Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Finite-State Stochastic Modeling and Secure Estimation of Cyber-Physical Systems

The problem of secure state estimation and attack detection in cyber-physical systems is considered in this paper. A stochastic modeling framework is first introduced, based on which the attacked system is modeled as a finite-state hidden Markov model with switching transition probability matrices controlled by a Markov decision process. Based on this framework, a joint state and attack estimation problem is formulated and solved. Utilizing the change of probability measure approach, we show that an unnormalized joint state and attack distribution conditioned on the sensor measurement information evolves in a linear recursive form, based on which the optimal estimates can be further calculated by evaluating the normalized marginal conditional distributions. The estimation results are further applied to secure estimation of stable linear Gaussian systems, and extensions to more general systems are also discussed. The effectiveness of the results are illustrated by numerical examples and comparative simulation.
Optical properties of silver nanoparticles embedded in dielectric films produced by dc and rf magnetron sputtering

In this work it is reported the experimental production of silver-dielectric nanocomposites by the rf and dc magnetron sputtering techniques, as well as, the evolution of the plasmon resonance in silver nanoparticles as a function of the size of silver nanoparticles in the nanocomposites. Our nanocomposites are constituted by the intercalation of dielectric (Teflon, SiO2, TiO2 or a-C) layers made by rf magnetron sputtering with layers of silver nanoparticles made by dc magnetron sputtering. Size of silver nanoparticles was modulated by changing the values of dc current of the plasma during deposition and keeping constant all the other parameters. High resolution transmission electron microscopy was used to observe the shape and size of nanoparticles. The chemical composition and crystalline structure of the materials were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. UV-visible spectroscopy in the 350-1100 nm range was used to study the plasmon-resonance evolution. Dipolar and Quadrupolar Plasmon resonance were observed and interpreted in terms of the Mie theory.
Diketopiperazines produced by an Aspergillus fumigatus Brazilian strain

Seven diketopiperazines, corresponding to the cyclos (L)-Pro-(L)-Phe, (L)-Pro-Gly, (L)-Pro-(L)-Pro, (L)-Pro-(L)-Val, (L)-4-OH-Pro-(L)-Leu, (L)-4-OH-Pro-(L)-Phe, and (L)-Pro-(L)-Leu, were isolated from the Aspergillus fumigatus fermentation broth. The relative and absolute stereochemistries were determined on the basis of NOESY experiments and by using a modified version of Marfey's method using HPLC, respectively.
Educational software engineering: Where software engineering, education, and gaming meet

We define and advocate the subfield of educational software engineering (i.e., software engineering for education), which develops software engineering technologies (e.g., software testing and analysis, software analytics) for general educational tasks, going beyond educational tasks for software engineering. In this subfield, gaming technologies often play an important role together with software engineering technologies. We expect that researchers in educational software engineering would be among key players in the education domain and in the coming age of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Educational software engineering can and will contribute significant solutions to address various critical challenges in education especially MOOCs such as automatic grading, intelligent tutoring, problem generation, and plagiarism detection. In this position paper, we define educational software engineering and illustrate Pex for Fun (in short as Pex4Fun), one of our recent examples on leveraging software engineering and gaming technologies to address educational tasks on teaching and learning programming and software engineering skills.
Exploring Multilingual Semantic Role Labeling

This paper describes the multilingual semantic role labeling system of Computational Linguistics Group, Trinity College Dublin, for the CoNLL-2009 SRLonly closed shared task. The system consists of two cascaded components: one for disambiguating predicate word sense, and the other for identifying and classifying arguments. Supervised learning techniques are utilized in these two components. As each language has its unique characteristics, different parameters and strategies have to be taken for different languages, either for providing functions required by a language or for meeting the tight deadline. The system obtained labeled F1 69.26 averaging over seven languages (Catalan, Chinese, Czech, English, German, Japanese, and Spanish), which ranks the system fourth among the seven systems participating the SRL only closed track.
TOWARD A SOCIOMATERIAL APPROACH TO KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

Knowledge sharing is one of the most important preoccupations of organizational literature. Until recently, knowledge literature has largely assumed an idealist conception of knowledge that posits the production of knowledge as disinterested and individual endeavor. However, these insights are limited in large part because they overlooked the way in which organizing is bound up with materiality. Based on a sociomaterial conception of knowledge, we claim that our ways of dealing with materiality in organization research, and especially in knowledge literature, are conceptually problematic. We argue for an alternative approach, one that posits the constitutive entanglement of the social and the material in everyday life. We draw on one case study to illustrate this approach in practice and conclude that a reconfiguration of our conception of knowledge will be useful to understand the complexity of sociomaterial assemblages entailed in contemporary organizations.
TGF‐β signaling through SMAD2/3 induces the quiescent microglial phenotype within the CNS environment

