bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Topical Biocompatible Fluconazole-Loaded Microemulsions Based on Essential Oils and Sucrose Esters: Formulation Design Based on Pseudo-Ternary Phase Diagrams and Physicochemical Characterization
Authors: Vlaia Lavinia , Coneac Georgeta , Muţ Ana Maria , Olariu Ioana , Vlaia Vicenţiu , Anghel Dan Florin , Maxim Monica Elisabeta , Dobrescu Amadeus , Hîrjău Mircea , Lupuleasa Dumitru
Published: January 2021

To initiate our research into the development of biocompatiîle gelled-microemulsions based on essential oils (EOs) and sucrose esters (SEs) for the topical delivery of fluconazole, this formulation study investigated the usefulness of two relatively harmless natural non-ionic surfactants from the group of SEs (sucrose laurate and stearate) to form, in the presence of antifungal EOs, stable, isotropic microemulsions effective on fluconazole solubilization. Fluconazole’s solubility in EO significantly depended on their chemical composition, showing higher values for cinnamon, oregano and clove essential oils, further selected as oil phase components for microemulsion formulations. The phase behavior of several EO–isopropyl miristate/SE–isopropanol/water systems was assessed through pseudo-ternary phase diagrams constructed by microplate dilution technique. The hydrocarbon chain length of the SE and EO type strongly influenced the size of the microemulsion region in the pseudo-ternary phase diagrams. Ten microemulsion formulations containing 2% fluconazole, 6% or 10% oil mixture of EO–isopropyl myristate in 1:1 ratio, 45% SE-isopropanol mixture and water, were selected and evaluated for physicochemical properties (droplet size, polydispersity, viscosity, refractive index, zeta potential and pH). All formulations were physicochemically acceptable, but viscosity enhancement and further in vitro and in vivo tests are required for the development of biocompatible, clinically safe and effective fluconazole topical preparations.
The Mathematical Modeling and Simulation of a New Mitigation System Including a Remote Impoundment
Authors: Song Hyeon Oh , Jang Junyeong , Lee Chang Jun
Published: January 2021

After the occurrence of a hydrogen fluoride leakage accident that triggered massive losses in Gumi, South Korea in 2012, the government and companies have been interested in installing mitigation systems to minimize the loss of a leakage accident. What lacks in previous researches studying mitigation systems is an evaluation of how much a mitigation system can reduce the impact of accidents. Therefore, modeling-based simulations of mitigation systems should be urgently developed to analysis of the performance of a mitigation system. This study aims to design a mitigation system to reduce the amount of materials leaked to the outside when a leakage accident of a storage tank occurs and determine its design specifications through the use of modeling. The basic concept is that when leakage occurs, leakage material in a dike is drained to a remote impoundment installed under the ground, while the material in the storage vessel is transferred to a reserve tank by a pump at the same time. To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed system, two case studies are tested. The simulation results indicate that the proposed mitigation system can contribute to the reduction in the dispersion area for the materials as well as a large reduction in the leakage material.
Fusion of Rain Radar Images and Wind Forecasts in a Deep Learning Model Applied to Rain Nowcasting
Authors: Bouget Vincent , Béréziat Dominique , Brajard Julien , Charantonis Anastase , Filoche Arthur
Published: January 2021

Short- or mid-term rainfall forecasting is a major task with several environmental applications such as agricultural management or flood risk monitoring. Existing data-driven approaches, especially deep learning models, have shown significant skill at this task, using only rainfall radar images as inputs. In order to determine whether using other meteorological parameters such as wind would improve forecasts, we trained a deep learning model on a fusion of rainfall radar images and wind velocity produced by a weather forecast model. The network was compared to a similar architecture trained only on radar data, to a basic persistence model and to an approach based on optical flow. Our network outperforms by 8% the F1-score calculated for the optical flow on moderate and higher rain events for forecasts at a horizon time of 30 min. Furthermore, it outperforms by 7% the same architecture trained using only rainfall radar images. Merging rain and wind data has also proven to stabilize the training process and enabled significant improvement especially on the difficult-to-predict high precipitation rainfalls.
Validation of CHIRPS Precipitation Estimates over Taiwan at Multiple Timescales
Authors: Hsu Jie , Huang Wan-Ru , Liu Pin-Yi , Li Xiuzhen
Published: January 2021

The Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), which incorporates satellite imagery and in situ station information, is a new high-resolution long-term precipitation dataset available since 1981. This study aims to understand the performance of the latest version of CHIRPS in depicting the multiple timescale precipitation variation over Taiwan. The analysis is focused on examining whether CHIRPS is better than another satellite precipitation product—the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) final run (hereafter IMERG)—which is known to effectively capture the precipitation variation over Taiwan. We carried out the evaluations made for annual cycle, seasonal cycle, interannual variation, and daily variation during 2001–2019. Our results show that IMERG is slightly better than CHIRPS considering most of the features examined; however, CHIRPS performs better than that of IMERG in representing the (1) magnitude of the annual cycle of monthly precipitation climatology, (2) spatial distribution of the seasonal mean precipitation for all four seasons, (3) quantitative precipitation estimation of the interannual variation of area-averaged winter precipitation in Taiwan, and (4) occurrence frequency of the non-rainy grids in winter. Notably, despite the fact that CHIRPS is not better than IMERG for many examined features, CHIRPS can depict the temporal variation in precipitation over Taiwan on annual, seasonal, and interannual timescales with 95% significance. This highlights the potential use of CHIRPS in studying the multiple timescale variation in precipitation over Taiwan during the years 1981–2000, for which there are no data available in the IMERG database.
A Novel Vegetation Index for Coffee Ripeness Monitoring Using Aerial Imagery
Authors: Nogueira Martins Rodrigo , de Carvalho Pinto Francisco de Assis , Marçal de Queiroz Daniel , Magalhães Valente Domingos Sárvio , Fim Rosas Jorge Tadeu
Published: January 2021

Coffee ripeness monitoring is a key indicator for defining the moment of starting the harvest, especially because the coffee quality is related to the fruit ripeness degree. The most used method to define the start of harvesting is by visual inspection, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and does not provide information on the entire area. There is a lack of new techniques or alternative methodologies to provide faster measurements that can support harvest planning. Based on that, this study aimed at developing a vegetation index (VI) for coffee ripeness monitoring using aerial imagery. For this, an experiment was set up in five arabica coffee fields in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. During the coffee ripeness stage, four flights were carried out to acquire spectral information on the crop canopy using two quadcopters, one equipped with a five-band multispectral camera and another with an RGB (Red, Green, Blue) camera. Prior to the flights, manual counts of the percentage of unripe fruits were carried out using irregular sampling grids on each day for validation purposes. After image acquisition, the coffee ripeness index (CRI) and other five VIs were obtained. The CRI was developed combining reflectance from the red band and from a ground-based red target placed on the study area. The effectiveness of the CRI was compared under different analyses with traditional VIs. The CRI showed a higher sensitivity to discriminate coffee plants ready for harvest from not-ready for harvest in all coffee fields. Furthermore, the highest R2 and lowest RMSE values for estimating the coffee ripeness were also presented by the CRI (R2: 0.70; 12.42%), whereas the other VIs showed R2 and RMSE values ranging from 0.22 to 0.67 and from 13.28 to 16.50, respectively. Finally, the study demonstrated that the time-consuming fieldwork can be replaced by the methodology based on VIs.
Non-Cooperative Passive Direct Localization Based on Waveform Estimation
Authors: Zhou Tao , Yi Wei , Kong Lingjiang
Published: January 2021

This paper considers a non-cooperative passive localization system wherein widely distributed receivers are used to localize a transmitter radiating a periodical pulse pair signal. Two possible pulse modulation models, noncoherent and coherent pulses, are fully considered for practical application, and are effectively unified as a general model for the algorithm design. To achieve highly accurate and robust localization performance, an enhanced direct position determination (DPD) algorithm based on waveform estimation (WE) is devised to jointly estimate the transmitter position and the waveform profile. The optimal objective function based on a least square (LS) principle is first derived to directly determine the position of the transmitter. Due to the complete lack of knowledge on the transmitted signal, the processing center calculates the objective function at each searched grid of interest by using estimated pulses instead of the real ones, while extraction of pulse samples and estimation of waveform are executed. Theoretical derivation gives the solution to estimate the non-parameterized waveform with a structure of maximum Rayleigh quotient. Additionally, simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for many common waveform types in the cases of transmitting noncoherent and coherent pulses, and also show the excellent advantage over the classical DPD algorithm at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
A Self-Diagnosis Method for Detecting UAV Cyber Attacks Based on Analysis of Parameter Changes
Authors: Basan Elena , Basan Alexandr , Nekrasov Alexey , Fidge Colin , Gamec Ján , Gamcová Mária
Published: January 2021

We consider how to protect Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from Global Positioning System (GPS) spoofing attacks to provide safe navigation. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is widely used for locating drones and is by far the most popular navigation solution. This is because of the simplicity and relatively low cost of this technology, as well as the accuracy of the transmitted coordinates. Nevertheless, there are many security threats to GPS navigation. These are primarily related to the nature of the GPS signal, as an intruder can jam and spoof the GPS signal. We discuss methods of protection against this type of attack and have developed an experimental stand and conducted scenarios of attacks on a drone’s GPS system. Data from the UAV’s flight log were collected and analyzed in order to see the attack’s impact on sensor readings. From this we identify a new method for detecting UAV anomalies by analyzing changes in internal parameters of the UAV. This self-diagnosis method allows a UAV to independently assess the presence of changes in its own subsystems indicative of cyber attacks.
A Quantitative Approach to Evaluate the Application of the Extended Situational Teaching Model in Engineering Education
Authors: Tehrani Fariborz M. , McComb Christopher , Scott Sherrianna
Published: January 2021

