Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection techniques for data-level spoofing in GPS-based phasor measurement units

To face the ever growing demand of electricity, the smart power grid, which includes a variety of operational and energy measures, aims at providing safe and reliable power supply, effective use of renewable energy, and better efficiency of the overall power grid. Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are important components of the smart grid Wide Area Measurement Systems (WAMS). A PMU is a transducer that converts the three-phase analog voltage or current signals into synchronized phasor measurements, known as synchrophasors. Typically, PMUs utilize Global Positioning System (GPS) reference source to provide the required synchronization across the wide geographical areas. On the other hand, civil GPS receivers are vulnerable to a number of different attacks such as jamming and spoofing, which can lead to inaccurate PMU measurements and consequently compromise the state estimation in the electric power grid. In this paper, we propose two countermeasures against GPS spoofing attacks in PMUs. In particular, we utilize the fact that in GPS-based PMUs, unlike most of the GPS applications, the position of the PMU receivers are already fixed and known. Our first technique employs an algorithm that accurately predicts the number of theoretically visible GPS satellites from a given position on earth; if the GPS receiver detects satellites which should not be visible at the time, this signifies a spoofing attempt. The second technique is an anomaly-based detection method which assumes that the malicious errors in GPS time solution are unlikely to be consistent with the expected statistics of the typical receiver clock. The effectiveness of the proposed techniques are confirmed by simulations.
Smoke and mirrors and performance management: Democracy, accountability and community engagement, as a hidden agenda emerges?

Purpose – This paper aims to initiate debate about the tension between ideologies being played out in local government, as illustrated by the case of the empowerment agenda.Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers a range of evidence from: academic research; government documents; personal perspectives from the author's experience as an elected member in local government; and semi‐structured interviews with a number of senior managers in local authorities in England.Findings – The paper suggests that the development of performance management frameworks for community engagement has been a means to shift the agenda away from democratic representation to a governance agenda around empowerment. This now includes giving a role to the voluntary sector both as the voice of the people and as providers of public services. It is argued that this illustrates a tension between ideologies at work behind the facade of performance management in local government.Research limitations/implications – The paper can o.
A Plasmodium Phospholipase Is Involved in Disruption of the Liver Stage Parasitophorous Vacuole Membrane

The coordinated exit of intracellular pathogens from host cells is a process critical to the success and spread of an infection. While phospholipases have been shown to play important roles in bacteria host cell egress and virulence, their role in the release of intracellular eukaryotic parasites is largely unknown. We examined a malaria parasite protein with phospholipase activity and found it to be involved in hepatocyte egress. In hepatocytes, Plasmodium parasites are surrounded by a parasitophorous vacuole membrane (PVM), which must be disrupted before parasites are released into the blood. However, on a molecular basis, little is known about how the PVM is ruptured. We show that Plasmodium berghei phospholipase, PbPL, localizes to the PVM in infected hepatocytes. We provide evidence that parasites lacking PbPL undergo completely normal liver stage development until merozoites are produced but have a defect in egress from host hepatocytes. To investigate this further, we established a live-cell imaging-based assay, which enabled us to study the temporal dynamics of PVM rupture on a quantitative basis. Using this assay we could show that PbPL-deficient parasites exhibit impaired PVM rupture, resulting in delayed parasite egress. A wild-type phenotype could be re-established by gene complementation, demonstrating the specificity of the PbPL deletion phenotype. In conclusion, we have identified for the first time a Plasmodium phospholipase that is important for PVM rupture and in turn for parasite exit from the infected hepatocyte and therefore established a key role of a parasite phospholipase in egress.
Vegetation dynamics and their response to hydroclimatic factors in the Tarim River Basin, China

Vegetation dynamics are very sensitive to climate change, especially in arid and semiarid regions. The Tarim River Basin, the largest and the most arid basin in northwest China, is a typically closed, independent, and self‐balanced hydrological system. In this study, the Mann–Kendall trend test, partial correlation analysis, and gray relation analysis were used to investigate the vegetation dynamics and their response to hydroclimatic change in the Tarim River Basin from 1982 to 2006. The results indicated that vegetation vigour and coverage in the majority of the study area improved over the study period. However, vulnerable ecological regions including the margin of oases, the southeast of the Kunlun Mountains, and riparian zones were stressed by water shortage. Vegetation in these vulnerable zones tended to experience a decreasing trend, and water diversion was necessary to protect the important vulnerable ecological regions. The results of partial correlation analysis in space indicated that vegetation variation had a significantly positive correlation with mean annual temperature overall and a significantly positive correlation with local precipitation in most of the mountain regions. The results of gray relation analysis demonstrated that temperature was the main stress factor for mountain vegetation and runoff for oasis vegetation. Under the direct and indirect effects of temperature rise over the study period, vegetation vigour and coverage area have been improved because of more favourable hydroclimatic conditions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Affecting Positive Change: Race, Education, and Young People

