ALBERT

Description: Declines in Ogallala aquifer levels used for irrigation has prompted research to identify methods for optimizing water use efficiency (WUE) of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L). In this experiment, conducted at Lubbock, TX, USA in 2014, our objective was to test two canopy temperature based stress indices, each at two different irrigation trigger set points: the Stress Time (ST) method with irrigation triggers set at 5.5 (ST_5.5) and 8.5 h (ST_8.5) and the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) method with irrigation triggers set at 0.3 (CWSI_0.3) and 0.6 (CWSI_0.6). When these irrigation triggers were exceeded on a given day, the crop was deficit irrigated with 5 mm of water via subsurface drip tape. Also included in the experimental design were a well-watered (WW) control irrigated at 110% of potential evapotranspiration and a dry land (DL) treatment that relied on rainfall only. Seasonal crop water use ranged from 353 to 625 mm across these six treatments. As expected, cotton lint yield increased with increasing crop water use but lint yield WUE displayed asignificant (p ≤ 0.05) peak near 3.6 to 3.7 kg ha−1 mm−1 for the ST_5.5 and CWSI_0.3 treatments, respectively. Our results suggest that WUE may be optimized in cotton with less water than that needed for maximum lint yield.

Description: The irrigation water available for agriculture will be scarce in the future due to increased competition for water with other sectors, and the issue may become more serious due to climate change. In Chile, the table grape is only cultivated under irrigation. A five-year research program (2007–2012) was carried out in the Aconcagua Valley, the central area of grapes in Chile, to evaluate the response of table grape vines (Vitis vinifera L., cv Thompson Seedless) to different volumes of irrigation water. Four irrigation treatments were applied: 60, 88, 120 and 157% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) during the first four years, and 40, 54, 92 and 108% of ETc in the last year. Irrigation over 90%–100% of ETc did not increase fruit yield, whereas the application of water below 90% ETc decreased exportable yield, berry size and pruning weight. For example, 60% ETc applied water reduced exportable yield by 20%, and only 40% of the berries were in the extra and large category size, while pruning weight was 30% lower in comparison to the treatment receiving more water.

Description: Arsenic (As) in soils causes several detrimental effects, including death. Arsenic toxicity in soybean plants (Glycine max L.) has been little studied. Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) increase the tolerance of host plants to abiotic stress, like As. We investigated the effects of AM fungi on soybean grown in As-contaminated soils. A pot experiment was carried out in a glasshouse, at random with five replications. We applied three levels of As (0, 25, and 50 mg As kg−1), inoculated and non-inoculated with the AM fungus Rhizophagus intraradices (N.C. Schenck & G.S. Sm.) C. Walker & A. Schüßler. Plant parameters and mycorrhizal colonization were measured. Arsenic in the substrate, roots, and leaves was quantified. Arsenic negatively affected the AM percentage of spore germination and hyphal length. As also affected soybean plants negatively: an extreme treatment caused a reduction of more than 77.47% in aerial biomass, 68.19% in plant height, 78.35% in number of leaves, and 44.96% reduction in root length, and delayed the phenological evolution. Mycorrhizal inoculation improved all of these parameters, and decreased plant As accumulation (from 7.8 mg As kg−1 to 6.0 mg As kg−1). AM inoculation showed potential to reduce As toxicity in contaminated areas. The AM fungi decreased As concentration in plants following different ways: dilution effect, less As intake by roots, and improving soybean tolerance to As.

Description: Maize (Zea mays L) is the most important food grain in sub-Saharan Africa and is mostly grown by small-scale farmers under rainfed conditions. Aluminum toxicity caused by low pH is one of the abiotic factors limiting maize production among smallholder farmers. Therefore, breeding maize hybrids that are tolerant to aluminum toxicity will sustain and increase maize production in these areas. Hence this study was undertaken to assess the genotypic variation for aluminum toxicity in maize inbred lines. Fourteen maize inbred lines of historical importance that are used in maize hybrid breeding in Zambia were studied for seedling root variation under different aluminum concentrations using hydroponic conditions. The aluminum tolerance membership index based on three traits (actual root length, relative root length and root length response) classified genotypes L3233 and L1214 as highly tolerant, L5527 and ZM421 as tolerant, and L12, L3234, and ZM521 as intermediate. The high PCV, GCV, and heritability observed for the root traits indicate that opportunities for selection and breeding for aluminum tolerance among Zambian inbred lines exist. Furthermore, the study indicated that a higher genetic gain would be expected from net root growth followed by shoot length response as selection traits, thus supporting the use of root traits for aluminum tolerance screening.

Description: The objective of this study is to understand which requirements for cereal cultivars—with regard to climate change adaptation—are in demand by farmers and advisors, and to clarify whether there are any differences in their assessments. A comparative survey was used to collect data from 410 farmers and 114 advisors in Germany. The majority of both farmers and advisors reported perceivable effects of climatic change on plant production. The increase in droughts and hot spells, the increased incidence of torrential rain, and mild winters were mentioned as the main effects of climate change. For climate change adaptation, the farmers and advisors mostly relied on a locally-adapted cultivar selection. It is estimated that eco-stability, grain yield, resistance to lodging and drought tolerance are important cultivar properties. In the study, farmers and advisors equally pointed out the need for additional cultivar evaluation according to eco-stability. Finally, only minor differences regarding farmers’ and advisors’ assessments were found within the study. The outcome of this research points to the need of implementing farmers’ demands in cultivar recommendations. For example, an impartial assessment of cultivars’ eco-stability could help support the choice of cultivars and reduce the growing risks in cereal production with regard to climate change.

Description: The mobilization of nutrients from fish sludge (i.e., feces and uneaten feed) plays a key role in optimizing the resource utilization and thus in improving the sustainability of aquaponic systems. While several studies have documented the aerobic and anaerobic digestion performance of aquaculture sludge, the impact of the digestate on plant growth has yet to be understood. The present study examines the impact of either an aerobic or an anaerobic digestion effluent on lettuce plant growth, by enriching a mixture of aquaculture and tap water with supernatants from both aerobic and anaerobic batch reactors. The lettuce plants grown in the hydroponic system supplied with supernatant from an anaerobic reactor had significantly better performance with respect to weight gain than both, those in the system where supernatant from the aerobic reactor was added, as well as the control system. It can be hypothesized that this effect was caused by the presence of NH4+ as well as dissolved organic matter, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and fungi, and humic acid, which are predominantly present in anaerobic effluents. This study should therefore be of value to researchers and practitioners wishing to further develop sludge remineralization in aquaponic systems.

Description: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play a major role in the uptake of nutrients by agricultural plants. Nevertheless, some agricultural practices can interrupt fungal-plant signaling and thus impede the establishment of the mycorrhizal symbiosis. A field experiment performed over a 5-year period demonstrated that both the absence of tillage and of nitrogen (N) fertilization improved AMF colonization of wheat roots. Moreover, under no-till conditions, N uptake and aboveground biomass production did not vary significantly between N-fertilized and N-unfertilized plots. In contrast, both N uptake and above ground biomass were much lower when N fertilizer was not added during conventional tillage. This finding strongly suggests that for wheat, no-till farming is a sustainable agricultural system that allows a gradual reduction in N fertilizer use by promoting AMF functionality and at the same time increasing N uptake.

Description: Foliar fertilization, or the application of nutrient solutions to the foliage of plants, has become a very important tool as a supplement to traditional soil fertilization. So far, knowledge about the real mechanisms of foliar nutrient uptake is still limited. In this study different manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) carriers differing in their solubility and chemical characteristics (chelated or non-chelated, with or without the presence of a surfactant-penetrant) were compared with regard to their penetration characteristics through enzymatically-isolated cuticles. The experiments were explicitly conducted under high humidity conditions in order not to penalize compounds with a higher deliquescent point. The results show that Mn penetrates more rapidly through the cuticle than Zn ions for unknown reasons. The addition of a surfactant-penetrant enhances the penetration rate in the case of Mn ions. This trend is much less pronounced for zinc ions. Formulations based on insoluble carriers, such as carbonate or oxide, only poorly penetrate through the cuticle. In order to rapidly control micronutrient deficiency problems, only fully water soluble micronutrient carriers should be used.

Description: Nitrogen (N) losses negatively impact groundwater quality. Spring wheat genotypes varying in N-fertilizer recovery were studied (by using lysimeters) for their potential to minimize NO3-N leaching during spring and summer, over a three-year period. Additionally, we examined to what extent root growth and NO3-N leaching explain the well-known difference found between apparent and isotopic N recovery. The genotypes were grown under low (2 g m−2) and high (27 g m−2) N fertilizer supply. On average, the apparent and isotopic recoveries of N fertilizer by wheat were 43% and 51%, respectively. The three genotypes varied in fertilizer N recovery but not in NO3-N leaching, which only accounted for 15% of the applied N fertilizer. The differences in N uptake, fertilizer N recovery and root growth among the genotypes were not associated with the leached NO3-N because root growth and N uptake were not well synchronized with NO3-N leaching. Already at stem elongation 70% to 98% of the season-long NO3-N leaching had already taken place. Thus, the ability to minimize in-season NO3-N leaching by using spring wheat genotypes with higher fertilizer N recovery was limited because maximum N leaching occurred in the early crop season.

Description: Agronomic N-use efficiency is the basis for economic and environmental efficiency, and an effective agro-ecosystem management practice, improving nutrient use efficiency, is a crucial challenge for a more sustainable production of horticultural, industrial and cereal crops. However, discrepancy between theory and practice still exists, coming from large gaps in knowledge on net-N immobilization/mineralization rates in agro-ecosystems, as well as on the effects of indigenous and applied N to crop response. A more thorough understanding of these topics is essential to improve N management in agricultural systems. To this end, the present Special Issue collects research findings dealing with different aspects of agronomic efficiency of N in different agro-ecosystems, and environmental impact derived from fertilization management practices. In particular, the Special Issue contains selected papers, which concern a wide range of topics, including analyzing tools, options of management, calculation equation and modeling approaches.

Description: A two-year field study was conducted to investigate the performance of a lightweight trash-board moldboard plow (with and without a trash-board), as influenced by stubble height and water content. Both fields were measured for the performance of a trash-board moldboard plow when used during the optimization of the plowing depth, the water content, and the reaction forces. The results showed that in the first year, when a trash-board was required, the results were significantly different. The fields had lower draft and reaction force in the soil with only stubble height, which was greater than that in the soil with dense straw for all water content levels. This was also observed in the second year for the whole depth. This study shows that the moldboard plow with a trash-board provided minimum draft and reaction forces with only straw and heavy straw. The results indicate that straw nearby shear significantly increased displacement for all treatments, with variance of straw nearby moldboard. Hence, the results verify that a trash-board continuously created large soil fragmentation with different water content. Straw labels create a position of straw which also allows for better results. It is important to install trash-boards with the moldboard plow for heavy straw incorporation.

Description: Greater early vigour has potential for increasing biomass and grain yields of wheat crops in Mediterranean-type environments. Embryo size is an important determinant of early vigour in barley and likely to contribute to greater vigour in wheat. Little is known of the underlying genetic control for embryo size, or its genetic association with early vigour in wheat. Over 150 doubled-haploid lines in each of three unrelated wheat populations varying for embryo size and early vigour were phenotyped across multiple controlled environments. The Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) mapping was then undertaken to understand genetic control and chromosomal location of these characteristics. Genotypic variance was large and repeatable for embryo and leaf size (width and length) but not specific leaf area or coleoptile tiller size. Genetic correlations for embryo size with leaf width and area were moderate to strong in size while repeatabilities for embryo size and early vigour were high on a line-mean basis. Multiple genomic regions were identified of commonly small genetic effect for each trait with many of these regions being common across populations. Further, collocation of regions for many traits inferred a common genetic basis for many of these traits. Chromosomes 1B, 5B, 7A and 7D, and the Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b-containing chromosomes 4B and 4D contained QTL for embryo size and leaf width. These studies indicate that while early vigour is a genetically complex trait, the selection of larger embryo progeny can be readily achieved in a wheat breeding program targeting development of high vigour lines.

