bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optimal Reactive Power Compensation in Distribution Networks with Radial and Meshed Structures Using D-STATCOMs: A Mixed-Integer Convex Approach
Authors: Garrido Víctor Manuel , Montoya Oscar Danilo , Medina-Quesada Ángeles , Hernández Jesus C.
Published: November 2022

This paper deals with the problem regarding the optimal siting and sizing of distribution static compensators (D-STATCOMs) in electrical distribution networks to minimize the expected total annual operating costs. These costs are associated with the investments made in D-STATCOMs and expected energy losses costs. To represent the electrical behavior of the distribution networks, a power flow formulation is used which includes voltages, currents, and power as variables via incidence matrix representation. This formulation generates a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model that accurately represents the studied problem. However, in light of the complexities involved in solving this MINLP model efficiently, this research proposes a mixed-integer convex reformulation. Numerical results regarding the final annual operating costs of the network demonstrate that the proposed mixed-integer convex model is efficient for selecting and locating D-STATCOMs in distribution networks, with the main advantage that it is applicable to radial and meshed distribution grid configurations. A comparative analysis with respect to metaheuristic optimizers and convex approximations confirms the robustness of the proposed formulation. All numerical validations were conducted in the MATLAB programming environment with our own scripts (in the case of metaheuristics) and the CVX convex disciplined tool via the Gurobi solver. In addition, the exact MINLP model is solved using the GAMS software.
Research on Satellite Network Traffic Prediction Based on Improved GRU Neural Network
Authors: Liu Zhiguo , Li Weijie , Feng Jianxin , Zhang Jiaojiao
Published: November 2022

The current satellite network traffic forecasting methods cannot fully exploit the long correlation between satellite traffic sequences, which leads to large network traffic forecasting errors and low forecasting accuracy. To solve these problems, we propose a satellite network traffic forecasting method with an improved gate recurrent unit (GRU). This method combines the attention mechanism with GRU neural network, fully mines the characteristics of self-similarity and long correlation among traffic data sequences, pays attention to the importance of traffic data and hidden state, learns the time-dependent characteristics of input sequences, and mines the interdependent characteristics of data sequences to improve the prediction accuracy. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to obtain the best network model Hyperparameter and improve the prediction efficiency. Simulation results show that the proposed method has the best fitting effect with real traffic data, and the errors are reduced by 26.9%, 37.2%, and 57.8% compared with the GRU, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Fractional Autoregressive Integration Moving Average (FARIMA) models, respectively.
Core Synergies Measured with Ultrasound in Subjects with Chronic Non-Specific Low Back Pain and Healthy Subjects: A Systematic Review
Authors: Cervera-Cano Maria , López-González Luis , Valcárcel-Linares David , Fernández-Carnero Samuel , Achalandabaso-Ochoa Alexander , Andrés-Sanz Verónica , Pecos-Martín Daniel
Published: November 2022

Low back pain represents the leading cause of disability since 1990. In 90% of cases, it is classified as non-specific low back pain, being chronic in 10% of subjects. Ultrasound has proven to be an effective measurement tool to observe changes in the activity and morphology of the abdominal muscles. This article reviews which core synergies are studied with ultrasound in healthy subjects and with chronic non-specific low back pain. A systematic review was conducted on studies analyzing synergies between two or more core muscles. Publications from 2005 until July 2021 were identified by performing structured searched in Pubmed/MEDLINE, PEDro and WOS. Fifteen studies were eligible for the final systematic review. A total of 56% of the studies established synergies between the core muscles and 44% between the homo and contralateral sides of the core muscles. The most studied core synergies were transversus abdominis, internal oblique and external oblique followed by the rectus abdominis and the lumbar multifidus. No studies establishing synergies with diaphragm and pelvic floor were found. Eight studies were conducted in healthy subjects, five studies in subjects with chronic non-specific low back pain compared to healthy subjects and two studies in subjects with chronic non-specific low back pain.
A Novel Localization System in SAR-Demining Applications Using Invariant Radar Channel Fingerprints
Authors: Karsch Nicholas , Schulte Hendrik , Musch Thomas , Baer Christoph
Published: November 2022

In this paper, we present a novel two dimensional (2D) frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) localization method for handheld systems based on the extraction of distinguishable subchannel fingerprints. Compared with other concepts, only one subdivided radar source channel is needed in order to instantly map a one-dimensional measurement to higher-dimensional space coordinates. The additional information of the detected target is implemented with low-cost hardware component features, which exhibit distinguishable space-dependent fingerprint codes. Using the given a priori information of the hardware thus leads to a universally applicable extension for low-cost synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-demining purposes. In addition to the description of the system concept and its requirements, the signal processing steps and the hardware components are presented. Furthermore, the 2D localization accuracy of the system and the classification accuracy of the frequency-coded fingerprints are described in a defined test environment to proof the operational reliability of the realized setup, reaching a classification accuracy of 94.7% and an averaged localization error of 4.9 mm.
Airborne Radar Anti-Jamming Waveform Design Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Zheng Zexin , Li Wei , Zou Kun
Published: November 2022

