ALBERT

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 969: Assessment of Runoff Components Simulated by GLDAS against UNH–GRDC Dataset at Global and Hemispheric Scales Water doi: 10.3390/w10080969 Authors: Meizhao Lv Hui Lu Kun Yang Zhongfeng Xu Meixia Lv Xiaomeng Huang The current evaluations of global land data assimilation system (GLDAS) runoff were generally limited to the observation-rich areas. At the global and hemispheric scales, we assessed different runoff components performance of GLDAS (1.0 and 2.1) using the University of New Hampshire and Global Runoff Data Centre (UNH-GRDC) dataset. The results suggest that GLDAS simulations show considerable uncertainties, particularly in partition of surface and subsurface runoffs, in snowmelt runoff modeling, and in capturing the northern peak time. GLDAS1.0-CLM (common land model) produced more surface runoff almost globally; GLDAS-Noah generated more surface runoff over the northern middle-high latitudes and more subsurface runoff in the remaining areas; while the partition in GLDAS1.0-VIC (variable infiltration capacity) is almost opposite to that in Noah. Comparing to GLDAS1.0-Noah, GLDAS2.1-Noah improved the premature snow-melting tendency, but its snowmelt-runoff peak magnitude was excessively high in June and July. The discrepancies in northern primary peak times among precipitation and runoff is partly caused by the combination of rainfall and melting-snow over high-latitude, as well as the very different temporal–spatial distributions for snowmelt runoff simulated by GLDAS models. This paper can provide valuable guidance for GLDAS users, and contribute to the further improvement of hydrological parameterized schemes.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 300: Computing Metric Dimension and Metric Basis of 2D Lattice of Alpha-Boron Nanotubes Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080300 Authors: Zafar Hussain Mobeen Munir Maqbool Chaudhary Shin Min Kang Concepts of resolving set and metric basis has enjoyed a lot of success because of multi-purpose applications both in computer and mathematical sciences. For a connected graph G(V,E) a subset W of V(G) is a resolving set for G if every two vertices of G have distinct representations with respect to W. A resolving set of minimum cardinality is called a metric basis for graph G and this minimum cardinality is known as metric dimension of G. Boron nanotubes with different lattice structures, radii and chirality’s have attracted attention due to their transport properties, electronic structure and structural stability. In the present article, we compute the metric dimension and metric basis of 2D lattices of alpha-boron nanotubes.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 981: Scenario-Based Economic Impact Analysis for Bridge Closures Due to Flooding: A Case Study of North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea Water doi: 10.3390/w10080981 Authors: Byungil Kim Sha Chul Shin Du Yon Kim Flooding has the ability to severely reduce the capacity of a transportation network. The closure of even a single bridge, which often acts as a critical link in transportation networks, can have a severe impact on the entire network. This impact can lead to significant economic costs resulting from increased travel distances for drivers. Despite the significance of these costs, however, notably few studies have been conducted to determine the societal economic cost that would be incurred due to bridge closures. One possible reason for the lack of studies investigating bridge closures due to flooding could stem from the difficultly in collecting data. To address this issue, the methodology presented in this paper uses modeling and data resources that are available for major cities in most developed countries, including those in South Korea. We evaluate the economic impact of the bridge closures using the new administrative capital of North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea as a case study. Scenarios for the closure of bridges are derived from channel surveys and hydraulic analyses. These methods are used to overcome a lack of adequate data on historical floods in the new city. Traffic is forecasted to estimate the number of road users that would be forced to take detours due to inundated bridges. Contrasting travel distances when bridges are and are not operational, economic costs incurred by bridge closures due to flooding are estimated. The results indicated that bridge closures would result in an economic cost of 1563 USD to 44,180 USD per day, depending on how many bridges are closed and how many people are living in the new city. The estimates from this study will act as guidelines for identifying cost-effective mitigation and preparedness strategies aimed at reducing the frequency and impact of bridge closures due to flooding.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 972: Microbial Function and Hydrochemistry within a Stratified Anchialine Sinkhole: A Window into Coastal Aquifer Interactions Water doi: 10.3390/w10080972 Authors: Madison C. Davis James R. Garey Anchialine sinkholes provide insight into coastal aquifer systems and coastal mixing processes. Aquifer microbial community function is usually inferred from hydrochemical information, but there are few direct studies of microbial communities in the Floridan Aquifer. Hospital Hole is a 43 m-deep stratified sinkhole under the Weeki Wachee River, FL, with three distinct brackish layers: a hypoxic layer, a chemocline and a sulfidic anoxic layer. Illumina sequencing and bioinformatic tools were used to reconstruct metabolic functions and interactions of microbial communities in each layer. Each layer appears to originate from different parts of the coastal mixing zone and has a distinct microbial community with unique functions, which are influenced by the respective hydrochemistry. Sulfide oxidation and nitrate reduction are the most abundant functions. Syntrophy between methane oxidizers, methanogens and sulfate reducers is present. Similarities between the hydrochemistry and potential connectivity of Hospital Hole and the Floridan Aquifer coastal mixing zone suggest that microbial communities of Hospital Hole could be a surrogate for the coastal mixing zone of the aquifer in the absence of direct studies. Understanding how groundwater microbial communities react to saltwater intrusion and nutrient flux will be useful in predicting how coastal aquifer regions might react to anthropogenic change.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 299: Game-Theoretic Solutions for Data Offloading in Next Generation Networks Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080299 Authors: Muhammad Asif Shafi Ullah Khan Rashid Ahmad Dhananjay Singh In recent years, global mobile data traffic has seen an unprecedented increase. This is due to worldwide usage of smart devices, availability of fast internet connections, and the popularity of social media. The Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are, therefore, facing problems in handling this huge traffic flow. Each type of traffic, including real-time video, audio, and text has its own Quality of Services (QoS) requirements which, if not met, may cause a sufficient loss of profit. Offloading of these traffics can be made more efficient so that values of QoS parameters are enhanced. In this work, we propose an incentive-based game-theoretic frame work for downloading data. The download of each type of data will get an incentive determined by the two-stage Stackelberg game. We model the communication among single Mobile Base Station (MBS) and multiple Access Points (APs) in a crowded metropolitan environment. The leader offers an economic incentive based on the traffic type and followers respond to the incentive and offload traffic accordingly. The model optimizes strategies of both the MBS and APs in order to make the best use of their utilities. For the analysis, we have used a combination of analytical and experimental methods. The numerical outcome characterized a direct process of the best possible offloading ratio and legalized the efficiency of the proposed game. Optimal incentives and optimal offloading was the achievement of our proposed game-theoretic approach. We have implemented the model in MATLAB, and the experimental results show a maximum payoff was achieved and the proposed scheme achieved Nash Equilibria.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 989: Computational Study of a Vertical Plunging Jet into Still Water Water doi: 10.3390/w10080989 Authors: Zegao Yin Qianqian Jia Yuan Li Yanxu Wang Dejun Yang The behavior of a vertical plunging jet was numerically investigated using the coupled Level Set and Volume of Fluid method. The computational results were in good agreement with the experimental results reported in the related literature. Vertical plunging jet characteristics, including the liquid velocity field, air void fraction, and turbulence kinetic energy, were explored by varying the distance between the nozzle exit and the still water level. It was found that the velocity at the nozzle exit plays an unimportant role in the shape and size of ascending bubbles. A modified prediction equation between the centerline velocity ratio and the axial distance ratio was developed using the data of the coupled Level Set and Volume of Fluid method, and it showed a better predicting ability than the Level Set and Mixture methods. The characteristics of turbulence kinetic energy, including its maximum value location and its radial and vertical distribution, were also compared with that of submerged jets.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 984: Vulnerability Analysis of the Venetian Littoral and Adopted Mitigation Strategy Water doi: 10.3390/w10080984 Authors: Piero Ruol Luca Martinelli Chiara Favaretto This paper discusses the key aspects of the recent Coastal Plan of the Veneto Region (IT). Its aim is to propose a single mitigation strategy for coastal erosion that is valid for the whole Veneto Region, and possibly elsewhere, as well as a method to assign a priority level to any action. The suggested mitigation action against erosion depends on urbanization level, beach width, as well as cross-shore and long-shore sediment transport. The criterion used to give a priority level to mitigation actions is based on a vulnerability index that takes into account erosive tendency, existing coastal flooding hazards, coast value, environmental relevance, tourist pressure, urbanization level, the presence of production activities, and cultural heritage. A sample case featuring the littoral of Rosolina is also provided and includes a site description, the sediment budget, critical issues and possible mitigation measures.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 982: Multivariate Chemometric Analysis of Membrane Fouling Patterns in Biofilm Ceramic Membrane Bioreactor Water doi: 10.3390/w10080982 Authors: Olga Kulesha Zakhar Maletskyi Harsha Ratnaweera Membrane fouling highly limits the development of Membrane bioreactor technology (MBR), which is among the key solutions to water scarcity. The current study deals with the determination of the fouling propensity of filtered biomass in a pilot-scale biofilm membrane bioreactor to enable the prediction of fouling intensity. The system was designed to treat domestic wastewater with the application of ceramic microfiltration membranes. Partial least squares regression analysis of the data obtained during the long-term operation of the biofilm-MBR (BF-MBR) system demonstrated that Mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS), diluted sludge volume index (DSVI), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and their slopes are the most significant for the estimation and prediction of fouling intensity, while normalized permeability and its slope were found to be the most reliable fouling indicators. Three models were derived depending on the applied operating conditions, which enabled an accurate prediction of the fouling intensities in the system. The results will help to prevent severe membrane fouling via the change of operating conditions to prolong the effective lifetime of the membrane modules and to save energy and resources for the maintenance of the system.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 983: The Mechanical Properties of High Strength Reinforced Cured-in-Place Pipe (CIPP) Liner Composites for Urban Water Infrastructure Rehabilitation Water doi: 10.3390/w10080983 Authors: Hyun Wook Ji Sung Soo Yoo Jonghoon Kim Dan Daehyun Koo Most urban areas in the world have water infrastructure systems, including the buried sewer and water pipelines, which are assessed as in need of extensive rehabilitation. Deterioration by many other factors affects structural integrity. Trenchless technologies such as Cured-in-Place Pipe (CIPP) are now applied in numerous projects while minimizing disturbance in an urban environment. The main purpose of this study is to develop a high strength CIPP material using various composite materials (e.g., glass fiber, carbon fiber, polyester felt, unsaturated polyester resin, and others). Composite samples were made of the materials and tested using three-point bend apparatus to find mechanical properties, which include the flexural modulus, strength, and deflection. A composite combination with glass fibers with thin felt layers shows the best results in mechanical properties. Flexural modulus is a key factor for CIPP liner thickness design. Glass fiber composite yields between four and nine times higher values than the minimum value specified in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F1216. This study provides a fundamental baseline for high strength CIPP liners that are capable of using conventional curing technologies.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 993: Understanding Fundamental Phenomena Affecting the Water Conservation Technology Adoption of Residential Consumers Using Agent-Based Modeling Water doi: 10.3390/w10080993 Authors: Kambiz Rasoulkhani Brianne Logasa Maria Presa Reyes Ali Mostafavi More than one billion people will face water scarcity within the next ten years due to climate change and unsustainable water usage, and this number is only expected to grow exponentially in the future. At current water use rates, supply-side demand management is no longer an effective way to combat water scarcity. Instead, many municipalities and water agencies are looking to demand-side solutions to prevent major water loss. While changing conservation behavior is one demand-based strategy, there is a growing movement toward the adoption of water conservation technology as a way to solve water resource depletion. Installing technology into one’s household requires additional costs and motivation, creating a gap between the overall potential households that could adopt this technology, and how many actually do. This study identified and modeled a variety of demographic and household characteristics, social network influence, and external factors such as water price and rebate policy to see their effect on residential water conservation technology adoption. Using Agent-based Modeling and data obtained from the City of Miami Beach, the coupled effects of these factors were evaluated to examine the effectiveness of different pathways towards the adoption of more water conservation technologies. The results showed that income growth and water pricing structure, more so than any of the demographic or building characteristics, impacted household adoption of water conservation technologies. The results also revealed that the effectiveness of rebate programs depends on conservation technology cost and the affluence of the community. Rebate allocation did influence expensive technology adoption, with the potential to increase the adoption rate by 50%. Additionally, social network connections were shown to have an impact on the rate of adoption independent of price strategy or rebate status. These findings will lead the way for municipalities and other water agencies to more strategically implement interventions to encourage household technology adoption based on the characteristics of their communities.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 994: Predicting Lake Eutrophication Responses to Multiple Scenarios of Lake Restoration: A Three-Dimensional Modeling Approach Water doi: 10.3390/w10080994 Authors: Yanping Wang Weiping Hu Zhaoliang Peng Ye Zeng Karsten Rinke To improve the water quality and alleviate the eutrophication of Lake Yangchenghu, the third largest freshwater body within the Lake Taihu basin in China and an important source of drinking water, nutrient reduction strategies should be urgently addressed by decision makers, since virtually no improvement of water quality has taken place since the mid-1990s. Due to the lack of sufficient observation data and simulation results, a vertically compressed three-dimensional numerical model, the EcoTaihu model, was used to study the impact of three restoration measures on the water quality—namely, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and biomass of phytoplankton (BP)—of Lake Yangchenghu: (i) total nutrient reduction, (ii) intensification of flushing by water transfer, and (iii) spatial adjustment of inflow channels. In particular, the spatial effects of the three restoration measures on the water quality were investigated. The results showed that the EcoTaihu model is applicable to other shallow lakes in China. The water quality responses to the different restoration scenarios showed significant spatio-temporal differences. The reduction of nutrient loads from inflows appeared to be the most effective measure for controlling the eutrophication and algal blooms in Lake Yangchenghu. The effectiveness of water transfer on the improvement of water quality for TN and TP was more influenced by the differences of nutrient concentrations between the transferred water and lake water, rather than flow rate, since no proportionate increase of improvement was observable in the case of larger transferred rates (60 m3 s−1). The spatial narrowing of inflowing rivers in the southwestern lake could preferentially improve the water quality in the southern bay of the western lake, but would also result in a deterioration trend of water quality in the total lake and drinking water abstraction areas.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1008: Inherent Relationship between Flow Duration Curves at Different Time Scales: A Perspective on Monthly Flow Data Utilization in Daily Flow Duration Curve Estimation Water doi: 10.3390/w10081008 Authors: Lei Ye Wei Ding Xiaofan Zeng Zhuohang Xin Jian Wu Chi Zhang Modelling flow duration curves (FDCs) has long been a topic of interest since it is widely used in various hydrological applications. Most studies related to the estimation of FDCs in ungauged or partial gauged basins focus primarily on using climate and catchment characteristics to regionalize FDC at some single time scale. However, the relationship of FDCs at various time scales are rarely analyzed or studied. Here, we propose two methods, which are Modelled FDC Parameter comparison (M-FDC-P) and Empirical FDC Ratio comparison (E-FDC-R), to study the quantitative relationship between daily and monthly FDCs. One method M-FDC-P, selects a Kappa (KAP) distribution to represent the characteristics of the FDCs and then analyzes the relationship between KAP parameters of modelled FDCs at different time scales. Results indicate that three out of four parameters have strong correlations between FDCs at daily and monthly time scales. The other method, E-FDC-R, compares the quantitative relationship between daily and monthly empirical FDCs with given exceedance probabilities. The Power function is used for fitting the ratio-exceedance probability curves. In addition, the simulated daily FDC derived from monthly FDC can be very consistent with the observed daily flow records when the two parameters of power function are quantified precisely. These results clearly indicate that there are strong connections between daily and monthly FDCs, and monthly FDC can provide valuable information for daily FDC estimation. Since flow records at a large time scale are easier to obtain, daily FDC could be derived from monthly FDC by considering the inherent relationships between FDCs at different time scales, which is not sufficiently realized in previous studies.