bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Synthetic Pathways to Non-Psychotropic Phytocannabinoids as Promising Molecules to Develop Novel Antibiotics: A Review
Authors: Alfei Silvana , Schito Gian Carlo , Schito Anna Maria
Published: July 2023

Due to the rapid emergence of multi drug resistant (MDR) pathogens against which current antibiotics are no longer functioning, severe infections are becoming practically untreatable. Consequently, the discovery of new classes of effective antimicrobial agents with novel mechanism of action is becoming increasingly urgent. The bioactivity of Cannabis sativa, an herbaceous plant used for millennia for medicinal and recreational purposes, is mainly due to its content in phytocannabinoids (PCs). Among the 180 PCs detected, cannabidiol (CBD), Δ8 and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinols (Δ8-THC and Δ9-THC), cannabichromene (CBC), cannabigerol (CBG), cannabinol (CBN) and some of their acidic precursors have demonstrated from moderate to potent antibacterial effects against Gram-positive bacteria (MICs 0.5–8 µg/mL), including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), epidemic MRSA (EMRSA), as well as fluoroquinolone and tetracycline-resistant strains. Particularly, the non-psychotropic CBG was also capable to inhibit MRSA biofilm formation, to eradicate even mature biofilms, and to rapidly eliminate MRSA persiter cells. In this scenario, CBG, as well as other minor non-psychotropic PCs, such as CBD, and CBC could represent promising compounds for developing novel antibiotics with high therapeutic potential. Anyway, further studies are necessary, needing abundant quantities of such PCs, scarcely provided naturally by Cannabis plants. Here, after an extensive overture on cannabinoids including their reported antimicrobial effects, aiming at easing the synthetic production of the necessary amounts of CBG, CBC and CBD for further studies, we have, for the first time, systematically reviewed the synthetic pathways utilized for their synthesis, reporting both reaction schemes and experimental details.
Bacillus licheniformis: A Producer of Antimicrobial Substances, including Antimycobacterials, Which Are Feasible for Medical Applications
Authors: Shleeva Margarita O. , Kondratieva Daria A. , Kaprelyants Arseny S.
Published: July 2023

Bacillus licheniformis produces several classes of antimicrobial substances, including bacteriocins, which are peptides or proteins with different structural composition and molecular mass: ribosomally synthesized by bacteria (1.4–20 kDa), non-ribosomally synthesized peptides and cyclic lipopeptides (0.8–42 kDa) and exopolysaccharides (>1000 kDa). Different bacteriocins act against Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria, fungal pathogens and amoeba cells. The main mechanisms of bacteriocin lytic activity include interaction of peptides with membranes of target cells resulting in structural alterations, pore-forming, and inhibition of cell wall biosynthesis. DNase and RNase activity for some bacteriocines are also postulated. Non-ribosomal peptides are synthesized by special non-ribosomal multimodular peptide synthetases and contain unnatural amino acids or fatty acids. Their harmful effect is due to their ability to form pores in biological membranes, destabilize lipid packaging, and disrupt the peptidoglycan layer. Lipopeptides, as biosurfactants, are able to destroy bacterial biofilms. Secreted polysaccharides are high molecular weight compounds, composed of repeated units of sugar moieties attached to a carrier lipid. Their antagonistic action was revealed in relation to bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Exopolysaccharides also inhibit the formation of biofilms by pathogenic bacteria and prevent their colonization on various surfaces. However, mechanism of the harmful effect for many secreted antibacterial substances remains unknown. The antimicrobial activity for most substances has been studied in vitro only, but some substances have been characterized in vivo and they have found practical applications in medicine and veterinary. The cyclic lipopeptides that have surfactant properties are used in some industries. In this review, special attention is paid to the antimycobacterials produced by B. licheniformis as a possible approach to combat multidrug-resistant and latent tuberculosis. In particular, licheniformins and bacitracins have shown strong antimycobacterial activity. However, the medical application of some antibacterials with promising in vitro antimycobacterial activity has been limited by their toxicity to animals and humans. As such, similar to the enhancement in the antimycobacterial activity of natural bacteriocins achieved using genetic engineering, the reduction in toxicity using the same approach appears feasible. The unique capability of B. licheniformis to synthesize and produce a range of different antibacterial compounds means that this organism can act as a natural universal vehicle for antibiotic substances in the form of probiotic cultures and strains to combat various types of pathogens, including mycobacteria.
Nanostructured Microparticles Repolarize Macrophages and Induce Cell Death in an In Vitro Model of Tumour-Associated Macrophages
Authors: Al-Fityan Salma , Diesel Britta , Fischer Thorben , Ampofo Emmanuel , Schomisch Annika , Mashayekhi Vida , Schneider Marc , Kiemer Alexandra K.
Published: July 2023