Airborne radars are susceptible to a large number of clutter, noise and variable jamming signals in the real environment, especially when faced with active main lobe jamming, as the waveform shortcut technology in the traditional regime can no longer meet the actual battlefield radar anti-jamming requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to study anti-main-lobe jamming techniques for airborne radars in complex environments to improve their battlefield survivability. In this paper, we propose an airborne radar waveform design method based on a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm under clutter and jamming conditions, after previous research on reinforcement-learning (RL)-based airborne radar anti-jamming waveform design methods that have improved the anti-jamming performance of airborne radars. The method uses a Markov decision process (MDP) to describe the complex operating environment of airborne radars, calculates the value of the radar anti-jamming waveform strategy under various jamming states using deep neural networks and designs the optimal anti-jamming waveform strategy for airborne radars based on the duelling double deep Q network (D3QN) algorithm. In addition, the method uses an iterative transformation method (ITM) to generate the time domain signals of the optimal waveform strategy. Simulation results show that the airborne radar waveform designed based on the deep reinforcement learning algorithm proposed in this paper improves the signal-to-jamming plus noise ratio (SJNR) by 2.08 dB and 3.03 dB, and target detection probability by 26.79% and 44.25%, respectively, compared with the waveform designed based on the reinforcement learning algorithm and the conventional linear frequency modulation (LFM) signal at a radar transmit power of 5 W. The airborne radar waveform design method proposed in this paper helps airborne radars to enhance anti-jamming performance in complex environments while further improving target detection performance.
End-to-End Network for Pedestrian Detection, Tracking and Re-Identification in Real-Time Surveillance System
Authors: Lei Mingwei , Song Yongchao , Zhao Jindong , Wang Xuan , Lyu Jun , Xu Jindong , Yan Weiqing
Published: November 2022

Surveillance video has been widely used in business, security, search, and other fields. Identifying and locating specific pedestrians in surveillance video has an important application value in criminal investigation, search and rescue, etc. However, the requirements for real-time capturing and accuracy are high for these applications. It is essential to build a complete and smooth system to combine pedestrian detection, tracking and re-identification to achieve the goal of maximizing efficiency by balancing real-time capture and accuracy. This paper combined the detector and Re-ID models into a single end-to-end network by introducing a new track branch to YOLOv5 architecture for tracking. For pedestrian detection, we employed the weighted bi-directional feature pyramid network (BiFPN) to enhance the network structure based on the YOLOv5-Lite, which is able to further improve the ability of feature extraction. For tracking, based on Deepsort, this paper enhanced the tracker, which uses the Noise Scale Adaptive (NSA) Kalman filter to track, and adds adaptive noise to strengthen the anti-interference of the tracking model. In addition, the matching strategy is further updated. For pedestrian re-identification, the network structure of Fastreid was modified, which can increase the feature extraction speed of the improved algorithm by leaps and bounds. Using the proposed unified network, the parameters of the entire model can be trained in an end-to-end method with the multi-loss function, which has been demonstrated to be quite valuable in some other recent works. Experimental results demonstrate that pedestrians detection can obtain a 97% mean Average Precision (mAP) and that it can track the pedestrians well with a 98.3% MOTA and a 99.8% MOTP on the MOT16 dataset; furthermore, high pedestrian re-identification performance can be achieved on the VERI-Wild dataset with a 77.3% mAP. The overall framework proposed in this paper has remarkable performance in terms of the precise localization and real-time detection of specific pedestrians across time, regions, and cameras.
Case-Specific Focal Sensor Design for Cardiac Electrical Impedance Tomography
Authors: Zhang Chenke , Wang Yu , Ren Shangjie , Dong Feng
Published: November 2022

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive detection technology that uses the electrical response value at the boundary of an observation field to image the conductivity changes in an area. When EIT is applied to the thoracic cavity of the human body, the conductivity change caused by the heartbeat will be concentrated in a sub-region of the thoracic cavity, that is, the heart region. In order to improve the spatial resolution of the target region, two sensor optimization methods based on conformal mapping theory were proposed in this study. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified by simulation and phantom experiment. The qualitative analysis and quantitative index evaluation of the reconstructed image showed that the optimized model could achieve higher imaging accuracy of the heart region compared with the standard sensor. The reconstruction results could effectively reflect the periodic diastolic and systolic movements of the heart and had a better ability to recognize the position of the heart in the thoracic cavity.
MHAU-Net: Skin Lesion Segmentation Based on Multi-Scale Hybrid Residual Attention Network
Authors: Li Yingjie , Xu Chao , Han Jubao , An Ziheng , Wang Deyu , Ma Haichao , Liu Chuanxu
Published: November 2022

