bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Research on Spatial Distribution Characteristics of High Haze Pollution Industries Such as Thermal Power Industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region
Authors: Zhou Jingkun , Li Yating
Published: September 2022

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is subject to the most severe haze condition in China. Against the backdrop of the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, it is of great significance to explore the space-time distribution characteristics of high haze pollution industries in the above region. The purpose of this article is to find high haze pollution industries scientifically, analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of high haze pollution industries in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei correctly, and formulate effective reduction measures for the spatial distribution of high haze pollution industries in different regions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. It hopes that the measures provide a basis for effective to reduce high haze pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Using the Gini coefficient and location entropy, this paper explores the space-time characteristics of high haze pollution industries in 13 cities of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The results show that those aforesaid high haze pollution industries present an obvious clustering trend in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Handan, and some areas along the economic axis of China, overall flooding into Eastern coastal and Southern inland areas. By industry, the petroleum processing and coking processing industry, chemical raw materials and chemical products industry, manufacture of non-metallic mineral products, and ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry witness a declining clustering trend, as opposed to the electricity, heat production, and supply industry. Meanwhile, core cities of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have developed high haze pollution industries, and the hinterland lags in economic development. It is necessary to face up to the differences in economic development among areas in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, promote the staggered development of high haze pollution industries, and build a high haze pollution industry chain with coordinated economic and environmental development, thus reducing the economic gap with each area, and realizing the coordinated development of economy, industry, and environment.
The New Method for Analyzing Technology Trends of Smart Energy Asset Performance Management
Authors: Viet Nguyen , Kravets Alla
Published: September 2022

The development of emerging technologies not only has recently affected current industrial production but also has generated promising manufacturing opportunities that impact significantly on social and economic factors. Exploring upcoming renovation tendencies of technologies prematurely is essential for governments, research and development institutes, and industrial companies in managing strategies to achieve dominant advantages in business competitiveness. Additionally, the prospective changes, the scientific research directions, and the focus of technologies are crucial factors in predicting promising technologies. On the other hand, Industry 4.0 revolutionizes standards and models by accompanying significant technology developments in numerous sectors, including the sector of Smart energy. Moreover, asset performance management is always a prominent topic that has attained prevalence over the last decade because numerous challenges force all industrial companies to optimize their asset usability. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study reported an analysis of technology trends of asset performance management in the Smart energy sector by using proper data mining methods. Hence, this paper aims to fill in this gap and provide an analysis of technology trends of asset performance management in the Smart energy sector by structuring and exploring research subjects, considering problems, and solving methods with numerous experiments on scientific papers and patent data.
Investigating the Future Dynamics of Multi-Port Systems: The Case of Poland and the Rhine–Scheldt Delta Region
Authors: Bernacki Dariusz , Lis Christian
Published: September 2022

The objective of this paper is to investigate the future evolution of port systems considering the development of major and minor ports, inter-port competition, and feasible cargo shifts resulting from improved capacity or congestion faced by ports. The literature review on port system dynamics indicates that the relationships that emerge between major and minor ports located in the range stem from competition and cooperation. However, we argue that there are essential ports that play a predominant role in shaping these relationships, while inter-port relations in the system are based on competition. With the use of transshipment forecasts, existing and emerging interdependencies among major and minor ports in the system, and capacity development and/or changes in the level of capacity utilisation, the ex-ante dynamics of the port system are evaluated. The subject of research is two port systems, namely, the Polish port system and the Rhine–Scheldt Delta port system. We investigate the future dynamics in each port system and find that the evolution pattern has different features if the minor ports improve capacity or challenge the major ports by offering free capacity. This paper contributes to research on the evolution of multi-port formations and provides new insights to the peripheral port challenge phenomenon.
Safety Analysis and Evaluation of Hydrogen Cylinder Periodic Inspection Station
Authors: Zhang Geng , Guo Jin , Tan Yue , Chen Guohua , Zhou Chilou , Li Wei , Xia Li
Published: September 2022

With the rapid development of the hydrogen energy industry, the number of hydrogen cylinders has reached a very large scale. At present, both domestic and international experiences of hydrogen cylinder inspection are zero, which makes the inspection work more challenging and unpredictable. In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the responsibility of safety in production, but the research on the risk and safety of cylinder inspection institutions is very limited. In this paper, the Job safety analysis (JSA) method is used to carry out systematic risk identification, risk assessment, risk prevention, and other research work of the cylinder inspection station. After the JSA method and experience accumulation, the management strategy is continuously perfecting, and the security risk level is absolutely decreasing.
Study and Application of Ultrafine Temperature-Resistant and Salt-Tolerant Swellable Particles in Low Permeability Reservoirs
Authors: Fu Meilong , Zhang Junbo , Li Guojun , Hu Jiani , Chen Peng , Chen Lifeng , He Honglin
Published: September 2022

