bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Retrospective Evaluation of Metformin and/or Metformin Plus a New Polysaccharide Complex in Treating Severe Hyperinsulinism and Insulin Resistance in Obese Children and Adolescents with Metabolic Syndrome
Authors: Stagi Stefano , Ricci Franco , Bianconi Martina , Sammarco Maria , Municchi Giovanna , Toni Sonia , Lenzi Lorenzo , Verrotti Alberto , De Martino Maurizio
Published: May 2017

Background: Pharmacological treatment of obesity and glucose-insulin metabolism disorders in children may be more difficult than in adults. Thus, we evaluate the effects of metformin in comparison with metformin plus a polysaccharide complex (Policaptil Gel Retard®, PGR) on body weight and metabolic parameters in obese children and adolescents with metabolic syndrome (MetS). Patients and methods: We retrospectively collected 129 children and adolescents (67 girls, 62 boys; median age 12.6 years) treated for a minimum of two years with metformin and low glycemic index (LGI) diet. Of these, 71 patients were treated with metformin plus PGR after at least 12 months of metformin alone. To minimize the confounding effect of the LGI on auxological and metabolic parameters, the patients were compared with age-, sex-, and BMI-matched control group with obesity and MetS (51 subjects; 24 males, 27 females) treated only with a LGI diet. Assessments included lipids, glucose and insulin (fasting and after oral glucose tolerance test) concentrations. The Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR), Matsuda, insulinogenic and disposition indices were calculated. Results: Metformin treatment led to a significant reduction in BMI SDS (p < 0.0001), with a significant difference in ΔBMI SDS between patients and controls (p < 0.0001). Moreover, metformin treated patients showed a reduction in HOMA-IR (p < 0.0001), HbA1c levels (p < 0.0001) and a significant increase in Matsuda index (p < 0.0001) in respect to the reduction discovered in controls (p < 0.05). Moreover, in contrast to the group treated with metformin alone and controls, patients treated with metformin plus PGR showed a further reduction in BMI SDS (p < 0.0001), HOMA-IR (p < 0.0001), HbA1c (p < 0.0001), total, HDL and LDL cholesterol (p < 0.0001), as well as an increase in Matsuda (p < 0.0001), disposition (p < 0.005) and insulinogenic (respectively, p < 0.05 and p < 0.0001) indices. Conclusions: Metformin appears to show short-term efficacy in reducing BMI, adiposity and glucose and insulin parameters in obese children and adolescents with MetS. However, PGR added to metformin may be useful to potentiate weight loss and to improve glucose-insulin metabolism and adiposity parameters in these patients.
Pharmacist Intervention Program at Different Rent Levels of Geriatric Healthcare
Authors: Mestres Conxita , Agustí Anna , Hernandez Marta , Puerta Laura , Llagostera Blanca
Published: May 2017

As a pharmacy service giving pharmaceutical care at different levels of health care for elderly people, we needed a standardization procedure for recording and evaluating pharmacists’ interventions. Our objective was to homogenize pharmacist interventions; to know physicians’ acceptance of our recommendations, as well as the most prevalent drug related problems (DRP); and the impact of the pharmacists’ interventions. To achieve this goal we conducted a one year prospective study at two levels of health care: 176 nursing homes (EAR) (8828 patients) and 2 long-term and subacute care hospitals (HSS) (268 beds). Pharmacists’ interventions were recorded using the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists classification as the basis. Frequency of the different DRP and the level of response and acceptance on the part of physicians was determined. The Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI) was used to evaluate the impact of the interventions on the prescription quality. Patients’ mean age was 84.2 (EAR) and 80.7 (HSS), and in both cases, polypharmacy ≥ 9 drugs was around 63–69%. There were 4073 interventions done in EAR and 2560 in HSS. Level of response: 44% (EAR), 79% (HSS); degree of acceptance of the recommendations: 84% (EAR), 72% (HSS). Most frequent DRP: inappropriate dose, length of therapy, omissions, and financial impact. Drugs for the nervous system are those with the most DRP. MAI values/medication improved from 4.4 to 2.7 (EAR) and 3.8 to 1.7 (HSS). A normalized way of managing pharmacists’ interventions for different health care levels has been established. We are on the way to increasing collaborative work with physicians and we know which DRPs are most prevalent.
Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Bars for Enhancing the Flexural Performance of RC Beams Using Side-NSM Technique
Authors: Hosen Md. Akter , Alengaram U. Johnson , Jumaat Mohd Zamin , Sulong N. H. Ramli , Darain Kh. Mahfuz ud
Published: May 2017