The extended situational teaching model is a variation of situational teaching, which itself has roots in situational leadership. Application of situational leadership in education requires the teacher to lead students through various stages of the learning process. This paper presents the relationship between performance measures of extended situational teaching and common pedagogical tools in engineering classrooms. These relationships outlined the response of students at different preparation levels to the application of various course components, including classroom activities and out-of-classroom assignments, in respect to task and relationship behaviors. The results of a quantitative survey are presented to support the existence of such a relationship and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the extended situational teaching model. The survey covered 476 engineering students enrolled in nine different courses over a four-year period within the civil engineering program. The statistical analysis of the survey responses proceeded in two stages. The first stage of the analysis evaluates whether the survey tool can resolve meaningful differences between the categories of the situational teaching model, and provides aggregate recommendations for each category. In the second stage of the analysis, the specific instantiation of these categories is broken down according to academic standing (grade point average) and academic level, offering support for an extended situational teaching model. Conclusions discuss the statistical characteristics of the results and correlations between selected pedagogical tools and performance measures.
The Dawn of a New Era for Project Management
Authors: Rolstadås Asbjørn , Johansen Agnar
Published: January 2021

Projects are today widely used as a business model for private and public sectors and they constitute the preferred model for developing changes in construction, oil and gas, chemical processes, aerospace, defence, etc [...]
Sustainable Development of an Individual as a Result of Mutual Enrichment of Professional and Personal Life
Authors: Mikołajczyk Katarzyna
Published: January 2021

Presently, the development of civilization requires a vision of balancing the interests of employees and employers in the sphere of work as never before. Work-life balance is directly linked to social sustainability. The aim of this article is to analyze various dimensions of mutual enrichment of the professional and private life of an individual and to describe how positive experiences in professional and non-professional life influence the improvement of satisfaction, health, and achievements, thus enabling the sustainable development of the individual. The conducted research was of a qualitative nature. Thematic exploration was used to analyze the findings of 34 in-depth interviews with experienced HR managers and employees at various levels of enterprises in Poland. The research shows that the work and personal life of the respondents interact, complement, and enrich in different ways, depending on the stage of the employee’s life. Habits developed by practicing a specific sport discipline or other type of hobby are helpful in the effective implementation of professional tasks. In addition, non-professional interests, including communing with culture and art, have a positive impact on professional activities. On the other hand, the respondents emphasized that thanks to their professional activities, specific to the type of work they perform, they are sometimes more extroverted, meticulous, organized, and consistent when performing activities outside of work and in other aspects of private life.
Climbing Ropes—Environmental Hotspots in Their Life Cycle and Potentials for Optimization
Authors: Bradford Sebastian , Rupf Reto , Stucki Matthias
Published: January 2021

This paper examines the environmental impacts of climbing ropes using life cycle assessment (LCA). An online survey was conducted to evaluate users’ behaviour and the potential of an open loop recycling project for old ropes. The results of the LCA study show that the production of the base material, polyamide 6, has, at 50%, the highest impact on the total global warming potential of 46.6 kg CO2-eq. per climbing rope and on most of the other environmental issues. At present, there is no practical alternative for a base material. However, the survey indicated a high willingness of climbers to return their ropes for the purpose of recycling. If all old ropes stored at home or being used for non-climbing purposes in Switzerland were to be recycled, 1170 t CO2-eq. could be saved by substituting primary material and avoiding waste incineration.
Applying a Relationally and Socially Embedded Decision Framework to Solar Photovoltaic Adoption: A Conceptual Exploration
Authors: Schelly Chelsea , Lee Don , Matz Elise , Pearce Joshua M.
Published: January 2021

Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy technology can play a key role in decreasing the amount of carbon emissions associated with electrical energy production, while also providing an economically justifiable alternative to fossil fuel production. Solar energy technology is also extremely flexible in terms of the size and siting of technological development. Large scale PV farms, however, require access to large tracts of land, which can create community-scale conflict over siting solar energy development projects. While previous scholarship offers frameworks for understanding the mechanisms at play in socio-technological system transitions, including the renewable energy transition, those frameworks fail to center community priorities, values, and concerns, and therefore often do not provide an effective means of addressing community conflict over solar siting. This paper provides a conceptual exploration of how a proposed framework can guide decision making for solar development across multiple scales and settings, while also illuminating the potential barriers and bottlenecks that may limit the potential of solar energy development to occur in scales and forms that receive community acceptance and at the pace necessary to address the greenhouse gas emissions currently contributing to the rapidly changing global climate.
The Impact of Land Use Change on Water-Related Ecosystem Services in the Bashang Area of Hebei Province, China
Authors: Liu Mengzhu , Min Leilei , Zhao Jingjing , Shen Yanjun , Pei Hongwei , Zhang Hongjuan , Li Yali
Published: January 2021

