused by the error propagation commonly present in successive interference cancellation (SIC) algorithms, it may still suffer from deadlock effects induced by the "level skipping" caused by harsh wireless fading effects. We further develop a novel BEB-SICTA/F1 protocol, which is a modified version of BEB-SICTA/FS. Analysis and simulations demonstrate that this simple modification leads to high-throughput random access while completely avoiding deadlock problems.
Hemispheric asymmetries in word recognition as revealed by the orthographic uniqueness point effect

The orthographic uniqueness point (OUP) refers to the first letter of a word that, reading from left to right, makes the word unique. It has recently been proposed that OUPs might be relevant in word recognition and their influence could inform the long-lasting debate of whether – and to what extent – printed words are recognized serially or in parallel. The present study represents the first investigation of the neural and behavioral effects of OUP on visual word recognition. Behaviourally, late OUP words were identified faster and more accurately in a lexical decision task. Analysis of event-related potentials demonstrated a hemispheric asymmetry on the N170 component, with the left hemisphere appearing to be more sensitive to the position of the OUP within a word than the right hemisphere. These results suggest that processing of centrally presented words is likely to occur in a partially parallel manner, as an ends-in scanning process.
Cross-Cultural Differences in Relationship- and Group-Based Trust

Two experiments explored differences in depersonalized trust (trust toward a relatively unknown target person) across cultures. Based on a recent theoretical framework that postulates predominantly different bases for group behaviors in Western cultures versus Eastern cultures, it was predicted that Americans would tend to trust people primarily based on whether they shared category memberships; however, trust for Japanese was expected to be based on the likelihood of sharing direct or indirect interpersonal links. Results supported these predictions. In both Study 1 (questionnaire study) and Study 2 (online money allocation game), Americans trusted ingroup members more than outgroup members; however, the existence of a potential indirect relationship link increased trust for outgroup members more for Japanese than for Americans. Implications for understanding group processes across cultures are discussed.
Precipitation Coating of Monazite on Woven Ceramic Fibers: II. Effect of Processing Conditions on Coating Morphology and Strength Retention of Nextel™ 610 and 720 Fibers

Woven cloths of Nextel™ 610 and 720 fibers were coated with monazite by precipitation. The cloths were first saturated with concentrated precursor solutions, and then submerged in warm water to initiate precipitation onto the fiber surfaces. Coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy; thermogravimetric analysis was performed on LaPO4 owders precipitated in solution under the same conditions as the coatings were deposited. Coating thickness distributions were measured and analyzed. Coated fiber strength was measured following heat treatment for 2 h at 1200°C. Processing conditions which retain a substantial fraction of the uncoated fiber strength are identified, and are discussed in the context of current understanding of strength degradation in coated fibers. Strength retention of coated Nextel™ 610 fibers following heat treatment was broadly insensitive to precursor solution chemistry and was more strongly affected by intercoat firings which govern the final coating microstructure. For fixed processing conditions, more strength degradation was observed in Nextel™ 720 due to higher residual stresses in the fiber.
Onion routing access configurations

Onion Routing is an infrastructure for private communication over a public network. It provides anonymous connections that are strongly resistant to both eavesdropping and traffic analysis. Thus it hides not only the data being sent, but who is talking to whom. Onion Routing's anonymous connections are bidirectional and near real-time, and can be used anywhere a socket connection can be used. Proxy aware applications, such as web browsing and e-mail, require no modification to use Onion Routing, and do so through a series of proxies. Other applications, such as remote login, can also use the system without modification. Access to an onion routing network can be configured in a variety of ways depending on the needs, policies, and facilities of those connecting. This paper describes some of these access configurations and also provides a basic overview of Onion Routing and comparisons with related work.
A Shadow Detection Method from Urban High Resolution Remote Sensing Image Based on Color Features of Shadow

While high resolution remote sensing images have clearer landscape detail and richer spatial information than low and moderate resolution remote sensing images, high-resolution imagery contains more shadows in the urban areas. First, four color features of shadows in HIS color model and RGB color model are analyzed. Second, an Otsu segmentation method is applied in these four color features' images to acquire four binary candidate shadow images. A final shadow detected image is acquired after the intersection of these four binary candidate shadow images and the process of morphological operation. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach on shadow detection.
Differences in Judgments of Creativity: How Do Academic Domain, Personality, and Self-Reported Creativity Influence Novice Judges’ Evaluations of Creative Productions?

Intelligence assessment is often viewed as a narrow and ever-narrowing field, defined (as per IQ) by the measurement of finely distinguished cognitive processes. It is instructive, however, to remember that other, broader conceptions of intelligence exist and might usefully be considered for a comprehensive assessment of intellectual functioning. This article invokes a more holistic, systems theory of intelligence—the theory of successful intelligence—and examines the possibility of including in intelligence assessment a similarly holistic measure of creativity. The time and costs of production-based assessments of creativity are generally considered prohibitive. Such barriers may be mitigated by applying the consensual assessment technique using novice raters. To investigate further this possibility, we explored the question: how much do demographic factors such as age and gender and psychological factors such as domain-specific expertise, personality or self-perceived creativity affect novices’ unidimensional ratings of creativity? Fifty-one novice judges from three undergraduate programs, majoring in three disparate expertise domains (i.e., visual art, psychology and computer science) rated 40 child-generated Lego creatures for creativity. Results showed no differences in creativity ratings based on the expertise domains of the judges. However, judges’ personality and self-perception of their own everyday creativity appeared to influence the way they scored the creatures for creativity.
Adaptive tetrahedral meshes for brittle fracture simulation

