bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and co-infection with malaria during the first wave of the pandemic (the Burkina Faso case)
Authors: López-Farfán Diana , Yerbanga R. Serge , Parres-Mercader Marina , Torres-Puente Manuela , Gómez-Navarro Inmaculada , Sanou Do Malick Soufiane , Yao Adama Franck , Bosco Ouédraogo Jean , Comas Iñaki , Irigoyen Nerea , Gómez-Díaz Elena
Published: December 2022

Africa accounts for 1.5% of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and 2.7% of deaths, but this low incidence has been partly attributed to the limited testing capacity in most countries. In addition, the population in many African countries is at high risk of infection with endemic infectious diseases such as malaria. Our aim is to determine the prevalence and circulation of SARS-CoV-2 variants, and the frequency of co-infection with the malaria parasite. We conducted serological tests and microscopy examinations on 998 volunteers of different ages and sexes in a random and stratified population sample in Burkina-Faso. In addition, nasopharyngeal samples were taken for RT-qPCR of SARS-CoV-2 and for whole viral genome sequencing. Our results show a 3.2 and a 2.5% of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and PCR positivity; and 22% of malaria incidence, over the sampling period, with marked differences linked to age. Importantly, we found 8 cases of confirmed co-infection and 11 cases of suspected co-infection mostly in children and teenagers. Finally, we report the genome sequences of 13 SARS-CoV-2 isolates circulating in Burkina Faso at the time of analysis, assigned to lineages A.19, A.21, B.1.1.404, B.1.1.118, B.1 and grouped into clades; 19B, 20A, and 20B. This is the first population-based study about SARS-CoV-2 and malaria in Burkina Faso during the first wave of the pandemic, providing a relevant estimation of the real prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and variants circulating in this Western African country. Besides, it highlights the non-negligible frequency of co-infection with malaria in African communities.
Leisure-Time Physical Activity in People With Spinal Cord Injury—Predictors of Exercise Guideline Adherence
Authors: Watson Paul K. , Arora Mohit , Middleton James W. , Quel de Oliveira Camila , Heard Robert , Nunn Andrew , Geraghty Timothy , Marshall Ruth , Davis Glen M.
Published: December 2022

Objectives: This study described leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) for people in Australia with spinal cord injury (SCI) and whether certain sociodemographic and psychosocial variables might be associated with LTPA uptake and guidelines adherence.

Methods: The Physical Activity Scale for Individuals with a Physical Disability was used to measure the intensity and volume of LTPA of 1,579 individuals with SCI. Summary statistics were calculated for LTPA guidelines adherence. Analyses included regression modelling.

Results: Of the 1,579 participants, 58% performed LTPA and 13% adhered to recommended guidelines for weekly LTPA. There was an association with being an “exerciser” based on the time since injury (OR = 1.02 [95% 1.01–1.03]), a traumatic injury (OR = 1.53 [95% CI 1.13–2.08]) and a higher self-rating of health (OR = 1.10 [95% CI 0.95–1.27]). Where LTPA guidelines were met, adherence was most related to a traumatic injury (OR = 1.75 [95% CI 1.02–3.02]) and being unemployed (OR = 1.53 [95% CI 1.03–2.25]).

Conclusion: Of those who performed LTPA with SCI, one in four met population-specific LTPA guidelines. Sociodemographic variables were moderately associated with being an “exerciser” or LTPA “guideline-adherent.”
The Influence of the Bud Stage at Harvest and Cold Storage on the Vase Life of Narcissus poeticus (L.) Flowers
Authors: Jezdinská Slezák Katalin , Jezdinský Aleš , Mazur Justyna , Vachůn Miroslav , Kapczyńska Anna , Pokluda Robert , Uher Jiří
Published: December 2022

The Narcissus poeticus (L.) species stands out from other narcissus due to its unique ornamental and sensory values. In our experiment, the flowers of N. poeticus were harvested at five different stages. After cutting, the plants were placed directly at room temperature or at 4 °C for 1 week. The opening status of the flowers was recorded every 12 h, and based on this, the ornamental value of the flowers was calculated. Additionally, the flower diameter, the scape and flower weight, the dry matter content, the water soluble K, Ca, and Mg content of the plant parts, and the chlorophyll content of the scapes were measured. The complete senescence of the stored flowers was noted to be earlier (after 6.6–7.5 days) than that of the fresh flowers (7.5–8.5 days) and depended on the bud stage at harvest. Flowers opened from all the buds, but the flower size was smaller in the early developmental harvest stage (a 10 mm reduction in diameter and a 0.38 g reduction in fresh weight between the green bud and the large white bud harvest stages). Cold storage delayed further bud development and reduced the flower size in several cases, but it increased the maximum decorative value of the flowers for those flowers that had been harvested as big white buds.
Method Research and Structural Design of Segmented Shrimp Clamping
Authors: Xiong Shi , Luo Qiaojun , Li Junlue , Feng Yunyun , Gan Ling , Bai Shenghe , Fang Xianfa
Published: December 2022

