Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Remote Attestation of IoT Devices using Physically Unclonable Functions: Recent Advancements and Open Research Challenges

In the past few years, the diffusion of IoT devices used in everyday life has skyrocketed. From wearable devices to smart home appliances, these gadgets are increasingly exposed to the Internet or to open networks. This means that it is necessary to find security solutions that can guarantee the safety of these devices, while at the same time saving on energy consumption and implementation space. In this paper we explore recent works that use remote attestation as a possible solution to the security of IoT devices while also focusing on the use of Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs). We provide a thorough analysis of the selected papers, providing insights on possible future research directions.
X-ray and DNA Damage: Limitations of the Dose as a Parameter for In Vitro Studies

A century of studies has demonstrated that the magnitude of a radiation dose determines the extent of its biological effect. However, different types of radiation show different levels of effectiveness. Although all types of X-rays are usually considered to be equivalent, several authors have demonstrated an inverse relationship between photon energy and the biological effectiveness of the X-ray. Nonetheless, the differences among 50–100 keV X-rays are usually considered absent. However, comparing different types of X-rays with different energies is not easy since they are often used with different dose rates, and the latter can be a confounding factor. We compared the biological effectiveness of X-rays with different photon energies but with the same dose rate. Moreover, we also studied X-ray with different dose rates but the same photon energy. Biological effectiveness was assessed measuring DNA damage and cell survival. We confirmed that both the dose rate and photon energy influence the effectiveness of an X-ray. Moreover, we observed that differences in the 50–100 keV range are detectable after controlling for dose-rate variations. Our results, confirming those of previous studies in a more consistent way (and accompanied by hypotheses on the importance of the number of incident photons), underline the limitations of using the dose as the sole parameter for in vitro studies.
Controlling Gut Microbiota by Twendee X® May Contribute to Dementia Prevention

The human gut microbiota (GM) is a complex and dynamic ecosystem that hosts trillions of commensal and potentially pathogenic microorganisms. It is crucial in protecting humans from pathogens and in maintaining immune and metabolic homeostasis. Numerous studies have demonstrated that GM has a significant impact on health and disease, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by impaired short-term memory and cognitive deficits. Patients with AD have been reported to exhibit abnormalities in GM density and species composition. Oxidative stress (OS) has been implicated in the onset and progression of AD; however, the relationship between OS and gut microbiota in AD onset and progression is not clear. Twendee X® (TwX), an oral supplement consisting of eight active ingredients, has been shown to prevent dementia in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in humans and substantially improve cognitive impairment in mouse models of AD. This positive effect is achieved through the potency of the combined antioxidants that regulate OS; therefore, similar results cannot be achieved by a single antioxidant ingredient. To examine the impact of long-term OS elevation, as seen in AD on the body and GM, we examined GM alterations during the initial OS elevation using a two-week OS loading rat model, and examined the effects of TwX on OS and GM. Furthermore, using a questionnaire survey and fecal samples, we analyzed the impact of TwX on healthy individuals’ gut bacteria and the associated effect on their quality of life (QOL). TwX was found to increase the number of bacteria species and their diversity in GM, as well as butyrate-producing bacteria, which tend to be reduced in AD patients. Additionally, TwX improved defecation condition and QOL. The gut bacteria function as part of the homeostatic function during OS elevation, and the prophylactic administration of TwX strengthened this function. The results suggest that the preventative effect of TwX on dementia may involve the GM, in addition to the other previously demonstrated effects.
Detection and Quantification of Grapevine Bunch Rot Using Functional Data Analysis and Canonical Variate Analysis Biplots of Infrared Spectral Data

Grapevine bunch rot assessment has economic significance to wineries. Industrial working conditions require rapid assessment methods to meet the time constraints typically associated with grape intake at large wineries. Naturally rot-affected and healthy white wine grape bunches were collected over five vintages (2013 to 2016, 2020). Spectral data of 382 grape must samples were acquired using three different, but same-type attenuated total reflection mid-infrared (ATR-MIR) ALPHA spectrometers. The practical industrial problem of wavenumber shifts collected with different spectrometers was overcome by applying functional data analysis (FDA). FDA improved the data quality and boosted data mining efforts in the sample set. Canonical variate analysis (CVA) biplots were employed to visualise the detection and quantification of rot. When adding 90 % alpha-bags to CVA biplots minimal overlap between rot-affected (Yes) and healthy (No) samples was observed. Several bands were observed in the region 1734 cm-1 to 1722 cm-1 which correlated with the separation between rot-affected and healthy grape musts. These bands connect to the C=O stretching of the functional groups of carboxylic acids. In addition, wavenumber 1041 cm-1, presenting the functional group of ethanol, contributed to the separation between categories (severity % range). ATR-MIR could provide a sustainable alternative for rapid and automated rot assessment. However, qualitative severity quantification of rot was limited to only discriminating between healthy and severe rot (> 40 %). This study is novel in applying FDA to correct wavenumber shifts in ATR-MIR spectral data. Furthermore, visualisation of the viticultural data set using CVA biplots is a novel application of this technique.
Magnetospheric electric fields deduced from drifting whistler paths