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1006: Validation of TRMM 3B42V7 Rainfall Product under Complex Topographic and Climatic Conditions over Hexi Region in the Northwest Arid Region of China Water doi: 10.3390/w10081006 Authors: Xiuna Wang Yongjian Ding Chuancheng Zhao Jian Wang Continuous and accurate spatiotemporal precipitation data plays an important role in regional climate and hydrology research, particularly in the arid inland regions where rain gauges are sparse and unevenly distributed. The main objective of this study is to evaluate and bias-correct the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42V7 rainfall product under complex topographic and climatic conditions over the Hexi region in the northwest arid region of China with the reference of rain gauge observation data during 2009–2015. A series of statistical indicators were adopted to quantitatively evaluate the error of 3B42V7 and its ability in detecting precipitation events. Overall, the 3B42V7 overestimates the precipitation with Bias of 11.16%, and its performance generally becomes better with the increasing of time scale. The agreements between the rain gauge data and 3B42V7 are very low in cold season, and moderate in warm season. The 3B42V7 shows better correlation with rain gauges located in the southern mountainous and central oasis areas than in the northern extreme arid regions, and is more likely to underestimate the precipitation in high-altitude mountainous areas and overestimate the precipitation in low-elevation regions. The distribution of the error on the daily scale is more related to the elevation and rainfall than in monthly and annual scale. The 3B42V7 significantly overestimates the precipitation events, and the overestimation mainly focuses on tiny amounts of rainfall (0–1 mm/d), which is also the range of false alarm concentration. Bias correction for 3B42V7 was carried out based on the deviation of the average monthly precipitation data during 2009–2015. The bias-corrected 3B42V7 was significantly improved compared with the original product. Results suggest that regional assessment and bias correction of 3B42V7 rainfall product are of vital importance and will provide substantive reference for regional hydrological studies.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 315: Long Time Behavior and Global Dynamics of Simplified Von Karman Plate Without Rotational Inertia Driven by White Noise Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080315 Authors: Huatao Chen Dengqing Cao Jingfei Jiang Xiaoming Fan Without the assumption that the coefficient of weak damping is large enough, the existence of the global random attractors for simplified Von Karman plate without rotational inertia driven by either additive white noise or multiplicative white noise are proved. Instead of the classical splitting method, the techniques to verify the asymptotic compactness rely on stabilization estimation of the system. Furthermore, a clear relationship between in-plane components of the external force that act on the edge of the plate and the expectation of radius of the global random attractors can be obtained from the theoretical results. Based on the relationship between global random attractor and random probability invariant measure, the global dynamics of the plates are analyzed numerically. With increasing the in-plane components of the external force that act on the edge of the plate, global D-bifurcation, secondary global D-bifurcation and complex local dynamical behavior occur in motion of the system. Moreover, increasing the intensity of white noise leads to the dynamical behavior becoming simple. The results on global dynamics reveal that random snap-through which seems to be a complex dynamics intuitively is essentially a simple dynamical behavior.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 314: Systematic Review of Decision Making Algorithms in Extended Neutrosophic Sets Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080314 Authors: Mohsin Khan Le Hoang Son Mumtaz Ali Hoang Thi Minh Chau Nguyen Thi Nhu Na Florentin Smarandache The Neutrosophic set (NS) has grasped concentration by its ability for handling indeterminate, uncertain, incomplete, and inconsistent information encountered in daily life. Recently, there have been various extensions of the NS, such as single valued neutrosophic sets (SVNSs), Interval neutrosophic sets (INSs), bipolar neutrosophic sets (BNSs), Refined Neutrosophic Sets (RNSs), and triangular fuzzy number neutrosophic set (TFNNs). This paper contains an extended overview of the concept of NS as well as several instances and extensions of this model that have been introduced in the last decade, and have had a significant impact in literature. Theoretical and mathematical properties of NS and their counterparts are discussed in this paper as well. Neutrosophic-set-driven decision making algorithms are also overviewed in detail.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 311: On p-Adic Fermionic Integrals of q-Bernstein Polynomials Associated with q-Euler Numbers and Polynomials † Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080311 Authors: Lee-Chae Jang Taekyun Kim Dae San Kim Dmitry Victorovich Dolgy We study a q-analogue of Euler numbers and polynomials naturally arising from the p-adic fermionic integrals on Zp and investigate some properties for these numbers and polynomials. Then we will consider p-adic fermionic integrals on Zp of the two variable q-Bernstein polynomials, recently introduced by Kim, and demonstrate that they can be written in terms of the q-analogues of Euler numbers. Further, from such p-adic integrals we will derive some identities for the q-analogues of Euler numbers.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 312: Connecting Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Flavor: A Light Dilaton D and a Sequential Heavy Quark Doublet Q Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080312 Authors: Wei-Shu Hou The 125 GeV boson is quite consistent with the Higgs boson of the Standard Model (SM), but there is a challenge from Anderson as to whether this particle is in the Lagrangian. As Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Run 2 enters its final year of running, we ought to reflect and make sure we have gotten everything right. The ATLAS and CMS combined Run 1 analysis claimed a measurement of 5.4σ vector boson fusion (VBF) production which is consistent with SM, which seemingly refutes Anderson. However, to verify the source of electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB), we caution that VBF measurement is too important for us to be imprudent in any way, and gluon–gluon fusion (ggF) with similar tag jets must be simultaneous measured, which should be achievable in LHC Run 2. The point is to truly test the dilaton possibility—the pseudo-Goldstone boson of scale invariance violation. We illustrate EWSB by dynamical mass generation of a sequential quark doublet (Q) via its ultrastrong Yukawa coupling and argue how this might be consistent with a 125 GeV dilaton, D. The ultraheavy 2mQ≳4–5 TeV scale explains the absence of New Physics so far, while the mass generation mechanism shields us from the UV theory for the strong Yukawa coupling. Collider and flavor physics implications are briefly touched upon. Current Run 2 analyses show correlations between the ggF and VBF measurements, but the newly observed tt¯H production at LHC poses a challenge.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 305: Evaluation of a Third-Party Logistics (3PL) Provider Using a Rough SWARA–WASPAS Model Based on a New Rough Dombi Agregator Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080305 Authors: Siniša Sremac Željko Stević Dragan Pamučar Miloš Arsić Bojan Matić For companies active in various sectors, the implementation of transport services and other logistics activities has become one of the key factors of efficiency in the total supply chain. Logistics outsourcing is becoming more and more important, and there is an increasing number of third party logistics providers. In this paper, logistics providers were evaluated using the Rough SWARA (Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis) and Rough WASPAS (Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment) models. The significance of the eight criteria on the basis of which evaluation was carried out was determined using the Rough SWARA method. In order to allow for a more precise consensus in group decision-making, the Rough Dombi aggregator was developed in order to determine the initial rough matrix of multi-criteria decision-making. A total of 10 logistics providers dealing with the transport of dangerous goods for chemical industry companies were evaluated using the Rough WASPAS approach. The obtained results demonstrate that the first logistics provider is also the best one, a conclusion confirmed by a sensitivity analysis comprised of three parts. In the first part, parameter ρ was altered through 10 scenarios in which only alternatives four and five change their ranks. In the second part of the sensitivity analysis, a calculation was performed using the following approaches: Rough SAW (Simple Additive Weighting), Rough EDAS (Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution), Rough MABAC (MultiAttributive Border Approximation Area Comparison), and Rough TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution). They showed a high correlation of ranks determined by applying Spearman’s correlation coefficient in the third part of the sensitivity analysis.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 318: Detectability Improved Tamper Detection Scheme for Absolute Moment Block Truncation Coding Compressed Images Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080318 Authors: Wien Hong Xiaoyu Zhou Der-Chyuan Lou Xiaoqin Huang Cancan Peng Since digital media is gaining popularity nowadays, people are more concerned about its integrity protection and authentication since tampered media may result in unexpected problems. Considering a better media protection technique, this paper proposes an efficient tamper detection scheme for absolute moment block truncation coding (AMBTC) compressed images. In AMBTC, each image block is represented by two quantization levels (QLs) and a bitmap. Requiring insignificant computation cost, it attracts not only a wide range of application developers, but also a variety of studies to investigate the authentication of its codes. While the existing methods protect the AMBTC codes to a large extent, the leakage of some unprotected codes may be insensitive to intentional tampering. The proposed method fully protects the AMBTC codes by embedding authentication codes (ACs) into QLs. Meanwhile, the most significant bits of QLs are symmetrically perturbed to generate the candidates of ACs. The ACs that cause the minimum distortion are embedded into the least significant bits of QLs to minimize the distortion. When compared with prior works, the experimental results reveal that the proposed method offers a significant sensitivity-of-tamper property while providing a comparable image quality.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1025: Monitoring the Chloride Concentration in International Scheldt River Basin District Water Using a Low-Cost Multifunction Data Acquisition Board Water doi: 10.3390/w10081025 Authors: Wanda J. Guedens Monique Reynders Koen Van Vinckenroye Jan Yperman Robert Carleer In analytical chemistry laboratories, to gather in the shortest time as many data as possible with the utmost accuracy and precision, high throughput automated setups are indispensable. In the present study, to determine the chloride concentration in the international Scheldt river basin district, experiments are carried out utilizing a thermostatically controlled semi-automated setup. A novel ICT-based method is developed using a low-cost multifunction Data Acquisition Board (DAQ) controlled by a homebuilt LabVIEW™ program. Specifically, this approach enables a correlation between different parameters i.e., droplet volume, temperature, A/D voltage conversions. Here, processing experimental data of a potentiometric precipitation titration utilizing a silver nitrate standard solution as titrant in a manual burette equipped with a controllable electronic valve allows for a preliminary indication of the titration end point via the Virtual Instrument (VI) numerical first derivative tool in the LabVIEW software. The LabVIEW tool is compared with the well-known Gran method implemented in the LabVIEW program, emphasizing an accurate performance of the setup to determine the chloride concentration in fresh river water. We are confident that our findings are evidence of the versatile and powerful features of the LabVIEW controlled DAQ in the analytical chemistry laboratory.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 319: CRCM: A New Combined Data Gathering and Energy Charging Model for WRSN Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080319 Authors: Yuhou Wang Ying Dong Shiyuan Li Hao Wu Mengyao Cui With the development of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the problem about how to increase the lifecycle of the WSNs is always a hot discussion point, and some researchers have devoted to the ‘energy saving’ to decrease the energy consumption of the sensor nodes by different algorithms. However, the fundamental technique is ‘energy acquiring’ for the battery which can solve the limited capacity problem. In this paper, we study the data gathering and energy charging by a mobile charger (MC) at the same time that most energy consumption can be saved by short communication distance. We have named this as the recharging model-combined recharging and collecting data model on-demand (CRCM). Firstly, the hexagon-based (HB) algorithm is proposed to sort all sensor nodes in the region to make data collecting and energy charging work at the same time. Then we consider both residual energy and geographic position (REGP) of the sensor node to calculate the priority of each cluster. Thirdly, the dynamic mobile charger (DMC) algorithm is proposed to calculate the number of MCs to make sure no sensor node will die in each charging queue. Finally, the simulations show that our REGP algorithm is better than Earliest Deadline First (EDF) and Nearest-Job-Next with Preemption (NJNP), and the DMC plays well when the number of sensor nodes increase.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 323: Temperature-Dependent s± ↔ s++ Transitions in the Multiband Model for Fe-Based Superconductors with Impurities Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080323 Authors: V. A. Shestakov M. M. Korshunov O. V. Dolgov We study the dependence of the superconducting gaps on both the disorder and the temperature within the two-band model for iron-based materials. In the clean limit, the system is in the s± state with sign-changing gaps. Scattering by nonmagnetic impurities leads to the change of the sign of the smaller gap, resulting in a transition from the s± to the s++ state with the sign-preserving gaps. We show here that the transition is temperature-dependent. Thus, there is a line of s±→s++ transition in the temperature–disorder phase diagram. There is a narrow range of impurity scattering rates, where the disorder-induced s±→s++ transition occurs at low temperatures, but then the low-temperature s++ state transforms back to the s± state at higher temperatures. With increasing impurity scattering rate, the temperature of such s++→s± transition shifts to the critical temperature Tc, and only the s++ state is left for higher amounts of disorder.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1040: Storm Water Management and Flood Control in Sponge City Construction of Beijing Water doi: 10.3390/w10081040 Authors: Shuhan Zhang Yongkun Li Meihong Ma Ting Song Ruining Song To solve the problems of increasing local flooding, water shortage, and water pollution caused by the traditional model of urban development, the Chinese government proposed a new model of urban development—the Sponge City. In Beijing, the capital of China, research on storm water management in urban areas has been carried out since 1989 and has put forward the concept of urban storm water harvesting and flood control. The further research and demonstration application started in 2000. So far, a series of policies and technology standards on storm water management have been formulated, which promote the application of technologies on comprehensive urban storm water harvesting and flood control. A significant number of storm water harvesting and flood control projects have been built in Beijing, which are now playing important roles in runoff reduction, local flood control, non-point source pollution reduction, and storm water utilization. However, it does not solve the above problem completely. Storm water management and flood control needs to be further strengthened. The “Sponge City” is based on natural and ecological laws, which allows storm water to be managed with natural infiltration, natural retention and detention, and natural cleaning facilities. Through in-depth analysis of the connotation, characteristics, and construction path of “Sponge City”, this paper summarizes the status quo of urban rainwater flooding, flood control technology development and application, and Beijing policy and engineering to introduce the overall ideas and methods of Sponge City construction. All the above will provide a reference for cities with similar problems in the construction of sponge cities.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1037: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis of Physicochemical Parameters in an Irrigation District, Chihuahua, Mexico Water doi: 10.3390/w10081037 Authors: Jesús Alejandro Prieto-Amparán Beatriz Adriana Rocha-Gutiérrez María de Lourdes Ballinas-Casarrubias María Cecilia Valles-Aragón María del Rosario Peralta-Pérez Alfredo Pinedo-Alvarez Water quality is relevant due to the complexity of the interaction of physicochemical and biological parameters. The Irrigation District 005 (ID005) is one of the most important agricultural region in Chihuahua, México; for that reason, it was proposed to investigate the water quality of the site. Water samples were collected in two periods: Summer (S1) and Fall (S2). The samples were taken from 65 wells in S1, and 54 wells in S2. Physicochemical parameters (PhP) such as Arsenic (As), Temperature, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Oxide Reduction Potential (ORP), Hardness, pH, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), and Turbidity were analyzed. The data were subjected to statistical principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA) and spatial variability tests. In both seasons, the TDS exceeded the Mexican maximum permissible level (MPL) (35% S1, 39% S2). Turbidity exceeded the MPL in S1 (29%) and in S2 (12%). Arsenic was above the MPL for water of agricultural use in 9% (S1) and 13% (S2) of the wells. The PCA results suggested that most variations in water quality in S1 were due to As, pH and Temperature, followed by EC, TDS and Hardness; while in S2 to EC, TDS and Hardness, followed by As and pH.