Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intelligent feature selection for detecting http/2 denial of service attacks

Intrusion-detection systems employ machine learning techniques to classify traffic into attack and legitimate. Network flooding attacks can leverage the new web communications protocol (HTTP/2) to bypass intrusiondetection systems. This creates an urgent demand to understand HTTP/2 characteristics and to devise customised cyber-attack detection schemes. This paper proposes Step Sister; a technique to generate an optimum network traffic feature set for network intrusion detection. The proposed technique demonstrates that a consistent set of features are selected for a given HTTP/2 dataset. This allows intrusion-detection systems to classify previously unseen network traffic samples with fewer false alarm than when techniques used in literature were employed. The results show that the proposed technique yields a set of features that, when used for network traffic classification, yields low numbers of false alarms.
Towards a MSG-based operational method for actual evaporation for Savannah regions in West Africa

For applications in water management, the estimation of actual evapotranspiration (ET) as one term in the water balance is critical. For operational water management of large river basins, the use of remote sensing estimates of actual ET is attractive. During the last decade, a large number of satellite algorithms have been developed to estimate actual ET. Most algorithms critically depend on the radiometric surface temperature and are therewith limited to cloud-free situations. This makes it difficult to obtain ET on a daily or weekly basis under the conditions in West Africa. Schüttemeyer et. al (2007) (further referred to as SSMB07) presented a simple but robust algorithm based on the Makkink evaporation equation (based on ideas in Choudhury and DeBruin, 1995). The input data for the algorithm are remotely sensed incoming solar radiation, vegetation fraction and near-surface air temperature. However, the developed algorithm was applied for two test sites only and a number of shortcomings were identified by SSMB07 regarding processes and variability that were not taken into account. The present paper provides an extension of SSMB07 and shows a basinwide application as well as an enhancement of the original method is presented. The focus of the application of the algorithm is on semi-arid regions, where variations in vegetation cover are large. Section 2 describes the developed method, i.e. the original method plus enhancements. The input data used for this algorithm are described in section 3 and validation results are shown in section 4.
Russian migrants to Russia: assimilation and local labor market effects

As a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, five million Russian and Russian-speaking people repatriated to Russia during 1990–2002. I use this natural experiment to study labor market assimilation of migrants and their effect on the employment and wages of the local population. I show that male immigrants were fully integrated into the labor market, while female immigrants faced significant wage and employment gaps upon arrival, and their assimilation was slow. Using an IV strategy to account for the endogenous choice of location, I find a negative effect of the inflows of immigrants on the local population’s employment but not on wages. The initial displacement effects are particularly large for men, but they disappear after about ten years after the peak of migration wave.
Does macrofaunal nutrition vary among habitats at the Håkon Mosby mud volcano

The Hakon Mosby mud volcano (HMMV) is one of the most studied cold-seep sites in Europe. Its exceptional fluid expulsion activity and large geochemical gradients from the centre to the periphery support dense biological communities and induce spatial heterogeneity in microbial activity and faunal zonation. At this site, the macrofauna has been little studied and the variability in its macrobenthic nutrition has not yet been investigated. In this study, based on the analysis of the stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen, we determined nutritional patterns for macrofauna communities in three different habitats (microbial mats, sediment adjacent to the mat and Siboglinidae polychaete fields). δ 13 C values of macrofaunal tissues varied among two habitats (microbial mats and Siboglinid fields), with lighter mean signatures on microbial mats (-46.9‰) than in Siboglinidae fields (-27.0‰). However, no small-scale variability was revealed between mats and adjacent sediment. The dominant carbon source in macrofaunal nutrition was chemosynthetically fixed and the bulk of organic carbon was derived from sulphur-oxidizing bacteria. However, the variability of δ 13 C and δ 15 N signatures of macrofauna within this habitat suggests the co-occurrence of two food chains on mats, one based on sulphur-oxidation and the other based on aerobic or anaerobic methanotrophy.
Hazard-based images comparison methods for damage assessment in emergency mapping