Clamping is the key factor that restricts the full-process mechanization of directional shrimp peeling. To solve the problem of difficult clamping caused by the uncertainty of shrimp position after orientation, a segmented shrimp clamping method was proposed by analyzing the relationship between shrimp conveying and clamping conditions. The contact force relationship on the shrimp meat was deduced based on mechanical analysis of the clamping process, and it was concluded that the number of segmented clamping units should be increased during the clamping process to reduce the pressure of the clamping units on the shrimp meat. A segmented shrimp clamping mechanism was designed for adaptive shrimp clamping, conveying and discharging. The profile curve model of the clamping surface was built by analyzing the shrimp section profile characteristics. According to ADAMS kinematics simulation analysis, no shrimp fell off or was damaged during the clamping process, which verified the design rationality of the segmented shrimp clamping mechanism. According to the single-factor test on a newly built shrimp clamping test bench, the optimal rotation speed range of the segmented clamping mechanism was found to be 10–20 r/min, the clamping success rate was over 92%, and the shrimp integrity rate was no less than 99%. The comparison test and performance test results showed that the segmented clamping mechanism had stronger adaptability and better clamping effect under the condition of variable interval feeding. Therefore, the segmented clamping mechanism is capable of practical application and can create stable clamping conditions for shrimp peeling.
Constitutive and Inducible Expression of Genes Related to Salicylic Acid and Ethylene Pathways in a Moderately Resistant Tomato Cultivar Leads to Delayed Development of Meloidogyne javanica
Authors: Asadi-Sardari Ameneh , Mahdikhani-Moghadam Esmat , Zaki-Aghl Mohammad , Vetukuri Ramesh Raju
Published: December 2022

Knowledge of the molecular changes in resistant and susceptible cultivars during nematode attack is essential for developing plant resistance. Increased expression of genes related to the synthesis and signaling of salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and ethylene is known to induce expression of genes related to defense against plant parasitic nematodes. Here, we inoculated approximately 3000 s-stage juveniles (J2s) of Meloidogyne javanica to moderately resistant and highly susceptible tomato cultivars (ALYSTE F-1 and Dutch Mobil, respectively) to compare the developmental disease stages. The roots of each cultivar were collected daily until 30 days after inoculation (DAI). The roots were stained with acid-fuchsin and dissected under a microscope. The results showed that a few parasitic J2s were converted to J3s in the moderately resistant cultivar at 14 DAI, at which time, the highly susceptible cultivar had the highest number of J3s. Comparison of hormonal pathways in the two cultivars revealed that the expression of genes related to the ethylene pathway in ALYSTE F-1 was more strongly upregulated than in Dutch Mobil at 14 DAI. Moreover, the jasmonic acid pathway in the roots of both cultivars decreased at 14 DAI. The expression of genes related to salicylic acid synthesis and signaling was not significantly different between the two cultivars with regard to their non-inoculated controls, respectively, but ALYSTE F-1 in general showed constitutively higher levels of these genes compared to Dutch Mobil at 14 DAI. These results suggest that constitutive and induced expression of genes related to the salicylic acid pathway and ethylene pathway, respectively, delay the development of M. javanica J2s in ALYSTE F-1.
Late to the Party—Transferred Mulch from Green Manures Delays Colorado Potato Beetle Infestation in Regenerative Potato Cropping Systems
Authors: Junge Stephan Martin , Leisch-Waskönig Simeon , Winkler Julian , Kirchner Sascha Michael , Saucke Helmut , Finckh Maria Renate
Published: December 2022

The Colorado potato beetle (CPB) is an exceptionally challenging potato pest. Some regenerative farmers have reported that the use of transferred green manure mulch can considerably reduce CBP damage. Previous studies confirm this observation, but mainly with straw mulch, which is rarely used in Central Europe, and not embedded in the new regenerative cropping approach. For this, six trials conducted between 2014 and 2019 were evaluated, comparing CPB infestation in potatoes with and without transferred mulch as well as under a plough as a minimum till regime. In three out of six experiments, compost application was an additional factor. (I) Over all experiments, mulch significantly reduced initial infestation (−24%), egg masses (−27%) and larvae (−75%). Compost and reduced tillage added to these effects; (II) Mulch mainly resulted in delayed CPB infestation; (III) In a particularly warm season, when a second generation of CPB managed to emerge, regulatory effects of the mulch were not sufficient; (IV) Combination of transferred nutrient rich green manure mulch with reduced tillage, compost and other regenerative or agro-ecological techniques is recommended to achieve maximum regulation of CPB.
New Insights into the Life History Changes Can Enhance Control Strategies for Therioaphis trifolii
Authors: Song Xianmei , Lee Seunghyun , Wang Xinpu , Bai Ming
Published: December 2022

