bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Ultrasonic Energy Diffusion in a Steel Alloy Sample with Tensile Force Using PZT Transducers
Authors: Lu Guangtao , Wang Tao , Zhou Mingle , Li Yourong
Published: May 2019

During the propagation of ultrasound in a polycrystalline material, ultrasonic energy losses due to the scattering at the boundaries between grains is usually described by the ultrasonic energy diffusion equation, and the boundaries of the grains in the material are influenced by the structural load. The aim of this research is to investigate the characterization of ultrasonic energy diffusion in a steel alloy sample under structural load by using lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers. To investigate the influence of structural load on ultrasonic energy diffusion, an experimental setup of a steel alloy plate under different tensile forces is designed and four samples with similar dimensions are fabricated. The experimental results of the four samples reveal that, during the loading process, the normalized ultrasonic energy diffusion coefficient fluctuates firstly, then decreases and at last increases as the tensile force increases. The proposed tensile force index shows a similar changing trend to the recorded displacement of the sample. Moreover, when the tensile force is less than the lower yield point or the sample deforms elastically, the index can be approximated by a cubic model. Therefore, the proposed tensile force index can be used to monitor the tensile force in the elastic deformation stage. Moreover, based on these findings, some force evaluation methods and their potential applications, such as the preloading detection of bolts, can be developed based on the linear relationships between the proposed index and the applied force.
Effects of Frequency Filtering on Intensity and Noise in Accelerometer-Based Physical Activity Measurements
Authors: Fridolfsson Jonatan , Börjesson Mats , Buck Christoph , Ekblom Örjan , Ekblom-Bak Elin , Hunsberger Monica , Lissner Lauren , Arvidsson Daniel
Published: May 2019

In objective physical activity (PA) measurements, applying wider frequency filters than the most commonly used ActiGraph (AG) filter may be beneficial when processing accelerometry data. However, the vulnerability of wider filters to noise has not been investigated previously. This study explored the effect of wider frequency filters on measurements of PA, sedentary behavior (SED), and capturing of noise. Apart from the standard AG band-pass filter (0.29–1.63 Hz), modified filters with low-pass component cutoffs at 4 Hz, 10 Hz, or removed were analyzed. Calibrations against energy expenditure were performed with lab data from children and adults to generate filter-specific intensity cut-points. Free-living accelerometer data from children and adults were processed using the different filters and intensity cut-points. There was a contribution of acceleration related to PA at frequencies up to 10 Hz. The contribution was more pronounced at moderate and vigorous PA levels, although additional acceleration also occurred at SED. The classification discrepancy between AG and the wider filters was small at SED (1–2%) but very large at the highest intensities (>90%). The present study suggests an optimal low-pass frequency filter with a cutoff at 10 Hz to include all acceleration relevant to PA with minimal effect of noise.
A Trajectory Privacy Preserving Scheme in the CANNQ Service for IoT
Authors: Zhang Lin , Jin Chao , Huang Hai-ping , Fu Xiong , Wang Ru-chuan
Published: May 2019

Nowadays, anyone carrying a mobile device can enjoy the various location-based services provided by the Internet of Things (IoT). ‘Aggregate nearest neighbor query’ is a new type of location-based query which asks the question, ‘what is the best location for a given group of people to gather?’ There are numerous, promising applications for this type of query, but it needs to be done in a secure and private way. Therefore, a trajectory privacy-preserving scheme, based on a trusted anonymous server (TAS) is proposed. Specifically, in the snapshot queries, the TAS generates a group request that satisfies the spatial K-anonymity for the group of users—to prevent the location-based service provider (LSP) from an inference attack—and in continuous queries, the TAS determines whether the group request needs to be resent by detecting whether the users will leave their secure areas, so as to reduce the probability that the LSP reconstructs the users’ real trajectories. Furthermore, an aggregate nearest neighbor query algorithm based on strategy optimization, is adopted, to minimize the overhead of the LSP. The response speed of the results is improved by narrowing the search scope of the points of interest (POIs) and speeding up the prune of the non-nearest neighbors. The security analysis and simulation results demonstrated that our proposed scheme could protect the users’ location and trajectory privacy, and the response speed and communication overhead of the service, were superior to other peer algorithms, both in the snapshot and continuous queries.
Plummeting Broadcast Storm Problem in Highways by Clustering Vehicles Using Dominating Set and Set Cover
Authors: Kamakshi S. , Shankar Sriram V. S.
Published: May 2019

“Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks” (VANETs): As an active research area in the field of wireless sensor networks, they ensure road safety by exchanging alert messages about unexpected events in a decentralized manner. One of the significant challenges in the design of an efficient dissemination protocol for VANETs is the broadcast storm problem, owing to the large number of rebroadcasts. A generic solution to prevent the broadcast storm problem is to cluster the vehicles based on topology, density, distance, speed, or location in such a manner that only a fewer number of vehicles will rebroadcast the alert message to the next group. However, the selection of cluster heads and gateways of the clusters are the key factors that need to be optimized in order to limit the number of rebroadcasts. Hence, to address the aforementioned issues, this paper presents a novel distributed algorithm CDS_SC: Connected Dominating Set and Set Cover for cluster formation that employs a dominating set to choose cluster heads and set covering to select cluster gateways. The CDS_SC is unique among state-of-the-art algorithms, as it relies on local neighborhood information and constructs clusters incrementally. Hence, the proposed method can be implemented in a distributed manner as an event-triggered protocol. Also, the stability of cluster formation is increased along with a reduction in rebroadcasting by allowing a cluster head to be passive when all its cluster members can receive the message from the gateway vehicles. The simulation was carried out in dense, average, and sparse traffic scenarios by varying the number of vehicles injected per second per lane. Besides, the speed of each individual vehicle in each scenario was varied to test the degree of cohesion between vehicles with different speeds. The simulation results confirmed that the proposed algorithm achieved 99% to 100% reachability of alert messages with only 6% to 10% of rebroadcasting vehicles in average and dense traffic scenarios.
Single Transparent Piezoelectric Detector for Optoacoustic Sensing—Design and Signal Processing
Authors: Blumenröther Elias , Melchert Oliver , Kanngießer Jonas , Wollweber Merve , Roth Bernhard
Published: May 2019

In this article, we present a simple and intuitive approach to create a handheld optoacoustic setup for near field measurements. A single piezoelectric transducer glued in between two sheets of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) facilitates nearfield depth profiling of layered media. The detector electrodes are made of indium tin oxide (ITO) which is both electrically conducting as well as optically transparent, enabling an on-axis illumination through the detector. By mapping the active detector area, we show that it matches the design form precisely. We also present a straightforward approach to determine the instrument response function, which allows to obtain the original pressure profile arriving at the detector. To demonstrate the validity of this approach, the measurement on a simple test sample is deconvolved with the instrument response function and compared to simulation results. Except for the sputter instrumentation, all required materials and instruments as well as the tools needed to create such a setup are available to standard scientific laboratories.
Combined Kalman Filter and Multifeature Fusion Siamese Network for Real-Time Visual Tracking
Authors: Zhou Lijun , Zhang Jianlin
Published: May 2019

SiamFC has a simple network structure and can be pretrained offline on a large data set, so it has attracted the attention of many researchers. It has no online learning process at all. Hence, there are no good solutions for some complex tracking scenarios such as occlusion and large target deformation. For this problem, we propose a method using the Kalman filter method and fusion multiresolution features and get multiple response scores. The Kalman filter acquires the target’s trajectory information, which is used to process complex tracking scenes and to change the selection method of the search area. This also enables our tracker to stably track fast moving targets.The introduction of the Kalman filter compensates for the shortcomings that SiamFC can only track offline, and the tracking network has an online learning process. The fusion of multiresolution features to obtain multiple response scores map helps the tracker to obtain robust features that can be adapted to a variety of tracking targets. Our proposed method has reached the state-of-the-art in testing on five data sets and can be run in real time (40 fps), including OTB2013, OTB2015, OTB50, VOT2015 and VOT 2016.
The Effect of Treadmill Walking on Gait and Upper Trunk through Linear and Nonlinear Analysis Methods
Authors: Shi Liang , Duan Feng , Yang Yikang , Sun Zhe
Published: May 2019

Treadmills are widely used to recover walking function in the rehabilitation field for those patients with gait disorders. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal of walking function recovery is to walk on the ground rather than on the treadmill. This study aims to determine the effect of treadmill walking on gait and upper trunk movement characteristics using wearable sensors. Eight healthy male subjects are recruited to perform 420-m straight overground walking (OW) and 5 min treadmill walking (TW), wearing 3 inertial measurement units and a pair of insole sensors. In addition to common linear features, nonlinear features, which contains sample entropy, maximal Lyapunov exponent and fractal dynamic of stride intervals (detrended fluctuation analysis), are used to compare the difference between TW and OW condition. Canonical correlation analysis is also used to indicate the correlation between upper trunk movement characteristics and gait features in the aspects of spatiotemporal parameters and gait dynamic features. The experimental results show that the treadmill can cause a shorter stride length, less stride time and worsen long-range correlation of stride intervals. And the treadmill can significantly increase the stability for both gait and upper trunk, while it can significantly reduce gait regularity during swing phase. Canonical correlation analysis results show that treadmill can reduce the correlation between gait and upper trunk features. One possible interpretation of these results is that people tend to walk more cautiously to prevent the risk of falling and neglect the coordination between gait and upper trunk when walking on the treadmill. This study can provide fundamental insightful information about the effect of treadmill walking on gait and upper trunk to support future similar studies.
Decision-Making of Underwater Cooperative Confrontation Based on MODPSO
Authors: Wei Na , Liu Mingyong , Cheng Weibin
Published: May 2019