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures require strengthening for numerous factors, such as increased load, modification of the structural systems, structural upgrade or errors in the design and construction stages. The side near-surface mounted (SNSM) strengthening technique with glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars is a relatively new emerging technique for enhancing the flexural capacities of existing RC elements. Nine RC rectangular beams were flexurally strengthened with this technique and tested under four-point bending loads until failure. The main goal of this study is to optimize the structural capacity of the RC beams by varying the amount of strengthening reinforcement and bond length. The experimental test results showed that strengthening with SNSM GFRP bars significantly enhanced the flexural responses of the specimens compared with the control specimen. The first cracking and ultimate loads, energy absorption capacities, ductility and stiffness were remarkably enhanced by the SNSM technique. It was also confirmed that the bond length of the strengthened reinforcement greatly influences the energy absorption capacities, ductility and stiffness. The effect of the bond length on these properties is more significant compared to the amount of strengthening reinforcement.
Electrospun Polycaprolactone/Aloe Vera_Chitosan Nanofibrous Asymmetric Membranes Aimed for Wound Healing Applications
Authors: Miguel Sónia , Ribeiro Maximiano , Coutinho Paula , Correia Ilídio
Published: May 2017

Today, none of the wound dressings available on the market is fully capable of reproducing all the features of native skin. Herein, an asymmetric electrospun membrane was produced to mimic both layers of skin. It comprises a top dense layer (manufactured with polycaprolactone) that was designed to provide mechanical support to the wound and a bottom porous layer (composed of chitosan and Aloe Vera) aimed to improve the bactericidal activity of the membrane and ultimately the healing process. The results obtained revealed that the produced asymmetric membranes displayed a porosity, wettability, as well as mechanical properties similar to those presented by the native skin. Fibroblast cells were able to adhere, spread, and proliferate on the surface of the membranes and the intrinsic structure of the two layers of the membrane is capable of avoiding the invasion of microorganisms while conferring bioactive properties. Such data reveals the potential of these asymmetric membranes, in the near future, to be applied as wound dressings.
Bin-Dog: A Robotic Platform for Bin Management in Orchards
Authors: Ye Yunxiang , Wang Zhaodong , Jones Dylan , He Long , Taylor Matthew , Hollinger Geoffrey , Zhang Qin
Published: May 2017

Bin management during apple harvest season is an important activity for orchards. Typically, empty and full bins are handled by tractor-mounted forklifts or bin trailers in two separate trips. In order to simplify this work process and improve work efficiency of bin management, the concept of a robotic bin-dog system is proposed in this study. This system is designed with a “go-over-the-bin” feature, which allows it to drive over bins between tree rows and complete the above process in one trip. To validate this system concept, a prototype and its control and navigation system were designed and built. Field tests were conducted in a commercial orchard to validate its key functionalities in three tasks including headland turning, straight-line tracking between tree rows, and “go-over-the-bin.” Tests of the headland turning showed that bin-dog followed a predefined path to align with an alleyway with lateral and orientation errors of 0.02 m and 1.5°. Tests of straight-line tracking showed that bin-dog could successfully track the alleyway centerline at speeds up to 1.00 m·s−1 with a RMSE offset of 0.07 m. The navigation system also successfully guided the bin-dog to complete the task of go-over-the-bin at a speed of 0.60 m·s−1. The successful validation tests proved that the prototype can achieve all desired functionality.
Multi-Scale Analysis of Very High Resolution Satellite Images Using Unsupervised Techniques
Authors: Sublime Jérémie , Troya-Galvis Andrés , Puissant Anne
Published: May 2017

This article is concerned with the use of unsupervised methods to process very high resolution satellite images with minimal or little human intervention. In a context where more and more complex and very high resolution satellite images are available, it has become increasingly difficult to propose learning sets for supervised algorithms to process such data and even more complicated to process them manually. Within this context, in this article we propose a fully unsupervised step by step method to process very high resolution images, making it possible to link clusters to the land cover classes of interest. For each step, we discuss the various challenges and state of the art algorithms to make the full process as efficient as possible. In particular, one of the main contributions of this article comes in the form of a multi-scale analysis clustering algorithm that we use during the processing of the image segments. Our proposed methods are tested on a very high resolution image (Pléiades) of the urban area around the French city of Strasbourg and show relevant results at each step of the process.
Learning Dual Multi-Scale Manifold Ranking for Semantic Segmentation of High-Resolution Images
Authors: Zhang Mi , Hu Xiangyun , Zhao Like , Lv Ye , Luo Min , Pang Shiyan
Published: May 2017

Semantic image segmentation has recently witnessed considerable progress by training deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The core issue of this technique is the limited capacity of CNNs to depict visual objects. Existing approaches tend to utilize approximate inference in a discrete domain or additional aides and do not have a global optimum guarantee. We propose the use of the multi-label manifold ranking (MR) method in solving the linear objective energy function in a continuous domain to delineate visual objects and solve these problems. We present a novel embedded single stream optimization method based on the MR model to avoid approximations without sacrificing expressive power. In addition, we propose a novel network, which we refer to as dual multi-scale manifold ranking (DMSMR) network, that combines the dilated, multi-scale strategies with the single stream MR optimization method in the deep learning architecture to further improve the performance. Experiments on high resolution images, including close-range and remote sensing datasets, demonstrate that the proposed approach can achieve competitive accuracy without additional aides in an end-to-end manner.
Characteristics of Evapotranspiration of Urban Lawns in a Sub-Tropical Megacity and Its Measurement by the ‘Three Temperature Model + Infrared Remote Sensing’ Method
Authors: Qiu Guoyu , Tan Shenglin , Wang Yue , Yu Xiaohui , Yan Chunhua
Published: May 2017

