Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Use of Honeynets to Increase Computer Network Security and User Awareness

Abstract In this paper, we address how honeynets, networks of computers intended to be compromised, can be used to increase network security in a large organizational environment. We outline the current threats Internet security is facing at present and show how honeynets can be used to learn about those threats for the future. We investigate issues researchers have to take into account before deploying or while running a honeynet. Moreover, we describe how we tied honeynet research into computer security classes at Georgia Tech to successfully train students and spark interest in computer security.
A New Algorithm for Enhanced Robustness of Copyright Mark

— This paper discusses a new heavy tailed distribution based data hiding into discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients of image, which provides statistical security as well as robustness against steganalysis attacks. Unlike other data hiding algorithms, the proposed technique does not introduce much effect in the stego-image’s DCT coefficient probability plots, thus making the presence of hidden data statistically undetectable. In addition the proposed method does not compromise on hiding capacity. When compared to the generic block DCT based data-hiding scheme, our method found more robust against a variety of image manipulating attacks such as filtering, blurring, JPEG compression etc.
Belowground ectomycorrhizal fungal community change over a nitrogen deposition gradient in Alaska

Nitrogen availability may be a major factor structuring ectomycorrhizal fungal communities. Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has been implicated in the decline of ectomycorrhizal fungal (EMF) sporocarp diversity. We previously characterized the pattern of decreased sporocarp species richness over an anthropogenic N deposition gradient in Alaska (USA). To determine whether this change in sporocarp community structure was paralleled below ground, we used molecular and morphological techniques to characterize the ectomycorrhizal community of white spruce (Picea glauca) over this gradient. We then related patterns of richness and relative abundance of taxa to various N-affected environmental parameters. Species richness of EMF declined dramatically with increasing N inputs. Over 30 taxa were identified at the low-N sites, compared with nine at the high-N sites. Low-N site dominants (Piloderma spp., Amphinema byssoides, Cortinarius spp., and various dark-mantled Tomentella spp.) disappeared completely at th.
A QoS scheme to address communication latency issues for critical network flows in best-effort networks using mobile agents

Flows can be mission critical; missed deadlines could result in grave consequences in systems such as hospital, military, automotive safety, and air-traffic control. It could be essential for a user to view essential information in a timely manner to make a critical decision of utmost importance. However, due to the present congestive nature of the Internet, this might not be done in a timely manner. In order to ensure that such a flow meets its goal in a timely manner, there must be a means to monitor and improve its quality of service within the network. This paper introduces a quality of service (QoS) scheme, using agents, that is scalable, congestion avoiding and controlling, network performance monitoring, congestion forecasting, diagnosing, and resource allocating and enforcing scheme aimed at providing end-to-end communication latency and jitter for these flows in a scalable, proactive and reactive manner. Unlike previous schemes, it does not do any QoS negotiation and renegotiation between the agents; thereby, not adding on to the overhead of providing QoS to these critical flows in terms of latency. It does this by combining quality of service monitoring, detection and prediction with explicit window adaptation techniques as resource allocation techniques. It also introduces a rescheduling scheme for noncritical flows within the links that share bandwidth with these critical flows. The scheme aim to create "lanes" large enough for the critical flows to flow through the soon-to-be or already congested link thereby reducing the communication latency and jitter for these flows.
Simulation of boundary condition influence in a second-order ferroelectric phase transition

Using a two-dimensional Ginzburg–Landau model and the finite-element computational method, we have calculated stable domain configurations resulting from a second-order ferroelectric phase transition for a finite-sized system. The boundary conditions applied here correspond to fully charge compensated situations, either by surface electrodes or by the injection of charges (or defects) near the sample surface. The domain wall thickness of a finite system without surface electrodes was found to become thinner as it approaches sample surfaces. This is distinctively different from that of an infinite system for which a planar wall assumption can be used. The orientation of the macroscopic polarization of a finite system without surface electrodes was found to be determined by its aspect ratio. A size effect was observed when all the dimensions were reduced simultaneously. The relaxation process in the formation of domains and the switching process have also been simulated for charge neutral boundary condition.
Video-Based Vehicle Detection and Tracking Using Spatiotemporal Maps