Description: In order to standardize the quality of agricultural products, it is necessary to control the factors affecting plant development, such as plant nutrition. The best results in terms of homogeneity of the quality of vegetable crops were achieved using inert substrates and application of nutrients; however, production costs are high due to the cost of irrigation systems and substrate management and importation. This work aims to evaluate the effect of the local substrate mix and the amount of organic fertilizer on different quality parameters of coriander. To evaluate the quality of coriander, we considered different parameters such as size, biomass, antioxidant capacity and aroma (evaluated by volatile compounds detection with gas chromatography). The results show that the culture system differentially affects each parameter, and the compounds associated with the aroma of coriander and the diameter of plants are sensitive to the culture system, while the length of plants, number of leaves and antioxidant activity are not affected by the concentration of fertilizer. Moreover, organic farming conditions do not reduce quality parameters of the crops when using adequate fertilization. Additionally, local substrates would be practical substitutes for expensive importations.

Description: In intensive agriculture, N supply often exceeds crop requirements, even in nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZ). In farmland, the N surplus gives rise to NO3− leaching and consequent groundwater pollution. The present study aimed at proposing measures to reduce N leaching and hence improve N efficiency in a buffalo livestock farm located in the NVZ of Latina plain (Central Italy). The farm was cultivated with forage crops in a double annual crop rotation: Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) in winter and silage corn (Zea mays L.) in summer. Mineral and organic fertilizers were supplied to both crops. The annual N budget and soil solution NO3-N concentrations were evaluated using a modeling approach. The performance of the WinEPIC model in simulating the response of the NO3-N concentration in percolation to the N application rate was assessed and validated by field measurements of the NO3-N concentration in the soil solution. Three scenarios were proposed to identify the best practice to minimize the environmental impact of N application without significant yield loss. Also, recommendations of best practices in N fertilization and animal manure spreading were given. This study thus provides useful preliminary information for decision-making in agriculture/environmental policies.

Description: Genotypic variation in N efficiency defined as high grain yield under limited nitrogen (N) supply of winter oilseed-rape line-cultivars has been predominantly attributed to N uptake efficiency (NUPT) through maintained N uptake during reproductive growth related to functional stay-green. For investigating the role of stay-green, N retranslocation and N uptake during the reproductive phase for grain yield formation, two line cultivars differing in N starvation-induced leaf senescence were grown in a field experiment without mineral N (N0) and with 160 kg N·ha−1 (N160). Through frequent harvests from full flowering until maturity N uptake, N utilization and apparent N remobilization from vegetative plant parts to the pods could be calculated. NUPT proved being more important than N utilization efficiency (NUE) for grain yield formation under N-limiting (N0) conditions. For cultivar differences in N efficiency, particularly N uptake during flowering (NUPT) and biomass allocation efficiency (HI) to the grains, were decisive. Both crop traits were related to delayed senescence of the older leaves. Remobilization of N particularly from stems and leaves was more important for pod N accumulation than N uptake after full flowering. Pod walls (high N concentrations) and stems (high biomass) mainly contributed to the crop-residue N at maturity. Decreasing the crop-inherent high N budget surplus of winter oilseed-rape requires increasing the low N remobilization efficiency particularly of pod-wall N to the grains. Addressing this conclusion, multi-year and -location field experiments with an extended range of cultivars including hybrids are desirable.

Description: Stripe rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) of wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a devastating disease in temperate regions when susceptible varieties are grown and environmental conditions sustain high disease pressures. With frequent and severe outbreaks, disease resistance is a key tool for controlling stripe rust on wheat. The goal of this research was to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) involved in stripe rust resistance from the important US Pacific Northwest soft white winter wheat varieties “Eltan” and “Finch”. An F2:5 recombinant inbred line (RIL) mapping population of 151 individuals derived from the Finch × Eltan cross was developed through single seed descent. A linkage map comprising 683 unique single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci and 70 SSR markers were used to develop 22 linkage groups consisting of 16 of the 21 chromosomes. Stripe rust data were collected on the RILs during the summers of 2012 to 2014. QTL analysis identified two genomic regions on chromosomes 4A (QYrel.wak-4A) and 6B (QYrfi.wak-6B) associated with resistance from Eltan and Finch, respectively. The results of the QTL analysis showed that QYrel.wak-4A and QYrfi.wak-6B reduced infection type and disease severity. Based upon both molecular and phenotypic differences, QYrel.wak-4A is a novel QTL for adult plant resistance (APR) to stripe rust.

Description: Ascochyta blight (AB) caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr. is an important and widespread disease of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) worldwide. The disease is particularly severe under cool and humid weather conditions. Breeding for host resistance is an efficient means to combat this disease. In this paper, attempts have been made to summarize the progress made in identifying resistance sources, genetics and breeding for resistance, and genetic variation among the pathogen population. The search for resistance to AB in chickpea germplasm, breeding lines and land races using various screening methods has been updated. Importance of the genotype × environment (GE) interaction in elucidating the aggressiveness among isolates from different locations and the identification of pathotypes and stable sources of resistance have also been discussed. Current and modern breeding programs for AB resistance based on crossing resistant/multiple resistant and high-yielding cultivars, stability of the breeding lines through multi-location testing and molecular marker-assisted selection method have been discussed. Gene pyramiding and the use of resistant genes present in wild relatives can be useful methods in the future. Identification of additional sources of resistance genes, good characterization of the host–pathogen system, and identification of molecular markers linked to resistance genes are suggested as the key areas for future study.

Description: Field experiments at Oakes, ND, USA in 2010 and Carrington, ND, USA in 2011 were conducted to evaluate the potential for cover crops grown in the Northern Great Plains, USA in order to reduce weed emergence and density in irrigated potatoes. Treatments included five cover crop treatments and three cover crop termination treatments. Termination of cover crops was done with glyphosate, disk-till, and roto-till. Cover crop biomass accumulation was greatest for rye/canola and triticale at Oakes, and hairy vetch and hairy vetch/rye at Carrington. Cover crop and termination affected weed control 14, 29, and 51 days after planting (DAP) at Oakes. Weed control at Carrington was at least 90% for all cover crop and termination treatments at all three evaluation timings. Marketable yield at Oakes was greater when roto-till was used to terminate the cover crops compared with disk-till or herbicide, which is beneficial for organic systems where herbicides are not used. Marketable yield at Carrington was not affected by cover crop or termination treatments. Results suggest that cover crops can successfully be integrated into irrigated potato production for weed control with yields equal to no cover crop, and with attention to potential mechanical difficulties.

Description: Soil and water pollution by metals and other toxic chemicals is difficult to measure and control, and, as such, presents an ongoing global threat to sustainable agriculture and human health. Efforts to remove contaminants by plant-mediated pathways, or “phytoremediation”, though widely studied, have failed to yield consistent, predictable removal of biological and chemical contaminants. Emerging research has revealed that one major limitation to using plants to clean up the environment is that plants are programmed to protect themselves: Like white blood cells in animals, border cells released from plant root tips carry out an extracellular trapping process to neutralize threats and prevent injury to the host. Variability in border cell trapping has been found to be correlated with variation in sensitivity of roots to aluminum, and removal of border cell results in increased Al uptake into the root tip. Studies now have implicated border cells in responses of diverse plant roots to a range of heavy metals, including arsenic, copper, cadmium, lead, mercury, iron, and zinc. A better understanding of border cell extracellular traps and their role in preventing toxin uptake may facilitate efforts to use plants as a nondestructive approach to neutralize environmental threats.

Description: A decrease in water resources around the globe in irrigated agriculture has resulted in a steep decline in irrigation water availability. Therefore, management options for efficient use of available irrigation water are inevitable. Deciding the critical time, frequency and amount of irrigation are compulsory to achieve higher crop outputs. Hence, this two-year field study was conducted to assess the role of different row spacings, i.e., 20, 25 and 30 cm, on growth, productivity, and water use efficiency (WUE) of wheat under deficit supplemental irrigation (DSI) at the vegetative and reproductive phase by using surplus supplemental irrigation (SSI) throughout the growing season as the control. DSI at both growth stages, and the reproductive stage in particular, changed the crop allometry, yield and net income of wheat. However, narrow spacing (20 cm) resulted in efficient use of available irrigation water (DSI and SSI) with higher yield, WUE and economic returns. Interestingly, wider spacing resulted in a higher number of grains per spike with higher 1000-grain weight under SSI and DSI, but final yield output remained poor due to a lower number of productive tillers. It was concluded that reducing irrigation during the vegetative stage is less damaging compared with the reproductive phase; therefore, sufficient supplemental irrigation must be added at the reproductive stage, particularly during grain-filling. Further, narrow spacing (20 cm) resulted in efficient utilization of available irrigation water; therefore, wheat must be grown at a narrow spacing to ensure the efficient utilization of available irrigation water.

Description: We propose a derivative-free iterative method with fifth order of convergence for solving systems of nonlinear equations. The scheme is composed of three steps, of which the first two steps are that of third order Traub-Steffensen-type method and the last is derivative-free modification of Chebyshev’s method. Computational efficiency is examined and comparison between the efficiencies of presented technique with existing techniques is performed. It is proved that, in general, the new method is more efficient. Numerical problems, including those resulting from practical problems viz. integral equations and boundary value problems, are considered to compare the performance of the proposed method with existing methods. Calculation of computational order of convergence shows that the order of convergence of the new method is preserved in all the numerical examples, which is not so in the case of some of the existing higher order methods. Moreover, the numerical results, including the CPU-time consumed in the execution of program, confirm the accurate and efficient behavior of the new technique.

Description: The elementary symmetric functions play a crucial role in the study of zeros of non-zero polynomials in C [ x ] , and the problem of finding zeros in Q [ x ] leads to the definition of algebraic and transcendental numbers. Recently, Marques studied the set of algebraic numbers in the form P ( T ) Q ( T ) . In this paper, we generalize this result by showing the existence of algebraic numbers which can be written in the form P 1 ( T ) Q 1 ( T ) ⋯ P n ( T ) Q n ( T ) for some transcendental number T, where P 1 , … , P n , Q 1 , … , Q n are prescribed, non-constant polynomials in Q [ x ] (under weak conditions). More generally, our result generalizes results on the arithmetic nature of z w when z and w are transcendental.

Description: Machine learning algorithms have been widely used in the field of client credit assessment. However, few of the algorithms have focused on and solved the problems of concept drift and class imbalance. Due to changes in the macroeconomic environment and markets, the relationship between client characteristics and credit assessment results may change over time, causing concept drift in client credit assessments. Moreover, client credit assessment data are naturally asymmetric and class imbalanced because of the screening of clients. Aiming at solving the joint research issue of concept drift and class imbalance in client credit assessments, in this paper, a novel sample-based online learning ensemble (SOLE) for client credit assessment is proposed. A novel multiple time scale ensemble classifier and a novel sample-based online class imbalance learning procedure are proposed to handle the potential concept drift and class imbalance in the client credit assessment data streams. The experiments are carried out on two real-world client credit assessment cases, which present a comprehensive comparison between the proposed SOLE and other state-of-the-art online learning algorithms. In addition, the base classifier preference and the computing resource consumption of all the comparative algorithms are tested. In general, SOLE achieves a better performance than other methods using fewer computing resources. In addition, the results of the credit scoring model and the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test also prove that SOLE has good practicality in actual client credit assessment applications.

