Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temporal System Call Specialization for Attack Surface Reduction

Attack surface reduction through the removal of unnecessary application features and code is a promising technique for improving security without incurring any additional overhead. Recent software debloating techniques consider an application’s entire lifetime when extracting its code requirements, and reduce the attack surface accordingly. In this paper, we present temporal specialization , a novel approach for limiting the set of system calls available to a process depending on its phase of execution. Our approach is tailored to server applications, which exhibit distinct initialization and serving phases with different system call requirements. We present novel static analysis techniques for improving the precision of extracting the application’s call graph for each execution phase, which is then used to pinpoint the system calls used in each phase. We show that requirements change throughout the lifetime of servers, and many dangerous system calls (such as execve ) can be disabled after the completion of the initialization phase. We have implemented a prototype of temporal specialization on top of the LLVM compiler, and evaluated its effectiveness with six popular server applications. Our results show that it disables 51% more security-critical system calls compared to existing library specialization approaches, while offering the additional beneﬁt of neutralizing 13 more Linux kernel vulnerabilities that could lead to privilege escalation.
SOME ASPECTS OF OPTIMIZATION FOR PRINTING AND FINISHING OFFSET PROCESSES

In order to stay competitive, printing companies need to continually improve their business, both in the technical and organizational fields. In this paper are presented some aspects related to the optimization of the technological processes of printing. Printed products such as magazines, brochures and notebooks are often made by offset technology. In order to achieve the actual printing, both web and sheet-fed printing machines are needed. The paper presents the initial version of the production workflow taking into account the available current endowment, both equipment and human resources of the printing house where the case study was conducted. After the study of the time required for each machine cycle, a new, automated production workflow was proposed. The advantages and disadvantages of each proposed option have been analyzed and criteria for optimizing the production flows have been established.
Establishment and assessment of a nomogram for predicting adverse outcomes of preterm preeclampsia

Objective This prospective study was designed to develop and internally validate an accurate prognostic nomogram model with which to predict the adverse outcomes of preterm preeclampsia. Methods Pregnant women with preeclampsia were divided into the adverse outcome group and the no adverse outcome group. The Kaplan–Meier method, univariate Cox regression analysis, and calculation of the concordance index (C-index) were applied to predictive evaluation of the nomogram. Calibration curves were drawn to test the nomogram prediction and actual observation of the adverse outcome rate. Results After 1000 internal validations of bootstrap resampling, the C-index of the nomogram for predicting adverse outcomes within 48 hours was 0.74 and the cut-off value was 0.53, with a sensitivity of 61.57% and a specificity of 76.93%. The C-index of the nomogram for predicting adverse outcomes within 7 days was 0.76 and the cut-off value was 0.37, with a sensitivity of 58.17% and a specificity of 84.82%. The calibration curves showed good concordance of incidence of adverse outcomes between nomogram prediction and actual observation. Conclusion Cox regression has certain guiding significance in preventing and treating adverse outcomes, choosing the time of termination of pregnancy, and improving the prognosis of the mother and child.
Review of Machine Learning Methods for the Survey on HCC Scenario and Prediction Strategy

Liver Cancer is one of the serious disorders which when not diagnosed on time may lead to death. Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is malignant tumor which needs to be treated with priority. HCC is diagnosed generally when it reaches more progressive stage. HCC is diagnosed starting with the clinical trials, laboratory studies, tumor grading, imaging studies depending on the symptoms exhibited by the patient. Medical data contains massive hidden parameters which can be analyzed using machine learning algorithms. The current work focusses on study of various previous studies carried out in prediction of HCC using machine learning techniques like classification, regression and artificial neural networks.
Performance Comparison of Messaging Protocols and Serialization Formats for Digital Twins in IoV

This paper compares the performance tradeoffs of popular application-layer messaging protocols and binary serialization formats in the context of vehicle-to-cloud communication for maintaining digital twins. Of particular interest are solutions that enables emerging delay-sensitive Intelligent Transport System (ITS) features, while reducing data usage in mobile networks. The evaluated protocols are Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP), and Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), and the serialization formats studied are Protobuf and Flatbuffers. The results show that CoAP – the only User Datagram Protocol (UDP) based protocol evaluated – has the lowest latency and overhead, but is not able to guarantee reliable transfer, even when using its confirmable message feature. For our context, the best performer that guarantees reliable transfer is MQTT. For the serialization formats, Protobuf is shown to have faster serialization speed and three times smaller serialized message size than Flatbuffers. In contrast, Flatbuffers uses less memory and has shorter deserialization time, making it an interesting alternative for applications where the vehicle is the receiver of time sensitive information. Finally, insights and implications on ITS communication are discussed.
Combining Parsing Information With Joint Structure for Human Pose Estimation

