Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Software Diversity for Information Security

In this paper we analyze a software diversification-based strategy to achieve information security. The notion of using diversity to limit correlated risks is a widely accepted strategy in many fields. Various risk management approaches strive to minimize the variance of losses faced by individuals by either risk pooling, as in insurance, or diversification, as in portfolio management. However, these approaches are advantageous only for risk-averse agents as the expected loss remains unchanged. Exploiting externalities unique to information systems, we show that diversification can not only reduce loss variance but also minimize expected loss. We formulate the optimal amount of diversity investment by a firm taking into account both the negative network externalities accruing from attacks as well as positive network effects that accrue from uniformity and interoperability.
A generic availability model for clustered computing systems

We study the availability of a clustered computing system with one cluster manager and "N+M" processing nodes, where M processing nodes serve as spares for the N active processing nodes. The functionality of an individual processing node is dissected into application software, management software, OS and hardware. The dependency among these entities is considered. Stochastic Petri net models are constructed to investigate the cluster availability. In order to deal with a cluster of a very large size, a solution based on state aggregation and fixed-point iteration is proposed. The existence and uniqueness of the fixed point is proved. The impact of a cluster manager, switchover time and coverage ratio are quantitatively studied. From the numerical results of a simple cluster with "2+1" processing nodes, we find that: (1) the availability of the cluster manager does not have a significant impact on the system availability, (2) system availability increases with the coverage ratio and decreases with the switchover time. Mechanisms to improve the system availability are discussed.
Extracts from Calendula officinalis Offer in Vitro Protection Against H2O2 Induced Oxidative Stress Cell Killing of Human Skin Cells

The in vitro safety and antioxidant potential of Calendula officinalis flower head extracts was investigated. The effect of different concentrations (0.125, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0% (v/v)) of Calendula extracts on human skin cells HaCaT in vitro was explored. Doses of 1.0% (v/v) (0.88 mg dry weight/mL) or less showed no toxicity. Cells were also exposed to the Calendula extracts for either 4, 24 or 48 h before being exposed to an oxidative insult (hydrogen peroxide H2O2) for 1 h. Using the MTT cytotoxicity assay, it was observed that two independent extracts of C. officinalis gave time‐dependent and concentration‐dependent H2O2 protection against induced oxidative stress in vitro using human skin cells. Pre‐incubation with the Calendula extracts for 24 and 48 h increased survival relative to the population without extract by 20% and 40% respectively following oxidative challenge. The antioxidant potential of the Calendula extracts was confirmed using a complimentary chemical technique, the DPPH● assay. Calendula extracts exhibited free radical scavenging abilities. This study demonstrates that Calendula flower extracts contain bioactive and free radical scavenging compounds that significantly protect against oxidative stress in a human skin cell culture model. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
SN 2010jp (PTF10aaxi): A Jet-driven Type II Supernova

Abstract We present photometry and spectroscopy of the peculiar Type II supernova SN 2010jp, also named PTF10aaxi. The light curve exhibits a linear decline with a relatively low peak absolute magnitude of only −15.9 (unfiltered), and a low radioactive decay luminosity at late times that suggests a low synthesized nickel mass of about 0.003 M⊙ or less. Spectra of SN 2010jp display an unprecedented triple-peaked Hα line profile, showing: (1) a narrow central component that suggests shock interaction with a dense circumstellar medium (CSM); (2) high-velocity blue and red emission features centered at −12,600 and +15,400 km s−1; and (3) very broad wings extending from −22,000 to +25,000 km s−1. We propose that this line profile indicates a bipolar jet-driven explosion, with the central component produced by normal SN ejecta and CSM interaction at mid and low latitudes, while the high-velocity bumps and broad line wings arise in a nonrelativistic bipolar jet. Jet-driven SNe II are predicted for collapsars resulting from a wide range of initial masses above 25 M⊙, especially at the sub-solar metallicity consistent with the SN host environment. It also seems consistent with the apparently low 56Ni mass that may accompany black hole formation. We speculate that the jet survives to produce observable signatures because the star's H envelope was very low mass, having been mostly stripped away by the previous eruptive mass loss.
Hedgehog regulated Slit expression determines commissure and glial cell position in the zebrafish forebrain

