bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Design of pH Responsive Textile as a Sensor Material for Acid Rain
Authors: Stojkoski Viktor , Kert Mateja
Published: September 2020

The chemical composition of rainwater can serve as an indicator of the excess of acidifying air pollutants. The pH value of rainwater in the presence of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the precursors of acid rain, falls below pH 5.6, which is the limit value for acid rain. In this research, the tailoring of halochromic textile was examined for the design of a functional textile that can serve as a sensor and inform the wearer about the presence of pollutants in the air by means of an immediate colour change. For this purpose, a polyamide 6 fabric was dyed with the pH-sensitive Bromocresol green dye, which causes a colour change below pH 3.6 (yellow) and above pH 5.4 (blue). In addition, the dyed polyamide 6 fabric was treated with a water and oil repellent finish. Colour and colour change before and after immersion of unfinished and finished dyed samples in buffer solutions with different pH values were evaluated spectrophotometrically using the CIELAB colour space. The colour fastness to rubbing, washing, and light, and the water and oil repellency of the dyed fabrics were determined according to valid SIST EN ISO standards. The results showed that the unfinished dyed polyamide 6 fabric undergoes a reversible colour change faster and more clearly than the finished dyed polyamide 6 fabric. The dyed polyamide 6 fabric had good colour fastness to rubbing and domestic and commercial laundering, while the colour fastness to light was poor. In addition, the dyed polyamide 6 fabric was pH-sensitive, despite dye degradation under xenon light, regardless of whether it was finished.
Observations on Four Cases of Brooke–Spiegler Syndrome
Authors: Leventer Mihaela , Coltoiu Casandra , Zota Alexandra , Tebeica Tiberiu , Lisievici Carmen , Martinescu Alina
Published: September 2020

Background: Brooke–Spiegler Syndrome is a rare genetic autosomal dominant disorder with variable penetrance. Its main feature consists of the development of multiple adnexal tumors that originate from the follicular-sebaceous-apocrine unit, most commonly: cylindromas, trichoepitheliomas and spiradenomas. Case presentation: We present four cases of Brooke–Spiegler Syndrome found in our clinic, as well as their clinicopathological traits and the surgical techniques used in their management. The familial history of three of the presented cases supports the genetic component of the disease. Cylindromas, spiradenomas and trichoepitheliomas coexisted in one of the cases presented. The therapeutic options used were electrocautery, CO2 laser, as well as tumor debulking followed by closure with metal staples. Discussion: The treatment remains a challenge and must be individualized based on the type, location and number of the lesions. Conservative methods such as CO2 laser and tumor debulking accompanied by closure with metal staples remain a viable option taking into account the large number of lesions. As patients usually develop multiple neoplasms throughout their lifetime, repeated procedures may be needed. Conclusion: Considering the few numbers of Brooke–Spiegler syndrome cases in the current literature, the authors report these patients in order to increase awareness and to help establish the most appropriate approach in managing the disease.
Sources and Markets of Limestone Flour in Poland
Authors: Lewicka Ewa , Szlugaj Jarosław , Burkowicz Anna , Galos Krzysztof
Published: September 2020

Limestone flour is used in a variety of industrial sectors such as power and heat generation, glass-making, paper-making, the construction industry and construction materials manufacturing, the production of agriculture, plastics and rubber goods, as well as coal mining, and environmental protection. This paper aims to characterize and interpret the limestone flour supply and demand trends in the main applications in Poland in the last decade. In order to track the changes of domestic consumption for this commodity, its major users have been surveyed along with analyses of data from the Statistics Poland (GUS). The results showed that during 2009–2018 the coal-fired power plants became the biggest customer of limestone flour utilized as a sorbent in the wet flue gas desulfurization method (FGD). This method has been implemented in the vast majority of Polish power plants. It is estimated that in the last decade the total annual production capacity of limestone flour at the milling plants in Poland increased by 1.5 million tons, to around 6.0 million tons. In the forthcoming years, this is expected to continue to increase despite EU restrictions on fossil fuel use (especially hard coal and lignite). Other promising areas of future growth are: for limestone flour of medium quality—the construction materials manufacturing and the construction industry itself, for limestone flour of the highest quality—the glass industry, while for fine-grained limestone flour of high-quality—the plastics and rubber industries. In terms of resource security, it is worth noting that Poland is a country rich in limestone deposits. However, only some of them, that is, limestone rock varieties of the Jurassic and Devonian ages from the Kielce vicinity in central Poland are suitable for the production of high-quality limestone flour for the needs of the mentioned industries. The paper analyses the potential of the limestone flour production from the available limestone rock deposits with respect to the current and future needs of the domestic market in Poland.
An Image-Based Real-Time Georeferencing Scheme for a UAV Based on a New Angular Parametrization
Authors: Khoramshahi Ehsan , Oliveira Raquel A. , Koivumäki Niko , Honkavaara Eija
Published: September 2020

