Is quantum key distribution suitable for steganography?

Recently a quantum steganographic communication protocol based on quantum key distribution (QKD) was proposed, where it is believed that QKD is a kind of suitable cover of a steganographic communication because QKD itself is not deterministic communication. Here we find that, as a special cryptographic application, the procedure of QKD can be used for deterministic secure communication, and consequently it is not suitable for steganography. Due to similar reasons, other quantum cryptographic schemes, including quantum secret sharing and quantum secure direct communication, are not suitable for steganography either.     

Attention shifting during child—robot interaction: a preliminary clinical study for children with autism spectrum disorder

Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering - There is an increasing need to introduce socially interactive robots as a means of assistance in autism spectrum disorder (ASD)...     

Is the time ripe for kidney tissue proteomics?

In this viewpoint article, the importance of renal tissue proteomics in health and disease is explored. The analysis of the urinary proteome and the potential clinical application of these findings are progressing. However, additional benefit would be gained from a detailed parallel exploration of the proteome of the renal parenchyma, both in models and clinical samples. With this aim, we will briefly summarize the existing literature, compare the findings and propose future tasks. Special emphasis is placed on the importance of studying specific cellular compartments and cell types within the kidney. Recent technical advances are also discussed. It is anticipated that the combination of such technologies, especially proteomic analysis of material extracted by laser capture microdissection from paraffin embedded tissue or direct mass spectrometrical tissue imaging, will revolutionize the field.     

Is a picture worth a thousand views? Measuring the effects of travel photos on user engagement using deep learning algorithms

Electronic Markets - Travel photos inform and inspire consumers by conveying a first-hand destination experience. Despite the proliferation of consumer-generated travel photos in online travel...     

Is the influence of privacy and security on online trust the same for all type of consumers?

This article analyzes the relationships among online trust and two of its most important antecedents, namely privacy and security, and explains how consumers’ characteristics (gender, age, education and extraversion), moderate the influence of both privacy and security in online trust. This study expands previous literature by identifying the conditions under which perceived privacy and security are likely to have the greatest positive effects on consumer trust in the online retailer. Based on data from 398 online consumers, the results revealed that the influence of both privacy and security on online trust was stronger for male, younger, more educated, and less extraverted consumers. Implications for theory and management are discussed.     

Interactive testbed for research in autism—the SARA project

Universal Access in the Information Society - The project Stylized Animations for Research on Autism (SARA) aims to develop a better understanding of the cognitive processes behind emotional...     

What do developers search for on the web?

Developers commonly make use of a web search engine such as Google to locate online resources to improve their productivity. A better understanding of what developers search for could help us understand their behaviors and the problems that they meet during the software development process. Unfortunately, we have a limited understanding of what developers frequently search for and of the search tasks that they often find challenging. To address this gap, we collected search queries from 60 developers, surveyed 235 software engineers from more than 21 countries across five continents. In particular, we asked our survey participants to rate the frequency and difficulty of 34 search tasks which are grouped along the following seven dimensions: general search, debugging and bug fixing, programming, third party code reuse, tools, database, and testing. We find that searching for explanations for unknown terminologies, explanations for exceptions/error messages (e.g., HTTP 404), reusable code snippets, solutions to common programming bugs, and suitable third-party libraries/services are the most frequent search tasks that developers perform, while searching for solutions to performance bugs, solutions to multi-threading bugs, public datasets to test newly developed algorithms or systems, reusable code snippets, best industrial practices, database optimization solutions, solutions to security bugs, and solutions to software configuration bugs are the most difficult search tasks that developers consider. Our study sheds light as to why practitioners often perform some of these tasks and why they find some of them to be challenging. We also discuss the implications of our findings to future research in several research areas, e.g., code search engines, domain-specific search engines, and automated generation and refinement of search queries.     

Is the early visual system optimised to be energy efficient?

This paper demonstrates that a representation which balances natural image encoding with metabolic energy efficiency shows many similarities to the neural organisation observed in the early visual system. A simple linear model was constructed that learned receptive fields by optimally balancing information coding with metabolic expense for an entire visual field in a 2-stage visual system. The input to the model consists of a space variant retinal array of photoreceptors. Natural images were then encoded through a bottleneck such as the retinal ganglion cells that form the optic nerve. The natural images represented by the activity of retinal ganglion cells were then encoded by many more 'cortical' cells in a divergent representation. Qualitatively, the system learnt by optimising information coding and energy expenditure and matched (1) the centre surround organisation of retinal ganglion cells; (2) the Gabor-like organisation of cortical simple cells; (3) higher densities of receptive fields in the fovea decreasing in the periphery; (4) smaller receptive fields in the fovea increasing in size in the periphery; (5) spacing ratios of retinal cells; and (6) aspect ratios of cortical receptive fields. Quantitatively, however, there are small but significant discrepancies between density slopes which may be accounted for by taking optic blur and fixation induced image statistics into account. In addition, the model cortical receptive fields are more broadly tuned than biological cortical neurons; this may be accounted for by the computational limitation of modelling a relatively low number of neurons. This paper shows that retinal receptive field properties can be understood in terms of balancing coding with synaptic energy expenditure and cortical receptive fields with firing rate energy expenditure, and provides a sound biological explanation of why 'sparse' distributions are beneficial.     

