Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Survey of Current Network Intrusion Detection Techniques

The importance of network security has grown tremendously and a number of devices have been introduced to improve the security of a network. Network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) are among the most widely deployed such system. Popular NIDS use a collection of signatures of known security threats and viruses, which are used to scan each packet's payload. Signature based designs have low false positive rates, and they are effective and accurate in combating against the known security threats. However, they remain completely ineffective against those attacks that are yet unknown; these can be combated only after they are detected manually and a signature is created for them. Since new threats are potentially more lethal, a number of pro-active designs have been proposed, which can detect new security events such as propagation of a new and unknown virus or worm. Such systems accomplish this by creating a profile of normal Internet traffic, and then using this profile to continuously monitor the network activity for suspicious activity. As the system senses an anomaly, or a dramatic change in traffic characteristics, it takes certain actions such as raising an alarm or discarding certain traffic. In this Survey paper, we will evaluate a number of current NIDS systems and the algorithms they employ to detect and combat security threats, both from technical and economical perspective.
Asymmetric Price Adjustment:Micro-foundations and Macroeconomic Implications

We present a simple menu cost model which explains the finding that firms are more likely to adjust prices upward than downward. Asymmetric adjustment to shocks arises naturally, even without trend inflation, from the desire of firms to keep industry prices as high as is sustainable and the non-convexity due to menu costs. It implies that aggregate demand shocks have asymmetric effects- negative shocks are reduce output, whereas positive shocks are inflationary. We examine the implications of asymmetric adjustment for equilibrium output and the optimal inflation rate.
Exploring “Bay” in Search of New Dimensions for Accounting Theory and Standards

The accounting standards prepared and issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) are specifically meant for Islamic financial Institutions and hence limited in application. Moreover, in most of the cases the Islamic financial institutions have not adopted these standards and their accounts are still being prepared and reported under IFRS or GAAP or National or a mix of these standards. Under the circumstances there is a need of a complete set of standards based on Islamic teachings which can replace the conventional accounting standards in the Islamic world. The subject matter of "bay" is very vast. The “Hadith” on “bay ” mainly deals with the valuation aspect of business transactions. The topics covered under "bay" can be classified according to the nature of the transaction. Each topic can be converted into a separate accounting standard. In this respect the Islamic principles of "Amanah" (Custody) (Amer, 2007), "Shahadat" (Testimony) (Amer, 2007) settlement in "Bay" (business deal), “ Shura" (Counseling) (Amer, 2010) and “Adal & Ihsan ” (Amer, 2013) can provide a solid theoretical foundation. Moreover, by default, such Islamic concepts are integrated parts of concept of “bay”. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept for a new set of accounting standards. Key Words A new Accounting Theory, A new set of accounting Standards, Islamic teachings, “ Bay” ,
Interfacing ambient intelligence

This paper describes an interface for disembodied, locationspecific conversational agents (DELCA) called ‘Ghosts’. The design includes conversation dialogue and a novel, non-intrusive minimal dynamic visualization. The paper presents two discrete visualizations Ghost Wake and Animated Ghost Icons (AGI), which make use of the temporal dimension to increase spatial resolution. The paper argues that design for ambient intelligence must strive for a balance between visibility and nonintrusiveness.
Upregulation of UCP2 by Adiponectin: The Involvement of Mitochondrial Superoxide and hnRNP K