Macrophages (MΦs) in their pro-inflammatory state (M1) suppress tumour growth, while tumour-associated MΦs (TAMs) can promote tumour progression. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that targeted delivery of the immune activator poly(I:C) in aspherical silica microrods (µRs) can repolarize TAMs into M1-like cells. µRs (10 µm × 3 µm) were manufactured from silica nanoparticles and stabilized with dextran sulphate and polyethyleneimine. The THP-1 cell line, differentiated into MΦs, and primary human monocyte-derived MΦs (HMDMs) were treated with tumour-cell-conditioned medium (A549), but only HMDMs could be polarized towards TAMs. Flow cytometry and microscopy revealed elevated uptake of µRs by TAMs compared to non-polarized HMDMs. Flow cytometry and qPCR studies on polarization markers showed desirable effects of poly(I:C)-loaded MPs towards an M1 polarization. However, unloaded µRs also showed distinct actions, which were not induced by bacterial contaminations. Reporter cell assays showed that µRs induce the secretion of the inflammatory cytokine IL-1β. Macrophages from Nlrp3 knockout mice showed that µRs in concentrations as low as 0.5 µR per cell can activate the inflammasome and induce cell death. In conclusion, our data show that µRs, even if unloaded, can induce inflammasome activation and cell death in low concentrations.
Emission Enhancement in fs + ns Dual-Pulse LIBS of Cu
Authors: Shao Junfeng , Zhang Yin , Chen Anmin
Published: July 2023

Femtosecond (fs) and nanosecond (ns) laser pulses have their own advantages and disadvantages in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). This paper investigated fs + ns (FN) dual-pulse (DP) LIBS, utilizing the respective advantages of two laser pulses in LIBS. Compared to traditional single ns LIBS, applying a smaller energy fs pulse could effectively improve the LIBS emission. Firstly, this study discussed the spectra of FN DP LIBS with overlapping pulse time—that is, the FN DP inter-pulse delay (DID) was 0 μs. The results showed that the spectra were increased to three times that of a single ns LIBS. Subsequently, the DID between the two pulses was optimized. The results showed that as the DID between the two pulses increased, the spectral emission first increased and then decreased, ultimately remaining unchanged. The optimized DID was approximately 2 μs. Finally, using this optimized DID, the variation of spectral intensity with ns laser energy was discussed in DP LIBS. The spectral enhancement ratio increased from 3 with 0 μs DID to 6 with 2 μs DID. The investigation provides a reference in the application of FN DP LIBS element analysis.
The Influence of Gadolinium Oxide Nanoparticles Concentration on the Chemical and Physical Processes Intensity during Laser-Induced Breakdown of Aqueous Solutions
Authors: Simakin Aleksander V. , Baimler Ilya V. , Baryshev Alexey S. , Dikovskaya Anastasiya O. , Gudkov Sergey V.
Published: July 2023

The paper investigates the physicochemical processes that occur during laser-induced breakdown in colloids of gadolinium oxide nanoparticles of different concentrations. A monotonic change in the number of optical breakdowns, the average distance between the nearest breakdowns in the track of a single laser pulse, the average plasma size of a single optical breakdown, the integral luminosity of an optical breakdown plasma flash, the intensity of acoustic signals, and the rate of formation of dissociation products—O2, H2, OH•, and H2O2—is demonstrated. It is shown that the rate of formation of chemical products of the decomposition of H2O molecules under the action of breakdown when using nanoparticles of rare earth metals, in particular, gadolinium oxide, is the highest compared to other materials. Based on one laser pulse, the rates of formation of chemical products formed during the dissociation of water during laser-induced breakdown of a colloid of gadolinium oxide nanoparticles are 13.13 nmol/pulse for H2, 5.41 nmol/pulse for O2, and 6.98 nmol/pulse for hydrogen peroxide.
Revelations from the Underground: Trinitarian Metaphysics and the Underground Church
Authors: Fiedler Eduard
Published: July 2023

The ancient concept of the underground is mainly associated with the outdated triadic cosmology. In modernity, some authors such as Dostoevsky and Nietzsche have dialectically referred to the underground as an alternative to the principle of reason or ground. Others—such as Hegel or Heidegger—have more radically linked this dialectic to the abyssal unground, recalling Boehme and Hölderlin. However, all these modern dialectical constellations of ground, underground, or unground have failed to provide a philosophical vision that would overcome the aporetic relationship between metaphysical grounding and phenomenal appearance. They have left aside the reality of the Marian underground, overshadowed by the Spirit and Cross and marked by Christ’s descent into the underground, by which the powers of the ancient underground were apocalyptically drawn into the liturgical celebration of a persecuted Church. In this article, I will link Jan Patočka’s phenomenology of the underground experience and Zdeněk Neubauer’s Marian metaphysics to prove that, in the apocalyptic horizon of suffering and persecution, the Sophianic and Marian revelations spell out the created form of Trinitarian being, that becomes a miraculous rescue of all relations and phenomena as the ground shining from within the underground, and the underground within the ground.
A Sacrificial View of Life
Authors: Di Ceglie Roberto
Published: July 2023