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) of a monocular projective camera installed on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a challenging task in photogrammetry, computer vision, and robotics. This paper presents a novel real-time monocular SLAM solution for UAV applications. It is based on two steps: consecutive construction of the UAV path, and adjacent strip connection. Consecutive construction rapidly estimates the UAV path by sequentially connecting incoming images to a network of connected images. A multilevel pyramid matching is proposed for this step that contains a sub-window matching using high-resolution images. The sub-window matching increases the frequency of tie points by propagating locations of matched sub-windows that leads to a list of high-frequency tie points while keeping the execution time relatively low. A sparse bundle block adjustment (BBA) is employed to optimize the initial path by considering nuisance parameters. System calibration parameters with respect to global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and inertial navigation system (INS) are optionally considered in the BBA model for direct georeferencing. Ground control points and checkpoints are optionally included in the model for georeferencing and quality control. Adjacent strip connection is enabled by an overlap analysis to further improve connectivity of local networks. A novel angular parametrization based on spherical rotation coordinate system is presented to address the gimbal lock singularity of BBA. Our results suggest that the proposed scheme is a precise real-time monocular SLAM solution for a UAV.
Evaluation of Remote Sensing-Based Irrigation Water Accounting at River Basin District Management Scale
Authors: Garrido-Rubio Jesús , Calera Alfonso , Arellano Irene , Belmonte Mario , Fraile Lorena , Ortega Tatiana , Bravo Raquel , González-Piqueras José
Published: September 2020

The Water Framework Directive in Europe requires extending metering and water abstraction controls to accurately satisfy the necessary water resource requirements. However, in situ measurement instruments are inappropriate for large irrigation surface areas, considering the high investment and maintenance service costs. In this study, Remote Sensing-based Irrigation Water Accounting (RS-IWA) (previously evaluated for commercial plots, water user associations, and groundwater water management scales) was applied to over 11 Spanish river basin districts during the period of 2014–2018. Using the FAO56 methodology and incorporating remote sensing basal crop coefficient time series to simulate the Remote Sensing-based Soil Water Balance (RS-SWB), we were able to provide spatially and temporally distributed net irrigation requirements. The results were evaluated against the irrigation water demands estimated by the Hydrological Planning Offices and published in the River Basin Management Plans applying the same spatial (Agricultural Demand Units and Exploitation Systems) and temporal (annual and monthly) water management scales used by these public water managers, ultimately returning ranges of agreement (r2 and dr) (Willmott refined index) of 0.79 and 0.99, respectively. Thus, this paper presents an operational tool for providing updated spatio-temporal maps of RS-IWA over large and diverse irrigation surface areas, which is ready to serve as a complementary irrigation water monitoring and management tool.
Sentinel-1 SAR Time Series-Based Assessment of the Impact of Severe Salinity Intrusion Events on Spatiotemporal Changes in Distribution of Rice Planting Areas in Coastal Provinces of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Authors: Hoang-Phi Phung , Lam-Dao Nguyen , Pham-Van Cu , Chau-Nguyen-Xuan Quang , Nguyen-Van-Anh Vu , Gummadi Sridhar , Le-Van Trung
Published: September 2020

Food security has become a key global issue due to rapid population growth, extensive conversion of arable lands, and declining overall productivity in some areas because of the effects of floods, water shortage, salinity intrusion, and plant diseases. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between the pattern of salinity intrusion and the spatiotemporal distribution of rice cultivation in the winter–spring crops of 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020 in coastal provinces of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. Sentinel-1 (S-1) data were used to extract the spatial distribution information of six rice growth stages based on a rice age algorithm. The classification accuracy of rice crop growth stages was found to have an overall accuracy of 85% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.80 (n = 373). For evaluating salinity intrusion effects, salinity isolines (4 g/L) were used to determine the percentage of rice areas affected. Results show that in the years observed to have severe salinity intrusion such as 2016 and 2020, a strong shift in planting calendar was identified to avoid salinity intrusion, with some areas being sown or transplanted 10–30 days earlier than normal planting. In addition, the lack of irrigation water and salinity intrusion limits rice cultivation in the dry season of coastal areas. Further analysis from the S-1 data confirms that the spatiotemporal distribution of rice cultivation is related to the change in government policy/recommendation affected by salinity intrusion. These findings demonstrate the potential and feasibility of using S-1 data to develop an operational rice crop adaptation framework on the delta scale.
Blind Unmixing of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data: A New Geometrical Method Based on a Two-Source Sparsity Constraint
Authors: Benachir Djaouad , Deville Yannick , Hosseini Shahram , Karoui Moussa Sofiane
Published: September 2020

