Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterising the Evolution in Scanning Activity of Suspicious Hosts

The early detection of multistage attacks like DDoS and coordinated spamming poses a major challenge for existing counter-measures based on reactive blacklists. One approach to addressing this challenge would be to profile hosts that engage in scanning activity and predict their future actions. However, this requires understanding how hosts evolve their scanning behaviour. In order to address this issue we have analysed logs from the DShield repository of globally distributed IDS alerts corresponding to the first 15 days of January 2005. We first clustered hosts using similarities in the spatial breadth (targeted DShield subscribers) and depth (targeted destination ports) of their scanning activity during aggregation intervals of one day at a time. We then analysed temporal properties like popularity, volatility, lifetime and transition of these clusters to infer how they evolved over time. We found persistent clusters with stable sizes. However, they were highly volatile with a consistent turn-over of hosts everyday. This was caused by the lifetime of hosts in each cluster mostly being one day. Nevertheless, we came across a non-trivial number of hosts that appeared everyday while belonging to the same cluster or transitioning from one cluster to another. Based on these findings, it is plausible that suspicious hosts can be profiled for long periods of time to predict an imminent multistage attack.
Performance Characterization of a Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial System with Co-Channel Interference over Generalized Fading Channels

The transmission of signals in a hybrid satellite-terrestrial system (HSTS) in the presence of co-channel interference (CCI) is considered in this study. Specifically, we examine the problem of amplify-and-forward (AF)-based relaying in a hybrid satellite-terrestrial link, where the relay node is operating in the presence of a dominant co-channel interferer. It is assumed that direct connection between a source node (satellite) and a destination node (terrestrial receiver) is not available due to masking by obstacles in the surrounding. The destination node is only able to receive signals from the satellite with the help of a relay node located at the ground. In the proposed HSTS, the satellite-relay channel follows the shadowed Rice fading; and the channels of interferer-relay and relay-destination links experience generalized Nakagami-m fading. For the considered AF-based HSTS, we first develop the analytical expression for the moment generating function (MGF) of the overall output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). Then, based on the derived exact MGF, we derive novel expressions for the average symbol error rate (SER) of the considered HSTS for the following digital modulation techniques: M-ary phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) and M-ary pulse amplitude modulation (M-PAM). To significantly reduce the computational complexity for utility in system-level simulations, simple analytical approximation for the exact SER in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime is presented to provide key insights. Finally, numerical results and the corresponding analysis are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed performance evaluation framework and to view the impact of CCI on the considered HSTS under varying channel conditions and with different modulation schemes.
Family Structure, Parental Investment, and Educational Outcomes among Black South Africans. Population Studies Center Research Report.

This paper examines the relationship between family structure, expenditures on education, and children's educational outcomes for black South Africans, using the nationally representative 1995 October Household Survey. The analyses focus on 28,215 individuals ages 10 24 who have not completed secondary school. The results show that although enrollment levels are high for most ages, schooling advancement rates are well under than one grade per year, suggesting high rates of grade repetition. Controlling for background factors, family structure is highly correlated with educational outcomes. The strongest effects were seen for children living with neither of their genetic parents, who were less likely to be enrolled in school, had completed fewer grades, were older for their grade if enrolled, and had less money spent on their school fees and school-related transportation costs, than children living with both genetic parents. Children who lived with single mothers were also disadvantaged for most measures. Family structure plays a strong role in the probability that a child is enrolled in school; additional effects are evident, though diminished in strength, for outcomes affecting only enrolled students, age delays for grade and financial expenditures on schooling. In addition, past academic progress influences expenditures on school; children who are behind in school for their age (indicative of previous grade repetition) have less money spent on their schooling, above and beyond the effects of family structure on schooling expenditures. The results suggest that family structure is an important contributor to educational inequality in South Africa, although there are important caveats regarding self-selection into different family types, as well as issues of school quality. Datasets used October Household Survey (OHS), South Africa, 1995
Lei de Gibrat na Indústria Brasileira: Evidência Empírica

The paper investigates the validity of Gibrats law in the context of the Brazilian manufacturing industry during the period 1995-97. The referred hypothesis of independence between firm growth and size has as important implications, in the leading formulations, the lognormality of the distribution of firm size and the linearity of the relationship between size and rank (in logs). The empirical evidence on these implications were investigated by means of normality and linearity tests and in a large number of the sectors there is no support for Gibrats Law
Effects of Ambient Particulate Matter on Human Breast Cancer: Is Xenogenesis Responsible?