ABSTRACT Damage assessment is a priority task of emergency mapping after a natural disaster (e.g. earthquake, flood, tsunami). The production of these ‘impact maps’ in the hours following a natural disaster subjects emergency mapping operators to strong productivity constraints. To perform damage assessment, comparisons between satellite images captured before and after the natural disaster are carried out. However, existing tools implemented in GIS or remote sensing software remain limited in terms of functionalities for images comparisons, which does not provide a significant efficiency gain for emergency mapping operators. In order to propose more efficient images comparison methods, an investigation of spatial multiplexing techniques developed in the fields of human–computer interaction and geovizualisation is first carried out. We assume that to facilitate the comparison of images before and after a natural disaster, it is necessary to take into account the specific spatial behavior of the considered hazard. In this purpose, we propose to develop hazard-based images comparison methods, which signifies that the transition between images is guided by the spatial diffusion characteristics of the studied natural disaster. A generic model for hazard-based images comparison is therefore proposed, as well as a first implementation of a prototype in a GIS software.
A dynamic analysis of France's external trade - determinants of merchandise imports and exports and their role in the trade surplus of the 1990s. Economic Papers No. 122, October 1997

From the Introduction. One of the striking characteristics of France’s economic performance since the beginning of the present decade has been the strength of the external accounts. In particular, on the basis of national accounts data, since 1989 the current account and the non-energy trade balance have recorded rising surpluses, which in 1996 amounted to 1.7 % of GDP and to close to 1.5 % of GDP, respectively. The service balance, on the other hand, has registered persistent surpluses which averaged between 1 and 1.4 percent of GDP in the 1990s. The largest component of merchandise trade is trade in manufactured goods1. The balance on manufacturing trade recorded surpluses throughout the period following the 1973 oil crisis to the late 1980s. The manufacturing trade balance slipped into deficit in the period 1987-1991 but subsequently moved into surplus which rose to almost 1 % of GDP in 1996. Graph 1 presents quarterly data on the evolution of these variables from the beginning of the 1970s to the end of 1996; data adjusted for inflation present a similar picture. It is clear that since movements in the current account are dominated by movements in the non-energy and, in particular, in the manufacturing trade balance throughout this period the sources of the current account improvement in the 1990s are likely to be those explaining the improvement of the manufacturing trade balance.
Multi-scale influence of vapor pressure deficit on fire ignition and spread in boreal forest ecosystems

Climate-driven changes in the fire regime within boreal forest ecosystems are likely to have important effects on carbon cycling and species composition. In the context of improving fire management options and developing more realistic scenarios of future change, it is important to understand how meteorology regulates different aspects of fire dynamics, including ignition, daily fire spread, and cumulative annual burned area. Here we combined Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fires (MCD14ML), MODIS imagery (MOD13A1) and ancillary historic fire perimeter information to produce a data set of daily fire spread maps for Alaska during 2002–2011. This approach provided a spatial and temporally continuous representation of fire progression and a precise identification of ignition and extinction locations and dates for each wildfire. The fire-spread maps were analyzed with daily vapor pressure deficit (VPD) observations from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) and lightning strikes from the Alaska Lightning Detection Network (ALDN). We found a significant relationship between daily VPD and likelihood that a lightning strike would develop into a fire ignition. In the first week after ignition, above average VPD increased the probability that fires would grow to large or very large sizes. Strong relationships also were identified between VPD and burned area at several levels of temporal and spatial aggregation. As a consequence of regional coherence in meteorology, ignition, daily fire spread, and fire extinction events were often synchronized across different fires in interior Alaska. At a regional scale, the sum of positive VPD anomalies during the fire season was positively correlated with annual burned area during the NARR era (1979–2011; R 2 = 0.45). Some of the largest fires we mapped had slow initial growth, indicating opportunities may exist for suppression efforts to adaptively manage these forests for climate change. The results of our spatiotemporal analysis provide new information about temporal and spatial dynamics of wildfires and have implications for modeling the terrestrial carbon cycle.
Fast Detection of Copy-Move Forgery Image using DCT

In this paper, we proposed a fast detection method of copy-move forgery image based on low frequency coefficients of the DCT coefficients. We proposed a new matching criterion of copy-moved forgery image detection (MCD) using discrete cosine transform. For each 8×8 pixel block, the DCT transform is calculated. Our algorithm uses low frequency four (DC, 3 AC coefficient) and six coefficients (DC, 5 AC coefficients) of DCT per 8×8 pixel block. Our algorithm worked block matching for DCT coefficients of the 8×8 pixel block is slid by one pixel along the image from the upper left corner to the lower right comer. Our algorithm can reduce computational complexity more than conventional copy moved forgery detection algorithms.
Population structure of Sebastes mentella in the North-East Arctic