Based on the characteristics of low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs and the requirements for profile control and water plugging and for water cut decrease and production increase in the high water cut stage of the middle and late exploitation periods, ultrafine temperature-resistant and salt-tolerant swellable particles DS-1 suitable for low permeability oilfields were prepared by introducing N,N-dimethylacrylamide(DMAA) monomers into the 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS)/acrylamide(AM)/N,N-dimethylbisacrylamide ternary crosslinking system. The median of initial particle size was 22.00 μm, and is compatible with formation pore throats. A static water absorption experiment showed that the particles can still maintain a high swelling ratio after 15 days at a high temperature and high mineralization degree, so they have long-term stability. The physical and chemical properties of the particles were analyzed microscopically using the infrared spectrum method and the scanning electron microscope (SEM) method. A dynamic displacement experiment confirmed that the particles can effectively plug dominant channels of waterflooding, increase the injection pressure, and improve the interlayer and intralayer heterogeneity. In the field experiment, the swellable particles DS-1 were used as a main slug for water plugging operations, and a good water cut decrease and oil production increase effect was obtained.
Techno-Economic Analysis of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems Designed for Electric Vehicle Charging: A Case Study from the United Arab Emirates
Authors: AlHammadi Alya , Al-Saif Nasser , Al-Sumaiti Ameena Saad , Marzband Mousa , Alsumaiti Tareefa , Heydarian-Forushani Ehsan
Published: September 2022

The United Arab Emirates is moving towards the use of renewable energy for many reasons, including the country’s high energy consumption, unstable oil prices, and increasing carbon dioxide emissions. The usage of electric vehicles can improve public health and reduce emissions that contribute to climate change. Thus, the usage of renewable energy resources to meet the demands of electric vehicles is the major challenge influencing the development of an optimal smart system that can satisfy energy requirements, enhance sustainability and reduce negative environmental impacts. The objective of this study was to examine different configurations of hybrid renewable energy systems for electric vehicle charging in Abu Dhabi city, UAE. A comprehensive study was conducted to investigate previous electric vehicle charging approaches and formulate the problem accordingly. Subsequently, methods for acquiring data with respect to the energy input and load profiles were determined, and a techno-economic analysis was performed using Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software. The results demonstrated that the optimal electric vehicle charging model comprising solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, batteries and a distribution grid was superior to the other studied configurations from the technical, economic and environmental perspectives. An optimal model could produce excess electricity of 22,006 kWh/year with an energy cost of 0.06743 USD/kWh. Furthermore, the proposed battery–grid–solar photovoltaics–wind turbine system had the highest renewable penetration and thus reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 384 tons/year. The results also indicated that the carbon credits associated with this system could result in savings of 8786.8 USD/year. This study provides new guidelines and identifies the best indicators for electric vehicle charging systems that will positively influence the trend in carbon dioxide emissions and achieve sustainable electricity generation. This study also provides a valid financial assessment for investors looking to encourage the use of renewable energy.
Adaptive Model Predictive Control for DAB Converter Switching Losses Reduction
Authors: Nardoto Adriano , Amorim Arthur , Santana Nelson , Bueno Emilio , Encarnação Lucas , Santos Walbermark
Published: September 2022

The solid-state transformer is the enabling technology for the future of electric power systems. The increasing relevance of this equipment demands higher standards for efficiency and losses reduction. The dual active bridge (DAB) topology is the most usual DC-DC converter used in the solid-state transformer, and is responsible for part of its switching losses. The traditional phase-shift modulation used on DAB converters presents significant switching losses during the operation with reduced loads. The alternative Triangular and Trapezoidal Modulations have been proposed in recent literature; however, there are limitations on the maximum power these techniques can deal with. This paper presents an adaptive model predictive control to select among these three techniques, according to the converter model, the one that minimizes the switching losses and allows the current demanded by the load. Moreover, an alternative cost function is proposed, including the output voltage and current. Through real-time simulation, using a 1000 V/600 V 12 kW DAB converter, it is shown that the proposed control is able to reduce the losses on the converter. Furthermore, the proposed control presents fast and accurate response, and precise transition between the modulation techniques.
Optimal Sizing, Location, and Assignment of Photovoltaic Distributed Generators with an Energy Storage System for Islanded Microgrids
Authors: Li Xueping , Jones Gerald
Published: September 2022

