ALBERT

Description: © 2009 The Authors. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) License. The definitive version was published in Sensors 9 (2009): 404-429, doi:10.3390/s90100404.

Description: An instrument has been built to carry out continuous in-situ measurement of small differences in water pressure, conductivity and temperature, in natural surface water and groundwater systems. A low-cost data telemetry system provides data on shore in real time if desired. The immediate purpose of measurements by this device is to continuously infer fluxes of water across the sediment-water interface in a complex estuarine system; however, direct application to assessment of sediment-water fluxes in rivers, lakes, and other systems is also possible. Key objectives of the design include both low cost, and accuracy of the order of ±0.5 mm H2O in measured head difference between the instrument’s two pressure ports. These objectives have been met, although a revision to the design of one component was found to be necessary. Deployments of up to nine months, and wireless range in excess of 300 m have been demonstrated.

Description: Horizontal wells can significantly improve the gas production and are expected to be an efficient exploitation method for the industrialization of natural gas hydrates (NGHs) in the future. However, the near-wellbore hydrate is highly prone to decomposition during the drilling process, owing to the disturbance aroused by the factors such as the drilling fluid temperature, pressure, and salinity. These issues can result in the engineering accidents such as bit sticking and wellbore instability, which are required for further investigations. This paper studies the characteristics of drilling fluid invasion into the marine NGH reservoir with varied drilling fluid parameters via numerical simulation. The effects of the drilling fluid parameters on the decomposition behavior of near-wellbore hydrates are presented. The simulating results show that the adjustments of drilling fluid density within the mud safety window have limited effects on the NGH decomposition, meanwhile the hydrates reservoir is most sensitive to the drilling fluid temperature variation. If the drilling fluid temperature grows considerably due to improper control, the range of the hydrates decomposition around the horizontal well tends to expand, which then aggravates wellbore instability. When the drilling fluid salinity varies in the range of 3.5–7.5%, the increase in the ion concentration speeds up the hydrate decomposition, which is adverse to maintaining wellbore stability.

Description: Due to their low density, magnesium alloys are very appealing for light-weight constructions. However, the use of the most common magnesium alloy, AZ91 (Mg 9 wt.% Al, 1 wt.% Zn), is limited to temperatures below 150 °C due to creep failure. Several alloys with an improved creep resistance have been developed in the past, for example the alloy MRI 230D or Ca-alloyed AZ91 variants. However, there is an ongoing discussion in the literature regarding the mechanisms of the improved creep resistance. One factor claimed to be responsible for the improved creep resistance is the intermetallic phases which form during casting. Another possible explanation is an increased creep resistance due to the formation of precipitates. To gain more insight into the improved creep resistance of MRI 230D, nanoindentation measurements have been performed on the different phases of as-cast, creep-deformed and heat-treated samples of MRI 230D and Ca-alloyed AZ91 variants. These nanoindentation measurements clearly show that the intermetallic phase (IP) of the alloy MRI 230D does not lose strength during creep deformation in contrast to the Ca-alloyed AZ91 variants. High-temperature nanoindentation measurements performed at 200 °C clearly show that the intermetallic phases of the MRI 230D alloy maintain their strength. This is in clear contrast to the Ca-alloyed AZ91 variants, where the IP is significantly softer at 200 °C than at room temperature. Atom probe measurements have been used to gain insight into the differences in terms of chemical composition between the IPs of MRI 230D and the Ca-alloyed AZ91 variants in order to understand the dissimilar behaviour in terms of strength loss with increasing temperature.

Description: Gut microbiota, a major contributor to human health, is influenced by physical activity and diet, and displays a functional cross-talk with skeletal muscle. Conversely, few data are available on the impact of hypoactivity, although sedentary lifestyles are widespread and associated with negative health and socio-economic impacts. The study aim was to determine the effect of Dry Immersion (DI), a severe hypoactivity model, on the human gut microbiota composition. Stool samples were collected from 14 healthy men before and after 5 days of DI to determine the gut microbiota taxonomic profiles by 16S metagenomic sequencing in strictly controlled dietary conditions. The α and β diversities indices were unchanged. However, the operational taxonomic units associated with the Clostridiales order and the Lachnospiraceae family, belonging to the Firmicutes phylum, were significantly increased after DI. Propionate, a short-chain fatty acid metabolized by skeletal muscle, was significantly reduced in post-DI stool samples. The finding that intestine bacteria are sensitive to hypoactivity raises questions about their impact and role in chronic sedentary lifestyles.

Description: Stand structure and topography are important factors affecting forest vegetation carbon density (FVCD). Revealing the interaction mechanisms between stand structure and topography on FVCD is of great significance for enhancing forest vegetation carbon storage and achieving regional carbon neutrality. Based on stratified sampling, systematic distribution and forest continuous inventory sample plots in Jiangxi province, the variation characteristics of FVCD and its correlations with stand structure and topographic factors were studied. The results are as follows: (1) The average FVCD in Jiangxi province was 44.23 Mg/ha, which was dominated by the carbon density of the arbor layer, accounting for about 81.39% of the total forest—far lower than the average level of global FVCD, which proved that the forest in Jiangxi province was dominated by middle-age and young forests with low carbon density, and also showed that the potential for forest vegetation carbon storage in Jiangxi province was huge. (2) Except for vegetation carbon densities of shrub and herb layers, the vegetation carbon densities of other forest layers in Jiangxi province were significantly different among different forest types. Volume per unit area was the most important factor affecting the vegetation carbon densities of arbor and total forest, and vegetation carbon density–volume models of the main forests were built for vegetation carbon density calculation in Jiangxi province. (3) The vegetation carbon densities of arbor layer, snag and log layer, and total forest increased significantly with increases in elevation and slope. Except for the shrub layer and herb layer, the vegetation carbon densities of the other layers and the total forest had extremely significant or significant differences between slope position gradients—indicating that the effect of topography on FVCD in Jiangxi province was significant, mainly through influencing of forest distribution and human disturbance intensity.

Description: The paper addresses the sustainability of the European Union’s food consumption through a water footprint assessment of selected vulnerable agricultural imports from a two-pronged perspective: (1) the degree of the EU’s dependence on global green water resources embedded in the apparent consumption of selected water-intensive agricultural products and (2) the degree of commitment of countries of origin to sustainability policies. The study argues that the vulnerability of the EU’s agricultural imports to water risks can be estimated based on the amount of green water consumed in producing crops in the countries of origin. The results show that the EU’s consumption of agricultural goods is highly dependent on virtual water imports for all six selected vulnerable agricultural products, from the lowest footprint for bananas (5 mil. km3) to the largest for coffee (69 mil. km3). The analysis also points to a greater concern for quality issues in the countries of origin (56.53%) relative to management (26.52%) and availability issues (16.85%), but the latter are to arise in importance for sustainable production in the years to come. Our conclusions contribute to building up a responsible commitment towards (1) development of environmental policies and the design of practical measures by providing quantitative information that makes problems more clearly defined and tangible, and (2) assessing the outcome of policies and practical measures by understanding their effects on the sustainability of food consumption.

Description: In the single-polyelectrolyte aqueous phase separation (APS) approach, membranes are prepared by precipitating a weak polyelectrolyte from a concentrated aqueous solution using a pH switch. This has proven to be a versatile and more sustainable method compared to conventional approaches as it significantly reduces the use of organic solvents. Poly(styrene-alt-maleic acid) (PSaMA) is a polymer that has been extensively investigated for APS and has been the basis for both open and dense membranes with good performances. These membranes are chemically crosslinked and, in this work, we further investigated ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes prepared with PSaMA for their stability in various organic solvents and under different pH conditions. It was shown that these membranes had stable performances in both isopropanol (IPA) and toluene, and a slightly reduced performance in N-methyl-2-pyrollidone (NMP). However, PSaMA did not perform well as a selective layer in these solvents, indicating that the real opportunity would be to use the UF-type PSaMA membranes as solvent-stable support membranes. Additionally, the membranes proved to be stable in an acidic-to-neutral pH regime (pH 2–7); and, due to the pH-responsive nature of PSaMA, for the NF membranes, a pH-dependent retention of Mg2+ and SO42− ions was observed and, for the UF membranes, a strong responsive behavior was observed, where the pH can be used to control the membrane permeability. However, long-term exposure to elevated pH conditions (pH 8–10) resulted in severe swelling of the NF membranes, resulting in defect formation, and compaction of the UF membranes. For the UF membranes, this compaction did prove to be reversible for some but not all of the membrane samples measured. These results showed that in aqueous systems, membranes prepared with PSaMA had interesting responsive behaviors but performed best at neutral and acidic pH values. Moreover, the membranes exhibited excellent stability in the organic solvents IPA and toluene

Description: Volcanic ash fall-out represents a serious hazard for air and road traffic. The forecasting models used to predict its time–space evolution require information about the core characteristics of volcanic particles, such as their granulometry. Typically, such information is gained by the spot direct observation of the ash collected at the ground or by using expensive instrumentation. In this paper, a vision-based methodology aimed at the estimation of ash granulometry is presented. A dedicated image processing paradigm was developed and implemented in LabVIEW™. The methodology was validated experimentally using digital reference images resembling different operating conditions. The outcome of the assessment procedure was very encouraging, showing an accuracy of the image processing algorithm of 1.76%.

Description: Background: After preterm birth, infants are at high risk for delays in language development. A promising intervention to reduce this risk is represented by the exposure to parental voices through book-reading in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). This study investigated the possible advantages of book-reading to preterm neonates during their NICU stay on their subsequent language development. Methods: 100 families of preterm infants were recruited. The parents of 55 preterm infants (Reading Group) received a colored picture-book on NICU admission and were supported to read to their neonate as often as possible and to continue after hospital discharge. Forty-five infants (Control Group) were recruited before the beginning of the intervention. Infant language development was assessed with the Hearing and Language quotients of the Griffith Mental Development Scale at the corrected ages of 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months. Results: Regardless of group membership, Hearing and Language mean quotients decreased between 9 and 18 months; nevertheless, this decrease was considerably reduced in the Reading group, compared to the Control Group. Conclusions: Reading in NICUs represents a suitable intervention that could positively influence language development and parent-infant relationships in preterm children. The study findings support its implementation as a preventive measure.

Description: The electric power industry sector has become increasingly aware of how counterproductive voltage sag affects distribution network systems (DNS). The voltage sag backfires disastrously at the demand load side and affects equipment in DNS. To settle the voltage sag issue, this paper achieved its primary purpose to mitigate the voltage sag based on integrating a hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) with the DNS using a distribution static synchronous compensator (D-STATCOM) system. Besides, this paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of D-STATCOM in DNS. In this paper, using HFC is well-designed, modeled, and simulated to mitigate the voltage sag in DNS with a positive impact on the environment and an immediate response to the issue of the injection of voltage. Furthermore, this modeling and controller are particularly suitable in terms of cost-effectiveness as well as reliability based on the adaptive network fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), fuzzy logic system (FLC), and proportional–integral (P-I). The effectiveness of the MATLAB simulation is confirmed by implementing the system and carrying out a DNS connection, obtaining efficiencies over 94.5% at three-phase fault for values of injection voltage in HFC D-STATCOM using a P-I controller. Moreover, the HFC D-STATCOM using FLC proved capable of supporting the network by 97.00%. The HFC D-STATCOM based ANFIS proved capable of supporting the network by 98.00% in the DNS.

Description: Apart from numerous technical challenges, the transition towards a carbon-neutral energy supply is greatly hindered by limited economic feasibility of renewable energy sources. This results in their slow and bounded penetration in both commercial and residential sectors that are responsible for over 40% of final energy consumption. This paper aims to demonstrate that combined application of sophisticated planning methodologies at building-level and presents incentive mechanisms for renewables that can result in prosumers, featuring hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES), with economic performance comparable to that of conventional energy systems. The presented research enhances existing planning methodologies by integrating appliance-level demand side management into the decision process and investigates its effect on the planning problem. Moreover, the proposed methodology features an innovative and holistic approach that simultaneously assess electrical and thermal domain in both an isolated and grid-connected context. The analyzed hybrid system consists of solar photovoltaic, wind turbine and battery with thermal supply featuring solar thermal collector and a ground-source heat pump. Overall optimization problem is modeled as a mixed-integer linear program, while ranking of all feasible alternatives is made by the multicriteria decision-making algorithm against several technological, economic, and environmental criteria. A real-life scenario of energy system retrofit for a building in the United Kingdom was employed to demonstrate overall cost savings of 12% in the present market and regulation context.

Description: This study presents a 2-D lidar odometry based on an ICP (iterative closest point) variant used in a simple and straightforward platform that achieves real-time and low-drift performance. With a designated multi-scale feature extraction procedure, the lidar cloud information can be utilized at multiple levels and the speed of data association can be accelerated according to the multi-scale data structure, thereby achieving robust feature extraction and fast scan-matching algorithms. First, on a large scale, the lidar point cloud data are classified according to the curvature into two parts: smooth collection and rough collection. Then, on a small scale, noise and unstable points in the smooth or rough collection are filtered, and edge points and corner points are extracted. Then, the proposed tangent-vector-pairs based on edge and corner points are applied to evaluate the rotation term, which is significant for producing a stable solution in motion estimation. We compare our performance with two excellent open-source SLAM algorithms, Cartographer and Hector SLAM, using collected and open-access datasets in structured indoor environments. The results indicate that our method can achieve better accuracy.

