Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What do we mean by Network Denial of Service

Recent network denial-of-service attacks have brought about awareness of the vulnerability of increasingly important network services. While denial of service is not a new problem, and some of the network aspects of denial of service have been addressed, there is currently no unifying definition of what constitutes network denial of service. The goal of this paper is to propose a definition of network denial of service, and to demonstrate a simple network model that can be used to construct a taxonomy of network denial-of-service attacks. This taxonomy provides a means of categorizing existing attacks and demonstrating how future attacks might be constructed, as well as providing a simple a precise way of describing attacks.
How Smartphones Have Changed the Job for Better and for Worse—The Experiences of Reporters

ABSTRACT Newspaper reporters now have to produce stories for online and print, with fewer people and less time to complete work. How is it then that they are getting their work done? Interviews with reporters at three large newspapers in the U.S. about the past 10 years in the newspaper business demonstrated that the biggest change that has occurred from a technological standpoint is the introduction of smartphones. This paper explores the adoption of smartphones into reporters’ daily jobs, as well as social media (accessed via smartphone). To examine this adoption and their relationship to smartphones, Shoemaker and Reese's Hierarchy of Influences model was used as a framework. Findings suggest that reporters are doing more at the individual level of routines than ever before, rather than waiting for their media organizations to tell them what to do.
Identification of alterations in DNA copy number in host stromal cells during tumor progression

The interactions between cancer cells and the surrounding host stromal tissue play a critical role in tumor progression and metastasis, but the molecular nature of this relationship remains largely uncharacterized. Furthermore, although genetic changes of neoplastic cells in tumors contribute significantly to tumor progression, it is not known whether similar changes occur in the adjacent host stromal microenvironment and whether they contribute to or inhibit tumorigenesis. To address this question in an unbiased and genome-wide manner, we applied high-resolution DNA copy number analysis to murine stromal DNA isolated from human xenograft tumors that were formed in immunodeficient mice. We show that numerous amplifications and deletions are found within the host stromal microenvironment, suggesting that alterations in host DNA copy number can occur and may play a significant role in modifying tumor–stromal interactions.
Large-scale Analysis of PDGFRA Mutations in Melanomas and Evaluation of Their Sensitivity to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors Imatinib and Crenolanib

Purpose: Platelet-derived growth factor receptor α (PDGFRA) is a target for tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-based targeted therapy. Dysregulation of PDGFRA has been reported in many cancers. However, PDGFRA mutations in melanomas have not been well studied. We analyzed the genetic mutations of PDGFRA in Chinese patients with melanoma and determined the inhibitory potency of TKIs, such as imatinib and crenolanib, on mutant PDGFRA. Experimental Design: Of note, 351 melanoma tissue samples were examined for genetic mutations in exons 12, 14, and 18 of PDGFRA. Activities of mutations in response to imatinib and crenolanib were analyzed by Western blotting of tyrosine-phosphorylated PDGFRA and cell proliferation assays. Results: PDGFRA mutations were observed in 4.6% (16 of 351) of melanomas, and these mutations were mainly detected in acral and mucosal melanomas. PDGFRA mutations seem to be mutually exclusive with KIT mutations, but may coexist with BRAF and NRAS mutations. The genetic mutations of PDGFRA were unrelated to the age, thickness, and ulceration status of primary melanomas. Thirteen mutations were not reported before, and five (P577S, V658A, R841K, H845Y, and G853D) of them resulted in strong autophosphorylation of PDGFRA. Crenolanib showed higher potency than imatinib in inhibiting the kinase activity of PDGFRA. Except that V658A mutation was imatinib-resistant, all the other mutations were sensitive to both imatinib and crenolanib. Conclusions: PDGFRA mutations are detected in a small population of melanoma patients. Our study suggests that patients with melanoma harboring certain PDGFRA mutations may benefit from imatinib and crenolanib treatment. Clin Cancer Res; 19(24); 6935–42. ©2013 AACR.
Replacement Method based on Access Spatiotemporal Locality in aHeterogeneous Distributed Cluster-based Caching System for WebGIS

Community user access of a WebGIS is characterized by intensity and popularity; the requested geospatial data have characteristics of spatial and temporal locality. This paper proposed an expression for the replacement feature by balancing spatial and temporal locality as well as long-term and short-term popularity in tile access to ensure the replacement process can not only optimize global access but also adapt to access pattern changes. Then, using the Hash function and linear linked chains to provide cooperative cache management in a heterogeneous cluster-based caching sys- tem speeds up the query and replacement process of tiles and improves the performance of the cluster-based cache serv- ice. Experimental results reveal that proposed method obtains a higher cache hit rate and a good average response per- formance for a heterogeneous distributed cluster-based cache system, servicing more users and increasing its service ca- pacity.
Generalized Method of Moments and Optimal Instruments Class Notes

