Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cufres: clustering using fuzzy representative eventsselection for the fault recognition problem intelecommunication networks

In this paper we introduce an efficient clustering algorithm embedded in a novel approach for solving the problem of faults identification in large telecommunication networks. Our algorithm is especially designed for the event correlation problem taking into account comprehensive information about the system behaviour. Although alarms are usually useful for identifying faults in such systems, their large number overloads the current management systems, making it extremely difficult to provide an answer within a reasonable response time. The alarm flow presents some interesting characteristics like alarm storm and alarm cascade. For instance, a single fault may result in a large number of alarms, and it is often very difficult to isolate the true cause of the fault. One way of overcoming this problem is to analyze, interpret and reduce the number of these alarms before trying to localize the faults. In this paper, we present a new original algorithm, and compare it with some available clustering algorithms by experimenting them with some samples of both simulated and real data from Ericsson's network.
Modeling Human Behavior for Defense Against Flash-Crowd Attacks

Flash-crowd attacks are the most vicious form of distributed denial of service (DDoS). They flood the victim with service requests generated from numerous bots. Attack requests are identical in content to those generated by legitimate, human users, and bots send at a low rate to appear non-aggressive -- these features defeat many existing DDoS defenses. We propose defenses against flash-crowd attacks via human behavior modeling, which differentiate DDoS bots from human users. Current approaches to human-vs-bot differentiation, such as graphical puzzles, are insufficient and annoying to humans, whereas our defenses are highly transparent. We model three aspects of human behavior: a) request dynamics, by learning several chosen features of human interaction dynamics, and detecting bots that exhibit higher aggressiveness in one or more of these features, b) request semantics, by learning transitional probabilities of user requests, and detecting bots that generate valid but low-probability sequences, and c) ability to process visual cues, by embedding into server replies human-invisible objects, which cannot be detected by automated analysis, and flagging users that visit them as bots. We evaluate our defenses' performance on a series of web traffic logs, interlaced with synthetically generated attacks, and conclude that they raise the bar for a successful, sustained attack to botnets whose size is larger than the size observed in 1-5% of DDoS attacks today.
Human immune responses to hapten-conjugated cells. I. Primary and secondary proliferative responses in vitro

An in vitro model was developed to study both primary and secondary proliferative responses of human lymphocytes to hapten-conjugated peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Coculture of human lymphocytes with autologous trinitrophenyl (TNP)-conjugated stimulator cells resulted in primary proliferative responses. Subjects segregated into high and low primary responders with mean stimulation indices of 11 and 2.1, respectively. Restimulation of primed cells from high responder subjects 3 wk after initial sensitization generated secondary proliferative responses. To investigate the antigenic requirements for secondary stimulation, autologous TNP-conjugate primed responders were restimulated with both autologous and allogeneic TNP-conjugated stimulators. In all experiments restimulation with autologous conjugated cells yielded substantially greater proliferative responses than with allogeneic conjugates. Experiments were then performed to ascertain whether HLA determinant homology between primed responder and stimulator cells influenced the level of secondary responsiveness. Homology for HLA-A and B locus serologic determinants was not associated with enhanced responsiveness. In contrast, D region determinant homology, detected by B-cell antigen typing, showed a highly significant positive correlation with the magnitude of secondary responses. The data thus strongly suggest that for secondary proliferative responses to TNP, human T cells recognize hapten in association with HLA-D region determinants.
Resiliency Challenges in Accelerating Carrier-Grade Networks with SDN