Description: This paper adapts the multivariate optimal control theory to a Riemannian setting. In this sense, a coherent correspondence between the key elements of a standard optimal control problem and several basic geometric ingredients is created, with the purpose of generating a geometric version of Pontryagin’s maximum principle. More precisely, the local coordinates on a Riemannian manifold play the role of evolution variables (“multitime”), the Riemannian structure, and the corresponding Levi–Civita linear connection become state variables, while the control variables are represented by some objects with the properties of the Riemann curvature tensor field. Moreover, the constraints are provided by the second order partial differential equations describing the dynamics of the Riemannian structure. The shift from formal analysis to optimal Riemannian control takes deeply into account the symmetries (or anti-symmetries) these geometric elements or equations rely on. In addition, various submanifold integral cost functionals are considered as controlled payoffs.

Description: Positioning devices allow users’ movement to be recorded. The GPS (Global Positioning System) trajectory data typically consists of spatiotemporal points, which make up the major part of the big data concerning urban life. Existing knowledge extraction methods about the trajectory share a general limitation—they only investigate data from a spatiotemporal aspect, but fail to take the semantic information of trajectories into consideration. Therefore, extracting the semantic information of trajectories with the context of big data is challenging pattern recognition task that has practical application prospects. In this paper, a system is proposed to extract the semantic trajectory patterns of positioning device users. Firstly, a spatiotemporal threshold and clustering based pre-processing model is proposed to process the raw data. Then, we design a probabilistic generative model to annotate the semantic information of each trajectory after the pre-processing procedure. Finally, we apply the PrefixSpan algorithm to mine the semantic trajectory patterns. We verify our system on a large dataset of users’ real trajectories over a period of 5 years in Beijing, China. The results of the experiment indicate that our system produces meaningful patterns.

Description: Three-way decisions, as a decision-making mode which is consistent with human cognition, have been widely used in various fields. In this paper, we fuse the theory of reliability into the three-way decisions method, replace the conditional probability in the three-way decisions method with reliability, and then propose a novel three-way decisions method. We also describe the loss functions with single-valued triangular neutrosophic numbers (SVTNNs) and propose an operator to calculate the score function of triangular neutrosophic numbers. Then, the result of decision is attained according to the principle of minimizing loss. Finally, we apply this method to the overhaul of machines in a factory, which proves the practicability and effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Description: The solutions for many real life problems may be obtained by interpreting the given problem mathematically in the form f ( x ) = x . One such example is that of the famous Borsuk–Ulam theorem in which, using some fixed point argument, it can be guaranteed that at any given time we can find two diametrically opposite places in a planet with same temperature. Thus, the correlation of symmetry is inherent in the study of fixed point theory. In this article, some new results concerning coincidence and a common fixed point for an A φ -contraction and a generalized ϕ -type weak contraction are established. We prove our results for set valued maps without using continuity of the corresponding maps and completeness of the relevant space. Our results generalize and extend several existing results. Some new examples are given to demonstrate the generality and non-triviality of our results.

Description: Studies related to pattern recognition and visualization using computer technology have been introduced. In particular, deep neural networks (DNNs) provide good performance for image, speech, and pattern recognition. However, a poisoning attack is a serious threat to a DNN’s security. A poisoning attack reduces the accuracy of a DNN by adding malicious training data during the training process. In some situations, it may be necessary to drop a specifically chosen class of accuracy from the model. For example, if an attacker specifically disallows nuclear facilities to be selectively recognized, it may be necessary to intentionally prevent unmanned aerial vehicles from correctly recognizing nuclear-related facilities. In this paper, we propose a selective poisoning attack that reduces the accuracy of only the chosen class in the model. The proposed method achieves this by training malicious data corresponding to only the chosen class while maintaining the accuracy of the remaining classes. For the experiment, we used tensorflow as the machine-learning library as well as MNIST, Fashion-MNIST, and CIFAR10 as the datasets. Experimental results show that the proposed method can reduce the accuracy of the chosen class by 43.2%, 41.7%, and 55.3% in MNIST, Fashion-MNIST, and CIFAR10, respectively, while maintaining the accuracy of the remaining classes.

Description: A mixture of red and blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs; at a ratio of 7:3, respectively) were used to analyze the effects of different photosynthetic photon flux densities (PPFDs) (40, 80, and 120 µmol m−2 s−1 hereafter known as LED 40, 80, and 120, respectively) on the micropropagation of Gerbera jamesonii Bolus shoots. The experiment also examined the effect of 6-benzyladenine (BA) in 1, 2.5, and 5 µM concentrations in the media. Biometrical observations and analyses of leaf morphometry and photosynthetic pigment content were conducted. Shoot multiplication increased with an increasing BA concentration. A PPFD of 80 µmol m−2 s−1 and 5 µM BA is suggested as efficient for shoot propagation and economically viable. LED 120 increased the leaf blade area and its width, and circularity and elongation ratios. The intensity of light did not affect the fresh weight, which increased at higher BA concentrations (2.5 and 5 μM). The dry weight content decreased with increasing cytokinin concentration; the greatest content was observed on media with 1 µM BA under PPFD 120 µmol m−2 s−1. LED 80 increased the photosynthetic pigments content in the leaves in comparison to the standard intensity of LED 40. Increased BA concentration raises the content of chlorophyll a.

Description: Soil pH is a key factor affecting the growth of blueberries. Understanding the response mechanism of blueberries to different pH values and selecting suitable evaluation indexes are the basis of breeding new blueberry cultivars with high pH tolerances. The effects of different soil pH treatments for 17 months on the plant growth, fruit yield, photosynthetic characteristics, and leaf microelement concentration of Vaccinium ashei Reade ‘Climax’ and V. corymbosum hybrid ‘Chaoyue No. 1′ were studied. Plant height, main stem diameter, branch number per plant, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, root dry weight, and total dry weight decreased with increasing soil pH. With an increase in soil pH, the first flowering date, 50% flowering date, first ripening date, and 50% ripening date of the two cultivars were postponed, and the flower bud numbers per plant, the floret numbers per bud, and yield per plant showed a downward trend. Moreover, the fruit quality decreased, which was reflected in the increase in the titratable acid content (TA) and the decrease in the total soluble solids content (TSS) and the TSS:TA ratio in the high pH treatment. With increasing soil pH, the chlorophyll content index (CCI), maximal photochemical efficiency of the PSII (Fv/Fm), quantum photosynthetic yield of the PSII (Y(II)) and net photosynthetic rate (Pn) of the two cultivars showed a downward trend, and some microelement concentrations in the leaves were imbalanced. Under high pH treatment, ‘Chaoyue No. 1′ had a relatively higher plant biomass and fruit yield, so it had a stronger tolerance to high pH than ‘Climax’ did. More strongly acidified rhizosphere soil capacity, as well as higher CCI, Fv/Fm, Y(II), and Pn values were the main reasons for the high pH tolerance of ‘Chaoyue No. 1′. Compared with destructive biomass indicators such as plant weight, nondestructive indicators such as CCI, Fv/Fm, and Y(II) can be more valuable indicators for fast and accurate evaluation of blueberry tolerance to high pH at early stages of treatment.

Description: Due to its possible utilization in cosmetics, medicine and crop protection, as a valuable alternative to petrochemical-derived products, hemp essential oil is now considered a product with high value added and a promising marketing potential. This experiment was conducted with the aim of evaluating the effect of four different locations of Northern Italy during two years (four environments) and three hemp monoecious varieties on the production and quality of essential oils (EOs) obtained by inflorescences harvested at full flowering of female flowers. The highest inflorescence yield was obtained at Maiano 2017, where a superficial groundwater layer (1.5 m) was present, with values that ranged from 1.69 of Fedora to 2.06 t ha−1 of Futura. EOs production ranged between 3.4 and 4.9 L ha−1, affected mainly by the variety effect. The terpene in EOs, very similar between varieties and environments, was mainly composed of sesquiterpenes (caryophillene and humulene, as the most abundant) rather than monoterpenes (α-pinene, β-myrcene and trans-β-ocimene, in particular). Phytocannabinoids, and in particular cannabidiol (CBD), were not removed from tissues by the steam during hydrodistillation, and if this is confirmed by further experiments, the residual biomass, now considered as waste, could assume significant importance as a source for further utilization.

Description: The role of small bioactive molecules (〈500 Da) in mechanisms improving resource use efficiency in plants under stress conditions draws increasing interest. One such molecule is omeprazole (OMP), a benzimidazole derivative and inhibitor of animal proton pumps shown to improve nitrate uptake and exclusion of toxic ions, especially of chloride from the cytosol of salt-stressed leaves. Currently, OMP was applied as substrate drench at two rates (0 or 10 μM) on hydroponic basil (Ocimum basilicum L. cv. Genovese) grown under decreasing NO3−:Cl− ratio (80:20, 60:40, 40:60, or 20:80). Chloride concentration and stomatal resistance increased while transpiration, net CO2 assimilation rate and beneficial ions (NO3−, PO43−, and SO42−) decreased with reduced NO3−:Cl− ratio under the 0 μM OMP treatment. The negative effects of chloride were not only mitigated by the 10 μM OMP application in all treatments, with the exception of 20:80 NO3−:Cl−, but plant growth at 80:20, 60:40, and 40:60 NO3−:Cl− ratios receiving OMP application showed maximum fresh yield (+13%, 24%, and 22%, respectively), shoot (+10%, 25%, and 21%, respectively) and root (+32%, 76%, and 75%, respectively) biomass compared to the corresponding untreated treatments. OMP was not directly involved in ion homeostasis and compartmentalization of vacuolar or apoplastic chloride. However, it was active in limiting chloride loading into the shoot, as manifested by the lower chloride concentration in the 80:20, 60:40, and 40:60 NO3−:Cl− treatments compared to the respective controls (−41%, −37%, and −24%), favoring instead that of nitrate and potassium while also boosting photosynthetic activity. Despite its unequivocally beneficial effect on plants, the large-scale application of OMP is currently limited by the molecule’s high cost. However, further studies are warranted to unravel the molecular mechanisms of OMP-induced reduction of chloride loading to shoot and improved salt tolerance.

Description: We define a family of observables for abelian Yang-Mills fields associated to compact regions U ⊆ M with smooth boundary in Riemannian manifolds. Each observable is parametrized by a first variation of solutions and arises as the integration of gauge invariant conserved current along admissible hypersurfaces contained in the region. The Poisson bracket uses the integration of a canonical multisymplectic current.

Description: Video analysis is currently the main non-intrusive method for the study of collective behavior. However, 3D-to-2D projection leads to overlapping of observed objects. The situation is further complicated by the absence of stall shapes for the majority of living objects. Fortunately, living objects often possess a certain symmetry which was used as a basis for morphological fingerprinting. This technique allowed us to record forms of symmetrical objects in a pose-invariant way. When combined with image skeletonization, this gives a robust, nonlinear, optimization-free, and fast method for detection of overlapping objects, even without any rigid pattern. This novel method was verified on fish (European bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, and tiger barbs, Puntius tetrazona) swimming in a reasonably small tank, which forced them to exhibit a large variety of shapes. Compared with manual detection, the correct number of objects was determined for up to almost 90 % of overlaps, and the mean Dice-Sørensen coefficient was around 0.83 . This implies that this method is feasible in real-life applications such as toxicity testing.