Surveillance video cameras have been increasingly deployed along roadways over the past decade. Automatic traffic data collection through surveillance video cameras is highly desirable; however, sight-degrading factors and camera vibrations make it an extremely challenging task. In this paper, a computer-vision–based algorithm for vehicle detection and tracking is presented, implemented, and tested. This new algorithm consists of four steps: user initialization, spatiotemporal map generation, strand analysis, and vehicle tracking. It relies on a single, environment-insensitive cue that can be easily obtained and analyzed without camera calibration. The proposed algorithm was implemented in Microsoft Visual C++ using OpenCV and Boost C++ graph libraries. Six test video data sets, representing a variety of lighting, flow level, and camera vibration conditions, were used to evaluate the performance of the new algorithm. Experimental results showed that environmental factors do not significantly impact the detection accuracy of the algorithm. Vehicle count errors ranged from 8% to 19% in the tests, with an overall average detection accuracy of 86.6%. Considering that the test scenarios were chosen to be challenging, such test results are encouraging.
ISSR Marker Based Population Genetic Study of Melocanna baccifera (Roxb.) Kurz: A Commercially Important Bamboo of Manipur, North-East India

Melocanna baccifera (Roxb.) Kurz is an economically important bamboo of North-East India experiencing population depletion in its natural habitats. Genetic variation studies were conducted in 7 populations sampled from 5 districts of Manipur using ISSR molecular markers. The investigation was carried out as a primary step towards developing effective conservation strategies for the protection of bamboo germplasm. ISSR marker analysis showed significant level of genetic variation within the populations as revealed by moderately high average values of Nei's genetic diversity (H 0.1639), Shannon's diversity index (I 0.2563), percentage of polymorphic bands (PPB 59.18), total genetic variation (Ht 0.1961), and genetic diversity within population (Hs 0.1639). The study also divulged a high genetic variation at species level with Shannon's diversity index (I), Nei's genetic diversity (H), and percentage of polymorphic band (PPB%) recorded at 0.3218, 0.1939, and 88.37, respectively. Genetic differentiation among the populations (Gst) was merely 19.42% leaving 80.58% of genetic variation exhibited within the populations. The low genetic diversity between populations was consistent with AMOVA. The low genetic differentiation among populations coupled with existence of significantly high genetic diversity at species level indicated the urgent necessity of preserving and protecting all the existing natural bamboo populations in the region.
Voluntary Financial Disclosure, Introduction of IFRS and the Setting of a Communication Policy: an Empirical Test on SBF French Firms Using a Publication Score

A publication score of voluntary disclosed information disclosed by French firms was built on the 2003-2007 period. This original set of data is used to analyze the impact of the introduction of IFRS standards scheduled in 2005. It is also used to identify the determinants of communication policies set by listed firms. The publication score, for some firms and not all of them, outlines that useful qualitative information is brought to the market. Particularly, we show that highly communicant firms will reduce the information asymmetry as measured by the dispersion of analysts’ forecasts of earning.
Requirements Prioritization in On-line Banking Systems: Using Value-Oriented Framework

The concept of decision making is an important issue that has been recognized in requirements prioritization because most projects are constrained by budget and time; therefore it is often difficult to implement all requirements that have been elicited for a system. For prioritization purposes, many approaches have been proposed so far to help the process but still it is not possible to get a real understanding of whether one approach is better. One reason for this may be that different studies are done in different contexts, measure and report different variables, and use different data sets. This makes it hard to compare different studies with each other to get an understanding of when different prioritization approaches are suitable to use. It is also important to realize that using common and similar studies for the body of knowledge in this area will not be possible. This paper presents a study designed for prioritizing of online-banking system requirements through using value-oriented framework which is based on bank business value. Three bank employees from online-banking group have participated in a survey for this study. This study demonstrates accuracy and ease of use of value-oriented framework prioritization in the banking systems by managing and prioritizing of the requirements.
CIMDS : Adapting Post Processing Techniques for Malware Detection

Malware is a malicious code or malicious software that is being designed to gain access to some computer system, to disrupt the various operations executing on a computer system or to perform some unwanted actions. Malware is of many types that are executed to perform unauthorized access to the computer resources or any sensitive information. To avoid the virus infection and the data loss, it is important to use an efficient and effective method for virus detection. Malware detection and analysis is a challenging task, and current malware analysis and detection techniques often fall short and fail to detect many new, unknown malware samples. Nowadays, numerous attacks made by the malware pose a major security threat to computer users. Unfortunately, along with the development of the malware writing techniques, the number of file samples that need to be analyzed, named ―gray list,‖ on a daily basis is constantly increasing. In order to help our virus analysts, quickly and efficiently pick out the malicious executables from the ―gray list,‖ an automatic and robust tool to analyze and classify the file samples is needed. In our previous work, we have developed an intelligent malware detection system (IMDS) by adopting associative classification method based on the analysis of application programming interface (API) execution calls. Despite its good performance in malware detection, IMDS still faces the following two challenges: 1) handling the large set of the generated rules to build the classifier; and 2) finding effective rules for classifying new file samples. In this paper, we first systematically evaluate the effects of the post processing techniques of associative classification in malware detection, and then, propose an effective way, i.e., CIDCPF, to detect the malware from the ―gray list‖. CIDCPF adapts the post processing techniques as follows: first applying Chi-square testing and insignificant rule pruning followed by using Database coverage based on the Chi-square measure rule ranking mechanism and Pessimistic error estimation, and finally performing prediction by selecting the best First rule.
Efficient Multi-Party Computation Secure Against a Faulty Minority