We present a method for the adaptive simulation of brittle fracture of solid objects based on a novel reversible tetrahedral mesh refinement scheme. The refinement scheme preserves the quality of the input mesh to a large extent, it is solely based on topological operations, and does not alter the boundary, i.e. any geometric feature. Our fracture algorithm successively performs a stress analysis and increases the resolution of the input mesh in regions of high tensile stress. This results in an accurate location of crack origins without the need of a general high resolution mesh which would cause high computational costs throughout the whole simulation. A crack is initiated when the maximum tensile stress exceeds the material strength. The introduced algorithm then proceeds by iteratively recomputing the changed stress state and creating further cracks. Our approach can generate multiple cracks from a single impact, but effectively avoids shattering artifacts. Once the tensile stress decreases, the mesh refinement is reversed to increase the performance of the simulation. We demonstrate that our adaptive method is robust, scalable and computes highly realistic fracture results.
Initial Experiments in Visualizing Fine-grained Execution of Parallel Software through Cycle-level Simulation Initial Experiments in Visualizing Fine-grained Execution of Parallel Software through Cycle-level Simulation

Programmers wishing to obtain the best possible performance from multi-threaded software on parallel hardware must often understand detailed architecture-level interactions. Visualizations based on execution traces are often useful in gaining such understanding. Previous visualization tools have used traces from actual executions. We have experimented instead with visualizations based on traces from cycle-level simulations; while this approach imposes significant performance penalties, it exposes thread behavior, architectural events, and inter-thread interactions in minute detail unavailable via other means. We describe experiments with a prototype of our tool on several simple applications and on kernel code, and sketch the design of a usable tool. Abstract Programmers wishing to obtain the best possible performance from multi-threaded software on parallel hardware must often understand detailed architecture-level interactions. Visualizations based on execution traces are often useful in gaining such understanding. Previous visualization tools have used traces from actual executions. We have experimented instead with visualizations based on traces from cycle-level simulations; while this approach imposes significant performance penalties, it exposes thread behavior, architectural events, and inter-thread interactions in minute detail unavailable via other means. We describe experiments with a prototype of our tool on several simple applications and on kernel code, and sketch the design of a usable tool.
Automated Text Summarization in SUMMARIST

SUMMARIST is an attempt to create a robust automated text summarization system, based on the ‘equation’: summarization = topic identification + interpretation + generation. Each of these stages contains several independent modules, many of them trained on large corpora of text. We describe the system’s architecture and provide details of some of its modules.
Atomic force microscopy lithography as a nanodevice development technique

Nanoscale science and technology is today mainly focused on the fabrication of nanodevices. Our approach makes use of lithography processes to build the desired nanostructures directly. The fabrication process involves an electron-beam lithography technique to define metallic microstructures onto which nanometre scale patterning is performed using an atomic force microscope (AFM) as a mechanical modification tool. Both direct material removal and AFM-assisted mask patterning are applied in order to achieve the smallest possible separation between electrode pairs. The sample preparation involves a polymer deposition process that results in conformal growth and in surface roughness comparable to that of the substrate. The results of the application of this technique show that the process is reproducible and exhibits a good operation control during the lithographic steps, both ensured by the imaging facilities of the AFM. The nanolithography technique has been used to fabricate nanogap electrodes to be used for molecular devices. The study reported here can be considered as a reliable starting point for the development of more complex nanodevices, such as single-electron transistors.
Virtual Workspace Technology Use and Knowledge-Sharing Effectiveness in Distributed Teams : The Influence of a Team ’ s Transactive Memory

We would like to thank the Society for Information Management, Netage, Kathy Chudoba, and Groove for helping us to identify the sample. We would also like to thank Samer Faraj, Sanjay Gosain, Arjan Raven and Sabine Hirt for providing comments that were helpful in revising this manuscript. We would also like to thank the members of our expert panel for providing us their invaluable insights regarding workspace technologies that helped guide our research. Abstract Firms are increasingly leveraging their globally distributed knowledge resources through deployment of distributed teams. Since face-to-face meetings are increasingly less common among distributed teams, team members are more frequently sharing their knowledge through the use of " virtual workspaces " – an integrated set of tools that offer a variety of communication support capabilities including a common team repository organized for easy search and retrieval, application sharing, electronic whiteboards and group discussion forums. Current literature suggests that group and contextual factors in general and a group's transactive memory in particular may shape how virtual workspaces are used to enhance the effectiveness of knowledge sharing within distributed teams. However, no empirical study has demonstrated the influence of transactive memory in shaping the relationship between virtual workspace usage and knowledge sharing effectiveness. Moreover, research on information technology support for distributed teams has not proposed theoretically-derived dimensions of communication support that can be provided by virtual workspaces. Based on common ground theory (Clark and Brennan 1991), we identify two dimensions of communication support required to create common ground among team members, as well as the role of transactive memory in influencing the value of each dimension in making knowledge sharing more effective. We studied 53 distributed teams and found that teams with low transactive memory reported higher satisfaction with the effectiveness of knowledge sharing in their teams when they used virtual workspace functionalities that facilitated multi-channel synchronous communication. Email and audio-conferencing were adequate for knowledge sharing in teams with highly developed transactive memory. For teams with moderate transactive memory, the two support dimensions appear to be complementary, such that using one dimension offers the same value as using both. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.