Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does scale, size, and locality matter? Evaluation of collaborative BGP security mechanisms

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) was not designed with security in mind and is vulnerable to many attacks, including prefix/subprefix hijacks, interception attacks, and imposture attacks. Despite many protocols having been proposed to detect or prevent such attacks, no solution has been widely deployed. Yet, the effectiveness of most proposals relies on large-scale adoption and cooperation between many large Autonomous Systems (AS). In this paper we use measurement data to evaluate some promising, previously proposed techniques in cases where they are implemented by different subsets of ASes, and answer questions regarding which ASes need to collaborate, the importance of the locality and size of the participating ASes, and how many ASes are needed to achieve good efficiency when different subsets of ASes collaborate. For our evaluation we use topologies and routing information derived from real measurement data. We consider collaborative detection and prevention techniques that use (i) prefix origin information, (ii) route path updates, or (iii) passively collected round-trip time (RTT) information. Our results and answers to the above questions help determine the effectiveness of potential incremental rollouts, incentivized or required by regional legislation, for example. While there are differences between the techniques and two of the three classes see the biggest benefits when detection/prevention is performed close to the source of an attack, the results show that significant gains can be achieved even with only regional collaboration.
Effects of residues of deltamethrin in cattle faeces on the development and survival of three species of dung-breeding insect.

OBJECTIVE To assess the toxicity to insects of drug residues excreted in cattle faeces following treatment with deltamethrin. DESIGN Bioassays were performed on one species of dung-breeding fly (Musca vetustissima) and two species of dung beetle (Onthophagus binodis and Euoniticellus fulvus). ANIMALS Cattle on properties near Kangaroo Valley, Canberra and Gundagai were treated with pour-on formulations of deltamethrin. Untreated animals acted as controls. PROCEDURES Faeces from treated and untreated cattle were inoculated with newly emerged fly larvae or fed to adults of two species of dung beetle. Percentage survival and duration of development provided measures of the toxicity of deltamethrin residues in faeces. RESULTS Residues of deltamethrin were excreted in concentrations sufficient to inhibit survival of larvae of M vetustissima for 1 to 2 weeks after treatment. Peak concentrations of 0.4 mg deltamethrin/kg dry weight of faeces occurred 3 days after treatment and were sufficient to kill adult beetles for at least twice this period. With one of two formulations tested, there was evidence of a reduction in dung beetle fecundity and an increase in the duration of juvenile development. A model of the effect of deltamethrin on the breeding success of dung beetles in the field suggests that a single treatment, applied when most of the population is in a nonparous condition, may cause up to 75% reduction in beetle activity by the end of the season. Multiple treatments at 10 or 21 day intervals may drive local populations towards extinction. CONCLUSION Depending on the time and frequency of treatment, the effect of deltamethrin on insects in cattle faeces may range from negligible to catastrophic.
Gibberellins regulate the transcription of the continuous flowering regulator, RoKSN, a rose TFL1 homologue

The role of gibberellins (GAs) during floral induction has been widely studied in the annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Less is known about this control in perennials. It is thought that GA is a major regulator of flowering in rose. In spring, low GA content may be necessary for floral initiation. GA inhibited flowering in once-flowering roses, whereas GA did not block blooming in continuous-flowering roses. Recently, RoKSN, a homologue of TFL1, was shown to control continuous flowering. The loss of RoKSN function led to continuous flowering behaviour. The objective of this study was to understand the molecular control of flowering by GA and the involvement of RoKSN in this inhibition. In once-flowering rose, the exogenous application of GA3 in spring inhibited floral initiation. Application of GA3 during a short period of 1 month, corresponding to the floral transition, was sufficient to inhibit flowering. At the molecular level, RoKSN transcripts were accumulated after GA3 treatment. In spring, this accumulation is correlated with floral inhibition. Other floral genes such as RoFT, RoSOC1, and RoAP1 were repressed in a RoKSN-dependent pathway, whereas RoLFY and RoFD repression was RoKSN independent. The RoKSN promoter contained GA-responsive cis-elements, whose deletion suppressed the response to GA in a heterologous system. In summer, once-flowering roses did not flower even after exogenous application of a GA synthesis inhibitor that failed to repress RoKSN. A model is presented for the GA inhibition of flowering in spring mediated by the induction of RoKSN. In summer, factors other than GA may control RoKSN.
Delay, reliability and trust in mobile ad hoc networks: a space-centric approach to routing