We consider the communication complexity of secure multi-party computation protocols in the cryptographic model. In this model, the adversary is allowed to corrupt up to t of the n players, for any t < n/2. The most efficient protocol known for this model requires Ω(cnκ) bits of communication for securely evaluating a circuit of size c, where κ denotes a security parameter [CDN01]. We present a new protocol for the same task, which communicates only O(cn2κ + nκ) bits. The proposed protocol combines techniques from the multi-party protocol based on homomorphic encryption [CDN01] with those from the player elimination framework [HMP00].
IgE Regulates the Expression of smMLCK in Human Airway Smooth Muscle Cells

Previous studies have shown that enhanced accumulation of contractile proteins such as smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase (smMLCK) plays a major role in human airway smooth muscle cells (HASM) cell hypercontractility and hypertrophy. Furthermore, serum IgE levels play an important role in smooth muscle hyperreactivity. However, the effect of IgE on smMLCK expression has not been investigated. In this study, we demonstrate that IgE increases the expression of smMLCK at mRNA and protein levels. This effect was inhibited significantly with neutralizing abs directed against FcεRI but not with anti-FcεRII/CD23. Furthermore, Syk knock down and pharmacological inhibition of mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK) (ERK1/2, p38, and JNK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) significantly diminished the IgE-mediated upregulation of smMLCK expression in HASM cells. Taken together, our data suggest a role of IgE in regulating smMLCK in HASM cells. Therefore, targeting the FcεRI activation on HASM cells may offer a novel approach in controlling the bronchomotor tone in allergic asthma.
Exploring the Relationship between Tax Compliance Costs and Compliance Issues in Malaysia

This study estimates the income tax compliance costs, and measures possible noncompliance behaviour, from a business managerial perspective in Malaysia. The findings reported in this paper are part of a larger nationwide mail survey into corporate Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) under the income tax self-assessment system. The findings show that a relatively greater number of SMEs are being compliant in terms of income reporting and accuracy in their deductions. The investigation into the relationship between the size of tax compliance costs and likely compliance behaviour indicates no statistical significance. Possible reasons for these findings are presented.
Algae for Aquaculture and Animal Feeds by

This article reviews the current state-of-theart for algae use in aquaculture, plus recent developments in algal biomass as a microor bulk ingredient in formulated animal feeds (terrestrial livestock and aquaculture species). Microalgae provide an important direct or indirect feed source for early developmental stages of many farmed finfish, shellfish and invertebrate species. Hatcheries typically cultivate microalgae in-house, with commercial concentrates now also being used widely. Different strains of microand macroalgae vary in their efficacy within formulated animal feeds, although there is sufficient evidence of good nutritional properties to promote algal biomass as a source of micronutrients or as a bulk feedstuff. High costs of algal biomass compared to commodity feedstuffs currently confine their commercial use to niche animal feed applications; greater availability/lower price, via biofuels and biorefinery would enable more widespread use in future.
Equivalence notions and refinement for timed Petri nets ?

The paper is contributed to develop a family of equivalence notions for real-time systems represented by labelled Merlin’s time Petri nets with zero length time intervals (i.e., with fixed time delays). We call them “timed Petri nets”. In particular, we introduce timed (time-sensitive), untimed (time-abstracting) and region (based on the notion of region [1]) equivalences in both the trace and bisimulation semantics. The interrelations of all the equivalence notions are examined for a general class of timed nets as well as for a subclass of untimed nets (timed nets with time delays equal to zero’s). Further we define a timed variant of state-mashine refinement [4] and investigate how the proposed equivalence notions behave with respect to this class of refinements.
Pathways to a Four-Year Degree: Determinants of Degree Completion among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students.

