Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Privacy-Enhancing Access Control Mechanism in Distributed Online Social Network.

Dramatic growth in the number of subscribers in Online Social Networks (OSNs), such as Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, etc. shows their increasing popularity among people from different ages and sectors. However, currently, the users need to put complete trust on OSN service providers, to protect their sensitive information because of centralized access control at the providers. Taking advantage of this infrastructure, OSN service providers can expose their subscribers' personal information for targeted advertisements, or anything that is mentioned in the terms of the privacy agreement, including to change the terms. To give complete access control to the users over their data, there must be an alternative infrastructure, which removes dependence on OSN service providers. In order to address this privacy issue, Sonja Buchegger and Anwitaman Datta proposed 2-tier peer-to-peer architecture for social networks, called PeerSoN.The goal of this master's thesis is to evaluate the suitability of eXtensible Markup Language (XACML) for Distributed Online Social Network (DOSN) access control and privacy preservation. To do that, at the beginning, we determine the requirements for access control in DOSN, and present a structure for users' profiles. Due to the wide ranges of requirements, we propose to use rule-based access control for the users in OSN, where the rules are based on both static and dynamic constraints. Secondly, to investigate whether these policies can be expressed in XACML or not, we implement some common authorization policies using SunXACML, an open source implementation of standard XACML version 2.0. Moreover, to enhance privacy, regarding authentication and enforcement, we offer to use secret key based authentication of SAML, and one of the XACML supported web or application servers, such as JBoss Application server, Fedora server, in conjunction with XACML. Finally, we evaluate our architecture against three types of attackers; namely, users from social links, users form outside of social links, and random person, and claim that our mechanism is well protected against different threats, such as unauthorized access, impersonation attacks, identity theft, information leakage via friendship links, etc., specifically, when each user's profile is stored on his own machine.
Isolation and Characterization of Circulating Tumor Cells in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Lung Using a Non-EpCAM-Based Capture Method

Introduction The exclusion of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that have lost epithelial antigens during the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process by using Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule (EpCAM) based capture methods is still a matter of debate. In this study, cells obtained after depletion procedure from blood samples of squamous cell lung cancer (SQCLC) patients were identified based on morphology and characterized with the combination of FISH assessment and immunophenotypic profile. Materials and Methods Five mL blood samples, collected from 55 advanced SQCLC patients, were analyzed by a non-EpCAM-based capture method. After depletion of leukocytes and erythroid cells, the negative fraction was characterized by both FISH using a fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) probe and by immunocytochemistry. Thirty healthy donors were also tested. Results Based on morphology (nuclear dimension ≥10 μm, shape and hypercromatic aspect) suspicious circulating cells clearly distinguishable from contaminant leukocytes were observed in 49/55 (89%) SQCLC patients. Thirty-four of the 44 (77%) samples evaluable for FGFR1 FISH showed ≥ 6 FGFR1 gene copy number on average per cell. Vimentin expression involved 43% (18/42) of pooled circulating SQCLC cells, whereas only 29% (14/48) were EpCAM positive. Confocal microscopy confirmed the localization of FGFR1 probe in suspicious circulating cells. Suspicious circulating elements were also observed in healthy donors and did not show any epithelial associated antigens. A significantly lower number of suspicious circulating cells in healthy donors compared to SQCLC patients was found. Conclusions Among the heterogeneous cell population isolated by depletion procedure, the coexistence of cells with epithelial and/or mesenchymal phenotype suggests that EMT may participate to transendothelial invasion and migration of tumor cells in advanced SQCLC. The finding of cells with neither EpCAM or EMT phenotype, retrieved after non-EpCAM-based systems, underlines the presence of suspicious elements in the blood of both SQCLC patients and healthy donors. Further phenotyping and molecular analyses are necessary to fully characterize these circulating elements.
Multi-granular Perspectives on Covering

Covering model provides a general framework for granular computing in that overlapping among granules are almost indispensable. For any given covering, both intersection and union of covering blocks containing an element are exploited as granules to form granular worlds at different abstraction levels, respectively, and transformations among these different granular worlds are also discussed. As an application of the presented multi-granular perspective on covering, relational interpretation and axiomization of four types of covering based rough upper approximation operators are investigated, which can be dually applied to lower ones.
Internet Treatment for Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Clinician vs. Technician Assistance

