Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fresh Produce E-Commerce and Online Shoppers’ Purchase Intention

Abstract The development of the Internet has provided many opportunities for electronic commerce, and many e-commerce companies like Alibaba have achieved great success. Fresh produce industry has also attempted to step into e-commerce during the past decade. It is important for e-commerce to understand customers’ demands in this new market in order to make profits. In this research we conducted a market survey to investigate the market situation of Chinese fresh produce e-commerce. Consumer attitudes and behaviors toward online shopping for fresh fruits were evaluated. A logit model was used to identify potential factors that may have impact on consumers’ purchase intention. Results show that women are more likely than men to shop online; other factors such as influence from friends, income, product quality, food labels, packaging, and payment security can also affect online shoppers’ purchase intention.
Analyzing the Performance of WBAN Links during Physical Activity Using Real Multi-Band Sensor Nodes

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) present unique challenges due to their specific characteristics of mobility and over-the-body radio propagation. A huge amount of factors—both internal and external to the network—affect WBAN channel conditions, so a reliable and comprehensive theoretical model of these communications is unfeasible and impractical in real scenarios. Thus, an empirical performance analysis of several WBAN channels is presented in this work, based on the receiver signal strength indicator (RSSI) and packet reception rate (PRR) metrics. Four different static and dynamic activities have been characterized: standing, sitting, cycling and walking. This analysis confirms the theoretical notions of path attenuation due to body parts obstructing the signal path, while serving as a benchmark for the design of future algorithms. The experiments have been carried out with real hardware nodes with wireless interfaces in three ISM bands: 433 MHz, 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz, evaluating the effect of the transmit power and node placement for different subjects. In all scenarios, the PRR metric reaches its maximum of 100% for both sub-GHz bands. Finally, our study concludes that the RSSI metric is sufficient to exploit the periodicity of dynamic activities, without the need for any extra hardware resources.
A dosimetric study to improve the quality of nodal radiotherapy in breast cancer

Objectives: Field-based planning for regional nodal breast radiotherapy (RT) used to be standard practice. This study evaluated a field-based posterior axillary boost (PAB) and two forward-planned intensity-modulated RT (IMRT) techniques, aiming to replace the first. Methods: Supraclavicular and axillary nodes, humeral head, brachial plexus, thyroid, and oesophagus were retrospectively delineated on 12 CT scans. Three plans, prescribed to 40.05 Gy, were produced for each patient. Breast plans consisted of field-in-field IMRT tangential fields in all three techniques. Nodal plans consisted of a field-based PAB (anterior and posterior boost beam), and 2 forward-planned techniques: simple IMRT 1 (anterior and posterior beam with limited segments), and a more advanced IMRT 2 technique (anterior and fully modulated posterior beam). Results: The nodal V90% was similar between IMRT 1: mean 99.5% (SD 1.0) and IMRT 2: 99.4% (SD 0.5). Both demonstrated significantly improved results (p = 0.0001 and 0.005, respectively) compared to the field-based PAB technique. IMRT 2 lung V12Gy and humeral head V10Gy were significantly lower (p = 0.002, 0.0001, respectively) than the field-based PAB technique. IMRT 1 exhibited significantly lower brachial plexus Dmax and humeral head V5, 10, and 15Gy doses (p = 0.007, 0.013, 0.007 and 0.007, respectively) compared to the field-based PAB technique. The oesophagus and thyroid dose difference between methods was insignificant. Conclusions: Both IMRT techniques achieved the dose coverage requirements and reduced normal tissue exposure, decreasing the risk of radiation side effects. Despite the increased cost of IMRT, compared to non-IMRT techniques 1, both IMRT techniques are suitable for supraclavicular and axillary nodal RT. Advances in knowledge: Forward-planned IMRT already resulted in significant dose reduction to organs at risk and improved planning target volume coverage.1 This new, simplified forward-planned IMRT one technique has not been published in this context and is easy to implement in routine clinical practice.
Electrochemical behavior of residual salts and an effective method to remove impurities in the formation of porous copper electrode for lithium metal batteries