This paper proposes a multi-objective decision-making model for underwater countermeasures based on a multi-objective decision theory and solves it using the multi-objective discrete particle swarm optimization (MODPSO) algorithm. Existing decision-making models are based on fully allocated assignment without considering the weapon consumption and communication delay, which does not conform to the actual naval combat process. The minimum opponent residual threat probability and minimum own-weapon consumption are selected as two functions of the multi-objective decision-making model in this paper. Considering the impact of the communication delay, the multi-objective discrete particle swarm optimization (MODPSO) algorithm is proposed to obtain the optimal solution of the distribution scheme with different weapon consumptions. The algorithm adopts the natural number coding method, and the particle corresponds to the confrontation strategy. The simulation result shows that underwater communication delay impacts the decision-making selection. It verifies the effectiveness of the proposed model and the proposed multi-objective discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm.
Novel Local Coding Algorithm for Finger Multimodal Feature Description and Recognition
Authors: Li Shuyi , Zhang Haigang , Shi Yihua , Yang Jinfeng
Published: May 2019

Recently, finger-based biometrics, including fingerprint (FP), finger-vein (FV) and finger-knuckle-print (FKP) with high convenience and user friendliness, have attracted much attention for personal identification. The features expression which is insensitive to illumination and pose variation are beneficial for finger trimodal recognition performance improvement. Therefore, exploring suitable method of reliable feature description is of great significance for developing finger-based biometric recognition system. In this paper, we first propose a correction approach for dealing with the pose inconsistency among the finger trimodal images, and then introduce a novel local coding-based feature expression method to further implement feature fusion of FP, FV, and FKP traits. First, for the coding scheme a bank of oriented Gabor filters is used for direction feature enhancement in finger images. Then, a generalized symmetric local graph structure (GSLGS) is developed to fully express the position and orientation relationships among neighborhood pixels. Experimental results on our own-built finger trimodal database show that the proposed coding-based approach achieves excellent performance in improving the matching accuracy and recognition efficiency.
Social and Physical Neighbourhood Effects and Crime: Bringing Domains Together Through Collective Efficacy Theory
Authors: Cole Sam J.
Published: May 2019

Criminologists and social scientists have long sought to explain why crime rates vary across urban landscapes. By dissecting the city into neighbourhood units, consideration has been given to the comparable features of settings under study which may help to explain why measured crime is higher in certain areas as compared to others. Some, from the socio-spatial perspective, argue that the socio-demographic makeup of a neighbourhood influences the social processes within it relevant to the disruption of crime. Others posit that physical features of neighbourhood settings, which include its layout, architectural design, and more specific measures to ‘target harden’ buildings against property crimes, can exhibit a deterrent effect. Whilst these explanations profess discrete empirical support, little has been done to consider how these influences may come to explain neighbourhood crime rates concomitantly. In this article, I seek to develop a new socio-physical model in an attempt to integrate and appraise aspects of these domains and their purported ability to explain variations in recorded crime. To achieve this, I use Collective Efficacy theory as a central organising concept which can aid researchers in interrogating current findings. I conclude that the dichotomy between how neighbourhood settings can be both defended, and be defensible, can be addressed by considering the relevance of social cohesion in activating resident social control.
Who Will Be the Members of Society 5.0? Towards an Anthropology of Technologically Posthumanized Future Societies
Authors: Gladden Matthew E.
Published: May 2019

The Government of Japan’s “Society 5.0” initiative aims to create a cyber-physical society in which (among other things) citizens’ daily lives will be enhanced through increasingly close collaboration with artificially intelligent systems. However, an apparent paradox lies at the heart of efforts to create a more “human-centered” society in which human beings will live alongside a proliferating array of increasingly autonomous social robots and embodied AI. This study seeks to investigate the presumed human-centeredness of Society 5.0 by comparing its makeup with that of earlier societies. By distinguishing “technological” and “non-technological” processes of posthumanization and applying a phenomenological anthropological model, this study demonstrates: (1) how the diverse types of human and non-human members expected to participate in Society 5.0 differ qualitatively from one another; (2) how the dynamics that will shape the membership of Society 5.0 can be conceptualized; and (3) how the anticipated membership of Society 5.0 differs from that of Societies 1.0 through 4.0. This study describes six categories of prospective human and non-human members of Society 5.0 and shows that all six have analogues in earlier societies, which suggests that social scientific analysis of past societies may shed unexpected light on the nature of Society 5.0.
Sustainable Project Management: A Conceptualization-Oriented Review and a Framework Proposal for Future Studies
Authors: Armenia Stefano , Dangelico Rosa Maria , Nonino Fabio , Pompei Alessandro
Published: May 2019

