Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vaulted VPN: Compartmented Virtual Private Networks on Trusted Operating SystemsTse-Huong Choo, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

Virtual Private Networks for IPSec based on an intermediate packet-redirector in network-protocol stacks are becoming increasingly common for many standard operating systems and represent a well-understood method for retro-fitting such systems with IPSec support. This report describes how a different design structured around a Trusted Operating System can offer better security, performance and robustness. We describe in detail an implementation of an IPSec VPN consisting of a series of compartmented, concurrently executing IPSec stacks. The motivations and security-related benefits behind each design decision are discussed. In addition, we show how a configuration of independent IPSec stacks based on this design can be configured to execute in parallel for greater performance on single-threaded kernels, and how its design allows individual component-failures without affecting the system as a whole.
Using Abstract Information and Community Alignment Information for Link Prediction

Although there have been many recent studies of link prediction in co-authorship networks, few have tried to utilize the Semantic information hidden in abstracts of the research documents. We propose to build a link predictor in a co-authorship network where nodes represent researchers and links represent co-authorship. In this method, we use the structure of the constructed graph, and propose to add a semantic approach using abstract information, research titles and the event information to improve the accuracy of the predictor. Secondly, we make use of the fact that researchers tend to work in close knit communities. The knowledge of a pair of researchers lying in the same dense community can be used to improve the accuracy of our predictor further. Finally, we test out hypothesis on the DBLP database in a reasonable time by under-sampling and balancing the data set using decision trees and the SMOTE technique.
Pengaruh Faktor Relatif dan Kontekstual Terhadap Perilaku Pembelian Konsumen dengan Religiusitas Sebagai Variabel Mediasi (Studi Kasus Fashion Busana Muslim di Semarang)

Lifestyle changes and the progress of time has raised Muslim fashion becomes the trend in the society. However, over the more modern era there has been a shift in the meaning of the use of Muslim dress for Muslim women. This is because the influence of modernization where Muslim clothes is not a primary goal but made a new fashion trend among the community. It was a debate in society whether a Muslim veil because of the demands of their religion or mere fashion trend. This study aimed to test whether the relative and contextual factors influence the behavior of muslim consumers with religiosity as the mediating variable. The population in this study were all Muslim consumers who use the Muslim fashion in the city of Semarang. The number of samples in this study were 100 respondents with a acidental sampling techniques. This study uses analysis techniques path (path analysis). Based on the results of hypothesis testing is known that the relative and contextual factors influence consumer buying behavior, Relative and contextual factors influence the religiosity. Religiosity influence on consumer buying behavio. and Religiosity is a mediating variable between relative and contextual factors on consumer buying behavior.
Closed Strings in Misner Space: Stringy Fuzziness with a Twist

Misner space, also known as the Lorentzian orbifold $R^{1,1}/boost$, is the simplest tree-level solution of string theory with a cosmological singularity. We compute tree-level scattering amplitudes involving twisted states, using operator and current algebra techniques. We find that, due to zero-point quantum fluctuations of the excited modes, twisted strings with a large winding number $w$ are fuzzy on a scale $\sqrt{\log w}$, which can be much larger than the string scale. Wave functions are smeared by an operator $\exp(\Delta(\nu) \partial_+ \partial_-)$ reminiscent of the Moyal-product of non-commutative geometry, which, since $\Delta(\nu)$ is real, modulates the amplitude rather than the phase of the wave function, and is purely gravitational in its origin. We compute the scattering amplitude of two twisted states and one tachyon or graviton, and find a finite result. The scattering amplitude of two twisted and two untwisted states is found to diverge, due to the propagation of intermediate winding strings with vanishing boost momentum. The scattering amplitude of three twisted fields is computed by analytic continuation from three-point amplitudes of states with non-zero $p^+$ in the Nappi-Witten plane wave, and the non-locality of the three-point vertex is found to diverge for certain kinematical configurations. Our results for the three-point amplitudes allow in principle to compute, to leading order, the back-reaction on the metric due to a condensation of coherent winding strings.
Metabolomics with LC-QTOF-MS Permits the Prediction of Disease Stage in Aortic Abdominal Aneurysm Based on Plasma Metabolic Fingerprint