The amplitude of the E-W component Ew of the convection electric field in the nightside magnetosphere has been inferred from the observed cross-L motions of whistler ducts within the plasmasphere. Several ducts distributed over 1–2 RE in L space and over ±15° around the longitude of the Eights, Antarctica, whistler station have been tracked simultaneously. The method appears capable of resolving fluctuations in Ew with period T ∼ 15 min and rms amplitude as low as 0.05 mv/m. For variations with T > 1 hour the method has a sensitivity of the order of 0.01 mv/m. Three case studies are presented, two of which illustrate convection activity associated with relatively isolated substorms. In these two cases Ew reversed from westward to eastward for a period following the decay of substorm bay activity. In the third case the substorm bay activity was prolonged, and Ew remained westward and at enhanced levels until local dawn. Evidence was found that, at least in a limited longitudinal sector, perturbing substorm Ew fields can penetrate deep within the plasmasphere. In two of the case studies comparisons of Ew and the interplanetary magnetic-field θ component show evidence of a possible relation based on brief (≤ 1 hour) southward excursions but not on long preceding southward events. The growth of Ew can take the form of an initial brief (<15 min) positive surge followed by a larger surge that is simultaneous with the most active phase of the substorm. Certain of the pronounced increases in Ew were found to be coincident with activation or spreading of electrojet or auroral activity. In one instance low-amplitude (<0.1 mv/m) presubstorm fluctuations in Ew with periods of the order of 30 min were found to correlate closely with ground-observed midlatitude fluctuations in the magnetic H component. Calculated values of E-field power spectral density from the tracking of two long-lived (∼6 hours) whistler paths reveal considerable fine structure. The falloff with frequency roughly as f−2 agrees approximately with results from balloons, but the calculated spectral amplitudes appear lower than the balloon results by a factor of ∼4. The amplitudes from whistlers appear to be within the range identified by other workers as sufficient to drive radial diffusion in the radiation belts. The present research agrees with balloon measurements on the general presence of a westward field during substorms, but there is apparent disagreement on a number of details, including the post-substorm reversal in Ew.
Anorogenic granite magma genesis: new isotopic data for the southern sector of the British Tertiary Igneous Province

ABSTRACT It is now generally accepted that British Tertiary granites contain crustal and mantle components. Genesis principally by differentiation of crustally contaminated basaltic magmas is widely held and silicic melts with some remarkable trace element similarities were generated within different upper crust along the St Kilda/Skye - Carlingford zone. New whole-rock (and mineral) O isotope data for the southern sector of the province (N Arran, Ailsa Craig, Mourne Mountains, Slieve Gullion, etc) reveal that δ18O lies in the range +5·1 to +9·7‰ for most of the analysed granites, meteoric water-rock interaction having been in general less intensive than at Skye and Mull. Nevertheless, highly 18O-depleted country rocks (with δ18O<0) exist adjacent to the N Arran and Mourne Mountains granite plutons. There is as yet no evidence for the existence of low -18O granitic melts in this southern sector where magmatic δ18O compositions (up to c. + 9·5‰) can be inferred for some of the intrusions. New Nd (and Sr) isotope data indicate that although there is some similarity in initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios between the northern and southern sector granites, in northeastern Ireland initial εNd values for the analysed Tertiary acid major intrusions range from −3·9 to −4·5. This is in marked contrast to the Skye granites, some of which have values below −20, reflecting the involvement of different lithosphere.
Brain changes with Chinese reading development in typical and atypical readers