Race relations in the United States are not improving as quickly as Civil Rights Activists of the 1960s and after had hoped. Within the schools is where the most impacting improvements can be made-and it starts with racial identity formation and development. How a child views herself in the society she lives in vastly affects how she treats both those similar to and different from her. This development of the racial identity is a crucial part of a child's learning processes, her social interaction, and adaptability to a sometimes harsh society. If positive steps can be made during the adolescent stages of growth to ensure improvement in race relations, our society will benefit from those gains. Through study of psychological and sociological theories concerning identity formation, this thesis strives to explain the delicateness and therefore importance of full, healthy realization of who people are in their society. Also discussed are general solutions to current problems-the answer to "How do we create a learning environment for children conducive to positive identity formation? H Next, a case analysis is performed on the school system of Knox County, Tennessee, to show where the community stands as far as racial equality and opportunities Affecting Positive Change 3 since desegregation. Finally, possible solutions are offered that could ease Knoxville's painful racial situation. Affecting Positive Change 4 Table of
Impersonate Affecting Users' Attitude toward Facebook in Egypt

Social networking sites such as Facebook have mushroomed very rapidly. Anyone with an email address can make an account as long as he accepts the terms and conditions of the website regarding privacy. There are several pages of celebrities, public figures and famous personalities being tricked by hackers on the Web. The real problem arises when a subscriber follows the wrong page taking it as real. This study has been done to share the opinions from Facebook account holders. It intends to impart awareness regarding the phenomenon "Impersonation" on Facebook, which means the imposter sending a bad message from another account which made as a real account. This study has been conducted to assess the impersonation on Facebook in the Egyptian context. This study prove, impersonate has a negative impact in the Egyptian society from a sample of 210 respondents by quantitative research. The study shows people has a higher education level, is greater than awareness about the existence of impersonation.
Application of Grover's Quantum Search Algorithm to Solve the Transcendental Logarithm Problem

Transcendental logarithm problem is a new problem which can be used to build signature schemes. Although no polynomial time algorithm or sub-exponential time algorithm has been found to solve this problem, whether it is still an intractable problem with quantum computers is a question. In this paper, we solve the transcendental logarithm problem with improved Grover's quantum search algorithm. In allusion to some characteristics of the transcendental logarithm problem, the average number of the Grover iterations can be reduced to lower the time complexity. The algorithm calls the oracle operator fewer times than before. According to our theoretic analysis and simulation data, cryptosystems based on transcendental logarithm problem can be improved through increasing the length of the key or modifying the original problem by adding suitable parameters to lower the number of solutions.
Litter type affects the activity of aerobic decomposers in a boreal peatland more than site nutrient and water table regimes

