Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model Checking Firewall Policy Configurations

The use of firewalls to enforce access control policies can result in extremely complex networks. Each individual firewall may have hundreds or thousands of rules, and when combined in a network, they may result in unexpected combined behavior. To mitigate this problem, there has been recent interest in the use of model checking techniques for analyzing the behavior of firewall policy configurations, and reporting anomalies. Existing techniques for firewall policy analysis are based on decision diagrams, most normally reduced ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs). BDDs are a rich data structure, supporting more logical operations than just solving boolean formulae. Typically, search algorithms for boolean satisfiability (so-called SAT-solvers) outperform BDDs. In this paper, we show that the extra structure provided by BDDs is not necessary for firewall policy analysis, and that SAT solvers are sufficient. This argument is supported both by theoretical analysis and by experimental data.
Voicing classification of visual speech using convolutional neural networks

The application of neural network and convolutional neural net- work (CNN) architectures is explored for the tasks of voicing classification (classifying frames as being either non-speech, unvoiced, or voiced) and voice activity detection (VAD) of vi- sual speech. Experiments are conducted for both speaker de- pendent and speaker independent scenarios. A Gaussian mixture model (GMM) baseline system is de- veloped using standard image-based two-dimensional discrete cosine transform (2D-DCT) visual speech features, achieving speaker dependent accuracies of 79% and 94%, for voicing classification and VAD respectively. Additionally, a single- layer neural network system trained using the same visual fea- tures achieves accuracies of 86 % and 97 %. A novel technique using convolutional neural networks for visual speech feature extraction and classification is presented. The voicing classifi- cation and VAD results using the system are further improved to 88 % and 98 % respectively. The speaker independent results show the neural network system to outperform both the GMM and CNN systems, achiev- ing accuracies of 63 % for voicing classification, and 79 % for voice activity detection.
Pre- and postnatal exposure of children to tobacco smoke during the first four years of life--observations of the authors.

INTRODUCTION Environmental exposure to tobacco smoke is a significant threat for human health, where the higher is its degree, the more immature the human organism is. Therefore, the exposure to Tobacco smoke in foetal life exerts unfavourable effects on developing foetus and may cause early and distant results in children. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study comprised 318 children in their first four years of life, treated for various medical conditions. The examined children were divided into two groups, Group 1--children exposed to Tobacco smoke--and Group 2--a control group with children from non-smoking families. History data were obtained on the basis of a specially designed questionnaire, used by the doctor in an individual conversation with parent. In each third child from the group 1 cotinine concentration in urine was assayed by the method of high performance liquid chromatography-UV-VIS and the cotinine/creatinine ratio was calculated. RESULTS OF STUDY: Results demonstrated environmental exposure to tobacco smoke in 173 children (Group 1). Out of them 31.2% were the children whose mothers had smoked also during pregnancy (Subgroup A). The other 119 children from Group 1 were accounted to Subgroup B, i.e., children, where other household members had been smoking cigarettes. A comparative group comprised 143 children from non-smoking families. The results demonstrated then that 17% of all the examined children were those, exposed to tobacco smoke effects already in their foetal life, predisposing them to prematurity and low birth weight. Moreover, it was observed that the young age and lower education level of their parents, together with worse housing conditions, may suggest a predisposing character and role of the mentioned factors.
A semantic approach for knowledge capture of MIcroRNA-Target gene interactions

Research has indicated that microRNAs (miRNAs), a special class of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), can perform important roles in different biological and pathological processes. miRNAs' functions are realized by regulating their respective target genes (targets). It is thus critical to identify and analyze miRNA-target interactions for a better understanding and delineation of miRNAs' functions. However, conventional knowledge discovery and acquisition methods have many limitations. Fortunately, semantic technologies that are based on domain ontologies can render great assistance in this regard. In our previous investigations, we developed a miRNA domain-specific application ontology, Ontology for MIcroRNA Target (OMIT), to provide the community with common data elements and data exchange standards in the miRNA research. This paper describes (1) our continuing efforts in the OMIT ontology development and (2) the application of the OMIT to enable a semantic approach for knowledge capture of miRNA-target interactions.
An assessment of the visibility of MeSH-indexed medical web catalogs through search engines

Manually indexed Internet health catalogs such as CliniWeb or CISMeF provide resources for retrieving high-quality health information. Users of these quality-controlled subject gateways are most often referred to them by general search engines such as Google, AltaVista, etc. This raises several questions, among which the following: what is the relative visibility of medical Internet catalogs through search engines? This study addresses this issue by measuring and comparing the visibility of six major, MeSH-indexed health catalogs through four different search engines (AltaVista, Google, Lycos, Northern Light) in two languages (English and French). Over half a million queries were sent to the search engines; for most of these search engines, according to our measures at the time the queries were sent, the most visible catalog for English MeSH terms was CliniWeb and the most visible one for French MeSH terms was CISMeF.
A weakly constrained approach to software change coordination

