ALBERT

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 8 (2017): 882, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.00882.

Description: Spatial and temporal patterns in microbial biodiversity across the Amazon river-ocean continuum were investigated along ∼675 km of the lower Amazon River mainstem, in the Tapajós River tributary, and in the plume and coastal ocean during low and high river discharge using amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes in whole water and size-fractionated samples (0.2–2.0 μm and 〉2.0 μm). River communities varied among tributaries, but mainstem communities were spatially homogeneous and tracked seasonal changes in river discharge and co-varying factors. Co-occurrence network analysis identified strongly interconnected river assemblages during high (May) and low (December) discharge periods, and weakly interconnected transitional assemblages in September, suggesting that this system supports two seasonal microbial communities linked to river discharge. In contrast, plume communities showed little seasonal differences and instead varied spatially tracking salinity. However, salinity explained only a small fraction of community variability, and plume communities in blooms of diatom-diazotroph assemblages were strikingly different than those in other high salinity plume samples. This suggests that while salinity physically structures plumes through buoyancy and mixing, the composition of plume-specific communities is controlled by other factors including nutrients, phytoplankton community composition, and dissolved organic matter chemistry. Co-occurrence networks identified interconnected assemblages associated with the highly productive low salinity near-shore region, diatom-diazotroph blooms, and the plume edge region, and weakly interconnected assemblages in high salinity regions. This suggests that the plume supports a transitional community influenced by immigration of ocean bacteria from the plume edge, and by species sorting as these communities adapt to local environmental conditions. Few studies have explored patterns of microbial diversity in tropical rivers and coastal oceans. Comparison of Amazon continuum microbial communities to those from temperate and arctic systems suggest that river discharge and salinity are master variables structuring a range of environmental conditions that control bacterial communities across the river-ocean continuum.

Description: This research is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF 2293 and 2928), the U.S. National Science Foundation (OCE-0934095, OCE-0424602, DEB-1256724), and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP 12/51187-0).

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 8 (2017): 1496, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.01496.

Description: Synechococcus are ubiquitous and cosmopolitan cyanobacteria that play important roles in global productivity and biogeochemical cycles. This study investigated the fine scale microdiversity, seasonal patterns, and spatial distributions of Synechococcus in estuarine waters of Little Sippewissett salt marsh (LSM) on Cape Cod, MA. The proportion of Synechococcus reads was higher in the summer than winter, and higher in coastal waters than within the estuary. Variations in the V4–V6 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene revealed 12 unique Synechococcus oligotypes. Two distinct communities emerged in early and late summer, each comprising a different set of statistically co-occurring Synechococcus oligotypes from different clades. The early summer community included clades I and IV, which correlated with lower temperature and higher dissolved oxygen levels. The late summer community included clades CB5, I, IV, and VI, which correlated with higher temperatures and higher salinity levels. Four rare oligotypes occurred in the late summer community, and their relative abundances more strongly correlated with high salinity than did other co-occurring oligotypes. The analysis revealed that multiple, closely related oligotypes comprised certain abundant clades (e.g., clade 1 in the early summer and clade CB5 in the late summer), but the correlations between these oligotypes varied from pair to pair, suggesting they had slightly different niches despite being closely related at the clade level. Lack of tidal water exchange between sampling stations gave rise to a unique oligotype not abundant at other locations in the estuary, suggesting physical isolation plays a role in generating additional microdiversity within the community. Together, these results contribute to our understanding of the environmental and ecological factors that influence patterns of Synechococcus microbial community composition over space and time in salt marsh estuarine waters.

Description: This work was supported through a subcontract from the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health, from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation (NIH/NIEHS 1 P50 ES012742-01 and NSF/OCE 0430724), a National Research Council Research Associateship Award and L'Oreal USA Fellowship (JH), an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Ocean Sciences and the Clare Boothe Luce Program (KM), NASA Astrobiology Institute Cooperative Agreement NNA04CC04A (MS), the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's ICoMM field project, and the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 4 (2017): 337, doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00337.

Description: The fishery for American lobster is currently the highest-valued commercial fishery in the United States, worth over US$620 million in dockside value in 2015. During a marine heat wave in 2012, the fishery was disrupted by the early warming of spring ocean temperatures and subsequent influx of lobster landings. This situation resulted in a price collapse, as the supply chain was not prepared for the early and abundant landings of lobsters. Motivated by this series of events, we have developed a forecast of when the Maine (USA) lobster fishery will shift into its high volume summer landings period. The forecast uses a regression approach to relate spring ocean temperatures derived from four NERACOOS buoys along the coast of Maine to the start day of the high landings period of the fishery. Tested against conditions in past years, the forecast is able to predict the start day to within 1 week of the actual start, and the forecast can be issued 3–4 months prior to the onset of the high-landings period, providing valuable lead-time for the fishery and its associated supply chain to prepare for the upcoming season. Forecast results are conveyed in a probabilistic manner and are updated weekly over a 6-week forecasting period so that users can assess the certainty and consistency of the forecast and factor the uncertainty into their use of the information in a given year. By focusing on the timing of events, this type of seasonal forecast provides climate-relevant information to users at time scales that are meaningful for operational decisions. As climate change alters seasonal phenology and reduces the reliability of past experience as a guide for future expectations, this type of forecast can enable fishing industry participants to better adjust to and prepare for operating in the context of climate change.

Description: This forecast was initiated with support from NSF Coastal SEES (OCE 1325484) and was developed with funds from NASA EPSCoR through Maine Space Grant Consortium (EP-15-03).

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 8 (2017): 264, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.00264.

Description: The occurrence of bacteria in the food processing environments plays a key role in food contamination and development of spoilage. Species of the genus Pseudomonas are recognized as major food spoilers and the capability to actually determine spoilage can be species- as well as strain-dependent. In order to improve the taxonomic resolution of 16S rRNA gene amplicons, in this study we used oligotyping to investigate the diversity of Pseudomonas populations in meat and dairy processing environments. Sequences of the V1–V3 regions from previous studies were used, including environmental swabs and food samples from both meat and dairy processing plants. We showed that the most frequently found oligotypes belonged to Pseudomonas fragi and P. fluorescens, that the most abundant oligotypes co-occurred, and were shared between the meat and dairy datasets. All the oligotypes occurring in foods were also identified in the environmental samples of the corresponding plants, highlighting the important role of the environment as a source of strains for food contamination. Oligotypes of the same species showed different levels depending on food processing and type of sample, suggesting that different strains of the same species can have different adaptation efficiency, leading to resilient bacterial associations.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 4 (2017): 109, doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00109.

Description: Assessment of underwater noise is of particular interest given the increase in noise-generating human activities and the potential negative effects on marine mammals which depend on sound for many vital processes. The Azores archipelago is an important migratory and feeding habitat for blue (Balaenoptera musculus), fin (Balaenoptera physalus) and sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis) en route to summering grounds in northern Atlantic waters. High levels of low frequency noise in this area could displace whales or interfere with foraging behavior, impacting energy intake during a critical stage of their annual cycle. In this study, bottom-mounted Ecological Acoustic Recorders were deployed at three Azorean seamounts (Condor, Açores, and Gigante) to measure temporal variations in background noise levels and ship noise in the 18–1,000 Hz frequency band, used by baleen whales to emit and receive sounds. Monthly average noise levels ranged from 90.3 dB re 1 μPa (Açores seamount) to 103.1 dB re 1 μPa (Condor seamount) and local ship noise was present up to 13% of the recording time in Condor. At this location, average contribution of local boat noise to background noise levels is almost 10 dB higher than wind contribution, which might temporally affect detection ranges for baleen whale calls and difficult communication at long ranges. Given the low time percentatge with noise levels above 120 dB re 1 μPa found here (3.3% at Condor), we woud expect limited behavioral responses to ships from baleen whales. Sound pressure levels measured in the Azores are lower than those reported for the Mediterranean basin and the Strait of Gibraltar. However, the currently unknown effects of baleen whale vocalization masking and the increasing presence of boats at the monitored sites underline the need for continuous monitoring to understand any long-term impacts on whales.

Description: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) and Fundo Regional da Ciência e Tecnologia (FRCT), through research projects TRACE (PTDC/MAR/74071/2006), MAPCET (M2.1.2/F/012/2011), and FCT Exploratory project (IF/00943/2013/CP1199/CT0001), supported by funds from FEDER, the Competitiveness Factors Operational (COMPETE), QREN, POPH, European Social Fund, Portuguese Ministry for Science and Education, and Proconvergencia Açores/EU Program. We also acknowledge funds provided by FCT to MARE, through the strategic project UID/MAR/04292/2013, that also supported fees for this open access publication. MR is supported by a DRCT doctoral grant (M3.1.a/F/028/2015), IC was supported by a FCT doctoral grant (SFRH/BD/41192/2007) and MAS is supported by an FCT-Investigator contract (IF/00943/2013).

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 8 (2017): 682, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.00682.

Description: The Epsilonproteobacteria is the fifth validly described class of the phylum Proteobacteria, known primarily for clinical relevance and for chemolithotrophy in various terrestrial and marine environments, including deep-sea hydrothermal vents. As 16S rRNA gene repositories have expanded and protein marker analysis become more common, the phylogenetic placement of this class has become less certain. A number of recent analyses of the bacterial tree of life using both 16S rRNA and concatenated marker gene analyses have failed to recover the Epsilonproteobacteria as monophyletic with all other classes of Proteobacteria. In order to address this issue, we investigated the phylogenetic placement of this class in the bacterial domain using 16S and 23S rRNA genes, as well as 120 single-copy marker proteins. Single- and concatenated-marker trees were created using a data set of 4,170 bacterial representatives, including 98 Epsilonproteobacteria. Phylogenies were inferred under a variety of tree building methods, with sequential jackknifing of outgroup phyla to ensure robustness of phylogenetic affiliations under differing combinations of bacterial genomes. Based on the assessment of nearly 300 phylogenetic tree topologies, we conclude that the continued inclusion of Epsilonproteobacteria within the Proteobacteria is not warranted, and that this group should be reassigned to a novel phylum for which we propose the name Epsilonbacteraeota (phyl. nov.). We further recommend the reclassification of the order Desulfurellales (Deltaproteobacteria) to a novel class within this phylum and a number of subordinate changes to ensure consistency with the genome-based phylogeny. Phylogenomic analysis of 658 genomes belonging to the newly proposed Epsilonbacteraeota suggests that the ancestor of this phylum was an autotrophic, motile, thermophilic chemolithotroph that likely assimilated nitrogen from ammonium taken up from the environment or generated from environmental nitrate and nitrite by employing a variety of functional redox modules. The emergence of chemoorganoheterotrophic lifestyles in several Epsilonbacteraeota families is the result of multiple independent losses of various ancestral chemolithoautotrophic pathways. Our proposed reclassification of this group resolves an important anomaly in bacterial systematics and ensures that the taxonomy of Proteobacteria remains robust, specifically as genome-based taxonomies become more common.

Description: The study was supported by a Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award (DP120103498) and an Australian Laureate Fellowship (FL150100038) from the Australian Research Council.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 4 (2017): 334, doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00334.

Description: Scattering structures, including deep (〉200 m) scattering layers are common in most oceans, but have not previously been properly documented in the Arctic Ocean. In this work, we combine acoustic data for distribution and abundance estimation of zooplankton and fish with biological sampling from the region west and north of Svalbard, to examine high latitude meso- and epipelagic scattering layers and their biological constituents. Our results show that typically, there was strong patchy scattering in the upper part of the epipelagic zone (〈50 m) throughout the area. It was mainly dominated by copepods, krill, and amphipods in addition to 0-group fish that were particularly abundant west of the Spitsbergen Archipelago. Off-shelf there was a distinct deep scattering layer (DSL) between 250 and 600 m containing a range of larger longer lived organisms (mesopelagic fish and macrozooplankton). In eastern Fram Strait, the DSL also included and was in fact dominated by larger fish close to the shelf/slope break that were associated with Warm Atlantic Water moving north toward the Arctic Ocean, but switched to dominance by species having weaker scattering signatures further offshore. The Weighted Mean Depths of the DSL were deeper (WMD 〉 440 m) in the Arctic habitat north of Svalbard compared to those south in the Fram Strait west of Svalbard (WMD ~400 m). The surface integrated backscatter [Nautical Area-Scattering Coefficient, NASC, sA (m2 nmi−2)] was considerably lower in the waters around Svalbard compared to the more southern regions (62–69°N). Also, the integrated DSL nautical area scattering coefficient was a factor of ~6–10 lower around Svalbard compared to the areas in the south-eastern part of the Norwegian Sea ~62°30′N. The documented patterns and structures, particularly the DSL and its constituents, will be key reference points for understanding and quantifying future changes in the pelagic ecosystem at the entrance to the Arctic Ocean.

Description: The Research Council of Norway is thanked for the financial support through the projects “The Arctic Ocean Ecosystem”—(SI_ARCTIC, RCN 228896), the “Effects of climate change on the Calanus complex”—(ECCO, RCN 200508), “Harvesting marine cold water plankton species—abundance estimation and stock assessment”—(Harvest II, RCN 203871) as well as the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 8 (2017): 1786, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.01786.

Description: Semi-labile dissolved organic matter (DOM) accumulates in surface waters of the oligotrophic ocean gyres and turns over on seasonal to annual timescales. This reservoir of DOM represents an important source of carbon, energy, and nutrients to marine microbial communities but the identity of the microorganisms and the biochemical pathways underlying the cycling of DOM remain largely uncharacterized. In this study we describe bacteria isolated from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) near Hawaii that are able to degrade phosphonates associated with high molecular weight dissolved organic matter (HMWDOM), which represents a large fraction of semi-labile DOM. We amended dilution-to-extinction cultures with HMWDOM collected from NPSG surface waters and with purified HMWDOM enriched with polysaccharides bearing alkylphosphonate esters. The HMWDOM-amended cultures were enriched in Roseobacter isolates closely related to Sulfitobacter and close relatives of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria of the Oceanospirillaceae family, many of which encoded phosphonate degradation pathways. Sulfitobacter cultures encoding C-P lyase were able to catabolize methylphosphonate and 2-hydroxyethylphosphonate, as well as the esters of these phosphonates found in native HMWDOM polysaccharides to acquire phosphorus while producing methane and ethylene, respectively. Conversely, growth of these isolates on HMWDOM polysaccharides as carbon source did not support robust increases in cell yields, suggesting that the constituent carbohydrates in HMWDOM were not readily available to these individual isolates. We postulate that the complete remineralization of HMWDOM polysaccharides requires more complex microbial inter-species interactions. The degradation of phosphonate esters and other common substitutions in marine polysaccharides may be key steps in the turnover of marine DOM.

Description: Financial support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (award #EF0424599 to DK and ED), the National Science Foundation HOT program (OCE-1260164 to M. J. Church and DK), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grants #492.01 and #3777 to ED, #3298 to DR, and #3794 to DK), and the Simons Foundation (award ID 329108 to DK, DR, and ED). Additional support was provided by the Agouron Institute through a fellowship to OS.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 8 (2017): 702, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.00702.

Description: The unique geochemistry of marine shallow-water hydrothermal systems promotes the establishment of diverse microbial communities with a range of metabolic pathways. In contrast to deep-sea vents, shallow-water vents not only support chemosynthesis, but also phototrophic primary production due to the availability of light. However, comprehensive studies targeting the predominant biogeochemical processes are rare, and consequently a holistic understanding of the functioning of these ecosystems is currently lacking. To this end, we combined stable isotope probing of lipid biomarkers with an analysis of the bacterial communities to investigate if chemoautotrophy, in parallel to photoautotrophy, plays an important role in autotrophic carbon fixation and to identify the key players. The study was carried out at a marine shallow-water hydrothermal system located at 5 m water depth off Dominica Island (Lesser Antilles), characterized by up to 55°C warm hydrothermal fluids that contain high amounts of dissolved Fe2+. Analysis of the bacterial diversity revealed Anaerolineae of the Chloroflexi as the most abundant bacterial class. Furthermore, the presence of key players involved in iron cycling generally known from deep-sea hydrothermal vents (e.g., Zetaproteobacteria and Geothermobacter), supported the importance of iron-driven redox processes in this hydrothermal system. Uptake of 13C-bicarbonate into bacterial fatty acids under light and dark conditions revealed active photo- and chemoautotrophic communities, with chemoautotrophy accounting for up to 65% of the observed autotrophic carbon fixation. Relatively increased 13C-incorporation in the dark allowed the classification of aiC15:0, C15:0, and iC16:0 as potential lipid biomarkers for bacterial chemoautotrophy in this ecosystem. Highest total 13C-incorporation into fatty acids took place at the sediment surface, but chemosynthesis was found to be active down to 8 cm sediment depth. In conclusion, this study highlights the relative importance of chemoautotrophy compared to photoautotrophy in a shallow-water hydrothermal system, emphasizing chemosynthesis as a prominent process for biomass production in marine coastal environments influenced by hydrothermalism.

