Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterizing CNAME Cloaking-based Tracking on the Web

—Third-party tracking on the web has been used for collecting and correlating user’s browsing behavior. Many techniques have been developed to protect end-users from third-party tracking. However, third-party tracking has been getting more sophisticated in an arms race against these countermeasures. Due to the increasing use of ad-blocking and third-party tracking protections, tracking providers introduced a new technique called CNAME cloaking. It misleads web browsers into believing that a request for a subdomain of the visited website originates from this particular website, while this subdomain uses a CNAME to resolve to a tracking-related third-party domain. This technique thus circumvents the third-party targeting privacy protections. The goal of this paper is to provide a thorough investigation of CNAME cloaking usage for web tracking. To the best of our knowledge, this is the ﬁrst in-depth analysis of CNAME cloaking-based tracking. We crawl top pages of the Alexa Top 300,000 sites, and analyze the usage of CNAME cloaking. Our results show that 1,762 websites (0.59%) contain CNAME cloaking-based tracking as of January 2020, primarily on Business and Shopping websites in the United States. By evaluating four snapshots of Alexa 100,000 sites from 2016 to 2020, we ﬁnd that the usage of CNAME cloaking-based tracking steadily increases. It demonstrates that CNAME cloaking-based tracking is not a new phenomenon, and it has been already deployed for at least four years. Finally, to provide a wider picture of current privacy protection techniques, we evaluate the effect of well-known ﬁlters, browsers, and extensions against CNAME cloaking-based tracking. We point out that browsers and privacy protection extensions are largely ineffective to deal with CNAME cloaking-based tracking except for Firefox with a developer’s version of the uBlock Origin
Deactivation Effects of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) on in vitro Dry Matter Digestibility of Colophospermum mopane (Mophane) and Acacia Browse Trees in Botswana

This trial evaluated the deactivation effects of PEG 6000 on in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) of Colophospermum mopane (Mophane) and acacia browse trees. Samples were collected from Sebele Content farm except for Mophane and were freezed dried before analysis. PEG was introduced into the digestion tubes at a rate of 160mg/g of sample in the form of a one milli liter of solution containing 80mg PEG before the addition of rumen fluid/buffer medium. It was found that plant species had an effect (P 0.05). However, IVDMD values of PEG treated samples were numerically higher with those of Acacia nilotica approaching significance (P=0.083). Within the PEG treated samples, IVDMD was higher (P<0.05) for A. nilotica, A. tortilis and V. verrucosum and lower for Mophane samples. The low digestibility of Mophane may not be due to extractable condensed tannins (CT) because fresh Mophane leaves have been previously found to contain 27.0g/kg DM condensed tannins. Other anti- nutritional factors may be responsible for its low digestibility. Alternatively, phlobatannins which are a characteristic of heartwood of Mophane may be present in fresh leaves and may have formed an insoluble complex with PEG leading to an underestimation of IVDMD. It is concluded that PEG may not be an ideal deactivating agent to improve utilization of fodder trees by resource limited farmers and an alternative such as wood ash should be investigated.
Drought and Flood Stress Effects on Plant Development and Leaf Water Relations of Five Taxa of Trees Native to Bottomland Habitats

