Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inter-domain stealthy port scan detection through complex event processing

Large enterprises are nowadays complex interconnected software systems spanning over several domains. This new dimension makes difficult for enterprises the task of enabling efficient security defenses. This paper addresses the problem of detecting inter-domain stealthy port scans and proposes an architecture of an Intrusion Detection System which uses, for such purpose, an open source Complex Event Processing engine named Esper. Esper provides low cost of ownership and high flexibility. The architecture consists of software sensors deployed at different enterprise domains. Each sensor sends events to the Esper event processor for correlation. We implemented an algorithm for the detection of interdomain SYN port scans named Rank-based SYN (R-SYN) port scan detection algorithm. It combines and adapts three detection techniques in order to obtain a unique global statement about the malicious behavior of host activities. An evaluation of the accuracy of our approach has been carried out using several traces, some of which including original traffic dumps, some others altered by injecting packets that simulate port scan activities. Accuracy results show that our algorithm is able to produce a list of scanners characterized by high detection and low false positive rates.
Food craving, mood and the menstrual cycle

Synopsis Seventy-six women, with a mean age of 35–7 years, who reported premenstrual craving for sweet foods in a retrospective questionnaire, were assessed prospectively with a pre- and postmenstrual eating questionnaire and daily ratings of craving, mood, irritability and breast tenderness over two menstrual cycles. In 72 % of these women a perimenstrual pattern of food craving was confirmed. In 13 % this craving was confined to the menstrual phase. There was no consistent association between food craving and mood change, either in timing or severity. Women with more severe mood change did not report more severe craving. There was also no association between food craving and cyclical breast tenderness. Perimenstrual food craving, therefore, appears to be a cyclical phenomenon in its own right, of uncertain aetiology and worthy of further study.
Informed Choice of the LMS Parameters in Super-Resolution Video Reconstruction Applications

Super-resolution reconstruction of image sequences is highly dependent on data outliers and on the quality of the motion estimation. This paper addresses the design of the least mean square algorithm applied to super-resolution reconstruction (LMS-SRR). Based on a statistical model for the algorithm behavior, we propose a design strategy to reduce the effects of outliers on the reconstructed image sequence. We show that the proposed strategy leads the algorithm to a close-to-optimum performance in both the transient and the steady-state phases of adaptation in practical situations in which registration errors occur. The analysis also shows that lower values of the step size do not necessarily lead to a better steady-state mean-square error, differently from the traditional LMS behavior.
Reals constructible from many countable sets of ordinals

We show that if there exist proper class many Woodin cardinals, then the set of reals x for which there is exists an ordinal α with {a ∈ Pω1(α) | x ∈ L[a]} stationary is countable. These results were announced in [2]. Given a real x and an ordinal α, we let C(x, α) denote the set {a ∈ Pω1(α) | x ∈ L[a]}. We let C denote the set of reals x for which there exists an ordinal α such that C(x, α) is club. We assume some familiarity with the stationary tower Q<δ (see [2]). Theorem 0.1. Suppose that there exists a proper class of Woodin cardinals. Then for every real x and every ordinal α, C(x, α) is either club or nonstationary, and C is countable. Proof. Fix a cardinal λ such that, for every real x, • if there exists an ordinal α with C(x, α) stationary and costationary, then there is such an ordinal below λ, • if there exists an ordinal α with C(x, α) club, then there is such an ordinal below λ. Let G be V -generic for Coll(ω1, λ), and note that the set of (x, α) such that C(x, α) is stationary (likewise, costationary, club) is the same in V and V [G]. Now let V [G][H] be a semi-proper forcing extension of V [G] in which u2 > λ. If δ is a Woodin cardinal, then since u2 ≥ λ, j[λ] is the same whenever j is the elementary embedding induced by forcing with Q [G][H] <δ . Fix a real x and an ordinal α < λ. Then x ∈ L[j[α]] if and only if C(x, α) is in the Q [G][H] <δ -generic. Since for all generic filters x ∈ L[j[α]] is decided in the same way, C(x, α) must be either club or nonstationary. Suppose that (xβ , αβ) (β < ω1) are pairs such that each xβ is a distinct real, each αβ < λ and each C(x, αβ) is stationary. Since u2 > λ, there is a real z such that for each β < ω1 there is a bijection between ω 1 and αβ in L[z]. Therefore, each xβ is in L[z], which is impossible.
Real-Time Wildfire Smoke Prediction in the United States: The HRRR-Smoke Model

