Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feeding preferences and performance of a marine isopod on seaweed hosts: cost of habitat specialization

The evolutionary hypotheses on plant-herbivore interaction assume that plant sec- ondary compounds, such as the phlorotannins of brown algae, function as feeding deterrents for her- bivores. We studied the effect of seaweed quality on the feeding preferences and performance of the isopod Idotea baltica. We offered I. baltica 6 species of algae, abundant in the Fucus vesiculosus belts where this mesograzer lives, in simultaneous preference tests. The tests were conducted both with natural algae and with artificial food made of freeze-dried and powdered algae of the same species. We found clear feeding preferences among the natural algae: the order of decreasing preference was F. vesiculosus > Dictyosiphon foeniculaceus > Elachista fucicola > Pilayella littoralis > Enteromorpha intestinalis > Ceramium tenuicorne. The preferences in the test with artificial food, however, did not parallel those with natural algae, suggesting that the chemical quality of algae is not the major deter- minant of feeding preferences. Furthermore, performance of isopods when reared on a diet of single algal species did not match the feeding preferences of natural algae: the most preferred brown alga provided poor growth rate. Surprisingly, the more phlorotannin a seaweed species contained, the more it was preferred by I. baltica. Moreover, the assimilation efficiency of soluble sugars was gen- erally high when isopods fed on brown algae, and in the 2 species richest in phlorotannins it was not correlated with the phlorotannin concentration of the algal individual. In contrast to the conventional assumption of the defensive function of phlorotannins, this study shows that phlorotannins in sea- weeds do not function as feeding deterrents to I. baltica. Instead, this herbivore readily feeds on phenolic-rich host plants, which, however, carries a cost in terms of decreased growth rate. We sug- gest that feeding preferences and habitat choice behavior evolve together; habitat structure, in terms of predation avoidance, and the spatiotemporal stability of the host algae are more important factors selecting for feeding preferences in mesoherbivores than the chemical composition of algae.
Functional testing for students

Testing is an integral part of software engineering. When teaching this discipline, educators choose testing approaches to be implemented in their classes. But many of these approaches, no matter how well devised or comprehensive, fall short of being simple and straightforward to use. Furthermore, students still face issues like: where to start, what should tests consist of, how much testing is enough etc. This paper describes a practical approach for functional testing specifically designed for students. It is meant to be intuitive, simple and thorough, so good testing results can be achieved.
Secure Scheme of Data Protection in Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is the sum of SaaS and Utility Computing. This paradigm also brings forth many new challenges for data security and access control mechanisms, when users outsource sensitive data for sharing on Cloud systems, which are not within the same trusted domain as data owners. Storing data on untrusted storage makes secure data sharing a challenge issue. To keep sensitive user data confidential against untrusted Cloud systems, on one hand, data access policies should be enforced on these storage servers; on the other hand, confidentiality of sensitive data should be well protected against them. The existing solutions usually apply cryptographic methods by disclosing data decryption keys only to authorized users. However, in doing so, these solutions inevitably introduce a heavy computation overhead on the data owner for key distribution and data management when fine-grained data access control is desired, and thus do not scale well. The main challenges for cryptographic methods include simultaneously achieving system scalability and fine-grained data access control, efficient key or user management, user accountability, data security, computational overhead and etc. To address these challenge issues, in this paper we defined and enforcing access policies based on data attributes and enabling the data owner to delegate most computation-intensive tasks pertained to user revocation to untrusted servers without disclosing data content to them. We achieve this goal by exploiting and uniquely combining techniques of Ciphertext policy attribute based encryption system and proxy re-encryption and re-encryption. Our proposed scheme also has salient features of user access privilege confidentiality and user secret key accountability.
The 3-D shaping of NGC 6741: A massive, fast-evolving Planetary Nebula at the recombination-reionization edge