Responses of five bottomland tree taxa to drought and flooding were studied to identify those adapted to urban environments. During one experiment, containerized 'Franksred' red maple (Acer rubrum L. 'Franksred' (trademark = Red Sunset)), sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana L.), black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.), bald cypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. ), and pawpaw (Asimina triloba (L.) Dunal. ) were treated with various irrigation regimes for up to 118 days. Net assimilation rate (NAR) and relative growth rate (RGR) were reduced more by flooding than by drought for plants of all taxa, except pawpaw, which showed similar NAR and RGR during flooding and drought. Only sweetbay magnolia and bald cypress maintained positive NAR and RGR during flooding, and sweetbay magnolia was the only taxon that did not produce significantly less leaf surface area, shoot dry mass, and root dry mass during flooding and drought. Apparent morphological mechanisms of stress resistance included an increase in specific mass of leaves (mg·cm -2 ) during drought for red maple and bald cypress and a 385% increase in the root : shoot mass ratio for droughted plants of pawpaw. Leaf water relations of drought- and flood-stressed 'Franksred' red maple and sweetbay magnolia were determined in a second experiment. Predawn and mid-day leaf water potential (ψ) decreased with decreasing root-zone matric potential for both taxa, and transpiration rate was reduced by drought and flooding. Pressure-volume analysis showed that leaves of 'Franksred' red maple responded to drought by shifting symplastic water to the apoplast. Leaves of drought-stres sed sweetbay magnolia adjusted osmotically by reducing osmotic potential (ψπ) at full turgor by 0.26 MPa. Our results suggest that sweetbay magnolia and bald cypress will perform well at urban planting sites where episodes of drought and flooding regularly occur. Horticulturists must identify diverse taxa of trees that withstand highly variable soil moisture conditions in urban areas. Both deficiencies and excesses in soil moisture contribute to decline of city trees (Berrang et al., 1985; Whitlow and Bassuk, 1987), and conservation of water amid continued urbanization is being pro- moted through municipal xeriscaping programs. Although the use of numerous species resistant to flooding and drought is needed to prevent monocultures prone to destruction by pests and diseases, Kielbaso (1990) reported that only seven species accounted for 75% of the street trees planted in the United States in 1980.
Untersuchungen zum Lebenszyklus der Amphipoden Bathyporeia sarsi, Microdeutopus gryllotalpa und Corophium insidiosum in der Kieler Bucht

The life cycles of the three most frequent amphipod species of the shallow waters of Kiel Bay (western Baltic Sea) were studied by evaluating their length-frequency distributions and percentages of gravid females over a15-month period. B. sarsi has two generations per year. The first one hatches in late spring and reproduces insummer. Its offspring overwinters and closes the cycle by breeding in spring. The reproductive phase in the population lasts from May to November; the minimum temperature for reproduction is about 6 C. M. gryllotalpa has a life cycle similar to that of B. sarsi, but less pronounced breeding periods and a shorter reproductive phase (end of June to October). C. insidiosum produces three generations per year during theperiod from end of April to beginning of November. Reproduction culminates in late spring/mid-summer, and to a lesser degree, in autumn. In the last two species variation in sex ratio shows a relationship to thereproductive cycle.
REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE IN HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN COWS IN RELATION TO GENETIC MERIT AND LEVEL OF FEEDING WHEN GRAZING PASTURE

