bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Designing a European-Wide Crop Type Mapping Approach Based on Machine Learning Algorithms Using LUCAS Field Survey and Sentinel-2 Data
Authors: Ghassemi Babak , Dujakovic Aleksandar , Żółtak Mateusz , Immitzer Markus , Atzberger Clement , Vuolo Francesco
Published: January 2022

One of the most challenging aspects of obtaining detailed and accurate land-use and land-cover (LULC) maps is the availability of representative field data for training and validation. In this manuscript, we evaluate the use of the Eurostat Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS) 2018 data to generate a detailed LULC map with 19 crop type classes and two broad categories for woodland and shrubland, and grassland. The field data were used in combination with Copernicus Sentinel-2 (S2) satellite data covering Europe. First, spatially and temporally consistent S2 image composites of (1) spectral reflectances, (2) a selection of spectral indices, and (3) several bio-geophysical indicators were created for the year 2018. From the large number of features, the most important were selected for classification using two machine-learning algorithms (support vector machine and random forest). Results indicated that the 19 crop type classes and the two broad categories could be classified with an overall accuracy (OA) of 77.6%, using independent data for validation. Our analysis of three methods to select optimum training data showed that by selecting the most spectrally different pixels for training data, the best OA could be achieved, and this already using only 11% of the total training data. Comparing our results to a similar study using Sentinel-1 (S1) data indicated that S2 can achieve slightly better results, although the spatial coverage was slightly reduced due to gaps in S2 data. Further analysis is ongoing to leverage synergies between optical and microwave data.
A RULA-Based Comparison of the Ergonomic Risk of Typical Working Procedures for Dentists and Dental Assistants of General Dentistry, Endodontology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Orthodontics
Authors: Holzgreve Fabian , Fraeulin Laura , Betz Werner , Erbe Christina , Wanke Eileen M. , Brüggmann Dörthe , Nienhaus Albert , Groneberg David A. , Maurer-Grubinger Christian , Ohlendorf Daniela
Published: January 2022

Background: In general, the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) in dentistry is high, and dental assistants (DA) are even more affected than dentists (D). Furthermore, differentiations between the fields of dental specialization (e.g., general dentistry, endodontology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, or orthodontics) are rare. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the ergonomic risk of the aforementioned four fields of dental specialization for D and DA on the one hand, and to compare the ergonomic risk of D and DA within each individual field of dental specialization. Methods: In total, 60 dentists (33 male/27 female) and 60 dental assistants (11 male/49 female) volunteered in this study. The sample was composed of 15 dentists and 15 dental assistants from each of the dental field, in order to represent the fields of dental specialization. In a laboratory setting, all tasks were recorded using an inertial motion capture system. The kinematic data were applied to an automated version of the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA). Results: The results revealed significantly reduced ergonomic risks in endodontology and orthodontics compared to oral and maxillofacial surgery and general dentistry in DAs, while orthodontics showed a significantly reduced ergonomic risk compared to general dentistry in Ds. Further differences between the fields of dental specialization were found in the right wrist, right lower arm, and left lower arm in DAs and in the neck, right wrist, right lower arm, and left wrist in Ds. The differences between Ds and DAs within a specialist discipline were rather small. Discussion: Independent of whether one works as a D or DA, the percentage of time spent working in higher risk scores is reduced in endodontologists, and especially in orthodontics, compared to general dentists or oral and maxillofacial surgeons. In order to counteract the development of WMSD, early intervention should be made. Consequently, ergonomic training or strength training is recommended.
Breast Cancer Classification from Ultrasound Images Using Probability-Based Optimal Deep Learning Feature Fusion
Authors: Jabeen Kiran , Khan Muhammad Attique , Alhaisoni Majed , Tariq Usman , Zhang Yu-Dong , Hamza Ameer , Mickus Artūras , Damaševičius Robertas
Published: January 2022

After lung cancer, breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women. If breast cancer is detected early, mortality rates in women can be reduced. Because manual breast cancer diagnosis takes a long time, an automated system is required for early cancer detection. This paper proposes a new framework for breast cancer classification from ultrasound images that employs deep learning and the fusion of the best selected features. The proposed framework is divided into five major steps: (i) data augmentation is performed to increase the size of the original dataset for better learning of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models; (ii) a pre-trained DarkNet-53 model is considered and the output layer is modified based on the augmented dataset classes; (iii) the modified model is trained using transfer learning and features are extracted from the global average pooling layer; (iv) the best features are selected using two improved optimization algorithms known as reformed differential evaluation (RDE) and reformed gray wolf (RGW); and (v) the best selected features are fused using a new probability-based serial approach and classified using machine learning algorithms. The experiment was conducted on an augmented Breast Ultrasound Images (BUSI) dataset, and the best accuracy was 99.1%. When compared with recent techniques, the proposed framework outperforms them.
Correlating Personal Resourcefulness and Psychomotor Skills: An Analysis of Stress, Visual Attention and Technical Metrics
Authors: Guzmán-García Carmen , Sánchez-González Patricia , Margallo Juan A. Sánchez , Snoriguzzi Nicola , Rabazo José Castillo , Margallo Francisco M. Sánchez , Gómez Enrique J. , Oropesa Ignacio
Published: January 2022