Description: SS was supported by NSF grant OCE-1124272. This work was financed through the DFG Emmy Noether Grant BU 2606/1-1 to SB.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 2 (2016): 118, doi:10.3389/fmars.2015.00118.

Description: Characterization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in terms of its composition and optical properties, with an eye toward ultimately understanding its deep ocean dynamics, is the currently active frontier in DOM research. We used UV-visible absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectroscopy to characterize DOM in the open ocean along sections of the U.S. CO2/CLIVAR Repeat Hydrography Project located in all the major ocean basins outside the Arctic. Despite large differences in fluorescence intensity between ocean basins, some variability patterns were similar throughout the global ocean, suggesting similar processes controlling the composition of the DOM. We find that commercially available single channel CDOM sensors are sensitive to the fluorescence of humic materials in the deep ocean and thermocline but not to the UVA-fluorescing and absorbing materials that characterize freshly produced CDOM in surface waters, revealing fundamental diversity in the DOM profile. In surface waters, UVA fluorescence and absorption signatures indicate the presence of freshly produced material and the process of bleaching removal, but in the upper mesopelagic and in the main thermocline these optical signatures are replaced by those of humic materials, with distribution patterns correlated to apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) and other signatures of remineralization. Empirical orthogonal function analysis (EOF) of the EEM data suggests the presence of two (unidentified) processes which convert “fresh” DOM to humic materials: one located in the surface ocean (shallower than 500 m) and one located in the main thermocline. These inferred humification processes represent less than 5% of the overall variability in oceanic humic DOM fluorescence, which appears to be dominated by terrestrial input and solar bleaching of humic materials.

Description: This research was supported by grants from NASA (grants NAG5-13277 and NNX14AG24G) and NSF (OCE-0241614 and OCE-0648541) to NN and D. A. Siegel.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 3 (2016): 27, doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00027.

Description: The distributions of dissolved iron and organic iron-binding ligands were examined in water column profiles and deckboard incubation experiments in the southern California Current System (sCCS) along a transition from coastal to semi-oligotrophic waters. Analysis of the iron-binding ligand pool by competitive ligand exchange-adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry (CLE-ACSV) using multiple analytical windows (MAWs) revealed three classes of iron-binding ligands present throughout the water column (L1−L3), whose distributions closely matched those of dissolved iron and nitrate. Despite significant biogeochemical gradients, ligand profiles were similar between stations, with surface minima in strong ligands (L1 and L2), and relatively constant concentrations of weaker ligands (L3) down to 500 m. A phytoplankton grow-out incubation, initiated from an iron-limited water mass, showed dynamic temporal cycling of iron-binding ligands. A biological iron model was able to capture the patterns of the strong ligands in the grow-out incubation relatively well with only the microbial community as a biological source. An experiment focused on remineralization of particulate organic matter showed production of both strong and weak iron-binding ligands by the heterotrophic community, supporting a mechanism for in-situ production of both strong and weak iron-binding ligands in the subsurface water column. Photochemical experiments showed a variable influence of sunlight on the degradation of natural iron-binding ligands, providing some evidence to explain differences in surface ligand concentrations between stations. Patterns in ligand distributions between profiles and in the incubation experiments were primarily related to macronutrient concentrations, suggesting microbial remineralization processes might dominate on longer time-scales over short-term changes associated with photochemistry or phytoplankton growth.

Description: RB, KB, and MC were supported by NSF OCE #10-2667 for the CCE-LTER program. MJ was funded by NSF ANT grant 0948378 and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Earth Science 4 (2016): 77, doi:10.3389/feart.2016.00077.

Description: Arctic deltas are dynamic and vulnerable regions that play a key role in land-ocean interactions and the global carbon cycle. Delta lakes may provide valuable historical records of the quality and quantity of fluvial fluxes, parameters that are challenging to investigate in these remote regions. Here we study lakes from across the Mackenzie Delta, Arctic Canada, that receive fluvial sediments from the Mackenzie River when spring flood water levels rise above natural levees. We compare downcore lake sediments with suspended sediments collected during the spring flood, using bulk (% organic carbon, % total nitrogen, δ13C, Δ14C) and molecular organic geochemistry (lignin, leaf waxes). High-resolution age models (137Cs, 210Pb) of downcore lake sediment records (n = 11) along with lamina counting on high-resolution radiographs show sediment deposition frequencies ranging between annually to every 15 years. Down-core geochemical variability in a representative delta lake sediment core is consistent with historical variability in spring flood hydrology (variability in peak discharge, ice jamming, peak water levels). Comparison with earlier published Mackenzie River depth profiles shows that (i) lake sediments reflect the riverine surface suspended load, and (ii) hydrodynamic sorting patterns related to spring flood characteristics are reflected in the lake sediments. Bulk and molecular geochemistry of suspended particulate matter from the spring flood peak and lake sediments are relatively similar showing a mixture of modern higher-plant derived material, older terrestrial permafrost material, and old rock-derived material. This suggests that deltaic lake sedimentary records hold great promise as recorders of past (century-scale) riverine fluxes and may prove instrumental in shedding light on past behavior of arctic rivers, as well as how they respond to a changing climate.

Description: Funding was provided by the US National Science Foundation as part of the Arctic Great Rivers Observatory (NSF-0732522 and NSF-1107774), as well as the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Rubicon #825.10.022, and Veni #863.12.004). Additional funding for the lake coring was provided from WHOI through its Ocean and Climate Change Institute.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 3 (2016): 22, doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00022.

Description: Ocean ecosystems play a critical role in the Earth's carbon cycle and the quantification of their impacts for both present conditions and for predictions into the future remains one of the greatest challenges in oceanography. The goal of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) Science Plan is to develop a predictive understanding of the export and fate of global ocean net primary production (NPP) and its implications for present and future climates. The achievement of this goal requires a quantification of the mechanisms that control the export of carbon from the euphotic zone as well as its fate in the underlying “twilight zone” where some fraction of exported carbon will be sequestered in the ocean's interior on time scales of months to millennia. Here we present a measurement/synthesis/modeling framework aimed at quantifying the fates of upper ocean NPP and its impacts on the global carbon cycle based upon the EXPORTS Science Plan. The proposed approach will diagnose relationships among the ecological, biogeochemical, and physical oceanographic processes that control carbon cycling across a range of ecosystem and carbon cycling states leading to advances in satellite diagnostic and numerical prognostic models. To collect these data, a combination of ship and robotic field sampling, satellite remote sensing, and numerical modeling is proposed which enables the sampling of the many pathways of NPP export and fates. This coordinated, process-oriented approach has the potential to foster new insights on ocean carbon cycling that maximizes its societal relevance through the achievement of research goals of many international research agencies and will be a key step toward our understanding of the Earth as an integrated system.

Description: The development of the EXPORTS Science Plan was supported by NASA Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry program (award NNX13AC35G).

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 8 (2017): 2117, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.02117.

Description: Bacterial consumption of dissolved organic matter (DOM) drives much of the movement of carbon through the oceanic food web and the global carbon cycle. Understanding complex interactions between bacteria and marine DOM remains an important challenge. We tested the hypothesis that bacterial growth and community succession would respond differently to DOM additions due to seasonal changes in phytoplankton abundance in the environment. Four mesocosm experiments were conducted that spanned the spring transitional period (August–December 2013) in surface waters of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). Each mesocosm consisted of nearshore surface seawater (50 L) incubated in the laboratory for 10 days. The addition of DOM, in the form of cell-free exudates extracted from Thalassiosira weissflogii diatom cultures led to changes in bacterial abundance, production, and community composition. The timing of each mesocosm experiment (i.e., late winter vs. late spring) influenced the magnitude and direction of bacterial changes. For example, the same DOM treatment applied at different times during the season resulted in different levels of bacterial production and different bacterial community composition. There was a mid-season shift from Collwelliaceae to Polaribacter having the greatest relative abundance after incubation. This shift corresponded to a modest but significant increase in the initial relative abundance of Polaribacter in the nearshore seawater used to set up experiments. This finding supports a new hypothesis that starting community composition, through priority effects, influenced the trajectory of community succession in response to DOM addition. As strong inter-annual variability and long-term climate change may shift the timing of WAP phytoplankton blooms, and the corresponding production of DOM exudates, this study suggests a mechanism by which different seasonal successional patterns in bacterial communities could occur.

Description: CL was partially funded by the Graduate School and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University and the Brown University-Marine Biological Laboratory Joint Graduate Program. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. ANT-1142114 to LA-Z, OPP-0823101 and PLR-1440435 to HD, and ANT-1141993 to JR. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant 1711 supported work by DR.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 4 (2017): 332, doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00332.

Description: While sound scattering layers (SSLs) have been described previously from ice-covered waters in the Arctic, the existence of a viable mesopelagic community that also includes mesopelagic fishes in the Arctic has been questioned. In addition, it has been hypothesized that vertical migration would hardly exist in these areas. We wanted to check if deep scattering layers (DSLs) was found to the west and north of Svalbard (79°30′N−82°10′N) during autumn 2015, and if present; whether organisms in such DSLs undertook vertical migrations. Our null hypothesis was that there would be no evidence of diel vertical migration. Multi-frequency acoustic observations by hull mounted echo sounder (18, 38, and 120 kHz) revealed a DSL at depths ~210–510 m in areas with bottom depths exceeding ~600 m. Investigating eight geographical locations that differed with respect to time periods, light cycle and sea ice conditions, we show that the deeper layer of DSL displayed a clear ascending movement during night time and a descending movement during daytime. The high-light weighted mean depth (WMD) (343–514 m) with respect to backscattered energy was statistically deeper than the low-light WMD (179–437 m) for the locations studied. This behavior of the DSL was found to be consistent both when the sun was continuously above the horizon and after it started to set on 1 September, and both in open water and sea ice covered waters. The WMD showed an increasing trend, while the nautical area backscattering strength from the DSL showed a decreasing trend from south to north among the studied locations. Hydrographic observations revealed that the diel migration was found in the lower part of the north-flowing Atlantic Water, and was disconnected from the surface water masses above the Atlantic Water during day and night. The organisms conducting vertical migrations were studied by vertical and oblique hauls with zooplankton nets and pelagic trawls. These data suggest that these organisms were mainly various mesopelagic fishes, some few larger fishes, large zooplankton like krill and amphipods, and various gelatinous forms.

Description: The Research Council of Norway is thanked for the financial support through the projects “The Arctic Ocean Ecosystem” — (SI_ARCTIC, RCN 228896), the “Effects of climate change on the Calanus complex”—(ECCO, RCN 200508), “Harvesting marine cold water plankton species—abundance estimation and stock assessment”—(Harvest II, RCN 203871).

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 3 (2016): 1, doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00001.

Description: The coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi forms massive blooms and plays a critical role in global elemental cycles, sequestering significant amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide on geological time scales via production of calcium carbonate coccoliths and emitting dimethyl sulfoniopropionate (DMSP), which has the potential for increasing atmosph-eric albedo. Because grazing in pelagic systems is a major top-down force structuring microbial communities, the influence of grazers on E. huxleyi populations has been of interest to researchers. Roles of DMSP (and related metabolites) in interactions between E. huxleyi and protist grazers have been investigated, however, little is known about the release of other metabolites that may influence, or be influenced by, such grazing interactions. We used high-resolution mass spectrometry in an untargeted approach to survey the suite of low molecular weight compounds released by four different E. huxleyi strains in response to grazing by the dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina. Overall, a strikingly small number of metabolites were detected from E. huxleyi and O. marina cells, but these were distinctly informative to construct metabolic footprints. At most, E. huxleyi strains shared 25% of released metabolites. Furthermore, there appeared to be no unified metabolic response in E. huxleyi strains to grazing; rather, these responses were strain specific. Concentrations of several metabolites also positively correlated with grazer activities, including grazing, ingestion, and growth rates; however, no single metabolite responded uniformly across all strains of E. huxleyi tested. Regardless, grazing clearly transformed the constituents of dissolved organic matter produced by these marine microbes. This study addresses several technical challenges, and presents a platform to further study the influence of chemical cues in aquatic systems and demonstrates the impact of strain diversity and grazing on the complexity of dissolved organic matter in marine systems.

Description: Funding for this work was provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Grant #3301 awarded to A Vardi, BAS. Van Mooy, K Bidle, MJ, and TM. Additional funding for this work was provided by an award from the Flatley Discovery Lab to TM.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 2 (2016): 202, doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00202.

Description: Marine spatial planning and ecological research call for high-resolution species distribution data. However, those data are still not available for most marine large vertebrates. The dynamic nature of oceanographic processes and the wide-ranging behavior of many marine vertebrates create further difficulties, as distribution data must incorporate both the spatial and temporal dimensions. Cetaceans play an essential role in structuring and maintaining marine ecosystems and face increasing threats from human activities. The Azores holds a high diversity of cetaceans but the information about spatial and temporal patterns of distribution for this marine megafauna group in the region is still very limited. To tackle this issue, we created monthly predictive cetacean distribution maps for spring and summer months, using data collected by the Azores Fisheries Observer Programme between 2004 and 2009. We then combined the individual predictive maps to obtain species richness maps for the same period. Our results reflect a great heterogeneity in distribution among species and within species among different months. This heterogeneity reflects a contrasting influence of oceanographic processes on the distribution of cetacean species. However, some persistent areas of increased species richness could also be identified from our results. We argue that policies aimed at effectively protecting cetaceans and their habitats must include the principle of dynamic ocean management coupled with other area-based management such as marine spatial planning.

Description: This work was supported by FEDER funds, through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE, by national funds, through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, under project TRACE (PTDC/ MAR/74071/2006), and by regional funds, through DRCT/SRCTE, under projects MAPCET (M2.1.2/F/012/2011) and 2020 (M2.1.2/I/026/2011). We acknowledge funds provided by FCT to MARE, through the strategic project UID/MAR/04292/2013. RP is supported by an FCT postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/108007/2015); MAS is supported by Program Investigator FCT (IF/00943/2013) and MT was supported by a research fellowship under the Exploratory project (IF/00943/2013/CP1199/CT0001) that also paid the fees for this open-access publication. IF/00943/2013 and IF/00943/2013/CP1199/CT0001 are funded by FSE and MCTES, through POPH and QREN.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Physiology 7 (2016): 620, doi:10.3389/fphys.2016.00620.

Description: Vertebrates with laterally placed eyes typically exhibit preferential eye use for ecological activities such as scanning for predators or prey. Processing visual information predominately through the left or right visual field has been associated with specialized function of the left and right brain. Lateralized vertebrates often share a general pattern of lateralized brain function at the population level, whereby the left hemisphere controls routine behaviors and the right hemisphere controls emergency responses. Recent studies have shown evidence of preferential eye use in some invertebrates, but whether the visual fields are predominately associated with specific ecological activities remains untested. We used the European common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, to investigate whether the visual field they use is the same, or different, during anti-predatory, and predatory behavior. To test for lateralization of anti-predatory behavior, individual cuttlefish were placed in a new environment with opaque walls, thereby obliging them to choose which eye to orient away from the opaque wall to scan for potential predators (i.e., vigilant scanning). To test for lateralization of predatory behavior, individual cuttlefish were placed in the apex of an isosceles triangular arena and presented with two shrimp in opposite vertexes, thus requiring the cuttlefish to choose between attacking a prey item to the left or to the right of them. Cuttlefish were significantly more likely to favor the left visual field to scan for potential predators and the right visual field for prey attack. Moreover, individual cuttlefish that were leftward directed for vigilant scanning were predominately rightward directed for prey attack. Lateralized individuals also showed faster decision-making when presented with prey simultaneously. Cuttlefish appear to have opposite directions of lateralization for anti-predatory and predatory behavior, suggesting that there is functional specialization of each optic lobe (i.e., brain structures implicated in visual processing). These results are discussed in relation to the role of lateralized brain function and the evolution of population level lateralization.

Description: This work was supported by a post-doctoral study grant from the Fyssen Foundation to AS, and by a research grant “Sélavie” from the Fyssen Foundation to CJ-A. The Sholley Foundation provided partial support for the research in Woods Hole.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 3 (2016): 137, doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00137.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 4 (2017): 105, doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00105.