Disruptive events, such as the winter storm of 2021 that left 40 million people in the U.S. without power, have revealed the potential danger of societal dependence on centralized energy sources. Localized energy grids (called microgrids (MGs)) can help add energy reliability and independence by using distributed generators (DGs) with photovoltaic (PV) energy sources and energy storage systems (ESSs). Such MGs can independently energize critical energy demand nodes (DNs) when isolated from the primary grid with renewable energy. The optimal sizes and assignments of PVDG/ESS units to the DNs during outages are crucial to increasing energy reliability. However, finding an optimal configuration–energy management strategy is difficult due to the investment costs, complexity of assignments, potential capacities, and uncertainties in the PV system output. In this research, we developed a simulation framework, augmented by genetic algorithms (GAs), to optimize costs and fulfill energy demands by selecting the appropriate MG configuration and ESS management strategy for an islanded MG for emergency power during an extended disruption. The simulation model was based on historical data, referencing Knoxville, TN, models, and changing the output and load conditions due to the time of day and weather for PVDG/ESS MGs to help quantify some stochastic attributes. The solutions were evaluated under given investment budgets with minimal costs and maximal average hourly energy demands met. Solutions also provide an appropriate energy management strategy and prioritization of specific DNs during load shedding.
Innovation in Green Building Sector for Sustainable Future
Authors: Meena Chandan , Kumar Ashwani , Jain Siddharth , Rehman Ateeq , Mishra Sachin , Sharma Naveen , Bajaj Mohit , Shafiq Muhammad , Eldin Elsayed
Published: September 2022

Recent advancements in green building technologies (GBTs) have grown substantially, as an outcome of the environmental, economic and societal benefits. It has the potential to move toward sustainable development, specifically related to climate change. In GBTs, the main objective is to use energy, water and other resources in a balanced way, without using them extensively. This will improve the environmental conditions. Green buildings (GBs) are beneficial when it comes to energy consumption and emissions; low maintenance and operation costs; boosting health and productivity; etc. There is a lack of a critical review of the past or present research work in the area of the Green Building Technology (GBT) sector to identify the future roadmap for sustainable green building technologies. A critical review, with the help of proper research methodology, was identified. The scope of this study is to analyze the existing work on different issues, and find different key issues in green building research, which has minimal use of natural resources, is cost-effective and is designed and constructed for a longer duration, considering future prospects. This paper examines the state of green building construction today and makes recommendations for further study and development which will be necessary for a sustainable future. In order to encourage research, this study also identified a few possible future research directions in sustainable development.
The European Education Initiative as a Mitigation Mechanism for Energy Transition
Authors: Kowalska Natalia , Brodawka Ewelina , Smoliński Adam , Zarębska Katarzyna
Published: September 2022

The transformation of the European energy sector is becoming a priority for the European Union. This is indicated, for instance, in the European Union strategy known as the European Green Deal. According to the Green Deal, the area of ‘research and innovation’ is one which can counteract climate change. Universities can play a significant role in this by adopting a pedagogical approach aimed at mobilizing the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in young professionals. In addition to modifying curricula related to mining, energy, and environmental engineering, i.e., activities in recognized, traditional schemes, one prospective tool may be the involvement of students and PhD candidates in European initiatives such as the InnoEnergy PhD School (which is funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology). This paper aims to discuss the InnoEnergy PhD School programme as a possible instrument for mitigating the negative effects of energy transformation. The article analyzes the programme using a case study method, including surveys and open interviews. The paper draws attention to and highlights the role of human resources in the field of education and the stimulation of innovation, as well as the need to strengthen the business component in the education of PhD candidates.
Measurement of Interfacial Characteristics of Horizontal and Inclined Oil–Water Flows by Using Wire-Mesh Sensor
Authors: Zhai Lusheng , Qiao Jiawei , Wang Wenhao , Wang Yuqing
Published: September 2022

Oil–water flows are widely encountered in petroleum, chemical, nuclear reactors, and other crucial industrial processes. Due to gravity and interaction between phases, horizontal and inclined oil–water two-phase flows are characterized by remarkable multi-scale structure characteristics, such as large-scale stratified interface and small-scale droplets entrainment. Moreover, a slight change in the pipe inclination will lead to significant changes in the local oil–water flow structures, which results in great challenges in the measurement of the interface structures. In this study, we design a 10 × 10 conductance wire-mesh sensor (WMS) to detect the interfacial characteristics of horizontal and inclined oil–water flows. Firstly, we carry out horizontal and inclined oil–water flow experiments. The influence of pipe inclinations on the flow transition boundary is analyzed. The three-dimensional (3D) structures of oil–water flows are visualized based on the WMS measurement response. Then, edge detection is implemented to process the two-dimensional (2D) flow images visualized by the WMS. The influence of complexly distributed droplets is effectively removed by using binary image morphological transformation and watershed algorithm, and thus, oil–water interface structures are accurately extracted. Finally, the influence of the oil–water flow conditions and pipe inclinations on the configuration, height, and length of the stratified interface are investigated.
New Wearable Technologies and Devices to Efficiently Scavenge Energy from the Human Body: State of the Art and Future Trends
Authors: De Fazio Roberto , Proto Roberta , Del-Valle-Soto Carolina , Velázquez Ramiro , Visconti Paolo
Published: September 2022