Blind source separation (or unmixing) methods process a set of mixed signals, which are typically linear memoryless combinations of source signals, so as to estimate these unknown source signals and/or combination coefficients. These methods have been extensively applied to hyperspectral images in the field of remote sensing, because the reflectance spectrum of each image pixel is often a mixture of elementary contributions, due to the limited spatial resolution of hyperspectral remote sensing sensors. Each spatial source signal then corresponds to a pure material, and its value in each pixel is equal to the “abundance fraction” of the corresponding Earth surface covered by that pure material. The mixing coefficients then form the pure material spectra. Various unmixing methods have been designed for this data model and the majority of them are either geometrical or statistical, or even based on sparse regressions. Various such unmixing techniques mainly consider assumptions that are related to the presence or absence of pure pixels (i.e., pixels which contain only one pure material). The case when, for each pure material, the image includes at least one pixel or zone which only contains that material yielded attractive unmixing methods, but corresponds to a stringent sparsity condition. We here aim at relaxing that condition, by only requesting a few tiny pixel zones to contain two pure materials. The proposed linear and geometrical sparse-based, blind (or unsupervised) unmixing method first automatically detects these zones. Each such zone defines a line in the data representation space. These lines are then estimated and clustered. The pairs of cluster centers, corresponding to lines, which have an intersection, yield the spectra of pure materials, forming the columns of the mixing matrix. Finally, the proposed method derives all abundance fractions, i.e., source signals, by using a least squares method with a non-negativity constraint. This method is applied to realistic synthetic images and is shown to outperform various methods from the literature. Indeed, and for the conducted experiments, when considering the pure material spectra extraction, the obtained improvements, for the considered spectral angle mapper performance criterion, vary between 0.02∘ and 12.43∘. For the abundance fractions estimation, the proposed technique is able to achieve a normalized mean square error lower than 0.01%, while the tested literature methods yield errors greater than 0.1%.
A Study of Defect Detection Techniques for Metallographic Images
Authors: Wu Wei-Hung , Lee Jen-Chun , Wang Yi-Ming
Published: September 2020

Metallography is the study of the structure of metals and alloys. Metallographic analysis can be regarded as a detection tool to assist in identifying a metal or alloy, to evaluate whether an alloy is processed correctly, to inspect multiple phases within a material, to locate and characterize imperfections such as voids or impurities, or to find the damaged areas of metallographic images. However, the defect detection of metallography is evaluated by human experts, and its automatic identification is still a challenge in almost every real solution. Deep learning has been applied to different problems in computer vision since the proposal of AlexNet in 2012. In this study, we propose a novel convolutional neural network architecture for metallographic analysis based on a modified residual neural network (ResNet). Multi-scale ResNet (M-ResNet), the modified method, improves efficiency by utilizing multi-scale operations for the accurate detection of objects of various sizes, especially small objects. The experimental results show that the proposed method yields an accuracy of 85.7% (mAP) in recognition performance, which is higher than existing methods. As a consequence, we propose a novel system for automatic defect detection as an application for metallographic analysis.
A Review of Endogenous and Exogenous Contrast Agents Used in Photoacoustic Tomography with Different Sensing Configurations
Authors: Tsang Victor T.C. , Li Xiufeng , Wong Terence T.W.
Published: September 2020

Optical-based sensing approaches have long been an indispensable way to detect molecules in biological tissues for various biomedical research and applications. The advancement in optical microscopy is one of the main drivers for discoveries and innovations in both life science and biomedical imaging. However, the shallow imaging depth due to the use of ballistic photons fundamentally limits optical imaging approaches’ translational potential to a clinical setting. Photoacoustic (PA) tomography (PAT) is a rapidly growing hybrid imaging modality that is capable of acoustically detecting optical contrast. PAT uniquely enjoys high-resolution deep-tissue imaging owing to the utilization of diffused photons. The exploration of endogenous contrast agents and the development of exogenous contrast agents further improve the molecular specificity for PAT. PAT’s versatile design and non-invasive nature have proven its great potential as a biomedical imaging tool for a multitude of biomedical applications. In this review, representative endogenous and exogenous PA contrast agents will be introduced alongside common PAT system configurations, including the latest advances of all-optical acoustic sensing techniques.
Design of a High Sensitivity Microwave Sensor for Liquid Dielectric Constant Measurement
Authors: Hao Honggang , Wang Dexu , Wang Zhu , Yin Bo , Ruan Wei
Published: September 2020

In order to improve the sensitivity of liquid dielectric constant measurements, a liquid dielectric constant sensor based on a cubic container structure is proposed for the first time. The cubic container, which consists of a dielectric substrate with a split resonant ring (SRR) and microstrip lines, can enhance the electric field intensity in the measuring area. High sensitivity can be obtained from measuring the dielectric constant with the characteristics of the structure resonate. The research results show that the resonant frequency of the sensor is shifted from 7.69 GHz to 5.70 GHz, with about a 2 GHz frequency offset, when the dielectric constant of the sample varied from 1 to 10. A resonance frequency offset of 200 MHz for the per unit dielectric constant is achieved, which is excellent regarding performance. The permittivity of oil with a different metal content is measured by using the relation between the fitted permittivity and the resonant frequency. The relative error is less than 1.5% and the sensitivity of measuring is up to 3.45%.
A Biological Retina Inspired Tone Mapping Processor for High-Speed and Energy-Efficient Image Enhancement
Authors: Xiang Xiaoqiang , Liu Lili , Que Luying , Jia Conghan , Yan Bo , Li Yongjie , Guo Jinhong , Zhou Jun
Published: September 2020

