Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Herd : A Scalable , Traffic Analysis Resistant Anonymity Network for VoIP Systems

It has long been understood that anonymity and efficiency are conflicting design criteria in the design of communication systems. Strongly anonymous systems such as those using Chaum's Mix networks can impose significant bandwidth and latency overheads, while other systems typically attain better performance at the expense of relaxing their resistance to traffic analysis. This paper describes a system called Herd that tries to thread this needle in the specific context of voice communication. While voice has stringent latency requirements , its call semantics and low constant band-width profile can significantly reduce the overhead of chaff traffic. Moreover, the authors of Herd explore how clever engineering can shift these overheads in a way that favors their application. In many respects Herd is a traditional anonymity network, with hop-by-hop routing and layered encryp-tion (like Tor) and chaff cover traffic (like Tarzan or P 5). However, it has a number of important innovations as well. First, communications is via dedicated infrastructure mix networks associated with individual " trust zones " run by distinct providers. In the proposed deployment, each trust zone would correspond to an individual provider operating under a single state jurisdiction (i.e., not across political boundaries). In turn, each zone operates a set of co-located mixes among which users can choose at random. This structure allows users to reason qualitatively about both commercial and state-level trust issues (in their choice of zone) and then, within a trusted zone, benefit from the guarantees provided by mix nets. Since each party can select independently, this may involve multiple zones, each with independent mixes, but since this is only a small number (1-3) of long distance links, latency is kept low. The other interesting technical contribution is that their design can optionally incorporate untrusted superpeers to offload CPU and bandwidth demands on infrastructure mixes. Superpeers offer transit bandwidth between clients and mixes, who use network coding to conceal which clients are in active conversations. As a result, the overhead on mixes can be limited to the number of active callers instead of the number of total participants. The paper describes a working, open source, system, performs traffic analysis attacks on itself and competing systems, evaluates scalability and overhead using a real-life cell call database and performs a related comparative analysis of call quality offered by different systems. This paper generated vigorous discussion at the PC meeting revolving primarily around two points: the value of …
The Repercussions of Disruptive Changes in the Semiconductor Industry

My research interests lie in the broad area of computer architecture with emphasis on hardware acceleration, reconfigurable computing, and on-chip interconnects. I deeply enjoy bringing my architecture ideas to life and enabling others to also do so. To this end, I have worked extensively on tools and methodologies that facilitate rapid hardware design and exploration. An already matured effort that captures well my research interests and approach is the CONNECT Network-on-Chip (NoC) framework, which offers a scalable composable NoC architecture and the associated tools to deliver fully working NoC designs that others can use. The publicly available CONNECT NoC RTL generator (http://bit.ly/connect_noc_gen) is actively used in multiple projects and by many researchers around the world, who have collectively generated thousands of networks and published several papers using CONNECTgenerated NoCs.
Network aware P2P multimedia streaming: Capacity or locality?

P2P content providers are motivated to localize traffic within Autonomous Systems and therefore alleviate the tension with ISPs stemming from costly inter-AS traffic generated by geographically distributed P2P users. In this paper, we first present a new three-tier framework to conduct a thorough study on the impact of various capacity aware or locality aware neighbor selection and chunk scheduling strategies. Specifically, we propose a novel hybrid neighbor selection strategy with the flexibility to elect neighbors based on either type of network awareness with different probabilities. We find that network awareness in terms of both capacity and locality potentially degrades system QoS as a whole and that capacity awareness faces effort-based unfairness, but enables contribution-based fairness. Extensive simulations show that hybrid neighbor selection can not only promote traffic locality but lift streaming quality and that the crux of traffic locality promotion is active overlay construction. Based on this observation, we then propose a totally decentralized network awareness protocol, equipped with hybrid neighbor selection. In realistic simulation environments, this protocol can reduce inter-AS traffic from 95% to 38% — a locality performance comparable with tracker-side strategies (35%) under the premise of high streaming quality. Our performance evaluation results provide valuable insights for both theoretical study on selfish topologies and real-deployed system design.
Genetic evidence for natural selection in humans in the contemporary United States