Lithium is one of the most promising candidates for use as an anode in lithium rechargeable batteries owing to its high specific capacity and low redox potential. However, lithium dendritic formation during charging and discharging hinders the use of lithium metal as an anode. Herein, we introduce a porous copper electrode that mitigates dendritic lithium deposition and the formation of dead lithium. The porous Cu electrode is formed by electrodeposition, which is conducted using hydrogen bubbles as a template for the porous structure. However, CuSO4 remains in preparation for the porous copper collector. The residual salts are deposited during the charging process, decreasing the initial coulombic efficiency. To remove the salts, the structure was washed with ethanol and DI water. As a result, the initial coulombic efficiency of the Li/rinsed porous Cu cell was significantly higher than that before washing. The high surface area of porous Cu induces uniform lithium plating. Therefore, the cycle stability of the cell with Li/cleaned porous Cu improved compared with that of the flat Cu foil over 160 cycles. The improvement in stability and coulombic efficiency obtained by the adoption of this porous copper electrode supports the potential for the practical application of porous Cu electrodes in lithium metal batteries.
Monitoring-Based Differential Privacy Mechanism Against Query Flooding-Based Model Extraction Attack

Public intelligent services enabled by machine learning algorithms are vulnerable to model extraction attacks that can steal confidential information of the learning models through public queries. Though there are some protection options such as differential privacy (DP) and monitoring, which are considered promising techniques to mitigate this attack, we still find that the vulnerability persists. In this article, we propose an adaptive query-flooding parameter duplication (QPD) attack. The adversary can infer the model information with black-box access and no prior knowledge of any model parameters or training data via QPD. We also develop a defense strategy using DP called monitoring-based DP (MDP) against this new attack. In MDP, we first propose a novel real-time model extraction status assessment scheme called Monitor to evaluate the situation of the model. Then, we design a method to guide the differential privacy budget allocation called APBA adaptively. Finally, all DP-based defenses with MDP could dynamically adjust the amount of noise added in the model response according to the result from Monitor and effectively defends the QPD attack. Furthermore, we thoroughly evaluate and compare the QPD attack and MDP defense performance on real-world models with DP and monitoring protection.
An off-lattice Boltzmann method for blood flow simulation through a model irregular arterial stenosis: The effects of amplitude and frequency of the irregularity

In this work, a finite-difference-based axisymmetric off-lattice Boltzmann solver is developed to simulate blood flow through pathological arteries. The proposed solver handles arterial geometries using a body-fitted curvilinear mesh. The axisymmetric nature of the flow and the non-Newtonian behavior of blood are incorporated using external source terms. The solver is verified for spatially developing pulsatile inflow through an abdominal aortic aneurysm using reference data from literature. Thereafter, the effects of amplitude and frequency of an irregular-shaped stenosed artery are systematically studied. The results are analyzed using the instantaneous vorticity contours, streamlines, cycle-averaged and phase-averaged profiles of wall shear stress (WSS), and oscillatory shear index. Further, the correlation between the luminal surface concentration (LSC) of low-density lipoproteins and the WSS is studied to predict potential disease initiation and progression locations. It is noted that an increase in the amplitude of irregularity of the stenosis increases the magnitudes of maxima and minima of WSS profiles without altering their locations. On the other hand, an increase in the frequency of irregularity increases the magnitudes of WSS extrema while bringing the peaks closer together. Further, a positive correlation is found between the degree of irregularity as well as the number of locations of elevated LSC. The presence of irregularity creates additional vortices in the upstream section of the stenosis. Both the upstream and downstream sections of the stenosis are subjected to the opposing shear-layers with higher magnitudes, which may lead to endothelial damage. Finally, the shear-thinning effect of blood is studied using the power-law model. The magnitudes of the maxima and minima in WSS have a lower value for the shear-thinning model than the Newtonian case. Also, the vortices that were produced in the upstream section because of the irregularity get suppressed by the shear-thinning effect of the blood.
Theoretical and lab based studies of fluorescence anisotropy toward the analysis of multiple homo-FRET pairs