Description: A simple one-pot approach was developed for the synthesis of furan-2(5H)-one derivative containing indole fragments. This method includes the telescoped multicomponent reaction of indole, 4-methoxyphenylglyoxal, and Meldrum’s acid. The synthetic utility of the prepared furan-2(5H)-one was demonstrated by condensation with 4-methoxybenzaldehyde. The advantages of this method include the employment of readily accessible starting materials, atom economy, process simplicity, and the easy isolation of the target products. The structure of the synthesized furanones was confirmed by 1H and 13C-NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization (ESI-HRMS).

Description: Fault tolerance in IoT systems is challenging to overcome due to its complexity, dynamicity, and heterogeneity. IoT systems are typically designed and constructed in layers. Every layer has its requirements and fault tolerance strategies. However, errors in one layer can propagate and cause effects on others. Thus, it is impractical to consider a centralized fault tolerance approach for an entire system. Consequently, it is vital to consider multiple layers in order to enable collaboration and information exchange when addressing fault tolerance. The purpose of this study is to propose a multi-layer fault tolerance approach, granting interconnection among IoT system layers, allowing information exchange and collaboration in order to attain the property of dependability. Therefore, we define an event-driven framework called FaTEMa (Fault Tolerance Event Manager) that creates a dedicated fault-related communication channel in order to propagate events across the levels of the system. The implemented framework assist with error detection and continued service. Additionally, it offers extension points to support heterogeneous communication protocols and evolve new capabilities. Our empirical results show that introducing FaTEMa provided improvements to the error detection and error resolution time, consequently improving system availability. In addition, the use of Fatema provided a reliability improvement and a reduction in the number of failures produced.

Description: ArcheoBot is a prototype of a Telegram Bot: it is an experimental prototype that builds on the common digital experiences of the authors of this article, aiming to offer a quick, powerful, easy to use tool. It aims to serve archaeological and topographical investigations quickly and to interface with other software for the management of collected data.

Description: We mainly focus on the effects of small changes of parameters on the dynamics of charged particles around Kerr black holes surrounded by an external magnetic field, which can be considered as a tidal environment. The radial motions of charged particles on the equatorial plane are studied via an effective potential. It is found that the particle energies at the local maxima values of the effective potentials increase with an increase in the black hole spin and the particle angular momenta, but decrease with an increase of one of the inductive charge parameter and magnetic field parameter. The radii of stable circular orbits on the equatorial plane also increase, whereas those of the innermost stable circular orbits decrease. On the other hand, the effects of small variations of the parameters on the orbital regular and chaotic dynamics of charged particles on the non-equatorial plane are traced by means of a time-transformed explicit symplectic integrator, Poincaré sections and fast Lyapunov indicators. It is shown that the dynamics sensitivity depends on small variations in the inductive charge parameter, magnetic field parameter, energy, and angular momentum. Chaos occurs easily as each of the inductive charge parameter, magnetic field parameter, and energy increases but is weakened as the angular momentum increases. When the dragging effects of the spacetime increase, the chaotic properties are not always weakened under some circumstances.

Description: The most common method used to pick up biomedical signals is through metallic electrodes coupled to the input of high-gain, low-noise amplifiers. Unfortunately, electrodes, amongst other effects, introduce an undesired contact resistance and a contact potential. The contact potential needs to be rejected since it would otherwise cause the saturation of the input stage of the amplifiers, and this is almost always obtained by inserting a simple RC high-pass filter in the input signal path. The contact resistance needs to be estimated to ensure that it does not impair correct measurements. Methods exist for estimating the contact resistance by dynamically modifying the input network configuration, but because of the presence of the input RC filter, long transients are induced any time a switch occurs between different input configurations, so that the measurement time may become unacceptably long. In this paper, we propose a new topology for a DC removal network at the input of the differential signal amplifier that results in an AC filter whose time constant can be continuously changed by means of a control voltage. As such, we can speed up the recovery from transients by setting very short time constants (during the input resistance estimation process) while maintaining the ability to obtain very low cut-in frequencies by setting a much larger time constant during actual measurements. A prototype of the system was built and tested in order to demonstrate the advantage of the approach we propose in terms of reduced measurement time.

Description: In the EU 28, the installed heating appliance stock is quite old, with an actual replacement rate of 4%. This is directly reflected in the average efficiency of the installed heating systems, where around 60% of the stock is rated with an energy class of C or D (the lowest classes of the energy label scale). The European project HARP aims at raising consumers’ awareness of the planned replacement of their old and inefficient heating appliances with more efficient and renewable solutions. In this direction, an energy labeling methodology for old appliances has been developed to rate the installed stock before the introduction of the EU energy label. The methodology has been developed for space heating appliances and water heaters, targeting two types of users: end consumers and professional users. The validation considered about 4600 space heating appliances and 800 water heaters built between 1972 and 2019. Three heating appliances and two water heaters were tested in the laboratory, confirming the reliability of the proposed methodology. The expected impact of defining an energy labeling methodology for installed heating appliances increases the current replacement rate of these appliances in the EU from 4% to 5%.

Description: This work presents a comprehensive theoretical analysis of current-mode power amplifiers as a function of input power for different biasing classes under the common simplifying assumption of constant transconductance and hard current cut-off/saturation. Typically, the theoretical analysis of power amplifier performance and behavior are carried out only at maximum output power. However, to achieve high data-rates, modern telecommunication systems adopt signals characterized by a very high peak-to-average power ratio, thus it is useful to analyze the power amplifier behavior as a function of power back-off. Moreover, in many cases, to enhance the efficiency and/or to apply harmonic shaping techniques, a clipped drain-source current, which approaches a square wave, is required. The classical analysis can be extended to low power levels only under the assumption of power-independent conduction angle, which is true only for class-A and class-B amplifiers, and does not take into account possible waveform clipping at maximum current. This work presents a complete theoretical Fourier analysis of FET-based power amplifiers as a function of quiescent drain-source current at any input power level and accounting for the clipped current case, up to the square-wave limit, reorganizing and completing the material that can be found in classical textbooks in the field.

Description: Hypoxia is known to impair mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) homeostasis. Post-hypoxic perturbations of the ER proteostasis result in the accumulation of misfolded/unfolded proteins leading to the activation of the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). Mitochondrial chaperone TNF receptor-associated protein 1 (TRAP1) is reported to preserve mitochondrial membrane potential and to impede reactive oxygen species (ROS) production thereby protecting cells from ER stress as well as oxidative stress. The first-line antidiabetic drug Metformin has been attributed a neuroprotective role after hypoxia. Interestingly, Metformin has been reported to rescue mitochondrial deficits in fibroblasts derived from a patient carrying a homozygous TRAP1 loss-of-function mutation. We sought to investigate a putative link between Metformin, TRAP1, and the UPR after hypoxia. We assessed post-hypoxic/reperfusion longevity, mortality, negative geotaxis, ROS production, metabolic activity, gene expression of antioxidant proteins, and activation of the UPR in Trap1-deficient flies. Following hypoxia, Trap1 deficiency caused higher mortality and greater impairments in negative geotaxis compared to controls. Similarly, post-hypoxic production of ROS and UPR activation was significantly higher in Trap1-deficient compared to control flies. Metformin counteracted the deleterious effects of hypoxia in Trap1-deficient flies but had no protective effect in wild-type flies. We provide evidence that TRAP1 is crucially involved in the post-hypoxic regulation of mitochondrial/ER stress and the activation of the UPR. Metformin appears to rescue Trap1-deficiency after hypoxia mitigating ROS production and downregulating the pro-apoptotic PERK (protein kinase R-like ER kinase) arm of the UPR.

Description: Real-time PCR is widely used to study the relative abundance of mRNA due to its specificity, sensitivity, and repeatability quantification. However, relative quantification requires a reference gene, which should be stable in its expression, showing lower variation by experimental conditions or tissues. The aim of this study was to evaluate the stability of the expression of five commonly used reference genes (actb, ywhaz, b2m, sdha, and 18s rRNA) at different physiological stages (alert and emergency) in three different cattle breeds. In this study, five genes (actb, ywhaz, b2m, sdha, and 18s rRNA) were selected as candidate reference genes for expression studies in the whole blood from three cattle breeds (Romosinuano, Gyr, and Brahman) under heat stress conditions. The transcription stability of the candidate reference genes was evaluated using geNorm and NormFinder. The results showed that actb, 18SrRNA, and b2m expression were the most stable reference genes for whole blood of Gyr and Brahman breeds under two states of livestock weather safety (alert and emergency). Meanwhile, actb, b2m, and ywhaz were the most stable reference genes for the Romosinuano breed.

Description: Residents of nursing homes have been significantly affected by COVID-19 in Spain. The factors that have contributed to the vulnerability of this population are very diverse. In this study, physical agents, chemical pollutants, population density and different capacities of residences were analysed to understand their influence on the number of elderly people who have died in geriatric centres in different autonomous communities (AACCs) of Spain. A statistical analysis was carried out on the variables observed. The results show that many residences with a larger number of deaths were private, with some exceptions. Physical agents and pollutants were found to be determining factors, especially for the communities of Extremadura and Castilla–La Mancha, although the large number of factors involved makes this study complicated. The compromise between air quality and energy efficiency is of great importance, especially when human health is at stake.

Description: Contemporary agriculture has become very energy-intensive and mainly uses electricity, which is needed for technological processes on livestock farms. Livestock faeces are burdensome for the environment due to the release of methane into the atmosphere. This article presents the concept of a self-sufficient livestock farm as an off-grid energy circuit that is a part of the agricultural process. The key idea is to obtain an energy flow using the concept of a smart valve to achieve a self-sufficient energy process based on a biogas plant, renewable energy sources, and energy storage. During the production process, a livestock farm produces large amounts of waste in the form of grey and black manure. On the one hand, these products are highly harmful to the environment, but on the other, they are valuable input products for another process, i.e., methane production. The methane becomes the fuel for cogeneration generators that produce heat and electricity. Heat and electricity are partly returned to the main farming process and partly used by residents of the area. In this way, a livestock farm and the inhabitants of a village or town can become energy self-sufficient and independent of national grids. The idea described in this paper shows the process of energy production combining a biogas plant, renewable energy sources, and an energy storage unit that enable farmland to become fully self-sufficient through the energy flow between all constituents of the energy cycle being maintained by a smart valve.

Description: Due to the complex and variable conditions under which wind turbines operate, existing working condition classification methods are inadequate for condition assessment of the main transmission system. Because working conditions are too few after classification, it cannot effectively describe the complex and variable working conditions of wind turbine. This can lead to high false-alarm rates in the condition monitoring, which affect normal operations. This paper proposes a working condition classification method for the main transmission system of wind turbines based on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) data. Firstly, correlation analysis of SCADA data acquired by wind farm is used to select the parameters relevant to the main transmission system. Secondly, according to the wind turbine control principle, the working conditions are initially divided into four phases: shutdown, start-up, maximum wind energy tracking, and constant speed. The k-means clustering algorithm is used to subdivide the maximum wind energy-tracking phase and constant speed phase, which account for a larger proportion of the working conditions, to achieve better classification. Finally, a case study is used to demonstrate the calculation of alarm thresholds and alarm rates for each working condition. The results are compared with the direct use of k-means clustering for working condition classification. It is concluded that the proposed method can significantly reduce the false-alarm rate of the vibration detection process.

Description: The basic premise of regional ecological construction would be to scientifically and effectively grasp the characteristics of land use change and its impact on landscape ecological risk. The research objects of this paper are the typical areas of the Yellow River Basin in China and “process-change-drive” as the logical main line. Moreover, this paper is based on multi-period land use remote sensing data from 2000 to 2020, the regional land use change process and influencing factors are identified, the temporal and spatial evolution and response process of landscape ecological risk are discussed, and the land use zoning control strategy to reduce ecological risk is put forward. The results indicated: (1) The scale and structure of land use show the characteristics of “many-to-one” and “one-to-many”; (2) the process of land use change is affected by the alternation of multiple factors. The natural environment and socio-economic factors dominate in the early stage and the location and policy factors have a significant impact in the later stage; (3) the overall landscape ecological risk level and conversion rate show a trend of “high in the southeast, low in the northwest”, shift from low to high and landscape ecological risks gradually increase; and (4) in order to improve the regional ecological safety and according to the characteristics of landscape ecological risk and spatial heterogeneity, we should adopt the management and control zoning method and set different levels of control intensity (from key intensity to strict intensity to general intensity), and develop differentiated land use control strategies.

Description: The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic devastated the world economy. Global infections and deaths altered the behaviors of generations. The Internet acted as an incredible vehicle for communication but was also a source of unfounded rumors. Unfortunately, this freedom of information sharing and fear of COVID-19 fostered unfounded claims about transmission (e.g., 5G networks spread the disease). With negligible enforcement to stop the spread of rumors and government officials spouting unfounded claims, falsities became ubiquitous. Organizations, public health officials, researchers, and businesses spent limited resources addressing rumors instead of implementing policies to overcome challenges (e.g., speaking to defiant mask wearers versus safe reopening actions). The researchers defined COVID-19 transmission misinformation as false beliefs about the spread and prevention of contracting the disease. Design and validation of the 12-item COVID-19 Transmission Misinformation Scale (CTMS) provides a measure to identify transmission misinformation believers. Indirect COVID-19 transmission misinformation beliefs with a fear of COVID-19 decreased wearing a mask in public intentions. Callousness exacerbated COVID-19 transmission misinformation beliefs as a moderator.

