bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
NLOS Mitigation in Sparse Anchor Environments with the Misclosure Check Algorithm
Authors: Wang Lei , Chen Ruizhi , Shen Lili , Qiu Haiyang , Li Ming , Zhang Peng , Pan Yuanjin
Published: April 2019

The presence of None-line-of-sight (NLOS) is one of the major challenging issues in time of arrival (TOA) based source localization, especially for the sparse anchor scenarios. Sparse anchors can reduce the system deployment cost, so this has become increasingly popular in the source location. However, fewer anchors bring new challenges to ensure localization precision and reliability, especially in NLOS environments. The maximum likelihood (ML) estimation is the most popular location estimator for its simplicity and efficiency, while it becomes extremely difficult to reliably identify the NLOS measurements when the redundant observations are not enough. In this study, we proposed an NLOS detection algorithm called misclosure check (MC) to overcome this issue, which intends to provide a more reliable location in the sparse anchor environment. The MC algorithm checks the misclosure of different triangles and then obtains the possible NLOS from these misclosures. By forming multiple misclosure conditions, the MC algorithm can identify NLOS measurements reliably, even in a sparse anchor environment. The performance of the MC algorithm is evaluated in a typical sparse anchor environment and the results indicate that the MC algorithm achieves promising NLOS identification capacity without abundant redundant measurements. The real data test also confirmed that the MC algorithm achieves better position precision than other three robust location estimators in an NLOS environment since it can correctly identify more NLOS measurements.
Remote Sensing Estimation of Sea Surface Salinity from GOCI Measurements in the Southern Yellow Sea
Authors: Sun Deyong , Su Xiaoping , Qiu Zhongfeng , Wang Shengqiang , Mao Zhihua , He Yijun
Published: April 2019

Knowledge about the spatiotemporal distribution of sea surface salinity (SSS) provides valuable and important information for understanding various marine biogeochemical processes and ecosystems, especially for those coastal waters significantly affected by human activities. Remote-sensing techniques have been used to monitor salinity in the open ocean with their advantages of wide-area surveys and real-time monitoring. However, potential challenges remain when using satellite data with coarse spatiotemporal resolutions, leading to a loss of valuable information. In the current study, based on the local dataset collected over the southern Yellow Sea (SYS), a region-customized algorithm was developed to estimate SSS by using the remote sensing reflectance. The model evaluations indicated that our algorithm yielded good SSS estimation, with a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.29 psu and a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 0.75%. Satellite-derived SSS results compared well with those derived from in situ observations, further suggesting the good performance of our developed algorithm for the study regions. We applied this algorithm to Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) data for the month of August from 2011 to 2018 in the SYS, and produced the spatial distribution patterns of the SSS for August of each year. The SSS values were high in offshore waters and lower in coastal waters, especially in the Yangtze River estuary. The negative correlation between the monthly Changjiang River discharge (CRD) and SSS (R = −0.71, p < 0.001) near the Yangtze River estuary was observed, suggesting that the SSS distribution in the Yangtze River estuary was potentially influenced by the CRD. In offshore waters, the correlation between SSS and CRD was weak (R < 0.2), suggesting that the riverine discharge’s effect might be weak.
Segmentation of Online Ferrograph Images with Strong Interference Based on Uniform Discrete Curvelet Transformation
Authors: Han Leng , Feng Song , Qiu Guang , Luo Jiufei , Xiao Hong , Mao Junhong
Published: April 2019

Through real-time acquisition of the visual characteristics of wear debris in lube oil, an on-line visual ferrograph (OLVF) achieves online monitoring of equipment wear in practice. However, since a large number of bubbles can exist in lube oil and appear as a dynamically changing interference shadow in OLVF ferrograms, traditional algorithms may easily misidentify the interference shadow as wear debris, resulting in a large error in the extracted wear debris characteristic. Based on this possibility, a jam-proof uniform discrete curvelet transformation (UDCT)-based method for the binarization of wear debris images was proposed. Through multiscale analysis of the OLVF ferrograms using UDCT and nonlinear transformation of UDCT coefficients, low-frequency suppression and high-frequency denoising of wear debris images were conducted. Then, the Otsu algorithm was used to achieve binarization of wear debris images under strong interference influence.
Wi-PoS: A Low-Cost, Open Source Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Hardware Platform with Long Range Sub-GHz Backbone
Authors: Van Herbruggen Ben , Jooris Bart , Rossey Jen , Ridolfi Matteo , Macoir Nicola , Van den Brande Quinten , Lemey Sam , De Poorter Eli
Published: April 2019

