bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A High-Density Crowd Counting Method Based on Convolutional Feature Fusion
Authors: Luo Hongling , Sang Jun , Wu Weiqun , Xiang Hong , Xiang Zhili , Zhang Qian , Wu Zhongyuan
Published: November 2018

In recent years, the trampling events due to overcrowding have occurred frequently, which leads to the demand for crowd counting under a high-density environment. At present, there are few studies on monitoring crowds in a large-scale crowded environment, while there exists technology drawbacks and a lack of mature systems. Aiming to solve the crowd counting problem with high-density under complex environments, a feature fusion-based deep convolutional neural network method FF-CNN (Feature Fusion of Convolutional Neural Network) was proposed in this paper. The proposed FF-CNN mapped the crowd image to its crowd density map, and then obtained the head count by integration. The geometry adaptive kernels were adopted to generate high-quality density maps which were used as ground truths for network training. The deconvolution technique was used to achieve the fusion of high-level and low-level features to get richer features, and two loss functions, i.e., density map loss and absolute count loss, were used for joint optimization. In order to increase the sample diversity, the original images were cropped with a random cropping method for each iteration. The experimental results of FF-CNN on the ShanghaiTech public dataset showed that the fusion of low-level and high-level features can extract richer features to improve the precision of density map estimation, and further improve the accuracy of crowd counting.
Combination of High-Resolution Optical Coherence Tomography and Raman Spectroscopy for Improved Staging and Grading in Bladder Cancer
Authors: Bovenkamp Daniela , Sentosa Ryan , Rank Elisabet , Erkkilä Mikael T. , Placzek Fabian , Püls Jeremias , Drexler Wolfgang , Leitgeb Rainer A. , Garstka Nathalie , Shariat Shahrokh F. , Stiebing Clara , Schie Iwan W. , Popp Jürgen , Andreana Marco , Unterhuber Angelika
Published: November 2018

We present a combination of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and Raman spectroscopy (RS) for improved diagnosis and discrimination of different stages and grades of bladder cancer ex vivo by linking the complementary information provided by these two techniques. Bladder samples were obtained from biopsies dissected via transurethral resection of the bladder tumor (TURBT). As OCT provides structural information rapidly, it was used as a red-flag technology to scan the bladder wall for suspicious lesions with the ability to discriminate malignant tissue from healthy urothelium. Upon identification of degenerated tissue via OCT, RS was implemented to determine the molecular characteristics via point measurements at suspicious sites. Combining the complementary information of both modalities allows not only for staging, but also for differentiation of low-grade and high-grade cancer based on a multivariate statistical analysis. OCT was able to clearly differentiate between healthy and malignant tissue by tomogram inspection and achieved an accuracy of 71% in the staging of the tumor, from pTa to pT2, through texture analysis followed by k-nearest neighbor classification. RS yielded an accuracy of 93% in discriminating low-grade from high-grade lesions via principal component analysis followed by k-nearest neighbor classification. In this study, we show the potential of a multi-modal approach with OCT for fast pre-screening and staging of cancerous lesions followed by RS for enhanced discrimination of low-grade and high-grade bladder cancer in a non-destructive, label-free and non-invasive way.
Integrated Energy System Optimization Based on Standardized Matrix Modeling Method
Authors: Li Jingchao , Ying Yulong , Lou Xingdan , Fan Juanjuan , Chen Yunlongyu , Bi Dongyuan
Published: November 2018

Aiming at the optimization of an integrated energy system, a standardized matrix modeling method and optimization method for an integrated energy system is proposed. Firstly, from the perspective of system engineering, the energy flow between energy conversion devices is used as a state variable to deal with nonlinear problems caused by the introduction of scheduling factors, and a standardized matrix model of the integrated energy system is constructed. Secondly, based on the proposed model, the structural optimization (i.e., energy flow structure and equipment type), design optimization (i.e., equipment capacity and quantity), and operation optimization for the integrated energy system can be achieved. The simulation case studies have shown that the proposed integrated energy system standardized matrix modeling method and optimization method are both simple and efficient, and can be effectively used to decide the system components and their interconnections, and the technical characteristics and daily operating strategy of the system components.
A Review on the Methods for Observing the Substance and Energy Exchange between Atmosphere Boundary Layer and Free Troposphere
Authors: Zhang Haozhe , Zhou Xuehua , Zou Jun , Wang Wuke , Xue Likun , Ding Qiuji , Wang Xinfeng , Zhang Ning , Ding Aijun , Sun Jianning , Wang Wenxing
Published: November 2018