Wearable technology represents a new technological paradigm for promoting physical activity, enabling monitoring of performances and athletic gestures. In addition, they can be employed for remote health monitoring applications, allowing continuous acquisition of users’ vital signs directly at home, emergency alerting, and computer-assisted rehabilitation. Commonly, these devices depend on batteries which are not the better option since researchers aim for dispositive who need minimal human intervention. Energy harvesting devices can be useful to extract energy from the human body, especially by integrating them into the garments, giving health monitoring devices enough energy for their independent operation. This review work focuses on the main new wearable technologies and devices to scavenge energy from the human body. First, the most suitable energy sources exploitable for wearable applications are investigated. Afterward, an overview of the main harvesting technologies (piezoelectric, triboelectric, thermoelectric, solar fabrics, and hybrid solution) is presented. In detail, we focused on flexible and thin textiles with energy harvesting capability, allowing easy integration into clothes fabric. Furthermore, comparative analyses of each harvesting technology are proposed, providing useful insights related to the best technologies for developing future self-sustainable wearable devices. Finally, a comparison between our review work and similar ones is introduced, highlighting its strengths in completeness and specificity.
Adaptive Online Extraction Method of Slot Harmonics for Multiphase Induction Motor
Authors: Yu Jie , Zhang Youjun , Shen Hongyuan , Zheng Xiaoqin
Published: September 2022

The accurate extraction and analysis of slot harmonics caused by slotting in an induction motor are important for the motor’s performance evaluation and state monitoring. However, the frequency distribution of rotor slot harmonics (RSHs) varies along with the operating states of the motor, such as motor speed and slip ratio, and the voltage and current signals of the motor only contain small-amplitude RSHs compared with other harmonics; both make it difficult to extract and analyze the RSHs accurately online. While offline extraction and filters with constant parameters are mainly utilized in available works, a novel adaptive extraction method for RSHs in a multiphase induction motor is proposed here to realize online RSH extraction under different speed and load conditions. In this paper, the RSHs in the multiphase induction motors are firstly modeled by using the magnetic potential permeability method, and the influence of a skewed rotor on RSHs is analyzed through a multisection method. Then, an adaptive extraction method of RSHs is proposed, which can effectively realize the online processing of RSHs of stator current. Finally, the experimental platform of a nine-phase induction motor has been used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method under different speeds and load conditions, with a relative error of less than 1% in identifying the RSH frequency distribution.
Evaluating Performance Indices of Electrostatic Precipitators
Authors: Badran Mohamed , Mansour Abdallah Mahmoud
Published: September 2022

Utilizing electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) is an efficient particle removal method that sees a wide usage in industrial environments. This is mainly because of the low drop of the pressure flow, while retaining high collection efficiency, alongside being cost-effective. This paper reviewed previous works concerning optimizing the performance of single- and multi-stage ESPs by changing several design parameters and evaluating the effects on different performance indices, such as the corona power ratio, current-voltage characteristics, and overall collection efficiency. The review then goes through several modelling methodologies, showcasing their shortcomings and developments, as well as the relationship between the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow and the precipitation performance. The performance effects of using different electrode configurations and designs in terms of the number of electrodes, relative dimensions, spacings, channel lengths, and overall design were also reviewed.
Making the Most of Failure and Uncertainty: Welcome Surprises and Contingency in Energy Transition Research
Authors: Gross Matthias , Sonnberger Marco
Published: September 2022

Energy transitions inherit complex processes full of surprises, unintended consequences, erroneous decisions, uncertainties, paradoxical situations, and sometimes sheer failures [...]
Nonlinear Control Strategies for Enhancing the Performance of DFIG-Based WECS under a Real Wind Profile
Authors: Chojaa Hamid , Derouich Aziz , Taoussi Mohammed , Chehaidia Seif , Zamzoum Othmane , Mosaad Mohamed , Alhejji Ayman , Yessef Mourad
Published: September 2022

Wind speed variations affect the performance of the wind energy conversion systems (WECSs) negatively. This paper addressed an advanced law of the backstepping controller (ABC) for enhancing the integration of doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based grid-connected WECS under wind range of wind speed. This enhancement was achieved through three control schemes, which were blade pitch control, rotor-side control, and grid-side control. The blade pitch control was presented to adjust the wind turbine speed when the wind speed exceeds its rated value. In addition, the rotor and grid-side converter controllers were presented for improving the direct current link voltage profile and achieving maximum power point tracking (MPPT) under speed variations, respectively. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed ABC control, a comparison between PI and sliding-mode control (SMC) was presented, considering the parameters of a 1.5 MW DFIG wind turbine in the Assilah zone in Morocco. Moreover, some changes in the DFIG parameters were introduced to investigate the robustness of the proposed controller under parameter uncertainties. Simulation results showed the capability of the proposed ABC controller to enhance the performance of the DFIG-WECS based on variable speed and variable pitch turbine, at both below and above-rated speed, leading to an error around 10−3 (p.u), with an ATE = 0.4194 in the partial load region; in terms of blade pitch control, an error of 2.10−4 (p.u) was obtained, and the DC-link voltage profile showed a measured performance of 5 V and remarkable THD value reduction compared to other techniques, with a measured THD value of 2.03%, 1.67%, and 1.46% respectively, in hyposynchronous, hypersynchronous, and pitch activation modes of operation. All simulations were performed using MATLAB/SIMULINK based on real wind profiles in order to make an exhaustive analysis with realistic operating conditions and parameters.
Artificial Intelligence Approaches for Energies
Authors: Jeon Gwanggil
Published: September 2022