In this work, a biological retina inspired tone mapping processor for high-speed and energy-efficient image enhancement has been proposed. To achieve high throughput and high energy efficiency, several hardware design techniques have been proposed, including data partition based parallel processing with S-shape sliding, adjacent frame feature sharing, multi-layer convolution pipelining, and convolution filter compression with zero skipping convolution. Implemented on a Xilinx’s Virtex7 FPGA, the proposed design achieves a high throughput of 189 frames per second for 1024 × 768 RGB images while consuming 819 mW. Compared with several state-of-the-art tone mapping processors, the proposed design shows higher throughput and energy efficiency. It is suitable for high-speed and energy-constrained image enhancement applications.
Research Progress of Graphene-Based Flexible Humidity Sensor
Authors: Liang Rongxuan , Luo Ansheng , Zhang Zhenbang , Li Zhantong , Han Chongyang , Wu Weibin
Published: September 2020

Graphene is a new type of carbon material with a flexible, two-dimensional structure. Due to the excellent stability of its lattice structure and its mechanical flexibility, graphene-based materials can be applied in flexible humidity sensors. At present, the application of graphene-based flexible humidity sensors in the fields of medical care and environmental monitoring is attracting widespread attention. In this review, the basic properties of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as moisture-sensitive materials and methods for their preparation were introduced. Moreover, three methods for improving the performance of moisture-sensitive materials were discussed. The working principle of different types of graphene-based humidity sensors were introduced. The progress in the research on graphene-based flexible humidity sensors in four respects: Human respiration, skin moisture, human sweat, and environmental humidity were discussed. Finally, the future research, following the development trends and challenges, to develop the potential of integrated, graphene-based flexible humidity sensors were discussed.
Real-Time Cuffless Continuous Blood Pressure Estimation Using Deep Learning Model
Authors: Li Yung-Hui , Harfiya Latifa Nabila , Purwandari Kartika , Lin Yue-Der
Published: September 2020

Blood pressure monitoring is one avenue to monitor people’s health conditions. Early detection of abnormal blood pressure can help patients to get early treatment and reduce mortality associated with cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, it is very valuable to have a mechanism to perform real-time monitoring for blood pressure changes in patients. In this paper, we propose deep learning regression models using an electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG) for the real-time estimation of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) values. We use a bidirectional layer of long short-term memory (LSTM) as the first layer and add a residual connection inside each of the following layers of the LSTMs. We also perform experiments to compare the performance between the traditional machine learning methods, another existing deep learning model, and the proposed deep learning models using the dataset of Physionet’s multiparameter intelligent monitoring in intensive care II (MIMIC II) as the source of ECG and PPG signals as well as the arterial blood pressure (ABP) signal. The results show that the proposed model outperforms the existing methods and is able to achieve accurate estimation which is promising in order to be applied in clinical practice effectively.
Developing a Multi-Element Sensor to Non-Destructively Monitor Several Fundamental Parameters Related to Concrete Durability
Authors: Jin Ming , Ma Yuefeng , Zeng Haoyu , Liu Jiaping , Jiang Linhua , Yang Guo , Gu Yue
Published: September 2020

A design scheme of multi-element sensor which included electrical resistivity probes, multiple Cl− selective electrodes, and a steel corrosion monitoring system was proposed in this work. Embedding this multi-element sensor in concrete enables the real-time and non-destructive monitoring of internal electrical resistivity, free Cl− (Clf) contents in the concrete pore solution at different depths, and steel corrosion parameters. Based on the monitoring data obtained by the multi-element sensor, the freezing-thawing (F-T) damage degree, the Clf diffusion coefficient, the quantitative relation between F-T damage degree and Clf diffusion coefficient, the initiation period of steel corrosion, and the critical content related to steel corrosion are determined. To conclude, the multi-element sensor provides key durability parameters for the establishment of the Clf diffusion model, the assessment of health condition, and the prediction of service life of concrete under the coexistence of the F-T cycle and Cl−.
Determination of Trans-Anethole in Essential Oil, Methanolic Extract and Commercial Formulations of Foeniculum vulgare Mill Using a Green RP-HPTLC-Densitometry Method
Authors: Foudah Ahmed I. , Shakeel Faiyaz , Alqarni Mohammad H. , Yusufoglu Hasan. S. , Salkini Mohammad A. , Alam Prawez
Published: September 2020

