Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Marte Timing Requirement and Spirit IP-XACT

: Large System-on-Chips are built by assembly of existing components modeled at diﬀerent representation levels ( tlm , rtl ). The ip-xact standard was developed to ease interoperability of IPs from diﬀerent vendors. Currently, it focuses on structural, typing and memory-related information and does not fully face behavioral and timing representation issues. uml marte proﬁle explicitly focuses on the rich expression of time (physical or logical). Combining both speciﬁcations allows for introducing a higher timed representation level and for extending ip-xact with timing characteristics. Such timing characteristics are used to validate ip-xact models by composing component behaviors and compare existing tlm and rtl implementations.
Lessons Learned from Building a High-Assurance Crypto Gateway

TimoThy e. levin Naval Postgraduate School I n surveying a dozen developing security products in the mid-2000s, it appeared that they all satisfied the basic security requirement for handling national security information (National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Committee [NSTISSC] Policy 11), which is that they had been “evaluated and validated” in accordance with National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP; www.niap-ccevs.org/cc-scheme) or other security criteria. However, we found that additional untrusted code was needed to integrate these products with their deployment environments, resulting in uncertified end systems in each case. This broad deficiency presented a challenge: to build a complete system that met the highest requirements of both Policy 11 and the NIAP scheme. In our combined 75 years of experience in the security R&D community, we’ve witnessed almost every new approach to building secure systems that has seen the light of day. The most meritorious were cumulative efforts that extended the science of computer security, ultimately providing a broad menu of technologies with which to address the challenge. Thus armed, a new project emerged with considerable enthusiasm and optimism, forming the background for the several lessons we describe here. The goal of the Encryption-box Security System (eSS) project was to produce a trusted hardware foundation (see the “Trusted Components” sidebar) that could be applied to any IP-based network of host computers. In an eSS, the hosts are called arbitrary application processors (AAPs). An eSS adds a trusted network security controller (NSC) that defines a security policy over network communications, and trusted encryption gateways (see G in Figure 1) that control network access by each AAP and NSC and encrypt the related session traffic. The NSC policy establishes each AAP’s security level and determines which pairs of AAPs are allowed to communicate, consistent with the security levels. The NSC provides the encryption gateways of each such pair with a unique session key. The design of the encryption gateways is simplified by treating AAPs and NSCs equivalently, as hosts. In fact, the key management and encryption actions of the gateways don’t require any special input from the hosts. An encryption gateway simply renders all outgoing cleartext (red) messages into encrypted (black) network messages and renders all incoming (black) messages into cleartext (red) messages, based on the session keys. The NSC, AAPs, and encryption gateways can also detect security faults and generate messages for an audit server, if one is present. The eSS design supports the inclusion of a third-party audit server, which is simply another AAP. The rest of this article uses the lessons learned in building eSS to shed light on several high-trust security engineering challenges found in the past 50 years, presented here in terms of secure architecture, secure implementation, and trustworthy development issues.
As-Projective-As-Possible Image Stitching with Moving DLT

The success of commercial image stitching tools often leads to the impression that image stitching is a “solved problem”. The reality, however, is that many tools give unconvincing results when the input photos violate fairly restrictive imaging assumptions; the main two being that the photos correspond to views that differ purely by rotation, or that the imaged scene is effectively planar. Such assumptions underpin the usage of 2D projective transforms or homographies to align photos. In the hands of the casual user, such conditions are often violated, yielding misalignment artifacts or “ghosting” in the results. Accordingly, many existing image stitching tools depend critically on post-processing routines to conceal ghosting. In this paper, we propose a novel estimation technique called Moving Direct Linear Transformation (Moving DLT) that is able to tweak or fine-tune the projective warp to accommodate the deviations of the input data from the idealized conditions. This produces as-projective-as-possible image alignment that significantly reduces ghosting without compromising the geometric realism of perspective image stitching. Our technique thus lessens the dependency on potentially expensive postprocessing algorithms. In addition, we describe how multiple as-projective-as-possible warps can be simultaneously refined via bundle adjustment to accurately align multiple images for large panorama creation.
An adaptive congestion control algorithm

Abstract The congestion of the network increases exponentially due to continuous growth of the Internet. TCP is a protocol of Transport layer which deals with the congestion of the network. TCP has many variants to deal with different types of congestion problems. Congestion of the network depends on many factors like transfer of packet size, type of cross traffic, number of competing connections,the load on every link in the path, router buffer size and bottleneck queue size. This paper presents a new congestion detection method which is based on bottleneck queue size. It is estimated according to variation of round-trip time. The experimental results confirm that the proposed TCP provide better results for throughput and packet drops.
Quality of Service-Aware , Scalable Cache Tuning Algorithm in Consumer-based Embedded Devices

constraints in consumer/user-based embedded devices (CEDs), configurable caches can be tuned to a best configuration that consumes the least amount of energy while adhering to QoS expectations. However, due to disparate consumer QoS expectations and a myriad of unknown, third-party CED applications, tuning caches in CEDs is very challenging. In this paper, we propose a quality of service-aware, scalable tuning algorithm for configurable caches, which requires no a priori knowledge of applications or design-time efforts.
Conservation agriculture as a means to mitigate and adapt to climate change, a case study from Mexico

