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The ideal free distribution (IFD) theory predicts that individuals are free to move among habitat patches and distribute among them “ideally,” in order to maximize individual evolutionary fitness. Size and quality of habitat patches then should directly impact the number of individuals occupying them, and connectivity of habitat patches likely plays a role if dispersal is limited. However, habitat patches can be distributed so that movement no longer can be considered free, for example, when patches are isolated. Challenges stemming from patch delimitation and detection rate of occupants further complicate efforts attempting to resolve such patterns. Here, we utilize as habitat patches the orb webs of four different populations belonging to three golden orb weaver spider species, Nephila pilipes (Fabricius, 1793), Nephilingis livida (Vinson, 1863), and Trichonephila clavipes (Linnaeus, 1767), and the obligate spider kleptoparasites (Argyrodinae, Theridiidae) that are associated with their webs. We examine how the IFD predicts the abundance of kleptoparasites under different patterns of patch size and distribution. We found that larger host webs, that is, habitat patches that contain more resources, are occupied by a higher number of kleptoparasitic spiders, regardless of their degree of isolation. Although the free movement prediction is often violated in natural systems, we find no evidence for habitat patch connectivity affecting the abundance of kleptoparasites, indicating that their dispersal ability facilitates the location and colonization of habitat patches regardless of their isolation. Therefore, our results support the interaction between argyrodine kleptoparasitic spiders and the webs of golden orb weavers to be a suitable natural system for studying the IFD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web crawler detection is critical for preventing unauthorized extraction of valuable information from websites. Current methods rely on heuristics, leading to time-consuming processes and inability to detect novel crawlers. Privacy protection and communication burdens during training are overlooked, resulting in potential privacy leaks. To address these issues, we propose a federated deep learning crawler detection model that analyzes access behaviors while preserving privacy. First, individual clients locally host website data, while the central server aggregates information for detection model parameters, eliminating raw user data transmission or access. We then develop an innovative algorithm constructing access path trees from user logs, effectively extracting temporal and spatial behavior features. Additionally, we propose a novel time series model with fused additive attention, enabling effective web crawler detection while preserving privacy and reducing data transmission. Finally, comprehensive evaluations on public datasets demonstrate robust privacy protection and effective detection of emerging crawler types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of 5G mobile communication technology, the growing demand for media services in society is becoming a characteristic of smart cities. Technical study has exhaustively investigated the low-latency resource supply of edge computing systems for web hosting services. However, external variables (such as transmission and network delays) impact the transmission between edge servers and service requests, resulting in service request delays. In addition, resource service requests that are constantly updated and in dynamic distribution may overload some servers while others are idle, resulting in poor load balancing. Consequently, this research presents a Resource Pre-Allocation method (RPA) for cognitive analytics-based social media platforms, which aims to improve the load balancing of edge servers while serving requests with strict latency requirements, so as to obtain the optimal resource allocation strategy. First, the resource requirement prediction algorithm is developed based on temporal-spatial demand history. Then, we propose a multi-objective algorithm combined with the optimal solution selection techniques to obtain the ideal resource allocation decisions. Finally, the performance of RPA is tested and evaluated. The experimental results show that RPA can allocate resources better than other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An observation on the current state of teaching large language models (LLMs) in education is made. The problem of lacking a structural approach is defined. A methodology is created in order to serve as the basis of a workshop in teaching students with different types of backgrounds the correct use of LLMs and their capabilities. A workshop plan is created; instructions and materials are presented. A practical experiment has been conducted by dividing students into teams and guiding them to create a small project. Different LLMs are used for the purposes of creating a fictional story, images relating to the story, and very simple HTML, JS, and CSS code. Participants are given requirements that consider the limitations of LLMs, and different approaches to creatively solving arising issues due to the requirements are observed. The students' projects are hosted on the web, so that they can see the results of their work. They are given the opportunity to use them as motivation for their future development. A survey is created and distributed to all the participating students. The results are analyzed from different angles and conclusions are made on the effectiveness of the workshop in completing its goal of solving the defined problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: We assessed the population genetic structure of the kleptoparasitic spider Argyrodes bonadea across the Southwestern Pacific islands. Our aim is to evaluate the impact of overseas distances and, in particular, the Kerama gap, as potential drivers of genetic differentiation. If no relationship exists, then we assume dispersal following adaptive change as alternative non‐vicariant mechanism that generates divergence. Location: Southwestern Pacific Islands. Taxon: Argyrodes bonadea. Methods: We used mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase 1 (CO1) gene sequences and Restriction Site‐associated DNA Sequencing (RAD‐seq) for our analyses. Results: Two strongly supported lineages, an Amami‐Okinawa Lineage (AOL) and an Austral‐Asia Lineage (AAL), correspond to two separate clades, roughly divided by the Kerama Gap, in phylogenetic trees estimated here. However, species delimitation led to the interpretation of only a single species present. The AOL exhibits complex, geographically structured host web spider species specificity, wherein the Amami population utilizes Cyrtophora, but AOL samples in Okinawa associate exclusively with Nephila—and yet all broadly distributed AAL populations show no evidence of host web spider species specificity. Main Conclusion: The population boundary between AOL and AAL likely results from local adaptation to novel hosts—instead of isolation by the Kerama Gap—following long‐distance dispersal and range expansion. Our results suggest kleptoparasitic spiders have the capacity to overcome permanent deep‐sea barriers and colonize distant