Due to the lack of ecofriendly/green reversed-phase high-performance thin-layer chromatography (RP-HPTLC) methods for trans-anethole (TAL) and its simplicity over routine analytical techniques, there was a necessity to establish a suitable HPTLC methodology for the quantitative analysis of TAL. Therefore, the first objective of this research was to develop an accurate, rapid and green RP-HPTLC densitometry methodology for the quantitative analysis of TAL in essential oil, traditional and ultrasound-assisted extracts of Foeniculum vulgare Mill and commercial formulations. The second objective was to compare the traditional method of extraction of TAL with its ultrasound-assisted method of extraction. The chromatogram of TAL from essential oil and traditional and ultrasound-assisted extracts of fennel and commercial formulations was verified by recoding its single spectra at Rf = 0.31 ± 0.01 in comparison to standard TAL. The proposed analytical methodology has been found to be superior in terms of linearity, accuracy and precision compared to most of the reported analytical methods for TAL analysis. The amount of TAL in the essential oil of fennel was recorded as 8.82 mg per g of oil. The content of TAL in traditional extracts of fennel, formulation 1 (dietary supplement 1) and formulation 2 (dietary supplement 2), was recorded as 6.44, 4.88 and 4.48 mg per g, respectively. The amount of TAL in ultrasound-assisted extracts of fennel, formulation 1 and formulation 2, was recorded as 8.34, 6.46 and 5.81 mg per g, respectively. The ultrasound method of extraction of TAL was found to be better than the traditional method of extraction. The results of validation studies and phytochemical analysis showed that the proposed methodology could be efficiently utilized for the quantification of TAL in the wide range of products having TAL as a component.
Seismic Qualification of Electrical Cabinet Using High-Fidelity Simulation under High Frequency Earthquakes
Authors: Son Hoyoung , Park Seonggwan , Jeon Bub-Gyu , Jung Woo-Young , Choi Jongwoong , Ju Bu-Seog
Published: September 2020

Most nuclear and nonnuclear power plants have been designed in the frequency range of 2 to 10 Hz, but now, the design guidelines for structural and nonstructural components such as electrical cabinets must be improved by including high frequency greater than 10 Hz for sustainable energy. The electrical cabinet is the essential piece of equipment for safety functions and the uncertainty of seismic capability in power plants. Consequently, the attention of this study focused on evaluating the seismic demands of the electrical cabinet under high frequency earthquakes and also, seismic qualification of the electrical cabinet using the identification of experimental tests and numerical models. An experimental test based on ICC-ES AC 156 and IEEE std.344 was conducted for seismic qualification of the cabinet and then, a high-fidelity finite element model to capture the significant deformation was developed in this study. It is observed that the fundamental frequencies were 16 and 24 Hz from the experimental tests, respectively. In order to verify the proposed high-fidelity simulation model, the target fundamental frequencies of the cabinet were evaluated in the ABAQUS platform. It was interesting to note that the reconciliation of experimental and analytical results was extremely identical. Furthermore, in order to evaluate seismic response characteristics of the cabinet subjected to high and low frequency earthquakes, time history analysis was conducted in this study, using the ABAQUS platform. As a result, the observation showed that the seismic response of the cabinet system under a high frequency earthquake was relatively higher than that of low frequency. It can be very important to note that the cabinet system was sensitive to high frequency vibration.
Exploring the Factors of Cooperation between Artists and Technologists in Creating New Media Art Works: Based on AHP
Authors: Li Min , Hsiao Tsung-Chih , Chen Chih-Cheng
Published: September 2020

The deeper the combination of art and technology, the more extensive the cooperation between artists and technologists. In many cases, the creation of New Media Art requires the cooperation of artists and technologists. However, since New Media Art is an emerging art form, the process of cocreating New Media Art between the two is at the exploration stage. Especially in areas with underdeveloped New Media Art and underdeveloped technology, there exist many problems in the cooperation between the two, such as a lack of complete understanding of the factors involved in the cooperation process and a lack of reasonable planning for the cooperation process. Therefore, this study analyzes the factors that affect the collaboration process between the two creating New Media Art. Common factors are collected from the literature and then added or deleted after expert opinions. Then, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method is applied to get the weight of each factor and understand the influence degree of the factor. The research results show that there are relatively fixed factors influencing the collaboration process between artists and technologists in creating New Media Art, and various factors have different degrees of influence on cooperation. Therefore, in the process of cooperation between the two parties, more emphasis should be placed on the factors of cooperation, which makes the cooperation more scientific.
Modelling as a Tool for the Planning of the Transport System Performance in the Conditions of a Raw Material Mining
Authors: Saderova Janka , Rosova Andrea , Kacmary Peter , Sofranko Marian , Bindzar Peter , Malkus Tomasz
Published: September 2020