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a permanent and localized aortic dilation, defined as aortic diameter ≥3 cm. It is an asymptomatic but potentially fatal condition because progressive enlargement of the abdominal aorta is spontaneously evolving towards rupture. Biomarkers may help to explain pathological processes of AAA expansion, and allow us to find novel therapeutic strategies or to determine the efficiency of current therapies. Metabolomics seems to be a good approach to find biomarkers of AAA. In this study, plasma samples of patients with large AAA, small AAA, and controls were fingerprinted with LC-QTOF-MS. Statistical analysis was used to compare metabolic fingerprints and select metabolites that showed a significant change. Results presented here reveal that LC-QTOF-MS based fingerprinting of plasma from AAA patients is a very good technique to distinguish small AAA, large AAA, and controls. With the use of validated PLS-DA models it was possible to classify patients according to the disease stage and predict properly the stage of additional AAA patients. Identified metabolites indicate a role for sphingolipids, lysophospholipids, cholesterol metabolites, and acylcarnitines in the development and progression of AAA. Moreover, guanidinosuccinic acid, which mimics nitric oxide in terms of its vasodilatory action, was found as a strong marker of large AAA.
Dynamic Hybrid Algorithms for MAP Inference in Discrete MRFs

In this paper, we present novel techniques that improve the computational and memory efficiency of algorithms for solving multi-label energy functions arising from discrete MRFs or CRFs. These methods are motivated by the observations that the performance of minimization algorithms depends on: 1) the initialization used for the primal and dual variables and 2) the number of primal variables involved in the energy function. Our first method (dynamic α-expansion) works by "recycling" results from previous problem instances. The second method simplifies the energy function by "reducing" the number of unknown variables present in the problem. Further, we show that it can also be used to generate a good initialization for the dynamic α-expansion algorithm by "reusing" dual variables. We test the performance of our methods on energy functions encountered in the problems of stereo matching and color and object-based segmentation. Experimental results show that our methods achieve a substantial improvement in the performance of α-expansion, as well as other popular algorithms such as sequential tree-re-weighted message passing and max-product belief propagation. We also demonstrate the applicability of our schemes for certain higher order energy functions, such as the one described, for interactive texture-based image and video segmentation. In most cases, we achieve a 10-15 times speed-up in the computation time. Our modified α-expansion algorithm provides similar performance to Fast-PD, but is conceptually much simpler. Both α-expansion and Fast-PD can be made orders of magnitude faster when used in conjunction with the "reduce" scheme proposed in this paper.
The development of gender-specific patterns in the production of voiceless sibilant fricatives in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract This article reports on the development of gender-specific speech patterns in Mandarin children’s production of voiceless sibilant fricatives. Ninety-four children aged from 2 to 5 (gender-balanced) participated in a word repetition task, producing a series of words beginning with fricatives. Their speech was digitally recorded and acoustically analyzed. The results indicate that gender-related differentiation in /s/ and /ɕ/ occurs around age 4 and becomes more robust at age 5. The differentiation occurs due to the more anterior articulation location that girls employ in their speech in comparison with boys. In addition, 10 adults (gender-balanced) were recorded to probe the origin of this gendered speech phenomenon. Unlike children, adults only show robust gender-related differences in /ɕ/. Results comparing the speech of adults and children suggest that gendered variation in /s/ is potentially the result of a chain shift initiated by gender-linked variation of /ɕ/. These results are discussed with respect to their ramifications for our understanding of the organization and acquisition of multiple components of children’s phonological capacity.
A Bus Encoding Comparison for Low Power

With the continued scaling of digital circuits, power consumption is becoming an increasingly important issue. The power required to perform computations rapidly decreases, however the energy required to power large buses and interconnect has not been as fortunate. This is due to non-uniform scaling (aspect ratios increased [2]) and sidewall fringing effects. These buses can also have a capacitance which is several orders of magnitude above internal circuit nodes making a single bus transition equivalent to several hundred circuit transitions [4]. With the inclusion of the Miller Effect this figure is even worse. So it becomes necessary to study methods to lower the power consumption of these lines. A popular technique to limit the power consumption has been to reduce the switching activity through the encoding of data on these highly capacitive global lines. This project makes an objective comparison between several proposed encoding methods in terms of reducing power consumption.
Adaptive level of detail rendering estimation based on wavelet transform

The goal the following paper is to point out an alternative approach to the adaptive triangulation problem. A new technique of terrain rendering which uses wavelet transform to select appropriate LOD is described. This technique is a region-based multi-resolution approach that partitions the terrain into tiles that can be processed independently. The wavelet transform is used as a mathematical framework which localizes rough surface approximation where approximation error has to be controlled. It permits to choose the appropriate resolution according to local characteristics of the examined surface.
Role of procollagen mRNA levels in controlling the rate of procollagen synthesis

