Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SOCRatES: A Database of Realistic Data for SOurce Camera REcognition on Smartphones

SOCRatES: SOurce Camera REcognition on Smartphones, is an image and video database especially designed for source digital camera recognition on smartphones. It answers to two specific needs, the need of wider pools of data for the developing and benchmarking of image forensic techniques, and the need to move the application of these techniques on smartphones, since, nowadays, they are the most employed devices for image capturing and video recording. What makes SOCRatES different from all previous published databases is that it is collected by the smartphone owners themselves, introducing a great heterogeneity and realness in the data. SOCRatES is currently made up of about 9.700 images and 1000 videos captured with 103 different smartphones of 15 different makes and about 60 different models. With 103 different devices, SOCRatES is the database for source digital camera identification that includes the highest number of different sensors. In this paper we describe SOCRatES and we present a baseline assessment based on the Sensor Pattern Noise
Hydrogen peroxide and jasmonic acid mediate oligogalacturonic acid-induced saponin accumulation in suspension-cultured cells of Panax ginseng

The signalling pathways mediating defence responses induced in suspension cultures of ginseng, Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer, by the plant cell wall-derived elicitor oligogalacturonic acid (OGA), were investigated. OGA induced the rapid generation and release of hydrogen peroxide, H2O2, potentially via an NADPH oxidase-like enzyme. In addition, OGA elicited the accumulation of jasmonic acid (JA) and the defence compound saponin, and expression of genes encoding squalene synthase (SQS; EC 2.5.1.21) and squalene epoxidase (SQE; EC 1.14.99.7), key enzymes of saponin biosynthesis. H2O2 and JA also induced saponin accumulation and transcription of sqs and sqe. The accumulation of JA, but not that of H2O2, was inhibited by an inhibitor of JA biosynthesis, whereas the accumulation of both H2O2 and JA were inhibited by treatments that removed H2O2 or inhibited its production. Moreover, H2O2 stimulated JA accumulation, but JA treatment had no effect on H2O2 generation. These data place H2O2 and JA as early signalling intermediaries in the cellular responses mediating saponin biosynthesis in response to OGA, and position H2O2 upstream of JA. Inhibitors of calcium fluxes and protein phosphorylation inhibited all responses to some extent, indicating the requirements for a protein kinase and calcium in at least one step in the signal cascade leading to saponin accumulation.
A Survey of Malware Detection Techniques based on Machine Learning

Diverse malware programs are set up daily focusing on attacking computer systems without the knowledge of their users. While some authors of these programs intend to steal secret information, others try quietly to prove their competence and aptitude. The traditional signature-based static technique is primarily used by anti-malware programs in order to counter these malicious codes. Although this technique excels at blocking known malware, it can never intercept new ones. The dynamic technique, which is often based on running the executable on a virtual environment, may be introduced by a number of anti-malware programs. The major drawbacks of this technique are the long period of scanning and the high consumption of resources. Nowadays, recent programs may utilize a third technique. It is the heuristic technique based on machine learning, which has proven its success in several areas based on the processing of huge amounts of data. In this paper we provide a survey of available researches utilizing this latter technique to counter cyber-attacks. We explore the different training phases of machine learning classifiers for malware detection. The first phase is the extraction of features from the input files according to previously chosen feature types. The second phase is the rejection of less important features and the selection of the most important ones which better represent the data contained in the input files. The last phase is the injection of the selected features in a chosen machine learning classifier, so that it can learn to distinguish between benign and malicious files, and give accurate predictions when confronted to previously unseen files. The paper ends with a critical comparison between the studied approaches according to their performance in malware detection.
Assessing the Reintroduction Potential of the Endangered Huachuca Water Umbel in Southeastern Arizona