Three major axon pathways cross the midline of the vertebrate forebrain early in embryonic development: the postoptic commissure (POC), the anterior commissure (AC) and the optic nerve. We show that a small population of Gfap+ astroglia spans the midline of the zebrafish forebrain in the position of, and prior to, commissural and retinal axon crossing. These glial `bridges' form in regions devoid of the guidance molecules slit2 and slit3, although a subset of these glial cells express slit1a. We show that Hh signaling is required for commissure formation, glial bridge formation, and the restricted expression of the guidance molecules slit1a, slit2, slit3 and sema3d, but that Hh does not appear to play a direct role in commissural and retinal axon guidance. Reducing Slit2 and/or Slit3 function expanded the glial bridges and caused defasciculation of the POC, consistent with a `channeling' role for these repellent molecules. By contrast, reducing Slit1a function led to reduced midline axon crossing, suggesting a distinct role for Slit1a in midline axon guidance. Blocking Slit2 and Slit3, but not Slit1a, function in the Hh pathway mutant yot (gli2DR) dramatically rescued POC axon crossing and glial bridge formation at the midline, indicating that expanded Slit2 and Slit3 repellent function is largely responsible for the lack of midline crossing in these mutants. This analysis shows that Hh signaling helps to pattern the expression of Slit guidance molecules that then help to regulate glial cell position and axon guidance across the midline of the forebrain.
A SECURITY FRAMEWORK FOR AN ENTERPRISE SYSTEM ON CLOUD

Enterprise systems provide integrated information for all activities in an organization. These systems serve as a vital asset to any organization and hence it becomes mandatory to ensure their security. Information security combines systems, operations and internal controls to ensure the availability, integrity and confidentiality of data and operational procedures in an organization. In the present scenario these services are offered on the cloud mainly to reduce inherent risk associated with the traditional enterprise systems. Cloud computing represents a significant shift in the way that IT resources are managed, operated, and consumed. This change exposes several benefits to enterprises, promoting greater IT efficiency and agility. This paper is intended to suggest a security framework of enterprise systems on cloud.
Gaussian process product models for nonparametric nonstationarity

Stationarity is often an unrealistic prior assumption for Gaussian process regression. One solution is to predefine an explicit nonstationary covariance function, but such covariance functions can be difficult to specify and require detailed prior knowledge of the nonstationarity. We propose the Gaussian process product model (GPPM) which models data as the pointwise product of two latent Gaussian processes to nonparametrically infer nonstationary variations of amplitude. This approach differs from other nonparametric approaches to covariance function inference in that it operates on the outputs rather than the inputs, resulting in a significant reduction in computational cost and required data for inference. We present an approximate inference scheme using Expectation Propagation. This variational approximation yields convenient GP hyperparameter selection and compact approximate predictive distributions.
Benchmarking for excellence.

The prevalence of coronary heart disease in the United States is estimated at 13.49 million. It remains the leading cause of death, claiming 489,970 lives in 1993. The incidence of acute myocardial infarction is 1.5 million cases per year. Successful return to work by patients following a myocardial infarction (MI) could recuperate lost income, improve workplace productivity, and decrease the cost associated with cardiovascular diseases. The ability to predict return to work would thus allow a more efficient use of increasingly limited resources. The purpose of this thesis was to design and test a new tool that physicians and others could use to more accurately assess the prospect of a person returning to work after a myocardial infarction. This new tool was based upon two previous scales (Jezer, 1959 and Schiller, 1971) and a literature review. To assess its validity, this scale was tested on 81 post-Ml patients at the Bay Pines Veterans Hospital. They were surveyed by phone and/or had their charts reviewed. The patients were asked to answer 13 questions in the survey. The factors assessed included: age, current episodes of angina, working status at time of MI, educational level, perception of health, physical demands of their previous job, co-morbidity, disability/pension/social security benefits, sex, psychological status, cardiac rehabilitation participation, duration of angina, and current working status. For each factor, a numerical value of 0, 1, or 2, was assigned based on the patient's answer. These value changed for age (0, I, 4) and sex (0, 21). Each patient thus had a total score and was placed in one of four categories (l-IV). A 4x2 table was generated with two columns of working and non-working individuals. Four rows depicted categories I to IV. Each cell contained the number of patients falling into that Category and working status. A Chi square test was conducted to determine whether the various Categories indeed predicted the patients" current working status. At a p value of . 05, the Chi square of 42.60 was statistically significant and the null hypothesis that the categories were unrelated to return to work was rejected. A t-test was then conducted to compare the mean scores of patients presently working versus those not currently working. At a p value of . 05, and a critical t of 2.0, the obtained t value of 7.36 was statistically significant and the null hypothesis was again rejected. The 95% confidence interval was calculated to be 4.29 to 7.49. In other words, the total score of the patients who were not working was 4 to 7.5 points higher than those currently working.
The Complete “Z” Track of Circinus X-1

