Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intermediary non-repudiation protocols

In commercial transactions, an intermediary might be involved to help transacting parties to conduct their business. Nevertheless, the intermediary may not be fully trusted. We introduce the concept of intermediary (or agent) in a non-repudiation protocol, define the aims of intermediary non-repudiation protocols, and analyze their security requirements. We present a simple scenario with only one recipient, followed by a more complicated framework where multiple recipients are involved and collusion between them is possible.
Bandit-Based Task Assignment for Heterogeneous Crowdsourcing

We consider a task assignment problem in crowdsourcing, which is aimed at collecting as many reliable labels as possible within a limited budget. A challenge in this scenario is how to cope with the diversity of tasks and the task-dependent reliability of workers; for example, a worker may be good at recognizing the names of sports teams but not be familiar with cosmetics brands. We refer to this practical setting as heterogeneous crowdsourcing. In this letter, we propose a contextual bandit formulation for task assignment in heterogeneous crowdsourcing that is able to deal with the exploration-exploitation trade-off in worker selection. We also theoretically investigate the regret bounds for the proposed method and demonstrate its practical usefulness experimentally.
Clinical characteristics of depressed patients with comorbid diabetes mellitus

Both diabetes and depression are highly prevalent. Patients with diabetes experience higher rates of depression compared to the general population. When present, depression is associated with an increase in the morbidity and mortality of diabetes, suggesting the importance of treatment in this population. The objective of the present study was to characterize depressive characteristics in depressed patients with and without comorbid diabetes. Seventeen patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes were drawn from outpatient clinical trials. Depressed patients without diabetes were identified from the same studies. Unpaired t-tests and multiple chi-square analyses were used to compare demographic and clinical characteristics between the samples. Diabetic patients in our sample were more depressed and reported lower levels of somatic well-being and contentment compared to non-diabetic patients. The samples did not differ significantly along other dimensions of depression, including course of illness, response to previous treatments and comorbid conditions. These findings suggest that depressed diabetic patients are more similar than not to non-diabetic depressed patients, although important differences exist.
Accuracy of tibial osteotomy placement using 2 different tibial plateau leveling osteotomy jigs.

OBJECTIVE To report the accuracy of osteotomy position in dogs undergoing tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO) and to evaluate the effect of 2 different TPLO jig and saw systems on tibial osteotomy position. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective case series. ANIMALS Dogs (n = 124; 134 TPLO). METHODS Medical records (2004-2005; 2008-2011) and stifle radiographs of 2 groups of dogs that had TPLO to treat cranial cruciate ligament disease were reviewed. One group had a TPLO performed using an alignment jig system alone (Slocum group), whilst in the other group, an alignment jig system combined with a saw guide (Synthes group) was used. Postoperative radiographs were examined and the distance and direction of the centroid of the osteotomy was compared to the intended osteotomy position. RESULTS The absolute distance of eccentricity (DOE) in the Slocum group (5.6 ± 2.5 mm) was significantly greater than that of the Synthes group (3.4 ± 1.8 mm; P < .01). DOE was caudal and distal in 79% of cases. CONCLUSIONS Most tibial osteotomies were centered at a point distal and caudal to the intended osteotomy position. Use of a TPLO system with a saw guide was associated with more accurate placement of the osteotomy and more accurate leveling of the tibial plateau.
A Method for Modeling the Intrinsic Dynamics of Intraindividual Variability: Recovering the Parameters of Simulated Oscillators in Multi-Wave Panel Data

A simple method for fitting differential equations to multi-wave panel data performs remarkably well in recovering parameters from underlying continuous models with as few as three waves of data. Two techniques for fitting models of intrinsic dynamics to intraindividual variability data are examined by testing these techniques' behavior in recovering the parameters from data generated by two simulated systems of differential equations. Each simulated data set contains 100 "subjects" each of whom are measured at only three points in time. A local linear approximation of the first and second derivatives of the subject's data accurately recovers the true parameters of each simulation. A statespace embedding technique for estimating the first and second derivatives does not recover the parameters as well. An optimum sampling interval can be estimated for this model as that interval at which multiple R2 first nears its asymptotic value.
A Framework for Describing Block Cipher Cryptanalysis