The Huachuca water umbel (HWU, Lilaeopsis schaffneriana ssp. recurva) is a federally endangered aquatic perennial plant endemic to southeastern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. The species was listed because of threats posed by the degradation and loss of wetlands throughout its limited range. Although the species is easily grown in a greenhouse, information regarding specific requirements that allow long-term persistence of HWU in natural habitats is lacking, and few efforts to reintroduce this species have been attempted. Using greenhouse-propagated material, we introduced 128 individual HWU plugs into four spring-fed wetland sites near Elgin, Arizona. The sites represent a range of habitat conditions. After two years, overall survival of transplanted plugs was 60% and the area occupied had increased by 845%. This study documented the response of transplanted HWU to periodic drying, disturbance due to scouring and trampling, and sediment deposition. We also examined the number of viable seeds incorporated into a seed bank at the study location in the first season after transplanting. This case study offers a model for watershedwide reintroduction efforts of endangered plants. It also illustrates the importance of low-level disturbance and the necessity of long-term monitoring and maintenance of competing plant species in establishing viable species reintroductions.
Correlations between measures of thermal stress resistance within and between species

Resistance to an environmental stress such as elevated temperature can almost always be measured in several different ways. A number of recent studies in Drosophila show that lethal and non-lethal measures of resistance to heat stress are genetically independent. In contrast, data reported here suggest that there are interspecific correlations between measures of thermal stress resistance. Together, these results show that studies of intraspecific variation in stress resistance must demonstrate the ecological relevance of the measures of stress resistance chosen for study. In contrast, interspecific comparisons could be based on any of several measures of resistance. It would be interesting to determine if this pattern holds for resistance to other major environmental stresses.
Reactive oxygen species and antioxidants in higher plants

Sites of Generation and Physicochemical Basis of Formation of Reactive Oxygen Species in Plant Cell S. Bhattacharjee Multiple Roles of Radicals in Plants Igor Kovalchuk Reactive Oxygen Species and Ascorbate-Glutathione Interplay in Signaling and Stress Responses V. Locato et al. Reactive Oxygen Species and Programmed Cell Death Tsanko Gechev, Veselin Petrov and Ivan Minkov Oxidative Burst-mediated ROS Signaling Pathways Regulating Tuberization in Potato D. Sarkar and S. Sharma ROS Regulation of Antioxidant Genes P.V. Mylona and Alexios N. Polidoros The Role of Antioxidant Enzymes during Leaf Development Yun-Hee Kim and Sang-Soo Kwak Antioxidants Involvement in the Ageing of Non-green Organs: The Potato Tuber as a Model Pierre Delaplace et al. Metal Toxicity, Oxidative Stress and Antioxidative Defense System in Plants R.S. Dubey ROS, Oxidative Stress and Engineering Resistance in Higher Plants Damla D. Bilgin Role of Free Radicals and Antioxidants in in vitro Morphogenesis S. Dutta Gupta ROS as Biomarkers in Hyperhydricity Nieves Fernandez-Garcia et al. Antioxidant Effects of Plant Polyphenols: A Case Study of a Polyphenol-rich Extract from Geranium sanguineum L. Julia Serkedjieva LC-(Q) TOF-MS Characterization of Phenolic Antioxidants Segura-Carretero et al. Antioxidant Properties of Chinese Medicinal Plants Hua-Bin Li et al.
A 3 - DOF Robot Arm for Drawing Application

This work presents the modelling and fabrication of a robot arm system solely dedicated to the drawing activity. The arm’s configuration used here is of a three-joint planar arm, with an assigned joint to allow for lifting or bringing the pen in contact with the drawing paper. The basic prototype of the drawing robot was fabricated using wood fibre material and a combination of Arduino UNO board and servo motors is used to control the link motions. The input image file is provided using a laptop computer system and is processed using MATLAB
Rating Worker Skills and Task Strains in Collaborative Crowd Computing: A Competitive Perspective

