Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
String Oriented Programming Circumventing ASLR, DEP, and Other Guards

The protection landscape is changing and exploits are getting more and more sophisticated. Exploit generation toolkits can be used to construct exploits for specific applications using well-defined algorithms. We present such an algorithm for leveraging format strings and introduce string oriented programming. String oriented programming takes format string exploits to the next level and turns an intrusion vector that needs hand-crafted exploits into arbitrary code execution. Similar to return oriented programming or jump oriented programming sting oriented programming does not rely on existing code but concatenates gadgets in the application using static program analysis. This paper presents an algorithm and a technique that takes a vulnerable application that contains a format string exploit as a parameter and constructs a format string exploit that can be used to inject a dynamic jump oriented programming dispatcher into the running application. String oriented programming circumvents ASLR, DEP, and ProPolice.
A COMPARISON OF SINGLE PHOTON AND FULL WAVEFORM LIDAR

Abstract. Single photon sensitive LiDAR sensors are currently competing with conventional multi-photon laser scanning systems. The advantage of the prior is the potentially higher area coverage performance, which comes at the price of an increased outlier rate and a lower ranging accuracy. In this contribution, the principles of both technologies are reviewed with special emphasis on their respective properties. In addition, a comparison of Single Photon LiDAR (SPL) and FullWaveform LiDAR data acquired in July and September 2018 in the City of Vienna are presented. From data analysis we concluded that (i) less flight strips are needed to cover the same area with comparable point density with SPL, (ii) the sharpness of the resulting 3D point cloud is higher for the waveform LiDAR dataset, (iii) SPL exhibits moderate vegetation penetration under leaf-on conditions, and (iv) the dispersion of the SPL point cloud assessed in smooth horizontal surface parts competes with waveform LiDAR but is higher by a factor of 2–3 for inclined and grassy surfaces, respectively. Still, SPL yielded satisfactory precision measures mostly below 10 cm.
Farmers’ Choice of Credit among the Farm Credit System, Commercial Banks, and Nontraditional Lenders

Understanding the factors that affect a farmer’s credit source is useful for lending institutions to more effectively target customers and provides insight into credit sources that would be affected sooner if a credit crisis would occur and the characteristics that are correlated with a customer using a particular lending institution. Results of this paper suggest that the customers of commercial banks would be the most at risk as they are the most leveraged. Results also show that as conditions deteriorate, farmers add more lending institutions and are also more likely to use a commercial bank or nontraditional lender.
A neural network realization of scheduling in grid computing environment

The Computational Grids provide a promising platform for efficient execution of computational and data intensive applications. Scheduling in such environments is challenging because target resources are heterogeneous and their load and availability varies dynamically. In this paper, we propose a mathematical neural network based scheduling solution for grid computing environment. Using mathematical method guarantees rapid convergenc that is essential for such environments with proliferation of resources.
of the 23 rd Annual EMBS International Conference , October 25-28 , Istanbul , Turkey THREE-DIMENSIONAL ACCURACY ASSESSMENT OF E ‘ YE SURGEONS

Overall manual accuracy in simulated microsurgery has been studied. Three eye surgeons have been tested thus far. Subjects attempted to hold a microsurgical instrument still for 30 s and its 3-D tip position was recorded. RMS error, overall motion range were calculated and spectral analysis was performed for each axis. The RMS error was between 54 pm and 118 pm and the overall range of motion was between 239pm and 588 pm, depending on the axis. Substantial low frequency motion was present. Between 73.5% and 83.7% of the total power was found to be below 3 Hz, depending on the axis.
Rain type classification algorithm for TRMM precipitation radar

A TRMM precipitation radar (PR) standard algorithm for classifying precipitation types is designated as the algorithm 2A-23. This algorithm classifies precipitation type into three categories: stratiform, convective, and other. In the case of convective precipitation, a further examination is made to determine whether it is warm rain or not. The algorithm 2A-23 also detects bright band and determines the height of a bright band when it is detected.
A communication aid which models conversational patterns

We have developed a prototype communication system that helps non-speakers to perform communication acts competently, rather than concentrating on improving the production efficiency for specific letters, words or phrases. The system, called CHAT, is based on patterns which are found in normal unconstrained dialogue. It contains information about the present conversational move, the next likely move, the person being addressed, and the mood of the interaction. The system can move automatically through a dialogue, or can offer the user a selection of conversational moves on the basis of single keystrokes. The increased communication speed which is thus offered can significantly improve both the flow of the conversation and the disabled person's control of the dialogue.
MVEE: A Defence Mechanism against Code Injection Attacks