Melanoma is a main factor that leads to skin cancer, and early diagnosis and treatment can significantly reduce the mortality of patients. Skin lesion boundary segmentation is a key to accurately localizing a lesion in dermoscopic images. However, the irregular shape and size of the lesions and the blurred boundary of the lesions pose significant challenges for researchers. In recent years, pixel-level semantic segmentation strategies based on convolutional neural networks have been widely used, but many methods still suffer from the inaccurate segmentation of fuzzy boundaries. In this paper, we proposed a multi-scale hybrid attentional convolutional neural network (MHAU-Net) for the precise localization and segmentation of skin lesions. MHAU-Net has four main components: multi-scale resolution input, hybrid residual attention (HRA), dilated convolution, and atrous spatial pyramid pooling. Multi-scale resolution inputs provide richer visual information, and HRA solves the problem of blurred boundaries and enhances the segmentation results. The Dice, mIoU, average specificity, and sensitivity on the ISIC2018 task 1 validation set were 93.69%, 90.02%, 92.7% and 93.9%, respectively. The segmentation metrics are significantly better than the latest DCSAU-Net, UNeXt, and U-Net, and excellent segmentation results are achieved on different datasets. We performed model robustness validations on the Kvasir-SEG dataset with an overall sensitivity and average specificity of 95.91% and 96.28%, respectively.
Assessment of Sustainable Water Utilization Based on the Pressure–State–Response Model: A Case Study of the Yellow River Basin in China
Authors: Li Ruzi , Huang Shuqi , Bai Yi , Li Yingzi , Cao Yi , Liu Yaobin
Published: November 2022

Based on the pressure–state–response (PSR) framework, in this paper, we construct an assessment system for sustainable water utilization (SWU) in 60 prefecture-level cities along the Yellow River Basin. Then, a spatial autocorrelation model is employed to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of SWU. Further, nine related variables are selected to explore the key factors affecting the spatial differentiation of SWU with a geographic detector model. The results are as follows: (1) The overall level of SWU in the Yellow River Basin is not high, and the level of SWU in five cities is much higher than that in other cities. (2) Overall, the SWU shows noticeable spatial autocorrelation characteristics along the Yellow River Basin. Additionally, locally, it shows high–high agglomeration, low–high agglomeration, and low–low agglomeration. (3) The most important factors affecting the spatial differentiation of SWU in the Yellow River Basin are precipitation, population density, and the proportion of tertiary industry in regional GDP.
Larval Spatiotemporal Distribution of Six Fish Species: Implications for Sustainable Fisheries Management in the East China Sea
Authors: Xu Min , Liu Zunlei , Wang Yihe , Jin Yan , Yuan Xinwei , Zhang Hui , Song Xiaojing , Otaki Takayoshi , Yang Linlin , Cheng Jiahua
Published: November 2022

The larval distributions of the small-sized fishes Omobranchus elegans, Erisphex pottii, Benthosema pterotum, Acropoma japonicum, Upeneus bensasi, and Apogonichthys lineatus in the East China Sea ecosystem are important due to their ecological and economic benefits. To date, however, there have been few studies describing their population distributions and dynamics. In the current study, ichthyoplankton surveys were carried out from April to July 2018 to analyze variations in the larval abundance, distribution, and development stages of these species. In addition, the spatiotemporal larval distribution was investigated in terms of measured environmental variables. It was found that larvae were mainly distributed at depths of 5.00–66.00 m, in areas with sea surface temperature of 4.40–29.60 °C, sea surface salinity of 16.54–34.60 psu, pH of 7.00–9.00, and dissolved oxygen concentration of 2.54–8.70 mg/L. Benthosema pterotum and A. lineatus migrated from 30.00–31.00° N 123.17–123.50° E in June to 30.00–32.50° N 122.22–123.50° E in July. The results of this study can help to preserve spawning and nursery grounds and contribute to sustainable coastal fisheries management.
Keu Contamination in Tuscany: The Life Cycle Assessment of Remediation Project as a Decision Support Tool for Local Administration
Authors: Castagnoli Alessio , Pasciucco Francesco , Iannelli Renato , Meoni Carlo , Pecorini Isabella
Published: November 2022

In this study, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted on a project to clean up a heavy metals-contaminated site located in central Italy (Tuscany) in order to define the less impactful solution. The study evaluated the contamination in the soil, derived from the leaching of backfill materials composed of quarry aggregates and sintered granules referred to as “Keu”, a waste derived from the pyrolization of sewage sludge from the Tuscan tannery district, rich in chromium. Three action scenarios were compared, namely the no-action scenario, an excavation and landfill disposal scenario, and a permanent material capping and sealing scenario. The LCA results show the lowest impact for soil capping operations due to the high impacts of heavy metal emissions and landfilling of materials for the first and third scenarios. The third scenario has the lowest impact for ten of the eleven categories analyzed by the CML-IA baseline method. The only exception is the ozone layer depletion category due to the binder synthesis process used for the pavement to protect the membrane. Future studies could be devoted to the study of Keu, through extensive characterization, as well as a study of the fate of this material in landfills to define an appropriate process for future LCA analysis.
Mitigation of Regional Disparities in Quality Education for Maintaining Sustainable Development at Local Study Centres: Diagnosis and Remedies for Open Universities in China
Authors: Tang Wen , Zhang Xiangyang , Tian Youyi
Published: November 2022