We establish a methodology for handling high mobility in wireless ad hoc networks. We present a novel design framework for the development of scalable ad hoc routing protocols that are capable of providing QoS guarantees (delay, reliability and trust) in the high-mobility regime. In the first part of this dissertation, we consider the problem of providing delay guarantees for ad hoc routing protocols under high mobility. The novel aspect of our work is the attribution of network and MAC layer congestion to space, which enables congestion-aware routing and provides delay guarantees over a much longer duration than that achieved by traditional ad hoc routing protocols. We prove that, over the duration during which the node density and the offered traffic pattern remain roughly constant, the spatial congestion of the network remains roughly invariant. We present an accurate method of spatial delay estimation, named “path integration,” between distinct locations, and derive an upper bound for the estimation error. Furthermore, we develop a congestion-aware routing protocol to enable delay-optimized routing for real-time applications. Through extensive QualNet simulations, we perform a detailed evaluation of the presented framework in a realistic simulation set-up. The simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides substantial improvements in the delivery of real-time applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP) for a wide range of node densities, velocities and offered traffic. In the second part of this dissertation, we turn our attention to the problem of reliable and trustworthy routing in mobile ad hoc networks. We consider the implications of applying our spatial approach to improve routing reliability through difficult terrains with possibly untrustworthy regions in tactical mobile ad hoc networks. The proposed approach provides maps of spatial reliability and trust, that reflect the probabilities for finding trustworthy routes between distinct locations. We develop a routing protocol, named “Reliability Map Routing” (RMR), which discovers routes over spatial cells whose local reliability and trust metrics are distributed throughout the network via a fast dissemination algorithm. Furthermore, the RMR protocol is capable of reliable geocasting with low overhead. Via QualNet simulation studies, we compare the performance of the RMR protocol in terms of packet delivery ratio, delay, and overhead, and quantify the effects of node density, velocity, and traffic load on these performance metrics.
Probabilistic Inference in Influence Diagrams

This paper is about reducing influence diagram (ID) evaluation into Bayesian network (BN) inference problems that are as easy to solve as possible. Such reduction is interesting because it enables one to readily use one's favorite BN inference algorithm to efficiently evaluate IDs. Two such reduction methods have been proposed previously (Cooper 1988; Shachter and Peot 1992). This paper proposes a new method. The BN inference problems induced by the new method are much easier to solve than those induced by the two previous methods.
Protective antibodies against Clostridium difficile are present in intravenous immunoglobulin and are retained in humans following its administration

The prevalence of serum antibodies against Clostridium difficile (CD) toxins A and B in healthy populations have prompted interest in evaluating the therapeutic activity of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) in individuals experiencing severe or recurrent C. difficile infection (CDI). Despite some promising case reports, a definitive clinical role for IVIg in CDI remains unclear. Contradictory results may be attributed to a lack of consensus regarding optimal dose, timing of administration and patient selection as well as variability in specific antibody content between commercial preparations. The purpose of this study was to investigate retrospectively the efficacy of three commercial preparations of IVIg for treating severe or recurrent CDI. In subsequent mechanistic studies using protein microarray and toxin neutralization assays, all IVIg preparations were analysed for specific binding and neutralizing antibodies (NAb) to CD antigens in vitro and the presence of anti‐toxin NAbs in vivo following IVIg infusion. A therapeutic response to IVIg was observed in 41% (10 of 17) of the CDI patients. Significant variability in multi‐isotype specific antibodies to a 7‐plex panel of CD antigens and toxin neutralization efficacies were observed between IVIg preparations and also in patient sera before and after IVIg administration. These results extend our current understanding of population immunity to CD and support the inclusion of surface layer proteins and binary toxin antigens in CD vaccines. Future strategies could enhance IVIg treatment response rates by using protein microarray to preselect donor plasma/serum with the highest levels of anti‐CD antibodies and/or anti‐toxin neutralizing capacities prior to fractionation.
Social anxiety disorder: what are we losing with the current diagnostic criteria?

Filho AS, Hetem LAB, Ferrari MCF, Trzesniak C, Martín‐Santos R, Borduqui T, de Lima Osório F, Loureiro SR, Busatto Filho G, Zuardi AW, Crippa JAS. Social anxiety disorder: what are we losing with the current diagnostic criteria?
A Retrospective on the VAX VMM Security Kernel

The development of a virtual-machine monitor (VMM) security kernel for the VAX architecture is described. The focus is on how the system's hardware, microcode, and software are aimed at meeting A1-level security requirements while maintaining the standard interfaces and applications of the VMS and ULTRIX-32 operating systems. The VAX security kernel supports multiple concurrent virtual machines on a single VAX system, providing isolation and controlled sharing of sensitive data. Rigorous engineering standards were applied during development to comply with the assurance requirements for verification and configuration management. The VAX security kernel has been developed with a heavy emphasis on performance and system management tools. The kernel performs sufficiently well that much of its development was carried out in virtual machines running on the kernel itself, rather than in a conventional time-sharing system. >
Model-based Approach to Automatic 3D Seismic Horizon Correlation across Faults