Modern surgical education is focused on making use of the available technologies in order to train and assess surgical skill acquisition. Innovative technologies for the automatic, objective assessment of nontechnical skills are currently under research. The main aim of this study is to determine whether personal resourcefulness can be assessed by monitoring parameters that are related to stress and visual attention and whether there is a relation between these and psychomotor skills in surgical education. For this purpose, we implemented an application in order to monitor the electrocardiogram (ECG), galvanic skin response (GSR), gaze and performance of surgeons-in-training while performing a laparoscopic box-trainer task so as to obtain technical and personal resourcefulness’ metrics. Eight surgeons (6 nonexperts and 2 experts) completed the experiment. A total of 22 metrics were calculated (7 technical and 15 related to personal resourcefulness) per subject. The average values of these metrics in the presence of stressors were compared with those in their absence and depending on the participants’ expertise. The results show that both the mean normalized GSR signal and average surgical instrument’s acceleration change significantly when stressors are present. Additionally, the GSR and acceleration were found to be correlated, which indicates that there is a relation between psychomotor skills and personal resourcefulness.
Investigation of Using Sky Openness Ratio as Predictor for Navigation Performance in Urban-like Environment to Support PBN in UTM
Authors: Deng Chao , Wang Chung-Hung John , Low Kin Huat
Published: January 2022

One of the causes of positioning inaccuracies in the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is navigation error. In urban environment operations, multipaths could be the dominant contributor to navigation errors. This paper presents a study on how the operation environment affects the lateral (horizontal) navigation performance when a self-built UAS is going near different types of urban obstructions in real flight tests. Selected test sites are representative of urban environments, including open carparks, flight paths obstructed by buildings along one or both sides, changing sky access when flying towards corners formed by two buildings or dead ends, and buildings with reflective glass-clad surfaces. The data was analysed to obtain the horizontal position error between Global Positioning System (GPS) position and ground truth derived from Real Time Kinematics (RTK), with considerations for (1) horizontal position uncertainty estimate (EPH) reported by the GPS receiver, (2) no. of visible satellites, and (3) percentage of sky visible (or sky openness ratio, SOR) at various altitudes along the flight paths inside the aforementioned urban environments. The investigation showed that there is no direct correlation between the measured horizontal position error and the reported EPH; thus, the EPH could not be used for the purpose of monitoring navigation performance. The investigation further concluded that there is no universal correlation between the sky openness ratio (SOR) seen by the UAS and the resulting horizontal position error, and a more complex model would need to be considered to translate 3D urban models to expected horizontal navigation uncertainty for the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) airspace.
Mental Health Intent Recognition for Arabic-Speaking Patients Using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and BERT Model
Authors: Mezzi Ridha , Yahyaoui Aymen , Krir Mohamed Wassim , Boulila Wadii , Koubaa Anis
Published: January 2022

For many years, mental health has been hidden behind a veil of shame and prejudice. In 2017, studies claimed that 10.7% of the global population suffered from mental health disorders. Recently, people started seeking relaxing treatment through technology, which enhanced and expanded mental health care, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the use of mental health forums, websites, and applications has increased by 95%. However, these solutions still have many limits, as existing mental health technologies are not meant for everyone. In this work, an up-to-date literature review on state-of-the-art of mental health and healthcare solutions is provided. Then, we focus on Arab-speaking patients and propose an intelligent tool for mental health intent recognition. The proposed system uses the concepts of intent recognition to make mental health diagnoses based on a bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) model and the International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Experiments are conducted using a dataset collected at the Military Hospital of Tunis in Tunisia. Results show excellent performance of the proposed system (the accuracy is over 92%, the precision, recall, and F1 scores are over 94%) in mental health patient diagnosis for five aspects (depression, suicidality, panic disorder, social phobia, and adjustment disorder). In addition, the tool was tested and evaluated by medical staff at the Military Hospital of Tunis, who found it very interesting to help decision-making and prioritizing patient appointment scheduling, especially with a high number of treated patients every day.
Rapid Quantitative Analysis of IR Absorption Spectra for Trace Gas Detection by Artificial Neural Networks Trained with Synthetic Data
Authors: Goldschmidt Jens , Nitzsche Leonard , Wolf Sebastian , Lambrecht Armin , Wöllenstein Jürgen
Published: January 2022