The growth of interconnected computer increases the amount and obscurity of attacks. Computer systems require apt security mechanism. Intrusion detection and prevention systems play an important part in detecting and preventing the attacks before they conciliate software. Multi-variant execution environment is an intrusion detection and prevention mechanism that executes several slightly different versions of a program, called variants, in concurrency. The variants are defined as more than 2 same instances. These variants contain the same operational unit of the original program. The variants are built to have indistinguishable manners under normal execution environment. If any of the variant is under attack, there are noticeable divergences in their execution behavior. A monitor compares the execution manners of the variants at specific synchronization points and raises an alarm when a variance is detected.
WS-SIM: A Toolkit for Modeling and Simulation of Service Composition

Web service has been rapidly developed in recent years. Web service selection is an important issue in web service composition and lots of service selection algorithms have been presented. As lots of them select an atomic service during runtime, it is not an easy task to evaluate the quality of the composited service which composed of several atomic services. In this work we introduce WS-SIM, a simulation toolkit, to solve this problem. WS-SIM supports modeling and simulating composite services and atomic services in the real world. This system also provides many common service selection algorithms and researchers can custom their own service selection algorithm for a simulation experiment. The quality of composite services can also be generated by our system. Furthermore, to demonstrate suitability of the WS-SIM, in this paper, functionalities of our system are illustrated by a case study. This confirms the usability and the applicability of WS-SIM.
An analytical approach to the neuronal mechanisms underlying the memory storage in the brain (experimental study)

In this in vivo experimental study, the dynamical properties of the electroencephalographic (EEG) activity recorded in the CA1 area and the dentate gyrous of rat hippocampus were investigated prior to the induction and during the maintenance phase of long term potentiation (LTP). Our findings suggest that this form of brain plasticity can be reflected by the complexity of spontaneous EEG activity, as it is expressed by the reduction of the correlation dimension D/sub 2/, indicates that different functional states of the brain are governed by different degrees of functional complexity.
Role of Nutrient-Enriched Biochar as a Soil Amendment during Maize Growth: Exploring Practical Alternatives to Recycle Agricultural Residuals and to Reduce Chemical Fertilizer Demand

Recycling and value-added utilization of agricultural residues through combining technologies such as anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis could double the recoverable energy, close the nutrient recycle loop, and ensure cleaner agricultural production. This study assessed the beneficial application of biochar to soil to recycle digestate nutrients, improve soil quality, and reduce conventional chemical fertilizer. The addition of digestate-enriched biochar improved soil quality as it provided higher soil organic matter (232%–514%) and macronutrients (110%–230%) as opposed to the unenriched biochar and control treatments. Maize grown in soil amended with digestate-enriched biochar showed a significantly higher biomass yield compared to the control and non-enriched biochar treatments but was slightly lower than yields from chemical fertilizer treatments. The slightly lower yield (20%–25%) achieved from digestate-enriched biochar was attributed to slower mineralization and release of the adsorbed nutrients in the short term. However, digestate-enriched biochar could in the long term become more beneficial in sustaining soil fertility through maintaining high soil organic matter and the gradual release of micronutrients compared to conventional chemical fertilizer. Positive effects on soil micronutrients, macronutrients, organic matter, and biomass yield indicates that enriched biochar could partly replace chemical fertilizers and promote organic farming in a circular economy concept.
A survey of the assembly line balancing procedures

The assembly line balancing problem consists of assigning tasks to an ordered sequence of stations such that the precedence relations among the tasks are satisfied and some performance measure is optimized. Due to the complexity of the problem, heuristic procedures appear to be more promising than the optimum-seeking algorithms. For the single-model, deterministic version, there are numerous exact and heuristic algorithms developed, while for the other more complex but more realistic versions, the research published consists mainly of heuristic procedures. In this paper, the heuristic procedures are critically examined and summarized in sufficient detail to provide a state-of-the-art survey. An evaluation of the procedures and some further research topics have also been presented.
Hand manipulation of virtual objects in wearable augmented reality

This paper proposes an interface for wearable computers using augmented reality (AR) environment which allows the user to handle virtual objects with his/her own hands intuitively. The proposed system is constructed with a wearable computer and a head mounted display (HMD). A pair of cameras is attached to HMD positioned as a pair of eyes. Using the stereo measurement, the finger's postures are captured and displayed together with virtual objects on a video-see-though HMD. The system tracks the fingertips motion of the index finger and the thumb so as the user can pick up, move and rotate the virtual object as if treating a real object with the hands in the real world. While the stereo measurement, range information is added to the region of the hand Visual occlusion is synthesized between the user's hand and the virtual objects including 2D based graphical user interfaces, 3D computer graphics models and so on.
Investigating Triggers in CMC Text Transcripts