Today's carrier-grade networks are highly resilient and provide close to 4 9s end-to-end availability for various services. Going forward it is expected that Software Defined Networking (SDN) will be deployed in carrier networks to offer dynamically programmable services with an equivalent, or even higher, expectation of service availability. Though SDN, with the separation of the control and data planes, offers flexibility and programmability it also presents significant challenges with respect to resiliency. In this position paper we present the resiliency challenges for future carrier-grade networks based on SDN. To this end, we first present an analysis of outage data for today's carrier-grade networks to identify critical failure patterns across several network devices and infer network outage impacts. We then describe an architecture to implement future carrier-grade networks leveraging cloud computing and SDN. Finally, based on our findings on today's carrier-grade networks we identify resiliency challenges for SDN based carrier-grade networks.
TagFS - Tag Semantics for Hierarchical File Systems

Today, most computer users work with traditional hierarchical file systems for organizing large amounts of personal files. Recently, tagging has grown popular as an alternative means of organizing information resources, especially in collaborative contexts. This paper analyzes the different semantics between strictly hierarchical and tagging-based organisation. Based on these observations, we map non-hierarchical tagging and query semantics to the commonly used hierarchical file system semantics, thus combining the benefits of both worlds. Our WebDAV-based implementation allows users to collaboratively manage their files in a tag-based manner via existing, familiar file system explorers.
How does the kinase Lck phosphorylate the T cell receptor? Spatial organization as a regulatory mechanism

T cell signaling begins with the ligation of the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) by a cognate peptide and the phosphorylation of the receptor’s immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif domains by the kinase Lck. However, the canonical receptor model is insufficient to explain how the constitutively active kinase Lck can discriminate between non-ligated and ligated TCRs. Here, we discuss the factors that are thought to regulate the spatial distribution of the TCR and Lck, and therefore critically influence TCR signaling initiation.
Configurable cache subsetting for fast cache tuning

Numerous variations of configurable caches, having variable parameters like total size, line size, and associativity, have been proposed in commercial microprocessors in recent years. Tuning a configurable cache to a target application has been shown to reduce memory-access power by over 50%. However, searching the configuration space for the best configuration can require much time or power, even when using recent cache tuning heuristics. We sought to determine, for a particular domain of applications, the smallest subset of cache configurations that would still enable effective tuning. For a suite of 34 benchmarks and a cache with 18 possible configurations, we determine through an exhaustive search of all possible subsets, that only 3 or 4 candidate configurations are necessary to support tuning. We introduce a new heuristic, adapted from an efficient and effective heuristic developed for data mining, to quickly determine the best configurations for any sized subset, with near optimal results. We then consider a configurable cache with 17,640 possible configurations and improve our heuristic to include a pre-pruning step, yielding near optimal tuning results. We conclude that only 3 or 4 possible cache configurations are needed to offer a near optimal configuration for every benchmark in our suite - resulting in a 91% reduction in design space exploration time over a state-of-the-art cache tuning heuristic
Mechanical Behavior of Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Elastomeric Materials at Finite Strain

A constitutive model is developed to characterize mechanical behavior of unidirectional continuous fiber-reinforced elastomeric materials at finite strains. Assuming transversely isotropic behavior, strain energy of elastomeric composite is expressed as polyconvex functions of principal invariants defined by tensors describing deformation field and fiber directions. Parameters of polyconvex functions are evaluated based on homogenization of incompressible elastomeric matrix reinforced with unidirectional inextensible continuous fibers. Heterogeneous microstructure is identified by a representative volume element subjected to equivalent macroscopic deformations. Micromechanical results show that the strain energy of unidirectional fiber-reinforced elastomers can accurately be described by additive decomposition into isotropic and anisotropic models.
Retinoid Therapy: Compatible Skin Care