Land use change is an important scientific issue recognized for its potential to alter ecosystem services (ESs), especially water-related ecosystem services (WRESs). Using the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs (InVEST) model, this study quantified and mapped spatiotemporal variations in land use and corresponding WRESs in the Bashang area of Hebei Province, China (BAHP) to investigate how land use change impacted WRESs by means of scenario analysis, especially, in which a new evaluation indicator, average ecology effect (AEE) was proposed and well applied. The results indicated that woodland expansion (+602.61 km2) and grassland shrinkage (−500.57 km2) dominated the land use change in the BAHP in 2000–2018, which altered local WRESs, including the moderate declines in water purification and water yield, as well as a significant enhancement in soil conservation. In scenario analysis, compared to baseline levels, riparian woodland buffer and planting trees scenarios slightly decreased water yield but strengthened water purification and soil conservation; reclaiming wasteland and integrated development scenarios significantly enhanced soil conservation but lowered water yield and water purification; fertilizer reduction scenario effectively mitigated water deterioration. According to AEE, the riparian woodland buffer (RWB) scenario performed greater than the planting trees (PT) scenario on variations of WRESs per unit area, which differed completely from the results based on total variations. Overall, a multiple-scale indicator for a comprehensive evaluation of ESs should receive more attention.
Sustainable Configuration of the Tunisian Olive Oil Supply Chain Using a Fuzzy TOPSIS-Based Approach
Authors: Jellali Ahlem , Hachicha Wafik , Aljuaid Awad M.
Published: January 2021

Agricultural production of olive oil is a sector with high significance. The olive sector is a very important sector for several countries in the world, in particular, for Tunisia. In addition, the impacts of olive oil production and extraction on economic, environmental, and social issues are considerable. The main objective of this work is to propose a better configuration of the Tunisian olive oil supply chain (OOSC) from a sustainable development (SD) perspective. The proposed approach consists of applying a fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method as a multi-criteria approach. The proposed approach is applied twice. In the first application, the objective is to compare five possible scenarios for the olive agricultural phase. In the second application, the objective is to compare three possible scenarios for the olive oil transformation phase. The major findings of this research include the following: (1) The best scenario for the agricultural phase is the intensified organic system, which is based on biodynamic olive growing. (2) The best scenario for the transformation phase (oil extraction) is the continuous two-phase extraction system. Consequently, the efficient way for the by-products processing phase is the use of wet pomace for the preparation of biodynamic compost.
Will Transaction Costs and Economies of Scale Tip the Balance in Farm Size in Industrial Agriculture? An Illustration for Non-Food Biomass Production in Germany
Authors: Wen Lanjiao , Chatalova Lioudmila
Published: January 2021

The study investigates how the agricultural sector can respond to a growing non-food biomass demand. Taking Germany as an example, a stylized case of biomass production under conditions of technological advance and constantly growing demand is modelled. It is argued that biomass producers might seek to adjust their farm size by simultaneously optimizing benefits from the production scale and transaction cost savings, where transaction costs are measured using Data Envelopment Analysis. The results extend the debate on transaction costs and structural change in agriculture by revealing a possible synergy and trade-off between transaction cost savings and benefits from (dis)economies of scale. They show that if larger farms cannot economize on transaction costs, then investments in land and labor, needed to adjust to higher biomass demand, partly compromise the returns to scale, which decelerates the farm size growth. A higher degree of asset specificity gives rise to transaction costs and reduces the rate at which the farm size decreases. Smaller producers may disproportionally benefit from their higher potential of transaction cost savings, if advanced technologies can offset the scale advantage of larger farms. The findings inform policymakers to consider this complex effect when comparing the opportunities of smaller and larger agricultural producers in the bioeconomy.
Modeling Framework to Evaluate Vaccine Strategies against the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Guttieres Donovan , Sinskey Anthony J. , Springs Stacy L.
Published: January 2021

SARS-CoV-2, with an infection fatality rate between 0.5 and 1%, has spread to all corners of the globe and infected millions of people. While vaccination is essential to protect against the virus and halt community transmission, rapidly making and delivering safe and efficacious vaccines presents unique development, manufacturing, supply chain, delivery, and post-market surveillance challenges. Despite the large number of vaccines in or entering the clinic, it is unclear how many candidates will meet regulatory requirements and which vaccine strategy will most effectively lead to sustained, population-wide immunity. Interviews with experts from biopharmaceutical companies, regulatory and multilateral organizations, non-profit foundations, and academic research groups, complemented with extensive literature review, informed the development of a framework for understanding the factors leading to population-wide immunity against SARS-CoV-2, in particular considering the role of vaccines. This paper presents a systems-level modeling framework to guide the development of analytical tools aimed at informing time-critical decisions to make vaccines globally and equitably accessible. Such a framework can be used for scenario planning and evaluating tradeoffs across access strategies. It highlights the diverse and powerful ways in which data can be used to evaluate future risks and strategically allocate limited resources.
Quantitative Proteomic Profiling of Fungal Growth, Development, and Ochratoxin A Production in Aspergillus ochraceus on High- and Low-NaCl Cultures
Authors: Wang Yan , Guan Yue , Lin Wei , Yan Hao , Neng Jing , Sun Peilong
Published: January 2021

