Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New Security Mechanism to Perform Traffic Anonymity with Dummy Traffic Synthesis

Traffic analysis is a security attack where an adversary observes the statistical pattern of network traffic to infer sensitive information. Statistical properties such as packets length and inter-arrival time provide valuable information about an application, user’s activities, and an underlying system. On the other hand, traffic analysis is categorized as a passive attack that is difficult to detect. In this paper we develop an anonymity mechanism to help hiding user activity over a network. The mechanism provides Synthesized Dummy Traffic Generator (S-DTG) able to synthesize dummy traffic based on samples from real traffic during periods of user inactivity. The statistical properties and the traffic pattern of generated traffic are very similar to those of the real traffic sent during users’ activity periods. The close similarity between real and dummy traffic coupled with the ability to generate traffic for an inactivity period of any length makes it difficult for an intruder to differentiate between periods of users’ activity and inactivity. We show that our proposed traffic generator is superior to the exiting traffic generator from the point of providing anonymity and hiding user activity.
Wireless-Signal Map-Matching for Non-Line-Of-Sight Error Calibration

This paper proposes a new wireless-signal map-matching technique for calibrating non-line-of-sight positioning error in urban environments. Compared with conventional map-matching methods that utilise a continuously-tracked single user trajectory, the proposed map-matching method utilises a considerable number of different user locations for comparison with ideal map information. By appying the proposed technique to the sampled network measurements, non-line-of-sight error correction maps for the distorted position domain are generated. Once the non-line-of-sight error correction maps are constructed they can be thereafter applied to the same type of measurements. Since the proposed wireless-signal map-matching algorithm can be installed either inside or outside the core network structure, and is applicable to any type of network measurements such as time-of-arrival, time-difference-of-arrival, and angle-of-arrival, it exhibits good implementation flexibility. A simulation result, assuming a typical dense urban environment, demonstrates the benefits of the proposed wireless-signal map-matching technique.
Therapeutic Strategies for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a clinically relevant term referring to breast carcinomas that do not express the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 and became operational after human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 testing was introduced. This is a challenging disease to treat because of the absence of a specific target, but these tumors are sensitive to chemotherapy. An improved understanding of the biology of TNBC has led to evaluation of DNA-damaging chemotherapy drugs, specifically, platinum compounds, and several targeted agents, including poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors, epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors, angiogenesis inhibitors, microtubule inhibitors, Src inhibitors, checkpoint kinase I inhibitors, mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors, androgen receptor blocker, tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand receptor agonists, and transforming growth factor-β antagonists, that may lead to improved clinical outcomes. Ongoing clinical trials will further define the optimal chemotherapy regimen and most effective targeted therapeutic strategy for TNBC.
Supporting Task Migration in Multi-Processor Systems-on-Chip: A Feasibility Study

With the advent of multi-processor systems-on-chip, the interest in process migration is again on the rise both in research and in product development. New challenges associated with the new scenario include increased sensitivity to implementation complexity, tight power budgets, requirements on execution predictability, and the lack of virtual memory support in many low-end MPSoCs. As a consequence, effectiveness and applicability of traditional transparent migration mechanisms are put in discussion in this context. Our paper proposes a task management software infrastructure that is well suited for the constraints of single chip multiprocessors with distributed operating systems. Load balancing in the system is maintained by means of intelligent initial placement and task migration. We propose a user-managed migration scheme based on code check pointing and user-level middleware support as an effective solution for many MPSoC application domains. In order to prove the practical viability of this scheme, we also propose a characterization methodology for task migration overhead. We derive the minimum execution time following a task migration event during which the system configuration should be frozen to make up for the migration cost
Entry Mode and Performance in a Transitional Economy: A Framework for Foreign-Invested Enterprises in China

A conceptual framework is developed, bringing together entry mode, the influence of state officials, and the adoption of a customer-driven orientation in order to explain the performance of foreign-invested firms in a transitional economy. The model is tested on a sample of firms in China across eight provinces and cities, spread across the relatively developed South Coast, the Central Belt formed by Shanghai and the Yangzi basin and the less-developed North and West. We find that the decision to enter through a joint venture reduces the customer focus of the enterprise. Contrary to expectation, however, we find no positive relationship between entry by joint venture and the degree of state influence exerted over the enterprise. It appears that whollyowned foreign enterprises experience just as much involvement by government officials in their activities as do the joint ventures. However, greater customer focus fosters innovativeness, which in turn, leads to higher performance. Managerial implications are discussed for executives responsible deciding on the mode-of-entry: wholly-owned foreign enterprise (WOFE) or foreign equity joint venture (FEJV).
Electrophysiological evidence of GABAA and GABAC receptors on zebrafish retinal bipolar cells