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1036: Hydraulic Conductivity Characteristics of Desert Plant Organs: Coping with Drought Tolerance Strategy Water doi: 10.3390/w10081036 Authors: Shanjia Li Peixi Su Haina Zhang Zijuan Zhou Rui Shi Wei Gou Plant hydraulic conductivity (K) refers to the rate of water flow (kg s−1) per unit pressure drop (MPa), which drives flow through the plant organ system. It is an important eco-physiology index for measuring plant water absorption and transport capacity. A field study was conducted in the arid region of the Heihe River Basin in northwestern China, plant hydraulic conductivity was measured by high-pressure flowmeter (HPFM) to investigate the characteristics of hydraulic conductivity of typical dominant desert plants (Reaumuria soongarica M., Nitraria sphaerocarpa M., and Sympegma regelii B.) and their relationship with functional traits of leaves, stems, and roots, and explaining their adaptation strategies to desert environment from the perspective of plant organs hydraulic conductivity. The results showed that the hydraulic conductivity of the leaves and stems of R. soongarica and N. sphaerocarpa (KLA, leaf hydraulic conductivity per unit leaf area; KLW, leaf hydraulic conductivity per unit leaf weight; KSLA, stem hydraulic conductivity per unit leaf area; KSLW, stem hydraulic conductivity per unit leaf weight) were significantly lower than those of S. regelii, while their fine root (KRL, root hydraulic conductivity per unit leaf length; KRSA, root hydraulic conductivity per unit root surface area) and whole root (KTRW, whole root hydraulic conductivity per unit root weight) of hydraulic conductivity were significantly higher than those of S. regelii. In addition, KLA and KLW, KSLA and KSLW, and KRL and KRSA in three desert plants all exhibited consistent trends. Correlation analysis illustrated that the hydraulic conductivity of leaves and stems had a significantly positive correlation, but they had no significant negative correlation with the specific leaf weight (SLW, specific leaf weight). The hydraulic conductivity of fine root weight (KRW, root hydraulic conductivity per unit root weight) and specific root surface area (SRSA, specific root surface area) showed significantly positive correlation (r = 0.727, P < 0.05). The results demonstrated that the R. soongarica and N. sphaerocarpa preserved their water content through the strong leaf absorption capacity of soil water and the low water dispersion rates of leaves to adapt to the harsher arid habitat, which is more drought tolerant than S. regelii.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1038: Simple and Low-Cost Procedure for Monthly and Yearly Streamflow Forecasts during the Current Hydrological Year Water doi: 10.3390/w10081038 Authors: Fernando Delgado-Ramos Carmen Hervás-Gámez Accurately forecasting streamflow values is essential to achieve an efficient, integrated water resources management strategy and to provide consistent support to water decision-makers. We present a simple, low-cost, and robust approach for forecasting monthly and yearly streamflows during the current hydrological year, which is applicable to headwater catchments. The procedure innovatively combines the use of well-known regression analysis techniques, the two-parameter Gamma continuous cumulative probability distribution function and the Monte Carlo method. Several model performance statistics metrics (including the Coefficient of Determination R2; the Root-Mean-Square Error RMSE; the Mean Absolute Error MAE; the Index of Agreement IOA; the Mean Absolute Percent Error MAPE; the Coefficient of Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency NSE; and the Inclusion Coefficient IC) were used and the results showed good levels of accuracy (improving as the number of observed months increases). The model forecast outputs are the mean monthly and yearly streamflows along with the 10th and 90th percentiles. The methodology has been successfully applied to two headwater reservoirs within the Guadalquivir River Basin in southern Spain, achieving an accuracy of 92% and 80% in March 2017. These risk-based predictions are of great value, especially before the intensive irrigation campaign starts in the middle of the hydrological year, when Water Authorities have to ensure that the right decision is made on how to best allocate the available water volume between the different water users and environmental needs.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1046: Comparing Bias Correction Methods Used in Downscaling Precipitation and Temperature from Regional Climate Models: A Case Study from the Kaidu River Basin in Western China Water doi: 10.3390/w10081046 Authors: Min Luo Tie Liu Fanhao Meng Yongchao Duan Amaury Frankl Anming Bao Philippe De Maeyer The systemic biases of Regional Climate Models (RCMs) impede their application in regional hydrological climate-change effects analysis and lead to errors. As a consequence, bias correction has become a necessary prerequisite for the study of climate change. This paper compares the performance of available bias correction methods that focus on the performance of precipitation and temperature projections. The hydrological effects of these correction methods are evaluated by the modelled discharges of the Kaidu River Basin. The results show that all used methods improve the performance of the original RCM precipitation and temperature simulations across a number of levels. The corrected results obtained by precipitation correction methods demonstrate larger diversities than those produced by the temperature correction methods. The performance of hydrological modelling is highly influenced by the choice of precipitation correction methods. Furthermore, no substantial differences can be identified from the results of the temperature-corrected methods. The biases from input data are often greater from the works of hydrological modelling. The suitability of these approaches depends upon the regional context and the RCM model, while their application procedure and a number of results can be adapted from region to region.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1047: Assessing Decadal Trends of a Nitrate-Contaminated Shallow Aquifer in Western Nebraska Using Groundwater Isotopes, Age-Dating, and Monitoring Water doi: 10.3390/w10081047 Authors: Martin J. Wells Troy E. Gilmore Aaron R. Mittelstet Daniel Snow Steven S. Sibray Shallow aquifers are prone to nitrate contamination worldwide. In western Nebraska, high groundwater nitrate concentrations ([NO3−]) have resulted in the exploration of new groundwater and nitrogen management regulations in the North Platte Natural Resources District (NPNRD). A small region of NPNRD (“Dutch Flats”) was the focus of intensive groundwater sampling by the United States Geological Survey from 1995 to 1999. Nearly two decades later, notable shifts have occurred in variables related to groundwater recharge and [NO3−], including irrigation methods. The objective of this study was to evaluate how changes in these variables, in part due to regulatory changes, have impacted nitrate-contaminated groundwater in the Dutch Flats area. Groundwater samples were collected to assess changes in: (1) recharge rates; (2) biogeochemical processes; and (3) [NO3−]. Groundwater age increased in 63% of wells and estimated recharge rates were lower for 88% of wells sampled (n = 8). However, mean age and recharge rate estimated in 2016 (19.3 years; R = 0.35 m/year) did not differ significantly from mean values determined in 1998 (15.6 years; R = 0.50 m/year). δ15N-NO3− (n = 14) and dissolved oxygen data indicate no major changes in biogeochemical processes. Available long-term data suggest a downward trend in normalized [NO3−] from 1998 to 2016, and lower [NO3−] was observed in 60% of wells sampled in both years (n = 87), but median values were not significantly different. Collectively, results suggest the groundwater system is responding to environmental variables to a degree that is detectable (e.g., trends in [NO3−]), although more time and/or substantial changes may be required before it is possible to detect significantly different mean recharge.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 210: An Improved Whale Optimization Algorithm Based on Different Searching Paths and Perceptual Disturbance Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10060210 Authors: Wei-zhen Sun Jie-sheng Wang Xian Wei Whale optimization algorithm (WOA) is a swarm intelligence optimization algorithm inspired by humpback whale hunting behavior. WOA has many similarities with other swarm intelligence algorithms (PSO, GWO, etc.). WOA’s unique search mechanism enables it to have a strong global search capability while taking into account the strong global search capabilities. In this work, considering the the deficiency of WOA in local search mechanism, combined with the optimization methods of other group intelligent algorithms, perceptual perturbation mechanism is introduced, which makes the agent perform more detailed searches near the local extreme point. At the same time, since the WOA uses a logarithmic spiral curve, the agent cannot fully search all the spaces within its search range, even though the introduction of the perturbation mechanism may still lead to the algorithm falling into a local optimum. Therefore, the equal pitch Archimedes spiral curve is chosen to replace the classic logarithmic spiral curve. In order to fully verify the effect of the search path on the performance of the algorithm, several other spiral curves have been chosen for experimental comparison. By utilizing the 23 benchmark test functions, the simulation results show that WOA (PDWOA) with perceptual perturbation significantly outperforms the standard WOA. Then, based on the PDWOA, the effect of the search path on the performance of the algorithm has been verified. The simulation results show that the equal pitch of the Archimedean spiral curve is best.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 759: Effects of Water Diversion from Yangtze River to Lake Taihu on the Phytoplankton Habitat of the Wangyu River Channel Water doi: 10.3390/w10060759 Authors: Jiangyu Dai Shiqiang Wu Xiufeng Wu Wanyun Xue Qianqian Yang Senlin Zhu Fangfang Wang Dan Chen To reveal the effects of water diversion from the Yangtze River to Lake Taihu on the phytoplankton habitat of the main water transfer channel of the Wangyu River, we investigated the water’s physicochemical parameters and phytoplankton communities during the water diversion and non-diversion periods over the winters between 2014–2016, respectively. During the water diversion periods in the winter of 2014 and 2015, the nutrients and organic pollutant contents of the Wangyu River channel were significantly lower than those during the non-diversion period in 2016. Moreover, the phytoplankton diversities and relative proportions of Bacillariophyta during the diversion periods evidently increased during the water diversion periods in winter. The increase in the water turbidity content, the decrease in the contents of the permanganate index, and the total phosphorus explained only 21.4% of the variations in the phytoplankton communities between the diversion and non-diversion periods in winter, which revealed significant contributions of the allochthonous species from the Yangtze River and tributaries of the Wangyu River to phytoplankton communities in the Wangyu River. The increasing gradient in the contents of nutrients and organic pollutants from the Yangtze River to Lake Taihu indicated the potential allochthonous pollutant inputs along with the Wangyu River. Further controlling the pollutants from the tributaries of the Wangyu River is critical in order to improve the phytoplankton habitats in river channels and Lake Taihu.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 201: Topological Characterization of the Symmetrical Structure of Bismuth Tri-Iodide Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10060201 Authors: Muhammad Imran Muhammad Arfan Ali Sarfaraz Ahmad Muhammad Kamran Siddiqui Abdul Qudair Baig The bismuth tri-iodide ( B i I 3 ) is an inorganic compound. It is the result of the response of bismuth and iodine, which has inspired enthusiasm for subjective inorganic investigation. The topological indices are the numerical invariants of the molecular graph that portray its topology and are normally graph invariants. In 1975, Randic presented, in a bond-added substance, a topological index as a descriptor for portraying subatomic branching. In this paper, we investigate the precious stone structure of bismuth tri-iodide chain and sheet. Moreover, exact formulas of degree-based added-substance topological indices principally the first, second, and hyper Zagreb indices, the general Randic index, the geometric-arithmetic index, the fourth atom-bond connectivity index, and the fifth geometric arithmetic index of the subatomic graph of bismuth tri-iodide for both chain and sheet structures are determined.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 731: What Germany’s University Beginners Think about Water Reuse Water doi: 10.3390/w10060731 Authors: Sarah Schmid Franz X. Bogner Water reuse is a new technology, not yet implemented, but discussed for use in Germany. Public opinion plays a major role in the success of the introduction of this new technology and was not yet analyzed for Germany. When monitoring 340 university beginners’ conceptions regarding water reuse, a variety of conceptions appeared. While usage of tap water is accepted for drinking purposes, acceptance of recycled water for oral consumption was low. When asked for reasons for (not) using recycled water, three groups of respondents were extracted: (a) The acceptors (convinced of quality, or naming sustainability as a reason); (b) the undecided (doubts about quality, rejection of its use for consumption, and psychological conflicts of logic and disgust); (c) the non-acceptors (unconvinced of quality and preference for bottled water). When asked about factors that would lead to accepting the use of recycled water, insights into treatment processes were identified as the most convincing, followed by educational films and guided tours. Participants showed high conviction about currently existing tap-water qualities. Having water that is cleaned before it reaches the consumer was reported to have high priority. To increase acceptance of water reuse, recommendations for appropriate outreach programs are discussed.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 730: A Comparative Study of Groundwater Level Forecasting Using Data-Driven Models Based on Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition Water doi: 10.3390/w10060730 Authors: Yicheng Gong Zhongjing Wang Guoyin Xu Zixiong Zhang The reliable and accurate prediction of groundwater levels is important to improve water-use efficiency in the development and management of water resources. Three nonlinear time-series intelligence hybrid models were proposed to predict groundwater level fluctuations through a combination of ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and data-driven models (i.e., artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machines (SVM) and adaptive neuro fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS)), respectively. The prediction capability of EEMD-ANN, EEMD-SVM, and EEMD-ANFIS hybrid models was investigated using a monthly groundwater level time series collected from two observation wells near Lake Okeechobee in Florida. The statistical parameters correlation coefficient (R), normalized mean square error (NMSE), root mean square error (RMSE), Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NS), and Akaike information criteria (AIC) were used to assess the performance of the EEMD-ANN, EEMD-SVM and EEMD-ANFIS models. The results achieved from the EEMD-ANN, EEMD-SVM and EEMD-ANFIS models were compared with those from the ANN, SVM and ANFIS models. The three hybrid models (i.e., EEMD-ANN, EEMD-SVM, and EEMD-ANFIS) proved to be applicable to forecast the groundwater level fluctuations. The values of the statistical parameters indicated that the EEMD-ANFIS and EEMD-SVM models achieved better prediction results than the EEMD-ANN model. Meanwhile, the three models coupled with EEMD were found have better prediction results than the models that were not. The findings from this study indicate that the proposed nonlinear time-series intelligence hybrid models could improve the prediction capability in forecasting groundwater level fluctuations, and serve as useful and helpful guidelines for the management of sustainable water resources.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 729: Geothermometry and Isotope Geochemistry of CO2-Rich Thermal Waters in Choygan, East Tuva, Russia Water doi: 10.3390/w10060729 Authors: Anastasia Shestakova Natalia Guseva Yulia Kopylova Albina Khvaschevskaya David A. Polya Igor Tokarev The Choygan area of southern Siberia, Russia hosts a variety of CO2-rich thermal mineral and other waters emerging from springs at temperatures between 7 °C and 39 °C. Chemical analyses of the spring waters (n = 33) were carried out to characterise the waters and determine their origin. A continuum of compositions was observed between relatively lower temperature (7 °C) HCO3-Ca-Na dominated waters with relatively low amount of total dissolved solids (TDS) and high Eh, and higher temperature (39 °C) HCO3-Na-Ca dominated waters with higher TDS and lower Eh—this reflects largely conservative mixing of these components between near surface low temperature, oxidising groundwaters and higher temperature, more reducing thermal waters derived from a deeper geothermal reservoir. Stable isotopic data are consistent with all the water ultimately being derived from meteoric water that has undergone varying degrees of isotopic fractionation following evaporation. The inferred δ18O and δ2H isotopic composition of the unfractionationed meteoric waters is lighter than that expected that of mean annual local precipitation, which together with a strong negative correlation between δ18O and the elevation of the sampled discharging springs, suggests recharge at higher elevations (1600 m to 3000 m; average 2600 m). Reservoir temperature, calculated using geothermometers and an analysis of saturation indices of plausible reservoir minerals, ranged from 70 °C to 100 °C at an inferred depth of 2 to 3 km. Not all chemical components were found to follow conservative mixing behaviour. In particular, (i) the CO2 contents of the waters were highly variable, suggesting either varying degrees of degassing and/or near discharge admixture with air, and (ii) SO4 concentrations in the lower temperature thermal CO2-rich waters were highly variable, suggesting a role of near surface oxidation processes, for example of pyrite, in modifying the concentration of redox sensitive components. Limited δ13C data are consistent with the CO2 predominately being derived from dissolution of metamorphic/igneous carbonate minerals in the reservoir. Based on geological conditions, isotope and chemical data, a conceptual circulation model of the Choygan hydrothermal system is proposed.