Infrared absorption spectroscopy is a widely used tool to quantify and monitor compositions of gases. The concentration information is often retrieved by fitting absorption profiles to the acquired spectra, utilizing spectroscopic databases. In complex gas matrices an expanded parameter space leads to long computation times of the fitting routines due to the increased number of spectral features that need to be computed for each iteration during the fit. This hinders the capability of real-time analysis of the gas matrix. Here, an artificial neural network (ANN) is employed for rapid prediction of gas concentrations in complex infrared absorption spectra composed of mixtures of CO and N2O. Experimental data is acquired with a mid-infrared dual frequency comb spectrometer. To circumvent the experimental collection of huge amounts of training data, the network is trained on synthetically generated spectra. The spectra are based on simulated absorption profiles making use of the HITRAN database. In addition, the spectrometer’s influence on the measured spectra is characterized and included in the synthetic training data generation. The ANN was tested on measured spectra and compared to a non-linear least squares fitting algorithm. An average evaluation time of 303 µs for a single measured spectrum was achieved. Coefficients of determination were 0.99997 for the predictions of N2O concentrations and 0.99987 for the predictions of CO concentrations, with uncertainties on the predicted concentrations between 0.04 and 0.18 ppm for 0 to 100 ppm N2O and between 0.05 and 0.18 ppm for 0 to 60 ppm CO.
Progress in the Research of Environmental Macroeconomics
Authors: Niu Muchuan , Zhang Sheng , Zhang Nannan , Wen Zuhui , Xu Meng , Yang Yifu
Published: January 2022

This review systematically introduces the current main research directions of environmental macroeconomics. Environmental macroeconomics research aims to study the relationship between economic development and the ecological environment and ultimately achieve green outcomes. At the same time, maintaining a moderate economic scale within the environmental setting is vital to get rid of excessive dependence on economic growth. This review draws on the traditional macroeconomics framework, focusing on economic growth, the economics of climate, economic policy, work, consumption, technological progress, industrial structure, and other topics. Although most studies have highlighted the importance of environmental issues, few empirical analyses combine environmental policy with economic policy, production, consumption, climate change, etc., and theories such as ecological, technological progress, business cycle, and environmental policy lack the necessary practical support. It is, therefore, difficult to put forward appropriate and measurable policy recommendations. Environmental macroeconomics is still a relatively new field of research, the theoretical system has flaws, and innovations in models still need to be improved. We suggest that environmental policy formulation be placed in a dynamic general equilibrium framework.
Gastronomic Heritage of Făgăraș Land: A Worthwhile Sustainable Resource
Authors: Bolborici Ana-Maria , Lupu Mirabela Ioana , Sorea Daniela , Atudorei Ioana Anisa
Published: January 2022

The present study highlights the value of gastronomy and culinary practices in Făgăraș County as a dimension of the Intangible Cultural Heritage that can contribute to the sustainable development of the area. The field research carried out within an interdisciplinary project of the Transilvania University of Brașov pointed out the importance of the different “ciorbe” (sour soups) in the local gastronomy of Făgăraș County. Our groundwork found some traditional local soups and soup recipes. Starting from these results, the study stresses the opportunity to exploit this heritage resource through social entrepreneurship. To uphold this perspective, our study highlights that soups and sour soups are prepared with local ingredients, that women in the area are experienced and have the willingness to cook together. The tourist specificity of the area favors the creation of a local network between entrepreneurs from all over the country. The main contribution of the study derives from the fact that it presents arguments that show the generosity of gastronomy and culinary practices as a heritage resource, illustrating that a popular culinary product can grow and become a local brand.
Influence of the Geosynthetic Type and Compaction Conditions on the Pullout Behaviour of Geosynthetics Embedded in Recycled Construction and Demolition Materials
Authors: Vieira Castorina S. , Pereira Paulo M.
Published: January 2022

The effects of the climate change that the planet has been experiencing, and the growing awareness of citizens that natural resources are finite, highlight the inevitability of making society more sustainable. Since the construction industry is responsible for a high consumption of natural resources and it simultaneously produces high volumes of waste, it is of great importance to investigate the feasibility of using construction and demolition (C&D) wastes as alternatives to common natural materials. This paper investigates the feasibility of using fine-grain recycled C&D wastes as backfill material of geosynthetic reinforced steep slopes, through a laboratory study focused mainly on the pullout behaviour of two geosynthetics embedded in these alternative materials. The influence of the geosynthetic type, moisture content and compaction degree of the recycled C&D material on the pullout behaviour is assessed and discussed. The physical and mechanical characterization of the filling material is also presented. The pullout test results have pointed out that, although the two geosynthetics have similar tensile strength, the pullout resistance of the geogrid is higher than that of the geotextile and is achieved at lower frontal displacements. While the reduction of the compaction moisture content below the optimum value induced a slight decrease in the geogrid pullout resistance (ranging from 5% to 7%), conversely the pullout capacity of the geotextile increased up to 22%. The compaction degree of the recycled C&D material had the expected effect on the geotextile pullout resistance, reflected in an increase of about 20% when the degree of compaction rose from 80% to 90%. However, the expected trend was not observed on the geogrid pullout behaviour. The pullout interaction coefficient tended to decrease with the variation of the compaction moisture content around the optimum value (maximum decrease of 33% and 16% for the geogrid and the geotextile, respectively) and with an increase in the vertical confining pressure from 10 kPa up to 50 kPa (decrease around 25%). The average value of the pullout interaction coefficient, fb, ranged from 0.61 to 1.09 for the geogrid and from 0.67 to 1.25 for the geotextile. From all these findings it can be concluded that recycled C&D materials can be seen as an environmentally friendly alternatives to the natural resources commonly used in the construction of geosynthetic-reinforced embankments.
A Conceptual Definition and Future Directions of Urban Smart Factory for Sustainable Manufacturing
Authors: Sajadieh Seyed Mohammad Mehdi , Son Yoo Ho , Noh Sang Do
Published: January 2022