Today, more than ever, achieving sustainability of business activities, intertwining social, economic, and environmental perspectives, is one of the most challenging objectives for companies. Project management processes are no exception. This paper aims to contribute to the current research knowledge through a systematic review of the literature on the integration of project management and sustainability. Specifically, the aim was to clarify the research domains of sustainable project management, and to understand the current state of development and the future research directions. Results indicate that academic literature about this topic is still in its infancy, but that scholars’ attention is growing, opening new research directions. Based on the literature review results, we propose a new conceptual framework linking five key dimensions of sustainable project management: corporate policies and practices, resource management, life cycle orientation, stakeholders’ engagement, and organizational learning.
Do Reputable Underwriters Affect the Sustainability of Newly Listed Firms? Evidence from South Korea
Authors: Kim Na-Youn
Published: May 2019

This study empirically examined whether underwriters’ reputations affect the sustainability of newly listed firms, focusing on firm delisting risk using survival analysis. It was hypothesized that newly listed firms with more reputable underwriters would prove more sustainable, and this hypothesis was tested using a sample of firms that were newly listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the Korea Securities Dealers Association Automated Quotation (KOSDAQ) markets in South Korea between 2001 and 2012. The data collected and used to test the aforementioned hypothesis were from 2001 to 2017. The analysis showed that newly listed firms with more reputable underwriters have lower delisting risk. This implies that newly listed firms with more reputable underwriters enjoy greater sustainability. This study meaningfully contributes to sustainability research by rationally explaining why underwriters’ incentives to maintain their reputations improve newly listed firms’ business and financial status. This study differs from other management studies in that it produced meaningful results using survival analysis, which has not been widely used in conventional management studies. Its findings also contribute in terms of identifying the possibility that underwriters’ reputations can be used as a predictor of the possibility of delisting newly listed companies.
What Do Coffee Shop Entrepreneurs Need to Do to Raise Pro-Environmental Customer Behavioral Intentions?
Authors: Yun Sunmi , Kim Taeuk
Published: May 2019

Our research framework, built on the norm activation model (NAM), was designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the formation of consumers’ pro-environmental behavioral intentions in an eco-friendly coffee shop. We employed the NAM to test its mediating effect of personal environmental norms (PEN), social environmental norms (SEN), and ascription of responsibility (AR) and the moderating effect of the overall green image (OGI) on pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Data were collected through a survey of 530 customers who frequently visited a coffee shop in Korea, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses. The findings generally supported the hypothesized associations of the study variables within our proposed theoretical framework (PEN, SEN, and AR in order of the mediating effect on pro-environmental behavioral intentions) and confirmed OGI’s moderating effect. In addition, the study’s results have important (1) theoretical and (2) practical implications for the environment. (1) They expand the original NAM by explaining the effect of the relationship between SEN and PEN on pro-environmental customer behavioral intentions (PCBI) and confirm the mediating effect of the NAM (SEN, PEN, AR) on PCBI, as demonstrated in previous studies. (2) Moreover, the findings herein may encourage coffee shops to participate in the prevention of environmental problems by restricting the use of products such as plastic coffee cups and straws.
Empirical Investigation of Barriers and Driving Forces for Efficient Energy Management Practices in Non-Energy-Intensive Manufacturing Industries of Bangladesh
Authors: Hasan A. S. M. Monjurul , Hossain Rakib , Tuhin Rashedul Amin , Sakib Taiyeb Hasan , Thollander Patrik
Published: May 2019

Improved energy efficiency is being considered as one of the significant challenges to mitigating climate change all over the world. While developed countries have already adopted energy management and auditing practices to improve energy efficiency, the developing countries lag far behind. There are a limited number of studies which have been conducted in the context of developing countries, which mostly revolve around highly energy-intensive sectors. This study looks into the existence and importance of the challenges to and motivating forces for the adoption of energy management practices in Bangladesh, a developing country, focusing on the non-energy-intensive manufacturing industries. Conducted as a multiple case study, the results indicate the existence of several barriers towards adopting and implementing the management of energy practices in the non-energy-intensive industries of Bangladesh, where among them, “other preferences for capital venture” and “inadequate capital expenditure” are the most dominant. This study also identified a number of driving forces that can accelerate the acceptance of energy efficiency practices, such as the demands from the owner, loans, subsidies, and a lowered cost–benefit ratio. Findings of this study could assist the concerned stakeholders to develop beneficial policies and a proper regulatory framework for the non-energy-intensive industries of developing countries like Bangladesh.
A Large Scale, App-Based Behaviour Change Experiment Persuading Sustainable Mobility Patterns: Methods, Results and Lessons Learnt
Authors: Cellina Francesca , Bucher Dominik , Mangili Francesca , Veiga Simão José , Rudel Roman , Raubal Martin
Published: May 2019