Abstract To refine inhibitory circuitry models for ON and OFF pathways in zebrafish retina, GABAergic properties of zebrafish bipolar cells were studied with two techniques: whole cell patch responses to GABA puffs in retinal slice, and voltage probe responses in isolated cells. Retinal slices documented predominantly axon terminal responses; isolated cells revealed mainly soma-dendritic responses. In the slice, GABA elicited a conductance increase, GABA responses were more robust at axon terminals than dendrites, and Erev varied with [Cl−]in. Axon terminals of ON- and OFF-type cells were similarly sensitive to GABA (30–40 pA peak current); axotomized cells were unresponsive. Bicuculline-sensitive, picrotoxin-sensitive, and picrotoxin-insensitive components were identified. Muscimol was as effective as GABA; baclofen was ineffective. Isolated bipolar cells were either intact or axotomized. Even in cells without an axon, GABA or muscimol (but not baclofen) hyperpolarized dendritic and somatic regions, suggesting significant distal expression. Median fluorescence change for GABA was −0.22 log units (∼ −16 mV); median half-amplitude dose was 0.4 μM. Reduced [Cl−]out blocked GABA responses. GABA hyperpolarized isolated ON-bipolar cells; OFF-cells were either unresponsive or depolarized. Hyperpolarizing GABA responses in isolated cells were bicuculline and TPMPA insensitive, but blocked or partially blocked by picrotoxin or zinc. In summary, axon terminals contain bicuculline-sensitive GABAA receptors and both picrotoxin-sensitive and insensitive GABAC receptors. Dendritic processes express zinc- and picrotoxin-sensitive GABAC receptors.
Information Behaviour Characteristics of Project Actors in Organisation Management

 Abstract—Research shows that a large proportion of the working time of project actors is spent processing, communicating and disseminating information that is not relevant to their tasks. This makes information overload (IO) a liability that adversely affects the performance of project actors and the management of their organisations. Some advances have been achieved in structuring information resources to support the decision making process of engineering project actors. However, it is not always possible to structure and direct the right information to the right actor at the right time. Some engineering companies have taken the initiative of resolving this problem by encouraging actors to employ personal information management systems, information sifting systems, product data management systems and other software applications to help manage the problem of IO. These information systems rely on pull technology which contribute towards time delay, inefficiency and cost in actors' information seeking process. The paper draws on information behaviour (IB) literature of engineering project actors to establish a platform for future studies on how IB can inform how information could be structured and made available to the right actor at the right time to facilitate timely decision making and organisation management. This paper proposes the SMART Push information capturing and delivery framework as a solution to IO. This could aid releasing the actor from the entire problem associated with information seeking process in order to focus on the task at hand.
Low Distortion Shell Map Generation

A shell map (Porumbescu et al., 2005) is a bijective mapping between shell space (the space between a base surface and its offset) and texture space. It can be used to generate small-scale features on surfaces using a variety of modeling techniques. In this paper, we present an efficient algorithm, which reduces distortion by construction, for the offset surface generation of triangular meshes. The basic idea is to independently offset each triangle of the base mesh, and then stitch them up by solving a Poisson equation. We then introduce the details for computation of a stretch metric, which measures the distortion of shell maps. Our results show a substantial improvement compared to previous results
Apolipoprotein A1-Unique Peptide as a Diagnostic Biomarker for Acute Ischemic Stroke

Clinically-informative biomarkers of ischemic stroke are needed for rapid diagnosis and timely treatment. In the present study, APOA1 unique peptide (APOA1-UP), a novel peptide biomarker, was identified and quantified by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) using labeled reference peptide (LRP). Serum samples of 94 patients in the ischemic stroke group and 37 patients in the non-stroke group were analyzed for the levels of total APOA1-UP, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and total cholesterol (TC). Median ratio of total APOA1-UP/LRP was 2.14 (interquartile range, 0.40) in the non-stroke group and 1.32 (0.44) in the ischemic stroke group (p < 0.0001). The serum level of total APOA1-UP was independently correlated with the presence of ischemic stroke by multivariate logistic regression analysis (p < 0.0001). From the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.9750 and the optimal cutoff value of the serum APOA1-UP level was 1.80, which yielded a sensitivity of 90.63% and a specificity of 97.14%. The diagnostic efficiency of HDL-C was lower, with an AUC of 0.7488. Therefore, the serum level of APOA1-UP is a diagnostic biomarker candidate for ischemic stroke in the early stage.
Osmoregulation and Fungicide Resistance: the Neurospora crassa os-2 Gene Encodes a HOG1 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Homologue