We infer the gas kinematics, diagnostics and ionic radial profiles, distance and central star parameters, nebular photo-ionization model, spatial structure and evolutionary phase of the Planetary Nebula NGC 6741 by means of long-slit ESO NTT+EMMI high-resolution spectra at nine position angles, reduced and analysed according to the tomographic and 3-D methodologies developed at the Astronomical Observatory of Padua (Italy). NGC 6741 (distance = 2.0 kpc, age ≃ 1400 yr, ionized mass M ion ≃ 0.06 M ○. ) is a dense (electron density up to 12000 cm -3 ), high-excitation, almost-prolate ellipsoid (0.036 pc×0.020pc×0.018 pc, major, intermediate and minor semi-axes, respectively), surrounded by a sharp low-excitation skin (the ionization front), and embedded in a spherical (radius ≃ 0.080 pc), almost-neutral, high-density (n(HI) ≃ 7 × 10 3 atoms cm -3 ) halo containing a large fraction of the nebular mass (M halo ≥ 0.20 M ○. ). The kinematics, physical conditions and ionic structure indicate that NGC 6741 is in a deep recombination phase, started about 200 years ago, and caused by the rapid luminosity drop of the massive (M * = 0.66-0.68 M ○. ), hot (log T * ≃ 5.23) and faint (log L * /L ○. ≃ 2.75) post-AGB star, which has exhausted the hydrogen-shell nuclear burning and is moving along the white dwarf cooling sequence. The general expansion law of the ionized gas in NGC 6741, V exp (km s -1 ) = 13 x R, fails in the innermost, highest-excitation layers, which move slower than expected. The observed deceleration is ascribable to the luminosity drop of the central star (the decreasing pressure of the hot-bubble no longer balances the pressure of the ionized gas), and appears in striking contrast to recent reports inferring that acceleration is a common property of the Planetary Nebulae innermost layers. A detailed comparative analysis proves that the U-shaped expansion velocity field is a spurious, incorrect result due to a combination of: (a) simplistic assumptions (spherical shell hypothesis for the nebula); (b) unfit reduction method (emission profiles integrated along the slit); and (c) inappropriate diagnostic choice (λ4686 A of He II, i.e. a thirteen fine-structure components recombination line). Some general implications for the shaping mechanisms of Planetary Nebulae are discussed.
Thermal conductivity of Si/SiGe superlattice nanowires

The thermal conductivities of individual single crystalline Si/SiGe superlattice nanowires with diameters of 58 and 83 nm were measured over a temperature range from 20 to 320 K. The observed thermal conductivity shows similar temperature dependence as that of two-dimensional Si/SiGe superlattice films. Comparison with the thermal conductivity data of intrinsic Si nanowires suggests that alloy scattering of phonons in the Si–Ge segments is the dominant scattering mechanism in these superlattice nanowires. In addition, boundary scattering also contributes to thermal conductivity reduction.
Intelligent home-appliance recognition over IoT cloud network

In recent years, under the concern of energy crisis, the government has actively cooperated with research institutions in developing smart meters. As the Internet of Things (IoT) and home energy management system become popular topics, electronic appliance recognition technology can help users identifying the electronic appliances being used, and further improving power usage habits. However, according to the power usage habits of home users, it is possible to simultaneously switch on and off electronic appliances. Therefore, this study discusses electronic appliance recognition in a parallel state, i.e. recognition of electronic appliances switched on and off simultaneously. This study also proposes a non-invasive smart meter system that considers the power usage habits of users unfamiliar with electronic appliances, which only requires inserting a smart meter into the electronic loop. Meanwhile, this study solves the problem of large data volume of the current electronic appliance recognition system by building a database mechanism, electronic appliance recognition classification, and waveform recognition. In comparison to other electronic appliance recognition systems, this study uses a low order embedded system chip to provide low power consumption, which have high expandability and convenience. Differing from previous studies, the experiment of this study considers electronic appliance recognition and the power usage habits of general users. The experimental results showed that the total recognition rate of a single electronic appliance can reach 96.14%, thus proving the feasibility of the proposed system.
Expression and role of EGFR ligands induced in airway cells by PM2.5 and its components

The aim of the current study was to establish the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligand expression profile in human airway epithelial cells exposed to either particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) or its components and the involvement of EGFR ligands in PM2.5-provoked airway inflammation. EGFR ligand mRNA and protein expression were studied in a human bronchial epithelial cell line and normal nasal cells exposed to noncytotoxic concentrations of PM2.5 or its components. The autocrine role of EGFR ligands in airway epithelial cell pro-inflammation was determined by adding conditioned media from PM2.5-treated cells to fresh cells and measuring the secretion of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), a pro-inflammatory biomarker. PM2.5 increased amphiregulin, transforming growth factor-α and heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor mRNA expression and protein secretion, with a slight contribution of aqueous metallic compounds and a strong participation of organic components putatively attributed to PM polyaromatic hydrocarbon content. PM2.5-induced EGFR ligands were involved in cellular GM-CSF release. The current study revealed upregulation of several epidermal growth factor receptor ligands by airway epithelial cells exposed to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm and their contribution to bronchial epithelial cell granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor secretion by an autocrine action, suggesting that these ligands could elicit and sustain the particulate matter-induced airway pro-inflammatory response and contribute to bronchial remodelling.
Extracting Information Seeking Behavior from the Collaborative Reference Database