The development of a software system - of any reasonable size - from initial conception through ongoing maintenance and evolution accrues significant coordination overheads. Often the mechanisms used to manage change and coordination detract from the time developers have to pursue the principal goal of constructing the desired system. This is one of the motivators behind the emerging 'agile' methodologies. By permitting people to work as independently as possible and yet be aware of each other's dependencies and constraints, it is believed that these secondary costs can be minimised. The position taken in the research summarised here is that better support can be provided for this type of weakly constrained coordination by enhancing the awareness, automated traceability, and constraint checking capabilities of software configuration management systems. Current progress in the research and plans for future work are described.
Distribution of 125I‐galanin binding sites, immunoreactive galanin, and its coexistence with 5‐hydroxytryptamine in the cat spinal cord: Biochemical, histochemical, and experimental studies at the light and electron microscopic level

The distribution of galanin‐like immunoreactivity (GAL‐LI) in the spinal cord of the cat was studied by use of indirect histochemistry and the peroxidase‐antiperoxidase (PAP) technique. In the ventral horn GAL‐immunoreactive (IR) axonal fibers and terminals were most frequent in the ventral part of the motor nucleus. The GAL‐IR axons also contained 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT)‐LI, and they disappeared after spinal cord transection. It was concluded that these GAL‐IR fibers belong to the serotoninergic bulbospinal pathway. In the medulla oblongata from normal cats, scattered GAL‐IR cell bodies were encountered within the nucleus raphe obscurus and nucleus raphe pallidus. Electron microscopic observations revealed that the fine structure of the GAL‐IR axonal boutons in the motor nucleus was similar to that of 5‐HT‐IR boutons with a varying number of immunoreactive large dense core vesicles. The postsynaptic element in all cases studied was a dendrite.
Predicting Links in Social Networks Using Text Mining and SNA

Lately there is great progress in business organizations perception towards social aspects. Competitive organizations need to create innovation and segregate in the market. Business interactions help reaching those goals but finding the effective interactions is a challenge. We propose a prediction method, based on Social Networks Analysis (SNA) and text data mining (TDM), for predicting which nodes in a social network will be linked next. The network which is used to demonstrate the proposed prediction method is composed of academic co-authors who collaborated on writing articles. Without loss of generality, the academic co-authoring network demonstrates the proposed prediction procedure due to its similarity to other networks, such as business co-operation networks. The results show that the best prediction is achieved by incorporating TDM with SNA.
Novel α1 and γ2 GABAA receptor subunit mutations in families with idiopathic generalized epilepsy

Epilepsy is a heterogeneous neurological disease affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide. Genetic factors play an important role in both the onset and severity of the condition, with mutations in several ion‐channel genes being implicated, including those encoding the GABAA receptor. Here, we evaluated the frequency of additional mutations in the GABAA receptor by direct sequencing of the complete open reading frame of the GABRA1 and GABRG2 genes from a cohort of French Canadian families with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE). Using this approach, we have identified three novel mutations that were absent in over 400 control chromosomes. In GABRA1, two mutations were found, with the first being a 25‐bp insertion that was associated with intron retention (i.e. K353delins18X) and the second corresponding to a single point mutation that replaced the aspartate 219 residue with an asparagine (i.e. D219N). Electrophysiological analysis revealed that K353delins18X and D219N altered GABAA receptor function by reducing the total surface expression of mature protein and/or by curtailing neurotransmitter effectiveness. Both defects would be expected to have a detrimental effect on inhibitory control of neuronal circuits. In contrast, the single point mutation identified in the GABRG2 gene, namely P83S, was indistinguishable from the wildtype subunit in terms of surface expression and functionality. This finding was all the more intriguing as the mutation exhibited a high degree of penetrance in three generations of one French Canadian family. Further experimentation will be required to understand how this mutation contributes to the occurrence of IGE in these individuals.
Marine Sponge Derived Natural Products between 2001 and 2010: Trends and Opportunities for Discovery of Bioactives

Marine sponges belonging to the phylum Porifera (Metazoa), evolutionarily the oldest animals are the single best source of marine natural products. The present review presents a comprehensive overview of the source, taxonomy, country of origin or geographical position, chemical class, and biological activity of sponge-derived new natural products discovered between 2001 and 2010. The data has been analyzed with a view to gaining an outlook on the future trends and opportunities in the search for new compounds and their sources from marine sponges.
Influence of Study Habits on Academic Performance of International College Students in Shanghai.