Ultra-wideband (UWB) localization is one of the most promising approaches for indoor localization due to its accurate positioning capabilities, immunity against multipath fading, and excellent resilience against narrowband interference. However, UWB researchers are currently limited by the small amount of feasible open source hardware that is publicly available. We developed a new open source hardware platform, Wi-PoS, for precise UWB localization based on Decawave’s DW1000 UWB transceiver with several unique features: support of both long-range sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz back-end communication between nodes, flexible interfacing with external UWB antennas, and an easy implementation of the MAC layer with the Time-Annotated Instruction Set Computer (TAISC) framework. Both hardware and software are open source and all parameters of the UWB ranging can be adjusted, calibrated, and analyzed. This paper explains the main specifications of the hardware platform, illustrates design decisions, and evaluates the performance of the board in terms of range, accuracy, and energy consumption. The accuracy of the ranging system was below 10 cm in an indoor lab environment at distances up to 5 m, and accuracy smaller than 5 cm was obtained at 50 and 75 m in an outdoor environment. A theoretical model was derived for predicting the path loss and the influence of the most important ground reflection. At the same time, the average energy consumption of the hardware was very low with only 81 mA for a tag node and 63 mA for the active anchor nodes, permitting the system to run for several days on a mobile battery pack and allowing easy and fast deployment on sites without an accessible power supply or backbone network. The UWB hardware platform demonstrated flexibility, easy installation, and low power consumption.
Measuring Reference-Free Total Displacements of Piles and Columns Using Low-Cost, Battery-Powered, Efficient Wireless Intelligent Sensors (LEWIS2)
Authors: Aguero Marlon , Ozdagli Ali , Moreu Fernando
Published: April 2019

Currently, over half of the U.S.’s railroad bridges are more than 100 years old. Railroad managers ensure that the proper Maintenance, Repair, and Replacement (MRR) of rail infrastructure is prioritized to safely adapt to the increasing traffic demand. By 2035, the demand for U.S. railroad transportation will increase by 88%, which indicates that considerable expenditure is necessary to upgrade rail infrastructure. Railroad bridge managers need to use their limited funds for bridge MRR to make informed decisions about safety. Consequently, they require economical and reliable methods to receive objective data about bridge displacements under service loads. Current methods of measuring displacements are often expensive. Wired sensors, such as Linear Variable Differential Transformers (LVDTs), require time-consuming installation and involve high labor and maintenance costs. Wireless sensors (WS) are easier to install and maintain but are in general technologically complex and costly. This paper summarizes the development and validation of LEWIS2, the second version of the real-time, low-cost, efficient wireless intelligent sensor (LEWIS) for measuring and autonomously storing reference-free total transverse displacements. The new features of LEWIS2 include portability, accuracy, cost-effectiveness, and readiness for field application. This research evaluates the effectiveness of LEWIS2 for measuring displacements through a series of laboratory experiments. The experiments demonstrate that LEWIS2 can accurately estimate reference-free total displacements, with a maximum error of only 11% in comparison with the LVDT, while it costs less than 5% of the average price of commercial wireless sensors.
Modelling and Laboratory Tests of the Temperature Influence on the Efficiency of the Energy Harvesting System Based on MFC Piezoelectric Transducers
Authors: Płaczek Marek , Kokot Grzegorz
Published: April 2019

Macro Fibre Composites (MFC) are very effective piezoelectric transducers that, among others, can be used as elements of energy harvesting systems. The possibility to generate electric energy, for example, from mechanical vibrations in order to power electrical elements that could not be powered in another way (using wires or batteries) is a great solution. However, such a kind of systems has to be designed by considering all phenomena that could occur during the exploitation of the system. One of those phenomena is the temperature fluctuation during the device operation. In the presented research work, a mathematical model of the energy harvesting system based on MFC transducers is proposed. The mathematical model was validated by laboratory tests conducted on a laboratory stand equipped with a universal mechanical testing machine (Instron Electropuls 10000) and a thermal chamber. During the tests, the samples were subjected to cyclic excitation simulating the operation of the system in various environmental conditions by forcing changes in the system operation temperature with the constant conditions of its excitation.
Prediction of Marine Pycnocline Based on Kernel Support Vector Machine and Convex Optimization Technology
Authors: Yang Jiachen , Liu Lin , Zhang Linfeng , Li Gen , Sun Zhonghao , Song Houbing
Published: April 2019

With the explosive growth of ocean data, it is of great significance to use ocean observation data to analyze ocean pycnocline data in military field. However, due to natural factors, most of the time the ocean hydrological data is not complete. In this case, predicting the ocean hydrological data by partial data has become a hot spot in marine science. In this paper, based on the traditional statistical analysis literature, we propose a machine-learning ocean hydrological data processing process under big data. At the same time, based on the traditional pycnocline gradient determination method, the open Argo data set is analyzed, and the local characteristics of pycnocline are verified from several aspects combined with the current research about pycnocline. Most importantly, in this paper, the combination of kernel function and support vector machine(SVM) is extended to nonlinear learning by using the idea of machine learning and convex optimization technology. Based on this, the known pycnocline training set is trained, and an accurate model is obtained to predict the pycnocline in unknown domains. In the specific steps, this paper combines the classification problem with the regression problem, and determines the proportion of training set and test formula set by polynomial regression. Subsequently, the feature scaling of the input data accelerated the gradient convergence, and a grid search algorithm with variable step size was proposed to determine the super parameter c and gamma of the SVM model. The prediction results not only used the confusion matrix to analyze the accuracy of GridSearch-SVM with variable step size, but also compared the traditional SVM and the similar algorithm. At the end of the experiment, two features which have the greatest influence on the Marine density thermocline are found out by the feature ranking algorithm based on learning.
An IoT Based Architecture for Enhancing the Effectiveness of Prototype Medical Instruments Applied to Neurodegenerative Disease Diagnosis
Authors: Depari Alessandro , Fernandes Carvalho Dhiego , Bellagente Paolo , Ferrari Paolo , Sisinni Emiliano , Flammini Alessandra , Padovani Alessandro
Published: April 2019