Atmosphere boundary layer (ABL or BL) acts as a pivotal part in the climate by regulating the vertical exchange of moisture, aerosol, trace gases and energy between the earth surface and free troposphere (FT). However, compared with research on the exchange between earth surface and ABL, there are fewer researches on the exchange between ABL and FT, especially when it comes to the quantitative measurement of vertical exchange flux between them. In this paper, a number of various methodologies for investigating the exchange of the substance and energy between ABL and FT are reviewed as follows: (1) methods to obtain entrainment rate, which include method by investigating the height of inversion layer, method of flux-jump, estimating with dataset from the ASTEX Lagrangian Experiments and method of using satellite observations and Microwave Imager; (2) mass budget method, which can yield quantitative measurements of exchange flux between ABL and FT; (3) qualitative measurements: method based on Rayleigh distillation and mixing processes, methods of ground-based remote sensing and airborne tracer-tracer relationship/ratio method.
Use of Electronic Noses in Seawater Quality Monitoring: A Systematic Review
Authors: Tonacci Alessandro , Sansone Francesco , Conte Raffaele , Domenici Claudio
Published: November 2018

Electronic nose (eNose) systems are particularly appreciated for their portability, usability, relative low cost, and real-time or near real-time response. Their application finds space in several domains, including environmental monitoring. Within this field, marine monitoring is of particular scientific relevance due to the fragility of this specific environment, daily threatened by human activities that can potentially bring to catastrophic and irreversible consequences on marine wildlife. Under such considerations, a systematic review, complying with the PRISMA guidelines, was conducted covering the period up to 15 October 2018, in PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. Despite the relatively low number of articles published on this specific topic and the heterogeneity of the technological approaches employed, the results obtained by the various groups highlight the positive contribution eNose has given and can provide in near future for the monitoring and safeguarding of this delicate environment.
Cerium Oxide-Tungsten Oxide Core-Shell Nanowire-Based Microsensors Sensitive to Acetone
Authors: Tomić Milena , Šetka Milena , Chmela Ondřej , Gràcia Isabel , Figueras Eduard , Cané Carles , Vallejos Stella
Published: November 2018

Gas sensitive cerium oxide-tungsten oxide core-shell nanowires are synthesized and integrated directly into micromachined platforms via aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition. Tests to various volatile organic compounds (acetone, ethanol, and toluene) involved in early disease diagnosis demonstrate enhanced sensitivity to acetone for the core-shell structures in contrast to the non-modified materials (i.e., only tungsten oxide or cerium oxide). This is attributed to the high density of oxygen vacancy defects at the shell, as well as the formation of heterojunctions at the core-shell interface, which provide the modified nanowires with ‘extra’ chemical and electronic sensitization as compared to the non-modified materials.
Investigation of Nanographene Produced by In-Liquid Plasma for Development of Highly Durable Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells
Authors: Gamaleev Vladislav , Kajikawa Kengo , Takeda Keigo , Hiramatsu Mineo
Published: November 2018

Recently, polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are attracting a lot of attention owing to their small size and relatively low working temperature (below 80 °C), which enables their usage in automobiles and household power generation. However, PEFCs have a problem with decreased output caused by corrosion of amorphous carbon, which is commonly used as a catalytic carrier. This problem could be solved by the usage of carbon nanostructures with a stronger crystal structure than amorphous carbon. In this work, nanographene supported by Pt nanoparticles was synthesized and examined for possible applications in the development of PEFCs with increased durability. Nanographene was synthesized by in-liquid plasma generated in ethanol using alternating current (AC) high voltage. A membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was constructed, where Pt nanoparticle-supported nanographene was used as the catalytic layer. Power generation characteristics of the MEA were evaluated and current density for the developed MEA was found to be approximately 240 mA/cm2. From the electrochemical evaluation, it was found that the durability of Pt nanoparticle-supported nanographene was about seven times higher than that of carbon black.
Triple-Helical DNA in Drosophila Heterochromatin
Authors: Gorab Eduardo
Published: November 2018

Polynucleotide chains obeying Watson-Crick pairing are apt to form non-canonical complexes such as triple-helical nucleic acids. From early characterization in vitro, their occurrence in vivo has been strengthened by increasing evidence, although most remain circumstantial particularly for triplex DNA. Here, different approaches were employed to specify triple-stranded DNA sequences in the Drosophila melanogaster chromosomes. Antibodies to triplex nucleic acids, previously characterized, bind to centromeric regions of mitotic chromosomes and also to the polytene section 59E of mutant strains carrying the brown dominant allele, indicating that AAGAG tandem satellite repeats are triplex-forming sequences. The satellite probe hybridized to AAGAG-containing regions omitting chromosomal DNA denaturation, as expected, for the intra-molecular triplex DNA formation model in which single-stranded DNA coexists with triplexes. In addition, Thiazole Orange, previously described as capable of reproducing results obtained by antibodies to triple-helical DNA, binds to AAGAG repeats in situ thus validating both detection methods. Unusual phenotype and nuclear structure exhibited by Drosophila correlate with the non-canonical conformation of tandem satellite arrays. From the approaches that lead to the identification of triple-helical DNA in chromosomes, facilities particularly provided by Thiazole Orange use may broaden the investigation on the occurrence of triplex DNA in eukaryotic genomes.
Enhancement for Potential-Induced Degradation Resistance of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells via Anti-Reflection Coating by Industrial PECVD Methods
Authors: Chen Tsung-Cheng , Kuo Ting-Wei , Lin Yu-Ling , Ku Chen-Hao , Yang Zu-Po , Yu Ing-Song
Published: November 2018

