bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Perceived Changes in Ecosystem Services in the Panchase Mountain Ecological Region, Nepal
Authors: Adhikari Shankar , Baral Himlal , Sudhir Chitale Vishwas , Nitschke Craig R.
Published: December 2018

Ecosystem services (ES) are increasingly recognized as a means to facilitate adaption to environmental change. However, the provisions of ES are likely to be impacted by changes in climate and/or changes in land use. In developing countries, where people are typically dependent on these services for their livelihoods, these impacts are of concern; however, very little is known about the changes in provisioning of ES over time. In this study, we assess the perceived changes on ES in the Panchase Mountain Ecological Region of western Nepal. The study area accommodates three distinct ecoregions, ranging from lowland to upland ecosystems and communities. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used to collect information on how ES may have changed in the landscape over time. This approach was supported by transect walks, field observations, and secondary sources of information, such as climatic and remote sensing data. Perceived changes on ES in the study region include reduced availability of water, reduced food production, degradation of forest ecosystems, and changes in species compositions. These changes are thought to have impacted other ES, and, in turn, local livelihoods. Management actions that can help local communities foster ES are recommended.
Assessment of the Vulnerability to Drought and Desertification Characteristics Using the Standardized Drought Vulnerability Index (SDVI) and the Environmentally Sensitive Areas Index (ESAI)
Authors: Tsesmelis Demetrios E. , Karavitis Christos A. , Oikonomou Panagiotis D. , Alexandris Stavros , Kosmas Constantinos
Published: December 2018

The degradation of natural resources at an intense rate creates serious problems in the environmental systems particularly with the compounding effects of climatic vagaries and changes. On the one hand, desertification is a crucial universal, mostly an anthropogenic environmental issue affecting soils all over the world. On the other hand, drought is a natural phenomenon in direct association with reduced rainfall in various spatial and temporal frames. Vulnerabilities to drought and desertification are complex processes caused by environmental, ecological, social, economic and anthropogenic factors. Particularly for the Mediterranean semi-arid conditions, where the physical and structural systems are more vulnerable, the abuse and overuse of the natural resources lead to their degradation and ultimately, if the current trends continue, to their marginalization. The scope of the current effort is trying to find any common drivers for the pressures of both processes. Thus, the vulnerabilities to drought and desertification are comparing by using the Standardized Drought Vulnerability Index (SDVI) and the Environmentally Sensitive Areas Index (ESAI). The indices are calculated from October 1983 to September 1996 in Greece. Greece is prone to desertification and it is often experiencing intense droughts, thus it presents an almost ideal case study area. The results may indicate that the most important factor for such procedures is the deficits in water resources, either due to lower than usually expected rainfall or to higher societal water demand.
Persistent Multi-Agent Search and Tracking with Flight Endurance Constraints
Authors: Gainer Jr. John J. , Dawkins Jeremy J. , DeVries Levi D. , Kutzer Michael D. M.
Published: December 2018

A large group of small, limited endurance autonomous vehicles working cooperatively may be more effective in target search and track operations when compared with a long endurance vehicle. For a persistent search and track task, a need exists for coordination algorithms that account for limited agent endurance. This paper presents a multi-agent persistent search and track algorithm incorporating endurance constraints in a high-level algorithm that deploys and recovers vehicles from a stationary base station. Agents are assigned to search, track, return, and deploy modes using on-board sensor and battery measurements. Simulations and experiments show the relationship between the number of agents, battery capacity, search performance, and target tracking performance. The measures used to quantify these relationships include spatiotemporal coverage, target tracking effectiveness, and the usage of available aircraft. Hardware experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
Super-Resolution Restoration of MISR Images Using the UCL MAGiGAN System
Authors: Tao Yu , Muller Jan-Peter
Published: December 2018

High spatial resolution Earth observation imagery is considered desirable for many scientific and commercial applications. Given repeat multi-angle imagery, an imaging instrument with a specified spatial resolution, we can use image processing and deep learning techniques to enhance the spatial resolution. In this paper, we introduce the University College London (UCL) MAGiGAN super-resolution restoration (SRR) system based on multi-angle feature restoration and deep SRR networks. We explore the application of MAGiGAN SRR to a set of 9 MISR red band images (275 m) to produce up to a factor of 3.75 times resolution enhancement. We show SRR results over four different test sites containing different types of image content including urban and rural targets, sea ice and a cloud field. Different image metrics are introduced to assess the overall SRR performance, and these are employed to compare the SRR results with the original MISR input images and higher resolution Landsat images, where available. Significant resolution improvement over various types of image content is demonstrated and the potential of SRR for different scientific application is discussed.
A Pose Awareness Solution for Estimating Pedestrian Walking Speed
Authors: Guo Guangyi , Chen Ruizhi , Ye Feng , Chen Liang , Pan Yuanjin , Liu Mengyun , Cao Zhipeng
Published: December 2018