Conservation agriculture (CA) has been proposed as an adapted set of management principles that assures a more sustainable agricultural production. It combines the following basic principles: (1) reduction in tillage, (2) retention of adequate levels of crop residues and soil surface cover, (3) use of crop rotations. These CA principles are applicable to a wide range of crop production systems. However, the application of CA will be different in different situations. Specific and compatible management components (pest and weed control tactics, nutrient management strategies, rotation crops, appropriately-scaled implements, etc.) will need to be identified through adaptive research with active farmer involvement. In this chapter, climate change predictions for Mexico will be discussed. Then the potential of CA as a means to mitigate and adapt to climate change will be examined for two contrasting agro-ecological environments, using research results of long-term trials. Finally, the economic potential of CA for climate change mitigation and adaption will be examined and an extension strategy will be outlined.
Model-based Safety and Security Co-analysis: Survey and Identification of Gaps

We survey the state-of-the-art on model-based formalisms for safety and security analysis, where safety refers to the absence of unintended failures, and security absence of malicious attacks. We consider fourteen model-based formalisms, comparing their modeling principles, the interaction between safety and security, and analysis methods. In each formalism, we model the classical Locked Door Example where possible. In addition, we compare the formalisms according their modeling expressiveness. Our key finding is that the exact nature of safety-security interaction is still ill-understood. Existing formalisms merge previous safety and security formalisms, without introducing specific constructs to model safety-security interactions, or metrics to analyze trade offs.
Caracterización de las sequías mediante la comparación de tres índices multiescalares en Zacatecas, México

La sequia es uno de los desastres naturales mas frecuentes en el centro-norte de Mexico, y su identificacion y caracterizacion son cruciales para tratar de mitigar sus efectos. Se analizo la evolucion de las sequias meteorologicas en el estado de Zacatecas, Mexico, para el periodo de 1961 a 2012 utilizando tres indices multiescalares: el Indice de Precipitacion Estandarizado (SPI), basado en datos de precipitacion; el Indice de Reconocimiento de Sequia (RDI), y el Indice de Precipitacion-Evapotranspiracion Estandarizado (SPEI), basados en datos de precipitacion y evapotranspiracion. El patron temporal de las sequias se analizo en tres escalas de tiempo (3, 6 y 12 meses). Los indices se compararon empleando los coeficientes de correlacion de Pearson y de Spearman. Los principales periodos secos fueron 1982-1983, 1998-2000 y 2010-2012. En la escala de tres meses, el SPI detecto el menor numero de eventos de sequia (41), con una duracion media de 2.5 meses; y en las escalas de 6 y 12 meses, el RDI detecto el menor numero de eventos de sequia, 32 y 16, respectivamente, con duracion media de 3.0 y 6.1 meses, respectivamente. En la escala de tres meses, el SPEI detecto el mayor numero de eventos extremos, y en las escalas de 6 y 12 meses fueron el RDI y el SPI, respectivamente. En las tres escalas de analisis, el SPEI presento el mayor porcentaje de frecuencia promedio de sequias severas. Los indices SPI vs . RDI presentan la correlacion mas alta (> 0.92), y el SPI vs . SPEI la correlacion mas baja. Las areas mas afectadas por las sequias son la region noroeste, centro y sur de Zacatecas, donde se ubican las principales zonas agricolas de temporal y de riego del estado. Los resultados encontrados pueden ayudar principalmente en la toma de decisiones sobre los patrones de cultivo y la asignacion optima de agua en el Distrito de Riego 034 Estado de Zacatecas.
Mean field diffusion models for precipitation in crystalline GaAs including surface tension and bulk stresses

Based on a thermodynamically consistent model for precipitation in gallium arsenide crystals including surface tension and bulk stresses by Dreyer and Duderstadt, we propose different mathematical models to describe the size evolution of liquid droplets in a crystalline solid. The first class of models treats the diffusion-controlled regime of interface motion, while the second class is concerned with the interface-controlled regime of interface motion. Our models take care of conservation of mass and substance. We consider homogenised models, where different length scales of the experimental situation have been exploited in order to simplify the equations. These homogenised models generalise the well-known Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner model for Ostwald ripening. Mean field models capture the main properties of our system and are well adapted for numerics and further analysis. Numerical evidence suggests in which case which one of the two regimes might be appropriate to the experimental situation.
Evaluation of internal temperature of oysters following standard thermal process recipes