landmasses. Whereas peripheral populations (AOL) demonstrate the capacity for specialization to a single host, which may have contributed to genetic differentiation and isolation, the broadly distributed AAL persists and has successfully expanded its geographical range as a host generalist, which may contribute to ongoing gene flow inferred in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leeds Museums and Galleries led a citywide consortium of over fifty arts, cultural, and community organizations and over thirty primary schools to co-create the Leeds Curriculum. The Curriculum provides primary teachers with the resources they need to teach using a place-based, local approach to teach any subject and any age group. It took two years to develop, launched in June 2018, and is reaching around 10,000 schoolchildren. The Curriculum is openly accessible on MyLearning.org, a website hosting free to access national teaching resources. Leeds Museums and Galleries evaluated the impact of the place-based approach through a small-scale study in the summer 2021. The research focused on pupils aged 8 to 9 in one school in the suburbs of Leeds and used a range of approaches to gather evidence to answer a key research question and sub-questions relating to historical attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spider silk is a promising material with great potential in biomedical applications due to its incredible mechanical properties and resistance to degradation of commercially available bacterial strains. However, little is known about the bacterial communities that may inhabit spider webs and how these microorganisms interact with spider silk. In this study, we exposed two exopolysaccharide-secreting bacteria, isolated from webs of an orb spider, to major ampullate (MA) silk from host spiders. The naturally occurring lipid and glycoprotein surface layers of MA silk were experimentally removed to further probe the interaction between bacteria and silk. Extensibility of major ampullate silk produced by Triconephila clavata that was exposed to either Microbacterium sp. or Novosphigobium sp. was significantly higher than that of silk that was not exposed to bacteria (differed by 58.7%). This strain-enhancing effect was not observed when the lipid and glycoprotein surface layers of MA silks were removed. The presence of exopolysaccharides was detected through NMR from MA silks exposed to these two bacteria but not from those without exposure. Here we report for the first time that exopolysaccharide-secreting bacteria inhabiting spider webs can enhance extensibility of host MA silks and silk surface layers play a vital role in mediating such effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When designing a machine learning‐based scoring function, we access a limited number of protein‐ligand complexes with experimentally determined binding affinity values, representing only a fraction of all possible protein‐ligand complexes. Consequently, it is crucial to report a measure of confidence and quantify the uncertainty in the model's predictions during test time. Here, we adopt the conformal prediction technique to evaluate the confidence of a prediction for each member of the core set of the CASF 2016 benchmark. The conformal prediction technique requires a diverse ensemble of predictors for uncertainty estimation. To this end, we introduce ENS‐Score as an ensemble predictor, which includes 30 models with different protein‐ligand representation approaches and achieves Pearson's correlation of 0.842 on the core set of the CASF 2016 benchmark. Also, we comprehensively investigate the residual error of each data point to assess the normality behavior of the distribution of the residual errors and their correlation to the structural features of the ligands, such as hydrophobic interactions and halogen bonding. In the end, we provide a local host web application to facilitate the usage of ENS‐Score. All codes to repeat results are provided at https://github.com/miladrayka/ENS_Score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: This study describes the use of the Epvix platform for virtual cross‐matching (VC) of human leucocyte antigen (HLA)‐compatible platelets for patients with immune platelet refractoriness, and demonstrates effectiveness of the selected platelets. Materials and Methods: A prospective cohort of haematological patients was evaluated from 2018 to 2022. HLA‐typed donor bank profile was previously uploaded to the Epvix platform. Each patient's antibody reactivity panel (PRA) was included in the platform. Then, search, selection and VC were performed, and 24‐h‐corrected count increment (CCI) platelet transfusion was calculated (reference ≥2500). Results: Six patients were included (four female, two male), with mean age of 61 years. HLA antibodies were detected as the cause of immunity for all patients, whereas four patients also had non‐immune causes. High percentage of alloimmunization was detected in all studied patients (mean PRA: 85.7%). Thirty different donors were able to schedule and perform platelet donations. The mean 24‐h CCI count was 9882. All platelet transfusions achieved a satisfactory CCI count except for two transfusion events. Presence of non‐immune causes identified in these two cases could account for the unsatisfactory CCI. Conclusion: Epvix is a free application hosted on the Web and uses the HLAMatchmaker algorithm to generate histocompatibility reports. This study demonstrates the efficiency of VC performed by Epvix. However, physical cross‐matching will still be necessary in some instances, as the platform does not support human platelet antigen polymorphism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although decades of scholarship have documented how institutions of higher education fundraise and conduct philanthropic programs and campaigns, no research has addressed how an institution's digital headquarters—the institutional website hosting the philanthropic campaign—communicates with the public and functions before, during, and after the campaign. In this study, we provide a nine-year longitudinal review (2014 to 2023) of The University of Texas at Austin's "40-for-40" annual philanthropic campaign. Over this time period, the institution updated their digital headquarters yearly to integrate social media, global communications, gamification, and mid-campaign challenges into their campaign. These updates may have helped increase the campaign's grand total from $128,516 from 2,104 gifts in 2014 to $6,451,168 from 11,069 gifts in 2023. Implications for theory, research, and practice are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a new model for national skin audit and data submission in the field of dermatology. The traditional method of manually entering data points retrospectively is inefficient and time-consuming. The article suggests the adoption of standardized templates and proforma systems for real-time documentation of clinical recommendations and patient data. The use of a rule-based natural language processing technique is also proposed to extract and analyze data in real-time. The article highlights the challenges and limitations in data collection and analysis and emphasizes the need for continued innovation and collaboration in this area. The proposed model aims to provide near real-time, precise analysis of treatment outcomes and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of influencing factors. However, there are scalability barriers that need to be addressed. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of measurement and improvement in skin cancer audit and data submission and the need for benchmarking in dermatology and plastic surgery. [Extracted from the article]