Today, megatrends such as individualization, climate change, emissions, energy, and resource scarcity, urbanization, and human well-being, impact almost every aspect of people’s lives. Transformative impacts on many sectors are inevitable, and manufacturing is not an exception. Many studies have investigated solutions that focus on diverse directions, with urban production being the focus of many research efforts and recent studies concentrating on Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing technologies. This study investigated the integration of smart factory technologies with urban manufacturing as a solution for the aforementioned megatrends. A literature review on related fields, mass personalization, sustainable manufacturing, urban factory, and smart factory was conducted to analyze the benefits, challenges, and correlations. In addition, applications of smart factory technologies in urban production with several case studies are summarized from the literature review. The integration of smart factory technologies and urban manufacturing is proposed as the urban smart factory which has three major characteristics, human-centric, sustainable, and resilient. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no such definition has been proposed before. Practitioners could use the conceptual definition of an urban smart factory presented in this study as a reference model for enhancement of urban production while academics could benefit from the mentioned future research directions.
Intensity-Duration-Frequency Curves at Ungauged Sites in a Changing Climate for Sustainable Stormwater Networks
Authors: Galiatsatou Panagiota , Iliadis Christos
Published: January 2022

Intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves representing the variation of the magnitude of extreme rainfall events with a return period and storm duration are widely used in hydrologic infrastructure design, flood risk management projects, and climate change impact studies. However, in many locations worldwide, short-duration rainfall-observing sites with long records do not exist. This paper introduces a new methodological framework for extracting IDF curves at ungauged sites transferring information from gauged ones with a relatively homogeneous extreme rainfall climate. This methodology is grounded on a simple scaling concept based on the multifractal behaviour of rainfall. A nonstationary Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution fitted to annual rainfall monthly maxima at the ungauged site using a moving-time window approach is also applied to consider effects of a changing climate on IDF curve construction. An application is presented at the study site of Fourni, Crete, to derive IDF curves under changing climate conditions and present implications of the proposed methodology in the design of a sustainable stormwater network. The methodology introduced in this work results in increased rainfall extremes up to 20.5%, while the newly designed stormwater network is characterised by increased diameters of its primary conduits, compared to the ones resulting under fully stationary conditions.
A Review of Current Design and Construction Practice for Road Kerbs and a Sustainability Analysis
Authors: Momotaz Hasan , Rahman Md Mizanur , Karim Md Rajibul , Iqbal Asif , Zhuge Yan , Ma Xing , Levett Peter
Published: January 2022

Kerb is an integral part of road infrastructure and performs several important functions, including providing stability to the edges of the road and providing effective drainage. Their performance can significantly influence the behaviour and service life of a road. The design conditions, construction materials and their sustainability can be important to assess from an asset management and sustainable construction point of view even though this area has been paid limited research attention in the past. This paper reviews the available literature on the design and construction considerations for kerbs and critically analyses them with a special focus on sustainable construction practice. The different materials commonly used around the world for the construction of kerb in terms of their properties, failure and available design guidelines have been discussed along with their management practice. Special situations, such as expansive soil movement and tree root-related problems, have also been considered, and the current guidelines for designing in such situations have also been discussed. A carbon footprint and sustainability analysis has been conducted on the current practice of using natural aggregate concrete and compared against several potential alternatives. The review of the design process indicated that the current practice relies on over-simplified design procedures and identified scopes for improvement, especially with the incorporation of mechanical behaviour of the material being used in construction. The carbon footprint and sustainability analysis indicated that the use of alternative materials could result in significant savings in the kerb construction industry’s carbon footprint.
A Weighted Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance Technique for Ransomware Early Detection in Industrial IoT
Authors: Ahmed Yahye Abukar , Huda Shamsul , Al-rimy Bander Ali Saleh , Alharbi Nouf , Saeed Faisal , Ghaleb Fuad A. , Ali Ismail Mohamed
Published: January 2022