Description: This study was designed to compare the fatty acid (FA) profiles of four types of fat depots from crossbred bulls (Polish Holstein-Friesian × Limousin, PHF × LM) fattened semi-intensively (SI) and intensively (I). Intramuscular fat was most abundant in total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), n-3 and n-6 PUFAs, and functional fatty acids C 18:2, C 18:3, C 20:4 and C 20:5 in comparison with the remaining fat types. Furthermore, note that external fat was more abundant in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than other fat types. Grass silage fed to cattle during fattening had a beneficial influence on the FA profile of beef, and an increase in the amount of concentrate in the ration did not decrease beef quality.

Description: This study assesses the effect of the material type (lithium disilicate, zirconia, and polymer-infiltrated ceramic) and dental bonding substrates (dentin, dentin with intra-coronal cavity, and dentin with composite filling) on the fracture resistance and failure mode of molars restored by occlusal veneers. Methods: Ninety occlusal veneers, fabricated from either lithium disilicate, zirconia, or polymer-infiltrated ceramic, were adhesively bonded to teeth prepared with either dentin, dentin with intra-coronal cavity, or dentin with composite filling. All specimens were thermally aged (5000 cycles), then load cycled (120,000 cycles). Each specimen was subjected to a compressive load through fracture, then was examined (×20) to identify the fracture type. Data were statistically analyzed. Results: Material type and dental substrate had no significant effect on the fracture resistance of adhesively retained occlusal veneer restorations. For each material, no significant differences were found between veneers bonded to dentin, dentin with intra-coronal cavity, and dentin with composite filling. Additionally, within each bonding substrate, there were no significant differences between lithium disilicate, zirconia, and polymer-infiltrated ceramic veneers. The adhesive failure was recorded mainly with zirconia occlusal veneer restorations. Conclusions: Considering the fracture results, lithium disilicate, zirconia, and polymer-infiltrated ceramic occlusal veneers perform well whatever the type of dental bonding surface. When the dental bonding surface varies, different occlusal veneer materials should be considered. Occlusal veneers bonded to dentin, dentin with composite filling, or dentin with an intra-coronal cavity exhibited a fracture resistance exceeding the average human masticatory forces in the molar area.

Description: This study brings together three subjects: urban rehabilitation, social innovation, and new working spaces, envisaging an intersectoral viewpoint, focusing on a European city, Lisbon, arguing that the public sector holds the capacity to consistently drive positive achievements in this respect. This study involves analyzing policy, governance, and urban planning documents in force, observation and spatial analysis using open-source databases, and stakeholder interviews. The result is in line with the primary research plea applied to the case study, and conclusions show that public intervention, whenever applied systematically from the city vision to local plans, resorting to close bonds between the sites and the communities in a participatory and collaborative way, may lead to urban rehabilitation and social innovation through the inception and development of new working spaces. The study was designed while researching as a member of COST CA18214 (The Geography of New Working Spaces and the Impact on the Periphery).

Description: Monitoring gait patterns in daily life will provide a lot of biological information related to human health. At present, common gait pressure analysis systems, such as pressure platforms and in-shoe systems, adopt rigid sensors and are wired and uncomfortable. In this paper, a biomimetic porous graphene–SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber) pressure sensor (PGSPS) with high flexibility, sensitivity (1.05 kPa−1), and a wide measuring range (0–150 kPa) is designed and integrated into an insole system to collect, process, transmit, and display plantar pressure data for gait analysis in real-time via a smartphone. The system consists of 16 PGSPSs that were used to analyze different gait signals, including walking, running, and jumping, to verify its daily application range. After comparing the test results with a high-precision digital multimeter, the system is proven to be more portable and suitable for daily use, and the accuracy of the waveform meets the judgment requirements. The system can play an important role in monitoring the safety of the elderly, which is very helpful in today’s society with an increasingly aging population. Furthermore, an intelligent gait diagnosis algorithm can be added to realize a smart gait monitoring system.

Description: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of Bacillus subtillis PB6, chromium propionate or a combination of the two on the performance, egg and eggshell quality, nutrient metabolizability and serum biochemistry of layer breeders. White Plymouth Rock and Red Rhodes Island breeder hens at 55 weeks of age were allocated in individual cages using a completely randomized block design with 16 replicates. Hens were fed control, control + probiotic (500 g/ton of Bacillus subtilis PB6), control + CrProp (50 g/ton of chromium propionate) and control + probiotic + CrProp diets from 55 to 70 weeks of age. Productive parameters and eggshell quality as well as cortisol and blood biochemistry were grouped each 28 d as well as for the overall period. The metabolizability of nutrients and energy was determined at 70 weeks of age. In the overall period, hens fed the control + probiotic or control + probiotic + CrProp diets had significantly higher egg production, egg mass, shell percentage, thickness and shell strength. The metabolizability of dry matter, nitrogen and energy increased in hens that were fed the control + probiotic + CrProp diet. In conclusion, diets supplemented with Bacillus subtillis PB6 and chromium propionate resulted in improved productive performance, eggshell quality and nutrient metabolizability of layer breeders, without modifying serum cortisol, albumin and triglycerides.

Description: This paper analyses the construction time and advance rate of a 3 km long drill and blast tunnel under various geological conditions using an upgraded NTNU drill and blast prediction model. The analysis was carried out for the five types of Korean tunnel supports according to the rock mass quality (from Type 1, meaning a very good rock mass quality; to Type 5, meaning a very poor rock mass quality). Four kinds of rock properties, as well as the rock mass quality, for each tunnel support type were applied to simulate different geological conditions based on previous studies and the NTNU model. The construction time was classified into five categories: basic, standard, gross, tunnel and total, according to the operation characteristics to more effectively analyse the time. In addition, to consider the actual geological conditions in tunnelling, the construction times for the three mixed geological cases were analysed. It was found that total construction time of a tunnel covering all the operations and site preparations with a very poor rock mass quality was more than twice that of a tunnel with a very good rock mass quality for the same tunnel length. It is thought that this study can be a useful approach to estimating the construction time and advance rate in the planning or design stage of a drill and blast tunnel.

Description: We consider alternative possibilities for hedging spot positions on the FTSE LATIBEX Index, the index of the only international market exclusively for Latin American firms that is denominated by the euro. Since there is not a futures market on the index, it is unclear whether a relatively successful hedge can be found. We explore the plausibility of employing futures on four stock market indices: EUROSTOXX 50, S&P500, BOVESPA, and IPC, and simulate the results that could be obtained by a hedge position based on either unconditional or conditional second order moments estimated from different asymmetric GARCH models. Several criteria for hedging effectiveness suggest that futures contracts on BOVESPA should be preferred, and that a salient reduction in risk can be achieved over the unhedged LATIBEX portfolio. The evidence in favor of a better performance of conditional moments is very clear, without significant differences among the alternative GARCH specifications.

Description: Soil salinization caused by the accumulation of sodium can decrease rice yield and quality. Identification of rice salt tolerance genes and their molecular mechanisms could help breeders genetically improve salt tolerance. We studied QTL mapping of populations for rice salt tolerance, period and method of salt tolerance identification, salt tolerance evaluation parameters, identification of salt tolerance QTLs, and fine-mapping and map cloning of salt tolerance QTLs. We discuss our findings as they relate to other genetic studies of salt tolerance association.

Description: Solving Constraint Optimization Problems (COPs) can be dramatically simplified by boundary estimation, that is providing tight boundaries of cost functions. By feeding a supervised Machine Learning (ML) model with data composed of the known boundaries and extracted features of COPs, it is possible to train the model to estimate the boundaries of a new COP instance. In this paper, we first give an overview of the existing body of knowledge on ML for Constraint Programming (CP), which learns from problem instances. Second, we introduce a boundary estimation framework that is applied as a tool to support a CP solver. Within this framework, different ML models are discussed and evaluated regarding their suitability for boundary estimation, and countermeasures to avoid unfeasible estimations that avoid the solver finding an optimal solution are shown. Third, we present an experimental study with distinct CP solvers on seven COPs. Our results show that near-optimal boundaries can be learned for these COPs with only little overhead. These estimated boundaries reduce the objective domain size by 60-88% and can help the solver find near-optimal solutions early during the search.

Description: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in both genders, with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for about 85% of all lung cancers. At the time of diagnosis, the tumour is usually locally advanced or metastatic, shaping a poor disease outcome. NSCLC includes adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and large cell lung carcinoma. Searching for novel therapeutic targets is mandated due to the modest effect of platinum-based therapy as well as the targeted therapies developed in the last decade. The latter is mainly due to the lack of mutation detection in around half of all NSCLC cases. New therapeutic modalities are also required to enhance the effect of immunotherapy in NSCLC. Identifying the molecular signature of NSCLC subtypes, including genetics and epigenetic variation, is crucial for selecting the appropriate therapy or combination of therapies. Epigenetic dysregulation has a key role in the tumourigenicity, tumour heterogeneity, and tumour resistance to conventional anti-cancer therapy. Epigenomic modulation is a potential therapeutic strategy in NSCLC that was suggested a long time ago and recently starting to attract further attention. Histone acetylation and deacetylation are the most frequently studied patterns of epigenetic modification. Several histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors (HDIs), such as vorinostat and panobinostat, have shown promise in preclinical and clinical investigations on NSCLC. However, further research on HDIs in NSCLC is needed to assess their anti-tumour impact. Another modification, histone methylation, is one of the most well recognized patterns of histone modification. It can either promote or inhibit transcription at different gene loci, thus playing a rather complex role in lung cancer. Some histone methylation modifiers have demonstrated altered activities, suggesting their oncogenic or tumour-suppressive roles. In this review, patterns of histone modifications in NSCLC will be discussed, focusing on the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic modifications in tumour progression and metastasis, as well as in developing drug resistance. Then, we will explore the therapeutic targets emerging from studying the NSCLC epigenome, referring to the completed and ongoing clinical trials on those medications.

Description: A series of coatings from poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA) were obtained using the matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) technique. By changing the process parameters, i.e., laser fluence and EVA co-polymer concentration in the target, coatings with various morphologies and topographies were produced. The evaluation of the film structure was based on an analysis of optical and atomic force microscopy and profilometry measurements. A detailed chemical structure investigation, conducted based on Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra, revealed that although the general structure was preserved, some alterations of ethylene (Et) and vinyl acetate (VAc) blocks took place. The most noticeable change was in the ester group that was transformed into ketone and carboxyl groups; nevertheless, some changes in the aliphatic main chain were also present. The chemical structure changes in EVA coatings took place regardless of the process parameters used. The use of chloroform as a solvent to dissolve the EVA copolymer was indicated as a possible reason of the changes as well as the tendency of EVA macromolecules to form clusters. Nevertheless, due to low level of structure alteration, it has been shown that the MAPLE technique can be successfully used to obtain coatings from polymers with more complex structures, which are soluble in a limited number of solvents.

Description: Malaria is a huge global health burden with resistance to currently available medicines resulting in the search for newer antimalarial compounds from traditional medicinal plants in malaria-endemic regions. Previous studies on two chalcones, homobutein and 5-prenylbutein, present in E. abyssinica, have shown moderate antiplasmodial activity. Here, we describe results from experimental and computational investigations of four structurally related chalcones, butein, 2′,4′-dihydroxy-3,4-dimethoxychalcone (DHDM), homobutein and 5-prenylbutein to elucidate possible molecular mechanisms by which these compounds clear malaria parasites. The crystal structures of butein and DHDM show that butein engages in more hydrogen bonding and consequently, more intermolecular interactions than DHDM. Rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) voltammetry results show that butein has a higher antioxidant activity towards the superoxide radical anion compared to DHDM. Computational docking experiments were conducted to examine the inhibitory potential of all four compounds on falcipain-2, a cysteine protease that is involved in the degradation of hemoglobin in plasmodium-infected red blood cells of the host. Overall, this work suggests butein as a better antimalarial compound due to its structural features which allow it to have greater intermolecular interactions, higher antioxidant activity and to create a covalent complex at the active site of falcipain-2.

Description: Point cloud registration is a key step in the reconstruction of 3D data models. The traditional ICP registration algorithm depends on the initial position of the point cloud. Otherwise, it may get trapped into local optima. In addition, the registration method based on the feature learning of PointNet cannot directly or effectively extract local features. To solve these two problems, this paper proposes SAP-Net, inspired by CorsNet and PointNet++, as an optimized CorsNet. To be more specific, SAP-Net firstly uses the set abstraction layer in PointNet++ as the feature extraction layer and then combines the global features with the initial template point cloud. Finally, PointNet is used as the transform prediction layer to obtain the six parameters required for point cloud registration directly, namely the rotation matrix and the translation vector. Experiments on the ModelNet40 dataset and real data show that SAP-Net not only outperforms ICP and CorsNet on both seen and unseen categories of the point cloud but also has stronger robustness.