Collaborative crowd computing, e.g., human computation and crowdsourcing, involves a team of workers jointly solving tasks of varying difficulties. In such settings, the ability to manage the workflow based on workers' skills and task strains can improve output quality. However, many practical systems employ a simple additive scoring scheme to measure worker performance, and do not consider the task difficulty or worker interaction. Some prior works have looked at ways of measuring worker performance or task difficulty in collaborative settings, but usually assume sophisticated models. In our work, we address this question by taking a competitive perspective and leveraging the vast prior work on competitive games. We adapt TrueSkill's standard competitive model by treating the task as a fictitious worker that the team of humans jointly plays against. We explore two fast online approaches to estimate the worker and task ratings: (1) an ELO rating system, and (2) approximate inference with the Expectation Propagation algorithm. To assess the strengths and weaknesses of the various rating methods, we conduct a human study on Amazon's Mechanical Turk with a simulated ESP game. Our experimental design has the novel element of pairing a carefully designed bot with human workers; these encounters can be used, in turn, to generate a larger set of simulated encounters, yielding more data. Our analysis confirms that our ranking scheme performs consistently and robustly, and outperforms the traditional additive scheme in terms of predicted accuracy.
A Review on Relationship between Type II Diabetes and Cognitive Impairment

iabetes mellitus (DM), is a group of metabolic disorders in which there are high blood sugar levels over a long period of time (1). DM is correlated with vasculopathy and cerebrovascular diseases. The vasculopathy often proposed to play a role in the relationship between DM and cognition is cerebrovascular disease. Also, vasculopathy in combination with the neuropathological symptoms of alzheimer's disease, amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles increase the risk for cognitive deficits. There is a link between cognitive deficit and DM. Compared to people without diabetes; DM patients have 1.2 to 1.5 fold greater rate of cognitive dysfunction. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) always is associated with increased risk of cognitive decline (2). Even prediabetes stages and insulin resistance status are associated with increased risk of cognitive decline and brain atrophy. In T2DM, cognitive changes mainly affect learning and memory, mental flexibility and psychological speed. Several studies of numerous demographic profiles have shown that cognitive decline is embittered in old people with type 2 diabetes. The decisive factors of this accelerated cognitive decline, D 1. MSc Student of Medical Journalism, Medical Journalism Department, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. 2. Nursing PhD Student, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
Biological aspects of Dirphia moderata (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) on Eucalyptus cloeziana and Psidium guajava

Postura de Dirphia moderata Bouvier, 1919 (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) foi coletada ao redor de um ramo de Eucalyptus cloeziana na area experimental do Laboratorio de Entomologia Florestal da Universidade Federal de Vicosa, em Vicosa, Minas Gerais. O objetivo foi registrar a ocorrencia e estudar aspectos biologicos de D. moderata alimentada com folhas de E. cloeziana ou Psidium guajava na temperatura de 25 ± 2o C, umidade relativa de 60 ± 10% e fotofase de 12 horas. A duracao e a viabilidade larval foram de 56,01 dias e 80,00% e de 55,79 dias e 72,50% para lagartas de D. moderata alimentadas com E. cloeziana ou Psidium guajava, respectivamente. A duracao (dias) e a viabilidade (%) do estagio de pupa foram de 37,64 e 87,00 para este inseto com E. cloeziana e de 49,93 e 87,75 com P. guajava, respectivamente. A longevidade media (dias) foi de 6,79 e 8,85 para machos e de 10,48 e 10,09 para femeas desse inseto com E. cloeziana e P. guajava, respectivamente. Cada femea de D. moderata depositou 121,71 e 112,00 ovos com periodo de incubacao (dias) de 18,14 e 17,79 e viabilidade (%) de 75,0 e 70,0 com essas plantas hospedeiras, respectivamente.
Finite Element Modeling of a Cantilever for Counteracting Vibration Induced Deflection

Excessive vibration can shorten the life of high-cost engine components. Moreover, given that vibration is unavoidable, procedures to control and reduce its effect are proposed in this paper. In this study, the vibration characteristics of a cantilever plate structure excited with piezoelectric actuator elements attached to the top and bottom surfaces of the plate were investigated. The piezoelectric actuators were attached to the plate in two different configurations: straight (parallel to the axis of the plate) and angled (at an angle of 45 to the axis of the plate). In this study, a finite element modal analysis of the cantilever plate structures was conducted using ANSYS to determine the mode shapes of the plate under investigation. The effect of exciting the piezoelectric actuators to counteract the deflections detected by the modal analysis of the plate was then evaluated. Based on the analysis results, it was concluded that piezoelectric actuators can be used to overcome the effects of different modes of cantilever plate vibration. Index Term-FEM, modal Analysis, piezoelectric, dynamics
Rorγ (Rorc) Is a Common Integration Site in Type B Leukemogenic Virus-Induced T-Cell Lymphomas

