In this article, we propose an accountable and efficient data sharing scheme for industrial IoT (IIoT), named an accountable and data sharing scheme (ADS), in which a data owner can pursue the ...responsibility of a data receiver if the latter leaks some sensitive shared data to the public for profits while without permission (i.e., accountability). Specifically, ADS is built upon an adaptive decentralized oblivious transfer protocol together with a zero-knowledge proof technique, which enables the data receiver's private key to be hidden from the data owner and yet correctly embedded into the shared data during the process of data sharing. Once data breaches occur, the private key can be automatically revealed to the data owner so as to achieve the accountability. In addition, with ADS, a group of sharing providers can also assist IIoT devices in handling heavy computational tasks via the secret sharing technique without sacrificing the security. Extensive performance evaluations are conducted, and the simulation results demonstrate that ADS has high computational efficiency, making it well fit for IIoT.
Purpose
This study aims to discuss the impact that environmental consciousness and green intellectual capital had on competitive advantage. The study adopted green intellectual capital as an ...intervening variable to gain insight into how environmental consciousness indirectly affects competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey on the environmental consciousness and intellectual capital management of Taiwan's manufacturing firms was conducted, and 227 samples were analyzed. The research model investigates the relevant relationships among the constructs by using a structural equation modelling approach.
Findings
Research results reveal that environmental consciousness had an indirect impact on competitive advantage through investment in green intellectual capital. It was thus known that green intellectual capital is a mediator of the relationship between environmental consciousness and competitive advantage.
Originality/value
This paper may serve as a reference for firms mapping out future environmental policies and provide an input of various perspectives and arguments into the discipline of green management.
Quantification of fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions (CEs) at fine space and time resolution is a critical need in climate change research and carbon cycle. Quantifying changes in spatiotemporal ...patterns of urban CEs is important to understand carbon cycle and development carbon reduction strategies. The existing spatial data of CEs have low resolution and cannot distinguish the distribution characteristics of CEs of different emission sectors. This study quantified CEs from 15 types of energy sources, including residential, tertiary, and industrial sectors in Shanghai. Additionally, we mapped the CEs for the three sectors using point of interest data and web crawler technology, which is different from traditional methods. At a resolution of 30 m, the improved CEs data has a higher spatial resolution than existing studies. The spatial distribution of CEs based on this study has higher spatial resolution and more details than that based on traditional methods, and can distinguish the spatial distribution characteristics of different sectors. The results indicated that there was a consistent increase in CEs during 2000-2015, with a low rate of increase during 2009-2015. The intensity of CEs increased significantly in the outskirts of the city, mainly due to industrial transfer. Moreover, intensity of CEs reduced in city center. Technological progress has promoted the improvement of energy efficiency, and there has been a decoupling between the economic development and CEs in the city was observed during in 2000-2015.
► The salt and thermally modified clinoptilolite can effectively sorb NH3-N and phosphates. ► The phosphorus and nitrogen removal was consistent with Langmuir isotherm model. ► The modified ...clinoptilolite possesses rapid adsorption and slow balance characteristics. ► The adsorption is more in line with the Elovich adsorption dynamics equation. ► The entropy effect plays the role of the main driving force in the adsorption.
This paper presents the investigation of the ammonia-nitrogen and phosphates sorption from simulated reclaimed wastewater by modified clinoptilolite. The results showed that the modified clinoptilolite has a high sorption efficiency and removal performance. The ammonia-nitrogen and phosphates removal rate of the modified clinoptilolite reached to 98.46% and 99.80%, respectively. The surface of modified clinoptilolite became loose and some pores appeared, which enlarged the specific surface area; the contents of Na and Fe increased, and the contents of Ca and Mg decreased. The modified clinoptilolite possesses rapid sorption and slow balance characteristics and ammonia-nitrogen and phosphates sorption is more consistent with the Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption kinetics of ammonia-nitrogen and phosphates follows the Elovich adsorption dynamics equation, which describes the sorption of ammonia-nitrogen and phosphates in aqueous solution as mainly a chemical sorption. Results from the thermodynamics experiment involving ammonia-nitrogen and phosphates sorption reveal that the process is a spontaneous and endothermic process, and is mainly driven by entropy effect.
Abstract
The current state of the COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis. To fight the novel coronavirus, one of the best-known ways is to block enzymes essential for virus replication. ...Currently, we know that the SARS-CoV-2 virus encodes about 29 proteins such as spike protein, 3C-like protease (3CLpro), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), Papain-like protease (PLpro), and nucleocapsid (N) protein. SARS-CoV-2 uses human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) for viral entry and transmembrane serine protease family member II (TMPRSS2) for spike protein priming. Thus in order to speed up the discovery of potential drugs, we develop DockCoV2, a drug database for SARS-CoV-2. DockCoV2 focuses on predicting the binding affinity of FDA-approved and Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) drugs with the seven proteins mentioned above. This database contains a total of 3,109 drugs. DockCoV2 is easy to use and search against, is well cross-linked to external databases, and provides the state-of-the-art prediction results in one site. Users can download their drug-protein docking data of interest and examine additional drug-related information on DockCoV2. Furthermore, DockCoV2 provides experimental information to help users understand which drugs have already been reported to be effective against MERS or SARS-CoV. DockCoV2 is available at https://covirus.cc/drugs/.