Human errors are probably the most critical cause of the large amount of medical accidents. Medical cyber-physical systems (MCPS) have been suggested as a possible approach for detecting and limiting the impact of errors and wrong procedures. However, during the initial development phase of medical instruments, regular MCPS systems are not a viable approach, because of the high costs of repeating complex validation procedures, due to modifications of the prototype instrument. In this work, a communication architecture, inspired by recent Internet of Things (IoT) advances, is proposed for connecting prototype instruments to the cloud, to allow direct and real-time interaction between developers and instrument operators. Without loss of generality, a real-world use case is addressed, dealing with the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for neurodegenerative disease diagnosis. The proposed infrastructure leverages on a message-oriented middleware, complemented by historical database for further data processing. Two of the most diffused protocols for cloud data exchange (MQTT and AMQP) have been investigated. The experimental setup has been focused on the real-time performance, which are the most challenging requirements. Time-related metrics confirm the feasibility of the proposed approach, resulting in an end-to-end delay on the order of few tens of milliseconds for local networks and up to few hundreds of milliseconds for geographical scale networks.
A Grey Wolf Optimization-Based Track-Before-Detect Method for Maneuvering Extended Target Detection and Tracking
Authors: Yan Bo , Zhao Xu Yang , Xu Na , Chen Yu , Zhao Wen Bo
Published: April 2019

A grey wolf optimization-based track-before-detect (GWO-TBD) method is developed for extended target detection and tracking. The aim of the GWO-TBD is tracking weak and maneuvering extended targets in a cluttered environment using the measurement points of an air surveillance radar. The optimal solution is the trajectory constituted by the points of an extended target. At the beginning of the GWO-TBD, the measurements of each scan are clustered into alternative sets. Secondly, closely sets are associated for tracklets. Each tracklet equals a candidate solution. Thirdly, the tracklets are further associated iteratively to find a better solution. An improved GWO algorithm is developed in the iteration for removal of unappreciated solution and acceleration of convergence. After the iteration of several generations, the optimal solution can be achieved, i.e. trajectory of an extended target. Both the real data and synthetic data are performed with the GWO-TBD and several existing algorithms in this work. Result infers that the GWO-TBD is superior to the others in detecting and tracking maneuvering targets. Meanwhile, much less prior information is necessary in the GWO-TBD. It makes the approach is engineering friendly.
A Game-Theoretic Framework to Preserve Location Information Privacy in Location-Based Service Applications
Authors: Tefera Mulugeta Kassaw , Yang Xiaolong
Published: April 2019

Recently, the growing ubiquity of location-based service (LBS) technology has increased the likelihood of users’ privacy breaches due to the exposure of their real-life information to untrusted third parties. Extensive use of such LBS applications allows untrusted third-party adversarial entities to collect large quantities of information regarding users’ locations over time, along with their identities. Due to the high risk of private information leakage using resource-constrained smart mobile devices, most LBS users may not be adequately encouraged to access all LBS applications. In this paper, we study the use of game theory to protect users against private information leakage in LBSs due to malicious or selfish behavior of third-party observers. In this study, we model a scenario of privacy protection gameplay between a privacy protector and an outside visitor and then derive the situation of the prisoner’s dilemma game to analyze the traditional privacy protection problems. Based on the analysis, we determine the corresponding benefits to both players using a point of view that allows the visitor to access a certain amount of information and denies further access to the user’s private information when exposure of privacy is forthcoming. Our proposed model uses the collection of private information about historical access data and current LBS access scenario to effectively determine the probability that the visitor’s access is an honest one. Moreover, we present the procedures involved in the privacy protection model and framework design, using game theory for decision-making. Finally, by employing a comparison analysis, we perform some experiments to assess the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed game-theoretic model over the traditional solutions.
Over Time and Beyond Disney—Visualizing Princesses through a Comparative Study in India, Fiji, and Sweden
Authors: Uppal Charu
Published: April 2019