Block ciphers provide confidentiality by encrypting confidential messages into unintelligible form, which are irreversible without knowledge of the secret key used. During the design of a block cipher, its security against cryptanalysis must be considered. History has shown that a cipher designed without an adequate treatment of this would often lead to flaws and attacks by other researchers, sometimes devastatingly so. The problem for an aspiring cipher designer is that there are no standard texts on block cipher cryptanalysis because it is a fast changing field. The commonly available references are academic journals and conference proceedings, which may not be easy to grasp for researchers new to cryptanalysis. This paper presents the Xi framework, which is designed to compactly describe the block cipher cryptanalysis techniques regardless of their individual differences. This provides the cryptanalyst with a general framework to describe attacks on block ciphers, with the additional capabilities of allowing specification of the technical details of each different type of attack and of comparison of their respective strengths. Comparing different distinguishes in this framework also allows us to see natural generalizations and trigger nice open problems. We then show how to apply this Xi framework to the description of various attacks on popular and recent block ciphers
Test Case Generation using GOM Algorithm

—Software testing involves appropriate validation and verification of a software component developed during the software lifecycle. Usually testing costs often account to high budget in the software development process. In order to minimize the testing costs, researchers and practitioners automate the testing process rather than carry out manual testing. Test Case Generation is the process of automatically generating a collection of test cases which are applied to a system under test. This paper utilizes branch coverage criteria using the Generalized Optimization Meta heuristic (GOM) algorithm and code constraint graph (CCG) to efficiently maximize the coverage of all the branches. The experimental results show that the proposed test generation technique is effective in generating tests for an application at large.
Documentation of Recovered Architecture for Variability in Legacy Generator Systems

In the 1970s and 1980s many large software systems were developed using macro-based generators that are still in use and thus have to be maintained and adapted to new requirements. Reverse engineering of these generators provides the basis for planning their modernization. We propose the concept of complementary architecture classes in order to support the documentation of the architecture of generators including their variability using known concepts of architecture documentation. We show how legacy generators can be documented using these architecture classes.
Toward Usable Interactive Analytics : Coupling Cognition and Computation

Interactive analytics provide users a myriad of computational means to aid in extracting meaningful information from large and complex datasets. Much prior work focuses either on advancing the capabilities of machine-centric approaches by the data mining and machine learning communities, or human-driven methods by the visualization and CHI communities. However, these methods do not yet support a true human-machine symbiotic relationship where users and machines work together collaboratively and adapt to each other to advance an interactive analytic process. In this paper we discuss some of the inherent issues, outlining what we believe are the steps toward usable interactive analytics that will ultimately increase the effectiveness for both humans and computers to produce insights.
Cyanogen Metabolism in Cassava Roots: Impact on Protein Synthesis and Root Development

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), a staple crop for millions of sub-Saharan Africans, contains high levels of cyanogenic glycosides which protect it against herbivory. However, cyanogens have also been proposed to play a role in nitrogen transport from leaves to roots. Consistent with this hypothesis, analyses of the distribution and activities of enzymes involved in cyanide metabolism provides evidence for cyanide assimilation, derived from linamarin, into amino acids in cassava roots. Both β-cyanoalanine synthase (CAS) and nitrilase (NIT), two enzymes involved in cyanide assimilation to produce asparagine, were observed to have higher activities in roots compared to leaves, consistent with their proposed role in reduced nitrogen assimilation. In addition, rhodanese activity was not detected in cassava roots, indicating that this competing means for cyanide metabolism was not a factor in cyanide detoxification. In contrast, leaves had sufficient rhodanese activity to compete with cyanide assimilation into amino acids. Using transgenic low cyanogen plants, it was shown that reducing root cyanogen levels is associated with elevated root nitrate reductase activity, presumably to compensate for the loss of reduced nitrogen from cyanogens. Finally, we overexpressed Arabidopsis CAS and NIT4 genes in cassava roots to study the feasibility of enhancing root cyanide assimilation into protein. Optimal overexpression of CAS and NIT4 resulted in up to a 50% increase in root total amino acids and a 9% increase in root protein accumulation. However, plant growth and morphology was altered in plants overexpressing these enzymes, demonstrating a complex interaction between cyanide metabolism and hormonal regulation of plant growth.
Thermodynamic characterization of hybrid polymer blend systems

A thermodynamic model was used to predict the morphology of hybrid multicomponent polymer blend systems. Two systems were studied, both including two noncompatible polymers, a third compatibilizer polymer and layered, organo-treated clays. The polar and nonpolar contributions of the surface energies of the components of the systems were calculated using measurements of the contact angles. The morphology of the multicomponent systems and the relative position of the organo-clays within them, were predicted by calculating the interaction energies between the different components of the system and evaluating these values according to the Vaia and Giannelis thermodynamic model for polymer melt intercalation in organically modified layered silicates. The experimental results show good correlation with the prediction that the organo-clays will have higher affinity to the compatibilizer polymer component situated at the interface between the two noncompatible blend components. In addition, the presence of the organo-clays in this interface was found to have a significant additional compatibilizing effect between the two polymer phases. The results presented in this work support the idea that hybrid formation via polymer melt intercalation depends mostly on energetic factors that can be determined from surface energies of polymers and organo-modified layered silicates, also in the case of multiphase polymer system. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2009. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers
A reaudit of current febrile neutropenia practice in UK paediatric oncology centres prior to implementation of NICE guidance

