Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ComputationalCollective Intelligence

It is well known that cyber criminal gangs are already using advanced and especially intelligent types of Android malware, in order to overcome the out-of-band security measures. This is done in order to broaden and enhance their attacks which mainly target financial and credit foundations and their transactions. It is a fact that most applications used under the Android sys-tem are written in Java. The research described herein, proposes the development of an innovative active security system that goes beyond the limits of the existing ones. The developed system acts as an extension on the ART (Android Run Time) Virtual Machine architecture, used by the Android Lolipop 5.0 version. Its main task is the analysis and classification of the Java classes of each application. It is a flexible intelligent system with low requirements in computational resources, named Smart Anti Malware Extension (SAME). It uses the biologically inspired Biogeography-Based Optimizer (BBO) heuristic algorithm for the training of a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) in order to classify the Java classes of an application as benign or malicious. SAME was run in parallel with the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) and it has shown its validity.
Nearly automated left ventricular long axis tracking on real time three-dimensional echocardiographic data

The measurement of left ventricular (LV) long axis length (LAL) is an integral part of echocardiographic evaluation of LV volume, the most important determinant of LV systolic function. LAL measurements from 2D echocardiography (2DE) are highly dependent on the ability to obtain non-foreshortened LV images. Real-time 3D echocardiography (RT3DE) could potentially overcome the effects of long-axis foreshortening, but LAL measurements on RT3DE data are currently based on manual analysis and are time-consuming. We developed and tested a nearly automated method based on optical flow techniques for the measurement of the LV LAL throughout the cardiac cycle from RT3DE data. Results of comparisons on 10 patients with manual tracing on RT3DE data showed good agreement and no significant bias (r=.99, bias=-1.8 mm). The proposed method allowed fast and accurate quantification of the LAL throughout the cardiac cycle with minimal user interaction and short computational time
Depression, anxiety and cardiometabolic risk in polycystic ovary syndrome.

BACKGROUND Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with psychological and metabolic disturbances. The aim of this study was to determine whether depression, anxiety and reduced health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are more common in women with PCOS and associated with metabolic risk. METHODS The study included 226 PCOS patients and 85 BMI-matched healthy control women. All participants completed standardized questionnaires assessing depression (Beck Depression Inventory), anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and both depression and anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and General Health Questionnaire). Patients also completed a PCOS HRQOL questionnaire. Hirsutism scores, serum androgens and lipids were obtained. All subjects underwent a standard oral glucose tolerance test. RESULTS 28.6% of PCOS women versus 4.7% of control women had clinical depression scores indicating an 8.1-fold increased risk of depression in PCOS (P < 0.001). Depression and anxiety scores were higher in PCOS women than controls (P < 0.01 for all subscales). Obese PCOS subjects had higher depression scores and rates than non-obese PCOS women (P < 0.05). Depression scores were significantly correlated with insulin resistance and lipid parameters and with the number of components comprising the metabolic syndrome. Menstrual and hirsutism problems were the most serious concerns followed by emotional problems on the HRQOL. CONCLUSIONS Depression and anxiety are more common in patients with PCOS compared with healthy women. Depression in PCOS might be associated with obesity and metabolic abnormalities including insulin resistance and dyslipidemia.
Vectorizing and querying large XML repositories

Vertical partitioning is a well-known technique for optimizing query performance in relational databases. An extreme form of this technique, which we call vectorization, is to store each column separately. We use a generalization of vectorization as the basis for a native XML store. The idea is to decompose an XML document into a set of vectors that contain the data values and a compressed skeleton that describes the structure. In order to query this representation and produce results in the same vectorized format, we consider a practical fragment of XQuery and introduce the notion of query graphs and a novel graph reduction algorithm that allows us to leverage relational optimization techniques as well as to reduce the unnecessary loading of data vectors and decompression of skeletons. A preliminary experimental study based on some scientific and synthetic XML data repositories in the order of gigabytes supports the claim that these techniques are scalable and have the potential to provide performance comparable with established relational database technology.
Pressure Based Routing Protocol for Underwater Wireless Sensor Network: A Survey

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) are similar to the terrestrial sensor networks. Nevertheless, there are different characteristics among them such as low battery power, limited bandwidth and high variable propagation delay. One of the common major problems in UWSNs is determining an efficient and reliable routing between the source node and the destination node. Therefore, researchers tend to design efficient protocols with consideration of the different characteristics of underwater communication. Furthermore, many routing protocols have been proposed and these protocols may be classified as location-based and location-free routing protocols. Pressure-based routing protocols are a subcategory of the location-free routing protocols. This paper focuses on reviewing the pressure-based routing protocols that may further be classified into non-void avoidance protocols and void avoidance protocols. Moreover, non-void avoidance protocols have been classified into single factor based and multi factor based routing protocols. Finally, this paper provides a comparison between these protocols based on their features, performance and simulation parameters and the paper concludes with some future works on which further study can be conducted.
Highly Credible Sources: Persuasive Facilitators or Persuasive Liabilities?