The present urban transportation system, mostly tailored for cars, has long shown its limitations. In many urban areas, public transportation and soft mobility would be able to effectively satisfy many travel needs. However, they tend to be neglected, due to a deep-rooted car dependency. How can we encourage people to make sustainable mobility choices, reducing car use and the related CO 2 emissions and energy consumption? Taking advantage of the wide availability of smartphone devices, we designed GoEco!, a smartphone application exploiting automatic mobility tracking, eco-feedback, social comparison and gamification elements to persuade individual modal change. We tested the effectiveness of GoEco! in two regions of Switzerland (Cantons Ticino and Zurich), in a large-scale, one year long randomized controlled trial. Notwithstanding a large drop-out rate experienced throughout the experiment, GoEco! was observed to produce a statistically significant impact (a decrease in CO 2 emissions and energy consumption per kilometer) for systematic routes in highly car-dependent urban areas, such as the Canton Ticino. In Zurich, instead, where high quality public transport is already available, no statistically significant effects were found. In this paper we present the GoEco! experiment and discuss its results and the lessons learnt, highlighting practical difficulties in performing randomized controlled trials in the field of mobility and providing recommendations for future research.
Impact of Loss-Aversion on a Financially-Constrained Supply Chain
Authors: Lee Jinpyo
Published: May 2019

Traditionally, in the area of production and operations management, the financial states and decision-makers’ behaviour regarding loss have been ignored in the supply chain, which may lead to infeasible or unrealistic practices or even catastrophic losses in practical supply chain operations. Therefore, this study aims to provide a model for operational efficiency in a financially constrained supply-chain system consisting of a financially deficient retailer, a supplier, and a bank, and to analyse the impact of the behaviour of the bank and the supplier on the operational decision. It is assumed that the bank provides a loan to the retailer considering the supplier’s credit guarantee for the retailer. The supplier’s credit guarantee implies that, if the retailer goes bankrupt after the sales season, then a pre-guaranteed proportion of the retailer’s loan is repaid by the supplier. Moreover, to capture the decision-makers’ behaviour regarding loss, it is assumed that the supplier and the bank are loss-averse in their risk preference on the final profit. Under this circumstance, it is intended to draw the theoretical implications by analysing a loss-averse behaviour model for a supplier and a bank, in which a kinked piecewise linear and concave utility function is considered. The optimal decision is analytically derived for the retailer (the optimal order quantity), the supplier (the optimal wholesale price), and the bank (the optimal interest rate). In addition, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to investigate how the model parameters affect the optimal decision for the retailer, the supplier, and the bank under different degrees of loss-aversion. The optimal decisions are shown to be highly affected by the degree of the loss-aversion coefficient of the bank and the supplier and to be more conservative than the result in the traditional case which optimises the risk-neutral expected profit (the unit degree of loss-aversion). The analytical results can be summarised as follows. First, as the wholesale price and the interest rate increase, the optimal order quantity decreases. Second, the more loss-averse the supplier is, the higher the optimal wholesale price that is offered to the retailer by the supplier. Third, the larger the credit guarantee that is provided to the retailer by the supplier, the higher the optimal wholesale price that is provided to the retailer. Fourth, the more loss-averse the bank is, the higher the interest rate that is offered to the retailer; and the larger the credit guarantee that is provided by the supplier, the lower the interest rate that is offered to the retailer.
Risk Identification and Evaluation of the Long-term Supply of Manganese Mines in China Based on the VW-BGR Method
Authors: Li Shule , Yan Jingjing , Pei Qiuming , Sha Jinghua , Mou Siyu , Xiao Yong
Published: May 2019

Manganese is mostly used in the iron and steel industry and serves as an important metal mineral in the national economy. It is difficult to substantially increase the output of China’s manganese ore because it is of low grade and high impurity content. However, as a large consumer in the world, it is very important to ensure the long-term stable supply of this mineral. Collecting historical data on manganese ore in China over the past 20 years, we identified and evaluated risks during the whole process of production, supply, consumption, reserves, and trade of resources using the Volkswagen and German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (VW-BGR) method by selecting nine indicators: current market equilibrium, market price volatility, Reserve/production ratio, import dependence, import concentration, country risks, country concentration and future supply and demand trend. Furthermore, we assessed its economic importance by calculating the contribution of manganese ore involved in different value chains. It shows the same downward trend both in manganese ore consumption and economic importance, and the future demand of manganese ore will slow down, and the global supply will exceed demand. Based on the comprehensive evaluation of supply and demand trends in the past and future, it was concluded that the current market balance, import dependence and country concentration risks are the main driving factors for the supply risk of manganese ore in China, showing higher supply risk than that of the other factors; the resource and geostrategic risks are moderate, and may significantly reduce the supply risk if effective measures are implemented. As per the aforementioned analysis, to address the risk of supply interruption, this study provides some suggestions and measures, such as strengthening resource reserves and low-grade manganese ore utilization at home, actively exploring foreign markets, exploiting overseas resources, expanding import channels, extending the industrial chain, and adopting equity mergers and acquisitions abroad.
Incorporating In-Stream Nutrient Uptake into River Management: Gipuzkoa Rivers (Basque Country, North Spain) as a Case Study
Authors: Altuna Maddi , Martí Eugènia , Sabater Francesc , Díez José Ramón , Riera Joan Lluís , Izco Félix , Elosegi Arturo
Published: May 2019