In this talk, we summarize recent developments within a prototype real-time smoke modeling system, the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh for smoke (HRRR-smoke). The HRRR-smoke makes use of WRF-chem (the WRF model coupled with chemistry) to simulate ﬁne particulate matter (smoke) emitted by biomass burning; the HRRR-smoke ingests ﬁre radiative power (FRP) data from the Visibile Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite to calculate biomass burning emissions. The VIIRS FRP data are processed and remapped over the HRRR-smoke model domains. We process the FRP data to calculate biomass burning emissions (smoldering part) and ﬁre size for the model input. In addition, HRRR-smoke uses the FRP data to simulate the injection height for the ﬂaming emissions using concurrently simulated meteorological ﬁelds by the model. Currently, there are two 3km grid spacing domains covering the contiguous United States and Alaska. The HRRR-smoke is initialized four times per day to forecast smoke concentrations for the next 36 hours. The VIIRS FRP data mapped onto the HRRR-smoke grids, as well as near-surface and vertically integrated smoke mass concentrations, are visualized for each forecast hour. These plots are provided to the public via the HRRR-smoke webpage: https://rapidrefresh.noaa. gov/hrrr/HRRRsmoke/ Building on data assimilation and model physics advancements within the 3km grid spacing HRRR model, the HRRR-smoke represents an initial step towards incorporating aerosol feedbacks onto meteorology within operational numerical weather prediction.
In Vivo Magnetic Resonance Tracking of Magnetically Labeled Cells after Transplantation

During the last few years, the therapeutic use of stem and progenitor cells as a substitute for malfunctioning endogenous cell populations has received considerable attention. Unlike their current use in animal models, the introduction of therapeutic cells in patients will require techniques that can monitor their tissue biodistribution noninvasively. Among the different imaging modalities, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging offers both near-cellular (i.e., 25- to 50-μ) resolution and whole-body imaging capability. In order to be visualized, cells must be labeled with an intracellular tracer molecule that can be detected by MR imaging. Methods have now been developed that make it possible to incorporate sufficient amounts of superparamagnetic iron oxide into cells, enabling their detection in vivo using MR imaging. This is illustrated for (neural stem cell—derived) magnetically labeled oligodendroglial progenitors, transplanted in the central nervous system of dysmyelinated rats. Cells can be followed in vivo for at least 6 weeks after transplantation, with a good histopathologic correlation including the formation of myelin. Now that MR tracking of magnetically labeled cells appears feasible, it is anticipated that this technique may ultimately become an important tool for monitoring the efficacy of clinical (stem) cell transplantation protocols.
Comparison of blind source separation algorithms for optical heart rate monitoring

Monitoring of physiological signals of an individual via remote and contactless means is an important scientific challenge, whose resolution will enable the development of novel, non-intrusive mHealth and wellness-management systems and services. In this paper, the performance of three blind source separation algorithms for the optical estimation of the heart rate have been studied. The objective is to perform a comparative evaluation of their accuracy and convergence capability, for the optical estimation of the heart rate.
Aflatoxin–albumin adducts and correlation with decreased serum levels of vitamins A and E in an adult Ghanaian population