Significance I leverage recent advances in molecular genetics to test directly whether genetic variants associated with a number of phenotypes have been under natural selection in the contemporary United States. My finding that natural selection has been slowly occurring for genetic variants associated with educational attainment and (suggestively, in females) for variants associated with age at menarche provides additional evidence that humans are still evolving—albeit slowly and at a rate that cannot account for more than a small fraction of the large changes that have occurred over the past few generations. Recent findings from molecular genetics now make it possible to test directly for natural selection by analyzing whether genetic variants associated with various phenotypes have been under selection. I leverage these findings to construct polygenic scores that use individuals’ genotypes to predict their body mass index, educational attainment (EA), glucose concentration, height, schizophrenia, total cholesterol, and (in females) age at menarche. I then examine associations between these scores and fitness to test whether natural selection has been occurring. My study sample includes individuals of European ancestry born between 1931 and 1953 who participated in the Health and Retirement Study, a representative study of the US population. My results imply that natural selection has been slowly favoring lower EA in both females and males, and are suggestive that natural selection may have favored a higher age at menarche in females. For EA, my estimates imply a rate of selection of about −1.5 mo of education per generation (which pales in comparison with the increases in EA observed in contemporary times). Although they cannot be projected over more than one generation, my results provide additional evidence that humans are still evolving—albeit slowly, especially compared with the rapid changes that have occurred over the past few generations due to cultural and environmental factors.
The effect of phase information in speech enhancement and speech recognition

The majority of speech enhancement methods perform noise removal in spectral domain and construct the enhanced speech signal from the estimated magnitude of clean speech and the phase of the noisy speech. In this paper, we show that by incorporating the phase information in the enhancement process, the quality and intelligibility of speech signal are improved. In our investigations, the minimum mean-square error short-time spectral amplitude and MMSE log-spectral amplitude methods are used to estimate the magnitude spectrum of speech signal. By conducting six classes of experiments, it is shown that by taking the phase information into account, overall SNR and PESQ measures are improved. In other experiments, the results of speech enhancement system are fed into a speech recognition system and it is shown that by incorporating accurate phase information, the intelligibility of the speech signal is improved.
Handbook of Embodied Cognition and Sport Psychology

The first systematic collaboration between cognitive scientists and sports psychologists considers the mind–body relationship from the perspective of athletic skill and sports practice. This landmark work is the first systematic collaboration between cognitive scientists and sports psychologists that considers the mind–body relationship from the perspective of athletic skill and sports practice. With twenty-six chapters by leading researchers, the book connects and integrates findings from fields that range from philosophy of mind to sociology of sports. The chapters show not only that sports can tell scientists how the human mind works but also that the scientific study of the human mind can help athletes succeed. Sports psychology research has always focused on the themes, notions, and models of embodied cognition; embodied cognition, in turn, has found striking confirmation of its theoretical claims in the psychological accounts of sports performance and athletic skill. Athletic skill is a legitimate form of intelligence, involving cognitive faculties no less sophisticated and complex than those required by mathematical problem solving. After presenting the key concepts necessary for applying embodied cognition to sports psychology, the book discusses skill disruption (the tendency to “choke” under pressure); sensorimotor skill acquisition and how training correlates to the development of cognitive faculties; the intersubjective and social dimension of sports skills, seen in team sports; sports practice in cultural and societal contexts; the notion of “affordance” and its significance for ecological psychology and embodied cognition theory; and the mind's predictive capabilities, which enable anticipation, creativity, improvisation, and imagination in sports performance. ContributorsAna Maria Abreu, Kenneth Aggerholm, Salvatore Maria Aglioti, Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza, Duarte Araújo, Jürgen Beckmann, Kath Bicknell, Geoffrey P. Bingham, Jens E. Birch, Gunnar Breivik, Noel E. Brick, Massimiliano L. Cappuccio, Thomas H. Carr, Alberto Cei, Anthony Chemero, Wayne Christensen, Lincoln J. Colling, Cassie Comley, Keith Davids, Matt Dicks, Caren Diehl, Karl Erickson, Anna Esposito, Pedro Tiago Esteves, Mirko Farina, Giolo Fele, Denis Francesconi, Shaun Gallagher, Gowrishankar Ganesh, Raúl Sánchez-García, Rob Gray, Denise M. Hill, Daniel D. Hutto, Tsuyoshi Ikegami, Geir Jordet, Adam Kiefer, Michael Kirchhoff, Kevin Krein, Kenneth Liberman, Tadhg E. MacIntyre, Nelson Mauro Maldonato, David L. Mann, Richard S. W. Masters, Patrick McGivern, Doris McIlwain, Michele Merritt, Christopher Mesagno, Vegard Fusche Moe, Barbara Gail Montero, Aidan P. Moran, David Moreau, Hiroki Nakamoto, Alberto Oliverio, David Papineau, Gert-Jan Pepping, Miriam Reiner, Ian Renshaw, Michael A. Riley, Zuzanna Rucinska, Lawrence Shapiro, Paula Silva, Shannon Spaulding, John Sutton, Phillip D. Tomporowski, John Toner, Andrew D. Wilson, Audrey Yap, Qin Zhu, Christopher Madan
Tracking Relevant Alignment Characteristics for Machine Translation

