Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cloud Computing: Insider Attacks on Virtual Machines during Migration

The use of Virtual Machines (VMs) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) has risen dramatically and, according to Gartner, is set to continue rising with a compound annual growth rate predicted to be 41.7% over the four years to 2016. By using Cloud providers, organisations are reducing their capital expenditure on hardware, software and support, however, these same organisations are putting a great deal of trust in the provider offering a safe and secure platform for their data and resources. One of the biggest benefits of IaaS to the customer is the rapid elasticity of their provision. This elasticity can require relocation of a VM from one physical machine and / or one hypervisor to another. Whilst such migration is transparent and potentially seamless, it may also introduce vulnerability. We explore here the potential for a malicious insider to exploit vulnerabilities associated with mobile VMs to obtain large volumes of cloud-user data, and consider the possibility of detecting such attacks using current digital forensics and systems administration techniques.
Trends in adolescent overweight and obesity in the Nordic countries

The prevalence of adolescent overweight and obesity has been increasing in most parts of the world during the past few decades. However, data from the Nordic countries have so far been scarce. This overview aims to pull together existing information on secular trends in adolescent overweight and obesity in the Nordic countries. In general, the trends over time have been uniform throughout the Nordic countries, with a steady increase in the prevalence of adolescent overweight and obesity, and an increased right-sided skewness of the body mass index distribution. Continuous monitoring of these trends and studies examining the causes of these trends are needed in order to develop sound strategies to prevent obesity. Keywords: Denmark; Finland; Iceland; Norway; obesity; Sweden
Phylogenetic Analysis of Rubella Viruses Involved in Congenital Rubella Infections in France between 1995 and 2009

ABSTRACT Rubella is an acute infectious disease that normally has a mild clinical course. However, infections during pregnancy, especially before week 12 of gestation (WG), can cause severe birth defects known as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). The aim of this study was to perform genotyping and molecular characterization of rubella viruses involved in congenital infections in France over the past 15 years (1995 to 2009). Amniotic fluid (AF) specimens (n = 80) from pregnant women with congenital rubella infections (CRI) before week 20 of gestation, and a few other samples available from children/newborns with CRS (n = 26), were analyzed. The coding region of the rubella virus E1 gene was amplified directly from clinical specimens by reverse transcriptase PCR, and the resulting DNA fragments were sequenced. Sequences were assigned to genotypes by phylogenetic analysis with rubella virus reference sequences. Sufficient E1 gene sequences were obtained from 56 cases. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences showed that at least five different genotypes (1E, 1G, 1B, 2B, and 1h) were present in France and were involved in congenital infections, with a strong predominance of genotype 1E (87%). This is one of the very few comprehensive studies of rubella viruses involved in CRI. The results indicated that over the past 15 years, multiple introductions of the dominant genotype E caused most of the CRI cases in France. A few sporadic cases were due to other genotypes (1B, 1G, 1h, 2B).
Applications of Digital PCR for Clinical Microbiology

ABSTRACT Digital PCR (dPCR) is an important new tool for use in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Its advantages over quantitative PCR (qPCR), including absolute quantification without a standard curve, improved precision, improved accuracy in the presence of inhibitors, and more accurate quantitation when amplification efficiency is low, make dPCR the assay of choice for several specimen testing applications. This minireview will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of dPCR compared to qPCR, its applications in clinical microbiology, and considerations for implementation of the method in a clinical laboratory.
Applying the T-Recs table recognition system to the business letter domain