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 728: An Integration Approach for Mapping Field Capacity of China Based on Multi-Source Soil Datasets Water doi: 10.3390/w10060728 Authors: Xiaotao Wu Guihua Lu Zhiyong Wu Hai He Jianhong Zhou Zhenchen Liu Field capacity is one of the most important soil hydraulic properties in water cycle, agricultural irrigation, and drought monitoring. It is difficult to obtain the distribution of field capacity on a large scale using manual measurements that are both time-consuming and labor-intensive. In this study, the field capacity ensemble members were established using existing pedotransfer functions (PTFs) and multiple linear regression (MLR) based on three soil datasets and 2388 in situ field capacity measurements in China. After evaluating the accuracy of each ensemble member, an integration approach was proposed for estimating the field capacity distribution and development of a 250 m gridded field capacity dataset in China. The spatial correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE) between the in situ field capacity and ensemble field capacity were 0.73 and 0.048 m3·m−3 in region scale, respectively. The ensemble field capacity shows great consistency with practical distribution of field capacity, and the deviation is revised when compared with field capacity datasets provided by previous researchers. It is a potential product for estimating field capacity in hydrological and agricultural practices on both large and fine scales, especially in ungauged regions.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 218: Gauss Map and Its Applications on Ruled Submanifolds in Minkowski Space Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10060218 Authors: Sun Jung Young Kim We study ruled submanifolds in Minkowski space in regard to the Gauss map satisfying some partial differential equation. As a generalization of usual cylinders, cones and null scrolls in a three-dimensional Minkowski space, a cylinder over a space curve, a product manifold of a right cone and a k-plane, a product manifold of a hyperbolic cone and a k-plane which look like kinds of cylinders over cones in 3-space, and the generalized B-scroll kind in Minkowski space are characterized with the partial differential equation regarding the Gauss map, where k is a positive integer.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 217: Decision-Making via Neutrosophic Support Soft Topological Spaces Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10060217 Authors: Parimala Mani Karthika Muthusamy Saeid Jafari Florentin Smarandache Udhayakumar Ramalingam The concept of interval neutrosophic sets has been studied and the introduction of a new kind of set in topological spaces called the interval valued neutrosophic support soft set has been suggested. We study some of its basic properties. The main purpose of this paper is to give the optimum solution to decision-making in real life problems the using interval valued neutrosophic support soft set.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 779: Study of the Scale Effect on Permeability in the Interlayer Shear Weakness Zone Using Sequential Indicator Simulation and Sequential Gaussian Simulation Water doi: 10.3390/w10060779 Authors: Meng Chen Zhifang Zhou Lei Zhao Mu Lin Qiaona Guo Mingwei Li The interlayer shear weakness zone (ISWZ) is a deformation zone in stratified rock masses, with different width and spacing, due to tectonic stresses. It represents the main flow path in rocks due to higher permeability compared with massive rocks. The permeability values of an ISWZ can vary significantly depending on the scale. This study focuses on the correlations between the permeability properties of ISWZs and their geometry properties. A range of realistic 3-D numerical models of ISWZs is developed using geostatistical modeling, with fine-scale geometry and permeability information taken into consideration. These ISWZs represent a set of mud content and width distributions that are typical for ISWZs. Horizontal and vertical permeability values for all ISWZs are found to change in small-scale samples, whereas these fluctuations decrease with increasing sample size. For different types of ISWZs, the results show that ISWZs with variable width will show a significantly larger scale effect on the permeability than that of ISWZs with constant width. Furthermore, ISWZs with a higher mud content display greater variation in horizontal permeability, while the opposite is true for vertical permeability. Based on the coefficient of permeability variation, a criterion is proposed to identify the calculated permeability of a sample is locally homogeneous. The size for this sample relies on the properties estimated (horizontal and vertical permeability) and geometry features. These findings could provide a basis for the selection of permeability values of an ISWZ in hydraulic engineering. Additionally, the procedures used in this article can be applied to any type of ISWZs.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 774: Development of an Integrated Modelling System for Evaluating Water Quantity and Quality Effects of Individual Wetlands in an Agricultural Watershed Water doi: 10.3390/w10060774 Authors: Yongbo Liu Wanhong Yang Hui Shao Zhiqiang Yu John Lindsay A GIS-based fully-distributed model, IMWEBs-Wetland (Integrated Modelling for Watershed Evaluation of BMPs—Wetland), is developed to simulate hydrologic processes of site-specific wetlands in an agricultural watershed. This model, powered by the open-source GIS Whitebox Geospatial Analysis Tools (GAT) and advanced database technologies, allows users to simulate and assess water quantity and quality effects of individual wetlands at site and watershed scales. A case study of the modelling system is conducted in a subbasin of the Broughton’s Creek Watershed in southern Manitoba of Canada. Modelling results show that the model is capable of simulating wetland processes in a complex watershed with various land management practices. The IMWEBs-Wetland model is unique in simulating the water quantity and quality effects of individual wetlands, which can be used to examine location-specific targeting of wetland retention and restoration at a watershed scale.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 770: Electrochemical Degradation of Phenol and Resorcinol Molecules through the Dissolution of Sacrificial Anodes of Macro-Corrosion Galvanic Cells Water doi: 10.3390/w10060770 Authors: Boguslaw Pierozynski Grazyna Piotrowska This paper reports on the processes of phenol and resorcinol electrodegradation carried-out through continuous anodic dissolution of aluminum alloy and carbon steel sacrificial anodes for artificially aerated Cu-Al alloy and Cu-Fe-based galvanic (macro-corrosion) cells and synthetically prepared wastewater solutions. Electrochemical experiments were carried-out by means of a laboratory size, PMMA (Poly-methyl methacrylate)-made electrolyser unit, where significant degrees of phenol (10–89%) and resorcinol (13–37%) decomposition were obtained and visualized through the respective chemical/spectroscopy analyses. In addition, quantitative determination of phenol, as well as resorcinol (and possible electrodegradation products) for the selected experimental conditions was performed by means of instrumental high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 214: Intelligent Prognostics of Degradation Trajectories for Rotating Machinery Based on Asymmetric Penalty Sparse Decomposition Model Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10060214 Authors: Qing Li Steven Y. Liang The ability to accurately track the degradation trajectories of rotating machinery components is arguably one of the challenging problems in prognostics and health management (PHM). In this paper, an intelligent prediction approach based on asymmetric penalty sparse decomposition (APSD) algorithm combined with wavelet neural network (WNN) and autoregressive moving average-recursive least squares algorithm (ARMA-RLS) is proposed for degradation prognostics of rotating machinery, taking the accelerated life test of rolling bearings as an example. Specifically, the health indicators time series (e.g., peak-to-peak value and Kurtosis) is firstly decomposed into low frequency component (LFC) and high frequency component (HFC) using the APSD algorithm; meanwhile, the resulting non-convex regularization problem can be efficiently solved using the majorization-minimization (MM) method. In particular, the HFC part corresponds to the stable change around the zero line of health indicators which most extensively occurs; in contrast, the LFC part is essentially related to the evolutionary trend of health indicators. Furthermore, the nonparametric-based method, i.e., WNN, and parametric-based method, i.e., ARMA-RLS, are respectively introduced to predict the LFC and HFC that focus on abrupt degradation regions (e.g., last 100 points). Lastly, the final predicted data could be correspondingly obtained by integrating the predicted LFC and predicted HFC. The proposed methodology is tested using degradation health indicator time series from four rolling bearings. The proposed approach performed favorably when compared to some state-of-the-art benchmarks such as WNN and largest Lyapunov (LLyap) methods.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 766: The Influences of Sponge City on Property Values in Wuhan, China Water doi: 10.3390/w10060766 Authors: Shiying Zhang Chris Zevenbergen Paul Rabé Yong Jiang Rapid urbanization in China and global climate change have increased urban flood exposure in Wuhan, and the increased flood risk has reduced property values in flood-prone areas. The central government of China is promoting the application of the sponge city concept to reduce urban flood risk and improve the environment in cities. Wuhan is one of the pilot cities of this initiative. A shortage of funds is one of the main obstacles to sponge city construction, as is the lack of a suitable business model. To test residents’ willingness to pay for sponge city construction, this research analyzed the impact of sponge city construction on the housing values of areas covered by sponge city interventions. The authors conducted interviews and analyzed secondary data to gauge residents’ awareness and perceptions of sponge city interventions. The results show that more than half of residents in Wuhan are willing to pay for sponge city measures, but the amount they are willing to pay is limited. Residents are more willing to pay for improvements of their living environment than for flood reduction measures.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 222: Bayer Image Demosaicking Using Eight-Directional Weights Based on the Gradient of Color Difference Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10060222 Authors: Yizheng Liu Chengyou Wang Hongming Zhao Jiayang Song Shiyue Chen In this paper, we propose a new demosaicking algorithm which uses eight-directional weights based on the gradient of color difference (EWGCD) for Bayer image demosaicking. To obtain the interpolation of green (G) pixels, the eight-directional G pixel values are first estimated in red (R)/blue (B) pixels. This estimate is used to calculate the color difference in R/B pixels of the Bayer image in diagonal directions. However, in horizontal and vertical directions, the new estimated G pixels are defined to obtain the color difference. The eight-directional weights of estimated G pixels can be obtained by considering the gradient of the color difference and the gradient of the RGB pixels of the Bayer image. Therefore, the eight-directional weighted values and the first estimated G pixel values are combined to obtain the full G image. Compared with six similar algorithms using the same eighteen McMaster images, the results of the experiment demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has a better performance not only in the subjective visual measurement but also in the assessments of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM) index measurement.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 794: Navigating the Water-Energy Governance Landscape and Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in the Northern Patagonia Region of Argentina Water doi: 10.3390/w10060794 Authors: Laura Forni Marisa Escobar Pablo Cello Marta Marizza Gustavo Nadal Leonidas Girardin Fernando Losano Lisandro Bucciarelli Charles Young David Purkey Water scientists often find themselves interacting with decision-makers with varying levels of technical background. The sustainable management of water resources is complex by nature, and future conditions are highly uncertain, requiring modeling approaches capable of accommodating a variety of parameters and scenarios. Technical findings from these analyses need to be positioned and conducted within the governance institutions to ensure decision-makers utilize them. This paper examines the water resource challenges for a large basin in northern Patagonia, Argentina and utilizes the Robust Decision Support (RDS) framework to evaluate trade-offs and strategies in a participatory process that included researchers and decision-makers. Integrated water resources models using simulation modeling and decision space visualization show significant climate change impacts, which are augmented with irrigated agriculture expansion and increasing hydropower production.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 789: Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Meteorological Elements in the North China District of China during 1960–2015 Water doi: 10.3390/w10060789 Authors: Jinsong Ti Yuhao Yang Xiaogang Yin Jing Liang Liangliang Pu Yulin Jiang Xinya Wen Fu Chen The North China District (NCD) is one of the main grain production regions in China. The double cropping system of irrigation has been leading to the groundwater table decline at the speed of 1–2 m per year. Climate change leads to uncertainty surrounding the future of the NCD agricultural system, which will have great effects on crop yields and crop water demands. In this research, the Meteorological dataset from 54 weather station sites over the period 1960–2015 were collected to quantify the long-term spatial and temporal trends of meteorological data, including daily minimum temperature (Tmin), maximum temperature (Tmax), precipitation, solar radiation, reference evapotranspiration (ET0), and aridity index (AI). The results show that the long-term wheat and maize growing season and annual average air temperatures (Tmin and Tmax) showed strong north to south increasing trends throughout the NCD. The average annual precipitation was 632.9 mm across the NCD, more than 70% of which was concentrated in the maize growing season. The regional average annual ET0 was 1026.1 mm, which was 531.2 and 497.4 mm for the wheat and maize growing season, respectively. The regional precipitation decreased from northwest to southeast in each growing season and annual timescale. The funnel areas have lower precipitation and higher ET0 than the regional average, which may lead to the mining of the groundwater funnel area. The regional average annual AI is 0.63, which lies in the humid class. For temporal analysis, the regional average trends in annual Tmin, Tmax, solar radiation, ET0, precipitation, and AI were 0.37 °C/10a, 0.15 °C/10a, −0.28 MJ/day/m2/10a, −2.98 mm/10a, −12.04 mm/10a, and 0.005/10a, respectively. The increasing trend of temperature and the decreasing trend of solar radiation may have a negative effect on the regional food security. The funnel area AI showed a significant increasing trend for the winter wheat growing season and a decreasing trend for maize, which indicated that more irrigation will be needed for the maize growing season and the winter fallow policy may lead to the increasing trend precipitation being wasted. Analyzing the growing season and the annual meteorological elements of the spatiotemporal trends can help us better understand the influence of climate change on the natural resources and agricultural development in both the past and the future, and will provide us with invaluable information for the modification of cropping patterns to protect the regional and national water and food security.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 797: Disinfection Methods for Swimming Pool Water: Byproduct Formation and Control Water doi: 10.3390/w10060797 Authors: Huma Ilyas Ilyas Masih Jan Peter van der Hoek This paper presents a comprehensive and critical comparison of 10 disinfection methods of swimming pool water: chlorination, electrochemically generated mixed oxidants (EGMO), ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, UV/chlorine, UV/hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), UV/H2O2/chlorine, ozone (O3)/chlorine, O3/H2O2/chlorine, O3/UV and O3/UV/chlorine for the formation, control and elimination of potentially toxic disinfection byproducts (DBPs): trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs), haloacetonitriles (HANs), trihaloacetaldehydes (THAs) and chloramines (CAMs). The statistical comparison is carried out using data on 32 swimming pools accumulated from the reviewed studies. The results indicate that O3/UV and O3/UV/chlorine are the most promising methods, as the concentration of the studied DBPs (THMs and HANs) with these methods was reduced considerably compared with chlorination, EGMO, UV irradiation, UV/chlorine and O3/chlorine. However, the concentration of the studied DBPs including HAAs and CAMs remained much higher with O3/chlorine compared with the limits set by the WHO for drinking water quality. Moreover, the enhancement in the formation of THMs, HANs and CH with UV/chlorine compared with UV irradiation and the increase in the level of HANs with O3/UV/chlorine compared with O3/UV indicate the complexity of the combined processes, which should be optimized to control the toxicity and improve the quality of swimming pool water.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 802: The Impact of Climate on Hydrological Extremes Water doi: 10.3390/w10060802 Authors: Salvatore Manfreda Vito Iacobellis Andrea Gioia Mauro Fiorentino Krzysztof Kochanek High and low flows and associated floods and droughts are extreme hydrological phenomena mainly caused by meteorological anomalies and modified by catchment processes and human activities. They exert increasing on human, economic, and natural environmental systems around the world. In this context, global climate change along with local fluctuations may eventually trigger a disproportionate response in hydrological extremes. This special issue focuses on observed extreme events in the recent past, how these extremes are linked to a changing global/regional climate, and the manner in which they may shift in the coming years.