Pedestrian walking speeds (PWS) can be used as a “body speedometer” to reveal health status information of pedestrians and positioning indoors with other locating methods. This paper proposes a pose awareness solution for estimating pedestrian walking speeds using the sensors built in smartphones. The smartphone usage pose is identified by using a machine learning approach based on data from multiple sensors. The data are then coupled tightly with an adaptive step detection solution to estimate the pedestrian walking speed. Field tests were carried out to verify the advantages of the proposed algorithms compared to existing solutions. The test results demonstrated that the features extracted from the data of the smartphone built-in sensors clearly reveal the characteristics of the pose pattern, with overall accuracy of 98.85% and a kappa statistic of 98.46%. The proposed walking speed estimation solution, running in real-time on a commercial smartphone, performed well, with a mean absolute error of 0.061 m/s, under a challenging walking process combining various usage poses including texting, calling, swinging, and in-pocket modes.
Erratum: Dieu, T.B. et al. A Novel Integrated Approach of Relevance Vector Machine Optimized by Imperialist Competitive Algorithm for Spatial Modeling of Shallow Landslides. Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 1538
Authors: Tien Bui Dieu , Shahabi Himan , Shirzadi Ataollah , Kamran Chapi Kamran , Hoang Nhat-Duc , Pham Binh Thai , Bui Quang-Thanh , Tran Chuyen-Trung , Panahi Mahdi , Bin Ahmad Baharin , Saro Lee
Published: December 2018

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...]
A Single-Tree Processing Framework Using Terrestrial Laser Scanning Data for Detecting Forest Regeneration
Authors: Heinzel Johannes , Ginzler Christian
Published: December 2018

Direct assessment of forest regeneration from remote sensing data is a previously little-explored problem. This is due to several factors which complicate object detection of small trees in the understory. Most existing studies are based on airborne laser scanning (ALS) data, which often has insufficient point densities in the understory forest layers. The present study uses plot-based terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and the survey design was similar to traditional forest inventory practices. Furthermore, a framework of methods was developed to solve the difficulties of detecting understory trees for quantifying regeneration in temperate montane forest. Regeneration is of special importance in our montane study area, since large parts are declared as protection forest against alpine natural hazards. Close to nature forest structures were tackled by separating 3D tree stem detection from overall tree segmentation. In support, techniques from 3D mathematical morphology, Hough transformation and state-of-the-art machine learning were applied. The methodical framework consisted of four major steps. These were the extraction of the tree stems, the estimation of the stem diameters at breast height (DBH), the image segmentation into individual trees and finally, the separation of two groups of regeneration. All methods were fully automated and utilized volumetric 3D image information which was derived from the original point cloud. The total amount of regeneration was split into established regeneration, consisting of trees with a height > 130 cm in combination with a DBH < 12 cm and unestablished regeneration, consisting of trees with a height < 130 cm. Validation was carried out against field-based expert estimates of percentage ground cover, differentiating seven classes that were similar to those used by forest inventory. The mean absolute error (MAE) of our method for established regeneration was 1.11 classes and for unestablished regeneration only 0.27 classes. Considering the metrical distances between the class centres, the MAE amounted 8.08% for established regeneration and 2.23% for unestablished regeneration.
A Hybrid GIS Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method for Flood Susceptibility Mapping at Shangyou, China
Authors: Wang Yi , Hong Haoyuan , Chen Wei , Li Shaojun , Pamučar Dragan , Gigović Ljubomir , Drobnjak Siniša , Tien Bui Dieu , Duan Hexiang
Published: December 2018

Floods are considered one of the most disastrous hazards all over the world and cause serious casualties and property damage. Therefore, the assessment and regionalization of flood disasters are becoming increasingly important and urgent. To predict the probability of a flood, an essential step is to map flood susceptibility. The main objective of this work is to investigate the use a novel hybrid technique by integrating multi-criteria decision analysis and geographic information system to evaluate flood susceptibility mapping (FSM), which is constructed by ensemble of decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), analytic network process, weighted linear combinations (WLC) and interval rough numbers (IRN) techniques in the case study at Shangyou County, China. Specifically, we improve the DEMATEL method by applying IRN to determine connections in the network structure based on criteria and to accept imprecisions during collective decision making. The application of IRN can eliminate the necessity of additional information to define uncertain number intervals. Therefore, the quality of the existing data during collective decision making and experts’ perceptions that are expressed through an aggregation matrix can be retained. In this work, eleven conditioning factors associated with flooding were considered and historical flood locations were randomly divided into the training (70% of the total) and validation (30%) sets. The flood susceptibility map validates a satisfactory consistency between the flood-susceptible areas and the spatial distribution of the previous flood events. The accuracy of the map was evaluated by using objective measures of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC). The AUC values of the proposed method coupling with the WLC fuzzy technique for aggregation and flood susceptibility index are 0.988 and 0.964, respectively, which proves that the WLC fuzzy method is more effective for FSM in the study area. The proposed method can be helpful in predicting accurate flood occurrence locations with similar geographic environments and can be effectively used for flood management and prevention.
Maize Plant Phenotyping: Comparing 3D Laser Scanning, Multi-View Stereo Reconstruction, and 3D Digitizing Estimates
Authors: Wang Yongjian , Wen Weiliang , Wu Sheng , Wang Chuanyu , Yu Zetao , Guo Xinyu , Zhao Chunjiang
Published: December 2018