The High School Sophomore Cohort of 1980 followed nine different pathways to a 4-year college degree. These paths were formed by a combination of different levels of academic preparation secured in high school'and the first type of postsecondary institution attended. The pathway most likely to lead to a 4-year degree is one defined by acquiring high academic resources in high school and entering at a 4-year institution on high school completion. Those who followed this path . had a 78% chance of graduating within 11 years. Highest-socioeconomic status (SES) students followed this pathway, resulting in an 81% graduation rate. Not all paths are equally available to all SES groups. Lowest-SES students journeyed on a pathway defined by moderate academic resources and first enrollment in a 2year institution. Only 3.3% of these students earned a 4-year degree. A 44% SES-based degree completion gap separating lowest-SES students from highestSES students found using simple descriptive statistics is reduced to 24% when myriad factors are considered simultaneously. Degree completion is most affected by SES, high school-based academic resources, degree aspirations, enrollment patterns, taking college courses in mathematics and science, financial aid, and having children while attending college. (Contains 10 tables and 152 references.) (Author/SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the ori inal document.
Property Relationship in Organosilanes and Nanotubes Filled Polypropylene Hybrid Composites

Polypropylene composites with different filler contents were prepared by creating a masterbatch containing 3 wt%. filler. A variety of silanol groups were used to synthetized three compounds in different media trough a sol-gel process with acetic acid, formic acid and ammonium hydroxide as catalysts. Besides, four different nanotubular fillers were also used to analyze their behavior and compare it with the effect caused by the silanol groups. These tubular structures comprise: unmodified halloysite, carbon nanotubes and functionalized halloysite and carbon nanotubes. Morphological characterization in SEM and STEM/TEM showed dispersion in the polypropylene matrix. According to TGA and DSC measurements thermal behavior remain similar for all the composites. Mechanical test in tension demonstrate that modulus of the composites increases for all samples with a major impact for materials containing silanol groups synthetized in formic acid. Rheological measurements show a significantly increment in viscosity for samples containing unmodified and modified carbon nanotubes. No difference was found for samples containing silanol groups and halloysite when compared to neat polypropylene. Finally, the oxygen transmission rate increased for all samples showing high barrier properties only for samples containing natural and functionalized halloysite nanotubes.
Distributed Splay Suffix Arrays: A New Structure for Distributed String Search

— As a structure for processing string problem, suffix array is certainly widely-known and extensively-studied. But if the string access pattern follows the “90/10” rule, suffix array can not take advantage of the fact that we often find something that we have just found. Although the splay tree is an efficient data structure for small documents when the access pattern follows the “90/10” rule, it requires many structures and an excessive amount of pointer manipulations for efficiently processing and searching large documents. In this paper, we propose a new and conceptually powerful data structure, called splay suffix arrays (SSA), for string search. This data structure combines the features of splay tree and suffix arrays into a new approach which is suitable to implementation on both conventional and clustered computers.
A tool suite for estimation and prediction of software dynamic defect models

As a common software engineering practice, software dynamic defect models are used to estimate and predict the software testing process progress, effectiveness, and the number of future defects over the next weeks. Practitioners use these dynamic defect models to ensure that the delivery of software to customers is possible from the quality point of view and to predict the release date. Old literature suggested several classic defect models including Putnam, Exponential, Rayleigh and Weibull. Recent literature claimed that modern projects follow linear combinations of Rayleigh due to projects complexity. This claim verification has not been generalized because the project samples size was very small. This paper proposes a tool suite for dynamic defect models. The tool suite consists of an open repository of dynamic defects empirical data and many supporting tools. Data concerning defects are collected from several software projects and products and added to the open repository. This includes open source software and commercial software projects. The proposed tools are designed and implemented and made publicly available on the web. They are used to view the dynamic defects, find the best dynamic defect model that fits the data according to several performance criteria and predict future number of defects. The application of these tools on the empirical data showed that linear combinations of Rayleigh and Weibull has better performance than classic models in both curve fitting and predictability of commercial software.
Trust Negotiations with Customizable Anonymity

Trust negotiation makes it possible for two parties to carry on secure transactions by first establishing trust through a bilateral, iterative process of requesting and disclosing digital credentials and policies. Credentials, exchanged during trust negotiations, often contain sensitive attributes that attest to the properties of the credential owner. Uncontrolled disclosure of such sensitive attributes may cause grave damage to the credential owner. Research has shown that disclosing non-sensitive attributes only can cause identity to be revealed as well. Consequently, we impose a stronger requirement: our negotiations should have the k-anonymity property the set of credentials submitted by a subject during a negotiation should be equal to k other such sets received by the counterpart during earlier negotiations. In this paper we propose a protocol that ensures k-anonymity. Our protocol has a number of important features. First, a credential submitter before submitting its set of credentials has the assurance that its set will be identical to k other sets already stored with the counterpart. Second, we provide a cryptographic protocol ensuring that the credentials submitted by the submitter during different negotiations cannot be linked to each other. Third, we ensure that the critical data exchanged during the protocol is valid. Fourth, the major part of the protocol involves the negotiating parties only; the protocol invokes the validator only when some critical information needs to be validated