A low credibility source induced a more positive attitude toward his advocacy than did a highly credible source when message recipients' own behavior served as a cue for determining their attitudes. In contrast, when the behavioral cue was absent, a highly credible source did not have an adverse effect on individuals' attitudes or behavior. These findings are interpreted in terms of self-perception theory and cognitive response analysis.
Depression, coping and level of neurological impairment in multiple sclerosis

This study examined the relationship between coping and depression in multiple sclerosis patients, and how that relationship varies at different levels of physical impairment One-hundred and one patients with clinically definite MS were assessed using the Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), the Ways of Coping Inventory (WCI) with three sub-scales developed by Wineman et al,25 and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Depression was significantly higher at more advanced levels of neurologic impairment than at lower levels. Escape-Avoidance and Emotional Respite were positively related to level of depression. Planful Problem-Solving and Cognitive Reframing were negatively related to depression. An interaction between coping, depression, and level of neurologic impairment was observed in which Planful Problem-Solving and Cognitive Reframing were more strongly related to depression at higher levels of impairment The interaction effect for Escape-Avoidance and Emotional Respite with depression and level of impairment did not reach significance. It was concluded that there is a significant interaction between level of neurologic impairment, coping behaviors, and depression in patients with MS.
Recent advances and new trends in nanotechnology and 3D integration for semiconductor industry

“There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom” is the title of Richard Feynman's lecture on December 29th, 1959 to the American Physical Society at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and is generally considered to be the very first speech about nanotechnology. Some important milestones of nanotechnology will be briefly mentioned and the emphasis is placed on the applications and outlooks of nanotechnology in electronics. “Computing Machines in the Future” is the title of the Nishina Memorial Lecture at Gakushuin University in Tokyo given by the 1965 Nobel Physics Laureate, Richard Feynman on August 9th, 1985. During the lecture, Feynman not only told us to go for 3D integration, but also taught us how to do it! In this study, 3D integration will be the focus and the emphasis is placed on 3D IC integration and their recent advances and new trends. 3D Si integration will be briefly discussed.
A case for bilingual learners’ dictionaries

This article makes a case for bilingual learners’ dictionaries. These dictionaries are very different from traditional bilingual dictionaries, being attuned to the productive needs of learners who are speakers of a specific L1. Although they have been around for some time now, teachers of English remain largely unaware of their benefits (or, possibly, their existence), continuing to promote the one-size-fits-all monolingual English learners’ dictionaries (MELDs) as the best choice for their students. As practising lexicographers, we cannot fail to appreciate the excellence of the leading MELDs, but, as we try to show, there are important respects in which even the best monolingual dictionary cannot assist a foreign language learner. We also explain why bilingualized dictionaries (adaptations of MELDs) are not a viable alternative to custom-designed bilingual learners’ dictionaries when it comes to helping students speak or write in English. Our arguments are illustrated by sample entries taken from dictionaries for speakers of Japanese, Polish, and Portuguese learning English; some more examples of bilingual learners’ dictionaries for speakers of different languages are given in the Appendix.
The Benefits of Parent Intervention in Children's Disputes: An Examination of Concurrent Changes in Children's Fighting Styles

The impact of parental intervention on the quality of children's conflict behavior was examined using observational data from 40 English-speaking Canadian families with 2-and 4-year-old children. Children's behavior in the portions of fights that preceded their parents, interventions was compared to their behavior in fights in which there was no intervention. Also, children's behavior before parental intervention was contrasted with their behavior after intervention. It was found that parents intervened in the most intense fights between their children, fights in which the children displayed few de-escalating strategies. Parental intervention was associated with their children using fewer power strategies coupled with an increase in the use of more sophisticated negotiation moves. It was concluded that parental intervention in sibling conflict has beneficial effects in terms of the immediate quality of the children's fighting. Results were interpreted in light of contemporary models of socialization.
Effect of aging on the autoimmune response to rat male accessory glands: deficit of I‐E‐positive peritoneal cells capable of inducing suppression

The present report analyzes the ability to induce suppression to rat male accessory gland (RAG) autoantigens and the characteristics of T suppressor (Ts)‐inducer peritoneal cells (PC) in old rats which show increased autoimmune responses. The injection of young rats with a purified fraction (FI) of RAG 10 and 3 days prior to immunization with chemically modified RAG (MRAG) markedly reduced the immune response to RAG autoantigens when compared with young rats which had only been immunized (controls), while the pretreatment of old rats did not block the delayed‐type hypersensitivity reaction to MRAG when compared with control old rats.
A bifurcated hydrogen-bonded conformation in the d(A.T) base pairs of the DNA dodecamer d(CGCAAATTTGCG) and its complex with distamycin.

