Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High Coverage Detection of Input-Related Security Faults

Improperly bounded program inputs present a major class of program defects. In secure applications, these bugs can be exploited by malicious users, allowing them to overwrite buffers and execute harmful code. In this paper, we present a high coverage dynamic technique for detecting software faults caused by improperly bounded program inputs. Our approach is novel in that it retains the advantages of dynamic bug detection, scope and precision; while at the same time, relaxing the requirement that the user specify the input that exposes the bug. To implement our approach, inputs are shadowed by additional state that characterize the allowed bounds of input-derived variables. Program operations and decision points may alter the shadowed state associated with input variables. Potentially hazardous program sites, such as an array references and string functions, are checked against the entire range of values that the user might specify. The approach found several bugs including two high-risk security bugs in a recent version of OpenSSH.
Treatment of depression and anxiety in Parkinson's Disease: A pilot study using group cognitive behavioural therapy

Depression and anxiety affect up to 50% of people with Parkinson's Disease (PD) (Marsh, 2000; Murray, 1996), however, few studies have examined the effectiveness of psychological treatment. This study examined the effectiveness of group cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in treating depression and anxiety in PD. Four participants, aged between 56 and 81 years, who had been diagnosed with PD and suffering from depression and/or anxiety were included in the study. The results suggested that CBT was effective in treating depression and anxiety in PD. Furthermore, the results supported that the gains were maintained at 1-month follow-up.
A Heterogeneous Multi-Agent System for Adaptive Web Applications

A web site presents an intrinsic graph–like spatial structure composed of pages connected by hyperlinks. This structure may represent an environment in which agents related to visitors of the web site are positioned and moved in order to track their navigation. To consider this structure and to keep track of these movements allows the monitoring of the site and of its visitors, in order to support the enhancement of the site itself through forms of adaptivity, carried out by specific interface agents. This paper presents a heterogeneous multiagent system supporting the collection of information related to user’s behaviour in a web site by specific situated reactive agents. The acquired information is then exploited by an application supporting the proposal of hyperlinks based on the history of user’s movement in the web site environment.
Regulation of Drosophila TRPL Channels by Immunophilin FKBP59*

Transient receptor potential and transient receptor potential-like (TRPL) are Ca2+-permeable cation channels found inDrosophila photoreceptor cells associated with large multimeric signaling complexes held together by the scaffolding protein, INAD. To identify novel proteins involved in channel regulation, Drosophila INAD was used as bait in a yeast two-hybrid screen of a Drosophila head cDNA library. Sequence analysis of one identified clone showed it to be identical to the Drosophila homolog of human FK506-binding protein, FKBP52 (previously known as FKBP59). To determine the function of dFKBP59, TRPL channels and dFKBP59 were co-expressed in Sf9 cells. Expression of dFKBP59 produced an inhibition of Ca2+influx via TRPL in fura-2 assays. Likewise, purified recombinant dFKBP59 produced a graded inhibition of TRPL single channel activity in excised inside-out patches when added to the cytoplasmic membrane surface. Immunoprecipitations from Sf9 cell lysates using recombinant tagged dFKBP59 and TRPL showed that these proteins directly interact with each other and with INAD. Addition of FK506 prior to immunoprecipitation resulted in a temperature-dependent dissociation of dFKBP59 and TRPL. Immunoprecipitations fromDrosophila S2 cells and from fly head lysates demonstrated that dFKBP59, but not dFKBP12, interacts with TRPL in vivo. Likewise, INAD immunoprecipitates with dFKBP59 from S2 cell and head lysates. Immunocytochemical evaluation of thin sections of fly heads revealed specific FKBP immunoreactivity associated with the eye. Site-directed mutagenesis showed that mutations of P702Q or P709Q in the highly conserved TRPL sequence701LPPPFNVLP709 eliminated interaction of the TRPL with dFKBP59. These results provide strong support for the hypothesis that immunophilin dFKBP59 is part of the TRPL-INAD signaling complex and plays an important role in modulation of channel activity via interaction with conserved leucyl-prolyl dipeptides located near the cytoplasmic mouth of the channel.
Choosing the Right Body Position for Assessing Trunk Flexors and Extensors Torque Output