Description: Little is still known of the impacts of protist grazing on bacterioplankton communities in the dark ocean. Furthermore, the accuracy of assessments of in situ microbial activities, including protist grazing, can be affected by sampling artifacts introduced during sample retrieval and downstream manipulations. Potential artifacts may be increased when working with deep-sea samples or samples from chemically unique water columns such as oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). OMZs are oxygen-depleted regions in the ocean, where oxygen concentrations can drop to 〈20 μM. These regions are typically located near eastern boundary upwelling systems and currently occur in waters occupying below about 8% of total ocean surface area, representing ~1% of the ocean's volume. OMZs have a profound impact not only on the distribution of marine Metazoa, but also on the composition and activities of microbial communities at the base of marine food webs. Here we present an overview of current knowledge of protist phagotrophy below the photic zone, emphasizing studies of oxygen-depleted waters and presenting results of the first attempt to implement new technology for conducting these incubation studies completely in situ (the Microbial Sampling- Submersible Incubation Device, MS-SID). We performed 24-h incubation experiments in the Eastern Tropical South Pacific (ETSP) OMZ. This preliminary study shows that up to 28% of bacterial biomass may be consumed by protists in waters where oxygen concentrations were down to ~4.8 μM and up to 13% at a station with nitrite accumulation where oxygen concentrations were undetectable. Results also show that shipboard measurements of grazing rates were lower than rates measured from the same water using the MS-SID, suggesting that in situ experiments help to minimize artifacts that may be introduced when conducting incubation studies using waters collected from below the photic zone, particularly from oxygen-depleted regions of the water column.

Description: This work was funded by the Agouron Institute, grant AI-M010.16.1 WHO to OU, M. Sullivan, and VE, and the Millenium Science Initiative, grant IC 120019. Ship time was provided the Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) grant AUB 150006/12806.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience 11 (2017): 388, doi:10.3389/fncel.2017.00388.

Description: α-Synuclein is a presynaptic protein that regulates synaptic vesicle (SV) trafficking. In Parkinson’s disease (PD) and several other neurodegenerative disorders, aberrant oligomerization and aggregation of α-synuclein lead to synaptic dysfunction and neurotoxicity. Despite evidence that α-synuclein oligomers are generated within neurons under physiological conditions, and that altering the balance of monomers and oligomers contributes to disease pathogenesis, how each molecular species of α-synuclein impacts SV trafficking is currently unknown. To address this, we have taken advantage of lamprey giant reticulospinal (RS) synapses, which are accessible to acute perturbations via axonal microinjection of recombinant proteins. We previously reported that acute introduction of monomeric α-synuclein inhibited SV recycling, including effects on the clathrin pathway. Here, we report the effects of α-synuclein dimers at synapses. Similar to monomeric α-synuclein, both recombinant α-synuclein dimers that were evaluated bound to small liposomes containing anionic lipids in vitro, but with reduced efficacy. When introduced to synapses, the α-synuclein dimers also induced SV recycling defects, which included a build up of clathrin-coated pits (CCPs) with constricted necks that were still attached to the plasma membrane, a phenotype indicative of a vesicle fission defect. Interestingly, both α-synuclein dimers induced longer necks on CCPs as well as complex, branching membrane tubules, which were distinct from the CCPs induced by a dynamin inhibitor, Dynasore. In contrast, monomeric α-synuclein induced a buildup of free clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs), indicating an inhibition of clathrin-mediated endocytosis at a later stage during the clathrin uncoating process. Taken together, these data further support the conclusion that excess α-synuclein impairs SV recycling. The data additionally reveal that monomeric and dimeric α-synuclein produce distinct effects on clathrin-mediated endocytosis, predicting different molecular mechanisms. Understanding what these mechanisms are could help to further elucidate the normal functions of this protein, as well as the mechanisms underlying PD pathologies.

Description: This study was supported by a research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NINDS/NIA R01NS078165 to JRM), research funds from the Marine Biological Laboratory (to JRM) and a research grant from Horizon 2020 Grant no. InCure EU Joint Programme—JPND (to LB).

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 3 (2016): 232, doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00232.

Description: The reactive oxygen species (ROS) superoxide has been implicated in both beneficial and detrimental processes in coral biology, ranging from pathogenic disease resistance to coral bleaching. Despite the critical role of ROS in coral health, there is a distinct lack of ROS measurements and thus an incomplete understanding of underpinning ROS sources and production mechanisms within coral systems. Here, we quantified in situ extracellular superoxide concentrations at the surfaces of aquaria-hosted Porites astreoides during a diel cycle. High concentrations of superoxide (~10's of nM) were present at coral surfaces, and these levels did not change significantly as a function of time of day. These results indicate that the coral holobiont produces extracellular superoxide in the dark, independent of photosynthesis. As a short-lived anion at physiological pH, superoxide has a limited ability to cross intact biological membranes. Further, removing surface mucus layers from the P. astreoides colonies did not impact external superoxide concentrations. We therefore attribute external superoxide derived from the coral holobiont under these conditions to the activity of the coral host epithelium, rather than mucus-derived epibionts or internal sources such as endosymbionts (e.g., Symbiodinium). However, endosymbionts likely contribute to internal ROS levels via extracellular superoxide production. Indeed, common coral symbionts, including multiple strains of Symbiodinium (clades A to D) and the bacterium Endozoicomonas montiporae LMG 24815, produced extracellular superoxide in the dark and at low light levels. Further, representative P. astreoides symbionts, Symbiodinium CCMP2456 (clade A) and E. montiporae, produced similar concentrations of superoxide alone and in combination with each other, in the dark and low light, and regardless of time of day. Overall, these results indicate that healthy, non-stressed P. astreoides and representative symbionts produce superoxide externally, which is decoupled from photosynthetic activity and circadian control. Corals may therefore produce extracellular superoxide constitutively, highlighting an unclear yet potentially beneficial role for superoxide in coral physiology and health.

Description: This work was supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Ford Foundation (JD), the National Science Foundation under grants OCE 1225801 (JD) and OCE 1233612 (AA), the Ocean and Climate Change Institute of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (CH), a BIOS Grant in aid award (SM), the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust (CH and AA), as well as an anonymous donor.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 3 (2016): 243, doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00243.

Description: Organic ligands form strong complexes with many trace elements in seawater. Various metals can compete for the same ligand chelation sites, and the final speciation of bound metals is determined by relative binding affinities, concentrations of binding sites, uncomplexed metal concentrations, and association/dissociation kinetics. Different ligands have a wide range of metal affinities and specificities. However, the chemical composition of these ligands in the marine environment remains poorly constrained, which has hindered progress in modeling marine metal speciation. In this study, we detected and characterized natural ligands that bind copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) in the eastern South Pacific Ocean with liquid chromatography tandem inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LC-ICPMS), and high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESIMS). Dissolved Cu, Ni, and ligand concentrations were highest near the coast. Chromatographically unresolved polar compounds dominated ligands isolated near the coast by solid phase extraction. Offshore, metal and ligand concentrations decreased, but several new ligands appeared. One major ligand was detected that bound both Cu2+ and Ni2+. Based on accurate mass and fragmentation measurements, this compound has a molecular formula of [C20H21N4O8S2+M]+ (M = metal isotope) and contains several azole-like metal binding groups. Additional lipophilic Ni complexes were also present only in oligotrophic waters, with masses of 649, 698, and 712 m/z (corresponding to the 58Ni metal complex). Molecular formulae of [C32H54N3O6S2Ni]+ and [C33H56N3O6S2Ni]+ were determined for two of these compounds. Addition of Cu and Ni to the samples also revealed the presence of additional compounds that can bind both Ni and Cu. Although these specific compounds represent a small fraction of the total dissolved Cu and Ni pool, they highlight the compositional diversity and spatial heterogeneity of marine Ni and Cu ligands, as well as variability in the extent to which different metals in the same environment compete for ligand binding.

Description: Support was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) program in Chemical Oceanography (OCE-1356747, OCE-1233261, OCE-1233733, OCE-1233502, and OCE-1237034), the NSF Science and Technology Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE; DBI-0424599), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (#3298 and 3934), and the Simons Foundation (#329108, DR).

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 7 (2016): 2017, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.02017.

Description: Ciliates from the genus Mesodinium are globally distributed in marine and freshwater ecosystems and may possess either heterotrophic or mixotrophic nutritional modes. Members of the Mesodinium major/rubrum species complex photosynthesize by sequestering and maintaining organelles from cryptophyte prey, and under certain conditions form periodic or recurrent blooms (= red tides). Here, we present an analysis of the genetic diversity of Mesodinium and cryptophyte populations from 10 environmental samples (eight globally dispersed habitats including five Mesodinium blooms), using group-specific primers for Mesodinium partial 18S, ITS, and partial 28S rRNA genes as well as cryptophyte large subunit RuBisCO genes (rbcL). In addition, 22 new cryptophyte and four new M. rubrum cultures were used to extract DNA and sequence rbcL and 18S-ITS-28S genes, respectively, in order to provide a stronger phylogenetic context for our environmental sequences. Bloom samples were analyzed from coastal Brazil, Chile, two Northeastern locations in the United States, and the Pribilof Islands within the Bering Sea. Additionally, samples were also analyzed from the Baltic and Barents Seas and coastal California under non-bloom conditions. Most blooms were dominated by a single Mesodinium genotype, with coastal Brazil and Chile blooms composed of M. major and the Eastern USA blooms dominated by M. rubrum variant B. Sequences from all four blooms were dominated by Teleaulax amphioxeia-like cryptophytes. Non-bloom communities revealed more diverse assemblages of Mesodinium spp., including heterotrophic species and the mixotrophic Mesodinium chamaeleon. Similarly, cryptophyte diversity was also higher in non-bloom samples. Our results confirm that Mesodinium blooms may be caused by M. major, as well as multiple variants of M. rubrum, and further implicate T. amphioxeia as the key cryptophyte species linked to these phenomena in temperate and subtropical regions.

Description: MJ thanks the funding support of the National Science Foundations Grants NSF-OCE 1031718 and NSF-IOS 1326228.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 4 (2017): 338, doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00338.

Description: The Santa Maria di Leuca (SML) cold-water coral province (northern Ionian Sea) has the largest occurrence of a living white coral community currently known in the Mediterranean Sea. Madrepora oculata and Lophelia pertusa, identified as marking sensitive habitats of relevance by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, have been observed heterogeneously distributed on the summits of several mounds. This particularly patchy and uneven distribution in addition to their importance for regional biodiversity highlights the need to better understand their environmental preferences and predict their distribution. Bathymetric data (40 m resolution) was used to derive seafloor characteristics. A fine scale index quantifying the landscape elevation (Bathymetric Position Index at 120 m resolution) was used to select all the elevated features considered as candidate morphologies for potential coral mounds. Statistics on 22 known coral topped mounds were computed. Two statistical methods were then used to identify other potential coral mounds based on predictive variables. The first method, the Geomorphometric proxies method, consists in computing basic statistics of terrain variables, using them for a step-by-step classification in a quantitative approach to select a subset of candidate morphologies. The second method consists in using a predictive Habitat Suitability Model (Maxent model). The Geomorphometric proxies method identified 736 potential coral mounds while the Maxent method predicted 1,252 potential coral mounds. A subset of 517 potential coral mounds was common to both methods. The analysis of the contribution of each variable with the Maxent method showed that the variable “Vector Ruggedness Measure” at a resolution of 5 pixels (200 m) contributed to 53% of the final Maxent model, followed by the “Terrain Texture” index (31%) at a resolution of 11 pixels (440 m). The common potential coral mounds are mainly located in an area characterized by a mass transport deposit, also called the mounds area because of the roughness of the seafloor, in accordance with the high proportional contribution of the noticeable first roughness index to the Maxent model. The results highlight the importance of the global conservation of the entire Province, with white coral probably widespread over the entire 600 km2 SML area.

Description: The Habitat Suitability model study was part of a post-doctoral grant funded by the “Agence de l'Eau Rhône Méditerranée & Corse” under Convention Number 2015 0348, Ifremer and ISMAR Bologna. We are grateful to all the participants and the P.I. of the Aplabes 2004; Aplabes 2005, HERMES M70-1, MEDECO 2007 (http://dx.doi.org/10.17600/7030090) and magic CoralFISH 2010 cruises. The authors also benefited from EU FP7 project CoralFish (Grant agreement number: 213144—http://www.eu-fp7-coralfish.net), the Flag Project Ritmare (Ricerca Italiana per il Mare), funded by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MIUR) and the ESF COCARDE Network. FM was funded through a Ph. D. fellowship in Earth Sciences at the University of Milano-Bicocca.

Description: Minerals, Vol. 7, Pages 200: Adsorption of Scandium and Neodymium on Biochar Derived after Low-Temperature Pyrolysis of Sawdust Minerals doi: 10.3390/min7100200 Authors: Konstantinos Komnitsas Dimitra Zaharaki Georgios Bartzas Georgios Alevizos The objective of this study was to investigate the adsorption of two rare earth elements (REEs), namely scandium (Sc) and neodymium (Nd), on biochar produced after low temperature pyrolysis (350 °C) of wood sawdust. The biochar was characterized with the use of several analytical techniques, namely X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, while the pH at point of zero charge (pHPZC) was also determined. The experimental conditions were: absorbent concentration 1–10 g L−1, REE concentration in solution 20 mg L−1, contact time for equilibrium 24 h, temperature 25 °C and stirring speed 350 rpm. The efficiency of biochar was compared to that of a commercial activated carbon. Geochemical modelling was carried out to determine speciation of Nd and Sc species in aqueous solutions using PHREEQC-3 equipped with the llnl database. The experimental results indicated the potential of low temperature produced biochar, even though inferior to that of activated carbon, to adsorb efficiently both REEs. The equilibrium adsorption data were very well fitted into the Freundlich isotherm model, while kinetic data suggested that the removal of both REEs follows the pseudo-second order kinetic reaction. Finally, the most probable adsorption mechanisms are discussed.

Description: IJERPH, Vol. 14, Pages 1354: Pattern of Road Traffic Injuries in Rural Bangladesh: Burden Estimates and Risk Factors International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph14111354 Authors: Md. Ul Baset Aminur Rahman Olakunle Alonge Priyanka Agrawal Shirin Wadhwaniya Fazlur Rahman Globally, road traffic injury (RTI) causes 1.3 million deaths annually. Almost 90% of all RTI deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. RTI is one of the leading causes of death in Bangladesh; the World Health Organization estimated that it kills over 21,000 people in the country annually. This study describes the current magnitude and risk factors of RTI for different age groups in rural Bangladesh. A household census was carried out in 51 unions of seven sub-districts situated in the north and central part of Bangladesh between June and November 2013, covering 1.2 million individuals. Trained data collectors collected information on fatal and nonfatal RTI events through face-to-face interviews using a set of structured pre-tested questionnaires. The recall periods for fatal and non-fatal RTI were one year and six months, respectively. The mortality and morbidity rates due to RTI were 6.8/100,000 population/year and 889/100,000 populations/six months, respectively. RTI mortality and morbidity rates were significantly higher among males compared to females. Deaths and morbidities due to RTI were highest among those in the 25–64 years age group. A higher proportion of morbidity occurred among vehicle passengers (34%) and pedestrians (18%), and more than one-third of the RTI mortality occurred among pedestrians. Twenty percent of all nonfatal RTIs were classified as severe injuries. RTI is a major public health issue in rural Bangladesh. Immediate attention is needed to reduce preventable deaths and morbidities in rural Bangladesh.

Description: by Jialiang Guo, Qi Zhang, Jia Li, Yansong Liu, Zhiyong Hou, Wei Chen, Lin Jin, Ye Tian, Linlin Ju, Bo Liu, Tianhua Dong, Fei Zhang, Yingze Zhang Non-union is a major clinical problem in the healing of fractures, especially in patients with osteoporosis. The systemic administration of drugs is time consuming and large doses are demanding and act slowly, whereas local release acts rapidly, increases the quality and quantity of the bone tissue. We hypothesize that local delivery demonstrates better therapeutic effects on an osteoporotic fracture. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of the local application of ibandronate loaded with a collagen sponge on regulating bone formation and remodeling in an osteoporotic rat model of fracture healing. We found that the local delivery of ibandronate exhibited excellent effects on improving the bone microarchitecture and suppressed effects on bone remodeling. At 4 weeks, more callus formation and improvement of mechanical character and microstructure were observed in a local delivery via μCT, mechanical test, histological research and serum analysis. The suppression of bone remodeling was compared with a systemic treatment at 12 weeks, and the structural mechanical properties and microarchitecture were also improved with local delivery. This research identifies an earlier, safer and integrated approach for local delivery of ibandronate with collagen and provides a better strategy for the treatment of osteoporotic fracture in rats.