This paper summarizes the core idea of the T-Recs table recognition system, an integrated system covering block-segmentation, table location and a model-free structural analysis of tables. T-Recs works on the output of commercial OCR systems that provide the word bounding box geometry together with the text itself (e.g. Xerox ScanWorX). While T-Recs performs well on a number of document categories, business letters still remained a challenging domain because the T-Recs location heuristics are mislead by their header or footer resulting in a low recognition precision. Business letters such as invoices are a very interesting domain for industrial applications due to the large amount of documents to be analyzed and the importance of the data carried within their tables. Hence, we developed a more restrictive approach which is implemented in the T-Recs++ prototype. This paper describes the ideas of the T-Recs++ location and also proposes a quality evaluation measure that reflects the bottom-up strategy of either T-Recs or T-Recs++. Finally, some results comparing both systems on a collection of business letters are given.
Subtype Analysis of Cryptosporidium Specimens from Sporadic Cases in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, and Iowa in 2007: Widespread Occurrence of One Cryptosporidium hominis Subtype and Case History of an Infection with the Cryptosporidium Horse Genotype

ABSTRACT Subtyping was conducted in late 2007 on 57 Cryptosporidium specimens from sporadic cases in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, and Iowa. One previously rare Cryptosporidium hominis subtype was indentified in 40 cases (70%) from all four states, and the Cryptosporidium horse genotype was identified in a pet shop employee with severe clinical symptoms.
Epidemiological investigation of muscle-strengthening activities and cognitive function among older adults

Limited research has examined the association of muscle-strengthening activities and executive cognitive function among older adults, which was this study’s purpose. Data from the 1999–2002 NHANES were employed (N = 2157; 60–85 years). Muscle-strengthening activities were assessed via self-report, with cognitive function assessed using the digit symbol substitution test. After adjusting for age, age-squared, gender, race-ethnicity, poverty level, body mass index, C-reactive protein, smoking, comorbid illness and physical activity, muscle-strengthening activities were significantly associated with cognitive function (βadjusted = 3.4; 95% CI: 1.7–5.1; P < 0.001). Compared to those not engaging in aerobic exercise and not meeting muscle-strengthening activity guidelines, those doing 1 (βadjusted = 3.7; 95% CI: 1.9–5.4; P < 0.001) and both (βadjusted = 6.6; 95% CI: 4.8–8.3; P < 0.001) of these behaviors had a significantly higher executive cognitive function score. In conclusion, muscle-strengthening activities are associated with executive cognitive function among older U.S. adults, underscoring the importance of promoting both aerobic exercise and muscle-strengthening activities to older adults.
Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli Markers and Phenotypes among Fecal E. coli Isolates Collected from Nicaraguan Infants

ABSTRACT We analyzed the prevalence of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) markers and common phenotypes in 2,164 E. coli isolates from 282 DEC-positive samples. Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) were very diverse and were not correlated with diarrhea. Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) estA and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) belonged to a few phenotypes and were significantly correlated with diarrhea.
State-of-the-Art Microbiologic Testing for Community-Acquired Meningitis and Encephalitis

ABSTRACT Meningitis and encephalitis are potentially life-threatening diseases with a wide array of infectious, postinfectious, and noninfectious causes. Diagnostic testing is central to determining the underlying etiology, treatment, and prognosis, but many patients remain undiagnosed due to suboptimal testing and lack of tests for all pathogens. In this article, we summarize the epidemiology, barriers to diagnosis, and current best tests for meningitis and encephalitis in developed countries. We end with a brief discussion of new test methods, such as multiplex panel-based tests and metagenomic sequencing, which are likely to alter diagnostic strategies for these conditions in the near future.
Accelerating Big Data Applications on Tiered Storage System with Various Eviction Policies

Utilizing new type devices, such as SSD, to improve I/O performance of hybrid storage has become a tendency recently. Many efforts are made to apply the new type devices to hybrid storage in distributed environment, but most of them are confined to the specific file systems, such as HDFS. Besides, the low performance of HDFS descends the performance of hybrid storage. In this paper, we improve the performance of tiered storage system (one kind of hybrid storage system) in distributed environment with a plughable eviction framework considering that the data on each node is regularly accessed. On top of the eviction framework, we provide a couple of eviction policies, including LRU, LRFU, LIRS and ARC, covering different access patterns to accelerate the upper big data applications. Moreover, our design is general for all tiered storage systems. Then we evaluate the performance of our eviction framework through three widely-used big data applications and discover that LIRS can improve 30% hit ratio than most of other policies when running KMeans and PageRank, ARC can improve maximum 30% hit ratio than other policies when running complicated SQL applications, LRFU can always achieve relatively good performance when the configuration properties are set in reasonable range. We have implemented our prototype on Alluxio, which is a widely-used memory-centric distributed storage system. In addition, these eviction policies contributed by us have been merged into Alluxio and are already being in use.
Treatment Assignment, Dropout, and Outcome of Depressed Patients Who Somaticize