In September 2012, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) published ‘Neutropenic sepsis: prevention and management of neutropenic sepsis in cancer patients’. 1 No national guidelines for the management of neutropenic sepsis in children have been previously published. In 2008, the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group produced a framework document for the treatment of febrile neutropenia (FN), based on a literature review and a Delphi survey.2 This document was designed to provide an evidence-based approach that could be used to inform local …
Study of Sparsity-Aware Set-Membership Adaptive Algorithms with Adjustable Penalties

In this paper, we propose sparsity-aware data-selective adaptive filtering algorithms with adjustable penalties. Prior work incorporates a penalty function into the cost function used in the optimization that originates the algorithms to improve their performance by exploiting sparsity. However, the strength of the penalty function is controlled by a scalar that is often a fixed parameter. In contrast to prior work, we develop a framework to derive algorithms that automatically adjust the penalty function parameter and the step size to achieve a better performance. Simulations for a system identification application show that the proposed algorithms outperform in convergence speed existing sparsity-aware algorithms.
Light Field Rendering of Dynamic Scene

Image based rendering has displayed advantage in speed over traditional geometry based rendering algorithms. With the four dimensional light field descriptions, static scene can be generated with interactive rate on ordinary computer. The limitation of the scheme is that it can only handle static scene and fixed illumination. This paper raises the idea to decompose the light field into sub-light-fields that do not change as scene changes. It expands the advantage of light field rendering to dynamic scenes where the position and orientation of objects, lights and viewpoint can be modified arbitrarily. The sub-light-fields include: ambient light field and spot light field. The latter is actually an eight- dimensional space. Because diffuse reflection is independent on view direction, this paper presents a four- dimensional representation of spot light field. Considering the linearity of diffuse reflection to different spot lights, the spot light fields of an object can be represented by the reflection light field to a pure-color light with unit intensity, to decrease storage and preprocessing. Owing to the coherency in their data structures, data of the corresponding point in the ambient light field, diffuse light field and depth field are combined into a 5- dimensional vector which can be compressed efficiently with vector quantization. The algorithm given in this paper accurately computes typical characteristics of dynamic scene such as changes in surface color and shadow.
High-density network flow monitoring

Monitoring of high-speed networks is becoming a resource intensive task. There are dedicated flow monitoring probes built with commodity hardware support up to 10G links, but multiple 10G or even 100 G optical networks are being used for transport networks and a data center connectivity. Running and maintaining many separate probes is uneconomical and time-consuming. Therefore, we explore the possibility to facilitate network interface cards (NICs) with multiple 10G interfaces to build probes which can replace many existing boxes, leading to reduced management and operational costs. The monitoring performance is critical for such a high-density solution. We use two custom-built, FPGA-based NICs, each with eight 10G interfaces to test current CPU limits and to propose improvements for the near future commodity NICs.
Ontology-Based Information Retrieval for University Scientific Research Management

Ontology-based semantic information retrieval is a hotspot of current research. In order to achieve fuzzy semantic retrieval for scientific research information in WWW, this paper applies a fuzzy ontology framework to information retrieval system for university scientific research management. The framework includes three parts: concepts, properties of concepts and values of properties, in which property's value can be either standard data type or linguistic values, i.e. fuzzy concepts. The fuzzy semantic query expansion is constructed by order relation, equivalence relation, inclusion relation and complement relation between fuzzy concepts defined in fuzzy linguistic variable ontologies. The application to retrieve project information shows that the framework can overcome the localization of other fuzzy ontology models, and this research facilitates the semantic retrieval of scientific research information through fuzzy concepts on the semantic Web.
High-Strength Silicon Carbides by Hot Isostatic Pressing

Silicon carbide has strong potential for heat engine hardware and other high-temperature applications because of its low density, good strength, high oxidation resistance, and good high-temperature creep resistance. Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) was used for producing alpha and beta silicon carbide (SiC) bodies with near-theoretical density, ultrafine grain size, and high strength at processing temperatures of 1900 to 2000 C. The HIPed materials exhibited ultrafine grain size. Furthermore, no phase transformation from beta to alpha was observed in HIPed beta-SiC. Both materials exhibited very high average flexural strength. It was also shown that alpha-SiC bodies without any sintering aids, when HIPed to high final density, can exhibit very high strength. Fracture toughness K (sub C) values were determined to be 3.6 to 4.0 MPa m (sup 1/2) for HIPed alpha-SiC and 3.7 to 4.1 MPa m (sup 1/2) for HIPed beta-SiC. In the HIPed specimens strength-controlling flaws were typically surface related. In spite of improvements in material properties such as strength and fracture toughness by elimination of the larger strength-limiting flaws and by grain size refinement, HIPing has no effect on the Weibull modulus.
How Can Social Networks Ever Become Complex? Modelling the Emergence of Complex Networks from Local Social Exchanges