Part A reviews the basic estimation theory of the generalized method of moments (GMM) and Part B deals with optimal instrumental variables. 1 For the most part, we restrict attention to iid observations. Linear Regression Economists often use linear regression to quantify a relationship between economic variables. A linear regression between y and x is a relationship of the form y = x 0 β + ε (A.1) where β and ε are chosen in such a way that ε is uncorrelated with x (which typically includes a constant term). Thus, the parameter vector β satisfies
Ecological patterns of genome size variation and the origin of species in salamanders

Salamanders (urodela) have among the largest vertebrate genomes, ranging in size from 10 to over 80 pg. The urodela are divided into ten extant families each with a characteristic range in genome size. Although changes in genome size often occur randomly and in the absence of selection pressure, non-random patterns of genome size variation are evident among specific vertebrate lineages. Here we report that genome size in salamander families varies inversely with species richness and other ecological factors: clades that began radiating earlier (older crown age) tend to have smaller genomes, higher levels of diversity and larger geographical ranges. These observations support the hypothesis that urodel families with larger genomes either have a lower propensity to diversify or are more vulnerable to extinction than families with smaller genomes.
A Role for Methyl-CpG Binding Domain Protein 2 in the Modulation of the Estrogen Response of pS2/TFF1 Gene

Background In human Estrogen Receptor α (ERα)-positive breast cancers, 5′ end dense methylation of the estrogen-regulated pS2/TFF1 gene correlates with its transcriptional inhibition. However, in some ERα-rich biopsies, pS2 expression is observed despite the methylation of its TATA-box region. Herein, we investigated the methylation-dependent mechanism of pS2 regulation. Methodology/Principal Findings We observed interplay between Methyl-CpG Binding Domain protein 2 (MBD2) transcriptional repressor and ERα transactivator: (i) the pS2 gene is poised for transcription upon demethylation limited to the enhancer region containing the estrogen responsive element (ERE); (ii) MBD2-binding sites overlapped with the methylation status of the pS2 5′ end; (iii) MBD2 depletion elevated pS2 expression and ectopic expression of ERα partially overcame the inhibitory effect of MBD2 when the ERE is unmethylated. Furthermore, serial chromatin immunoprecipitation assays indicated that MBD2 and ERα could simultaneously occupy the same pS2 DNA molecule; (iv) concomitant ectopic ERα expression and MBD2 depletion resulted in synergistic transcriptional stimulation, while the pS2 promoter remains methylated. Conclusions/Significance MBD2 and ERα drive opposite effects on pS2 expression, which are associated with specific steady state levels of histone H3 acetylation and methylation marks. Thus, epigenetic silencing of pS2 could be dependent on balance of the relative intracellular concentrations of ERα and MBD2.
Functional Characterization of the Tau Class Glutathione-S-Transferases Gene (SbGSTU) Promoter of Salicornia brachiata under Salinity and Osmotic Stress

Reactive oxygen or nitrogen species are generated in the plant cell during the extreme stress condition, which produces toxic compounds after reacting with the organic molecules. The glutathione-S-transferase (GST) enzymes play a significant role to detoxify these toxins and help in excretion or sequestration of them. In the present study, we have cloned 1023 bp long promoter region of tau class GST from an extreme halophyte Salicornia brachiata and functionally characterized using the transgenic approach in tobacco. Computational analysis revealed the presence of abiotic stress responsive cis-elements like ABRE, MYB, MYC, GATA, GT1 etc., phytohormones, pathogen and wound responsive motifs. Three 5’-deletion constructs of 730 (GP2), 509 (GP3) and 348 bp (GP4) were made from 1023 (GP1) promoter fragment and used for tobacco transformation. The single event transgenic plants showed notable GUS reporter protein expression in the leaf tissues of control as well as treated plants. The expression level of the GUS gradually decreases from GP1 to GP4 in leaf tissues, whereas the highest level of expression was detected with the GP2 construct in root and stem under control condition. The GUS expression was found higher in leaves and stems of salinity or osmotic stress treated transgenic plants than that of the control plants, but, lower in roots. An efficient expression level of GUS in transgenic plants suggests that this promoter can be used for both constitutive as well as stress inducible expression of gene(s). And this property, make it as a potential candidate to be used as an alternative promoter for crop genetic engineering.
The Power of Second-Order Decision Tables