Reading is a high-order cognitive process that is unique in human beings. There is a prolonged developmental course and a wide range of proficiency levels associated with reading. In this review, I focus on brain changes underlying Chinese reading development in both typical readers and readers with reading disability. Reading development in typical readers is characterized by a shift from dorsal phonological reading to ventral orthographic reading in the brain and increased interactive specialization in the reading network. Even though some individuals with reading disability may be able to catch up with typical readers on phonological reading by adulthood, they cannot reach fluent orthographic reading. In the brain, the reduction of brain activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus associated with reading disability disappears by adulthood, suggesting that this is a developmental delay, while there is a greater reduction of brain activation in the left inferior temporal gyrus in adults than children with reading disability. It suggests a greater deficit in the dorsal phonological reading pathway in children and a greater deficit in the ventral orthographic reading pathway in adults with reading disability. This review provides insights about the developmental trajectories in typical and atypical reading.
Towards Adversarial Process Control on Inertial Sensor Systems with Physical Feedback Side Channels

Real-world process control requires continuous sensor measurements and automatic control of the environment. Typical process control systems consist of three main components: controllers functioning as the system's "brain'', sensors acting as measurement devices, and final control elements that modify the environment. Prior works showed that adversaries could inject signals into analog sensors to affect the control process; however, an adversarial controller that is necessary to achieve process control is inherently missing in conventional physical-level sensor signal injection attacks, which revealed mechanisms to perturb sensor systems but did not describe the computations necessary to adjust and regulate the process over time. This paper introduces an adversarial control loop approach that computes attack signals during the attack to guide the adversarial process control. Our approach allows constructing the external "brain'' of the adversarial process control with programs. Further, we characterize the Physical Feedback Side Channel (PFSC) in out-of-band signal injection attacks, and study how the adversarial prototype system can be constructed non-invasively to gain control over two types of inertial sensor-actuator systems, including a MegaWheels self-balancing scooter. We demonstrate proof-of-concept process control without accessing or tampering with internal modules of the victim system.
Child development beyond the nutrition-specific models: bridging the pathways via psychosocial stimulation

Background Undernutrition has severe and lasting consequences on child development. Evidently, the interventions based on the biomedical model with food and direct supplementation have failed to produce the desired outcomes for decades. In light of the established positive effects of psychosocial stimulation on developmental outcomes, we propose that the observed failures relate to not including psychosocial stimulation within the interventions. Here we test whether psychosocial stimulation mediates the association between nutritional status and motor and mental development in a large cohort from Madhya Pradesh, India. Method Using a correlational design in children below 3 years of age (N = 275; Males = 148, Females = 127) nutritional status was measured through mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), psychosocial stimulation was assessed with the HOME-inventory, and motor and mental development were assessed with the Developmental Assessment Scales for Indian Infants (DASII). We assessed the effectiveness of 25-week intervention model incorporating psychosocial stimulation on 95 undernourished children in experimental group and 77 in control group. Results The study found that psychosocial stimulation fully mediated the relationship between nutritional status and the motor development [Effect = 1.03, 95% C.I. (0.19, 2.04), p = 0.05] and mental development [Effect = 0.49, 95% C.I. (0.09, 1.03), p = 0.05] in children under 3 years of age. Nutritional status significantly predicted the psychosocial stimulation to the child (R2 = 0.77). Analyzing the effectiveness of the intervention program revealed significant reduction in the developmental delays in both the motor [t(81) = 2.568, p = 0.012] and mental development [t(81) = 4.506, p = 0.001] of the undernourished children. Conclusion Findings indicate that nutrition translates into positive developmental outcomes in a child only with the scaffolding effects of psychosocial stimulation primarily received from home. Integrating psychosocial stimulation activities like storytelling, play, art and crafts, puppets, travel etc. in the intervention programs designed to address undernutrition may yield rich dividends in bridging the developmental delays among undernourished children.
Evaluation of Twelve Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Genotypes for Water Use Efficiency under Varying Water Regimes