Description: There is a growing body of research that recognizes the potentials of biochar application in agricultural production systems. However, little is known about the effects of biochar, especially hydrochar, on production of containerized seedlings under nursery conditions. This study aimed to test the effects of hydrochar application on growth, quality, nutrient and heavy metal contents, and mycorrhizal association of containerized pine seedlings. The hydrochar used in this study was produced through hydrothermal carbonization of paper mill biosludge at 200 °C. Two forms of hydrochar (powder and pellet) were mixed with peat at ratios of 10% and 20% (v/v) under three levels of applied commercial fertilizer (nil, half and full rates). Application of hydrochar had positive or neutral effects on shoot biomass and stem diameter compared with control seedlings (without hydrochar) under tested fertilizer levels. Analysis of the natural logarithmic response ratios (LnRR) of quality index and nutrient and heavy metal uptake revealed that application of 20% (v/v) hydrochar powder or pellet with 50% fertilizer resulted in same quality pine seedlings with similar heavy metal (Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn and Cr) and nutrient (P, K, Ca and Mg) contents as untreated seedlings supplied with 100% fertilizer. Colonization percentage by ectomycorrhizae significantly increased when either forms of hydrochar were applied at a rate of 20% under unfertilized condition. The results of this study implied that application of proper rates of hydrochar from biosludge with adjusted levels of liquid fertilizer may reduce fertilizer requirements in pine nurseries.

Description: The tank cascade system (TCS) has been used for over 2000 years for water management in Sri Lanka. Since surface water is limited in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, agricultural production, especially of upland crops, relies on groundwater for irrigation. We sampled 29 wells in the Ulagalla cascade, a prominent TCS near Anuradhapura city in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, in Yala (dry) and Maha (wet) seasons, the two main cropping seasons in Sri Lanka. We evaluated the suitability of groundwater for irrigation using the analytic hierarchy process and geographical information system. Water quality did not vary notably between seasons. However, it deteriorated with the onset of high intensity heavy rain, especially during the Maha season. A water quality zoning map indicated that groundwater in 4% and 96% of the study area is suitable and moderately suitable for irrigation, respectively. Irrigation water quality in tank cascade landscapes and similar environments can be assessed using this methodology and our results.

Description: In this paper, we are concerned with a nonlinear system containing some essential symmetrical structures (e.g., cross-diffusion) in the two-dimensional setting, which is proposed to model the biological transport networks. We first provide an a priori blow-up criterion of strong solution of the corresponding Cauchy problem. Based on this, we also establish a priori upper bounds to strong solution for all positive times.

Description: We first formulate the mixed backward in time problem in the context of thermoelasticity for dipolar materials. To prove the consistency of this mixed problem, our first main result is regarding the uniqueness of the solution for this problem. This is obtained based on some auxiliary results, namely, four integral identities. The second main result is regarding the temporal behavior of our thermoelastic body with a dipolar structure. This behavior is studied by means of some relations on a partition of various parts of the energy associated to the solution of the problem.

Description: Feature interaction is a newly proposed feature relevance relationship, but the unintentional removal of interactive features can result in poor classification performance for this relationship. However, traditional feature selection algorithms mainly focus on detecting relevant and redundant features while interactive features are usually ignored. To deal with this problem, feature relevance, feature redundancy and feature interaction are redefined based on information theory. Then a new feature selection algorithm named CMIFSI (Conditional Mutual Information based Feature Selection considering Interaction) is proposed in this paper, which makes use of conditional mutual information to estimate feature redundancy and interaction, respectively. To verify the effectiveness of our algorithm, empirical experiments are conducted to compare it with other several representative feature selection algorithms. The results on both synthetic and benchmark datasets indicate that our algorithm achieves better results than other methods in most cases. Further, it highlights the necessity of dealing with feature interaction.

Description: A chaotic system and two Nonlinear Feadback Shift Registers (NFSRs) are used to generate a new stream cipher in this paper. This design can be used for efficient encryption in resource-constrained devices or environments. The chaotic system is quantified and integrated with two NFSRs based on the technology of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Many analyses are made from the angle of entropy in order to verify the cryptographic characteristics of the stream cipher, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) statistical test is completed to analyze the cipher. The test results show that the stream cipher here has good cryptographic characteristics.

Description: In this paper, we present a new computational method for solving linear Fredholm integral equations of the second kind, which is based on the use of B-spline quasi-affine tight framelet systems generated by the unitary and oblique extension principles. We convert the integral equation to a system of linear equations. We provide an example of the construction of quasi-affine tight framelet systems. We also give some numerical evidence to illustrate our method. The numerical results confirm that the method is efficient, very effective and accurate.

Description: The security issue on the physical layer is of significant challenge yet of paramount importance for 5G communications. In some previous works, transmit power allocation has already been studied for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) secure communication with Gaussian channel inputs for both a single user and multiple users. Faced with peak transmission power constraints, we adopt discrete channel inputs (e.g., equiprobable Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) with symmetry) in a practical communication system, instead of Gaussian channel inputs. Finite-alphabet inputs impose a more significant challenge as compared with conventional Gaussian random inputs for the multiuser wiretap OFDM systems. This paper considers the joint resource allocation in frequency-domain artificial noise (AN) assisted multiuser wiretap OFDM channels with discrete channel inputs. This security problem is formulated as nonconvex sum secrecy rate optimization by jointly optimizing the subcarrier allocation, information-bearing power, and AN-bearing power. To this end, with a suboptimal subcarrier allocation scheme, we propose an efficient iterative algorithm to allocate the power between the information and the AN via the Lagrange duality method. Finally, we carry out some numerical simulations to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.

Description: A Friedmann–Robertson–Walker Universe was studied with a dark energy component represented by a quintessence field. The Lagrangian for this system, hereafter called the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker–quintessence (FRWq) system, was presented. It was shown that the classical Lagrangian reproduces the usual two (second order) dynamical equations for the radius of the Universe and for the quintessence scalar field, as well as a (first order) constraint equation. Our approach naturally unified gravity and dark energy, as it was obtained that the Lagrangian and the equations of motion are those of a relativistic particle moving on a two-dimensional, conformally flat spacetime. The conformal metric factor was related to the dark energy scalar field potential. We proceeded to quantize the system in three different schemes. First, we assumed the Universe was a spinless particle (as it is common in literature), obtaining a quantum theory for a Universe described by the Klein–Gordon equation. Second, we pushed the quantization scheme further, assuming the Universe as a Dirac particle, and therefore constructing its corresponding Dirac and Majorana theories. With the different theories, we calculated the expected values for the scale factor of the Universe. They depend on the type of quantization scheme used. The differences between the Dirac and Majorana schemes are highlighted here. The implications of the different quantization procedures are discussed. Finally, the possible consequences for a multiverse theory of the Dirac and Majorana quantized Universe are briefly considered.

Description: The main contribution in this paper is to construct an implicit fixed coefficient Block Backward Differentiation Formulas denoted as A ( α ) -BBDF with equal intervals for solving stiff ordinary differential equations (ODEs). To avoid calculating the differentiation coefficients at each step of the integration, the coefficients of the formulas will be stored, with the intention of optimizing the performance in terms of precision and computational time. The plots of their A ( α ) stability region are provided, and the order of the method is also verified. The necessary conditions for convergence, such as the consistency and zero stability of the method, are also discussed. The numerical results clearly showed the efficiency of the method in terms of accuracy and execution time as compared to other existing methods in the scientific literature.

Description: Each loop in a multi-loop rail network consists of two segments, both of which have roughly the same conditions and mileage and are approximately symmetrical. This paper is devoted to optimizing the paths of trains formed at the loading area in a multi-loop rail network. To attain this goal, three different situations are analyzed, and two models are proposed for networks with adequate and inadequate capabilities. Computational experiments are also carried out using the commercial software Lingo, with the branch and bound algorithm. The results show that the models can achieve the same solution with different solution times. To solve the problem of path selection for large-scale train flows, a genetic algorithm is also designed and proves to perform well in a set of computational experiments.

Description: Soils in tropical croplands are becoming degraded because of soil carbon (C) depletion. Local farmers in South India use a specific management of traditional cultivation, i.e., broadcast seeding. However, for sustainable C management, there is no quantitative data on the CO2 flux under this management. Our objectives were to (1) estimate the annual CO2 flux, and (2) evaluate the effect of traditional cultivation management (seeding rate) on the CO2 flux. Our field experiment was conducted in South India, from 2015 to 2017, including two cultivation periods with four cultivation management treatments (traditional cultivation management plot (T), fixed density plot (FD), no thinning plot (NT), and bare plot (B)). The seeding rate in the FD plot was ca. 50% of the T plot. We applied 1.1 Mg C ha−1 farmyard manure just before the experiment as a C input. We found that broadcasting, thinning, and cultivation increased soil moisture, while the CO2 efflux rate showed no significant difference between treatments throughout the experimental period. This indicates that cultivation management did not affect the CO2 flux. The total CO2 fluxes for two years were estimated at 2.2–2.7 Mg C ha−1. Our results indicate that it is necessary to apply larger or more frequent C inputs to prevent C depletion.

Description: This paper is concerned with the design of an improved El-Gamal cryptosystem based on chaos synchronization. The El-Gamal cryptosystem is an asymmetric encryption algorithm that must use the public and private keys, respectively, in the encryption and decryption processes. However, in our design, the public key does not have to appear in the public channel. Therefore, this proposed improved El-Gamal cryptosystem becomes a symmetric-like encryption algorithm. First, a discrete sliding mode controller is proposed to ensure the synchronization of master and slave chaotic systems; next, a novel improved El-Gamal cryptosystem is presented. In the traditional El-Gamal cryptosystem, the public key is static and needs to be open which provides an opportunity to attack. However, in this improved design, due to the chaos synchronization, the public key becomes dynamic and does not appear in public channels. As a result, drawbacks of long cipher text and time-consuming calculation in the traditional El-Gamal cryptosystem are all removed. Finally, several performance tests and comparisons have shown the efficiency and security of the proposed algorithm.

Description: The rye (Secale cereale L.) 5R chromosome contains some elite genes that can be used to improve wheat cultivars. In this study, a set of 5RKu dissection lines was obtained, and 111 new PCR-based and 5RKu-specific markers were developed using the specific length amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) method. The 111 markers were combined with the 52 5RKu-specific markers previously reported, and 65 S. cereale Lo7 scaffolds were physically mapped to six regions of the 5RKu chromosome using the 5RKu dissection lines. Additionally, the 5RLKu arm carried stripe rust resistance gene(s) and it was located to the region L2, the same region where 22 5RKu-specific markers and 11 S. cereale Lo7 scaffolds were mapped. The stripe rust resistance gene(s) located in the 5RLKu arm might be new one(s) because its source and location are different from the previously reported ones, and it enriches the resistance source of stripe rust for wheat breeding programs. The markers and the S. cereale Lo7 scaffolds that were mapped to the six regions of the 5RKu chromosome can facilitate the utilization of elite genes on the 5R chromosome in the improvement of wheat cultivars.

Description: Assessing and prescribing fertilizer use is critical to profitable and sustainable coffee production, and this is becoming a priority concern for the Robusta coffee industry. In this study, annual survey data of 798 farms across selected Robusta coffee-producing provinces in Vietnam and Indonesia between 2008 and 2017 were used to comparatively assess the fertilizer management strategies in these countries. Specifically, we aimed to characterize fertilizer use patterns in the key coffee-growing provinces and discuss the potential for improving nutrient management practices. Four types of chemical (NPK, super phosphate, potassium chloride and urea) and two of natural (compost and lime) fertilizers were routinely used in Vietnam. In Indonesia, NPK and urea were supplemented only with compost. Farmers in Vietnam applied unbalanced quantities of chemical fertilizers (i.e., higher rates than recommended) and at a constant rate between years whereas Indonesian farmers applied well below the recommended rates because of poor accessibility and financial support. The overuse of chemical fertilizers in Vietnam threatens the sustainability of Robusta coffee farming. Nevertheless, there is a potential for improvement in both countries in terms of nutrient management and sustainability of Robusta coffee production by adopting the best local fertilizer management practices.