Seismic data provide detailed information about subsurface structures. Reflection events visible in the seismic data are known as horizons, and indicate boundaries between different rock layers. A fault is a surface along which one side of rock layers has moved relative to the other in a direction parallel to the surface. Faults are recognized in seismic data by discontinuities of horizons. Fault interpretation is an important but time-consuming task of seismic interpretations. It is least supported by automatic tools due to seismic data distortions near fault regions. In this paper, we present an automatic method for correlations of horizons across faults in 3d seismic data. As automating horizons correlations using only seismic data features is not feasible, we find optimal correlations by imposing geological constraints. We formulate the correlation task as a non-rigid continuous point matching between the two sides of the fault. A fault surface is identified and seismic features on both sides of the fault are gathered. One side of the fault serves as the floating image while the other side is the reference image. A fault displacement model is constructed by performing initial discrete match of some prominent regions. Then the simulated annealing optimization technique is used to perform continuous point matching between the two sides according to seismic feature similarity and the fault model. A possible multiresolution scheme for the simulated annealing optimization is discussed. The method was applied to real 3D seismic data, and has shown to produce geologically acceptable results.
The Effects of Feeding Strategies and Food Mechanics on the Ontogeny of Masticatory Function in the Cebus libidinosus Cranium

Food mechanical properties influence primate masticatory adaptations and are hypothesized to explain the robust craniofacial morphology exhibited by tufted capuchins. The differences in adult and juvenile feeding competency have been attributed, in part, to juveniles' inability to process mechanically demanding foods. However, little is known about how masticatory demands change once individuals begin foraging independently, especially during times of ripe fruit scarcity when diets are predicted to be the most mechanically challenging. Here fracture toughness (R) and Young's modulus (E) data are presented for food tissues processed by a tufted capuchin species (Cebus libidinosus) at Boa Vista, Brazil. These measures of food mechanical properties are used to test the hypothesis that adults will process foods with higher fracture toughness and Young's modulus than juveniles. Food mechanical property data were collected with a HKU Darvell universal mechanical tester. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare food mechanical properties among tissue categories. Age-related variation in food tissue toughness and Young's modulus was investigated using generalized linear mixed models. Food tissues exhibited significant differences, with outer tissues having the greatest toughness and Young's modulus. There was no effect of age on median or maximum R and E values, suggesting juvenile and adult C. libidinosus at Boa Vista are able to process foods of comparable mechanical properties. These results suggest feeding competency differences observed among age classes may be explained
Directly estimating earthquake rupture area using second moments to reduce the uncertainty in stress drop

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2018. This article is posted here by permission of Oxford University Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Journal International 214 (2018): 2224–2235, doi:10.1093/gji/ggy201.
Observations of the Infrared Outgoing Spectrum of the Earth from Space: The Effects of Temporal and Spatial Sampling

Abstract A recent comparison between data taken by two different satellite instruments, the Interferometric Monitor of Greenhouse Gases (IMG) that flew in 1997 and the Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS) that flew in 1970, showed evidence of a change in the clear-sky greenhouse radiative forcing due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations between those years. A possibly even more intriguing question is whether the data can be used to extract unambiguous information about the radiative feedback processes that accompany such a change of forcing, especially cloud feedback. This paper is an investigation of this question, with particular reference to the uncertainties introduced into the differences between IMG and IRIS spectra due to their different patterns of temporal and spatial sampling. This has been approached by modeling the sampling problem, using high-resolution proxy scenes of top-of-the-atmosphere 11-μm brightness temperature, TB11, taken from International Satellite Cloud Climato.
Evaluation of Plant Growth on Expanded Black Cotton Soil

In aggregate hydroponics, the suitability of a particular medium is often guided by its physical properties. However these may not provide adequate evaluation. By growing a crop, the growth characteristics can also be used to guide medium preparation and selection. Tomatoes ( Anna F1 variety) were grown in containers under a greenhouse and provided with equal amount of nutrient solution. The expanded black cotton soil was prepared by mixing with rice husk at a ratio of 90:10, fired at 750 o C for 30 minutes and size reduced to various textures. The crops planted in the expanded clay aggregates performed better than the black cotton soil both in terms of stem elongation and enlargement due to improved drainage, nutrient flow and aeration conditions. The root length density was 25654 m m -3 in black cotton soil, being the highest and lowest in the coarse aggregates which had 9433 m m -3 .
Efficient Protocols for Generating Bipartite Classical Distributions and Quantum States