In recent years, it has been noted that deep learning, machine learning, and artificial intelligence models are growing in popularity when applying big data for energy control and decision-making processes [...]
The Journey Towards the Energy Transition: Perspectives from the International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering (EEEIC)
Authors: Di Lorenzo Gianfranco , Stracqualursi Erika , Araneo Rodolfo
Published: September 2022

Over the past decade, decarbonization and environmental issues have taken a key role in worldwide politics [...]
Model Predictive Phase Control for Single-Phase Electric Springs
Authors: Wang Qingsong , Ding Hao , Yan Shuo , Buja Giuseppe
Published: September 2022

In this paper, model predictive control (MPC) is proposed for single-phase electric springs (ESs) with the help of the existing δ control, which is realized by controlling the instantaneous phase angle of the predefined sinusoidal reference of a certain controller. System modeling is analyzed first to get differential forms of state variables. The discrete-time state space model is obtained through first-order approximation. Critical load (CL) voltage can be predicted by the prediction of ES voltage and line current. The operating modes of ESs can be determined and the reference signal for CL voltage can be provided by δ control. As a result, cost function is obtained as the absolute value of the error between predicted CL voltage and its predefined reference. Two typical operating functions such as pure reactive power compensation mode and power factor correction (PFC) mode are selected and simulated to validate the proposed control and analysis. It is revealed that both control objectives can be achieved with the proposed MPC and δ control. Additionally, the total harmonic distortion on the critical load is limited to about 0.5%, which is better than other existing methods.
Optimization of Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer Cell Design Using Machine Learning
Authors: Mohamed Amira , Ibrahem Hatem , Yang Rui , Kim Kibum
Published: September 2022

We propose efficient multiple machine learning (ML) models using specifically polynomial and logistic regression ML methods to predict the optimal design of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer cells. The models predict eleven different parameters of the cell components for four different input parameters such as hydrogen production rate, cathode area, anode area, and the type of cell design (e.g., single or bipolar). The models fit well as we trained multiple machine learning models on 148 samples and validated the model performance on a test set of 16 samples. The average accuracy of the classification model and the mean absolute error is 83.6% and 6.825, respectively, which indicates that the proposed technique performs very well. We also measured the hydrogen production rate using a custom-made PEM electrolyzer cell fabricated based on the predicted parameters and compared it to the simulation result. Both results are in excellent agreement and within a negligible experimental uncertainty (i.e., a mean absolute error of 0.615). Finally, optimal PEM electrolyzer cells for commercial-scaled hydrogen production rates ranging from 500 to 5000 mL/min were designed using the machine learning models. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first group to model the PEM design problem with such large parameter predictions using machine learning with those specific input parameters. This study opens the route for providing a form of technology that can greatly save the cost and time required to develop water electrolyzer cells for future hydrogen production.
Environmentally Friendly Degradations Technology Breakthrough
Authors: Bhatti Muhammad Ishaq , Ghouse Ghulam
Published: September 2022

This editorial paper presents a brief review of the 11 selected papers recently published: nine from Energies and two from other journals, and their citations are compared [...]
The Influence of Slash Management Practices on Water and Nutrient Dynamics in Longleaf Pine Forests
Authors: Murray Jacob , Hagan Donald , Hiesl Patrick , Baldwin Robert
Published: September 2022

(1) Silvicultural applications that manipulate woody debris loading and the structural composition of a forest can have both short and long-term effects on biogeochemical cycling. Longleaf pine forests have been the historically dominant community types throughout much of the Southeastern United States. Fire exclusion, hardwood encroachment, and resource exploitation have severely reduced the amount of remaining longleaf pine habitats, making ecological restoration necessary. The silvicultural treatments used to reestablish these communities have been widespread, leading to some skepticism regarding the sustainability of certain restoration practices. (2) This study aimed to understand how overstory manipulation and woody debris management affected soil water retention rates and nutrient availability. Using a randomized complete block design, abiotic responses to biomass harvesting, conventional harvesting, and mastication treatments were measured across a soil moisture gradient in the South Carolina sandhills. (3) Our findings indicate that mastication increased soil moisture retention rates by 37% and 41%, on average, compared to conventional harvesting and biomass harvesting, respectively. (4) Additionally, soil nutrient stocks did not decline following any management practice, indicating that both biomass harvesting and mastication treatments may not necessarily impact site productivity in a negative manner. These findings imply that mastication treatments keep moisture retention high and do not immediately change soil nutrient availability in longleaf pine forests. Long-term vegetation response studies should continue to document successional trends in conjunction with moisture retention rates and long-term nutrient pulsing.
Influence of Physico-Chemical Factors on the Efficiency and Metabolite Profile of Adult Pinus radiata D. Don Bud Organogenesis
Authors: Rojas-Vargas Alejandra , Castander-Olarieta Ander , Montalbán Itziar A. , Moncaleán Paloma
Published: September 2022