Recently, with the growing popularity of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), major progress has been made in human pose estimation. However, due to the lack of consideration of human body structure, the current methods still suffer from occlusion, complex background, and large pose variations. Human parsing, as a highly relevant task, can provide useful semantic information of body parts for pose estimation. In this paper, we propose a novel convolutional network, which consists of a pose encoder and a parsing encoder in parallel, to combine parsing information with body structure information for effectively assisting human pose estimation in unconstrained environment. The pose encoder can extract discriminative features that contain rich structure information by incorporating a multi-branch parallel module and a hierarchical connection architecture into hourglass network. On the other hand, the parsing encoder can obtain valuable parsing information that serves as extra constraints to help improve the performance of pose estimation. Then, the generated pose features and parsing features will be integrated together for heatmap prediction. In addition, we apply a joint classification loss for preserving the structural consistency between keypoints and body parts. By correctly localizing the joints in their corresponding body parts, the network can better optimize the spatial relationship between different keypoints, thus reducing the errors of estimation. It is worth mentioning that the proposed modules can be introduced into most of the existing methods. The experimental results on the extended PASCAL-Person-Part and LSP datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our model, and the performance can be greatly improved by utilizing parsing information.
Gunshot Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks

The main paper deals with the analysis of the methods of signal processing and events recognition in the audio signal and the implementation of the selected method in real use. Recognized events are gunshots mixed with a background sound such as traffic noise, human voice, animal sounds and other forms of environmental sounds. The proposed algorithm adapted for explosion detection can be used as part of a security system for monitoring depots or places dedicated to storing dangerous materials. For events classification and class recognition, the freely available machine learning frameworks TensorFlow and Keras are used.
A Novel Community Detection Algorithm Based on Paring, Splitting and Aggregating in Internet of Things

The explosive growth of Internet of Things (i.e., IoT) terminal equipment makes its topology more complex, which leads to the increasing cost of network research. Recently, the implicit community structure is widely used to improve the efficiency of research. However, most of the non-overlapping community detection algorithms have some weakness, such as the large number of community detected and the obvious scale gap between communities. To address these abovementioned problems, we design a novel non-overlapping community detection algorithm, named as <italic>P</italic>airing, <italic>S</italic>plitting and <italic>A</italic>ggregating algorithm (i.e., <italic>PSA</italic>). Firstly, in order to improve the accuracy of community division, a new node similarity index is designed to transform the network into a large number of similar node pairs. Secondly, based on the connected branches composed of similar node pairs, the network is further divided into several similar node sets. Thirdly, to balance the scale gap of different communities, the <italic>G</italic>rasshopper <italic>O</italic>ptimization <italic>A</italic>lgorithm, (i.e., <italic>GOA</italic>) is introduced to combine the local attribute (i.e., conductance) and global attribute (i.e., modularity) together to aggregate similar node sets into potential (or final) communities. Finally, the experimental results show that <italic>PSA</italic> not only controls the difference among communities well, but also outperforms the other four popular algorithms in terms of two metrics. Moreover, we propose a community-based resource discovery method (or scheme), named as <italic>C</italic>ommunity-assisted <italic>S</italic>hort-distance-query <italic>R</italic>esource <italic>D</italic>iscovery algorithm (i.e., <italic>CSRD</italic>) to further verify the efficiency of <italic>PSA</italic>. The results show that the resource discovery efficiency of <italic>CSRD</italic> using <italic>PSA</italic> is better compared with other algorithms.
Classification of Inflammatory Bowel Disease from Formalin‐Fixed, Paraffin‐Embedded Tissue Biopsies via Imaging Mass Spectrometry

Discrimination between ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) by histologic features alone can be challenging and often leads to inaccurate initial diagnoses in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. This is mostly due to an overlap of clinical and histologic features. However, exact diagnosis is not only important for patient treatment but it also has a socioeconomic impact. It is therefore important to develop and improve diagnostic tools complementing traditional histomorphological approaches.
Observations on the cytology and taxonomy of the pteridophyte flora of Ceylon

Cytological observations have been made on 155 entities (excluding sterile hybrids) referable provisionally to ca. 140 existing taxa in the fern flora of Ceylon. These have been supplemented by observations on 69 entities (involving 46 additional species) from wild material of ferns from other countries, chiefly Malaya, and on 15 additional species of unknown wild origin growing at Kew. The cytological findings are assembled in relation to the taxonomic system of Copeland (1947) which is discussed in a preliminary way together with the relevant portions of the alternative system of Holttum (1947).
Pozycjonowanie modułu fotowoltaicznego w jednoosiowym układzie nadążnym