Description: The main problem during the production of castings from aluminium alloys is the presence of the reoxidation, which negatively affects the final casting quality. Liquid metal surface reacts with the surrounding atmosphere and oxide layer of Al2O3 is formed on its surface. The problem occurs when the oxide layer is entrained to the internal volume of the melt by turbulence and double oxide layers are formed, also known as “bifilms”. Its formation is related to the melt velocity and gating system design. In paper, naturally pressurized gating system was calculated and designed. Effect of the filter media and vortex element on the melt velocity, amount of oxides, mechanical properties, and porosity were observed. Designs with 10 ppi and 20 ppi foam filters and vortex element were compared with design without filters to prove the positive (or negative) effect of filter media on melt velocity and thus on final casting quality. The melt velocity and amount of oxides were observed with the aid of simulation software. Mechanical properties, quantity of pores, bifilm index and EDX analysis were evaluated after experimental casts. It was proven that by using 20 ppi foam filter in combination with vortex element, the best results were achieved.

Description: This study discusses how to fuzzify a feedforward neural network (FNN) to generate a fuzzy forecast that contains the actual value, while minimizing the average range of fuzzy forecasts. This topic has rarely been investigated in past studies but is an essential step to constructing a precise fuzzy FNN (FFNN). Existing methods fuzzify all parameters at the same time, which results in a nonlinear programming (NLP) problem that is not easy to solve. In contrast, in this study, the parameters of a FNN are fuzzified independently. In this way, the optimal values of fuzzy parameters can be derived theoretically. An illustrative example is used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed methodology. According to experimental results, fuzzyifying some parameters may not guarantee that all fuzzy forecasts contain the corresponding actual values. In addition, fuzzifying parameters closer to the output node is more likely to achieve a 100% hit rate. The results lay a foundation for establishing a precise deep FFNN in the future.

Description: Progress in communication technologies and social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have supported the acceptance of e-learning. In the e-learning context, gamification has been identified as one of the most promising trends. Many researchers believe in the game elements’ capacity to drive learning, skills acquisition, and changes for more sustainable behavior. However, the literature on the subject is dispersed, addressing behavioral attitudes and elements in an isolated and fragmented way. This study aims to present a framework relating game elements to behavioral attitudes to promote sustainability and ensure quality of learning. The methodology is based on a systematic literature review using the PRISMA protocol, covering the content analysis of 130 articles indexed in the Web of Science database. For the framework construction, the following were identified: behavioral attitudes stimulated by gamification; main game elements and how they relate to each other. Based on this, a framework called 7GOALS (Gamification-Oriented Active Learning Steps) associated with the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) was established. The proposed structure is multidisciplinary and can be used in any knowledge field that uses gamification. With this, themes such as sustainability can be widely disseminated and leverage changes towards more sustainable behaviors that adhere to the real world.

Description: Marine polymer gels play a critical role in regulating ocean basin scale biogeochemical dynamics. This brief review introduces the crucial role of marine gels as a source of aerosol particles and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in cloud formation processes, emphasizing Arctic marine microgels. We review the gel’s composition and relation to aerosols, their emergent properties, and physico-chemical processes that explain their change in size spectra, specifically in relation to aerosols and CCN. Understanding organic aerosols and CCN in this context provides clear benefits to quantifying the role of marine nanogel/microgel in microphysical processes leading to cloud formation. This review emphasizes the DOC-marine gel/aerosolized gel-cloud link, critical to developing accurate climate models.

Description: Zadeh’s extension principle is one of the elementary tools in fuzzy set theory, and among other things, it provides a natural extension of a real-valued continuous self-map to a self-map having fuzzy sets as its arguments. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new algorithm that can be used for simulations of fuzzy dynamical systems induced by interval maps. The core of the proposed algorithm is based on calculations including piecewise linear maps, and consequently, an implementation of an optimization algorithm (in our case, particle swarm optimization) was prepared to obtain necessary piecewise linear approximations. For all parts of this algorithm, we provide detailed testing and numerous examples.

Description: The use of alloplastic materials instead of autologous cartilage grafts offers a new perspective in craniofacial reconstructive surgery. Particularly for regenerative approaches, customized implants enable the surgeon to restore the cartilaginous framework of the ear without donor site morbidity. However, high development and production costs of commercially available implants impede clinical translation. For this reason, the usability of a low-cost 3D printer (Ultimaker 2+) as an inhouse-production tool for cheap surgical implants was investigated. The open software architecture of the 3D printer was modified in order to enable printing of biocompatible and biologically degradable polycaprolactone (PCL). Firstly, the printing accuracy and limitations of a PCL implant were compared to reference materials acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA). Then the self-made PCL-scaffold was seeded with adipose-tissue derived stem cells (ASCs), and biocompatibility was compared to a commercially available PCL-scaffold using a cell viability staining (FDA/PI) and a dsDNA quantification assay (PicoGreen). Secondly, porous and solid patient-customized ear constructs were manufactured from mirrored CT-imagining data using a computer-assisted design (CAD) and computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM) approach to evaluate printing accuracy and reproducibility. The results show that printing of a porous PCL scaffolds was possible, with an accuracy equivalent to the reference materials at an edge length of 10 mm and a pore size of 0.67 mm. Cell viability, adhesion, and proliferation of the ASCs were equivalent on self-made and the commercially available PCL-scaffolds. Patient-customized ear constructs could be produced well in solid form and with limited accuracy in porous form from all three thermoplastic materials. Printing dimensions and quality of the modified low-cost 3D printer are sufficient for selected tissue engineering applications, and the manufacturing of personalized ear models for surgical simulation at manufacturing costs of EUR 0.04 per cell culture scaffold and EUR 0.90 (0.56) per solid (porous) ear construct made from PCL. Therefore, in-house production of PCL-based tissue engineering scaffolds and surgical implants should be further investigated to facilitate the use of new materials and 3D printing in daily clinical routine.

Description: In the past few decades, ZrN thin films have been identified as wear resistant coatings for tribological applications. The mechanical and tribological properties of ZrN thin layers depend on internal stress induced by the adopted deposition techniques and deposition parameters such as pressure, temperature, and growth rate. In sputtering deposition processes, the selected target voltage waveform and the plasma characteristics also play a crucial influence on physical properties of produced coatings. In present work, ZrN thin films, obtained setting different values of duty cycle in a reactive bipolar pulsed dual magnetron sputtering plant, were investigated to evaluate their residual stress through the substrate curvature method. A considerable progressive increase of residual stress values was measured at decreasing duty cycle, attesting the significant role of voltage waveform in stress development. An evident correlation was also highlighted between the values of the duty cycle and those of wear factor. The performed analysis attested an advantageous effect of internal stress, having the samples with high compressive stress, higher wear resistance. A downward trend for wear rate with the increase of internal residual stress was observed. The choice of suitable values of duty cycle allowed to produce ceramic coatings with improved tribological performance.

Description: Klebsiella pneumoniae is an increasing threat to public health and represents one of the most concerning pathogens involved in life-threatening infections. The resistant and virulence determinants are coded by mobile genetic elements which can easily spread between bacteria populations and co-evolve with its genomic host. In this study, we present the full genomic sequences, insertion sites and phylogenetic analysis of 150 prophages found in 40 K. pneumoniae clinical isolates obtained from an outbreak in a Portuguese hospital. All strains harbored at least one prophage and we identified 104 intact prophages (69.3%). The prophage size ranges from 29.7 to 50.6 kbp, coding between 32 and 78 putative genes. The prophage GC content is 51.2%, lower than the average GC content of 57.1% in K. pneumoniae. Complete prophages were classified into three families in the order Caudolovirales: Myoviridae (59.6%), Siphoviridae (38.5%) and Podoviridae (1.9%). In addition, an alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed nine distinct clusters. Evidence of recombination was detected within the genome of some prophages but, in most cases, proteins involved in viral structure, transcription, replication and regulation (lysogenic/lysis) were maintained. These results support the knowledge that prophages are diverse and widely disseminated in K. pneumoniae genomes, contributing to the evolution of this species and conferring additional phenotypes. Moreover, we identified K. pneumoniae prophages in a set of endolysin genes, which were found to code for proteins with lysozyme activity, cleaving the β-1,4 linkages between N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues in the peptidoglycan network and thus representing genes with the potential for lysin phage therapy.

Description: One of the challenges in the future of food production, amidst increasing population and decreasing resources, is developing a sustainable food production system. It is anticipated that robotics will play a significant role in maintaining the food production system, specifically in labor-intensive operations. Therefore, the main goal of this project is to develop a robotic fruit harvesting system, initially focused on the harvesting of apples. The robotic harvesting system is composed of a six-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) robotic manipulator, a two-fingered gripper, a color camera, a depth sensor, and a personal computer. This paper details the development and performance of a visual servo system that can be used for fruit harvesting. Initial test evaluations were conducted in an indoor laboratory using plastic fruit and artificial trees. Subsequently, the system was tested outdoors in a commercial fruit orchard. Evaluation parameters included fruit detection performance, response time of the visual servo, and physical time to harvest a fruit. Results of the evaluation showed that the developed visual servo system has the potential to guide the robot for fruit harvesting.

Description: We report that polymerization makes a robust, practically applicable multifunctional optical device with a continuous wavelength tunable over 500 nm spectral range using UV-polymerizable cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs). It can be used as a circular polarizer generating an extremely high degree of circularly polarized light with |g| = 1.85~2.00. It can also be used for optical notch filters, bandwidth-variable (from ~28 nm to ~93 nm) bandpass filters, mirrors, and intensity-variable beam splitters. Furthermore, this CLC device shows excellent stability owing to the polymerization of CLC cells. Its performance remains constant for a long time (~2 years) after a high-temperature exposure (170 °C for 1 h) and an extremely high laser beam intensity exposure (~143 W/cm2 of CW 532 nm diode laser and ~2.98 MW/cm2 of Nd: YAG pulse laser operation for two hours, respectively). The optical properties of polymerized CLC were theoretically analyzed by Berreman’s 4 × 4 matrix method. The characteristics of this device were significantly improved by introducing an anti-reflection layer on the device. This wavelength-tunable and multifunctional device could dramatically increase optical research efficiency in various spectroscopic works. It could be applied to many instruments using visible and near-infrared wavelengths.

Description: Although remote sensors have been increasingly providing dense data and deriving reanalysis data for inversion of particulate matters, the use of these data is considerably limited by the ground monitoring samples and conventional machine learning models. As regional criteria air pollutants, particulate matters present a strong spatial correlation of long range. Conventional machine learning cannot or can only model such spatial pattern in a limited way. Here, we propose a method of a geographic graph hybrid network to encode a spatial neighborhood feature to make robust estimation of coarse and fine particulate matters (PM10 and PM2.5). Based on Tobler’s First Law of Geography and graph convolutions, we constructed the architecture of a geographic graph hybrid network, in which full residual deep layers were connected with graph convolutions to reduce over-smoothing, subject to the PM10–PM2.5 relationship constraint. In the site-based independent test in mainland China (2015–2018), our method achieved much better generalization than typical state-of-the-art methods (improvement in R2: 8–78%, decrease in RMSE: 14–48%). This study shows that the proposed method can encode the neighborhood information and can make an important contribution to improvement in generalization and extrapolation of geo-features with strong spatial correlation, such as PM2.5 and PM10.

Description: As more and more fields utilize deep learning, there is an increasing demand to make suitable training data for each field. The existing interactive object segmentation models can easily make the mask label data because these can accurately segment the area of the target object through user interaction. However, it is difficult to accurately segment the target part in the object using the existing models. We propose a method to increase the accuracy of part segmentation by using the proposed interactive object segmentation model trained only with edge images instead of color images. The results evaluated with the PASCAL VOC Part dataset show that the proposed method can accurately segment the target part compared to the existing interactive object segmentation model and the semantic part-segmentation model.

Description: The research presented in this paper examines the experiences of Poles traveling for leisure purposes in the summer season of 2020, taking into account the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved the analysis of source data, including statistical data, and a survey administered via the computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) method. The survey questionnaire was created on the Google platform. The link to the questionnaire was provided via social media to participants of travel groups in the period from 30 November 2020 to 15 February 2021. The sampling was purposive (included only travelers) despite efforts to maintain the gender balance; the proportion of women was higher. Therefore, caution must be applied when interpreting the results which may not be transferable. The survey included questions regarding the respondents’ travel behavior and risk perceptions. 433 correctly completed questionnaires were collected. The dataset was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Descriptive statistics measures and correlation coefficients were used in the analysis of the results. The study shows that some respondents decided against traveling because of the pandemic situation, while those who decided to travel adjusted their behavior by avoiding crowded places and resigning from traveling abroad. Compliance with hygiene standards in the area of tourism services varied, and was the highest in the case of accommodation services. Women rated hygiene standards in chain cafes statistically higher than men and younger people rated hygiene on public transport, trains, air transport and in fast food services higher than older people. The higher the tourism expenditure, the lower the assessment of sanitary standards in tour guide services, air transport and chain cafes decreased.