Description: by Maia P. Smith, Marie Standl, Joachim Heinrich, Holger Schulz Background Because of unreliable self-report, accelerometry is increasingly used to objectively monitor physical activity (PA). However, results of accelerometric studies vary depending on the chosen cutpoints between activity intensities. Population-specific activity patterns likely affect the size of these differences. To establish their size and stability we apply three sets of cutpoints, including two calibrated to a single reference, to our accelerometric data and compare PA estimates. Methods 1402 German adolescents from the GINIplus and LISAplus cohorts wore triaxial accelerometers (Actigraph GT3x) for one week (mean 6.23 days, 14.7 hours per day) at the hip. After validation of wear, we applied three sets of cutpoints for youth, including the most common standard (Freedson, 2005) and two calibrated to a single reference, (Romanzini uni- and triaxial, from Romanzini, 2014) to these data, estimating daily sedentary, light, moderate, vigorous and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MPA, VPA, MVPA). Stability of differences was assessed by comparing Romanzini’s two sets of cutpoints. Results Relative agreement between cutpoints was closer for activity of lower intensities (largest difference for sedentary behaviour 9%) but increased for higher intensities (largest difference for light activity 40%, MPA 102%, VPA 88%; all p

Description: by Bertha J. Vandegrift, Chang You, Rosalba Satta, Mark S. Brodie, Amy W. Lasek Gender differences in psychiatric disorders such as addiction may be modulated by the steroid hormone estrogen. For instance, 17β-estradiol (E2), the predominant form of circulating estrogen in pre-menopausal females, increases ethanol consumption, suggesting that E2 may affect the rewarding properties of ethanol and thus the development of alcohol use disorder in females. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is critically involved in the rewarding and reinforcing effects of ethanol. In order to determine the role of E2 in VTA physiology, gonadally intact female mice were sacrificed during diestrus II (high E2) or estrus (low E2) for electrophysiology recordings. We measured the excitation by ethanol and inhibition by dopamine (DA) of VTA DA neurons and found that both excitation by ethanol and inhibition by dopamine were greater in diestrus II compared with estrus. Treatment of VTA slices from mice in diestrus II with an estrogen receptor antagonist (ICI 182,780) reduced ethanol-stimulated neuronal firing, but had no effect on ethanol-stimulated firing of neurons in slices from mice in estrus. Surprisingly, ICI 182,780 did not affect the inhibition by DA, indicating different mechanisms of action of estrogen receptors in altering ethanol and DA responses. We also examined the responses of VTA DA neurons to ethanol and DA in ovariectomized mice treated with E2 and found that E2 treatment enhanced the responses to ethanol and DA in a manner similar to what we observed in mice in diestrus II. Our data indicate that E2 modulates VTA neuron physiology, which may contribute to both the enhanced reinforcing and rewarding effects of alcohol and the development of other psychiatric disorders in females that involve alterations in DA neurotransmission.

Description: by Chelsea M. Rochman, J. Mark Parnis, Mark A. Browne, Sebastian Serrato, Eric J. Reiner, Matthew Robson, Thomas Young, Miriam L. Diamond, Swee J. Teh We examined whether environmentally relevant concentrations of different types of microplastics, with or without PCBs, directly affect freshwater prey and indirectly affect their predators. Asian clams ( Corbicula fluminea ) were exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene, polyvinylchloride (PVC) or polystyrene with and without polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) for 28 days. Their predators, white sturgeon ( Acipenser transmontanus ), were exposed to clams from each treatment for 28 days. In both species, we examined bioaccumulation of PCBs and effects (i.e., immunohistochemistry, histology, behavior, condition, mortality) across several levels of biological organization. PCBs were not detected in prey or predator, and thus differences in bioaccumulation of PCBs among polymers and biomagnification in predators could not be measured. One of the main objectives of this study was to test the hypothesis that bioaccumulation of PCBs would differ among polymer types. Because we could not answer this question experimentally, a bioaccumulation model was run and predicted that concentrations of PCBs in clams exposed to polyethylene and polystyrene would be greater than PET and PVC. Observed effects, although subtle, seemed to be due to microplastics rather than PCBs alone. For example, histopathology showed tubular dilation in clams exposed to microplastics with PCBs, with only mild effects in clams exposed to PCBs alone.

Description: by Deisy Barrios, Raquel Morillo, Ina Guerassimova, Esther Barbero, Héctor Escobar-Morreale, Alexander T. Cohen, Cecilia Becattini, Victor Tapson, Roger Yusen, David Jimenez Background We sought to examine sex-related differences in the characteristics and outcome in patients presenting with acute symptomatic pulmonary embolism (PE). Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 2,096 patients diagnosed with acute PE. The characteristics were recorded at presentation. Treatment was at the discretion of patients’ physicians. The primary study outcome, all-cause mortality, and the secondary outcomes of PE-specific mortality, recurrent venous thromboembolism, and major bleeding were assessed during the first month of follow-up after PE diagnosis. Results Overall, the women were older than the men and had significantly higher rates of immobilization. They had significantly lower rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer. Women had a higher prevalence of syncope and elevated brain natriuretic peptide levels. Thirty-day all-cause mortality was similar between women and men (7.1% versus 6.2%; P = 0.38). Male gender was not independently significantly associated with PE-related death (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.02; 95% CI, 0.50 to 2.07; P = 0.96). Restricting the analyses to haemodynamically stable patients (n = 2,021), female gender was an independent predictor of all-cause (adjusted OR 1.56; 95% CI, 1.07 to 2.28; P = 0.02) and PE-specific mortality (adjusted OR 1.85; 95% CI, 1.02 to 3.33; P = 0.04). Compared with men, women were 2.05 times more likely to experience a major bleed. Conclusions Women and men with PE had different clinical characteristics, presentation, and outcomes. Women receiving anticoagulation have a significantly higher risk of major bleeding, suggesting the need for careful monitoring of anticoagulant intensity in women.

Description: by Friederike Hammersen, Philip Lewin, Judith Gebauer, Ilonka Kreitschmann-Andermahr, Georg Brabant, Alexander Katalinic, Annika Waldmann This study investigated sleep quality and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among long-term survivors of Hodgkin (HL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The aim was to explore the impact of personal and health-related factors on sleep quality as well as associations between sleep quality and HRQOL. For the postal survey, participants with a minimum age of 18 years initially treated between 1998 and 2008 were recruited via the population-based cancer registry in Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany. Questionnaires included amongst others the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36v1). Descriptive and comparative statistics were performed. Additionally, a regression analysis was conducted to identify predictors of sleep quality. In total, we recruited 515 participants (398 NHL, 117 HL) with a mean age of 63.1 years. Approximately half of the survivors were classified as good sleepers. HRQOL scores differed between good and poor sleepers with lower scores in poor sleepers. In a prediction model, self-reported depression, exhaustion, higher age, inability to work, endocrinological disorders and female gender classified as predictors of sleep quality. This study highlights the impact of sleep quality on HRQOL in long-term survivors of NHL and HL. Thus, sleep quality should be routinely assessed during follow-up of cancer survivors with special attention to patients with potential risk factors.

Description: by Nuria García-Marchena, Daniel Silva-Peña, Ana Isabel Martín-Velasco, María Ángeles Villanúa, Pedro Araos, María Pedraz, Rosa Maza-Quiroga, Pablo Romero-Sanchiz, Gabriel Rubio, Estela Castilla-Ortega, Juan Suárez, Fernando Rodríguez de Fonseca, Antonia Serrano, Francisco Javier Pavón The identification of growth factors as potential biomarkers in alcohol addiction may help to understand underlying mechanisms associated with the pathogenesis of alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Previous studies have linked growth factors to neural plasticity in neurocognitive impairment and mental disorders. In order to further clarify the impact of chronic alcohol consumption on circulating growth factors, a cross-sectional study was performed in abstinent AUD patients (alcohol group, N = 91) and healthy control subjects (control group, N = 55) to examine plasma concentrations of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and IGF-1 binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3). The association of these plasma peptides with relevant AUD-related variables and psychiatric comorbidity was explored. The alcohol group was diagnosed with severe AUD and showed an average of 13 years of problematic use and 10 months of abstinence at the moment of participating in the study. Regarding common medical conditions associated with AUD, we observed an elevated incidence of alcohol-induced liver and pancreas diseases (18.7%) and psychiatric comorbidity (76.9%). Thus, AUD patients displayed a high prevalence of dual diagnosis (39.3%) [mainly depression (19.9%)] and comorbid substance use disorders (40.7%). Plasma BDNF and IGF-1 concentrations were significantly lower in the alcohol group than in the control group (p

Description: by Stephen P. Cohen, Hongxia Liu, Cristiana T. Argueso, Andy Pereira, Casiana Vera Cruz, Valerie Verdier, Jan E. Leach Plant disease is a major challenge to agriculture worldwide, and it is exacerbated by abiotic environmental factors. During some plant-pathogen interactions, heat stress allows pathogens to overcome host resistance, a phenomenon which could severely impact crop productivity considering the global warming trends associated with climate change. Despite the importance of this phenomenon, little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms. To better understand host plant responses during simultaneous heat and pathogen stress, we conducted a transcriptomics experiment for rice plants (cultivar IRBB61) containing Xa7 , a bacterial blight disease resistance ( R ) gene, that were infected with Xanthomonas oryzae , the bacterial blight pathogen of rice, during high temperature stress. Xa7- mediated resistance is unusual relative to resistance mediated by other R genes in that it functions better at high temperatures. Using RNA-Seq technology, we identified 8,499 differentially expressed genes as temperature responsive in rice cultivar IRBB61 experiencing susceptible and resistant interactions across three time points. Notably, genes in the plant hormone abscisic acid biosynthesis and response pathways were up-regulated by high temperature in both mock-treated plants and plants experiencing a susceptible interaction and were suppressed by high temperature in plants exhibiting Xa7- mediated resistance. Genes responsive to salicylic acid, an important plant hormone for disease resistance, were down-regulated by high temperature during both the susceptible and resistant interactions, suggesting that enhanced Xa7- mediated resistance at high temperature is not dependent on salicylic acid signaling. A DNA sequence motif similar to known abscisic acid-responsive cis- regulatory elements was identified in the promoter region upstream of genes up-regulated in susceptible but down-regulated in resistant interactions. The results of our study suggest that the plant hormone abscisic acid is an important node for cross-talk between plant transcriptional response pathways to high temperature stress and pathogen attack. Genes in this pathway represent an important focus for future study to determine how plants evolved to deal with simultaneous abiotic and biotic stresses.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 77: Designing a Climate-Resilient Environmental Curriculum—A Transdisciplinary Challenge Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10010077 Authors: Cheng-Yu Yu Yi-Chang Chiang Building resilience is a promising transdisciplinary area that contributes to addressing the impacts of climate change. This paper focused on the design of climate-resilient environmental curriculums to enhance environmental quality. Transdisciplinary approaches have been recognized as being well-placed to assist responses to climate change, which is a complex phenomenon and problem. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore how climate-resilient environmental education can be integrated into the design, implementation, and practice transdisciplinary manner into curriculums. Transdisciplinary curriculum design is an important factor determining the quality of modules, especially in the field of environmental design, due to its real-life setting characteristics. As students are trained with new projects, and under different socioeconomic and environmental conditions, curriculum design requires modification. Moreover, promoting transdisciplinary studies is a new trend that influences curriculum design. Compared to the interdisciplinary approach, the transdisciplinary approach is concerned with issues and subjects that exist between disciplines, across different disciplines, and beyond all the disciplines, leading to an immense space of new knowledge. This approach leads to integrated research that involves non-academic participants. We concluded that the transdisciplinary approach is beneficial for students in two ways: better performance in practical modules, and addresses the real interests of the students. Feedback from students about the curriculum design suggested that, to consider the individual student’s personal circumstances, multiple training methods should be used. The transdisciplinary approach to climate-resilient environmental curriculum design using a participative process amongst stakeholders is crucial; however, in this study, different opinions amongst interviewed tutors may obstruct the realization of the students’ wishes.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 73: International Tourists’ Perceived Sustainability of Jeju Island, South Korea Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10010073 Authors: Min-Seong Kim Brijesh Thapa Hany Kim This study investigated the causal relationships between international tourists’ perceived sustainability of Jeju Island, South Korea and environmentally responsible behavior, revisit intention, and positive word-of-mouth communication. Perceived sustainability was employed as a multidimensional construct comprised of economic, cultural, and environmental aspects. Data were collected from international tourists that visited Jeju Island. The results indicated that environmentally responsible behavior was influenced positively by cultural sustainability, and negatively by environmental sustainability. Revisit intention and positive word-of-mouth communication were significantly affected by the three dimensions of sustainability. Based on the findings, associated implications were suggested for sustainable destination management of Jeju Island.

Description: Sensors, Vol. 18, Pages 82: Fog-Based Two-Phase Event Monitoring and Data Gathering in Vehicular Sensor Networks Sensors doi: 10.3390/s18010082 Authors: Yongxuan Lai Fan Yang Jinsong Su Qifeng Zhou Tian Wang Lu Zhang Yifan Xu Vehicular nodes are equipped with more and more sensing units, and a large amount of sensing data is generated. Recently, more and more research considers cooperative urban sensing as the heart of intelligent and green city traffic management. The key components of the platform will be a combination of a pervasive vehicular sensing system, as well as a central control and analysis system, where data-gathering is a fundamental component. However, the data-gathering and monitoring are also challenging issues in vehicular sensor networks because of the large amount of data and the dynamic nature of the network. In this paper, we propose an efficient continuous event-monitoring and data-gathering framework based on fog nodes in vehicular sensor networks. A fog-based two-level threshold strategy is adopted to suppress unnecessary data upload and transmissions. In the monitoring phase, nodes sense the environment in low cost sensing mode and generate sensed data. When the probability of the event is high and exceeds some threshold, nodes transfer to the event-checking phase, and some nodes would be selected to transfer to the deep sensing mode to generate more accurate data of the environment. Furthermore, it adaptively adjusts the threshold to upload a suitable amount of data for decision making, while at the same time suppressing unnecessary message transmissions. Simulation results showed that the proposed scheme could reduce more than 84 percent of the data transmissions compared with other existing algorithms, while it detects the events and gathers the event data.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 75: Exploring the Patterns and Mechanisms of Reclaimed Arable Land Utilization under the Requisition-Compensation Balance Policy in Wenzhou, China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10010075 Authors: Lin Lin Hongzhen Jia Yi Pan Lefeng Qiu Muye Gan Shenggao Lu Jinsong Deng Zhoulu Yu Ke Wang Arable land in China is undergoing significant changes, with massive losses of arable land due to rapid urbanization and the reclamation of arable land from other lands to compensate for these losses. Many studies have analyzed arable land loss, but less attention has been paid to land reclamation, and the utilization of reclaimed land remains unclear. The goal of our study was to characterize the patterns and efficiency of the utilization of reclaimed land and to identify the factors influencing the land utilization process in Wenzhou using remote sensing, geographic information systems and logistic regression. Our results showed that only 37% of the total reclaimed land area was under cultivation, and other lands were still bare or had been covered by trees and grasses. The likelihood that reclaimed land was used for cultivation was highly correlated with the land use type of its neighboring or adjacent parcels. Reclaimed land utilization was also limited at high elevations in lands with poor soil fertility and in lands at a great distance from rural residential areas. In addition, parcels located in the ecological protection zone were less likely to be cultivated. Therefore, we suggest that the important determinants should be considered when identifying the most suitable land reclamation areas.

Description: Sensors, Vol. 18, Pages 78: A Triple-Mode Flexible E-Skin Sensor Interface for Multi-Purpose Wearable Applications Sensors doi: 10.3390/s18010078 Authors: Sung-Woo Kim Youngoh Lee Jonghwa Park Seungmok Kim Heeyoung Chae Hyunhyub Ko Jae Kim This study presents a flexible wireless electronic skin (e-skin) sensor system that includes a multi-functional sensor device, a triple-mode reconfigurable readout integrated circuit (ROIC), and a mobile monitoring interface. The e-skin device’s multi-functionality is achieved by an interlocked micro-dome array structure that uses a polyvinylidene fluoride and reduced graphene oxide (PVDF/RGO) composite material that is inspired by the structure and functions of the human fingertip. For multi-functional implementation, the proposed triple-mode ROIC is reconfigured to support piezoelectric, piezoresistance, and pyroelectric interfaces through single-type e-skin sensor devices. A flexible system prototype was developed and experimentally verified to provide various wireless wearable sensing functions—including pulse wave, voice, chewing/swallowing, breathing, knee movements, and temperature—while their real-time sensed data are displayed on a smartphone.