At present time it is considered the existence of only one management unit of S. mentella in Northeast Atlantic. In present paper a morphometric analysis is made to compare specimens from different locations and different time of the year. Residuals of the regression between each morphometric variable and standard length are used as input in a Stepwise Discriminant Analysis. Results show a possible different population structure in the area, with three main regions morphometrically different: Svalbard, Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea and Lofoten area being an intermediate area where fish from the other areas are present at different seasons of the year. A previously described spawning migration pattern is also possible to detect from the present analysis and its implication on survey design is discussed.
TWO-POINT AND THREE-POINT PROBLEMS FOR FOURTH ORDER DYNAMIC EQUATIONS

Let T be a closed subset of R with infT =1 and supT = +1. For the fourth order nonlinear dynamic equation, u 4 = f(t;u;u ;u 2 ;u 3 ); t 2 T; where f : T R 4 ! R is continuous, we assume solutions of initial value problems are unique and extend to T. We consider questions of the uniqueness of solutions implying the existence of solutions for two-point and for three-point conjugate boundary problems on T. AMS (MOS) Subject Classication. 39A10.
A two-sample procedure to correct recall consumption data

In this paper we use two complementary Italian data sources (the 1995 Istat and Bank of Italy household surveys) to generate household-specific non-durable expenditure and savings measures in the Bank of Italy sample that contains relatively high-quality income data. We show that food expenditure data are of comparable quality and informational content across the two surveys, once heaping, rounding and time averaging are properly accounted for. We therefore depart from standard practice and rely on structural estimation of an inverse Engel curve on Istat data to impute non-durable and total expenditure to Bank of Italy observations, and show how these estimates can be used to analyse saving and consumption age profiles conditional on demographics.
Future research on European Union Cohesion Policy: a Master Class during the OPEN DAYS 2014

In this paper we discuss EU Cohesion Policy, its development over time and prospects for future research. Since the introduction of the EU Cohesion Policy in 1988, its focus has transformed from overcoming regional disparities by developing disadvantaged regions towards economic investment. When Cohesion Policy was subordinated to the Lisbon agenda and subsequently to the Europe 2020 strategy, competitiveness, employment and growth became its primary targets. For 2014–20, a significant share of the €351.8 billion allocated to Cohesion Policy is being ring-fenced to target particular categories of investment in jobs and growth such as research and innovation, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) competitiveness, the low carbon economy and social inclusion. In the following, we outline five fields that require rethinking and further research.
A Mixed Feature Selection Method Considering Interaction

Feature interaction has gained considerable attention recently. However, many feature selection methods considering interaction are only designed for categorical features. This paper proposes a mixed feature selection algorithm based on neighborhood rough sets that can be used to search for interacting features. In this paper, feature relevance, feature redundancy, and feature interaction are defined in the framework of neighborhood rough sets, the neighborhood interaction weight factor reflecting whether a feature is redundant or interactive is proposed, and a neighborhood interaction weight based feature selection algorithm (NIWFS) is brought forward. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we compare NIWFS with other three feature selection algorithms, including INTERACT, NRS, and NMI, in terms of the classification accuracies and the number of selected features with C4.5 and IB1. The results from ten real world datasets indicate that NIWFS not only deals with mixed datasets directly, but also reduces the dimensionality of feature space with the highest average accuracies.
What socio-demographic characteristics do influence the level of tourist’s satisfaction in Montenegro? Empirical analysis

Montenegro as tourist destination is committed to providing a high quality experience for the tourists while carefully managing the use of a rare natural resource. In order to achieve the strategic objectives in sustainable tourism development in the future, the main focus should be given to the analysis of the main determinants of tourist satisfaction. Using a database that provides information on tourist travel behaviour and satisfaction during her/his stay in Montenegro, we have conducted empirical analysis to understand if the socio-demographic characteristics are associated with the level of tourist’s satisfaction. The effect of socio-demographic characteristics is measured through five dimensions: gender, age, country of residence, occupation and wage. Using multinomial logit model we analyze above mentioned socio-demographic characteristics and their influence on the level of tourist’s satisfaction in Montenegro.
Pursuing: A Grounded Theory of Tourism Entrepreneurs' Understanding and Praxis of Sustainable Tourism