This research sheds light on consumer motivations for participating in the sharing economy and examines downstream consequences of the uncovered motivations. We use text-mining techniques to extract Airbnb hosts' motivations from their responses to the question "why did you start hosting." We find that hosts are driven not only by the monetary motivation "to earn cash" but also by intrinsic motivations such as "to share beauty" and "to meet people." Using extensive transaction-level data, we find that hosts with intrinsic motivations post more property photos and write longer property descriptions, demonstrating greater engagement with the platform. Consequently, these hosts receive higher guest satisfaction ratings. Compared to hosts who want to earn cash, hosts motivated to meet people are more likely to keep hosting and to stay active on the platform, and hosts motivated to share beauty charge higher prices. As a result, these intrinsically motivated hosts have a higher customer lifetime value compared to those with a monetary motivation. We employ a multimethod approach including text mining, Bayesian latent attrition models, and lab experiments to derive these insights. Our research provides an easy-to-implement approach to uncovering consumer motivations in practice and highlights the consequential role of these motivations for firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These days, advertisers make every effort to attract users through coercive exposure, so as to achieve web-advertisement performance. However, the validity of crediting actual performances through forced exposure is a moot point, because accompanied unwanted digressive advertisements and unintended mouse clicks imposed on the user, are nuisance factors that can culminate in a negative way. Hence, this study investigates advertisement performance in an elaborate way by focusing on varying effects of coercive exposures. Moreover, when considering advertisement performance, it is appropriate to examine advertisement fit, that is, whether the advertising contents match with services provided by the host website. The results showed that, when subjectively forced to frequent unsolicited advertisement, a user's negative attitude to the respective advertisement greatly impacts on advertisement performance. Furthermore, if the level of advertisement fit is low, negative attitude is strengthened. This study provides guidelines on more appropriate ways for performing web advertisement, to achieve a genuine performance of advertisement and provide practical web-advertisement strategies for advertisers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the ways a smart city can use Geospatial Information Systems (G.I.S.) to promote its history, focusing on the phenomenon of piracy. Specifically, definitions are given regarding the concept of Smart Cities and their correlation with G.I.S. Then an analysis is made concerning the ways in which historical phenomena, such as piracy, can be visualized using G.I.S. through the creation of interactive maps, 3D models and animated maps. References to historical facts are also presented in order to understand the need of creating such cartographic compositions to highlight aspects of history, that few know and even fewer have studied, especially in Greece. Moreover, we present the ways in which cartographic compositions can be demonstrated in the coastal settlements and the islands that were pirate strongholds. Finally, we show ways that these cartographic compositions can be hosted on a website, giving the possibility to access the information from all over the world, emphasizing the importance of highlighting local history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC) is hosting a web platform -- the Risk Data Hub -- intended to improve the access and sharing of curated EU-wide risk data, tools and methodologies for fostering Disaster Risk Management (DRM) related actions. Within the DRMKC's Risk Data Hub (RDH) development, we integrate a methodology for the identification of regions with multi-hazard potential impact at pan European level. With this study we present the methodological approach and we stage it as one fundamental development in support of DRM decision-making at national and subnational level. We adopt a meta-analysis approach, combining independent tests (the single hazards' exposure hotspots), which seeks to solve the problem of "insignificant results" and provides an objective "statistical proof' of the multi-hazard potential of a region. We support these results through a validation process which considers empirical data as explanatory variables. Presenting an implemented methodology, scalable down to local subnational level, that reveals types of assets at risk to multiple hazards and their location, we take one further step towards the identification of the disaster risk management pathways in multi-hazard assessment. The outcome of this study will provides valuable input and will assist national authorities on the integration of multi-hazard analysis in their National Risk Assessments and Disaster Risk Management plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parasitoid way of life (parasitizing and finally killing a single arthropod host) is one of the most successful lifeways in the animal kingdom, sparking an explosive diversification and accompanying numerous parasitoid strategies in insects, especially in the order Hymenoptera. Amongst parasitoid wasps, the Polysphincta group of genera has evolved a highly distinctive parasitoid mode of life, as solitary koinobiont ectoparasitoids of spiders (Chelicerata: Araneae). Some species of polysphinctine wasps have a remarkable ability to control spiders' web-building behaviour (host web manipulation) to protect the vulnerable wasp cocoons. The group currently consists of 25 genera and 294 extant species worldwide, with 14 genera known to manipulate their host spiders. This study reviews the current species composition, distribution, host utilization and biology of all genera belonging to the Polysphincta group and their ancestral genera of spider egg mass pseudo-parasitoids, highlighting specific offensive approaches for subjugating spider hosts for oviposition and web manipulation against specific spider hosts. There must still be many more unique behaviours to be discovered, given that the life histories of several polysphinctine genera are poorly known or unknown. A tidy correspondence between lineages of polysphinctines and host spiders was recognized, implying the evolutionary history of polysphinctines. Based on the integrated information on behavioural data and host utilization, we suggest some hypotheses determining triggers for host shifts and discuss the possibility of adaptive radiation driven by divergent natural selection on host differentiation. One new taxonomic change