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the most important factors in urban water and energy regimes. Because of the extremely high spatial heterogeneity of urban area, accurately measuring ET using conventional methods remains a challenge due to their fetch requirements and low spatial resolution. The goals of this study were to investigate the characteristics of urban ET and its main influencing factors and subsequently to improve a fetch-free, high spatial resolution method for urban ET estimation. The Bowen ratio and the ‘three-temperature model (3T model) + infrared remote sensing (RS)’ methods were used for these purposes. The results of this study are listed in the following lines. (1) Urban ET is mainly affected by solar radiation and the effects of air humidity, wind velocity, and air temperature are very weak; (2) The average daily, monthly, and annual ETs of the urban lawn are 2.70, 60–100, and 990 mm, respectively, which are obvious compared with other landscapes; (3) The ratio of ET to precipitation is 0.65 in the wet season and 2.6 in the dry season, indicating that most of the precipitation is evaporated; (4) The fetch-free approach of ‘3T model + infrared RS’ is verified to be an accurate method for measuring urban ET and it agrees well with the Bowen ratio method (R2 is over 0.93 and the root mean square error is less than 0.04 mm h−1); (5) The spatial heterogeneity of urban ET can also be accurately estimated by the proposed approach. These results are helpful for improving the accuracy of ET estimation in urban areas and are useful for urban water and environmental planning and management.
Evaluation of Error in IMERG Precipitation Estimates under Different Topographic Conditions and Temporal Scales over Mexico
Authors: Mayor Yandy , Tereshchenko Iryna , Fonseca-Hernández Mariam , Pantoja Diego , Montes Jorge
Published: May 2017

This study evaluates the precipitation product of the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) over the Mexican region during the period between April 2014 and October 2015 using three different time scales for cumulative precipitation (hourly, daily and seasonal). Also, the IMERG data have been analyzed as a function of elevation given the rain gauges from the automatic meteorological stations network, located within the area of study, which are used as a reference. In the present study, continuous and categorical statistics are used to evaluate IMERG. It was found that IMERG showed better performance at the daily and seasonal time scale resolutions. While hourly precipitation estimates reached a mean correlation coefficient of 0.35, the daily and seasonal precipitation estimates achieved correlations over 0.51. In addition, the IMERG precipitation product was able to reproduce the diurnal and daily cycles of the average precipitation with a trend towards overestimating rain gauges. However, extreme precipitation events were highly underestimated, as shown by relative biases of −61% and −46% for the hourly and daily precipitation analysis, respectively. It was also found that IMERG tends to improve precipitation detection and to decrease magnitude errors over the higher terrain elevations of Mexico.
Hypergraph Embedding for Spatial-Spectral Joint Feature Extraction in Hyperspectral Images
Authors: Sun Yubao , Wang Sujuan , Liu Qingshan , Hang Renlong , Liu Guangcan
Published: May 2017

The fusion of spatial and spectral information in hyperspectral images (HSIs) is useful for improving the classification accuracy. However, this approach usually results in features of higher dimension and the curse of the dimensionality problem may arise resulting from the small ratio between the number of training samples and the dimensionality of features. To ease this problem, we propose a novel algorithm for spatial-spectral feature extraction based on hypergraph embedding. Firstly, each HSI pixel is regarded as a vertex and the joint of extended morphological profiles (EMP) and spectral features is adopted as the feature associated with the vertex. A hypergraph is then constructed by the K-Nearest-Neighbor method, in which each pixel and its most K relevant pixels are linked as one hyperedge to represent the complex relationships between HSI pixels. Secondly, the hypergraph embedding model is designed to learn a low dimensional feature with the reservation of geometric structure of HSI. An adaptive hyperedge weight estimation scheme is also introduced to preserve the prominent hyperedges by the regularization constraint on the weight. Finally, the learned low-dimensional features are fed to the support vector machine (SVM) for classification. The experimental results on three benchmark hyperspectral databases are presented. They highlight the importance of spatial–spectral joint features embedding for the accurate classification of HSI data. The weight estimation is better for further improving the classification accuracy. These experimental results verify the proposed method.
Trends in Greenness and Snow Cover in Alaska’s Arctic National Parks, 2000–2016
Authors: Swanson David
Published: May 2017