Tourism entrepreneurs are recognized as instigators of much tourism development and consequently have a role to play in contributing to sustainable tourism. In particular, entrepreneurial engagement with sustainability has the potential to alleviate negative impacts of tourism on a micro-scale, particularly socio-cultural consequences, environmental degradation and economic inequalities. This study used a grounded theory approach to determine sustainable tourism meanings and practices undertaken by tourism entrepreneurs operating on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia. The study is significant as the grounded theory of pursuing, which emerged, highlights connectivity between the entrepreneurial self, the actions of entrepreneurs, their use of ethics and their praxes of sustainable tourism. The significance of this study is threefold. First, it contributes to the body of qualitatively informed holistically focused tourism studies. Second, it contributes to the literature related to entrepreneurs, sustainable tourism and ethics. Third, the study highlights the lived experiences of tourism entrepreneurs pursuing the provision of sustainable tourism enterprises. In particular, the tourism entrepreneurs identified the factors that served to circumvent their pursuit of sustainable tourism.
Gas Cost Analysis for Ethereum Smart Contracts

Ethereum blockchain smart contract development has grown immensely with large corporations and many startups adopting the new technology for their own use. The distributed network processes transactions including smart contract code executions on the mining nodes when generating a block but also on many other nodes for validation. To prevent Denial-of-Service attacks through extensive computation, Ethereum introduced a gas system that limits the computational, memory and storage resources one contract can use. For certain Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) instructions, the gas cost is statically determined, while for others it is dynamic. While the total gas cost of an executed transaction can be observed on the blockchain, the gas cost cannot generally be predicted ahead of time. Local execution tests might be incomplete, require a costly setup or can be unreliable due to outdated states. Additionally, the overall gas cost is insufﬁcient for developer guidance, as it does not reveal where in particular within a transaction the high costs originate from. In this thesis, we address the challenges mentioned above by providing Visualgas, a tool to visualize gas costs in depth to support the simpler, more gas-efﬁcient development of smart contracts. Visualgas makes it easy for developers to test gas costs and explore best and worst case ex-ecutions before deployment. Furthermore, we give a detailed overview how the costs relate to different parts of the code. Visualgas collects transaction traces using a fuzzer, maps the EVM instructions to the code, interprets the costs in the traces and maps them to the EVM instructions, aggregates the results to get costs in relation to code, analyses for patterns and makes the results accessible in a web interface. Especially with how internal functions translate into EVM compared to calls to other contracts we see that the gas costs can wildly differ based on implementation details. Thus part of the development process should be following through the control-ﬂow for the most common transactions in Visualgas to see where unexpectedly high costs can occur and possible adapt smart contracts accordingly.
Liberal ethnicity: beyond liberal nationalism and minority rights

This article tries to make the case for a variant of the good life based on a synthesis of liberalism and ethnicity. Liberal communitarianism's treatment of ethnicity tends to fall under the categories of either liberal culturalism or liberal nationalism. Both, it is argued, fail to come to terms with the reality of ethnic community, preferring instead to define ethnicity in an unrealistic, cosmopolitan manner. By contrast, this essay squarely confronts four practices that are central to ethnic communities: symbolic boundary-maintenance; exclusive and inflexible mythomoteurs ; the use of ancestry and race as boundary markers; and the desire among national groups to maintain their ethnic character. This article argues that none of these practices need contravene the tenets of liberalism as long as they are reconstructed so as to minimize entry criteria and decouple national ethnicity from the state. The notion of liberal ethnicity thereby constitutes an important synthesis of liberal and communitarian ends.
Exploring customer loyalty in the South African mobile telecommunications sector

Abstract The South African mobile telecommunications environment has become increasingly competitive, thus there is increased focus on acquiring and retaining loyal customers in order to facilitate repeat purchases, guarantee future revenues and shield the customer base from competitive activity. In the light of the aforementioned, an online survey which comprised questions on loyalty, customer satisfaction, brand image, perceived quality and perceived value, was conducted among 110 customers of the South African (SA) mobile telecommunications industry. A number of hypotheses were formulated proposing relationships among the above-mentioned variables. The findings which resulted from structural equation and multiple regression modelling, revealed that customer satisfaction has the most significant positive effect on customer loyalty. Customer brand image and perceived value have a significant positive effect on customer satisfaction, but not customer loyalty. By implication, brand image and perceived value indirectly influence customer loyalty, through influencing customer satisfaction. The findings imply that the management of mobile telecommunications businesses in SA should focus on customer satisfaction and its antecedents, if they wish to develop a cadre of loyal customers.