Artificial intelligence in manufacturing — key to integration?

The Technology Assessment and Management Conference of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute was held on November 7 and 8, 1985, in Rüschlikon / Zürich, Switzerland. Patricia A. MacConaill (Commission of the European Communities, Information Technologies and Telecommunications Task Force) chaired this conference.     

Where have all the key words gone?

A key word with regard to a sub-corpus is a word of which the frequency in that sub-corpus is significantly higher than expected under the hypothesis that its use and the variable part of the corpus are mutually independent. A study in literary statistics almost invariably includes a chapter devoted to key words. However, a strong attack has been recently launched upon the way stylometry has been modelling texts since the classical works of Herdan, Guiraud or Muller. In fact statistical modelling seems as valid in stylistics as in any other field of the humanities and social sciences. What is questionable is the fact that many studies in literary statistics are more satisfied with the easy identification of monsters, i.e. literary phenomena unexplained by wrong models, than with the laborious research of models fitting the textual data well. A short examination of the mentioned controversy and the quantitative analysis of an example provided by Laclos' novelLes Liaisons dangereuses endeavour to support this argument.Christian Delcourt is a senior lecturer in the Department of Romance Philology at the University of Liége.     

Is it possible to cure Internet addiction with the Internet?

AI & SOCIETY - Significant technological advancements over the last two decades have led to enhanced accessibility to computing devices and the Internet. Our society is experiencing an...     

Is contextual animation needed in multimedia learning games for children? An eye tracker study

The present study investigates affective-motivational, attention, and learning effects of unexplored emotional design manipulation: Contextual animation (animation of contextual elements) in multimedia learning game (MLGs) for children. Participants (N = 134; M_age = 9.25; Grades 3 and 4) learned either from an experimental version of the MLG with a high amount of contextual animation or from an identical MLG with no contextual animation (control). Children strongly preferred (χ² = 87.04, p < .001) and found the experimental version more attractive (p < .001, d = −1.11). No significant differences in overall enjoyment and learning outcomes were found. Attention differences, measured by dwell times and fixation durations, were small and reached only borderline significance (p = .035; d = −0.39). The implication is that contextual animation in MLG for children increases such instructional materials' attractiveness without compromising cognitive processes needed for learning; however, it does not lead to their higher instructional efficiency.     

Is overparenting harmful to creativity?

Heavy parental involvement is widely believed to inhibit creativity. On the basis of this rationale and the self‐creativity literature, this study collected paired data to examine the effects of overparenting (which includes the parental arrangement of daily life affairs and parental involvement in schooling), team learning, and coaching by immediate supervisors on employee creativity (i.e., the creativity of Chinese only‐child millennial employees). The findings are described as follows. First, parental involvement in schooling had a significant and positive effect on employee creativity, and the parental arrangement of daily life affairs was inversely related to employee creativity, as in a U‐shaped relationship. Second, supervisors' coaching behaviours improved employee creativity and partially moderated the relationship between overparenting and employee creativity. Third, team learning moderated the interrelationships between overparenting, coaching behaviours, and employee creativity. This paper discusses the complex factors that shape creativity and provides recommendations regarding the parenting and recruitment of Chinese millennials.     

Is it really good to talk? Testing the impact of providing concurrent verbal protocols on driving performance

Abstract

Questions have been raised regarding the impact that providing concurrent verbal protocols has on task performance in various settings; however, there has been little empirical testing of this in road transport. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of providing concurrent verbal protocols on driving performance. Participants drove an instrumented vehicle around a set route, twice whilst providing a concurrent verbal protocol, and twice without. A comparison revealed no differences in behaviour related to speed, braking and steering wheel angle when driving mid-block, but a significant difference in aspects of braking and acceleration at roundabouts. When not providing a verbal protocol, participants were found to brake harder on approach to a roundabout and accelerate more heavily coming out of roundabouts. It is concluded that providing verbal protocols may have a positive effect on braking and accelerating. Practical implications related to driver training and future research are discussed.

Practitioner Summary: Verbal protocol analysis is used by ergonomists to understand aspects of cognition and decision-making during complex tasks such as driving and control room operation. This study examines the impact that it has on driving performance, providing evidence to support its continued use in ergonomics applications.     

Mental rotation: a key to mitigation of motion sickness in the virtual environment?

Some of our recent observations suggest that mental rotation may be important for reduction of motion sickness in microgravity as well as in the microgravity simulator. Therefore, we suggest that development of the ability to perform mental rotation may be important for adaptation to many virtual environments. Training virtual environment operators to perform mental rotation may enhance operator performance both by increasing their ability to "locomote in" and manipulate that environment and by reducing motion sickness associated with transitions between virtual and normal environments.