In cold-limited arctic environments, the duration and timing of the snow cover and the vegetation green season have major ecological implications. I monitored the phenology of snow cover and greenness using MODIS Terra satellite data for the years 2000 to 2016 in the 5 National Parks of northern Alaska, USA. Mann-Kendall trend tests showed that the end of the continuous snow season and midpoint of spring green-up became significantly earlier in parts of the study area over the 16-year period. Using the observed relationship between thaw degree-days at Kotzebue, Alaska and dates of snow-off and half green-up in nearby lowland tundra for the 16 years of MODIS data, I reconstructed the dates of snow-off and half green-up from long-term Kotzebue weather records back to 1937. The average snow-off and green-up dates probably became earlier by about 6 days over this 80-year time interval. Remote sensing of fall vegetation senescence and establishment of the snow cover were less reliable than the spring events due to cloudiness and low sun angles. The annual maximum normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) generally did not increase significantly from 2001 to 2016, except in places where vegetation was recovering from forest fires.
Infrared Thermography Sensor for Temperature and Speed Measurement of Moving Material
Authors: Usamentiaga Rubén , García Daniel
Published: May 2017

Infrared thermography offers significant advantages in monitoring the temperature of objects over time, but crucial aspects need to be addressed. Movements between the infrared camera and the inspected material seriously affect the accuracy of the calculated temperature. These movements can be the consequence of solid objects that are moved, molten metal poured, material on a conveyor belt, or just vibrations. This work proposes a solution for monitoring the temperature of material in these scenarios. In this work both real movements and vibrations are treated equally, proposing a unified solution for both problems. The three key steps of the proposed procedure are image rectification, motion estimation and motion compensation. Image rectification calculates a front-parallel projection of the image that simplifies the estimation and compensation of the movement. Motion estimation describes the movement using a mathematical model, and estimates the coefficients using robust methods adapted to infrared images. Motion is finally compensated for in order to produce the correct temperature time history of the monitored material regardless of the movement. The result is a robust sensor for temperature of moving material that can also be used to measure the speed of the material. Different experiments are carried out to validate the proposed method in laboratory and real environments. Results show excellent performance.
Development towards Compact Nitrocellulose-Based Interferometric Biochips for Dry Eye MMP9 Label-Free In-Situ Diagnosis
Authors: Santamaría Beatriz , Laguna María , López-Romero David , Hernandez Ana , Sanza Francisco , Lavín Álvaro , Casquel Rafael , Maigler María , Espinosa Rocío , Holgado Miguel
Published: May 2017

A novel compact optical biochip based on a thin layer-sensing surface of nitrocellulose is used for in-situ label-free detection of metalloproteinase (MMP9) related to dry eye disease. In this article, a new integrated chip with different interferometric transducers layout with an optimal sensing surface is reported for the first time. We demonstrate that specific antibodies can be immobilized onto these transducers with a very low volume of sample and with good orientation. Many sensing transducers constitute the presented biochip in order to yield statistical data and stability in the acquired measurements. As a result, we report the recognition curve for pure recombinant MMP9, tests of model tears with MMP9, and real tear performance from patients, with a promising limit of detection.
Optimization-Based Sensor Fusion of GNSS and IMU Using a Moving Horizon Approach
Authors: Girrbach Fabian , Hol Jeroen , Bellusci Giovanni , Diehl Moritz
Published: May 2017

The rise of autonomous systems operating close to humans imposes new challenges in terms of robustness and precision on the estimation and control algorithms. Approaches based on nonlinear optimization, such as moving horizon estimation, have been shown to improve the accuracy of the estimated solution compared to traditional filter techniques. This paper introduces an optimization-based framework for multi-sensor fusion following a moving horizon scheme. The framework is applied to the often occurring estimation problem of motion tracking by fusing measurements of a global navigation satellite system receiver and an inertial measurement unit. The resulting algorithm is used to estimate position, velocity, and orientation of a maneuvering airplane and is evaluated against an accurate reference trajectory. A detailed study of the influence of the horizon length on the quality of the solution is presented and evaluated against filter-like and batch solutions of the problem. The versatile configuration possibilities of the framework are finally used to analyze the estimated solutions at different evaluation times exposing a nearly linear behavior of the sensor fusion problem.
ROI-Based On-Board Compression for Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Images on GPU
Authors: Giordano Rossella , Guccione Pietro
Published: May 2017