The crystal structures of d(CGCA3T3GCG) complex to the antitumor drug distamycin and the DNA fragment alone were solved by x-ray diffraction at 2.2 and 2.5 A resolution, respectively. The drug lies in the narrow minor groove near the center of the B-DNA fragment covering 5 of the 6 A.T base pairs. It is bound to the DNA by hydrogen bonding, van der Waals, and electrostatic interactions. In addition, the DNA was found to have an unusual conformation in the (dA)3. (dT)3 regions. These base pairs have a high positive propeller twist so that in the major groove the adenine amino group is located intermediate between the carbonyl O-4 groups of two adjacent thymines of the opposite strand, making bifurcated hydrogen bonds to the two thymine residues. This suggests a model to explain the unusual properties of poly-(dA). poly(dT) in which a modified B conformation is associated with a large propeller twist of the bases and a set of continuous bifurcating hydrogen bonds along the major groove, which may provide incremental stability to these segments. In addition, shorter segments of (dA)3-6. (dT)3-6 may have this conformation in the midst of B-DNA and stabilize bends in the DNA that may be associated with stacking on one of the high propeller-twisted bases at the ends of these segments.
Critical Behaviour in Concrete Structures and Damage Localization by Acoustic Emission

Extensive research and studies on concrete fracture and failure have shown that concrete should be viewed as a quasi-brittle material having a size-dependent behaviour. Numerous experimental techniques have been employed to evaluate fracture processes, and a number of modelling approaches have been developed to predict fracture behaviour. The non-destructive method based on the Acoustic Emission (AE) technique has proved highly effective, especially to check and measure the damage phenomena that take place inside a structure subjected to mechanical loading. In this paper an experimental investigation conducted on concrete and RC structures by means of the AE technique is described. The AE signals reflecting the release of energy taking place during the damage process were recorded and micro-cracking sources were localised by measuring time delays by means of spatially distributed AE sensors.
Robust matching of multi-modal retinal images using radon transform based local descriptor

Multi-Modal image registration is the primary step in fusing complementary information contained in different imaging modalities for diagnostic purposes. We focus on two specific retinal imaging modalities namely, Color Fundus Image(CFI) and Fluroscein Fundus Angiogram(FFA). In this paper we investigate a projection based method using Radon transform for accurate matching in multi-modal retinal images. A novel Radon Transform based descriptor is proposed, which is invariant to illumination, rotation and partially to scale. Our results show that our descriptor is well suited for retinal images as it is robust to lesions, and works well even in poor quality images. The descriptor has been tested on a dataset of 126 images and compared for matching application against gradient based descriptors. The results show that Radon based descriptor outperforms the gradient based ones in both being able to discriminate between true and false matches and under presence of lesions.
An Innovative Time-Cost-Quality Tradeoff Modeling of Building Construction Project Based on Resource Allocation

The time, quality, and cost are three important but contradictive objectives in a building construction project. It is a tough challenge for project managers to optimize them since they are different parameters. This paper presents a time-cost-quality optimization model that enables managers to optimize multiobjectives. The model is from the project breakdown structure method where task resources in a construction project are divided into a series of activities and further into construction labors, materials, equipment, and administration. The resources utilized in a construction activity would eventually determine its construction time, cost, and quality, and a complex time-cost-quality trade-off model is finally generated based on correlations between construction activities. A genetic algorithm tool is applied in the model to solve the comprehensive nonlinear time-cost-quality problems. Building of a three-storey house is an example to illustrate the implementation of the model, demonstrate its advantages in optimizing trade-off of construction time, cost, and quality, and help make a winning decision in construction practices. The computational time-cost-quality curves in visual graphics from the case study prove traditional cost-time assumptions reasonable and also prove this time-cost-quality trade-off model sophisticated.
Performance Evaluation of Multiple-Relay Cooperative ARQ Strategies for Mobile Networks