Background Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) for depression is effective when guided by a clinician, less so if unguided. Question: Would guidance from a technician be as effective as guidance from a clinician? Method Randomized controlled non-inferiority trial comparing three groups: Clinician-assisted vs. technician-assisted vs. delayed treatment. Community-based volunteers applied to the VirtualClinic (www.virtualclinic.org.au) research program, and 141 participants with major depressive disorder were randomized. Participants in the clinician- and technician-assisted groups received access to an iCBT program for depression comprising 6 online lessons, weekly homework assignments, and weekly supportive contact over a treatment period of 8 weeks. Participants in the clinician-assisted group also received access to a moderated online discussion forum. The main outcome measures were the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Item (PHQ-9). Completion rates were high, and at post-treatment, both treatment groups reduced scores on the BDI-II (p<0.001) and PHQ-9 (p<0.001) compared to the delayed treatment group but did not differ from each other. Within group effect sizes on the BDI-II were 1.27 and 1.20 for the clinician- and technician-assisted groups respectively, and on the PHQ-9, were 1.54 and 1.60 respectively. At 4-month follow-up participants in the technician group had made further improvements and had significantly lower scores on the PHQ-9 than those in the clinician group. A total of approximately 60 minutes of clinician or technician time was required per participant during the 8-week treatment program. Conclusions Both clinician- and technician-assisted treatment resulted in large effect sizes and clinically significant improvements comparable to those associated with face-to-face treatment, while a delayed treatment control group did not improve. These results provide support for large scale trials to determine the clinical effectiveness and acceptability of technician-assisted iCBT programs for depression. This form of treatment has potential to increase the capacity of existing mental health services. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12609000559213
Evaluating Locality Optimizations For Adaptive Irregular Scientific Codes

Irregular scientific codes experience poor cache performance due to their memory access patterns. Researchers have proposed several data and computation transformations to improve locality in irregular scientific codes. We experimentally compare their performance and present GPART, a new technique based on hierarchical clustering. Quality partitions are constructed quickly by clustering multiple neighboring nodes with priority on nodes with high degree, and repeating a few passes. Overhead is kept low by clustering multiple nodes in each pass and considering only edges between partitions. We also experimentally evaluate parameters for partitioning algorithms to balanc e locality with overhead and explore the impact of locality optimizations on parallel performance. Finally, we evaluate locality optimizations for adaptive codes, where connection patterns dynamically change at intervals during program execution. We derive a simple cost model to guide locality optimizations when access patterns change. Experiments on irregular scientific codes for a variety of meshes show locality optimization techniques are effective for both static and adaptive codes, improving performance by almost 50% on average. In particular, GPART matches the performance of more sophisticated partitioning algorithms to within 1–2%, with one third of the overhead.
Computational Representation of Linguistic Structures using Domain-Specific Languages

We describe a modular system for generating sentences from formal definitions of underlying linguistic structures using domain-specific languages. The system uses Java in general, Prolog for lexical entries and custom domain-specific languages based on Functional Grammar and Functional Discourse Grammar notation, implemented using the ANTLR parser generator. We show how linguistic and technological parts can be brought together in a natural language processing system and how domain-specific languages can be used as a tool for consistent formal notation in linguistic description.
Extending voice-driven synthesis to audio mosaicing

This paper presents a system for controlling audio mosaicing with a voice signal, which can be interpreted as a further step in voice-driven sound synthesis. Compared to voice-driven instrumental synthesis, it increases the variety in the synthesized timbre. Also, it provides a more direct interface for audio mosaicing applications, where the performer voice controls rhythmic, tonal and timbre properties of the output sound. In a first step, voice signal is segmented into syllables, extracting a set of acoustic features for each segment. In the concatenative synthesis process, the voice acoustic features (target) are used to retrieve the most similar segment from the corpus of audio sources. We implemented a system working in pseudo-realtime, which analyzes voice input and sends control messages to the concatenative synthesis module. Additionally, this work raises questions to be further explored about mapping the input voice timbre space onto the audio sources timbre space.
Insight into the Structure, Dynamics and the Unfolding Property of Amylosucrases: Implications of Rational Engineering on Thermostability