One hundred and eight Holstein-Friesian cows in six herds were run on six separate farmlets over a 5-year period from 1995 to 1999 at Wollongbar Agricultural Institute, on the subtropical north coast of New South Wales, Australia. Three of the herds comprised high genetic merit (HGM) cows — Australian breeding value (ABV) of +49·1 kg for milk fat (F) plus protein (Pr) and three herds comprised low genetic merit (LGM) cows-ABV of 2·3 kg. Within genetic merit groupings, one herd was given 0·34 t (l), one herd was given 0·84 t (m) and one herd 1·71 t (h), of concentrate per cow per lactation. Within each genetic merit group, cows were matched for milk yield and live weight, and over all groups for time of calving and age at the commencement of the study. The 30 paddocks within each farmlet were matched between farmlets for pasture type and pasture growth rate and soil fertility. Half the cows within each herd calved over a 3-month period in spring and the other half in autumn. Strict management criteria ensured that there was no bias towards particular treatment groups. HGM cows were ‘open’ (days from calving to conception) for 8 days longer than the LGM cows (99 v. 91 days). The lHGM cows took 11 days longer to commence luteal phase activity and 21 days longer to first observed oestrus post calving than hLGM cows ( P After 24 days of mating, 22% of lHGM cows were pregnant, and this was less than half of the rate of the best herd-mLGM. After 9 weeks of mating, the chances of an LGM cow being pregnant was 87% greater than an HGM cow. After 12 weeks of mating, 70% of lHGM cows were pregnant compared with a mean pregnancy rate of 87% for the LGM cows. The number of cows treated for abnormal ovarian activity (anoestrus, cystic) was highest ( P There was a significant positive relationship between live-weight change from 4 weeks before, to the start of, the mating period and the chances of a cow being pregnant at 24 days ( P There was a significant negative relationship ( P The results of the present study indicate that the reproductive performance of HGM cows, with a mean of 61% North American (NA) genes, is lower than LGM cows (22% NA genes) under a predominantly pasture-based system of farming. The influence on reproduction was possibly due to genes favouring partitioning of energy to milk yield rather than body-condition maintenance in the HGM cows and when food intake was inadequate, then being more willing to use body reserves. These reproductive problems may be reduced by more intensive reproductive management. However, such practices are costly and time consuming. Another approach may be to ensure that live-weight loss over the mating period is minimized by strategic supplementary feeding.
Measuring Condensation Heat Transfer on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Condensation heat transfer is significant in many applications such as such as desalination, energy conversion [1], atmospheric water harvesting [2, 3], electronics cooling, and other high heat flux applications [4]. However, condensate on the surface adds a thermal resistance that limits condensation rates. The rate of condensation heat transfer is inversely proportional to the diameter of the condensate drops[5]. In industrial condensing systems, the resistance is minimized by removing the condensate via gravity or a vapor shear, but the minimum size of droplet removal is typically on the order of the capillary length of the condensate, about 2.7 mm for water. Properly designed superhydrophobic surfaces have been shown to promote the removal of condensate at drop sizes significantly below the capillary length due to the low contact angle hysteresis (indicating high drop mobility) and coalescence-induced jumping of condensate drops. With the removal of condensate drops due to coalescence-induced jumping, the maximum droplet diameter can be reduced by 1 to 3 orders of magnitude [6, 7]. The potential for superhydrophobic surfaces to significantly impact condensation heat transfer has prompted a great deal of exploratory research regarding the fundamental behavior of condensing droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces. Several works have quantified metrics which indirectly indicate the relative rate of heat transfer on a surface, such as maximum droplet diameter, coarse drop-size distribution, and individual droplet growth rates [8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]. Additionally, several models for condensation on superhydrophobic surfaces have been developed [17, 15, 16]. However, only a few works have experimentally measured the heat transfer directly in the absence of NCG [18, 19, 11, 20], and the influence of the microand nanostructure geometry on condensation heat transfer is not clear. This work describes preliminary efforts to measure the influence of nanoand microstucture geometry on heat transfer performance.
Evolution of the Rodents. Advances in Phylogeny, Functional Morphology, and Development.

This multi-authored book edited by Philip G. Cox and Lionel Hautier highlights the evolutionary history of rodents, as revealed by complementary fields such as phyloge-netics, paleontology, functional morphology, biomechanics, and developmental biology. It is the fifth published volume of a new Cambridge University Press series entitled "Cambridge Studies in Morphology and Molecules: New Paradigms in Evolutionary Biology". As such it allows for positively reconciling molecules, fossils and morphology as irreplaceable clues of a sole story. I guess that for virtually any paleomammalogist, this book would irredeemably recall the volume "Evolutionary Relationships Among Rodents: a Multidisciplinary Analysis" edited thirty years ago by W. P. Luckett & J.-L. Hartenberger. The latter authors were opportunely invited to sign a foreword, punchy as usual and pointing wisely the rise of novel approaches
Envelope protein domains of duck hepatitis B virus: role in assembly and infectivity