is proposed: Zaglyptus idukkiensis (Manjusha, Sudheer & Ghosh, 2019), comb. nov., is transferred from Polysphincta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In web service composition, the combination of multiple individual services to create complex workflows introduces additional challenges, and task scheduling is a crucial aspect that significantly impacts the overall system performance. The main challenge in web service composition task scheduling arises from the varying nature of services, which may have diverse processing requirements, data dependencies, and execution times. Hence, to address these challenges, the existing work have proposed many methods. But, as cloud environments often host these web services, the dynamic nature of cloud resources and the unpredictability of workloads add another layer of complexity to the task scheduling process. Due to this the existing works have attempted very less work on providing an efficient replanning task based on real-time changes in resource availability. Hence, this paper proposes a novel approach to cloud workload task scheduling in web service composition that incorporates efficient replanning and time complexity analysis called as Web service composition-efficient re-planning (WSC-ERP). The proposed approach takes into account various factors, such as task dependencies, and resource availability, to generate an optimized schedule that minimizes execution time and maximizes resource utilization. The WSC-ERP has been evaluated using the Montage scientific workload. The results show that the WSC-ERP provides better performance in terms of executional time, power sum, power average, energy consumption and reliability when compared with the Energy-Minimized Scheduling (EMS), and Evolutionary Computing based Web Service Composition (EC-WSC). The results show that the WSC-ERP has showed an improvement of 80.27% and 78.45% for average execution time, 89.98% and 87.49% for average power sum, 63.44% and 41.93% for average power average, 92.58% and 87.87% for average energy consumption, 4.97% and 4.07% for average reliability when compared with the existing EMS and EC-WSC models respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how to extend a web framework (WF) for developing web apps that can meet the diverse needs of different fields. This work aims to provide computer science senior project students with an opportunity to work on a wide range of projects using Apache, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL. The paper presents a WF that manages jokes, based on the book PHP & MySQL: Novice to Ninja (6th ed.) by T. Butler and K. Yank. The WF is interactive, responsive, secure, password-protected and database-driven. It consists of generic and specific components that use a MySQL database on the web server-side to store jokes. The specific components can be modified or added to create custom apps. Admin users can log in with their email and password and perform various actions (view, add, delete and edit) on jokes and categories, depending on their level of permission. Admins with full permissions can also edit the permissions of other registered accounts and access the Manage Categories, Manage Jokes, and Manage Authors pages. The original WF is enhanced and expanded for the senior project starting point by adding the following features: a hierarchical main menu with admin menus as the second level, a highlighted selected menu item, responsive design - accessibility on all devices, improved password security (minimum of 8 characters, 1 lowercase letter, 1 uppercase letter, 1 digit, 1 special character), a two-factor authentication security subsystem, cascaded deletion and uploaded and retrieved binary files (images and documents). In conclusion, the project is designed and implemented following the best practices and tested on a web hosting server provider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to show how to expand the low code interactive framework in order to develop a web app for the broad needs of different fields. The goal of this work is to give a chance to computer science senior project students to work on a broad spectrum of projects using Apache, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL. In this paper, the web app keeps track of recipients of computer science certificates. The web application is interactive, responsive, secured, password and database driven app. The web app uses a MYSQL database on the web server-side to record concentration, courses, and certificates. Admins and users with proper permissions can add, delete, view, and edit recipients, categories, certificates, and courses based on a level of permission. Admins with full permissions can edit permissions for other registered accounts. They have access to the Manage Categories, Manage Certificates, Manage Courses, Manage Recipients, and Manage Users pages depending on their permissions. The web app is accessible on all devices and is designed to be mobile as well. In conclusion, the project has been successfully designed and implemented according to best practices and finally tested on a web hosting server provider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the awareness of a security vulnerability index affects firms' security protection strategy and how the information awareness effect interacts with firm incentives and country-wide information technology (IT) development level. The security index is constructed based on outgoing spams and phishing website hosting, which may serve as an indicator of a firm's security controls. To study whether security vulnerability awareness causes firms to improve their security, we conducted a randomized field experiment on 1,262 firms in six Pan-Asian countries and regions. Among 631 randomly selected treated firms, we alerted them of their security vulnerability index and their relative rankings compared to their peers via advisory emails and websites. Difference-in-differences analyses show that compared with the controls, the treated firms improve their security over time, with a statistically significant reduction of outgoing spam volume according to one of the data sources but not phishing website hosting. However, a statistically significant reduction in phishing website hosting was observed among non-web hosting firms, suggesting that firms' underlying incentives play an important role in the treatment effect. Lastly, exploiting the multi-country nature of the data, we found that firms in countries with high information and communications technology (ICT) development are more responsive to our intervention because they have higher IT capabilities and more resources to resolve security issues. Our study provides cybersecurity policymakers with useful insights on how firm incentives and ICT environments play roles in firms' security measure adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Geovisualization tools can supplement the statistical analyses of landscape-level wildfire behavior by enabling the discovery of nuanced information regarding the relationships between fire spread, topography, fuels, and weather. The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of geovisualization tools for analyzing wildfire behavior and specifically to apply those tools to study portions of