The spotted alfalfa aphid (SAA), Therioaphis trifolii, is a phloem-feeding pest with a complex life history, and it causes a tremendous global loss of crop yields. A large number of previous studies focused only on few-generation life tables, whereas multi-generation life tables could explore aphid adaptation processes that are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of physical characters of alfalfa on SAA growth and development and used life-table parameters to evaluate the transgenerational effects of SAA populations on highly resistant (HA-3) and highly susceptible (Hu) alfalfa cultivars. The results indicated that alfalfa waxy content, anatomical structure of vegetative organs, and density and length of leaf hairs were significantly positively correlated with resistance to the SAA. In terms of the developmental time of total preoviposition period (TPOP), no significant differences were observed between two populations; compared to the HA-3 population, the G2-G8 Hu populations were markedly lower and G9-G10 Hu populations were visibly higher. Meanwhile, the reproductive days, mean longevity, and fecundity (offspring) of the HA-3 population were obviously higher than those of the Hu group after G5. Furthermore, the finite rate of increase (λ) and intrinsic rate of increase (r) of HA-3 were significantly higher than for the Hu population after G7. Meanwhile, the net reproductive rate (R0) and mean generation time (T) of HA-3 were significantly higher than for the Hu population after G5. On the whole, the SAA had a high survival rate, strong reproductive capacity, long life span, and high population growth parameters on Hu in the early stage, while the SAA had better growth and development on HA-3 in the late stage. The physical characteristics of alfalfa leaves could be used as one of the indicators of aphid resistance. However, the coevolutionary coupling was broken with the gradual adaptation of SAA, which provides an empirical basis for further exploring the mechanisms of alfalfa resistance to aphids and the integrated control of pests.
Ladybird-Mediated Indirect Interactions between Two Aphid Species When Using a Banker Plant System
Authors: Yang Yajie , Wang Jie , Mi Yingying , Gu Junjie , Benelli Giovanni , Desneux Nicolas , Wang Su , Li Shu , Yue Yanli
Published: December 2022

Banker plant systems have the advantages of introducing natural enemies preventively and maintaining by providing alternative prey, thus controlling the pests sustainably. Banker plant systems are usually composed of three factors: a banker (secondary) plant, an alternative prey, and a shared predator (attacking an alternative prey on the secondary plant, and the targeted pest on the crop). However, for most banker plant systems, there is a lack of understanding regarding the dynamic relationship among these elements, with detrimental effects on practical applications. Therefore, in this study, the control of Myzus persicae on Capsicum annum by the Coccinella septempunctata–Megoura japonica–Vicia faba banker plant system was used as the research system. The effects of different release time of predators, different initial numbers of alternative prey (Me. japonica) and different initial ratios of target pests/alternative prey on the indirect interaction of two aphids and the biological control effect of shared predators were tested. The occurrence of indirect interactions between the two aphid preys, the impact on population dynamics, and biological control effectiveness of the shared predator C. septempunctata were investigated. When the initial numbers of both species of aphids were equal (200 each), the delay between aphid and C. septempunctata introduction in the cage had no effect on My. persicae, but Me. japonica showed lower numbers when testing the least time between predatory introductions. When the numbers of the two aphids were manipulated, the My. persicae population was significantly reduced by the predator only at a ratio of My. persicae to Me. japonica < 1, while initial ratios ≥ 1 enabled My. persicae population growth. In 1–6 days, the control effect of C. septempunctata was the best. Principal component analysis showed that the experimental time, initial numbers of Me. japonica, and relative numbers of Me. japonica affected the predation of My. persicae by C. septempunctata. In addition, when the initial aphid ratio was greater than 1/4, C. septempunctata was able to effectively control My. persicae. Overall, our study confirmed the number-mediated indirect interaction (apparent competition) relationship and its impact on prey population dynamics. We provide useful information for optimizing banker plant systems, to boost biocontrol of aphid pests.
Untapping the Potential of Neglected and Underutilized Species to Improve Food Security
Authors: Draper David , Marques Isabel
Published: December 2022

World food production will need to increase by at least 50% to meet our future needs [...]
Changes in Cat Facial Morphology Are Related to Interaction with Humans
Authors: Hattori Madoka , Saito Atsuko , Nagasawa Miho , Kikusui Takefumi , Yamamoto Shinya
Published: December 2022

We aimed to clarify the changes in facial morphology of cats in relation to their interactions with humans. In Study 1, we compared the facial morphology of cats (feral mixed breed, owned domestic mixed breed, and owned domestic purebreds) with that of African wildcats. After collecting 3295 photos, we found that owned domestic cats’ noses were significantly shorter than those of African wildcats and feral mixed breed, and there were no significant differences between the latter two. The eye angles were significantly more gradual in owned domestic purebreds than in the other groups. In Study 2, we examined the correlation between facial morphology and years with the owner, and found that the former is not affected by the latter. This suggests that changes in facial morphology are possibly transgenerational changes. The difference in facial morphology between wildcats and owned cats might be caused by domestication, and that between feral cats and owned cats might be due to feralization. In Study 3, we investigated whether cats’ facial features affect cuteness ratings. We asked human participants to evaluate the cuteness of cats’ face images and found that faces with shorter nose lengths were considered cuter. This suggests that owned domestic cats’ facial morphology is preferred by humans.
Integrated Transcriptome and Microbiota Reveal the Regulatory Effect of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Supplementation in Antler Growth of Sika Deer
Authors: Si Huazhe , Li Songze , Nan Weixiao , Sang Jianan , Xu Chao , Li Zhipeng
Published: December 2022