Regional disparities in quality education remain a sensitive issue in developing and developed countries and also in basic and higher education. The issue for the moment is especially crucial for open educational institutions regarding the stability of the open education ecosystem and the capacity for sustainable development. Our research focuses on the aspect of the quality of teaching and learning and its enhancement. In the study, we systematically explored the regional disparities of teaching and learning quality in local study centres with samples of 72 from Jiangsu Open University (JOU), China. With statistical toolkits and a typological research paradigm, we have identified the ranking of the local study centres according to holistic performance. By the clustering methods, we categorised the local study centres as belonging to four types: potentially contradictory, urgently to be reformed, less cost-effective, and normatively autonomous in terms of their basic attributes, learners’ support services, and teaching commitment. The research findings proved that the region where the study centres are located did have impacts on the quality of teaching and learning, and the scalability of student enrolment. The authors conclude and suggest that mitigation of the regional disparities in quality education will facilitate the optimisation of the local study centres in the regional education ecosystem and maintain sustainable development.
Securing Big Data for Knowledge Management into a Circular Economy
Authors: Bucea-Manea-Tonis Radu , Kuleto Valentin , Plojović Šemsudin A. , Beteringhe Adrian , Ilić Milena P.
Published: November 2022

The main purpose of the article is to find a solution to secure data transfer. Big data, a mark of Industry 4.0, comes with the risk of transferring knowledge. Data management is becoming harder to be administered, and Big Data (BD) can be a good solution for it. Sending data containing information about actions to be taken by the system may expose the values of the system’s parameters. Securing the data will stop any third party from interfering with the communication and sending its commands to the remote system. Thus, the article presents a case study that proves how to secure BD read/write operations using the Gauss function and how to use Secure Shell (SSH), a cryptographic network protocol, to generate key-value pairs for safely operating services over an unsecured network.
Investigation on Civil Engineering Application of Tyre Encased Soil Element: Laboratory Direct Shear Test and Supply Chain Analysis
Authors: Xu Yachong , Zhuge Yan , Rahman Md. Mizanur , Karim Md. Rajibul , Hassanli Reza , Luo Li , Freney Martin
Published: November 2022

The reuse of end-of-life (EOL) tyres as earth reinforcement materials in civil engineering projects have been studied for decades. Entire EOL tyres infilled with compacted soil can form segmental tyre encased soil elements (TESEs) with considerable load-bearing capacity. The TESEs can be used to construct structures like low-rise buildings, railway foundations and geotechnical structures. One of the most important aspects of TESE systems, i.e., the shearing interaction between neighbouring units is not yet well understood. In this study, thirty-six laboratory tests have been conducted to investigate the response of TESEs under intercourse shear actions. This was followed by a supply chain environment and economic analysis to investigate the acceptability of the system. The results revealed that the type of encased soil had more effect on the interface interactions between courses of TESEs compared to the TESEs’ construction pattern. It was also found that the frictional coefficient could be increased by either using coarse and angular aggregates as the encased soil or reducing the amount of the encased soil to form a high portion of rubber-to-rubber contact at the composite interface. Supply chain environment and economic analysis revealed that using entire tyres as construction materials has low CO2 emission and considerable economic benefits.
Processing Coalmine Overburden Waste Rock as Replacement to Natural Sand: Environmental Sustainability Assessment
Authors: Mishra Anshumali , Das Sarat Kumar , Reddy Krishna R.
Published: November 2022

Waste rock dumped beside a surface coal mining site is termed coalmine overburden (OB) and is found suitable as a construction material. It requires preprocessing to be converted into the final construction material. The waste rock (cradle) processing to the final product (gate) involves transportation to the processing plant, crushing, screening, washing, and transportation from the processing plant to the client or project site. Preprocessing will cause environmental impacts. The present study performs a cradle-to-gate environmental impact assessment of waste rock to replace natural sand at a coal mine near Dhanbad, India. Life cycle environmental sustainability is assessed using the SimaPro® CML-IA baseline V3.07/EU+3 2000 impact method with the Ecoinvent 3.0 inventory. The data used was collected from an operational plant in the nearby area. The layout of a typical processing plant is also proposed in the study. The environmental impacts are reported in terms of abiotic depletion, global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human toxicity, eutrophication, acidification, and eutrophication. The manufacture of overburden sand (OBS) using a sustainable fuel and energy mix is more environmentally friendly. The environmental impacts can be drastically reduced if crushing is carried out using an onsite or mobile crushing plant.
Manufacturer’s Incentive Strategies in a Dual-Channel Supply Chain with Moral Hazard: A Long-Term Perspective
Authors: Zhao Ruijuan , Guo Yihan , Chu Xiaolin
Published: November 2022