the Thomas and Detwiler wildfire events that occurred in California in 2017. Fire features such as active fire fronts and rate of spread (ROS) vectors derived from repetitive airborne thermal infrared (ATIR) imagery sequences were incorporated into geovisualization tools hosted in a web geographic information systems application. This geovisualization application included ATIR imagery, fire features derived from ATIR imagery (rate of spread vectors and fire front delineations), growth form maps derived from NAIP imagery, and enhanced topographic rasters for visualizing changes in local topography. These tools aided in visualizing and analyzing landscape-level wildfire behavior for study portions of the Thomas and Detwiler fires. The primary components or processes of fire behavior analyzed in this study were ROS, spotting, fire spread impedance, and fire spread over multidirectional slopes. Professionals and researchers specializing in wildfire-related topics provided feedback on the effectiveness and utility of the geovisualization tools. The geovisualization tools were generally effective for visualizing and analyzing (1) fire spread over multidirectional slopes; (2) differences in spread magnitudes within and between sequences over time; and (3) the relative contributions of fuels, slope, and weather at any given point within the sequences. Survey respondents found the tools to be moderately effective, with an average effectiveness score of 6.6 (n = 5) for the visualization tools on a scale of 1 (ineffective) to 10 (effective) for postfire spread analysis and visualizing fire spread over multidirectional slopes. The results of the descriptive analysis indicate that medium- and fine-scale topographic features, roads, and riparian fuels coincided with cases of fire spread impedance and exerted control over fire behavior. Major topographic features such as ridges and valleys slowed, or halted, fire spread consistently between study areas. The relationships between spotting, fuels, and topography were inconclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Paediatric trials must contend with many challenges that adult trials face but often bring additional obstacles. Decentralised trials, where some or all trial methods occur away from a centralised location, are a promising strategy to help meet these challenges. This scoping review aims to (a) identify what methods and tools have been used to create and conduct entirely online-decentralised trials with children and (b) determine the gaps in the knowledge in this field. This review will describe the methods used in these trials to identify their facilitators and the gaps in the knowledge. Methods: The methods were informed by guidance from the Joanna Briggs Institute and the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews. We systematically searched MEDLINE, CENTRAL, CINAHL, and Embase databases, trial registries, pre-print servers, and the internet. We included randomised and quasi-randomised trials conducted entirely online with participants under 18 published in English. A risk of bias assessment was completed for all included studies. Results: Twenty-one trials met our inclusion criteria. The average age of participants was 14.6 years. Social media was the most common method of online recruitment. Most trials employed an external host website to store and protect their data. Duration of trials ranged from single-session interventions up to ten weeks. Fourteen trials compensated participants. Eight trials involved children in their trial design process; none reported compensation for this. Most trials had a low risk of bias in "random sequence generation", "selective reporting", and "other". Most trials had a high risk of bias in "blinding participants and personnel", "blinding of outcome assessment", and "incomplete outcome data". "Allocation concealment" was unclear in most studies. Conclusions: There was a lack of transparent reporting of the recruitment, randomisation, and retention methods used in many of the trials included in this review. Patient and public involvement (PPI) was not common, and the compensation of PPI partners was not reported in any study. Consent methods and protection against fraudulent entries to trials were creative and thoroughly discussed by some trials and not addressed by others. More work and thorough reporting of how these trials are conducted is needed to increase their reproducibility and quality. Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval was not necessary since all data sources used are publicly available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutrophils are the key players in the innate immune system, being weaponized with numerous strategies to eliminate pathogens. The production of extracellular traps is one of the effector mechanisms operated by neutrophils in a process called NETosis. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are complex webs of extracellular DNA studded with histones and cytoplasmic granular proteins. Since their first description in 2004, NETs have been widely investigated in different infectious processes. Bacteria, viruses, and fungi have been shown to induce the generation of NETs. Knowledge is only beginning to emerge about the participation of DNA webs in the host's battle against parasitic infections. Referring to helminthic infections, we ought to look beyond the scope of confining the roles of NETs solely to parasitic ensnarement or immobilization. Hence, this review provides detailed insights into the less-explored activities of NETs against invading helminths. In addition, most of the studies that have addressed the implications of NETs in protozoan infections have chiefly focused on their protective side, either through trapping or killing. Challenging this belief, we propose several limitations regarding protozoan-NETs interaction. One of many is the duality in the functional responses of NETs, in which both the positive and pathological aspects seem to be closely intertwined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Official statistics place particular emphasis on communication and dissemination of surveys' results to citizens and stakeholders. This is typically done through the publication of press releases and presentation of aggregated data of statistical surveys. The use of web services and software that allow users to interact with the results of official statistics comes to further enhance communication, dissemination, literacy and overall quality of official statistics. This paper is related to the objectives and context of reaching a wider audience through engaging users and explains how an NSO (National Statistical Office) member without specialized knowledge of frontend-backend programming techniques can create such web services in R programming environment through "Shiny" library. The paper also reviews the issue of hosting "Shiny" apps and presents existing approaches. For demonstration purposes, an experimental version of such an application was constructed that presents in an interactive way the quarterly results of the new statistical product of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) on Greek business demography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herbivores select host plants depending on plant