Many biological functions, involve assembly of proteins. Protein clustering has an important role in signal transduction through the cell membrane. Model systems that simulate receptor aggregation can be used to monitor oligomerization. Techniques based on homo-FRET can reveal the aggregation state of receptor proteins because homo-FRET causes the fluorescence anisotropy of the system to decrease when the number of identical fluorophores within energy transfer distance increases. Theories that describe these systems apply an assumption of equal fluorescence efficiency for all sites [1, 2], that means emission intensity of fluorophores do not change when in close proximity with each other in a cluster. However, most fluorophores in close proximity show either self-quenching or emission enhancement. Previous theories that were devised to study fractional labelling of proteins were only applicable to cases where the distances between the labels were less than 0.8Ro, while in practice the distances between the dyes are more in protein aggregates. Three different systems were chosen to mimic aggregation of fluorescently labelled receptor proteins and analytical expressions were presented for fully labelled and fractionally labelled clusters and the experimental results from the three systems were analyzed. The systems were: a)stochastically labelled BSA containing up to 24 FITC, b) DNA fused trimeric clusters of fluorescein (stochastically labelled), and c)DNA Holliday junctions labelled with fluorescein (in a range of sizes). The inter-probe distances on the DNA constructs were designed to be up to 1.5 Ro to cover cluster sizes of larger protein clusters. The experimental results showed that: 1) none of the clustered species followed the assumption of equal fluorescence efficiency, 2) by applying the assumption of equal fluorescence efficiency, anisotropies were under-predicted and cluster sizes were under-estimated in systems that show quenching and 3) anisotropy behaviour of a multiply labelled cluster of a particular size depends on the behaviour of the fluorophores and their distance in a cluster. As a result of the theory presented here, the size of larger clusters than currently considered possible can be determined; if they are strongly quenched and their fractional labelling is carefully selected.
Fabrication and characterization of an L3 nanocavity designed by an iterative machine-learning method

Optical nanocavities formed by defects in a two-dimensional photonic crystal (PC) slab can simultaneously realize a very small modal volume and an ultrahigh quality factor (Q). Therefore, such nanocavities are expected to be useful for the enhancement of light–matter interaction and slowdown of light in devices. In the past, it was difficult to design a PC hole pattern that makes sufficient use of the high degree of structural freedom of this type of optical nanocavity, but very recently, an iterative optimization method based on machine learning was proposed that efficiently explores a wide parameter space. Here, we fabricate and characterize an L3 nanocavity that was designed by using this method and has a theoretical Q value of 29 × 106 and a modal volume of 0.7 cubic wavelength in the material. The highest unloaded Q value of the fabricated cavities is 4.3 × 106; this value significantly exceeds those reported previously for an L3 cavity, i.e., ≈2.1 × 106. The experimental result shows that the iterative optimization method based on machine learning is effective in improving cavity Q values.
Postharvest Treatment with Methyl Jasmonate Impacts Lipid Metabolism in Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Grape) at Different Ripening Stages

Application of exogenous jasmonate can stimulate the production of ethylene, carotenoids and aroma compounds, resulting in the acceleration of fruit ripening. These alterations improve fruit quality and make fruit desirable for human consumption, but overripening of a fruit results in large losses of fruit crops. In order to overcome this problem, 1-methylcyclopropene was applied to the fruits due to its capacity to block the receptors of ethylene, resulting in the suppressed of fruit ripening. In this study, treatments only with 1-methylcyclopropene, and with both 1-methylcyclopropene and methyl jasmonate was conducted to observe if an exogenous methyl jasmonate can improve the levels of metabolites in their fruits with ethylene receptors blocked. Fruits were analyzed at 4, 10 and 21 day after harvest (DAH) and compared with the no treated fruits. The postharvest treatments affected primary metabolites (sugars, organic acids, amino acids and fatty acids) and secondary metabolites (carotenoids, tocopherols and phytosterols). However, the lipid metabolism of the tomato was the most impacted by the exogenous jasmonate. Fatty acids, carotenoids, tocopherols and phytosterols showed a delay in their production at 4 and 10 DAH. In contrast, at 21 DAH these non-polar metabolites exhibited an important improvement in their accumulation.
Robust grasp detection with incomplete point cloud and complex background