The present study estimates the global validity of existing constructs and serves as the basis for the development of the Self-Reported Study Habits for International Students (SR-SHI) used to identify at-risk students in international programs. One-year classroom observations, recollection of study habits though interviews with high performing students show that they are mainly from low-context and individualistic countries while most low performing students come from high-context and collectivistic countries. Among other aspects, high performing students give opinions based on reading material and class content, use the expression “I think”, ask questions in class, are on time, ask for feedback regarding assignments, take notes in class and while studying, look for the professor after class, seat at the front of the classroom and attend every class, study in silence and alone at regular times along the whole semester, read the material about two weeks before the exam, review notes before the exam, talk about the content with other students. On the other hand, low performing students remind quite the whole semester, miss at least three classes per semester, are normally late, sit at the back of the classroom, don’t take notes in class and never look for the professor after class-hours. It seems that specific training programs at the start and during the semester as well as training on cultural intelligence were identified are necessary.
For Peer Review O nly Business Process Interoperability and Collaborative Performance Measurement

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Business Process Interoperability and Collaborative Performance Measurement Juan Jose Alfaro, Raul Rodriguez Rodriguez, María José Verdecho, Angel Ortiz
The People's Choice: How the Voter Makes Up His Mind in a Presidential Campaign

Die von Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson und Hazel Gaudet 1944 veroffentlichte Studie The people’s choice untersucht den Prasidentschaft swahlkampf in den USA 1940. Analysiert wird: „How the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign”. Die Entstehung individueller Wahlentscheidungen und der Einfluss von Informationen verschiedener Quellen, u. a. der Medien wurden mittels eines fur die Zeit revolutionaren Paneldesigns untersucht. Die Studie begrundet einen Meilenstein in der kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Forschung, da sie den Grundstein fur einen Paradigmenwechsel legt, namlich die Abkehr von der Annahme des Publikums als Masse, die den Einflussen der Massenmedien ausgeliefert ist, hin zu den „limited effects“ der Medien. Ausschlaggebend fur diesen Paradigmenwechsel waren drei in The people’s choice vorgestellte Konzepte, die auch heute noch in der Kommunikationswissenschaft diskutiert werden: Die These der selektiven Zuwendung des Publikums zu Medieninhalten, das Konzept der Meinungsfuhrer und die These vom Zweistufenfluss der Kommunikation. In diesem Beitrag werden der Inhalt des Werkes sowie die Kritik daran mit Fokus auf diese drei Konzepte vorgestellt.
Risedronate in the Treatment of Paget's Disease of Bone: An Open Label, Multicenter Study

An open‐label, multicenter study was conducted to determine the efficacy and safety of oral risedronate (a pyridinyl bisphosphonate) in 162 patients (102 men, 60 postmenopausal women; mean age, 68 years) with moderate to severe Paget's disease of bone (mean serum alkaline phosphatase [ALP] approximately seven times the upper limit of normal). Patients were treated with oral risedronate, 30 mg/day for 84 days, followed by 112 days without treatment. This 196‐day cycle was repeated once if serum ALP did not normalize or increased from the nadir value by ≥25%. At the end of the first and second cycles, the mean percentage decreases for serum ALP were 65.7% and 69.1%, and for urinary hydroxyproline/creatinine 50.4% and 66.9%, respectively. The decreases from baseline in ALP and urinary hydroxyproline/creatinine were significant (p < 0.001). Normalization of serum ALP was observed in 86 patients (53.8%): 53 during the first treatment cycle and 33 during the second. There was a significant proportion of patients reporting a decrease in the pagetic bone pain at days 84 and 196 (p < 0.001). Overall, risedronate was well tolerated. Five patients withdrew due to adverse events, none of which were considered to be drug related. In conclusion, 30 mg of oral risedronate administered daily for 84 days significantly reduced the biochemical indices of disease activity and was associated with pain reduction in patients with moderate to severe Paget's disease of bone. Normalization of ALP was observed in the majority of patients. Repeated administration of risedronate was shown to be beneficial. In general, risedronate was well tolerated and demonstrated a good safety profile.
Pay Likiditesi ve Finansal Performans Arasındaki Nedensellik İlişkisi: Borsa İstanbul Uygulaması