In Cooperative Automatic Repeat reQuest (C-ARQ) protocols, one or more nodes can act as relays, collaborating in the frame retransmission process between a sender and a destination node. In the framework of a broadband mobile access network, we consider a relay enhanced cell where the sender represents the base station, and an undefined number of relays can cooperate with a single user (destination). In this paper we present a Markov model complemented with a reward model to analyze the throughput performance and the efficiency in the bandwidth utilization at the base station, highlighting a clear tradeoff between them. Both performance metrics are balanced by means of a multi-objective optimization algorithm resulting in a retransmission strategy for the access node that notably improves the bandwidth efficiency while maintaining the throughput very close to its maximum. The benefits of the proposed approach are evaluated in two scenarios. In the first one, the relays are part of the network infrastructure. In the second one, the relays are cooperative users.
Motion camouflage in the presence of sensory noise and delay

In this work, we discuss the feasibility of motion camouflage in the two agent planar pursuit problem in which the pursuer implements a feedback strategy employing delayed sensory information subject to noise, whose variance is inversely proportional to the delay. This variance-delay modeling assumption is intended to capture the tradeoff between the speed of computation and accuracy of information available to the pursuer. However, in this paper, we limit ourselves to fixed variance and a range of delays.
Inter- and Intracellular Effects of Traumatic Axonal Injury

Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries (mTBIs) are non-penetrating brain injuries that do not result in gross pathological lesions, yet they may cause a spectrum of cognitive and behavioral deficits. mTBI has been placed in the spotlight because of increased awareness of blast induced and sports-related concussions, but the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms are poorly understood. Several studies have implicated neuronal membrane poration and ion channel dysfunction as the primary mechanism of injury. We hypothesized that injury forces utilize mechanically-sensitive, transmembrane integrin proteins, which are coupled to the neuronal cytoskeleton (CSK) and distribute injury forces within the intracellular space, disrupting CSK organization and reducing intercellular neuronal functionality. To test this, magnetic beads were coated with adhesive protein, allowing them to bind to integrins in the neuronal membrane in vitro. To apply forces to the neurons via the bound beads, we built custom magnetic tweezers and demonstrated that focal adhesions (FACs) formed at the site of bead binding. We showed that the beads were coupled to the CSK via integrins by measuring the disparate adhesion of the soma and neurite to their underlying substrate. The soma also required more force to detach than neurites, correlating with the FAC density between each
Transformation by Epstein-Barr virus requires DNA sequences in the region of BamHI fragments Y and H

Eight independent recombinant Epstein-Barr virus genomes, each of which was a transforming strain, were made by superinfecting cell lines containing Epstein-Barr virus DNA (Raji or B95-8 strain) with a nontransforming virus (P3HR1 strain). A knowledge of the constitution of each transforming recombinant allowed the localization of the defect in the genome of the nontransforming parent to a 12-megadalton sequence within the EcoRI A fragment. Within this region, the nontransforming virus has a deletion of the BamHI Y fragment and about half of the sequences in the adjacent BamHI H fragment. The present data suggest that this deletion is responsible for the nontransforming phenotype. Furthermore, mapping a deletion in one of the recombinant genomes allowed the conclusion that a sequence (comprising about 20% of the Epstein-Barr virus genome) from the center of BamHI-D to BamHI-I' is not necessary for the maintenance of transformation by Epstein-Barr virus.
Gravitational waves from hot young rapidly rotating neutron stars

Gravitational radiation drives an instability in the r-modes of young rapidly rotating neutron stars. This instability is expected to carry away most of the angular momentum of the star by gravitational radiation emission, leaving a star rotating at about 100 Hz. In this paper we model in a simple way the development of the instability and evolution of the neutron star during the year-long spindown phase. This allows us to predict the general features of the resulting gravitational waveform. We show that a neutron star formed in the Virgo cluster could be detected by the LIGO and VIRGO gravitational wave detectors when they reach their “enhanced” level of sensitivity, with an amplitude signal-to-noise ratio that could be as large as about 8 if near-optimal data analysis techniques are developed. We also analyze the stochastic background of gravitational waves produced by the r-mode radiation from neutron-star formation throughout the universe. Assuming a substantial fraction of neutron stars are born with spin frequencies near their maximum values, this stochastic background is shown to have an energy density of about 10^(−9) of the cosmological closure density, in the range 20 Hz to 1 kHz. This radiation should be detectable by “advanced” LIGO as well.
A Partially Augmented Lagrangian Method for Low Order ${\rm H}$-Infinity Controller Synthesis Using Rational Constraints

This technical note proposes a method for low order H-infinity synthesis where the constraint on the order of the controller is formulated as a rational equation. The resulting nonconvex optimization problem is then solved by applying a partially augmented Lagrangian method. The proposed method is evaluated together with two well-known methods from the literature. The results indicate that the proposed method has comparable performance and speed.