High-throughput phenotyping technologies have become an increasingly important topic of crop science in recent years. Various sensors and data acquisition approaches have been applied to acquire the phenotyping traits. It is quite confusing for crop phenotyping researchers to determine an appropriate way for their application. In this study, three representative three-dimensional (3D) data acquisition approaches, including 3D laser scanning, multi-view stereo (MVS) reconstruction, and 3D digitizing, were evaluated for maize plant phenotyping in multi growth stages. Phenotyping traits accuracy, post-processing difficulty, device cost, data acquisition efficiency, and automation were considered during the evaluation process. 3D scanning provided satisfactory point clouds for medium and high maize plants with acceptable efficiency, while the results were not satisfactory for small maize plants. The equipment used in 3D scanning is expensive, but is highly automatic. MVS reconstruction provided satisfactory point clouds for small and medium plants, and point deviations were observed in upper parts of higher plants. MVS data acquisition, using low-cost cameras, exhibited the highest efficiency among the three evaluated approaches. The one-by-one pipeline data acquisition pattern allows the use of MVS high-throughput in further phenotyping platforms. Undoubtedly, enhancement of point cloud processing technologies is required to improve the extracted phenotyping traits accuracy for both 3D scanning and MVS reconstruction. Finally, 3D digitizing was time-consuming and labor intensive. However, it does not depend on any post-processing algorithms to extract phenotyping parameters and reliable phenotyping traits could be derived. The promising accuracy of 3D digitizing is a better verification choice for other 3D phenotyping approaches. Our study provides clear reference about phenotyping data acquisition of maize plants, especially for the affordable and portable field phenotyping platforms to be developed.
Surface Acoustic Wave Gyroscopic Effect in an Interdigital Transducer
Authors: Sun Xueping , Liu Weiguo , Shao Xiuting , Zhou Shun , Wang Wen , Lin Dabin
Published: December 2018

The surface acoustic wave (SAW) gyroscopic effect in an interdigital transducer (IDT) deposited on a piezoelectric substrate is different from that in the piezoelectric substrate due to a reflection induced by IDT. In this work, an extended coupling-of-mode (COM) model including the gyroscopic effect and the reflection was developed to analyze the SAW gyroscopic effect. First, dispersion characteristics parameters of SAW were fitted according to the data derived using the finite element method (FEM). Then, variations of stop band edge frequency were calculated using the extended COM theory by integrating dispersion characteristics parameters into the COM model. We compared its results with those obtained via FEM analysis to confirm the proposed model’s validity. We found that the variation in stop band edge frequency related to gyroscope effect reached the maximum value with a zero reflectivity value. For split IDT, the sensitivity of gyroscope effect is 0.036 Hz/rad/s with a lower than 1% normalized thickness. Conversely, the value of sensitivity was almost zero for bidirectional IDT and electrode width controlled single-phase unidirectional transducer (EWC/SPUDT).
Gas Sensing with Iridium Oxide Nanoparticle Decorated Carbon Nanotubes
Authors: Casanova-Cháfer Juan , Navarrete Eric , Noirfalise Xavier , Umek Polona , Bittencourt Carla , Llobet Eduard
Published: December 2018

The properties of multi-wall carbon nanotubes decorated with iridium oxide nanoparticles (IrOx-MWCNTs) are studied to detect harmful gases such as nitrogen dioxide and ammonia. IrOx nanoparticles were synthetized using a two-step method, based on a hydrolysis and acid condensation growth mechanism. The metal oxide nanoparticles obtained were employed for decorating the sidewalls of carbon nanotubes. Iridium-oxide nanoparticle decorated carbon nanotube material showed higher and more stable responses towards NH3 and NO2 than bare carbon nanotubes under different experimental conditions, establishing the optimal operating temperatures and estimating the limits of detection and quantification. Furthermore, the nanomaterials employed were studied using different morphological and compositional characterization techniques and a gas sensing mechanism is proposed.
Ionosphere-Constrained Triple-Frequency Cycle Slip Fixing Method for the Rapid Re-Initialization of PPP
Authors: Yang Fuxin , Zhao Lin , Li Liang , Cheng Jianhua , Zhang Jie
Published: December 2018