Ransomware attacks against Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have catastrophic consequences not only to the targeted infrastructure, but also the services provided to the public. By encrypting the operational data, the ransomware attacks can disrupt the normal operations, which represents a serious problem for industrial systems. Ransomware employs several avoidance techniques, such as packing, obfuscation, noise insertion, irrelevant and redundant system call injection, to deceive the security measures and make both static and dynamic analysis more difficult. In this paper, a Weighted minimum Redundancy maximum Relevance (WmRmR) technique was proposed for better feature significance estimation in the data captured during the early stages of ransomware attacks. The technique combines an enhanced mRMR (EmRmR) with the Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) so that it can filter out the runtime noisy behavior based on the weights calculated by the TF-IDF. The proposed technique has the capability to assess whether a feature in the relevant set is important or not. It has low-dimensional complexity and a smaller number of evaluations compared to the original mRmR method. The TF-IDF was used to evaluate the weights of the features generated by the EmRmR algorithm. Then, an inclusive entropy-based refinement method was used to decrease the size of the extracted data by identifying the system calls with strong behavioral indication. After extensive experimentation, the proposed technique has shown to be effective for ransomware early detection with low-complexity and few false-positive rates. To evaluate the proposed technique, we compared it with existing behavioral detection methods.
Understanding the Antecedents of Entrepreneurship and Renewable Energies to Promote the Development of Community Renewable Energy in Rural Areas
Authors: Romero-Castro Noelia , Miramontes-Viña Vanessa , López-Cabarcos María Ángeles
Published: January 2022

Sustainable rural development (SRD) is an essential component of sustainable development on a global scale. Community Renewable Energy (CRE) has been advocated as a step forward in the progress towards SRD. While Northern European countries are experiencing a high development of CRE, Southern European countries lag behind. Considering entrepreneurship and renewable energy technologies (RET) as two fundamental components of CRE, through a systematic literature review this study identifies the antecedents or conditioning factors of entrepreneurship and RET exploitation in rural areas of developed countries, understanding that these same antecedents condition the development of CRE in these countries. The identified factors are organized around five capital spheres: economic, human, social, physical and natural. Given that these five spheres are not watertight compartments, but rather that their limits are diffuse and there are multiple interactions between them, we try to highlight their interrelationships through System Thinking based on the design of causal loop diagrams. The results can help policy makers and CRE projects’ promoters in the design of effective policies and strategies to foster the development of CRE in rural areas of developed countries.
Assessing and Monitoring of Building Performance by Diverse Methods
Authors: Seminara Paola , Vand Behrang , Sajjadian Seyed Masoud , Tupenaite Laura
Published: January 2022

Buildings are one of the largest contributors to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the world. There is an increased interest in building performance evaluation as an essential practice to design a sustainable building. Building performance is influenced by various terms, for example, designs, construction-related factors such as building envelope and airtightness, and energy technologies with or without micro-generations. How well a building performs thermally is key to determining the level of energy demand and GHG emissions. Building standards and regulations, in combination with assessments (e.g., energy modeling tools) and certifications, provide sets of supports, guidelines and instructions for designers and building engineers to ensure users’ health and well-being, consistency in construction practices and environmental protection. This paper reviews, evaluates and suggests a sequence of building performance methods from the UK perspective. It shows the relationships between such methods, their evolutions and related tools, and further highlights the importance of post-occupancy analysis and how crucial such assessments could be for efficient buildings.
Analysis of Risky Driving Behavior of Urban Electric Bicycle Drivers for Improving Safety
Authors: Zhou Dan , Chang Mengying , Gu Guobin , Sun Xin , Xu Huizhi , Wang Wenhan , Wang Tao
Published: January 2022

In this work, to clarify the impact of electric bicycle drivers’ risky driving behavior on driving safety, we used multiple regression analysis methods combined with a questionnaire survey of residents of the city of Guilin, China. We studied the impact of the two dimensions of safety knowledge and safety attitude on risky driving behavior, and identified the differences in the impact of these two dimensions from the perspective of personal characteristics. Through modeling analysis, we found that “responsible attitude” and “group behavior attitude” explain 62.4% of the variation in aggressive behavior; 48.5% of the variation in negligent behavior is caused by “age”, “safety knowledge” and “responsible attitude”; and 52% of the variation in violations is caused by “age”, “violation attitude” and “group behavior attitude”. The results show that “group behavior attitude” affects the occurrence of aggression; that safety knowledge has a significant negative impact on unintentional negligence but has no significant effect on deliberate violations and aggression; and that the difference in risky driving behavior is mainly manifested in “age”, “gender”, “violation” and “accident experience”.
Research on Art Teaching Practice Supported by Virtual Reality (VR) Technology in the Primary Schools
Authors: Hui Jing , Zhou Yueliang , Oubibi Mohamed , Di Weifeng , Zhang Lixin , Zhang Sijia
Published: January 2022

Nowadays, teaching and learning methods are constantly changing with the development and popularization of information technology. Many teaching activities are exploring the integration of virtual technology. However, the specific effects of VR are challenging to verify. In this paper, “teaching in VR environment” and “traditional teaching” were designed to carry out a series of teaching comparison practices between two groups of a primary school. By analyzing the experimental data of the experimental group and the control group, the research found that it is easier to enter mental flow in virtual reality, and the introduction of virtual reality technology is positively correlated with learning engagement. What is more, compared with traditional teaching and learning methods, virtual reality technology and related software can help individuals give full play to their creativity.
Criteria of “Effectiveness” and Related Aspects in Adaptive Reuse Projects of Heritage Buildings
Authors: Arfa Fatemeh Hedieh , Lubelli Barbara , Zijlstra Hielkje , Quist Wido
Published: January 2022