Gipuzkoa (Basque Country, North Spain) is an industrial region where investments in sanitation and wastewater treatment have improved water quality and partially recovered river biological communities. However, further technological improvements are unlikely. Our objective was to assess whether in-stream self-purification may contribute to improvement of the trophic state of rivers. We propose an integrative approach to assessing river water quality, which diagnoses problems, identifies likely causes and prescribes solutions. We first analysed the loads of nutrients transported by Gipuzkoa rivers and compared them with the potential nutrient uptake rates (estimated from published empirical regressions). In reaches where both of them were within one order of magnitude, we considered that the self-purification capacity of river channels may influence nutrient concentrations. Then, we selected some river reaches where no other water quality problems beyond nutrient concentrations occurred and ran the expert system STREAMES 1.0 to diagnose the problems and detect their causes. The studied reaches differed in their problems and in their potential solutions. We empirically determined nutrient retention in two streams by means of mass balances and slug nutrient additions. We detected large differences in retention capacity between reaches and siltation as one of the main problems affecting the self-purification capacity of the study streams. Finally, we used STREAMES 1.0 to identify potential solutions to specific river sections. The results obtained so far point towards an important potential of in-stream bioreactive capacity to reduce nutrient loads and to specific restoration activities that may improve the functionality and trophic status of the streams in Gipuzkoa.
The Influence of Leader Encouragement of Creativity on Innovation Speed: Findings from SEM and fsQCA
Authors: Cheng Cong , Cao Liebing , Zhong Huihui , He Yining , Qian Jiahong
Published: May 2019

Adopting the empowerment perspective of leadership, this study proposes and examines the mediating model that leader encouragement of creativity affects innovation speed through strengthening employees’ engagement in the creative process. Using a sample of 245 participants in China, the results from structural equation modeling (SEM) suggest that the impact of leader encouragement of creativity on innovation speed is significantly mediated by creative process engagement, and positively moderated by organizational ambidexterity at the same time. Additionally, the results from fuzzy-set comparative qualitative analysis (fsQCA) with the same data set reveal that the aforementioned factors have a holistic effect on enhancing innovation speed. The results of fsQCA reinforce and refine the findings of the SEM analysis concerning the limits and conditions for how leader encouragement of creativity affects innovation speed.
How Social Media Can Foster Social Innovation in Disadvantaged Rural Communities
Authors: Onitsuka Kenichiro
Published: May 2019

Social innovation has received widespread attention in the rural development field, especially its contribution to future rural sustainability. Social innovation revolves around social networks. Rural areas, however, can be relatively disadvantaged by their geographical peripherality. Social media, therefore, has strong potential to foster social innovation by enabling remote communication, but in rural areas, social media use may be low because of an aging and decreasing population. This study examined community-level adoption and use of social media in rural areas in Japan, with a focus on Facebook, for the purpose of sharing community information and facilitating networking with a variety of actors to promote rural social innovation. The study involved a comprehensive search and case studies targeting 139,063 rural communities and 10,922 rural joint-communities, all of which are legally designated agricultural communities throughout Japan. The search found that disadvantaged rural communities’ adoption of Facebook was scarce, and most of the communities that had adopted Facebook did not expand their social networks. Furthermore, investigation into the communities that had adopted social networking to a larger extent revealed that external supporters or migrants had essential roles in successful networking. Based on the obtained findings, this study has provided insights for future policy design.
Urban Planning Policy for Realizing Public Objectives Through Private Development in Seoul
Authors: Jung Hye-jin
Published: May 2019