Recently, development of search engines helps to simplify human's information seeking behavior, because we can easily access useful information from the Web. However, search engine users tend to select only Web pages in a search result returned by the search engines considering their rankings. Consequently, the users just browse highly ranked Web pages, and cannot be conducive to find useful information because of turning their eyes away from the identification of their information sources, which is the most important task in the information seeking behavior. In order to solve this problem, people should use the mechanism which can show procedures to get useful information, and should emulate the capabilities of searchers in public libraries using their affairs. In this paper, we propose a method for extracting user's information seeking behavior to develop the mechanism. In order to extract the information seeking behavior, we use the collaborative reference database developed by the National Diet Library (NDL) of Japan as searchers' behaviors, and analyze its dialogues called “reference data”.
High-performance Computing and Application of Zero-norm

Whether sparseness can be effectively controlled is one of the key elements to measure the merits of the sparse coding algorithm. One-norm is primarily used in the sparse coding algorithm to control its sparseness currently, as well as by sparse approximation to control the sparseness of sparse coding model, but all these methods have led to slow convergence and low efficiency ultimately. In order to enhance the effectiveness of sparse coding algorithms, this paper selects zero-norm to control sparseness of the sparse coding model, and calculate after continuously extended at the discontinuous point of the model.We propose a highly efficient zero-norm sparse coding algorithm. This paper not only theoretically proves feasibility and efficiency of the algorithms which is capable of effectively controlling model sparseness, but also verifies the theoretical correctness of inference through experiments. These prove the operational efficiency of the algorithm is more efficient and stronger than existing algorithms.
What difference does the choice of SES make in health inequality measurement?

This note explores the implications for measuring socioeconomic inequality in health of choosing one measure of SES rather than another. Three points emerge. First, whilst similar rankings in the two the SES measures will result in similar inequalities, this is a sufficient condition not a necessary one. What matters is whether rank differences are correlated with health - if they are not, the measured degree of inequality will be the same. Second, the statistical importance of choosing one SES measure rather than another can be assessed simply by estimating an artificial regression. Third, in the 19 countries examined here, it seems for the most part to make little difference to the measured degree of socioeconomic inequalities in malnutrition among under-five children whether one measures SES by consumption or by an asset-based wealth index.
Cosmic Shear and Biasing

The correlation between cosmic shear, as measured by the image distortion of high-redshift galaxies, and the number counts of foreground galaxies is calculated. For a given power spectrum of the cosmic density fluctuations, this correlation is proportional to the bias factor, which can thus be directly measured. Perhaps of more immediate interest, this correlation provides a first-order measure of cosmic shear and is therefore easier to observe than quadratic measures hitherto proposed. Analytic approximations show that the expected signal-to-noise ratio of the correlation is large, so that a significant detection is possible with a moderate amount of data; in particular, it is predicted that the ongoing ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) will be able to detect this correlation on scales of ~10' at a 3 σ level, and with higher significance on smaller angular scales.
Ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption from lattices

Sahai and Waters [6] proposed Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) as a new paradigm of encryption algorithms that allow the sender to set a policy describing who can decrypt a particular ciphertext. In this paper, we first propose a ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) scheme from lattices, which supports flexible threshold access policies on literal (or boolean) attributes. Then we extend it to support multi-valued attributes without increasing the public key and ciphertext size. Our scheme's master secret key has only one matrix despite of the number of the system's attributes. The security of our schemes is based on the worst-case hardness on lattices.
Measuring the Quality of Regional Innovation Systems: A Knowledge Production Function Approach

This article deals with applying the knowledge production function approach to the measuring and the comparison of the quality of regional innovation systems. It is argued that an embeddedness in a well-functioning innovation system should result in a relatively high propensity to innovate and a high productivity of efforts in research and development (R&D). Based on data for eleven European regions, the author has found a number of such statistically significant differences between the manufacturing firms in these regions. Interregional differences in the productivity of R&D activities correspond to some degree with a center-periphery paradigm, which can be found in the literature. Obviously, there exist considerable agglomeration economies that are conducive to R&D activities.
High-Entropy Alloys

This book provides a complete review of the current state of the art in the field of high entropy alloys (HEA). The conventional approach to alloy design is to select one principal element and add elements to it in minor quantities in order to improve the properties. In 2004, Professor J.W. Yeh and his group first reported a new approach to alloy design, which involved mixing elements in equiatomic or near-equiatomic proportions, to form multi-component alloys with no single principal element. These alloys are expected to have high configurational entropy and hence were termed as "high entropy alloys. " HEAs have a broad range of structures and properties, and may find applications in structural, electrical, magnetic, high-temperature, wear-resistant, corrosion-resistant, and oxidation-resistant components. Due to their unique properties, high entropy alloys have attracted considerable attention from both academics and technologists. This book presents the fundamental knowledge present in the field, the spectrum of various alloy systems and their characteristics studied to date, current key focus areas, and the future scope of the field in terms of research and technological applications.
Sustainable Consumption: Analysis of Consumers’ Perceptions about Using Private Brands in Food Retail