Dry-cured meat products are worldwide food with high-salt content, and filamentous fungi are beneficial to the maturation process. However, some salt-tolerant strains of Aspergillus and Penicillium produce ochratoxin A (OTA) on these products and thus threaten food safety. In our study, proteomic analysis was performed to reveal the mechanism of adaptability to high-salt environment by Aspergillus ochraceus. Twenty g/L and 70 g/L NaCl substrates were used to provide medium- and high-NaCl content environments, respectively. The NaCl addition could induce fungal growth, but only 20 g/L NaCl addition could induce spore production while 70 g/L repressed it. Proteomics analysis identified 2646 proteins in A. ochraceus fc-1, of which 237 and 251 were differentially expressed with 20 g/L and 70 g/L NaCl addition, respectively. Potential factors affecting fungal growth and development were identified by GO and KEGG analyses of biological process, cellular component, and molecular function terms. The results revealed that ergosterol synthesis pathway was significantly upregulated with 20 g/L and 70 g/L NaCl addition. However, fungal growth and development including OTA production were complex processes associated with many factors including nutrient uptake, cell membrane integrity, cell cycle, energy metabolism, intracellular redox homeostasis, protein synthesis and processing, autophagy, and secondary metabolism. Reactive oxygen species may be an important window to understand the mechanism that medium-salt content was conducive to intracellular signal transduction while high-salt content caused oxidative stress. The findings would help to improve the processes and storage conditions of dry-cured meat products.
Monitoring Lipophilic Toxins in Seawater Using Dispersive Liquid—Liquid Microextraction and Liquid Chromatography with Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Oller-Ruiz Ainhoa , Campillo Natalia , Hernández-Córdoba Manuel , Gilabert Javier , Viñas Pilar
Published: January 2021

The use of dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) is proposed for the preconcentration of thirteen lipophilic marine toxins in seawater samples. For this purpose, 0.5 mL of methanol and 440 µL of chloroform were injected into 12 mL of sample. The enriched organic phase, once evaporated and reconstituted in methanol, was analyzed by reversed-phase liquid chromatography with triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry. A central composite design multivariate method was used to optimize the interrelated parameters affecting DLLME efficiency. The absence of any matrix effect in the samples allowed them to be quantified against aqueous standards. The optimized procedure was validated by recovery studies, which provided values in the 82–123% range. The detection limits varied between 0.2 and 5.7 ng L−1, depending on the analyte, and the intraday precision values were in the 0.1–7.5% range in terms of relative standard deviation. Ten water samples taken from different points of the Mar Menor lagoon were analyzed and were found to be free of the studied toxins.
The Unique, the Known, and the Unknown of Spumaretrovirus Assembly
Authors: Lindemann Dirk , Hütter Sylvia , Wei Guochao , Löchelt Martin
Published: January 2021

Within the family of Retroviridae, foamy viruses (FVs) are unique and unconventional with respect to many aspects in their molecular biology, including assembly and release of enveloped viral particles. Both components of the minimal assembly and release machinery, Gag and Env, display significant differences in their molecular structures and functions compared to the other retroviruses. This led to the placement of FVs into a separate subfamily, the Spumaretrovirinae. Here, we describe the molecular differences in FV Gag and Env, as well as Pol, which is translated as a separate protein and not in an orthoretroviral manner as a Gag-Pol fusion protein. This feature further complicates FV assembly since a specialized Pol encapsidation strategy via a tripartite Gag-genome–Pol complex is used. We try to relate the different features and specific interaction patterns of the FV Gag, Pol, and Env proteins in order to develop a comprehensive and dynamic picture of particle assembly and release, but also other features that are indirectly affected. Since FVs are at the root of the retrovirus tree, we aim at dissecting the unique/specialized features from those shared among the Spuma- and Orthoretrovirinae. Such analyses may shed light on the evolution and characteristics of virus envelopment since related viruses within the Ortervirales, for instance LTR retrotransposons, are characterized by different levels of envelopment, thus affecting the capacity for intercellular transmission.
Immunotherapeutic Strategies for Neuroblastoma: Present, Past and Future
Authors: Morandi Fabio , Sabatini Federica , Podestà Marina , Airoldi Irma
Published: January 2021