Adaptive reuse (AR) of heritage buildings is a complex process due to the involvement of many actions and actors, which influence the results of the projects. The effectiveness of AR projects can be described by various criteria. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the criteria of effectiveness in AR projects with the final scope to guide and improve the AR process. A review of the jury reports of two highly prestigious awards in the Netherlands (NRP Golden Phoenix award) and Europe (Europa Nostra) has been conducted. In total, the reports of 48 cases have been reviewed. The five criteria mentioned in the regulations of the NRP award have been used to categorize the aspects mentioned in the jury reports of both awards. These criteria are: “social value creation”, “sublimation (both architectural and cultural aspects)”, “environmental sustainability”, “economic value creation”, and “innovation”. This review reveals that “social value creation” and “sublimation” are among the most highlighted criteria that the juries considered for the effectiveness of AR projects. Often aspects mentioned for these criteria overlap partially with those aspects mentioned in the criterion of “economic value creation”. This indicates that enhancement of the qualities of heritage buildings and their surroundings and improvement of the social values and the resulting positive economic effects are strictly interrelated. The overview of the criteria of effectiveness, as defined in this work, will serve as a basis for the investigation of the tools and methods which can be used in the AR process to achieve these criteria.
The Future of the City in the Name of Proximity: A New Perspective for the Urban Regeneration of Council Housing Suburbs in Italy after the Pandemic
Authors: D’Onofrio Rosalba , Trusiani Elio
Published: January 2022

The concept of ‘urban proximity’, which has returned to the limelight with the promotion of the ‘15-min city’ developed and re-proposed for the post-COVID city, cannot simply be associated with the concept of physical proximity to the essential activities of daily life but must concern reinforcement of the social interactions that some places are able to activate better than others. This article focuses on the regeneration of Italian council housing neighbourhoods that lack relational proximity, even when functional proximity has been painstakingly achieved. It describes the fundamental steps of a working method that aims to strengthen the ‘relational performance’ of public spaces, using an interdisciplinary cognitive and assessment process and co-planning with the local community based on the issues of inclusiveness, safety, and climate vulnerability. The experimentation made in an economic and social housing district in a city in Central Italy revealed the need to ‘hook’ the space node onto the node of local capacities and resources, recognizing the local community as the bearer of desires, capacities, and planning will, capable of orienting and prefiguring the complex process of regeneration in the post-COVID city.
MITRE ATT&CK Based Evaluation on In-Network Deception Technology for Modernized Electrical Substation Systems
Authors: Mashima Daisuke
Published: January 2022

In recent years, cyber attacks against critical infrastructure have been increasing and are becoming stealthy and persistent. Attackers or malware may be hiding in the system after penetration to collect system information. They would further make lateral and vertical movement to seek target devices under the radar of existing cybersecurity measures. In order to counter such emerging attack vectors, in-network deception technology is attracting attention. In-network deception technology utilizes an apparently real but dummy (often virtual) devices deployed throughout the infrastructure to capture the attackers’ reconnaissance activities. In this paper, we pick one concrete design and implementation of in-network deception technology for IEC 61850 standard compliant smart substation systems in smart grid, named DecIED, and discuss its effectiveness in countering high-profile attacks that were recently witnessed in the real world. The evaluation is conducted based on the MITRE ATT&CK Matrix for industrial control systems, which tabulates phases and tactics of cyberattack against industrial control systems.
Cluster Policy in Poland—Failures and Opportunities
Authors: Kuberska Dominika , Mackiewicz Marta
Published: January 2022

The EU has been leaning towards evidence-based policymaking with the aim of ensuring coherence between industrial, environmental, climate, and energy policy. It focuses on supporting the development of a business environment which would enable sustainable growth, job creation, and innovation. It is generally agreed upon that, at the current level of development, the EU should focus on boosting innovations and theory and practice deliver an array of suggestions on how to achieve this goal. Among them clusters and cluster-led development play a prominent role. Poland inherently follows this belief and has introduced cluster policy to its policy mix by supporting cluster initiatives and cluster organizations. The objective of the paper is to investigate the evolution of cluster policy in Poland, identify its success factors, and propose recommendations for cluster policy. This case study of cluster policy in Poland is based on a series of in-depth interviews as well as secondary data. The conclusions resulting from this case study indicate that adoption by the government of a cluster policy at the national level and implementation of a comprehensive strategy for cluster development at regional and national levels is a basic condition for cluster policy success. Positive results can be achieved if public intervention is continuous and tailored to the needs of cluster organizations at different development stages with particular emphasis on the internationalization of cluster activities, which was a key measure highly evaluated by the respondents. The paper touches upon the timely issue of the future direction of cluster policy. The debate on it is accompanied by another debate on how to build an economic ecosystem capable of reaching sustainability goals.
Tunning the Gas Sensing Properties of rGO with In2O3 Nanoparticles
Authors: de Lima Bruno S. , Komorizono Amanda A. , Ndiaye Amadou L. , Bernardi Maria Inês B. , Brunet Jérôme , Mastelaro Valmor R.
Published: January 2022