Microglia are myeloid‐derived cells that colonize the central nervous system (CNS) at early stages of development and constitute up to 20% of the glial populations throughout life. While extensive progress has been recently made in identifying the cellular origin of microglia, the mechanism whereby the cells acquire the unique ramified and quiescent phenotype within the CNS milieu remains unknown. Here, we show that upon co‐culturing of either CD117+/Lin− hematopoietic progenitors or CD11c+ bone marrow derived cells with organotypic hippocampal slices or primary glia, the cells acquire a ramified morphology concomitant with reduced levels of CD86, MHCII, and CD11c and up‐regulation of the microglial cell–surface proteins CX3CR1 and Iba‐1. We further demonstrate that the transforming growth factor beta (TGF‐β) signaling pathway via SMAD2/3 phosphorylation is essential for both primary microglia and myeloid‐derived cells in order to acquire their quiescent phenotype. Our study suggests that the abundant expression of TGF‐β within the CNS during development and various inflammatory processes plays a key role in promoting the quiescent phenotype of microglia and may thus serve as a target for therapeutic strategies aimed at modulating the function of microglia in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and prion. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Ownership structure and the performance of firms: Evidence from France*

This paper deals with the influence of ownership structure, variables of external and organisational discipline on financial and economic performance. By means of self-organising maps, in particular Kohonen maps, we highlight three main results. Firstly, the results obtained from a sample of French companies are consistent with the findings of Morck, Shleifer and Vishny (1988), McConnell and Servaes (1990) and Short and Keasey (1999) and suggest a non-linear relation between ownership structure and performance. Secondly, the variables of external discipline, that is leverage and stock-turnover, partly explain performance. Although debt level negatively influences perform- ance (Opler and Titman, 1994), conversely, stock-turnover has a beneficial impact on performance (Charreaux, 1997). Finally, though the organisational variables seem to have no significant impact on performance, corporate size has a positive influence on performance.
Addition of Polydextrose and Galactooligosaccharide to Formula Does Not Affect Bacterial Translocation in the Neonatal Piglet

Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine the effect of polydextrose (PDX) and galactooligosaccharide (GOS) on bacterial translocation (BT) in neonatal piglets. Materials and Methods: Piglets (n = 36) were randomized 12 hours after birth to receive total enteral nutrition (TEN) as formula; TEN + GOS (4 g/L), TEN + PDX (4 g/L), or TEN + GOS + PDX (2 g/L each) for 7 days or were supported by total parenteral nutrition (TPN) as a positive control for BT (n = 8). Blood, spleen, liver, and mesenteric lymph node (MLN) samples were cultured for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Colon microbiota 16S rDNA was measured by polymerase chain reaction. Myeloperoxidase activity and tumor necrosis factor-α expression were measured in ileum and ascending colon. Results: Among the enterally fed groups, no difference was seen in the Lactobacillus and Bacteroides 16S rDNA copies per gram of colonic contents, yet total bacterial levels were lower (P < 0.05) in the TEN + GOS group compared with TEN alone. Bacteria were detected in the blood, liver spleen, and MLN of TPN piglets. In contrast, bacterial counts were predominantly detected in the MLN of TEN piglets, at much lower levels than in TPN, and levels were not affected by GOS and PDX addition. TPN piglets had elevated (P < 0.05) ileal myeloperoxidase activity and a trend in elevated ascending colon tumor necrosis factor-α expression (P = 0.1). Conclusions: PDX and GOS added to formula do not induce BT in healthy piglets. Low levels of bacteria in MLN of healthy neonatal piglets may reflect mucosal sampling rather than pathological BT.
Sensitive Gene Expression Profiling of Human T Cell Subsets Reveals Parallel Post-Thymic Differentiation for CD4+ and CD8+ Lineages1

The differentiation of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells following priming of naive cells is central in the establishment of the immune response against pathogens or tumors. However, our understanding of this complex process and the significance of the multiple subsets of differentiation remains controversial. Gene expression profiling has opened new directions of investigation in immunobiology. Nonetheless, the need for substantial amount of biological material often limits its application range. In this study, we have developed procedures to perform microarray analysis on amplified cDNA from low numbers of cells, including primary T lymphocytes, and applied this technology to the study of CD4 and CD8 lineage differentiation. Gene expression profiling was performed on samples of 1000 cells from 10 different subpopulations, defining the major stages of post-thymic CD4+ or CD8+ T cell differentiation. Surprisingly, our data revealed that while CD4+ and CD8+ T cell gene expression programs diverge at early stages of differentiation, they become increasingly similar as cells reach a late differentiation stage. This suggests that functional heterogeneity between Ag experienced CD4+ and CD8+ T cells is more likely to be located early during post-thymic differentiation, and that late stages of differentiation may represent a common end in the development of T-lymphocytes.
Force volume and stiffness tomography investigation on the dynamics of stiff material under bacterial membranes

