Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Security in Cognitive Radio Networks: Threats and Mitigation

This paper describes a new class of attacks specific to cognitive radio networks. Wireless devices that can learn from their environment can also be taught things by malicious elements of their environment. By putting artificial intelligence in charge of wireless network devices, we are allowing unanticipated, emergent behavior, fitting a perhaps distorted or manipulated level of optimality. The state space for a cognitive radio is made up of a variety of learned beliefs and current sensor inputs. By manipulating radio sensor inputs, an adversary can affect the beliefs of a radio, and consequently its behavior. In this paper we focus primarily on PHY-layer issues, describing several classes of attacks and giving specific examples for dynamic spectrum access and adaptive radio scenarios. These attacks demonstrate the capabilities of an attacker who can manipulate the spectral environment when a radio is learning. The most powerful of which is a self-propagating AI virus that could interactively teach radios to become malicious. We then describe some approaches for mitigating the effectiveness of these attacks by instilling some level of "common sense" into radio systems, and requiring learned beliefs to expire and be relearned. Lastly we provide a road-map for extending these ideas to higher layers in the network stack.
Sweet's syndrome associated with G‐CSF

Summary. Sweet's syndrome (SS) developed in two patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) treated with granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G‐CSF) for febrile neutropenia due to AML chemotherapy. Fever, painful skin and conjunctival lesions developed and neutrophilic infiltration was detected at biopsy specimens. Neutrophilia was not detected. Skin lesions regressed within 1–2 weeks and conjunctival lesions within 4 weeks following the cessation of G‐CSF. We conclude that SS may be a complication of G‐CSF therapy and tender skin and/or conjunctival lesions developing during G‐CSF therapy should suggest the possibility of SS.
Portion size selection of fruits and vegetables by 9- to 10-year-old children in Liverpool.

BACKGROUND It is important to promote the intake of fruit and vegetables but it is not clear how children interpret the term 'portion'. The aim of this study was to describe portion sizes of various fruits and vegetables selected by primary school children. METHODS A cross-sectional study collected data on children's self-selected portions of fruits and vegetables. Forty-three boys and 52 girls aged 9-10 years attending after school food clubs in Liverpool took part. Children placed a 'portion' of each fruit and vegetable into an empty bowl which was weighed using digital scales accurate to 1 g. RESULTS Mean portion sizes ranged from 126 g for satsumas to 61 g for peas but there were no significant differences between boys and girls. Portions of fruits were larger than portions of vegetables and although there were statistically significant correlations between the portion sizes selected by individual children they were not particularly strong. CONCLUSIONS These children had all taken part in activities promoting '5-a-day' but their perception of 'a portion' varied enormously. It is recommended that children receive targeted activities to help them improve their understanding of what constitutes a 'portion'.
Performance analysis of interference-limited relay systems over large-scale fading channels

In this paper, we consider an interference-limited dual-hop relay system, in which the overall system performance is governed not by an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), but by co-channel interference (CCI), due to aggressive frequency reuse for high spectrum utilization. We consider that the received signal-to-interference power ratio (SIR) at each hop is affected by large-scale fading (path-loss and shadowing) as well as small-scale Rayleigh fading. Assuming that the multiple CCIs in each hop are distributed as a Poisson point process on the infinite plane, we investigate the outage performance of the AF and DF relay systems. In order to analyze the performance of AF relaying, we exploit the upper and lower bounds, which can be directly obtained from the outage probability of the DF relay system. Even though the closed-form expression for the outage probability of the DF relaying cannot be found, the results can be obtained by simple numerical method, requiring only one integration calculus. For the various propagation parameters and interferer density, we present how the CCIs influence on the outage performance of dual-hop relay systems, and show that the performance gap between the upper and lower bounds is not significant.
A protocol and correctness proofs for real-time high-performance broadcast networks