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial pediatric solid tumor with a heterogeneous clinical course, ranging from spontaneous regression to metastatic disease and death, irrespective of intensive chemotherapeutic regimen. On the basis of several parameters, children affected by neuroblastoma are stratified into low, intermediate and high risk. At present, more than 50% of high-risk patients with metastatic spread display an overall poor long-term outcome also complicated by devastating long-term morbidities. Thus, novel and more effective therapies are desperately needed to improve lifespan of high-risk patients. In this regard, adoptive cell therapy holds great promise and several clinical trials are ongoing, demonstrating safety and tolerability, with no toxicities. Starting from the immunological and clinical features of neuroblastoma, we here discuss the immunotherapeutic approaches currently adopted for high-risk patients and different innovative therapeutic strategies currently under investigation. The latter are based on the infusion of natural killer (NK) cells, as support of consolidation therapy in addition to standard treatments, or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells directed against neuroblastoma associated antigens (e.g., disialoganglioside GD2). Finally, future perspectives of adoptive cell therapies represented by γδ T lymphocyes and CAR NK cells are envisaged.
Flattening the Curve of COVID-19 Vaccine Rejection—An International Overview
Authors: Feleszko Wojciech , Lewulis Piotr , Czarnecki Adam , Waszkiewicz Paweł
Published: January 2021

Background: If globally implemented, a safe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program will have broad clinical and socioeconomic benefits. However, individuals who anticipate that the coronavirus vaccine will bring life back to normality may be disappointed, due to the emerging antivaccination attitude within the general population. Methods: We surveyed a sample of adult Polish citizens (n = 1066), and compared it with the data on international COVID-19 vaccine reluctance. Results: In 20 national surveys, the vaccine averseness for the anticipated COVID-19 vaccine varied from meager (2–6% China) to very high (43%, Czech Republic, and 44%, Turkey) and in most countries was much higher than regular vaccination reluctance, which varies between 3% (Egypt) and 55% (Russia). Conclusions: These results suggest that a 67% herd immunity may be possible only if mandatory preventive vaccination programs start early and are combined with coordinated education efforts supported by legislative power and social campaigns.
The Development Trend and Research Frontiers of Distributed Hydrological Models—Visual Bibliometric Analysis Based on Citespace
Authors: Qin Fangling , Zhu Ying , Ao Tianqi , Chen Ting
Published: January 2021

Based on the bibliometric and data visualization analysis software Citespace, this study carried out document statistics and information mining on the Web of Science database and characterized the distributed hydrological model knowledge system from 1986 to 2019. The results show a few things: (1) from 1986 to 2019, the United States and China accounted for 41% of the total amount of publications, and they were the main force in the field of distributed hydrological model research; (2) field research involves multiple disciplines, mainly covering water resources, geology, earth sciences, environmental sciences, ecology and engineering; (3) the frontier of field research has shifted from using distributed hydrological models in order to simulate runoff and nonpoint source environmental responses to the coupling of technologies and products that can obtain high-precision, high-resolution data with distributed hydrological models. (4) Affected by climate warming, the melting of glaciers has accelerated, and the spatial distribution of permafrost and water resources have changed, which has caused a non-negligible impact on the hydrological process. Therefore, the development of distributed hydrological models suitable for alpine regions and the response of hydrological processes to climate change have also become important research directions at present.
Barrier Islands Resilience to Extreme Events: Do Earthquake and Tsunami Play a Role?
Authors: Meilianda Ella , Lavigne Franck , Pradhan Biswajeet , Wassmer Patrick , Darusman Darusman , Dohmen-Janssen Marjolein
Published: January 2021

Barrier islands are indicators of coastal resilience. Previous studies have proven that barrier islands are surprisingly resilient to extreme storm events. At present, little is known about barrier systems’ resilience to seismic events triggering tsunamis, co-seismic subsidence, and liquefaction. The objective of this study is, therefore, to investigate the morphological resilience of the barrier islands in responding to those secondary effects of seismic activity of the Sumatra–Andaman subduction zone and the Great Sumatran Fault system. Spatial analysis in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was utilized to detect shoreline changes from the multi-source datasets of centennial time scale, including old topographic maps and satellite images from 1898 until 2017. Additionally, the earthquake and tsunami records and established conceptual models of storm effects to barrier systems, are corroborated to support possible forcing factors analysis. Two selected coastal sections possess different geomorphic settings are investigated: (1) Lambadeuk, the coast overlying the Sumatran Fault system, (2) Kuala Gigieng, located in between two segments of the Sumatran Fault System. Seven consecutive pairs of comparable old topographic maps and satellite images reveal remarkable morphological changes in the form of breaching, landward migrating, sinking, and complete disappearing in different periods of observation. While semi-protected embayed Lambadeuk is not resilient to repeated co-seismic land subsidence, the wave-dominated Kuala Gigieng coast is not resilient to the combination of tsunami and liquefaction events. The mega-tsunami triggered by the 2004 earthquake led to irreversible changes in the barrier islands on both coasts.
Effects of Climatic Drivers and Teleconnections on Late 20th Century Trends in Spring Freshet of Four Major Arctic-Draining Rivers
Authors: Ahmed Roxanne , Prowse Terry , Dibike Yonas , Bonsal Barrie
Published: January 2021