The level of plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) is associated with the growth of the antler, a fast-growing bone organ of Cervidae. However, the benefits of 25(OH)D supplementation on antler growth and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, the antler growth profile and transcriptome, plasma parameters, rumen bacteria, and metabolites (volatile fatty acids and amino acids) were determined in sika deer in a 25(OH)D supplementation group (25(OH)D, n = 8) and a control group (Ctrl, n = 8). 25(OH)D supplementation significantly increased the antler weight and growth rate. The levels of IGF-1,25(OH)D and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D were significantly higher in the 25(OH)D group than in the Ctrl group, while the levels of LDL-C were lower. The levels of valerate and branched-chain amino acids in the rumen fluid were significantly different between the 25(OH)D and Ctrl groups. The bacterial diversity indices were not significantly different between the two groups. However, the relative abundances of the butyrate-producing bacteria (families Lachnospiraceae and Succinivibrionaceae) and the pyruvate metabolism pathway were higher in the 25(OH)D group. The transcriptomic profile of the antler was significantly different between the 25(OH)D and Ctrl groups, with 356 up- and 668 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the 25(OH)D group. The up-regulated DEGs were enriched in the proteinaceous extracellular matrix and collagen, while the down-regulated DEGs were enriched in the immune system and lipid metabolism pathways. Overall, these results provide novel insights into the effects of 25(OH)D supplementation on the host metabolism, rumen microbiota, and antler transcriptome of sika deer.
Investigation of Thresholds for Asymmetry Indices to Represent the Visual Assessment of Single Limb Lameness by Expert Veterinarians on Horses Trotting in a Straight Line
Authors: Macaire Claire , Hanne-Poujade Sandrine , De Azevedo Emeline , Denoix Jean-Marie , Coudry Virginie , Jacquet Sandrine , Bertoni Lélia , Tallaj Amélie , Audigié Fabrice , Hatrisse Chloé , Hébert Camille , Martin Pauline , Marin Frédéric , Chateau Henry
Published: December 2022

Defining whether a gait asymmetry should be considered as lameness is challenging. Gait analysis systems now provide relatively accurate objective data, but their interpretation remains complex. Thresholds for discriminating between horses that are visually assessed as being lame or sound, as well as thresholds for locating the lame limb with precise sensitivity and specificity are essential for accurate interpretation of asymmetry measures. The goal of this study was to establish the thresholds of asymmetry indices having the best sensitivity and specificity to represent the visual single-limb lameness assessment made by expert veterinarians as part of their routine practice. Horses included in this study were evaluated for locomotor disorders at a clinic and equipped with the EQUISYM® system using inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors. Visual evaluation by expert clinicians allocated horses into five groups: 49 sound, 62 left forelimb lame, 67 right forelimb lame, 23 left hindlimb lame, and 23 right hindlimb lame horses. 1/10 grade lame horses were excluded. Sensors placed on the head (_H), the withers (_W), and the pelvis (_P) provided vertical displacement. Relative difference of minimal (AI-min) and maximal (AI-max) altitudes, and of upward (AI-up) and downward (AI-down) amplitudes between right and left stance phases were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves discriminating the sound horses from each lame limb group revealed the threshold of asymmetry indice associated with the best sensitivity and specificity. AI-up_W had the best ability to discriminate forelimb lame horses from sound horses with thresholds (left: −7%; right: +10%) whose sensitivity was greater than 84% and specificity greater than 88%. AI-up_P and AI-max_P discriminated hindlimb lame horses from sound horses with thresholds (left: −7%; right: +18% and left: −10%; right: +6%) whose sensitivity was greater than 78%, and specificity greater than 82%. Identified thresholds will enable the interpretation of quantitative data from lameness quantification systems. This study is mainly limited by the number of included horses and deserves further investigation with additional data, and similar studies on circles are warranted.
Wild Terrestrial Animal Re-Identification Based on an Improved Locally Aware Transformer with a Cross-Attention Mechanism
Authors: Zheng Zhaoxiang , Zhao Yaqin , Li Ao , Yu Qiuping
Published: December 2022