Background The adipocyte-derived hormone adiponectin elicits protective functions against fatty liver diseases and hepatic injuries at least in part by stimulating the expression of a mitochondrial inner membrane transporter, uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2). The present study was designed to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying adiponectin-induced UCP2 expression. Methodology/Principal Findnigs Mice were treated with adiponectin and/or different drug inhibitors. Parenchymal (PCs) and nonparenchymal (NPCs) cells were fractionated from the liver tissues for mitochondria isolation, Western blotting and quantitative PCR analysis. Mitochondrial superoxide production was monitored by MitoSOX staining and flow cytometry analysis. Compared to control mice, the expression of UCP2 was significantly lower in NPCs, but not PCs of adiponectin knockout mice (AKO). Both chronic and acute treatment with adiponectin selectively increased the mRNA and protein abundance of UCP2 in NPCs, especially in the enriched endothelial cell fractions. The transcription inhibitor actinomycin D could not block adiponectin-induced UCP2 expression, whereas the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide inhibited the elevation of UCP2 protein but not its mRNA levels. Mitochondrial content of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K), a nucleic acid binding protein involved in regulating mRNA transportation and stabilization, was significantly enhanced by adiponectin, which also evoked a transient elevation of mitochondrial superoxide. Rotenone, an inhibitor of mitochondrial respiratory complex I, abolished adiponectin-induced superoxide production, hnRNP K recruitment and UCP2 expression. Conclusions/Significance Mitochondrial superoxide production stimulated by adiponectin serves as a trigger to initiate the translocation of hnRNP K, which in turn promotes UCP2 expressions in liver.
Parent conflict predicts infants' vagal regulation in social interaction

Abstract Parent conflict during infancy may affect rapidly developing physiological regulation. To examine the association between parent conflict and infants' vagal tone functioning, mothers (N = 48) reported levels of parent conflict and their 6-month-old male and female infants' respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was measured in the still-face paradigm. Higher parent conflict was related to lower RSA at baseline and each episode of the still-face paradigm. Infants in relatively higher conflict families showed attenuated RSA withdrawal in response to mothers' disengagement and attenuated RSA activation when interacting with mothers. Findings suggest atypical RSA regulation and reliance on self-regulation for infants in families with moderate levels of parent conflict. Implications for later development and future research are discussed.
MicroRNA-Mediated Myostatin Silencing in Caprine Fetal Fibroblasts

Myostatin functions as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth by suppressing proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts. Dysfunction of the myostatin gene, either due to natural mutation or genetic manipulations such as knockout or knockdown, has been reported to increase muscle mass in mammalian species. RNA interference (RNAi) mediated by microRNAs (miRNAs) is a promising method for gene knockdown studies. In the present study, transient and stable silencing of the myostatin gene in caprine fetal fibroblasts (CFF) was evaluated using the two most effective constructs selected from four different miRNA expression constructs screened in 293FT cells. Using these two miRNA constructs, we achieved up to 84% silencing of myostatin mRNA in transiently transfected CFF cells and up to 31% silencing in stably transfected CFF cells. Moreover, off-target effects due to induction of interferon (IFN) response genes, such as interferon beta (IFN-β) and 2′-5′-oligoadenylate synthetase 2 (OAS2), were markedly fewer in stably transfected CFF cells than in transiently transfected cells. Stable expression of anti-myostatin miRNA with minimal induction of interferon shows great promise for increasing muscle mass in transgenic goats.
A Bayesian Technique for Estimating the Credibility of question Answerers

We address the problem of ranking question answerers according to their credibility, characterized here by the probability that a given question answerer (user) will be awarded a best answer on a question given the answerer’s question-answering history. This probability (represented by θ ) is considered to be a hidden variable that can only be estimated statistically from specific observations associated with the user, namely the number b of best answers awarded, associated with the number n of questions answered. The more specific problem addressed is the potentially high degree of uncertainty associated with such credibility estimates when they are based on small numbers of answers. We address this problem by a kind of Bayesian smoothing. The credibility estimate will consist of a mixture of the overall population statistics and those of the specific user. The greater the number of questions asked, the greater will be the contribution of the specific user statistics relative to those of the overall population. We use the Predictive Stochastic Complexity (PSC) as an accuracy measure to evaluate several methods that can be used for the estimation. We compare our technique (Bayesian Smoothing (BS)) with maximum a priori (MAP) estimation, maximum likelihood (ML) estimation and Laplace smoothing.
FlowFall: A Service Chaining Architecture with Commodity Technologies