Sacrifice as a practice aimed at honoring deities by offering them something as a sign of propitiation or worship is usually studied from the viewpoint of numerous disciplines and religious cultures, from which equally numerous interpretations follow. However, the view of sacrifice as able to shape life in its entirety, which means that every act taken by believers may be seen in sacrificial terms, does not seem to be sufficiently considered. This is a view that I believe emerges from various reflections on sacrifice, especially the ones offered by thinkers of the past such as Augustine and Aquinas. In this essay, I first focus on these reflections and more specifically on Augustine’s and Aquinas’s view that religious believers should order everything to God. I then argue—in the footsteps of Aquinas—that this view applies to important acts taken by believers. These acts are prayer, faith, and intellectual activity.
Detection of Solar Photovoltaic Power Plants Using Satellite and Airborne Hyperspectral Imaging
Authors: Jörges Christoph , Vidal Hedwig Sophie , Hank Tobias , Bach Heike
Published: July 2023

Solar photovoltaic panels (PV) provide great potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as a renewable energy technology. The number of solar PV has increased significantly in recent years and is expected to increase even further. Therefore, accurate and global mapping and monitoring of PV modules with remote sensing methods is important for predicting energy production potentials, revealing socio-economic drivers, supporting urban planning, and estimating ecological impacts. Hyperspectral imagery provides crucial information to identify PV modules based on their physical absorption and reflection properties. This study investigated spectral signatures of spaceborne PRISMA data of 30 m low resolution for the first time, as well as airborne AVIRIS-NG data of 5.3 m medium resolution for the detection of solar PV. The study region is located around Irlbach in southern Germany. A physics-based approach using the spectral indices nHI, NSPI, aVNIR, PEP, and VPEP was used for the classification of the hyperspectral images. By validation with a solar PV ground truth dataset of the study area, a user’s accuracy of 70.53% and a producer’s accuracy of 88.06% for the PRISMA hyperspectral data, and a user’s accuracy of 65.94% and a producer’s accuracy of 82.77% for AVIRIS-NG were achieved.
Hierarchical Refined Composite Multi-Scale Fractal Dimension and Its Application in Feature Extraction of Ship-Radiated Noise
Authors: Li Yuxing , Liang Lili , Zhang Shuai
Published: July 2023

The fractal dimension (FD) is a classical nonlinear dynamic index that can effectively reflect the dynamic transformation of a signal. However, FD can only reflect signal information of a single scale in the whole frequency band. To solve this problem, we combine refined composite multi-scale processing with FD and propose the refined composite multi-scale FD (RCMFD), which can reflect the information of signals at a multi-scale. Furthermore, hierarchical RCMFD (HRCMFD) is proposed by introducing hierarchical analysis, which successfully represents the multi-scale information of signals in each sub-frequency band. Moreover, two ship-radiated noise (SRN) multi-feature extraction methods based on RCMFD and HRCMFD are proposed. The simulation results indicate that RCMFD and HRCMFD can effectively discriminate different simulated signals. The experimental results show that the proposed two-feature extraction methods are more effective for distinguishing six types of SRN than other feature-extraction methods. The HRCMFD-based multi-feature extraction method has the best performance, and the recognition rate reaches 99.7% under the combination of five features.
Multi-Branch Deep Learning Framework for Land Scene Classification in Satellite Imagery
Authors: Khan Sultan Daud , Basalamah Saleh
Published: July 2023

Land scene classification in satellite imagery has a wide range of applications in remote surveillance, environment monitoring, remote scene analysis, Earth observations and urban planning. Due to immense advantages of the land scene classification task, several methods have been proposed during recent years to automatically classify land scenes in remote sensing images. Most of the work focuses on designing and developing deep networks to identify land scenes from high-resolution satellite images. However, these methods face challenges in identifying different land scenes. Complex texture, cluttered background, extremely small size of objects and large variations in object scale are the common challenges that restrict the models to achieve high performance. To tackle these challenges, we propose a multi-branch deep learning framework that efficiently combines global contextual features with multi-scale features to identify complex land scenes. Generally, the framework consists of two branches. The first branch extracts global contextual information from different regions of the input image, and the second branch exploits a fully convolutional network (FCN) to extract multi-scale local features. The performance of the proposed framework is evaluated on three benchmark datasets, UC-Merced, SIRI-WHU, and EuroSAT. From the experiments, we demonstrate that the framework achieves superior performance compared to other similar models.
Integrating SBAS-InSAR and AT-LSTM for Time-Series Analysis and Prediction Method of Ground Subsidence in Mining Areas
Authors: Liu Yahong , Zhang Jin
Published: July 2023