Spring freshet is the dominant annual discharge event in all major Arctic draining rivers with large contributions to freshwater inflow to the Arctic Ocean. Research has shown that the total freshwater influx to the Arctic Ocean has been increasing, while at the same time, the rate of change in the Arctic climate is significantly higher than in other parts of the globe. This study assesses the large-scale atmospheric and surface climatic conditions affecting the magnitude, timing and regional variability of the spring freshets by analyzing historic daily discharges from sub-basins within the four largest Arctic-draining watersheds (Mackenzie, Ob, Lena and Yenisei). Results reveal that climatic variations closely match the observed regional trends of increasing cold-season flows and earlier freshets. Flow regulation appears to suppress the effects of climatic drivers on freshet volume but does not have a significant impact on peak freshet magnitude or timing measures. Spring freshet characteristics are also influenced by El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Arctic Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation, particularly in their positive phases. The majority of significant relationships are found in unregulated stations. This study provides a key insight into the climatic drivers of observed trends in freshet characteristics, whilst clarifying the effects of regulation versus climate at the sub-basin scale.
Geotoponímia e Geoengenharia do Arquipélago da Madeira: 600 anos a criar nomes e apelidar, terras, pedras e fenómenos
Authors: Pereira Silva João Baptista
Published: January 2021

Toponímia estuda os nomes próprios dos lugares, a sua origem e evolução. É propósito do presente artigo apresentar uma visão muito sumária da geotoponímia do arquipélago, dando um contributo explicativo do porquê da atribuição de muitos nomes tradicionais e populares, pelo povo insular, aos cursos de água, às formas do relevo, aos sítios e lugares, à natureza dos solos e das rochas, desde a descoberta das ilhas do Porto Santo e da Madeira, há 600 anos, até à atualidade.
Hash Code Generation using Deep Feature Selection Guided Siamese Network for Content-Based Medical Image Retrieval
Authors: ÖZTÜRK Şaban
Published: January 2021

It is very pleasing for human health that medical knowledge has increased and the technological infrastructure improves medical systems. The widespread use of medical imaging devices has been instrumental in saving lives by allowing early diagnosis of many diseases. These medical images are stored in large databases for many purposes. These datasets are used when a suspicious diagnostic case is encountered or to gain experience for inexperienced radiologists. To fulfill these tasks, images similar to one query image are searched from within the large dataset. Accuracy and speed are vital for this process, which is called content-based image retrieval (CBIR). In the literature, the best way to perform a CBIR system is by using hash codes. This study provides an effective hash code generation method based on feature selection-based downsampling of deep features extracted from medical images. Firstly, pre-hash codes of 256-bit length for each image are generated using a pairwise siamese network architecture that works based on the similarity of two images. Having a pre-hash code between -1 and 1 makes it very easy to generate hash code in hashing algorithms. For this reason, all activation functions of the proposed convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture are selected as hyperbolic tanh. Finally, neighborhood component analysis (NCA) feature selection methods are used to convert pre-hash code to binary hash code. This also downsamples the hash code length to 32-bit, 64-bit, or 96-bit levels. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using NEMA MRI and NEMA CT datasets.
DESIGN AND MODELING OF A TRIPLE-STEPPED BEAM WITH OUT-OF-PLANE MOTION FOR BISTABLE MICROSWITCH APPLICATIONS
Authors: Duong Bich Ngoc , Truong Men Van , Duong Hung Minh
Published: January 2021

Microswitches have been used for many different applications in building, automation, and security due to requiring little force. A novel design of a triple-stepped beam structure for a mechanical bistable microswitch is presented, and it was found that the bistability of the beam can be achieved by applying an electrostatic force which allows a high deflection with small electrode separation. A finite element method analysis has been used to design the bistable microswitch in a certain range of geometries based on the standard of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The simulation results show that the device requires a verylow input force to get to the bistable stages. The maximum force and the minimum force for switching between the bistable stages are 0.85 mN and 0.23 mN, respectively, which is suitable for electrostatic force at a microscale. The bistability is obtained with the second equilibrium at 75.17 µm that guarantees the perfect contact location between the beam and the conduction path (N+) located at 65.45 µm.
UDMURTS-ADVENTISTS OF THE SEVENTH DAY IN THE VILLAGE OF YAKSHUR-BODYA: ETHNO-DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
Authors: Klyashev Alexander Nikolaevich
Published: January 2021