This article is devoted to modelling of the extracted raw material removal from a mining area to the entry point for the next technological process. Two approaches were chosen for the process modelling. The first approach is regarded to traffic modelling by using available mathematical equations, based on capacity conversion and calculation of loading equipment efficiency. The second approach of modelling is computer simulation within the simulation system ExtendSim8. The modelling of the transport system and the determination of its efficiency were performed at the same conditions. The examined transport system was consisted of two lorries and one loader. The article presents the results of calculations and the results of simulation experiments, which also verified the results obtained by calculations. Calculations of the transport system performance and simulation experiments were performed for two time periods, for a time of 1 h and 6 h during a shift from three different loading places, which were 500, 1100 and 1450 m away from a place of unloading. The results obtained by both approaches are comparable. The main contribution, novelty, of this article is the modelling of the process in a quarry operation (loading and removal of mineral resources) not only on the basis of available mathematical formulas but also the application of simulation in the simulation tool EXTENDSim8, performing simulation experiments for specified conditions and their comparison with calculated values. Simulation is a suitable tool for determining and subsequently planning of the performance of both existing and projected transport systems.
Determinants of Willingness to Participate in Urban Incentive-Based Energy Demand-Side Response: An Empirical Micro-Data Analysis
Authors: Wang Bing , Cai Qiran , Sun Zhenming
Published: September 2020

Demand-side management provides important opportunities to integrate renewable sources and enhance the flexibility of urban power systems. With the continuous advancement of the smart grid and electricity market reform, the potential for residential consumers to participate in energy demand response is significantly enhanced. However, not enough is known about the public perception of energy demand response, and how sociopsychological and external factors could affect public willingness to participate. This study investigates the public perception of and willingness to participate in urban energy demand response through a questionnaire survey and employs multiple linear regression models to explore the determinants of public willingness to participate. The results suggest that income level, energy-saving attitudes, behaviors, external motivation factors, and energy-saving technologies are the key factors that determine public willingness to participate. Although most respondents are willing to participate, the effects of monetary incentives are more significant than the effect of spiritual inducements, and respondents are more sensitive to compensation than to dynamic electricity prices. The further improvement of residential responsiveness requires continuous infrastructure building by technical support, public energy-saving awareness, and public perception of energy demand response. Policy implications are proposed to achieve a sufficient residential response from an aggressive policy framework and energy-saving behavioral guidance.
Detection of Potential Controversial Issues for Social Sustainability: Case of Green Energy
Authors: Huang Chun-Che , Liang Wen-Yau , Lin Shian-Hua , Tseng Tzu-Liang (Bill) , Wang Yu-Hsien , Wu Kuo-Hsin
Published: September 2020

More and more people are involved in sustainability-related activities through social network to support/protect their idea or motivation for sustainable development. Understanding the variety of issues of social pulsation is crucial in development of social sustainability. However, issues in social media generally change overtime. Issues not identified in advance may soon become popular topics discussed in society, particularly controversial issues. Previous studies have focused on the detection of hot topics and discussion of controversial issues, rather than the identification of potential controversial issues, which truly require paying attention to social sustainability. Furthermore, previous studies have focused on issue detection and tracking based on historical data. However, not all controversial issues are related to historical data to foster the cases. To avoid the above-mentioned research gap, Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays an essential role in issue detection in the early stage. In this study, an AI-based solution approach is proposed to resolve two practical problems in social media: (1) the impact caused by the number of fan pages from Facebook and (2) awareness of the levels for an issue. The proposed solution approach to detect potential issues is based on the popularity of public opinion in social media using a Web crawler to collect daily posts related to issues in social media under a big data environment. Some analytical findings are carried out via the congregational rules proposed in this research, and the solution approach detects the attentive subjects in the early stages. A comparison of the proposed method to the traditional methods are illustrated in the domain of green energy. The computational results demonstrate that the proposed approach is accurate and effective and therefore it provides significant contribution to upsurge green energy deployment.
How to Achieve a Continuous Increase in Public Transport Ridership?—A Case Study of Braunschweig and Tampere
Authors: Schütze Christoph , Schmidt Nina , Liimatainen Heikki , Siefer Thomas
Published: September 2020

This manuscript is based on cooperation between the universities in Tampere, Finland, and Braunschweig, Germany. One of the main goals of the two institutes involved in research for public transport is a continuous increase in ridership. Therefore, the aim of this study is to (1) investigate the level of service attributes of public transport in Tampere and Braunschweig and evaluate their current state and (2) give advice to each city to further increase the ridership. At the beginning, the individual attributes and indicators for comparing public transport in both cities are presented and combined with theses from the literature. The attributes are divided into four chapters: “Level of Service”, “Pricing”, “Information and Marketing” and “Quality of travel”. In the following, the individual indicators, such as the travel speed (Level of Service) or information at stop (Information and Marketing) of the two study areas, are analysed and evaluated. Additionally, the public transport system in both investigated cities is expanded with new a tramway system (Tampere) or new tramway expansions (Braunschweig), which gives a lot of opportunities for improving the attractiveness of public transport.
What Factors Determine the Value of an Online Teacher Education Experience from a Teacher’s Perspective?
Authors: Boumadan Moussa , Soto-Varela Roberto , Ortiz-Padilla Myriam , Poyatos-Dorado César
Published: September 2020

