Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conflict classification and analysis of distributed firewall policies

Firewalls are core elements in network security. However, managing firewall rules, particularly, in multifirewall enterprise networks, has become a complex and error-prone task. Firewall filtering rules have to be written, ordered, and distributed carefully in order to avoid firewall policy anomalies that might cause network vulnerability. Therefore, inserting or modifying filtering rules in any firewall requires thorough intrafirewall and interfirewall analysis to determine the proper rule placement and ordering in the firewalls. In this paper, we identify all anomalies that could exist in a single- or multifirewall environment. We also present a set of techniques and algorithms to automatically discover policy anomalies in centralized and distributed firewalls. These techniques are implemented in a software tool called the "Firewall Policy Advisor" that simplifies the management of filtering rules and maintains the security of next-generation firewalls.
Facial Expression recognition using Local Binary Patterns and Kullback Leibler divergence

Facial Expressions play major role in interpersonal communication and imparting intelligence to computer for identifying facial expressions is a crucial task. In this paper we present an efficient preprocessing algorithm combined with feature extraction using Local Binary Patterns (LBP) followed by classification using Kullback Leibler (KL) divergence. Firstly Viola Jones algorithm is used to detect pair of eyes using which effective part of face is obtained which is further processed to eliminate illumination effect. LBP operator is then applied on the preprocessed image to extract local features represented by histogram. Template histograms for seven basic expressions using training images are formed which are compared with the test histogram distribution using an efficient KL divergence for dissimilarity measure. This algorithm is implemented on JAFFE database resulting in a high classification accuracy of 95.24%.
Moving Between Contexts - A User Evaluation of a Transitional Interface

Navigating between different virtual worlds, interface scales or task contexts has emerged as an interesting research area for Augmented and Virtual Reality interfaces. We have developed a transitional interface which allows users to smoothly move between exocentric Augmented Reality and egocentric Virtual Reality views. In this paper we report on the first user study to investigate performance, usability, presence and awareness issues with transitional interfaces. The results of this explorative study provide initial guidelines for future research and development of multicontext-navigation environments and raise interesting questions for future research.
A Novel Optimistic Unchoking Algorithm for BitTorrent

Optimistic unchoking plays an important role in BitTorrent Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing networks. Peers use optimistic unchoking to find upload bandwidth information about their neighbors. However, free-riders can also take advantage of optimistic unchoking and download from the network without uploading anything. In this paper, we propose a novel optimistic unchoking algorithm for BitTorrent. The main purposes of our algorithm are to prevent free-riding and to improve the efficiency of optimistic unchoking. We then propose a stochastic model to analyze the performance of our algorithm. We also verify the results by simulations. Both theoretical and simulation results show that our algorithm can effectively prevent free-riding and significantly improve the download rate of normal peers at the same time.
Retrieval and adaptation in CBR through Bayesian Network for diagnosis of hepatic pathologies

This article describes a modeling of knowledge for a Case Based Reasoning system (CBR) applied to the diagnosis of the hepatic pathologies, where the cases and the knowledge of the domain are expressed by a Bayesian network (BN). In fact, we are interested in the retrieval and adaptation phases. The retrieval phase consists in selecting the most similar case of log linear model by considering the Bayesian Network as a log-linear model based on the simplification of the probabilities. The adaptation phase means modifying solutions of retrieved cases to fit the current problem. The dependence between these two phases is defined by two measures: a similarity measure and an adaptation measure. The objective of this dependence is to guarantee the retrieved case, which is the easiest way to adapt and improve the performance of CBR. An example of the diagnosis of the hepatic pathologies will illustrate the proposed approach.
Multiple source cooperative coding using turbo product codes with a noisy relay

In this paper, we consider the case where data from a relatively large number of sources are to be transmitted to a single destination. We suppose that there is no communication between the sources and thus each source encodes its data independently using the same systematic linear block code. The codewords transmitted from the sources to the destination are eavesdropped by a relay. A product code is built at the relay, with rows being the possibly erroneous source codewords, using a second systematic linear block code as column encoder. The resulting additional redundancy is then transmitted to the destination. The product code matrix is pieced together from source codewords and relay redundancy received by the destination. Significant additional coding gain is achieved on the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Performance on the correlated flat Rayleigh fading channel is also given for different correlation coefficients yielding large diversity orders.
Direct Writing of Patterned, Lead‐Free Nanowire Aligned Flexible Piezoelectric Device

A high‐performance flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator (PNG) is fabricated by a direct writing method, which acquires both patterned piezoelectric structure and aligned piezoelectric nanowires simultaneously. The voltage output of the as‐prepared PNG is nearly 400% compared with that of the traditional spin‐coated device due to the effective utilization of stress. This facile printing approach provides an efficient strategy for significant improvement of the piezoresponse.
Face data base compression by hotelling transform using segmentation