Abstract. Peatlands are carbon (C) storage ecosystems sustained by a high water table (WT). High WT creates anoxic conditions that suppress the activity of aerobic decomposers and provide conditions for peat accumulation. Peatland function can be dramatically affected by WT drawdown caused by climate and/or land-use change. Aerobic decomposers are directly affected by WT drawdown through environmental factors such as increased oxygenation and nutrient availability. Additionally, they are indirectly affected via changes in plant community composition and litter quality. We studied the relative importance of direct and indirect effects of WT drawdown on aerobic decomposer activity in plant litter at two stages of decomposition (incubated in the field for 1 or 2 years). We did this by profiling 11 extracellular enzymes involved in the mineralization of organic C, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sulphur. Our study sites represented a three-stage chronosequence from pristine to short-term (years) and long-term (decades) WT drawdown conditions under two nutrient regimes (bog and fen). The litter types included reflected the prevalent vegetation: Sphagnum mosses, graminoids, shrubs and trees. Litter type was the main factor shaping microbial activity patterns and explained about 30 % of the variation in enzyme activities and activity allocation. Overall, enzyme activities were higher in vascular plant litters compared to Sphagnum litters, and the allocation of enzyme activities towards C or nutrient acquisition was related to the initial litter quality (chemical composition). Direct effects of WT regime, site nutrient regime and litter decomposition stage (length of incubation period) summed to only about 40 % of the litter type effect. WT regime alone explained about 5 % of the variation in enzyme activities and activity allocation. Generally, enzyme activity increased following the long-term WT drawdown and the activity allocation turned from P and N acquisition towards C acquisition. This caused an increase in the rate of litter decomposition. The effects of the short-term WT drawdown were minor compared to those of the long-term WT drawdown: e.g., the increase in the activity of C-acquiring enzymes was up to 120 % (bog) or 320 % (fen) higher after the long-term WT drawdown compared to the short-term WT drawdown. In general, the patterns of microbial activity as well as their responses to WT drawdown depended on peatland type: e.g., the shift in activity allocation to C-acquisition was up to 100 % stronger at the fen compared to the bog. Our results imply that changes in plant community composition in response to persistent WT drawdown will strongly affect the C dynamics of peatlands. The predictions of decomposer activity under changing climate and/or land-use thus cannot be based on the direct effects of the changed environment only, but need to consider the indirect effects of environmental changes: the changes in plant community composition, their dependence on peatland type, and their time scale.
Distribution of the most Common Genetic Variants Associated with a Variable Drug Response in the Population of the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract Genetic variation in the regulation, expression and activity of genes coding for Phase I, Phase II drug metabolizing enzymes (DMEs) and drug targets, can be defining factors for the variability in both the effectiveness and occurrence of drug therapy side effects. Information regarding the geographic structure and multi-ethnic distribution of clinically relevant genetic variations is becoming increasingly useful for improving drug therapy and explaining inter-individual and inter-ethnic differences in drug response. This study summarizes our current knowledge about the frequency distribution of the most common allelic variants in three broad gene categories: the Phase I oxidation-cytochrome P450 (CYP450) family (CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP3A5, CYP2D6); the Phase II conjugation (GSTT1, SULT1A1; UGT1A1) and drug target (TYMS-TSER, MTHFR and VKORC1) in the population of the Republic of Macedonia and compares the information obtained with data published for other indigenous European populations. Our findings define the population of the Republic of Macedonia as an ethnic group with a highly polymorphic genetic profile. These results add to the evidence regarding the distribution of clinically important variant alleles in DME and drug target genes in populations of European ancestry.
Active Contour Model (Snake) for Wood Cell Contour Extraction

In the view of the situation that certain quantities of cells adhere, overlap and gather when the outline edge of cells is extracted during the research on forming characteristic of wood cells, this paper puts forward the improved two-step inflation model of snake with which outline of cells is extracted. At the same time, the greedy optimized algorithm is applied to reduce the running time of the procedure. This method finishes the segmentation to the cell cavity of wood at first step, and then to the cell wall of the wood, which enhances the effect of the exterior strength and the precision of capturing the cell outline, and also helps to reduce the impact on the possibility of trapping in the local minimum point of the object energy function
Big bacteria.

A small number of prokaryotic species have a unique physiology or ecology related to their development of unusually large size. The biomass of bacteria varies over more than 10 orders of magnitude, from the 0.2 microm wide nanobacteria to the largest cells of the colorless sulfur bacteria, Thiomargarita namibiensis, with a diameter of 750 microm. All bacteria, including those that swim around in the environment, obtain their food molecules by molecular diffusion. Only the fastest and largest swimmers known, Thiovulum majus, are able to significantly increase their food supply by motility and by actively creating an advective flow through the entire population. Diffusion limitation generally restricts the maximal size of prokaryotic cells and provides a selective advantage for microm-sized cells at the normally low substrate concentrations in the environment. The largest heterotrophic bacteria, the 80 x 600 microm large Epulopiscium sp. from the gut of tropical fish, are presumably living in a very nutrient-rich medium. Many large bacteria contain numerous inclusions in the cells that reduce the volume of active cytoplasm. The most striking examples of competitive advantage from large cell size are found among the colorless sulfur bacteria that oxidize hydrogen sulfide to sulfate with oxygen or nitrate. The several-cm-long filamentous species can penetrate up through the ca 500-microm-thick diffusive boundary layer and may thereby reach into water containing their electron acceptor, oxygen or nitrate. By their ability to store vast quantities of both nitrate and elemental sulfur in the cells, these bacteria have become independent of the coexistence of their substrates. In fact, a close relative, T. namibiensis, can probably respire in the sulfidic mud for several months before again filling up their large vacuoles with nitrate.
Menu Auctions with Non-Transferable Utilities and Budget Constraints

This paper extends Bernheim and Whinston's (1986) menu auction model under transferable utilities to a framework with non-transferable utilities and budget constraints. Under appropriate definitions of equilibria, it is shown that every truthful Nash equilibrium (TNE) is a coalition-proof Nash equilibrium (CPNE) and that the set of TNE payoffs and the set of CPNE payoffs are equivalent, as in a transferable utility framework. The existence of a CPNE is assured in contrast with the possible non-existence of Nash equilibrium under the definition by Dixit, Grossman, and Helpman (1997). Moreover, the set of CPNE payoffs is equivalent to the bidder-optimal weak core.
The Virtual Mitten: A novel interaction paradigm for visuo-haptic manipulation of objects using grip force