E-learning is currently at the center of interest in the educational community, in a situation of global pandemics that forces us to reduce attendance in all aspects of our lives. Online courses have had a bad reputation due to the distance between the tutor and the apprentice and the high dropout rates. The main purpose is to analyze the evaluations made by teachers on different features of a course, by examining variables like content, technology, activities, final work, and format. The analysis covers the 50 online courses that form part of the continuous training offer of the Regional Ministry of Education of the Community of Madrid in courses 17–18 and 18–19 in which 7501 teachers have participated. The opinion of each participant is collected from a questionnaire at the end of the training activity. This has been validated by a group of experts from the Regional Centre for Innovation and Training, belonging to the Community of Madrid, using the Delphi method. To develop the methodology, a linear multivariate model was calculated on the independent variables and the dependent variable Net Promoter Score (NPS). Most of the findings are related to two central variables in the educational approaches that occur in digital scenarios. What the group of teachers’ values most is the content of the proposal, while the factor that they consider least important is the technology that supports the development of the course. The rest of the variables analyzed have little impact on the recommendation of the courses. Nevertheless, conclusions suggest that combining factors such as content, technology, and pedagogy are essential in experiences like these.
A Theoretical Framework Development for Hotel Employee Turnover: Linking Trust in Supports, Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Reduced Personal Accomplishment at Workplace
Authors: Han Heesup , Quan Wei , Al-Ansi Amr , Chung Hyunah , Ngah Abdul Hafaz , Ariza-Montes Antonio , Vega-Muñoz Alejandro
Published: September 2020

The present research was an empirical endeavor to build a sturdy theorization linking trust in supervisor and co-worker supports, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduced personal accomplishment, and hotel employee turnover at workplace. A quantitative approach and survey methodology were utilized. This research successfully explored the intricate associations between trust-in-support factors and burnout dimensions and uncovered the possible influence of such relationships on employee turnover in the hotel context. In addition, emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment among burnout constituents significantly affected turnover. These variables also strengthened the influence of trust in supervisor support on hotel employee turnover, acting as significant mediators. A salient role of emotional exhaustion in escalating employee turnover was unearthed. Overall, this research demonstrated the importance of trust in support and its role in reducing the burnout phenomenon among hotel employees and explaining their voluntary turnover decision formation in a satisfactory manner.
Spider Webs and Lichens as Bioindicators of Heavy Metals: A Comparison Study in the Vicinity of a Copper Smelter (Poland)
Authors: Stojanowska Agnieszka , Rybak Justyna , Bożym Marta , Olszowski Tomasz , Bihałowicz Jan Stefan
Published: September 2020

This paper presents the comparison of heavy metals accumulation in spider webs from Agelenidae family (Eratigena atrica and Agelena labyrinthica) and lichens Hypogymnia physodes, exposed to pollution for two months. Webs were obtained from the laboratory-reared spiders and stretched on Petri dish while lichens were transplanted from Stobrawa Landscape Park into the study area. Concentrations of Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb and As were determined in both biomonitors and the elevated values indicated the impact of the copper smelter and surrounding roads. Our study revealed that webs were more sensitive than lichens to emissions of pollutants, and for all of the studied elements, the determined concentrations were much higher for spider webs. The results of similarity tests showed a clear difference among the concentrations of Cu, Zn, Ni and As in lichens and spider webs, with the exception of Pb, suggesting that this element could be accumulated in a similar way by both bioindicators. These differences are probably due to their morphological and ecological dissimilarities suggesting that spider webs should be favorably applied where the use of lichens is improper due to the drought, which is an unfavorable condition for accumulation of elements in lichens, or their limited uptake of elements.
Empirical Examination of Factors Influencing the Adoption of Green Building Technologies: The Perspective of Construction Developers in Developing Economies
Authors: Tran Quangdung , Nazir Sajjad , Nguyen Tu-Hieu , Ho Ngoc-Khoa , Dinh Tuan-Hai , Nguyen Viet-Phuong , Nguyen Manh-Hung , Phan Quoc-Khanh , Kieu The-Son
Published: September 2020

This study seeks to better understand the determinants of green building technology (GBT) adoption intention of construction developers in developing countries. In order to address these objectives, this study integrates the Diffusion of Innovation theory, the theory of Resource-based View, and the Resource Dependence Theory to analyze and construct the theoretical model of developers’ intentions to adopt GBTs from three perspectives, namely, technological, organizational, and environmental. The model was tested using survey data collected from 142 experienced managers in Vietnam. Data analysis was performed by SEM using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. The findings show that perceived GBT advantages, perceived GBT disadvantages, top management leadership, government support, project partners’ green building readiness, and social demand of green buildings are the significant factors that affect GBT adoption intention by developers. However, organizational GBT resource and GBT market readiness have no significant effect on developers’ GBT adoption intention. Theoretical and practical implications and limitations of the research are discussed, and suggestions for future research are also proposed.
Multiple Utility Analyses for Sustainable Public Transport Planning and Management: Evidence from GPS-Equipped Taxi Data in Haikou
Authors: Gui Jiawei , Wu Qunqi
Published: September 2020