Description: Gait and physical fitness are related to cognitive function. A decrease in motor function and physical fitness can serve as an indicator of declining global cognitive function in older adults. This study aims to use machine learning (ML) to identify important features of gait and physical fitness to predict a decline in global cognitive function in older adults. A total of three hundred and six participants aged seventy-five years or older were included in the study, and their gait performance at various speeds and physical fitness were evaluated. Eight ML models were applied to data ranked by the p-value (LP) of linear regression and the importance gain (XI) of XGboost. Five optimal features were selected using elastic net on the LP data for men, and twenty optimal features were selected using support vector machine on the XI data for women. Thus, the important features for predicting a potential decline in global cognitive function in older adults were successfully identified herein. The proposed ML approach could inspire future studies on the early detection and prevention of cognitive function decline in older adults.

Description: Carbon neutrality has positive impacts on people, nature and the economy, and buildings represent the “last mile” sector in the transition to carbon neutrality. Carbon neutrality is characterized by the decarbonization of operations and maintenance, in addition to zero emissions in electricity and other industry sectors. Taking China’s commercial buildings as an example, this study is the first to perform an extensive data analysis for a step-wise carbon neutral roadmap of building operations via the analysis of a dynamic emission scenario. The results reveal that the carbon emissions abatement of commercial building operations from 2001 to 2018 was 1460.85 (±574.61) mega-tons of carbon dioxide (Mt CO2). The carbon emissions of commercial building operations will peak in the year 2039 (±5) at 1364.31 (±258.70) Mt, with emission factors and energy intensity being the main factors influencing the carbon peak. To move toward carbon neutral status, an additional 169.73 Mt CO2 needs to be cut by 2060, and the low emission path toward carbon neutrality will lead to the realization of the carbon peak of commercial buildings in 2024, with total emissions of 921.71 Mt. It is believed that cutting emissions from the operation of buildings in China will require a multi-sectoral synergistic strategy. It is suggested that government, residents, enterprises, and other stakeholders must better appreciate the challenges to achieve a substantial carbon reduction and the need for urgent action in the building sector in order to achieve carbon neutrality.

Description: Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi on agricultural produce. Mycotoxins can be cytotoxic, genotoxic, mutagenic, and teratogenic, and they are persistent threats to human and animal health. Consumption of mycotoxin-contaminated maize can cause cancer and even sudden death. Health hazards can also occur from consuming products from animals fed with mycotoxin-contaminated feed or forage. The main mode of spread of mycotoxigenic fungi is through air-borne spores originating from soil or plant debris, although some fungi can also spread through infected seed-to-seedling transmission, ultimately followed by contamination of the harvestable product. This perspective assesses opportunities to prevent mycotoxigenic fungal infection in maize seeds produced for sowing as an important starting point of crop contamination. A case study of Nigeria showed infection in all tested farmer-produced, seed company, and foundation seed samples. A schematic overview of the formal and informal seed systems is presented to analyze their contribution to fungal infection and mycotoxin contamination in the maize value chain, as well as to set criteria for successful control. We recommend an integrated approach to control mycotoxigenic fungal infection, including resistant varieties and other control methods during seed production, grain production, and grain storage, with an important role in maintaining seed health.

Description: The cross-flow rotating packed bed (RPB) has attracted wide attention in recent years because of its advantages of large gas capacity, low pressure drop and lack of flooding limitation. However, the complex structure of the packing makes it difficult to obtain the gas flow characteristics in the cross-flow RPB by experiments. In this study, the dry pressure drop in the cross-flow RPB was investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The packing was modeled by the porous media model and the rotation of the packing was simulated by the sliding mesh model. The simulation results obtained by three turbulence models were compared with experimental results, and the RNG k-ε model was found to best describe the turbulence behaviors in the cross-flow RPB. Then, the effects of gas flow rate and rotating speed on dry pressure drop in different parts of the cross-flow RPB were analyzed. The results of this study can provide important insights into the design and scale-up of cross-flow RPB.

Description: In the first quarter of 2020, Italy became one of the earliest hotspots of COVID-19 infection, and the government imposed a lockdown. During the lockdown, an online survey of 2053 adults was conducted that asked about health behaviors and about the psychological and overall impact of COVID-19. The present study is a secondary analysis of that data. We hypothesized that self-control, higher socio-economic status, existing health conditions, and fear of infection were all inversely related to actions (or intentions) that violated the lockdown (i.e., infractions). Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we found that only the fear of infection significantly dissuaded people from violating lockdown rules. Since it is not practical or ethical to sow a fear of infection, our study indicates that enacting rules and enforcing them firmly and fairly are important tools for containing the infection. This may become more important as vaccines become more widely available and people lose their fear of infection.

Description: To respond to global climate change and achieve a “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality” as soon as possible has become a common goal around the world. Economic growth relies heavily on financial development; indeed, low-carbon economic development is inseparable from financial support. This paper studies the impact of financial development on carbon emission intensity and its mechanism from both theoretical and empirical aspects. Based on the 2005–2018 data on Chinese cities and the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) research results, this paper finds that: (1) Financial development has significantly reduced China’s carbon emission intensity overall. After considering spatial effects, financial development increases local carbon emission intensity, although it may lead to a more significant decrease in the surrounding area. (2) The analysis of heterogeneity shows that only the financial development in the eastern region has a substantial detrimental impact on total carbon emission intensity and the carbon emission intensity of neighboring cities. The financial development in the central and western regions has no significant effect on carbon emission intensity. (3) The mechanism test shows that financial development mainly reduces carbon emission intensity through technological innovation and structural optimization, with the effect of technological innovation being 9.5%, and the effect of structural optimization being 12.15%. The expansion of the consumption effects of financial development has no significant impact on carbon emission intensity. Accordingly, this article believes that it is necessary to further support financial development, build large-scale financial centers, continue to optimize the structure of financial products, and encourage the development of green finance.

Description: The restoration of paintings always involves the removal of darkened superficial layers, which are mainly due to dust deposition and aged varnishes. As cleaning is an irreversible and invasive treatment, physical methods (i.e., laser cleaning) instead of chemical ones are frequently suggested to reduce side effects on pictorial layers. Among the most employed laser systems, the free-running Er:YAG laser is considered very suitable for fine arts cleaning. This laser works at 2.94 μm, at which only –OH and –NH bonds in molecules are excited. This character can become a disadvantage when pigments with these functional groups are present. To understand the potential of the Er:YAG laser in such situations or in the presence of degradable pigments, the effectiveness of varnish removal from paintings prepared with egg yolk as the binder and cinnabar and lead white as the pigments were systematically investigated. Different cleaning conditions were used, and a hyperspectral sensor was innovatively used as a rapid, in situ and non-destructive technique to assess the effects of laser ablation, besides microscopic analysis. Though results obtained show all these pigments are sensitive to this laser radiation, satisfactory cleaning can be achieved without damaging the pictorial layer. The best cleaning conditions were 0.5 W of power (50 mJ and 10 Hz for energy and frequency), with 2-propanol as the wetting agent.

Description: Microplastics (MPs), and specifically microfibres (MPFs), are ubiquitous in water bodies, including wastewater and drinking water. In this work, a thorough literature review on the occurrence and removal of MPs, and specifically MPFs in WWTPs and DWTPs, has been carried out. When the water is treated, an average microfiber removal efficiency over 70% is achieved in WWTPs and DWTPs. These high percentages are still inefficient for avoiding the presence of a large number of microfibres in treated wastewater and also in tap water. RSF, DAF, oxidation ditch and CAS processes have been described as the most efficient treatments for eliminating MPFs from wastewater treatment. It is remarkable the wide range of the data reported on this topic; for example, treated wastewater contains between not detected and 347 MPFs/L, whereas tap water contains between not detected and 168 MPFs/L. Microfibres constitute more than half of the MPs found in treated wastewater and sewage sludge, whereas in DWTP effluents the percentage of MPFs is around 32%. Nevertheless, the relative amount of MPFs reported in tap water is notably higher (71%). Microfibres from WWTPs are discharged to the environment, being a source of MP pollution. Additionally, MPs released by DWTPs directly enter the drinking water lines, which constitute a direct route for MP human consumption, so that it has been estimated that an adult may ingest an average value of 7500 MPFs per year only via tap water. Thus, this review provides an update on the performance of WWTPs and DWTPs in removing MPs from water, which is an issue of great interest.

Description: Two design flows of the Petri net-based cyber-physical systems oriented towards implementation in an FPGA are presented in the paper. The first method is based on the behavioural description of the system. The control part of the cyber-physical system is specified by an interpreted Petri net, and is described directly in the synthesisable Verilog hardware language for further implementation in the programmable device. The second technique involves splitting the design into sequential modules. In particular, adequate decomposition and synchronisation algorithms are proposed. The resulting modules are further modelled within the Verilog language as the composition of sequential automata. The presented design flows are supported by theoretical background, and templates of Verilog codes. The proposed techniques are illustrated by a real-life example of a multi-robot cyber-physical system, where each step of the proposed flows is explained in detail, including modelling, description of the system in the Verilog language, and final implementation within the FPGA device. The results obtained during the verification and validation confirm the proper functionality of the system designed by both design flows.

Description: Segal introduce the Fourier–Wiener transform for the class of polynomial cylinder functions on Hilbert space, and Hida then develop this concept. Negrin define the extended Wiener transform with Hayker et al. In recent papers, Hayker et al. establish the existence, the composition formula, the inversion formula, and the Parseval relation for the Wiener transform. But, they do not establish homomorphism properties for the Wiener transform. In this paper, the author establishes some basic fundamental formulas for the Wiener transform via some concepts and motivations introduced by Segal and used by Hayker et al. We then state the usefulness of basic fundamental formulas as some applications.

Description: For the sound field reconstruction of large conical surfaces, current statistical optimal near-field acoustic holography (SONAH) methods have relatively poor applicability and low accuracy. To overcome this problem, conical SONAH based on cylindrical SONAH is proposed in this paper. Firstly, elementary cylindrical waves are transformed into those suitable for the radiated sound field of the conical surface through cylinder-cone coordinates transformation, which forms the matrix of characteristic elementary waves in the conical spatial domain. Secondly, the sound pressure is expressed as the superposition of those characteristic elementary waves, and the superposition coefficients are solved according to the principle of superposition of wave field. Finally, the reconstructed conical pressure is expressed as a linear superposition of the holographic conical pressure. Furthermore, to overcome ill-posed problems, a regularization method combining truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) and Tikhonov regularization is proposed. Large singular values before the truncation point of TSVD are not processed and remaining small singular values representing high-frequency noise are modified by Tikhonov regularization. Numerical and experimental case studies are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed conical SONAH and the combined regularization method, which can provide reliable evidence for noise monitoring and control of mechanical systems.

Description: Climate change is expected to lead to changes to the amount, frequency, intensity, and timing of precipitation and subsequent water supply and its availability to plants in mountain regions worldwide. This is likely to affect plant growth and physiological performance, with subsequent effects to the functioning of many important high-elevation ecosystems. We conducted a quantitative systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of altered water supply on plants from high elevation ecosystems. We found a clear negative response of plants to decreases in water supply (mean Hedges’ g = −0.75, 95% confidence intervals: −1.09 to −0.41), and a neutral response to increases in water supply (mean Hedges’ g = 0.10, 95% confidence intervals: 0.43 to 0.62). Responses to decreases in water supply appear to be related to the magnitude of change in water supply, plant growth form, and to the measured response attribute. Changes to precipitation and water supply are likely to have important consequences for plant growth in high elevation ecosystems, with vegetation change more likely be triggered by reductions than increases in growing season precipitation. High elevation ecosystems that experience future reductions in growing-season precipitation are likely to exhibit plant responses such as reduced growth and higher allocation of carbohydrates to roots.

Description: Voids in polymer matrix composites are one of the most common manufacturing defects, which may influence the mechanical properties and structural behavior of the final parts made of composites by various manufacturing methods. Therefore, numerous non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques were developed and applied for quality control and in-service testing of such structures. In this paper, the authors analyzed various alternatives to the reference technique, X-ray computed tomography (XCT) NDT, which is used for industrial testing of composite disks having defects in the form of the lower density areas. Different candidates, namely: vibration-based testing, infrared thermography, vibro-thermography, as well as ultrasonic testing were analyzed in terms of their sensitivity and technical feasibility. The quality of the results, the complexity of the testing procedure, time and labor consumption, and the cost of the equipment were analyzed and compared with the reference technique. Based on the conducted research the authors finally proposed a hybrid approach to quality control, using a combination of two NDT techniques–infrared thermography (for initial scanning and detection of near-surface defects) and ultrasonic testing (for a more detailed analysis of products that pass the first testing procedure). It allowed for replacing the costly XCT diagnostics with a much cheaper, but almost equally effective, alternative.