The determination of the characteristics of micro‐organisms in clinical specimens is essential for the rapid diagnosis and treatment of infections. A thorough investigation of the nanoscale properties of bacteria can prove to be a fundamental tool. Indeed, in the latest years, the importance of high resolution analysis of the properties of microbial cell surfaces has been increasingly recognized. Among the techniques available to observe at high resolution specific properties of microscopic samples, the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is the most widely used instrument capable to perform morphological and mechanical characterizations of living biological systems. Indeed, AFM can routinely study single cells in physiological conditions and can determine their mechanical properties with a nanometric resolution. Such analyses, coupled with high resolution investigation of their morphological properties, are increasingly used to characterize the state of single cells.
Generalized If-Then-Else Operator for Compact Polynomial Representation of Multi Output Functions

The paper studies a new polynomial representation of Multi Output Functions (MOFs). The new representation, called GITE-polynomials, is based on a newly introduced Generalized If-Then-Else (GITE) function. Being a compact form of representation of MOFs, the GITE-polynomials allow efficient manipulation with a set of functions. The paper introduces algebra of GITE-polynomials. Properties of this algebra are used for solving the MOF-decomposition problem. The solution provides a compact representation of MOFs.
In situ synthesis of ZnO Nanoparticles on plasma treated cotton fabric utilizing durable antibacterial activity

ABSTRACT In this research work, ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) were in situ synthesized by the sonochemical method at room temperature on both untreated and plasma pre-treated cotton woven fabric. Air plasma was used for pre-functionalization of cotton fabric. And the effect of plasma pre-functionalization on the adhesion properties between ZnO nanoparticles and the cotton surface were studied. The results show that nanoparticles with average sizes of 20–90 nm with different morphologies have been created on the surface of samples. Characterization studies were carried out using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Inductive coupled plasma (ICP). The antibacterial activities of the fabrics were assessed by the colonies count method. The results show that the finished fabric demonstrated significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus in the antibacterial test. The wash fastness of both untreated and plasma pre-treated samples after 30 times of washing was investigated. The results showed that the parameters of plasma reactor play a very important role in improving the antibacterial durability.
AppTrace: Dynamic trace on Android devices

Mass vulnerabilities involved in the Android alternative applications could threaten the security of the launched device or users data. To analyze the alternative applications, generally, researchers would like to observe applications' runtime features first. Then they need to decompile the target application and read the complicated code to figure out what the application really does. Traditional dynamic analysis methodology, for instance, the TaintDroid, uses dynamic taint tracking technique to mark information at source APIs. However, TaintDroid is limited to constraint on requiring target application to run in custom sandbox that might be not compatible with all the Android versions. For solving this problem and helping analysts to have insight into the runtime behavior, this paper presents AppTrace, a novel dynamic analysis system that uses dynamic instrumentation technique to trace member methods of target application that could be deployed in any version above Android 4.0. The paper presents an evaluation of AppTrace with 8 apps from Google Play as well as 50 open source apps from F-Droid. The results show that AppTrace could trace methods of target applications successfully and notify users effectively when some sensitive APIs are invoked.
Vowel Creation by Articulatory Control in HMM-based Parametric Speech Synthesis

This paper presents a method to produce a new vowel by articulatory control in hidden Markov model (HMM) based parametric speech synthesis. A multiple regression HMM (MRHMM) is adopted to model the distribution of acoustic features, with articulatory features used as external auxiliary variables. The dependency between acoustic and articulatory features is modelled by a group of linear transforms that are either estimated context-dependently or determined by the distribution of articulatory features. Vowel identity is removed from the set of context features used to ensure compatibility between the contextdependent model parameters and the articulatory features of a new vowel. At synthesis time, acoustic features are predicted according to the input articulatory features as well as context information. With an appropriate articulatory feature sequence, a new vowel can be generated even when it does not exist in the training set. Experimental results show this method is effective in creating the English vowel /2/ by articulatory control without using any acoustic samples of this vowel.
Calcium Control of Endocytic Capacity at a CNS Synapse

The ability to recycle synaptic vesicles is a crucial property of nerve terminals that allows maintenance of synaptic transmission. Using high-sensitivity optical approaches at hippocampal nerve terminals in dissociated neurons in culture, we show that modulation of endocytosis can be achieved by expansion of the endocytic capacity. Our experiments indicate that the endocytic capacity, the maximum number of synaptic vesicles that can be internalized in parallel at individual synapses, is tightly controlled by intracellular calcium levels. Increasing levels of intracellular calcium, which occurs as firing frequency increases, significantly increases the endocytic capacity. At physiological temperature after 30 Hz firing, these synapses are capable of endocytosing at least ∼28 vesicles in parallel, each with a time constant of ∼6 s. This calcium-dependent control of endocytic capacity reveals a potentially useful adaptive response to high-frequency activity to increase endocytic rates under conditions of vesicle pool depletion.
A compound approach for interactive visualization of time-oriented data