The issue of potential-induced degradation (PID) has gained more concerns due to causing the catastrophic failures in photovoltaic (PV) modules. One of the approaches to diminish PID is to modify the anti-reflection coating (ARC) layer upon the front surface of crystalline silicon solar cells. Here, we focus on the modification of ARC films to realize PID-free step-by-step through three delicate experiments. Firstly, the ARC films deposited by direct plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and by indirect PECVD were investigated. The results showed that the efficiency degradation of solar cells by indirect PECVD method is up to −33.82%, which is out of the IEC 62804 standard and is significantly more severe than by the direct PECVD method (−0.82%). Next, the performance of PID-resist for the solar cell via indirect PECVD was improved significantly (PID reduced from −31.82% to −2.79%) by a pre-oxidation step, which not only meets the standard but also has higher throughput than direct PECVD. Lastly, we applied a novel PECVD technology, called the pulsed-plasma (PP) PECVD method, to deal with the PID issue. The results of the HF-etching rate test and FTIR measurement indicated the films deposited by PP PECVD have higher potential against PID in consideration of less oxygen content in this film. That demonstrated the film properties were changed by applied a new control of freedom, i.e., PP method. In addition, the 96 h PID result of the integrated PP method was only −2.07%, which was comparable to that of the integrated traditional CP method. In summary, we proposed three effective or potential approaches to eliminate the PID issue, and all approaches satisfied the IEC 62804 standard of less than 5% power loss in PV modules.
Graphene and Other 2D Layered Hybrid Nanomaterial-Based Films: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications
Authors: Cesano Federico , Scarano Domenica
Published: November 2018

This Special Issue contains a series of reviews and research articles demonstrating actual perspectives and future trends of 2D-based materials for the generation of functional films, coatings, and hybrid interfaces with controlled morphology and structure.
Towards the Construction of a Gold Standard Biomedical Corpus for the Romanian Language
Authors: Mitrofan Maria , Barbu Mititelu Verginica , Mitrofan Grigorina
Published: November 2018

Gold standard corpora (GSCs) are essential for the supervised training and evaluation of systems that perform natural language processing (NLP) tasks. Currently, most of the resources used in biomedical NLP tasks are mainly in English. Little effort has been reported for other languages including Romanian and, thus, access to such language resources is poor. In this paper, we present the construction of the first morphologically and terminologically annotated biomedical corpus of the Romanian language (MoNERo), meant to serve as a gold standard for biomedical part-of-speech (POS) tagging and biomedical named entity recognition (bioNER). It contains 14,012 tokens distributed in three medical subdomains: cardiology, diabetes and endocrinology, extracted from books, journals and blogposts. In order to automatically annotate the corpus with POS tags, we used a Romanian tag set which has 715 labels, while diseases, anatomy, procedures and chemicals and drugs labels were manually annotated for bioNER with a Cohen Kappa coefficient of 92.8% and revealed the occurrence of 1877 medical named entities. The automatic annotation of the corpus has been manually checked. The corpus is publicly available and can be used to facilitate the development of NLP algorithms for the Romanian language.
Challenges and Progress with Diagnosing Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Authors: Harries Anthony D. , Kumar Ajay M.V.
Published: November 2018

Case finding and the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) are key activities to reach the World Health Organization’s End TB targets by 2030. This paper focuses on the diagnosis of pulmonary TB (PTB) in low- and middle-income countries. Sputum smear microscopy, despite its many limitations, remains the primary diagnostic tool in peripheral health facilities; however, this is being replaced by molecular diagnostic techniques, particularly Xpert MTB/RIF, which allows a bacteriologically confirmed diagnosis of TB along with information about whether or not the organism is resistant to rifampicin within two hours. Other useful diagnostic tools at peripheral facilities include chest radiography, urine lipoarabinomannan (TB-LAM) in HIV-infected patients with advanced immunodeficiency, and the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (TB-LAMP) test which may be superior to smear microscopy. National Reference Laboratories work at a higher level, largely performing culture and phenotypic drug susceptibility testing which is complemented by genotypic methods such as line probe assays for detecting resistance to isoniazid, rifampicin, and second-line drugs. Tuberculin skin testing, interferon gamma release assays, and commercial serological tests are not recommended for the diagnosis of active TB. Linking diagnosis to treatment and care is often poor, and this aspect of TB management needs far more attention than it currently receives.
A Review on Variable Selection in Regression Analysis
Authors: Desboulets Loann David Denis
Published: November 2018

In this paper, we investigate several variable selection procedures to give an overview of the existing literature for practitioners. “Let the data speak for themselves” has become the motto of many applied researchers since the number of data has significantly grown. Automatic model selection has been promoted to search for data-driven theories for quite a long time now. However, while great extensions have been made on the theoretical side, basic procedures are still used in most empirical work, e.g., stepwise regression. Here, we provide a review of main methods and state-of-the art extensions as well as a topology of them over a wide range of model structures (linear, grouped, additive, partially linear and non-parametric) and available software resources for implemented methods so that practitioners can easily access them. We provide explanations for which methods to use for different model purposes and their key differences. We also review two methods for improving variable selection in the general sense.
Growth Effect of Public Debt: The Role of Government Effectiveness and Trade Balance
Authors: Butkus Mindaugas , Seputiene Janina
Published: November 2018