A study of aflatoxin (AF) exposure and the levels of vitamins A and E was carried out with a group of 507 Ghanaian participants. AFB1–albumin adducts (AFB-AA) were measured by radioimmunoassay and vitamins A and E were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The average level of serum AFB-AA was 0.94 ± 0.64 (range = 0.1–4.44) pmol mg−1 albumin. Mean levels of vitamins A and E were 1.32 ± 0.48 (range = 0.41–4.85) µmol l−1 and 15.68 ± 4.12 (range = 6.35–30.40) µmol l−1, respectively. A significantly negative correlation was found between serum AFB-AA and vitamin A levels (r = −0.110, p = 0.013). An even stronger, significant negative, correlation was found between serum AFB-AA and vitamin E levels (r = −0.149, p < 0.001). Serum AFB-AA levels were statistically higher (median = 0.985 pmol mg−1 albumin) in subjects who had low levels of both vitamins A and E as compared with the levels (median = 0.741 pmol mg−1 albumin) subjects who had high vitamins A and E levels (p trend = 0.001). To verify these findings, blood samples were again collected from 165 of the 507 people 3 months after the initial collection. Significantly negative correlations were confirmed between levels of serum AFB-AA and both vitamins A (r = −0.232, p = 0.003) and E (r = −0.178, p = 0.023). Again, high serum AFB-AA concentrations (median = 1.578 pmol mg−1 albumin) were found in subjects with low levels of vitamins A and E compared with the concentrations (median = 1.381 pmol mg−1 albumin) in subjects with high levels of vitamins A and E (p trend = 0.002). These data show that AF exposure was associated with decreased levels of serum vitamins A and E in high-risk human populations, which may significantly influence the incidence of AF-related adverse health effects.
Dynamics of Microorganisms in Compost of Coffee Waste Mixed with Agricultural Wastes

Coffee pulp and husk are the main by-products generated by the coffee processing plants and are disposed into arable land and surface water causing environmental pollution. Therefore, the major objectives of the present study were to isolate and characterize the dominant microbes during the composting periods. Coffee husk + Cow dung, Coffee husk + Poultry manure and Coffee husk + Desmodium triflorum in 3:1 (v/v) ratio were used to prepare the compost. A total of 729 microbial isolates were recovered from composting coffee husk and other combinations. Bacteria (37.04%) were the dominant group followed by actinomycetes (33.74%) and fungi (29.22%). Amongst the bacteria actinomycetes were dominant (78.09%) followed by Bacillus species (48.45%) and Pseudomonas species (37.25%). The mycoflora of coffee husk compost piles were dominated by Rhizopus species (23.09%) followed by Mucor species (23%) Aspergillus species (10.7%) and Pencillium species (10.7%). The successions of microbe in 3 of the compost piles were different during the sampling periods.
Carbon Monoxide and Nitric Oxide Suppress the Hypoxic Induction of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Gene via the 5′ Enhancer*

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in angiogenesis and blood vessel remodeling. Its expression is up-regulated in vascular smooth muscle cells by a number of conditions, including hypoxia. Hypoxia increases the transcriptional rate of VEGF via a 28-base pair enhancer located in the 5′-upstream region of the gene. The gas molecules nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) are important vasodilating agents. We report here that these biological molecules can suppress the hypoxia-induced production of VEGF mRNA and protein in smooth muscle cells. In transient expression studies, both NO and CO inhibited the ability of the hypoxic enhancer we have previously identified to activate gene transcription. Furthermore, electrophoretic mobility shift assays indicated decreased binding of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) to this enhancer by nuclear proteins isolated from CO-treated cells, although HIF-1 protein levels were unaffected by CO. Given that both CO and NO activate guanylyl cyclase to produce cGMP and that a cGMP analog (8-Br-cGMP) showed a similar suppressive effect on the hypoxic induction of the VEGF enhancer, we speculate that the suppression of VEGF by these two gas molecules occurs via a cyclic GMP-mediated pathway.
Causation

This paper offers four main arguments about the nature of causation in the social sciences. First, contrary to most recent work, I argue that there is a unitary conception of causation: a cause raises the probability of an event. This understanding of causation, borrowed from but not wedded to Bayesian inference, provides common semantic ground on which to base a reconstruction of causation. I argue, second, that rather than thinking about causation as a series of discrete types or distinct rules we ought to re-conceptualize this complex form of argument as a set of logical criteria applying to all arguments that are causal in nature (following the foregoing definition), across fields and across methods. Here, it is helpful to distinguish between the formal properties of a causal argument and the methods by which such an argument might be tested, the research design. Sixteen criteria apply to the former and seven criteria apply to the latter, as I show in the body of the paper. In summary, causation in the social sciences is both more diverse and more unified than has generally been recognized.
CCN Family Member 2/Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CCN2/CTGF) Has Anti-Aging Effects That Protect Articular Cartilage from Age-Related Degenerative Changes