Calismanin amaci, pay likiditesi ile finansal performans arasindaki nedensellik iliskisini ortaya koymaktir. Bu iliski, BIST 100 endeksinde faaliyet gosteren sanayi firmalarinda 2005Q1-2012Q1 periyodu icin incelenmistir. Pay likiditesi hesaplamasinda bilgili islemler dikkate alinarak yatirimci grubu kurumsal yatirimcilar secilmistir. Pay likiditesi olcutleri, orani(illiquidity ratio) ve islem devir hizi orani(turnover ratio); performans olcutu ise Piyasa Degeri/Defter Degeri(PD/DD) oranidir. Calismada Dumitrescu ve Hurlin nedensellik testi kullanilmistir. Elde edilen bulgulara gore, Borsa Istanbul’ da pay likiditesi ile finansal performans arasinda cift yonlu bir nedensellik iliskisine rastlanmistir
A limited feedback precoding system with hierarchical codebook and linear receiver

In this paper, the conventional Grassmannian codebook for precoding is first analyzed, showing that the performance loss caused by linear receivers was not taken into account. To tackle the performance loss issue, a novel hierarchical codebook consisting of a Grassmannian subcodebook and a perturbation subcodebook is then proposed for precoding systems with linear receivers. A two-step codeword selection scheme that uses the product of two codewords selected from the subcodebooks as the precoder is also presented. Our analysis shows that the perturbation subcodebook is able to compensate for the performance loss from linear receivers. Compared with the Grassmannian codebook, the superiority of the proposed codebook in terms of search complexity as well as throughput/ BER is further confirmed by computer simulations.
New channels for efficient data services in cdma2000

Supporting high speed data applications has become one of the major goals of present day wireless network development. The principal focus of the latest version of cdma2000 (release C) has been to maximize the throughput for data users without affecting the performance of voice users. The paper looks at the mechanism for supporting new channels to utilize forward link resources most efficiently for high speed data applications with minimal effect on existing voice traffic.
Sensorless but not Senseless: Prediction in Evolutionary Car Racing

In this paper we try to develop predictors in order to drive a simulated car around a track without the most recent sensor data. In order to test the predictive abilities of our car we developed two experiments: one where the sensor data was interrupted for a certain time and another where the sensor data is constantly delayed by a certain amount. The predictors are based on neural networks, and we compare backpropagation and evolutionary computation as methods of training these. In the end we found that predictors with good driving performance do not sample the set of predictors which minimize the prediction error in the sensors
Plasma 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Regulation of the Renin-Angiotensin System in Humans

Vitamin D regulates the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in experimental animals, but corresponding human data are limited. We examined the relation between plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D and elements of the RAS in 184 normotensive individuals in high sodium balance; these included circulating levels of plasma renin activity and angiotensin II (Ang II) and the renal plasma flow response to infused Ang II, which is an indirect measure of the intrinsic RAS activity in the kidney. Compared with individuals with sufficient 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels (≥30.0 ng/mL), those with insufficiency (15.0 to 29.9 ng/mL) and deficiency (<15.0 ng/mL) had higher circulating Ang II levels (P for trend=0.03). Moreover, those with vitamin D deficiency had significantly blunted renal plasma flow responses to infused Ang II (mean decrease of 115 mL/min per 1.73 m2 in renal plasma flow versus 145 mL/min per 1.73 m2 among those with sufficient vitamin D levels; P for trend=0.009). Although plasma renin activity was higher among individuals with insufficient levels of vitamin D, the result was not statistically significant. These data suggest that low plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels may result in upregulation of the RAS in otherwise healthy humans.
Short Paper: Study of Synchronous and Colocated Collaboration for Search Tasks

Nowadays, Collaborative Virtual Environments offer new working methods allowing for the association of several experts in the same problem-solving process. These new platforms have the potential to improve the processing of complex environments with large dataflow and requiring different skills. This article proposes the investigation of a synchronous and colocated approach for a molecular design task. The aim of this research is to highlight the role and the contribution of Collaborative Virtual Environments for the improvement of complex tasks fulfillment.
Narcissism and the Selfie: Investigating Millennial Narcissism on Instagram

Recent studies revealed a correlation between self-promoting images on social media and higher levels of narcissism. This research further examined the relationship between narcissism and use of social media by determining the proportion of selfies an individual posts on Instagram and narcissism among millennials. The proportion of pictures that were selfies was measured in two ways: in the subject's past 4-weeks of picture posting and in the last 30 pictures the subject posted. The standard Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) was used to measure the subject's level of narcissism. Correlation analyses revealed that no correlations were found between the NPI score and the proportion of selfies posted among the total subject pool, however, among subjects who do post selfies, there was a correlation approaching significance.