Here, we discuss the effect of In2O3 nanoparticles on the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) gas-sensing potentialities. In2O3 nanoparticles were prepared with the polymer precursors method, while the nanocomposites were prepared by mixing an In2O3 nanoparticle suspension with an rGO suspension in different proportions. The gas-sensing performance of our materials was tested by exposing our materials to known concentrations of a target toxic gas in a dry airflow. Our results demonstrate that In2O3 nanoparticles enhance the rGO sensitivity for strong oxidizing species such as O3 and NO2, while a negative effect on its sensitivity for NH3 sensing is observed. Furthermore, our measurements towards H2S suggest that the concentration of In2O3 nanoparticles can induce an uncommon transition from p-type to n-type semiconductor nature when rGO–In2O3 nanocomposites operate at temperatures close to 160 °C.
Symmetry of Post-Translational Modifications in a Human Enzyme
Authors: Carusone Teresa Maria , Manco Giuseppe
Published: January 2022

Paraoxonase 2 (PON2) is a member of a small family of human lactonases. Recently, post-translational modifications (PTMs) of PON2 were highlighted, one of which involved the modulation of the enzyme activity. Furthermore, two important single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) involved in type 2 diabetes and its consequences, were found to modulate the enzyme activity as well. The position on the PON2 structural model of both residues corresponding to SNPs and PTMs suggested a symmetry of the molecule. By sequence and structure superposition we were able to confirm this finding. The result will be discussed in light of the evolution of symmetry in biological molecules and their function.
High Precision Use of Botulinum Toxin Type A (BONT-A) in Aesthetics Based on Muscle Atrophy, Is Muscular Architecture Reprogramming a Possibility? A Systematic Review of Literature on Muscle Atrophy after BoNT-A Injections
Authors: Nassif Alexander D. , Boggio Ricardo F. , Espicalsky Sheila , Faria Gladstone E. L.
Published: January 2022

Improvements in Botulinum toxin type-A (BoNT-A) aesthetic treatments have been jeopardized by the simplistic statement: “BoNT-A treats wrinkles”. BoNT-A monotherapy relating to wrinkles is, at least, questionable. The BoNT-A mechanism of action is presynaptic cholinergic nerve terminals blockage, causing paralysis and subsequent muscle atrophy. Understanding the real BoNT-A mechanism of action clarifies misconceptions that impact the way scientific productions on the subject are designed, the way aesthetics treatments are proposed, and how limited the results are when the focus is only on wrinkle softening. We designed a systematic review on BoNT-A and muscle atrophy that could enlighten new approaches for aesthetics purposes. A systematic review, targeting articles investigating BoNT-A injection and its correlation to muscle atrophy in animals or humans, filtered 30 publications released before 15 May 2020 in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Histologic analysis and histochemistry showed muscle atrophy with fibrosis, necrosis, and an increase in the number of perimysial fat cells in animal and human models; this was also confirmed by imaging studies. A significant muscle balance reduction of 18% to 60% after single or seriated BoNT-A injections were observed in 9 out of 10 animal studies. Genetic alterations related to muscle atrophy were analyzed by five studies and showed how much impact a single BoNT-A injection can cause on a molecular basis. Seriated or single BoNT-A muscle injections can cause real muscle atrophy on a short or long-term basis, in animal models and in humans. Theoretically, muscular architecture reprogramming is a possible new approach in aesthetics.
Potential of Trichoderma spp. for Biocontrol of Aflatoxin-Producing Aspergillus flavus
Authors: Ren Xianfeng , Branà Maria Teresa , Haidukowski Miriam , Gallo Antonia , Zhang Qi , Logrieco Antonio F. , Li Peiwu , Zhao Shancang , Altomare Claudio
Published: January 2022