To examine the role of connective tissue growth factor CCN2/CTGF (CCN2) in the maintenance of the articular cartilaginous phenotype, we analyzed knee joints from aging transgenic mice (TG) overexpressing CCN2 driven by the Col2a1 promoter. Knee joints from 3-, 14-, 40-, and 60-day-old and 5-, 12-, 18-, 21-, and 24-month-old littermates were analyzed. Ccn2-LacZ transgene expression in articular cartilage was followed by X-gal staining until 5 months of age. Overexpression of CCN2 protein was confirmed through all ages in TG articular cartilage and in growth plates. Radiographic analysis of knee joints showed a narrowing joint space and other features of osteoarthritis in 50% of WT, but not in any of the TG mice. Transgenic articular cartilage showed enhanced toluidine blue and safranin-O staining as well as chondrocyte proliferation but reduced staining for type X and I collagen and MMP-13 as compared with those parameters for WT cartilage. Staining for aggrecan neoepitope, a marker of aggrecan degradation in WT articular cartilage, increased at 5 and 12 months, but disappeared at 24 months due to loss of cartilage; whereas it was reduced in TG articular cartilage after 12 months. Expression of cartilage genes and MMPs under cyclic tension stress (CTS) was measured by using primary cultures of chondrocytes obtained from wild-type (WT) rib cartilage and TG or WT epiphyseal cartilage. CTS applied to primary cultures of mock-transfected rib chondrocytes from WT cartilage and WT epiphyseal cartilage induced expression of Col1a1, ColXa1, Mmp-13, and Mmp-9 mRNAs; however, their levels were not affected in CCN2-overexpressing chondrocytes and TG epiphyseal cartilage. In conclusion, cartilage-specific overexpression of CCN2 during the developmental and growth periods reduced age-related changes in articular cartilage. Thus CCN2 may play a role as an anti-aging factor by stabilizing articular cartilage.
Cocaine Increases Actin Cycling: Effects in the Reinstatement Model of Drug Seeking

Addiction to cocaine is associated with persistent changes in synaptic function. The cycling of actin between polymerized [F (for filamentous)] and depolymerized forms contributes to synaptic plasticity, and acute and withdrawal from repeated cocaine administration produced reversible and enduring elevations, respectively, in F-actin in the nucleus accumbens. Increased F-actin after 3 weeks withdrawal from repeated cocaine resulted from changes in the content or phosphorylation state of actin binding proteins (ABPs) that cosediment with F-actin. The profile of altered APBs was consistent with filopodia formation, including increased mammalian Enabled, phosphorylated (p)-cortactin, and p-vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein, and increased actin depolymerization [e.g., reduced LIM (Lin11/Isl-1/Mec3)-kinase and p-cofilin]. In contrast to repeated cocaine, the increase in F-actin after acute cocaine administration resulted from reduced depolymerization and actin cycling. The potential involvement of chronic cocaine-induced increases in actin cycling in cocaine addiction was examined using the reinstatement of cocaine seeking in rats previously trained to self-administer cocaine by inhibiting actin polymerization with intra-accumbens latrunculin A or by accelerating actin depolymerization with a LIM-kinase inhibitor. Disrupting actin cycling via either mechanism augmented cocaine-induced reinstatement of drug seeking but did not affect the locomotor response to acute cocaine administration. Thus, withdrawal from repeated cocaine induces a restructuring of actin–ABP complexes, which increases actin cycling and may modulate cocaine-induced reinstatement of drug seeking.
The interplay between signal processing and networking in sensor networks

This paper provides a signal processing perspective on large-scale sensor networks. It focuses on two characteristics of sensor networks: application specificity and energy constraint. The former requires that network protocols be designed for the application at hand, which is often signal processing in nature, and measured by application-specific metrics. The latter calls for novel distributed signal processing techniques to provide accurate and timely network state information that can be exploited by network protocols to ensure energy efficiency. The underlying theme is about how a principled integration of signal processing and networking can lead to an efficient and fair use of limited resources. The paper aims to demonstrate that capturing and exploiting dependencies between signal processing and networking offer design choices resulting in improved network performance.
Chapter 16: Text Mining for Translational Bioinformatics