quality and the presence of predators and competitors. Competing herbivores change host plant quantity through consumption, but they can also change plant quality through induction of plant defences, and this affects the performance of herbivores that arrive later on the plant. Some herbivores, such as the spider mite Tetranychus evansi, do not induce, but suppress plant defences, and later-arriving herbivores can profit from this suppression. It has been suggested that the dense web produced by this spider mite serves to prevent other herbivores to settle on the plant and benefit from the suppressed defences. Here, we confirmed this by studying the preference and performance of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci, a generalist herbivorous pest. To disentangle the effects through changes in plant defences from the effects of spider-mite web, we included treatments with a strain of the closely-related web-producing spider mite T. urticae, which induces plant defences. Whiteflies did perform worse on plants with defences induced by T. urticae, but, in contrast to other herbivores, did not perform better on plants with defences suppressed by T. evansi. Moreover, the web of both spider mites reduced the juvenile survival of whiteflies, and whiteflies avoided plants that were covered with web. Hence, whitefly performance was not only affected by plant quality and induced plant defences, but also through the web produced by spider mites, which thus serves to protect against potential competitors, especially when these could profit from the suppression of plant defences by the mites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abrupt closing of the web hosting service GeoCities - one of the most popular websites inhabited by users in the 90s - is a well-known example of the importance of web archiving for saving digital cultural heritage. GeoCities' shutdown is a warning for today's social media user-generated content that might suffer the same fate. Various web archiving organisations archived and nowadays present GeoCities pages. Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied engage with GeoCities' legacy in their project One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age (2010-ongoing). This paper expands on the archival strategies of the artists and places their practice in the context of web archiving organisations - specifically Archive Team, the Internet Archive, and Restorativland - to understand how an artistic position may open up other ways of engaging with digital cultural heritage. This paper considers the archival practices of the organisations, artists, and users as a network of care, enabling different forms of remembrance. Whereas the archiving organisations preserve and present GeoCities statically, Lialina and Espenschied take a performative archival approach, in which they re-perform the dataset with old and new users. Through circulation and narration, One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age builds on the memories of the artists and users and aims to give the GeoCities heritage back to users. The project invites users to interpret and make meaning of GeoCities and embraces the fluidity of digital cultur e, whilst embodying the future archival insecurity of commercial platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, using MATLAB Web App Server to deploy MATLAB Web applications for hosting and sharing interactive Web applications involves the following problems: slow loading of applications, incompatibility with some browser versions, and various shortcomings of deployment tools, such as poor scalability and difficulty in optimizing black boxes. These problems adversely affect the user experience. To address this situation, we propose the use of front-end technology to design application layouts and build an application hosting platform with front-end and back-end separation using Nginx and Python. This method is shown to be simple and efficient, and it can successfully overcome the aforementioned problems while providing new ideas for hosting and sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual prey luring in animals is typically achieved by brightly colored body parts or excretions of the signal sender, and using signals from other organisms is rarely reported. However, certain species of kleptoparasitic Argyrodes spiders usually reside in the webs of Cyrtophora spiders, and their brightly colored bodies have been demonstrated to serve as a visual lure that attracts prey to host webs. The golden orb-web spider Nephila pilipes spins giant orb webs and also attracts web coinhabitants such as mate-seeking males and kleptoparasitic spider Argyrodes miniaceus. These two types of spiders have similar orange-red body coloration, leading us to investigate the function of this shared trait by manipulating their body color and recording the response of prey insects in the field using video cameras. Our results showed that, in both diurnal and nocturnal conditions, female N. pilipes webs with naturally colored male N. pilipes and A. miniaceus had a significantly higher prey attraction rate than those with body color altered coinhabitants. Specifically, A. miniaceus lure more prey at nighttime. These results indicate that the conspicuously colored web coinhabitants may potentially bring foraging benefits to the hosts through prey luring and provide new perspectives on the ecology and evolution of symbiotic relationships between animals. Significance statement: It has been known that the body coloration of some spiders can lure prey to their webs, and even some kleptoparasitic Argyrodes spiders can lure prey to their hosts' webs. However, whether the conspicuous body coloration of mate-seeking males plays any role remains untested. We showed for the first time that the orange-red body coloration shared by male Nephila pilipes and kleptoparasitic Argyrodes miniaceus spiders inhabiting webs of female N. pilipes can visually lure prey. Findings of this study can potentially strengthen our current understanding of the function of body coloration of spiders, shed light on evolution of spider body coloration, and provide new perspectives on symbiotic relationships between animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The delivery of encapsulated islets or stem cell-derived insulin-producing cells (i.e., bioartificial pancreas devices) may achieve a functional cure for type 1 diabetes, but their efficacy is limited by mass transport constraints. Modeling such constraints is thus desirable, but previous efforts invoke simplifications which limit the utility of their insights. Herein, we present a computational platform for investigating the therapeutic capacity of generic and user-programmable bioartificial pancreas devices, which accounts for highly influential stochastic properties including the size distribution and random localization of the cells. We first apply the platform in a study which finds that endogenous islet size distribution variance significantly influences device potency. Then we pursue optimizations, determining ideal device structures and estimates of the curative cell dose. Finally, we propose a new, device-specific islet equivalence conversion table, and develop a surrogate machine learning model, hosted on a web