Description: Sensors, Vol. 18, Pages 77: Real-Time Detection of Sporadic Meteors in the Intensified TV Imaging Systems Sensors doi: 10.3390/s18010077 Authors: Stanislav Vítek Maria Nasyrova The automatic observation of the night sky through wide-angle video systems with the aim of detecting meteor and fireballs is currently among routine astronomical observations. The observation is usually done in multi-station or network mode, so it is possible to estimate the direction and the speed of the body flight. The high velocity of the meteorite flying through the atmosphere determines the important features of the camera systems, namely the high frame rate. Thanks to high frame rates, such imaging systems produce a large amount of data, of which only a small fragment has scientific potential. This paper focuses on methods for the real-time detection of fast moving objects in the video sequences recorded by intensified TV systems with frame rates of about 60 frames per second. The goal of our effort is to remove all unnecessary data during the daytime and make free hard-drive capacity for the next observation. The processing of data from the MAIA (Meteor Automatic Imager and Analyzer) system is demonstrated in the paper.

Description: Energies, Vol. 10, Pages 2083: Core Abilities Evaluation Index System Exploration and Empirical Study on Distributed PV-Generation Projects Energies doi: 10.3390/en10122083 Authors: Lin He Chang-Ling Li Qing-Yun Nie Yan Men Hai Shao Jiang Zhu In line with the constraints of environmental problems and economic development, large-scale renewable-generation projects have been planned and constructed in recent years. In order to achieve sustainable power development and improve the power supply structure, China’s government has focused on distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation projects due to their advantages of clean emission and local consumption. However, their unstable output power still brings a series of problems concerning reliability, investment income, and available substitution proportion to traditional power, and so on. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the competitive development abilities of distributed PV generation projects and measure them effectively. First, through various investigation methods such as literature reviews, feasibility report analysis and expert interviews, the factors that influence the core abilities of distributed PV-generation projects were explored based on the micro-grid structure. Then, with the indexed exploration results, the factors were classified into 6 dimensions, i.e., investment and earning ability, production and operation ability, power-grid coordination ability, energy-conservation and emission-reduction ability, sustainable development ability, and society-serving ability. Meanwhile, an evaluation index system for core abilities of distributed PV-generation project was constructed using all quantitative indicators. Third, for examining the availability of the evaluation index system, combination weighting and techniques for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods were adopted to assess the practical distributed PV-generation projects. The case study results showed that installed capacity, local economy development, and grid-connected power quantity will influence the core abilities of distributed PV-generation project, obviously. The conclusions of the evaluation analysis on core abilities can provide useful references to operate and manage distributed PV-generation projects and promote their sustainable and health advantages. The proposed evaluation index system can also be used to assess power-generation projects in other types of energy, such as wind power and hydropower.

Description: Comprehensive research on glacier changes in the Tian Shan is available for the current decade; however, there is limited information about glacier investigations of previous decades and especially before the mid 1970s. The earliest stereo images from the Corona missions were acquired in the 1960s but existing studies dealing with these images focus on single glaciers or small areas only. We developed a workflow to generate digital terrain models (DTMs) and orthophotos from 1964 Corona KH-4 for an entire mountain range (Ak-Shirak) located in the Central Tian Shan. From these DTMs and orthoimages, we calculated geodetic mass balances and length changes in comparison to 1973 and 1980 Hexagon KH-9 data. We found mass budgets between −0.4 ± 0.1 m·w.e.a−1 (1964–1980) and −0.9 ± 0.4 m·w.e.a−1 (1973–1980) for the whole region and individual glaciers. The length changes, on the other hand, vary heterogeneously between +624 ± 18 m (+39.0 ± 1.1 m·a−1) and −923 ± 18 m (−57.7 ± 1.1 m·a−1) for 1964–1980. An automation of the processing line can successively lead to region-wide Corona data processing allowing the analysis and interpretation of glacier changes on a larger scale and supporting a refinement of glacier modelling.

Description: Hydraulic manifolds are used to realize compact circuit layout, but may introduce a high pressure drop in the system. Their design is in fact oriented more toward achieving minimum size and weight than to reducing pressure losses. This work studies the pressure losses in hydraulic manifolds using different methods: Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis; semi-empirical formulation derived from the scientific literature, when available; and experimental characterization. The purpose is to obtain the pressure losses when the channels’ connections within the manifold are not ascribable to the few classic cases studied in the literature, in particular for 90° bends (elbows) with expansion/contraction and offset intersection of channels. Moreover, since CFD analysis is used to predict pressure losses, general considerations of the manifold design may be outlined and this will help the design process in the optimization of flow passages. The main results obtained show how CFD analysis overestimates the experimental results; nevertheless, the numerical analysis represents the correct trends of the pressure losses.

Description: Traditional current transformers (CTs) suffer from DC and AC saturation and remanent magnetization in many industrial applications. Moreover, the drawbacks of traditional CTs, such as closed iron cores, bulky volume, and heavy weight, further limit the development of an intelligent power protection system. In order to compensate for these drawbacks, we proposed a novel current measurement method by using Hall sensors, which is called the Hall-effect current transformer (HCT). The existing commercial Hall sensors are electronic components, so the reliability of the HCT is normally worse than that of the traditional CT. Therefore, our study proposes a redundancy mechanism for the HCT to strengthen its reliability. With multiple sensor modules, the method has the ability to improve the accuracy of the HCT as well. Additionally, the proposed redundancy mechanism monitoring system provides a condition-based maintenance for the HCT. We verify our method with both simulations and an experimental test. The results demonstrate that the proposed HCT with a redundancy mechanism can almost achieve Class 0.2 for measuring CTs according to IEC Standard 60044-8.

Description: This paper proposes a model for strategic maintenance scheduling of offshore wind farms (SMSOWF) in a deregulated power system. The objective of the model is to plan the maintenance schedules in a way to maximize the profit of the offshore wind farm. In addition, some network constraints, such as transmission lines capacity, and wind farm constraints, such as labor working shift, wave height limit and wake effect, as well as unexpected outages, are included in deterministic and stochastic studies. Moreover, the proposedmodel provides theability to incorporate information from condition monitoring systems. SMSOWF is formulated through a bi-level formulation and then transformed into a single-level through Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions. The model is validated through a test system, and the results demonstrate applicability, advantages and challenges of harnessing the full potential of the model.

Description: Due to a mistake during the production process, there was a spelling error in the Academic Editors’ names in the original published version [...]

Description: In order to achieve and maintain a high quality factor (high-Q) for the micro resonant pressure sensor, this paper presents a new wafer level package by adopting cross-layer anodic bonding technique of the glass/silicon/silica (GSS) stackable structure and integrated Ti getter. A double-layer structure similar to a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer is formed after the resonant layer and the pressure-sensitive layer are bonded by silicon direct bonding (SDB). In order to form good bonding quality between the pressure-sensitive layer and the glass cap layer, the cross-layer anodic bonding technique is proposed for vacuum package by sputtering Aluminum (Al) on the combination wafer of the pressure-sensitive layer and the resonant layer to achieve electrical interconnection. The model and the bonding effect of this technique are discussed. In addition, in order to enhance the performance of titanium (Ti) getter, the prepared and activation parameters of Ti getter under different sputtering conditions are optimized and discussed. Based on the optimized results, the Ti getter (thickness of 300 nm to 500 nm) is also deposited on the inside of the glass groove by magnetron sputtering to maintain stable quality factor (Q). The Q test of the built testing system shows that the number of resonators with a Q value of more than 10,000 accounts for more than 73% of the total. With an interval of 1.5 years, the Q value of the samples remains almost constant. It proves the proposed cross-layer anodic bonding and getter technique can realize high-Q resonant structure for long-term stable operation.

Description: Since the late 1990s, land surface temperatures over Japan have increased during the summer and autumn, while global mean temperatures have not risen in this duration (i.e., the global warming hiatus). In contrast, winter and spring temperatures in Japan have decreased. To assess the impact of both global warming and global-scale decadal variability on this enhanced seasonal temperature contrast, we analyzed the outputs of 100 ensemble simulations of historical and counterfactual non-warming climate simulations conducted using a high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). Our simulations showed that atmospheric fields impacted by the La Nina-like conditions associated with Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) have predominantly contributed to the seasonal temperature contrast over Japan. Compared with the impact of negative IPO, the influence of global warming on seasonal temperature contrasts in Japan was small. In addition, atmospheric variability has also had a large impact on temperatures in Japan over a decadal timescale. The results of this study suggest a future increase in heatwave risk during the summer and autumn when La Nina-like decadal phenomena and atmospheric perturbations coincide over a background of global warming.

Description: In this paper, the composite additive of CaF2/CaO was used to extract vanadium from stone coal, and the effect of roasting and leaching kinetics were studied. The purpose of this manuscript is to realize and improve the vanadium recovery from stone coal using the composite additive. The experimental results indicated that the roasted clinker can be obtained under the conditions of CaF2/CaO at a mass ratio of 2:3 and a total additive amount of 10 wt %, a roasting temperature 850 °C, and a roasting time of 90 min. The leaching rate of vanadium can reach 86.74%, which increased by 16.4% compared with that of blank roasting under the conditions including a leaching temperature of 950 °C, a sulfuric acid concentration of 15% (v/v), a leaching time of 2 h, and a ratio of liquid to solid of 3 mL/g. The phase transformation analysis indicated that the muscovite structure was effectively destroyed during the roasting process comparing with no additives, which provided the basis for vanadium dissociation. Roasting can promote the formation of calcium vanadate, which is beneficial to the leaching of vanadium. The vanadium leaching kinetic analysis indicated that the activation energy of the acid leaching reaction decreased from 42.50 KJ/mol in the blank roasting to 22.56 KJ/mol in the calcified roasting, and the reaction order, with respect to the sulfuric acid concentration, decreased from 1.15 to 0.85. Calcified roasting has a better mineral activation than blank roasting, which can accelerate the leaching of vanadium and reduce the dependence on high-temperature and high acid levels in the leaching process.

Description: Two new Cr(III) complexes based on 2-substituted 8-hydroxyquinoline ligands, namely [Cr(L1)3] (1), (HL1=(E)-2-[2-(4-nitro-phenyl)-vinyl]-8-hydroxy-quinoline) and [Cr(L2)3] (2), (HL2=(E)-2-[2-(4-chloro-phenyl)vinyl]-8-hydroxy-quinoline), were prepared by a facile hydrothermal method and characterized thoroughly by single crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, FTIR, TGA, ESI-MS, UV-Visible absorption spectra and fluorescence emission spectra. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses showed that the two compounds featured 3D supramolecular architectures constructed from noncovalent interactions, such as π···π stacking, C-H···π, C-H···O, C-Cl···π, C-H···Cl interactions. The thermogravimetric analysis and ESI-MS study of compounds 1 and 2 suggested that the Cr(III) complexes possessed good stability both in solid and solution. In addition, the ultraviolet and fluorescence response of the HL1 and HL2 shown marked changes upon their complexation with Cr(III) ion, which indicated that the two 8-hydroxyquinolinate based ligand are promising heavy metal chelating agent for Cr3+.

Description: Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) mostly uses proprietary software,but the interest in Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) for GEOBIA is growing. This interest stems not only from cost savings, but also from benefits concerning reproducibility and collaboration. Technical challenges hamper practical reproducibility, especially when multiple software packages are required to conduct an analysis. In this study, we use containerization to package a GEOBIA workflow in a well-defined FOSS environment. We explore the approach using two software stacks to perform an exemplary analysis detecting destruction of buildings in bi-temporal images of a conflict area. The analysis combines feature extraction techniques with segmentation and object-based analysis to detect changes using automatically-defined local reference values and to distinguish disappeared buildings from non-target structures. The resulting workflow is published as FOSS comprising both the model and data in a ready to use Docker image and a user interface for interaction with the containerized workflow. The presented solution advances GEOBIA in the following aspects: higher transparency of methodology; easier reuse and adaption of workflows; better transferability between operating systems; complete description of the software environment; and easy application of workflows by image analysis experts and non-experts. As a result, it promotes not only the reproducibility of GEOBIA, but also its practical adoption.

Description: Digital surface models (DSMs) derived from spaceborne and airborne sensors enable the monitoring of the vertical structures for forests in large areas. Nevertheless, due to the lack of an objective performance assessment for this task, it is difficult to select the most appropriate data source for DSM generation. In order to fill this gap, this paper performs change detection analysis including forest decrease and tree growth. The accuracy of the DSMs is evaluated by comparison with measured tree heights from inventory plots (field data). In addition, the DSMs are compared with LiDAR data to perform a pixel-wise quality assessment. DSMs from four different satellite stereo sensors (ALOS/PRISM, Cartosat-1, RapidEye and WorldView-2), one satellite InSAR sensor (TanDEM-X), two aerial stereo camera systems (HRSC and UltraCam) and two airborne laser scanning datasets with different point densities are adopted for the comparison. The case study is a complex central European temperate forest close to Traunstein in Bavaria, Germany. As a major experimental result, the quality of the DSM is found to be robust to variations in image resolution, especially when the forest density is high. The forest decrease results confirm that besides aerial photogrammetry data, very high resolution satellite data, such as WorldView-2, can deliver results with comparable quality as the ones derived from LiDAR, followed by TanDEM-X and Cartosat DSMs. The quality of the DSMs derived from ALOS and Rapid-Eye data is lower, but the main changes are still correctly highlighted. Moreover, the vertical tree growth and their relationship with tree height are analyzed. The major tree height in the study site is between 15 and 30 m and the periodic annual increments (PAIs) are in the range of 0.30–0.50 m.

Description: This paper presents an automated and effective framework for classifying airborne laser scanning (ALS) point clouds. The framework is composed of four stages: (i) step-wise point cloud segmentation, (ii) feature extraction, (iii) Random Forests (RF) based feature selection and classification, and (iv) post-processing. First, a step-wise point cloud segmentation method is proposed to extract three kinds of segments, including planar, smooth and rough surfaces. Second, a segment, rather than an individual point, is taken as the basic processing unit to extract features. Third, RF is employed to select features and classify these segments. Finally, semantic rules are employed to optimize the classification result. Three datasets provided by Open Topography are utilized to test the proposed method. Experiments show that our method achieves a superior classification result with an overall classification accuracy larger than 91.17%, and kappa coefficient larger than 83.79%.

Description: This paper presents a supervised feature extraction method called weighted kernel entropy component analysis (WKECA) for fault diagnosis of rolling bearings. The method is developed based on kernel entropy component analysis (KECA) which attempts to preserve the Renyi entropy of the data set after dimension reduction. It makes full use of the labeled information and introduces a weight strategy in the feature extraction. The class-related weights are introduced to denote differences among the samples from different patterns, and genetic algorithm (GA) is implemented to seek out appropriate weights for optimizing the classification results. The features based on wavelet packet decomposition are derived from the original signals. Then the intrinsic geometric features extracted by WKECA are fed into the support vector machine (SVM) classifier to recognize different operating conditions of bearings, and we obtain the overall accuracy (97%) for the experimental samples. The experimental results demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Description: Achieving a high fill factor is a bottleneck problem for capturing high-quality images. There are hardware and software solutions to overcome this problem. In the solutions, the fill factor is known. However, this is an industrial secrecy by most image sensor manufacturers due to its direct effect on the assessment of the sensor quality. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the fill factor of a camera sensor from an arbitrary single image. The virtual response function of the imaging process and sensor irradiance are estimated from the generation of virtual images. Then the global intensity values of the virtual images are obtained, which are the result of fusing the virtual images into a single, high dynamic range radiance map. A non-linear function is inferred from the original and global intensity values of the virtual images. The fill factor is estimated by the conditional minimum of the inferred function. The method is verified using images of two datasets. The results show that our method estimates the fill factor correctly with significant stability and accuracy from one single arbitrary image according to the low standard deviation of the estimated fill factors from each of images and for each camera.

Description: The aim of this paper is to identify the correlations between energy consumption and the factors that control usage in the city of Tangshan. To do this, we first analyze the current status of Tangshan’s economic development and energy consumption, and then applied the logarithmic mean Divisia index to identify the factors affecting the changes in energy consumption of all sectors. The findings are summarized as follows: (1) secondary industry accounts for an extremely high percentage of industry in Tangshan city, much higher than the national average; from 2007 to 2012, the proportion of secondary industry increased in Tangshan city; (2) Tangshan’s energy consumption in 2013 was nearly twice that in 2005. Coal and coke coal consumption was responsible for 96.2% of total energy consumption in 2005 and 95.1% in 2013; (3) Tangshan’s energy intensity decreased from 3.00 tce/thousand Yuan in 2005 to 1.85 tce/thousand Yuan in 2013. However, the energy intensity of Tangshan was far more than the average for China, and the decline in Tangshan’s energy intensity was much slower than the average for China; (4) The technical effect plays a dominant role in decreasing energy consumption in most sectors, and the scale effect is the most important contributor to increasing energy consumption in all sectors. Input structural and final use structural effects play different roles in energy consumption in different sectors.

