Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Securing Legacy Code with the TRACER Platform

Software vulnerabilities can severely affect an organization's infrastructure and cause significant financial damage to it. A number of tools and techniques are available for performing vulnerability detection in software written in various programming platforms, in a pursuit to mitigate such defects. However, since the requirements for running such tools and the formats in which they store and present their results vary wildly, it is difficult to utilize many of them in the scope of a project. By simplifying the process of running a variety of vulnerability detectors and collecting their results in an efficient, automated manner during development, the task of tracking security defects throughout the evolution history of software projects is bolstered. In this paper we present tracer, a software framework and platform to support the development of more secure applications by constantly monitoring software projects for vulnerabilities. The platform allows the easy integration of existing tools that statically detect software vulnerabilities and promotes their use during software development and maintenance. To demonstrate the efficiency and usability of the platform, we integrated two popular static analysis tools, FindBugs and Frama-c as sample implementations, and report on preliminary results from their use.
IPM-compatibility of foliar insecticides for citrus: Indices derived from toxicity to beneficial insects from four orders

Abstract A series of compounds representing four major pesticide groups were tested for toxicity to beneficial insects representing four different insect orders: Coleoptera (Coccinellidae), Hemiptera (Anthocoridae), Hymenoptera (Aphelinidae), and Neuroptera (Chrysopidae). These materials included organophosphates (methidathion, esfenvalerate and phosmet), carbamates (carbofuran, methomyl and carbaryl), pyrethroids (bifenthrin, fenpropathrin, zeta-cypermethrin, cyfluthrin and permethrin) and the oxadiazine indoxacarb. Toxicity to coccinellid and lacewing species was assessed by treating 1st instar larvae with the recommended field rate of commercial products, and two 10 fold dilutions of these materials, in topical spray applications. Adult Aphytis melinus Debach and 2nd instar Orius insidiosus (Say) were exposed to leaf residues of the same concentrations for 24 h. ANOVA performed on composite survival indices derived from these data resolved significant differences among materials with respect to their overall toxicity to beneficial insects. Cyfluthrin, fenpropathrin and zeta-cypermethrin all increased the developmental time of the lacewing and one or more coccinellid species for larvae that survived topical applications. Bifenthrin increased developmental time for two coccinellid species and decreased it in a third. Indoxacarb (Avaunt® WG, DuPont Corp.) ranked highest overall for safety to beneficial insects, largely because of its low dermal toxicity to all species tested. Zeta-cypermethrin (Super Fury®, FMC Corporation) received the second best safety rating, largely because of its low toxicity as a leaf residue to A. melinus and O. insidiosus. Phosmet (Imidan® 70W, Gowan Co.) and methidathion (Supracide® 25W, Gowan Co.) ranked high for safety to coccinellid species, but compounds currently recommended for use in citrus such as fenpropathrin (Danitol® 2.4EC, Sumimoto Chem. Co.) and carbaryl (Sevin® XLR EC, Rhone Poulenc Ag. Co.) ranked very low for IPM-compatibility based on their relatively high toxicity to all species tested.
Technology, characterization, and applications of adaptive mirrors fabricated with IC-compatible micromachining

Fabrication of electrostatically controlled membrane adaptive mirrors produced with IC- compatible micromachining is reported. Mirrors have rectangular reflective apertures with sizes varied from 1 by 1 mm up to 11 by 11 mm. The surface of the flexible mirror is formed by a free-suspended 0.5 micrometer-thick silicon nitride film coated with a thin reflective layer of aluminum. The rms deviation from plane for a mirror having one square centimeter aperture is 0.2 micrometer, mirrors with optical quality up to lambda/20 may be selected from batch. Up to sixteen mirrors can be fabricated on one four-inch silicon wafer. Optical figure of the reflective membrane is controlled by an array of 1.100 electrostatic actuators of arbitrary shape placed 20.100 micrometer beneath the reflecting membrane. Technology of fabrication is flexible enough to allow for fabrication of varifocal mirrors, multichannel adaptive mirrors, and spatial light modulators. These and some other applications are discussed in the report.
Diverse Voltage-Sensitive Dyes Modulate GABAAReceptor Function