Description: Individual identification plays an important part in disease prevention and control, traceability of meat products, and improvement of agricultural false insurance claims. Automatic and accurate detection of cattle face is prior to individual identification and facial expression recognition based on image analysis technology. This paper evaluated the possibility of the cutting-edge object detection algorithm, RetinaNet, performing multi-view cattle face detection in housing farms with fluctuating illumination, overlapping, and occlusion. Seven different pretrained CNN models (ResNet 50, ResNet 101, ResNet 152, VGG 16, VGG 19, Densenet 121 and Densenet 169) were fine-tuned by transfer learning and re-trained on the dataset in the paper. Experimental results showed that RetinaNet incorporating the ResNet 50 was superior in accuracy and speed through performance evaluation, which yielded an average precision score of 99.8% and an average processing time of 0.0438 s per image. Compared with the typical competing algorithms, the proposed method was preferable for cattle face detection, especially in particularly challenging scenarios. This research work demonstrated the potential of artificial intelligence towards the incorporation of computer vision systems for individual identification and other animal welfare improvements.

Description: The exploration and rational design of easily separable and highly efficient sorbents with satisfactory capability of extracting radioactive uranium (U)-containing compound(s) are of paramount significance. In this study, a novel magnetic hydroxyapatite (HAP) composite (HAP@ CoFe2O4), which was coupled with cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4), was rationally designed for uranium(VI) removal through a facile hydrothermal process. The U(VI) ions were rapidly removed using HAP@ CoFe2O4 within a short time (i.e., 10 min), and a maximum U(VI) removal efficiency of 93.7% was achieved. The maximum adsorption capacity (Qmax) of the HAP@CoFe2O4 was 338 mg/g, which demonstrated the potential of as-prepared HAP@CoFe2O4 in the purification of U(VI) ions from nuclear effluents. Autunite [Ca(UO2)2(PO4)2(H2O)6] was the main crystalline phase to retain uranium, wherein U(VI) was effectively extracted and immobilized in terms of a relatively stable mineral. Furthermore, the reacted HAP@CoFe2O4 can be magnetically recycled. The results of this study reveal that the suggested process using HAP@CoFe2O4 is a promising approach for the removal and immobilization of U(VI) released from nuclear effluents.

Description: Surface modification of membranes is an effective approach for imparting unique characteristics and additional functionalities to the membranes. Chemical grafting is a commonly used membrane modification technique due to its versatility in tailoring and optimizing the membrane surface with desired functionalities. Various types of polymers can be precisely grafted onto the membrane surface and the operating conditions of grafting can be tailored to further fine-tune the membrane surface properties. This review focuses on the recent strategies in improving the surface design of liquid separation membranes through grafting-from technique, also known as graft polymerization, to improve membrane performance in wastewater treatment and desalination applications. An overview on membrane technology processes such as pressure-driven and osmotically driven membrane processes are first briefly presented. Grafting-from surface chemical modification approaches including chemical initiated, plasma initiated and UV initiated approaches are discussed in terms of their features, advantages and limitations. The innovations in membrane surface modification techniques based on grafting-from techniques are comprehensively reviewed followed by some highlights on the current challenges in this field. It is concluded that grafting-from is a versatile and effective technique to introduce various functional groups to enhance the surface properties and separation performances of liquid separation membranes.

Description: Food processing systematically aims at meeting the needs of consumers who are looking for total high quality and perfect food safety. As the various thermal and non-thermal food preservation technologies often affect the natural properties in terms of sensation, flavor, texture, etc., instant controlled pressure drop (DIC) has been conceived as a relevant, innovative process in this field. DIC uses high saturated steam pressure and short duration to provide a new way to expand biological matrices, improve drying, decontaminate, and extract biologically active compounds, among other attributes. Therefore, this review focuses on describing the applications of DIC technology on a wide range of products such as foods and by-products that have been processed both in the laboratory and on an industrial scale. The application of DIC has shown the possibility of a significant leap in quality improvement and cost reduction in the food industry. DIC reduces the drying time of fruits and vegetables, and improves the extraction of essential oils, vegetable oils, and antioxidant components. It also provides strong decontamination, eliminates vegetative microorganisms and spores, and reduces non-nutritional and allergenic components. Over the past 33 years, this technology has continued to expand its food applications and improve its characteristics on an industrial scale. But there are still many food unit operations that can be taken to the next level with DIC.

Description: Over the last years, the replacement of traditional polymer modifiers with waste plastics has attracted increasing interest. The implementation of such technology would allow a drastic reduction of both production cost and landfill disposal of wastes. Among all, polyethylene-based plastics have been proved suitable for this purpose. The research activities presented in this paper aim to assess the synergistic effect of polyethylene and Fischer–Tropsch waxes on the viscoelastic properties and performance of the bitumen. In order to reduce the blending time, waxes, and polyethylene need to be added simultaneously. In fact, the presence of the waxes reduces the polarity of the bitumen matrix and increases the affinity with the polymer promoting its dispersion. Results demonstrate that the chain length of the waxes, the form of the added waste polyethylene, and the blending protocol have critical effects on the time-evolution of such properties. Short-chain waxes have a detrimental impact on the rutting resistance regardless of the blending protocol. On the contrary, long-chain waxes improve the overall behavior of the polyethylene-modified binders and, in particular, the resistance to permanent deformations.

Description: This paper investigates the hybrid source localization problem using differential received signal strength (DRSS) and angle of arrival (AOA) measurements. The main advantage of hybrid measurements is to improve the localization accuracy with respect to a single sensor modality. For sufficiently short wavelengths, AOA sensors can be constructed with size, weight, power and cost (SWAP-C) requirements in mind, making the proposed hybrid DRSS-AOA sensing feasible at a low cost. Firstly the maximum likelihood estimation solution is derived, which is computationally expensive and likely to become unstable for large noise levels. Then a novel closed-form pseudolinear estimation method is developed by incorporating the AOA measurements into a linearized form of DRSS equations. This method eliminates the nuisance parameter associated with linearized DRSS equations, hence improving the estimation performance. The estimation bias arising from the injection of measurement noise into the pseudolinear data matrix is examined. The method of instrumental variables is employed to reduce this bias. As the performance of the resulting weighted instrumental variable (WIV) estimator depends on the correlation between the IV matrix and data matrix, a selected-hybrid-measurement WIV (SHM-WIV) estimator is proposed to maintain a strong correlation. The superior bias and mean-squared error performance of the new SHM-WIV estimator is illustrated with simulation examples.

Description: Sowing time, as an element, is important to improving the adaptation of cultivars to environmental conditions and to achieving high seed yields. The field experiment was conducted from 2018–2019 at the Experimental Station of Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy. The experimental design included treatments with different sowing dates: eight sowing dates in 2018 and 10 sowing dates in 2019. The first sowing of spring rapeseed was carried out when the soil reached its physical maturity, i.e., it did not stick to agricultural implements and it crumbled well. The other sowing dates were every seven subsequent days. From 2018–2019, the rapeseed emerged as best in early May (3 and 4 May), and later sowing reduced the emergence of rapeseed. In 2018, most pods were formed on one plant when the rapeseed was sown (on 1 June), compared to other sowings, on average 2.8 times more. In 2019, most pods were formed by the latest-sown rapeseed (7 June), from 1.4 to 2.7 times more compared to previously sown crops. In 2018, the sowing time of spring rapeseed did not have a significant effect on the number of seeds in one pod. In 2019, it was found that the rapeseed formed most of the seeds in the pod at a similar time as in 2018: the sowings of 19 April and 7 June. The average number of seeds in the pod was significantly reduced by early sowing (5 April). In 2019, the highest 1000-seed weight was found at the earliest-sown crop (5 April), which was on average 18.0% higher compared to the later sowings. The 1000-seed weight of the last-sown rapeseed (7 June) was the lowest. In 2018, the yields of early-sown (20 April) spring rapeseed were the highest. Later sowing significantly reduced the yields by 20.7 to 48.2%. In 2019, the highest seed yield was obtained after sowing spring rapeseed in late April (26 April); it was significant, on average, 1.9 times higher than the yields of spring rapeseed sown from 3 May to 7 June. Meteorological conditions had a stronger effect on the field emergence and yield components of spring rapeseed than the sowing date.

Description: Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most injurious heavy metals, affecting plant growth and development. Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) was discovered in plants in 1995, and it is since known to act as a multifunctional molecule to alleviate abiotic and biotic stresses, especially Cd stress. Endogenously triggered or exogenously applied melatonin re-establishes the redox homeostasis by the improvement of the antioxidant defense system. It can also affect the Cd transportation and sequestration by regulating the transcripts of genes related to the major metal transport system, as well as the increase in glutathione (GSH) and phytochelatins (PCs). Melatonin activates several downstream signals, such as nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and salicylic acid (SA), which are required for plant Cd tolerance. Similar to the physiological functions of NO, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is also involved in the abiotic stress-related processes in plants. Moreover, exogenous melatonin induces H2S generation in plants under salinity or heat stress. However, the involvement of H2S action in melatonin-induced Cd tolerance is still largely unknown. In this review, we summarize the progresses in various physiological and molecular mechanisms regulated by melatonin in plants under Cd stress. The complex interactions between melatonin and H2S in acquisition of Cd stress tolerance are also discussed.

Description: To explore the effects of thermal actions on the pore structural features of granite, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and mercury injection experiments were carried out on granite after thermal treatment (25 °C to 400 °C). The pore structure was investigated from various perspectives, including the capillary pressure curve, the pore–throat ratio, the median saturation pressure, the median pore–throat radius, the porosity, the pore volume, and the pore size distribution. Based on mercury intrusion test data, the Winland model of permeability prediction was modified for a high-temperature tight granite reservoir. The results showed that: (1) As the temperature rose, the mercury injection curve was gradually flattened, and the mercury ejection efficiency gradually increased. Meanwhile, the pore–throat ratio and the median saturation pressure decreased exponentially, and the pore connectivity was enhanced. (2) The median pore–throat radius and the porosity of granite increased exponentially as the temperature increased. Above 200 °C, the median pore–throat radius and the porosity increased substantially. (3) The pore volumes of the transitional pores, mesopores and macropores, and the total pore volume inside the granite, increased as the temperature rose. Especially above 200 °C, the transitional pores and the mesopores were prominently developed, and the pore volumes of the transitional pores and the mesopores took up a significantly greater proportion of the total pore volume. (4) As the temperature rose, the pore size distribution of granite became more extensive, the pore–throat structure was obviously developed, and the pore–throat connectivity was enhanced. (5) The relationship between the micropores’ characteristic parameters and the macro-permeability in engineering was established though a modified Winland model, and the modified Winland model had a better prediction effect. The findings provide a solid basis for rock geothermal mining projects and related geotechnical engineering.

Description: Monitoring physical activity in medical and clinical rehabilitation, in sports environments or as a wellness indicator is helpful to measure, analyze and evaluate physiological parameters involving the correct subject’s movements. Thanks to integrated circuit (IC) technologies, wearable sensors and portable devices have expanded rapidly in monitoring physical activities in sports and tele-rehabilitation. Therefore, sensors and signal acquisition devices became essential in the tele-rehabilitation path to obtain accurate and reliable information by analyzing the acquired physiological signals. In this context, this paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the recent advances in electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG) and electromyogram (EMG) signal monitoring systems and sensors that are relevant to the field of tele-rehabilitation and health monitoring. Mostly, we focused our contribution in EMG signals to highlight its importance in rehabilitation context applications. This review focuses on analyzing the implementation of sensors and biomedical applications both in literature than in commerce. Moreover, a final review discussion about the analyzed solutions is also reported at the end of this paper to highlight the advantages of physiological monitoring systems in rehabilitation and individuate future advancements in this direction. The main contributions of this paper are (i) the presentation of interesting works in the biomedical area, mainly focusing on sensors and systems for physical rehabilitation and health monitoring between 2016 and up-to-date, and (ii) the indication of the main types of commercial sensors currently being used for biomedical applications.

Description: The position calibration of inertial measurement units (IMUs) is an important part of human motion capture, especially in wearable systems. In realistic applications, static calibration is quickly invalid during the motions for IMUs loosely mounted on the body. In this paper, we propose a dynamic position calibration algorithm for IMUs mounted on the waist, upper leg, lower leg, and foot based on joint constraints. To solve the problem of IMUs’ position displacement, we introduce the Gauss–Newton (GN) method based on the Jacobian matrix, the dynamic weight particle swarm optimization (DWPSO), and the grey wolf optimizer (GWO) to realize IMUs’ position calibration. Furthermore, we establish the coordinate system of human lower limbs to estimate each joint angle and use the fusion algorithm in the field of quaternions to improve the attitude calibration performance of a single IMU. The performances of these three algorithms are analyzed and evaluated by gait tests on the human body and comparisons with a high-precision IMU-Mocap reference device. The simulation results show that the three algorithms can effectively calibrate the IMU’s position for human lower limbs. Additionally, when the degree of freedom (DOF) of a certain dimension is limited, the performances of the DWPSO and GWO may be better than GN, when the joint changes sufficiently, the performances of the three are close. The results confirm that the dynamic calibration algorithm based on joint constraints can effectively reduce the position offset errors of IMUs on upper or lower limbs in practical applications.