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 800: Quantification of Seasonal Precipitation over the upper Chao Phraya River Basin in the Past Fifty Years Based on Monsoon and El Niño/Southern Oscillation Related Climate Indices Water doi: 10.3390/w10060800 Authors: Tsuyoshi Kinouchi Gakuji Yamamoto Atchara Komsai Winai Liengcharernsit For better water resources management, we proposed a method to estimate basin-scale seasonal rainfall over selected areas of the Chao Phraya River Basin, Thailand, from existing climate indices that represent variations in the Asian summer monsoon, the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, and sea surface temperatures (SST) in the Pacific Ocean. The basin-scale seasonal rainfall between 1965 and 2015 was calculated for the upper Ping River Basin (PRB) and the upper Nan River Basin (NRB) from a gridded rainfall dataset and rainfall data collected at several gauging stations. The corresponding climate indices, i.e., the Equatorial-Southern Oscillation Index (EQ-SOI), Indian Monsoon Index (IMI), and SST-related indices, were examined to quantify seasonal rainfall. Based on variations in the rainfall anomaly and each climate index, we found that IMI is the primary variable that can explain variations in seasonal rainfall when EQ-SOI is negative. Through a multiple regression analysis, we found that EQ-SOI and two SST-related indices, i.e., Pacific Decadal Oscillation Index (PDO) and SST anomalies in the tropical western Pacific (SSTNW), can quantify the seasonal rainfall for years with positive EQ-SOI. The seasonal rainfall calculated for 1975 to 2015 based on the proposed method was highly correlated with the observed rainfall, with correlation coefficients of 0.8 and 0.86 for PRB and NRB, respectively. These results suggest that the existing indices are useful for quantifying basin-scale seasonal rainfall, provided a proper classification and combination of the climate indices are introduced. The developed method could forecast seasonal rainfall over the target basins if well-forecasted climate indices are provided with sufficient leading time.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 811: Simulation of Fluid and Complex Obstacle Coupling Based on Narrow Band FLIP Method Water doi: 10.3390/w10060811 Authors: Changjun Zou Yong Yin With the continuous development of fluid simulation theory and technology, there are increasingly higher requirements for simulation of complex fluid interaction. Fluid simulation based on the Eulerian method is limited by the grid resolution, and the sawtooth phenomenon occurs near the obstacle boundary. To enhance the fluid interaction performance with complex obstacle, an advanced fluid interaction method was proposed based on NBFLIP. Improved from FLIP method, the NBFLIP method combines the advantages of Euler method and Lagrangian method. The SDF method is proposed in complex obstacle discretion, with an expectation to facilitate the processing with obstacle boundary and efficiency improvement. Compared with FLIP method, particle number in NBFLIP method is reduced by 86.2% and the average running time per frame is reduced by 36.1%.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 817: Reuse and Recycling of Livestock and Municipal Wastewater in Chilean Agriculture: A Preliminary Assessment Water doi: 10.3390/w10060817 Authors: Cristina-Alejandra Villamar Ismael Vera-Puerto Diego Rivera Felipe De la Hoz Chile is an agricultural power, but also one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and water shortage. About 50% of the irrigated agriculture land in Chile is in the central zone, thanks to its agricultural-climatic characteristics that provide an adequate water supply (100–4000 m3/s). However, the vulnerability scenario in this zone is high due to the seasonal availability of water resources. Therefore, opportunities to use non-conventional alternative sources (e.g., wastewater) become an appealing and feasible option due to the high population and animal density (>76%) in this part of the country. Moreover, the physicochemical characteristics of the municipal and livestock wastewater suggest that there are potential opportunities to recycle nutrients for agricultural production. In Chile, wastewater reuse opportunities are noted by the wide coverage of wastewater treatment programs, with municipal and intensified livestock production taking up most of the percentage (>99%). Nevertheless, more than 70% of wastewater treatment systems reach biological secondary treatment, which suggests reuse possibilities only for non-food crops. Therefore, this paper is focused on a preliminary analysis of the potential of reusing and recycling municipal and livestock wastewater for Chilean agriculture. There is some reuse work occurring in Chile, specifically in the use of municipal and livestock wastewater for cereal crops (animal feed), forests, and grasslands. However, aspects related to the long-term effects of these practices have not yet been evaluated. Therefore, municipal and livestock wastewater in Chile could be re-valued in agriculture, but the current quality and condition of treated wastewater do not ensure its safe use in food crops. In addition, state policies are needed to provide sustainability (circular and ethic economy) to water reusing/recycling in agriculture.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 806: Water Quality Prediction Model of a Water Diversion Project Based on the Improved Artificial Bee Colony–Backpropagation Neural Network Water doi: 10.3390/w10060806 Authors: Siyu Chen Guohua Fang Xianfeng Huang Yuhong Zhang Prediction of water quality which can ensure the water supply and prevent water pollution is essential for a successful water transfer project. In recent years, with the development of artificial intelligence, the backpropagation (BP) neural network has been increasingly applied for the prediction and forecasting field. However, the BP neural network frame cannot satisfy the demand of higher accuracy. In this study, we extracted monitoring data from the water transfer channel of both the water resource and the intake area as training samples and selected some distinct indices as input factors to establish a BP neural network whose connection weight values between network layers and the threshold of each layer had already been optimized by an improved artificial bee colony (IABC) algorithm. Compared with the traditional BP and ABC-BP neural network model, it was shown that the IABC-BP neural network has a greater ability for forecasting and could achieve much better accuracy, nearly 25% more precise than the BP neural network. The new model is particularly practical for the water quality prediction of a water diversion project and could be readily applied in this field.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 827: Optimization of Nitrogen Removal in Solid Carbon Source SND for Treatment of Low-Carbon Municipal Wastewater with RSM Method Water doi: 10.3390/w10070827 Authors: Liqiu Zhang Youwen Huang Shugeng Li Peifen He Dengmin Wang In this work, a loofah sponge was used as the solid carbon source and the carrier in a biofilm reactor. Simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) technology was used to achieve nitrogen removal in low-carbon municipal wastewater in a sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR). At room temperature, the effects of filling ratio, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, C/N(CODCr/TN), and aeration time on the removal of nitrogen were systematically studied. In addition, the removal efficiency of total nitrogen (TN) was used as the evaluation index in response surface models (RSM) for optimization of nitrogen removal. The results showed that DO, pH, and aeration time affected nitrogen removal significantly. Therefore, DO, pH, and aeration time were used as the independent variables in RSM. The optimum conditions for nitrogen removal were found to be as follows in RSM: DO = 4.09 mg/L, pH = 7.58, aeration time = 10.47 h. Under the optimum conditions, the maximum TN removal efficiency reached 86.27%. The results also demonstrated that the deviation between the experimental and predicted TN removal efficiency was only 0.58%, the predicted model was reliable for future application.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 835: Hydrogeologic and Paleo-Geographic Characteristics of Riverside Alluvium at an Artificial Recharge Site in Korea Water doi: 10.3390/w10070835 Authors: Soo-Hyoung Lee Se-Yeong Hamm Kyoochul Ha YongCheol Kim Dong-Chan Koh Heesung Yoon Sung-Wook Kim This study showed the hydrogeological characteristics of an alluvial aquifer that is composed of sand, silt, and clay layers in a small domain. It can be classified into a lower high-salinity layer and an upper freshwater layer and contains shells and remnant paleo-seawater (average 5000 μS/cm) due to sea level fluctuation. Geological and electrical conductivity logging, a long-term pumping test, and multi-depth water quality measurements were conducted at pumping, injection, and observational wells to evaluate the hydrogeologic properties, identify the optimal recharge rate, and assess artificial recharge. Using a hydraulic test, a large difference in drawdown and salinity appeared at the radially located observational wells because of the difference in hydraulic connectivity between the wells in the small study area. It was concluded that the hydraulic anisotropy and heterogeneity of the alluvial aquifer should be carefully examined when locating an injection well and considering the efficient design of artificial recharge.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 231: Observers and Their Notion of Spacetime beyond Special Relativity Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10070231 Authors: José Manuel Carmona José Luis Cortés José Javier Relancio It is plausible that quantum gravity effects may lead us to a description of Nature beyond the framework of special relativity. In this case, either the relativity principle is broken or it is maintained. These two scenarios (a violation or a deformation of special relativity) are very different, both conceptually and phenomenologically. We discuss some of their implications on the description of events for different observers and the notion of spacetime.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 233: Symmetries of Differential Equations in Cosmology Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10070233 Authors: Michael Tsamparlis Andronikos Paliathanasis The purpose of the current article is to present a brief albeit accurate presentation of the main tools used in the study of symmetries of Lagrange equations for holonomic systems and subsequently to show how these tools are applied in the major models of modern cosmology in order to derive exact solutions and deal with the problem of dark matter/energy. The key role in this approach are the first integrals of the field equations. We start with the Lie point symmetries and the first integrals defined by them, that is, the Hojman integrals. Subsequently, we discuss the Noether point symmetries and the well-known method for deriving the Noether integrals. By means of the Inverse Noether Theorem, we show that, to every Hojman quadratic first integral, it is possible to associate a Noether symmetry whose Noether integral is the original Hojman integral. It is emphasized that the point transformation generating this Noether symmetry need not coincide with the point transformation defining the Lie symmetry which produces the Hojman integral. We discuss the close connection between the Lie point and the Noether point symmetries with the collineations of the metric defined by the kinetic energy of the Lagrangian. In particular, the generators of Noether point symmetries are elements of the homothetic algebra of that metric. The key point in the current study of cosmological models is the introduction of the mini superspace, which is the space that is defined by the physical variables of the model, which is not the spacetime where the model evolves. The metric in the mini superspace is found from the kinematic part of the Lagrangian and we call it the kinetic metric. The rest part of the Lagrangian is the effective potential. We consider coordinate transformations of the original mini superspace metric in order to bring it to a form where we know its collineations, that is, the Killing vectors, the homothetic vector, etc. Then, we write the field equations of the cosmological model and we use the connection of these equations with the collineations of the mini superspace metric to compute the first integrals and subsequently to obtain analytic solutions for various allowable potentials and finally draw conclusions about the problem of dark energy. We consider the ΛCDM cosmological model, the scalar field cosmology, the Brans–Dicke cosmology, the f(R) gravity, the two scalar fields cosmology with interacting scalar fields and the Galilean cosmology. In each case, we present the relevant results in the form of tables for easy reference. Finally, we discuss briefly the higher order symmetries (the contact symmetries) and show how they are applied in the cases of scalar field cosmology and in the f(R) gravity.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 819: Nonstationary Flood Frequency Analysis Using Univariate and Bivariate Time-Varying Models Based on GAMLSS Water doi: 10.3390/w10070819 Authors: Ting Zhang Yixuan Wang Bing Wang Senming Tan Ping Feng With the changing environment, a number of researches have revealed that the assumption of stationarity of flood sequences is questionable. In this paper, we established univariate and bivariate models to investigate nonstationary flood frequency with distribution parameters changing over time. Flood peak Q and one-day flood volume W1 of the Wangkuai Reservoir catchment were used as basic data. In the univariate model, the log-normal distribution performed best and tended to describe the nonstationarity in both flood peak and volume sequences reasonably well. In the bivariate model, the optimal log-normal distributions were taken as marginal distributions, and copula functions were addressed to construct the dependence structure of Q and W1. The results showed that the Gumbel-Hougaard copula offered the best joint distribution. The most likely events had an undulating behavior similar to the univariate models, and the combination values of flood peak and volume under the same OR-joint and AND-joint exceedance probability both displayed a decreasing trend. Before 1970, the most likely combination values considering the variation of distribution parameters over time were larger than fixed parameters (stationary), while it became the opposite after 1980. The results highlight the necessity of nonstationary flood frequency analysis.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 818: Efficient Low-Cost Anaerobic Treatment of Wastewater Using Biochar and Woodchip Filters Water doi: 10.3390/w10070818 Authors: Korbinian Kaetzl Manfred Lübken Tito Gehring Marc Wichern Access to improved sanitation is often lacking in many low-income countries, and approximately 90% of the sewage is discharged without treatment into receiving water bodies. The aim of this study was the development and evaluation of an efficient low-cost wastewater treatment system for developing countries. Biochar and woodchips, potential locally available and inexpensive materials, were used for anaerobic wastewater filtration and their suitability evaluated in comparison to gravel as a common reference material. Filters were fed with raw sewage from a municipal full-scale wastewater treatment plant in Germany at 22 °C room temperature with a hydraulic loading rate (HLR) of 0.05 m∙h−1. This resulted in a mean organic loading rate (OLR) of 252 gCOD∙m−3∙d−1 and a mean organic surface load of 456 gCOD∙m−2∙d−1. To determine the influence of different filter materials, the removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC), turbidity, and faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) E. coli and enterococci were tested. It was found that COD (up to 90%), TOC (up to 80%), FIB (up to 1.7 log10-units), and turbidity (effluent turbidity below 35 NTU) could be significantly reduced. The findings of this study demonstrate the potential of anaerobic filters (AFs) for wastewater treatment in low-income countries to reduce water pollution and comprehensively improve water quality. The performance of biochar filters was significantly better over the entire experiment compared to woodchip and gravel filters with respect to COD, TOC, turbidity, and FIB removal, indicating the superior properties of biochar for wastewater treatment.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 821: Changes in the Carbon and Water Fluxes of Subtropical Forest Ecosystems in South-Western China Related to Drought Water doi: 10.3390/w10070821 Authors: Lei Zhou Shaoqiang Wang Yonggang Chi Weimin Ju Kun Huang Robert A. Mickler Miaomiao Wang Quanzhou Yu Drought impacts carbon and water fluxes of terrestrial ecosystems, which are strongly coupled. However, the magnitudes of response of carbon and water fluxes to drought are dependent on many processes, which are more complex than previously expected. Southern China experienced regional climatic perturbation events in the past decade and a two-year drought in 2009–2010. We used a terrestrial ecosystem model coupled with remotely sensed observations and metrological data to simulate the variations of net primary productivity (NPP), evapotranspiration (ET), and water-use efficiency (WUE) (i.e., NPP/ET) in south-western China during the period 2001–2010. Using the standard precipitation index (SPI) classifying different drought stresses, we also quantified the effect of drought on the ecosystem by comparing changes in modelled estimates of monthly WUE, NPP and ET under normal (i.e., baseline) and drought conditions (i.e., 2009 and 2010). The results indicated that NPP and ET showed synchronized declines in drought periods, with time-lag effects. Furthermore, drought-induced NPP decline was larger than ET reduction. An increasing trend in WUE from the moderate to extreme drought classes occurred not only in baseline conditions but also in drought conditions. Especially in the extreme drought period (January, 2010), WUE for the forest ecosystem typically showed a positive response to drought, indicating a drought-resilient forest ecosystem. Our study has important implications for understanding climate extreme effects on the carbon and water cycle of the forest ecosystem.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 856: Rainfall Generation Using Markov Chain Models; Case Study: Central Aegean Sea Water doi: 10.3390/w10070856 Authors: Konstantinos Mammas Demetris Francis Lekkas Generalized linear models (GLMs) are popular tools for simulating daily rainfall series. However, the application of GLMs in drought-prone areas is challenging, as there is inconsistency in rainfall data during long and irregular periods. The majority of studies include regions where rainfall is well distributed during the year indicating the capabilities of the GLM approach. In many cases, the summer period has been discarded from the analyses, as it affects predictive performance of the model. In this paper, a two-stage (occurrence and amounts) GLM is used to simulate daily rainfall in two Greek islands. Summer (June–August) smooth adjustments have been proposed to model the low probability of rainfall during summer, and consequently, to improve the simulations during autumn. Preliminary results suggest that the fitted models simulate adequate rainfall occurrence and amounts in Milos and Naxos islands, and can be used as input in future hydrological applications.