A growing number of recent works support the idea of debt threshold level (turning point), above which debt starts reducing economic growth. However, estimated threshold varies sharply across studies and gives a little insight into what the optimal level of debt is. The point is that there is no single turning point that could be applied to all countries and a proper investigation is needed on factors, which shape the debt impact on growth. This study aims to investigate whether debt threshold level depends on government effectiveness (one of the aspects of countries’ institutional quality) and trade balance. Our SYS-GMM estimates (and alternatively OLS and LSDV for robustness check) are based on the unbalanced panel of 152 countries over the period of 1996–2016 and on two strategies: (i) splitting of sample into subsamples according to trade balance and government effectiveness and (ii) including debt and government effectiveness, debt and trade deficit interactions. The obtained results are in line with those which confirm inverted U-shaped debt-growth relationship with clear debt turning point dependence on government effectiveness. However, effective governance is not enough to avoid the negative debt effect. Trade balance seems to be more crucial factor than institutional quality, on which threshold level depends.
Complete Path Planning for a Tetris-Inspired Self-Reconfigurable Robot by the Genetic Algorithm of the Traveling Salesman Problem
Authors: Le Anh Vu , Arunmozhi Manimuthu , Veerajagadheswar Prabakaran , Ku Ping-Cheng , Minh Tran Hoang Quang , Sivanantham Vinu , Mohan Rajesh Elara
Published: November 2018

The efficiency of autonomous systems that tackle tasks such as home cleaning, agriculture harvesting, and mineral mining depends heavily on the adopted area coverage strategy. Extensive navigation strategies have been studied and developed, but few focus on scenarios with reconfigurable robot agents. This paper proposes a navigation strategy that accomplishes complete path planning for a Tetris-inspired hinge-based self-reconfigurable robot (hTetro), which consists of two main phases. In the first phase, polyomino form-based tilesets are generated to cover the predefined area based on the tiling theory, which generates a series of unsequenced waypoints that guarantee complete coverage of the entire workspace. Each waypoint specifies the position of the robot and the robot morphology on the map. In the second phase, an energy consumption evaluation model is constructed in order to determine a valid strategy to generate the sequence of the waypoints. The cost value between waypoints is formulated under the consideration of the hTetro robot platform’s kinematic design, where we calculate the minimum sum of displacement of the four blocks in the hTetro robot. With the cost function determined, the waypoint sequencing problem is then formulated as a travelling salesman problem (TSP). In this paper, a genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed as a strong candidate to solve the TSP. The GA produces a viable navigation sequence for the hTetro robot to follow and to accomplish complete coverage tasks. We performed an analysis across several complete coverage algorithms including zigzag, spiral, and greedy search to demonstrate that TSP with GA is a valid and considerably consistent waypoint sequencing strategy that can be implemented in real-world hTetro robot navigations. The scalability of the proposed framework allows the algorithm to produce reliable results while navigating within larger workspaces in the real world, and the flexibility of the framework ensures easy implementation of the algorithm on other polynomial-based shape shifting robots.
RoomFort: An Ontology-Based Comfort Management Application for Hotels
Authors: Spoladore Daniele , Arlati Sara , Carciotti Sara , Nolich Massimiliano , Sacco Marco
Published: November 2018

Business traveling is attracting growing attention due to the expansion of international markets. This fact calls for an increasing attention of the tourism sector toward the needs of business travellers, who often require services that are different from the ones desired by leisure tourists. The application of smart solutions coming from Context Awareness and Ambient Intelligence aimed at promoting guests’ comfort and well-being, also in cases in which they have special needs, represents a promising solution to tackle business travellers’ requirements and thus, to increase hotels attractiveness and incomes. In this context, this work introduces RoomFort, a smart comfort management system aimed at enhancing comfort of hotel room guests and leveraging on semantic representations of comfort, environment, and sensors. RoomFort provides a set of domain ontologies to formalize comfort-related metrics and to exploit the automatic reasoning capabilities provided by Semantic Web technologies, while gathering data through a network of sensors to ensure guests are provided with tailored comfort profiles during their stays in the hotel. Particular focus has been placed on visual comfort, since indoor lighting features constitute one of the main factors influencing the two main activities that most business travellers accomplish in their hotel room: working and relaxing.
Impedance Sensing Platform for Detection of the Food Pathogen Listeria monocytogenes
Authors: Chiriacò Maria Serena , Parlangeli Ilaria , Sirsi Fausto , Poltronieri Palmiro , Primiceri Elisabetta
Published: November 2018