The wildlife re-identification recognition methods based on the camera trap were used to identify different individuals of the same species using the fur, stripes, facial features and other features of the animal body surfaces in the images, which is an important way to count the individual number of a species. Re-identification of wild animals can provide solid technical support for the in-depth study of the number of individuals and living conditions of rare wild animals, as well as provide accurate and timely data support for population ecology and conservation biology research. However, due to the difficulty of recording the shy wild animals and distinguishing the similar fur of different individuals, only a few papers have focused on the re-identification recognition of wild animals. In order to fill this gap, we improved the locally aware transformer (LA transformer) network structure for the re-identification recognition of wild terrestrial animals. First of all, at the stage of feature extraction, we replaced the self-attention module of the LA transformer with a cross-attention block (CAB) in order to calculate the inner-patch attention and cross-patch attention, so that we could efficiently capture the global information of the animal body’s surface and local feature differences of fur, colors, textures, or faces. Then, the locally aware network of the LA transformer was used to fuse the local and global features. Finally, the classification layer of the network realized wildlife individual recognition. In order to evaluate the performance of the model, we tested it on a dataset of Amur tiger torsos and the face datasets of six different species, including lions, golden monkeys, meerkats, red pandas, tigers, and chimpanzees. The experimental results showed that our wildlife re-identification model has good generalization ability and is superior to the existing methods in mAP (mean average precision), and obtained comparable results in the metrics Rank 1 and Rank 5.
A Preliminary Assessment of Compassion Fatigue in Chimpanzee Caregivers
Authors: Jensvold Mary Lee
Published: December 2022

Compassion fatigue is defined as “traumatization of helpers through their efforts at helping others”. It has negative effects on clinicians including reduced satisfaction with work, fatigue, irritability, dread of going to work, and lack of joy in life. It is correlated with patients’ decreased satisfaction with care. Compassion fatigue occurs in a variety of helping professions including educators, social workers, mental health clinicians, and it also appears in nonhuman animal care workers. This study surveyed caregivers of chimpanzees using the ProQOL-V to assess the prevalence of compassion fatigue among this group. Compassion satisfaction is higher than many other types of animal care workers. Conversely, this group shows moderate levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress; higher levels than other types of animal care workers and many medical professions. While compassion fatigue has an effect on the caregiver’s experience, it has potential to affect animal welfare. Caregivers are an integral part of the chimpanzee social network. Compassion fatigue affects the caregiver’s attitude, this could in turn affect the relationship and degrade the experience of care for captive chimpanzees. Compassion fatigue can be mitigated with professional development, mindfulness training, interrelationships among staff, and specialized training. This preliminary assessment indicates the work ahead is educating caregivers about compassion fatigue and implementing procedures in sanctuaries to mitigate burnout and secondary traumatic stress.
Failure Analysis of Subway Box Structures According to Displacement Behavior on a Serviced Urban Railway
Authors: Choi Jung-Youl , Kim Sun-Hee , Yang Gyu-Nam , Lee Ho-Hyun , Chung Jee-Seung
Published: December 2022

The increasing development of underground infrastructure has led to the deformation of subway box structures and surrounding roadbeds, eventually resulting in cracks. Therefore, it is necessary to predict damage through effective analysis and evaluation techniques. This study examined the correlation between displacement behavior and damage in a subway box structure and proposed an analysis technique to predict the damage location and scale of a structure by comparing the results from visual inspection, on-site measurement, and numerical analysis. The proposed technique can be used to compute the external boundary conditions that may induce major deformations in a subway box structure, and to predict and evaluate the members and locations where the damage may occur. In addition, we confirm that the damaged location and scale in a subway box structure can be determined, and that the maintenance of a subway box structure can be achieved by repairing and reinforcing the damaged part. Therefore, the results of this study are expected to help accurately predict damage in subway box structures, thereby contributing to better maintenance and failure prevention of underground infrastructure.
A Comparative Study for Some Mathematical Models of Epidemic Diseases with Application to Strategic Management
Authors: Youssef I. K. , Hassan M. H. M.
Published: December 2022

A local performance of the SIR model on actual data is introduced. A good approximation of the SIR model parameters in Saudi Arabia during a period of 275 days (the first of April 2020 to the end of December 2020) is determined. The parameters are estimated from the recorded data and used to predict the values in the next subsequent period. The performance of the standard fourth order Runge–Kutta method is considered for the classical SIR models over different periods. A comparison of the recorded data and the predicted values during the considered period illustrated the effectiveness of the treatment. The mathematical properties and initial conditions are considered within the estimated parameter values. It is shown that lockdown and social distance attitudes effectively controlled the spread of the disease. The maximum number of daily active infected cases is 63,026, and occurs in July and this agrees with the calculated values. To make the graphs representable, we considered a fixed closed population, the effective sample during the considered period of size N = 400,000 only (represents only 1% of the overall population susceptible, this must be associated, with great thanks, to the authorities in KSA).
FF-MR: A DoH-Encrypted DNS Covert Channel Detection Method Based on Feature Fusion
Authors: Wang Yongjie , Shen Chuanxin , Hou Dongdong , Xiong Xinli , Li Yang
Published: December 2022