Palladium wavy nanowires with an ultrathin diameter of 2 nm are synthesized using the polyol method without the involvement of any template. The success of this synthesis relies on the use of a ...suitable precursor that could be reduced instantaneously to generate a large number of small Pd nanoparticles. Due to a quick depletion of precursor, the small nanoparticles were unable to grow in size through atomic addition. In the case of low surface charges and high surface energies, these small nanoparticles were forced to coalesce into ultrathin nanowires with a wavy morphology via an attachment mechanism. Thanks to the unique structure and involvement of twin defects, the as‐obtained Pd ultrathin nanowires show a catalytic current density of 2.5 times higher than the conventional Pd/C catalyst towards formic acid oxidation. This work not only offers a powerful route to the synthesis of nanowires through attachment‐based growth but also opens the door to the rational design and fabrication of novel metal nanostructures with enhanced properties.
Growth via attachment: Ultrathin Pd nanowires are synthesized by controlling the reaction kinetics and thus the nucleation and growth of Pd nanoparticles, as well as their coalescence into chain‐like nanostructures. The Pd nanowires show a catalytic activity 2.5 times higher than the conventional Pd/C catalyst towards formic acid oxidation.
Super-enhancer RNAs (seRNAs) are a kind of noncoding RNA transcribed from super-enhancer regions. The regulation mechanism and functional role of seRNAs are still unclear. Although super-enhancers ...play a critical role in the core transcriptional regulatory circuity of embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation, whether seRNAs have similar properties should be further investigated.
We analyzed cap analysis gene expression sequencing (CAGE-seq) datasets collected during the differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to cardiomyocytes to identify the seRNAs. A non-negative matrix factorization algorithm was applied to decompose the seRNA profiles and reveal two hidden stages during the ESC differentiation. We further identified 95 and 78 seRNAs associated with early- and late-stage ESC differentiation, respectively. We found that the binding sites of master regulators of ESC differentiation, including NANOG, FOXA2, and MYC, were significantly observed in the loci of the stage-specific seRNAs. Based on the investigation of genes coexpressed with seRNA, these stage-specific seRNAs might be involved in cardiac-related functions such as myofibril assembly and heart development and act in trans to regulate the co-expressed genes.
In this study, we used a computational approach to demonstrate the possible role of seRNAs during ESC differentiation.
The resistive switching (RS) characteristics of amorphous Sm2Ti2O7 thin films prepared by using RF sputtering were investigated and the effect of post-metallization annealing (PMA) on the RS ...properties were analysed. Comparison of as-deposited Sm2Ti2O7 thin film device and the device after PMA treatment, the latter exhibits better RS properties, including more uniform set voltages, switching cycle times and higher Ron/Roff ratio. The prepared samples all revealed bipolar resistive switching (BRS) behaviour. The results indicated that the conductive mechanism in terms of the concentration of oxygen vacancies can be controlled by different deposition atmosphere (Ar/O2) ratio and film thickness. Additionally, the resistive switching properties can be enhanced by PMA treatment due to the formation of AlOx interface layer, which prevents the oxygen ions from out-diffusion through the boundaries. At the PMA temperature of 350 °C, the two resistance states can be distinguished in a range of> 10 over 8099 switching cycles along with a retention of 104 s at room temperature and 85ºC, showing promise for non-volatile memory applications.
•Amorphous Sm2Ti2O7 thin films were prepared by RF sputtering.•The formation of AlOx after PMA treatment had a significant influence on the RS performance of the STO RRAMs.•The Al/STO (PMA @350ºC)/ITO device could reach the maximum cycle of 8099 times and a retention time of 104s.
Internet social networking tools and the emerging web 2.0 technologies are providing a new way for web users and health workers in information sharing and knowledge dissemination. Based on the ...characters of immediate, two-way and large scale of impact, the internet social networking tools have been utilized as a solution in emergency response during disasters. This paper highlights the use of internet social networking in disaster emergency response and public health management of disasters by focusing on a case study of the typhoon Morakot disaster in Taiwan.
In the case of typhoon disaster in Taiwan, internet social networking and mobile technology were found to be helpful for community residents, professional emergency rescuers, and government agencies in gathering and disseminating real-time information, regarding volunteer recruitment and relief supplies allocation. We noted that if internet tools are to be integrated in the development of emergency response system, the accessibility, accuracy, validity, feasibility, privacy and the scalability of itself should be carefully considered especially in the effort of applying it in resource poor settings.
This paper seeks to promote an internet-based emergency response system by integrating internet social networking and information communication technology into central government disaster management system. Web-based networking provides two-way communication which establishes a reliable and accessible tunnel for proximal and distal users in disaster preparedness and management.
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