Novel real time applications require high performance real time distributed systems, and therefore high performance real time networks. We examine a Hard Real Time Distributed Multiaccess problem which arises with such application problems. We present a solution, based on broadcast LANs or busses, such as Gigabit Ethernets or busses internal to ATM nodes, associated with a deterministic Ethernet-like protocol called CSMA/Deadline Driven Collision Resolution. We give an analysis of balanced m ary tree algorithms which are used by CSMA/DDCR, and derive feasibility conditions for the HRTDM problem.
PPiTTA - Preserving Privacy in TV Targeted Advertising

Targeted advertising involves using a person’s personal data to determine the most promising commercials to show that person. While the benefits are clear, the price paid in terms of loss of privacy may be high. In this work we bridge what seems at first to be contradicting requirements – the ability to personalize data and the need to maintain privacy, especially while reporting back the impressions to the advertiser. We provide two schemes that achieve this, each in its own adversarial model. We put an emphasis on modern TV systems and describe the architecture for supporting it.
A new class of convex functions for delay modeling and itsapplication to the transistor sizing problem [CMOS gates]

This paper derives a methodology for developing accurate convex delay models to be used for transistor sizing. A new rich class of convex functions to model gate delay is presented and the circuit delay under such a model is shown to be equivalent to a convex function. The richness of these functions is exploited to accurately model gate delay for modern designs. Since the delay under this model is a convex function, optimal sizing algorithms based on convex programming techniques are applied with the new delay model. Experimental results demonstrating the accuracy of proposed model are presented along with results of sizing various test circuits.
Advanced synchronous scan test methodology for multi clock domain ASICs

VLSI integrated circuits like complex ASICs and SOCs often require a multi clock design style for functional and/or performance reasons. Especially in telecom applications there are often many complex clock structures and clock domain transitions necessary. This requirement complicates the generation of structured test programs (Scan/ATPG, BIST) with current known methods. The result is a lot of test vectors which lead to long CPU and tester times for pattern generation, simulation and test application. Much effort is needed to generate skew insensitive test programs and verify them. This article describes a new approach of scan test implementation and generation of test programs for multi clock systems. By addition of a small and simple test circuit with standard library elements a almost push button solution is now possible. Effort for test program generation, CPU and tester time is reduced significantly. By use of a simple timeset, skew problems are eliminated since the circuit is fully synchronously tested by a two phase clocking scheme.
Serum levels of autoantibodies to BP180 correlate with disease activity in patients with bullous pemphigoid.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the possible correlation of levels of circulating anti-BP180 autoantibodies with disease activity in bullous pemphigoid (BP). DESIGN Diagnostic study. SETTING Regional referral center at a university dermatology department. PATIENTS Fifteen patients with typical clinical, histologic, and immunofluorescence findings of BP who had not received prior systemic treatment. INTERVENTIONS Initially, 6 consecutive patients with BP were treated with oral doxycycline and niacinamide. Subsequently, 9 consecutive patients with BP received a combination of oral dapsone and prednisolone. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Disease activity, serum levels of autoantibodies to BP180, and titers of antibasement membrane zone autoantibodies were assayed before initiation of treatment and 4 and 8 weeks later. Reactivity to BP180 was analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using a recombinant form of BP180 NC16A. Titers of anti-basement membrane zone autoantibodies were assayed by indirect immunofluorescence on 1-mol/L sodium chloride-split human skin. RESULTS In both treatment groups, disease activity correlated with serum levels of autoantibodies to BP180 NC16A (P = .004 [dapsone-prednisolone] and .007 [doxycycline-niacinamide]). No correlation was seen between disease activity and indirect immunofluorescence reactivity (P = .18 and .16, respectively). In patients receiving dapsone plus prednisolone, the dose of corticosteroids necessary to suppress new blister formation correlated with anti-BP180 reactivity (P = .002). CONCLUSIONS In contrast to indirect immunofluorescence reactivity that reflects reactivity to both BP 180 and BP230, serum levels of autoantibodies to BP180 correlate with disease activity in BP. Assaying reactivity to BP180 should be a helpful guide for the therapeutic management of patients with this disease. Our results underline the pathogenic relevance of autoantibodies to human BP180.
Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer MR Imaging is Superior to Diffusion-Tensor Imaging in the Diagnosis and Severity Evaluation of Parkinson’s Disease: A Study on Substantia Nigra and Striatum