Description: The European population is ageing, and there is a need for health solutions that keep older adults independent longer. With increasing access to mobile technology, such as smartphones and smartwatches, the development and use of mobile health applications is rapidly growing. To meet the societal challenge of changing demography, mobile health solutions are warranted that support older adults to stay healthy and active and that can prevent or delay functional decline. This paper reviews the literature on mobile technology, in particular wearable technology, such as smartphones, smartwatches, and wristbands, presenting new ideas on how this technology can be used to encourage an active lifestyle, and discusses the way forward in order further to advance development and practice in the field of mobile technology for active, healthy ageing.

Description: The Transition Network is a global grassroots network that supports community-led resilience in the face of global change. This paper reports on an ethnographic study of one of its longest-running projects, Transition Town Lewes (TTL) in the United Kingdom. The aim of the study is to analyse TTL as a community. More specifically, we ask two questions: (1) what type of community is TTL? and (2) what are the challenges TTL faces as a community? With this, we contribute to the existing literature on local sustainability initiatives and in particular on Transition initiatives, by providing an in-depth understanding of the challenges and social dynamics at play in a day-to-day setting. We conducted three months of intensive ethnographic fieldwork using participant observation, interviews, and a focus group. Our analysis shows that TTL is a community that, on the one hand, is motivated by explicit intentions and goals, but that, on the other hand, leaves openness and flexibility regarding the level and specifics of participants’ engagement. We introduce the novel concept of ‘light intentional community’ to describe this type of community. We first investigate intentionality in TTL, finding that differences exist between individual participant motivations and stated TTL objectives. We go on to describe the ‘light’ aspect of TTL—the differences in levels of engagement between community participants. Our analysis shows that TTL and its participants face two main challenges. First, TTL participants experience ‘multi-dimensional liminality’: they operate in a liminal space between mainstream society and TTL practices, and additionally experience a continuous sense of transitioning toward a moving goal. Second, TTL as a community faces internal and external frictions. These challenges are interrelated and stem from the structure and dynamics of TTL as a light intentional community. We conclude by reflecting on our analysis of the nature and challenges of ‘light intentional communities’, identifying what opportunities this concept brings for overcoming the challenges of grassroots globalization initiatives amidst mainstream society.

Description: Non-destructive subsurface detection of encapsulated, coated, or seal-packaged foods and pharmaceuticals can help prevent distribution and consumption of counterfeit or hazardous products. This study used a Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) method to detect and identify urea, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen powders contained within one or more (up to eight) layers of gelatin capsules to demonstrate subsurface chemical detection and identification. A 785-nm point-scan Raman spectroscopy system was used to acquire spatially offset Raman spectra for an offset range of 0 to 10 mm from the surfaces of 24 encapsulated samples, using a step size of 0.1 mm to obtain 101 spectral measurements per sample. As the offset distance was increased, the spectral contribution from the subsurface powder gradually outweighed that of the surface capsule layers, allowing for detection of the encapsulated powders. Containing mixed contributions from the powder and capsule, the SORS spectra for each sample were resolved into pure component spectra using self-modeling mixture analysis (SMA) and the corresponding components were identified using spectral information divergence values. As demonstrated here for detecting chemicals contained inside thick capsule layers, this SORS measurement technique coupled with SMA has the potential to be a reliable non-destructive method for subsurface inspection and authentication of foods, health supplements, and pharmaceutical products that are prepared or packaged with semi-transparent materials.

Description: On-site management of construction waste commonly determines its destination. In the case of plasterboard (PB), on-site segregation becomes crucial for closed-loop recycling. However, PB is commonly mixed with other wastes in Spain. In this context, the involvement of stakeholders that can contribute to reversing this current situation is needed. This paper analyzes on-site waste management of PB in Spain through a pilot study of a construction site, with the main objective of identifying best practices to increase waste prevention, waste minimization, and the recyclability of the waste. On-site visits and structured interviews were conducted. The results show five management stages: PB distribution (I); PB installation (II); Construction waste storage at the installation area (III); PB waste segregation at the installation area (IV) and PB waste transfer to the PB container and storage (V). The proposed practices refer to each stage and include the merging of Stages III and IV. This measure would avoid the mixing of waste fractions in Stage III, maximizing the recyclability of PB. In addition, two requisites for achieving enhanced management are analyzed: ‘Training and commitment’ and ‘fulfilling the requirements established by the current regulation’. The results show that foremen adopted a more pessimistic attitude than installers towards a joint commitment for waste management. Moreover, not all supervisors valued the importance of a site waste management plan, regulated by the Royal Decree 105/2008 in Spain.

Description: Forests are receiving more attention for the ecosystem goods and services they provide and the potential change agents that may affect forest health and productivity. Highlighting case examples from coastal forests in South Carolina, USA, we describe groundwater processes with respect to stressors and potential responses of a wetland-rich forested landscape, the roles that this area has served, and the need for water resource data to inform forest management decisions. Forested lands in the southeastern U.S. coastal plain provide a rich set of goods and services for the region, and in one case, the Francis Marion National Forest acts as a buffer to urbanization from the surrounding Charleston metropolitan area. Information from two decades of studies in the forested watersheds there may inform scientists and managers in other coastal forested systems. The common hydrological theme in this region, which has a higher average annual rainfall (1370 mm) than the annual potential evapotranspiration (PET = 1135 mm), is a shallow (〈3 m) water table condition that supports a large range of natural wetlands and also creates management challenges across the region. Modest changes in the position of the water table can lead to either groundwater flooding and concomitant management challenges for forest services, or ecosystem stresses related to dry conditions in wetlands during times of below-normal precipitation or due to groundwater withdrawal. Development pressures have also stressed forest resources through the extraction of materials such as timber and sand mining, and the conversion to housing construction materials. These areas are also targeted for land development, to meet housing demands. In this paper, we discuss the role of groundwater in coastal forests and highlight opportunities for collaborative studies to better inform forest resource management.

Description: Nowadays, any business manager is concerned about sustainability issues and is wondering how to implement social and environmental practices creating economic and social value at the same time. The implementation of social responsibility programs is justified by the benefits that result from a good relationship of the firm with key stakeholders. The present research investigates the links among firms’ relationship with stakeholders, firms’ champion behavior, stakeholders’ satisfaction and firms’ competitive success in regional contexts where social responsibility is promoted. Using the resource-based theory and the concept of shared value, a conceptual model is proposed in which a strong firm relationship with stakeholders will cause the stakeholder’ satisfaction and will help the firm to become a champion in the market, contributing to improved competitiveness. This empirical analysis was based on survey data through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) from 130 Spanish firms in the Region of Extremadura. Participants were firm managers in regional clusters involved in the social responsibility journey promoted by the local government. The results suggest that a good relationship of the frim with stakeholders directly and positively influences firm competitive success, and also, it is enhanced by improvements in stakeholders’ satisfaction and firm champion behavior.

Description: Energy consumption in cellular networks is receiving significant attention from academia and the industry due to its significant potential economic and ecological influence. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are the main pillars of sustainability and environmental compatibility. Technological advancements and cost reduction for photovoltaics are making cellular base stations (BSs; a key source of energy consumption in cellular networks) powered by solar energy sources a long-term promising solution for the mobile cellular network industry. This paper addresses issues of deployment and operation of two solar-powered global system for mobile communications (GSM) BSs that are being deployed at present (GSM BS 2/2/2 and GSM BS 4/4/4). The study is based on the characteristics of South Korean solar radiation exposure. The optimum criteria as well as economic and technical feasibility for various BSs are analyzed using a hybrid optimization model for electric renewables. In addition, initial capital, replacement, operations, maintenance, and total net present costs for various solar-powered BSs are discussed. Furthermore, the economic feasibility of the proposed solar system is compared with conventional energy sources in urban and remote areas.

Description: The accurate peak power estimation of a battery pack is essential to the power-train control of electric vehicles (EVs). It helps to evaluate the maximum charge and discharge capability of the battery system, and thus to optimally control the power-train system to meet the requirement of acceleration, gradient climbing and regenerative braking while achieving a high energy efficiency. A novel online peak power estimation method for series-connected lithium-ion battery packs is proposed, which considers the influence of cell difference on the peak power of the battery packs. A new parameter identification algorithm based on adaptive ratio vectors is designed to online identify the parameters of each individual cell in a series-connected battery pack. The ratio vectors reflecting cell difference are deduced strictly based on the analysis of battery characteristics. Based on the online parameter identification, the peak power estimation considering cell difference is further developed. Some validation experiments in different battery aging conditions and with different current profiles have been implemented to verify the proposed method. The results indicate that the ratio vector-based identification algorithm can achieve the same accuracy as the repetitive RLS (recursive least squares) based identification while evidently reducing the computation cost, and the proposed peak power estimation method is more effective and reliable for series-connected battery packs due to the consideration of cell difference.

Description: by Yang-yang Liu, Han-yan Sun, Wei Li, Yun-lei Xia, Yuan-yu Deng, Ai-xiang Zhang, Huai-gu Chen In China, Fusarium head blight is caused mainly by the Fusarium graminearum species complex (FGSC), which produces trichothecene toxins. The FGSC is divided into three chemotypes: 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol (3-ADON), 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol (15-ADON), and nivalenol (NIV). In order to predict the geographical changes in the distribution of these chemotype populations in major winter wheat-producing areas in China, the biological characteristics of twenty randomly selected isolates from each of the three chemotypes were studied. No significant difference was exhibited in the growth rate of 3-ADON, 15-ADON, and NIV isolates at 15°C. At 20°C and 25°C, the growth rate of 15-ADON isolates was the highest. At 30°C, the growth rate of NIV and 3-ADON isolates was significantly higher than that of 15-ADON isolates. The 15-ADON isolates produced the highest quantities of perithecia and two to three days earlier than the other two populations at each temperature, and released more ascospores at 18°C. The aggressiveness test on wheat seedlings and ears indicated there was no significant difference between the 3-ADON and 15-ADON isolates. However, the aggressiveness of NIV isolates was significantly lower than that of the 3-ADON and 15-ADON isolates. The DON content in grains from heads inoculated with the 3-ADON isolates was higher than the content of 15-ADON and NIV isolates. The results showed that 15-ADON population had the advantage in perithecia formation and ascospore release, and the 3-ADON population produced more DON in wheat grains. We suggested that distribution of these three chemotype populations may be related to these biological characteristics.

Description: by Marek Zak, Malgorzata Biskup, Pawel Macek, Halina Krol, Szymon Krupnik, Anna Opuchlik Objective Breast cancer treatment, including radical surgery, is also pursued as late as the 7th - 8th decade of women’s lives. Standard physical rehabilitation procedures offered to those women are predominantly focused on attenuating specific functional deficits of the upper limb and trunk. Seldom do they entail any regimens specifically aimed at recovering overall functionality, and reducing exposure to falls-risk.The study aimed to assess potential interrelationships between the self-reported falls, individual functional capabilities and appreciably reducing exposure to falls-risk in a group of post-menopausal, post-surgical breast cancer survivors. Methods The study recruited 102 women (aged 65–79; mean age 70.2), post-surgical breast cancer survivors. The subjects were stratified by age into three groups: Group 1 (65–69 years); Group 2 (70–74 years), and Group 3 (75–79 years). Individual functional capabilities were assessed with Eight-foot up & go test (8UG), chair stand test (CST), and 2-minute step test (2ST). Tinetti POMA test was applied to assess gait and balance disorders. Self-reported falls in the past year were ascertained through a questionnaire. Results Assessment of individual aerobic endurance (2ST) also demonstrated a clear deficit in the mean scores category in all respective age sub-groups, as compared against the reference values. The deficits ranged from 4.86 to 15.90 steps less than the normative values; the oldest subjects demonstrating the largest deficit. The aerobic endurance tests results significantly impacted the ultimate assessment of an individual falls-risk in the oldest group. The analysis of the number of falls sustained within the recent year indicated that 43.67% of the subjects fell victim of such incidents. Conclusion An individual exposure to falls-risk was found to be appreciably more dependent upon individual aerobic endurance rather than overall strength of the lower part of the body in the breast cancer survivors over 75.

Description: by Jae Ha Gwak, So Young Sohn Background Recently, the need for rapid wound-healing has significantly increased because of the increasing number of patients who are diagnosed with diabetes and obesity. These conditions have contributed to a surge in the number of patients with chronic wounds worldwide. Furthermore, many cost-effective wound-healing technologies have been developed in order to keep up with the increased demand. In this paper, we performed a quantitative study of the trends associated with wound-healing technologies using patent data. Methodology We analyzed the trends considering four different groups of patent applicants: firms, universities, research institutes, and individuals using a structural topic model. In addition, we analyzed the knowledge flow between patent applicants using citation analysis, and confirmed the role of applicants in the knowledge-flow network using k-means clustering. As a result, the primary wound-healing technology patents applied for by the four groups varied considerably, and we classified the roles of patent applicants were found in the knowledge-flow network. Conclusions Our results showed the organizations that are leading each area of wound-healing technology. Furthermore, from the results, we identified specific institutions that are efficient for spreading knowledge related to wound-healing technology based on the patents. This information can contribute to the planning of investment strategies and technology policies related to wound-healing.

Description: Against the backdrop of increasingly serious global climate change and the development of the low-carbon economy, the coordination between energy consumption carbon emissions (ECCE) and regional population, resources, environment, economy and society has become an important subject. In this paper, the research focuses on the security early warning of ECCE in Hebei Province, China. First, an assessment index system of the security early warning of ECCE is constructed based on the pressure-state-response (P-S-R) model. Then, the variance method and linearity weighted method are used to calculate the security early warning index of ECCE. From the two dimensions of time series and spatial pattern, the security early warning conditions of ECCE are analyzed in depth. Finally, with the assessment analysis of the data from 2000 to 2014, the prediction of the security early warning of carbon emissions from 2015 to 2020 is given, using a back propagation neural network based on a kidney-inspired algorithm (KA-BPNN) model. The results indicate that: (1) from 2000 to 2014, the security comprehensive index of ECCE demonstrates a fluctuating upward trend in general and the trend of the alarm level is “Severe warning”–“Moderate warning”–“Slight warning”; (2) there is a big spatial difference in the security of ECCE, with relatively high-security alarm level in the north while it is relatively low in the other areas; (3) the security index shows the trend of continuing improvement from 2015 to 2020, however the security level will remain in the state of “Semi-secure” for a long time and the corresponding alarm is still in the state of “Slight warning”, reflecting that the situation is still not optimistic.

Description: Passive houses and other highly energy-efficient buildings need mechanical ventilation. However, ventilation systems in such houses are regarded with a certain degree of skepticism by parts of the public due to alleged negative health effects. Within a quasi-experimental field study, we investigated if occupants of two types of buildings (mechanical vs. natural ventilation) experience different health, wellbeing and housing satisfaction outcomes and if associations with indoor air quality exist. We investigated 123 modern homes (test group: with mechanical ventilation; control group: naturally ventilated) built in the years 2010 to 2012 in the same geographic area and price range. Interviews of occupants based on standardized questionnaires and measurements of indoor air quality parameters were conducted twice (three months after moving in and one year later). In total, 575 interviews were performed (respondents’ mean age 37.9 ± 9 years in the test group, 37.7 ± 9 years in the control group). Occupants of the test group rated their overall health status and that of their children not significantly higher than occupants of the control group at both time points. Adult occupants of the test group reported dry eyes statistically significantly more frequently compared to the control group (19.4% vs. 12.5%). Inhabitants of energy-efficient, mechanically ventilated homes rated the quality of indoor air and climate significantly higher. Self-reported health improved more frequently in the mechanically ventilated new homes (p = 0.005). Almost no other significant differences between housing types and measuring time points were observed concerning health and wellbeing or housing satisfaction. Associations between vegetative symptoms (dizziness, nausea, headaches) and formaldehyde concentrations as well as between CO2 levels and perceived stale air were observed. However, both associations were independent of the type of ventilation. In summary, occupants of the mechanically ventilated homes rated their health status slightly higher and their health improved significantly more frequently than in occupants of the control group. As humidity in homes with mechanical ventilation was lower, it seems plausible that the inhabitants reported dry eyes more frequently.

Description: The epidemiology of malaria, anaemia and malnutrition in children is potentially altered in mining development areas. In a copper extraction project in northwestern Zambia, a health impact assessment (HIA) was commissioned to predict, manage and monitor health impacts. Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted: at baseline prior to project development (2011) and at four years into development (2015). Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum, anaemia and stunting were assessed in under-five-year-old children, while hookworm infection was assessed in children aged 9–14 years in communities impacted and comparison communities not impacted by the project. P. falciparum prevalence was significantly higher in 2015 compared to 2011 in both impacted and comparison communities (odds ratio (OR) = 2.51 and OR = 6.97, respectively). Stunting was significantly lower in 2015 in impacted communities only (OR = 0.63). Anaemia was slightly lower in 2015 compared to baseline in both impacted and comparison communities. Resettlement due to the project and migration background (i.e., moving into the area within the past five years) were generally associated with better health outcomes in 2015. We conclude that repeated cross-sectional surveys to monitor health in communities impacted by projects should become an integral part of HIA to deepen the understanding of changing patterns of health and support implementation of setting-specific public health measures.