Description: Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) is one of the most important forage grass species in temperate regions of the world, but it is prone to having poor persistence due to the incidence of abiotic and biotic stresses. This creates a challenge for livestock producers to use their agricultural lands more productively and intensively within sustainable limits. Breeding perennial ryegrass cultivars that are both productive and persistent is a target of forage breeding programs and will allow farmers to select appropriate cultivars to deliver the highest profitability over the lifetime of a sward. Conventional methods for the estimation of pasture persistence depend on manual ground cover estimation or counting the number of surviving plants or tillers in a given area. Those methods are subjective, time-consuming and/or labour intensive. This study aimed to develop a phenomic method to evaluate the persistence of perennial ryegrass cultivars in field plots. Data acquisition was conducted three years after sowing to estimate the persistence of perennial ryegrass using high-resolution aerial-based multispectral and ground-based red, green and blue(RGB) sensors, and subsequent image analysis. There was a strong positive relationship between manual ground cover and sensor-based ground cover estimates (p 〈 0.001). Although the manual plant count was positively correlated with sensor-based ground cover (p 〈 0.001) intra-plot plant size variation influenced the strength of this relationship. We conclude that object-based ground cover estimation is most suitable for use in large-scale breeding programs due to its higher accuracy, efficiency and repeatability. With further development, this technique could be used to assess temporal changes of perennial ryegrass persistence in experimental studies and on a farm scale.

Description: High input costs combined with multiple management and material inputs have threatened cotton productivity. We hypothesize that this problem can be addressed by a single fertilization at flowering with late sowing in a moderately populated plant stand. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the cotton biomass accumulation, phosphorus dynamics, and fiber quality under three planting densities (low, 3 × 104; moderate, 6 × 104; and dense, 9 × 104 ha−1) and two cultivars (Zhongmian-16 and J-4B). High planting density had 6.2 and 12.6% larger stems and fruiting nodes m−2, while low density produced a 37.5 and 59.4% maximum height node ratio. Moderate density produced 26.4–15.5%, 24.7–12.6%, and 10.5–13.6% higher biomass accumulation rate at the peak bloom, boll set, and plant removal stages over low and high density in both years, respectively. J-4B produced a higher reproductive organs biomass yield when compared with Zhongmian-16 in both years. This higher biomass formation was due to both the higher average (0.8 VT kg·ha−1·d−1) and maximum (1.0 VM kg·ha−1·d−1) reproductive organ phosphorus uptake, respectively. Plants with low density had 5.3–18.5%, 9.5–15%, and 7.8–12.8% greater length, strength, and micronaire values over moderate and dense plants, respectively. Conclusively, moderate density with J-4B is a promising option for improved biomass, phosphorus acquisition, and fiber quality under a short season.

Description: Three rust diseases namely; stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt), leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina (Pt), and stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), are the most common fungal diseases of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and cause significant yield losses worldwide including Australia. Recently characterized stripe rust resistance genes Yr51 and Yr57 are effective against pre- and post-2002 Pst pathotypes in Australia. Similarly, stem rust resistance genes Sr22, Sr26, and Sr50 are effective against the Pgt pathotype TTKSK (Ug99) and its derivatives in addition to commercially important Australian pathotypes. Effectiveness of these genes make them good candidates for combining with known pleiotropic adult plant resistance (PAPR) genes to achieve durable resistance against three rust pathogens. This study was planned to transfer rust resistance genes Yr51, Yr57, Sr22, Sr26, and Sr50 into two Australian (Gladius and Livingston) and two Indian (PBW550 and DBW17) wheat cultivars through marker assisted selection (MAS). These cultivars also carry other rust resistance genes: Gladius carries Lr37/Yr17/Sr38 and Sr24/Lr24; Livingston carries Lr34/Yr18/Sr57, Lr37/Yr17/Sr38, and Sr2; PBW550 and DBW17 carry Lr34/Yr18/Sr57 and Lr26/Yr9/Sr31. Donor sources of Yr51 (AUS91456), Yr57 (AUS91463), Sr22 (Sr22/3*K441), Sr26 (Sr26 WA1), and Sr50 (Dra-1/Chinese Spring ph1b/2/3* Gabo) were crossed with each of the recurrent parents to produce backcross progenies. Markers linked to Yr51 (sun104), Yr57 (gwm389 and BS00062676), Sr22 (cssu22), Sr26 (Sr26#43), and Sr50 (Sr50-5p-F3, R2) were used for their MAS and markers csLV34 (Lr34/Yr18/Sr57), VENTRIUP-LN2 (Lr37/Yr17/Sr38), Sr24#12 (Sr24/Lr24), and csSr2 (Sr2) were used to select genes present in recurrent parents. Progenies of selected individuals were grown and selected under field conditions for plant type and adult plant rust responses. Final selections were genotyped with the relevant markers. Backcross derivatives of these genes were distributed to breeding companies for use as resistance donors.

Description: In this paper, we focus on methods to prevent shoulder-surfing attacks. We initially adopted digraph substitution rules from PlayFair cipher as our proposed method. PlayFair cipher is a modern cryptography method, which exists at the intersection of the disciplines of mathematics and computer science. However, according to our preliminary study it was insufficient to prevent shoulder-surfing attacks. Thus, a new method had to be proposed. In this new proposed method, we improvised the digraph substitution rules and used these rules together with an output feedback method to determine a pass-image. Our proposed method was evaluated with a user study. The results showed our proposed method was robust against both direct observation and video-recorded shoulder-surfing attacks.

Description: In this paper, by applying the decision theorem of the Schur-power convex function, the Schur-power convexity of a class of complete symmetric functions are studied. As applications, some new inequalities are established.

Description: A competing risks model under progressively type II censored data following the Rayleigh distribution is considered. We establish the maximum likelihood estimation for unknown parameters and compute the observed information matrix and the expected Fisher information matrix to construct the asymptotic confidence intervals. Moreover, we obtain the Bayes estimation based on symmetric and non-symmetric loss functions, that is, the squared error loss function and the general entropy loss function, and the highest posterior density intervals are also derived. In addition, a simulation study is presented to assess the performances of different methods discussed in this paper. A real-life data set analysis is provided for illustration purposes.

Description: A Couette-Poiseuille flow between parallel plates saturated with porous medium is studied with emphasis on viscous dissipation effect on the temperature field; assuming a fully developed flow, with both plates subjected to unequal and uniform heat flux. Temperature field and Nusselt number are derived as a function of Brinkman number and porous medium shape factor. By specifying the ratio of wall to mean velocity as one, the resulting velocity and temperature fields attribute to a significant increase in Nusselt number for the moving wall as the permeability of porous medium increases. Increased permeability signifies competing effect between enhanced convection in the proximity of the moving wall and higher local viscous dissipation. When the former effect dominates, heat transfer coefficient increases. Effects of Reynolds number on the temperature field is elucidated, including a comparison between a microchannel and conventional duct to evaluate the characteristic length scale effect. As Reynolds number goes up in a microchannel, heat generation in the form of viscous dissipation intensifies and overrides the convection effect, causing an increase in the highest temperature along the duct on the contrary to the findings in conventional duct.

Description: In this study, we present an analytical study on blood flow analysis through with a tapered porous channel. The blood flow was driven by the peristaltic pumping. Thermal radiation effects were also taken into account. The convective and slip boundary conditions were also applied in this formulation. These conditions are very helpful to carry out the behavior of particle movement which may be utilized for cardiac surgery. The tapered porous channel had an unvarying wave speed with dissimilar amplitudes and phase. The non-dimensional analysis was utilized for some approximations such as the proposed mathematical modelling equations were modified by using a lubrication approach and the analytical solutions for stream function, nanoparticle temperature and volumetric concentration profiles were obtained. The impacts of various emerging parameters on the thermal characteristics and nanoparticles concentration were analyzed with the help of computational results. The trapping phenomenon was also examined for relevant parameters. It was also observed that the geometric parameters, like amplitudes, non-uniform parameters and phase difference, play an important role in controlling the nanofluids transport phenomena. The outcomes of the present model may be applicable in the smart nanofluid peristaltic pump which may be utilized in hemodialysis.

Description: Reducing soil tillage can lead to many benefits, but this practice often increases weed abundance and thus the need for herbicides, especially during the transition phase from inversion tillage to non-inversion tillage. We evaluated if subsidiary crops (SCs, e.g., cover crops) can mitigate the effects of non-inversion tillage on weed abundance. Two-year experiments studying SC use, tillage intensity, and nitrogen (N) fertilization level were carried out twice at six sites throughout northern and central Europe. SCs significantly reduced weed cover throughout the intercrop period (−55% to −1% depending on site), but only slightly during the main crops. Overall weed abundance and weed biomass were higher when using non-inversion tillage with SCs compared to inversion tillage without SCs. The effects differed due to site-specific weed pressure and management. With increasing weed pressure, the effect of SCs decreased, and the advantage of inversion over non-inversion tillage increased. N fertilization level did not affect weed abundance. The results suggest that SCs can contribute by controlling weeds but cannot fully compensate for reduced weed control of non-inversion tillage in the transition phase. Using non-inversion tillage together with SCs is primarily recommended in low weed pressure environments.

Description: Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) is a well-known medicinal plant species in which the products requested from the market are those that are derived from the organic system. The study was conducted to assess the allelopathic effects, as natural herbicides, of two essential oils extracted from oregano (Origanum vulgare L.) and rosemary (Rosmarimum officinalis L.), with the objective of exploring the possibility of their utilization for future weed management. A field experiment was conducted over two seasons, when the infestation of 15 different weed species was detected. Each essential oil was applied at two different concentrations (50% diluted and undiluted), three times during the chamomile crop under an organic farm system. The results demonstrated that the germination of different weed species was affected differently by the type of essential oils and especially by their concentrations. The undiluted oils inhibited most of the germination of several weed species, highlighting a significantly higher percentage of Weed Control Efficiency (WCE) and suggesting the potential to be used as bio-herbicides. Bioherbicidal weed control methods could offer an advantage with respect to hand weeding, particularly from an economic point of view.

Description: The purpose of this article is to define almost ( α , F σ ) -contractions and establish some generalized fixed-point results for a new class of contractive conditions in the setting of complete metric spaces. In application, we apply our fixed-point theorem to prove the existence theorem for Fredholm integral inclusions ϖ ( t ) ∈ f ( t ) + ∫ 0 1 K ( t , s , x ( s ) ) ϑ s , t ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] where f ∈ C [ 0 , 1 ] is a given real-valued function and K : [ 0 , 1 ] × [ 0 , 1 ] × R → K c v ( R ) is a given multivalued operator, where K c v represents the family of nonempty compact and convex subsets of R and ϖ ∈ C [ 0 , 1 ] is the unknown function. We also provide a non-trivial example to show the significance of our main result.

Description: Composite quantile regression (CQR) estimation and inference are studied for varying coefficient models with response data missing at random. Three estimators including the weighted local linear CQR (WLLCQR) estimator, the nonparametric WLLCQR (NWLLCQR) estimator, and the imputed WLLCQR (IWLLCQR) estimator are proposed for unknown coefficient functions. Under some mild conditions, the proposed estimators are asymptotic normal. Simulation studies demonstrate that the unknown coefficient estimators with IWLLCQR are superior to the other two with WLLCQR and NWLLCQR. Moreover, bootstrap test procedures based on the IWLLCQR fittings is developed to test whether the coefficient functions are actually varying. Finally, a type of investigated real-life data is analyzed to illustrated the applications of the proposed method.