In this paper, we propose a novel visuo-haptic interaction paradigm called the “Virtual Mitten” for simulating the 3D manipulation of objects. Our approach introduces an elastic handheld device that provides a passive haptic feedback through the fingers and a mitten interaction metaphor that enables to grasp and manipulate objects. The grasping performed by the mitten is directly correlated with the grip force applied on the elastic device and a supplementary pseudo-haptic feedback modulates the visual feedback of the interaction in order to simulate different haptic perceptions. The Virtual Mitten allows natural interaction and grants users with an extended freedom of movement compared with rigid devices with limited workspaces. Our approach has been evaluated within two experiments focusing both on subjective appreciation and perception. Our results show that participants were able to well perceive different levels of effort during basic manipulation tasks thanks to our pseudo-haptic approach. They could also rapidly appreciate how to achieve different actions with the Virtual Mitten such as opening a drawer or pulling a lever. Taken together, our results suggest that our novel interaction paradigm could be used in a wide range of applications involving one or two-hand haptic manipulation such as virtual prototyping, virtual training or video games.
Mechanisms of Dexamethasone-Induced Hypertension

Hypertension is a well-recognized complication of excess glucocorticoids, both naturally-occurring and synthetic. Dexamethasone is a potent synthetic glucocorticoid, which has widespread clinical applications. As dexamethasone has purely glucocorticoid activity with negligible mineralocorticoid effects, dexamethasone-induced hypertension (DEXHT) models have been used for studying the mechanisms of glucocorticoid-induced hypertension. This review examines the characteristics and mechanisms of DEX-HT, both in the human and experimental animal models. The roles of hemodynamics, volume, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, sympathetic nervous system, vasodilators including nitric oxide, vasoconstrictors and reactive oxygen species in the pathogenesis of DEX-HT are reviewed and differences from hypertension due to naturally occurring steroids discussed.
Local Exponential Maps: Towards Massively Distributed Multi-robot Mapping

We present a novel paradigm for massively distributed, large-scale multi-robot mapping. Our goal is to explore techniques that can support continuous mapping over an indefinite amount of time. We argue that to scale to city or even global scales the concept of a single globally consistent map has to be abandoned, and present an infrastructure-supported solution where most of the inference and map-maintenance is done on local “map-servers”, rather than on the robot itself. The main technical contribution in the paper is a factor-graphbased scheme for making this possible, and a novel local map representation, local exponential maps, that enable indefinite map updates while remaining self-consistent over time. We present initial experimental results both in simulation and using real data, although a full-scale deployment and evaluation of the technique is left for future work.
Microarray Data Clustering Using Particle Swarm Optimization K-means Algorithm

Gene expression data clustering provides a powerful tool for studying the interrelation between various genes. In this paper we present a K-means clustering algorithm based upon particle swarm optimization (PSO K-means) for microarray data clustering. This algorithm discovers clusters in microarray data without prior knowledge of feasible cluster numbers or complex parameter settings, which are required by other clustering methods. PSO K-means is able to bring out the latent structure of microarray data sets. A Significant reduction in within cluster error was obtained using this procedure, without considerable reduction in inter-cluster dissimilarity.
What is the (Real Option) Value of a College Degree

The value of a college degree is often quantified as the difference in earnings between those with and without a degree. The research presented here operationalizes this idea in two important ways. First, since future income and tuition are uncertain, a contingent claims model is developed and the appropriate discount rate for valuing future earnings is, therefore, endogenized given an economy that does not permit arbitrage. Second, the model is sensitive to the valuation of the real option to obtain an advanced degree in addition to the valuation of the earnings for an individual with an undergraduate degree. In this framework, the value of a high school diploma is shown to be the sum of: (1) capitalized earnings, (2) the real option to obtain an undergraduate degree and (3) the embedded or compound real option to obtain an advanced degree. Numerical examples are presented that demonstrate the performance and key drivers of the model. One important finding is that by ignoring the real options to further one's education, the value of a college degree is likely significantly understated.
A Search-Theoretic Approach to Monetary Economics

The essential function of money is its role as a medium of exchange. The authors formalize this idea using a search-theoretic equilibrium model of the exchange process that captures the "double coincidence of wants problem" with pure barter. One advantage of the framework described here is that it is very tractable. The authors also show that the model can be used to addre ss some substantive issues in monetary economics, including the potenti al welfare-enhancing role of money, the interaction between specializat ion and monetary exchange, and the possibility of equilibria with multip le fiat currencies. Copyright 1993 by American Economic Association.