Purpose. The sitting position is generally adopted when measuring the torques produced by flexors and extensors of the trunk. results of such measurements are influenced by the strength of both abdominal muscles and flexors of the hip joint. In order to assess the effect of exercises used to strengthen the abdominal muscles it was necessary to find such a measuring position which engaged mainly the abdominal muscles. The objective of the study was an assessment of EMG activity of abdominal and spinal muscles during the measurements of muscle torques in the sitting position, as well as in the lying position. Basic procedures. Thirteen female students of the University School of Physical Education in Wrocław participated in the study. The methods of measuring muscle torques and surface electromyography (sEMG) were used under static conditions. The torques were measured on a multifunctional chair in the lying and sitting positions. The surface EMG electrodes were placed on the right and left hand sides of m. rectus abdominis (rA) and m. erector spinae (ES). Signals from both muscles were sampled at 1000 Hz. Main findings. The maximal torques of trunk flexors in the sitting position and in the lying position were similar: 130.6 ± 31.7 Nm and 129.8 ± 37.9 Nm, respectively. by contrast, the torque of trunk extensors was significantly larger when the measurement was carried out in the sitting position (228.1 ± 76.4 Nm) as compared with the lying position (148.8 ± 25.3 Nm). The ratio of the maximal torques of flexors and extensors of the trunk in the women examined was 0.572 in the sitting position and 0.872 in the lying position. both rA and ES showed higher EMG activity in the lying position than in the sitting position. Conclusions. The higher EMG activity of the rA muscle in the lying position at the same values of the trunk flexors torque in both positions may suggest that in the sitting position flexors of the hip joint are more engaged than abdominal muscles. That is why, in order to assess the effects of abdominal muscles training, measurements of the trunk flexors torque should be performed in the lying position.
HIV Prevention and Sexual Compulsivity: The Need for an Integrated Strategy of Public Health and Mental Health

Two studies were conducted in conjunction with an inner-city mental health clinic's development and implementation of an integrated HIV prevention and group psychotherapy program for 262 individuals living with HIV. Results indicated that HIV seropositive individuals, particularly those with high levels of sexual compulsivity and who were engaged in the HIV care system, were representative of those most appropriate for an HIV prevention program that integrated the best practice principles of mental health and public health. However, results also indicated that the development and implementation of such integrated programs may be challenged by unique clinical issues related to sexual compulsivity and by administrative and policy barriers that are inherent in the existing community-based HIV services infrastructure.
MgrA Represses Biofilm Formation in Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT MgrA is a pleiotropic regulator that controls autolysis, virulence, and efflux pump activity in Staphylococcus aureus. We recently found that mgrA mutants of strains RN6390, SH1000, and MW2 also displayed enhanced biofilm formation compared with their respective parents. The biofilms formed by mgrA mutants of RN6390 and MW2 are independent of sigB and ica loci, two genetic elements that have been previously associated with biofilm formation in S. aureus. Biofilms formed by mgrA mutants are dependent on the expression of surface proteins mediated by the sortase gene srtA. Extracellular DNA was also a crucial component of the early biofilm of mgrA mutants. Genetic analysis indicated that biofilm formation in mgrA mutants is mediated in part by agr RNAIII, a genetic locus regulated by mgrA. Additionally, SarA is important to biofilm formation in mgrA mutants since the double sarA mgrA mutants failed to form biofilms compared to single mgrA mutants of RN6390 and MW2. However, the SarA-mediated effect is independent of agr and proteases such as V8 protease and aureolysin. Collectively, our data showed MgrA to be a repressor of biofilm formation, and biofilms formed by mgrA mutants have features that are distinct from other reported biofilm types in S. aureus.
Patient understanding, detection, and experience of COPD exacerbations: an observational, interview-based study.

STUDY OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to gain insight into patients' comprehension, recognition, and experience of exacerbations of COPD, and to explore the patient burden associated with these events. DESIGN A qualitative, multinational, cross-sectional, interview-based study. SETTING Patients' homes. PATIENTS Patients (n = 125) with predominantly moderate-to-very severe COPD (age > or = 50 years; with two or more exacerbations during the previous year). INTERVENTIONS Patients underwent a 1-h face-to-face interview with a trained interviewer. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS During the preceding year, patients experienced a mean +/- SD of 4.6 +/- 5.4 exacerbations, after which 19.2% (n = 24) believed they had not fully recovered. Although commonly used by physicians, only 1.6% (n = 2) of patients understood the term exacerbation, preferring to use simpler terms, such as chest infection (16.0%; n = 20) or crisis (16.0%; n = 20) instead. Approximately two thirds of patients stated that they were aware of when an exacerbation was imminent and, in most cases, patients recounted that symptoms were consistent from one exacerbation to another. Some patients (32.8%; n = 41), however, reported no recognizable warning signs. At the onset of an exacerbation, 32.8% of patients (n = 41) stated that they reacted by self-administering their medication. Some patients spontaneously mentioned a fear of dying (12.0%; n = 15) or suffocating (9.6%; n = 12) during exacerbations, and effects on activities, mood, and personal/family relationships were frequently reported. Physicians tended to underestimate the psychological impact of exacerbations compared with patient reports. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that patients with frequent exacerbations have a poor understanding of the term exacerbation. Patient recollections suggest that exacerbation profiles vary enormously between patients but that symptoms/warning signs are fairly consistent within individuals, and are generally recognizable. Exacerbations appear to have a significant impact on patient well-being, including psychological well-being, and this may be underestimated by physicians.
Age and Partnership as Public Symbols