A great improvement in food safety and quality controls worldwide has been achieved through the development of biosensing platforms. Foodborne pathogens continue to cause serious outbreaks, due to the ingestion of contaminated food. The development of new, sensitive, portable, high-throughput, and automated platforms is a primary objective to allow detection of pathogens and their toxins in foods. Listeria monocytogenes is one common foodborne pathogen. Major outbreaks of listeriosis have been caused by a variety of foods, including milk, soft cheeses, meat, fermented sausages, poultry, seafood and vegetable products. Due to its high sensitivity and easy setup, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been extensively applied for biosensor fabrication and in particular in the field of microbiology as a mean to detect and quantify foodborne bacteria. Here we describe a miniaturized, portable EIS platform consisting of a microfluidic device with EIS sensors for the detection of L. monocytogenes in milk samples, connected to a portable impedance analyzer for on-field application in clinical and food diagnostics, but also for biosecurity purposes. To achieve this goal microelectrodes were functionalized with antibodies specific for L. monocytogenes. The binding and detection of L. monocytogenes was achieved in the range 2.2 × 103 cfu/mL to 1 × 102 with a Limit of Detection (LoD) of 5.5 cfu/mL.
The Price Elasticity of Natural Gas Demand in China: A Meta-Regression Analysis
Authors: Chai Jian , Shi Huiting , Zhou Xiaoyang , Wang Shouyang
Published: November 2018

Since natural gas has become a new star in China’s energy mix, a reliable estimation of the price elasticity of natural gas demand is crucial if we are to understand how energy price changes affect natural gas consumption. In this paper, we conduct a Meta-regression analysis to quantitatively synthesize empirical estimates of the price elasticity of natural gas demand reported in previous studies, provide true underlying values, and explain the heterogeneity of the aforementioned estimates. The Fixed-effects model and ordinary least squares (OLS) are applied to estimate the regression models. As a result, this paper reports a mean elasticity of −1.521 and 0.410 for the short- and long-run own-price elasticity, separately; −0.762 and 0.008 for the short- and long-run cross-price elasticity-coal to natural gas, respectively; 2.122 and 1.884 for the short- and long-run cross-price elasticity-electricity to natural gas, separately; and 2.267 and 1.275 for the short- and long-run cross-price elasticity-oil to natural gas, respectively. Our results suggest that natural gas consumption increases with the decrease of its own and coal prices in the short term and rise of electricity and oil prices. It also shows that almost all heterogeneity can be explained by the type of data, sample period, models of analysis, geographical region, and type of consumer.
Laboratory Investigation on Hydrodynamic Performance of an Innovative Aeration Device with a Wave-Driven Heaving Buoy
Authors: Yin Zegao , Wang Yanxu , Liu Yong , Gao Chengyan , Zhang Huan
Published: November 2018

Coastal seawater quality is of significance for the environment, ecology and fisheries. In recent years, the hypoxia or anoxia problems of bottom seawater aggravated due mainly to the seawater stratification and eutrophication. This paper addresses an innovative aeration device with a wave-driven heaving buoy to enhance the dissolved oxygen concentration for bottom water. A series of physical experiments was conducted to investigate its hydrodynamic performance and air flow rate. The response amplitude of heaving components and the average value of air flow rate were examined with the related parameters, including incident wave height, incident wave steepness and aeration depth. It was found that with increasing incident wave height, the average heaving displacement and the average air flow rate increase respectively. With the increase of incident wave steepness, the relative value of average heaving displacement increases obviously for high wave period scenarios, it increases slightly for small wave period scenarios in comparison and the relative value of air flow rate increases evidently. With the increase of aeration depth, the average heaving displacement and the average air flow rate decrease respectively. With the increase of relative aeration depth, the relative value of average heaving displacement and the relative value of air flow rate decrease respectively. In addition, the dimensional analysis and the least squares methods were used to obtain the prediction formulas for the average heaving displacement and the average air flow rate, and they agreed well with the related experimental data.
Economic Analysis for Residential Solar PV Systems Based on Different Demand Charge Tariffs
Authors: Zeraatpisheh Milad , Arababadi Reza , Saffari Pour Mohsen
Published: November 2018

It is well known that the use of photovoltaic (PV) systems helps to preserve the environment, produce lower levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and reduce global warming, however, whether it is economically profitable for customers or not is highly debatable. This paper aims to address this issue. To be comprehensive, three different types of buildings are considered as case studies. Then, these three buildings are modeled in EnergyPlus to determine the rate of energy consumption. Afterward, comparisons of various solar system sizes based on economic parameters such as the internal rate of return, the net present value, payback period and profitability indexing for various-sized PV systems are carried out. The results show that by the demand charge tariffs, using PV systems has no economic justification. It has been shown that even with neglecting further costs of the PV system like maintenance, by demand charge tariffs, it is not economically beneficial for customers to use the PV systems. Profitability index of all three buildings with various PV power systems is between 0.2 to 0.8, which are by no means is desirable. Moreover, it was found that bigger solar systems are less cost-effective in the presence of demand charges.
The Optimization Design of Short-Term High-Overload Permanent Magnet Motors Considering the Nonlinear Saturation
Authors: Liu Yu-Xi , Li Li-Yi , Cao Ji-Wei , Gao Qin-He , Sun Zhi-Yin , Zhang Jiang-Peng
Published: November 2018