The re-initialization of precise point positioning (PPP) can be avoided by cycle slip detection and correction. Ionospheric delay is critical for cycle slip detection and correction, especially for a long data gap. The frequency diversity from GNSS modernization provides the potential for mitigating the impact of ionospheric delay on cycle slip detection and correction. The proposed method constructs the extra-wide lane (EWL), the wide lane (WL), and the narrow lane (NL) epoch-differenced linear combinations based on the ionosphere constrain criterion, so as to determine the undifferenced cycle slips from the cascading ambiguity resolution. The experiment results show that the cycle slips can be fixed correctly even though cycle slips occur in all the available carrier phase observations, and the 3 min data gaps can be merged without high precision positioning continuity loss. The kinematic experiment shows that the instantaneous re-initialization can be achieved with the proposed method.
Gender Equality in Europe and the Effect of Work-Family Balance Policies on Gender-Role Attitudes
Authors: Lomazzi Vera , Israel Sabine , Crespi Isabella
Published: December 2018

This study starts from the assumption that the context of opportunities for work-family balance affects individual attitudes toward gender roles, a main indicator of support for gender equality. Compared with extant research, the present study adopts a more articulated definition of “opportunity structure” that includes national income level and social norms on gender attitudes, measures of gender-mainstreaming policies implemented at the company level (flextime), and different work-family balance policies in support of the dual-earner/dual-caregiver family model (e.g., parental-leave schemes and childcare provisions). The effects of these factors are estimated by performing a cross-sectional multilevel analysis for the year 2014. Gender-role attitudes and micro-level controls are taken from the Eurobarometer for all 28 European Union (EU) members, while macro-indicators stem from Eurostat, European Quality of Work Survey, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Our results show that both institutional and workplace arrangements supporting the dual-earner/dual-caregiver family model are associated with more egalitarian gender-role attitudes This is particularly true concerning availability of formal childcare for 0- to 3-year-olds among institutional factors, as well as work-schedule flexibility among workplace factors, probably as they enable a combination of care and paid work for both men and women.
Fertimetro, a Principle and Device to Measure Soil Nutrient Availability for Plants by Microbial Degradation Rates on Differently-Spiked Buried Threads
Authors: Concheri Giuseppe , Tiozzo Stefano , Stevanato Piergiorgio , Morari Francesco , Berti Antonio , Polese Riccardo , Borin Maurizio , Squartini Andrea
Published: December 2018

A novel patented method (PCT/IB2012/001157: Squartini, Concheri, Tiozzo, University of Padova) and the corresponding application devices, suitable to measure soil fertility, are presented. The availability or deficiency of specific nutrients for crops is assessed by monitoring the kinetics of progressive weakening of cotton or silk threads due to in situ microbial activity. The method is based on a nutrient-primed incremented substrate degradation principle. Threads are buried as is or pre-impregnated with N or P solutions, and the acceleration of the degradation rate for the N-supplemented or P-supplemented thread, in comparison to the untreated thread, is proportional to the lack of the corresponding nutrient in that soil. Tests were validated on corn crops in plots receiving increasing fertilizer rates in a historical rotation that has been established since 1962. The measurement carried out in May significantly correlated with the subsequent crop yields recorded in October. The analysis allows an early, inexpensive, fast, and reproducible self-assessment at field level to improve fertilization rates. The device is envisaged as a user-friendly tool for agronomy, horticulture, and any environmental applications where organic matter cycling, soil quality, and specific nutrients excess or deficiency are critical considerations.
Reliability of Overground Running Measures from 2D Video Analyses in a Field Environment
Authors: Murray Lauralee , Beaven C. Martyn , Hébert-Losier Kim
Published: December 2018

Two-dimensional running analyses are common in research and practice, and have been shown to be reliable when conducted on a treadmill. However, running is typically performed outdoors. Our aim was to determine the intra- and inter-rater reliability of two-dimensional analyses of overground running in an outdoor environment. Two raters independently evaluated 155 high-speed videos (240 Hz) of overground running from recreationally competitive runners on two occasions, seven days apart (test-retest study design). The reliability of foot-strike pattern (rear-foot, mid-foot, and fore-foot), foot-strike angle (°), and running speed (m/s) was assessed using weighted kappa (κ), percentage agreement, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), typical error (TE), and coefficient of variation (CV) statistics. Foot-strike pattern (agreement = 99.4%, κ = 0.96) and running speed (ICC = 0.98, TE = 0.09 m/s, CV = 2.1%) demonstrated excellent relative and absolute reliability. Foot-strike angle exhibited high relative reliability (ICC = 0.88), but suboptimal absolute reliability (TE = 2.5°, CV = 17.6%). Two-dimensional analyses of overground running outdoors were reliable for quantifying foot-strike pattern, foot-strike angle, and running speed, although foot-strike angle errors of 2.5° were typical. Foot-strike angle changes of less than 2.5° should be interpreted with caution in clinical settings, as they might simply reflect measurement errors.
Education for Sustainable Development: Emerging Themes from Adopters of a Declaration
Authors: Zutshi Ambika , Creed Andrew , Connelly Brian L.
Published: December 2018