Strategic initial messages, triggers, in asynchronous text conferencing can lead to rich cognitive discussions. Such initiating messages or triggers have been reported in previous literature, defined either in relation to their effects (number of actual responses received), or their intentions (the writer’s evident purpose of evoking responses by being in some way provocative). In Zhu’s (1996) study, a good student starter usually pointed to a few major discussion themes for a weekly discussion. Fahy (2001) defined “response triggers” as messages that generated large numbers of subsequent postings. Triggers in the Community of Inquiry model are defined more in the latter sense, as messages that are intended by the writer to evoke discussion, whether or not they actually succeed in doing so (Garrison, 2002; Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000; Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2001). The characteristics of postings which succeed in triggering responses, as compared with those which fail to do so, was the focus of this inquiry.
Standardizing delay calculation in Verilog

Verilog HDL and PLI provide all the necessary means for accurate delay modeling and calculation. However, appropriate use of a delay calculator is often problematic due to the multitude of libraries and delay models used in a single design and the lack of explicit standards in delay specifications. This paper is intended to set a standard, not to provide a new in-depth method. The basic delay models used for calculating the design specific delays are reviewed and the common parameters used by all library vendors are identified. It is shown that the process of characterizing cells for certain generally accepted common delay parameters can be independent of the individual delay calculation algorithms and/or the required accuracy of the delay calculation process.
Using Web 2.0 tools to teach online safety education in the intermediate grades

As more and more educators are using the Internet to enhance the potential learning of students, there are growing concerns over student safety on the Internet. This research project explores some of the risks associate with students going online and identifies effective ways to engage students in learning about online safety. The intention of this project was to create an interactive online unit of study to help young students learn how to stay safe while interacting and learning online. This integrated resource package was designed as an introductory online safety unit of study for grade four and grade five students. To ensure educators, parents and students have convenient access to this resource, a website was created that include educational materials, parental resources and student lessons. In order to ensure student safety, only Web 2.0 tools were selected for this website that did not require students to create personal accounts or give out personal information. Feedback provided by other educational professionals suggested a need for a unit of study that teaches students about online risks and online safety. The Online Safety 101 website (http://cedarelementary.weebly.com/) will need to be maintained and updated so that students can continue to develop cyber-safe habits.
Design and Discovery in Educational Assessment: Evidence-Centered Design, Psychometrics, and Educational Data Mining

Evidence-centered design (ECD) is a comprehensive framework for describing the conceptual, computational and inferential elements of educational assessment. It emphasizes the importance of articulating inferences one wants to make and the evidence needed to support those inferences. At first blush, ECD and educational data mining (EDM) might seem in conflict: structuring situations to evoke particular kinds of evidence, versus discovering meaningful patterns in available data. However, a dialectic between the two stances increases understanding and improves practice. We first introduce ECD and relate its elements to the broad range of digital inputs relevant to modern assessment. We then discuss the relation between EDM and psychometric activities in educational assessment. We illustrate points with examples from the Cisco Networking Academy, a global program in which information technology is taught through a blended program of face-to-face classroom instruction, an online curriculum, and online assessments.
Analysis Acceleration in TMVA for the ATLAS Experiment at CERN using GPU Computing

ATLAS is one of two general purpose collision detectors within the Large Hadron Collider, detecting millions of events per second. One tool for the eventual analysis of this data is TMVA, the Toolkit for Multi-Variate Analysis. Comprising of a number of machine learning techniques, it supports physicists in classifying events. This project forms a feasibility study into the use of GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) devices to parallelise TMVA to determine whether such techniques might lead to future performance gains for the framework. In particular, the Multi-layer perceptron, a class of neural network, is ported to the GPU programming platform CUDA. Performance when training single networks is generally comparable to CPU performance but show promise for future improvement. However, this parallelism of the GPU also allows multiple networks to be trained simultaneously, and this is leveraged to show significant performance gains over undertaking such a task in serial. The challenges and potential for these results to be applied across the TMVA framework is then considered and discussed.
Simultaneous exploitation of task and data parallelism in regular scientific applications