Voltage-sensitive dyes are important tools for assessing network and single-cell excitability, but an untested premise in most cases is that the dyes do not interfere with the parameters (membrane potential, excitability) that they are designed to measure. We found that popular members of several different families of voltage-sensitive dyes modulate GABAA receptor with maximum efficacy and potency similar to clinically used GABAA receptor modulators. Di-4-ANEPPS and DiBAC4(3) potentiated GABA function with micromolar and high nanomolar potency, respectively, and yielded strong maximum effects similar to barbiturates and neurosteroids. Newer blue oxonols had biphasic effects on GABAA receptor function at nanomolar and micromolar concentrations, with maximum potentiation comparable to that of saturating benzodiazepine effects. ANNINE-6 and ANNINE-6plus had no detectable effect on GABAA receptor function. Even dyes with no activity on GABAA receptors at baseline induced photodynamic enhancement of GABAA receptors. The basal effects of dyes were sufficient to prolong IPSCs and to dampen network activity in multielectrode array recordings. Therefore, the dual effects of voltage-sensitive dyes on GABAergic inhibition require caution in dye use for studies of excitability and network activity.
Transurethral light delivery for prostate photoacoustic imaging

Abstract. Photoacoustic imaging has broad clinical potential to enhance prostate cancer detection and treatment, yet it is challenged by the lack of minimally invasive, deeply penetrating light delivery methods that provide sufficient visualization of targets (e.g., tumors, contrast agents, brachytherapy seeds). We constructed a side-firing fiber prototype for transurethral photoacoustic imaging of prostates with a dual-array (linear and curvilinear) transrectal ultrasound probe. A method to calculate the surface area and, thereby, estimate the laser fluence at this fiber tip was derived, validated, applied to various design parameters, and used as an input to three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations. Brachytherapy seeds implanted in phantom, ex vivo, and in vivo canine prostates at radial distances of 5 to 30 mm from the urethra were imaged with the fiber prototype transmitting 1064 nm wavelength light with 2 to 8 mJ pulse energy. Prebeamformed images were displayed in real time at a rate of 3 to 5 frames per second to guide fiber placement and beamformed offline. A conventional delay-and-sum beamformer provided decreasing seed contrast (23 to 9 dB) with increasing urethra-to-target distance, while the short-lag spatial coherence beamformer provided improved and relatively constant seed contrast (28 to 32 dB) regardless of distance, thus improving multitarget visualization in single and combined curvilinear images acquired with the fiber rotating and the probe fixed. The proposed light delivery and beamforming methods promise to improve key prostate cancer detection and treatment strategies.
Disjoint Paths in Networks

This article provides the basic concepts, complexity analysis, and discussions on the disjoint paths problem. The disjoint paths problem has a wide range of applications across various network types, particularly in providing a more reliable service to network traffic. Traffic that can make use of disjoint paths is more robust to the effect of network node or link failures. This article also covers many different variants of the disjoint paths problem, namely, the availability-based disjoint paths problem, the maximally disjoint paths problem, the domain-disjoint paths problem, the shared risk link group (SRLG)-disjoint paths problem, the region-disjoint paths problem, and the disjoint path pairs problem. Keywords: disjoint paths; network survivability
Efficient Indexing Methods for Temporal Relations

The primary issues that affect the design of indexing methods are examined, and several structures and algorithms for specific cases are proposed. The append-only tree (AP-tree) structure indexes data for append-only databases to help event-join optimization and queries that can exploit the inherent time ordering of such databases. Two variable indexing for the surrogate and time is discussed. It is shown that a nested index could be a very efficient structure in this context and is preferable to a composite B-tree or an index that involves linear lists of historical tuples. The problems of indexing time intervals, as related to nonsurrogate joint-indexing, are discussed. Several algorithms to partition the time line are introduced. A two-variable AT index based on nested indexing is outlined. >
Hemodynamic stresses induce endothelial dysfunction and remodeling of pulmonary artery in experimental compensated heart failure.