Disney animated princesses are broadcasted around the world through Disney Channel and its global affiliates as well as through numerous other networks that purchase distribution rights. In an attempt to provide diversity in the last 25 years, Disney has featured nonwestern princesses such as those in Aladdin (1992), Pocahontas (1995), Mulan (1998), and Moana (2016). This study examines how princesses in animated Disney movies are perceived and understood by girls (8–15 years) in three different countries, over two time-periods with a gap of nearly a decade (2009 and 2018). The primary research question, considering Disney’s global reach, is how race, culture, and presence of a royal family interact with transnational access to the same media content in the perception of the princess concept and about being a girl. The selected countries provide an opportunity to explore differences in perception of Disney princesses between girls raised in countries with and without a royal family, and between girls in nonwestern and western countries. Differences in the perception are attributed to local and national cultures that allow a different lens to view the same content. A mixed method combining interviews, focus groups, and participant-generated images was used to gather data in India, Fiji, and Sweden. Results indicate Disney princesses, with their ubiquitous presence in various formats, e.g., media content, costumes and school stationery, have created a uniform idea of beauty across countries. Princesses in Disney were perceived by participants as being Caucasian and American, regardless of the race or country they represented. Girls in India and Fiji did not identify with Jasmine or Mulan, whom they considered ‘American’, whereas girls in Sweden considered Jasmine and Mulan as princesses of nonwestern origin. Girls in India and Fiji did not think they could be princesses because of their skin color, and did not want to lead a life ‘restricted with responsibilities’, but girls in Sweden considered the same question from the place of a choice, i.e., they preferred not to lead a ‘boring’ and regulated life like that of a princess. Participants from Fiji, with the least access to domestic programming that showed girls of their same Fijian origin, were least likely to consider themselves capable of being a princess.
A Foundation for Measuring Community Sustainability
Authors: Mischen Pamela A. , Homsy George C. , Lipo Carl P. , Holahan Robert , Imbruce Valerie , Pape Andreas , Zhu Weixing , Graney Joseph , Zhang Ziang , Holmes Louisa M. , Reina Manuel
Published: April 2019

In order to understand the impact of individual communities on global sustainability, we need a community sustainability assessment system (CSAS). While many sustainability assessment systems exist, they prove inadequate to the task. This article presents the results of a systematic review of the literature on existing sustainability assessment systems; offers a definition of a sustainable community; provides a multi-scale, systems approach to thinking about community; and makes recommendations from the field of performance measurement for the construction of a CSAS.
Residents’ Perceptions and Satisfaction toward Tourism Development: A Case Study of Petra Region, Jordan
Authors: Alrwajfah Moayad Mohammad , Almeida-García Fernando , Cortés-Macías Rafael
Published: April 2019

This study investigates whether local residents’ sociodemographics and community attachment can influence their perceptions toward the impact of tourism (economic, environmental, and sociocultural effects) and, further, whether these perceptions influence their satisfaction with local tourism management. The perceptions of 467 residents were surveyed from six communities in the region of Petra, Jordan. The results of a regression analysis indicate that the respondents’ sociodemographics and community attachment influence their perceptions of the impacts of tourism. Gender and distance from tourist sites are found to be very important factors that influence local residents’ perceptions. In addition, the perceived economic impact is the most important aspect for these respondents, and perceived negative impacts do not significantly influence their satisfaction. Suggestions for future studies in the region and possible implications are discussed.
Sustainability Transitions in Baltic Sea Shipping: Exploring the Responses of Firms to Regulatory Changes
Authors: Stalmokaitė Ignė , Yliskylä-Peuralahti Johanna
Published: April 2019

This study investigates how the introduction of more stringent environmental regulation regarding sulphur and nitrogen emission control areas induced shipping companies to react to a new situation and opened up a window of opportunity for build-up of niches for alternative vessel energy sources. By drawing on a multi-level perspective from the socio-technical transition literature, the study provides empirical evidence for how realignments in the environmental regulatory regime alter incumbent actors’ positions and produce varying environmental innovation responses to reduce air-borne pollution from shipping. The study illustrates that the stringency of a regional command-and-control regulation in combination with evolving pressures in the external landscape environment and shipping companies’ task environments are essential components shaping the adoption of environmental innovations. Although incremental innovations seem to dominate in a fossil fuel-based maritime transportation socio-technical system, our results demonstrate the role of regulations and the behaviour of frontrunners in the context of regime fragmentation and sustainability transition processes.
Designing Wetlands as an Essential Infrastructural Element for Urban Development in the era of Climate Change
Authors: Ahn Changwoo , Schmidt Stephanie
Published: April 2019

The increasing development of urban infrastructure has led to the significant loss of natural wetlands and their ecosystem services. Many novel urban development projects currently attempt to incorporate environmental sustainability, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and community engagement into the intricate challenges we all face in an era of climate change. This paper aims to communicate several key findings on design elements that can be adopted or incorporated in the design of created wetlands as infrastructural elements. Three major design elements—microtopography, hydrologic connectivity, and planting diversity—are presented, and their relations to restoring ecosystem services of urban wetlands, in particular water and habitat quality, are discussed. These design elements can be easily adopted or incorporated in the planning, designing, and construction stages of urban development. The success of urban infrastructure projects may require both better communication among stakeholders and a great deal of community engagement. The Rain Project, a floating wetland project on an urban college campus, demonstrates the role of interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement as a model for sustainable stormwater management, a critical part of today’s urban development. Further efforts should be made to advance the science of designing urban wetlands and its communication to transform cultural attitudes toward sustainable urban development.
Assessment of the Thermal Behaviour of Rammed Earth Walls in the Summer Period
Authors: Balaguer Laura , Vegas López-Manzanares Fernando , Mileto Camilla , García-Soriano Lidia
Published: April 2019