Description: In this study, we develop physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) to solve an isothermal fixed-bed (IFB) model for catalytic CO2 methanation. The PINN includes a feed-forward artificial neural network (FF-ANN) and physics-informed constraints, such as governing equations, boundary conditions, and reaction kinetics. The most effective PINN structure consists of 5–7 hidden layers, 256 neurons per layer, and a hyperbolic tangent (tanh) activation function. The forward PINN model solves the plug-flow reactor model of the IFB, whereas the inverse PINN model reveals an unknown effectiveness factor involved in the reaction kinetics. The forward PINN shows excellent extrapolation performance with an accuracy of 88.1% when concentrations outside the training domain are predicted using only one-sixth of the entire domain. The inverse PINN model identifies an unknown effectiveness factor with an error of 0.3%, even for a small number of observation datasets (e.g., 20 sets). These results suggest that forward and inverse PINNs can be used in the solution and system identification of fixed-bed models with chemical reaction kinetics.

Description: Lane and road marker segmentation is crucial in autonomous driving, and many related methods have been proposed in this field. However, most of them are based on single-frame prediction, which causes unstable results between frames. Some semantic multi-frame segmentation methods produce error accumulation and are not fast enough. Therefore, we propose a deep learning algorithm that takes into account the continuity information of adjacent image frames, including image sequence processing and an end-to-end trainable multi-input single-output network to jointly process the segmentation of lanes and road markers. In order to emphasize the location of the target with high probability in the adjacent frames and to refine the segmentation result of the current frame, we explicitly consider the time consistency between frames, expand the segmentation region of the previous frame, and use the optical flow of the adjacent frames to reverse the past prediction, then use it as an additional input of the network in training and reasoning, thereby improving the network’s attention to the target area of the past frame. We segmented lanes and road markers on the Baidu Apolloscape lanemark segmentation dataset and CULane dataset, and present benchmarks for different networks. The experimental results show that this method accelerates the segmentation speed of video lanes and road markers by 2.5 times, increases accuracy by 1.4%, and reduces temporal consistency by only 2.2% at most.

Description: Artemisia annua L. is a herbaceous plant belonging to the Asteraceae family, known for producing, although at low levels, the sesquiterpene lactone artemisinin (AN), which is highly effective against malaria. In this study, an in vitro regeneration process of A. annua L. using ‘Artemis’ progeny was established and the potential of tissue culture for inducing new variability in terms of AN metabolism of in vitro regenerated plants was investigated. Among the plant growth regulators tested, the cytokinin 6-benzyladenine (BA) at 4.4 μM in combination with the auxin indole-butyric acid (IBA) at 0.35 μM yielded the greatest frequency of shoot induction. The optimal multiplication medium contained BA at 0.9 μM and naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) at 0.05 μM. Regenerated plants (RPs), after transferring to the greenhouse and subsequently to the field, were analyzed during the growth cycle at different sampling times, showing a peak of AN content 20 days before blossom. Variability among different RPs and sampling times, in terms of AN and its precursors dihydroartemisinic acid (DHAA) and artemisinic acid (AA) was observed. This suggests that adventitious shoot induction could provide a useful strategy to induce variability influencing artemisinin metabolism as a consequence of in vitro manipulation.

Description: Dynamic behavior modeling and parameter optimization of the spray boom based on multi-body vibration were developed to study the influence of the boom sprayer’s motion in a complex working environment on the dynamic behavior of the spray boom. First, a geometric continuous model of spray boom vibration was established considering the influence of the boom sprayer body and boom suspension. Then, the dynamic behavior of the spray boom under step excitation was studied on a SWAN3WP-500 self-propelled boom spray experimental platform. The time-domain response of spray boom movement was characterized using a multi-channel dynamic test system, and the simulation results of the geometric continuous model were verified. The correlation coefficient between the simulated and experimental results is 0.917, and the maximum relative error is 12.16%. Finally, the effects of boom sprayer speed, spray boom length, and spray boom cross-section shape on spray boom vibration were analyzed through the geometric continuous model. (1) The amplitude and period of vibration at the extremity of the spray boom gradually decline with a rise in boom sprayer speed. (2) The amplitude and period of vibration at the extremity of the spray boom gradually increase when the unilateral spray boom is shorter than 5 m but slowly decrease when it is longer than 5 m. To avoid excessive static elastic deformation of the spray boom, the length of the unilateral spray boom should be controlled within 6 m. (3) A reasonable cross-sectional shape can improve the spray boom vibration, and the spray boom with a type B cross-section can better inhibit the vertical vibration of the spray boom under the same cross-sectional area.

Description: In this paper, a new methodology for the assessment of the so-called “acoustic capacity” of a road infrastructure is proposed. This aspect is very important in the field of transportation planning as, currently, road infrastructures are verified only in terms of physical capacity; at most, the environmental capacity due to atmospheric pollutants is taken into account, while the acoustic capacity is completely neglected. The acoustic capacity is assessed based on the Harmonoise model, which is widely recognized at the European level. The Harmonoise model, starting from traffic data, such as traffic flows, average speed, and typologies of vehicles, provides the levels of noise emissions and immissions, which can be compared to the noise limit levels established by law. The validity of the proposed methodology was assessed on a test network. The results of this analysis show that, generally, the acoustic capacity is actually a capacity constraint, which involves several traffic flows: this occurs in particular in the case of an intersection, but also in the case of a bi-directional road. Furthermore, the acoustic capacity of a road infrastructure is generally lower than its physical capacity.

Description: In this paper, a hybrid bat optimization algorithm based on variable neighbourhood structure and two learning strategies is proposed to solve a three-stage distributed assembly permutation flowshop scheduling problem to minimize the makespan. The algorithm is firstly designed to increase the population diversity by classifying the populations, which solves the difficult trade-off between convergence and diversity of the bat algorithm. Secondly, a selection mechanism is used to update the bat’s velocity and location, solving the difficulty of the algorithm to trade-off exploration and mining capacity. Finally, the Gaussian learning strategy and elite learning strategy assist the whole population to jump out of the local optimal frontier. The simulation results demonstrate that the algorithm proposed in this paper can well solve the DAPFSP. In addition, compared with other metaheuristic algorithms, IHBA has better performance and gives full play to its advantage of finding optimal solutions.

Description: This study aimed to investigate the effects of multi-bacteria solid-state fermented diets with different crude fiber (CF) levels on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and microbial flora of finishing pigs. The multi-bacteria solid-state fermented diets were made up of Lactobacillus amylovorus, Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, and Candida utilis. According to a 2 (factors) × 2 (levels) design, with the two factors being multi-bacteria solid-state fermentation (fed non-fermented diet or multi-bacteria fermentation) or CF levels (fed a basal diet containing 2.52% CF or 7.00% CF), a total of 36 finishing pigs (70.80 ± 5.75 kg) were divided into 4 treatments with 9 barrows per group: (1) pigs fed a diet containing 7.00% CF (HF), (2) pigs fed a multi-bacteria fermentation diet containing 7.00% CF (HFM), (3) pigs fed a diet containing 2.52% CF (LF), and (4) piglets fed a multi-bacteria fermentation diet containing 2.52% CF (LFM). This experiment lasted 28 days. The multi-bacteria solid-state fermented diet increased the backfat thickness (p 〈 0.05) and apparent total tract nutrient digestibility (ATTD) of CF, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), crude protein (CP), 8 amino acids (Trp, Asp, Gly, Cys, Val, Met, Ile, and Leu), total essential amino acids (EAA), total non-essential amino acids (NEEA), and total amino acids (TAA) (p 〈 0.05). Multi-bacteria solid-state fermented diet increased serum concentrations of HDL-c, ABL, TP, and GLU, the serum enzyme activities of GSH-Px, T-AOC, SOD, and CAT (p 〈 0.05), the relative abundance of Lactobacillus, Oscillospira, and Coprococcus (p 〈 0.05), and the abundance of YAMINSYN3-PWY, PWY-7013, GOLPDLCAT-PWY, ARGORNPROST-PWY, and PWY-5022 pathways (p 〈 0.05). The multi-bacteria solid-state fermented diet reduced the digestion amount of CF, NDF, and ADF (p 〈 0.05), the serum concentrations of TC, TG, LDL-c, BUN, and MDA (p 〈 0.05), the relative abundance of Streptococcaceae (p 〈 0.05), and the abundance of PWY-6470, PWY0-862, HSERMETANA-PWY, LACTOSECAT-PWY, MET-SAM-PWY, PWY-6700, PWY-5347, PWY0-1061, and LACTOSECAT-PWY pathways (p 〈 0.05). The high-fiber diet increased average daily feed intake (p 〈 0.05), the serum concentrations of TC, TG, LDL-c, BUN, and MDA (p 〈 0.05), the relative abundance of Clostridiaceae_Clostridium and Coprococcus (p 〈 0.05), and the abundance of TCA-GLYOX-BYPASS, GLYCOLYSIS-TCA-GLYOX-BYPASS, and PWY-6906 pathways (p 〈 0.05). The high-fiber diet reduced chest circumference (p 〈 0.05) and ATTD of ether extract (EE), CF, NDF, ADF, Ca, CP, 18 amino acids (Trp, Thr, Val, Met, Ile, Leu, Phe, Lys, His, Arg Asp, Ser, Glu, Gly, Ala, Cys, Tyr, and Pro), EAA, NEAA, and TAA (p 〈 0.05). The high-fiber diet also reduced the serum concentrations of HDL-c, TP, ABL, and GLU, the serum enzyme activities of T-AOC, GSH-Px, SOD, and CAT (p 〈 0.05), and the relative abundance of Akkermansia and Oscillospira (p 〈 0.05). There was no significant effect of the interaction between multi-bacteria fermentation and dietary CF levels, except on the digestion amount of CF (p 〈 0.05). The 7.00% CF had a negative effect on the digestion of nutrients, but multi-bacteria solid-state fermentation diets could relieve this negative effect and increase backfat thickness. High-fiber diets and multi-bacteria solid-state fermentation improved the diversity and abundance of fecal microorganisms in finishing pigs.

Description: An approximate model based on friction-coefficient formalism is developed to predict the mixed-gas permeability and selectivity of polymeric membranes. More specifically, the model is a modification of Kedem’s approach to flux coupling. The crucial assumption of the developed model is the division of the inverse local permeability of the mixture component into two terms: the inverse local permeability of the corresponding pure gas and the term proportional to the friction between penetrants. Analytical expressions for permeability and selectivity of polymeric membranes in mixed-gas conditions were obtained within the model. The input parameters for the model are ideal selectivity and solubility coefficients for pure gases. Calculations have shown that, depending on the input parameters and the value of the membrane Peclét number (the measure of coupling), there can be both a reduction and an enhancement of selectivity compared to the ideal selectivity. The deviation between real and ideal selectivity increases at higher Peclét numbers; in the limit of large Peclét numbers, the mixed-gas selectivity tends to the value of the ideal solubility selectivity. The model has been validated using literature data on mixed-gas separation of n-butane/methane and propylene/propane through polymeric membranes.

Description: This paper explores the use of calcareous tuberculosis as an adsorbent and heavy-metal ions (Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, and Pb2+) as adsorbates, and the influence of varying levels of particle size, adsorption time, pH, adsorbent dosage, and initial concentration of heavy metals is studied through an experiment of single heavy-metal adsorption. In addition, the impact of the temperature and other factors on the adsorption of heavy-metal ions by calcareous nodules is analyzed to identify the optimal conditions for the adsorption of heavy-metal ions by calcareous nodules. As shown by the research findings, the adsorption rates of Cu2+, Zn2+, and Pb2+ gradually declined with the increase in particle size, with no evident effect on Cd2+. In the meantime, with further increases in factors such as the adsorption time, adsorbent dosage, and temperature, the adsorption rates of Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, and Pb2+ experienced gradual increases. The adsorption rates of Cu2+, Zn2+, and Cd2+ gradually declined with the increase in initial concentration of heavy-metal ions, whereas the adsorption rate of Pb2+ experience increased first and then declined. As the pH increased, the adsorption rate of Cd2+ experience increased first and then declined at a slow pace. The adsorption rates of Cu2+, Zn2+, and Pb2+ increased first and then decreased. The adsorption capacity of calcareous nodules toward the four heavy-metal ions was in the order of Pb2+ 〉 Zn2+ 〉 Cu2+ 〉 Cd2+. When the particle size was set to 0.25 mm, the adsorption time was set to 120 min, and the dosage was set to 0.6 g, the calcareous nodules included Pb2+, Zn2+, and Cu2+. Moreover, Cd2+ was able to achieve stronger adsorption capacity, with the adsorption rate able to reach 83.33%, 77.78%, 73.81%, and 81.93% of its maximum level. Therefore, as the particle size of the heavy-metal ions decreased, the adsorption capacity generally became stronger. As the adsorption time increased, the temperature and the amount of adsorbent also increased. The optimal pH value for the adsorption of calcareous nodules toward Pb2+, Zn2+, Cu2+, and Cd2+ was found to be 7, 6, 5, and 8, respectively, and the optimal temperature was 50 °C. In summary, calcareous nodules are a natural, low-cost, and effective adsorbent.

Description: In this paper, we develop an economic order quantity (EOQ) model for fixed shelf-life items and a non-increasing demand. The objective of this model is to maximize the total profit. We find the criterion to decide (i) the interior maximum solution or (ii) the boundary maximum solution. Eight numerical examples are given to illustrate all possible scenarios of this generalized model. Our results identify a scenario for which the maximum profit is always negative. This is highly relevant for firms in the public sector operating at a financial loss.

