Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Who Should be Responsible for Software Security? A Comparative Analysis of Liability Policies in Network Environments

In recent years, vendor liability for software security vulnerabilities has been the center of an important debate in the software community and a topic gaining government attention in legislative committees and hearings. The importance of this question surrounding vendor security liability is amplified when one considers the increasing emergence of zero-day attacks where hackers take advantage of vulnerabilities before the software vendor has a chance to release protective patches. In this paper, we compare the effectiveness of three software liability policies: vendor liability for damages, vendor liability for patching costs, and government imposed security standards. We find that vendor liability for losses is not effective in improving social welfare in the short run, while liability for patching costs can be effective if either patching costs are large and the likelihood of a zero-day attack is low, or patching costs are small and zero-day likelihood is high. In the long run, when the vendor can invest in reducing the likelihood of security vulnerabilities, loss liability is still ineffective when the zero-day attack probability is high but can increase both vendor investment in security and social welfare when zero-day attack likelihood is sufficiently low. When the zero-day attack probability is high, patch liability is ineffective if user patching costs are large, but partial patch liability can boost vendor investment and improve welfare when patching costs are small. In contrast, in an environment with low zero-day attack probability, full vendor patch liability can be optimal. Finally, comparing the effectiveness of the three liability policies under study, we find that government imposed standards on software security investment can be preferable to both patching and loss liability on the vendor, if zero-day attack likelihood is sufficiently low. However, if zero-day attacks are a common occurrence and patching costs are not too high, partial patch liability is the most effective policy. This paper was accepted by Sandra Slaughter, information systems.
Parkinson's disease and dopaminergic therapy—differential effects on movement, reward and cognition

Cognitive deficits are very common in Parkinson's disease particularly for ‘executive functions’ associated with frontal cortico-striatal networks. Previous work has identified deficits in tasks that require attentional control like task-switching, and reward-based tasks like gambling or reversal learning. However, there is a complex relationship between the specific cognitive problems faced by an individual patient, their stage of disease and dopaminergic treatment. We used a bimodality continuous performance task during fMRI to examine how patients with Parkinson's disease represent the prospect of reward and switch between competing task rules accordingly. The task-switch was not separately cued but was based on the implicit reward relevance of spatial and verbal dimensions of successive compound stimuli. Nineteen patients were studied in relative ‘on’ and ‘off’ states, induced by dopaminergic medication withdrawal (Hoehn and Yahr stages 1–4). Patients were able to successfully complete the task and establish a bias to one or other dimension in order to gain reward. However the lateral prefrontal cortex and caudate nucleus showed a non-linear U-shape relationship between motor disease severity and regional brain activation. Dopaminergic treatment led to a shift in this U-shape function, supporting the hypothesis of differential neurodegeneration in separate motor and cognitive cortico–striato–thalamo–cortical circuits. In addition, anterior cingulate activation associated with reward expectation declined with more severe disease, whereas activation following actual rewards increased with more severe disease. This may facilitate a change in goal-directed behaviours from deferred predicted rewards to immediate actual rewards, particularly when on dopaminergic treatment. We discuss the implications for investigation and optimal treatment of this common condition at different stages of disease.
Cancer germline gene activation

The human male germ line is passed on via the production of haploid sperm, which, upon fusion with the female gamete, the ovum, will form a diploid zygote that will ultimately become a genetically unique individual. Male gametogenesis occurs throughout the lifespan of adult males. Sperm production is restricted to the seminiferous tubules of the testis, and this process is continually fed by the mitotic proliferation of germline stem cells (GSCs). The GSCs are a sub-group of spermatagonial cells, which are found at the basal layer of the seminiferous tubules. Upon receipt of differentiation signals, spermatagonial cells will undergo differentiation, first maturing to primary spermatocytes and then ultimately through to fully differentiated spermatozoa. During this cellular differentiation, meiosis occurs, reducing the chromosomal content from diploid to haploid status and driving genetic variation.
Accurate Location of Façades of Interest in Street View Panoramic Sequences