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by nigrostriatal cell loss. To date, the diagnosis of PD is still based primarily on the clinical manifestations, which may be typical and obvious only in advanced-stage PD. Thus, it is crucial to find a reliable marker for the diagnosis of PD. We conducted this study to assess the diagnostic efficiency of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging and diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) in PD at 3 T by evaluating changes on substantia nigra and striatum. Twenty-three PD patients and twenty-three age-matched normal controls were recruited. All patients and controls were imaged on a 3-T MR system, using an eight-channel head coil. CEST imaging was acquired in two transverse slices of the head, including substantia nigra and striatum. The magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry at 3.5 ppm, MTRasym(3.5 ppm), and the total CEST signal intensity between 0 and 4 ppm were calculated. Multi-slice DTI was acquired for all the patients and normal controls. Quantitative analysis was performed on the substantia nigra, globus pallidus, putamen, and caudate. The MTRasym(3.5 ppm) value, the total CEST signal intensity, and fractional anisotropy value of the substantia nigra were all significantly lower in PD patients than in normal controls (P = 0.003, P = 0.004, and P < 0.001, respectively). The MTRasym(3.5 ppm) values of the putamen and the caudate were significantly higher in PD patients than in normal controls (P = 0.010 and P = 0.009, respectively). There were no significant differences for the mean diffusivity in these four regions between PD patients and normal controls. In conclusion, CEST MR imaging provided multiple CEST image contrasts in the substantia nigra and the striatum in PD and may be superior to DTI in the diagnosis of PD.
Report on the second international workshop on cloud intelligence (Cloud-I 2013)

Business intelligence (BI) is a broad field related to integrating, storing and analyzing data to help decisionmakers in many domains (from “real” business to administration, health, and environment) make better decisions. Front-end analytics methods include reporting, on-line analytical processing (OLAP), and data mining. With the increasing success of cloud computing, cloud BI “as a service” offerings have started appearing, both from cloud start-ups and major BI industry vendors. Beyond porting BI features into the cloud, which already implies numerous issues (e.g., BigData/NoSQL database modeling and storage, data localization, security and privacy, performance, cost and usage models.), this trend also poses new, broader challenges for making data analytics available to small and middle-size enterprises (SMEs), non-governmental organizations, Web communities (e.g., supported by social networks), and even the average citizen; this vision presumably requiring a mixture of both private and open data. Thus, Cloud Intelligence is not only a current technological and research challenge, but also an important economic and societal stake, since people increasingly demand open data, which must be easily accessible on the Web, possibly mixed with private data, and analyzed with intelligible on-line tools with advanced collaborative features enabling users to share and reuse BI concepts and analyses in large scale fashion. Analysis results can then be be shared world-wide. The Second International Workshop on Cloud Intelligence (Cloud-I 2013) [3] was held in conjunction with VLDB 2013 in Riva del Garda, Italy on August 26, 2013. In continuation of the first edition, it brought together researchers and engineers from academia and industry to discuss and exchange ideas related to Cloud Intelligence. The workshop featured a joint keynote with the BIRTE workshop and two research sessions, the latter including a panel discussion. The topics of this year’s accepted papers mainly focused on MapReduce-based computations and indexing.
Serial MRI after transient focal cerebral ischemia in rats: dynamics of tissue injury, blood-brain barrier damage, and edema formation.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE With the advent of thrombolytic therapy for acute stroke, reperfusion-associated mechanisms of tissue injury have assumed greater importance. In this experimental study, we used several MRI techniques to monitor the dynamics of secondary ischemic damage, blood-brain barrier (BBB) disturbances, and the development of vasogenic edema during the reperfusion phase after focal cerebral ischemia in rats. METHODS Nineteen Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion of 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or 2.5 hours with the suture occlusion model. MRI, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), T2-weighted imaging, perfusion-weighted imaging, and T1-weighted imaging, was performed 5 to 15 minutes before reperfusion, as well as 0.5, 1.5, and 2.5 hours and 1, 2, and 7 days after withdrawal of the suture. Final infarct size was determined histologically at 7 days. RESULTS In the 30-minute ischemia group (and partially also after 60 minutes), DWI abnormalities reversed transiently during the early reperfusion period but recurred after 1 day, probably due to secondary ischemic damage. After 2.5 hours of ischemia, DWI abnormalities no longer reversed, and signal intensity on both DWI and T2-weighted images increased rapidly in the previously ischemic region due to BBB damage (enhancement on postcontrast T1-weighted images) and edema formation. Early BBB damage during reperfusion was found to be predictive of relatively pronounced edema at subacute time points and was probably related to the increased mortality rates in this experimental group (3 of 7). CONCLUSIONS Reperfusion after short periods of ischemia (30 to 60 minutes) appears to be mainly complicated by secondary ischemic damage as shown by the delayed recurrence of the DWI lesions, whereas BBB damage associated with vasogenic edema becomes a dominant factor with longer occlusion times (2.5 hours).
Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) Seasonal Presence, Residence Time and Habitat Use at Darwin Island, Galapagos Marine Reserve