ABSTRACT Neurospora crassa osmosensitive (os) mutants are sensitive to high osmolarity and therefore are unable to grow on medium containing 4% NaCl. We found that os-2 and os-5 mutants were resistant to the phenylpyrrole fungicides fludioxonil and fenpiclonil. To understand the relationship between osmoregulation and fungicide resistance, we cloned the os-2 gene by using sib selection. os-2 encodes a putative mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase homologous to HOG1 and can complement the osmosensitive phenotype of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae hog1 mutant. We sequenced three os-2 alleles and found that all of them were null with either frameshift or nonsense point mutations. An os-2 gene replacement mutant also was generated and was sensitive to high osmolarity and resistant to phenylpyrrole fungicides. Conversely, os-2 mutants transformed with the wild-type os-2 gene could grow on media containing 4% NaCl and were sensitive to phenylpyrrole fungicides. Fludioxonil stimulated intracellular glycerol accumulation in wild-type strains but not in os-2 mutants. Fludioxonil also caused wild-type conidia and hyphal cells to swell and burst. These results suggest that the hyperosmotic stress response pathway of N. crassa is the target of phenylpyrrole fungicides and that fungicidal effects may result from a hyperactive os-2 MAP kinase pathway.
Syzygies of Abelian and Bielliptic Surfaces in ℙ4

So far only six families of smooth irregular surfaces are known to exist in P^4 (up to pullbacks by suitable finite covers of P^4). These are the elliptic quintic scrolls, the minimal abelian and bielliptic surfaces (of degree 10), two different families of non-minimal abelian surfaces of degree 15, and one family of non-minimal bielliptic surfaces of degree 15. The main purpose of the paper is to describe the structure of the Hartshorne-Rao modules and the syzygies for each of these smooth irregular surfaces in P^4, providing at the same time a unified construction method (via syzygies) for these families of surfaces.
Effects of Neutron-Gamma Radiation on Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors: A Review

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing is currently one of the leading measurement technologies, but has made only minor inroads into nuclear diagnostics due, for the most part, to insufficient proof of survivability in these environments. This paper aims to review the current knowledge in this area, incorporating reviews of radiation-induced darkening of silica, shifts in Bragg peak, and changes to mechanical properties, while taking into account core/cladding chemistry, structure, and coating materials. In doing so, this review not only highlights the achievements of the scientific community up to the present, but more importantly, the key areas in which knowledge is still lacking and further concentrated investigation would be beneficial.
Noncommutative resolutions of discriminants

We give an introduction to the McKay correspondence and its connection to quotients of Cn by finite reflection groups. This yields a natural construction of noncommutative resolutions of the discriminants of these reflection groups. This paper is an extended version of E. F. ’s talk with the same title delivered at the ICRA.
Plasma Apolipoprotein CI and CIII Levels Are Associated With Increased Plasma Triglyceride Levels and Decreased Fat Mass in Men With the Metabolic Syndrome

OBJECTIVE—To determine whether, in accordance with observations in mouse models, high concentrations of the lipoprotein lipase inhibitors apolipoprotein (Apo) CI and ApoCIII are associated with increased triglyceride concentrations and decreased fat mass in men with the metabolic syndrome. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Plasma ApoCI, ApoCIII, and triglyceride concentrations were measured in the postabsorptive state in 98 men with the metabolic syndrome. Subcutaneous and visceral fat areas were measured by 3T-magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS—Triglyceride concentrations were 49% higher, and the average visceral fat area was 26% lower (both P < 0.001), in subjects with high ApoCI and ApoCIII compared with low ApoCI and ApoCIII. Subjects with either high ApoCI or ApoCIII had 16% (P < 0.05) and 18% (P < 0.01) decreased visceral fat area, respectively. CONCLUSIONS—High concentrations of ApoCI and ApoCIII are associated with increased triglycerides and decreased visceral fat mass in men with the metabolic syndrome. These findings translate mouse studies into human pathophysiology.
Nef Is Physically Recruited into the Immunological Synapse and Potentiates T Cell Activation Early after TCR Engagement1

The HIV-1 protein Nef enhances viral pathogenicity and accelerates disease progression in vivo. Nef potentiates T cell activation by an unknown mechanism, probably by optimizing the intracellular environment for HIV replication. Using a new T cell reporter system, we have found that Nef more than doubles the number of cells expressing the transcription factors NF-κB and NFAT after TCR stimulation. This Nef-induced priming of TCR signaling pathways occurred independently of calcium signaling and involved a very proximal step before protein kinase C activation. Engagement of the TCR by MHC-bound Ag triggers the formation of the immunological synapse by recruiting detergent-resistant membrane microdomains, termed lipid rafts. Approximately 5–10% of the total cellular pool of Nef is localized within lipid rafts. Using confocal and real-time microscopy, we found that Nef in lipid rafts was recruited into the immunological synapse within minutes after Ab engagement of the TCR/CD3 and CD28 receptors. This recruitment was dependent on the N-terminal domain of Nef encompassing its myristoylation. Nef did not increase the number of cell surface lipid rafts or immunological synapses. Recently, studies have shown a specific interaction of Nef with an active subpopulation of p21-activated kinase-2 found only in the lipid rafts. Thus, the corecruitment of Nef and key cellular partners (e.g., activated p21-activated kinase-2) into the immunological synapse may underlie the increased frequency of cells expressing transcriptionally active forms of NF-κB and NFAT and the resultant changes in T cell activation.
Evolution of Streptococcus pneumoniaeSerotypes and Antibiotic Resistance in Spain: Update (1990 to 1996)