BACKGROUND We hypothesized that, in compensated heart failure (HF), hemodynamic perturbations and their consequences exist in pulmonary artery (PA) despite the absence of any perturbation in thoracic aorta (TA). METHODS AND RESULTS The left coronary artery was ligated in 20 male Wistar rats with compensated HF. Four months after ligation, these rats were compared with 20 sham-operated control rats. Blood pressure, velocity, viscosity, luminal diameter, and wall tensile and shear stresses were determined in PA and TA. Arterial rings were mounted in a myograph for ex vivo study. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) mRNA expression was determined in lung and aorta. Sections of PA and TA were used for histomorphometric study. In PA from rats with compensated HF, (1) blood pressure and wall tensile stress increased, whereas blood velocity and wall shear stress decreased; (2) contractions to KCl were not altered, but maximal contraction to phenylephrine and EC(50) decreased; (3) endothelium-dependent relaxation to acetylcholine and basal NO activity were blunted, whereas endothelium-independent relaxation was preserved; (4) eNOS mRNA levels and eNOS transcription in lung nuclei decreased; and (5) medial cross-sectional area, thickness, smooth muscle cell number, elastin, and collagen contents increased. Conversely, no such changes were found in TA from rats with compensated HF. CONCLUSIONS In compensated HF induced by small myocardial infarction, hemodynamics, vascular wall function, and structure are altered in PA but preserved in TA. These results indicate that the pulmonary vascular bed is an early target of regional circulatory alterations in HF.
Stochastic Evolution Equations in Portfolio Credit Modelling

We consider a structural credit model for a large portfolio of credit risky assets where the correlation is due to a market factor. By considering the large portfolio limit of this system we show the existence of a density process for the asset values. This density evolves according to a stochastic partial differential equation, and we establish existence and uniqueness for the solution taking values in a suitable function space. The loss function of the portfolio is then a function of the evolution of this density at the default boundary. We develop numerical methods for pricing and calibration of the model to credit indices and consider its performance before and after the credit crunch.
Active Collaborative Filtering

Collaborative filtering (CF) allows the preferences of multiple users to be pooled to make recommendations regarding unseen products. We consider in this paper the problem of online and interactive CF: given the current ratings associated with a user, what queries (new ratings) would most improve the quality of the recommendations made? We cast this terms of expected value of information (EVOI); but the online computational cost of computing optimal queries is prohibitive. We show how offline prototyping and computation of bounds on EVOI can be used to dramatically reduce the required online computation. The framework we develop is general, but we focus on derivations and empirical study in the specific case of the multiple-cause vector quantization model.
A small chip area 12-b 300MS/s Current Steering CMOS D/A converter based on a laminated-step layout technique

A 12-b 300 MSPS Current-Steering DAC with 0.13 um CMOS technology is presented. In order to reduce the chip area, a laminated-step layout technique is proposed. Based on this technique, the occupied DAC core size is only 0.26 mm2 even in 12-b resolution. Further, a current auto-averaging technique, an output impedance enhancement circuit, and the novel latched switching cell logic are discussed to keep the desired 12- b DAC performance. The measured results are within plusmn1 LSB for DNL. The measured SFDR is 70 dB under Nyquist output frequency with 50 mW power dissipation at 3.3 V power supply.
My Group's Fate Is My Fate: Identity-Fused Americans and Spaniards Link Personal Life Quality to Outcome of 2008 Elections