Ground subsidence is a significant safety concern in mining regions, making large-scale subsidence forecasting vital for mine site environmental management. This study proposes a deep learning-based prediction approach to address the challenges posed by the existing prediction methods, such as complicated model parameters or large data requirements. Small baseline subset interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SBAS-InSAR) technology was utilized to collect spatiotemporal ground subsidence data at the Pingshuo mining area from 2019 to 2022, which was then analyzed using the long-short term memory (LSTM) neural network algorithm. Additionally, an attention mechanism was introduced to incorporate temporal dependencies and improve prediction accuracy, leading to the development of the AT-LSTM model. The results demonstrate that the Pingshuo mine area had subsidence rates ranging from −205.89 to −59.70 mm/yr from 2019 to 2022, with subsidence areas mainly located around Jinggong-1 (JG-1) and the three open-pit mines, strongly linked to mining activities, and the subsidence range continuously expanding. The spatial distribution of the AT-LSTM prediction results is basically consistent with the real situation, and the correlation coefficient is more than 0.97. Compared with the LSTM, the AT-LSTM method better captured the fluctuation changes of the time series for fitting, while the model was more sensitive to the mining method of the mine, and had different expressiveness in open-pit and shaft mines. Furthermore, in comparison to existing time-series forecasting methods, the AT-LSTM is effective and practical.
Appraisal of the Magnetotelluric and Magnetovariational Transfer Functions’ Selection in a 3-D Inversion
Authors: Yu Hui , Tang Bin , Deng Juzhi , Chen Hui , Tang Wenwu , Chen Xiao , Zhou Cong
Published: July 2023

Magnetotelluric (MT) and magnetovariational (MV) sounding are two principal geophysical methods used to determine the electrical structure of the earth using natural electromagnetic signals. The complex relationship between the alternating electromagnetic fields can be defined by transfer functions, and their proper selection is crucial in a 3-D inversion. A synthetic case was studied to assess the capacity of these transfer functions to recover the electrical resistivity distribution of the subsurface and to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using the tipper vector W to complement the impedance tensor Z and the phase tensor Φ. The analysis started with two sensitivity tests to appraise the sensitivity of each type of transfer function, which is calculated for an oblique conductor model, showing that the resistivity perturbation of the same model will produce distinct perturbations to different transfer functions; the transfer function sensitivity is significantly different. A 3-D inversion utilizing the quasi-Newton method based on the L-BFGS formula was performed to invert different transfer functions and their combinations, along with quantifying their accuracy. The synthetic case study illustrates that a 3-D inversion of either the Z or Φ responses presents a superior ability to recover the subsurface electrical resistivity; joint inversions of the Z or Φ responses with the W responses possess superior imaging of the horizontal continuity of the conductive block. The appraisal of the 3-D inversion results of different transfer functions can facilitate assessing the advantages of different transfer functions and acquiring a more reasonable interpretation.
A Novel Active Device for Shoulder Rotation Based on Force Control
Authors: Alguacil-Diego Isabel M. , Cuesta-Gómez Alicia , Pont David , Carrillo Juan , Espinosa Paul , Sánchez-Urán Miguel A. , Ferre Manuel
Published: July 2023

This article describes a one-degree-of-freedom haptic device that can be applied to perform three different exercises for shoulder rehabilitation. The device is based on a force control architecture and an adaptive speed PI controller. It is a portable equipment that is easy to use for any patient, and was optimized for rehabilitating external rotation movements of the shoulder in patients in whom this was limited by muscle–skeletal injuries. The sample consisted of 12 shoulder rehabilitation sessions with different shoulder pathologies that limited their range of shoulder mobility. The mean and standard deviations of the external rotation of shoulder were 42.91 ± 4.53° for the pre-intervention measurements and 53.88 ± 4.26° for the post-intervention measurement. In addition, patients reported high levels of acceptance of the device. Scores on the SUS questionnaire ranged from 65 to 97.5, with an average score of 82.70 ± 9.21, indicating a high degree of acceptance. The preliminary results suggest that the use of this device and the incorporation of such equipment into rehabilitation services could be of great help for patients in their rehabilitation process and for physiotherapists in applying their therapies.
Effects of Hot Pixels on Pixel Performance on Backside Illuminated Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) Image Sensors
Authors: Liu Bingkai , Li Yudong , Wen Lin , Zhang Xiang , Guo Qi
Published: July 2023

Effects of hot pixels on pixel performance in light and dark environments have been investigated in pinned photodiode 0.18 μm backside illuminated CMOS image sensors irradiated by 10 MeV protons. After exposure to protons, hot pixels and normal pixels are selected from the whole pixel array, and their influences on key parameters are analyzed. Experimental results show that radiation-induced hot pixels have a significant impact on pixel performance in dark environments, such as dark signal nonuniformity, long integration time, and random telegraph signal. Hot pixels are caused by defects with complex structures, i.e., cluster defects. Furthermore, the dark current activation energy result confirms that the defects causing the hot pixels have defect energy levels close to mid-gap.
Adaptively Lightweight Spatiotemporal Information-Extraction-Operator-Based DL Method for Aero-Engine RUL Prediction
Authors: Shi Junren , Gao Jun , Xiang Sheng
Published: July 2023