Universities that sign the Talloires Declaration signify their commitment to education for sustainable development. This research explores whether the signification is a strategic desire to be seen to be doing the right thing, or a genuine commitment to enhancing sustainability and helping the environment. This semi-structured interview research involves communication with the sustainability managers in the majority of Talloires signified universities in Australia. Since Australia has a comparably high rate of commitment to the Talloires Declaration, the findings represent rich and deep insight into reasons and motivations that can inform the adoption process around the world. Applying institutional theory and related concepts of structuration, isomorphism, and signaling, the findings are analyzed to reveal the range of environmental initiatives and the underlying explanation of themes. Current strategies and future directions for universities are indicated. Findings are that higher education is a key mechanism in business and society for finding and harnessing knowledge-based solutions. The challenge is that institutionalization has created resistance to change through coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphism, along with rhetoric. Structuration factors should be considered in the context of making positive changes for sustainability in the university sector.
Study on Soil Water and Heat Transport Characteristic Responses to Land Use Change in Sanjiang Plain
Authors: Zuo Yunjiang , Guo Yuedong , Song Changchun , Jin Shaofei , Qiao Tianhua
Published: December 2018

Water and heat transport is the focus of hydrological research in seasonal frost areas. Considering Sanjiang Plain as the study area, this study explored the influence of land use change on soil water and heat transport and the future trend of surface water and heat transport. The effects of land use change on soil water and heat transport were revealed using observation data from the Sanjiang Mire Wetland Experimental Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from the period of May 2016 to May 2017. The analysis found evident changes in the water and heat status of different land use types. During conversion from uplands to paddy fields, the surface soil moisture content increased, evapotranspiration increased by approximately 20%, surface infiltration decreased by about 50%, and surface heat flux increased. In a future climate change scenario, the change trend of soil water and heat condition was roughly consistent with the present situation, and the proportion of evapotranspiration of upland and paddy fields in precipitation decreased to 40% and 55%, respectively. These results can provide a theoretical basis for the rational utilization of land and water resources in Sanjiang Plain.
Traffic Crash Evolution Characteristic Analysis and Spatiotemporal Hotspot Identification of Urban Road Intersections
Authors: Cheng Zeyang , Zu Zhenshan , Lu Jian
Published: December 2018

Road traffic safety is a key concern of transport management as it has severely restricted Chinese economic and social development. With the objective to prevent and reduce road traffic crashes, this study proposes a comprehensive spatiotemporal analysis method that integrates the time-space cube analysis, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and emerging hot spot analysis for exploring the traffic crash evolution characteristics and identifying crash hot spots. These analyses are all conducted by the corresponding toolbox of ArcGIS 10.5. Then, a small sized-city of China (i.e., Wujiang) is selected as the case study, and the historical traffic crash data occurring at the road intersections of Wujiang for the year 2016 are analyzed by the proposed method. The analysis process identifies the high incidence locations of traffic crashes, then presents the spatial change trend and statistical significance of the crash locations. Finally, different types of crash hotspots, as well as their evolution patterns over time, are determined. The results illustrate that the traffic crash hotspots of road intersections are primarily distributed in the Northeast area of Wujiang’s major urban area, while the crash cold spots are concentrated in the Southwest of Wujiang, which points out the direction for crash prevention. In addition, the finding has a potential engineering application value, and it is of great significance to the sustainable development of Wujiang.
Kū Hou Kuapā: Cultural Restoration Improves Water Budget and Water Quality Dynamics in Heʻeia Fishpond
Authors: Möhlenkamp Paula , Beebe Charles Kaiaka , McManus Margaret A. , Kawelo Angela Hiʻilei , Kotubetey Keliʻiahonui , Lopez-Guzman Mirielle , Nelson Craig E. , Alegado Rosanna ʻAnolani
Published: December 2018