Two factors must be present for primary avian tendon cells to commit 50% of their total protein production to procollagen: ascorbate and high cell density. Scorbutic primary avian tendon cells at high cell density (greater than 4 X 10(4) cells per cm2) responded to the addition of ascorbate by a sixfold increase in the rate of procollagen synthesis. The kinetics were biphasic, showing a slow increase during the first 12 h followed by a more rapid rise to a maximum after 36 to 48 h. In contrast, after ascorbate addition, the level of accumulated cytoplasmic procollagen mRNA (alpha 2) showed a 12-h lag followed by a slow linear increase requiring 60 to 72 h to reach full induction. At all stages of the induction process, the relative increase in the rate of procollagen synthesis over the uninduced state exceeded the relative increase in the accumulation of procollagen mRNA. A similar delay in mRNA induction was observed when the cells were grown in an ascorbate-containing medium but the cell density was allowed to increase. In all cases, the rate of procollagen synthesis peaked approximately 24 h before the maximum accumulation of procollagen mRNA. The kinetics for the increase in procollagen synthesis are not, therefore, in agreement with the simple model that mRNA levels are the rate-limiting factor in the collagen pathway. We propose that the primary control point is at a later step. Further support for this idea comes from inhibitor studies, using alpha, alpha'-dipyridyl to block ascorbate action. In the presence of 0.3 mM alpha, alpha'-dipyridyl there was a specific two- to threefold decrease in procollagen production after 4 h, but this was unaccompanied by a drop in procollagen mRNA levels. Therefore, inhibitor studies give further support to the idea that primary action of ascorbate is to release a post-translational block.
Replacing HTTP-TCP Traffic Sources with Open-Loop UDP Traffic Sources

The inclusion of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is necessary for the realistic simulation of data networks. However, the operation of HTTP-TCP sources puts a heavy tax on the simulations leading to two major scalability problems: the computing resources required by each source put a limit on the total number of sources that can be simulated, and the number of events generated by every simulated connection leads to long simulation times. The problems while addressable for the present day networks become major obstacles for realistic simulations of optical networks. In this paper we present an open-loop traffic source that generates traffic statistically similar to the traffic produced by a number of HTTP-TCP sources. The source is based upon an integrated packet-session levels model that captures the web user-behavior as well as the TCP characteristics. The gain against the scalability problems comes by reducing the required number of sources, and by simulating only the slow-start mechanism of TCP. By comparing key traffic statistics we show that the source qualifies as a good candidate for generating network traffic.
Probabilistic Reconstruction of Ancestral Gene Orders with Insertions and Deletions

Changes of gene orderings have been extensively used as a signal to reconstruct phylogenies and ancestral genomes. Inferring the gene order of an extinct species has a wide range of applications, including the potential to reveal more detailed evolutionary histories, to determine gene content and ordering, and to understand the consequences of structural changes for organismal function and species divergence. In this study, we propose a new adjacency-based method, PMAG + , to infer ancestral genomes under a more general model of gene evolution involving gene insertions and deletions (indels), in addition to gene rearrangements. PMAG + improves on our previous method PMAG by developing a new approach to infer ancestral gene contents and reducing the adjacency assembly problem to an instance of TSP. We designed a series of experiments to extensively validate PMAG + and compared the results with the most recent and comparable method GapAdj. According to the results, ancestral gene contents predicted by PMAG + coincides highly with the actual contents with error rates less than 1 percent. Under various degrees of indels, PMAG + consistently achieves more accurate prediction of ancestral gene orders and at the same time, produces contigs very close to the actual chromosomes.
Realistic HDR tone-mapping based on contrast perception matching

In this paper, a new method to measure human's reaction time on local contrast is introduced. It is believed the reaction time is highly correlated with the response strength on local contrasts in human visual system. Using the proposed method, a large set of subjective viewing data were then collected, and a full-range (from near-threshold to suprathreshold) contrast perception model on low dynamic range display is built. Based on the proposed model and Plainis' reaction time model [17], a new realistic tone-mapping operator, which minimizes the perception difference of local contrasts between HDR and LDR images, is proposed. Experimental results confirmed the performance of the proposed operator.
Not In The Same World: Topological Youths, Topographical Policies

Abstract Public attitudes continue to portray youths in Western societies as being passive and disengaged. Critical scholars are largely unanimous in that the misrecognition of and disrespect for young people's everyday experiences and activities form a major reason why they appear detached from politics and public life. Contributing to this debate, this paper traces the everyday experiences of some Finnish urban youths, and argues that their lived worlds differ notably from the worlds of the public administration that seeks to address youths as active citizens. Based on these findings, the paper proposes the pragmatically oriented concepts of “issue publics” and “topological connectives” for rethinking youth participation and democratic life more broadly.
Visitor engagement at museums: Generation Y and ‘Lates’ events at the National Museum of Scotland