In recent years, hyperspectral sensors for Earth remote sensing have become very popular. Such systems are able to provide the user with images having both spectral and spatial information. The current hyperspectral spaceborne sensors are able to capture large areas with increased spatial and spectral resolution. For this reason, the volume of acquired data needs to be reduced on board in order to avoid a low orbital duty cycle due to limited storage space. Recently, literature has focused the attention on efficient ways for on-board data compression. This topic is a challenging task due to the difficult environment (outer space) and due to the limited time, power and computing resources. Often, the hardware properties of Graphic Processing Units (GPU) have been adopted to reduce the processing time using parallel computing. The current work proposes a framework for on-board operation on a GPU, using NVIDIA’s CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) architecture. The algorithm aims at performing on-board compression using the target’s related strategy. In detail, the main operations are: the automatic recognition of land cover types or detection of events in near real time in regions of interest (this is a user related choice) with an unsupervised classifier; the compression of specific regions with space-variant different bit rates including Principal Component Analysis (PCA), wavelet and arithmetic coding; and data volume management to the Ground Station. Experiments are provided using a real dataset taken from an AVIRIS (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer) airborne sensor in a harbor area.
An Adaptive Orientation Estimation Method for Magnetic and Inertial Sensors in the Presence of Magnetic Disturbances
Authors: Fan Bingfei , Li Qingguo , Wang Chao , Liu Tao
Published: May 2017

Magnetic and inertial sensors have been widely used to estimate the orientation of human segments due to their low cost, compact size and light weight. However, the accuracy of the estimated orientation is easily affected by external factors, especially when the sensor is used in an environment with magnetic disturbances. In this paper, we propose an adaptive method to improve the accuracy of orientation estimations in the presence of magnetic disturbances. The method is based on existing gradient descent algorithms, and it is performed prior to sensor fusion algorithms. The proposed method includes stationary state detection and magnetic disturbance severity determination. The stationary state detection makes this method immune to magnetic disturbances in stationary state, while the magnetic disturbance severity determination helps to determine the credibility of magnetometer data under dynamic conditions, so as to mitigate the negative effect of the magnetic disturbances. The proposed method was validated through experiments performed on a customized three-axis instrumented gimbal with known orientations. The error of the proposed method and the original gradient descent algorithms were calculated and compared. Experimental results demonstrate that in stationary state, the proposed method is completely immune to magnetic disturbances, and in dynamic conditions, the error caused by magnetic disturbance is reduced by 51.2% compared with original MIMU gradient descent algorithm.
A Low-Complexity DOA and Polarization Method of Polarization-Sensitive Array
Authors: Dong Wen , Diao Ming , Gao Lipeng , Liu Lutao
Published: May 2017

This paper proposes a low-complexity method to estimate the direction of arrival and polarization based on the polarization sensitive array (PSA) which is composed of cross-dipoles. We built a half-quaternions model through the Cayley–Dickson form to remove the redundant information. Then, the directions of arrival (DOAs) were estimated via the root-MUSIC algorithm. Finally, the polarizations were estimated by generalized eigenvalue method. Unlike some existing searching algorithms, such as multiple signal classification (MUSIC), this method can avoid the peak searching and maintains high estimation accuracy. Moreover, we use the oblique projection operators to filter out the interference signals which are decoys of the target signal. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and favorable performance of the proposed method.
Bodily Expression Support for Creative Dance Education by Grasping-Type Musical Interface with Embedded Motion and Grasp Sensors
Authors: Yamaguchi Tomoyuki , Kadone Hideki
Published: May 2017

Dance has been made mandatory as one of the physical education courses in Japan because it can cultivate capacities for expression and communication. Among several types of dance education, creative dance especially contributes to the cultivation of these capacities. However, creative dance requires some level of particular skills, as well as creativity, and it is difficult to presuppose these pre-requisites in beginner-level dancers without experience. We propose a novel supporting device for dance beginners to encourage creative dance performance by continuously generating musical sounds in real-time in accordance with their bodily movements. It has embedded sensors developed for this purpose. Experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the device were conducted with ten beginner-level dancers. Using the proposed device, the subjects demonstrated enhanced creative dance movements with greater variety, evaluated in terms of Laban dance movement description. Also, using the device, they performed with better accuracy and repeatability in a task where they produced an imagined circular trajectory by hand. The proposed interface is effective in terms of creative dance activity and accuracy of motion generation for beginner-level dancers.
A Stretchable Electromagnetic Absorber Fabricated Using Screen Printing Technology
Authors: Jeong Heijun , Lim Sungjoon
Published: May 2017

A stretchable electromagnetic absorber fabricated using screen printing technology is proposed in this paper. We used a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate to fabricate the stretchable absorber since PDMS exhibits good dielectric properties, flexibility, and restoring capabilities. DuPont PE872 (DuPont, Wilmington, CT, USA), a stretchable silver conductive ink, was used for the screen printing technique. The reflection coefficient of the absorber was measured using a vector network analyzer and a waveguide. The proposed absorber was designed as a rectangular patch unit cell, wherein the top of the unit cell acted as the patch and the bottom formed the ground. The size of the patch was 8 mm × 7 mm. The prototype of the absorber consisted of two unit cells such that it fits into the WR-90 waveguide (dimensions: 22.86 mm × 10.16 mm) for experimental measurement. Before stretching the absorber, the resonant frequency was 11 GHz. When stretched along the x-direction, the resonant frequency shifted by 0.1 GHz, from 11 to 10.9 GHz, demonstrating 99% absorption. Furthermore, when stretched along the y-direction, the resonant frequency shifted by 0.6 GHz, from 11 to 10.4 GHz, demonstrating 99% absorption.
Current and Potential Developments of Cortisol Aptasensing towards Point-of-Care Diagnostics (POTC)
Authors: Zainol Abidin Azrul , Rahim Ruslinda , Md Arshad Mohd , Fatin Nabilah Mohd , Voon Chun , Tang Thean-Hock , Citartan Marimuthu
Published: May 2017