Small-world and power-law network structures have been prominently proposed as models of large networks. However, the assumptions of these models usually lack sociological grounding. We present a computational model grounded in social exchange theory. Agents search attractive exchange partners in a diverse population. Agent use simple decision heuristics, based on imperfect, local information. Computer simulations show that the topological structure of the emergent social network depends heavily upon two sets of conditions, harshness of the exchange game and learning capacities of the agents. Further analysis show that a combination of these conditions affects whether star-like, small-world or power-law structures emerge. Macrostructures and Microprocesses in Complex Network Emergence 1.1 The celebrated small-world and power-law (also known as scale-free) network structures have recently been prominently proposed as models of large networks in a variety of substantive realms, including networks of social relationships. It has been claimed that empirical examples of complex network structures can be found in the global patterns of website references in the World Wide Web, acquaintance relationships between people, networks of sex contacts, networks of scientific collaborations, or contacts between terrorists. These so-called complex networks are of particular interest to social scientists, because theoretical research suggests that these structures are highly efficient in terms of certain global network features. Moreover, these networks may be the emergent, yet unintended result of simple processes of network change that operate at the level of the individual agents or nodes. 1.2 In particular, complex networks have shown to be very efficient in terms of information propagation e.g. (Walsh 1999; Delgado 2002), and their connectedness is very robust against randomly distributed hazards that may destroy single nodes in the network as Albert and Barabási (2000) show. 1.3 However, as we will argue below in more detail, previous modeling work has mainly relied on rather mechanistic and sociologically implausible assumptions about the processes that may generate complex networks. Accordingly, it remains an open question from the point of view of social sciences whether and if so how complex networks can arise from the behavior of real social agents. If complex networks can plausibly be the product of social interactions, then their impressive efficiency and robustness may help to better answer some crucial questions in the social sciences. For example, how is trust possible between strangers? (cf. Yamagishi et al. 1998; Macy and Sato 2002). Some researchers have argued that the efficient diffusion of reputational information …
A catalogue of non-technical Requirement Patterns

Software Requirement Patterns (SRP) have been proposed as an artifact for fostering requirements reuse. PABRE is a framework that promotes the use of SRP as a means for requirements elicitation, validation and documentation in the context of IT procurement projects. In this paper, we present a catalogue of non-technical SRP included in the framework and present in detail some of them. We also introduce the motivation to arrive to these patterns.
Effect of Ti Addition on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Cast AZ91 Magnesium Alloy

Ti addition to AZ91 alloy has been investigated with conventional casting. The microstructure and mechanical property were examined. The results show that addition of Ti with an amount of 0.1~0.5%wt resulted in a refinement of the as-cast microstructure. The morphology of β phase is changed from coarse, uneven, semi-continuous skeletal network to small, uniform, short rod-like or granular. When the content of Ti is 0.4wt%, the tensile strength and elongation go up to maximum value of 197 MPa and 6.9% respectively. Small addition of 0.2%wt Ti to AZ91 alloy predominantly forms TiAl3 phase, lying in β-phases at the grain boundaries. The mechanism of mechanical properties improvement caused by Ti addition is discussed.
A Heuristic Reputation Based System to Detect Spam activities in a Social Networking Platform, HRSSSNP

The introduction of the social networking platform has drastically affected the way individuals interact. Even though most of the effects have been positive, there exist some serious threats associated with the interactions on a social networking website. A considerable proportion of the crimes that occur are initiated through a social networking platform [1]. Almost 33% of the crimes on the internet are initiated through a social networking website [1]. Moreover activities like spam messages create unnecessary traffic and might affect the user base of a social networking platform. As a result preventing interactions with malicious intent and spam activities becomes crucial. This work attempts to detect the same in a social networking platform by considering a social network as a weighted graph wherein each node, which represents an individual in the social network, stores activities of other nodes with respect to itself in an optimized format which is referred to as localized data set. The weights associated with the edges in the graph represent the trust relationship between profiles. The weights of the edges along with the localized data set are used to infer whether nodes in the social network are compromised and are performing spam or malicious activities.