The transportation utility values calculated by traditional utility methods are not comprehensive. Some objects and factors are ignored in traditional utility methods, and this narrow perspective is their primary drawback. In intelligent transportation systems, it is necessary to calculate transportation utility for promoting public traffic planning and management. To build a sustainable intelligent transportation system, modified utility methods are essential to analyze transportation utility in a comprehensive way with innovative technologies and efficient communication systems. To solve the disadvantages of traditional utility methods, it is necessary to establish a new method to build sustainable public transport in the future. In this study, the Multiple Utility Method and Transportation Utility Method are proposed for public transport planning and management from multiple perspectives. A sample is presented to provide a better description, and 69,174 GPS-equipped taxi data in Haikou are adopted for the application of the Transportation Utility Method. The results show that the transportation utility values calculated by the Transportation Utility Method are more comprehensive than the transportation utility calculated by traditional utility methods. This indicates that it is necessary to calculate transportation utility from multiple perspectives based on the Transportation Utility Method. Future directions could include improving the methods, considering more factors, expanding the data used, and extrapolating this research to other cities around the world with similar urban metrics and urban form.
Behind Dislike: Adaptive Purposes for Undergraduates’ Negative Emotions in the Career Decision-Making Process
Authors: Puffer Keith A. , Pence Kris G.
Published: September 2020

The first career interest inventory emerged in the late 1920s. The response options for the questions in the Strong Vocational Interest Blank included ‘like’ and ‘dislike.’ Both answers are emotional reactions. Regrettably, clients within the context of vocational counseling often regard negative feelings (e.g., dislikes) as inconsequential. Yet, negative emotionality can be adaptive and feasibly assist career decision-makers. In the literature on college students’ career development and emotional functioning, there is a paucity of information about how negative emotions advance the career decision-making process and how career decision-makers apply such knowledge. Hence, a sample of undergraduates (n = 256) was recruited to ascertain imaginable adaptive career decision-making benefits from negative affect. Employing a Mixed Methods-Grounded Theory methodology, the present study tabulated the negative emotional reactions of college students to vocations that were self- or computer-reported. In addition, their answers to two investigative questions about the selection of their negative emotions were analyzed. From the data, three negative meta-emotions emerged as reactions to participants’ reported occupations; four adaptive purposes for their selected negative affect were also discovered. A theoretical framework and applicative suggestions from the findings are presented.
A Qualitative Review of Cruise Service Quality: Case Studies from Asia
Authors: Yoon Yeohyun , Cha Kyoung Cheon
Published: September 2020

Although the cruise sector is considered an ‘unreplaceable’ form of tourism, with the cruise industry recording steady growth over the years, there is a lack of research and analysis on cruise ships themselves. Accordingly, this study sought to determine whether service quality differences among ships operating in the Asian market could suggest broader implications for the sustainability of the cruise industry. We chose the SERVQUAL framework for the analysis; we also employed the multiple case study method and topic synthesis to compare the service quality of three ships. Of the ships investigated—the Costa Victoria, Diamond Princess, and Superstar Virgo—the Diamond Princess had the highest service quality. Based on the results, we outlined suggestions for improving the quality of cruise services, including introducing the latest large ships and high-tech facilities, complying with the departure and arrival times of sailing schedules, improving the ratio of crew members per passenger, establishing a cruise personnel training system, and expanding membership program operations.
A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm-Ratio DEA Approach for Assessing Sustainable Efficiency in Two-Echelon Supply Chains
Authors: Mozaffari Mohammad Reza , Ostovan Sahar , Fernandes Wanke Peter
Published: September 2020

Measuring sustainable efficiency is a wide research topic that has gained increased relevance over the course of the years, particularly in the field of supply chain management. In this paper, novel Data Envelopment Analysis—ratio data (DEA-R) models are used to assess sustainable efficiency in two-echelon supply chains based on endogenous factors. Genetic algorithms are employed to determine optimal productive weights for each echelon and the overall supply chain by taking into account the hidden correlation structures among them as expressed in non-linear multi-objective functions. A case study on 20 firefighting stations is presented to illustrate the approach proposed and its accuracy for decision-making, as long as the issues of pseudo inefficiency and over estimation of efficiency scores are mitigated. Results indicate that the method proposed is capable of reducing efficiency estimation biases due to endogenous sustainable factors by yielding overall scores lower than or equal to the product of the efficiencies of the individual stages.