Point cloud information is a convenient means to accomplish grasp detection in autonomous robotic grasping. However, the performance of various state-of-the-art grasp detection methods that use point cloud decreases significantly when the available point cloud information is incomplete and the background is complex, i.e. heterogeneous. To solve this problem, we propose a robust grasp detection method that demonstrates higher performance, especially with incomplete point clouds and complex backgrounds. We introduce a novel technique named ‘visible point-cloud’ – generated using the point cloud and pose (position and orientation) information of the sensor(s) – that helps to eliminate unsafe grasp candidates quickly and efficiently. The remaining grasp candidates are then classified and the best candidate is determined using a cost function. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown experimentally using a 6-DoF robot arm equipped with a two-finger gripper with three different background settings: (a) steps, (b) pillars, and (c) table top. The results show that the proposed method is 1.20 times faster and has a 20% higher grasp success rate than a state-of-the-art method for a single point cloud camera. The results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves the performance of autonomous grasping even with incomplete point cloud and is robust for different backgrounds. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Joint Service Caching, Computation Offloading and Resource Allocation in Mobile Edge Computing Systems

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) brings abundant cloud resources to the edge of the network and provides great opportunities to improve user’s quality of experience. While many recent studies have investigated the problem of computation offloading, service caching is also an important design topic of MEC. Service caching stores application-related databases or libraries in advance and enables corresponding user tasks to be offloaded. Due to the limited resources in the edge server, service caching decisions have to be made judiciously to maximize the system performance. In this paper, we study the problem of joint service caching, computation offloading, transmission and computing resource allocation in a general scenario of multiple users with multiple tasks. We aim to minimize the overall computation and delay costs for all users and formulate the optimization problem as a quadratically constrained quadratic program (QCQP) which is non-convex and NP-hard. To solve this challenging problem, we propose an efficiently approximate algorithm based on semidefinite relaxation (SDR) approach and alternating optimization which always computes a locally optimal solution. Moreover, we extend the study to the scenario where each user has a computation cost constraint. Simulation results show that our algorithm can minimize the system cost effectively by utilizing the available system resources.
Biases of Global Tropopause Altitude Products in Reanalyses and Implications for Estimates of Tropospheric Column Ozone

Accuracy of global tropopause altitude products from reanalyses is important to applications of the products, including the derivation of tropospheric column ozone (TCO). Here, monthly biases in lapse-rate tropopause pressure (PLRT) in two reanalyses, NCEP/NCAR and MERRA-2, and associated implications for estimating TCO are examined, based on global radiosonde observations over 1980–2017 at 689 stations. Our analysis suggests that the global mean PLRT is underestimated by −2.3 hPa in NCEP/NCAR and by −0.9 hPa in MERRA-2, mainly attributable to large negative biases around the subtropics (~20°–50°) in both hemispheres, with generally positive biases at other latitudes. Overall, NCEP/NCAR outperforms MERRA-2 in the Northern Hemisphere but underperforms MERRA-2 in the Southern Hemisphere. PLRT biases in the two reanalyses vary more evidently with latitude than with longitude. From winter to summer, the peaks of negative PLRT biases around the subtropics shift poleward by ~10°. Approximately, 70% of the reanalysis PLRT biases are within −10–10 hPa. Consequently, a negative (positive) PLRT bias induces a positive (negative) TCO bias. In absolute magnitude, the mean ozonesonde TCO bias attributable to PLRT biases is ~0.2, ~0.8 and ~1.2 Dobson Units (DU) if a PLRT bias is within 0–5, 10–15, and 10–15 hPa. Using a global ozone climatology, we estimate that the global mean bias in TCO induced by the PLRT biases in both reanalyses is positive, being 0.64 DU (or 2.2%) for NCEP/NCAR and 0.28 DU (or 1.1%) for MERRA-2.
The enclosure method for a generalized anisotropic complex conductivity equation