In Hawaiʻi, the transition from customary subsistence flooded taro agroecosystems, which regulate stream discharge rate trapping sediment and nutrients, to a plantation-style economy (c. the 1840s) led to nearshore sediment deposition—smothering coral reefs and destroying adjacent coastal fisheries and customary fishpond mariculture. To mitigate sediment transport, Rhizophora mangle was introduced in estuaries across Hawaiʻi (c. 1902) further altering fishpond ecosystems. Here, we examine the impact of cultural restoration between 2012–2018 at Heʻeia Fishpond, a 600–800-year-old walled fishpond. Fishpond water quality was assessed by calculating water exchange rates, residence times, salinity distribution, and abundance of microbial indicators prior to and after restoration. We hypothesized that R. mangle removal and concomitant reconstruction of sluice gates would increase mixing and decrease bacterial indicator abundance in the fishpond. We find that Heʻeia Fishpond’s physical environment is primarily tidally driven; wind forcing and river water volume flux are secondary drivers. Post-restoration, two sluice gates in the northeastern region account for >80% of relative water volume flux in the fishpond. Increase in water volume flux exchange rates during spring and neap tide and shorter minimum water residence time corresponded with the reconstruction of a partially obstructed 56 m gap together with the installation of an additional sluice gate in the fishpond wall. Lower mean salinities post-restoration suggests that increased freshwater water volume influx due to R. mangle removal. Spatial distribution of microbial bio-indicator species was inversely correlated with salinity. Average abundance of Enterococcus and Bacteroidales did not significantly change after restoration efforts, however, average abundance of a biomarker specific to birds nesting in the mangroves decreased significantly after restoration. This study demonstrates the positive impact of biocultural restoration regimes on water volume flux into and out of the fishpond, as well as water quality parameters, encouraging the prospect of revitalizing this and other culturally and economically significant sites for sustainable aquaculture in the future.
Determinants of Residents’ E-Waste Recycling Behavioral Intention: A Case Study from Vietnam
Authors: Thi Thu Nguyen Hong , Hung Rern-Jay , Lee Chun-Hung , Thi Thu Nguyen Hang
Published: December 2018

An enormous volume of electronic waste (e-waste) is currently being generated in Vietnam, threatening to render this country as an e-waste dumping region. Although the residents play an indispensable role in the e-waste management system, there is presently no or very limited studies available which involve public perceptions on the e-waste recycling in Vietnam. In this study, based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to examine the key factors influencing e-waste recycling behavioral intention of residents in Danang city, Vietnam. Data analyzed from 520 questionnaires revealed that environmental awareness and attitude toward recycling, social pressure, laws and regulations, cost of recycling, and inconvenience of recycling significantly directly affected residents’ behavioral intention, with laws and regulations being the strongest construct significantly to predict individuals’ intention. Of the five above-listed constructs, only inconvenience of recycling had a negative impact on residents’ recycling behavioral intention. Moreover, past experience showed the statistically significant negative effect on the inconvenience of recycling while it had no significant impact on behavioral intention. The influences of demographic variables on recycling behavioral intention were also discussed in this paper. The findings from this research may help policy-makers have a better understanding of residents’ e-waste recycling intention. That is very useful in paving the way for a successful e-waste recycling and management system not only in Vietnam, but also in other countries which are suffering from the same problems of e-waste.
Socioecological Transition in Land and Labour Exploitation in Mallorca: From Slavery to a Low-Wage Workforce, 1229–1576
Authors: Jover-Avellà Gabriel , Mas-Forners Antoni , Soto-Company Ricard , Tello Enric
Published: December 2018

The permanence of slave labour until the 16th century was a lasting legacy of the late feudal colonization of the Mallorca Island. Through a large set of probate inventories and accounting books, we have documented the use of a great deal of slaves in farming large noble estates during the 14th and 15th centuries. The defeat of the peasant revolt of 1450–1454 offered to nobles and patricians the opportunity to seize much of the land previously colonized by Mallorcan peasants. This creation of a dispossessed peasantry, combined with new trade demands, led to a transition from slave-powered manorial farms to capitalist olive oil-exporting estates that took advantage of the low-wage workforce reserve. A peculiar feature was the massive use of women’s gangs as olive pickers when olive oil became the main cash-crop exported from the 16th century onwards. By linking changes in work and land uses, this study brings to Southern Europe the debate over the driving forces of the emergence of agrarian capitalism.
Optimal Microgrid Topology Design and Siting of Distributed Generation Sources Using a Multi-Objective Substrate Layer Coral Reefs Optimization Algorithm
Authors: Jiménez-Fernández Silvia , Camacho-Gómez Carlos , Mallol-Poyato Ricardo , Fernández Juan , Del Ser Javier , Portilla-Figueras Antonio , Salcedo-Sanz Sancho
Published: December 2018

In this work, a problem of optimal placement of renewable generation and topology design for a Microgrid (MG) is tackled. The problem consists of determining the MG nodes where renewable energy generators must be optimally located and also the optimization of the MG topology design, i.e., deciding which nodes should be connected and deciding the lines’ optimal cross-sectional areas (CSA). For this purpose, a multi-objective optimization with two conflicting objectives has been used, utilizing the cost of the lines, C, higher as the lines’ CSA increases, and the MG energy losses, E, lower as the lines’ CSA increases. To characterize generators and loads connected to the nodes, on-site monitored annual energy generation and consumption profiles have been considered. Optimization has been carried out by using a novel multi-objective algorithm, the Multi-objective Substrate Layers Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm (Mo-SL-CRO). The performance of the proposed approach has been tested in a realistic simulation of a MG with 12 nodes, considering photovoltaic generators and micro-wind turbines as renewable energy generators, as well as the consumption loads from different commercial and industrial sites. We show that the proposed Mo-SL-CRO is able to solve the problem providing good solutions, better than other well-known multi-objective optimization techniques, such as NSGA-II or multi-objective Harmony Search algorithm.
A Dynamic Traffic Assignment Model for the Sustainability of Pavement Performance
Authors: Mao Xinhua , Wang Jianwei , Yuan Changwei , Yu Wei , Gan Jiahua
Published: December 2018