Private brands are representing an important vector for retailers, helping them to build sustainable relationships with their customers. Usually, private brands are perceived as products differentiated by lower prices. The purpose of this research is to identify consumers’ trust level in private brands used in food retail and their perceptions about the quality of retailers’ own products. The research question is: What are consumers’ perceptions about using private brands in food retail? Pursuing this question, a survey based on a questionnaire was carried out. Research findings showed that the main reason why people buy private brands’ products is lower price rather than high quality. The interviews showed that the typical private brand user is male, aged between 45 and 65 years old, with middle-level income, and employees with secondary education. These results are useful for retailers in their efforts to decide strategies for their private brands and for building consumers’ trust. The findings are useful for food producers as well, because they should reconsider their marketing strategies in order to adapt themselves to the continuous growth of retailers’ private brands.
Lymphocyte-style word representations

Semantic similarity between words is becoming a generic problem for many applications of computational linguistics and artificial intelligence. Word representation is the most important determination of similarity. Inspired by the analogies between words and lymphocytes, a lymphocyte-style word representation is proposed. The word representation is built on the basis of dependency syntax of sentences and represent word context as head properties and dependent properties of the word. For learning of the representations, a multi-word-agent autonomous learning model (MWAALM) based on an artificial immune system is presented. This research provides a completely new perspective on language and words. The most significant advantages of this research lie in two aspects: the first is that lymphocyte-style word representation can express both similarities and dependency relations between words, the second is that the MWAALM is implemented concisely and has the potential ability of continuous learning since the simulated targets have the ability of adaptation. Lymphocyte-style word representations are evaluated by computing the similarities between words, and experiments are conducted on the Penn Chinese Treebank 5.1. Experimental results indicate that the proposed word representations are effective.
Improving Low Power Processor Efficiency with Static Pipelining

A new generation of mobile applications requires reduced energy consumption without sacrificing execution performance. In this paper, we propose to respond to these con? icting demands with an innovative statically pipelined processor supported by an optimizing compiler. The central idea of the approach is that the control during each cycle for each portion of the processor is explicitly represented in each instruction. Thus the pipelining is in effect statically determined by the compiler. The benefits of this approach include simpler hardware and that it allows the compiler to perform optimizations that are not possible on traditional architectures. The initial results indicate that static pipelining can significantly reduce power consumption without adversely affecting performance.
NADPH Oxidase NOX5-S and Nuclear Factor κB1 Mediate Acid-Induced Microsomal Prostaglandin E Synthase-1 Expression in Barrett’s Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Cells

The mechanisms of progression from Barrett’s esophagus (BE) to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) are not known. Cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2)-derived prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) has been shown to be important in esophageal tumorigenesis. We have shown that COX-2 mediates acid-induced PGE2 production. The prostaglandin E synthase (PGES) responsible for acid-induced PGE2 production in BE, however, is not known. We found that microsomal PGES1 (mPGES1), mPGES2, and cytosolic PGES (cPGES) were present in FLO EA cells. Pulsed acid treatment significantly increased mPGES1 mRNA and protein levels but had little or no effect on mPGES2 or cPGES mRNA. Knockdown of mPGES1 by mPGES1 small interfering RNA (siRNA) blocked acid-induced increase in PGE2 production and thymidine incorporation. Knockdown of NADPH oxidase, NOX5-S, a variant lacking calcium-binding domains, by NOX5 siRNA significantly inhibited acid-induced increase in mPGES1 expression, thymidine incorporation, and PGE2 production. Overexpression of NOX5-S significantly increased the luciferase activity in FLO cells transfected with a nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) in vivo activation reporter plasmid pNF-κB-Luc. Knockdown of NF-κB1 p50 by p50 siRNA significantly decreased acid-induced increase in mPGES1 expression, thymidine incorporation, and PGE2 production. Two novel NF-κB binding elements, GGAGTCTCCC and CGGGACACCC, were identified in the mPGES1 gene promoter. We conclude that mPGES1 mediates acid-induced increase in PGE2 production and cell proliferation. Acid-induced mPGES1 expression depends on activation of NOX5-S and NF-κB1 p50. Microsomal PGES1 may be a potential target to prevent or treat EA.