In this paper, in order to accurately detect Domain Name System (DNS) covert channels based on DNS over HTTPS (DoH) encryption and to solve the problems of weak single-feature differentiation and poor performance in the existing detection methods, we have designed a DoH-encrypted DNS covert channel detection method based on features fusion, called FF-MR. FF-MR is based on a Multi-Head Attention and Residual Neural Network. It fuses session statistical features with multi-channel session byte sequence features. Some important features that play a key role in the detection task are screened out of the fused features through the calculation of the Multi-Head Attention mechanism. Finally, a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) is used to detect encrypted DNS covert channels. By considering both global and focused features, the main idea of FF-MR is that the degree of correlation between each feature and all other features is expressed as an attention weight. Thus, features are re-represented as the result of the weighted fusion of all features using the Multi-Head Attention mechanism. Focusing on certain important features according to the distribution of attention weights improves the detection performance. While detecting the traffic in encrypted DNS covert channels, FF-MR can also accurately identify encrypted traffic generated by the three DNS covert channel tools. Experiments on the CIRA-CIC-DoHBrw-2020 dataset show that the macro-averaging recall and precision of the FF-MR method reach 99.73% and 99.72%, respectively, and the macro-averaging F1-Score reached 0.9978, which is up to 4.56% higher than the existing methods compared in the paper. FF-MR achieves at most an 11.32% improvement in macro-averaging F1-Score in identifying three encrypted DNS covert channels, indicating that FF-MR has a strong ability to detect and identify DoH-encrypted DNS covert channels.
Implementation and Evaluation of Dynamic Task Allocation for Human–Robot Collaboration in Assembly
Authors: Petzoldt Christoph , Niermann Dario , Maack Emily , Sontopski Marius , Vur Burak , Freitag Michael
Published: December 2022

Human–robot collaboration is becoming increasingly important in industrial assembly. In view of high cost pressure, resulting productivity requirements, and the trend towards human-centered automation in the context of Industry 5.0, a reasonable allocation of individual assembly tasks to humans or robots is of central importance. Therefore, this article presents a new approach for dynamic task allocation, its integration into an intuitive block-based process planning framework, and its evaluation in comparison to both manual assembly and static task allocation. For evaluation, a systematic methodology for comprehensive assessment of task allocation approaches is developed, followed by a corresponding user study. The results of the study show for the dynamic task allocation on the one hand a higher fluency in the human–robot collaboration with good adaptation to process delays, and on the other hand a reduction in the cycle time for assembly processes with sufficiently high degrees of parallelism. Based on the study results, we draw conclusions regarding assembly scenarios in which manual assembly or collaborative assembly with static or dynamic task allocation is most appropriate. Finally, we discuss the implications for process planning when using the proposed task allocation framework.
A Multi-Layer Holistic Approach for Cursive Text Recognition
Authors: Umair Muhammad , Zubair Muhammad , Dawood Farhan , Ashfaq Sarim , Bhatti Muhammad Shahid , Hijji Mohammad , Sohail Abid
Published: December 2022

Urdu is a widely spoken and narrated language in several South-Asian countries and communities worldwide. It is relatively hard to recognize Urdu text compared to other languages due to its cursive writing style. The Urdu text script belongs to a non-Latin cursive family script like Arabic, Hindi and Chinese. Urdu is written in several writing styles, among which ‘Nastaleeq’ is the most popular and widely used font style. A gap still poses a challenge for localization/detection and recognition of Urdu Nastaleeq text as it follows modified version of Arabic script. This research study presents a methodology to recognize and classify Urdu text in Nastaleeq font, regardless of the text position in the image. The proposed solution is comprised of a two-step methodology. In the first step, text detection is performed using the Connected Component Analysis (CCA) and Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network (LSTM). In the second step, a hybrid Convolution Neural Network and Recurrent Neural Network (CNN-RNN) architecture is deployed to recognize the detected text. The image containing Urdu text is binarized and segmented to produce a single-line text image fed to the hybrid CNN-RNN model, which recognizes the text and saves it in a text file. The proposed technique outperforms the existing ones by achieving an overall accuracy of 97.47%.
Antibacterial Effect of Er:YAG Laser Irradiation Applied by a New Side-Firing Spiral Tip on Enterococcus faecalis Biofilm in the Tooth Root Canal—An Ex Vivo Study
Authors: Sebbane Nathanyel , Steinberg Doron , Keinan David , Sionov Ronit Vogt , Farber Adi , Sahar-Helft Sharonit
Published: December 2022

This study evaluates the antibacterial and anti-biofilm effect of erbium:yttrium aluminum garnet (Er:YAG) laser treatment on a tooth root model infected with Enterococcus faecalis. Background: New treatment options are required to overcome endodontic infection in periapical tissue. Studies using Er:YAG during endodontic treatment yielded promising results regarding anti-biofilm/antimicrobial effects. Methods: The root canals of 80 teeth were incubated with E. faecalis for 4 weeks, allowing biofilm formation in the root canals, then divided into one control group and seven treatment groups that were exposed to Er:YAG laser using a side-firing spiral Endo tip, 2.5% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), 17% EDTA solutions alone or combined. The number of bacteria in each sample was determined by counting the number of colony-forming units (CFU) and was statistically compared. Results: Er:YAG laser, NaOCl and EDTA treatments alone caused a 76.0 ± 5.7%, 98.0 ± 0.6% and 69.0 ± 9.1% reduction, respectively, in CFU. Combining the laser treatment with NaOCl, EDTA or both, caused a further reduction in the bacterial load by 99.77 ± 0.14%, 93.4 ± 1.6% and 99.95 ± 0.04%, respectively. Conclusions: Er:YAG laser treatment showed significant antibacterial effect on the experimental groups, while combination with NaOCl and EDTA provided the most efficient conditions for achieving antibacterial effect against E. faecalis, in the tooth root model.
Users’ Information Disclosure Behaviors during Interactions with Chatbots: The Effect of Information Disclosure Nudges
Authors: Carmichael Laurie , Poirier Sara-Maude , Coursaris Constantinos K. , Léger Pierre-Majorique , Sénécal Sylvain
Published: December 2022