W pracy przedstawiono możliwości zwiększenia wydajności konwersji fotowoltaicznej w wyniku zastosowania elektromechanicznego układu jednoosiowej zmiany położenia modułu fotowoltaicznego, "śledzenia za Słońcem". Przedstawiono projekt oraz fizyczną realizację stanowiska badawczego. Porównano charakterystyki prądowo – napięciowe oraz charakterystyki mocy elektrycznej, wyznaczone w warunkach naturalnego oświetlenia, dla konfiguracji stacjonarnej z optymalnym całorocznym kątem pochylenia oraz nadążnej.
Intergenerational attachment orientations: Gender differences and environmental contribution

After more than four decades of research and almost 100 attachment studies, the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of attachment still remain unclear. To better understand the mechanisms moderating the associations of attachment orientations from one generation to the next, this empirical study examined the roles of 1) shared and non-shared environmental factors that characterize critical events in adulthood such as career choice, income and child care; 2) gender differences in attachment between parents (Generation 1, G1) and their adult offspring (Generation 2, G2) and their possible interactions. A sample of 321 families with G2 adults aged 18 and over and two G1 parents up to the age of 81 took part in this study. Both generations completed the Experiences in Close Relationships attachment measure as well as a comprehensive detailed measure of current core characteristics in adulthood (e.g. employment status, income, whether they had children) and demographic variables (gender, age). The findings suggest that the associations between the attachment orientations of G1 and the attachment orientations of G2 were moderated by G2’s income, their G1 paternal income and employment status, whether G2 had children (G3) of their own, and their family status after controlling for the age of G2, and the age of both paternal and maternal G1. When the associations for both paternal and maternal G1attachment orientation with both their male and female G2 was analyzed separately, this accounted for 35% of the variance of males’ G2 attachment orientation. The discussion focuses on the contribution of these findings to attachment theory and draws clinical conclusions.
Effect of culture conditions on the plant regeneration via organogenesis from cotyledonary node of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp)

A rapid and efficient regeneration system via organogenesis from cotyledonary node explants of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) has been established. The cotyledonary node explants excised from 4 days old seedlings, placed in vitro on medium containing salts of Murashige and Skoog and vitamins of Gamborg’s media (MSB 5 ). Adventitious shoots occurred at the basal end of the initiated axillary buds that preexisted at the node regions. BAP at 1.25 mg/l was the optimum for shoot induction. The combination of BAP with IBA had worthless effect on shoots proliferation. The number of adventitious buds was promoted when the seeds were preconditioned with appropriate concentrations of BAP (2 to 3 mg/l), whereas was depressed with higher concentrations of BAP (5 to 15 mg/l). The regeneration system was further optimized due to the presence of cotyledons attaching to the cotyledonary node explants. Explants with two entire cotyledons from 4 days old seedlings produced the greater number of shoots (7.83) after 3 weeks on MSB5 medium supplemented with 1.25 mg/l BAP. Regenerated shoots could well elongate on regulator-free basal medium and well root with 100% of success on the half strength medium supplemented with various concentrations of IBA (0, 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 mg/l). The regenerated plantlets were cultured on the pots containing sterilized vermiculite and soil (1:1) with 27% of survival. Key words : Cowpea, plant regeneration, cotyledonary node, organogenesis.
Glucagon-like peptide 1 agonists for treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes who fail metformin monotherapy: systematic review and meta-analysis of economic evaluation studies

Objectives To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis and to pool the incremental net benefits (INBs) of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) compared with other therapies in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) after metformin monotherapy failure. Research design and methods The study design is a systematic review and meta-analysis. We searched MEDLINE (via PubMed), Scopus and Tufts Registry for eligible cost–utility studies up to June 2018, adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guideline. We conducted a systematic review and pooled the INBs of GLP1s compared with other therapies in T2DM after metformin monotherapy failure. Various monetary units were converted to purchasing power parity, adjusted to 2017 US$. The INBs were calculated and then pooled across studies, stratified by level of country income; a random-effects model was used if heterogeneity was present, and a fixed-effects model if it was absent. Heterogeneity was assessed using Q test and I2 statistic. Results A total of 56 studies were eligible, mainly from high-income countries (HICs). The pooled INBs of GLP1s compared with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor (DPP4i) (n=10), sulfonylureas (n=6), thiazolidinedione (TZD) (n=3), and insulin (n=23) from HICs were US$4012.21 (95% CI US$−571.43 to US$8595.84, I2=0%), US$3857.34 (95% CI US$−7293.93 to US$15 008.61, I2=45.9%), US$37 577.74 (95% CI US$−649.02 to US$75 804.50, I2=92.4%) and US$14 062.42 (95% CI US$8168.69 to US$19 956.15, I2=86.4%), respectively. GLP1s were statistically significantly cost-effective compared with insulins, but not compared with DPP4i, sulfonylureas, and TZDs. Among GLP1s, liraglutide was more cost-effective compared with lixisenatide, but not compared with exenatide, with corresponding pooled INBs of US$4555.09 (95% CI US$3992.60 to US$5117.59, I2=0) and US$728.46 (95% CI US$−1436.14 to US$2893.07, I2=0), respectively. Conclusion GLP1 agonists are a cost-effective choice compared with insulins, but not compared with DPP4i, sulfonylureas and TZDs. PROSPERO registration number CRD42018105193.
Differing Activity Profiles of the Stereoisomers of 2,3,5,6TMP-TQS, a Putative Silent Allosteric Modulator of α7 nAChR