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 245: A Forecasting Model Based on Multi-Valued Neutrosophic Sets and Two-Factor, Third-Order Fuzzy Fluctuation Logical Relationships Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10070245 Authors: Hongjun Guan Jie He Aiwu Zhao Zongli Dai Shuang Guan Making predictions according to historical values has long been regarded as common practice by many researchers. However, forecasting solely based on historical values could lead to inevitable over-complexity and uncertainty due to the uncertainties inside, and the random influence outside, of the data. Consequently, finding the inherent rules and patterns of a time series by eliminating disturbances without losing important details has long been a research hotspot. In this paper, we propose a novel forecasting model based on multi-valued neutrosophic sets to find fluctuation rules and patterns of a time series. The contributions of the proposed model are: (1) using a multi-valued neutrosophic set (MVNS) to describe the fluctuation patterns of a time series, the model could represent the fluctuation trend of up, equal, and down with degrees of truth, indeterminacy, and falsity which significantly preserve details of the historical values; (2) measuring the similarities of different fluctuation patterns by the Hamming distance could avoid the confusion caused by incomplete information from limited samples; and (3) introducing another related time series as a secondary factor to avoid warp and deviation in inferring inherent rules of historical values, which could lead to more comprehensive rules for further forecasting. To evaluate the performance of the model, we explored the Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalization Weighted Stock Index (TAIEX) as the major factor we forecast, and the Dow Jones Index as the secondary factor to facilitate the predicting of the TAIEX. To show the universality of the model, we applied the proposed model to forecast the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index (SHSECI) as well.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 863: Research on Optimal Water Allocation Based on Water Rights Trade under the Principle of Water Demand Management: A Case Study in Bayannur City, China Water doi: 10.3390/w10070863 Authors: Lizhen Wang Yuefei Huang Yong Zhao Haihong Li Fan He Jiaqi Zhai Yongnan Zhu Qingming Wang Shan Jiang In water shortage regions, water rights trading would be much useful for increasing water use inefficiency through changing users’ water demand. In this study, a water optimal allocation modelling system is proposed by considering water rights trading and other governmental policies such as water prices, water savings and industrial policies. An agent-based model was developed to describe the behaviors and goals of individual agents using complex adaptive system theory, information transfers, and functional mechanisms between agents. The developed model was applied to Bayannur City, which suffers from severe water shortages. The water prices for different industries, the water rights transaction price, and the behaviors of various agents in 2020 were forecasted. The results reveal that the water resources optimal allocation model applied in this study can help realize the reasonable allocation of regional water resources under limited water supply. It is also valuable to guide the government in making water resources allocation policies and provide a practical reference for the formulation and adjustment of a water market transaction price.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 860: Simulation of Rain Garden Effects in Urbanized Area Based on Mike Flood Water doi: 10.3390/w10070860 Authors: Jiake Li Bei Zhang Yajiao Li Huaien Li An urban storm and surface water pollution model (MIKE FLOOD) was used to assess the impact of rain gardens on water quantity and quality for an urban area in Xi’an. After the rain garden measures were added, the results show that: (1) In the case where the total proportion of rain gardens was 2%, the overflow reduction rate was 6.74% to 65.23%, the number of overflow points reduction rate was 1.79% to 65.63%, the overload pipes reduction rate was 0% to 11.15%, the runoff reduction rate was 1.93% to 9.69%; (2) Under different rainfall conditions, the load reduction rate of suspended solids (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were 2.36% to 30.35%, 2.37% to 30.11%, 2.34% to 30.08%, and 2.32% to 31.35%, respectively; (3) The submersion ranges of different submerged depths and submerged durations were reduced by 0.30% to 64.18% and 7.12% to 100%, respectively. The statistics of the automatic modeling and intelligent analysis system (AMIAS) showed that the rain garden regulation range of the waterlogging risk area was 0.78% to 100%. The rain garden has a good control effect on urban storm runoff in terms of water volume and water quality, but as the rainfall recurrence interval increases, the control effect will decrease.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 244: Computing Zagreb Indices and Zagreb Polynomials for Symmetrical Nanotubes Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10070244 Authors: Zehui Shao Muhammad Kamran Siddiqui Mehwish Hussain Muhammad Topological indices are numbers related to sub-atomic graphs to allow quantitative structure-movement/property/danger connections. These topological indices correspond to some specific physico-concoction properties such as breaking point, security, strain vitality of chemical compounds. The idea of topological indices were set up in compound graph hypothesis in view of vertex degrees. These indices are valuable in the investigation of mitigating exercises of specific Nanotubes and compound systems. In this paper, we discuss Zagreb types of indices and Zagreb polynomials for a few Nanotubes covered by cycles.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 862: Spatio-Temporal Synthesis of Continuous Precipitation Series Using Vine Copulas Water doi: 10.3390/w10070862 Authors: Ana Claudia Callau Poduje Uwe Haberlandt Long and continuous series of precipitation in a high temporal resolution are required for several purposes, namely, urban hydrological applications, design of flash flood control structures, etc. As data of the temporally required resolution is often available for short period, it is advantageous to develop a precipitation model to allow for the generation of long synthetic series. A stochastic model is applied for this purpose, involving an alternating renewal process (ARP) describing a system consisting of spells that can take two possible states: wet or dry. Stochastic generation of rainfall time series using ARP models is straight forward for single site simulation. The aim of this work is to present an extension of the model to spatio-temporal simulations. The proposed methodology combines an occurrence model to define in which locations rainfall events occur simultaneously with a multivariate copula to generate synthetic events. Rainfall series registered in different regions of Germany are used to develop and test the methodology. Results are compared with an existing method in which long independent time series of rainfall events are transformed to spatially dependent ones by permutation of their order. The proposed model shows to perform as a satisfactory extension of the ARP model for multiple sites simulations.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 861: Characterization of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter in the Littoral Zones of Eutrophic Lakes Taihu and Hongze during the Algal Bloom Season Water doi: 10.3390/w10070861 Authors: Bingfa Chen Wei Huang Shuzhan Ma Muhua Feng Cheng Liu Xiaozhi Gu Kaining Chen Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is a key component with a critical role in the littoral zones of eutrophic shallow lakes; yet the characteristics of CDOM in these zones remain seldom systematically reported. In this study, the differences in sources, biogeochemical characteristics, and fates of CDOM between the littoral zones of eutrophic lakes Taihu (LLT; frequently occurring algal blooms and longer lake residence time) and Hongze (LLH; no obvious algal blooms and shorter residence time) were compared during the algal bloom season using ultraviolet-visible spectra and excitation and emission matrix spectroscopy combined with parallel factor analysis. Three humic-like fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM) components (C1, C3, and C4) and one protein-like component (C2) were identified. Results showed that FDOM components were dominated by protein-like fluorescent substances in LLT, and humic-like materials in LLH, respectively. The CDOM in LLT had a lower relative aromaticity and molecular weight, humification degree and a higher autotrophic productivity because of algal blooms. Furthermore, CDOM depletion rates in LLT were higher than those in LLH due to a longer lake residence time in LLT. In addition, CDOM shifted from high molecular weight to low molecular weight as the humification degree decreased during the CDOM depletion process. This comparative study showed that algal blooms and lake residence time were the significant factors for distinguishing characteristics of CDOM between littoral zones of shallow lakes on a similar trophic level. This study provides field-based knowledge for remote sensing CDOM measurement and serves as a reference for lakeshore aquatic environmental management.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 857: Cost-Optimal Flexibilization of Drinking Water Pumping and Treatment Plants Water doi: 10.3390/w10070857 Authors: Britta Zimmermann Hedda Gardian Kurt Rohrig This paper examines potential cost savings attained through the flexible operation of water treatment plants and drinking water pumping and the benefits gained by investing in extended water storage capacities that enhance flexibility. An existing plant in South Germany serves as an example. Mixed-integer linear programming is used to model the plant and the electricity procurement on the German spot market while ensuring the security of supply. Cost optimization considering the different cost components reveals potential cost savings through flexible operation. The paper evaluates the benefits of building additional water reservoirs and rates the financial effects of the measures used to enhance the flexibility of water pumping and treatment plants.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 859: Functional Channel Membranes for Drinking Water Production Water doi: 10.3390/w10070859 Authors: Alfredo Gonzalez-Perez Kenneth M. Persson Frank Lipnizki Drinking water production utilities rely on, among other processes, different filtration technologies like bank filtration and slow sand filters, as well as pressure, roughing, or rapid gravity filters that, together with low- and high-pressure operating membranes, help to ensure high quality drinking water for millions of customers all over the world. The global market of membrane separation technologies is projected to reach USD 11.95 Billion by 2021, encompassing water treatment, wastewater treatment, food and beverage processing, industrial gas processing, and pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. In addition to the current, polymer-based membrane separation technologies, new promising strategies using embedded functional motifs, water and ion channels, are expected to play a key role in the next generation of membranes for separation purposes, which are of paramount relevance for drinking water production utilities. In this review, we summarize the different strategies for developing new advanced membranes with a wide variety of functional motifs, like biological and artificial water and ion channels, and their possible impact on drinking water applications.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 970: Water and Nitrogen Productivity of Potato Growth in Desert Areas under Low-Discharge Drip Irrigation Water doi: 10.3390/w10080970 Authors: Pavel Trifonov Naftali Lazarovitch Gilboa Arye Narrow profit margins, resource conservation issues and environmental concerns are the main driving forces to improve fertilizer uptake, especially for potatoes. Potatoes are a high value crop with a shallow, inefficient root system and high fertilizer rate requirements. Of all essential nutrients, nitrogen (N) is often limiting to potato production. A major concern in potato production is to minimize N leaching from the root zone. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to examine the potato crop characteristics under drip irrigation with low-discharge (0.6 L h−1) and to determine the optimal combination of irrigation (40, 60, 80, and 100%) and fertigation (0, 50, and 100%) doses. In this study, the 80% (438.6 mm) irrigation dose and a 50% (50 mg N L−1) fertigation dose (W80%F50%) showed that these doses are sufficient for optimal potato yield (about 40 ton ha−1) in conjunction with water and fertilizer savings. Moreover, this treatment did not exhibit any qualitative changes in the potato tuber compared to the 100% treatments. When considering water productivity and yield, one may select a harsher irrigation regime if the available agricultural soils are not a limiting factor. Thus, higher yields can be obtained with lower irrigation and fertigation doses and a larger area.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 967: Modeling the Runoff Reduction Effect of Low Impact Development Installations in an Industrial Area, South Korea Water doi: 10.3390/w10080967 Authors: Jungho Kim Jungho Lee Yangho Song Heechan Han Jingul Joo Low-impact development (LID) methods are an important approach to storm-water mitigation. Modeling the effects of these installations using rainfall-runoff simulations can provide useful data for future design and implementation. In this study, we used the Storm Water Management Model to assess seven types of LID installations (vegetated areas, garden pots, tree filter boxes, permeable pavement, infiltration ditches, rain barrels, and infiltration blocks) at a South Korean industrial site. Using both short- and long-term simulation periods and distinct sub-basins within the study site, we were able to assess LID performance at the combined watershed, as well as at one LID facility. All LID types showed reasonable performance for storm-water runoff reduction, though rain barrels were the least effective. The effect of rainfall runoff reduction on LID facilities is changed according to rainfall depth (annual precipitation, monthly rainfall), the ratio of drainage area and facility capacity. We concluded that SWMM-LID modeling can effectively support the management of LID installations by providing additional design and planning data to better mitigate the effects of storm-water runoff.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 302: Fermion Scattering in a CPT-Even Lorentz Violation Quantum Electrodynamics Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080302 Authors: Frederico Santos Manoel Ferreira In this work, we reassess two known processes of Quantum Electrodynamics involving electrons and muons. The photon propagator is modified by a CPT-even Lorentz-violating (LV) tensor, while fermion lines and the vertex interaction are not altered. Using the Feynman rules, the associated cross sections for unpolarized scatterings are evaluated, revealing the usual energy dependence and Lorentz-violating contributions that induce space anisotropy. A possible route to constraining the LV coefficients is presented and the results properly commented.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 301: Evaluating Water Use Efficiency in China’s Western Provinces Based on a Slacks-Based Measure (SBM)-Undesirable Window Model and a Malmquist Productivity Index Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080301 Authors: Yuyan Luo Lu Yin Yong Qin Zhong Wang Yanfeng Gong This paper evaluated the water use efficiency in 12 Chinese western provinces from 2005 to 2015. Based on data availability and the index selection rationality and the slacks-based measure (SBM)-undesirable Window analysis model and the Malmquist productivity index, the water resource inputs and outputs were measured to analyze water use efficiency. Total investment in fixed assets for the whole society and total water, made up of total agricultural water, total industrial water, and total domestic water, were used as the input indexes, and regional GDP and waste water discharge were the output indexes, with the waste water discharge being regarded as an undesirable output. The data from different years and different provinces in the same period, and data from the same year and the same provinces in different periods were compared in order to derive the water resource efficiency and technical changes over time and space. It was found that the total water resource factor productivity in the 12 provinces grew slowly in the study period, that water resource technical progress positively affected water use efficiency, and that a lack of technical efficiency restricted water use efficiency growth. Several suggestions are given to optimize water use efficiency in the 12 provinces. The research findings and suggestions provide valuable reference for studies in related fields.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1016: Improved Mixed Distribution Model Considering Historical Extraordinary Floods under Changing Environment Water doi: 10.3390/w10081016 Authors: Jianzhu Li Yanchen Zheng Yimin Wang Ting Zhang Ping Feng Bernard A. Engel Historical extraordinary floods are an important factor in non-stationary flood frequency analysis and they may occur at any time, regardless of whether the environment is changing or not. Based on mixed distribution (MD) modeling, this paper proposed an improved mixed distribution (IMD) model to consider the discontinuity and non-stationarity of flood samples simultaneously, which adds historical extraordinary floods in both sub-series divided by a change point. As a case study, the annual maximum peak discharge and volume series of Ankang hydrological station, located in the upper Hanjiang River Basin of China, were selected to identify non-stationarity by using the variation diagnosis system. MD and IMD were used to fit the flood characteristic series and a genetic algorithm was employed to estimate the optimal parameters. Compared with the design flood values fitted by the stationary Pearson type-III distribution, the results computed by IMD decreased at low return periods and increased at high return periods, with the difference varying from −6.67% to 7.19%. The results highlighted that although the design flood values of IMD are slightly larger than those of MD with different return periods, IMD provided a better result than MD. IMD provides a new perspective for non-stationary flood frequency analysis.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1011: Water Compensation and Its Implication of the Three Gorges Reservoir for the River-Lake System in the Middle Yangtze River, China Water doi: 10.3390/w10081011 Authors: Junhong Zhang Luojie Feng Lu Chen Dangwei Wang Minglong Dai Wensheng Xu Tao Yan Dam construction is an important means to improve water use efficiency and the aquatic environment. However, the flow regulation of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) in the middle Yangtze River has attracted much attention because the severe drought occurred in the river-lake system downstream of the TGR. In this paper, the Dongting Lake was selected as a case study in order to detect the possible relationship between the flow regulation of the TGR and the extreme drought in the river-lake system based on a coupled hydrodynamic model. The results not only confirmed the significant role of the TGR to relieve drought in the river-lake system, but also indicated that the outflow of the TGR and the hydraulic gradient between the Zhicheng to Chenglingji stations were the crucial factors to affect the water exchange between the rivers and the Dongting Lake. The adjustment of hydraulic gradient within a proper range during the water compensation of the TGR will be an effective measure to improve the water exchange and water environment in the river-lake system. These findings present the quantitative influence of these important factors on the water exchange between rivers and lakes and provide a scientific reference for environmental and ecological management of other river-lake systems.