The success of data mining techniques can be measured by the usefulness of models they produce. Often these models must be explainable as well as accurate. While decision tables are easy to interpret and explain to virtually all users, there has been little study of whether such simple models are powerful enough to use for data mining. This paper presents SORCER, a learning system that induces second-order decision tables from a given data set. Second-order tables are database relations in which rows have sets of atomic values as components. Using sets of values interpreted as disjunctions, secondorder tables provide simple and compact representations that both enhance comprehensibility and facilitate efficient management. Unlike many other learning systems, to further promote comprehensibility, SORCER attempts to generate a minimum number of rows. SORCER’s induction algorithm can be viewed as a table compression technique in which a traditional table, representing training data, is transformed into a second-order table with fewer rows by merging rows in ways that preserve consistency with the training data. We compare SORCER to three classification systems: C4.5, CBA and a Naive Bayesian classifier. Experimental results on 26 data sets show that the average error rate obtained from SORCER, using a simple compression method, is lower than those of the Naive Bayesian classifier and C4.5 and is competitive with CBA’s average error rate. Using a slightly more sophisticated compression, SORCER’s average error rate is the lowest of all.
Protein Synthesis-Dependent Associative Long-Term Memory in Larval Zebrafish

The larval zebrafish is a model organism to study the neural circuitry underlying behavior. There exist, however, few examples of robust long-term memory. Here we describe a simple, unrestrained associative place-conditioning paradigm. We show that visual access to a group of conspecifics has rewarding properties for 6- to 8-day-old larval zebrafish. We use this social reward as an unconditioned stimulus and pair it with a distinct visual environment. After training, larvae exhibited spatial preference for the location previously paired with the social reward for up to 36 h, indicating that zebrafish larvae can exhibit long-term associative memory. Furthermore, incubation with a protein synthesis inhibitor or an NMDAR-antagonist impaired memory. In future experiments, this learning paradigm could be used to study the social interactions of larval zebrafish or paired with cell-specific metabolic labeling to visualize circuits underlying memory formation.
A case for flash memory ssd in enterprise database applications

Due to its superiority such as low access latency, low energy consumption, light weight, and shock resistance, the success of flash memory as a storage alternative for mobile computing devices has been steadily expanded into personal computer and enterprise server markets with ever increasing capacity of its storage. However, since flash memory exhibits poor performance for small-to-moderate sized writes requested in a random order, existing database systems may not be able to take full advantage of flash memory without elaborate flash-aware data structures and algorithms. The objective of this work is to understand the applicability and potential impact that flash memory SSD (Solid State Drive) has for certain type of storage spaces of a database server where sequential writes and random reads are prevalent. We show empirically that up to more than an order of magnitude improvement can be achieved in transaction processing by replacing magnetic disk with flash memory SSD for transaction log, rollback segments, and temporary table spaces.
Microsatellite Instability Is Uncommon in Breast Cancer 1

In some tumors, defects in mismatch repair enzymes lead to errors in the replication of simple nucleotide repeat segments. This condition is commonly known as microsatellite instability (MSI) because of the frequent mutations of microsatellite sequences. Although the MSI phenotype is well recognized in some colon, gastric, pancreatic, and endometrial cancers, reports of MSI in breast cancer are inconsistent. We report here our experience with >10,000 amplifications of simple nucleotide repeats in noncoding genomic regions using DNA from 267 cases of breast cancer, including cases that represent all major histological types of breast cancer. We rarely (10 reactions) found unexpected bands in amplifications of tumor DNA that were not present in amplifications of normal DNA. Moreover, repeats of these reactions did not confirm microsatellite instability in a single case. We also evaluated the simple nucleotide repeats in the transforming growth factor type II receptor, insulin-like growth factor type II receptor, BAX, and E2F-4 genes, which are frequently mutated in tumors with microsatellite instability. No mutations of these genes were found in any of the 30 breast cancer cell lines and 61 primary breast cancer samples examined. These results indicate that mismatch repair errors characteristic of the MSI phenotype are uncommon in human breast cancer.
A New miRNA Motif Protects Pathways Expression in Gene Regulatory Networks

The continuing discovery of new functions and classes of small non-coding RNAs is suggesting the presence of regulatory mecha- nisms far more complex than the ones identied so far. In our compu- tational analysis of a large set of public available databases, we found statistical evidence of an inter-pathway regulatory motif, not previously described, that reveals a new protective role miRNAs may play in the successful activation of a pathway. This paper reports the main outcomes of this analysis. the central role of non-coding RNAs in intra-pathway regulation (2). In our research for higher- level mechanisms of transcriptional regulation, we identied an inter-pathway regulatory motif, not previously described, in which miRNAs seem to play a new role in the successful expression of a pathway. In particular, some intragenic miRNAs, co-expressed with one or more pathway genes, seem to act as pathway protectors. We observed that, in several situations, they target the transcription factors of a set of genes hosting miRNAs that could interfere with the pathway successful activation. We found statistical evidence that this inter-pathway reg- ulatory motif, which we called Pathway Protection Loop (PPL), is very common in several classes of KEGG pathways (7). Figure 1 shows the structure of a PPL. The successful full activation of a pathway not only depends on the correct expression of the pathway genes, but also on controlling the expression of other genes that could potentially dysregu- late (down-regulate or silence) the pathway at some point. We call these genes the Pathway Antagonist Genes (PAGs). A possible way PAGs may interfere with the activity of a pathway is to express a set of miRNAs, in this context called An- tagonist miRNAs, targeting and down-regulating some of the pathway's genes. Interestingly, we discovered that, in several situations, the pathway intragenic miRNAs target and silence the transcription factors of the PAGs, thus creating
The Simultaneous Localization and Mapping problem in a nonlinear parameter identifiability perspective