Background & Purpose: The seasonal demand for shellfish such as oysters is on the rise. Shellfish are nutritious foods that may be enjoyed in a variety of ways, from slurping raw oysters to cooking oysters by means of boiling, steaming, pan frying and baking. Most consumers of oysters are aware of potential food safety issues with shellfish. Raw or undercooked shellfish can carry bacteria, viruses and toxins, potentially resulting in foodborne illness. Past outbreaks associated with the consumption of raw and undercooked oysters, prompted the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) to develop guidelines for those preparing, cooking and consuming shellfish. The recommended cooking temperature and time from the guideline was compared with the temperature and time of standard cooking methods from the Fanny Bay Oyster Market restaurant. The purpose of this project was to determine whether standard cooking methods from restaurants attain the guideline’s recommended 90oC for 90 seconds. Method: Four common cooking methods of Oysters were chosen based on recommendation from Chef Chris Andraza and BCCDC researcher Lorraine McIntyre. Oysters were pan fried, deep fried, baked and grilled. Internal temperatures of cooked oysters were then measured with a probe thermometer. Results for each method were analyzed and compared with the standard of 90oC using the one sample t-test from the statistical software package, NCSS11. Results: One sample t-tests showed statistically differences from the deep fried, baked and grilled methods when compared to the standard of 90oC (p = 0.000). The power for all three methods was 100%, therefore there is confidence that the findings reflect the truth. Experimental temperatures were consistently less than the standard. The pan fried method showed no statistically significant difference when compared to the standard of 90oC (p = 135). The power for pan fried method was 29.2%, therefore there is limited confidence that the findings reflect the truth. Therefore the deep fried, baked and grilled methods required additional cooking time to raise internal temperatures of the oysters. Whereas the pan fried method had achieved the standard but further experimentation is required to eliminate the chance of a type II error. Conclusion: It can be concluded that three out of the four cooking methods (deep fried, baked and grilled) can have significantly different mean temperatures. However, different thermal preparation methods prior to final thermal processing requires consideration to determine cooked oyster consumption safety. One out of the four cooking methods (pan fried) attained the standard temperature 90oC. Therefore, it is recommended for deep fried, baked and grilled cooking methods that the cooking time be extended to achieve an internal temperature of 90oC or higher.
Tracing Privacy Policy Claims on User Input Data for Android Applications

The Android mobile platform supports millions of users and their mobile devices across more than 190 countries around the world. This popularity coupled with user data collection by Android apps has made privacy protection a well-known challenge in the Android ecosystem. In practice, app producers provide privacy policies disclosing what information is collected and processed by the app. However, it is difficult to trace such claims to the corresponding app code to verify whether the implementation is consistent with the policy. Existing approaches for privacy policy analysis focus on information types directly accessed from the Android platform (e.g., location and device ID), but they are unable to trace privacy policy claims based on direct user input, a major source of private information. Furthermore, existing security-enhancement approaches are not fine-grained enough to map user input data to concepts in privacy policies. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that automatically detects privacy leaks from user input data for a given Android app and determines whether such leakage may violate the app’s privacy policy claims. For evaluation, we applied our approach to 120 popular apps from three privacy-relevant app categories: finance, health, and dating. The results show that our approach was able to detect 21 strong violations and 18 weak violations from the studied apps.
A Hybrid Quasi-Newton Projected-Gradient Method with Application to Lasso and Basis-Pursuit Denoise

We propose a new algorithm for the optimization of convex functions over a polyhedral set in Rn. The algorithm extends the spectral projected-gradient method with limited-memory BFGS iterates restricted to the present face whenever possible. We prove convergence of the algorithm under suitable conditions and apply the algorithm to solve the Lasso problem, and consequently, the basis-pursuit denoise problem through the root-finding framework proposed by van den Berg and Friedlander [SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, 31(2), 2008]. The algorithm is especially well suited to simple domains and could also be used to solve bound-constrained problems as well as problems restricted to the simplex.
Reinforcement learning of competitive and cooperative skills in Reinforcement learning of competitive and cooperative skills in soccer agents soccer agents

: The main aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive numerical analysis on the efficiency of various Reinforcement Learning (RL) techniques in an agent-based soccer game. The SoccerBots is employed as a simulation testbed to analyze the effectiveness of RL techniques under various scenarios. A hybrid agent teaming framework for investigating agent team architecture, learning abilities, and other specific behaviours is presented. Novel RL algorithms to verify the competitive and cooperative learning abilities of goal-oriented agents for decision-making are developed. In particular, the tile coding (TC) technique, a function approximation approach, is used to prevent the state space from growing exponentially, hence avoiding the curse of dimensionality. The underlying mechanism of eligibility traces is evaluated in terms of on-policy and off-policy procedures, as well as accumulating traces and replacing traces. The results obtained are analyzed, and implications of the results towards agent teaming and learning are discussed.
High Frequency Power Optimized Ring Voltage Controlled Oscillator for 65nm CMOS Technology-Review

Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is key building block of Phase Locked Loop (PLL) and Radio Frequency (RF) communication system. The design of high performance VCOs has been increasingly more important and still is an active research area. Research on VCOs for the past decade has been concentrated in the areas of higher frequency, lower phase noise, low power, low operating voltage, and increased tuning range. Among the architectures of VCO, Ring Oscillator shows better performance so it is selected for the research. The VCO exhibit at high frequency tuning range from 1.06-1.17GHz; its power consumption is only 8.63mW. The circuit is simulated in Tanner Tool version-13environment. The optimization design and layout are done using S-EDIT software to make the oscillator as small as possible. In addition, T-spice and W-EDIT tools are used in the analysis and simulation to verify the predicted performance. Index Terms- CMOS, Phase noise, ring oscillator, voltage controlled oscillator (VCO).
BLUE : A New Class of Active Queue Management Algorithms

In order to stem the increasing packet loss rates caused by an exponential increase in network traffic, the IETF is considering the deployment of active queue management techniques such as RED [13]. While active queue management can potentially reduce packet loss rates in the Internet, this paper shows that current techniques are ineffective in preventing high loss rates. The inherent problem with these queue management algorithms is that they all use queue lengths as the indicator of the severity of congestion. In light of this observation, a fundamentally different active queue management algorithm called BLUE is proposed. BLUE uses packet loss and link idle events to manage congestion. Using simulation and controlled experiments, BLUE is shown to perform significantly better than RED both in terms of packet loss rates and buffer size requirements in the network. As an extension to BLUE, a novel technique for enforcing fairness among a large number of flows is described. In particular, this paper proposes and evaluates Stochastic Fair BLUE (SFB), a queue management algorithm which can identify and rate-limit non-responsive flows using a very small amount of state information.
The Effect of Oil Spills on Infant Mortality: Evidence from Nigeria

Oil spills can lead to irreversible environmental degradation and pose hazards to human health. We are the first to study the causal effects of onshore oil spills on neonatal and infant mortality rates. We use spatial data from the Nigerian Oil Spill Monitor and the Demographic and Health Surveys, and rely on the comparison of siblings conceived before and after nearby oil spills. We find that nearby oil spills double the neonatal mortality rate. These effects are fairly uniform across locations and socio-economic backgrounds. We also provide some evidence for negative health effects of nearby oil spills on surviving children.
IT, Organizational Change and Wages §

In this paper we analyze the impact of information technology (IT) use and organizational changes (OC) on wages. The individual level data for 1998/1999 contain detailed information on the use of diﬀerent kinds of IT as well as on diﬀerent organizational changes. We ﬁnd that a large part of the IT–wage premium is attributable to the use of advanced oﬃce technologies and modern applications such as the Internet and Intranet. Moreover, employees share in the gains from OC within ﬁrms in form of higher wages. We ﬁnd complementary impacts of IT and OC on wages only for the case of restructured departments. The wage premiums due to changes in the management structure and outsourcing turn out to be independent of the use of IT.
Latent-space embedding of expression data identi�es gene signatures from sputum samples of asthmatic patients

Background: The pathogenesis of asthma is a complex process involving multiple genes and pathways. Identifying biomarkers from asthma datasets, especially those that include heterogeneous subpopulations, is challenging. Potentially, autoencoders provide ideal frameworks for such tasks as they can embed complex, noisy high-dimensional gene expression data into a low-dimensional latent space in an unsupervised fashion, enabling us to extract distinguishing features from expression data. Results: Here, we developed a framework combining a denoising autoencoder and a supervised learning classi�er to identify gene signatures related to asthma severity. Using the trained autoencoder with 50 hidden units, we found that hierarchical clustering on the low-dimensional embedding corresponds well with previously de�ned and clinically relevant clusters of patients. Moreover, each hidden unit has contributions from each of the genes, and pathway analysis of these contributions shows that the hidden units are signi�cantly enriched in known asthma-related pathways. We then used genes that contribute most to the hidden units to develop a secondary random-forest classi�er for directly predicting asthma severity. The feature importance metric from this classi�er identi�ed a signature based on 50 key genes, which are associated with severity. Furthermore, we can use these key genes to successfully estimate FEV1/FVC ratios across patients, via support-vector-machine regression. Conclusion: We found that the denoising autoencoder framework can extract meaningful patterns corresponding to functional gene groups and patient clusters from the gene expression of asthma patients.