We carried out an extensive Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer campaign, in 1997 June, to study Circinus X-1 during the active portion of its 16.55 day intensity cycle. The observations spanned 10 days, including 56% coverage for 7 days, and allowed us to find time segments that clearly demonstrate continuous evolution along the horizontal, normal, and flaring branches (HB/NB/FB) of a Z-source low-mass X-ray binary. These results confirm and extend the behavior we inferred from earlier observations. Here we study the continuous evolution of the Fourier power spectra and the energy spectra around the complete hardness-intensity track. A narrow quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) peak, previously observed in the power spectra at 1.3-32 Hz, increases in frequency from 12 Hz to 25 Hz moving down a vertical extension of the horizontal branch in the hardness-intensity diagram. These horizontal branch QPOs (HBOs) occur near 30 Hz and fade in strength on the horizontal portion of the HB, while a broad peak in the power spectrum arises near 4 Hz. This peak becomes much more prominent along the normal branch and remains near 4 Hz (the normal branch QPOs, or NBOs). On the flaring branch, neither QPO is present and the power spectrum is dominated by very low frequency noise. We also found that each branch of the spectral track is associated with a specific type of evolution of the energy spectrum. We explored various models for the energy spectrum and parameterized the evolution of the spectrum in terms of a two-component model consisting of a multitemperature "disk blackbody" and a higher temperature (~2 keV) blackbody. We also show that an unusual line- or edgelike feature occurs at about 10 keV in energy spectra from the flaring branch and lower normal branch. This unusual feature is very similar to one seen on the FB and lower NB of the Z source GX 5-1.
Adipokines as potential prognostic biomarkers in patients with acute knee injury

Abstract This review considers adipokines as predictive biomarkers for early onset post-traumatic knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Serum concentrations of leptin and resistin can predict radiographic changes and are elevated in early KOA, with higher leptin concentrations independently associated with more severe knee changes. Plasma concentrations of resistin are chronically elevated after injury. Leptin, resistin, chemerin and vistfatin induce catabolic enzymes associated with cartilage degeneration. Available literature on adipokines in post-traumatic KOA pathogenesis suggests that they could contribute to risk prediction of early onset post-traumatic KOA. Further research is needed to further understand the association between adipokines, synovitis and long-term outcomes in this population.
Post-Epidemic Chikungunya Disease on Reunion Island: Course of Rheumatic Manifestations and Associated Factors over a 15-Month Period

Although the acute manifestations of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) illness are well-documented, few data exist about the long-term rheumatic outcomes of CHIKV-infected patients. We undertook between June and September 2006 a retrospective cohort study aimed at assessing the course of late rheumatic manifestations and investigating potential risk factors associated with the persistence of these rheumatic manifestations over 15 months. 147 participants (>16 yrs) with laboratory-confirmed CHIKV disease diagnosed between March 1 and June 30, 2005, were identified through a surveillance database and interviewed by telephone. At the 15-month-period evaluation after diagnosis, 84 of 147 participants (57%) self-reported rheumatic symptoms. Of these 84 patients, 53 (63%) reported permanent trouble while 31 (37%) had recurrent symptoms. Age ≥45 years (OR = 3.9, 95% CI 1.7–9.7), severe initial joint pain (OR = 4.8, 95% CI 1.9–12.1), and presence of underlying osteoarthritis comorbidity (OR = 2.9, 95% CI 1.1–7.4) were predictors of nonrecovery. Our findings suggest that long-term CHIKV rheumatic manifestations seem to be a frequent underlying post-epidemic condition. Three independent risk factors that may aid in early recognition of patients with the highest risk of presenting prolonged CHIKV illness were identified. Such findings may be particularly useful in the development of future prevention and care strategies for this emerging virus infection.
Direction Finding of a Single Far Field Acoustic Source Using A Smart 3-D Array of Acoustic Sensors

This paper presents a computationally efficient algorithm for direction finding of a single far field acoustic source using a smart 3-D array with a minimum number of sensors and a special geometry, satisfying the Cramer Rao lower bound (CRLB) criterion for azimuth estimate. Angle resolution at array endfires is improved which is often encountered in direction of arrival (DOA) finding problems. The algorithm extracts the azimuth and elevation angles directly from the estimated time delays between the array elements using the crosscorrelation. This algorithm offers several advantages. First, it is more efficient in terms of computational load. Secondly, the azimuth estimator does not require the a-priory knowledge of the wave propagation velocity. Thirdly, this algorithm is suitable for applications where the arrival time is the only measured input. Results are asymptotically unbiased having zero variance, meaning to statistical consistency.
Utilizing ASP for Generating and Visualizing Argumentation Frameworks

Within the area of computational models of argumentation, the instantiation-based approach is gaining more and more attention, not at least because meaningful input for Dung's abstract frameworks is provided in that way. In a nutshell, the aim of instantiation-based argumentation is to form, from a given knowledge base, a set of arguments and to identify the conflicts between them. The resulting network is then evaluated by means of extension-based semantics on an abstract level, i.e. on the resulting graph. While several systems are nowadays available for the latter step, the automation of the instantiation process itself has received less attention. In this work, we provide a novel approach to construct and visualize an argumentation framework from a given knowledge base. The system we propose relies on Answer-Set Programming and follows a two-step approach. A first program yields the logic-based arguments as its answer-sets; a second program is then used to specify the relations between arguments based on the answer-sets of the first program. As it turns out, this approach not only allows for a flexible and extensible tool for instantiation-based argumentation, but also provides a new method for answer-set visualization in general.
A conservation rule for constructing bibliometric network matrices