Recently emerging discourses on non-marital motherhood in the Republic of Ireland indicate that the most problematized of non-marital mothers are younger women, without partners, and those who are state dependent. This article reports on a qualitative analysis of interview data obtained from 51 unmarried pregnant women selected from a Dublin maternity hospital regarding their experiences in negotiating encounters in public places. Data suggest that normative rules of conduct about the social organization of reproduction rooted in dominant discourses mediated women's experiences in their everyday interactions. The analysis draws on Goffman's theory of stigma and argues that the way in which childbearing is framed in public discourses, as evidenced in media reports, is reected in the way in which participants perceived their own situations, with overriding concerns centring on age and male association in reproductive relations.
Crowdsourcing Annotation for Machine Learning in Natural Language Processing Tasks (NON-FINAL VERSION! Proofread version will be uploaded April 30, 2012.)

Human annotators are critical for creating the necessary datasets to train statistical learners, but annotation cost and limited access to qualified annotators forms a data bottleneck. In recent years, researchers have investigated overcoming this obstacle using crowdsourcing, which is the delegation of a particular task to a large group of untrained individuals rather than a select trained few. This thesis is concerned with crowdsourcing annotation across a variety of natural language processing tasks. The tasks reflect a spectrum of annotation complexity, from simple labeling to translating entire sentences. The presented work involves new types of annotators, new types of tasks, new types of data, and new types of algorithms that can handle such data. The first part of the thesis deals with two text classification tasks. The first is the identification of dialectal Arabic sentences. We use crowdsourcing to create a large annotated dataset of Arabic sentences, which is used to train and evaluate language models for each Arabic variety. We also introduce a new type of annotations called annotator rationales, which complement traditional class labels. We collect rationales for dialect identification and for a sentiment analysis task on movie reviews. In both tasks, adding rationales yields significant accuracy improvements. In the second part, we examine how crowdsourcing can be beneficial to machine translation (MT). We start with the evaluation of MT systems, and show the potential of crowdsourcing to edit MT output. We also present a new MT evaluation metric, RYPT, that is based on human judgment, and well-suited for a crowdsourced setting. Finally, we demonstrate that crowdsourcing can be used to collect translations. We discuss a set of features that help distinguish well-formed translations from those that are not, and show that crowdsourcing yields high-quality translations at a fraction of the cost of hiring professionals.
SPS Measures and Trade: Implementation Matters

Using SPS measures obtained from the SPS Information Management System of the WTO and controlling for zero trade flows, we find that SPS concerns reduce the probability of trade in agricultural and food products consistently. However, the amount of trade is positively affected by SPS measures conditional on market entry. This suggests that SPS measures constitute an effective market entry barrier. Additionally, we split SPS measures into requirements related to (i) conformity assessment, and (ii) product characteristics. Both types of measures are implemented by policy makers to achieve a desired level of health safety, yet, entail diverse trade costs. We find that conformity assessment measures hamper not only the likelihood to trade but also the amount of trade, while measures related to product characteristics do not affect the market entry decision, but have a strong positive impact on the trade volume. This suggests that trade outcomes crucially depend on the measure policy makers decide to implement.
PKMζ Restricts Dendritic Arbor Growth by Filopodial and Branch Stabilization within the Intact and Awake Developing Brain

The molecular mechanisms underlying activity-dependent neural circuit growth and plasticity during early brain development remain poorly understood. Protein kinase Mζ (PKMz), an endogenous constitutively active kinase associated with late-phase long-term synaptic potentiation and memory in the mature brain, is expressed in the embryonic Xenopus retinotectal system with heightened levels during peak periods of dendrite growth and synaptogenesis. In vivo rapid time-lapse imaging of actively growing tectal neurons and comprehensive three-dimensional tracking of dynamic dendritic growth behavior finds that altered PKMz activity affects morphologic stabilization. Exogenous expression of PKMz within single neurons stabilizes dendritic filopodia by increasing dendritic filopodial lifetimes and decreasing filopodial additions, eliminations, and motility, whereas long-term in vivo imaging demonstrates restricted expansion of the dendritic arbor. Alternatively, blocking endogenous PKMz activity in individual growing tectal neurons with an inhibitory peptide (ζ-inhibitory peptide) destabilizes dendritic filopodia and over long periods promotes excessive arbor expansion. Furthermore, inhibiting endogenous PKMz throughout the tectum decreases colocalization of immunostained presynaptic and postsynaptic markers, SNAP-25 and PSD-95, respectively, suggesting impaired synapse maintenance. Together, these results implicate PKMz activity in restricting dendritic arborization during embryonic brain circuit development through synaptotropic stabilization of dynamic processes.
Graduation Requirements for Students with Disabilities