Many real-world visual analytics applications involve time-oriented data. I am working in a research project related to this challenge where I am responsible for the interactive visualization part. My goal are interactive visualizations to explore such time-oriented data according to the user tasks while considering the structure of time. Time is composed of many granularities that are likely to have crucial influence on the formation of the data. The challenge is to integrate the granularities into a detailed compound view on the data, like the compound eye of insects integrates many images into one view. Other members of our team are experts in temporal data mining and user centered design. The goal is to combine our research topics to an integrated system that helps domain experts to get more insight from their time-oriented data.
Integrating Preferences into Goal Models for Requirements Engineering

Requirements can differ in their importance. As such the priorities that stakeholders associate with requirements may vary from stakeholder to stakeholder and from one situation to the next. Differing priorities, in turn, imply different design decisions for the end system. While elicitation of requirements priorities is a well studied activity, though, the modeling and reasoning side of prioritization has not enjoyed equal attention. In this paper, we address this by extending a traditional goal modeling notation to support the representation of optional and preference requirements. In our extension, optional goals are distinguished from mandatory ones. Then, quantitative prioritizations of the former are constructed and used as criteria for evaluating alternative ways to achieve the latter. A state-of-the-art preference-based planner is utilized to efficiently search for alternatives that best satisfy the given preferences. This way, analysts can acquire a better understanding of the impact of high-level stakeholder preferences to low-level design decisions.
ESecRout: An Energy Efficient Secure Routing for Sensor Networks*

In this paper, we present an Energy Efficient Secure Routing Protocol for Sensor Networks (ESecRout). The protocol uses the symmetric cryptography to secure messages, and uses a small cache in sensor nodes to record the partial routing path (previous and next nodes) to the destination. It guarantees that the destination will be able to identify and discard the tampered messages and ensure that the messages received are not tampered with. Simulation shows ESecRout's performance comparison with the non-secure routing protocol AODV [1] and the secure routing protocol SAODV [2]. Our protocol needs a little more route discovery overhead (about 8%) and costs a little more energy (about 8%) than AODV, but it performs much better than SAODV which needs much more route discovery overhead (about 33%) and costs much more energy (35%) than AODV. Simulation results also show that the packet delivery ratio and packet latency of AODV, SAODV, and ESecRout are almost the same. Thus, we show that our protocol ESecRout provides energy efficient secure routing.
A set of experiments to more fully characterize linear PM oscillatory machines

The paper introduces a set of static and dynamic experiments to more fully characterize a linear permanent magnet (PM) oscillatory machine. The proposed set of tests was performed on a PM brushless linear oscillatory machine with surface PM and PM flux concentration movers, respectively. Though the testing arrangement allows for it, temperature, noise and vibration have not been investigated in this paper.
The automatic generation of sparse primitives

Primitives in mathematical software are usually written and optimized by hand. With the implementation of a “sparse compiler” that is capable of automatically converting a dense program into sparse code, however, a completely different approach to the generation of sparse primitives can be taken. A dense implementation of a particular primitive is supplied to the sparse compiler, after which it can be converted into many different sparse versions of this primitive. Each version is specifically tailored to a class of sparse matrices having a specific nonzero structure. In this article, we discuss some of our experiences with this new approach.
Prorenin and (pro)renin receptor: a review of available data from in vitro studies and experimental models in rodents

The discovery of a (pro)renin receptor [(P)RR] and the introduction of renin inhibitors in the clinic have brought renin and prorenin back into the spotlight. The (P)RR binds both renin and its inactive precursor prorenin, and such binding triggers intracellular signalling that upregulates the expression of profibrotic genes, potentially leading to cardiac and renal fibrosis, growth and remodelling. Simultaneously, binding of renin to the (P)RR increases its angiotensin I‐generating activity, whereas binding of prorenin allows the ‘inactive’ renin precursor to become fully enzymatically active. Therefore, the (pro)renin receptor system could be considered as having two functions, an angiotensin‐independent function related to (P)RR‐induced intracellular signalling and its downstream effects and an angiotensin‐dependent function related to the increased catalytic activity of receptor‐bound (pro)renin. A (P)RR blocker has already been described which blocks both functions, thus preventing diabetic nephropathy, cardiac fibrosis and ocular neovascularization. On‐going experimental studies should now determine which of the two functions plays the more important role in pathological situations. The results of these studies are extremely important in view of the clinical use of renin inhibitors, since it is well known that their administration results in increased levels of both renin and prorenin. Although this rise can be interpreted as evidence of effective renin–angiotensin system blockade, it could also result in increased (P)RR activation.