Description: Vanadium dioxide (VO2) thermochromic thin films with various thicknesses were grown on quartz glass substrates by radio frequency (RF)-plasma assisted oxide molecular beam epitaxy (O-MBE). The crystal structure, morphology and chemical stoichiometry were investigated systemically by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. An excellent reversible metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) characteristics accompanied by an abrupt change in both electrical resistivity and optical infrared (IR) transmittance was observed from the optimized sample. Remarkably, the transition temperature (TMIT) deduced from the resistivity-temperature curve was reasonably consistent with that obtained from the temperature-dependent IR transmittance. Based on Raman measurement and XPS analyses, the observations were interpreted in terms of residual stresses and chemical stoichiometry. This achievement will be of great benefit for practical application of VO2-based smart windows.

Description: Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) films were prepared by electro-oxidation on Au microelectrodes in an aqueous solution. Electrolyte solutions and polymerization parameters were optimized prior to overoxidation. The effect of overoxidation time has been optimized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), which results in the film overoxidized for 45 s at 1.35 V presenting a strong adsorption. The other one-step overoxidation film prepared by direct CV ranging from −0.6 V to 1.35 V was polymerized for comparison. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used for monitoring morphological changes and the evolution of functional groups. Both of them indicate increased abundant oxygen functional groups and roughness, yet the products exhibit dendritic morphology and piles of spherical protrusions, respectively. Moreover, double-step overoxidized film showed better electrochemical performance toward lead ion sensing. These characterizations highlight some novel properties that may be beneficial for specific sensing applications.

Description: The extensive applications of multi-function radars (MFRs) have presented a great challenge to the technologies of radar countermeasures (RCMs) and electronic intelligence (ELINT). The recently proposed cognitive electronic warfare (CEW) provides a good solution, whose crux is to perceive present and future MFR behaviours, including the operating modes, waveform parameters, scheduling schemes, etc. Due to the variety and complexity of MFR waveforms, the existing approaches have the drawbacks of inefficiency and weak practicability in prediction. A novel method for MFR behaviour recognition and prediction is proposed based on predictive state representation (PSR). With the proposed approach, operating modes of MFR are recognized by accumulating the predictive states, instead of using fixed transition probabilities that are unavailable in the battlefield. It helps to reduce the dependence of MFR on prior information. And MFR signals can be quickly predicted by iteratively using the predicted observation, avoiding the very large computation brought by the uncertainty of future observations. Simulations with a hypothetical MFR signal sequence in a typical scenario are presented, showing that the proposed methods perform well and efficiently, which attests to their validity.

Description: The increase in the popularity of social media has shattered the gap between the physical and virtual worlds. The content generated by people or social sensors on social media provides information about users and their living surroundings, which allows us to access a user’s preferences, opinions, and interactions. This provides an opportunity for us to understand human behavior and enhance the services provided for both the real and virtual worlds. In this paper, we will focus on the popularity prediction of social images on Flickr, a popular social photo-sharing site, and promote the research on utilizing social sensory data in the context of assisting people to improve their life on the Web. Social data are different from the data collected from physical sensors; in the fact that they exhibit special characteristics that pose new challenges. In addition to their huge quantity, social data are noisy, unstructured, and heterogeneous. Moreover, they involve human semantics and contextual data that require analysis and interpretation based on human behavior. Accordingly, we address the problem of popularity prediction for an image by exploiting three main factors that are important for making an image popular. In particular, we investigate the impact of the image’s visual content, where the semantic and sentiment information extracted from the image show an impact on its popularity, as well as the textual information associated with the image, which has a fundamental role in boosting the visibility of the image in the keyword search results. Additionally, we explore social context, such as an image owner’s popularity and how it positively influences the image popularity. With a comprehensive study on the effect of the three aspects, we further propose to jointly consider the heterogeneous social sensory data. Experimental results obtained from real-world data demonstrate that the three factors utilized complement each other in obtaining promising results in the prediction of image popularity on social photo-sharing site.

Description: For achieving the development of a portable, low-cost and in vivo cancer diagnosis instrument, a laser 785 nm miniature Raman spectrometer was used to acquire the Raman spectra for breast cancer detection in this paper. However, because of the low spectral signal-to-noise ratio, it is difficult to achieve high discrimination accuracy by using the miniature Raman spectrometer. Therefore, a pattern recognition method of the adaptive net analyte signal (NAS) weight k-local hyperplane (ANWKH) is proposed to increase the classification accuracy. ANWKH is an extension and improvement of K-local hyperplane distance nearest-neighbor (HKNN), and combines the advantages of the adaptive weight k-local hyperplane (AWKH) and the net analyte signal (NAS). In this algorithm, NAS was first used to eliminate the influence caused by other non-target factors. Then, the distance between the test set samples and hyperplane was calculated with consideration of the feature weights. The HKNN only works well for small values of the nearest-neighbor. However, the accuracy decreases with increasing values of the nearest-neighbor. The method presented in this paper can resolve the basic shortcoming by using the feature weights. The original spectra are projected into the vertical subspace without the objective factors. NAS was employed to obtain the spectra without irrelevant information. NAS can improve the classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of breast cancer early diagnosis. Experimental results of Raman spectra detection in vitro of breast tissues showed that the proposed algorithm can obtain high classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. This paper demonstrates that the ANWKH algorithm is feasible for early clinical diagnosis of breast cancer in the future.

Description: Nitrogen is an essential nutrient in many terrestrial ecosystems because it affects vegetation’s primary production. Due to the variety of nitrogen-containing substances and the differences in their composition across species, statistical approaches are now dominant in remote sensing retrieval of leaf nitrogen content. Many studies remove spectral regions characterized by strong water absorptions before retrieving nitrogen content, because water is believed to mask the absorption features of nitrogen. The objectives of this study are to discuss the necessity of this practice and to explore how water absorption affects leaf nitrogen estimation. Spectral measurements and chemical analyses for Maize, Sawtooth Oak, and Sweetgum leaves were carried out in 2014. The leaf optical properties model PROSPECT5 was used to eliminate the influences of water on the measured reflectance spectra. The inversion accuracy of PROPECT5 for chlorophyll, carotenoid, water, and dry matter of Maize was also discussed. Measured, simulated, and water-removed spectra were used to: (1) find the optimal nitrogen-related spectral index; and (2) regress with the area-based leaf nitrogen concentration (LNC) using the partial least square regression technique (PLSR). Two types of spectral indices were selected in this study: Normalized Difference Spectral Index (NDSI) and Ratio Spectral Index (RSI). Additionally, first-order derivative forms of measured, simulated, and water-removed spectra were devised to search for the optimal spectral indices. Finally, species-specific optimal indices and cross-species optimal indices, as well as their root mean square errors (RMSE) and coefficients of determination (R2), were obtained. The Ending Top Percentile (ETP), an indicator of the performance of cross-species optimal indices, was also calculated. PLSR was combined with leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) for each species. The predicted root mean square errors (RMSEP) and predicted R2 were finally calculated. The results showed that chlorophyll, carotenoid, and water contents could be estimated with R2 of 0.75, 0.59, and 0.69, respectively, which were acceptable for fresh leaves. The dry matter was retrieved with a relatively lower accuracy because of the fixed absorption coefficients adopted by PROSPECT5. The performances of species-specific optimal indices using water-free spectra were comparable to or worse than the corresponding indices derived with measured or simulated spectra. Compared with measured spectra, ETP did not change much after the effects of water were removed, and the R2 between cross-species optimal spectral indices and area-based LNC for Sawtooth Oak and Sweetgum decreased while it remained almost the same for Maize, suggesting that the water-removed cross-species optimal indices were inferior to the corresponding optimal indices found without water removal. ETP was larger than 30% for all spectra, demonstrating the non-existence of common optimal NDSI or RSI for the three species. After water removal, the accuracy of PLSR for Sawtooth Oak and Sweetgum decreased and increased negligibly for Maize. The results suggest that water absorption has limited effects on reducing the accuracy of leaf nitrogen estimation. On the contrary, the accuracy may decrease due to the loss of spectral information caused by the removal of water-sensitive spectral regions.

Description: Urban roads constitute most of the existing roads and they are directly managed by small administrations. Normally, these small administrations do not have sufficient funds or sufficient qualified personnel to carry out this task. This paper deals with an easy-implementation Pavement Management System (PMS) to develop strategies to maintain, preserve and rehabilitate urban roads. The proposed method includes the creation of the road network inventory, the visual surveys of the pavement and the evaluation of its condition by the Pavement Condition Index (PCI). The method intends to give a valid tool to road managers to compare alternative maintenance strategies and perform the priority analysis on the network. With this aim, the procedure assesses the Vehicle Operating Costs (VOC) by a written regression between PCI and International Roughness Index (IRI). The proposed method has several advantages because it can be easily adapted to various situations and it does not require a large amount of time and money for its implementation.

Description: by Xiyang Liu, Jiewei Jiang, Kai Zhang, Erping Long, Jiangtao Cui, Mingmin Zhu, Yingying An, Jia Zhang, Zhenzhen Liu, Zhuoling Lin, Xiaoyan Li, Jingjing Chen, Qianzhong Cao, Jing Li, Xiaohang Wu, Dongni Wang, Haotian Lin Slit-lamp images play an essential role for diagnosis of pediatric cataracts. We present a computer vision-based framework for the automatic localization and diagnosis of slit-lamp images by identifying the lens region of interest (ROI) and employing a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN). First, three grading degrees for slit-lamp images are proposed in conjunction with three leading ophthalmologists. The lens ROI is located in an automated manner in the original image using two successive applications of Candy detection and the Hough transform, which are cropped, resized to a fixed size and used to form pediatric cataract datasets. These datasets are fed into the CNN to extract high-level features and implement automatic classification and grading. To demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the deep features extracted in the CNN, we investigate the features combined with support vector machine (SVM) and softmax classifier and compare these with the traditional representative methods. The qualitative and quantitative experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method offers exceptional mean accuracy, sensitivity and specificity: classification (97.07%, 97.28%, and 96.83%) and a three-degree grading area (89.02%, 86.63%, and 90.75%), density (92.68%, 91.05%, and 93.94%) and location (89.28%, 82.70%, and 93.08%). Finally, we developed and deployed a potential automatic diagnostic software for ophthalmologists and patients in clinical applications to implement the validated model.

Description: In this paper, three opportunistic pressure based routing techniques for underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) are proposed. The first one is the cooperative opportunistic pressure based routing protocol (Co-Hydrocast), second technique is the improved Hydrocast (improved-Hydrocast), and third one is the cooperative improved Hydrocast (Co-improved Hydrocast). In order to minimize lengthy routing paths between the source and the destination and to avoid void holes at the sparse networks, sensor nodes are deployed at different strategic locations. The deployment of sensor nodes at strategic locations assure the maximum monitoring of the network field. To conserve the energy consumption and minimize the number of hops, greedy algorithm is used to transmit data packets from the source to the destination. Moreover, the opportunistic routing is also exploited to avoid void regions by making backward transmissions to find reliable path towards the destination in the network. The relay cooperation mechanism is used for reliable data packet delivery, when signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal is not within the predefined threshold then the maximal ratio combining (MRC) is used as a diversity technique to improve the SNR of the received signals at the destination. Extensive simulations validate that our schemes perform better in terms of packet delivery ratio and energy consumption than the existing technique; Hydrocast.

Description: Regions dependent on agricultural production are concerned about the uncertainty associated with climate change. Extreme drought and flooding events are predicted to occur with greater frequency, requiring mitigation strategies to reduce their negative impacts. Multi-purpose local farm water retention systems can reduce water stress during drought periods by supporting irrigation. The retention systems’ capture of excess spring runoff and extreme rainfall events also reduces flood potential downstream. Retention systems may also be used for biomass production and nutrient retention. A sub-watershed scale retention system was analysed using a dynamic simulation model to predict the economic advantages in the future. Irrigated crops using water from the downstream reservoir at Pelly’s Lake, Manitoba, Canada, experienced a net decrease in gross margin in the future due to the associated irrigation and reservoir infrastructure costs. However, the multi-purpose benefits of the retention system at Pelly’s Lake of avoided flood damages, nutrient retention, carbon sequestration, and biomass production provide an economic benefit of $25,507.00/hectare of retention system/year. Multi-purpose retention systems under future climate uncertainty provide economic and environmental gains when used to avoid flood damages, for nutrient retention and carbon sequestration, and biomass production. The revenue gained from these functions can support farmers willing to invest in irrigation while providing economic and environmental benefits to the region.

Description: Carbon allowances traded in the EU-Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) were initially designed as an economic motivation for efficiently curbing greenhouse as emissions, but now it mimics quite a few characteristics of financial assets, and have now been used as a candidate product in building financial portfolios. In this study, we examine the time-varying correlations between carbon allowance prices with other financial indices, during the third phase of EU-ETS. The results show that, at the beginning of this period, carbon price was still strongly corrected with other financial indices. However, this connection was weakened over time. Given the relative independence of carbon assets from other financial assets, we argue for the diversification benefits of including carbon assets in financial portfolios, and building such portfolios, respectively, with the traditional global minimum variance (GMV) strategy, the mean-variance-OGARCH (MV-OGARCH) strategy, and the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) strategy. It is shown that the portfolio built with the MV-OGARCH strategy far out-performs the others and that including carbon assets in financial portfolios does help reduce investment risks.

Description: In this study, we evaluated the physicochemical and microbial qualities of source and stored household waters in some communities in Southwestern Nigeria using standard methods. Compared parameters include: physicochemical constituents; Temperature (T), pH, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Hardness (TH), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Magnesium ion (Mg2+) and Calcium ion (Ca2+) and microbiological parameters included Total Coliform Counts (TC), Faecal Coliform Counts (FC), Fungal Counts (Fung C), Heterotrophic Plate Counts (HPC).Comparing Stored and Source samples, the mean values of some physicochemical parameters of most of the stored water samples significantly (p 〈 0.05) exceeded that of Sources and ranged in the following order: T (15.3 ± 0.3 °C–28.3 ± 0.5 °C), pH (6.4 ± 0.1–7.6 ± 0.1), TDS (192.1 ± 11.1 ppm–473.7 ± 27.9 ppm), TH (10.6 ± 1.7 mg/L–248.6 ± 18.6 mg/L), BOD (0.5 ± 0.0 mg/L–3.2 ± 0.3 mg/L), Mg2+ (6.5 ± 2.4 mg/L–29.1 ± 3.2 mg/L) and Ca2+ (6.5 ± 2.4 mg/L–51.6 ± 4.4 mg/L). The mean microbial counts obtained from microbial comparison of different points (Stored and Source) of collection showed that most of the stored water had counts significantly exceeding (p 〈 0.05) those of the source water samples (cfu/100 mL) which ranged as follows: TC (3.1 ± 1.5–156.8 ± 42.9), FC (0.0 ± 0.0–64.3 ± 14.2) and HPC (47.8 ± 12.1–266.1 ± 12.2) across all sampled communities. Also, the predominant isolates recovered from the samples were identified as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter aerogenes, Aspergillus spp., Mucor spp., Rhizopus spp. and Candida spp. The presence of these pathogenic and potentially pathogenic organisms in the waters and the high counts of the indicator organisms suggest the waters to be a threat to public health.

Description: Radar imaging based on electromagnetic vortex can achieve azimuth resolution without relative motion. The present paper investigates this imaging technique with the use of a single receiving antenna through theoretical analysis and experimental results. Compared with the use of multiple receiving antennas, the echoes from a single receiver cannot be used directly for image reconstruction using Fourier method. The reason is revealed by using the point spread function. An additional phase is compensated for each mode before imaging process based on the array parameters and the elevation of the targets. A proof-of-concept imaging system based on a circular phased array is created, and imaging experiments of corner-reflector targets are performed in an anechoic chamber. The azimuthal image is reconstructed by the use of Fourier transform and spectral estimation methods. The azimuth resolution of the two methods is analyzed and compared through experimental data. The experimental results verify the principle of azimuth resolution and the proposed phase compensation method.