Anxiety is a psychological problem that often emerges during the normal course of human life. The detection of anxiety often involves a physical exam and a self-reporting questionnaire. However, these approaches have limitations, as the data might lack reliability and consistency upon application to the same population over time. Furthermore, there might be varying understanding and interpretations of the particular question by the participant, which necessitating the approach of using biomarker-based measurement for stress diagnosis. The most prominent biomarker related to stress, hormone cortisol, plays a key role in the fight-or-flight situation, alters the immune response, and suppresses the digestive and the reproductive systems. We have taken the endeavour to review the available aptamer-based biosensor (aptasensor) for cortisol detection. The potential point-of-care diagnostic strategies that could be harnessed for the aptasensing of cortisol were also envisaged.
Pseudorange Measurement Method Based on AIS Signals
Authors: Zhang Jingbo , Zhang Shufang , Wang Jinpeng
Published: May 2017

In order to use the existing automatic identification system (AIS) to provide additional navigation and positioning services, a complete pseudorange measurements solution is presented in this paper. Through the mathematical analysis of the AIS signal, the bit-0-phases in the digital sequences were determined as the timestamps. Monte Carlo simulation was carried out to compare the accuracy of the zero-crossing and differential peak, which are two timestamp detection methods in the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Considering the low-speed and low-dynamic motion characteristics of ships, an optimal estimation method based on the minimum mean square error is proposed to improve detection accuracy. Furthermore, the α difference filter algorithm was used to achieve the fusion of the optimal estimation results of the two detection methods. The results show that the algorithm can greatly improve the accuracy of pseudorange estimation under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. In order to verify the effectiveness of the scheme, prototypes containing the measurement scheme were developed and field tests in Xinghai Bay of Dalian (China) were performed. The test results show that the pseudorange measurement accuracy was better than 28 m (σ) without any modification of the existing AIS system.
Multimodal Bio-Inspired Tactile Sensing Module for Surface Characterization
Authors: Alves de Oliveira Thiago , Cretu Ana-Maria , Petriu Emil
Published: May 2017

Robots are expected to recognize the properties of objects in order to handle them safely and efficiently in a variety of applications, such as health and elder care, manufacturing, or high-risk environments. This paper explores the issue of surface characterization by monitoring the signals acquired by a novel bio-inspired tactile probe in contact with ridged surfaces. The tactile module comprises a nine Degree of Freedom Microelectromechanical Magnetic, Angular Rate, and Gravity system (9-DOF MEMS MARG) and a deep MEMS pressure sensor embedded in a compliant structure that mimics the function and the organization of mechanoreceptors in human skin as well as the hardness of the human skin. When the modules tip slides over a surface, the MARG unit vibrates and the deep pressure sensor captures the overall normal force exerted. The module is evaluated in two experiments. The first experiment compares the frequency content of the data collected in two setups: one when the module is mounted over a linear motion carriage that slides four grating patterns at constant velocities; the second when the module is carried by a robotic finger in contact with the same grating patterns while performing a sliding motion, similar to the exploratory motion employed by humans to detect object roughness. As expected, in the linear setup, the magnitude spectrum of the sensors’ output shows that the module can detect the applied stimuli with frequencies ranging from 3.66 Hz to 11.54 Hz with an overall maximum error of ±0.1 Hz. The second experiment shows how localized features extracted from the data collected by the robotic finger setup over seven synthetic shapes can be used to classify them. The classification method consists on applying multiscale principal components analysis prior to the classification with a multilayer neural network. Achieved accuracies from 85.1% to 98.9% for the various sensor types demonstrate the usefulness of traditional MEMS as tactile sensors embedded into flexible substrates.
Atmospheric Sampling on Ascension Island Using Multirotor UAVs
Authors: Greatwood Colin , Richardson Thomas , Freer Jim , Thomas Rick , MacKenzie A. , Brownlow Rebecca , Lowry David , Fisher Rebecca , Nisbet Euan
Published: May 2017