In most statistical machine translation (SMT) systems, bilingual segments are extracted via word alignment. In this paper we compare alignments tuned directly according to alignment F-score and BLEU score in order to investigate the alignment characteristics that are helpful in translation. We report results for two different SMT systems (a phrase-based and an n-gram-based system) on Chinese to English IWSLT data, and Spanish to English European Parliament data. We give alignment hints to improve BLEU score, depending on the SMT system used and the type of corpus.
ICEMST 2014 : International Conference on Education in Mathematics , Science & Technology A PRELIMINARY STUDY FOR DYSCALCULIA IN SABAH , MALAYSIA

In Malaysia, it is reported that the number of registered students with learning disabilities increased from 7,919 in year 2000 to 20,814 in year 2006 (Teoh & Lim, 2007). It is estimated that the prevalence of Dyscalculia in the general population is 5-8% (Adler, 2008). This research intends to develop an instrument for measuring dyscalculia and identify the prevalence of Dyscalculia among primary school students in Sabah, Malaysia. The Dyscalculia instrument developed in this study is a computer-based assessment for children that aims to identify the characteristics of Dyscalculia by measuring response accuracy and response time to test items. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a preliminary study for Dyscalculia which involved 91 students in three primary schools in Sabah, Malaysia. The results show that 5.5% of the primary school students in Sabah suffer from Dyscalculia.
A Computational Model for Early Events in B Cell Antigen Receptor Signaling: Analysis of the Roles of Lyn and Fyn

BCR signaling regulates the activities and fates of B cells. BCR signaling encompasses two feedback loops emanating from Lyn and Fyn, which are Src family protein tyrosine kinases (SFKs). Positive feedback arises from SFK-mediated trans phosphorylation of BCR and receptor-bound Lyn and Fyn, which increases the kinase activities of Lyn and Fyn. Negative feedback arises from SFK-mediated cis phosphorylation of the transmembrane adapter protein PAG1, which recruits the cytosolic protein tyrosine kinase Csk to the plasma membrane, where it acts to decrease the kinase activities of Lyn and Fyn. To study the effects of the positive and negative feedback loops on the dynamical stability of BCR signaling and the relative contributions of Lyn and Fyn to BCR signaling, we consider in this study a rule-based model for early events in BCR signaling that encompasses membrane-proximal interactions of six proteins, as follows: BCR, Lyn, Fyn, Csk, PAG1, and Syk, a cytosolic protein tyrosine kinase that is activated as a result of SFK-mediated phosphorylation of BCR. The model is consistent with known effects of Lyn and Fyn deletions. We find that BCR signaling can generate a single pulse or oscillations of Syk activation depending on the strength of Ag signal and the relative levels of Lyn and Fyn. We also show that bistability can arise in Lyn- or Csk-deficient cells.
Factor structure and measurement invariance of the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire-Community Version Brief