A feasible solution to the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem is often considered invaluable in many autonomous vehicle navigation applications. In this paper we show that SLAM initialized with a known vehicle pose can be considered as a problem of parameter identification. Using a rank test for nonlinear map state identification, we establish that all the map states in the SLAM problem are identifiable given the initial conditions of the vehicle pose with zero uncertainty. We compare and contrast the nonlinear observability of the SLAM problem with its nonlinear parameter identification characteristics. We also show using the linear single dimensional SLAM problem formulation and closed form solutions that, given the initial conditions of the vehicle state with no uncertainty, the map states are identifiable. Furthermore, we show that the map states are not identifiable if the initial conditions are not known. We also present simulation and experimental results to corroborate the theoretical results. We propose that it is possible to use machine learning techniques in SLAM in view of the new parameter identifiability perspective.
Identifying DGA-Based Botnets Using Network Anomaly Detection

Nowadays, the attacks are no longer performed from a single computer but from thousands, sometimes millions of systems that are located all over the globe and are grouped in a network called botnet. The most widely used technique to control a botnet is to try to connect to many domain names, generated according to an algorithm called domain generating algorithm (DGA). In this paper we present different algorithms that can determine if a computer is part of a botnet by looking at its network traffic. Since in some cases the network traffic is impossible to be shared due to privacy reasons we also analyze the case where just limited information can be provided (such as a netflow log). The algorithms presented here were obtained after reverse engineering and analyzing the DGA of 18 different botnets including some that were taken down (such as Cryptolocker) and ones that are still alive and thriving (such as PushDo, Tinba, Nivdort, DirtyLocker, Dobot, Patriot, Ramdo, Virut, Ramnit and many more).
Optimal Combined Non-convex Economic and Emission Load Dispatch Using NSDE

This paper presents an algorithm based on nondominated sorting differential evolution algorithm (NSDE) for solving optimal economic emission dispatch problems in electric power system. Economic emission load dispatch problems are multiobjective optimization problems and are the right field for testing and application of NSDE algorithm. NSDE is reported to have performed excellently on many bench mark test cases of multiobjective optimization problems. The performance of the algorithm is tested on a test case of economic emission load dispatch. The results are impressive and encouraging.
Steps toward a living lab for socialmedia concept evaluation and continuous user-involvement

Involving users in the design and evaluation process of new technical artefacts is a fundamental approach in building usable and acceptable applications and services. To conduct such studies in realistic settings, the Living Lab methodology has been established over last few years. In our research work we established such a lab in a local area with the intention of building a foundation on which to evaluate ideas and prototypes around the Social Media topic. In this paper we describe our approach and point out issues that occurred within the build-up process. Crucial aspects include the selection process, the organisation and especially the question of how clusters of households can be built.
Adaptive Decoding of Binary Linear Block Codes Using Information Sets and Erasures

This paper proposes an information-set based soft-decision decoding algorithm for binary linear block codes. In this new algorithm a list of symbol positions that are able to generate a valid information set is obtained, in advance, by using pre-processing. During the decoding process, the algorithm reconstructs a code-word by means of the information sets from the list. Early termination of the decoding process is based on the acceptance criterion of Barros, Godoy and Wille (BGW). If the BGW criterion was not satisfied, the candidate code-word is changed via bit exchanges (erasures) and reconstructed in order to identify the wrong bits. The performance of the proposed algorithm is quite favorable, being comparable to the maximum-likelihood decoding performance, as shown by results obtained from computer simulation. This paper also demonstrates the equivalency between the BGW criterion and the Taipale and Pursley criterion, proposed independently in 1993 and in 1989 respectively.
Trust and Collaboration in Interagency Information Technology Projects

This paper presents a model providing a feedback structure that clarifies the nature of the reinforcing processes involved in the development of trust through collaborating in a project. The feedback structure is grounded in data from a project where a prototype system was built, and it is consistent with the literature on trust, collaboration and diffusion of innovation. Four feedback processes are identified at the core of the development of trust and collaboration, two of them reinforcing in nature, and two of them counterbalancing in nature. Experiments with the model suggest that the initiation of a collaborative project with a new partner has the potential to have a slow start because of the lack of knowledge about the other parties. The initiation of the collaboration could be accelerated by shaping expectations of benefits of the project or by reducing the perception of risk associated with the project.