Drawing from the tension between a company’s desire for customer information to tailor experiences and a consumer’s need for privacy, this study aims to test the effect of two information disclosure nudges on users’ information disclosure behaviors. Whereas previous literature on user-chatbot interaction focused on encouraging and increasing users’ disclosures, this study introduces measures that make users conscious of their disclosure behaviors to low and high-sensitivity questions asked by chatbots. A within-subjects laboratory experiment entailed 19 participants interacting with chatbots, responding to pre-tested questions of varying sensitivity while being presented with different information disclosure nudges. The results suggest that question sensitivity negatively impacts users’ information disclosures to chatbots. Moreover, this study suggests that adding a sensitivity signal—presenting the level of sensitivity of the question asked by the chatbot—influences users’ information disclosure behaviors. Finally, the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of the results are discussed.
Meta-Extreme Learning Machine for Short-Term Traffic Flow Forecasting
Authors: Li Xin , Li Linfeng , Huang Boyu , Dou  Haowen , Yang Xi , Zhou Teng
Published: December 2022

The traffic flow forecasting proposed for a series of problems, such as urban road congestion and unreasonable road planning, aims to build a new smart city, improve urban infrastructure, and alleviate road congestion. The problems encountered in traffic flow forecasting are also relatively difficult; the reason is that traffic flow forecasting is uncertain, dynamic, and nonlinear. It is challenging to build a reliable and safe model. Aiming at this complex and nonlinear traffic flow forecasting problem, this paper proposes a solution of an ABC-ELM model optimized by an artificial bee colony algorithm to solve the above problem. It uses the characteristics of the artificial bee colony algorithm to optimize the model so that the model can better and faster find the optimal solution in space. Moreover, it also uses the characteristics of the limit learning machine to quickly deal with this nonlinear specific problem. Experimental results on the Amsterdam road traffic flow dataset show that the traffic flow prediction model proposed in this paper has higher prediction accuracy and is more sensitive to data changes.
The eIDAS Regulation: A Survey of Technological Trends for European Electronic Identity Schemes
Authors: Sharif Amir , Ranzi Matteo , Carbone Roberto , Sciarretta Giada , Marino Francesco Antonio , Ranise Silvio
Published: December 2022

The eIDAS regulation aims to provide an interoperable European framework to enable EU citizens to authenticate and communicate with services of other Member States by using their national electronic identity. While a number of high-level requirements (e.g., related to privacy and security) are established to make interoperability among Member States possible, the eIDAS regulation does not explicitly specify the technologies that can be adopted during the development phase to meet the requirements as mentioned earlier. To the best of our knowledge, there is no work available in the literature investigating the technological trends within the notified eIDAS electronic identity schemes used by Member States. To fill this gap, this paper analyzes how the different technological trends of notified schemes satisfy the requirements of the eIDAS regulation. To do this, we define a set of research questions that allow us to investigate the correlations between different design dimensions such as security, privacy, and usability. Based on these findings, we provide a set of lessons learned that would be valuable to the security community, as they can provide useful insights on how to more efficiently protect interoperable national digital identities. Furthermore, we provide a brief overview regarding the new eIDAS regulation (eIDAS 2.0) that aims to provide a more privacy-preserving electronic identity solution by moving from a centralized approach to a decentralized one.
Research on Fracture Mechanism and Stability of Slope with Tensile Cracks
Authors: Lu Yulin , Chen Xiaoran , Wang Li
Published: December 2022

Tensile cracks at the crest of slope will attenuate the stability of slope. The aim of this paper is to investigate the computation of safety factors acting on a clay slope when the slip surface consists of tensile crack and shear surface. Based on the theory of limit equilibrium, an analytical solution for safety factors containing three types of failure mechanisms is presented. The optimal crack depth was obtained by using the principle of minimum safety factor. In the solution, effects of parameters such as crack depth, slope angle, height, cohesion, and internal friction angle on slope stability were discussed. By comparing with the results of previous studies, the rationality of the proposed approach was verified. Results show that consideration of tensile cracks lead to a significant reduction in slope stability, and the safety factor decreases by about 10% compared with the slope without cracks. The law of safety factor varying with crack depth indicates that it first decreases as the crack depth is increased and then increases as the crack depth is further increased. Through the parametric analysis, it is found that the safety factor increases with an increase in cohesion and internal friction angle but decreases with the slope angle and height increase. It is important to note that the optimal crack depth does not exceed one-third of the slope height. Moreover, a highway landslide that occurred in the road running across the Yunnan and Tibet Province was investigated to verify the practicality of the present method.
Neural-Network-Assisted Polar Code Decoding Schemes
Authors: Liu Hengyan , Zhang Limin , Yan Wenjun , Ling Qing
Published: December 2022