Description: This paper reports on the Walnut Digital Signature Algorithm (WalnutDSA), which is an asymmetric signature scheme recently presented for standardization at the NIST call for post-quantum cryptographic constructions. WalnutDSA is a group theoretical construction, the security of which relies on the hardness of certain problems related to an action of a braid group on a finite set. In spite of originally resisting the typical attacks succeeding against this kind of construction, soon different loopholes were identified rendering the proposal insecure (and finally, resulting in it being excluded from Round 2 of the NIST competition). Some of these attacks are related to the well-structured and symmetric masking of certain secret elements during the signing process. We explain the design principles behind this proposal and survey the main attack strategies that have succeeded, contradicting its claimed security properties, as well as the recently-proposed ideas aimed at overcoming these issues.

Description: Analysis of motion symmetry constitutes an important area with many applications in engineering, robotics, neurology and biomedicine. This paper presents the use of microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS), including accelerometers and gyrometers, to acquire data via mobile devices so as to monitor physical activities and their irregularities. Special attention is devoted to the analysis of the symmetry of the motion of the body when the same exercises are performed by the right and the left limb. The analyzed data include the motion of the legs on a home exercise bike under different levels of load. The method is based on signal analysis using the discrete wavelet transform and the evaluation of signal segment features such as the relative energy at selected decomposition levels. The subsequent classification of the evaluated features is performed by k-nearest neighbours, a Bayesian approach, a support vector machine, and neural networks. The highest average classification accuracy attained is 91.0% and the lowest mean cross-validation error is 0.091, resulting from the use of a neural network. This paper presents the advantages of the use of simple sensors, their combination and intelligent data processing for the numerical evaluation of motion features in the rehabilitation and monitoring of physical activities.

Description: Multipath diversity significantly impacts multipath transmission quality. Enough multipath diversity would minimize the negative influence brought by an individual path, thus improving tolerance capability of network congestion and failure. However, multipath diversity is hard to guarantee on overlay networks because of inaccurate awareness of underlay network and multipath generating methods considering little about underlay diversity. In this paper, we design a multi-dimension spatial method for topology awareness and multipath generating. Analyzing that the complicated underlay networks with multiple autonomous systems reduce the accuracy of network positioning for topology awareness, we decompose the underlay networks into multiple dimensions, namely intra and inter autonomous system dimensions. We generate independent views for each autonomous system and merge views by embedding exchange points. Then, we design some spatial mechanisms to evaluate link diversity and to constrain multipath generating. Based on the multi-dimensional view, multipath generating is conducted in inter and intra autonomous system phases. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method improves topology awareness accuracy and guarantees multipath diversity better and the transmission quality is improved.

Description: The establishment and application of a spectral library is a critical step in the standardization and automation of remote sensing interpretation and mapping. Currently, most spectral libraries are designed to support the classification of land cover types, whereas few are dedicated to agricultural remote sensing monitoring. Here, we gathered spectral observation data on plants in multiple experimental scenarios into a spectral database to investigate methods for crop classification (16 crop species) and status monitoring (tea plant and rice growth). We proposed a set of screening methods for spectral features related to plant classification and status monitoring (band reflectance, vegetation index, spectral differentiation, spectral continuum characteristics) that are based on ISODATA and JM distance. Next, we investigated the performance of different machine learning classifiers in the spectral library application, including K-nearest neighbor (KNN), Random Forest (RF), and a genetic algorithm coupled with a support vector machine (GA-SVM). The optimal combination of spectral features and the classifier with the highest classification accuracy were selected for crop classification and status monitoring scenarios. The GA-SVM classifier performed the best, which produced an accuracy of OAA = 0.94, Kappa = 0.93 for crop classification in a complex scenario (crops mixed with 71 non-crop plant species), and promising accuracies for tea plant growth monitoring (OAA = 0.98, Kappa = 0.97) and rice growth stage monitoring (OAA = 0.92, Kappa = 0.90). Therefore, the establishment of a plant spectral library combined with relevant feature extraction and a classification algorithm effectively supports agricultural monitoring by remote sensing.

Description: In this paper, a kernel recursive maximum Versoria-like criterion (KRMVLC) algorithm has been constructed, derived, and analyzed within the framework of nonlinear adaptive filtering (AF), which considers the benefits of logarithmic second-order errors and the symmetry maximum-Versoria criterion (MVC) lying in reproducing the kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). In the devised KRMVLC, the Versoria approach aims to resist the impulse noise. The proposed KRMVLC algorithm was carefully derived for taking the nonlinear channel equalization (NCE) under different non-Gaussian interferences. The achieved results verify that the KRMVLC is robust against non-Gaussian interferences and performs better than those of the popular kernel AF algorithms, like the kernel least-mean-square (KLMS), kernel least-mixed-mean-square (KLMMN), and Kernel maximum Versoria criterion (KMVC).

Description: GOX (3QVR), glucose oxidase, is an oxidoreductase enzyme, which has found many applications in biotechnology and modern diagnostics with typical assays including biosensors useful in the determination of free glucose in body fluids. PEI (polyethylenimines) are polymer molecules made up of amine groups and two aliphatic carbons, which are cyclically repeated. PEI are transfection reagents which, using positively charged units, bind well to anionic DNA residues. During the studies on GOX, PEI were used both in their linear and branched structures. Rhombellanes, RBL, are structures decorated with rhombs/squares. The aim of the paper is to study the interactions of two kinds of linear ligands: PEIs (Polyethylenimines) and CHRs (ethers of Hexahydroxy-cyclohexane) with the glucose oxidase enzyme, GOX (3QVR). To understand the structure-activity relationship between the GOX enzyme and the linear ligands PEI and CHR, two steps of docking simulation were performed; mapping the whole area of the 3QVR enzyme and docking on the first and second surface of the enzyme, separately. The studied ligands interacted with amino acids of GOX inside the protein and on its surface, with stronger and shorter bonds inside of the protein. However, long chain ligands can only interact with amino acids on the external protein surface. After the study, two domains of the enzyme were clearly evidenced; the external surface domain more easily creates interactions with ligands, particularly with CHR ligands.

Description: In this article, we study an extension of the sinh Cauchy model in order to obtain asymmetric bimodality. The behavior of the distribution may be either unimodal or bimodal. We calculate its cumulative distribution function and use it to carry out quantile regression. We calculate the maximum likelihood estimators and carry out a simulation study. Two applications are analyzed based on real data to illustrate the flexibility of the distribution for modeling unimodal and bimodal data.

Description: Cisplatin (cisPt) is one of the strongest anticancer agents with proven clinical activity against a wide range of solid tumors. Its mode of action has been linked to its ability to crosslink with the canonical purine bases, primarily with guanine. Theoretical studies performed at the molecular level suggest that such nonspecific interactions can also take place with many competitive compounds, such as vitamins of the B group, containing aromatic rings with lone-pair orbitals. This might be an indicator of reduction of the anticancer therapeutic effects of the Cisplatin drug in the presence of vitamins of the B group inside the cell nucleus. That is why it seems to be important to connect CisPt with nanostructures and in this way prevent the drug from combining with the B vitamins. As a proposal for a new nanodrug, an attempt was made to implement Cispaltin (CisPt) ligand on functionalized C60 fullerenes and on a cube rhombellane homeomorphic surface. The symmetry of the analyzed nanostructures is an important factor determining the mutual affinity of the tested ligand and nanocarriers. The behavior of Cisplatin with respect to rhombellane homeomorphs and functionalized fullerenes C60, in terms of their (interacting) energy, geometry and topology was studied and a detailed analysis of structural properties after docking showed many interesting features.

Description: It is known that every element in the alternating group A n , with n ≥ 5 , can be written as a product of at most two Engel words of arbitrary length. However, it is still unknown if every element in an alternating group is an Engel word of Arbitrary length. In this paper, a different approach to this problem is presented, getting new results for small alternating groups.

Description: As a global-optimized and naturally inspired algorithm, particle swarm optimization (PSO) is characterized by its high quality and easy application in practical optimization problems. However, PSO has some obvious drawbacks, such as early convergence and slow convergence speed. Therefore, we introduced some appropriate improvements to PSO and proposed a novel chaotic PSO variant with arctangent acceleration coefficient (CPSO-AT). A total of 10 numerical optimization functions were employed to test the performance of the proposed CPSO-AT algorithm. Extensive contrast experiments were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. The experimental results showed that the proposed CPSO-AT algorithm converges quickly and has better stability in numerical optimization problems compared with other PSO variants and other kinds of well-known optimal algorithms.

Description: Race walking has been theoretically described as a walking gait in which no flight time is allowed and high travelling speed, comparable to running (3.6–4.2 m s−1), is achieved. The aim of this study was to mechanically understand such a “hybrid gait” by analysing the ground reaction forces (GRFs) generated in a wide range of race walking speeds, while comparing them to running and walking. Fifteen athletes race-walked on an instrumented walkway (4 m) and three-dimensional GRFs were recorded at 1000 Hz. Subjects were asked to performed three self-selected speeds corresponding to a low, medium and high speed. Peak forces increased with speeds and medio-lateral and braking peaks were higher than in walking and running, whereas the vertical peaks were higher than walking but lower than running. Vertical GRF traces showed two characteristic patterns: one resembling the “M-shape” of walking and the second characterised by a first peak and a subsequent plateau. These different patterns were not related to the athletes’ performance level. The analysis of the body centre of mass trajectory, which reaches its vertical minimum at mid-stance, showed that race walking should be considered a bouncing gait regardless of the presence or absence of a flight phase.

Description: This paper deals with separable and entangled qudits | ψ d 〉 (quantum states in dimension d) constructed from Dicke states made of N = d − 1 qubits. Such qudits present the property to be totally symmetric under the interchange of the N qubits. We discuss the notion of perma-concurrence P d for the qudit | ψ d 〉 , introduced by the authors (Entropy 2018, 20, 292), as a parameter for characterizing the entanglement degree of | ψ d 〉 . For d = 3 , the perma-concurrence P 3 constitutes an alternative to the concurrence C for symmetric two-qubit states. We give several expressions of P d (in terms of matrix permanent and in terms of unit vectors of R 3 pointing on the Bloch sphere) and precise the range of variation of P d (going from separable to maximally entangled states). Numerous examples are presented for P d . Special attention is devoted to states of W type and to maximally entangled states of Bell and Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger type.

Description: In social and health sciences, many statistical procedures and estimation techniques rely on the underlying distributional assumption of normality of the data. Non-normality may lead to incorrect statistical inferences. This study evaluates the performance of selected normality tests within the stringency framework for skewed alternative space. The stringency concept allows us to rank the tests uniquely. The Bonett and Seier test (Tw) turns out to represent the best statistics for slightly skewed alternatives and the Anderson–Darling (AD); Chen–Shapiro (CS); Shapiro–Wilk (W); and Bispo, Marques, and Pestana (BCMR) statistics are the best choices for moderately skewed alternative distributions. The maximum loss of Jarque–Bera (JB) and its robust form (RJB), in terms of deviations from the power envelope, is greater than 50%, even for large sample sizes, which makes them less attractive in testing the hypothesis of normality against the moderately skewed alternatives. On balance, all selected normality tests except Tw and Daniele Coin’s COIN-test performed exceptionally well against the highly skewed alternative space.

Description: With the improvement of human living standards, users’ requirements have changed from function to emotion. Helping users pick out the most suitable product based on their subjective requirements is of great importance for enterprises. This paper proposes a Kansei engineering-based grey relational analysis and techniques for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (KE-GAR-TOPSIS) method to make a subjective user personalized ranking of alternative products. The KE-GRA-TOPSIS method integrates five methods, including Kansei Engineering (KE), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), entropy, game theory, and grey relational analysis-TOPSIS (GRA-TOPSIS). First, an evaluation system is established by KE and AHP. Second, we define a matrix variate—Kansei decision matrix (KDM)—to describe the satisfaction of user requirements. Third, the AHP is used to obtain subjective weight. Next, the entropy method is employed to obtain objective weights by taking the KDM as input. Then the two types of weights are optimized using game theory to obtain the comprehensive weights. Finally, the GRA-TOPSIS method takes the comprehensive weights and the KMD as inputs to rank alternatives. A comparison of the KE-GRA-TOPSIS, KE-TOPSIS, KE-GRA, GRA-TOPSIS, and TOPSIS is conducted to illustrate the unique merits of the KE-GRA-TOPSIS method in Kansei evaluation. Finally, taking the electric drill as an example, we describe the process of the proposed method in detail, which achieves a symmetry between the objectivity of products and subjectivity of users.