Face images could be projected onto a feature space that the variation among them can be expressed better. The face space is defined by the ldquoeigenfacesrdquo, which are the eigenvectors of the faces set; they do not necessarily correspond to the isolated features such as eyes, ears, and noses. Using eigenfaces decreases the huge amount of the required memory to save face database. In this paper we use the similarity in different segments of faces. So, we divide the face into some special blocks and apply hotelling transform to each block separately. Simulation results show a decrease of 40% in the compression ratio. The mentioned algorithm has also the ability of processing in parallel.
Fake News Should Be Regulated Because It Influences Both “Others” and “Me”: How and Why the Influence of Presumed Influence Model Should Be Extended

We argue that the influence of presumed influence (IPI) model (Gunther & Storey, 2003) should be extended through an additional interaction term between the presumed effects of media on “others” (PME3) and the “self” (PME1). Doing so would enable testing of whether individuals who perceive a mutually shared influence of the media show stronger support for censorship. The IPI model does not suffer from the methodological limitations of the conventional third-person effect literature relying on other–self disparities (i.e., PME3–PME1), but it focuses entirely on the main effect of PME3; thus, insufficient attention is paid to the role of PME1 in explaining the influence of presumed influence. To validate this Extended IPI model, and determine how it compares with other models, we compared individuals’ presumptions about the effects of fake news on others (PFNE3) and themselves (PFNE1), and how PFNE3 and PFNE1 interact to influence individuals’ support for policies prohibiting the potential negative effects of fake news. We found that individuals’ support for government interventions and sanctions for fake news creators and sharers was stronger if they believed that fake news influenced both other people and themselves. The theoretical and methodological implications of the Extended IPI model are discussed.
Cohort Shepherd: Discoving Cohort Traits from Hospital Visits

This paper describes the system created by the University of Texas at Dallas for contentbased medical record retrieval submitted to the TREC 2011 Medical Records Track. Our system builds a query by extracting keywords from a given topic using a Wikipedia-based approach we use regular expressions to extract age, gender, and negation requirements. Each query is then expanded by relying on UMLS, SNOMED, Wikipedia, and PubMed Co-occurrence data for retrieval. Four runs were submitted: two based on Lucene with varying scoring methods, and two based on a hybrid approach with varying negation detection techniques. Our highest scoring submission achieved a MAP score of 40.8.
Methodological implications of critical realism for entrepreneurship research

ABSTRACT Few papers have offered clear guidance for the application of critical realism (CR) to empirical studies, particularly in the research field of entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to critically review how the methodological principles used to conduct CR-based research can be applied in empirical studies and to develop a critical realist case study research design to guide empirical work in entrepreneurship. I demonstrate the value of a CR-informed approach in empirical studies by drawing on a qualitative case study that explains the reality of entrepreneurial opportunities. My inclusion of the three domains of reality and various data analysis techniques within the process of conceptual abstraction and retroduction contributes a distinctive methodological development in this field, which illustrates how CR can work in an applied setting to explain competing theories. Such a research design enables us to conduct empirical studies and provide comprehensive causal explanations of complex social events.
Giardiasis in patients with dyspeptic symptoms.

AIM To investigate the prevalence of giardiasis in patients with dyspeptic symptoms. METHODS Clinical records of consecutive patients who attended Gastroenterology Department at Aga Khan University Hospital from January 2000 to June 2003 and had esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) with duodenal biopsies and international classification of diseases 9th revision with clinical modifications (ICD-9-CM) coded with giardiasis were studied. RESULTS Two hundred and twenty patients fulfilled the above criteria. There were 44% (96/220) patients who were giardiasis positive, 72% (69/96) of them were males and 28% (27/96) of them were females. There were 65% (81/124) males and 35% (43/124) females who were giardiasis negative. The mean age of patients with giardiasis was 28+/-17 years, while that of giardiasis negative patients was 40+/-18 years (P<0.001). In patients with giardiasis, abdominal pain was present in 71% (68/96) of patients (P = 0.02) and diarrhea in 29% (28/96) (P = 0.005); duodenitis in 25% (24/96) on EGD (P = 0.006) and in 68% (65/96) on histopathology (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION Giardiasis occurs significantly in young people with abdominal pain, while endoscopic duodenitis is seen in only 25% of giardiasis positive cases, which supports routine duodenal biopsy.
Efficient visual odometry using a structure-driven temporal map

We describe a method for visual odometry using a single camera based on an EKF framework. Previous work has shown that filtering based approaches can achieve accuracy performance comparable to that of optimisation methods providing that large numbers of features are used. However, computational requirements are significantly increased and frame rates are low. We address this by employing higher level structure - in the form of planes - to efficiently parameterise features and so reduce the filter state size and computational load. Moreover, we extend a 1-point RANSAC outlier rejection method to the case of features lying on planes. Results of experiments with both simulated and real-world data demonstrate that the method is effective, achieving comparable accuracy whilst running at significantly higher frame rates.
Extract of Phenolics From Pomegranate Peels