The social network analysis of bibliometric data needs matrices to be recast in a network framework. In this paper we argue that a simple conservation rule requires that this should be done only using fractional counting so that conservation at the paper level will be faithfully reproduced at higher levels ofaggregation (i.e. author, institute, country, journal etc.) of the complex network.
Airway Complications in Thyroid Surgery

Perioperative and postoperative morbidity and mortality were studied in a series of 3,008 thyroidectomies. Compressive symptoms, frequent in substernal and cancerous goiters, were present in 11.0% of the patients, although a low rate of dyspnea (2.7%) was observed. In large goiters, some orotracheal intubations were difficult. In such cases, the transtracheal approach can also be difficult, so failure should be anticipated. Postoperative causes of respiratory obstruction included local hemorrhages, bilateral recurrent nerve palsies, and laryngeal edema. A tracheal collapse was not observed. These respiratory obstructions led to repeat surgery in 11 patients, tracheostomy in 3, and temporary reintubation with steroid therapy in 1. The recurrent laryngeal nerve, which may have been affected preoperatively, was found to be damaged postoperatively in 0.5% of the patients with benign goiters, compared to 10.6% of the patients with thyroid cancer. In this last group a bilateral palsy was observed in 3 cases with prolonged or extensive surgery. After these short-term orotracheal intubations (114 minutes on average), injuries of the airway caused by the endotracheal tube were found in 4.6% of the patients.
Induction of slow oscillations by rhythmic acoustic stimulation

Slow oscillations are electrical potential oscillations with a spectral peak frequency of ∼0.8 Hz, and hallmark the electroencephalogram during slow‐wave sleep. Recent studies have indicated a causal contribution of slow oscillations to the consolidation of memories during slow‐wave sleep, raising the question to what extent such oscillations can be induced by external stimulation. Here, we examined whether slow oscillations can be effectively induced by rhythmic acoustic stimulation. Human subjects were examined in three conditions: (i) with tones presented at a rate of 0.8 Hz (‘0.8‐Hz stimulation’); (ii) with tones presented at a random sequence (‘random stimulation’); and (iii) with no tones presented in a control condition (‘sham’). Stimulation started during wakefulness before sleep and continued for the first ∼90 min of sleep. Compared with the other two conditions, 0.8‐Hz stimulation significantly delayed sleep onset. However, once sleep was established, 0.8‐Hz stimulation significantly increased and entrained endogenous slow oscillation activity. Sleep after the 90‐min period of stimulation did not differ between the conditions. Our data show that rhythmic acoustic stimulation can be used to effectively enhance slow oscillation activity. However, the effect depends on the brain state, requiring the presence of stable non‐rapid eye movement sleep.
EMPATHY : A COMPARITIVE STUDY OF PROFESSIONALS AND TRAINED LAY COUNSELLORS USING HYPOTHETICAL SITUATIONS

SUMMARY The study was conducted on 12 professionals and 12 trained lay counsellors. The two groups were matched for sex (7 males and 5 females) and their mean age was 27.5 and 32.25 years respectively. Ten hypothetical problem situationts were given and empathy was assessed using, accurate empathy rating scale by two independent raters. The inter rater reliability was found to be quite high (.61 significant at .01 level). There was no significant difference between the two groups and the sex groups. On comparing the results with the scores on audiotaped interview, there, was no significant correlations obtained between the two methods. Problems involved in assessing empathy from questionnaire and suggestions for further research are also discussed.
Comparing Methods for Single Paragraph Similarity Analysis

The focus of this paper is two-fold. First, similarities generated from six semantic models were compared to human ratings of paragraph similarity on two datasets-23 World Entertainment News Network paragraphs and 50 ABC newswire paragraphs. Contrary to findings on smaller textual units such as word associations (Griffiths, Tenenbaum, & Steyvers, 2007), our results suggest that when single paragraphs are compared, simple nonreductive models (word overlap and vector space) can provide better similarity estimates than more complex models (LSA, Topic Model, SpNMF, and CSM). Second, various methods of corpus creation were explored to facilitate the semantic models' similarity estimates. Removing numeric and single characters, and also truncating document length improved performance. Automated construction of smaller Wikipedia-based corpora proved to be very effective, even improving upon the performance of corpora that had been chosen for the domain. Model performance was further improved by augmenting corpora with dataset paragraphs.