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1009: A Philosophical Justification for a Novel Analysis-Supported, Stakeholder-Driven Participatory Process for Water Resources Planning and Decision Making Water doi: 10.3390/w10081009 Authors: David R. Purkey Marisa Isabel Escobar Arias Vishal K. Mehta Laura Forni Nicholas J. Depsky David N. Yates Walter N. Stevenson Two trends currently shape water resources planning and decision making: reliance on participatory stakeholder processes to evaluate water management options; and growing recognition that deterministic approaches to the evaluation of options may not be appropriate. These trends pose questions regarding the proper role of information, analysis, and expertise in the inherently social and political process of negotiating agreements and implementing interventions in the water sector. The question of how one might discover the best option in the face of deep uncertainty is compelling. The question of whether the best option even exists to be discovered is more vexing. While such existential questions are not common in the water management community, they are not new to political theory. This paper explores early classical writing related to issues of knowledge and governance as captured in the work of Plato and Aristotle; and then attempts to place a novel, analysis-supported, stakeholder-driven water resources planning and decision making practice within this philosophical discourse, making reference to current decision theory. Examples from the Andes and California, where this practice has been used to structure participation by key stakeholders in water management planning and decision-making, argue that when a sufficiently diverse group of stakeholders is engaged in the decision making process expecting the discovery of the perfect option may not be warranted. Simply discovering a consensus option may be more realistic. The argument touches upon the diversity of preferences, model credibility and the visualization of model output required to explore the implications of various management options across a broad range of inherently unknowable future conditions.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 304: No-Reference Image Blur Assessment Based on Response Function of Singular Values Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080304 Authors: Shanqing Zhang Pengcheng Li Xianghua Xu Li Li Ching-Chun Chang Blur is an important factor affecting the image quality. This paper presents an efficient no-reference (NR) image blur assessment method based on a response function of singular values. For an image, the grayscale image is computed to the acquire spatial information. In the meantime, the gradient map is computed to acquire the shape information, and the saliency map can be obtained by using scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT). Then, the grayscale image, the gradient map, and the saliency map are divided into blocks of the same size. The blocks of the gradient map are converted into discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients, from which the response function of singular values (RFSV) are generated. The sum of the RFSV are then utilized to characterize the image blur. The variance of the grayscale image and the DCT domain entropy of the gradient map are used to reduce the impact of the image content. The SIFT-dependent weights are calculated in the saliency map, which are assigned to the image blocks. Finally, the blur score is the normalized sum of the RFSV. Extensive experiments are conducted on four synthetic databases and two real blur databases. The experimental results indicate that the blur scores produced by our method are highly correlated with the subjective evaluations. Furthermore, the proposed method is superior to six state-of-the-art methods.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 327: Different Forms of Triangular Neutrosophic Numbers, De-Neutrosophication Techniques, and their Applications Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080327 Authors: Avishek Chakraborty Sankar Prasad Mondal Ali Ahmadian Norazak Senu Shariful Alam Soheil Salahshour In this paper, we introduce the concept of neutrosophic number from different viewpoints. We define different types of linear and non-linear generalized triangular neutrosophic numbers which are very important for uncertainty theory. We introduced the de-neutrosophication concept for neutrosophic number for triangular neutrosophic numbers. This concept helps us to convert a neutrosophic number into a crisp number. The concepts are followed by two application, namely in imprecise project evaluation review technique and route selection problem.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1048: The Stability of Tailings Dams under Dry-Wet Cycles: A Case Study in Luonan, China Water doi: 10.3390/w10081048 Authors: Xingang Wang Hongbin Zhan Jiading Wang Ping Li Instability of tailings dams may result in loss of life and property and serious environmental pollution. The position of the tailings dam’s phreatic line varies due to continuously changing factors such as rainfall infiltration and discharge of tailings recycling water. Consequently, tailings dams undergo dry-wet (DW) cycles, accompanied by the appearance of a hydro-fluctuation belt. With dynamic development of the physical and chemical properties of tailings sand in the hydro-fluctuation belt, the stability of tailings dams is uncertain. In this study, direct shear tests were performed on the tailings sand collected from a tailings dam in Luonan, through which the shear strength parameters of tailings sand with DW cycles were obtained. Then, a method that efficiently calculates the phreatic line of the tailings dam under DW cycles was proposed. In addition, based on laboratory tests and the proposed phreatic line calculation method, we used a finite element program to evaluate the stability of the tailings dam that experienced different DW cycles. The calculated results showed that: (i) the damage effects of DW cycles gradually weakens as the number of DW cycles increases. (ii) With the increasing of DW cycles, the maximum displacement of the tailings dam increases from 0.5 mm to 22 mm, and the area of maximum displacement expanded mainly at the toe of the tailings dam and at the front edge of the hydro-fluctuation belt. (iii) The tailings dam safety factor decreases continuously with increasing DW cycles. This study may provide a novel method for analyzing the stability of tailings dams under different DW cycles as well as an important reference for improving tailings dam stability.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 328: Thermodynamic Response of Beams on Winkler Foundation Irradiated by Moving Laser Pulses Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080328 Authors: Yuxin Sun Shoubin Liu Zhangheng Rao Yuhang Li Jialing Yang In this paper, the exact analytical solutions are developed for the thermodynamic behavior of an Euler-Bernoulli beam resting on an elastic foundation and exposed to a time decaying laser pulse that scans over the beam with a uniform velocity. The governing equations, namely the heat conduction equation and the vibration equation are solved using the Green’s function approach. The temporal and special distributions of temperature, deflection, strain, and the energy absorbed by the elastic foundation are calculated. The effects of the laser motion speed, the modulus of elastic foundation reaction, and the laser pulse duration time are studied in detail.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1054: Understanding the Mississippi River Delta as a Coupled Natural-Human System: Research Methods, Challenges, and Prospects Water doi: 10.3390/w10081054 Authors: Nina S.-N. Lam Y. Jun Xu Kam-biu Liu David E. Dismukes Margaret Reams R. Kelley Pace Yi Qiang Siddhartha Narra Kenan Li Thomas A. Bianchette Heng Cai Lei Zou Volodymyr Mihunov A pressing question facing the Mississippi River Delta (MRD), like many deltaic communities around the world, is: Will the system be sustainable in the future given the threats of sea level rise, land loss, natural disasters, and depleting natural resources? An integrated coastal modeling framework that incorporates both the natural and human components of these communities, and their interactions with both pulse and press stressors, is needed to help improve our understanding of coastal resilience. However, studying the coastal communities using a coupled natural-human system (CNH) approach is difficult. This paper presents a CNH modeling framework to analyze coastal resilience. We first describe such a CNH modeling framework through a case study of the Lower Mississippi River Delta in coastal Louisiana, USA. Persistent land loss and associated population decrease in the study region, a result of interplays between human and natural factors, are a serious threat to the sustainability of the region. Then, the paper describes the methods and findings of three studies on how community resilience of the MRD system is measured, how land loss is modeled using an artificial neural network-cellular automata approach, and how a system dynamic modeling approach is used to simulate population change in the region. The paper concludes by highlighting lessons learned from these studies and suggesting the path forward for analysis of coupled natural-human systems.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1055: Small Microplastic Sampling in Water: Development of an Encapsulated Filtration Device Water doi: 10.3390/w10081055 Authors: Robin Lenz Matthias Labrenz A variety of microplastic sampling instrumentation is currently used for water pollution studies. Plankton net-based approaches have been the most adopted techniques for water column and surface sampling. When applied to microplastics (MP) in the lower µm size range these methods, however, introduce non-negligible risks of sample contamination and loss due to instrument and procedure design. Based on the first principles of systems engineering design we have developed a mobile sampling platform for field application that fulfils the needs of producing usable MP samples with a lower size limit of 10 µm using an encapsulated flow-through filtration concept. Here, we explain the requirements, development, and construction of the device for others to replicate and improve.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 331: Applications of Neutrosophic Bipolar Fuzzy Sets in HOPE Foundation for Planning to Build a Children Hospital with Different Types of Similarity Measures Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080331 Authors: Raja Muhammad Hashim Muhammad Gulistan Florentin Smarandache In this paper we provide an application of neutrosophic bipolar fuzzy sets in daily life’s problem related with HOPE foundation that is planning to build a children hospital, which is the main theme of this paper. For it we first develop the theory of neutrosophic bipolar fuzzy sets which is a generalization of bipolar fuzzy sets. After giving the definition we introduce some basic operation of neutrosophic bipolar fuzzy sets and focus on weighted aggregation operators in terms of neutrosophic bipolar fuzzy sets. We define neutrosophic bipolar fuzzy weighted averaging ( N B FWA ) and neutrosophic bipolar fuzzy ordered weighted averaging ( N B FOWA ) operators. Next we introduce different kinds of similarity measures of neutrosophic bipolar fuzzy sets. Finally as an application we give an algorithm for the multiple attribute decision making problems under the neutrosophic bipolar fuzzy environment by using the different kinds of neutrosophic bipolar fuzzy weighted/fuzzy ordered weighted aggregation operators with a numerical example related with HOPE foundation.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1059: Experimental Studies on the Stability Assessment of a Levee Using Reinforced Soil Based on a Biopolymer Water doi: 10.3390/w10081059 Authors: Dongwoo Ko Joongu Kang Cement and other similar compounds have been used to prevent a levee breach during a flood. However, the demand is increasing for eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives to replace the conventional method for levee stabilization and strengthening. To improve the durability and environmental friendliness of a levee, the Andong River Experiment Center applied a biopolymer, which is a new eco-friendly substance, to fabricate a levee model, and conducted a hydraulic model experiment to evaluate the reliability and stability of the new type of levee. An image analysis was applied to calculate the scale of the breaches of the levee slopes. Based on the experimental results obtained, the characteristics of the breach between an earthen levee and the proposed levee were compared. The stability of the levee body was also evaluated according to the thickness of the new substance. The ultimate aim of this study was to derive the optimal conditions by verifying the performance and effectiveness of the new substance in terms of levee breach factors such as overflow, seepage, or piping in a series of hydraulic experiments. In the future, the field application of these optimal conditions will be verified through a real-scale experiment.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1056: Simplified Lake Surface Area Method for the Minimum Ecological Water Level of Lakes and Wetlands Water doi: 10.3390/w10081056 Authors: Songpu Shang Songhao Shang The determination of the rational minimum ecological water level is the base for the protection of ecosystems in shrinking lakes and wetlands. Based on the lake surface area method, a simplified lake surface area method was proposed to define the minimum ecological lake level from the lake level-logarithm of the surface area curve. The curve slope at the minimum ecological lake level is the ratio of the maximum lake storage to the maximum surface area. For most practical cases when the curve cannot be expressed as a simple analytical function, the minimum ecological lake level can be determined numerically using the weighted sum method for an equivalent multi-objective optimization model that balances ecosystem protection and water use. This method requires fewer data of lake morphology and is simple to compute. Therefore, it is more convenient to use this method in the assessment of the ecological lake level. The proposed method was used to determine the minimum ecological water level for one freshwater lake, one saltwater lake, and one wetland in China. The results can be used in the lake ecosystem protection planning and the rational use of water resources in the lake or wetland basins.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 332: On the Distinguishing Number of Functigraphs Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080332 Authors: Muhammad Fazil Muhammad Murtaza Zafar Ullah Usman Ali Imran Javaid Let G 1 and G 2 be disjoint copies of a graph G and g : V ( G 1 ) → V ( G 2 ) be a function. A functigraph F G consists of the vertex set V ( G 1 ) ∪ V ( G 2 ) and the edge set E ( G 1 ) ∪ E ( G 2 ) ∪ { u v : g ( u ) = v } . In this paper, we extend the study of distinguishing numbers of a graph to its functigraph. We discuss the behavior of distinguishing number in passing from G to F G and find its sharp lower and upper bounds. We also discuss the distinguishing number of functigraphs of complete graphs and join graphs.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 333: A Multi-Level Privacy-Preserving Approach to Hierarchical Data Based on Fuzzy Set Theory Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080333 Authors: Jinyan Wang Guoqing Cai Chen Liu Jingli Wu Xianxian Li Nowadays, more and more applications are dependent on storage and management of semi-structured information. For scientific research and knowledge-based decision-making, such data often needs to be published, e.g., medical data is released to implement a computer-assisted clinical decision support system. Since this data contains individuals’ privacy, they must be appropriately anonymized before to be released. However, the existing anonymization method based on l-diversity for hierarchical data may cause a serious similarity attack, and cannot protect data privacy very well. In this paper, we utilize fuzzy sets to divide levels for sensitive numerical and categorical attribute values uniformly (a categorical attribute value can be converted into a numerical attribute value according to its frequency of occurrences), and then transform the value levels to sensitivity levels. The privacy model ( α l e v h , k)-anonymity for hierarchical data with multi-level sensitivity is proposed. Furthermore, we design a privacy-preserving approach to achieve this privacy model. Experiment results demonstrate that our approach is obviously superior to existing anonymous approach in hierarchical data in terms of utility and security.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1071: Correction: Oubennaceur, K., et al. Uncertainty Analysis of a Two-Dimensional Hydraulic Model. Water 2018, 10, 272 Water doi: 10.3390/w10081071 Authors: Khalid Oubennaceur Karem Chokmani Miroslav Nastev Marion Tanguy Sebastien Raymond The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...]

