Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polarization asymmetry in CSS sources: Evidence of AGN fuel?

The compact steep spectrum and gigahertz peaked spectrum sources are widely believed to be young radio sources, with ages<10 6 yr. If the activity in the nucleus is fuelled by the supply of gas, one might find evidence of this gas by studying the structural and polarization characteristics of CSS sources as these evolve through this gas. We present polarization observations of a sample of CSS sources, and combine our results with those available in the literature, to show that CSS sources are more asymmetric in the polarization of the outer lobes compared with the more extended ones. We suggest that this could be possibly due to interaction of the jets with infalling material, which fuels the radio source. We also investigate possible dependence of the polarization asymmetry of the lobes on redshift, since this might be aected by more interactions and mergers in the past. No such dependence is found for the CSS sources, suggesting that the environments on the CSS scales are similar at dierent redshifts. However, the polarization asymmetry of the oppositely-directed lobes is larger at higher redshifts for the more extended sources, possibly reflecting the higher incidence of interactions in the past.
The MELD Program: Promoting Personal Change and Social Justice Through a Year-Long Multicultural Group Experience

ABSTRACT There is a prevailing misconception among many people, including social work students, that social work groups are focused primarily on individual change and growth. Many social workers, however, promote multicultural communication and collaboration within and among groups, and many also strive to link personal change with the advancement of community and social change. This paper discusses the relationship between social work with groups and social action; describes the Multicultural Experience in Leadership Development (MELD) program, which effectively combines the two; presents and discusses facilitator interventions and tasks at each stage of group development; and considers the implications and utility of the MELD model for social workers.
The mouse model is suitable for the study of viral factors governing transmission and pathogenesis of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses in mammals

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses of the H5 and H7 subtype pose a major public health threat due to their capacity to cross the species barrier and infect mammals, for example dogs, cats and humans. In the present study we tested the capacity of selected H7 and H5 HPAI viruses to infect and to be transmitted from infected BALB/c mice to contact sentinels. Previous experiments have shown that viruses belonging to both H5 and H7 subtypes replicate in the respiratory tract and central nervous system of experimentally infected mice. In this study we show that selected H7N1 and H5N1 HPAI viruses can be transmitted from mouse-to-mouse by direct contact, and that in experimentally infected animals they exhibit a different pattern of replication and transmission. Our results can be considered as a starting point for transmission experiments involving other influenza A viruses with α 2-3 receptor affinity in order to better understand the viral factors influencing transmissibility of these viruses in selected mammalian species.
Warm gas accretion onto the Galaxy

Abstract We present evidence that the accretion of warm gas onto the Galaxy today is at least as important as cold gas accretion. For more than a decade, the source of the bright Hα emission (up to 750 mR†) along the Magellanic Stream has remained a mystery. We present a hydrodynamical model that explains the known properties of the Hα emission and provides new insights on the lifetime of the Stream clouds. The upstream clouds are gradually disrupted due to their interaction with the hot halo gas. The clouds that follow plough into gas ablated from the upstream clouds, leading to shock ionisation at the leading edges of the downstream clouds. Since the following clouds also experience ablation, and weaker Hα (100–200 mR) is quite extensive, a disruptive cascade must be operating along much of the Stream. In order to light up much of the Stream as observed, it must have a small angle of attack (≈ 20°) to the halo, and this may already find support in new Hi observations. Another prediction is that the Balmer ratio (Hα/Hβ) will be substantially enhanced due to the slow shock; this will soon be tested by upcoming WHAM observations in Chile. We find that the clouds are evolving on timescales of 100–200 Myr, such that the Stream must be replenished by the Magellanic Clouds at a fairly constant rate (≳ 0.1 M⊙ yr−1). The ablated material falls onto the Galaxy as a warm drizzle; diffuse ionized gas at 104 K is an important constituent of galactic accretion. The observed Hα emission provides a new constraint on the rate of disruption of the Stream and, consequently, the infall rate of metal-poor gas onto the Galaxy. We consider the stability of Hi clouds falling towards the Galactic disk and show that most of these must break down into smaller fragments that become partially ionized. The Galactic halo is expected to have huge numbers of smaller neutral and ionized fragments. When the ionized component of the infalling gas is accounted for, the rate of gas accretion is ~0.4 M⊙ yr−1, roughly twice the rate deduced from Hi observations alone.
Investigating Exposure to Violence and Mental Health in a Diverse Urban Community Sample: Data from the South East London Community Health (SELCoH) Survey