The life history of the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), including its reproductive ecology, still remains largely unknown. Here, we present results from the first whale shark population study around Darwin Island, Galapagos Marine Reserve. Following a diversified approach we characterized seasonal occurrence, population structure and size, and described habitat use of whale sharks based on fine scale movements around the island. Whale shark presence at Darwin Island was negatively correlated with Sea Surface Temperature (SST), with highest abundance corresponding to a cool season between July and December over six years of monitoring. From 2011 to 2013 we photo-identified 82 whale sharks ranging from 4 to 13.1 m Total Length (TL). Size distribution was bimodal, with a great majority (91.5%) of adult female individuals averaging 11.35 m±0.12 m (TL±SE), all but one showing signs of a potential pregnancy. Population dynamics models for apparently pregnant sharks estimated the presence of 3.76±0.90 (mean ± SE) sharks in the study area per day with an individual residence time of 2.09±0.51 (mean ± SE) days. Movement patterns analysis of four apparently pregnant individuals tracked with acoustic tags at Darwin Island revealed an intense use of Darwin's Arch, where no feeding or specific behavior has been recorded, together with periodic excursions around the island's vicinity. Sharks showed a preference for intermediate depths (20–30 m) with occasional dives mostly to mid-water, remaining the majority of their time at water temperatures between 24–25°C. All of our results point to Darwin Island as an important stopover in a migration, possibly with reproductive purposes, rather than an aggregation site. Current studies carried out in this area to investigate regional scale movement patterns may provide essential information about possible pupping grounds for this enigmatic species.
Serotonin-mediated Production of Interstitial Collagenase by Uterine Smooth Muscle Cells Requires Interleukin-1α, but not Interleukin-1β*

The activation of the gene for interstitial collagenase in myometrial smooth muscle cells is absolutely dependent upon the presence of serotonin. Our previous studies investigating the mechanisms of this induction demonstrated that the mRNAs of both interleukin-1 (IL-1) isoforms, IL-1α and IL-1β, are induced by serotonin and that the induction of IL-1 is required for the subsequent induction of collagenase. These data provided compelling evidence that serotonin-induced IL-1 acts via an autocrine loop in activating the collagenase gene. The experiments described here were designed to examine the potential role of each IL-1 isoform in collagenase production by using neutralizing antisera specific to each isoform of the cytokine. The antisera were examined for their ability to inhibit the serotonin-dependent production of the mRNA for collagenase and of the cytokines themselves. Neutralizing antiserum against IL-1α, but not against IL-1β, inhibited the induction of the mRNA for collagenase and of the mRNAs for both IL-1α and IL-1β. Western analysis indicated that detectable levels of IL-1α protein, but not that of IL-1β, are produced at the time of serotonin-dependent collagenase induction. In contrast, significant levels of IL-1β protein are detected only when bacterial lipopolysaccharide is added to the cells. Taken together, the results of our study indicate that IL-1α, but not IL-1β, plays an obligatory role in multiple serotonin-mediated gene regulations in the myometrial smooth muscle cell. In addition, the data suggest that IL-1β production has the potential for modifying myometrial function in pathological settings, particularly that of uterine infection.
Small rodents and other mammals associated with mountain meadows as reservoirs of Giardia spp. and Campylobacter spp