Amylosucrase (AS) is a kind of glucosyltransferases (E.C. 2.4.1.4) belonging to the Glycoside Hydrolase (GH) Family 13. In the presence of an activator polymer, in vitro, AS is able to catalyze the synthesis of an amylose-like polysaccharide composed of only α-1,4-linkages using sucrose as the only energy source. Unlike AS, other enzymes responsible for the synthesis of such amylose-like polymers require the addition of expensive nucleotide-activated sugars. These properties make AS an interesting enzyme for industrial applications. In this work, the structures and topology of the two AS were thoroughly investigated for the sake of explaining the reason why Deinococcus geothermalis amylosucrase (DgAS) is more stable than Neisseria polysaccharea amylosucrase (NpAS). Based on our results, there are two main factors that contribute to the superior thermostability of DgAS. On the one hand, DgAS holds some good structural features that may make positive contributions to the thermostability. On the other hand, the contacts among residues of DgAS are thought to be topologically more compact than those of NpAS. Furthermore, the dynamics and unfolding properties of the two AS were also explored by the gauss network model (GNM) and the anisotropic network model (ANM). According to the results of GNM and ANM, we have found that the two AS could exhibit a shear-like motion, which is probably associated with their functions. What is more, with the discovery of the unfolding pathway of the two AS, we can focus on the weak regions, and hence designing more appropriate mutations for the sake of thermostability engineering. Taking the results on structure, dynamics and unfolding properties of the two AS into consideration, we have predicted some novel mutants whose thermostability is possibly elevated, and hopefully these discoveries can be used as guides for our future work on rational design.
Work as coordination and coordination as work : A process perspective on FLOSS development projects

Coordination in work teams has been a topic of perennial interest in organizational studies. The starting point of much of the literature is a conceptual separation between the work itself, on the one hand, and activities undertaken to coordinate the work, on the other, labelled articulation work or coordination mechanisms. We suggest that the analytic duality between work and coordination arises in part from an information processing perspective on work that assumes an input, process and outcome model. In this perspective, it is natural to consider the process and coordination of the process as separate activities. However, in contrast, one can envision work processes as clustering around the outcome of the work. Each process contributes to the evolving work at hand but at the same time takes its clues for what to do next (i.e., input) from the evolving work product. In this case, the separation of discrete coordination and work events dissolves in a process perspective, for which analyzing interactions rather than self-standing actions is preferred. Out of this conundrum arises the question: how can we understand coordination as an inseparable part of work and the outcome of work itself? The paper investigates this question in the setting of free and open source software (FLOSS) development projects. In FLOSS projects, we find little evidence of overt coordination of development activities. Rather, we argue, coordination takes place primarily through the work itself, i.e., through the shared software source code. We present evidence showing how the software code posted by FLOSS developers serves as an outcome of their work and a coordination device at one and the same time. This approach is supported by socio-material nature of software code itself and by commonly adopted approaches to software development in the FLOSS community. To explain these results theoretically, we draw inspiration from the literature on documenting work demonstrating how documents can be both model of work and models for work. Extending this perspective we argue that work itself can serve not only as a model of work but more importantly a model for future work. Specifically, we argue that work outcomes, e.g., software code, can serve as a model for work by 1) invoking typified actions in response to recurrent situations, 2) being part of larger formalized structures of legitimate work activities, and being 3) visible, 4) mobile 5) and combinable. Work as coordination and coordination as work: A process perspective on FLOSS development projects
ACL: Specification, Design and Analysis All Based on Commitments

In recent years, social commitment based approaches have been proposed to solve problems issuing from previous mentalistic based semantics for agent communication languages. This paper follows the same line of thought since it presents a dialogue game based agent communication language (called DIAGAL) which allows agents to manipulate the public layer of social commitments through dialogue, by creating, cancelling, . , updating their social commitments. Then we show how we can study the commitments dynamic to model agent dialogue and we present some metrics that can be used to evaluate the quality of dialogue. Next, we use an example (summer festival organization) to show how DIAGAL can be used in analyzing and modelling automated conversations in offices. Finally, we present the results and analysis of the summer festival simulations that we realized through our dialogue game simulator (DGS).
FINDING FUZZY IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM PARAMETERS USING A NEW DYNAMIC MIGRATION PERIOD-BASED DISTRIBUTED GENETIC ALGORITHM

This paper presents a distributed genetic algorithm with dynamic determination of the migration period. The algorithm is especially well suited for the on line estimation of a fuzzy identification system parameters, using heterogeneous clusters. The results of the optimization of a TSK (Takagi-Sugeno-Kang) system for the identification of a biotechnological (fermentative) process including the solution’s quality and speedup analysis are presented. Comparative results using static and dynamic migration periods on the genetic algorithm are also presented.
VCC-SSF: Service-Oriented Security Framework for Vehicular Cloud Computing

Recently, as vehicle computing technology has advanced, the paradigm of the vehicle has changed from a simple means of transportation to a smart vehicle for safety and convenience. In addition, the previous functions of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) such as traffic accident prevention and providing traffic volume information have been combined with cloud computing. ITS services provide user-oriented broad services in the Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) environment through efficient traffic management, traffic accident prevention, and convenience services. However, existing vehicle services focus on providing services using sensing information inside the vehicle and the system to provide the service through an interface with the external infrastructure is insufficient. In addition, because wireless networks are used in VCC environments, there is a risk of important information leakage from sensors inside the vehicle, such as driver personal identification and payment information at the time of goods purchase. We propose the VCC Service-oriented Security Framework (VCC-SSF) to address the limitations and security threats of VCC-based services. The proposed framework considers security for convenient and efficient services of VCC and includes new user-oriented payment management and active accident management services. Furthermore, it provides authentication, encryption, access control, confidentiality, integrity, and privacy protection for user personal information and information inside the vehicle.
High-Throughput Diagnostic Assay for a Highly Prevalent Cardiomyopathy-Associated MYBPC3 Variant