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a global public health problem with an estimated number of 350 million carriers world wide who are at risk of development of severe liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. Despite currently available nucleoside analogue therapies no general therapeutic breakthrough, which completely clears infection has been achieved after more then two decades of research. Therefore there is a continuing need to identify new antiviral targets that may be translated into useful therapies. Hepatitis B fusion represents a possible novel antiviral target. However, its mechanism and the envelope proteins involved remain unknown, due to the lack of an efficient infection system to study the early stages of virus infection. On the other hand, the study of the related duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) and the ability to carry out an in vitro infection of primary duck hepatocytes has provided some insight into the hepadnaviral mechanism of entry and the role of envelope proteins domains in this process. The DHBV envelope is comprised of two transmembrane proteins, the large (L) and small (S) that assemble into virions and subviral particles (SVPs). DHBV enters the cell by endocytosis and is trafficked to the late endosome where it is thought to fuse with the endosomal membrane to release the capsid into the cytoplasm. Previous studies, utilising synthetic peptides, have implicated transmembrane domain 1 (TM1) to act as the DHBV fusion peptide. Moreover, experiments mimicking the low pH environment of the endosome demonstrated that DHBV L undergoes a conformational change that exposes the previously hidden TM1 to the particle surface, implying that L may be involved in hepadnaviral fusion. However, the above in vitro studies did not identify TM1 as essential for DHBV infectivity. Moreover, since the TM1 region is shared by L and S protein, both proteins may be involved in DHBV fusion. This study aimed to gain an insight into the DHBV fusion mechanism. Specifically, the importance of S domains of L and S proteins (including TM1 and cysteine residues) in virus assembly and infectivity were investigated in the context of the whole virus. Moreover, the potential role of TM1 as a fusion peptide as well as the conservation of the fusion mechanism between avian and human HBV was assessed. Finally, the number and potential folding of envelope proteins on the hepadnaviral surface were examined as well as an initial attempt of particle purification for the cryoEM analysis. Using L and S mutants with reduced TM1 hydrophobicity in the primary duck hepatocyte infection system, this study established that the TM1 of L but not S acts as the DHBV fusion peptide. This role of TM1 was also supported by synthetic peptide studies using TM1 mutant peptides with reduced hydrophobicity. Further insight into DHBV fusion mechanism was gained by determination that reducing conditions as well
Climate and food web effects on the spring clear‐water phase in two north‐temperate eutrophic lakes

Although climate change has shifted the phenological timing of plankton in lakes, few studies have explicitly addressed the relative contributions of climate change and other factors, including planktivory and nutrient availability. The spring clear‐water phase is a period of marked reduction in algal biomass and increased water transparency observed in many lakes. Here, we quantified the phenological patterns in the start date, maximum date, duration, and magnitude of the clear‐water phase over 38 yr in Lakes Mendota and Monona, and examined the effects of water temperature, total phosphorus, and food web structure (proportion of large‐bodied Daphnia pulicaria and density of invasive Bythotrephes) and interactions between temperature and other predictors on these clear‐water phase metrics. We found that climate and food web structure affected the clear‐water phase, but the effects differed among the metrics. Higher water temperature led to earlier clear‐water phase start dates and maximum dates in both lakes. The proportion of D. pulicaria affected all clear‐water phase metrics in both lakes. When D. pulicaria proportion was higher, the clear‐water phase occurred earlier, lasted longer, and the water was clearer. Moreover, high Bythotrephes density delayed clear‐water phase start dates (both lakes), and decreased clear‐water phase duration (Lake Mendota) in the following year. These results suggest that variation in food web structure changes the full phenological dynamics of the clear‐water phase, while variation in climate condition affects clear‐water phase timing only. Our findings highlight the importance of large‐bodied grazers for managing water quality under climate change.
Circumpolar patterns in Antarctic krill larval recruitment: an environmentally driven model