Wheat is increasingly becoming an important staple food crop in Zambia’s urban and peri-urban communities where shifts in food tastes and preferences towards convenience–type wheat products, has occurred. Production and yield are however severely limited by the cost of irrigation. A study was carried out at Nanga Research Station in 2011 during the dry season to evaluate wheat genotypes for water use efficiency and identify wheat morphological traits that influence water use efficiency. The experiment was as a Split plot in a Randomised Complete Block Design with three replications. Three water regimes (100%, 75% and 50% of crop water requirement) were the main plots and twelve spring wheat genotypes were subplots. Grain yield, water use efficiency, spike length, above ground biomass, plant height, thousand kernel weight, number of grains per spike, harvest index and spikelets per spike were the parameters measured. Results revealed that there were highly significant differences among the genotypes and genotype by water regimes interactions for grain yield, morphological traits and water use efficiency. Water regimes had significant effects on most parameters measured except on number of grains per spike, spikelets per spike and thousand kernel weight. Harvest index and thousand kernel weight were identified as the most important traits that explained 60.9% of the variation in water use efficiency. These results indicated that wheat farmers could apply less water if they grow genotypes showing high water use efficiency thereby reducing water application costs. Wheat breeders could target water use efficiency as a breeding objective and deliberately select for high water use efficiency under low water supply using thousand kernel weight and harvest index as traits for selection. Sahai I and Loerie II which showed superior water use efficiency could be used as parental material for hybridisation in creation of variation in the breeding program.
Phytoremediation of a Nitrogen‐Contaminated Desert Soil by Native Shrubs and Microbial Processes

We combined phytoremediation and soil microbial nitrification and denitrification cycles to reduce nitrate and ammonium levels at a former uranium mill site near Monument Valley, Arizona. Ammonia used in uraxnium extraction was present throughout the soil profile. Sulfate, applied as sulfuric acid to solubilize uranium, was also present in the soil. These contaminants were leaching from a denuded area where a tailings pile had been removed and were migrating away from the site in groundwater. We planted the source area with two deep‐rooted native shrubs, Atriplex cansescens and Sarcobatus vermiculatus, and irrigated transplants for 11 years at 20% the rate of potential evapotranspiration to stimulate growth, then discontinued irrigation for 4 years. Over 15 years, total nitrogen levels dropped 82%, from 347 to 64 mg kg−1. Analysis of δ15N supported our hypothesis that coupled microbial nitrification and denitrification processes were responsible for the loss of N. Soil sulfate levels changed little; however, evapotranspiration reduced sulfate leaching into the aquifer. For arid sites where traditional pump‐and‐treat methods are problematic, the Monument Valley data suggest that alternatives that incorporate native plants and rely on vadose zone biogeochemistry and hydrology could be a sustainable remediation for nitrogen contaminated soil. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mosquitoes as a threat to humans and the community: the role of place identity, social norms, environmental concern and ecocentric values in public risk perception

ABSTRACT There is a risk that climate change will cause an increase of mosquito populations in Europe. Due to their nuisance to humans, there are demands to combat mosquitoes, mainly through spraying. These interventions, however, are expensive and associated with uncertainties concerning effects on biodiversity. This poses a dilemma for policy-makers, which makes it important to gain knowledge on what people’s nuisance comprises. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore what factors are associated with this risk perception of mosquitoes. Theories about place identity, social norms, environmental concern and values were used to identify relevant factors. A questionnaire was distributed to 317 persons in a Swedish community where mosquitoes have increased radically. The items concerning risk perception fell out as a unidimensional scale in a principal component analysis and the internal consistency of the scale was good. Risk perception was positively related to place identity, descriptive social norms, and self-oriented environmental concern and negatively related to ecocentric values. The most important predictor was descriptive social norms, but the other factors and gender also contributed uniquely in explaining risk perception. Results are discussed in relation to the theory of social amplification of risks.
Growing Red Raspberry in Soilless Culture Under Different Chilling Treatments for Early Summer Production

Abstract Tissue culture plants (8-10 weeks old) of ‘Autumn Bliss’, a primocane-fruiting red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) cultivar, produced in Haberli, Switzerland, were sent to the Agricultural Research Institute of Cyprus on 10 October 2002. The plant material was divided into four groups with each group consisting of 24 plants. The first group was planted in the greenhouse (non-chilling) and the remaining three groups were held at 4°C cooler as follows: (a) 21 days (continuous-chilling), (b) alternating 7 days in and 7 days out of the cooler for a total of 14 days of chilling (alternating-chilling), and (c) 21 days after the 2.5 months of growth in the greenhouse (post-chilling). Following chilling, plant material was removed from the cooler and placed in a media-based soilless plant bed system, under natural (unheated and without supplemental lighting) greenhouse conditions (32°E long., 35°N lat.). Chilling treatments did not affect vegetative growth and fruit quality of primocane-fruiting ‘Autumn Bliss’, but it did advance flowering and fruiting to yield an acceptable early summer crop. The continuous-chilling for 21 days advanced flowering by 3 weeks compared to the other chilling-treatments and the plants flowered after 6 months in the greenhouse.