People differ in their reactions to the outcomes of their group. Whereas some may revel in victory and mourn in defeat, others may internalize victory but distance themselves from defeat. Here, we sought to relate these divergent reactions to two forms of alignment with groups–identity fusion and group identification. Investigations of the 2008 elections in the United States and Spain revealed that people who were “fused” with their political party internalized both victory and defeat, but highly identified persons internalized only victory. We discuss how these findings bear on the conceptual distinctions between identity fusion and group identification.
Hydrothermal Crystal Growth of Oxides for Optical Applications

The manipulation of light has proven to be an integral part of today’s technology-based society. In particular, there is great interest in obtaining coherent radiation in all regions of the optical spectrum to advance technology in military, medical, industrial, scientific and consumer fields. Exploring new crystal growth techniques as well as the growth of new optical materials is critical in the advancement of solid state optics. Surprisingly, the academic world devotes little attention to the growth of large crystals. This shortcoming has left gaps in the optical spectrum inaccessible by solid state devices. This dissertation explores the hydrothermal crystal growth of materials that could fill two such gaps. The first gap exists in the deep-UV region, particularly below 200 nm. Some materials such as LiB3O5 and β-BaB2O4 can generate coherent light at wavelengths as low as 205 nm. The growth of these materials was explored to investigate the feasibility of the hydrothermal method as a new technique for growing these crystals. Particular attention was paid to the descriptive chemistry surrounding these systems, and several novel structures were elucidated. The study was also extended to the growth of materials that could be used for the generation of coherent light as low as 155 nm. Novel synthetic schemes for Sr2Be2B2O7 and KBe2BO3F2 were developed and the growth of large crystals was explored. An extensive study of the structures,
Automatic correction of exposure problems in photo printer

In this paper we consider a problem of automatic enhancement of amateur photos in photo printer. The purpose of correction consists of making photos more pleasant for an observer. The photos with various exposure problems and with poorly distinguishable details in shadow areas are analyzed. Our approach is based on contrast stretching and alpha-blending of both brightness of the initial image and estimations of reflectance. For obtaining reflectance estimation a simplified illumination model is used. The luminance is estimated using bilateral filter. Reflectance is estimated using heuristic functions of ratio between brightness of the initial image and estimation of luminance. The correction parameters are chosen adaptively based on histogram analysis. Noise suppression and some sharpening occur during correction. The time and memory optimization issues are considered. Look-up tables and recursive separable bilateral filter are applied to speed up the algorithm. The quality of the algorithm is evaluated by surveying of observer's opinions and by comparisons with already existing software and hardware solutions for local shadow correction. The proposed algorithm was implemented into firmware of Samsung dye-sublimation compact photo printer
How does a typical tutorial for mobile development look like?

We report on an exploratory study, which aims at understanding how development tutorials are structured, what types of tutorials exist, and how official tutorials differ from tutorials written by development communities. We analyzed over 1.200 tutorials for mobile application development provided by six different sources for the three major platforms: Android, Apple iOS, and Windows Phone. We found that a typical tutorial contains around 2700 words distributed over 4 pages and including a list of instructions with 18 items. Overall, 70% of the tutorials contain source code examples and a similar fraction contain images. On average, one tutorial has 6 images. When analyzing the images, we found that the studied iOS community posted the largest number of images, 14 images per tutorial, on average, from which 74% are plain images, i.e., mainly screenshots without stencils, diagrams, or highlights. In contrast, 36% of the images included in the official tutorials by Apple were diagrams or images with stencils. Community sites seem to follow a similar structure to the official sites but include items and images which are rather underrepresented in the official tutorials. From the analysis of the tutorials content by means of natural language processing combined with manual content analysis, we derived four categories for mobile development tutorials: infrastructure and design, application and services, distribution and maintenance, and development platform. Our categorization can help tutorial writers to better organize and evaluate the content of their tutorials and identify missing tutorials.
Constitutive activation of NF-kappaB during progression of breast cancer to hormone-independent growth