Distributed Memory Multicomputers (DMMs) such as the IBM SP-2, the Intel Paragon and the Thinking Machines CM-5 offer significant advantages over shared memory multiprocessors in terms of cost and scalability. Unfortunately, the utilization of all the available computational power in these machines involves a tremendous programming effort on the part of users, which creates a need for sophisticated compiler and run-time support for distributed memory machines. In this thesis we explore a new compiler optimization for regular scientific applications--the simultaneous exploitation of task and data parallelism. Our optimization is implemented as part of the PARADIGM HPF compiler framework and as part of a MATLAB compiler framework we have developed. The intuitive idea behind the optimization is the use of task parallelism to control the degree of data parallelism of individual tasks. The reason this provides increased performance is that data parallelism provides diminishing returns as the number of processors used is increased. By controlling the number of processors used for each data parallel task in an application and by concurrently executing these tasks, we make program execution more efficient and therefore faster. A practical implementation of a task and data parallel scheme of execution for an application on a distributed memory multicomputer also involves data redistribution. This data redistribution causes an overhead. However, as our experimental results show, this overhead is not a problem; execution of a program using task and data parallelism together can be significantly faster that its execution using data parallelism alone. This makes our proposed optimization practical and extremely useful.
Stochastic model and experimental measurement of ocean-scattered GPS signal statistics

Information about the roughness of the ocean, and related geophysical parameters, including wind speed, is present in the shape of the code-correlation waveform of forward scattered GPS signals. A model is developed for the statistics of this waveform, to be used in the prediction of retrieval accuracy and the design of optimal estimators for the retrieval of meaningful geophysical data. Time and frequency domain models for complex "voltage" correlation waveform are developed and compared against experimental results. The analytical form of a model for the autocorrelation of the "power" (real) waveform is also presented. These two models can be applied to determine the upper limit for predetection integration time, and the time between independent waveform samples, respectively. C/A code waveforms were produced, with a 1 msec integration time, from measurements of reflected GPS signals recorded in 1999 near Puerto Rico. Time and frequency domain measurements of the correlation time of these waveforms were estimated through fitting a Gaussian function to the autocovariance and through measuring the width of the power spectral density, respectively. Typical experimental values obtained for voltage model, at aircraft altitude and speed, were 4.2 msec at the peak of the waveform, decaying to 1 msec at a code lag of 3.5 chips. For power model, they were 3.5 msec at the peak of the waveform, decaying to 1 msec at a code lag of 1.8 chips.
Methodology and Mobile Application for Driver Behavior Analysis and Accident Prevention

This paper presents a methodology and mobile application for driver monitoring, analysis, and recommendations based on detected unsafe driving behavior for accident prevention using a personal smartphone. For the driver behavior monitoring, the smartphone’s cameras and built-in sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, and microphone) are used. A developed methodology includes dangerous state classification, dangerous state detection, and a reference model. The methodology supports the following driver’s online dangerous states: distraction and drowsiness as well as an offline dangerous state related to a high pulse rate. We implemented the system for Android smartphones and evaluated it with ten volunteers.
Layered LED Lighting

Philips Lumalive develops light-emitting textiles with embedded Light-Emitting Diodes (LED). The product looks and feels just like a normal textile and can for instance be worn under a T-shirt. The Lumalive textiles create emotional expressiveness for the person wearing the Lumalive textile. The optical characteristics of the so-called Lumalive LED canvas depend on numerous factors. Therefore, a good computer simulation is necessary in order to predict the optical output of the product. This thesis describes the details of the Layered LED Lighting project, or L3 for short. A thorough research on the optical characteristics of the Lumalive LED canvas has been performed. The main focus of this research was on LED lighting and the optical effects of different layers of textile on top of the LEDs. Hence the project name. The purpose of the textile layering is to spread the light coming from the LEDs and thus, on the one hand, reduce the brightness, and on the other hand, increase the area that is illuminated. The results of the research led to a computational model that describes the optical characteristics of the Lumalive LED canvas. This computational model was then translated to a computer program. This computer program was used to test and verify the results of the computational model. The most important properties that make out the optical effects come from the properties of the LEDs and different textile layers. The thickness of a layer for instance is of great importance to the model. A number of abstractions were made in the computer model to make the implementation of a real-time simulator possible. All of this is explained in more detail in this thesis. The optical output of the simulation prototype is comparable with that of the Lumalive LED canvas. However, the outputted brightness is much lower than in the real canvasses. More research is needed on the exact cause of this flaw in our prototype. The translation from real measurement data to simulation parameters can be an issue. The main assumption that all surfaces in our system are Lambertian emitters could also be reconsidered.