We study how to apply the enclosure method to reconstruct an unknown inclusion within a medium in a domain in Rn which satisfies the conductivity equation ∇ ⋅ ((σ 0 + iɛ 0)∇u) = 0 with σ 0 and ɛ 0 being real matrix functions. Motivated by some real world applications, we assume the unknown inclusion satisfies an equation of the more general form ∇⋅((σ+iε)∇u+ζ∇ū)=0 , where σ, ɛ, ζ are also real matrix functions. Due to the anisotropy, it is in general difficult to find complex geometric optics solutions. Therefore, we construct the oscillating decaying solutions, which is used to test whether a given half-space intersects the unknown inclusion or not.
Digital Design in Artistic Education: An Overview of Research in the University Setting

Digital design processes in artistic education promote the development of autonomy and self-critical capacities among students. Digital technology has transformed university education and the development of transversal skills. The objective of this study is to analyze research on digital design in art education in the context of higher education during the period 2000–2020. Bibliometric techniques were applied to 1027 articles selected from the Scopus database. The findings yielded data on the scientific productivity of journals, authors, research institutions and countries/territories that promote this topic. The data show an exponential trend, with more insistence in the last three years. Six current schools of knowledge related to art, level, formation, faculty, perception and relationship were detected. This research establishes the link between education, art and technology in the university context, and it is a tool for decision making by promoters of this field of research.
IMPACT OF HERBAL SYNERGY ON ANTIOXIDANT EFFICACY OF A NOVEL FORMULATION

Synergistic effect of herbs in a formulation leads to the development of combination therapy. Since, medicinal plants are a well known source of several natural antioxidants in the form of diet, therefore, two medicinally important edible plants viz. Murraya Koeingii and Sesamum indicum, known for their antioxidant efficacy were selected for the present study. Herbal formulation (HF) was prepared by the combination of standardized aqueous extracts of Murraya koeingii (MK) leaves and Sesamum indicum (SI) black seeds. The study was undertaken to explore the impact of synergy on antioxidant efficacy of individual herbs in a herbal formulation. Various assays used for evaluating antioxidant efficacy were total phenolics, total flavonoids, total antioxidant power (FRAP), Reducing power and Metal chelating activity. Free radical scavenging activity of herbal formulation as well as of its individual herbs was also assessed for various radicals viz. DPPH, ABTS, Nitric oxide, Hydroxyl and Superoxide radicals. The data reveals that the antioxidant efficacy of the herbal formulation significantly enhances due to the synergistic effect of both the herbs, Murraya Koeingii and Sesamum indicum. Thus, this formulation of MK leaves and SI seeds could be explored not only as an antioxidant therapeutic agent but also as an agent for managing diabetic complications viz. Oxidative Stress associate with hyperglycemia.
CUSTOMER PATRONAGE INTENTIONS AND MODERATING EFFECT OF CUSTOMER MOOD ON RETAILSCAPE ELEMENTS AND CUSTOMER JOY: A STUDY OF GROCERY RETAIL STORES IN RIYADH

This research aimed to explore the retailscape components and identify the mediation impact of customer mood between retailscape elements and customer joy evidence from Retail Stores in Riyadh. The researcher identifies the research variables based on a critical review of previous literature. The research sample consists of 289 respondents from the population which includes customers of grocery retail stores in Riyadh. SEM by using smart PLS wad conducted as an analysis tool. The research concludes that retailscape elements can influence customer joy and customer patronage. As well as, the results indicate that mood of customer mediate the relationship between customer joy and retailscape. Finally, the researcher recommended that more future research may conduct and address more factors such as behavioral intentions and customer satisfaction.