Background Recently, evidence from several studies has revealed that air pollution is associated with the increased morbidity and mortality of breast cancer patients. However, to date, the underlying mechanism remains largely unclear. Considering the high prevalence of air pollution and breast cancer in China, it is necessary to understand how air pollution may affect breast cancer. Methods We analyzed 1,832 female patients who had resided in the same cities for at least 10 years prior to their diagnosis. Variables including demographic data as well as clinical and tumor characteristics, including the patient’s age at menarche, family history of breast cancer, tumor histopathological type, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, histological grade, estrogen receptor (ER) status, progesterone receptor (PR) status and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) status at the time of diagnosis were analyzed. Results Compared to patients residing in low-pollution areas, patients living in high-pollution areas demonstrated a younger age at menarche (p<0.001), a greater family history of breast cancer (p = 0.034) and more invasive cancers (p = 0.028) with higher tumor grades (p = 0.028) and estrogen receptor (ER)-positive status (p = 0.022). Differences in tumor grade were only found in ER-positive cases. Conclusions Our findings and clinical data indicate that long-term air pollution exposure may contribute to the development of breast cancer by playing the role of a xenoestrogen, and also provides new insight into the association between air pollution and the morbidity and mortality of breast cancer patients. Furthermore, it is urgently necessary to study the association between air pollution and breast cancer to improve the living quality and health of females, and applicable public health strategies may need to be established or modified as soon as possible.
Asymmetry of Parietal Interhemispheric Connections in Humans

Visuospatial abilities are preferentially mediated by the right hemisphere. Although this asymmetry of function is thought to be due to an unbalanced interaction between cerebral hemispheres, the underlying neurophysiological substrate is still largely unknown. Here, using a method of trifocal transcranial magnetic stimulation, we show that the right, but not left, human posterior parietal cortex exerts a strong inhibitory activity over the contralateral homologous area by a short-latency connection. We also clarify, using diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance imaging, that such an interaction is mediated by direct transcallosal projections located in the posterior corpus callosum. We argue that this anatomo-functional network may represent a possible neurophysiological basis for the ongoing functional asymmetry between parietal cortices, and that its damage could contribute to the clinical manifestations of neglect.
The Alternating Semantics for Default Theories and Logic Programs

Recent proposals for semantics of default theories are all based on some types of weaker notion of extensions This is typi ed in the well founded semantics and the extension class semantics for default theories Although these semantics solve the no extension problem in Reiter s default logic they also present a departure from Reiter s original extension semantics even for default theories which can be completely char acterized by the extension semantics This results in a weaker capability for skeptical reasoning In this paper we propose a semantics for default theories based on van Gelder s alternating xpoint theory The distinct feature of this semantics is its preservation of Reiter s semantics when a default theory is not considered problematic under Reiter s semantics Di erences arise only when a default theory has no extensions or has only biased extensions under Reiter s semantics This feature allows skeptical reasoning in Reiter s logic to be properly preserved in the new semantics By the familiar natural translation from logic programs to default theories the semantics proposed for default theories provides a natural extension to the stable model semantics of normal logic programs The paper has been printed as a Technical Report TR Department of Computing Science Uni versity of Alberta
Learning Bounded Treewidth Bayesian Networks with Thousands of Variables

We present a method for learning treewidth-bounded Bayesian networks from data sets containing thousands of variables. Bounding the treewidth of a Bayesian greatly reduces the complexity of inferences. Yet, being a global property of the graph, it considerably increases the difficulty of the learning process. We propose a novel algorithm for this task, able to scale to large domains and large treewidths. Our novel approach consistently outperforms the state of the art on data sets with up to ten thousand variables.
Secreted hCLCA1 Is a Signaling Molecule That Activates Airway Macrophages