Existing Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) models assign traffic flow with the principle of travel time, which are easy to distribute most of the traffic flows on the shortest path. A serious unbalance of traffic flow in the network can speed up pavement deterioration of highways with heavy traffic, which influences the sustainability of pavement performance and increases maintenance expenditures. The purpose of this research is to obtain a more optimized traffic assignment for pavement damage reduction by establishing a multi-objective DTA model with the objectives of not only minimum travel time but minimum decline of Present Serviceability Index (PSI) for pavements. Then, teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) algorithm is utilized to solve the proposed model. Results of a case study indicate that a more balanced traffic flow assignment can be realized by the model, which can effectively reduce average PSI loss, save maintenance expenditures, extend pavement service life span, save fuel consumption and reduce pollutant emissions in spite of a little increase of average travel time. Additionally, sensitivity of weight factor for the two objective functions is analyzed. This research provides some insights on methods on sustainable pavement performance.
Gender-Based iTrust in E-Commerce: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Innovativeness
Authors: Sohaib Osama , Kang Kyeong , Nurunnabi Mohammad
Published: December 2018

Despite the extensive academic interest in e-commerce, cognitive innovativeness in e-commerce context has been neglected. This study focuses on the moderating role of consumer cognitive innovativeness on the influencing factors of interpersonal trust (iTrust) towards online purchase intention of new product in business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. Data were collected in Australia from consumers who has had prior online shopping experience. Variance-based structural equation modeling such as partial least squares (PLS-SEM) is used to test the research model. The results show men and women have different perceptions of what is important to be provided by an online store to make a positive shopping experience. We highlighted that in-addition to the e-commerce web design aspects; the individual cognitive innovativeness can influence females more to purchase online. Practitioners should adjust their online business strategies, considering consumer cognitive innovativeness to enhance their e-commerce desirable outcomes. This means online business should not treat their consumers as a uniform group with a ‘one-design-fits-all’ web design strategy but need to consider the individual needs of their male and female consumers.
The Segmentation of Polish One-Person Households Due to Consumption
Authors: Piekut Marlena
Published: December 2018

The scientific objective of the study was to identify consumption patterns in one-person households, living independently. The households’ clusters were emerged using Ward’s grouping method. It can be concluded that distinguishing the consumption patterns for one-person households is possible on the basis of diversifying both level and structure of incomes as well as socio-demographic differences between them. Depending on economic and socio-demographic variables, disparate consumption patterns for these types of households can be observed. In addition, it is worth stressing that households have different levels of income (although coming from similar sources) but similar demographic structure show greater similarity than households having similar financial situation. Both the growing number and social significance of one-person households make this research subject useful. This study contributes to understanding differences between consumption in various types of one-person households.
An Improved Scheduling Approach for Minimizing Total Energy Consumption and Makespan in a Flexible Job Shop Environment
Authors: Zhang Zhongwei , Wu Lihui , Peng Tao , Jia Shun
Published: December 2018

Nowadays, manufacturing industry is under increasing pressure to save energy and reduce emissions, and thereby enhancing the energy efficiency of the machining system (MS) through operational methods on the system-level has attracted more attention. Energy-efficient scheduling (ES) has proved to be a typical measure suitable for all shop types, and an energy-efficient mechanism that a machine can be switched off and back on if it waits for a new job for a relatively long period is another proven effective energy-saving measure. Furthermore, their combination has been fully investigated in a single machine, flow shop and job shop, and the improvement in energy efficiency is significant compared with only applying ES for MS. However, whether such two energy-saving measures can be integrated in a flexible job shop environment is a gap in the existing study. To address this, a scheduling method applying an energy-efficient mechanism is proposed for a flexible job shop environment and the corresponding mathematical model, namely the energy-efficient flexible job shop scheduling (EFJSS) model, considering total production energy consumption (EC) and makespan is formulated. Besides, transportation as well as its impact on EC is taken into account in this model for practical application. Furthermore, a solution approach based on the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) is adopted, which can avoid the interference of subjective factors and help select a suitable machine for each operation and undertake rational operation sequencing simultaneously. Moreover, experimental results confirm the validity of the improved energy-efficient scheduling approach in a flexible job shop environment and the effectiveness of the solution.
Reusing Source Task Knowledge via Transfer Approximator in Reinforcement Transfer Learning
Authors: Cheng Qiao , Wang Xiangke , Niu Yifeng , Shen Lincheng
Published: December 2018