Background General population surveys have seldom examined violence as a multidimensional concept and in relation to an array of mental disorders. Methods Data from the South East London Community Health Study was used to examine the prevalence, overlap and distribution of proximal witnessed, victimised and perpetrated violence and their association with current mental disorders. We further investigated the cumulative effect of lifetime exposure to violence on current mental disorders. Unadjusted and adjusted (for confounders and violence) models were examined. Results In the last twelve months, 7.4% reported witnessing violence, 6.3% victimisation and 3.2% perpetration of violence. There was a significant overlap across violence types, with some shared correlates across the groups such as being younger and male. Witnessing violence in the past year was associated with current common mental disorders (CMD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Proximal perpetration was associated with current CMD, PTSD symptoms and past 12 months drug use; whereas proximal victimisation was associated with lifetime and past 12 months drug use. Lifetime exposure to two or more types of violence was associated with increased risk for all mental health outcomes, suggesting a cumulative effect. Conclusion Exposure to violence needs to be examined in a multi-faceted manner: i) as discrete distal and proximal events, which may have distinct patterns of association with mental health and ii) as a concept with different but overlapping dimensions, thus also accounting for possible cumulative effects.
The Genesis of a Database Computer

Four advances in technology the microprocessor, the Winchester disk, the relational database, and a novel interprocessor communication scheme formed the foundation for a start-up company's approach to the $2 billion annual database market. I 1 Jul\ 1979, Jack ShemICerfounlidedc Teradata in his garage. In Decemher 1983 the corinpainN cdelivcred its tir-st database comilputerto a Beta site. Thic Tcradata DBC/1012 is based on a miliilnilLm ot six (anid a miaximumin ot 1024) mici-ocoFmputer-S opelrating in parallcl, each capable of 0.4 imiillioln ilstl-rlction>l per second (F igure 1). A fex of the miicr-oomputers are procrammed to inter-face to a host computeCr. The rest conitr-ol the W'inchester disk lIlitS in xhich data is stored in relational f'ormi(Figure 2). The technical kleN to the sVstemI` is a treestrIcttired netxwork called Ynet that inte rconllects the microcomputters. In April 1984, there xere thl-ee installatiolis and 22 imiore expected oxer the niext 12 miionitis. Shemiler x as r eadv to tell hox Teradata hacd arrived at that point. Assisted bx chiet' scienitist Phil Necelcs, he rexiexVed hox the idea ot' a database maaclinie arose, hoxx his Z(roup xxenct aboLit gettingll(1 ncItuire-capital backino, hoxx the key dcsign probelml xxas solxed, howx the software schedCule stretched oLut a little longer than planned, howx 'part nerconmpanics Wete involxed in the developmenelt ptrocess, and x hat the future holds for Ter-adata. It is an amazingly frank accountII of what goes oni in a start-up situationi. (True Seaborni and W ate NIvets posed the question.s.) Computer: How did you conme to the decisioni to dexelop a database compute-r'? Shemer: Many things kicked it off. I had the idea of building a database computer back in the days when I worked at Scientific Data Systems (late 1960's). When Xerox acquired SDS (in 1970), I was given the responsibility of building a successor to the Sigma computer, so we never got to the database conmputer. But the idea of distri-bLItinlOg tunctioIns among processing elements, eachi of xwhich xWoulld haxe a specific set of functioins that xere mutrLallv exclusixe, sttick in my minld. I telt that the database arena xxould be the challenge for the next dlecade. Tthe erx ironment that I experienceci at Citicorp's Tr-ansaction Technology, IInc. , in the late 1970's xwas the earliest phase of bringine togJether all the necessaryx people, components, alndci ideas to consider the problem. At TTI we were xorking in a banking enxironment on-line transaction-intensive, random-type queries-against a common database. During this period Phil was working on his PhD dissertation on the limits of technology as applied to the architecture of the database machine. He looked at various approaches, considered their pros and cons, and modeled the trade-offs. David Hartke provided insights from his engineering experience into the practical implementation of the hardware, and Dick Stockton provided a logical approach to specifying requirements
The search for the origin of the Local Bubble redivivus

ABSTRACT We present anew unbiasedsearchand analysisofall B starsin the solarneighbourhood(within a volume of 400 pc diameter) using the Arivel data base to track down theremains of the OB associations, which hosted the supernovae responsible for the LocalBubble in the interstellar gas. We ﬁnd after careful dereddening and by comparisonwith theoretical isochrones, that besides the Upper Scorpius the Upper CentaurusLupus and Lower Centaurus Crux subgroups are the youngest stellar associations inthe solar neighbourhood with ages of 20 to 30 Myr, in agreement with previous work.In search for the “smoking gun” of the origin of the Local Bubble, we have traced thepaths of the associations back into the past and found that they entered the presentbubble region 10 to 15 Myr ago. We argue that the Local Bubble began to form thenand estimate that 14 to 20 supernovae have gone oﬀ since. It is shown that the impliedenergy input is suﬃcient to excavate a bubble of the presently observed size.Key words: solar neighbourhood - open clusters and associations: individual:ScoOB2 - ISM: individual: local bubble - Local ISM
Statement of Research