Topically applied tretinoin (a retinoid) has been used for over 25 years to treat acne and disorders of keratinization. Now, tretinoin emollient cream, 0.05% (Renova®), may be prescribed for the treatment of photodamaged and chronologically aged skin, in conjunction with appropriate skin care and sun protection routines. Mild to moderate cutaneous side effects to topical tretinoin, such as xerosis, peeling, erythema and subjective irritation, are experienced by a majority of patients undergoing retinoid therapy. Results of clinical compatibility testing show that concomitant use of effective moisturizers, mild cleansers and daily sunscreens greatly enhance skin tolerance and patient comfort. A frequently prescribed regimen for topical treatment of photodamaged skin includes a combination of tretinoin and glycolic acid. While many clinicians report the use of both these agents for the management of their patients, little information exists in the literature about their compatibility in concomitant use. The results of a double-blind clinical study demonstrate that daytime usage of one of two 8% glycolic acid lotions in addition to nightly applications of Renova was well tolerated as part of a comprehensive skin care and sun protection program.
Communication networks in geographically distributed software development

In this paper, we seek to shed light on how communication networks in geographically distributed projects evolve in order to address the limits of the modular design strategy. We collected data from a geographically distributed software development project covering 39 months of activity. Our analysis showed that over time a group of developers emerge as the liaisons between formal teams and geographical locations. In addition to handling the communication and coordination load across teams and locations, those engineers contributed the most to the development effort.
CD99 (MIC2) expression in paediatric B‐lineage leukaemia/lymphoma reflects maturation‐associated patterns of normal B‐lymphopoiesis

We have recently shown that CD99 (MIC2) is differentially expressed during normal early B‐cell development in the bone marrow (BM). Since immature B‐cell precursors (BCP) are assumed to correspond to some extent to acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) cells with respect to patterns of phenotypic differentiation, we wondered whether the particular maturation‐associated expression patterns of CD99 in the normal BCP stages were conserved also in malignant cells. Therefore we compared malignant and physiological B cells from paediatric ALL/NHL and normal BM samples with respect to CD99 expression using selective gating and semi‐quantitative flow cytometry. Common‐ALLs (n = 45) were similar to their corresponding, very immature BCPs (stage 1) in expressing very high levels of CD99. Most pre‐B ALLs (n = 16) were also CD99hi and thus differed from the patterns found in normal cytoplasmic μ‐chain+ (cμ+) pre‐B cells (stage 2, CD99lo). In particular, we found that those pre‐B‐ALL cases which were CD34+ also showed higher CD99 expression than the CD34− cases. This prompted us to investigate the levels of CD99 in those rare normal BCPs which also coexpress CD34 and cμ; these cells, which are transitory from stage 1 to stage 2, were found also CD99hi, thus precisely reflecting the patterns of CD34+ pre‐B ALLs. The blasts of Burkitt‐type B‐cell ALL/NHL samples (n = 13) expressed considerably less CD99, similarly to the more differentiated BCP stages 2 (cμ+) and 3 (surface μ‐chain+). In summary, we found that paediatric B‐lineage malignancies display remarkable synchrony regarding the levels of CD99 expression compared to their putative normal counterparts.
Small or Large Isolation Areas Around the Pulmonary Veins for the Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation?: Results From a Prospective Randomized Study

Background— Pulmonary vein (PV) isolation is a promising new treatment for atrial fibrillation (AF). We hypothesized that isolation of large areas around both ipsilateral PVs with verification of conduction block is more effective than the isolation of each individual PV. Methods and Results— A total of 110 patients, 67 with paroxysmal AF and 43 with persistent AF, were randomly assigned to undergo either isolation of each individual PV or isolation of large areas around both ipsilateral PVs. The isolation of each individual PV was an electrophysiologically guided, ostial segmental ablation with a 64-pole basket catheter or a 20-pole circular mapping catheter (group I). Isolation of large areas was performed around the 2 ipsilateral veins with a nonfluoroscopic navigation system and a circular 20-pole mapping catheter for verification of conduction block (group II). In both groups, an irrigated-tip ablation catheter (25 to 35 W) was used to achieve complete isolation. Procedure and ablation times were longer in group II, whereas fluoroscopic time was significantly shorter (P≤0.001). After a follow-up period of 15±4 months, 27 patients in group I (49%) and 37 patients in group II (67%) remained free of symptoms of AF and had no AF or atrial flutter during repetitive Holter monitoring without antiarrhythmic drug treatment after a single procedure (P≤0.05). Conclusions— The rate of success was significantly higher and fluoroscopy times were significantly lower in the group with large isolation areas around both ipsilateral PVs than in those who underwent individual PV isolation.
Email Babel: Does Language Affect Criminal Activity in Compromised Webmail Accounts?