As part of an NERC-funded project investigating the southern methane anomaly, a team drawn from the Universities of Bristol, Birmingham and Royal Holloway flew small unmanned multirotors from Ascension Island for the purposes of atmospheric sampling. The objective of these flights was to collect air samples from below, within and above a persistent atmospheric feature, the Trade Wind Inversion, in order to characterise methane concentrations and their isotopic composition. These parameters allow the methane in the different air masses to be tied to different source locations, which can be further analysed using back trajectory atmospheric computer modelling. This paper describes the campaigns as a whole including the design of the bespoke eight rotor aircraft and the operational requirements that were needed in order to collect targeted multiple air samples up to 2.5 km above the ground level in under 20 min of flight time. Key features of the system described include real-time feedback of temperature and humidity, as well as system health data. This enabled detailed targeting of the air sampling design to be realised and planned during the flight mission on the downward leg, a capability that is invaluable in the presence of uncertainty in the pre-flight meteorological data. Environmental considerations are also outlined together with the flight plans that were created in order to rapidly fly vertical transects of the atmosphere whilst encountering changing wind conditions. Two sampling campaigns were carried out in September 2014 and July 2015 with over one hundred high altitude sampling missions. Lessons learned are given throughout, including those associated with operating in the testing environment encountered on Ascension Island.
Management and Leadership Approaches to Health Promotion and Sustainable Workplaces: A Scoping Review
Authors: Eriksson Andrea , Orvik Arne , Strandmark Margaretha , Nordsteien Anita , Torp Steffen
Published: May 2017

Whole-system approaches linking workplace health promotion to the development of a sustainable working life have been advocated. The aim of this scoping review was to map out if and how whole-system approaches to workplace health promotion with a focus on management, leadership, and economic efficiency have been used in Nordic health promotion research. In addition, we wanted to investigate, in depth, if and how management and/or leadership approaches related to sustainable workplaces are addressed. Eighty-three articles were included in an analysis of the studies’ aims and content, research design, and country. For a further in-depth qualitative content analysis we excluded 63 articles in which management and/or leadership were only one of several factors studied. In the in-depth analysis of the 20 remaining studies, four main categories connected to sustainable workplaces emerged: studies including a whole system understanding; studies examining success factors for the implementation of workplace health promotion; studies using sustainability for framing the study; and studies highlighting health risks with an explicit economic focus. Aspects of sustainability were, in most articles, only included for framing the importance of the studies, and only few studies addressed aspects of sustainable workplaces from the perspective of a whole-system approach. Implications from this scoping review are that future Nordic workplace health promotion research needs to integrate health promotion and economic efficiency to a greater extent, in order to contribute to societal effectiveness and sustainability.
Alternative Approaches to Food: Community Supported Agriculture in Urban China
Authors: Krul Kees , Ho Peter
Published: May 2017

One of the most remarkable features of China’s development path is its large-scale and fast-paced urbanization. As cities already accommodate more than half of China’s population, new challenges to urban food systems have emerged concurrently. Concerns over environmental degradation and food safety have provoked growing dissatisfaction with China’s food regime. Amidst these concerns, the aim of this paper is to study the role of new and alternative approaches to food, focusing in on the question of how community supported agriculture (CSA) can deal with the food-related issues emerging from China’s development. The paper adopts Granovetter’s notions of social embeddedness to describe CSA’s relational role in consumer-farmer dynamics, as well as the structural role within its broader relational context. Empirical data is drawn from surveys distributed among CSA farms, and interviews with key stakeholders in the Chinese CSA movement. The study finds that the model of CSA demonstrates an innovative approach to deal with food safety issues, address sustainability, and operate in an environment where future food demands are most critical. Although the movement’s structural embeddedness is bound by several limitations and contradictions, it is argued that the CSA model offers important insights and adds value into ameliorating China’s food systems.
Sustopia or Cosmopolis? A Critical Reflection on the Sustainable City
Authors: Beumer Carijn
Published: May 2017

A broader perspective on the role of cities and their relation to their inhabitants and the planet is essential to effectively answer urgent sustainability questions that emerge in and beyond cities. This essay provides a critical reflection on the notion of the sustainable city. The central question discussed is: how can the ideal of a sustainable city be best conceptualised? Through exploring historic and contemporary theories on the urban-nature-people relationship and analysing some current sustainable city projects with the help of Cultural Theory, it is argued that creating a sustainable city paradoxically means parting with Sustopia. Sustopia often turns into Dystopia when a single perspective on constructing a sustainable city becomes dominant. In order to assist the process of meaningfully conceptualising the sustainable city, the notion of Cosmopolis is re-explored. This notion of a city embraces creativity, critical practice, adaptation, and it places urban development and planning in a context of multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Patent Citations and Financial Analysts’ Long-Term Growth Forecasts
Authors: Bae Jincheol , Hur Wonchang , Lee Jaehong , Goh Jaimin
Published: May 2017