My research interests lie in three broad areas of Networks: (i) Modeling real-world complex networks (ii) Random structures and algorithms, and (iii) Designs of large-scale dynamic networks. These areas act as the three vertices of a triangle with mutual inspiration between them. For example, while creating modeling tools for (i), I have been developing my best technical skills and expertise in (ii), more specifically in small-world random structures. Interestingly, many new theoretical results obtained here inspire fruitful approach and useful techniques in solving some practical problems in (iii). In a reverse direction, applications also suggest new questions and extensions to the models. Below I discuss my motivation and contribution in each area. I start with my work in Small-world random structures, a technical core of my research. Building on that, I discuss my new model(s) for real-world random networks, then new constructions and designs for routing in large-scale computer networks. Finally I present my future research plan.
Event stream database based architecture to detect network intrusion: (industry article)

This paper presents a novel network intrusion detection architecture built on a real-time streaming database platform. The architecture addresses both misuse and anomaly detection and is built to handle the high data volume, velocity and variety of traffic seen in enterprise networks through the use of in-memory stream processing. Traditional intrusion pattern detection systems look at the internal attributes of individual events to determine malicious intent; our architecture supports and extends that paradigm by adding the ability to detect both malicious and anomalous intrusion patterns in multi-step event sequences. The approach uses context based stream partitioning to minimize noise in input streams. The solution employs event labeling to reduce dimensionality and manage complexity of raw input streams. The architecture allows for aggregating alerts from an ensemble of detectors to provide a more reliable result by minimizing false positives. Furthermore, it allows domain experts to define high-level rules to filter trivial alerts. In this publication we will present the internals our architecture, its merits, along with a detailed description of our reference implementation.
COMPARATIVE GENOME MAPPING

Some terms: Orthologous loci: loci in different species originating from the same ancestral locus paralagous loci: loci in different (or the same) species that arose due to a duplication of an ancestral locus synteny: a similar linear order of markers in two different species (or on two different linkage groups, as in soybean or Brassica) microsynteny: synteny at the sequence level, sub megase pairs levels.
Key splitting for random key distribution schemes

A large number of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) security schemes have been proposed in the literature, relying primarily on symmetric key cryptography. To enable those, Random Key pre-Distribution (RKD) systems have been widely accepted. However, WSN nodes are vulnerable to physical compromise. Capturing one or more nodes operating with RKD would give the adversary keys to compromise communication of other benign nodes. Thus the challenge is to enhance resilience of WSN to node capture, while maintaining the flexibility and low-cost features of RKD. We address this problem, without any special-purpose hardware, proposing a new and simple idea: key splitting. Our scheme does not increase per-node storage, and computation and communication overheads, and it can increase connectivity. More important, it achieves a significant increase in resilience to compromise compared to the state of the art, notably when the adversary does not have overwhelming computational power.
Mechanistic Basis for the Failure of Cone Transducin to Translocate: Why Cones Are Never Blinded by Light

The remarkable ability of our vision to function under ever-changing conditions of ambient illumination is mediated by multiple molecular mechanisms regulating the light sensitivity of rods and cones. One such mechanism involves massive translocation of signaling proteins, including the G-protein transducin, into and out of the light-sensitive photoreceptor outer segment compartment. Transducin translocation extends the operating range of rods, but in cones transducin never translocates, which is puzzling because cones typically function in much brighter light than rods. Using genetically manipulated mice in which the rates of transducin activation and inactivation were altered, we demonstrate that, like in rods, transducin translocation in cones can be triggered when transducin activation exceeds a critical level, essentially saturating the photoresponse. However, this level is never achieved in wild-type cones: their superior ability to tightly control the rates of transducin activation and inactivation, responsible for avoiding saturation by light, also accounts for the prevention of transducin translocation at any light intensity.
Web Cache Location and Network Design in VPNs

In the new marketplace of Provider-Provisioned VPNs, the VPN service is often provided in combination with other services, like Internet access and web caching. Deploying web caches in an organization’s private network provides two benefits: reduction of incoming traffic and faster access to popular web resources. In this work we refer to Provider-Provisioned Virtual Private Networks whose virtual links may be properly dimensioned, according to a Service Level Agreement that provides bandwidth guarantees for each virtual link established through the Network Service Provider infrastructure. In such a scenario, locating a predefined number of web caches at the edge of the VPN impacts the problem of properly dimensioning the VPN virtual links, due to the necessity of taking into account the effect of web traffic redirection to the web caches. In this paper we present a two stage solution approach for the web cache location problem combined with proper VPN design.
SOA at device level in the industrial domain: Assessment of OPC UA and DPWS specifications

Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) is increasingly relevant across several domains of application by promising systems openness and unification over a common design and communication paradigm. At device level, the application of SOA is carried, on one hand, by Devices Profile for Web Services (DPWS) and complementary web-based specifications oriented towards resource management, and, on the other hand, by OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) framework. These are currently the major candidates to be deployed at device level in a service-oriented industrial scenario. This document offers an overlook over both approaches, along with some complementary WS-* specifications through an extensive technical assessment. Also, it illustrates that neither one of these specifications can alone entirely cope with the requirements of service-oriented industrial domain device level and that a combined approach promises to deliver an important contribution. Synergies between the two sets of specifications for a more conformant solution are identified, and a convergence approach is enunciated in an era where it is imperative to avoid unnecessary layers of integration across enterprise infrastructure to ensure a more agile, lean and sustainable development.
Toward Creating a Gold Standard of Drug Indications from FDA Drug Labels

Having quick access to trustworthy drug-disease relationships (which drug(s) are approved for treating or preventing which disease(s)) is one of the top information needs of health providers, consumers, and researchers. This paper presents a semi-automatic approach that can lead to the creation of a gold standard of drugs and their indications. As our system input, we use the Daily Med, which houses the most current drug labels submitted to FDA by pharmaceutical companies. Extraction of specific indications from FDA labels is a challenging problem that requires distinguishing indications from other disease mentions. In response, we first identify the candidate indications from drug labels using UMLS resources and BioNLP tools, and then rely on expert judgments to validate those pre-computed indications through an interactive Web interface. For preliminary analysis, we recruited two experts to manually annotate 100 labels of frequently sought human prescription drugs at PubMed Health. We find that the resultant expert-curated gold standard on drugs and their indications is high-quality (precision=97%, recall=94%), and differs from existing resources in that it is factual, structured, and dose-form specific. The study findings suggest the feasibility of the proposed method toward building a comprehensive resource of drug indications.
A comparative study of DCT and Kekre's median code book generation algorithm for face recognition

In this paper we propose novel Face Recognition method based on vector quantization (VQ) using Kekre's Median Code Book Generation (KMCG) algorithm. The performance of the proposed method is compared with the well known face recognition method based on Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). Both the methods are implemented on Georgia Tech Database of 750 images consisting of 15 images for each of 50 individuals. From the results it is observe that our proposed method gives 92.67 % accuracy as compared to DCT. Further it is observed that KMCG requires 99.45% computation less than DCT.
Feature extraction based on a fuzzy complementary criterion for gait recognition using GRF signals

A novel wavelet-based feature extraction approach is introduced in this paper for subject recognition utilizing ground reaction force (GRF) measurements. A wavelet-packet (WP) decomposition scheme is firstly proposed to recognize the discriminating frequency subbands and subsequently an efficient feature selection (FS) method is applied on the selected WP bands providing a compact set of powerful and complementary features. Our approach relies on a non-global fuzzy set-based criterion to assess the significance of every subband or feature. This local evaluation measure with respect to patterns is implemented by a fuzzy partition vector (FPV) constructed by invoking a fuzzy class allocation scheme that assigns membership grades to every class. The FS is driven by a fuzzy complementary criterion (FuzCoC) that acts upon the feature FPVs, handling simultaneously both the discrimination power and the redundancy between the features. To demonstrate the performance capabilities of our approach an extensive experimental setup is designed with tasks of increasing difficulty.
Moving shadow detection based on Susan algorithm

In Intelligent Transportation Systems, moving shadows have always been wrongly detected as foreground objects, thus causing bad effect on the latter targets tracking and identify. In order to subtract the shadows lie in different circumstances,there has put forward a method of moving shadow detection based on Image edge detection which using Susan algorithm[9]. After getting the background with mixture Gaussian distribution, the moving foreground position can be accurately obtained via the background subtraction method, then use the Susan algorithm to detect the image edge in interested area. Finally, do shodow detection by analyzing the statistic characteristics of edge pixels. According to the experiment, this method is easy to operate and possesses high rate of accuracy, low rate of complexity, and well adapt to different kinds of shoadow distribution.
Noisy Image Edge Detection Using an Uninorm Fuzzy Morphological Gradient

Medical images edge detection is one of the most important pre-processing steps in medical image segmentation and 3D reconstruction. In this paper, an edge detection algorithm using an uninorm-based fuzzy morphology is proposed. It is shown that this algorithm is robust when it is applied to different types of noisy images. It improves the results of other well-known algorithms including classical algorithms of edge detection, as well as fuzzy-morphology based ones using the Łukasiewicz t-norm and umbra approach. It detects detailed edge features and thin edges of medical images corrupted by impulse or gaussian noise. Moreover, some different objective measures have been used to evaluate the filtered results obtaining for our approach better values than for other approaches. Keywords-Mathematical morphology, edge detection, noise reduction, representable uninorms, idempotent uninorm.