We set out to understand the effects of differing language on the ability of cybercriminals to navigate webmail accounts and locate sensitive information in them. To this end, we configured thirty Gmail honeypot accounts with English, Romanian, and Greek language settings. We populated the accounts with email messages in those languages by subscribing them to selected online newsletters. We hid email messages about fake bank accounts in fifteen of the accounts to mimic real-world webmail users that sometimes store sensitive information in their accounts. We then leaked credentials to the honey accounts via paste sites on the Surface Web and the Dark Web, and collected data for fifteen days. Our statistical analyses on the data show that cybercriminals are more likely to discover sensitive information (bank account information) in the Greek accounts than the remaining accounts, contrary to the expectation that Greek ought to constitute a barrier to the understanding of non-Greek visitors to the Greek accounts. We also extracted the important words among the emails that cybercriminals accessed (as an approximation of the keywords that they searched for within the honey accounts), and found that financial terms featured among the top words. In summary, we show that language plays a significant role in the ability of cybercriminals to access sensitive information hidden in compromised webmail accounts.
Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders and Risk of Stroke

Background— Stroke and sleep-related breathing disorders are both common and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Several recent large epidemiological studies have shown a strong association between these 2 disorders independent of known risk factors for stroke. This article will outline the scientific basis for this relationship and suggest sleep-related breathing disorders as modifiable risk factors for stroke. Summary of Review— Several studies have shown a characteristic circadian rhythmicity in stroke. We have discussed the influence of normal sleep states as well as the effect of sleep-related breathing disorders on cerebral hemodynamics. The hemodynamic, metabolic, and hematologic changes during sleep-related breathing disorders in the form of decreased cerebral perfusion and increased coagulability are possible pathogenetic mechanisms for stroke. There are accumulating lines of evidence that sleep apnea disorder may indeed cause diurnal hypertension. However, the increased risk of stroke in patients with sleep-related breathing disorders appears to be independent of coexisting hypertension; the presence of hypertension would increase the risk even further. Furthermore, several studies have documented high prevalence of sleep apnea disorders in patients with transient ischemic attacks and stroke. Conclusions— Sleep-related breathing disorder appears to contribute as a risk factor for stroke through hemodynamic and hematologic changes. Because of the high prevalence of sleep apnea disorder in this population, patients with transient ischemic attacks and stroke should undergo evaluation for these disorders.
Analysis of HDFS under HBase: a facebook messages case study

Large-scale distributed storage systems are exceedingly complex and time-consuming to design, implement, and operate. As a result, rather than cutting new systems from whole cloth, engineers often opt for layered architectures, building new systems upon already-existing ones to ease the burden of development and deployment. In this article, we examine how layering causes write amplication when HBase is run on top of HDFS and how tighter integration could result in improved write performance. Finally, we take a look at whether it makes sense to include an SSD to improve performance while keeping costs in check.
IMPROVING INITIAL STRENGTH OF A CONCRETE MADE WITH TYPE 20M CEMENT

The improvement of initial strength of concrete constitutes a special interest for contractors that often seek to enhance their productivity by reducing the delay before deforming. The study presented in this paper shows that it is possible to use a low heat of hydration Type 20M cement that is typically employed in Quebec in mass concrete construction to develop high initial strength that can be of special interest in enhancing the production of massive structural elements. Type 20M cement is similar to Type II ASTM cement but has a slightly lower heat of hydration. The improvement of initial strength of concrete made with Type 20M cement was made possible by reducing the W-C ratio by using a melamine-based superplasticizer that has less influence on retarding the setting time than that of a naphthalene-based superplasticizer and by substituting part of the cement by an adequate amount of silica fume and limestone filler.
Cross-Reactivity of Herpesvirus-Specific CD8 T Cell Lines Toward Allogeneic Class I MHC Molecules