This paper examines the influence of patent citations, a proxy for the quality of firms’ innovation outputs, on financial analysts’ long-term growth forecasts for firms. We find that financial analysts are more likely to issue long-term forecasts for firms with higher patent citations. In addition, we find that financial analysts’ long-term forecasts are more positive for firms with high patent citations. These results imply that patent citations increase financial analysts’ coverage, and result in more positive forecasts for firms with impactful patents. Considering that financial analysts play important roles in allocating financial resources in capital markets, our findings suggest that patents are valuable assets for firms in securing capital from capital markets, and are thus essential for the sustainable growth of firms.
Adaptive Effectiveness of Irrigated Area Expansion in Mitigating the Impacts of Climate Change on Crop Yields in Northern China
Authors: Zhang Tianyi , Wang Jinxia , Teng Yishu
Published: May 2017

To improve adaptive capacity and further strengthen the role of irrigation in mitigating climate change impacts, the Chinese government has planned to expand irrigated areas by 4.4% by the 2030s. Examining the adaptive potential of irrigated area expansion under climate change is therefore critical. Here, we assess the effects of irrigated area expansion on crop yields based on county-level data during 1980–2011 in northern China and estimate climate impacts under irrigated area scenarios in the 2030s. Based on regression analysis, there is a statistically significant effect of irrigated area expansion on reducing negative climate impacts. More irrigated areas indicate less heat and drought impacts. Irrigated area expansion will alleviate yield reduction by 0.7–0.8% in the future but associated yield benefits will still not compensate for greater adverse climate impacts. Yields are estimated to decrease by 4.0–6.5% under future climate conditions when an additional 4.4% of irrigated area is established, and no fundamental yield increase with an even further 10% or 15% expansion of irrigated area is predicted. This finding suggests that expected adverse climate change risks in the 2030s cannot be mitigated by expanding irrigated areas. A combination of this and other adaptation programs is needed to guarantee grain production under more serious drought stresses in the future.
Low Carbon Economy Performance Analysis with the Intertemporal Effect of Capital in China
Authors: Zhao Xinna , Zhong Chongwen
Published: May 2017

The “New Normal” of Chinese economy represents the importance of economic performance. To analyze the provincial performance of the low-carbon economy in China, this paper constructed a three-stage dynamic Malmquist model considering the evolutionary promotion of productivity and technical progress. This paper incorporates the lag effect of capital accumulation into the performance evaluation to ensure transitivity and continuity. Furthermore, the inefficiency of the low-carbon economy arises from the disadvantages of resources endowments; therefore, it is necessary to eliminate these to evaluate managerial performance. This paper not only evaluates the provincial performance of the low-carbon economy but also suggests the sources and impetus of regional low-carbon economy development to find feasible transition paths. The empirical results reveal that the performance of the low-carbon economy presents a gradient distribution with obvious distinctions among the eastern, central, and western regions. Tianjin and Hebei should emphasize the optimal allocation of their own resources. Jiangxi and Hunan, by contrast, should focus on the perfection of the resources endowments.
The Significance of Forests and Algae in CO2 Balance: A Hungarian Case Study
Authors: Bai Attila , Popp József , Pető Károly , Szőke Irén , Harangi-Rákos Mónika , Gabnai Zoltán
Published: May 2017

This study presents the sequestration and emissions of forests and algae related to CO2 while providing a comparison to other biomass sources (arable crops, short rotation coppices). The goal of the paper is to analyze the impact of the current CO2 balance of forests and the future prospects for algae. Our calculations are based on data, not only from the literature but, in the case of algae, from our own previous experimental work. It was concluded that the CO2 sequestration and natural gas saving of forests is typically 3.78 times higher than the emissions resulting from the production technology and from the burning process. The economic and environmental protection-related efficiency operate in opposite directions. The CO2 sequestration ability of algae can primarily be utilized when connected to power plants. The optimal solution could be algae production integrated with biogas power plants, since plant sizes are smaller and algae may play a role, not only in the elimination of CO2 emissions and the utilization of heat but also in wastewater purification.
Walkability and Street Intersections in Rural-Urban Fringes: A Decision Aiding Evaluation Procedure
Authors: Blecic Ivan , Canu Dario , Cecchini Arnaldo , Congiu Tanja , Fancello Giovanna
Published: May 2017

We propose a decision-aiding evaluation procedure (i) for classifying road crossings based on their impact on walkability and, subsequently, (ii) for prioritising street improvements, in urban-rural fringe areas. In the peripheral urban-rural fringes, pedestrian mobility is usually less developed and people generally depend more on cars for their everyday chores. Partly this is inevitable given the structural features and supply of services and activities in such areas, but part is due to a frequent neglect of pedestrian mobility in planning and urban design. Measures to improve this state of affairs can include the design of more pedestrian-friendly environments offering to potential users a greater level of security, comfort and convenience when walking to their designated destinations. Our evaluation procedure combines a walkability assessment methodology with the ELECTRE TRI rating procedure, in order to assist planners and decision makers in designing physical streets to enhance the continuity, safety and quality of pedestrian paths. Improving the walking accessibility in the fringe areas of towns is a way to reduce the physical and perceptual distance which separates these contexts from the rest of the city, thus leading to a progressive integration of urban functions.