This study aims to examine the relationship between urban development by the private sector and the urban planning incentive policy “FAR (Floor Area Ratio) bonus” and its effects on the city of Seoul in Korea. The results and characteristics of the incentive policy in the development process over the last five years in Seoul are investigated. An in-depth analysis of the mechanism of the floor area ratio incentive was conducted alongside measuring public design elements and the additional floor area compensated by private sectors for public benefit. The outcome of summarizing incentive implementations via quantitative analysis indicated that the policy focused on a narrow scope of target items, resulting in an imbalance in the implementation of public benefits and inflated incentive provisions. These quantitative results, exceeding those in non-special planning districts, misleadingly suggest a significant effectiveness of the incentive policy in generating operative public space. This study argues that the standards for establishing a balance between public and private benefit need a reform toward practical and qualitative impacts, while currently it is evaluated based on mere quantification. In conclusion, it is critical to implement policies that designate necessary public amenities in a selective manner and provide more judicious incentives to achieve a better-balanced planning system.
Integrated BIM-Parametric Workflow-Based Analysis of Daylight Improvement for Sustainable Renovation of an Exemplary Apartment in Seoul, Korea
Authors: Amoruso Fabrizio M. , Dietrich Udo , Schuetze Thorsten
Published: May 2019

More than 60% of housing in South Korea consists of mass constructed apartment neighborhoods. Due to poor quality construction materials and components, the average operative life of apartment buildings is 20 years. The rapid degradation and low maintenance condition of transparent and semi-opaque components, as well as the limited daylight access in the standard apartment layout, are cause for the lower visual comfort of occupants. This research analyzes the improvement in visual comfort for the renovation of an exemplary apartment unit in Seoul, using Building Information Modeling (BIM) and parametric environmental analysis tools. The existing apartment is virtually reconstructed with BIM software. The building model is exported to Computer-Aided Design software to execute parametric daylight analyses through environmental simulation software. An enhanced modular building envelope and apartment layout are developed to reduce the energy demand for heating, cooling, artificial lighting, and to improve visual and thermal comfort. The visual comfort analysis of the refurbished apartment results in average improvements of 15% in terms of Daylight Factor and 30% of daylight autonomy. Therefore, this research proposes, the renovation of aged Korean apartment buildings to enhance daylighting and visual comfort.
An Analysis of Grey Multiattribute Decision-Making Optimization Concerning Gender and Sustainable Environment
Authors: Wang Shen-Tsu , Li Meng-Hua , Lien Chun-Chi
Published: May 2019

Sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present generation, but does not compromise the satisfaction of future generations’ needs. It emphasizes the concept of needs and constraints. Women’s lack of development is not the result of insufficient involvement in production, but the fact that much of the cost paid by women is ignored and they do not get the rewards and affirmations they deserve. There are also many other factors of uncertainty. Therefore, this study considers that grey multiattribute decision-making refers to when there are factors of uncertain or incomplete information in the process of decision-making, after obtaining the actual decision-making combination effect by calculating the effect of the combination of all possible decision-making elements to select a scheme according to the decision matrix. The research results show that a mixed economic system is the best scheme for women’s economic security. Developing a gender and sustainable environment can be optimized by actively creating new friendly workplace practices, including designing flexible working hours and working environments, promoting multiple vacation schemes, assisting employees in their career development, and providing family care and support services.
Capability of the Invasive Tree Prosopis glandulosa Torr. to Remediate Soil Treated with Sewage Sludge
Authors: Abbas Ahmed Mahmoud , Abd-Elmabod Sameh K. , El-Ashry Soad M. , Soliman Wagdi Saber , El-Tayeh Noha , Castillo Jesus M.
Published: May 2019

Sewage sludge improves agricultural soil and plant growth, but there are hazards associated with its use, including high metal(loid) contents. An experimental study was conducted under greenhouse conditions to examine the effects of sewage sludge on growth of the invasive tree Prosopis glandulosa, as well as to determine its phytoremediation capacity. Plants were established and grown for seven months along a gradient of sewage sludge content. Plant traits, soil properties, and plant and soil concentrations of N, P, K, Cd, Pb, Cu, Ni, Zn, Cr, Co, As, and Fe were recorded. The addition of sewage sludge led to a significant decrease in soil pH, and Ni, Co, and As concentrations, as well as an increase in soil organic matter and the concentrations of N, P, Cu, Zn, and Cr. Increasing sewage sludge content in the growth medium raised the total uptake of most metals by P. glandulosa plants due to higher biomass accumulation (taller plants with more leaves) and higher metal concentrations in the plant tissues. P. glandulosa concentrated more Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, and Fe in its below-ground biomass (BGB) than in its above-ground biomass (AGB). P. glandulosa concentrated Ni, Co, and As in both BGB and AGB. P. glandulosa has potential as a biotool for the phytoremediation of sewage sludges and sewage-amended soils in arid and semi-arid environments, with a potential accumulation capability for As in plant leaves.
Overview of Low-Temperature Heat Capacity Data for Zn2(C8H4O4)2.C6H12N2 and the Salam Hypothesis
Authors: Kozlova Svetlana , Ryzhikov Maxim , Pishchur Denis , Mirzaeva Irina
Published: May 2019