Accurate prediction of machine RUL plays a crucial role in reducing human casualties and economic losses, which is of significance. The ability to handle spatiotemporal information contributes to improving the prediction performance of machine RUL. However, most existing models for spatiotemporal information processing are not only complex in structure but also lack adaptive feature extraction capabilities. Therefore, a lightweight operator with adaptive spatiotemporal information extraction ability named Involution GRU (Inv-GRU) is proposed for aero-engine RUL prediction. Involution, the adaptive feature extraction operator, is replaced by the information connection in the gated recurrent unit to achieve adaptively spatiotemporal information extraction and reduce the parameters. Thus, Inv-GRU can well extract the degradation information of the aero-engine. Then, for the RUL prediction task, the Inv-GRU-based deep learning (DL) framework is firstly constructed, where features extracted by Inv-GRU and several human-made features are separately processed to generate health indicators (HIs) from multi-raw data of aero-engines. Finally, fully connected layers are adopted to reduce the dimension and regress RUL based on the generated HIs. By applying the Inv-GRU-based DL framework to the Commercial Modular Aero Propulsion System Simulation (C-MAPSS) datasets, successful predictions of aero-engines RUL have been achieved. Quantitative comparative experiments have demonstrated the advantage of the proposed method over other approaches in terms of both RUL prediction accuracy and computational burden.
Precision Heart Rate Estimation Using a PPG Sensor Patch Equipped with New Algorithms of Pre-Quality Checking and Hankel Decomposition
Authors: Thakur Smriti , Chao Paul C.-P. , Tsai Cheng-Han
Published: July 2023

A new method for accurately estimating heart rates based on a single photoplethysmography (PPG) signal and accelerations is proposed in this study, considering motion artifacts due to subjects’ hand motions and walking. The method comprises two sub-algorithms: pre-quality checking and motion artifact removal (MAR) via Hankel decomposition. PPGs and accelerations were collected using a wearable device equipped with a PPG sensor patch and a 3-axis accelerometer. The motion artifacts caused by hand movements and walking were effectively mitigated by the two aforementioned sub-algorithms. The first sub-algorithm utilized a new quality-assessment criterion to identify highly noise-contaminated PPG signals and exclude them from subsequent processing. The second sub-algorithm employed the Hankel matrix and singular value decomposition (SVD) to effectively identify, decompose, and remove motion artifacts. Experimental data collected during hand-moving and walking were considered for evaluation. The performance of the proposed algorithms was assessed using the datasets from the IEEE Signal Processing Cup 2015. The obtained results demonstrated an average error of merely 0.7345 ± 8.1129 beats per minute (bpm) and a mean absolute error of 1.86 bpm for walking, making it the second most accurate method to date that employs a single PPG and a 3-axis accelerometer. The proposed method also achieved the best accuracy of 3.78 bpm in mean absolute errors among all previously reported studies for hand-moving scenarios.
Identification of Solutions for Vulnerable Road Users Safety in Urban Transport Systems: Grounded Theory Research
Authors: Sosik-Filipiak Katarzyna , Osypchuk Oleksandra
Published: July 2023

The share of road vehicles in urban transport systems is a challenge for modern and dynamically developing urban areas in accordance with the concept of sustainable and Smart Cities. Increasingly, there is a need to promote and adapt urban space to the movement of vulnerable road users (VRU). As part of a clear emphasis on the issue of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, the aim of the article is to define the typology and hierarchy of solutions contributing to the increase in VRU safety in cities. The research process was based on the use of grounded theory. In the adopted research methodology, the use of the Delphi method made it possible to identify the approach of various European cities to the use and implementation of technical, technological and organizational solutions affecting safety. The research made it possible to evaluate individual solutions in VRU safety management and to indicate a list of recommendations for improving security, taking into account the views of international experts. In addition, the results of this study may enrich the current literature, helping to understand the perception of solutions implemented in urban transport systems as a holistic set of interrelated elements supporting pedestrian safety and increasing their role in cities.
From Waste to Plate: Exploring the Impact of Food Waste Valorisation on Achieving Zero Hunger
Authors: Tchonkouang Rose Daphnee , Onyeaka Helen , Miri Taghi
Published: July 2023

Hunger (811 million people, 2020) and food waste (931 million tonnes annually, 2020) are long-standing interconnected challenges that have plagued humankind for centuries. Food waste originates from various sources, including consumption habits and failures within the food supply chain. Given the growing concerns regarding food insecurity, malnutrition, and hunger, there is a pressing need to recover and repurpose as much food waste as possible. A growing body of knowledge identifies the valorisation (including upcycling) of food waste as one of the strategies to fight hunger by positively impacting food availability and food security. This paper evaluates the potential role of food waste valorisation, including upcycling, in reducing global hunger. A literature search was conducted to examine how converting food waste into value-added products, such as food formulations and farming inputs, can contribute to increasing food availability. The benefits of waste-to-food operations in improving food availability through producing food ingredients and products from materials that would have been wasted or discarded otherwise were discussed.
Locally Based Architectural Construction Strategies in Rural China: Textual Analysis of Architects’ Design Thinking
Authors: Chen Ye , Kitagawa Keisuke
Published: July 2023