The question of how and when to graduate students with disabilities has become an engaging issue for parents and public school personnel. This article examines the legal and practice considerations regarding high school graduation, including graduation standards, minimum competency testing, and termination of services. Recommendations are provided on how school districts can establish a process for graduating students with disabilities within the legal framework of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The U.S. Destinations of Contemporary Mexican Immigrants 1

Although U.S. Latinos continue to be concentrated in particular places, many have shifted to “new” locations around the country. This study employs data from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP107) to examine the relationship between individual-level characteristics and diverse U.S. destinations chosen by post-1965 Mexican immigrants. Multinomial logistic regression analyses confirm the importance of human capital, social networks, and temporal context in directing immigrants to particular U.S. sites. The findings also suggest that employing a typology of U.S. destinations is useful for understanding the spatial distributions of contemporary Mexican immigrants.
Enhancement of region-of-interest coded images by using adaptive regularization

We propose a new algorithm that post-processes wavelet-based ROI coded images by using adaptive iterative regularization. The proposed algorithm can efficiently reduce the ringing artifacts as well as restore the details of the image. The algorithm can be used in still image compression standards, videophone, video conferencing, and other visual communication systems.
Long Period Gratings in Multicore Fibers: Components for space division multiplexing systems

In this paper, the optical power transfer promoted by long-period gratings (LPGs) inscribed in Multicore Fibers (MCFs) is studied. Simple analytical expressions that describe the mode power's evolution along the LPGs in a 1+n core fiber are derived from the coupled mode equations. The viability of using this technique to develop a device that distribute a single pump source by all the cores of MCFs with different cores geometries is demonstrated.
PCA based feature vector for handwritten Kannada characters recognition

An approach for selection of features using principal component analysis technique to classify segmented (isolated) Kannada characters is presented in this paper. Artificial neural network is used as classifier. The ability of neural networks to learn by ordinary experience, as we do, and to take sensitive decisions give them the power to solve problems found intractable or difficult for traditional computation. Handwritten characters are scan converted to binary images and normalized to a size of 50 × 50 pixels. The features are extracted using spatial co ordinates. Prominent features are then selected by principal component analysis using these spatial features, and are given to neural network for classification. With the implementation of this approach on a comprehensive database, higher degree of accuracy in results has been obtained.
Women and AIDS: Too Little, Too Late?

Many authors examine the governmental, the scientific, and the sexual politics of AIDS. Many of these same authors tell the AIDS story within the context of decrying homophobia. The implications of that story, however, have a troubling significance for women. This essay proposes to move the discussion of the sexual politics of AIDS beyond the confines of homophobia and to highlight issues not widely discussed outside of AIDS activist circles—issues which are having, and will continue to have, profound effects on women.
Nonspatial attentional capture by previously rewarded scene semantics

Recent research has shown that reward influences visual perception and cognition in a way that is distinct from the well-documented goal-directed mechanisms. In the current study we explored how task-irrelevant stimulus-reward associations affect processing of stimuli when attention is constrained and reward no longer delivered. During a training phase, participants performed a choice game, exposing them to different reward schedules for different semantic categories of natural scene pictures. In a separate test session in which no additional reward was provided, the differentially rewarded scene categories were used as task-irrelevant non-targets in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. Participants performed a detection task on a previously non-rewarded target category. Results show that participants' sensitivity index (d′) for target detection decreased as a function of whether the reward was coupled to the distractor category during training. The semantic category of natural scenes associated with high reward caused more interference in target detection than the semantic category associated with a low reward. The same was found when new, unseen distractor pictures of the same semantic categories were used. The present findings suggest that reward can be selectively associated with high level scene semantics. We argue that learned stimulus-reward associations persistently bias perceptual processing independently of spatial shifts in attention and the immediate prospect of reward.
Direct generation of random graphs exactly realising a prescribed degree sequence

This paper intends to extend the possibilities available to researchers for the evaluation of directed networks with the use of randomly generated graphs. The direct generation of a simple network with a prescribed degree sequence still seems to be an open issue, since the prominent configuration model usually does not realise the degree distribution exactly. We propose such an algorithm using a heuristic for node prioritisation. We demonstrate that the algorithm samples approximately uniformly. In comparison to the switching Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms, the direct generation of edges allows an easy modification of the linking behaviour in the random graph, introducing for example degree correlations, mixing patterns or community structure. That way, more specific random graphs can be generated (non-uniformly) in order to test hypotheses on the question, whether specific network features are due to a specific linking behaviour only. Or it can be used to generate series of synthetic benchmark networks with a specific community structure, including hierarchies and overlaps.