The constructive solutions characteristic of vernacular architecture are the result of the convergence of geographical, cultural and climatic factors that bring about constructions characterised by adaptation to their surroundings. However, at present, Spanish regulations do not contemplate the properties of traditional materials, such as those found in earthen constructions, whose great thermal inertia is ignored despite their thermal gains and compensations. Given these limitations, the purpose of this study is to assess the thermal behaviour of traditional earthen architecture adjusting to its real performance and original surroundings. This work thus examines a methodology to assess the thermal behaviour of rammed earth walls based on on-site data specifically collected in the summer in a case study located in La Serranía, a region in the northwest of the province of Valencia (Spain). The results show the evolution of exterior and interior surface temperatures of the earthen wall, quantifying its variation frequency and thermal energy transmission. Based on these data, the thermal transmittance of the wall is calculated and compared to highlight the difference from the normalised value, showing that a review of the Spanish regulations applied to earthen architecture is needed.
Biocultural Heritages in Mallorca: Explaining the Resilience of Peasant Landscapes within a Mediterranean Tourist Hotspot, 1870–2016
Authors: Murray Ivan , Jover-Avellà Gabriel , Fullana Onofre , Tello Enric
Published: April 2019

Mallorca keeps an age-old biocultural heritage embodied in their appealing landscapes, largely exploited as an intangible tourist asset. Although hotel and real estate investors ignore or despise the peasant families who still persevere in farming amidst this worldwide-known tourist hotspot, the Balearic Autonomous Government has recently started a pay-for-ecosystem-services scheme based on the tourist eco-tax collection that offers grants to farmers that keep the Majorcan cultural landscapes alive, while a growing number of them have turned organic. How has this peasant heritage survived within such a global tourist capitalist economy? We answer this question by explaining the socio-ecological transition experienced from the failure of agrarian capitalism in the island, and the ensuing peasantization process during the first half of the 20th century through a local banking-driven and market-oriented land reform. Then, the early tourist specialization during the second half of the 20th century and the spatial concentration of the Green Revolution only in certain areas of the island meant a deep marginalization of peasant farming. Ironically, only a smallholder peasantry could keep cultivating these sustenance-oriented marginal areas where traditional farming was partially maintained and is currently being reinvigorated by turning organic. Now the preservation of these biocultural landscapes, and the keeping of the ecosystem services it provides to Majorcan society, requires keeping this peasantry alive.
Hospitals’ Financial Health in Rural and Urban Areas in Poland: Does It Ensure Sustainability?
Authors: Bem Agnieszka , Siedlecki Rafał , Prędkiewicz Paweł , Gazzola Patrizia , Ryszawska Bożena , Ucieklak-Jeż Paulina
Published: April 2019

Literature review suggests that rural hospitals are in the worst financial conditions due to several factors: They are smaller, located in remote areas, and they provide less specialized services due to their problems with employing well-qualified staff. We decided to check whether it is true in the case of Polish hospitals. Based on the literature review, we have assumed that rural hospitals have less favorable financial conditions. In order to verify this assumption, we use seven indicators of financial health as well as a synthetic measure of financial condition. We have found that, in fact, there is no difference in financial condition between rural and urban hospitals, or even that the financial health of rural hospitals is better if we employ the synthetic measure. Additionally, we have found that the form of activity can be a crucial driver of better financial performance. The concept of rural sustainability is supported by good financial conditions of rural hospitals, which helps to provide better access to medical services for inhabitants of rural areas.
Statistically and Relatively Modular Deferred-Weighted Summability and Korovkin-Type Approximation Theorems
Authors: Srivastava Hari Mohan , Jena Bidu Bhusan , Paikray Susanta Kumar , Misra Umakanta
Published: April 2019

The concept of statistically deferred-weighted summability was recently studied by Srivastava et al. (Math. Methods Appl. Sci. 41 (2018), 671–683). The present work is concerned with the deferred-weighted summability mean in various aspects defined over a modular space associated with a generalized double sequence of functions. In fact, herein we introduce the idea of relatively modular deferred-weighted statistical convergence and statistically as well as relatively modular deferred-weighted summability for a double sequence of functions. With these concepts and notions in view, we establish a theorem presenting a connection between them. Moreover, based upon our methods, we prove an approximation theorem of the Korovkin type for a double sequence of functions on a modular space and demonstrate that our theorem effectively extends and improves most (if not all) of the previously existing results. Finally, an illustrative example is provided here by the generalized bivariate Bernstein–Kantorovich operators of double sequences of functions in order to demonstrate that our established theorem is stronger than its traditional and statistical versions.
Unsteady Flow of Fractional Fluid between Two Parallel Walls with Arbitrary Wall Shear Stress Using Caputo–Fabrizio Derivative
Authors: Asif Muhammad , Ul Haq Sami , Islam Saeed , Abdullah Alkanhal Tawfeeq , Khan Zar Ali , Khan Ilyas , Nisar Kottakkaran Sooppy
Published: April 2019