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1076: Operating Cost Reduction of In-line Coagulation/Ultrafiltration Membrane Process Attributed to Coagulation Condition Optimization for Irreversible Fouling Control Water doi: 10.3390/w10081076 Authors: Sung Soo Yoo This study examined the optimum coagulation conditions for reducing irreversible fouling during the in-line coagulation/ultrafiltration (UF) membrane process and assessed the decrease in operating cost. The coagulation conditions that generated charge-neutralization, sweep-flocculation, and under-dosing mechanisms were obtained by a jar-test, and a pilot-scale in-line coagulation/UF membrane process was operated under the coagulation conditions. Charge-neutralization and sweep-flocculation mechanisms reduced irreversible fouling effectively, and the under-dosing mechanism was able to reduce irreversible fouling only when flocs of a certain size or larger were formed. This revealed that floc size was a more important factor in reducing irreversible fouling than floc structure, and once initial cake layers were created by flocs of a fixed size, the structure of formed cake layers had only a minor effect on irreversible fouling. Regarding reduction in operating cost, 0.5 mg/L and 3 h, which were necessary to produce an under-dosing mechanism, were deemed the optimum coagulant dosage and coagulant injection time, respectively, to reduce irreversible fouling. In order to analyze the operating cost reduction effect, a pilot plant was operated under optimum operating conditions, and the total operating cost was approximately 11.2% lower than without in-line coagulation.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1075: Abundant and Rare Bacterioplankton in Freshwater Lakes Subjected to Different Levels of Tourism Disturbances Water doi: 10.3390/w10081075 Authors: Congcong Jiao Dayong Zhao Rui Huang Xinyi Cao Jin Zeng Yuqing Lin Wenjie Zhao Anthropogenic disturbances have a negative impact on lake ecosystems, such as water environmental degradation. Bacterioplankton communities are essential components in lakes and consist of a few abundant species and several rare taxa. However, little is known about the community diversity and composition of abundant and rare bacterioplankton subjected to different levels of anthropogenic disturbances. In this study, water samples were collected from twelve freshwater lakes located around the city of Nanjing, China. Both Illumina MiSeq sequencing and multivariate statistical analysis were employed to determine the bacterioplankton community composition and its relation to environmental variables. The results indicated that tourism disturbances (mostly sewage discharge and tourist activities) altered the community structure of both abundant and rare bacterioplankton by changing water physicochemical characteristics. Alpha diversity of both abundant and rare taxa did not differ among different anthropogenic disturbance lakes (p > 0.05). Rare bacterial taxa possessed higher alpha diversity than abundant taxa, though rare taxa occupied a tiny portion of abundance (4.5%). Redundancy analysis demonstrated that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was the most significant correlation variable for constraining the variation of abundant taxa, whereas total phosphorus (TP), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N), and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) were the most dominant environmental factors constraining the rare taxa, indicating abundant and rare taxa may have different ecological niches.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1074: Applicability Assessment of Estimation Methods for Baseflow Recession Constants in Small Forest Catchments Water doi: 10.3390/w10081074 Authors: Hyunje Yang Hyung Tae Choi Honggeun Lim In South Korea, since small forest catchments are located upstream of most river basins, the baseflow from these catchments is important for a clean water supply to downstream areas. Baseflow recession analysis is widely recognized as a valuable tool for estimating the baseflow component of the stream hydrograph. However, few studies have applied this tool to small forest catchments. So, this study was conducted to assess the applicability of the recession analysis methods proposed in previous studies. The data used were long-term rainfall-runoff data from 1982 to 2011 in the Gwangneung coniferous (GC) and deciduous (GD) forest catchment in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. For the applicability assessment, six recession constant estimation methods, which were used by previous studies, were selected. The recession constants of the GC and GD catchments were calculated, and applicability assessments were conducted by comparing the recession predictions and baseflow separations. As a result, the recession constants for GC and GD were 0.8480 and 0.9235, respectively. This clear difference may be due to the different forest cover in each area. The correlation regression line, AR(1) model, and the Vogel and Kroll method showed lower error rates and appropriate baseflow indexes compared with other methods.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 335: Finite Element Study of a Threaded Fastening: The Case of Surgical Screws in Bone Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080335 Authors: J. A. López-Campos A. Segade E. Casarejos J. R. Fernández J. A. Vilán P. Izquierdo This paper studies the stress state of a threaded fastening by using Finite Element (FE) models, applied to surgical screws in cortical bone. There is a general interest in studying the stress states induced in the different elements of a joint caused by the thread contact. Analytical models were an initial approach, and later FE models allowed detailed studies of the complex phenomena related to these joints. Different studies have evaluated standard threaded joints in machinery and structures, being the thread symmetric. However, surgical screws employ asymmetric thread geometry, selected to improve the stress level generated in the bone. Despite the interest and widespread use, there is scarce documentation on the actual effect of this thread type. In this work, we discuss the results provided by FE models with detailed descriptions of the contacts comparing differences caused by the materials of the joint, the thread geometry and the thread’s three-dimensional helical effects. The complex contacts at the threaded surfaces cause intense demand on computational resources that often limits the studies including these joints. We analyze the results provided by one commercial software package to simplify the threaded joints. The comparison with detailed FE models allows a definition of the level of uncertainty and possible limitations of this type of simplifications, and helps in making suitable choices for complex applications.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1073: Laboratory Studies on Nearshore Density-Driven Exchange Flow over a Partly Vegetated Slope Water doi: 10.3390/w10081073 Authors: Zhenghua Gu Hao-Che Ho Zijing Wang Ying-Tien Lin Density-driven exchange flows, which are important to the transport of nutrients, pollutants and chemical substances without external forcing, were studied through laboratory lock-exchange experiments. Rigid and emergent cylinders were placed in one of two reservoirs in a partitioned wedge-shaped tank to simulate a partly vegetated slope. The experimental results found that cylinders placed on only one side of the tank lead to different current speeds in the current head and tail that subsequently create various flow patterns and significantly affect the downslope current motions. By fitting with the experimental data, some unknown coefficients can be obtained in the theoretical formulae that are able to predict the intrusion length and exchange flowrate in real field systems. Compared to the flat bed cases, the total exchange discharge over a steep slope decreases by up to 4% for vegetation distributed in shallow water and increases by 14% for vegetation distributed in deeper regions. These results suggest that bed slope and vegetation distribution are crucial to the density-driven exchange flows in the flushing of nearshore regions.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1072: Bacterial Productivity in a Ferrocyanide-Contaminated Aquifer at a Nuclear Waste Site Water doi: 10.3390/w10081072 Authors: Andrew Plymale Jacqueline Wells Emily Graham Odeta Qafoku Shelby Brooks Brady Lee This study examined potential microbial impacts of cyanide contamination in an aquifer affected by ferrocyanide disposal from nuclear waste processing at the US Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in south-eastern Washington State (USA). We examined bacterial productivity and microbial cell density in groundwater (GW) from wells with varying levels of recent and historical total cyanide concentrations. We used tritiated leucine (3H-Leu) uptake as a proxy for heterotrophic, aerobic bacterial productivity in the GW, and we measured cell density via nucleic acid staining followed by epifluorescence microscopy. Bacterial productivity varied widely, both among wells that had high historical and recent total cyanide (CN−) concentrations and among wells that had low total CN− values. Standing microbial biomass varied less, and was generally greater than that observed in a similar study of uranium-contaminated hyporheic-zone groundwater at the Hanford Site. Our results showed no correlation between 3H-Leu uptake and recent or historical cyanide concentrations in the wells, consistent with what is known about cyanide toxicity with respect to iron speciation. However, additional sampling of the CN− affected groundwater, both in space and time, would be needed to confirm that the CN− contamination is not affecting the GW biota.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1079: Assessing Water Scarcity Using the Water Poverty Index (WPI) in Golestan Province of Iran Water doi: 10.3390/w10081079 Authors: Masoud Jafari Shalamzari Wanchang Zhang Population growth and rising water demand, climate change, severe droughts, and land-use changes are among the top severe issues in Iran. Water management in this country is sectoral and disintegrated. Each authority evaluates water based on its final intention and there is no commonplace indicator for evaluation programs. In this research, we used the Water Poverty Index (WPI) to map the status of water scarcity in a north-eastern province of Iran. Water poverty was measured based on five components of “Resources”, “Access”, “Capacity”, “Use”, and “Environment”. The scores on each component were then aggregated using the weighted multiplicative function, assuming equal weights for all components. The overall WPI was evaluated to be 41.1, signaling an alarming and serious water poverty in the study area. Based on the results, Azadshahr (29.1) and Gorgan (61.6) districts had the worst and the best conditions among all cases, respectively. To better understand the importance of WPI components, four weighting alternatives were used; however, none of them resulted in a tangible improvement of WPI index. The cross-correlation between the components was also evaluated, with Access and Capacity showing significant results. Leaving out “Capacity”, however, reduced WPI by 8.1. In total, “Access”, “Capacity”, and “Use” had the highest correlation with WPI, implying that any attempt to improve water poverty in the province must firstly tackle these issues. This study showed that WPI is an effective indicator of water scarcity assessment and could be used to make priorities for policy-making and water management.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1077: Is Overgrazing Really Influencing Soil Erosion? Water doi: 10.3390/w10081077 Authors: Ionut Cristi Nicu Soil erosion is a serious problem spread over a variety of climatic areas around the world. The main purpose of this paper is to produce gully erosion susceptibility maps using different statistical models, such as frequency ratio (FR) and information value (IV), in a catchment from the northeastern part of Romania, covering a surface of 550 km2. In order to do so, a total number of 677 gullies were identified and randomly divided into training (80%) and validation (20%) datasets. In total, 10 conditioning factors were used to assess the gully susceptibility index (GSI); namely, elevation, precipitations, slope angle, curvature, lithology, drainage density, topographic wetness index, landforms, aspect, and distance from rivers. As a novelty, overgrazing was added as a conditioning factor. The final GSI maps were classified into four susceptibility classes: low, medium, high, and very high. In order to evaluate the two models prediction rate, the AUC (area under the curve) method was used. It has been observed that adding overgrazing as a contributing factor in calculating GSI does not considerably change the final output. Better predictability (0.87) and success rate (0.89) curves were obtained with the IV method, which proved to be more robust, unlike FR method, with 0.79 value for both predictability and success rate curves. When using sheepfolds, the value decreases by 0.01 in the case of the FR method, and by 0.02 in the case of the success rate curve for the IV method. However, this does not prove the fact that overgrazing is not influencing or accelerating soil erosion. A multi-temporal analysis of soil erosion is needed; this represents a future working hypothesis.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 339: A Three-Dimensional Constrained Ordered Weighted Averaging Aggregation Problem with Lower Bounded Variables Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080339 Authors: Yi-Fang Chen Hui-Chin Tang We consider the constrained ordered weighted averaging (OWA) aggregation problem with a single constraint and lower bounded variables. For the three-dimensional constrained OWA aggregation problem with lower bounded variables, we present four types of solution(x1',x2',x3') depending on the number of zero elements. According to the computerized experiment we perform, the lower bounds can affect the solution(x1',x2',x3') types, thereby affecting the optimal solution of the three-dimensional constrained OWA aggregation problem with lower bounded variables.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1078: A Review of Demand Models for Water Systems in Buildings including A Bayesian Approach Water doi: 10.3390/w10081078 Authors: Ling-Tim Wong Kwok-Wai Mui Instantaneous flow rate estimation is essential for sizing pipes and other components of water systems in buildings. Although various demand models have been developed in line with design and technology trends, most water supply system designs are routinely and substantially over-sized to keep failure risks to a minimum. Three major types of demand models from the literature are reviewed in this paper: (1) deterministic approach; (2) probabilistic approach; and (3) demand time-series approach. As findings show some widely used model estimates are much larger than the field measurements, this paper proposes a Bayesian approach to bridge the gap between model-based and field-measured values for the probable maximum simultaneous water demand. The proposed approach is flexible to adopt estimates as its prior values from a wide range of existing water demand models for determining the Bayesian coefficients for reference models, codes, and design standards with relevant measurement data. The approach provides a useful method not only for evaluating the corresponding demand values from various design references, but also for responding to the call for sustainable building design.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1106: Comprehensive Evaluation of Water Resource Security: Case Study from Luoyang City, China Water doi: 10.3390/w10081106 Authors: Guanghua Dong Juqin Shen Yizhen Jia Fuhua Sun The security of water resources is the core content and ultimate goal of urban water resource management agencies. The management of water resources is directly related to the needs of urban residents’ lives and the area’s socio-economic development. How to determine the effective evaluation indicators and methods is an important prerequisite to solving the water resource security problem. This study took Luoyang City as the research area and constructed a water resource security evaluation index system based on pressure-state-response framework. An analytic hierarchy process and entropy weight method were used to determine the index weight. A set pair analysis model was then introduced to evaluate the security of water resources in Luoyang from 2006 to 2016. The results of this study show that the standard of water resource security generally improved in Luoyang in the latter years of the study period. From 2006 to 2008, Luoyang was graded at the Insecurity Level. This compares to a slightly improved grading of Critical Security Level from 2009 to 2016 (except for 2013). However, the overall grade is still low. The pressure on the Luoyang water resource system mainly comes from the development of the urban socio-economy, which in turn has caused problems for both the quantity and quality of water resources. Therefore, a series of countermeasures have been introduced as a means of improving the water resource security of Luoyang, and these measures have achieved certain results. However, further improvements to the efficiency of water resource utilization and strengthening the management and protection of water resources remain necessary.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 349: Optimizing the High-Level Maintenance Planning Problem of the Electric Multiple Unit Train Using a Modified Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080349 Authors: Jianping Wu Boliang Lin Hui Wang Xuhui Zhang Zhongkai Wang Jiaxi Wang Electric multiple unit (EMU) trains’ high-level maintenance planning is a discrete problem in mathematics. The high-level maintenance process of the EMU trains consumes plenty of time. When the process is undertaken during peak periods of the passenger flow, the transportation demand may not be fully satisfied due to the insufficient supply of trains. In contrast, if the process is undergone in advance, extra costs will be incurred. Based on the practical requirements of high-level maintenance, a 0–1 programming model is proposed. To simplify the description of the model, candidate sets of delivery dates, i.e., time windows, are generated according to the historical data and maintenance regulations. The constraints of the model include maintenance regulations, the passenger transportation demand, and capacities of workshop. The objective function is to minimize the mileage losses of all EMU trains. Moreover, a modified particle swarm algorithm is developed for solving the problem. Finally, a real-world case study of Shanghai Railway is conducted to demonstrate the proposed method. Computational results indicate that the (approximate) optimal solution can be obtained successfully by our method and the proposed method significantly reduces the solution time to 500 s.

Description: Symmetry, Vol. 10, Pages 348: Sharp Bounds on the Higher Order Schwarzian Derivatives for Janowski Classes Symmetry doi: 10.3390/sym10080348 Authors: Nak Eun Cho Virendra Kumar V. Ravichandran Higher order Schwarzian derivatives for normalized univalent functions were first considered by Schippers, and those of convex functions were considered by Dorff and Szynal. In the present investigation, higher order Schwarzian derivatives for the Janowski star-like and convex functions are considered, and sharp bounds for the first three consecutive derivatives are investigated. The results obtained in this paper generalize several existing results in this direction.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1102: Conditions Influencing Municipal Strategy-Making for Sustainable Urban Water Management: Assessment of Three Swedish Municipalities Water doi: 10.3390/w10081102 Authors: Erik Glaas Mattias Hjerpe Robert Jonsson Strategy-making is key for realizing sustainable urban water management. Though general barriers and factors for change have been identified, fewer studies have assessed how different conditions influence municipalities’ strategy-making ability and, thus, how to plan strategically given these conditions. Healey’s strategy-making notion was applied to delimit a study of how size, finances, development path, and water organization influence Swedish municipalities’ strategy-making ability for urban water. Three municipalities, Laxå, Norrköping, and Skellefteå, with different, yet overlapping, institutional and socio-economic conditions were analyzed using semi-structured interviews, a stakeholder workshop, and document analyses. The study finds that even though key events have filtered urban water issues into the political agenda, this has not induced systemic change, except where the role of water management in urban development has been specified, i.e., has aligned dispersed planning processes. Organizational setup influences the strategy-making ability by prescribing not only when water issues are raised, but also what system perspective should be applied and what actors that should be enrolled. Judging from the three cases, size, finances, and development path do matter for strategy-making ability, but they appear to be less important than the organizational setup. Departures for improving strategy-making under different conditions are discussed.