Genetic improvement programs for conifer forest species face the challenge of propagating elite individuals with superior characteristics in the present landscape of climate change; the problem is focused on the fact that when these individuals have shown the desirable traits, they have changed phase and therefore have lost the ability to be propagated by traditional methods. Based on our previous works on Pinus spp. regeneration of adult trees through organogenesis and trying to improve the protocol in Pinus radiata, our objective was to analyze the influence of collection dates and different 6-benzyladenine (BA) concentrations in the first phase of shoot induction, as well as the effect of different light types on the success of root induction. Moreover, we were interested in studying the effect of the abovementioned physico-chemical factors on the amino acid and carbohydrate content in the shoots developed in vitro. Reinvigorated shoots were obtained in both BA concentrations (22 or 44 μM), although the highest BA concentration showed the best results in terms of shoot induction (explants forming shoots (46%) and number of shoots per explant (1.95 ± 0.52)) when using initial explants collected in the first week of February. The percentage of explants forming shoots (EFS) was genotype-dependent. Explants from genotype A induced with the highest BA concentration showed the highest EFS (91%). With respect to the light treatment applied, significant differences in root induction (20%) and in the number of roots per explant (4.62 ± 0.65) were observed in shoots cultured under white FL. Finally, significant differences in different phases of the rooting process were detected in the amounts of fructose, glucose and sucrose and in the content of threonine and tyrosine.
Evaluating the Impacts of Flying Height and Forward Overlap on Tree Height Estimates Using Unmanned Aerial Systems
Authors: Grybas Heather , Congalton Russell G.
Published: September 2022

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) and structure-from-motion (SfM) image processing are promising tools for sustainable forest management as they allow for the generation of photogrammetrically derived point clouds from UAS images that can be used to estimate forest structure, for a fraction of the cost of LiDAR. The SfM process and the quality of products produced, however, are sensitive to the chosen flight parameters. An understanding of the effect flight parameter choice has on accuracy will improve the operational feasibility of UASs in forestry. This study investigated the change in the plot-level accuracy of top-of-canopy height (TCH) across three levels of flying height (80 m, 100 m, and 120 m) and four levels of forward overlap (80%, 85%, 90%, and 95%). A SenseFly eBee X with an Aeria X DSLR camera was used to collect the UAS imagery which was then run through the SfM process to derive photogrammetric point clouds. Estimates of TCH were extracted for all combinations of flying height and forward overlap and compared to TCH estimated from ground data. A generalized linear model was used to statistically assess the effect of parameter choice on accuracy. The RMSE (root-mean-square error) of the TCH estimates (RMSETCH) ranged between 1.75 m (RMSETCH % = 5.94%) and 3.20m (RMSETCH % = 10.1%) across all missions. Flying height was found to have no significant effect on RMSETCH, while increasing forward overlap was found to significantly decrease the RMSETCH; however, the estimated decrease was minor at 4 mm per 1% increase in forward overlap. The results of this study suggest users can fly higher and with lower levels of overlap without sacrificing accuracy, which can have substantial time-saving benefits both in the field collecting the data and in the office processing the data.
A Comparison of Mangrove Forest Structure and Ecosystem Services in Maputo Bay (Eastern Africa) and Príncipe Island (Western Africa)
Authors: Machava-António Vilma , Fernando Alberto , Cravo Mariana , Massingue Mágda , Lima Hamilton , Macamo Célia , Bandeira Salomão , Paula José
Published: September 2022