The distinctive constraints and opportunities present in rural China underscore the importance of exploring sustainable architectural construction models in such areas. Architects engaged in rural projects have contributed design thinking that incorporates construction operations in response to local elements, resulting in significant benefits for the sustainability of rural construction. This study investigates these design approaches as locally based architectural construction strategies and seeks to identify their latent wisdom as a reference for future practices through the textual analysis of 63 articles showcasing outstanding architectural design in rural China. By organizing related design thinking with respect to three key elements, extracting these elements, and analyzing their correlations from the textual descriptions, 14 types of locally based architectural construction strategies are identified. Via analysis and discussions of these types, this research identifies the paramount concerns in Chinese rural architectural practices as revolving around fundamental issues of technology, livability, and aesthetics. These fundamental issues emphasize different kinds of sustainability—the pursuit of sustainability in local-based rural construction activity through diverse technological explorations, environmental sustainability through special building envelope designs, and cultural sustainability through the establishment of new local rural aesthetics with material and other visible expressions.
Unmanaged Urban Growth in Dar es Salaam: The Spatiotemporal Pattern and Influencing Factors
Authors: Yuan Yuke , Chen Sophia Shuang , Miao Yi
Published: July 2023

Uncontrolled urban expansion with rapid population growth causes great pressure on the urban environment. The index of impervious surface area (ISA) has recently been used for the dynamic monitoring of urban expansion. This paper takes Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, as an example, combined with multi-source data to obtain urban impervious surface component data on an annual scale, based on which the spatial–temporal characteristics of the city’s expansion are concluded: first, urban expansion showed an evidently phased pattern, with a steady annual growth rate of 2.9% during 2000–2005, and a low rate of 1.4% during 2006–2010, then a relatively high rate of 3.3% in the period of 2011–2019. Secondly, urban expansion hotspots emerged in areas along the main roads extending from the center to the south and north, but coastal expansion and infilling development became evident after 2015, with the impervious surface significantly increasing in areas with poor traffic. Third, urban land expansion, which lags significantly behind population growth, has eased, as the ratio of population growth rate to land expansion is declining, from 2.9 in the period 2002–2012 to 2.0 in the period 2012–2019. Finally, the influence of population, economy, traffic and nature on the evolution of impervious surfaces are analyzed. This paper puts forward corresponding strategic suggestions for land-use policies and analyzes the trend of urban growth spatiotemporal patterns in the future.
Training in Digital Skills—The Perspective of Workers in Public Sector
Authors: Lopes Ana Sofia , Sargento Ana , Farto Joana
Published: July 2023

Digital transformation can become a complex process when workers have insufficient skills, which makes training in the digital field essential. Herein, we intend to relate the digital literacy perceived by workers with their training needs for the Portuguese public sector context. Additionally, based on the Human capital theory, we also investigate which professional/demographic characteristics increase training propensity in digital fields. Through an online questionnaire, a dataset with information on 573 workers was obtained. The data analysis was made by using a probabilistic regression model and additional statistical techniques. The results revealed that workers with higher levels of education and higher professional skills have higher probability of participating in training in the digital field. On average, workers reveal low levels of digital knowledge (2.7 in a 1–5 scale) and low participation in training in the digital fields (72% of the sample had no training over the last two years), but the majority present a willingness to participate in future training sessions, especially in the fields of Dataset management, Cybersecurity and Communication systems. This study provides information on training in the digital field of public workers, which is essential for public organizations to better prepare for digital transformation. Additionally, it contributes to a very recent literature on digital learning, and it can be extended to other contexts.
An AC-DC LED Integrated Streetlight Driver with Power Factor Correction and Soft-Switching Functions
Authors: Cheng Chun-An , Cheng Hung-Liang , Chang Chien-Hsuan , Chang En-Chih , Kuo Zheng-You , Lin Cheng-Kuan , Hou Sheng-Hong
Published: July 2023