Description: Elderburbs, defined as old suburban neighborhoods in terms of their ‘built environments’ and ‘demographic structures’, have emerged prominently in academic discussion due to the social vulnerability and outdated built environments of senior dominant neighborhoods that barely meet the needs of their aging populations. Even though previous literature has revealed concerns about suburban decline and the growing number of seniors, these two points of interest have largely been examined in isolation from one another. Thus, this paper attempts to unveil the spatial and social morphology of Elderburbs in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas from 1990 to 2010. Elderburbs were identified by two major criteria; built year (first-generation suburbs built between 1950 and 1970) and demographic aging (based on elderly, elderly-child, and elderly dependency ratios). The findings of this study indicate that Elderburbs have increased and expanded out to suburban areas, especially in the Northeast and Midwest. On the contrary, Elderburbs in the South have decreased and moved closer to core cities. Differing from our assumptions, both Elderburbs and Elderurbans were found to be less socially vulnerable than ordinary suburban and urban neighborhoods.

Description: With rapid urbanization, highly accurate and semantically rich virtualization of building assets in 3D become more critical for supporting various applications, including urban planning, emergency response and location-based services. Many research efforts have been conducted to automatically reconstruct building models at city-scale from remotely sensed data. However, developing a fully-automated photogrammetric computer vision system enabling the massive generation of highly accurate building models still remains a challenging task. One the most challenging task for 3D building model reconstruction is to regularize the noises introduced in the boundary of building object retrieved from a raw data with lack of knowledge on its true shape. This paper proposes a data-driven modeling approach to reconstruct 3D rooftop models at city-scale from airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. The focus of the proposed method is to implicitly derive the shape regularity of 3D building rooftops from given noisy information of building boundary in a progressive manner. This study covers a full chain of 3D building modeling from low level processing to realistic 3D building rooftop modeling. In the element clustering step, building-labeled point clouds are clustered into homogeneous groups by applying height similarity and plane similarity. Based on segmented clusters, linear modeling cues including outer boundaries, intersection lines, and step lines are extracted. Topology elements among the modeling cues are recovered by the Binary Space Partitioning (BSP) technique. The regularity of the building rooftop model is achieved by an implicit regularization process in the framework of Minimum Description Length (MDL) combined with Hypothesize and Test (HAT). The parameters governing the MDL optimization are automatically estimated based on Min-Max optimization and Entropy-based weighting method. The performance of the proposed method is tested over the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) benchmark datasets. The results show that the proposed method can robustly produce accurate regularized 3D building rooftop models.

Description: As a stressful and sensitive task, driving can be disturbed by various factors from the health condition of the driver to the environmental variables of the vehicle. Continuous monitoring of driving hazards and providing the most appropriate business services to meet actual needs can guarantee safe driving and make great use of the existing information resources and business services. However, there is no in-depth research on the perception of a driver’s health status or the provision of customized business services in case of various hazardous situations. In order to constantly monitor the health status of the drivers and react to abnormal situations, this paper proposes a context-aware service system providing a configurable architecture for the design and implementation of the smart health service system for safe driving, which can perceive a driver’s health status and provide helpful services to the driver. With the context-aware technology to construct a smart health services system for safe driving, this is the first time that such a service system has been implemented in practice. Additionally, an assessment model is proposed to mitigate the impact of the acceptable abnormal status and, thus, reduce the unnecessary invocation of the services. With regard to different assessed situations, the business services can be invoked for the driver to adapt to hazardous situations according to the services configuration model, which can take full advantage of the existing information resources and business services. The evaluation results indicate that the alteration of the observed status in a valid time range T can be tolerated and the frequency of the service invocation can be reduced.

Description: In the dual-axis rotation inertial navigation system (INS), besides the gyro error, accelerometer error, rolling misalignment angle error, and the gimbal angle error, the shaft swing angle and the axis non-orthogonal angle also affect the attitude accuracy. Through the analysis of the structure, we can see that the shaft swing angle and axis non-orthogonal angle will produce coning errors which cause the fluctuation of the attitude. According to the analysis of the rotation vector, it can be seen that the coning error will generate additional drift velocity along the rotating shaft, which can reduce the navigation precision of the system. In this paper, based on the establishment of the modulation average frame, the vector projection is carried out, and then the attitude conversion matrix and the attitude error matrix mainly including the shaft swing angle and axis non-orthogonal are obtained. Because the attitude angles are given under the static condition, the shaft swing angle and the axis non-orthogonal angle are estimated by the static Kalman filter (KF). This kind of KF method has been widely recognized as the standard optimal estimation tool for estimating the parameters such as coning angles (α1 , α2), initial phase angles (ϕ1,ϕ2), and the non-perpendicular angle (η). In order to carry out the system level verification, a dual axis rotation INS is designed. Through simulation and experiments, the results show that the amplitudes of the attitude angles’ variation are reduced by about 20%–30% when the shaft rotates. The attitude error equation is reasonably simplified and the calibration method is accurate enough. The attitude accuracy is further improved.

Description: Defocus of the reconstructed image of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) occurs in the presence of the phase error. In this work, a phase error correction method is proposed for compressed sensing (CS) radar imaging based on approximated observation. The proposed method has better image focusing ability with much less memory cost, compared to the conventional approaches, due to the inherent low memory requirement of the approximated observation operator. The one-dimensional (1D) phase error correction for approximated observation-based CS-SAR imaging is first carried out and it can be conveniently applied to the cases of random-frequency waveform and linear frequency modulated (LFM) waveform without any a priori knowledge. The approximated observation operators are obtained by calculating the inverse of Omega-K and chirp scaling algorithms for random-frequency and LFM waveforms, respectively. Furthermore, the 1D phase error model is modified by incorporating a priori knowledge and then a weighted 1D phase error model is proposed, which is capable of correcting two-dimensional (2D) phase error in some cases, where the estimation can be simplified to a 1D problem. Simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method in the presence of 1D phase error or weighted 1D phase error.

Description: Wellness is one of the main factors crucial in the avoidance of illness or disease. Experience has shown that healthy lifestyle programs are an important strategy to prevent the major shared risk factors for many diseases including cardiovascular diseases, strokes, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. Within the ambit of the Smart Health 2.0 project, a Wellness App has been developed which has the aim of providing people with something similar to a personal trainer. This Wellness App is able to gather information about the subject, to classify her/him by evaluating some of her/his specific characteristics (physical parameters and lifestyle) and to make personal recommendations to enhance her/his well-being. The application can also give feedback on the effectiveness of the specified characteristics by monitoring their evolution over time, and can provide a positive incentive to stimulate the subject to achieve her/his wellness goals. In this paper, we present a pilot study conducted in Calabria, a region of Italy, aimed at an evaluation of the validity, usability, and navigability of the app, and of people’s level of satisfaction with it. The preliminary results show an average score of 77.16 for usability and of 76.87 for navigability, with an improvement of the Wellness Index with a significance average of 95% and of the Mediterranean Adequacy Index with a significance average of as high as 99%.

Description: Grassland fire is one of the most important disturbance factors of the natural ecosystem. Climate factors influence the occurrence and development of grassland fire. An analysis of the climate conditions of fire occurrence can form the basis for a study of the temporal and spatial variability of grassland fire. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of monthly time scale climate factors on the occurrence of grassland fire in HulunBuir, located in the northeast of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China. Based on the logistic regression method, we used the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fire data products named thermal anomalies/fire daily L3 Global 1km (MOD14A1 (Terra) and MYD14A1 (Aqua)) and associated climate data for HulunBuir from 2000 to 2010, and established the model of grassland fire climate index. The results showed that monthly maximum temperature, monthly sunshine hours and monthly average wind speed were all positively correlated with the fire climate index; monthly precipitation, monthly average temperature, monthly average relative humidity, monthly minimum relative humidity and the number of days with monthly precipitation greater than or equal to 5 mm were all negatively correlated with the fire climate index. We used the active fire data from 2011 to 2014 to validate the fire climate index during this time period, and the validation result was good (Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 0.578), which showed that the fire climate index model was suitable for analyzing the occurrence of grassland fire in HulunBuir. Analyses were conducted on the temporal and spatial distribution of the fire climate index from January to December in the years 2011–2014; it could be seen that from March to May and from September to October, the fire climate index was higher, and that the fire climate index of the other months is relatively low. The zones with higher fire climate index are mainly distributed in Xin Barag Youqi, Xin Barag Zuoqi, Zalantun Shi, Oroqen Zizhiqi, and Molidawa Zizhiqi; the zones with medium fire climate index are mainly distributed in Chen Barag Qi, Ewenkizu Zizhiqi, Manzhouli Shi, and Arun Qi; and the zones with lower fire climate index are mainly distributed in Genhe Shi, Ergun city, Yakeshi Shi, and Hailar Shi. The results of this study will contribute to the quantitative assessment and management of early warning and forecasting for mid-to long-term grassland fire risk in HulunBuir.

Description: While patents do have many advantages, their disadvantages include requiring disclosure of technical information and imposing the burden of patenting and litigation costs. In this study, we investigate the relationship between a firm’s negative perception on patents, technology management strategies, and subsequent performance. For this purpose, we use a categorical canonical correlation analysis of the top 200, large, R&D-intensive firms in Korea. We find that negative perceptions such as burdensome transaction costs, non-patenting culture, and uncertainty of the outcome of patent litigation are associated with firms’ technology management strategies, such as purchase of licenses, and subsequent performance, such as an increase in the number of inventions from the cross-fertilization of different technologies. The results of this study are expected to contribute to a better understanding of firms’ negative attitudes toward the effects of patents, their subsequent technology management strategies, and resulting performance.

Description: The food system, the most important driver of planetary transformation, is broken. Therefore, seeking a sustainable and socially-fair transition pathway out of this crisis becomes an issue of utmost priority. The consideration of food as a commodity, a social construct that played a central role in this crisis, remains the uncontested narrative to lead the different transition pathways, which seems rather contradictory. By exploring the normative values on food, this paper seeks to understand how relevant is the hegemonic narrative of food as commodity and its alternative of food as commons to determine transition trajectories and food policy beliefs. Applying the multi-level perspective framework and developing the ill-studied agency in transition, this research enquired food-related professionals that belong to an online community of practice (N = 95) to check whether the valuation of food is relevant to explain personal stances in transition. Results suggest that the view of food as commodity is positively correlated with a gradually-reforming attitude, whereas food as commons is positively correlated with the counter-hegemonic transformers, regardless of the self-defined position in the transition landscape (regime or niches). At a personal level, there are multiple loci of resistance with counter-hegemonic attitudes in varied institutions of the regime and the innovative niches, many of them holding this discourse of food as commons. Conversely, alter-hegemonic attitudes are not positively correlated with the alternative discourse, and they may inadvertently or purportedly reinforce the neoliberal narrative. Food as commons seems to be a relevant framework that could enrich the multiple transformative constituencies that challenge the industrial food system and therefore facilitate the convergence of movements that reject the commodification of food.

Description: Agricultural soils are suffering from increasing heavy metal pollution, among which, paddy soil polluted by heavy metals is frequently reported and has elicited great public concern. In this study, we carried out field experiments on paddy soil around a Pb-Zn mine to study amelioration effects of four soil amendments on uptake of Cd and Pb by rice, and to make recommendations for paddy soil heavy metal remediation, particularly for combined pollution of Cd and Pb. The results showed that all the four treatments can significantly reduce the Cd and Pb content in the late rice grain compared with the early rice, among which, the combination amendment of lime and phosphate had the best remediation effects where rice grain Cd content was reduced by 85% and 61%, respectively, for the late rice and the early rice, and by 30% in the late rice grain for Pb. The high reduction effects under the Ca + P treatment might be attributed to increase of soil pH from 5.5 to 6.7. We also found that influence of the Ca + P treatment on rice production was insignificant, while the available Cd and Pb content in soil was reduced by 16.5% and 11.7%, respectively.

Description: Natural climate change and human activities are the main driving forces associated with vegetation coverage change. Nanxiong Basin is a key ecosystem-service area at the national level with a dense population and highly representative of red-bed basins, which are considered as fragile ecological units in humid regions. In this study, the authors aimed to determine the trends in vegetation cover change over past two decades and the associated driving forces in this study area. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of 2000–2015, derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) remote sensing dataset along with the application of statistical methods and GIS (geographic information system) techniques were used to quantify vegetation cover change. The results show that human-induced factors can explain most variations at sites with significant cover change. That is to say that human activities are the main drivers of vegetation dynamics in this study area, which shows a significant reduction trend in vegetation cover during the industrialization and urbanization processes of the study period and noticeable recovery trend in 2000–2015 under the plantation and enclosed forest policy.

Description: This paper used a Vanadium Redox flow Battery (VRB) as the storage battery and designed a two-stage topology of a VRB energy storage system in which a phase-shifted full bridge dc-dc converter and three-phase inverter were used, considering the low terminal voltage of the VRB. Following this, a model of the VRB was simplified, according to the operational characteristics of the VRB in this designed topology of a VRB energy storage system (ESS). By using the simplified equivalent model of the VRB, the control parameters of the ESS were designed. For effectively estimating the state of charge (SOC) of the VRB, a traditional method for providing the SOC estimation was simplified, and a simple and effective SOC estimation method was proposed in this paper. Finally, to illustrate the proper design of the VRB ESS and the proposed SOC estimation method, a corresponding simulation was designed by Simulink. The test results have demonstrated that this proposed SOC estimation method is feasible and effective for indicating the SOC of a VRB and the proper design of this VRB ESS is very reasonable for VRB applications.

Description: Sustainability indicators and assessments are vital in promoting campus sustainability. Despite the plethora of indicator frameworks, campus sustainability assessment in developing countries encounters many challenges including lack of, or restricted access to, data and difficulties in measuring indicators. There is also a limited application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in campus environmental sustainability assessment, although campus operations have spatial dimensions. This article proposes a GIS-based model for environmental sustainability assessment of campus operations and demonstrates its usefulness using King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia. The model applies spatial analysis techniques, including inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation, to statistically assess the various campus operational activities by using land use data to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, water consumption, solid waste, and transportation. The integration of spatial dimension in the model facilitates the collection and measurement of spatially related indicators, helps identify hotspots of campus operations, and provides better visualization of the existing condition and future scenario of campus environmental sustainability status. This model can assist decision-makers to construct strategies for improving the overall environmental sustainability of university campuses. The paper concludes by highlighting how the model can address some challenges of campus sustainability assessment in developing countries.

Description: Reclamation is capable of creating abundant land to alleviate the pressure from land shortages in China. Nevertheless, coastal reclamation can lead to severe environmental degradation and landscape fragmentation. It is quite important to monitor land use and cover change (LUCC) in coastal areas, assess coastal wetland change, and predict land use requirements. The siltation of tidal flats will result in the dynamic growth and continuous expansion of coastal areas. Therefore, the process of land change in coastal areas is different from that under the fixed terrestrial boundary condition. Cellular Automata and Multi-Agent System (CA-MAS) models are commonly used to simulate LUCC, and their advantages have been well proven under the fixed boundary condition. In this paper, we propose CA-MAS combined with a shoreline evolution forecast (CA-MAS-SEF) model to simulate the land change in coastal areas. Meanwhile, the newly increased area, because of the dynamic growth of tidal flats, is considered in the simulation process. The simulation results using the improved method are verified, and compared with observed patterns using spatial overlay. In comparison with simulation results that do not consider the expansion of tidal flats, the Kappa coefficient estimated while considering the dynamic growth of tidal flats is improved from 65.9% to 70.5%, which shows that the method presented here can be applied to simulate the LUCC in growing coastal areas.

Description: In the present work, we tested the validity of using novel, bio-augmented, aerobic composting with carcass-degrading microorganisms for the ex situ stabilization of carcasses at pilot scale with previously poorly decomposed carcasses excavated from a 3-year old burial site. The significantly decreased chemical oxygen demand (COD, 160,000 mg/kg to 40,000 mg/kg) and inorganic nitrogen species (total nitrogen, 5000 mg/kg to 2000 mg/kg) indicated effective bio-stabilization of carcasses by bio-augmented composting. The subsequent germination assays and the quantitative characterization of potentially pathogenic bacteria using NGS (next-generation sequencing) showed that the burial–composting sequential system with the carcass-degrading microorganisms and mechanical agitation successfully reduced plant toxicity as well as microbial risk to human health, suggesting that the composting by-product is suitable for farming or/and landfill use(s).

Description: In this paper we suggest considering sustainability as a moral framework based on social justice, which can be used to evaluate technological choices. In order to make sustainability applicable to discussions of nuclear energy production and waste management, we focus on three key ethical questions, namely: (i) what should be sustained; (ii) why should we sustain it; and (iii) for whom should we sustain it. This leads us to conceptualize the notion of sustainability as a set of values, including safety, security, environmental benevolence, resource durability, and economic viability of the technology. The practical usefulness of sustainability as a moral framework is highlighted by demonstrating how it is applicable for understanding intergenerational dilemmas—between present and future generations, but also among different future generations—related to nuclear fuel cycles and radioactive waste management.