In this article, unidirectional flows of fractional viscous fluids in a rectangular channel are studied. The flow is generated by the shear stress given on the bottom plate of the channel. The authors have developed a generalized model on the basis of constitutive equations described by the time-fractional Caputo–Fabrizio derivative. Many authors have published different results by applying the time-fractional derivative to the local part of acceleration in the momentum equation. This approach of the fractional models does not have sufficient physical background. By using fractional generalized constitutive equations, we have developed a proper model to investigate exact analytical solutions corresponding to the channel flow of a generalized viscous fluid. The exact solutions for velocity field and shear stress are obtained by using Laplace transform and Fourier integral transformation, for three different cases namely (i) constant shear, (ii) ramped type shear and (iii) oscillating shear. The results are plotted and discussed.
Study on Massive-Scale Slow-Hash Recovery Using Unified Probabilistic Context-Free Grammar and Symmetrical Collaborative Prioritization with Parallel Machines
Authors: Wu Tianjun , Yang Yuexiang , Wang Chi , Wang Rui
Published: April 2019

Slow-hash algorithms are proposed to defend against traditional offline password recovery by making the hash function very slow to compute. In this paper, we study the problem of slow-hash recovery on a large scale. We attack the problem by proposing a novel concurrent model that guesses the target password hash by leveraging known passwords from a largest-ever password corpus. Previously proposed password-reused learning models are specifically designed for targeted online guessing for a single hash and thus cannot be efficiently parallelized for massive-scale offline recovery, which is demanded by modern hash-cracking tasks. In particular, because the size of a probabilistic context-free grammar (PCFG for short) model is non-trivial and keeping track of the next most probable password to guess across all global accounts is difficult, we choose clever data structures and only expand transformations as needed to make the attack computationally tractable. Our adoption of max-min heap, which globally ranks weak accounts for both expanding and guessing according to unified PCFGs and allows for concurrent global ranking, significantly increases the hashes can be recovered within limited time. For example, 59.1% accounts in one of our target password list can be found in our source corpus, allowing our solution to recover 20.1% accounts within one week at an average speed of 7200 non-identical passwords cracked per hour, compared to previous solutions such as oclHashcat (using default configuration), which cracks at an average speed of 28 and needs months to recover the same number of accounts with equal computing resources (thus are infeasible for a real-world attacker who would maximize the gain against the cracking cost). This implies an underestimated threat to slow-hash protected password dumps. Our method provides organizations with a better model of offline attackers and helps them better decide the hashing costs of slow-hash algorithms and detect potential vulnerable credentials before hackers do.
Four-Fermion Interaction Model on ℳD−1 ⊗ S1
Authors: Inagaki Tomohiro , Matsuo Yamato , Shimoji Hiromu
Published: April 2019

Four-fermion interaction models are often used as simplified models of interacting fermion fields with the chiral symmetry. The chiral symmetry is dynamically broken for a larger four-fermion coupling. It is expected that the broken symmetry is restored under extreme conditions. In this paper, the finite size effect on the chiral symmetry breaking is investigated in the four-fermion interaction model. We consider the model on a flat spacetime with a compactified spatial coordinate, M D − 1 ⊗ S 1 and obtain explicit expressions of the effective potential for arbitrary spacetime dimensions in the leading order of the 1 / N expansion. Evaluating the effective potential, we show the critical lines which divide the symmetric and the broken phase and the sign-flip condition for the Casimir force.
Isoperimetric Numbers of Randomly Perturbed Intersection Graphs
Authors: Shang Yilun
Published: April 2019

Social networks describe social interactions between people, which are often modeled by intersection graphs. In this paper, we propose an intersection graph model that is induced by adding a sparse random bipartite graph to a given bipartite graph. Under some mild conditions, we show that the vertex–isoperimetric number and the edge–isoperimetric number of the randomly perturbed intersection graph on n vertices are

Ω
(
1
/
ln
n
)

asymptomatically almost surely. Numerical simulations for small graphs extracted from two real-world social networks, namely, the board interlocking network and the scientific collaboration network, were performed. It was revealed that the effect of increasing isoperimetric numbers (i.e., expansion properties) on randomly perturbed intersection graphs is presumably independent of the order of the network.
Effectiveness of Nature-Inspired Algorithms using ANFIS for Blade Design Optimization and Wind Turbine Efficiency
Authors: Sarkar Md. , Julai Sabariah , Wen Tong Chong , Toha Siti
Published: April 2019