The CLCA gene family produces both secreted and membrane-associated proteins that modulate ion-channel function, drive mucus production and have a poorly understood pleiotropic effect on airway inflammation. The primary up-regulated human CLCA ortholog in airway inflammation is hCLCA1. Here we show that this protein can activate airway macrophages, inducing them to express cytokines and to undertake a pivotal role in airway inflammation. In a U-937 airway macrophage–monocyte cell line, conditioned media from HEK 293 cells heterologously expressing hCLCA1 (with or without fetal bovine serum) increased the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and IL-8). This effect was independent of the metalloprotease domain of hCLCA1. Primary porcine alveolar macrophages were similarly activated, demonstrating the effect was not cell line dependent. Similarly, immuno-purified hCLCA1 at physiologically relevant concentration of ~100 pg/mL was able to activate macrophages and induce pro-inflammatory response. This cytokine response increased with higher concentration of immuno-purified hCLCA1. These findings demonstrate the ability of hCLCA1 to function as a signaling molecule and activate macrophages, central regulators of airway inflammation.
On the shooter location problem: maintaining dynamic circular-arc graphs

We present a data structure for maintaining the Minimum Clique cover and Maximum Independent Set of a circular-arc graph. These functions can be maintained during the interchange of adjacent arc endpoints in O(logn) amortized time per interchange. The new data structure extends the dynamic tree structure of Sleator and Tarjan [5] so that cutting and linking up to O(n) subtrees can be done in one O(log n) time operation. We also give as an application and motivation for our data structure, an O(n logn) algorithm for a generalized version of the shooter location problem [7]. The best previous algorithm has complexity O(n) for a restricted version of this problem [2].
Business Process Configuration in the Cloud: How to Support and Analyze Multi-tenant Processes?

Lion's share of cloud research has been focusing on performance related problems. However, cloud computing will also change the way in which business processes are managed and supported, e.g., more and more organizations will be sharing common processes. In the classical setting, where product software is used, different organizations can make ad-hoc customizations to let the system fit their needs. This is undesirable, especially when multiple organizations share a cloud infrastructure. Configurable process models enable the sharing of common processes among different organizations in a controlled manner. This paper discusses challenges and opportunities related to business process configuration. Causal nets (C-nets) are proposed as a new formalism to deal with these challenges, e.g., merging variants into a configurable model is supported by a simple union operator. C-nets also provide a good representational bias for process mining, i.e., process discovery and conformance checking based on event logs. In the context of cloud computing, we focus on the application of C-nets to cross-organizational process mining.
Plant genotype and induced responses affect resistance to herbivores on evening primrose (Oenothera biennis)

Abstract. 1. Although both genotype and induced responses affect a plant's resistance to herbivores, little is known about their relative and interactive effects. This study examined how plant genotype of a native plant (Oenothera biennis) and induced plant responses to herbivory affect resistance to, and interactions among, several herbivores.
Analyzing Wiki-based Networks to Improve Knowledge Processes in Organizations

Increasingly wikis are used to support existing corporate knowledge exchange processes. They are an appropriate software solution to support knowledge processes. However, it is not yet proven whether wikis are an adequate knowledge management tool or not. This paper presents a new approach to analyze existing knowledge exchange processes in wikis based on network analysis. Because of their dynamic characteristics four perspectives on wiki networks are introduced to investigate the interrelationships between people, information, and events in a wiki information space. As an analysis method the Social Network Analysis (SNA) is applied to uncover existing structures and temporal changes. A scenario data set of an analysis conducted with a corporate wiki is presented. The outcomes of this analysis were utilized to improve the existing corporate knowledge processes.
Sound Source Localization with Front-Back Judgement by Two Microphones Asymmetrically Mounted on a Sphere

In this paper, we propose a novel system to localize a sound source in any planar direction using only two microphones. In our system, the two microphones are asymmetrically placed on a sphere, thus, 1) the diffraction by the sphere and the asymmetrical arrangement of the microphones give the localization cue including the frontback judgment, and 2) unlike the dummy head system, no previous measurements are necessary due to the analytical representation of the sphere diffraction. To deal with reverberation or ambient noises, we consider the maximum likelihood estimation of the direction of arrival with a diffuse noise model on a sphere. We present a real system that we built through the investigation of the optimal microphone arrangement for speech. The experimental results show that our system, which consists of two microphones mounted at ±46◦ angles on a 30mm-radius sphere, estimates a sound source direction including a front-back judgment with less than 10% errors in real environment.
A multiscale study of electronic structure and quantum transport in C6n2H6n-based graphene quantum dots