Description: In Europe, the qualification of injection anchors in masonry under static and quasi-static actions is based on an assessment of tests performed in undamaged masonry. Nevertheless, in seismic prone countries like Italy the influences deriving from earthquake actions cannot be disregarded. Masonry elements are very sensitive to cyclic/seismic action and research on the behavior of anchors in damaged masonry is rather limited. The paper presents the results of an experimental campaign aimed at evaluating the residual tensile strength of adhesive anchors installed into undamaged walls that were subsequently subjected to cyclic in-plane loading to simulate seismic actions before. Consequently, the anchors experienced different stresses depending on their location within the walls. Overall, 29 tests were performed with anchors placed both, in undamaged and damaged areas. The results showed that there is a correlation between residual tensile strength and masonry initial conditions, and therefore the installation of anchors in masonry elements should be carefully planned avoiding areas that could be heavily damaged during seismic events or considering redundant connections in critical areas. In particular, it seems that the width of the crack (created by cyclic actions) that passes nearby/into the anchor borehole is the main parameter that affects the ultimate resistance of the anchors.

Description: Despite a keen interest in clinical research, most paramedical professionals are unwilling to play an active role. Our objective was to explore paramedical professionals’ representations of research. Using an existing database of final year paramedical students (speech therapy, occupational therapy, psychomotricity, audiometry, physiotherapy, orthoptics), we deployed a qualitative approach composed of two successive steps: (1) a free word association task, and (2) semi-structured individual interviews. Out of the 54 students who agreed to be contacted, we received 21 responses to the free word association questionnaire, and 11 interviews were conducted. The hierarchical evocation matrix revealed that the scientific representation of research is based on words defining the research and the purpose of the research. “Collaboration” was identified as being an essential part of the research process. The central core of the representation is coherent with all its components perceived as positive. The content analysis of the interviews showed a polarization around two key points: (1) participants are interested in accessing and using evidence in their practice (2) but feel less confident about and/or motivated to generate evidence themselves. This study highlights the need to develop more research-friendly environments, especially in training institutions.

Description: Intermolecular interactions in aqueous solutions are crucial for virtually all processes in living cells. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy is a technique that allows changes caused by many types of such interactions to be registered; however, binary solutions are sometimes difficult to solve in these terms, while ternary solutions are even more difficult. Here, we present a method of data pretreatment that facilitates the use of the Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC) decomposition of ternary solution spectra into parts that are easier to analyze. Systems of the NMA–water–osmolyte-type were used to test the method and to elucidate information on the interactions between N-Methylacetamide (NMA, a simple peptide model) with stabilizing (trimethylamine N-oxide, glycine, glycine betaine) and destabilizing osmolytes (n-butylurea and tetramethylurea). Systems that contain stabilizers change their vibrational structure to a lesser extent than those with denaturants. Changes in the latter are strong and can be related to the formation of direct NMA–destabilizer interactions.

Description: Purpose: Historically, studies suggested that intraoperative hypothermia (IH) could result in significant resource consumption, but more recent studies have found the opposite. The purpose of this study is to estimate the value of active warming devices for IH prevention based on synthesized evidence. Methods: A cost-benefit analysis was conducted using the effect of active warming versus passive warming devices for intraoperative hypothermia from a meta-analysis. The item-based aggregated treatment cost approach was adopted to estimate the cost of each adverse event, which was then weighted to calculate the total cost of IH. Results: IH was associated with higher risks of bleeding, surgical site infection, and shivering compared with normothermia. The cost of one case of IH was $363.80, and the use of active warming devices might save $152.80. Extra investment in active warming (e.g., $291.00) might only be cost-beneficial when the minimum willingness-to-pay is $150.00. Conclusions: Synthesized evidence showed that the cost of IH might be overestimated. Furthermore, the value of using active warming devices remains uncertain because the willingness to pay may vary between decision-makers. As not enough awareness of hypothermia prevention in some countries, further research into the clinical use of active warming devices during major surgeries is warranted.

Description: Potato is the fourth staple crop in China after wheat, maize and rice. The agro-pastoral ecotone (APE) in North China is a main region for potato production. However, potato yield has been seriously constrained by water shortages because of low precipitation and highly variable precipitation patterns during the growing season in this area. In this study, the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model was used to simulate potato water-limited yield and historical years were divided into different water-temperature year types to optimize the optimal planting period (OPP) and cultivar of potato. The results showed that the potato yield varied in different water-temperature year types. Fast-developing cultivar Favorita could obtain the highest yield in most places and water-temperature year types due to its relatively short length of tuber formation stage. In this study, we suggest changing the planting date according to the water-temperature year type, which offers a new way to adapt to a highly variable climate. However, our method should be adopted carefully because we only considered climate factors; other agronomic management practices (adjusting planting density, plastic film mulch, conservation tillage etc.) also have a great effect on planting date and cultivar selection, which should be further investigated in the future.

Description: This study investigated monthly variations of surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) and the applicability of the local climate zones (LCZ) scheme for land surface temperature (LST) differentiation within three spatial contexts, including urban, rural and their combination, in Shenyang, China, a city with a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate. The monthly SUHII and LST of Shenyang were obtained through 12 LST images, with one in each month (within the period between 2018 and 2020), retrieved from the Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS) 10 in Landsat 8 based on a split window algorithm. Non-parametric analysis of Kruskal-Wallis H test and a multiple pairwise comparison were adopted to investigate the monthly LST differentiations with LCZs. Overall, the SUHII and the applicability of the LCZ scheme exhibited spatiotemporal variations. July and August were the two months when Shenyang underwent strong heat island effects. Shenyang underwent a longer period of cool than heat island effects, occurring from November to May. June and October were the transition months of cool–heat and heat–cool island phenomena, respectively. The SUHII analysis was dependent on the definition of urban and rural boundaries, where a smaller rural buffering zone resulted in a weaker SUHI or surface urban cool island (SUCI) phenomenon and a larger urban area corresponded to a weaker SUHI or SUCI phenomenon as well. The LST of LCZs did not follow a fixed order, where in July and August, the LCZ-10 (Heavy industry) had the highest mean LST, followed by LCZ-2 (Compact midrise) and then LCZ-7 (Lightweight low-rise). In comparison, LCZ-7, LCZ-8 (Large low-rise) and LCZ-9 (Sparsely built) had the highest LST from October to May. The LST of LCZs varied with urban and rural contexts, where LCZ-7, LCZ-8 and LCZ -10 were the three built LCZs that had the highest LST within urban context, while LCZ-2, LCZ-3 (Compact low-rise), LCZ-8, LCZ-9 and LCZ-10 were the five built LCZs that had the highest LST within rural context. The suitability of the LCZ scheme for temperature differentiation varied with the month, where from July to October, the LCZ scheme had the strongest capability and in May, it had the weakest capability. Urban context also made a difference to the suitability, where compared with the whole study area (the combination of urban and rural areas), the suitability of built LCZs in either urban or rural contexts weakened. Moreover, the built LCZs had a higher level of suitability in an urban context compared with a rural context, while the land-cover LCZs within rural had a higher level of suitability.

Description: Heme oxygenase (HO) is one of the cytoprotective enzymes that can mitigate the effects of oxidative stress. Here, we found that the ho mRNA level oscillates in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster with two minima at the beginning of the day and night. This rhythm was partly masked by light as its pattern changed in constant darkness (DD). It followed a similar trend in the clock mutant per01 under light/dark regime (LD12:12); however, differences between time points were not statistically significant. In older flies (20 days old), the rhythm was vanished; however, 15 days of curcumin feeding restored this rhythm with an elevated ho mRNA level at all time points studied. In addition, flies exposed to paraquat had higher ho expression in the brain, but only at a specific time of the day which can be a protective response of the brain against stress. These findings suggest that the expression of ho in the fly’s brain is regulated by the circadian clock, light, age, exposure to stress, and the presence of exogenous antioxidants. We also found that HO cross-talks with apoptosis and autophagy under different conditions. Induction of neuronal ho was accompanied by increased transcription of apoptosis and autophagy-related genes. However, this trend changed after exposure to curcumin and paraquat. Our results suggest that HO is involved in the control of apoptotic and autophagic key processes protecting the brain against oxidative damage.

Description: The catalytic process of glycerol hydrogenolysis to produce 1,2-propandiol (1,2-PD) in the absence of external hydrogen addition has been investigated. The methanol present in the crude glycerol from a biodiesel production process is used to provide in situ hydrogen produced via methanol steam reforming for the glycerol hydrogenolysis process. This process can reduce the additional cost for the transportation and storage of molecular hydrogen and also reduce the safety risks related to using high hydrogen pressure. It was found that the introduction of Pd onto a Cu/MgO/Al2O3 catalyst significantly improved the glycerol conversion and 1,2-PD selectivity. The pseudo-first-order kinetic results suggested that the promoting effect of Pd is primarily attributed to the enhanced activity for the hydrogenation of acetol, which is the intermediate formed via glycerol dehydration. A 27−3 fractional factorial design experiment was carried out to investigate the impacts of seven single factors and their binary effects on two responses, namely 1,2-PD selectivity and glycerol conversion. The results showed that the glycerol feed concentration has the most significant effect on the 1,2-PD selectivity, such that the 1,2-PD selectivity is lower if a more concentrated glycerol is used as the feedstock; stirring speed, inert gas pressure and water to methanol molar ratio have insignificant effects on the reaction system. The addition of Pd, higher temperature and higher catalyst loading are the essential factors in order to obtain a high selectivity of 1,2-PD and a high glycerol conversion.

Description: In this work, we investigated the temperature dependence of the kinematic viscosity of multicomponent Fe72.5-xNixCu1Nb2Mo1.5Si14B9 melts with a Ni content of up to 12.7 at. %. The peculiarities of the temperature dependence of Ni-containing melts were explained by the tendency of Ni atoms to surface segregation. Ni atoms are concentrated near the interfaces of the liquid and solid phases in the mushy zone at the stage of melting and restrain the melting of the solid phase. With increasing Ni content, the Arrhenius type of viscous flow begins at a higher temperature. Ni atoms are concentrated at the periphery of clusters, increasing their size and decreasing their mobility. The movement of Ni-containing clusters increases the activation energy and decreases the kinematic viscosity. The change in the activation energy at a temperature of about 1700 K was associated with a liquid–liquid structure transition (LLST). This structural transition is reversible since it is observed both at the heating and cooling stages. The increase in kinematic viscosity at temperatures above 1900 K was associated with the decomposition of high-temperature clusters based on cementite and silicon oxides.

Description: Approximately 1/6 of humanity is at high risk of experiencing cholera epidemics. The development of effective and safe vaccines against Vibrio cholerae, the primary cause of cholera, is part of the public health measures to prevent cholera epidemics. Natural nontoxigenic V. cholerae isolates represent a source of new genetically improved and relatively safe vaccine strains. However, the genomic engineering of wild-type V. cholerae strains is difficult, and these strains are genetically unstable due to their high homologous recombination activity. We comprehensively characterized two V. cholerae isolates using genome sequencing, bioinformatic analysis, and microscopic, physiological, and biochemical tests. Genetic constructs were Gibson assembled and electrotransformed into V. cholerae. Bacterial colonies were assessed using standard microbiological and immunological techniques. As a result, we created a synthetic chromoprotein-expressing reporter operon. This operon was used to improve the V. cholerae genome engineering approach and monitor the stability of the genetic constructs. Finally, we created a stable candidate V. cholerae vaccine strain bearing a recA deletion and expressing the β-subunit of cholera toxin. Thus, we developed a strategy for the rapid creation of genetically stable and relatively safe candidate vaccine strains. This strategy can be applied not only to V. cholerae but also to other important human bacterial pathogens.

Description: Cancer stromal cells play a role in promoting tumor relapse and therapeutic resistance. Therefore, the current treatment paradigms for cancers are usually insufficient to eradicate cancer cells, and anti-cancer therapeutic strategies targeting stromal cells have been developed. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are perpetually activated fibroblasts in the tumor stroma. CAFs are the most abundant and highly heterogeneous stromal cells, and they are critically involved in cancer occurrence and progression. These effects are due to their various roles in the remodeling of the extracellular matrix, maintenance of cancer stemness, modulation of tumor metabolism, and promotion of therapy resistance. Recently, biomaterials and nanomaterials based on CAFs have been increasingly developed to perform gene or protein expression analysis, three-dimensional (3D) co-cultivation, and targeted drug delivery in cancer treatment. In this review, we systematically summarize the current research to fully understand the relevant materials and their functional diversity in CAFs, and we highlight the potential clinical applications of CAFs-oriented biomaterials and nanomaterials in anti-cancer therapy.

Description: A polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tool is employed in cutting various titanium alloys because of its excellent properties. However, improving the cutting performance of titanium alloys is still a challenge. Here, an experimental investigation on the influence of ultrasonic vibration-assisted machining (UVAM) of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy on the cutting performance and action mechanism was studied using a PCD tool. Cutting force, machined surface, surface adhesion, and wear morphology were analyzed. The results indicated that UVAM can effectively improve cutting performance. It was found that there was serious adhesion and wear of slight fragments close to the cutting edge after ultrasonic-assisted dry milling. Furthermore, the action mechanism of UVAM in improving cutting performance was discussed and analyzed from the perspective of intermittent cutting.