Electric actuators with fast dynamic response and high torque density are widely used in aerospace and industrial applications. In this paper, the design and optimization of a short-term high-overload permanent magnet synchronous motor (STHO-PMSM) is presented. The rated working point is optimized according to the operating conditions of the motor. The effect of electromagnetic load on the extreme torque which mainly include ampoule number and the magnetic energy of the PM is researched. Due to the nonlinear saturation influence, the equivalent magnetic network model is established. The saturation torque discount factor is proposed to quantify the degree of the core magnetic saturation. Winding temperature model is presented to inspect the motor reliability. To verify the feasibility and accuracy of mathematical model analysis (MMA), the performance of the motor in different currents is investigated compared to the finite element analysis (FEA). A prototype motor is manufactured and tested. The results of the MMA, FEA, and experiment show that the designed motor can achieve the high performance with the 10 times overload in a short time. The method of the MMA can relatively accurately predict as well as take less time consumption.
Belief Heterogeneity and the Restart Effect in a Public Goods Game
Authors: Chaudhuri Ananish
Published: November 2018

We explore how subjects with heterogeneous beliefs respond to a surprise restart in a linear public goods game played for 20 rounds using either a “partners” or a “strangers” protocol. There are two restarts: one prior to Round 11 and another prior to Round 16. We elicit subject beliefs at the outset and classify subjects into three groups—Top, Middle, and Bottom—depending on their prior beliefs about their peers’ contributions to the public good. Then, we look at how these three groups respond, in terms of their beliefs and contributions, before and after the restart. We replicate the restart effect, but find that (i) it is much more pronounced for partner matching than for stranger matching and (ii) it is less pronounced in treatments with belief elicitation compared to control treatments where beliefs are not elicited. We also find that the restart has the effect of regenerating a sense of optimism among the subjects, which is reflected in increased contributions subsequently. This increase in contribution is driven mostly by those subjects who started the game with relatively more optimistic beliefs. Our results have implications for sustaining cooperation in social dilemma games.
Very High-Energy Emission from the Direct Vicinity of Rapidly Rotating Black Holes
Authors: Hirotani Kouichi
Published: November 2018

When a black hole accretes plasmas at very low accretion rate, an advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) is formed. In an ADAF, relativistic electrons emit soft gamma-rays via Bremsstrahlung. Some MeV photons collide with each other to materialize as electron-positron pairs in the magnetosphere. Such pairs efficiently screen the electric field along the magnetic field lines, when the accretion rate is typically greater than 0.03–0.3% of the Eddington rate. However, when the accretion rate becomes smaller than this value, the number density of the created pairs becomes less than the rotationally induced Goldreich–Julian density. In such a charge-starved magnetosphere, an electric field arises along the magnetic field lines to accelerate charged leptons into ultra-relativistic energies, leading to an efficient TeV emission via an inverse-Compton (IC) process, spending a portion of the extracted hole’s rotational energy. In this review, we summarize the stationary lepton accelerator models in black hole magnetospheres. We apply the model to super-massive black holes and demonstrate that nearby low-luminosity active galactic nuclei are capable of emitting detectable gamma-rays between 0.1 and 30 TeV with the Cherenkov Telescope Array.
Magnetizing the Cosmic Web during Reionization
Authors: Langer Mathieu , Durrive Jean-Baptiste
Published: November 2018

Increasing evidence suggests that cosmological sheets, filaments, and voids may be substantially magnetized today. The origin of magnetic fields in the intergalactic medium (IGM) is, however, currently uncertain. It seems well known that non-standard extensions to the physics of the standard model can provide mechanisms susceptible of magnetizing the universe at large. Perhaps less well known is the fact that standard, classical physics of matter–radiation interactions actually possesses the same potential. We discuss a magnetogenesis mechanism based on the exchange of momentum between hard photons and electrons in an inhomogeneous IGM. Operating in the neighborhood of ionizing sources during the epoch of reionization, this mechanism is capable of generating magnetic seeds of relevant strengths over scales comparable to the distance between ionizing sources. In addition, summing up the contributions of all ionizing sources and taking into account the distribution of gas inhomogeneities, we show that this mechanism leaves the IGM, at the end of reionization, with a level of magnetization that might account, when amplification mechanisms take over, for the magnetic fields strengths in the current cosmic web.
NeVOmics: An Enrichment Tool for Gene Ontology and Functional Network Analysis and Visualization of Data from OMICs Technologies
Authors: Zúñiga-León Eduardo , Carrasco-Navarro Ulises , Fierro Francisco
Published: November 2018