This article discusses the socio-demographic characteristics and doctrinal characteristics of members of the Church of Seventh-day Adventist Christians (HASD) of Yakshur-Bodya rural locality of the Udmurt Republic of the Russian Federation - representatives of the Udmurt and Russian ethnic groups. Earlier, on the basis of empirical materials, the author put forward a theoretical position according to which among the multi-ethnic Protestants of the studied regions of the Southern, Middle and Polar Urals, speakers of Finno-Ugric languages can be described as representatives of a more traditional culture. Materials of fieldworks conducted by the Institute of Ethnological Research. R. G. Kuzeeva UFITs RAS in 2015 in Yakshur-Bodya rural locality, allow us to adjust this thesis. The leading approach to the study of this problem is an inductive strategy; analysis and synthesis methods are also used. The collection of empirical materials was carried out by the methods of field ethnography and sociology: included observation and surveys (questioning and interviewing). Article materials may be useful for employees of state bodies, specialists in the field of ethno-confessional relations, and religious researchers.
Microangiopatía trombótica en el trasplante renal, el tacrolimus como causante
Authors: Rodríguez-Mori Juan E. , Mego-Arellan Denese C. , Sumire-Umeres Julia , Asato-Higa Carmen
Published: January 2021

La microangiopatía trombótica (MAT) es una complicación poco frecuente asociada al uso de tacrolimus en el trasplante renal. Puede estar relacionado a infecciones, rechazo mediado por anticuerpos (RMA), recurrencia de enfermedad o MAT de novo y a toxicidad por inhibidores de la calcineurina. Por lo general, se presenta como formas incompletas, lo que hace difícil su diagnóstico, por lo que puede provocar lesiones irreversibles. El caso presentado comparte la presencia de infección viral, datos sugerentes de rechazo concomitantemente con el uso de tacrolimus. El tratamiento incluye plasmaferesis y anticuerpos monoclonales como eculizumab. Sin embargo, en el caso presentado la suspensión o cambio del tacrolimus fue una medida más costo-efectiva.
Uso de la embolización de la arteria meníngea media en recidiva de hematoma subdural crónico
Authors: Vargas-Urbina John F. , Saal-Zapata Giancarlo , Rodriguez-Varela Rodolfo
Published: January 2021

El hematoma subdural crónico (HSDC) es una patología neuroquirúrgica frecuente, con una recurrencia de hasta el 30% de los casos. La embolización de la arteria meníngea media (AMM) es una estrategia de manejo adyuvante para disminuir la recidiva, especialmente en pacientes con factores de riesgo para recurrencia, y tiene una baja tasa de complicaciones. Presentamos el caso de un varón de 83 años con antecedente de anticoagulación, que es admitido en centro sanitario por presentar hemiparesia derecha, disartria y alteración de la marcha, con un tiempo de enfermedad de una semana. Se realizó trepanación y evacuación del HSDC sin complicaciones. Un mes después retornó por recidiva del HSDC, por lo que se realizó trepanación y evacuación adecuada del HSDC, seguida de embolización de la AMM ipsilateral. El control a los dos meses mostró ausencia de recidiva, con mejoría neurológica del paciente. Concluimos que la embolización de la AMM fue un tratamiento adyuvante eficaz para disminuir la recidiva del HSDC y podría estar indicada en pacientes con factores de riesgo asociados a la recurrencia.
Determinants of Salary Expectations – A Survey of Accounting and Controlling Students
Authors: Kurek Bartosz , Górowski Ireneusz
Published: January 2021

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the paper is to identify and quantify selected salary expectations determinants (including gender) of Accounting and Controlling students at Cracow University of Economics.
THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: We conduct a survey of expected salaries among students . We use Shapiro-Wilk W test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test for initial analysis. We then build econometric linear models in which salary expectations are dependent variables, whereas GPA, holding a foreign language certificate, gender and age are independent variables. We estimate these models by OLS. We use Huber/White robust standard errors to assess statistical significance of each parameter.
THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Graduates of accounting pro­grammes are sought at the labour market. For cognitive purposes and edu­cational policy implications it is of utmost importance to understand which observable factors differentiate students in their salaries’ expectations.
RESEARCH RESULTS: We find a number of variables that are statistically significant and associated with the expected salary. Higher salaries for graduates of Accounting and Controlling major are expected by: students with lower GPA, holders of a foreign language certificate, male students, younger students. On the contrary, lower salaries are expected by students with higher GPA, students who do not hold a foreign language certificate, female students, older students.
CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Students differ among themselves – thus we observe various salary expectations. Nonetheless, some of the obtained results are puzzling. We find that female stu­dents demand lower salaries. Similarly it is surprising that students with lower GPA expect higher salaries. As a result, we recommend to further investigate determinants of salary expectations.