Sixty-five percent (469 of 722) of the fecal samples collected from small rodents in the central Washington Cascade mountains were positive for Giardia spp. Trapping studies showed that microtines of the genus Microtus were heavily infected with the parasite. Morphologically the cysts and trophozoites were of the Giardia duodenalis type. Small-rodent populations appear to maintain their infection throughout the year. Our data suggest that there is no difference in the percentage of positive animals in areas receiving a lot of human use as opposed to animals in those areas receiving very little or no human use. Giardia spp. were also found in elk and beaver fecal samples. Campylobacter spp. were recovered infrequently from the small rodents inhabiting alpine meadows. Of 551 specimens cultured, less than 1% were positive for the bacterium, and the isolates were identified as Campylobacter coli. Water voles were susceptible to a human isolate of Campylobacter jejuni and shed the bacterium for several weeks. C. jejuni was also isolated from a bear fecal sample collected from a protected watershed. Our studies indicate that microtines and possibly other small rodents inhabiting mountain meadows have a potential to act as a reservoir for both Giardia spp. and Campylobacter spp. Because these animals may carry human pathogens, they should be included in animal surveys designed to assess the health risks associated with mountain watersheds.
Silent period evoked by transcranial stimulation of the human cortex and cervicomedullary junction.

1. The silent period evoked in the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle after electrical and magnetic transcranial stimulation (TCS), electrical stimulation of the cervicomedullary junction and ulnar nerve stimulation was studied in ten healthy subjects. 2. With maximum‐intensity shocks, the average duration of the silent period was 200 ms after electrical TCS, 300 ms after magnetic TCS, 43 ms after stimulation at the cervicomedullary junction and 100 ms after peripheral nerve stimulation. 3. The duration of the silent period, the amplitude of the motor‐evoked potential, and the twitch force produced in the muscle were compared at increasing intensities of magnetic TCS. When the stimulus strength was increased from 30 to 70% of the stimulator output, the duration of the silent period lengthened as the amplitude of the motor potential and force of the muscle twitch increased. At 70 to 100% of the output, the amplitude of the motor potential and force of the muscle twitch saturated, whereas the duration of the silent period continued to increase. 4. Proximal arm muscle twitches induced by direct electrical stimulation of the biceps and extensor wrist muscles produced no inhibition of voluntary activity in the contracting FDI muscle. 5. The level of background activation had no effect on the duration of the silent period recorded in the FDI muscle after magnetic TCS. 6. Corticomotoneurone excitability after TCS was studied by means of a single magnetic conditioning shock and a test stimulus consisting either of one single magnetic shock or single and double electrical shocks (interstimulus interval 1.8 ms) in the relaxed muscle. A conditioning magnetic shock completely suppressed the response evoked by a second magnetic shock, reduced the size of the response evoked by a single electrical shock but did not affect the response evoked by double electrical shocks. Inhibition of the test magnetic shock was also present during muscle contraction. 7. Our findings indicate that the first 50 ms of the silent period after TCS are produced mainly by spinal mechanisms such as after‐hyperpolarization and recurrent inhibition of the spinal motoneurones. If descending inhibitory fibres contribute, their contribution is small. Changes in proprioceptive input probably have a minor influence. From 50 ms onwards the silent period is produced mainly by cortical inhibitory mechanisms.