Description: Crop models are useful tools to evaluate the effects of agricultural management on ecosystem services. However, before they can be applied with confidence, it is important to calibrate and validate crop models in the region of interest. In this study, the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model was evaluated for its potential to simulate maize yield using limited data from field trials on two maize cultivars. Two independent fields at the Cradock Research Farm were used, one for calibration and one for validation. Before calibration, mean simulated yield was 8 t ha−1 while mean observed yield was 11.26 t ha−1. Model calibration improved mean simulated yield to 11.23 t ha−1 with a coefficient of determination, (r2) = 0.76 and a model efficiency (NSE) = 0.56. Validation with grain yield was satisfactory with r2 = 0.85 and NSE = 0.61. Calibration of potential heat units (PHUs) and soil-carbon related parameters improved model simulations. Although the study only used grain yield to calibrate and evaluate the model, results show that the calibrated model can provide reasonably accurate simulations. It can be concluded that limited data sets from field trials on maize can be used to calibrate the EPIC model when comprehensive experimental data are not available.

Description: Lemon processing generates thousands of tons of residues that can be preserved as flours by thermal treatment to obtain phenolic compounds with beneficial bioactivities. In this study, the effect of different drying temperatures (40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 110 °C) on the Total Phenolic Content (TPC), antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of phenolic compounds present in Citrus. lemon (L.) Burn f waste was determined. Identification and quantification of phenolic compounds were also performed by UPLC-PDA and UPLC-ESI-MS analysis. Eriocitrin (19.79–27.29 mg g−1 DW) and hesperidin (7.63–9.10 mg g−1 DW) were detected as the major phenolic compounds in the flours by UPLC-PDA and confirmed by UPLC-ESI-MS. Antimicrobial activity determined by Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) against Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was observed. Accordingly, a stable functional flour as a source of bioactive phenolic compounds obtained from lemon residues at 50 °C may be produced as a value-added product useful in various industrial sectors.

Description: Metric learning aims to measure the similarity among samples while using an optimal distance metric for learning tasks. Metric learning methods, which generally use a linear projection, are limited in solving real-world problems demonstrating non-linear characteristics. Kernel approaches are utilized in metric learning to address this problem. In recent years, deep metric learning, which provides a better solution for nonlinear data through activation functions, has attracted researchers' attention in many different areas. This article aims to reveal the importance of deep metric learning and the problems dealt with in this field in the light of recent studies. As far as the research conducted in this field are concerned, most existing studies that are inspired by Siamese and Triplet networks are commonly used to correlate among samples while using shared weights in deep metric learning. The success of these networks is based on their capacity to understand the similarity relationship among samples. Moreover, sampling strategy, appropriate distance metric, and the structure of the network are the challenging factors for researchers to improve the performance of the network model. This article is considered to be important, as it is the first comprehensive study in which these factors are systematically analyzed and evaluated as a whole and supported by comparing the quantitative results of the methods.

Description: Aviation bearing assembled detection is the final barrier to quality and safety. Therefore, an accurate detection method of aviation bearing that is based on local characteristics is designed to solve the detection problem of mis-assembly and miss-assembly of balls in aviation bearing assembled. When considering the spatial limitation of aviation bearing assembled image acquisition, the dynamic distribution of balls and the interference of lubricating grease on the surface, a dynamic local ball segmentation model that is based on U-Net network with symmetrical structure is designed to achieve the accurate segmentation of the local ball region of aviation bearing. Subsequently, an incomplete circle fitting algorithm is designed based on the segmented local ball image and Hough transform principle. These two algorithms make the measurement error of aviation bearing ball size less than 100 μm. Using bearings validates the algorithm. The results show that the accuracy of dynamic local ball segmentation model that is based on U-Net network with symmetrical structure is over 99%. At the same time, on the basis of accurate segmentation in aviation bearing local ball, the designed Hough circle algorithm is used for circle detection. The experimental results show that the false detection rate of mis-assembly and miss-assembly of balls is less than 3%. Further, the goal of zero-missed detection of mis-assembly and miss-assembly of balls in aviation bearing is achieved. The accurate segmentation of aviation bearing local ball and the effective identification of mis-assembly and miss-assembly of balls are realized. This method can provide a theory for the improvement of mis-assembly and miss-assembly of balls detection in aviation bearing. Furthermore, it has high application value.

Description: A key aspect of modern drug research is the development of delivery methods that ensure the possibility of implementing targeted therapy for a specific biological target. The use of nanocarriers enables to achieve this objective, also allowing to reduce the toxicity of used substances and often extending their bioavailability. Through the application of docking methods, the possibility of using cube rhombellanes as potential carriers for two oxindole derivatives was analyzed. In the studies, compounds identified as inhibitors of the CDK2 enzyme and a set of nanostructures proposed by the Topo Cluj Group were used. The popular fullerene molecule C60 was used as the reference system. The estimated binding affinities and structures of obtained complexes show that use of functionalized cube rhombellanes containing hydrogen bond donors and acceptors in their external molecular shell significantly increases ligand affinity toward considered nanocariers, compared to classic fullerenes. The presented values also allow to state that an important factor determining the mutual affinity of the tested ligands and nanostructures is the symmetry of the analyzed nanocarriers and its influence on the distribution of binding groups (aromatic systems, donors and acceptors of hydrogen bonds) on the surface of nanoparticles.

Description: In the integrated services digital broadcasting-terrestrial (ISDB-T) system, the combination of digital terrestrial transmission and MPEG-4 advanced video coding (MPEG-4 AVC) has offered ways to provide a variety of digital high-definition television (HDTV) programs. Using band segmented transmission orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (BST-OFDM), the delivery of innovative video-on-demand and HDTV services is supported. To take full advantage of the attractive benefits of BST-OFDM, it is important to estimate integer frequency offset (IFO) without a priori knowledge on the segment type that is transmitted over transmission and the multiplexing configuration control (TMCC) signal. To address this issue, an efficient IFO detection method is proposed for the ISDB-T system employing BST-OFDM. To enable IFO detection independent of the segment type, information-bearing TMCC signals that are asymmetrically distributed in the frequency domain are used as pilot symbols. Numerical analysis is performed to present the relationship between error probability and design parameter. We show via the numerical results that the multiple transmitted TMCC information is efficiently used for blind estimation of the IFO, achieving robust estimation in the presence of the fractional frequency offset.

Description: Fusarium Head Blight (FHB, scab) is a destructive fungal disease that causes extensive yield and quality losses in wheat and other small cereals. Biological control of FHB is considered to be an alternative disease management strategy that is environmentally benign, durable, and compatible with other control measures. In this study, to screen antagonistic bacteria with the potential to manage FHB, 113 endophytes were isolated from the stems, leaves, panicles, and roots of wheat. Among them, six strains appeared to effectively inhibit Fusarium graminearum growth and one isolate, XS-2, showed a highly antagonistic effect against FHB. An in vitro antagonistic test of XS-2 on wheat heads confirmed that XS-2 could suppress the disease severity of FHB. The 16S rDNA sequence analysis revealed that XS-2 is a strain of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Antagonistic spectrum analyses showed that XS-2 had antagonistic effects against two and four types of cotton and fruit tree pathogens, respectively. The fermentation condition assays showed that glucose and peptone are the most suitable nutrient sources for XS-2, and that the optimal pH value and temperature for fermentation were 7.4 and 28 °C, respectively. Our study indicates that XS-2 has a good antagonistic effect on FHB and lays a theoretical foundation for the application of the strain as a biological agent in the field to control FHB.

Description: In the present work we consider a numerical solution for laminar, incompressible, and steady oblique stagnation point flow of Cu − water nanofluid over a stretching/shrinking sheet with mass suction S . We make use of the Cattaneo–Christov heat flux model to develop the equation of energy and investigate the qualities of surface heat transfer. The governing flow and energy equations are modified into the ordinary differential equations by similarity method for reasonable change. The subsequent ordinary differential equations are illuminated numerically through the function bvp4c in MATLAB. The impact of different flow parameters for example thermal relaxation parameter, suction parameter, stretching/shrinking parameter, free stream parameter, and nanoparticles volume fraction on the skin friction coefficient, local Nusselt number, and streamlines are contemplated and exposed through graphs. It turns out that the lower branch solution for the skin friction coefficient becomes singular in shrinking area, although the upper branch solution is smooth in both stretching and shrinking domain. For oblique stagnation-point flow the streamlines pattern are not symmetric, and reversed phenomenon are detected close to the shrinking surface. Also, we observed that the free stream parameter changes the direction of the oncoming flow and controls the obliqueness of the flow. The existing work mostly includes heat and mass transfer as a mechanism for improving the heat transfer rate, which is the main objective of the authors.

Description: The most popular way of learning oriental calligraphy has been by practicing the calligraphy under the supervision of a human teacher, but finding a good instructor can be difficult. There are a number of studies in the literature that have evaluated calligraphic characters in holistic ways, but such systems do not support detailed supervision of scripting errors. This study proposes a Kanji calligraphy learning system with computerized supervision and analyzes the learning efficiency of the system, where the supervision includes symmetries between strokes. The proposed system compares a written calligraphic character of a user to the model of a human expert, and indicates error spots with explanations. An experiment with 22 participants proved that this system was more efficient at reducing the number of scripting errors in comparison to the traditional manner of a human expert. The main contribution of this paper was to identify and reveal the efficacy of computerized supervision in comparison to a human supervisor. The proposed system decreased the writing-error-rates of learners from 32.7% to 3.4%, whereas the traditional practice reduced the error rates from 31.0% to 6.8%. This result shows that computerized supervision is more efficient than human supervision for learning calligraphy.

Description: China has attained rice sufficiency with the increased use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer, but this has led to serious N pollution. China has the world’s highest use of N with the lowest N use efficiency (NUE). Including livestock production, China’s agriculture sector has surpassed industry as the greatest polluter of water. Using plastic film on raised-beds, combined with improved agronomic practices, can boost rice yield by 50% with 36% less N fertilizer use, 30% higher NUE, and stabilized the yield of 9.75 t ha−1. It also counters the effects of drought and low ambient temperature. A six-year study was conducted combining no-tillage, crop-residue mulch, and plastic cover, alternating organic rice and rapeseed production. All the treatments, fertilized with biogas slurry and rapeseed meal, gave rice yields of 7.0 to 10.7 t ha−1, well above China’s average of 6.5 t ha−1. In this time, soil organic matter increased from 1.6% to 4.2%. In the first four years, the combination of crop-residue mulch with plastic cover had a slightly higher yield than mulch alone. In the fifth and sixth years, the latter treatment surpassed the use of plastic cover with crop-residue mulch. Trials with a biodegradable film show that plastic pollution can be dealt with.

Description: The aim of the study was to determine the Actinobacteria structure in cultivated (C) versus non-cultivated (NC) soils divided into three groups (autogenic, hydrogenic, lithogenic) with consideration its formation process in order to assess the Actinobacteria sensitivity to agricultural soil use and soil genesis and to identify factors affecting their abundance. Sixteen C soil samples and sixteen NC samples serving as controls were taken for the study. Next generation sequencing (NGS) of the 16S rRNA metagenomic amplicons (Ion Torrent™ technology) and Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) were applied for precise determination of biodiversity. Generally, greater abundance of Actinobacteria in the NC soils relative to the C soils was found. Moreover, it was indicated that the actinobacterial diversity depended on both the soil genesis and the land use; however, this effect directly depended on the particular family and genera. Two factors: redox potential (Eh) and total carbon (TC) seemed to had a significant effect on the diversity of Actinobacteria. More precisely, Actinobacteria from the NC soils displayed a greater affinity for each other and were clearly influenced by Eh, whilst those from the C soils were mostly influenced by TC.