The effects of different solvents, temperature conditions, solvent-solid ratios and particle sizes on solid-solvent extraction of the total phenolics, proanthocyanidins and flavonoids herein also referred to as antioxidant from pomegran- ate marc peel (PMP) was studied. Water, methanol, ethanol, acetone, and ethyl acetate extraction efficiencies at extraction times of 0.17 to 10 min, extraction temperatures of 25 to 95°C, ratios of solvent/solid of 5:1 to 50:1 and particle sizes of 10 to 40 mesh were evaluated. At 40 °C, solvent/solid ratio of 15:1, extraction time of 240 min and particle size of 40 mesh, methanol gave the highest extract yield of the total phenolics (8.26%), followed by water (5.90%), ethanol (1.55%), acetone (0.37%), and ethyl acetate (0.18%), respectively. However, at an extraction temperature of 95°C, the total phe- nolics extract yield with water was 11.15% for particle size of 40 mesh, solvent/solid ratio of 15:1, and extraction time of 2 min. Despite the lowest extract yield at extraction temperature of 40 °C, solvent/solid ratio of 15:1, extraction time of 240 min and particle size of 40 mesh, ethyl acetate extraction gave the highest content of the total phenolics (20.24%), proanthocyanidins (2.65%) and flavonoids (3.92%) in the extract. The DPPH antioxidant activity of extracts had a linear relationship with the total phenolics content in the extracts (R 2 =0.9779). This study revealed that water extraction, which has the economic and safety merits, can be used as an environmentally friendly method for producing antioxidants from the PMP.
Left Atrial Systolic and Diastolic Dysfunction in Patients with Chronic Constrictive Pericarditis: A Study Using Speckle Tracking and Conventional Echocardiography

Background Left atrial (LA) function plays an important role in the maintenance of cardiac output, however, in patients with constrictive pericarditis (CP), whether pericardial restriction and adhesion can lead to LA dysfunction, and the characteristics of LA function remain unclear. The aim of the study is to compare the left atrial (LA) function of patients with CP to that of healthy study participants using speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) and conventional echocardiography. Methods and Results Thirty patients with CP and 30 healthy volunteers (controls) were enrolled in the study. The underlying cause of CP was viral pericarditis in 24 (80%) patients and unknown in 6 (20%) patients. The LA maximum volume (Vmax), LA minimal volume (Vmin), and LA volume before atrial contraction (Vpre-a) were measured using biplane modified Simpson’s method. The LA expansion index (LA reservoir function) was determined as follows: ([LAVmax - LAVmin]/LAVmin) ×100. The passive emptying index (LA conduit function) was calculated as follows: ([LAVmax - LAVpre-a]/LAVmax) ×100, and the active emptying index (booster pump function) was calculated as follows: ([LAVpre-a - LAVmin]/LAVpre-a) ×100. All the patients underwent two-dimensional STE. The LA global systolic strain (S), systolic strain rate (SrS), early diastolic strain rate (SrE) and late diastolic strain rate (SrA) were measured. The LA expansion index, passive emptying index, the active emptying index and the LA global S, SrS, SrE, SrA were found to be significantly lower in patients with CP than in the control participants (P <0.001). LA function was correlated with the early diastolic velocity of the lateral mitral annulus (P <0.05). Conclusions Although left ventricular systolic function was preserved in patients with CP, the LA reservoir, conduit, and booster functions were impaired. Pericardial restriction and impairment of the LA myocardium may play an important role in the reduction of LA function in patients with CP.
Opportunistic Uplilnk Scheduling for 3G LTE Systems

In this paper we propose a heuristic opportunistic scheduler that is consistent with the resource allocation constraints of the uplink channel for 3G long term evolution (LTE) systems. Retransmission processes as well as channel conditions are taken into account in the formation of the scheduling decision. The heuristic scheduler could be seen a reasonable choice for solving the constrained resource allocation maximization problem since it is computationally feasible and can find a practical solution. We also formulate an integer programming problem that provides a theoretical optimal solution. The heuristic scheduler was found to perform relatively well when compared to the optimal solution.
The Richness of Diversity in Knowledge Creation: An Interdisciplinary Overview

The goal of this article is to explore some of the main reasons that sustain a distributed approach to Knowledge Management, and this will be done, first, showing how, according to very different theoretical disciplines, knowledge diversity is proposed as the very source of organizational innovation and adaptability; second providing some evidence coming from major applicative domains; third proposing some considerations on the role of technology.
Developmental evolution of dendritic morphology in a multi-compartmental neuron model