Moral hazard have a non-negligible impact on supply chain sustainability, especially from a long-term perspective. This influence is more complicated in a dual-channel supply chain with free riding. Therefore, it is necessary to explore how manufacturers design multi-period incentive strategies in a dual-channel supply chain to deal with moral hazard problems from retailers. In this study, we built a game theory model that contains a retailer (she) who is delegated by a manufacturer (he) to sell products in her offline and online channels and to provide experience services in a physical store. The retailer has the option of exerting effort when providing experience services to boost demand. We explored and compared the manufacturer’s strategies that cover a time horizon of multiple periods under two circumstances: full information and repeated moral hazard. The following conclusions were drawn from this study. In the repeated moral hazard game, the incentive constraints of the retailer are only related to her current and the next-period profits and independent from the profits in other periods. Moreover, the incentive strategies in each period are affected by the historical information in the previous period, while the strategies under information symmetry are not affected by history. Specially, the manufacturer can induce effort by charging an up-front payment from the retailer in the previous period and then returning a utility based on the achieved demand. Therefore, the manufacturer can postpone the payment of incentive costs and shift the risk to the next period. Furthermore, the manufacturer’s incentive strategies are also affected by the free-riding effect between channels. That is, compared with the low-state transfer payment, the high-state transfer payment was found to be more sensitive to free riding.
Non-Intrusive Detection of Occupants’ On/Off Behaviours of Residential Air Conditioning
Authors: Ono Tetsushi , Hagishima Aya , Tanimoto Jun
Published: November 2022

Understanding occupants’ behaviours (OBs) of heating and cooling use in dwellings is essential for effectively promoting occupants’ behavioural change for energy saving and achieving efficient demand response operation. Thus, intensive research has been conducted on data collection, statistical analysis, and modelling of OBs. However, the majority of smart metres currently deployed worldwide monitor only the total household consumption rather than appliance-level load. Therefore, estimating the turn-on/off state of specific home appliances from the measured household total electricity referred to as non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM), has gained research attention. However, the current NILM methods overlook the specific features of inverter-controlled heat pumps (IHPs) used for space heating/cooling; thus, they are unsuitable for detecting OBs. This study presents a rule-based method for identifying the occupants’ intended operation states of IHPs based on a statistical analysis of load data monitored at 423 dwellings. This method detects the state of IHPs by subtracting the power of sequential-operation appliances other than IHPs from the total household power. Three time-series characteristics, including the durations of power-on/off states and power differences between power-off/on states, were used for this purpose. The performance of the proposed method was validated, indicating an F-score of 0.834.
Investigating the Relationship between Land Use/Land Cover Change and Land Surface Temperature Using Google Earth Engine; Case Study: Melbourne, Australia
Authors: Jamei Yashar , Seyedmahmoudian Mehdi , Jamei Elmira , Horan Ben , Mekhilef Saad , Stojcevski Alex
Published: November 2022

The rapid alteration to land cover, combined with climate change, results in the variation of the land surface temperature (LST). This LST variation is mainly affected by the spatiotemporal changes of land cover classes, their geospatial characteristics, and spectral indices. Melbourne has been the subject of previous studies of land cover change but often over short time periods without considering the trade-offs between land use/land cover (LULC) and mean daytimes summer season LST over a more extended period. To fill this gap, this research aims to investigate the role of LULC change on mean annual daytime LST in the hot summers of 2001 and 2018 in Melbourne. To achieve the study’s aim, LULC and LST maps were generated based on the cost-effective cloud-based geospatial analysis platform Google Earth Engine (GEE). Furthermore, the geospatial and geo-statistical relationship between LULC, LST, and spectral indices of LULC, including the Normalised Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) and the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), were identified. The findings showed that the mean daytime LST increased by 5.1 °C from 2001 to 2018. The minimum and maximum LST values were recorded for the vegetation and the built-up area classes for 2001 and 2018. Additionally, the mean daytime LST for vegetation and the built-up area classes increased by 5.5 °C and 5.9 °C from 2001 to 2018, respectively. Furthermore, both elevation and NDVI were revealed as the most influencing factors in the LULC classification process. Considering the R2 values between LULC and LST and their NDVI values in 2018, grass (0.48), forest (0.27), and shrubs (0.21) had the highest values. In addition, urban areas (0.64), bare land (0.62), and cropland (0.61) LULC types showed the highest R2 values between LST regarding their NDBI values. This study highlights why urban planners and policymakers must understand the impacts of LULC change on LST. Appropriate policy measures can be proposed based on the findings to control Melbourne’s future development.
Differential Hydrological Properties of Forest Litter Layers in Artificial Afforestation of Eroded Areas of Latosol in China
Authors: Tu Zhihua , Chen Suyi , Ruan Dongshuo , Chen Zexian , Huang Yanping , Chen Jinhui
Published: November 2022