We investigate the fundamental problem of generating bipartite classical distributions or quantum states. By designing efficient communication protocols and proving their optimality, we establish a number of intriguing connections to fundamental measures in optimization, convex geometry, and information theory. 1) To generate a classical distribution P(x,y), we tightly characterize the minimum amount of quantum communication needed by the psd-rank of P (as a matrix), a measure recently proposed by Fiorini et al. (Proc. 44th ACM Symp. Theory Comput., pp. 95-106, 2012) in studies of the minimum size of extended formulations of optimization problems such as TSP. This echos the previous characterization for the optimal classical communication cost by the nonnegative rank of P. The result is obtained via investigating the more general case of bipartite quantum state generation and designing an optimal protocol for it. 2) When an approximation ϵ is allowed to generate a distribution (X,Y)~P, we present a classical protocol of the communication cost O((C(X,Y)+1)/ϵ, where C(X,Y) is common information, a well-studied measure in information theory introduced by Wyner (IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, 21 (2):163-179, 1975). This also links nonnegative rank and common information, two seemingly unrelated quantities in different fields. 3) For approximately generating a quantum pure state |ψ〉, we completely characterize the minimum cost by a corresponding approximate rank, closing a possibly exponential gap left in Ambainis etal. (SIAM J. Comput., 32 (6):1570-1585, 2003).
Study on impact of air pollution on asthma among school going children residing in urban Agra

Background: Air pollution is one of the world's most serious environmental problems. Air pollution has many negative health effects on the general population, especially children, individuals with underlying chronic disease, and the elderly. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of traffic-related pollution on the exacerbation of asthma and development of respiratory infections in schoolgoing children in Agra, suffering from asthma compared with healthy subjects, and to estimate the association between incremental increases in principal pollutants and the incidence of respiratory symptoms. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 702 children aged 6–18 years in this prospective study. A total of 342 children with asthma and 360 healthy subjects were monitored for 6 months from September 2013 to February 2014. Clinical data were combined with the results obtained using an air pollution monitoring system of the five most common pollutants. A total of 328 children with asthma and 345 healthy subjects completed follow-up. Results: Children with asthma reported significantly more days of fever (P <0.001) and cough (P < 0.001), episodes of rhinitis (P = 0.087), asthma attacks (P < 0.001), episodes of pneumonia (P < 0.003), and hospitalizations (P = 0.01). In the asthma cohort, living close to the street with a high traffic density was a risk factor for asthma exacerbations (odds ratio [OR] = 1.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13–2.84), whereas living near green areas was found to be protective (OR = 0.50; 95% CI, 0.31–0.80). Conclusion: There is a significant association between traffic-related pollution and the development of asthma exacerbations and respiratory infections in children suffering from asthma. These findings suggest that environmental control may be crucial for respiratory health in children with the underlying respiratory disease.
Spiral Waves in Nonlocal Equations

We present a numerical study of rotating spiral waves in a partial integro-differential equation defined on a circular domain. This type of equation has been previously studied as a model for large scale pattern formation in the cortex and involves spatially nonlocal interactions through a convolution. The main results involve numerical continuation of spiral waves that are stationary in a rotating reference frame as various parameters are varied. We find that parameters controlling the strength of the nonlinear drive, the strength of local inhibitory feedback, and the steepness and threshold of the nonlinearity must all lie within particular intervals for stable spiral waves to exist. Beyond the ends of these intervals, either the whole domain becomes active or the whole domain becomes quiescent. An unexpected result is that the boundaries seem to play a much more significant role in determining stability and rotation speed of spirals, as compared with reaction-diffusion systems having only local interactions.
Nash Implementation Under Irrational Preferences

This paper extends the standard implementation problem to include behavior not representable by a preference relation. In particular, the social choice correspondence has as its domain the set of profiles of choice functions, not just profiles of preferences. The paper proposes a generalized Nash concept in games without preferences, and obtains necessary and sufficient conditions for Nash implementa-
Seismic quiescence as an indicator for large earthquakes in a system of self‐organized criticality

Seismically active fault systems may be in a state of self‐organized criticality (SOC). Investigations of simple SOC models have suggested that earthquakes might be inherently unpredictable. In this paper, we analyze the question of predictability in a more complex and realistic SOC model, which consists of a spring‐block system with transient creep characteristics. Additionally to the power law distribution of earthquake sizes, this model reproduces also foreshock and aftershock sequences. Aside from a short‐term increase of seismicity immediately prior to large model earthquakes, these events are preceded on average by an intermediate‐term period of reduced seismicity. The stronger and the longer the duration of this period, the larger on average is the subsequent mainshock. We find that the detection of seismic quiescence can improve the time—independent hazard assessment. The improvement is most significant for the largest target events.