The inhibitory action of 20 antagonistic Trichoderma isolates against the aflatoxigenic isolate A. flavus ITEM 9 (Af-9) and their efficacy in reducing aflatoxin formation in vitro were examined. Production of metabolites with inhibitory effect by the Trichoderma isolates was also investigated. Antagonistic effect against Af-9 was assessed by inhibition of radial growth of the colonies and by fungal interactions in dual confrontation tests. A total of 8 out of 20 isolates resulted in a significant growth inhibition of 3-day-old cultures of Af-9, ranging from 13% to 65%. A total of 14 isolates reduced significantly the aflatoxin B1 (AfB1) content of 15-day-old Af-9 cultures; 4 were ineffective, and 2 increased AfB1. Reduction of AfB1 content was up to 84.9% and 71.1% in 7- and 15-day-old cultures, respectively. Since the inhibition of Af-9 growth by metabolites of Trichoderma was not necessarily associated with inhibition of AfB1 production and vice versa, we investigated the mechanism of reduction of AfB1 content at the molecular level by examining two strains: one (T60) that reduced both growth and mycotoxin content; and the other (T44) that reduced mycotoxin content but not Af-9 growth. The expression analyses for the two regulatory genes aflR and aflS, and the structural genes aflA, aflD, aflO and aflQ of the aflatoxin biosynthesis cluster indicated that neither strain was able to downregulate the aflatoxin synthesis, leading to the conclusion that the AfB1 content reduction by these Trichoderma strains was based on other mechanisms, such as enzyme degradation or complexation. Although further studies are envisaged to identify the metabolites involved in the biocontrol of A. flavus and prevention of aflatoxin accumulation, as well as for assessment of the efficacy under controlled and field conditions, Trichoderma spp. qualify as promising agents and possible alternative options to other biocontrol agents already in use.
Polynomial Affine Model of Gravity in Three-Dimensions
Authors: Castillo-Felisola Oscar , Grez Bastian , Orellana Oscar , Perdiguero Jose , Ramirez Francisca , Skirzewski Aureliano , Zerwekh Alfonso R.
Published: January 2022

In this work, we explore a three-dimensional formulation of the polynomial affine model of gravity, which is a model that extends general relativity by relaxing the equivalence principle through the exclusion of the metric from the set of fundamental fields. In particular, in an attempt to gain insight of the role of the torsion and nonmetricity in the gravitational models, we consider homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models, for which their solutions are classified in a decisions tree. We also show a few of these explicit solutions that allow the definition of (alternative/emergent) metrics derived from the connection.
The Discovery of a New Mimivirus Isolate in Association with Virophage-Transpoviron Elements in Brazil Highlights the Main Genomic and Evolutionary Features of This Tripartite System
Authors: Azevedo Bruna Luiza de , Júnior João Pessoa Araújo , Ullmann Leila Sabrina , Rodrigues Rodrigo Araújo Lima , Abrahão Jônatas Santos
Published: January 2022

Mimiviruses are giant viruses of amoeba that can be found in association with virophages. These satellite-like viruses are dependent on the mimivirus viral factory to replicate. Mimiviruses can also be associated with linear DNA molecules called transpovirons. Transpovirons and virophages are important drivers of giant virus evolution although they are still poorly studied elements. Here, we describe the isolation and genomic characterization of a mimivirus/virophage/transpoviron tripartite system from Brazil. We analyzed transmission electron microscopy images and performed genome sequencing and assembly, gene annotation, and phylogenetic analysis. Our data confirm the isolation of a lineage A mimivirus (1.2 Mb/1012 ORFs), called mimivirus argentum, and a sputnik virophage (18,880 bp/20 ORFs). We also detected a third sequence corresponding to a transpoviron from clade A (6365 bp/6 ORFs) that presents small terminal inverted repeats (77 nt). The main genomic features of mimivirus argentum and of its virophage/transpoviron elements corroborates with what is described for other known elements. This highlights that this triple genomic and biological interaction may be ancient and well-conserved. The results expand the basic knowledge about unique and little-known elements and pave the way to future studies that might contribute to a better understanding of this tripartite relationship.
Antibody Responses after SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Patients with Liver Diseases
Authors: Bakasis Athanasios-Dimitrios , Bitzogli Kleopatra , Mouziouras Dimitrios , Pouliakis Abraham , Roumpoutsou Maria , Goules Andreas V. , Androutsakos Theodoros
Published: January 2022

The novel mRNA-based vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 display encouraging safety and efficacy profiles. However, there is a paucity of data regarding their immunogenicity and safety in patients with liver diseases (PWLD), especially in those with cirrhosis. We prospectively assessed anti-SARS-CoV-2 S-spike IgG antibodies and neutralizing activity in fully vaccinated PWLD (n = 87) and controls (n = 40). Seroconversion rates were 97.4% (37/38) in cirrhotic PWLD, 87.8% (43/49) in non-cirrhotic PWLD and 100% (40/40) in controls. Adequate neutralizing activity was detected in 92.1% (35/38), 87.8% (43/49) and 100% (40/40) of cirrhotics, non-cirrhotics and controls, respectively. On multivariable analysis, immunosuppressive treatment was negatively correlated with anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers (coefficient (SE): −2.716 (0.634), p < 0.001) and neutralizing activity (coefficient (SE): −24.379 (4.582), p < 0.001), while age was negatively correlated only with neutralizing activity (coefficient (SE): −0.31(0.14), p = 0.028). A total of 52 responder PWLD were reassessed approximately 3 months post-vaccination and no differences were detected in humoral responses between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic PWLD. No significant side effects were noted post vaccination, while no symptomatic breakthrough infections were reported during a 6-month follow up. Overall, our study shows that m-RNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are safe and efficacious in PWLD. However, PWLD under immunosuppressive treatment and those of advanced age should probably be more closely monitored after vaccination.