Breast cancers often progress from a hormone-dependent, nonmetastatic, antiestrogen-sensitive phenotype to a hormone-independent, antiestrogen- and chemotherapy-resistant phenotype with highly invasive and metastatic growth properties. This progression is usually accompanied by altered function of the estrogen receptor (ER) or outgrowth of ER-negative cancer cells. To understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for metastatic growth of ER-negative breast cancers, the activities of the transcription factor NF-kappaB (which modulates the expression of genes involved in cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and metastasis) were compared in ER-positive (MCF-7 and T47-D) and ER-negative (MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-435) human breast cancer cell lines. NF-kappaB, which is usually maintained in an inactive state by protein-protein interaction with inhibitor IkappaBs, was found to be constitutively active in ER-negative breast cancer cell lines. Constitutive DNA binding of NF-kappaB was also observed with extracts from ER-negative, poorly differentiated primary breast tumors. Progression of the rat mammary carcinoma cell line RM22-F5 from an ER-positive, nonmalignant phenotype (E phenotype) to an ER-negative, malignant phenotype (F phenotype) was also accompanied by constitutive activation of NF-kappaB. Analysis of individual subunits of NF-kappaB revealed that all ER-negative cell lines, including RM22-F5 cells of F phenotype, contain a unique 37-kDa protein which is antigenically related to the RelA subunit. Cell-type-specific differences in IkappaB alpha, -beta, and -gamma were also observed. In transient-transfection experiments, constitutive activity of an NF-kappaB-dependent promoter was observed in MDA-MB-231 and RM22-F5 cells of F phenotype, and this activity was efficiently repressed by cotransfected ER. Since ER inhibits the constitutive as well as inducible activation function of NF-kappaB in a dose-dependent manner, we propose that breast cancers that lack functional ER overexpress NF-kappaB-regulated genes. Furthermore, since recent data indicate that NF-kappaB protects cells from tumor necrosis factor alpha-, ionizing radiation-, and chemotherapeutic agent daunorubicin-mediated apoptosis, our results provide an explanation for chemotherapeutic resistance in ER-negative breast cancers.
Multichannel Electrocardiogram Decomposition Using Periodic Component Analysis

In this letter, we propose the application of the generalized eigenvalue decomposition for the decomposition of multichannel electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings. The proposed method uses a modified version of a previously presented measure of periodicity and a phase-wrapping of the RR-interval, for extracting the ldquomost periodicrdquo linear mixtures of a recorded dataset. It is shown that the method is an improved extension of conventional source separation techniques, specifically customized for ECG signals. The method is therefore of special interest for the decomposition and compression of multichannel ECG, and for the removal of maternal ECG artifacts from fetal ECG recordings.
SEEDB: Automatically Generating Query Visualizations

Data analysts operating on large volumes of data often rely on visualizations to interpret the results of queries. However, finding the right visualization for a query is a laborious and time-consuming task. We demonstrate SeeDB, a system that partially automates this task: given a query, SeeDB explores the space of all possible visualizations, and automatically identifies and recommends to the analyst those visualizations it finds to be most "interesting" or "useful". In our demonstration, conference attendees will see SeeDB in action for a variety of queries on multiple real-world datasets.
STRENGTHENING OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS WITH CFRP SHEETS

The present article will focus on experimental results obtained recently in the authors' laboratory, after testing a series of beams strengthened with carbon-fibre laminae (CFRP). The objectives of this investigation are to: (1) optimize the length and orientation of the CFRP reinforcement to increase beam strength and ductility; (2) evaluate the shear stress at the interface between the laminae and concrete; (3) identify the anchorage length of the laminae; and (4) increase the reliability of the beams reinforced with this method. The authors have experimented with varying the length and orientations of the reinforcing laminae. Using layers with low angles did not appear to influence significantly the strength or ductility of the beam so far. However, they were found to influence the distribution of the cracks. For all beams, failure occurred with a sudden separation of the sheet from the concrete beam. Different types of anchorage systems are also being investigated to prevent this failure mode. Theoretical models, developed to predict behavior of the sections and of the strengthened beams, show a reasonable agreement with the tests.