Service chaining is an emerging architecture from the trend of Software Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualization. This architecture is expected to improve network flexibility and reduce equipment and operational costs. However, recent approaches for service chaining require new networking technologies that need to be standardized, implemented and developed. In this paper, we present and demonstrate a scalable and deployable service chaining architecture, called FlowFall. FlowFall does not require any novel technologies, only requires OpenFlow and current Virtual Machines as Virtual Network Function. Moreover, we focus on the NFV backbone network and how to achieve scale-out its performance. We describe the approach of FlowFall and an evaluation in which our method achieves 10-gigabit wire-rate throughput with 128-byte packets on a single Hyper Visor and scale-out performance among multiple Hyper Visors. Finally, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept of FlowFall in an actual service network at Interop Tokyo 2015 ShowNet.
A Prospective, Placebo‐Controlled Pilot Evaluation of the Effect of Omeprazole on Serum Calcium, Magnesium, Cobalamin, Gastrin Concentrations, and Bone in Cats

Background Chronic proton pump inhibitor administration has been associated with electrolyte and cobalamin deficiency, disrupted bone homeostasis, hypergastrinemia, and rebound acid hypersecretion in humans. It is unknown if this occurs in cats. Objectives Prolonged oral omeprazole results in altered bone mineral density or content, serum calcium, magnesium, cobalamin, and gastrin concentrations in healthy cats. Animals Six healthy adult DSH cats. Methods In a within subjects, before and after design, cats received placebo followed by omeprazole (0.83–1.6 mg/kg PO q12h) for 60 days each. Analysis of serum calcium, magnesium, cobalamin, and gastrin concentrations was performed on days 0, 30, and 60. Bone density and content were evaluated on days 0 and 60 of each intervention. Continuous data were analyzed using a two‐way ANOVA (α = 0.006). On day 60 of omeprazole administration, continuous intragastric pH monitoring was performed in 2 cats to evaluate the effects of abrupt withdrawal of omeprazole. Results No significant changes were detected between treatments for any variables, except serum gastrin, which was significantly higher during omeprazole treatment in comparison to placebo (P = 0.002). Evidence of gastric hyperacidity was seen in both cats in which intragastric pH monitoring was performed following cessation of omeprazole. Conclusions and Clinical Importance Although further studies with larger populations of cats will be needed to draw any definitive conclusions, these preliminary results suggest that prolonged PPI treatment results in hypergastrinemia and abrupt PPI withdrawal might result in RAH in cats.
Values Leadership: Toward a New Philosophy of Leadership

Preface The Importance of Leadership in Present and Future Organizations Introduction Leadership for the Twenty-First Century: Changing Tasks, Roles, and Values Overview of Current and Past Leadership Theories Leadership and Management Distinguished Elaboration of the Values Model The New-Age Values Leadership Theory Elements of the New-Age Values Leadership Theory Helps and Hindrances in Using Values Leadership Methods The Values Principles Undergirding Values Leadership Defining Values Leadership: The Principle of Stakeholder Development Visioning Culture Setting Values Leadership Technologies Values Leadership Technologies: Teaching Stakeholders Results Sought by Values Leadership: High Performance and Self-led Followers Appendixes: The Survey of Virginia Managers Bibliography Index
Detecting discontinuities for surface reconstruction

Photometric stereo algorithms produce a map of normal directions from the input images. The 3D surface can be reconstructed from this normal map. Existing surface reconstruction works often assume the normal map is integrable but contaminated by small scale non-integrable noise. However, real surfaces often contain large discontinuities such as occlusion boundaries and sharp depth changes, which break the integrable assumption commonly made in many works. Here, we propose a method to detect these discontinuities by combining multiple geometric cues with trained classifiers and a simple graph optimization. The surface is then reconstructed with the guidance of these detected discontinuities. Experiments show our method outperforms existing works.
Association analysis of genetic and environmental risk factors in the cuticular drusen subtype of age-related macular degeneration