The surveillance in Spain of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated in hospitals from different regions of the country was initiated in our laboratory in 1979. In that year we found that 6% of the pneumococci isolated from blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), or lower respiratory tract (LRT) specimens were not penicillin susceptible and that these strains were distributed only among particular serogroups or serotypes (SGTs). We thus realized that although penicillin resistance was rare in most other countries, it was clearly significant in Spain (6). Rates of penicillin resistance increased continuously in the following years, reaching values up to 44.3% among invasive strains in 1989, and both highly penicillin-resistant and multidrug-resistant strains reached high levels (15.3 and 7.9%, respectively) (11). In the present decade, resistance to penicillin has spread throughout the world and numerous countries are observing the same pattern that occurred in our country during the 1980s (1, 2, 16). The situation with antimicrobial resistance in Spain at the end of the 1980s caused concern (3, 22), and knowledge of its evolution could be of interest for those countries where increasing resistance is being observed. This survey presents an update of the previous microbiological surveillance for pneumococcal infections. Here, we have included both invasive and noninvasive pneumococci isolated from 1990 to 1996 in Spanish hospitals. For comparative purposes, some tables and figures present data obtained in the period 1979 to 1989, including analysis of not only invasive strains (6, 11) but also noninvasive strains.
Comments on efficient dithering in digital delta-sigma modulator

The output spectra of digital delta sigma modulators (DDSMs) are characterized by unwanted spurious periodic tones (spurs). Additive pseudorandom dither is used to whiten the quantization noise of the DDSM in order to minimize these spurs. Unfortunately, pseudorandom dither signals are themselves periodic and may cause other spurs to appear. This paper describes a DDSM architecture with multiple periodic dither inputs and explains the limits of its performance.
The Austrian Tent? A Rejoinder to Gallaway and Vedder

How do neoclassical economists reply to Austrian critiques of their work? Typically, although to be sure there are exceptions, they ignore them. That is, the former move mountains in an effort to avoid the arguments of the latter. Sometimes this occurs even when neoclassicals explicitly reply to Austrian critiques. A case in point is Gallaway and Vedder (2006). Ostensibly written as a critique of Barnett and Block (2006), this “Reply” manages to ignore every substantive criticism leveled at them by their critics. Instead, it focuses on a point irrelevant to the substantive issues, but an interesting one for all that.
Investigating the effect of festival visitors' emotional experiences on satisfaction, psychological commitment, and loyalty

Investigating the Effect of Festival Visitors’ Emotional Experiences on Satisfaction, Psychological Commitment, and Loyalty. (May 2009) Ji Yeon Lee, B.S., Ewha Womans University; B.S., Purdue University; M.H. M. , University of Houston Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Gerard Kyle In rural destinations, community festivals and events displaying agricultural and livestock exhibits with a combination of entertainment activities are one of the heritage attractions that draw large numbers of visitors. They have not only provided an economic stimulus along with social and cultural benefits to these small communities, but also played a role in increasing the tourism appeal to nonlocal visitors. Considering the significance of a rural community festival to its hosting local residents and out-oftown visitors, attracting and keeping a flow of visitors has been of great importance for both the festival organizers and destination marketing organizations. In this respect, identification with and retention of loyal visitors who are psychologically committed to the festival are a practical means for ensuring a consistent number of visitors to that festival and its hosting community. The present study examined how festival visitors’ develop loyalty to festivals and hosting communities through the affective and psychological processes within the
A Hyperelastic Regularization Energy for Image Registration

Image registration is one of the most challenging problems in image processing, where ill-posedness arises due to noisy data as well as nonuniqueness, and hence the choice of regularization is crucial. This paper presents hyperelasticity as a regularizer and introduces a new and stable numerical implementation. On one hand, hyperelastic registration is an appropriate model for large and highly nonlinear deformations, for which a linear elastic model needs to fail. On the other hand, the hyperelastic regularizer yields very regular and diffeomorphic transformations. While hyperelasticity might be considered as just an additional outstanding regularization option for some applications, it becomes inevitable for applications involving higher order distance measures like mass-preserving registration. The paper gives a short introduction to image registration and hyperelasticity. The hyperelastic image registration problem is phrased in a variational setting, and an existence proof is provided. The focus of th.