ABSTRACT Museums are institutions that collect, safeguard and present artefacts and memories for the non-profit purposes of learning and enjoyment. However, significant changes in the environment in which museums operate have led to the creation of new types of activities to attract different audiences who will contribute to their future economic and social sustainability. One group that has recently been identified as a target is Generation Y (Gen Y) who have been attracted through the specifically created night-time thematic events, or ‘Lates’. This study critically evaluates visitor engagement with both permanent collections and activities specifically developed for the Gen Y visitor at a ‘Lates’ event at a national museum. The paper explores the potential contribution of this type of event in enhancing the future sustainability of museums via balanced use of resources, visitor engagement across a diverse audience and contribution to the achievement of long term goals.
Next‐generation studies of microbial biofilm communities

As we look into the future of microbial biofilm research, there is clearly an emerging focus on communities rather than populations. This represents an essential change in direction to more accurately understand how and why microorganisms assemble into communities, as well as the functional implications for such a life style. For example, current research studies shows that communities display emergent properties or functions that are not predicted from the individual single species populations, including elevated stress tolerance and resistance to antibiotics. Models for mixed species biofilms can be very simple, comprised only a handful of species or can be extremely species rich, with hundreds or thousands of species present. The future holds much promise for this area of research, where investigators will increasingly be able to resolve, at the molecular and biochemical levels, interspecies relationships and mechanisms of interaction. The outcome of these studies will greatly enhance our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary factors that drive community function in natural and engineered systems.
The interestingness of deviations

One of the most promising areas in Knowledge Discovery in Databases is the automatic analysis of changes and deviations. Several systems have recently been developed for this task. Success of these systems hinges on their ability to identify a few important and relevant deviations among the multitude of potentially interesting events. In this paper we argue that related deviations should be grouped together in a finding and that the interestingness of a finding is the estimated benefit from a possible action connected to it. We discuss methods for determining the estimated benefit from the impact of the deviations and the success probability of an action. Our analysis is done in the context of the Key Findings Reporter (KEFIR), a system for discovering and explaining "key findings" in large relational databases, currently being applied to the analysis of healthcare information.
A trust model for vehicular network-based incident reports

Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) networks are ephemeral, short-duration wireless networks designed for improving the overall driving experience through the exchange of multitude information among vehicles and the infrastructure. Real-time incident report is an important application domain that can leverage the advantage of vehicular networks to greatly improve driving safety. However, given the presence of malicious entities, blindly trusting such incident report (even the one received through a cryptographically secure channel) can lead to undesirable consequences. In this paper, we propose an approach to determine the likelihood of the accuracy of V2V incident reports based on the trustworthiness of the report originator and those vehicles that forward it. The proposed approach takes advantage of existing V2I communication facilities deployed and managed by central traffic authorities, which can be used to collect vehicle behavior information in a crowd-sourcing fashion for constructing a more comprehensive view of vehicle trustworthiness. For validating our scheme, we implemented a V2V/V2I trust simulator by extending an existing V2V simulator with trust management capabilities. Preliminary analysis of the model shows promising results. By combining our trust modeling technique with a threshold-based decision strategy, we observed on average 85% accuracy.
Sugar, Uric Acid, and the Etiology of Diabetes and Obesity

The intake of added sugars, such as from table sugar (sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup has increased dramatically in the last hundred years and correlates closely with the rise in obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. Fructose is a major component of added sugars and is distinct from other sugars in its ability to cause intracellular ATP depletion, nucleotide turnover, and the generation of uric acid. In this article, we revisit the hypothesis that it is this unique aspect of fructose metabolism that accounts for why fructose intake increases the risk for metabolic syndrome. Recent studies show that fructose-induced uric acid generation causes mitochondrial oxidative stress that stimulates fat accumulation independent of excessive caloric intake. These studies challenge the long-standing dogma that “a calorie is just a calorie” and suggest that the metabolic effects of food may matter as much as its energy content. The discovery that fructose-mediated generation of uric acid may have a causal role in diabetes and obesity provides new insights into pathogenesis and therapies for this important disease.
Cost-Based Pricing of Individual Automobile Risk Transfer: Car-Mile Exposure Unit Analysis

Every mile traveled by a car transfers risk to its insurer. This paper posits that the product of a cents-per-mile rate based on class experience and the miles recorded on the car’s odometer appropriately earns prepaid premium while the car is driven. Operation of a practical car-mile system is described briefly. To test the competing idea that driver-record pricing responds to known large differences in risk transfer, a model used to validate claim free discounts is reexamined with the car-mile as the measure of individual cost. Driver-record pricing is found to inflate car-year price-tocost differences. Consequences of accident rate variability for a car-mile system are reviewed. The per mile cost of individual risk transfer is a class property because of the random nature of accidents. Driver-record pricing attempted on a per mile basis would amplify differences within classes.