application, to rapidly produce these coefficients for user-defined devices. Transplanting encapsulated insulin-producing cells may achieve a functional cure for type 1 diabetes, but efficacy is constrained by mass transfer limits. Here, the authors report a dynamic computational platform to investigate the therapeutic potency of such programmable bioartificial pancreas devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we describe the free, open-source Python-based Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System (PySPEDAS), a platform for multi-mission, multi-instrument retrieval, analysis, and visualization of Heliophysics data. PySPEDAS currently contains load routines for data from 23 space missions, as well as a variety of data from ground-based observatories. The load routines are built from a common set of general routines that provide access to datasets in different ways (e.g., downloading and caching CDF files or accessing data hosted on web services), making the process of adding additional datasets simple. In addition to load routines, PySPEDAS contains numerous analysis tools for working with the dataset once it is loaded. We describe how these load routines and analysis tools are built by utilizing other free, open-source Python projects (e.g., PyTplot, cdflib, hapiclient, etc.) to make tools for space and solar physicists that are extremely powerful, yet easy-to-use. After discussing the code in detail, we show numerous examples of code using PySPEDAS, and discuss limitations and future plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Biomedical translational science is increasingly using computational reasoning on repositories of structured knowledge (such as UMLS, SemMedDB, ChEMBL, Reactome, DrugBank, and SMPDB in order to facilitate discovery of new therapeutic targets and modalities. The NCATS Biomedical Data Translator project is working to federate autonomous reasoning agents and knowledge providers within a distributed system for answering translational questions. Within that project and the broader field, there is a need for a framework that can efficiently and reproducibly build an integrated, standards-compliant, and comprehensive biomedical knowledge graph that can be downloaded in standard serialized form or queried via a public application programming interface (API). Results: To create a knowledge provider system within the Translator project, we have developed RTX-KG2, an open-source software system for building—and hosting a web API for querying—a biomedical knowledge graph that uses an Extract-Transform-Load approach to integrate 70 knowledge sources (including the aforementioned core six sources) into a knowledge graph with provenance information including (where available) citations. The semantic layer and schema for RTX-KG2 follow the standard Biolink model to maximize interoperability. RTX-KG2 is currently being used by multiple Translator reasoning agents, both in its downloadable form and via its SmartAPI-registered interface. Serializations of RTX-KG2 are available for download in both the pre-canonicalized form and in canonicalized form (in which synonyms are merged). The current canonicalized version (KG2.7.3) of RTX-KG2 contains 6.4M nodes and 39.3M edges with a hierarchy of 77 relationship types from Biolink. Conclusion: RTX-KG2 is the first knowledge graph that integrates UMLS, SemMedDB, ChEMBL, DrugBank, Reactome, SMPDB, and 64 additional knowledge sources within a knowledge graph that conforms to the Biolink standard for its semantic layer and schema. RTX-KG2 is publicly available for querying via its API at arax.rtx.ai/api/rtxkg2/v1.2/openapi.json. The code to build RTX-KG2 is publicly available at github:RTXteam/RTX-KG2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information has major consequences for democracy and society. It is important to understand what factors favor its diffusion. The impact of the content of a message on its likelihood of going viral is poorly understood. Some studies say originality is important for a message not to be overlooked. Others give more relevance to paratextual elements—network centrality, timing, human cognitive limits. Here we propose that originality and centrality interact in a nontrivial way, which might explain why originality by itself is not a good predictor of success. We collected data from Reddit on users sharing hyperlinks. We estimated the originality of each post title and the centrality of the website hosting the shared link. We show that the interaction effect exists: if users share content from a central website, originality no longer increases the odds of receiving at least one upvote. The same is not true for the odds of becoming one of the top 10% scoring posts. We show that originality is concentrated in the domain network: domains in the core of the network produce more original content. Our results imply that research on online information virality needs to take into account the nontrivial interaction between originality and prominence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web defacement is a form of hacking that involves altering the content of a website, resulting in repairs to the website code, loss of revenue, internal loss of productivity, and reputational damage. Limited research has examined the frequency of web defacements, the factors that distinguish them from other hacking motives, and the extent to which the correlates mirror research on physical acts of ideologically-motivated crime. The current study examined over 2.4 million web defacements hosted in the U.S. from 2012 to 2016 to assess aspects of routine activities theory associated with target selection and attack methods among ideologically-motivated defacements. A binary logistic regression analysis revealed that ideologically-motivated defacers were more likely to use unknown vulnerabilities; engage in repeated attacks; target top-level domains linked to foreign nations; domains ending in.edu; and homepages within websites. The findings of this study suggest that the target selection process of ideologically-motivated defacers are more purposive and designed to draw attention to their cause, resembling target preferences of individuals who engage in physical violence in support of an ideological agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, an event-triggered control (ETC) law is proposed for auto-scaling of Web servers hosted on a private cloud. The Web server systems are modeled as a discrete-time linear time-invariant (LTI) system where the incoming Web requests act as disturbance inputs. Dealing with such disturbance inputs adds an additional challenge in the design and real-time implementation of the ETC. To address this challenge, we first design an ETC law to ensure ${\mathscr {D}}_{R}$ stability of the nominal system. Second, we derive the conditions which ensure input to state stability of the closed-loop system, under the event-triggered implementation, with respect to disturbance inputs. Then, sufficient conditions are derived, which ensure that the interevent times are nontrivial. Finally, to show the efficacy of the proposed approach, we validate our results on an experimental testbed of a Web server system hosted on a private cloud and provide comparative