Although association between persistent viral infection and allograft rejection is well characterized, few examples of T-cell cross-reactivity between self-MHC/viral and allogeneic HLA molecules have been documented so far. We appraised in this study the alloreactivity of CD8 T cell lines specific for immunodominant epitopes from human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). CD8 T cell lines were generated after sorting with immunomagnetic beads coated with either pp65495–503/A*0201, BMLF1259–267/A*0201, or BZLF154–64/B*3501 multimeric complexes. Alloreactivity of the CD8 T cell lines against allogeneic class I MHC alleles was assessed by screening of (i) TNF-α production against COS-7 cells transfected with as many as 39 individual HLA class I-encoding cDNA, and (ii) cytotoxicity activity toward a large panel of HLA-typed EBV-transformed B lymphoblastoid cell lines. We identified several cross-reactive pp65/A*0201-specific T cell lines toward allogeneic HLA-A*3001, A*3101, or A*3201. Moreover, we described here cross-recognition of HLA-Cw*0602 by BZLF1/B*3501-specific T cells. It is noteworthy that these alloreactive CD8 T cell lines showed efficient recognition of endothelial cells expressing the relevant HLA class I allele, with high level TNF-α production and cytotoxicity activity. Taken together, our data support the notion that herpes virus-specific T cells recognizing allo-HLA alleles may promote solid organ rejection.
Open Domain Information Extraction via Automatic Semantic Labeling

This paper presents a semantic labeling technique based on information encoded in FrameNet. Sentences labeled for frames relevant to any new Information Extraction domain enable the automatic acquisition of extraction rules for the new domain. The experimental results show that both the semantic labeling and the extraction rules enabled by the labels are generated automatically with a high precision.
Computed tomographic scan evaluation of pulmonary blastomycosis.

BACKGROUND Blastomycosis is an uncommon granulomatous pulmonary and extrapulmonary infectious disease caused by the thermally dimorphic fungus Blastomyces dermatitidis. Diagnosis may be delayed or difficult because of varied presentation. The characteristics of blastomycosis on computed tomographic (CT) scan of the chest are not well characterized. METHODS The images from 34 chest CT scans from patients with confirmed pulmonary blastomycosis were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS The most common CT findings were air bronchograms in 22 patients (65%), consolidation in 21 patients (62%), nodules (smaller than 3 cm) in 21 patients (62%) and lymph node enlargement (mediastinal and hilar nodes combined) in 12 patients (35%). Only four patients (12%) had a miliary pattern. CONCLUSIONS A specific abnormality characteristic of pulmonary blastomycosis was not identified on CT scanning. The diagnosis can only be made in the context of a high index of clinical suspicion with histological or culture confirmation.
Application of an updated notched beam model using an implicit gradient cracking approach for the purpose of damage detection based on dynamic strains

To design and improve damage indicators within the context of fully automated structural health monitoring systems (SHM), the generation of response data by virtual tests is elementary to avoid expensive full scale tests. In general, the numerical structural models, used for virtual testing, should be designed as realistic as possible. Ideally, the model is able to represent the main motion characteristics and to derive realistic damage patterns, for example, by applying an implicit gradient damage approach to simulate cracking of concrete. Nevertheless, the material and damage law parameters need to be identified by model updating with respect to real test data. In this study, several identified equally probable parameter combinations of an updated notched concrete beam are applied to derive realistic damage patterns of a simply supported plain concrete beam. The investigations show that the derived damage indicators, based on modal filters using dynamic strains, are suitable to detect very early damage states for each parameter combination. In addition, an analytical approach is proposed to avoid expensive time integration schemes for structures with random excitations.