ABSTRACT The Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire-Community Version Brief (PEDQ-CVB) is a widely used brief multidimensional measure of general racial discrimination for both students and community populations. We evaluated the factor structure and measurement equivalency of the PEDQ-CVB across diverse racial/ethnic and gender groups. The groups in the current study were Black (N = 306), Asian (N = 310), Latinx (N = 163), multiracial (N = 108), women (N = 555), and men (N = 372). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and test of competing models suggested that the four-factor and bifactor (with four specific factors and one general factor) models were best fitting and most conceptually meaningful. Based on the bifactor model, the PEDQ-CVB could be represented unidimensionally (total scale score) for applied measurement. Multi-group CFAs found evidence of measurement invariance for configural, metric, and scalar models across racial/ethnic and gender groups, suggesting that men and women, and individuals self-identifying as Black, Asian, Latinx and multiracial, interpreted PEDQ-CVB items in a similar fashion. Our findings substantiate the utility of the PEDQ-CVB as a brief general measure of racial/ethnic discrimination and the validity of results from prior studies that used the PEDQ-CVB. Study limitations and future directions for research are discussed.
A Rapid Method of 3D Character Models' Diversity Used Micro-deformation

An animation character, which has several duplications in one virtual scene, is usually represented just by a same 3D model. It results in monotonous and boring scenes. A micro-deformation method which can create an interesting scene include many 3D models of different shape from the same character is proposed in this paper. By geometric approximation the real-time algorithm of micro-deformation which uses elementary geometry and sweep geometry as the deformation reference objects is studied. The experiments on 3D game character demonstrate that the algorithm is real-time and effective. So it can be used in virtual scene to get an abundant and interesting scene.
Multiplex determination of serological signatures in the sera of colorectal cancer patients using hydrogel biochips

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common malignancy in industrialized countries. Despite the advances in diagnostics and development of new drugs, the 5‐year survival remains only 60–65%. Our approach to early diagnostics of CRC is based on the determination of serological signatures with an array of hemispherical hydrogel cells containing immobilized proteins and oligosaccharides (glycochip). The compounds immobilized on the glycochip include tumor‐associated glycans (SiaTn, Tn, TF, LeC, LeY, SiaLeA, and Manβ1‐4GlcNAcβ) and antibodies against human immunoglobulins IgG, IgA, and IgM. The glycochip detects antibodies against tumor‐associated glycans in patients’ sera. The simultaneous measurement of the levels of immunoglobulins enhances the diagnostic impact of the signatures. In this work, we found previously unreported increase in antibodies against oligosaccharide Manβ1‐4GlcNAcβ in patients with CRC. In parallel with these experiments, we determined the levels of oncomarkers carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cancer antigen (CA) 19–9, CA 125, CA 15–3, human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), and alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP) using another gel‐based biochip with immobilized antibodies (oncochip) developed earlier in our laboratory. In total, 69 samples from healthy donors, 33 from patients with colorectal carcinoma, and 27 from patients with inflammatory bowel diseases were studied. The use of combined signatures of antiglycan antibodies and oncomarkers provides much better predictive value than the conventional measurement of oncomarkers CEA and CA 19–9. Positive predictive value of CRC diagnoses using together glycochip and oncochip reached 95% with the sensitivity and specificity 88% and 98%, respectively. Thus, the combination of antibody profiling with detection of conventional oncomarkers proved to be a promising tool in diagnostics of CRC.
Beyond Allostatic Load The Stress Response System as a Mechanism of Conditional Adaptation