Blade design of the horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) is an important parameter that determines the reliability and efficiency of a wind turbine. It is important to optimize the capture of the energy in the wind that can be correlated to the power coefficient ( C p ) of HAWT system. In this paper, nature-inspired algorithms, e.g., ant colony optimization (ACO), artificial bee colony (ABC), and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are used to search for the blade parameters that can give the maximum value of C p for HAWT. The parameters are tip speed ratio, blade radius, lift to drag ratio, solidity ratio, and chord length. The performance of these three algorithms in obtaining the optimal blade design based on the C p are investigated and compared. In addition, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy interface (ANFIS) approach is implemented to predict the C p of wind turbine blades for investigation of algorithm performance based on the coefficient determination (R2) and root mean square error (RMSE). The optimized blade design parameters are validated with experimental results from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). It was found that the optimized blade design parameters were obtained using an ABC algorithm with the maximum value power coefficient higher than ACO and PSO. The predicted C p using ANFIS-ABC also outperformed the ANFIS-ACO and ANFIS-PSO. The difference between optimized and predicted is very small which implies the effectiveness of nature-inspired algorithms in this application. In addition, the value of RMSE and R2 of the ABC-ANFIS algorithm were lower (indicating that the result obtained is more accurate) than the ACO and PSO algorithms.
Track Allocation Optimization in Multi-Direction High-Speed Railway Stations
Authors: Zhang Qin , Zhu Xiaoning , Wang Li
Published: April 2019

Track allocation optimization in railway stations is one of the most fundamental problems for scheduling trains, especially in multi-direction high-speed railway stations. With the construction of high-speed rail networks, this kind of station has become increasingly common. However, the track allocation depends not only on the station tracks, train timetable, and rolling stock plan, but also on the resources in the station throat area. As a result, an effective track allocation plan becomes significant but also difficult. In this paper, we consider all these factors to make the results more practicable and an integer linear model that minimizes the total occupation time of resources in the throat area is presented. A flexible track utilization rule is also adopted to this model to fit the characteristics of the multi-direction station. Meanwhile, a detailed explanation of resources’ occupation time is illustrated to facilitate the representation of the conflicting constraints. To resolve these issues, we use a commercial solver with its default parameters. A computational experiment of a station is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. The resources utilization plan indicates that the capacity of a station is limited by the throat area, rather than by the station tracks.
Candida utilis ATCC 9950 Cell Walls and β(1,3)/(1,6)-Glucan Preparations Produced Using Agro-Waste as a Mycotoxins Trap
Authors: Bzducha-Wróbel Anna , Bryła Marcin , Gientka Iwona , Błażejak Stanisław , Janowicz Monika
Published: April 2019

Mycotoxins are harmful contaminants of food and feed worldwide. Feed additives with the abilities to trap mycotoxins are considered substances which regulate toxin transfer from feed to tissue, reducing its absorption in animal digestive tract. Market analysis emphasizes growing interest of feed producers in mycotoxins binders obtained from yeast biomass. The aim of the study was to prescreen cell walls (CW) and β(1,3)/(1,6)-glucan (β-G) preparations isolated from Candida utilis ATCC 9950 cultivated on waste potato juice water with glycerol as adsorbents for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), zearalenone (ZEN), ochratoxin A (OTA), deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV), T-2 toxin (T-2) and fumonisin B1 (FB1). The adsorption was studied in single concentration tests at pH 3.0 and 6.0 in the presence of 1% of the adsorbent and 500 ng/mL of individual toxin. Evaluated CW and β-G preparations had the potential to bind ZEN, OTA and AFB1 rather than DON, NIV, T-2 toxin and FB1. The highest percentage of adsorption (about 83%), adsorption capacity (approx. 41 µg/ g preparation) and distribution coefficient (458.7mL/g) was found for zearalenone when CW preparation was used under acidic conditions. Higher protein content in CW and smaller particles sizes of the formulation could influence more efficient binding of ZEN, OTA, DON and T-2 toxin at appropriate pH compared to purified β-G. Obtained results show the possibility to transform the waste potato juice water into valuable Candida utilis ATCC 9950 preparation with mycotoxins adsorption properties. Further research is important to improve the binding capacity of studied preparations by increasing the active surface of adsorption.
An Observational Case-Control Study to Determine Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Host Factor Influence on Biomarker Distribution and Serodiagnostic Potential in Adult Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Authors: Mohd Hanafiah Khayriyyah , Garcia Mary Louise , Anderson David Andrew
Published: April 2019