Depressed patients with high scores on measures of somatization were studied in two forms of treatment—pharmacotherapy with nortriptyline hydrochloride (N = 36) and cognitive behavioral group therapy (N = 66). Three hypotheses were tested: (1) that depressed patients with somatic distress are more often assigned to pharmacotherapy than are other depressed patients; (2) that patients who somaticize find pharmacotherapy aversive and are (a) more likely than other patients to drop out of treatment, and (b) less likely to show improvement; and (3) that this relationship does not hold for patients receiving cognitive-behavioral group therapy. The results showed that depressed patients with somatic complaints were assigned more often to pharmacotherapy than to cognitive-behavioral group therapy (p < .05), and they subsequently dropped out of that treatment more often than other patients (p < .01). In addition, somaticizers who completed the treatment showed less improvement than other patients (p < .05). This r.
Invited Commentary: Epidemiology of Transmissible Diseases after Elimination

Measles is the greatest vaccine-preventable killer of young children in the world today; although effective measles vaccines are available, approximately 1 million children die from the disease annually (1). Eradicating measles offers the opportunity to permanently prevent this mortality. Several countries and regions of the world have announced goals for eliminating measles, and measles eradication worldwide is considered technically feasible (2). Indigenous measles appears to have been eliminated at least for periods of time in the United States and in many countries in the Americas and western Europe. However, to ensure worldwide eradication, a mechanism is needed to document elimination of indigenous measles in all countries. Documenting termination of indigenous measles is complicated by the fact that clinical measles can be misdiagnosed as another rash illness; transmission frequently occurs in the prodromal period, so sources of infections may not be recognized; and chains of transmission (while short in any one particular community) can spread to numerous other communities because of population mobility (3, 4). Thus, methods that enable assessment of whether measles continues to circulate in a country, based on case surveillance information, are important in documenting elimination and eradication. The modeling approaches described by De Serres et al. provide one such method (5). Measles has long been a favorite with mathematical modelers because of its short and predictable infectious period and incubation period, its high transmissibility, the apparent absence of spread from subclinical infections, and the fact that lifelong immunity follows infection. Modeling has shown that a very high level of population immunity (on the order of 95 percent or
Comparison of BD Phoenix, Vitek 2, and MicroScan Automated Systems for Detection and Inference of Mechanisms Responsible for Carbapenem Resistance in Enterobacteriaceae

ABSTRACT We assessed the ability of three commercial systems to infer carbapenem resistance mechanisms in 39 carbapenemase-producing and 16 other carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. The sensitivity/specificity values for “flagging” a likely carbapenemase were 100%/0% (BD Phoenix), 82 to 85%/6 to 19% (MicroScan), and 74%/38% (Vitek 2), respectively. OXA-48 producers were poorly detected, but all systems reliably detected isolates with KPC and most with metallo-carbapenemases.
Observing the use of tactile schedules

This article explores the use of tactile schedules in a heterogeneous sample of children with congenital blindness and varying degrees of additional disabilities. Basic conditions for the use of tactile schedules are proposed and discussed. Child behaviour indicative of some particular functions that can be attained with the use of tactile schedules, such as sense of agency and increased predictability and communication, is described and discussed. The role of the teacher is emphasized throughout the article.
Correlation of Leukorrhea and Trichomonas vaginalis Infection