The use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in street lighting applications has been greatly welcomed with the current trends of energy saving, environmental protection, carbon reduction, and sustainable development. This paper presents a novel AC-DC LED integrated streetlight driver that combines an interleaved buck converter with a coupled inductor and a half-bridge series resonant converter with a full-bridge rectifier into a single-stage power conversion topology with power factor correction (PFC) and soft switching capabilities. The PFC is achieved by designing the coupling inductor in the interleaved buck converter sub-circuit in discontinuous conduction mode. In addition, the resonant tank in the half-bridge series resonant converter sub-circuit is designed to be similar to an inductive load, thus giving the power switch a zero-voltage switching (ZVS) function, decreasing switching losses and increasing the overall efficiency of the proposed circuit. A prototype circuit of the proposed LED integrated streetlight driver with a power rating of 165 W (235 V/0.7 A) and 110 V input utility voltage has been developed and tested. According to the measurement results, a power factor greater than 0.98, a total harmonic distortion coefficient of the input current less than 3%, and an efficiency greater than 89% were obtained in the AC-DC LED integrated streetlight driver. Therefore, the experimental results are satisfactory and demonstrate the functionality of the proposed AC-DC LED integrated streetlight driver.
Organic Agriculture in the Context of 2030 Agenda Implementation in European Union Countries
Authors: Pânzaru Radu Lucian , Firoiu Daniela , Ionescu George H. , Ciobanu Andi , Medelete Dragoș Mihai , Pîrvu Ramona
Published: July 2023

Organic agriculture is considered an important component of sustainable development because it promotes environmental sustainability and social responsibility, involving the use of practices that minimize the negative impact of agriculture on the environment and human health. Through this research, we aim to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the current state of and perspectives on specific indicators of organic agriculture from the perspective of the SDGs assumed by EU member countries in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Based on Eurostat data covering the timeframe from 2008 to 2021, an ARIMA model was used to analyze the data and forecast trends in the selected indicators until 2030. The results of this unique study provide relevant information on the indicators and countries for which positive developments are expected up to 2030, as opposed to those indicators for which mixed or negative developments are forecast. The findings of this research empower policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders to identify possible negative developments and take appropriate corrective action, with the aim of achieving the goals proposed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Assessment of Potential Pennycress Availability and Suitable Sites for Sustainable Aviation Fuel Refineries in Ohio
Authors: Mousavi-Avval Seyed Hashem , Khanal Sami , Shah Ajay
Published: July 2023

Pennycress grain has a relatively high oil content (25–36%) and it is considered a desirable feedstock to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Pennycress crop can be integrated into the corn–soybean rotation as a winter cover crop in the midwestern U.S. to provide both ecosystem services and economic benefits for the farmers, while serving as a promising feedstock for SAF production. For pennycress-based SAF biorefineries to be established at the commercial scale, a sustainable design of the supply system is required to provide reliable information on feedstock availability and optimal facility locations. The objectives of this research were to assess the pennycress production potential in Ohio, and to identify the best locations to establish the SAF biorefineries. To estimate the pennycress production potential in Ohio, a geographic information system (GIS)-based model was developed using the spatially explicit six-year historical data on areas that were planted in the corn–soybean rotation for the period of 2013 through 2018, pennycress yield estimates from field-based experiments reported in the literature, and the soil productivity index for the region of study. Optimal SAF biorefinery locations were identified using a GIS-based location-allocation model. Annual land potentially available for pennycress production in Ohio was estimated to be ~0.6 million ha, which could produce ~1.1 million metric tons of pennycress grain as feedstock to produce ~210 million liters of SAF, depending on the pennycress yield level, oil content, and conversion efficiencies. In addition, the optimum locations for 12 biorefineries, each at an annual capacity of 18.9 million liters of SAF, were identified, and the average transportation distance was estimated to be 35 and 58 km for maximizing attendance and coverage conditions, respectively. The outcomes of this research would help minimize the risks associated with feedstock supply and cost variabilities for pennycress-based SAF production in the region.
Precise Modeling of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Using the Modified Bald Eagle Optimization Algorithm
Authors: Zaky Alaa A. , Ghoniem Rania M. , Selim F.
Published: July 2023

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a green energy converter that is based on the chemical reaction process. The behavior of this system can change with time due to aging and operating conditions. Knowing the current state of this system requires an accurate model, and an exact PEMFC model requires precise parameters. These parameters should be identified and used to properly fit the polarization curve in order to effectively replicate the PEMFC behavior. This work suggests a precise unknown PEMFC parameter extraction based on a new metaheuristic optimization algorithm called the modified bald eagle search algorithm (mBES). The mBES is an optimization algorithm based on the principles of bald eagle behavior that combines local search and global search to achieve a balance between the exploration and exploitation of search spaces. It is a powerful and efficient technique for optimization problems where accurate and near-optimal solutions are desired. To approve the accuracy of the proposed identification approach, the proposed algorithm is compared to the following metaheuristic algorithms: bald eagle search algorithm (BES), artificial ecosystem-based optimization (AEO), leader Harris Hawk’s optimization (LHHO), rain optimization algorithm (ROA), sine cosine algorithm (SCA), and salp swarm algorithm (SSA). This evaluation process is applied to two commercialized PEMFC stacks: BCS 500 W PEMFC and Avista SR-12 PEM. The extracted parameters’ accuracy is measured as the sum of square errors (SSE) between the results produced by the optimizer and the experimental data in the objective function. As a result, the proposed PEMFC optimizing model outperforms the comparison models in terms of system correctness and convergence. The proposed extraction strategy, mBES, obtained the best results, with a fitness value of 0.011364 for the 500 W BCS and 0.035099 for the Avista SR-12 500 W PEMFC.
The Effects of Forest Accessibility on the Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Deadwood: A Comparison between Recreational and Natural Forests
Authors: Kiadaliri Masoud , Motlagh Mohadeseh Ghanbari , Sohrabi Hadi , Latterini Francesco , Lo Monaco Angela , Venanzi Rachele , Picchio Rodolfo
Published: July 2023