Geo-spatial queries, i.e., Queries that combine location data with other kinds of input, have taken huge importance in the last generation of search engines. The success of a geo-spatial search depends on the quality of the positioning information provided, for instance, by GPS-enabled smartphones. Therefore, the quality of the GPS signal and the quality of the built-in GPS may affect the accuracy of the estimated location, and hence the quality of the searching result. This paper proposes an automatic image-based solution for improving the estimation of the geographical coordinates of a building of interest on which a geo-spatial search will be performed. Our approach uses the inaccurate GPS coordinates estimated by smartphones as starting point for automated visual search into a graph of streets enhanced with street view panoramic sequences. During the search, our approach uses a query image of the building of interest to identify which panoramic views include the building's façade. From the geographical location of the panoramic views and from the best matching directions of the given image with the panoramic images, our approach triangulates the location of the target building. In addition, our approach estimates the uncertainty in the computed locations by modeling the error propagation along the triangulation procedure. We evaluate our method on several real images of buildings.
Lowering outage probability in ad hoc networks by nearest neighbor FDMA scheduling

This paper investigates the performance of a wireless ad hoc network capable of dynamically coordinating a set of orthogonal frequency channels such that every receiver and its nearest interferer operate in different channels. The distribution of the ratio of the interference powers of the second and first interferer is derived to show that the nearest interferer has dominant character, particularly in the absence of fading. Lower and upper bounds on outage probability are derived for the path loss model. For Rayleigh fading, an approximation is presented. Simulation results show that nearest neighbor scheduling is beneficial, thereby avoiding interference effectively. In contrast to other techniques such as successive interference cancellation, the complexity of nearest neighbor scheduling remains comparatively low.
A globally convergent numerical algorithm for computing the centre of mass on compact Lie groups

Motivated by applications in fuzzy control, robotics and vision, this paper considers the problem of computing the centre of mass (precisely, the Karcher mean) of a set of points defined on a compact Lie group, such as the special orthogonal group consisting of all orthogonal matrices with unit determinant. An iterative algorithm, whose derivation is based on the geometry of the problem, is proposed. It is proved to be globally convergent. Interestingly, the proof starts by showing the algorithm is actually a Riemannian gradient descent algorithm with fixed step size.
Analysis of 3-sulfated and nonsulfated bile acids by one-step solvolysis and high performance liquid chromatography.

A facile solvolysis procedure of 3-sulfated bile acid was devised using trifluoroacetic acid, tetrahydrofuran, and methanol. The sulfate esters were completely solvolyzed within only 2 hr by the present method. The clinical utility of the solvolysis procedure and high performance liquid chromatography using immobilized 3 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase was demonstrated in the analysis of bile acids in serum of patients with obstructive jaundice. The quantities of 3-sulfated bile acids were calculated from the difference in the amount of bile acids before and after solvolysis. A significantly large proportion of 3-sulfated glycochenodeoxycholic acid, i.e., 21.9 to 31.3% of total glycochenodeoxycholic acid, was found in the serum of patients with obstructive jaundice. Thus, the present method permits simultaneous quantitation of 3-sulfated as well as nonsulfated bile acids in biological samples.
Phosphotyrosine-specific Phosphatase PTP-SL Regulates the ERK5 Signaling Pathway*

The duration and the magnitude of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation specifies signal identity and thus allows the regulation of diverse cellular functions by the same kinase cascade. A tight and finely tuned regulation of MAPK activity is therefore critical for the definition of a specific cellular response. We investigated the role of tyrosine-specific phosphatases (PTPs) in the regulation of ERK5. Although unique in its structure, ERK5 is activated in analogy to other MAPKs by dual phosphorylation of threonine and tyrosine residues in its activation motif. In this study we concentrated on whether and how PTP-SL, a kinase-interacting motif-containing PTP, might be involved in the down-regulation of the ERK5 signal. We found that both proteins interact directly with each other in vitro and in intact cells, resulting in mutual modulation of their enzymatic activities. PTP-SL is a substrate of ERK5 and independent of phosphorylation binding to the kinase enhances its catalytic phosphatase activity. On the other hand, interaction with PTP-SL not only down-regulates endogenous ERK5 activity but also effectively impedes the translocation of ERK5 to the nucleus. These findings indicate a direct regulatory influence of PTP-SL on the ERK5 pathway and corresponding downstream responses of the cell.
EFFECT OF WHEAT AND OAT BRANS ON THE DOUGH RHEOLOGICAL AND QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF INSTANT VERMICELLI