Description: A balance (symmetry) between socio-cultural and socio-economic benefits as a part of the economic, social, and cultural development policy of each city and country should be assured when converting built heritage. To anticipate building conversion priorities and opportunities, modern technologies can be employed. However, currently the activity of reconstruction of heritage buildings is part of the construction domain wherein modern digital technologies have been the least ever applied. Therefore, photogrammetry and the 3D modeling of existing heritage buildings was suggested. A case study of Sapieha Palace, built in the Baroque style in 1689–1691 in Vilnius, Lithuania was explored in this research. The applied technologies and software (Agisoft Photoscan, Autodesk ReCap and Autodesk Revit) allowed for the creation of a high quality and accurate model involving both the textured exterior of the building and the interior layout. In addition, the valuable features of a building were identified and marked in a three-dimensional digital model. Based on the model, the authors formulated possible conversion alternatives of the building and identified the associated decision-making criteria, as well as determined their relative significance by an expert survey method. The authors suggested the application of the multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) method under uncertainty, namely the rough weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS), for ranking alternatives according to multiple criteria. Therefore, the suggested integration of modern digital technologies and decision-making models helps to assure the rational conversion decision of built cultural heritage based on high accuracy data as well as contributing to the sustainable development of engineering processes.

Description: Thermodynamic properties of the s–wave symmetry superconducting phase in three selected structures of the BaGe 3 compound ( P 6 3 / m m c , A m m 2 , and I 4 / m m m ) were discussed in the context of DFT results obtained for the Eliashberg function. This compound may enable the implementation of systems for quantum information processing. Calculations were carried out within the Eliashberg formalism due to the fact that the electron–phonon coupling constant falls within the range λ ∈ 0.73 , 0.86 . The value of the Coulomb pseudopotential was assumed to be 0.122 , in accordance with the experimental results. The value of the Coulomb pseudopotential was assumed to be 0.122 , in accordance with the experimental results. The existence of the superconducting state of three different critical temperature values, namely, 4.0 K, 4.5 K and 5.5 K, depending on the considered structure, was stated. We determined the differences in free energy ( Δ F ) and specific heat ( Δ C ) between the normal and the superconducting states, as well as the thermodynamic critical field ( H c ) as a function of temperature. A drop in the H c value to zero at the temperature of 4.0 K was observed for the P 6 3 / m m c structure, which is in good accordance with the experimental data. Further, the values of the dimensionless thermodynamic parameters of the superconducting state were estimated as: R Δ = 2 Δ ( 0 ) / k B T c ∈ { 3.68 , 3.8 , 3.8 } , R C = Δ C ( T c ) / C N ( T c ) ∈ { 1.55 , 1.71 , 1.75 } , and R H = T c C N ( T c ) / H c 2 ( 0 ) ∈ { 0.168 , 0.16 , 0.158 } , which are slightly different from the predictions of the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory ( [ R Δ ] B C S = 3.53 , [ R C ] B C S = 1.43 , and [ R H ] B C S = 0.168 ). This is caused by the occurrence of small retardation and strong coupling effects.

Description: A review. The question of homochirality is an intriguing problem in the field of chemistry, and is deeply related to the origin of life. Though amphiphiles and their supramolecular assembly have attracted less attention compared to biomacromolecules such as RNA and proteins, the lipid world hypothesis sheds new light on the origin of life. This review describes how amphiphilic molecules are possibly involved in the scenario of homochirality. Some prebiotic conditions relevant to amphiphilic molecules will also be described. It could be said that the chiral properties of amphiphilic molecules have various interesting features such as compositional information, spontaneous formation, the ability to exchange components, fission and fusion, adsorption, and permeation. This review aims to clarify the roles of amphiphiles regarding homochirality, and to determine what kinds of physical properties of amphiphilic molecules could have played a role in the scenario of homochirality.

Description: A calculation program based on the density functional theory (DFT) is applied to study the structural, mechanical, and electronic properties of TiV alloys with symmetric structure under high pressure. We calculate the dimensionless ratio, elastic constants, shear modulus, Young’s modulus, bulk modulus, ductile-brittle transition, material anisotropy, and Poisson’s ratio as functions of applied pressure. Results suggest that the critical pressure of structural phase transition is 42.05 GPa for the TiV alloy, and structural phase transition occurs when the applied pressure exceeds 42.05 GPa. High pressure can improve resistance to volume change, as well as the ductility and atomic bonding, but the strongest resistances to elastic and shear deformation occur at P = 5   GPa for TiV alloy. Furthermore, the results of the density of states (DOS) indicate that the TiV alloy presents metallicity. High pressure disrupts the structural stability of the TiV alloy with symmetry, thereby inducing structural phase transition.

Description: In this paper, we investigate the class of quasi-homogeneous production models, obtaining the classification of such models with constant elasticity with respect to an input as well as with respect to all inputs. Moreover, we prove that a quasi-homogeneous production function f satisfies the proportional marginal rate of substitution property if and only f reduces to some symmetric production functions.

Description: Oxindole derivatives are a large group of compounds that can play the role of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) competitive inhibitors. The possibility of modification of such compounds by addition of active groups to both cyclic systems of oxindole allows the obtaining of derivatives showing significant affinity toward cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) proteins. Overexpression of that enzyme is observed in the case of most cancers. The discovery of new efficient inhibitors, which could be used in the development of targeted therapies, is one of the current goals setting trends in recent research. In this research, an oxindole molecular core was used, which was modified by the addition of different substituents to both side chains. The realized procedure allowed the creation of a set of oxindole derivatives characterized by binding affinity values and molecular descriptors evaluated during docking procedures and QSAR calculations. The most promising structures characterized by best sets of parameters were used during the molecular dynamics stage. The analysis of structural and energetic properties of systems obtained during this stage of computation gives an indication of inhibitors creating the most stable complexes, characterized by the highest affinity. During this stage, two structures were selected, where affinity towards potential nanocarriers was evaluated. Realized calculations confirmed a significant role of stacking interactions in the stabilization of ligand complexes with fullerene molecules. Obtained data indicates that complexes of oxindole derivatives and considered nanocarriers exhibit significant potential in the creation of immobilized drugs, and can be used in the development of targeted therapies.

Description: The R packages MaxSkew and MultiSkew measure, test and remove skewness from multivariate data using their third-order standardized moments. Skewness is measured by scalar functions of the third standardized moment matrix. Skewness is tested with either the bootstrap or under normality. Skewness is removed by appropriate linear projections. The packages might be used to recover data features, as for example clusters and outliers. They are also helpful in improving the performances of statistical methods, as for example the Hotelling’s one-sample test. The Iris dataset illustrates the usages of MaxSkew and MultiSkew.

Description: Vibration signals are used to diagnosis faults of the rolling bearing which is symmetric structure. Stochastic resonance (SR) has been widely applied in weak signal feature extraction in recent years. It can utilize noise and enhance weak signals. However, the traditional SR method has poor performance, and it is difficult to determine parameters of SR. Therefore, a new second-order tristable SR method (STSR) based on a new potential combining the classical bistable potential with Woods-Saxon potential is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the envelope signal of rolling bearings is the input signal of STSR. Then, the output of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is used as the fitness function of the Seeker Optimization Algorithm (SOA) in order to optimize the parameters of SR. Finally, the optimal parameters are used to set the STSR system in order to enhance and extract weak signals of rolling bearings. Simulated and experimental signals are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of STSR. The diagnosis results show that the proposed STSR method can obtain higher output SNR and better filtering performance than the traditional SR methods. It provides a new idea for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery.

Description: This review is devoted to tight-binding (TB) modeling of nucleic acid sequences like DNA and RNA. It addresses how various types of order (periodic, quasiperiodic, fractal) or disorder (diagonal, non-diagonal, random, methylation et cetera) affect charge transport. We include an introduction to TB and a discussion of its various submodels [wire, ladder, extended ladder, fishbone (wire), fishbone ladder] and of the process of renormalization. We proceed to a discussion of aperiodicity, quasicrystals and the mathematics of aperiodic substitutional sequences: primitive substitutions, Perron–Frobenius eigenvalue, induced substitutions, and Pisot property. We discuss the energy structure of nucleic acid wires, the coupling to the leads, the transmission coefficients and the current–voltage curves. We also summarize efforts aiming to examine the potentiality to utilize the charge transport characteristics of nucleic acids as a tool to probe several diseases or disorders.

Description: The fuzzy order convergence in fuzzy Riesz spaces is defined only for fuzzy order bounded nets. The aim of this paper is to define and study unbounded fuzzy order convergence and some of its applications. Furthermore, some theoretical concepts like the fuzzy weak order unit and fuzzy ideals are studied in relation to unbounded fuzzy order convergence.

Description: Based on the G. Goldin’s quantum current algebra symmetry representation theory, have succeeded in explaining a hidden relationship between the quantum many-particle Hamiltonian operators, defined in the Fock space, their factorized structure and integrability. Interesting for applications quantum oscillatory Hamiltonian operators are considered, the quantum symmetries of the integrable quantum Calogero-Sutherland model are analyzed in detail.

Description: Nowadays, with rapid advancement of both the upcoming 5G architecture construction and emerging Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios, Device-to-Device (D2D) communication provides a novel paradigm for mobile networking. By facilitating continuous and high data rate services between physically proximate devices without interconnection with access points (AP) or service network (SN), spectral efficiency of the 5G network can be drastically increased. However, due to its inherent open wireless communicating features, security issues and privacy risks in D2D communication remain unsolved in spite of its benefits and prosperous future. Hence, proper D2D authentication mechanisms among the D2D entities are of great significance. Moreover, the increasing proliferation of smartphones enables seamlessly biometric sensor data collecting and processing, which highly correspond to the user’s unique behavioral characteristics. For the above consideration, we present a secure certificateless D2D authenticating mechanism intended for extreme scenarios in this paper. In the assumption, the key updating mechanism only requires a small modification in the SN side, while the decryption information of user equipment (UEs) remains constant as soon as the UEs are validated. Note that a symmetric key mechanism is adopted for the further data transmission. Additionally, the user activities data from smartphone sensors are analyzed for continuous authentication, which is periodically conducted after the initial validation. Note that in the assumed scenario, most of the UEs are out of the effective range of cellular networks. In this case, the UEs are capable of conducting data exchange without cellular connection. Security analysis demonstrates that the proposed scheme can provide adequate security properties as well as resistance to various attacks. Furthermore, performance analysis proves that the proposed scheme is efficient compared with state-of-the-art D2D authentication schemes.

Description: In this paper we extend one of the main problems of near-rings to the framework of algebraic hypercompositional structures. This problem states that every near-ring is isomorphic with a near-ring of the transformations of a group. First we endow the set of all multitransformations of a hypergroup (not necessarily abelian) with a general hypernear-ring structure, called the multitransformation general hypernear-ring associated with a hypergroup. Then we show that any hypernear-ring can be weakly embedded into a multitransformation general hypernear-ring, generalizing the similar classical theorem on near-rings. Several properties of hypernear-rings related with this property are discussed and illustrated also by examples.

Description: In this paper, we promote the refinement method for estimating asymptotic expression of the fundamental solutions of a fourth order linear differential equation with discontinuous weight function and transmission conditions. These refinement solutions utilize more accurate asymptotic formulas for the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for the problem.