Litter is one of the key components of the forest ecosystem and plays a role as the second active layer influencing hydrological processes, which has affected the global water cycle. Soil- and water-conservation forests were constructed by artificial afforestation as a part of vegetation restoration in the eroded area of Latosol, and little is known about the differences in the hydrological properties of vegetation restoration in the eroded area of Latosol in the tropical region. We investigated the litter thickness, mass, and hydrological properties in three soil- and water-conservation forests (Eucalyptus robusta, Hevea brasiliensis, and Acacia mangium) through in situ surveys and laboratory experiments. The results showed that (1) the total litter thickness varied from 2.16 to 5.53 cm and was highest in the A. mangium forest. The total litter mass for A. mangium, 14.66 ± 1.09 t·ha−1, was significantly higher than that for E. robusta (5.45 ± 0.59 t·ha−1) and H. brasiliensis (3.01 ± 0.14 t·ha−1). The mass of the semi-decomposed litter (SDL) layer was markedly higher than that of the un-decomposed litter (UDL) layer. (2) The maximum water-retention capacity (Wmax) and effective water-retention capacity (Weff) of the SDL layer were larger than the UDL layer for three forest plantations. The Wmax and Weff for the A. mangium stand were significantly higher than those for the E. robusta and H. brasiliensis stand. (3) The water-absorption rate of the SDL and UDL layer were highest at the onset of the immersion experiment, declined exponentially with time, and especially declined rapidly in the first 2 h. A higher water-holding capacity of A. mangium may be more effective in enhancing rainfall interception, minimizing splash erosion, and decreasing surface runoff. These results indicate that planting A. mangium in E. robusta and H. brasiliensis forests and then turning them into mixed forests should improve soil and water conservation and maximize their ecological benefits.
Scientific and Fisher’s Knowledge-Based Ecological Risk Assessment: Combining Approaches to Determine the Vulnerability of Fisheries Stocks
Authors: Peixoto Ualerson Iran , Casal-Ribeiro Morgan , Medeiros-Leal Wendell M. , Novoa-Pabon Ana , Pinho Mário , Santos Régis
Published: November 2022

Small-scale fishing is a multi-gear activity that focuses on a wide range of species. As there is a considerable diversity of species, it is often difficult to keep track of all of those that are caught, and due to the lack of data or poor quality, most stock statuses are currently unknown around the world. Therefore, local ecological knowledge provided by fishers has been regarded as a valuable source of information to bridge these crucial gaps. This study assesses the vulnerability status of 22 fishing stocks in the Azores, through productivity and susceptibility analyses (PSAs) using two independent data sources: conventional scientific knowledge and fishers’ knowledge data. We created four PSAs with separate and integrated data sources. Although we found some differences in the vulnerability scores and rankings, the risk outputs of the PSAs using independent and integrated sources of data generally match, reflecting a similar pattern trend. The findings of this work suggest that integrating FK may be an alternative to provide good fisheries’ assessment outcomes in the absence of CSK. Overall, this research supports the inclusion of fishers’ knowledge in vulnerability assessments as not only beneficial in the absence of data, but also as a supplement to data that can improve management advice.
Has the Newly Imposed Property Tax Controlled Housing Prices? An Analysis of China’s 2009–2020 Interprovincial Panel Data
Authors: Hou Shangfa , Wang Jiaying , Zhu Degui
Published: November 2022

The stability of the real-estate market is crucial to China’s economic development and, in times of crisis, the economy will experience systemic adverse reactions that require appropriate regulation by the state using tax policy tools. Therefore, we analyzed the impact of real-property tax on house prices using panel data for 31 provinces in China from 2009 to 2020 using an empirical method, i.e., the instrumental variables approach. The empirical results show that each of the previous property-related taxes actually contributed to the increase in house prices and did not have a dampening effect. The newly introduced property tax will lead to a decline in house prices, which will help to alleviate the overheating of real-estate investment and mitigate the real-estate bubble crisis. A rational view of the impact of a property tax on housing prices needs to be taken in the context of factors such as income levels, consumer price levels, loan rates, and Chinese consumer culture. In order to achieve the goal of “no speculation in housing”, we also need to pay attention to the regulating effect of a property tax in combination with many other factors. This study is important for promoting property tax reform, curbing overheated real-estate investment, and promoting healthy economic development.
Accessing the Impact of FDI Goals on Risk Management Strategy and Management Performance in the Digital Era: A Case Study of SMEs in China
Authors: Yin Hengbin , Mohsin Muhammad , Zhang Luyao , Qian Chong , Cai Yan
Published: November 2022