THE STRESS RESPONSE SYSTEM (SRS) has a central role in orchestrating physical and psychosocial development of both humans and nonhuman species (Ellis, Jackson, & Boyce, 2006; Korte, Koolhaas, Wingfield, & McEwen, 2005). For many organisms, the SRS contributes crucially to responding flexibly to environmental opportunities and challenges. One of the most remarkable features of the SRS is the wide range of individual variation in physiological parameters. Some respond quickly and strongly even to minor events, whereas others show flat response profiles across situations. Furthermore, the balance of activation among primary SRS subsystems—the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), and limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (LHPA) axis—can vary considerably across individuals. It is difficult to overstate the real-world relevance of such individual variability. Decades of research demonstrate not only that physiological patterns of stress responsivity constitute a primary integrative pathway through which psychosocial environmental factors are transmuted into the behavioral, autonomic, and immunologic manifestations of human pathology (reviewed in Boyce & Ellis, 2005), but also that patterns of stress responsivity regulate variation in a wide range of adaptive processes and behaviors including (but not limited to) growth and metabolism, reproductive status and fertility, aggression and risk taking, pair bonding and caregiving, and memory and learning (reviewed in Del Giudice, Ellis, & Shirtcliff, 2011). Clearly, understanding the causes of such individual differences and their development over the life course has important implications for medicine, psychology, and psychiatry, among other disciplines. One approach has been to view individual differences in stress reactivity through a pathology lens. Indeed, a common assumption in the stress literature is that there
System Design Trade-Offs in a Next-Generation Embedded Wireless Platform

Over the course of the past decade, the evolution of advanced low-energy microcontrollers has raised three questions which this paper outlines and addresses. The first question is: Can a 32-bit platform be constructed that provides advanced features but fits within the energy constraints of a wireless sensor network? We answer this in the affirmative by presenting the design and preliminary evaluation of Storm – one such system based on an ARM Cortex-M4 that achieves 2. 3μA idle current with a 1. 5μS wake up time. The second question we answer is: Can this platform simultaneously meet the very different demands of both monitoring-type applications and cyber-physical systems? We demonstrate that this is indeed possible and present the design trade-offs that must be made to achieve this, yielding a module with a rich set of exported peripherals that fits in a 16mm x 26mm form factor. The final question explored by this paper is: If such a platform is possible, what new opportunities and challenges would it hold for embedded operating systems? We answer this by showing that the usage of modern 32 bit microcontrollers requires reconsidering system architecture governing power management, clock selection and inter-module dependencies, as well as offering opportunities for supervisory code and the coordination of common tasks without CPU intervention.
4255 SEISMIC DECONVOLUTION REVISITED WITH CURVELET FRAMES

We propose an efficient iterative curvelet-regularized deconvolution algorithm that exploits continuity along reflectors in seismic images. Curvelets are a new multiscale transform that provides sparse representations for images (such as seismic images) that comprise smooth objects separated by piece-wise smooth discontinuities. Our technique combines conjugate gradient-based convolution operator inversion with noise regularization that is performed using non-linear curvelet coefficient shrinkage (thresholding). The shrinkage operation leverages the sparsity of curvelets representations. Simulations demonstrate that our algorithm provides improved resolution compared to the traditional Wiener-based deconvolution approach.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE “GETTING READY FOR YOUR NEXT JOB” INVENTORY FOR UNEMPLOYED INDIVIDUALS

This article describes the development of a self-administered inventory to provide unemployed job seekers of varying education levels and backgrounds with insight into their job search. The inventory was refined in 5 phases with multiple samples. Evidence for predictive validity was provided by examining the relationship between the inventory components ( job-search intensity, Internet use, job-search confidence, job-search clarity, support, stress and worry, skills, barriers, job-search experience, difference between last wage and wage desired, time spent in job search, and number of interviews in last 2 weeks) and employment outcomes several months later. The inventory, titled “Getting Ready for Your Next Job” (YNJ), is shown in the Appendix. Interested users may download a PDF or Microsoft Word version of the YNJ from http://www.ynj. csom.umn. edu/.