The increasing number of OMICs studies demands bioinformatic tools that aid in the analysis of large sets of genes or proteins to understand their roles in the cell and establish functional networks and pathways. In the last decade, over-representation or enrichment tools have played a successful role in the functional analysis of large gene/protein lists, which is evidenced by thousands of publications citing these tools. However, in most cases the results of these analyses are long lists of biological terms associated to proteins that are difficult to digest and interpret. Here we present NeVOmics, Network-based Visualization for Omics, a functional enrichment analysis tool that identifies statistically over-represented biological terms within a given gene/protein set. This tool provides a hypergeometric distribution test to calculate significantly enriched biological terms, and facilitates analysis on cluster distribution and relationship of proteins to processes and pathways. NeVOmics is adapted to use updated information from the two main annotation databases: Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). NeVOmics compares favorably to other Gene Ontology and enrichment tools regarding coverage in the identification of biological terms. NeVOmics can also build different network-based graphical representations from the enrichment results, which makes it an integrative tool that greatly facilitates interpretation of results obtained by OMICs approaches. NeVOmics is freely accessible at https://github.com/bioinfproject/bioinfo/.
UrdA Controls Secondary Metabolite Production and the Balance between Asexual and Sexual Development in Aspergillus nidulans
Authors: Pandit Sandesh S. , Lohmar Jessica M. , Ahmed Shawana , Etxebeste Oier , Espeso Eduardo A. , Calvo Ana M.
Published: November 2018

The genus Aspergillus includes important plant pathogens, opportunistic human pathogens and mycotoxigenic fungi. In these organisms, secondary metabolism and morphogenesis are subject to a complex genetic regulation. Here we functionally characterized urdA, a gene encoding a putative helix-loop-helix (HLH)-type regulator in the model fungus Aspergillus nidulans. urdA governs asexual and sexual development in strains with a wild-type veA background; absence of urdA resulted in severe morphological alterations, with a significant reduction of conidial production and an increase in cleistothecial formation, even in the presence of light, a repressor of sex. The positive effect of urdA on conidiation is mediated by the central developmental pathway (CDP). However, brlA overexpression was not sufficient to restore wild-type conidiation in the ΔurdA strain. Heterologous complementation of ΔurdA with the putative Aspergillus flavus urdA homolog also failed to rescue conidiation wild-type levels, indicating that both genes perform different functions, probably reflected by key sequence divergence. UrdA also represses sterigmatocystin (ST) toxin production in the presence of light by affecting the expression of aflR, the activator of the ST gene cluster. Furthermore, UrdA regulates the production of several unknown secondary metabolites, revealing a broader regulatory scope. Interestingly, UrdA affects the abundance and distribution of the VeA protein in hyphae, and our genetics studies indicated that veA appears epistatic to urdA regarding ST production. However, the distinct fluffy phenotype of the ΔurdAΔveA double mutant suggests that both regulators conduct independent developmental roles. Overall, these results suggest that UrdA plays a pivotal role in the coordination of development and secondary metabolism in A. nidulans.
Physiological Analysis and Transcriptome Profiling of Inverted Cuttings of Populus yunnanensis Reveal That Cell Wall Metabolism Plays a Crucial Role in Responding to Inversion
Authors: Zhou An-Pei , Zong Dan , Gan Pei-Hua , Zou Xin-Lian , Fei Xuan , Zhong Yuan-Yuan , He Cheng-Zhong
Published: November 2018

Inverted cuttings of Populus yunnanensis remain alive by rooting from the original morphological apex and sprouting from the base, but the lateral branches exhibit less vigorous growth than those of the upright plant. In this study, we examined the changes in hormone contents, oxidase activities, and transcriptome profiles between upright and inverted cuttings of P. yunnanensis. The results showed that the indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and gibberellic acid (GA3) contents were significantly lower in inverted cuttings than in upright cuttings only in the late growth period (September and October), while the abscisic acid (ABA) level was always similar between the two direction types. The biosynthesis of these hormones was surprisingly unrelated to the inversion of P. yunnanensis during the vegetative growth stage (July and August). Increased levels of peroxidases (PODs) encoded by 13 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) served as lignification promoters that protected plants against oxidative stress. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis showed that most DEGs (107) were related to carbohydrate metabolism. Furthermore, altered activities of uridine diphosphate (UDP)-sugar pyrophosphorylase (USP, 15 DEGs) for nucleotide sugars, pectin methylesterase (PME, 7 DEGs) for pectin, and POD (13 DEGs) for lignin were important factors in the response of the trees to inversion, and these enzymes are all involved cell wall metabolism.
Genomic Islands Confer Heavy Metal Resistance in Mucilaginibacter kameinonensis and Mucilaginibacter rubeus Isolated from a Gold/Copper Mine
Authors: Li Yuan Ping , Carraro Nicolas , Yang Nan , Liu Bixiu , Xia Xian , Feng Renwei , Saquib Quaiser , Al-Wathnani Hend A , Van der Meer Jan Roelof , Rensing Christopher
Published: November 2018