The review presents the progress in the analysis of low-temperature heat capacity of the metal-organic framework Zn2(C8H4O4)2.C6H12N2 (Zn-DMOF). In Zn-DMOF, left-twisted D3(S) and right-twisted D3(R) DABCO molecules (C6H12N2) can transform into each other by tunneling to form a racemate. Termination of tunneling leads to a phase transition in the subsystem of twisted molecules. It is suggested that Zn-DMOF may be considered a model system to study the mechanisms of phase transitions belonging to the same type as hypothetical Salam phase transitions.
Irreversibility Analysis of Hybrid Nanofluid Flow over a Thin Needle with Effects of Energy Dissipation
Authors: Afridi Muhammad Idrees , Tlili I. , Goodarzi Marjan , Osman M. , Khan Najeeb Alam
Published: May 2019

The flow and heat transfer analysis in the conventional nanofluid A l 2 O 3 − H 2 O and hybrid nanofluid C u − A l 2 O 3 − H 2 O was carried out in the present study. The present work also focused on the comparative analysis of entropy generation in conventional and hybrid nanofluid flow. The flows of both types of nanofluid were assumed to be over a thin needle in the presence of thermal dissipation. The temperature at the surface of the thin needle and the fluid in the free stream region were supposed to be constant. Modified Maxwell Garnet (MMG) and the Brinkman model were utilized for effective thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity. The numerical solutions of the self-similar equations were obtained by using the Runge-Kutta Fehlberg scheme (RKFS). The Matlab in-built solver bvp4c was also used to solve the nonlinear dimensionless system of differential equations. The present numerical results were compared to the existing limiting outcomes in the literature and were found to be in excellent agreement. The analysis demonstrated that the rate of entropy generation reduced with the decreasing velocity of the thin needle as compared to the free stream velocity. The hybrid nanofluid flow with less velocity was compared to the regular nanofluid under the same circumstances. Furthermore, the enhancement in the temperature profile of the hybrid nanofluid was high as compared to the regular nanofluid. The influences of relevant physical parameters on flow, temperature distribution, and entropy generation are depicted graphically and discussed herein.
Sustainability Assessment of Asset Management Decisions for Wastewater Infrastructure Systems—Development of a System Dynamic Model
Authors: Mohammadifardi Hamed , Knight Mark A. , Unger Andre A.J.
Published: May 2019

This paper presents the development of a novel system dynamics (SD) model for better understanding the interrelation and feedback mechanism between the wastewater collection (WWC) and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) systems. Causal loop diagrams (CLDs) are developed and discussed to depict and understand feedback and inter-connections between physical, financial, and consumer sectors. The developed SD model is then extended to include the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as a proxy for the environmental sector and for an environmental sustainability assessment of strategic decisions related to asset management planning of wastewater infrastructure system. It also adds new policy levers, such as population growth and urban densification in the social sector, and minimum fee-hike rates in the finance sector to enhance the representation of real-world conditions in the asset management planning. This new SD model will enable decision-makers to assess the sustainability impacts of their strategic decisions on wastewater systems, find synergistic cost-saving opportunities, and improve the sustainability performance of their asset management plans.
Isolation of a Novel Microcystin-Degrading Bacterium and the Evolutionary Origin of mlr Gene Cluster
Authors: Qin Lian , Zhang Xiaoxing , Chen Xiaoguo , Wang Ke , Shen Yitian , Li Dan
Published: May 2019

The mlr-dependent biodegradation plays an essential role in the natural attenuation of microcystins (MCs) in eutrophic freshwater ecosystems. However, their evolutionary origin is still unclear due to the lack of mlr gene cluster sequences. In this study, a Sphingopyxis sp. strain X20 with high MC-degrading ability was isolated, and the mlrA gene activity was verified by heterologous expression. The whole sequence of the mlr gene cluster in strain X20 was obtained through PCR and thermal asymmetric interlaced (TAIL)-PCR, and then used for evolutionary origin analyses together with the sequences available in GenBank. Phylogenetic analyses of mlr gene clusters suggested that the four mlr genes had the same origin and evolutionary history. Genomic island analyses showed that there is a genomic island on the genome of sphingomonads that is capable of degrading MCs, on which the mlr gene cluster anchors. The concentrated distribution of the mlr gene cluster in sphingomonads implied that these genes have likely been present in the sphingomonads gene pool for a considerable time. Therefore, the mlr gene cluster may have initially entered into the genome of sphingomonads together with the genomic island by a horizontal gene transfer event, and then become inherited by some sphingomonads. The species other than sphingomonads have likely acquired mlr genes from sphingomonads by recently horizontal gene transfer due to the sporadic distribution of MC-degrading species and the mlr genes in them. Our results shed new light on the evolutionary origin of the mlr cluster and thus facilitate the interpretation of characteristic distribution of the mlr gene in bacteria and the understanding of whole mlr pathway.