ABSTRACT The retrovirus type B leukemogenic virus (TBLV) causes T-cell lymphomas in mice. We have identified the Rorγ locus as an integration site in 19% of TBLV-induced tumors. Overexpression of one or more Rorγ isoforms in >77% of the tumors tested may complement apoptotic effects of c-myc overexpression.
Interactions between plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and Rhizobium spp. in the rhizosphere of Anthyllis cytisoides, a model legume for revegetation in mediterranean semi-arid ecosystems.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, Rhizobium bacteria and plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) were isolated from a representative area of a desertified semi-arid ecosystem in the south-east of Spain. Microbial isolates were characterized and screened for effectiveness by a single-inoculation trial in soil microcosms. Anthyllis cytisoides L. , a mycotrophic pioneer legume, dominant in the target mediterranean ecosystem, was the test plant. Several microbial cultures from existing collections were also included in the screening process. Two AM fungi (Glomus coronatum, native, and Glomus intraradices. exotic), two Rhizobium bacteria (NR4 and NR9, both native) and two PGPR (A2, native, and E, exotic) were selected. A further screening for the appropriate double and triple combinations of microbial inoculants was then performed. The parameters evaluated were biomass accumulation and allocation, N and P uptake, N2 -fixation (15 N) and specific root length. Overall, G. coronatum, native in the field site was more effective than the exotic G. intraradices in co-inoculation treatments. In general, our results support the importance of physiological and genetic adaptation of microbes to the whole environment, thus local isolates must be involved. Many microbial combinations were effective in improving either plant development, nutrient uptake, N2 -fixation or root system quality. Selective and specific functional compatibility relationships in plant response between the microbial inoculants, were observed. Despite the difficulty of selecting a multifunctional microbial inoculum, appropriate microbial combinations can be recommended for a given biotechnological input related to improvement of plant performance. This could be exploited in nursery production of target plant species endowed with optimized rhizosphere/mycorrhizosphere systems that can be tailored to help plants to establish and survive in nutrient-deficient, degraded habitats. The relevance of this microbial-based approach in the context of a reclamation strategy addressed to environmental sustainability purposes is discussed.
Protease from Aspergillus oryzae: Biochemical Characterization and Application as a Potential Biocatalyst for Production of Protein Hydrolysates with Antioxidant Activities

This study reports the biochemical characterization of a protease from Aspergillus oryzae LBA 01 and the study of the antioxidant properties of protein hydrolysates produced with this protease. The biochemical characterization showed that the enzyme was most active over the pH range 5.0–5.5 and was stable from pH 4.5 to 5.5. The optimum temperature range for activity was 55–60°C, and the enzyme was stable at temperatures below 45°C. The activation energy () for azocasein hydrolysis and temperature quotient () were found to be 37.98 kJ mol−1 and 1.64–1.53 at temperature range from 30 to 55°C, respectively. The enzyme exhibited of 97.63 min and a value of 324.31 at the optimum temperature for activity (57.2°C). Protease from A. oryzae LBA 01 was shown as a potentially useful biocatalyst for protein hydrolysis, increasing the antioxidant activities of soy protein isolate, bovine whey protein, and egg white protein from 2.0- to 10.0-fold.
Pollen ultrastructure of the Pontederiaceae