Influence of host factors, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection, on the distribution and diagnostic potential of previously evaluated biomarkers of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), such as anti-antigen 60 (A60) immunoglobulin (Ig) G, anti-A60 IgA, and C-reactive protein (CRP), remain unclear. Anti-A60 IgG, anti-A60 IgA, and CRP in PTB and non-PTB patient sera (n = 404, including smear-positive/negative, culture-positive (SPCP/SNCP) and HIV+ve/−ve) were measured by enzyme-linked immunoassay and statistically analysed. In multinomial logistic regression, expectoration, chest pain, wasting, and culture count positively associated with CRP (p < 0.001), while smear count positively associated with anti-A60 IgG (p = 0.090). Expectoration and enlarged lymph nodes negatively associated with anti-A60 IgA (p = 0.018). Biomarker distribution and diagnostic potential varied significantly by symptoms and bacilli burden, and across different PTB subpopulations. CRP was correlated poorly with anti-A60 antibodies, while anti-A60 IgA and IgG were correlated in non-tuberculosis (TB) and SPCP patients (p < 0.001). When combined, anti-A60 IgG and CRP best discriminated SPCP/HIV−ve from non-TB (AUC: 0.838, 95% CI: 0.783–0.894), while anti-A60 IgA and CRP performed best in discriminating HIV+ve PTB from non-TB (AUC: 0.687, 95% CI: 0.598–0.777). Combined CRP and anti-A60 antibodies had significantly reduced accuracy in SNCP and SNCP/HIV+ve compared to SPCP/HIV−ve subpopulations. The complex relationships between host factors and biomarkers suggest their limited utility, especially in SNCP/HIV+ve subpopulations, highlighting the importance of examining host response and immune biomarkers across relevant patient subpopulations.
A Post-Newtonian Gravitomagnetic Effect on the Orbital Motion of a Test Particle around Its Primary Induced by the Spin of a Distant Third Body
Authors: Iorio Lorenzo
Published: April 2019

We study a general relativistic gravitomagnetic 3-body effect induced by the spin angular momentum S X of a rotating mass M X orbited at distance r X by a local gravitationally bound restricted two-body system S of size r ≪ r X consisting of a test particle revolving around a massive body M. At the lowest post-Newtonian order, we analytically work out the doubly averaged rates of change of the Keplerian orbital elements of the test particle by finding non-vanishing long-term effects for the inclination I, the node Ω and the pericenter ω . Such theoretical results are confirmed by a numerical integration of the equations of motion for a fictitious 3-body system. We numerically calculate the magnitudes of the post-Newtonian gravitomagnetic 3-body precessions for some astronomical scenarios in our solar system. For putative man-made orbiters of the natural moons Enceladus and Europa in the external fields of Saturn and Jupiter, the relativistic precessions due to the angular momenta of the gaseous giant planets can be as large as ≃10 − 50 milliarcseconds per year (mas year−1). A preliminary numerical simulation shows that, for certain orbital configurations of a hypothetical Europa orbiter, its range-rate signal Δ ρ ˙ can become larger than the current Doppler accuracy of the existing spacecraft Juno at Jupiter, i.e., σ ρ ˙ = 0.015 mm s−1, after 1 d. The effects induced by the Sun’s angular momentum on artificial probes of Mercury and the Earth are at the level of ≃1 − 0.1 microarcseconds per year (μas year−1).
HIV-1 Envelope Glycoprotein at the Interface of Host Restriction and Virus Evasion
Authors: Beitari Saina , Wang Yimeng , Liu Shan-Lu , Liang Chen
Published: April 2019

Without viral envelope proteins, viruses cannot enter cells to start infection. As the major viral proteins present on the surface of virions, viral envelope proteins are a prominent target of the host immune system in preventing and ultimately eliminating viral infection. In addition to the well-appreciated adaptive immunity that produces envelope protein-specific antibodies and T cell responses, recent studies have begun to unveil a rich layer of host innate immune mechanisms restricting viral entry. This review focuses on the exciting progress that has been made in this new direction of research, by discussing various known examples of host restriction of viral entry, and diverse viral countering strategies, in particular, the emerging role of viral envelope proteins in evading host innate immune suppression. We will also highlight the effective cooperation between innate and adaptive immunity to achieve the synergistic control of viral infection by targeting viral envelope protein and checking viral escape. Given that many of the related findings were made with HIV-1, we will use HIV-1 as the model virus to illustrate the basic principles and molecular mechanisms on host restriction targeting HIV-1 envelope protein.
Geographic Distribution of Epizootic haematopoietic necrosis virus (EHNV) in Freshwater Fish in South Eastern Australia: Lost Opportunity for a Notifiable Pathogen to Expand Its Geographic Range
Authors: Becker Joy A. , Gilligan Dean , Asmus Martin , Tweedie Alison , Whittington Richard J.
Published: April 2019

Epizootic haematopoietic necrosis virus (EHNV) was originally detected in Victoria, Australia in 1984. It spread rapidly over two decades with epidemic mortality events in wild redfin perch (Perca fluviatilis) and mild disease in farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) being documented across southeastern Australia in New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Victoria, and South Australia. We conducted a survey for EHNV between July 2007 and June 2011. The disease occurred in juvenile redfin perch in ACT in December 2008, and in NSW in December 2009 and December 2010. Based on testing 3622 tissue and 492 blood samples collected from fish across southeastern Australia, it was concluded that EHNV was most likely absent from redfin perch outside the endemic area in the upper Murrumbidgee River catchment in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), and it was not detected in other fish species. The frequency of outbreaks in redfin perch has diminished over time, and there have been no reports since 2012. As the disease is notifiable and a range of fish species are known to be susceptible to EHNV, existing policies to reduce the likelihood of spreading out of the endemic area are justified.