Larval recruitment in Antarctic krill is known to be episodic and regional. We consider the importance of a range of recruitment factors using an environmentally driven model of larval development from spawning to post-larvae. Our model examines the timing of spawning, interaction with bathymetry, susceptibility to cold temperatures, temperature-driven development and the seasonal cycle of sea ice to identify those factors with the greatest impact. The model predicts that the seasonal location of sea ice is the main limiting factor for successful larval recruitment. Spawning in January leads to the greatest area of viable larval recruitment habitat. Dense sea ice cover, which we assume that adult krill do not spawn under, prevents spawning in large areas early in the breeding season (December). Nevertheless, later spawning in February, when sea ice is at a minimum, means there is often insufficient time for the larvae to reach a viable developmental stage before the sea ice advances. Meanwhile, although spawning is possible in more northerly areas throughout the breeding season, these are generally remote from winter sea ice, which is assumed to be necessary for larvae to overwinter. Interaction with bathymetry before hatching further limits suitable habitat. Over a 12 yr period, the model predicted larval re cruitment from January spawning in all years in the Cooperation, Ross and Weddell Seas, with episodic larval recruitment in the Bransfield Strait in 9 of the 12 years. Additional understanding of the overwintering requirements of larvae, together with regional studies at higher spatial resolution, particularly in shelf regions, will better constrain the uncertainties in the model.
3D Simulation for Melt Laser Anneal Integration in FinFET’s Contact

Process integration feasibility of UV nanosecond melt laser annealing (MLA) in 14 nm node generation FinFET’s contact for dopant surface segregation and activation is assessed by using a 3D TCAD simulation tool. In a n-type source/drain (S/D) in-situ phosphorous doped epilayer, Sb ion implantation is performed, considering the advantage of its surface segregation in lowering of the contact resistivity. The simulation results show that the heat sources created by the laser irradiation are confined mainly in the replacement metal gate (RMG) part, suggesting a potential interest of controlling the polarization of laser light to enlarge the process window by reducing the laser absorption in the RMG part. Also, the estimated solidification front velocity (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) in the MLA-induced epilayer regrowth (~4 m/s) satisfies the requirements (~1 m/s <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$< {V} < \,\,\sim 15$ </tex-math></inline-formula> m/s) to enable the surface segregation and metastable activation of the dopants. The surface segregation is also experimentally confirmed in the FinFET contact module.
Segmentation and structural analysis of hippocampus from MRI

The constant development of medical imaging technology and the dependen ce of medical professionals on medical images as an auxiliary data continues to increase the demand for more advanced and practical solutions that can be used to analyse the information in these images. D ue to the wide variety of information present, its subtle nature, and the need for highest accura cy, analysis of medical images provide an excellent test case to many image analysis algorithms. Computer aide d diagnostic (CAD) systems are developed considering these factors. Often, CAD systems co mprise of multiple algorithms concatenated in a pipeline to perform different operations. The final ou tput is aimed to be interpretable by a medical professional. In this thesis, three image processing techniques i) enhancement, ii) segmen tation and iii) shape analysis are studied. A CAD system is built using these three operations forming dif ferent blocks of pipeline. The intent of this system is to aid in diagnosis of a specific variant of dementia k own as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by detecting the stage of an object of interest, a sub-cortica l structure called hippocampus. AD is a neurodegenerative disease with crippling effect on human mind and yet, there is no known cure to this disease. Hence, the detection of its early onset proves to be he lpful to monitor and regulate its progress. Quantitative analysis performed on segmented volume of hippo cam us has been used to classify it into one of the three stages of diagnosis normal, mildly affected by the disease and severely affected by the disease. In order to study the structural changes in sub -hippocampal regions with respect to progression of the disease, the piecewise quantitative information has be en us d. Segmentation of hippocampus is performed by a physics-based model that operates on loc al and global image forces to evolve a surface. A coarse segmentation method is used to obtain an estimate o f the surface to be used in evolution. Since the segmentation method used here is dependent on in tensity-based features, image contrast enhancement is performed by an adaptive intensity windowin g algorithm which forms the preprocessing stage to segmentation. Thus, each block operates on th output of the previous block, and the output of the final block is useful information to diagnosis. The evaluation of intensity windowing is done by comparing the quantitative meas ures of accuracy of segmentation algorithm on non-windowed and windowed images from one of th e publicly available datasets. The evaluation of segmentation is done by conducting experiments o n images from two publicly available datasets and by comparing its accuracy with those from other re c nt methods on the