Mangroves are critical to maintaining human well-being and global biodiversity. Eastern and western African shores present major environmental contrasts that reflect on mangrove forests’ structure and the ecosystem services they provide to human communities. This study compares the mangrove forest structure and condition, ecosystem services, and uses of resources in Maputo Bay (Mozambique in eastern Africa) and Príncipe Island (São Tomé and Príncipe in western Africa). Five mangrove species were identified in Maputo Bay, Avicennia marina, Bruguiera gymnorhiza, Ceriops tagal, Rhizophora mucronata, and Xylocarpus granatum, and the importance value index was higher for A. marina. Mangroves in Príncipe were exclusively dominated by Rhizophora harrisonii. In Maputo Bay, a weak regeneration characterized by a low quantity of seedlings was observed, although in Príncipe the sites were characterized by a low regeneration rate but well-established forests. The comparison of the mangrove structure between Maputo Bay and Príncipe Island presented statistically significant differences for mean DBH and height, whereas the trees in Príncipe presented higher values for both parameters. Strong human disturbance (through cutting) was identified in almost all sites in Maputo Bay but was rarely observed on Príncipe Island. In Maputo Bay, more than 90% of the coastal human community is involved in activities related to the surrounding mangroves, with a diversified exploitation of forest resources. On Príncipe Island, the exploitation of mangroves targets only tannin from the mangrove bark to dye fishing nets and small boats. The economic value of mangroves in Maputo Bay has subsistence and commercial importance, in contrast to Príncipe, which revealed no major economic value to the community.
Integrating Torrefaction of Pulp Industry Sludge with Anaerobic Digestion to Produce Biomethane and Volatile Fatty Acids: An Example of Industrial Symbiosis for Circular Bioeconomy
Authors: Doddapaneni Tharaka Rama Krishna C. , Cahyanti Margareta Novian , Orupõld Kaja , Kikas Timo
Published: September 2022

Industrial symbiosis, which allows the sharing of resources between different industries, could help to improve the overall feasibility of bio-based chemicals production. In that regard, this study focused on integrating the torrefaction of pulp industry sludge with anaerobic digestion. More specifically, anaerobic digestion (AD) of pulp sludge-derived torrefaction condensate (TC) was studied to evaluate the biomethane and volatile fatty acid (VFA) potential. The torrefaction condensate produced at 275 and 300 °C was used in AD. The volatile solid content (VS) was 6.69 and 9.01% for the condensate produced at 275 and 300 °C, respectively. The organic fraction of TC mainly contained acetic acid, 2-furanmethanol, and syringol. The methane yield was in the range of 481–772 mL/g VS for the mesophilic and 401–746 mL/g VS for the thermophilic process, respectively. The VFA yield was in the range of 1.1 to 3.4 g/g VS for mesophilic and from 1.5 to 4.7 g/g VS in thermophilic conditions, when methanogenesis was inhibited. Finally, pulp sludge TC is a feasible feedstock to produce platform chemicals like VFA. However, at higher substrate loading, signs of process inhibition were observed because of the relatively increasing concentration of microbial inhibitors
Indonesian Forest and Land Fire Prevention Patrol System
Authors: Sitanggang Imas Sukaesih , Syaufina Lailan , Trisminingsih Rina , Ramdhany Deny , Nuradi Endang , Hidayat Muhammad Fakhri Alauddin , Rahmawan Hendra , Wulandari  , Ardiansyah Firman , Albar Israr , Krisnanto Ferdian
Published: September 2022

(1) Background: The management of forest and land fires has become of concern to the Indonesian government, as demonstrated by the issuing of the Presidential Instruction of the Republic of Indonesia Number 11 of 2015, then replaced by Number 3 of 2020, concerning Forest and Land Fire Management. In 2002, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) established Manggala Agni, a forest fire management organization, at the central government level. This study aims to explain the development of the Indonesian Forest and Land Fire Prevention Patrol System. The system development was conducted by the Computer Science Department of IPB University, in collaboration with the Agency for Climate Change and Forest and Land Fire Management, as well as the Directorate of Forest and Land Fire Management, MoEF. (2) Methods: The system development adopted the steps in the prototyping method, namely communication, quick planning, rapid design modeling, and prototype construction, as well as dissemination, submission, and feedback. (3) Results: The web-based system for the real-time monitoring and analysis of the forest and land fire prevention patrol is integrated into a mobile application for recording field observations during patrol activities. The system testing was successfully conducted by involving the users. The test results show that all features in the system are working correctly and meet the user’s requirements. The mobile application has saved 36.02% of the time for recording the patrol data and 40.32% for creating the patrol reports. In addition, using the web-based application has saved time in preparing the patrol reports by 56.48%.
Utilization of Geogrid and Water Cushion to Reduce the Impact of Nappe Flow and Scouring on the Downstream Side of a Levee
Authors: Abbas Fakhar Muhammad , Tanaka Norio
Published: September 2022

Water overflowing from a levee generates scour holes on the toe, which progresses towards the backward crest of the levee and results in nappe flow generation. The direct collision of nappe flow on the downstream area causes levee failure. It is important to introduce a novel countermeasure against scouring caused by nappe flow. Hence, the present study utilized a new technique to reduce scouring due to nappe flow by introducing a combination of pooled water and geogrids. Herein, laboratory experiments were conducted with the three cases for rigid bed (R), named as NR, G1R, G2R (N, G1 and G2 represent no geogrid, geogrid 1 and geogrid 2, respectively), and moveable bed (M), named as NM (nothing moveable), G1M (geogrid 1 moveable), G2M (geogrid 2 moveable), to elucidate the effect of dimensionless pooled water depth (DP*), overtopping depth (DC*) and the aperture size of geogrids (d*) on flow structure and scouring. The results showed that the scour depth was reduced by around 17–31% during the NM cases, 57–78% during the G1M cases and 100% during the G2M cases by increasing the DP* from 0.3 to 0.45. Hence, the combination of geogrids with pooled water (G1M, G2M) performed a vital role in suppressing the scouring, but the results of G2M were more advantageous in terms of scouring countermeasures.
Hermite–Hadamard, Fejér and Pachpatte-Type Integral Inequalities for Center-Radius Order Interval-Valued Preinvex Functions
Authors: Sahoo Soubhagya Kumar , Latif Muhammad Amer , Alsalami Omar Mutab , Treanţă Savin , Sudsutad Weerawat , Kongson Jutarat
Published: September 2022