Text mining for translational bioinformatics is a new field with tremendous research potential. It is a subfield of biomedical natural language processing that concerns itself directly with the problem of relating basic biomedical research to clinical practice, and vice versa. Applications of text mining fall both into the category of T1 translational research—translating basic science results into new interventions—and T2 translational research, or translational research for public health. Potential use cases include better phenotyping of research subjects, and pharmacogenomic research. A variety of methods for evaluating text mining applications exist, including corpora, structured test suites, and post hoc judging. Two basic principles of linguistic structure are relevant for building text mining applications. One is that linguistic structure consists of multiple levels. The other is that every level of linguistic structure is characterized by ambiguity. There are two basic approaches to text mining: rule-based, also known as knowledge-based; and machine-learning-based, also known as statistical. Many systems are hybrids of the two approaches. Shared tasks have had a strong effect on the direction of the field. Like all translational bioinformatics software, text mining software for translational bioinformatics can be considered health-critical and should be subject to the strictest standards of quality assurance and software testing.
At Least Ten Genes Define the Imprinted Dlk1-Dio3 Cluster on Mouse Chromosome 12qF1

Background Genomic imprinting is an exception to Mendelian genetics in that imprinted genes are expressed monoallelically, dependent on parental origin. In mammals, imprinted genes are critical in numerous developmental and physiological processes. Aberrant imprinted gene expression is implicated in several diseases including Prader-Willi/Angelman syndromes and cancer. Methodology/Principal Findings To identify novel imprinted genes, transcription profiling was performed on two uniparentally derived cell lines, androgenetic and parthenogenetic primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts. A maternally expressed transcript termed Imprinted RNA near Meg3/Gtl2 (Irm) was identified and its expression studied by Northern blotting and whole mounts in situ hybridization. The imprinted region that contains Irm has a parent of origin effect in three mammalian species, including the sheep callipyge locus. In mice and humans, both maternal and paternal uniparental disomies (UPD) cause embryonic growth and musculoskeletal abnormalities, indicating that both alleles likely express essential genes. To catalog all imprinted genes in this chromosomal region, twenty-five mouse mRNAs in a 1.96Mb span were investigated for allele specific expression. Conclusions/Significance Ten imprinted genes were elucidated. The imprinting of three paternally expressed protein coding genes (Dlk1, Peg11, and Dio3) was confirmed. Seven noncoding RNAs (Meg3/Gtl2, Anti-Peg11, Meg8, Irm/“Rian”, AK050713, AK053394, and Meg9/Mirg) are characterized by exclusive maternal expression. Intriguingly, the majority of these noncoding RNA genes contain microRNAs and/or snoRNAs within their introns, as do their human orthologs. Of the 52 identified microRNAs that map to this region, six are predicted to regulate negatively Dlk1, suggesting an additional mechanism for interactions between allelic gene products. Since several previous studies relied heavily on in silico analysis and RT-PCR, our findings from Northerns and cDNA cloning clarify the genomic organization of this region. Our results expand the number of maternally expressed noncoding RNAs whose loss may be responsible for the phenotypes associated with mouse pUPD12 and human pUPD14 syndromes.
Suggestions from Geroscience for the Genetics of Age-Related Diseases

Background The relationship between aging and major age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), Alzheimer disease (AD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and cancer and the genetic contribution to both phenomena are important questions in biomedicine. Over the past few decades, each disease has been studied separately in hundreds of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) involving increasing numbers of patients and SNPs, generating results that can explain only in part the genetics of the traits of interest. On several occasions, the results obtained in one population have not been replicated in others, and the clinical application of these results is questionable. The new field of “geroscience” [1] proposes a conceptual framework that could lead to more effective approaches for studying the genetics of age-related diseases, starting from the basic observation that their main risk factor is age and aging. Geroscience stresses that the basic molecular and cellular mechanisms underpinning aging and its related pathologies are much more interconnected than previously thought on the basis of purely clinical classifications, and largely overlap. This enables us to study and combat the diseases of the elderly all together, rather than one by one [2].