Many synthetic compounds to which we attribute specific activities are produced as racemic mixtures of stereoisomers, and it may be that all the desired activity comes from a single enantiomer. We have previously shown this to be the case with the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor positive allosteric modulator (PAM) 3a,4,5,9b-Tetrahydro-4-(1-naphthalenyl)-3H-cyclopentan[c]quinoline-8-sulfonamide (TQS) and the α7 ago-PAM 4BP-TQS. Cis-trans-4-(2,3,5,6-tetramethylphenyl)-3a,4,5,9b-te-trahydro-3H-cyclopenta[c]quinoline-8-sulfonamide (2,3,5,6TMP-TQS), previously published as a “silent allosteric modulator” and an antagonist of α7 allosteric activation, shares the same scaffold with three chiral centers as the aforementioned compounds. We isolated the enantiomers of 2,3,5,6TMP-TQS and determined that the (−) isomer was a significantly better antagonist than the (+) isomer of the allosteric activation of both wild-type α7 and the nonorthosterically activatible C190A α7 mutant by the ago-PAM GAT107 (the active isomer of 4BP-TQS). In contrast, (+)2,3,5,6TMP-TQS proved to be an α7 PAM. (−)2,3,5,6TMP-TQS was shown to antagonize the allosteric activation of α7 by the structurally unrelated ago-PAM B-973B as well as the allosteric activation of the TQS-sensitive α4β2L15′M mutant. In silico docking of 2,3,5,6TMP-TQS in the putative allosteric activation binding site suggested a specific interaction of the (−) enantiomer with α7T106, and allosteric activation of α7T106 mutants was not inhibited by (−)2,3,5,6TMP-TQS, confirming the importance of this interaction and supporting the model of the allosteric binding site. Comparisons and contrasts between 2,3,5,6TMP-TQS isomers and active and inactive enantiomers of other TQS-related compounds identify the orientation of the cyclopentenyl ring to the plane of the core quinoline to be a crucial determinate of PAM activity. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Many synthetic ligands are in use as racemic preparations. We show that one enantiomer of the TQS analog Cis-trans-4-(2,3,5,6-tetramethylphenyl)-3a,4,5,9b-te-trahydro-3H-cyclopenta[c]quinoline-8-sulfonamide, originally reported to lack activity when used as a racemic preparation, is an α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor positive allosteric modulator (PAM). The other enantiomer is not a PAM, but it is an effective allosteric antagonist. In silico studies and structural comparisons identify essential elements of both the allosteric ligands and receptor binding sites important for these allosteric activities.
Root architecture adaptation of Pistacia atlantica subsp. atlantica according to an increasing climatic and edaphic gradient: case of a north-south transect in Algeria

Despite xeric conditions, Pistacia atlantica Desf. subsp. atlantica (Atlas pistachio) succeeds in developing impressive dendrometric dimensions (25-m high, 2-m trunk diameter). It is among the rare spontaneous phanerophytes of the North African steppe. With access to water being the primary condition for survival, we focused on its root system. According to a gradient of increasing climatic and edaphic aridity in Algeria, we recorded different root architectures set up by this tree. We sampled its underlying soil and determined its main physico-chemical characteristics. Root architecture is mainly of the superficial type with more than 60% of roots located in the top 50 cm of soil along the north-south transect. With the decrease in precipitation and the rising of temperatures, length of the dry season, and the content of sand in soil, the number of superficial roots and their ramifications decrease, while their average circumferences, and the length and average circumference of the deep roots increase. These deep and thick roots allow access and storage of moisture present in the deep levels and protected there from evaporation, and, on the other hand, provide an important anchor in these soft soils. The Atlas pistachio adapts to increasing climatic and edaphic aridity by adopting a phreatophytic strategy.