Through the use of a multi-compartmental neuron simulation, Mainen and Sejnowski (1996) demonstrated that spike generation in neurons is a function of their dendritic structure. We investigate the determination of dendritic morphology given a desired set of spike traces. A genetic algorithm is used to identify optimal parameters for a developmental model which simulates the growth of 3-dimensional dendrites. For two classes of neurons with different spiking behaviour, the developmental evolutionary process discovers ranges of viable dendritic morphologies which satisfactorily match the desired spike traces.
Strategies and Tradeoffs for Coded Cooperation in Wireless Networks

In a wireless network, fading significantly affects the performance, and diversity techniques are used to overcome this issue. Cooperation among nodes provides spatial diversity by means of packet relaying. In coded cooperation, diversity is further enhanced since cooperating nodes transmit different parts of a coded packet on different channels. In this paper we analyze various combinations of coded cooperation with a hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) algorithm. We assume the use of a capacity-achieving code, so that an outage event occurs when the total transmission rate exceeds the channel capacity. We first provide an analysis of the outage probabilities at the various HARQ phases for different cooperative behaviors. In order to better understand the features of the proposed protocols, we model the network operation with simple semi-Markov processes and then we evaluate metrics such as throughput, efficiency, and success probability. More complex cases, such as networks with multiple simultaneous access to the radio resource and queueing aspects, are evaluated by simulation.
Robust Nonlinear Control of a Voltage-Controlled Magnetic Levitation System with Disturbance Observer

This paper considers the control problem of a popular magnetic levitation system, which is open-loop unstable and strongly nonlinear associated with the electromechanical dynamics. The system dynamics is governed by a third-order nonlinear differential equation. The overall controller is designed through a backstepping manner by combining both the robust control and disturbance observer techniques. With the help of nonlinear damping terms, the input-to-state stability (ISS) property of the overall nonlinear control system is proved. Rigorous analysis of the ISS property is given, and experimental results are included to show the excellent position tracking performance of the designed control system.
The TREC-4 Filtering Track

The TREC-4 filtering track was an experiment in the evaluation of binary text classification systems. In contrast to ranking systems, binary text classification systems may need to produce result sets of any size, requiring that sampling be used to estimate their effectiveness. We present en effectiveness measure based on utility, and two sampling strategies (pooling and stratified sampling) for estimating utility of submitted sets. An evaluation of four sites was successfully carried out using this approach.
Improved Despeckle Filtering Technique for Liver Cirrhosis US Images

The liver ultrasonic (US) images suffer from inherent speckle noise, degrading the image quality; thereby, affecting human interpretation and also reducing the accuracy in computer-assisted diagnostic techniques. In this paper, we propose an improved despeckle filtering technique by combining, maximum homogeneity over a pixel neighborhood filtering (MHON) and speckle-reducing anisotropic diffusion filtering (SRAD) using a binary classifier map (BCM). The textural and fine details of residual image are denoised by SRAD filtering. The SRAD filter denoised image and MHON filter denoised image combines to attain BCM. A BCM is generated by examining the local coefficient of dispersion (CoD) assessed using a kernel with the one obtained from a specific region. The proposed method is evaluated on clinical US image set of liver, by assessing the quality factors PSNR, SNR, ISC, LMSE and EPI. Results are compared with specified algorithms separately while accomplishing for proposed method.
Ultimate Loyalty: a Case Study of Harley-Davidson Clients

Quality, satisfaction and brand loyalty are constructs that have been discussed for decades, but the concept of ultimate loyalty challenges the previously established loyalty studies. Therefore, the research aimed to: a) identify ultimate loyalty determining indicators; b) identify its antecedent constructs; c) evaluate the relationship between antecedents and ultimate loyalty. This study employs a two steps approach, qualitative and quantitative. In the first, it was identified, through semi-structured interviews, determining attributes in shaping group loyalty. Based on such data, a survey questionnaire was elaborated with 32 statements. For data analysis, Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used. From the results, it can be stated that product uniqueness, adorable product, product desirable by a defined market segment and individual fortitude are constructs that drive ultimate loyalty. It is also observed that belonging to a social network is not important predictor of ultimate loyalty.
Race, Rules and Relationships: What Can Critical Race Theory Offer Contemporary Aboriginal Boarding Schools?

ABSTRACT Boarding schools have been increasingly championed in strategies to move closer to educational equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. However, there is a significant lack of research and evidence on the implications of the boarding environment for Aboriginal students, families and communities. This paper presents a study of an Aboriginal residential program in South Australia. Semi-structured and narrative interviews with 55 participants (including residence staff, family, and past students) reveal the centrality of rules and relationships within this setting. Consideration of these themes from a Critical Race Theory perspective provides a sociocultural basis to analyse the implications of race, racism and power. In doing so, the underlying implications of the boarding model that should be acknowledged, explored and applied in this setting are identified. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.