Purpose To assess the association of gender, cigarette smoking, body-mass index, and nine genetic risk variants with cuticular drusen (CD), a well recognized subtype of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods A total of 757 patients with AMD, including 217 patients with CD, and 553 control individuals were interviewed with a questionnaire and underwent an ophthalmic examination. Venous blood samples were obtained for genomic DNA extraction, and genotyping was performed of single nucleotide polymorphisms previously associated with AMD. Odds ratios were calculated for patients with CD, using unaffected control individuals as a reference. Furthermore, odds ratios in patients with CD were compared to those in patients with “non-CD” AMD. Results The CD subtype of AMD was significantly associated with current smoking as well as variants in the complement factor H (CFH), age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 (ARMS2), complement factor B/complement component 2 (CFB/C2), complement component 3 (C3), and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genes. In patients with CD, the association with the CFH Y402H risk allele was significantly higher (p=0.022), whereas the association with current smoking was significantly lower (p<0.001) than in the heterogeneous group of patients with “non-CD” AMD. Conclusions The AMD subtype of CD was associated with previously identified genetic AMD risk factors. However, the association with the CFH Y402H risk allele appeared to be stronger, whereas the association with smoking was less pronounced when compared to AMD as a whole. This study suggests a more important role for genetic factors than environmental factors in the development of this well defined subtype of AMD. These findings stress the importance of detailed phenotyping in AMD to identify homogeneous AMD subtypes, which may be associated with different risk factors and disease mechanisms. Such studies will improve the accuracy of predictive models and the effectiveness of preventive and therapeutic options in AMD.
The US â€œUnderclassâ€ in a Booming Economy

The main failure in the US economy in the 1980s through the mid 1990s was its inability to distribute the gains of economic growth to the bulk of the population. The traditional â€œrising tide lifts all boatsâ€ link between economic growth and poverty seemed broken, creating a large seemingly permanent underclass. To the surprise of many, however, the late 1990s boom has substantially improved the well-being of the disadvantaged and reduced underclass behaviour. Full employment has been a successful anti-poverty policy. But the US is taking a huge risk in placing all of its social policy eggs in the single employment basket. When there are no nuts squirrelled away for winter, one can only hope that the good times will keep rolling.
Neuromythologies in education

Background: Many popular educational programmes claim to be ‘brain-based’, despite pleas from the neuroscience community that these neuromyths do not have a basis in scientific evidence about the brain. Purpose: The main aim of this paper is to examine several of the most popular neuromyths in the light of the relevant neuroscientific and educational evidence. Examples of neuromyths include: 10% brain usage, left- and right-brained thinking, VAK learning styles and multiple intelligences Sources of evidence: The basis for the argument put forward includes a literature review of relevant cognitive neuroscientific studies, often involving neuroimaging, together with several comprehensive education reviews of the brain-based approaches under scrutiny. Main argument: The main elements of the argument are as follows. We use most of our brains most of the time, not some restricted 10% brain usage. This is because our brains are densely interconnected, and we exploit this interconnectivity to enable our primitively evolved primate brains to live in our complex modern human world. Although brain imaging delineates areas of higher (and lower) activation in response to particular tasks, thinking involves coordinated interconnectivity from both sides of the brain, not separate left- and right-brained thinking. High intelligence requires higher levels of inter-hemispheric and other connected activity. The brain's interconnectivity includes the senses, especially vision and hearing. We do not learn by one sense alone, hence VAK learning styles do not reflect how our brains actually learn, nor the individual differences we observe in classrooms. Neuroimaging studies do not support multiple intelligences; in fact, the opposite is true. Through the activity of its frontal cortices, among other areas, the human brain seems to operate with general intelligence, applied to multiple areas of endeavour. Studies of educational effectiveness of applying any of these ideas in the classroom have failed to find any educational benefits. Conclusions: The main conclusions arising from the argument are that teachers should seek independent scientific validation before adopting brain-based products in their classrooms. A more sceptical approach to educational panaceas could contribute to an enhanced professionalism of the field.
Author ' s personal copy Precise position control of shape memory alloy actuator using inverse hysteresis model and model reference adaptive control system