COVID-19 has impeded the internationalization of enterprises and sustainable digital economic growth. This situation has led to enterprises adopting divestment strategies to deal with multiple risks. However, the successful implementation of strategies depends on understanding the perceptible risks. Due to risk management failures or unexpected risks, strategic management has attributed withdrawal to production costs or marketing, but risk management has never addressed it. Moreover, small enterprises are more vulnerable to risks than large ones. For the first time, this study fills a gap in the literature by combining Dunning’s investment motives theory with the COSO risk management process theory to examine small enterprise risk perception in China. China has seen a growing number of foreign direct investment (FDI) withdraw. Different risks should have been faced and managed if these were determined to be efficiency-seekers or market-seekers. This research context led to a survey of 498 FDIs, including market-seeking or efficiency-seeking types, to identify perceived risk, managed risk, and value risk outcomes. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 18.0 program was used for frequency analysis of general characteristics and exploration of factor analysis, whereas, Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) 18.0 was used to perform a confirmatory factor analysis and develop a structural equation model. The obtained results indicate that market efficiency-oriented enterprises can modify their strategies by implementing digital transformation and localization strategies. In contrast, production efficiency-oriented enterprises will divest because of risks, without finding a better strategy.
Spatial-Temporal Changes and Influencing Factors of Ecological Protection Levels in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yellow River
Authors: Zhu Min , Tang Haiyun , Elahi Ehsan , Khalid Zainab , Wang Kaili , Nisar Nimra
Published: November 2022

In recent years, ecological problems in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have been frequent. Therefore, exploring its core influences can advance the implementation of “Ecological Protection and High-quality Development of the Yellow River Basin”. This paper constructs an indicator system based on PSR guidelines, evaluates the ecological protection level of 55 cities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River from 2009 to 2019, and uses correlation analysis with geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model to explore the spatial distribution characteristics of influencing factors, such as intensity of fertilizer application, amount of agricultural film applied, afforestation area per capita, and green technology innovation level on the ecological protection level. It is found that the overall level of ecological protection has shown a steady increase, but the spatial distribution varies widely. The ecological level increased from 0.2218 to 0.3357, showing a decreasing distribution trend from coastal to inland. Furthermore, it is found that the ecological protection level has a significant positive spatial correlation, mainly for similar clustering. The Global Moran’s I for ecological protection level is greater than 0, and the Moran scatter plot has a high number of cities distributed in the first and third quadrants. There is a heterogeneity in the spatial and temporal distribution of factors influencing the level of ecological protection. Fertilizer application, the agricultural film uses, and afforestation area per capita are mainly negatively affected, while green innovation level has a strong positive effect, and agricultural film use, afforestation area per capita, and green innovation level become the core influencing factor of different regions. Therefore, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the ecological protection level should be improved by implementing a regional differentiated development strategy, realizing cross-regional linkages between cities and focusing on differences in core driving factors.
Understanding the Antecedents of Use of E-Commerce and Consumers’ E-Loyalty in Saudi Arabia Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Algamash Fahad Ali , Mashi Munir Shehu , Alam Mohammad Nurul
Published: November 2022

Customer loyalty is a critical factor for any business’ long-term profitability and growth. Despite the rapid expansion and prominence of e-commerce, businesses still face challenges in attaining customers’ e-loyalty. The objective of this paper is to uncover the numerous factors that have an impact on e-loyalty. The data were gathered from 334 students from various universities in Saudi Arabia. With the aid of structural equation modeling (SEM), the hypotheses were examined. The findings support the links between effect expectation, social influence, and facilitating conditions on the use of e-commerce (UEC). However, the linkage between perceived risk and performance expectations on the UEC is not supported. In addition, the UEC predicts e-commerce satisfaction, and e-commerce satisfaction predicts e-loyalty. The paper also supports the UEC and e-commerce satisfaction as mediators. Importantly, the e-commerce experience is supported as a moderator of the connection between e-commerce satisfaction and e-loyalty. The paper recommends that online businesses assess the three constructs of effect expectation, social influence, and facilitating condition that are positively associated with the UEC. Various implications, both theoretical and practical, are highlighted.
Energy Dissipation Enhanced by Multiple Hinges in Bridge Piers with CFST Y-Shaped Fuses
Authors: Liu Qunfeng , Guo Zhaoyang , Wu Xing , Lu Kaile , Ren Xiang , Xiao Jialong
Published: November 2022