Transfer Learning (TL) has received a great deal of attention because of its ability to speed up Reinforcement Learning (RL) by reusing learned knowledge from other tasks. This paper proposes a new transfer learning framework, referred to as Transfer Learning via Artificial Neural Network Approximator (TL-ANNA). It builds an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) transfer approximator to transfer the related knowledge from the source task into the target task and reuses the transferred knowledge with a Probabilistic Policy Reuse (PPR) scheme. Specifically, the transfer approximator maps the state of the target task symmetrically to states of the source task with a certain mapping rule, and activates the related knowledge (components of the action-value function) of the source task as the input of the ANNs; it then predicts the quality of the actions in the target task with the ANNs. The target learner uses the PPR scheme to bias the RL with the suggested action from the transfer approximator. In this way, the transfer approximator builds a symmetric knowledge path between the target task and the source task. In addition, two mapping rules for the transfer approximator are designed, namely, Full Mapping Rule and Group Mapping Rule. Experiments performed on the RoboCup soccer Keepaway task verified that the proposed transfer learning methods outperform two other transfer learning methods in both jumpstart and time to threshold metrics and are more robust to the quality of source knowledge. In addition, the TL-ANNA with the group mapping rule exhibits slightly worse performance than the one with the full mapping rule, but with less computation and space cost when appropriate grouping method is used.
Symmetrical Motifs in Young Children’s Drawings: A Study on Their Representations of Plant Life
Authors: Villarroel José Domingo , Merino María , Antón Álvaro
Published: December 2018

Young children love drawing; this is without question. Besides that, drawings are also of interest to scholars and educators, since they seem to provide food for thought regarding children’s conceptual development during their early education. Different approaches are taken when it comes to analysing children’s drawings but insufficient attention has been given to the issue of the spontaneous depictions of symmetrical motifs in young children’s drawings. This pictorial phenomena might not go unnoticed by parents and teachers but the fact is that the scientific community has no reliable data regarding how children under 8 naturally draw symmetrical patterns to express themselves graphically. Accordingly, the present study analyses 116 drawings undertaken by children between 4 and 7 on a well-known natural issue in early childhood such as plant life. Pictorial motifs displaying both cyclic and dihedral symmetries were found in the pictorial sample under examination and the data gathered is put in perspective with the gender and educational level variables. The results of the study show that symmetry, particularly, dihedral symmetry, is a very common pictorial practice in the sample and, also, that the occurrence of symmetrical motifs displays a relationship with the independent variables considered in the study.
Existence Results for Second Order Nonconvex Sweeping Processes in q-Uniformly Convex and 2-Uniformly Smooth Separable Banach Spaces
Authors: Bounekhel Djalel , Bounkhel Messaoud , Bachar Mostafa
Published: December 2018

We prove an existence result, in the separable Banach spaces setting, for second order differential inclusions of type sweeping process. This type of differential inclusion is defined in terms of normal cones and it covers many dynamic quasi-variational inequalities. In the present paper, we prove in the nonconvex case an existence result of this type of differential inclusions when the separable Banach space is assumed to be q-uniformly convex and 2-uniformly smooth. In our proofs we use recent results on uniformly generalized prox-regular sets. Part of the novelty of the paper is the use of the usual Lipschitz continuity of the set-valued mapping which is very easy to verify contrarily to the ones used in the previous works. An example is stated at the end of the paper, showing the application of our existence result.
Parallel Computing Based Dynamic Programming Algorithm of Track-before-Detect
Authors: Guo Qiang , Li Zhenwu , Song Wenming , Fu Wenyu
Published: December 2018

The conventional dynamic programming-based track-before-detect (DP-TBD) methods are usually intractable in multi-target scenarios. The adjacent targets may interfere with each other, and the computational complexity is increased with the number of targets. In this paper, a DP-TBD method using parallel computing (PC-DP-TBD) is proposed to solve the above problems. The search region of the proposed PC-DP-TBD is divided into several parts according to the possible target movement direction. The energy integration is carried out independently and parallel in each part. This contributes to reducing the computational complexity in each part, since the divided search region is smaller than the whole one. In addition, the target energy can only be integrated adequately in the part in which the search direction matches the target movement. This is beneficial to improve the ability to detect the targets with various movement directions in different parts with different search directions. The solution to the problem of the adjacent targets interfering with each other is discussed. The procedure of the parallel computing in the proposed PC-DP-TBD is presented in detail. Simulations are conducted to verify the superiority of the proposed PC-DP-TBD in terms of detection probability and computational complexity.
Search for Neutrinos in Super-Kamiokande Associated with Gravitational Wave Events
Authors: Nakano Yuuki , On behalf of the Super-Kamiokande Collaboration
Published: December 2018

We report the results from a search in Super-Kamiokande for neutrino signals coincident with gravitational-wave events using a neutrino energy range from 3.5 MeV–100 PeV. We searched for coincident neutrino events within a time window of ± 500 s around the gravitational-wave detection time. In this work, we report the number of events within the search-window and the 90 % confidence level upper limits on the neutrino fluence for each gravitational-wave event.