The objective of this manuscript is to establish a link between the concept of inequalities and Center-Radius order functions, which are intriguing due to their properties and widespread use. We introduce the notion of the CR (Center-Radius)-order interval-valued preinvex function with the help of a total order relation between two intervals. Furthermore, we discuss some properties of this new class of preinvexity and show that the new concept unifies several known concepts in the literature and also gives rise to some new definitions. By applying these new definitions, we have amassed many classical and novel special cases that serve as applications of the key findings of the manuscript. The computations of cr-order intervals depend upon the following concept B=⟨Bc,Br⟩=⟨B¯+B̲2,B¯−B̲2⟩. Then, for the first time, inequalities such as Hermite–Hadamard, Pachpatte, and Fejér type are established for CR-order in association with the concept of interval-valued preinvexity. Some numerical examples are given to validate the main results. The results confirm that this new concept is very useful in connection with various inequalities. A fractional version of the Hermite–Hadamard inequality is also established to show how the presented results can be connected to fractional calculus in future developments. Our presented results will motivate further research on inequalities for fractional interval-valued functions, fuzzy interval-valued functions, and their associated optimization problems.
Fractional-Order Financial System and Fixed-Time Synchronization
Authors: He Yingjin , Peng Jun , Zheng Song
Published: September 2022

This study is concerned with the dynamic investigation and fixed-time synchronization of a fractional-order financial system with the Caputo derivative. The rich dynamic behaviors of the fractional-order financial system with variations of fractional orders and parameters are discussed analytically and numerically. Through using phase portraits, bifurcation diagrams, maximum Lyapunov exponent diagrams, 0–1 testing and time series, it is found that chaos exists in the proposed fractional-order financial system. Additionally, a complexity analysis is carried out utilizing approximation entropy SE and C0 complexity to detect whether chaos exists. Furthermore, a synchronization controller and an adaptive parameter update law are designed to synchronize two fractional-order chaotic financial systems and identify the unknown parameters in fixed time simultaneously. The estimate of the setting time of synchronization depends on the parameters of the designed controller and adaptive parameter update law, rather than on the initial conditions. Numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the theoretical results obtained.
A Study of Adaptive Fractional-Order Total Variational Medical Image Denoising
Authors: Zhang Yanzhu , Liu Tingting , Yang Fan , Yang Qi
Published: September 2022

Following the traditional total variational denoising model in removing medical image noise with blurred image texture details, among other problems, an adaptive medical image fractional-order total variational denoising model with an improved sparrow search algorithm is proposed in this study. This algorithm combines the characteristics of fractional-order differential operators and total variational models. The model preserves the weak texture region of the image improvement based on the unique amplitude-frequency characteristics of the fractional-order differential operator. The order of the fractional-order differential operator is adaptively determined by the improved sparrow search algorithm using both the sine search strategy and the diversity variation processing strategy, which can greatly improve the denoising ability of the fractional-order differential operator. The experimental results reveal that the model not only achieves the adaptivity of fractional-order total variable differential order, but also can effectively remove noise, preserve the texture structure of the image to the maximum extent, and improve the peak signal-to-noise ratio of the image; it also displays favorable prospects for applications in medical image denoising.
Modelling the Frequency of Interarrival Times and Rainfall Depths with the Poisson Hurwitz-Lerch Zeta Distribution
Authors: Agnese Carmelo , Baiamonte Giorgio , Di Nardo Elvira , Ferraris Stefano , Martini Tommaso
Published: September 2022

The Poisson-stopped sum of the Hurwitz–Lerch zeta distribution is proposed as a model for interarrival times and rainfall depths. Theoretical properties and characterizations are investigated in comparison with other two models implemented to perform the same task: the Hurwitz–Lerch zeta distribution and the one inflated Hurwitz–Lerch zeta distribution. Within this framework, the capability of these three distributions to fit the main statistical features of rainfall time series was tested on a dataset never previously considered in the literature and chosen in order to represent very different climates from the rainfall characteristics point of view. The results address the Hurwitz–Lerch zeta distribution as a natural framework in rainfall modelling using the additional random convolution induced by the Poisson-stopped model as a further refinement. Indeed the Poisson contribution allows more flexibility and depiction in reproducing statistical features, even in the presence of very different climates.