Concrete-filled steel tubular Y-shaped (CFST-Y) piers are good candidates for meeting the structural and aesthetic requirements of bridges. By using the theoretical and nonlinear static (pushover) analyses, the seismic performances of three types of CFST-Y piers were evaluated at different seismic hazard levels. The theoretical formulas were first proposed to estimate the lateral stiffnesses for piers with different pier–deck connections. Then, the structural ductility with the development of plastic hinges in piers was investigated based on the pushover analyses. The results demonstrate that the structural dimensions, deck mass, shear limit, and stiffness of bearings can remarkably affect the formation of hinges and thereby lead to different energy dissipation patterns to achieve the expected performance in piers. The findings suggest an economic design strategy of piers, using CFST-Y members as energy dissipation fuses with multiple hinges, to achieve low-level seismic performance cost-effectively.
Characterization of a Family of Scorpion Toxins Modulating Ca2+-Activated Cl− Current in Vascular Myocytes
Authors: Morel Jean-Luc , Mokrzycki Nathalie , Lippens Guy , Drobecq Hervé , Sautière Pierre , Hugues Michel
Published: November 2022

The pharmacology of calcium-activated chloride current is not well developed. Peptides from scorpion venom present potent pharmacological actions on ionic conductance used to characterize the function of channels but can also be helpful to develop organic pharmacological tools. Using electrophysiological recording coupled with calcium measurement, we tested the potent effect of peptides extracted from Leuirus quinquestratus quinquestratus venom on the calcium-activated chloride current expressed in smooth muscle cells freshly dissociated from rat portal veins. We identified one peptide which selectively inhibited the chloride conductance without effects on either calcium signaling or calcium and potassium currents expressed in this cell type. The synthetic peptide had the same affinity, but the chemical modification of the amino acid sequence altered the efficiency to inhibit the calcium-activated chloride conductance.
Histological and Biochemical Analysis after Posterior Mandibular Displacement in Rats
Authors: Lyros Ioannis , Perrea Despoina , Tosios Konstantinos , Nikitakis Nikolaos , Tsolakis Ioannis A. , Ferdianakis Efstratios , Fora Eleni , Lykogeorgos Theodoros , Maroulakos Michael P. , Vardas Emmanouil , Georgaki Maria , Papadopoulou Erofili , Tsolakis Apostolos I.
Published: November 2022

The present study aimed to investigate any biochemical and histological changes of the rat condyle and mandible in animals that had sustained mandibular growth restriction. Seventy-two male Wistar rats were divided into two equal groups, experimental and control. Each group consisted of three equal subgroups. The animals were sacrificed 30, 60, and 90 days after the start of the experiment. Blood samples were collected from the eye, and the osteoprotegerin (OPG), Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor Kappa B Ligand (RANKL), and Macrophage Colony-Stimulating factor (MCSF)concentrations were measured by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. A histological analysis was performed on the mandibular condyles. The blood serum values of OPG, RANKL, and MCSF did not exhibit any statistically significant difference between groups or subgroups. However, significant histological changes became evident after a histomorphometric condylar examination was performed. The Bone Surface/Total Surface ratio appeared reduced in the anterior and posterior regions of the condyle. In addition, the Posterior Condylar Cartilage Thickness was measured and determined to be significantly diminished. The present intervention that employed orthodontic/orthopedic devices did not prove to have any significant effect on the circulating proteins under study. Posterior displacement of the mandible may culminate only in local histological alterations in condylar cartilage thickness and its osseous microarchitecture.
COVID-19 Lockdowns Promoted Recovery of the Yangtze River’s Aquatic Ecosystem
Authors: Fang Dongdong , Yang Haile , Zhang Hui , Du Hao , Yang Junlin , Wei Qiwei
Published: November 2022

The impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on human life, air quality, and river water quality around the world have received significant attention. In comparison, assessments of the implications for freshwater ecosystems are relatively rare. This study explored the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on aquatic ecosystems in the Yangtze River by comparing river water quality, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and fish data collected at the site in the middle reach of the Yangtze River in 2018 and 2020. The results show that during COVID-19 lockdowns, the reduction in industrial and domestic effluent discharge led to a reduction in organic pollution and industrial plant nutrient pollution in rivers. Among them, PO43−−P, CODMn, and TP were significantly decreased (p < 0.05). During lockdowns, nutrient supplies such as TN and TP were reduced, which led to inhibition of algae growth and decreased phytoplankton abundance. Phytoplankton affects the abundance of zooplankton through a bottom-up effect, and a decrease in phytoplankton density leads to a decrease in zooplankton density. The decrease in plankton density led to lower primary productivity in rivers, reduced fish feed supplies, intensified competition among fish populations, with increases in population dominated by high trophic level carnivorous fish. In addition, the decrease in fishing intensity has contributed to an increase in the number of rivers–sea migratory fish; the fish community was earlier mainly dominated by small-sized species with a short life cycle, and the number of supplementary populations has now increased. As a consequence, the fish community structure shows a tendency toward high complexity and high fish diversity. Overall, these observations demonstrate that the rapid revival of the retrogressive Yangtze River ecosystem is possible through limitation of anthropic interferences.