Heavy metals (HMs) are compounds that can be hazardous and impair growth of living organisms. Bacteria have evolved the capability not only to cope with heavy metals but also to detoxify polluted environments. Three heavy metal-resistant strains of Mucilaginibacer rubeus and one of Mucilaginibacter kameinonensis were isolated from the gold/copper Zijin mining site, Longyan, Fujian, China. These strains were shown to exhibit high resistance to heavy metals with minimal inhibitory concentration reaching up to 3.5 mM Cu(II), 21 mM Zn(II), 1.2 mM Cd(II), and 10.0 mM As(III). Genomes of the four strains were sequenced by Illumina. Sequence analyses revealed the presence of a high abundance of heavy metal resistance (HMR) determinants. One of the strain, M. rubeus P2, carried genes encoding 6 putative PIB-1-ATPase, 5 putative PIB-3-ATPase, 4 putative Zn(II)/Cd(II) PIB-4 type ATPase, and 16 putative resistance-nodulation-division (RND)-type metal transporter systems. Moreover, the four genomes contained a high abundance of genes coding for putative metal binding chaperones. Analysis of the close vicinity of these HMR determinants uncovered the presence of clusters of genes potentially associated with mobile genetic elements. These loci included genes coding for tyrosine recombinases (integrases) and subunits of mating pore (type 4 secretion system), respectively allowing integration/excision and conjugative transfer of numerous genomic islands. Further in silico analyses revealed that their genetic organization and gene products resemble the Bacteroides integrative and conjugative element CTnDOT. These results highlight the pivotal role of genomic islands in the acquisition and dissemination of adaptive traits, allowing for rapid adaption of bacteria and colonization of hostile environments.
Dissociation and Self-Preservation of Gas Hydrates in Permafrost
Authors: Chuvilin Evgeny , Bukhanov Boris , Davletshina Dinara , Grebenkin Sergey , Istomin Vladimir
Published: November 2018

Gases releasing from shallow permafrost above 150 m may contain methane produced by the dissociation of pore metastable gas hydrates, which can exist in permafrost due to self-preservation. In this study, special experiments were conducted to study the self-preservation kinetics. For this, sandy samples from gas-bearing permafrost horizons in West Siberia were first saturated with methane hydrate and frozen and then exposed to gas pressure drop below the triple-phase equilibrium in the “gas–gas hydrate–ice” system. The experimental results showed that methane hydrate could survive for a long time in frozen soils at temperatures of −5 to −7 °C at below-equilibrium pressures, thus evidencing the self-preservation effect. The self-preservation of gas hydrates in permafrost depends on its temperature, salinity, ice content, and gas pressure. Prolonged preservation of metastable relict hydrates is possible in ice-rich sandy permafrost at −4 to −5 °C or colder, with a salinity of <0.1% at depths below 20–30 m.
A Fuzzy Comprehensive Assessment and Hierarchical Management System for Urban Lake Health: A Case Study on the Lakes in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China
Authors: Wang Teng , Yan Jingjing , Ma Jinlong , Li Fei , Liu Chaoyang , Cai Ying , Chen Si , Zeng Jingjing , Qi Yu
Published: November 2018

Environmental assessment of eutrophication or heavy metals in urban lakes is an important reference for identifying the pollution degree and formulating pollution prevention strategies. At present, the most research on lake health states is often evaluated from a single angle for toxic metals pollution or eutrophication using the standard comparison method for both, the comprehensive trophic level index (TLI), and the health risk assessment for toxic metals. Moreover, the above deterministic methods probably lead to biased or unreliable assessment due to the randomness and fuzziness in environment system caused by natural change and human activities. In this paper, a fuzzy comprehensive lake health assessment method (FCLHAM) was established to evaluate comprehensive lake health states more comprehensively and accurately, which integrates quantitative eutrophication and health risk considerations. To test and verify FCLHAM, 21 lakes, scientifically selected from the total 143 lakes in the Chinese Wuhan city as study case, were investigated and analyzed for their state of eutrophication and the health risk posed by heavy metals. According to the FCLHAM, the average comprehensive lake health state decreased in the sequence of L20 (considerate risk level) > L1–L17, L19, L21 (moderate risk level) > L18 (low risk level). Based on the result, lakes were classified into three categories: general management (L18), enhanced management (L1–L17, L19, L21), and priority management (L20). If the 143 lakes in Wuhan were classified by the “area-region-function” classification, they would be assigned to the same category as the representative lakes of the same type. At this point, we will attribute all of Wuhan’s lakes to the three types. Depending on the characteristics of each type, a targeted approach to different types of management for each type of lake is a more efficient way to manage many of Wuhan’s lakes. This management mode also serves as an effective reference for the environmental management of urban lakes both at home and abroad. In other words, according to the FCLHAM, a hierarchical management system based on lake characteristics classification was obtained.
Erratum: Yamanis, T., et al. Legal Immigration Status is Associated with Depressive Symptoms among Latina Transgender Women in Washington, DC. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 1246
Authors: Yamanis Thespina , Malik Mannat , Del Río-González Ana , Wirtz Andrea , Cooney Erin , Lujan Maren , Corado Ruby , Poteat Tonia
Published: November 2018

The authors would like to update the “Acknowledgements” section of their previous paper [...]