results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optogenetics has become a key tool to manipulate biological processes with high spatio-temporal resolution. Recently, a number of commercial and open-source multi-well illumination devices have been developed to provide throughput in optogenetics experiments. However, available commercial devices remain expensive and lack flexibility, while open-source solutions require programming knowledge and/or include complex assembly processes. We present a LED Illumination Tool for Optogenetic Stimulation (LITOS) based on an assembled printed circuit board controlling a commercially available 32 × 64 LED matrix as illumination source. LITOS can be quickly assembled without any soldering, and includes an easy-to-use interface, accessible via a website hosted on the device itself. Complex light stimulation patterns can easily be programmed without coding expertise. LITOS can be used with different formats of multi-well plates, petri dishes, and flasks. We validated LITOS by measuring the activity of the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway in response to different dynamic light stimulation regimes using FGFR1 and Raf optogenetic actuators. LITOS can uniformly stimulate all the cells in a well and allows for flexible temporal stimulation schemes. LITOS's affordability and ease of use aims at democratizing optogenetics in any laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic evolution of Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) in Africa has been shaped mainly by environmental changes such as abnormal rainfall patterns and climate change that has occurred over the last few decades. These gradual environmental changes are believed to have effected gene migration from macro (geographical) to micro (reassortment) levels. Presently, 15 lineages of RVFV have been identified to be circulating within the Sub-Saharan Africa. International trade in livestock and movement of mosquitoes are thought to be responsible for the outbreaks occurring outside endemic or enzootic regions. Virus spillover events contribute to outbreaks as was demonstrated by the largest epidemic of 1977 in Egypt. Genomic surveillance of the virus evolution is crucial in developing intervention strategies. Therefore, we have developed a computational tool for rapidly classifying and assigning lineages of the RVFV isolates. The computational method is presented both as a command line tool and a web application hosted at https://www.genomedetective.com/app/typingtool/rvfv/. Validation of the tool has been performed on a large dataset using glycoprotein gene (Gn) and whole genome sequences of the Large (L), Medium (M) and Small (S) segments of the RVFV retrieved from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) GenBank database. Using the Gn nucleotide sequences, the RVFV typing tool was able to correctly classify all 234 RVFV sequences at species level with 100% specificity, sensitivity and accuracy. All the sequences in lineages A (n = 10), B (n = 1), C (n = 88), D (n = 1), E (n = 3), F (n = 2), G (n = 2), H (n = 105), I (n = 2), J (n = 1), K (n = 4), L (n = 8), M (n = 1), N (n = 5) and O (n = 1) were also correctly classified at phylogenetic level. Lineage assignment using whole RVFV genome sequences (L, M and S-segments) did not achieve 100% specificity, sensitivity and accuracy for all the sequences analyzed. We further tested our tool using genomic data that we generated by sequencing 5 samples collected following a recent RVF outbreak in Kenya. All the 5 samples were assigned lineage C by both the partial (Gn) and whole genome sequence classifiers. The tool is useful in tracing the origin of outbreaks and supporting surveillance efforts. Availability: https://github.com/ajodeh-juma/rvfvtyping [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex workers may use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a means to mitigate occupational health and safety (OHS) risks by exchanging harm reduction techniques (e.g., screening) on blogs and social media. ICTs can also assist sex workers in creating online communities, where community members can act as each other's safety check-ins, an additional harm reduction technique. In Canada, there is a paucity of research around ICT usage by sex workers for managing occupational health and safety. The objective of this study was to qualitatively examine the needs and preferences of Canadian sex workers when using ICTs in the delivery of strategies for occupational health and safety. Using a theoretical framework derived from a Social Ecological Model perspective, semi-structured interviews were conducted via phone, with a mixed gender sample (N = 22) of sex workers, between April and July 2020. OHS risks were found to be related to structural determinants, client behaviours, and lack of experience and knowledge when newly entering sex work. Participant accounts revealed a socially cohesive online community; however, sex workers reported difficulties in finding these communities, particularly when entering sex work. Such barriers to supportive communities were attributed to the criminalized, hidden nature of sex work that resulted in the fragmentation of harm reduction techniques across several online platforms, such as blogs, YouTube videos, closed electronic chat groups, and open online sex worker supportive communities. Moreover, these platforms and/or their content could potentially disappear without warning, either due to the platform provider seeking to evade possible prosecution, or because new legislation was introduced banning such content. Recommendations for further research include the co-design with sex workers of an innovative, secure, easily accessible, sex worker-only ICT OHS tool, utilizing a web hosting service located in a country where sex work has been either legalized or decriminalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud service providers (CSPs) like Amazon Web Services, Google Engine, and Microsoft Azure have the major share in providing cloud-related services globally. Their user-friendly approach to provide Infrastructure, Platform, and Software-as-a-Service encourages many industries to switch to virtual mode with high availability, low maintenance, and deployment cost using cloud computing. In this paper, the main focus is on infrastructure-related services. For hosting the web applications, a user requires a virtual machine using the Infrastructure-as-a-Service model of CSPs. The creation of a single instance on servers is effortless. But the process of creating more than 100 machines, deploying one at a time, can be time-consuming, tedious, and error-prone. Though many CSPs have already included services for the creation and management of multiple virtual machines, a novel model named Secure Virtual Infrastructure Model (SViM) is proposed to enhance the service quality, accessibility, and usability of the IaaS cloud. It can add functionality to the existing process of creating multiple virtual machines by CSPs. In this model, a new cryptography technique is also proposed to exchange data between client and virtual servers. For the implementation of the proposed framework, a cloud simulator, Cloudsim, is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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