A 25-basepair deletion variant of MYBPC3 occurs at high frequency in individuals of South Asian descent and is estimated to affect 55 million people worldwide, carrying an increased likelihood of cardiomyopathy. Since this variant is prevalent and severe in this subpopulation, quick and affordable screening to provide risk-assessment to guide treatment for these patients is critical. An RNaseH qPCR assay was developed to quickly and specifically diagnose the presence of the 25-basepair deletion variant in MYBPC3. RNAseH-blocked nucleotide primers were designed to identify the presence or absence of the wild type MYBPC3 allele or the genomic sequence containing the 25-basepair deletion. Using this assay, three blinded operators were able to accurately determine the genotype from human genomic DNA samples from blood and saliva using a qPCR thermocycler. Furthermore, positive variant subjects were examined by both electrocardiography and echocardiography for the presence of cardiomyopathy. A simple, robust assay was established, verified and validated that can be automated to detect the presence of the highly prevalent 25-basepair deletion MYBPC3 variant using both blood and saliva samples. The assay will provide quick and accurate prescreening of individuals at high risk for cardiomyopathies and allow for better clinical identification of 25-basepair deletion MYBPC3 carriers in large cohort epidemiological studies.
Optimal Resource Allocation for Network Protection: A Geometric Programming Approach

We study the problem of containing spreading processes in arbitrary directed networks by distributing protection resources throughout the nodes of the network. We consider two types of protection resources are available: (i) Preventive resources able to defend nodes against the spreading (such as vaccines in a viral infection process), and (ii) corrective resources able to neutralize the spreading after it has reached a node (such as antidotes). We assume that both preventive and corrective resources have an associated cost and study the problem of finding the cost-optimal distribution of resources throughout the nodes of the network. We analyze these questions in the context of viral spreading processes in directed networks. We study the following two problems: (i) Given a fixed budget, find the optimal allocation of preventive and corrective resources in the network to achieve the highest level of containment, and (ii) when a budget is not specified, find the minimum budget required to control the spreading process. We show that both resource allocation problems can be solved in polynomial time using Geometric Programming (GP) for arbitrary directed graphs of nonidentical nodes and a wide class of cost functions. Furthermore, our approach allows to optimize simultaneously over both preventive and corrective resources, even in the case of cost functions being nodedependent. We illustrate our approach by designing optimal protection strategies to contain an epidemic outbreak that propagates through an air transportation network.
ADVANCED PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION USED FOR OPTIMAL DESIGN OF SINGLE-PHASE INDUCTION MOTOR

The main goal of optimal design of single phase induction motors with permanent capacitor is maximization of the efficiency and minimizing the manufacturing cost. Mathematical classic methods can be used for design of these motors but they need to linearization and simplification in model and formulas. This linearization is caused that design precision decreases while random search methods such as genetic algorithm (GA) and advanced particle swarm optimization (APSO) do not need to model linearization. Regarding the fact that random search methods can be used for design and optimization processes with relative high precision, in this study, APSO algorithm is used for designing single-phase induction motor with permanent capacitor. The objective function is motor efficiency. The results evaluation reveals that the motor design by APSO algorithm is caused that the efficiency increases in comparison with classic methods and GA.
A Computational Algorithm based on Empirical Analysis, that Composes Sanskrit Poetry

Poetry-writing in Sanskrit is riddled with problems for even those who know the language well. This is so because the rules that govern Sanskrit prosody are numerous and stringent. We propose a computational algorithm that converts prose given as E-text into poetry in accordance with the metrical rules of Sanskrit prosody, simultaneously taking care to ensure that sandhi or euphonic conjunction, which is compulsory in verse, is handled. The algorithm is considerably speeded up by a novel method of reducing the target search database. The algorithm further gives suggestions to the poet in case what he/she has given as the input prose is impossible to fit into any allowed metrical format. There is also an interactive component of the algorithm by which the algorithm interacts with the poet to resolve ambiguities. In addition, this unique work, which provides a solution to a problem that has never been addressed before, provides a simple yet effective speech recognition interface that would help the visually impaired dictate words in E-text, which is in turn versified by our Poetry Composer Engine.