Deadwood is one of the main structural features of forest ecosystems and plays an important role in the nutrient cycle, in maintaining production and environmental heterogeneity, and acts as an indicator for assessing the biodiversity of forest ecosystems. This research was conducted with the aim of evaluating the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of deadwood according to the influence of forest accessibility indicators in a comparison between natural and recreational forests. The studied area was divided into three accessibility classes based on the slope gradient range, the slope direction towards the nearest road, the road type, and distance from the road. These classes were: Easy-recreational forest (RE-F), Medium-natural forest 1 (NA-F1), and Difficult-natural forest 2 (NA-F2). In each accessibility class, three transects (750 × 50 m) were established, and three deadwood groups (snag, log, and stump) were recorded along the transects and their volume was calculated. The results of the analysis of variance show that accessibility has a significant effect on the presence of deadwood. The number and volume of snags, logs and dead stumps per hectare was higher in NA-F2 than in NA-F1 and RE-F. In each of the investigated classes, logs and stumps had the highest and the lowest number and volume of deadwood per hectare, respectively. The snag longevity index (= log volume/snag volume) decreased with accessibility. NA F2 showed the greatest value, while REF and NA F1 were not significantly different from each other. The results show that decay classes DC2 in NA-F2 and DC3 in NA-F1 and RE-F had the highest percentage of decay frequency. Finally, the forest accessibility indicators have a significant effect on the quantity, quality and distribution of different groups of deadwood in the forest. This is related to the collection of deadwood by local people who remove deadwood with different levels of intensity.
Exploring the Key Factors Influencing Sustainable Urban Renewal from the Perspective of Multiple Stakeholders
Authors: Bai Yunxi , Wu Shanshan , Zhang Yunjie
Published: July 2023

A successful urban renewal policy, process, and project implementation should advocate sustainable development from economic, social, and environmental perspectives. As different stakeholders have different interests and insights into the importance of the environment, housing, social wellbeing, and economic concerns, they often have different ideas concerning how to develop urban renewal strategies and implement projects. Although previous studies have focused on the opinions of governments and academics, fewer studies have considered the direct beneficiaries of urban renewal—the residents. This study examined the key factors that influence sustainable urban renewal from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, including local governments, residents, developers, and designers. Social network analysis (SNA) and the reliability interval method (RIM) were integrated to form a SNA-RIM analytical framework to analyze the importance of the influencing factors. The results showed that the adjustment of the regional industrial structure, employment opportunities, and environmental qualification improvement had the most significant influence on sustainable urban renewal from economic, social, and environmental perspectives, respectively. In addition, different types of stakeholders do not value sustainability indicators in the same way. Local governments place more emphasis on return on investment, employment opportunities, and environmental qualification improvement, whereas residents focus on per capita income growth rate, public service facilities, and convenience of municipal infrastructure. Developers are most interested in the land value growth rate, public service facilities, and effective land use space, whereas designers attach the greatest importance to the adjustment of regional industrial structure, public service facilities, and effective land use space. Therefore, this study can help urban planners and decision makers balance the interests, seek common benefits for different types of stakeholders, and improve sustainable and inclusive urban renewal.
Measurement of Indoor Thermal Environment and Analysis of Heating Energy Saving in Residential Buildings in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Authors: Batsumber Zolsaikhan , He Jiang
Published: July 2023

Owing to the unique climate of Mongolia, the heat supply of residential buildings is a pressing social and economic problem. In Mongolia, the heat loss indicators for numerous residential buildings still exceed the standard. There is an urgent need to update and improve the architectural structure of residential buildings for energy saving. Few studies focused on energy consumption and the indoor environment in residential buildings in Mongolia. To provide effective and practical energy-saving measures, we conducted field surveys and measurements to clarify the energy consumption and indoor environment in residential buildings. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 100 households in Ulaanbaatar (the capital city of Mongolia), and five representative buildings were selected as the study objects to investigate the indoor thermal environment. The measurement result shows that the average indoor air temperature and relative humidity in the living rooms and bedrooms were 25.4 °C and 26.3%, 24.0 °C and 33.2%, respectively. The indoor air temperature was higher, and the air humidity was lower than the national standards. The average ventilation rate lies between a maximum of 71 m3/h and a minimum of 46 m3/h. The breakdown of the total heat loss shows that the ventilation heat loss of two objects is high. The total heat loss for the study objects was between 1.202–1.694 W/(m2K). The analysis result reveals that there exist great potential and effective measures to save heating energy.