The traditional fast successive-cancellation (SC) decoding algorithm can effectively reduce the decoding steps, but the decoding adopts a sub-optimal algorithm, so it cannot improve the bit error performance. In order to improve the bit error performance while maintaining low decoding steps, we introduce a neural network subcode that can achieve optimal decoding performance and combine it with the traditional fast SC decoding algorithm. While exploring how to combine neural network node (NNN) with R1, R0, single-parity checks (SPC), and Rep, we find that the decoding failed sometimes when the NNN was not the last subcode. To solve the problem, we propose two neural network-assisted decoding schemes: a key-bit-based subcode NN-assisted decoding (KSNNAD) scheme and a last subcode NN-assisted decoding (LSNNAD) scheme. The LSNNAD scheme recognizes the last subcode as an NNN, and the NNN with nearly optimal decoding performance gives rise to some performance improvements. To further improve performance, the KSNNAD scheme recognizes the subcode with a key bit as an NNN and changes the training data and label accordingly. Computer simulation results confirm that the two schemes can effectively reduce the decoding steps, and their bit error rates (BERs) are lower than those of the successive-cancellation decoder (SCD).
Knowledge Graph Double Interaction Graph Neural Network for Recommendation Algorithm
Authors: Kang Shuang , Shi Lin , Zhang Zhenyou
Published: December 2022

To solve the problem that recommendation algorithms based on knowledge graph ignore the information of the entity itself and the user information during information aggregating, we propose a double interaction graph neural network recommendation algorithm based on knowledge graph. First, items in the dataset are selected as user-related items and then they are integrated into user features, which are enriched. Then, according to different user relationship weights and the influence weights of neighbor entities on the central entity, the graph neural network is used to integrate the features of nodes in the knowledge graph to obtain neighborhood information. Secondly, user features are interacted and aggregated with the entity’s own information and neighborhood information, respectively. Finally, the label propagation algorithm is used to train the edge weights to assist entity features learning. Experiments on two real datasets commonly used in recommended algorithms were conducted and showed that the model is better than the existing baseline models. The values of AUC and F1 on MoviesLens-1M are 0.905 and 0.835 and on the Book-Crossing are 0.698 and 0.640. Compared with the baseline model, the Precision@K index improved by 1.3–3% and the Recall@K index improved by 2.2~11.2% on the MoviesLens-1M dataset, while the Precision@K index improved by 0.6~1.6% and the Recall@K index improved by 4.5~10.8% on the Book-Crossing dataset. The model also achieves strong performance in data-sparse scenarios.
Factors Affecting Information Security and the Implementation of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Programmes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
Authors: Bahaddad Adel A. , Almarhabi Khalid A. , Alghamdi Ahmed M.
Published: December 2022

In recent years, desktop computer use has decreased while smartphone use has increased. This trend is also prevalent in the Middle East, particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Therefore, the Saudi government has prioritised overcoming the challenges that smartphone users face as smartphones are considered critical infrastructure. The high number of information security (InfoSec) breaches and concerns has prompted most government stakeholders to develop comprehensive policies and regulations that introduce inclusive InfoSec systems. This has, mostly, been motivated by a keenness to adopt digital transformations and increase productivity while spending efficiently. This present study used quantitative measures to assess user acceptance of bring your own device (BYOD) programmes and identifies the main factors affecting their adoption using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model. Constructs, such as the perceived business (PT-Bs) and private threats (PT-Ps) as well as employer attractiveness (EA), were also added to the UTAUT model to provide the public, private, and non-profit sectors with an acceptable method of adopting BYOD programmes. The factors affecting the adoption of BYOD programmes by the studied sectors of the KSA were derived from the responses of 857 participants.
Toward Gas-Phase Thermometry Using Pure-Rotational Impulsive Stimulated Raman Scattering Spectroscopy with a Low-Energy Femtosecond Oscillator
Authors: Falconieri Mauro , Tedeschi Davide , Gagliardi Serena , Rondino Flaminia , Marrocco Michele , Kulatilaka Waruna D.
Published: December 2022

Femtosecond coherent Raman techniques have significant diagnostic value for the sensitive and non-intrusive measurement of temperature, pressure, and composition of gas mixtures. Due to the low density of samples, however, such measurements make use of high-energy amplified laser sources, with unwieldy and costly experimental setups. In this paper, we demonstrate an experimental setup equipped with a low-energy and low-average-power femtosecond oscillator allowing measurement of the pure-rotational spectrum of nitrogen down to atmospheric pressure using impulsive stimulated Raman scattering. Using a simplified model to analyze the experimental data we were able to derive the gas temperature with reasonable accuracy.