Wheat bran (WB) and oat bran (OB), which are rich in dietary fiber content, were blended separately with wheat flour at 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%. The incorporation of WB and OB increased the farinograph water absorption from 58.3 to 64.1 and 62.3%, respectively. The dough stability decreased from 10 to 5.5 and 7. 0âmin. The increase in maximum pressure value was greater upon the addition of WB. The peak viscosity value decreased from 818 to 673 Brabender units (BU) upon the addition of WB. The addition of either WB or OB in the preparation of instant vermicelli made the strands tough. The moisture content and oil uptake decreased from 6.5 to 5.1% and from 18.3 to 16.6%, respectively. The cooked weight decreased, while the cooking loss increased with increasing levels of either of the bran. Combination of WB (5%) and OB (10â15%) resulted in instant vermicelli of acceptable quality having total dietary fiber content of 6.12%. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Highâfiber ingredients exhibit many properties that influence the physiological functions of foods. Consumption of highâfiber products has shown several health benefits. There is a need to have products enriched with dietary fiber. Wheat bran and oat bran, which are good sources of insoluble and soluble dietary fiber, respectively, have been used in the preparation of various bakery products. The utilization of such sources has also helped in reducing the oil uptake during processing. This study would surely help the industry in developing fiberârich instant vermicelli using the naturally available fiberârich sources.
miR-21 Expression in Cancer Cells may Not Predict Resistance to Adjuvant Trastuzumab in Primary Breast Cancer

Trastuzumab is established as standard care for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer both in the adjuvant and metastatic setting. However, 50% of the patients do not respond to the trastuzumab therapy, and therefore new predictive biomarkers are highly warranted. MicroRNAs (miRs) constitute a new group of biomarkers and their cellular expression can be determined in tumor samples by in situ hybridization (ISH) analysis. miR-21 is highly prevalent and up-regulated in breast cancer and has been linked to drug resistance in clinical and in vitro settings. To determine expression patterns of miR-21 in high-grade breast cancers, we examined miR-21 expression in 22 HER2-positive tumors and 15 HER2-negative high-grade tumors by ISH. The histological examination indicated that patient samples could be divided into three major expression patterns: miR-21 predominantly in tumor stroma, predominantly in cancer cells, or in both stromal and cancer cells. There was no obvious difference between the HER2-positive and HER2-negative tumors in terms of the miR-21 expression patterns and intensities. To explore the possibility that miR-21 expression levels and/or cellular localization could predict resistance to adjuvant trastuzumab in HER2-positive breast cancer patients, we analyzed additional 16 HER2-positive tumors from patients who were treated with trastuzumab in the adjuvant setting. Eight of the 16 patients showed clinical recurrence and were considered resistant. Examination of the miR-21 expression patterns and intensities revealed no association between the miR-21 scores in the cancer cell population (p = 0.69) or the stromal cells population (p = 0.13) and recurrent disease after adjuvant trastuzumab. Thus, our findings show that elevated miR-21 expression does not predict resistance to adjuvant trastuzumab.
On the Calculation of Constrained Capacity and Outage Probability of Broadband Satellite Communication Links

Outage probability and outage ergodic constrained capacity are important performance metrics of broadband satellite communication networks operating above 10 GHz. The objective of this letter is to propose a simple method, using piecewise linear fitting, for the calculation of these figures of merit in rain fading channels. Rain fading affecting the signal amplitude is described by log-lognormal distribution. The results are focused on well-accepted DVB-S2 satellite communication system. Finally, a lower bound for the ergodic constrained capacity of log-lognormal channels is given. The numerical results highlight the accuracy of the proposed method.
Rapid two-stage emergency department intervention for seniors: impact on continuity of care.

OBJECTIVES A two-stage intervention comprising screening and a brief standardized nursing assessment and referral, for emergency department (ED) patients aged 65 years and over, reduced the rate of functional decline four months after the visit, without increasing societal costs. In this study, the authors investigated the effects of the intervention on the process of care at, and during the month after, the ED visit. METHODS Patients at four Montreal hospital EDs were randomized by day of visit to the intervention or to usual care. Patients admitted to the hospital were excluded. Measures of process of care included: referrals and visits to the primary physician and to the local community health center, for home care or other services, and return ED visits. Data sources included hospital charts, patient questionnaires, and provincial administrative databases. RESULTS The study sample included 166 intervention and 179 control group patients ready for discharge from the ED. Intervention group patients were more likely to have a chart-documented referral to their local community health center [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 4.0, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.7 to 9.5] and their primary physician [adjusted OR 1.9, 95% CI = 1.0 to 3.4], and to have received home care services one month after the ED visit [adjusted OR 2.3, 95% CI = 1.1 to 5.1]. Unexpectedly, they were also more likely to make a return visit to the ED [adjusted OR 1.6, 95% CI = 1.0 to 2.6]. CONCLUSIONS The beneficial outcomes of the intervention appear to result primarily from the early provision of home care rather than early contact with the primary physician.
Structure-Function Based Molecular Relationships in Ewing's Sarcoma