ABSTRACT Trichomonas vaginalis is a common sexually transmitted infection (STI) causing vaginitis. Microscopy has poor sensitivity but is used for diagnosis of trichomoniasis in resource-poor settings. We aimed to provide a more reliable diagnosis of trichomoniasis by investigating an association with leukorrhea. Women presenting for evaluation of vaginal discharge, STI exposure, or preventative gynecologic examination were evaluated for Trichomonas infection. Vaginal pH was determined and microscopy was performed by the provider, who recorded the number of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNLs) per epithelial cell and the presence of clue cells, yeast, and/or motile trichomonads. Leukorrhea was defined as greater than one PMNL per epithelial cell. Culture and a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) were used to detect T. vaginalis. Patients were evaluated for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae using NAATs and bacterial vaginosis using Gram stains. Two hundred ninety-four women were enrolled, and 16% were found to have Trichomonas (46/294). Trichomonas infection was more common in parous non-Hispanic, black women, who reported low rates of contraceptive use (33% versus 17%; P = 0.02) and a STI history (85% versus 55%; P = 0.002). These women were more likely to report vaginal discharge (76% versus 59%; P = 0.02) and have an elevated vaginal pH (87% versus 48%; P < 0.001) and gonorrhea infection (15% versus 4%; P = 0.002). Leukorrhea was associated with a 4-fold-increased risk of Trichomonas infection. Leukorrhea on microscopy was associated with Trichomonas vaginitis. Patients with leukorrhea should be evaluated with more-sensitive tests for T. vaginalis, preferably NAATs, if microscopy is negative.
New Approach for Symbol Recognition Combining Shape Context of Interest Points with Sparse Representation

In this paper, we propose a new approach for symbol description. Our method is built based on the combination of shape context of interest points descriptor and sparse representation. More specifically, we first learn a dictionary describing shape context of interest point descriptors. Then, based on information retrieval techniques, we build a vector model for each symbol based on its sparse representation in a visual vocabulary whose visual words are columns in the learned dictionary. The retrieval task is performed by ranking symbols based on similarity between vector models. The evaluation of our method, using benchmark datasets, demonstrates the validity of our approach and shows that it outperforms related state-of-the-art methods.
Rapid Detection of Bacillus anthracis Bloodstream Infections by Use of a Novel Assay in the GeneXpert System

ABSTRACT Bacillus anthracis is a tier 1 select agent with the potential to quickly cause severe disease. Rapid identification of this pathogen may accelerate treatment and reduce mortality in the event of a bioterrorism attack. We developed a rapid and sensitive assay to detect B. anthracis bacteremia using a system that is suitable for point-of-care testing. A filter-based cartridge that included both sample processing and PCR amplification functions was loaded with all reagents needed for sample processing and multiplex nested PCR. The assay limit of detection (LOD) and dynamic range were determined by spiking B. anthracis DNA into individual PCR mixtures and B. anthracis CFU into human blood. One-milliliter blood samples were added to the filter-based detection cartridge and tested for B. anthracis on a GeneXpert instrument. Assay specificity was determined by testing blood spiked with non-anthrax bacterial isolates or by testing blood samples drawn from patients with concurrent non-B. anthracis bacteremia or nonbacteremic controls. The assay LODs were 5 genome equivalents per reaction and 10 CFU/ml blood for both the B. anthracis Sterne and V1B strains. There was a 6-log10 dynamic range. Assay specificity was 100% for tests of non-B. anthracis bacterial isolates and patient blood samples. Assay time was less than 90 min. This automated system suitable for point-of-care detection rapidly identifies B. anthracis directly from blood with high sensitivity. This assay might lead to early detection and more rapid therapy in the event of a bioterrorism attack.
Management of inherited thrombophilia in pregnancy

Adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as pregnancy loss and pre-eclampsia, are associated with thrombotic mechanisms and thrombophilia. Antithrombotic interventions, particularly low-molecular-weight heparin, have been investigated in women identified by previous pregnancy outcome; however, the results have been inconsistent. This may reflect heterogeneity of both the study groups and the disease processes resulting in inadequate stratification to guide antithrombotic interventions. Furthermore, the variation in gestation at initiation of low-molecular-weight heparin treatment might be important. Despite limited evidence of efficacy, low-molecular-weight heparin is often used in an attempt to prevent these complications, owing to the lack of other effective treatments and its perceived safety in pregnancy. Research is required to better understand the disease processes, identify possible biomarkers and thereby more homogeneous groups for targeted treatment.
“The Intelligence of Nations”

I argue in this comment that Hunt’s analysis of the intelligence of nations is smarter than it is wise. It is based on too narrow a conception of intelligence. It also conflates correlation and causation with regard to the relation between IQ and socially defined success, both individual and familial. I suggest that a better approach might be to compare nations as well for their creativity and wisdom.
Exercises in Software Design

Typical software engineering courses teach principles in lectures and readings, then apply them in the development of a single program (requiring several months). We recently taught a software engineering class that incorporated many smaller exercises (requiring several hours). The class was successful: students were able to experiment with a broad set of ideas, and make interesting mistakes without jeopardizing the grades of their development team. This paper describes some tools and techniques we taught, and suggests how they might be incorporated into typical software engineering classes.
Protection in the BirliX operating system

The user-interface-level and implementation-level protection mechanisms of the BirliX operating system are described and motivated. Descriptions are provided of subject restriction and object protection as complementary user-interface-level mechanisms for enforcing security policies by building small domains of protection. Traceability is used as a basis for tracing back violations of policies to answerable humans. <<ETX>>
Alternative strategies to reduce maternal mortality in India: a cost effective analysis

1. Goldie SJ, 2. Sweet S, 3. Carvalho N, 4. et al . PLoS Med 2010;7:e1000264 [OpenUrl][1][PubMed][2] This is a very interesting and indeed a ‘wake-up call’ article highlighting the high maternal mortality and morbidity prevalent in India and what can be done to reduce the enormity of the problem. The data are alarming, revealing that of the half million women dying worldwide every year from pregnancy or childbirth-related problems, a quarter of these deaths occur in India alone. In 2005, the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in India was 450 deaths per 100 000 live births, compared to … [1]: {openurl}? query=rft.stitle%253DPLoS%2BMed%26rft.aulast%253DGoldie%26rft.auinit1%253DS. %2BJ. %26rft.volume%253D7%26rft.issue%253D4%26rft.spage%253De1000264%26rft.epage%253De1000264%26rft.atitle%253DAlternative%2Bstrategies%2Bto%2Breduce%2Bmaternal%2Bmortality%2Bin%2BIndia%253A%2Ba%2Bcost-effectiveness%2Banalysis. %26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F20421922%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref? access_num=20421922&link_type=MED&atom=%2Ffamilyplanning%2F37%2F1%2F25.atom
A Resource-Control Account of Sustained Attention

Staying attentive is challenging enough when carrying out everyday tasks, such as reading or sitting through a lecture, and failures to do so can be frustrating and inconvenient. However, such lapses may even be life threatening, for example, if a pilot fails to monitor an oil-pressure gauge or if a long-haul truck driver fails to notice a car in his or her blind spot. Here, we explore two explanations of sustained-attention lapses. By one account, task monotony leads to an increasing preoccupation with internal thought (i.e., mind wandering). By another, task demands result in the depletion of information-processing resources that are needed to perform the task. A review of the sustained-attention literature suggests that neither theory, on its own, adequately explains the full range of findings. We propose a novel framework to explain why attention lapses as a function of time-on-task by combining aspects of two different theories of mind wandering: attentional resource (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006) and control failure (McVay & Kane, 2010). We then use our “resource-control” theory to explain performance decrements in sustained-attention tasks. We end by making some explicit predictions regarding mind wandering in general and sustained-attention performance in particular.