We implement a bottom-up multiscale approach for the modeling of defect localization in C6n2H6n islands, i.e. graphene quantum dots with a hexagonal symmetry, by means of density functional and semiempirical approaches. Using the ab initio calculations as a reference, we recognize the theoretical framework under which semiempirical methods adequately describe the electronic structure of the studied systems and thereon proceed to the calculation of quantum transport within the nonequilibrium Green function formalism. The computational data reveal an impurity-like behavior of vacancies in these clusters and evidence the role of parameterization even within the same semiempirical context. In terms of conduction, failure to capture the proper chemical aspects in the presence of generic local alterations of the ideal atomic structure results in an improper description of the transport features. As an example, we show wavefunction localization phenomena induced by the presence of vacancies and discuss the importance of their modeling for the conduction characteristics of the studied structures.
Web based linkage

When a variety of names are used for the same real-world entity, the problem of detecting all such variants has been known as the (record) linkage or entity resolution problem. In this paper, toward this problem, we propose a novel approach that uses the Web as the collective knowledge source in addition to contents of entities. Our hypothesis is that if an entity e1 is a duplicate of another entity e2, and if e1 frequently appears together with information I on the Web, then e2 may appear frequently with I on the Web. By using search engines, we analyze the frequency, URLs, or contents of the returned web pages to capture the information I of an entity. Extensive experiments verify that our hypothesis holds in many real settings, and the idea of using the Web as the additional source for the linkage problem is promising. Our proposal shows 51% (on average) and 193% (at best) improvement in precision/recall compared to a baseline approach.
WHAT MAKES SCHOOL SYSTEMS PERFORM? SEEING SCHOOL SYSTEMS THROUGH THE PRISM OF PISA

FOREWORD Are students well prepared to meet the challenges of the future? Are they able to analyse, reason and communicate their ideas effectively? Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life? Parents, students, the public and those who run education systems need to know the answers to these questions. Many education systems monitor student learning in order to provide some answers to these questions. Comparative international analyses can extend and enrich the national picture by providing a larger context within which to interpret national results. They can provide countries with information to judge their areas of relative strength and weakness and to monitor progress. They can also stimulate countries to raise aspirations and they can provide evidence to direct national policy for schools' curriculum and instructional efforts, and for students' learning. In response to the need for internationally comparable evidence on student performance, the OECD has launched the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA represents a commitment by the governments of OECD countries to monitor the outcomes of education systems in terms of student performance on a regular basis and within a common framework that is internationally accepted. First results from PISA were published in 2001, revealing wide differences among countries in the performance of 15-year-old students in key subject areas. For some countries, these results were deeply disappointing, showing that their students' average performance lagged considerably behind that of other countries, and sometimes despite high investments in schooling. Overall, however, the results from PISA 2000 also provided very encouraging insights. The results achieved by students in countries such as Finland and Korea revealed that excellence in schooling is attainable, and at reasonable cost. Similarly, the results from Canada, Finland, Japan, Korea and Sweden indicate that it is possible to combine high performance standards with a socially equitable distribution of learning outcomes. Finally, the results suggest that high performance standards can be achieved consistently across schools, with differences between schools in Finland and Sweden accounting for only around 10% of their students' overall performance variation among students in OECD. These findings have moved the debate on the PISA results further, with participants seeking a better understanding of why some countries achieve stronger and more equitable learning outcomes than others. To this end, the OECD is publishing a series of international thematic reports that more extensively analyse the impact of some individual, school and system-level factors on student …
A New Study on Image Enhancement and Denoising Coupled With Shock Filters and Anisotropic Diffusion

A new method based on coupling with shock filters and anisotropic diffusion is presented for image enhancement and denoising in this work. A new improved shock filters term and a new fidelity term, which are produced adaptive magnitude from image structural information, are proposed for the image enhancement and denoising. The method can not only well restrain noise but also enhance edge and keep much more structural details of an image, and the computed time of this algorithm is greatly shortened. The form of discretization is directly given in this paper. Experimental results show that the effectiveness for image enhancement and denoising with our method is better.
Follow the crowd or my conscience? An experimental study of information, self-reflecti on, and social preferences

In a modified dictator game, I test experimentally the robustness of social preferences to (1) information about others’ behavior and (2) self-ref lection about the morally right behavior. I find th at whereas information has a strong effect on people’s moral judgments, it has virtually no effect on the ir revealed preferences. In contrast, self-reflection changes social preferences substantially. Interesti ngly, since people differ with respect to their normative goals (social welfare vs. equality), self-reflecti on leads to more heterogeneity of preferences as subje cts’ home-grown normative concerns are reinforced. The results can be well explained withi n the framework of identity utility (Akerlof & Kranton 2000).