Ewing's Sarcoma Oncogene (ews) on chromosome 22q12 is encoding a ubiquitously expressed RNA-binding protein (EWS) with unknown function that is target of tumor-specific chromosomal translocations in Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors. A model of transcription complex was proposed in which the heterodimer Rpb4/7 binds to EAD, connecting it to Core RNA Pol II. The DNA-binding domain, provided by EFP, is bound to the promoter. Rpb4/7 binds RNA, stabilizing the transcription complex. The complex Rpb4/7 can stabilize the preinitiation complexes by converting the conformation of RNA Pol II. EWS may change its conformation, so that NTD becomes accessible. Two different mechanisms of interaction between EWS and RNA Pol II are proposed: (I) an intermolecular EWS-EWS interaction between two molecules, pushing conformation from “closed” to “open” state, or (II) an intramolecular interaction inside the molecule of EWS, pushing conformation of the molecule from “closed” to “open” state. The modified forms of EWS may interact with Pol II subunits hsRpb5 and hsRpb7. The EWS and EFPs binding partners are described schematically in a model, an attempt to link the transcription with the splicing. The proposed model helps to understand the functional molecular interactions in cancer, to find new partners and ways to treat cancer.
Breathe to stay cool: adjusting cell sizes to reduce energy consumption

Reducing the energy consumption of a wireless cellular network is an important and urgent problem. This paper studies the effect of cell sizes on the energy consumed by the network, assuming base station technologies of today and the future. Making cell sizes too small or too large can significantly increase energy consumption. We show that the optimal cell size from an energy perspective depends on a number of factors, including base station technology, data rates, and traffic demands. Given that traffic varies significantly during a day, dynamically adjusting cell sizes can help reduce energy consumption. We propose a practical, 2-level scheme that adjusts cell sizes between two fixed values, and show an energy saving of up to 40%. The paper also proposes some self-organizing techniques to allow this dynamic cell size adjustment.
Modern radiology and the use of resources. Too much technology (?) – Not at all

Several articles have, increasingly in recent years, discussed and questioned the increasing use of high-tech imaging (1). It has been used as an example of overuse of medical technology. I assure you, it isn’t. My honest opinion is that these articles have a ‘‘stop-the-world’’ philosophy, and are not based on factual data. The innovations and technological advances seen within imaging have given us more effective, more accurate, less harmful, and more accessible diagnostic procedures. I shall remind older readers and enlighten younger readers of one of the most significant of many revolutions within radiology: the introduction of computed tomography (CT). When I started my radiology career, CTs were in common use. However, I’m old enough to have performed angiography to find traumatic hemorrhages in the liver and spleen. This was a method demanding on resources and with uncertainties. These diagnostic uncertainties would lead to surgery if in doubt. First, CT gave us possibilities of intracranial diagnoses not possible earlier, shortly after it replaced angiography for trauma and tumor diagnoses. So what? CT was better, faster, and a lot cheaper than performing angiograms. It was cheaper per examination and with fewer complications to the patient; in addition, it was easily accessible. If you get access to a better procedure that will give you more accurate diagnoses with fewer complications, then it will be used, and the overall use will thus increase (2,3). Should patients be denied access to better and less harmful examinations and treatment because the overall costs rises? The reality is that few new technologies come close to the CT with regard to added value to so many.
Modelling grain-boundary resistance in intergranular dislocation slip transmission

Abstract We investigate the resistance on the glide of lattice dislocations between adjacent crystal grains due to the presence of a grain boundary (GB). Applying a combination of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and a line tension (LT) model we identify the geometrical parameters that are relevant in the description of this process. In the MD simulations we observe slip transmission of dislocation loops nucleated from a crack tip near a series of pure tilt GBs in Ni. The results are rationalized in terms of a LT model for the activation of a Frank-Read source in the presence of a GB. It is found that the slip transmission resistance is a function of only three variables: firstly, the ratio of resolved stress on the incoming slip system to that on the outgoing slip system, secondly, the magnitude of any residual Burgers vector content left in the GB and, thirdly, the angle between the traces of the incoming and outgoing slip planes in the GB plane. Comparison with the MD simulations and experimental data shows that the LT model captures the essential energetics of slip transmission and suggests relatively simple functional relationships between the GB geometry and loading conditions on the one hand and slip transmission resistance on the other.