Position control of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators has been a challenging topic during the last years due to their nonlinearities in the governing physical equations as well as their hysteresis behaviors. Using the inverse of phenomenological hysteresis model in order to compensate the input–output hysteresis behavior of these actuators shows the effectiveness of this approach. In this paper, in order to control the tip deflection of a large deformation flexible beam actuated by an SMA actuator wire, a feedforward–feedback controller is proposed. The feedforward part of the proposed control system, maps the beam deflection into SMA temperature, is based on the inverse of the generalized Prandtl–Ishlinskii model. An adaptive model reference temperature control system is cascaded to the inverse hysteresis model in order to estimate the SMA electrical current for tracking the reference signal. In addition, a closed-loop proportional–integral controller with position feedback is added to the feedforward controller to increase the accuracy as well as eliminate the steady state error in position control process. Experimental results indicate that the proposed controller has great accuracy in tracking some square wave signals. It is also experimentally shown that the suggested controller has precise tracking performance in presence of environmental disturbances. Crown Copyright 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Automated bug tracking: the promise and the pitfalls

Bug tacking systems give developers a unique and clear view into user's everyday product experiences. Adding some statistical analysis and software teams can efficiently improve product quality. It's hard to tell precisely how well the error reporting system working, but this seems to be a bug weapon that has landed a permanent spot in microsoft's arsenal. Automated bug tracking, combined with statistical reporting, plays a key role for developers at the Mozilla Foundations, best known for its open source Web browser and email software. The sparse, random sampling approach produces enough data for the team to do what it call "statistical debugging"-bug detection through statistical analysis.
The Effects of Aromatic Anesthetics on Dorsal Horn Neuronal Responses to Noxious Stimulation

BACKGROUND:Gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor potentiation and/or N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor inhibition might explain the anesthetic properties of fluorinated aromatic compounds. We hypothesized that depression of dorsal horn neuronal responses to noxious stimulation would correlate with the magnitude of effect of benzene (BNZ), o-difluorobenzene, and hexafluorobenzene (HFB) on NMDA receptors. METHODS:Rats were anesthetized with desflurane. A T13-L1 laminectomy allowed extracellular recording of neuronal activity from the lumbar spinal cord. After discontinuing desflurane administration, MAC for each aromatic anesthetic was determined. A 5-s noxious mechanical stimulus was then applied to the hindpaw receptive field of nociceptive dorsal horn neurons, and single-neuron responses were recorded at 0.8 and 1.2 MAC. These responses were also recorded in decerebrate rats receiving BNZ and HFB at 0–1.2 MAC. RESULTS:In intact rats, depression of responses of dorsal horn neurons to noxious stimulation by peri-MAC increases in BZN, o-difluorobenzene, and HFB correlated directly with their in vitro capacity to block NMDA receptors. In decerebrate rats, 1.2 MAC BNZ depressed nociceptive responses by 60%, with a further percentage decrease continuing from 0.8 to 1.2 MAC approximately equal to that found in intact rats. In decerebrate rats, HFB caused a progressive dose-related decrease in MAC (maximum 25%), but in intact rats, an increase from 0.8 to 1.2 neuronal response caused an (insignificant) increase in neuronal response. CONCLUSIONS:The findings in intact rats suggest that NMDA blockade contributes to the depression of dorsal horn neurons to nociceptive stimulation by fluorinated aromatic anesthetics. These results, combined with the additional findings in decerebrate rats, suggest that supraspinal effects (perhaps on γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptors) may have a supraspinal facilitatory effect on nociception for HFB.