Abstract Pollen of eight genera and species of the Pontedcriaceae was investigated using SEM and TEM in order to elucidate interrelationships to other monocot families. All examined Pontederiaceae are diaperturate with furrow-shaped apertures and have a distinctly verrucate non-apertural exine sculpturing (except Pontederia, which is psilate to scabrate in sculpturing). Among investigated taxa the exine wall architecture exhibits a gradation between: (1) a 1-layered exine composed of laterally appressed, basally fused baculate elements, (2) a 2-layered exine, the outer layer composed of laterally appressed baculate elements and the inner forming a thin layer or composed of discrete papillate elements, and (3) a tectate-columellate exine, differing, however, from a typical tectate-columellate architecture by having short, narrow columellae and generally baculate tectal elements. Of the palynologically investigated families presumed closely related to the Pontederiaceae, only members of the tribe Haemodorea.
Annotated expressed sequence tags and xenobiotic detoxification in the aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer)

Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) are phytophagous insects that are important agricultural pests. The enormous negative economic impacts caused by aphids worldwide are well known, and are mostly due to their high multiplication rate and the transmission of phytopathogenic viruses. Aphid management strategies mainly involve chemical treatments which are pollutants and are increasingly inefficient, since aphids have developed multiple insecticide‐resistant mechanisms. Among the most economically important species is the green peach aphid Myzus persicae Sulzer (Aphididae: Macrosiphini), which is able to colonize a wide range of host plants belonging to many different families, and transmits numerous plant viruses. Because of its large prevalence, M. persicae has been the target of massive insecticide treatments; consequently, it has evolved several insecticide‐resistant mechanisms. In this work, a collection of expressed genes from M. persicae is presented in order to identify putative genes involved in xenobiotic detoxification. After cDNA cloning and sequencing, 959 expressed sequence tags (EST) were annotated. Most sequences matched known genes corresponded to metabolism proteins (26%), ribosomal proteins (23%) and structural proteins (8%). Among them, several sequences corresponded to proteins putatively involved in sensing, degradation or detoxification of plant xenobiotic products.
A novel tannase from Aspergillus niger with β-glucosidase activity

An extracellular tannase was produced from solid-state cultures of Aspergillus niger. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity from the cell-free culture broth by preparative isoelectric focusing and by FPLC using anion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatography. SDS-PAGE analysis as well as gel localization studies of purified tannase indicated the presence of two enzyme forms, with molecular masses of 90 kDa and 180 kDa. The tannase had an isoelectric point of 3·8, a temperature optimum of 60–70 °C and a pH optimum of 6·0. The substrate specificity of the tannase was determined by HPLC analysis of tannin substrates and products. The enzyme was able to remove gallic acid from both condensed and hydrolysable tannins. Internal sequences were obtained from each of the gel-purified and trypsin-digested tannase forms. The peptide sequences obtained from both forms were identical to sequences within a β-glucosidase from Aspergillus kawachii. The purified tannase was tested for β-glucosidase activity and was shown to hydrolyse cellobiose efficiently. However, no β-glucosidase activity was detected when the enzyme was assayed in the presence of tannic acid.
Filtering Surfaces in Surveys with Multiple Overlapping: Sagrada Familia

The heritage survey with the Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) allows the document of the geometry of the building and to constitute a 3D point cloud as a register of its conservation state. When complex buildings with architectural and sculptural elements are scanned, there are a lot of captured data that is not valid, because of the instrumental error and foreign elements of the buildings. For that reason, the point cloud must be cleaned with the objective to obtain a final model from which different products could be created, such as plans, technical documents and 3D models to print. For this cleaning process, in this article with the case of study is Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia (Fachada del Nacimiento), we propose a methodology based on applying some filers, considering the fact that more than 3000 positions were realized, 750 of them belong to the same facade with positions that have a lot of overlapping data. Therefore, in a same zone of the building there is data scanned from multiple positions in different ways, so we can find there any kind of error, such as the noise from boundary effects, glass flections and mobile objects, and scans realized from a scissor lift, that have been previously validated. Different point cloud filtering processes have been studied, through the point cloud itself (position by position and with a unitary cloud), and by meshing it. Every process requires the knowledge of how the scan was realized, what type of error dominates in each zone is analyzed. Therefore, each filtering option accomplish the requirements established after the analysis.