bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Chitosan-Stabilized Ag Nanoparticles with Superior Biocompatibility and Their Synergistic Antibacterial Effect in Mixtures with Essential Oils
Authors: Cinteza Ludmila Otilia , Scomoroscenco Cristina , Voicu Sorina Nicoleta , Nistor Cristina Lavinia , Nitu Sabina Georgiana , Trica Bogdan , Jecu Maria-Luiza , Petcu Cristian
Published: October 2018

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are considered a promising alternative to the use of antibiotics in fighting multidrug-resistant pathogens. However, their use in medical application is hindered by the public concern regarding the toxicity of metallic nanoparticles. In this study, rationally designed AgNP were produced, in order to balance the antibacterial activity and toxicity. A facile, environmentally friendly synthesis was used for the electrochemical fabrication of AgNPs. Chitosan was employed as the capping agent, both for the stabilization and to improve the biocompatibility. Size, morphology, composition, capping layer, and stability of the synthesized nanoparticles were characterized. The in vitro biocompatibility and antimicrobial activities of AgNPs against common Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria were evaluated. The results revealed that chitosan-stabilized AgNPs were nontoxic to normal fibroblasts, even at high concentrations, compared to bare nanoparticles, while significant antibacterial activity was recorded. The silver colloidal dispersion was further mixed with essential oils (EO) to increase the biological activity. Synergistic effects at some AgNP–EO ratios were observed, as demonstrated by the fractionary inhibitory concentration values. Our results reveal that the synergistic action of both polymer-stabilized AgNPs and essential oils could provide a significant efficiency against a large variety of microorganisms, with minimal side effects.
Impact of Diet-Modulated Butyrate Production on Intestinal Barrier Function and Inflammation
Authors: Bach Knudsen Knud Erik , Lærke Helle Nygaard , Hedemann Mette Skou , Nielsen Tina Skau , Ingerslev Anne Krog , Gundelund Nielsen Ditte Søvsø , Theil Peter Kappel , Purup Stig , Hald Stine , Schioldan Anne Grethe , Marco Maria L. , Gregersen Søren , Hermansen Kjeld
Published: October 2018

A major challenge in affluent societies is the increase in disorders related to gut and metabolic health. Chronic over nutrition by unhealthy foods high in energy, fat, and sugar, and low in dietary fibre is a key environmental factor responsible for this development, which may cause local and systemic inflammation. A low intake of dietary fibre is a limiting factor for maintaining a viable and diverse microbiota and production of short-chain fatty acids in the gut. A suppressed production of butyrate is crucial, as this short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) can play a key role not only in colonic health and function but also at the systemic level. At both sites, the mode of action is through mediation of signalling pathways involving nuclear NF-κB and inhibition of histone deacetylase. The intake and composition of dietary fibre modulate production of butyrate in the large intestine. While butyrate production is easily adjustable it is more variable how it influences gut barrier function and inflammatory markers in the gut and periphery. The effect of butyrate seems generally to be more consistent and positive on inflammatory markers related to the gut than on inflammatory markers in the peripheral tissue. This discrepancy may be explained by differences in butyrate concentrations in the gut compared with the much lower concentration at more remote sites.
Coffee Consumption and Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies
Authors: Larsson Susanna C. , Orsini Nicola
Published: October 2018

Coffee consumption is associated with a reduced risk of several diseases but uncertainty remains about the influence of coffee consumption on the risk of dementia. We performed a dose-response meta-analysis to summarize the prospective data on coffee consumption and associated risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We identified studies by searching PubMed (from January 1966) and Web of Science (from January 1945) through 4 October 2018 and by scrutinizing the reference lists of pertinent publications. Two researchers independently reviewed the literature. Results were combined using a restricted cubic spline random-effects dose-response meta-analysis based on a one-stage approach. Eight relevant prospective studies were identified. These studies included 7486 dementia cases diagnosed among 328,885 individuals during an average follow-up of 4.9–25 years. Meta-analysis of all eight studies indicated no statistically significant association between coffee consumption and the risk of dementia and no deviations from a linear trend (p = 0.08). The relative risk of dementia per 1 cup/day increment of coffee consumption was 1.01 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.98–1.05; p = 0.37). Meta-analysis of five studies that focused on Alzheimer’s disease revealed no association between coffee consumption and Alzheimer’s disease and no deviations from a linear trend (p = 0.79). The relative risk of Alzheimer’s disease per 1 cup/day increment of coffee consumption was 1.01 (95% confidence interval 0.95–1.07; p = 0.80). These results do not support an association between coffee consumption and an increased risk of overall dementia or Alzheimer’s disease specifically, but further research on the association of coffee consumption with dementia risk is needed.
Ascorbyl Palmitate Hydrogel for Local, Intestinal Delivery of Macromolecules
Authors: Zhai Jinyi , Mantaj Julia , Vllasaliu Driton
Published: October 2018

Biologics have changed the management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but there are concerns with unexpected systemic toxicity and loss of therapeutic response following administration by injection. Rectal administration of biologics offers potentially reduced therapy costs, as well as safer and more effective local delivery to inflammation sites. Hydrogels are potentially useful carriers of biologics for improved delivery to the inflamed intestinal mucosa. Here, we prepared a hydrogel system based on ascorbyl palmitate (AP) and incorporated a model macromolecular drug (fluorescently-labelled dextran) into the system. Characterization of gel properties included rheology, drug loading and release, cytotoxicity, and drug delivery in an in vitro intestinal model. We report that this hydrogel can be formed under a moderate environment that is amenable to incorporation of some biologics. The system showed a shear-thinning behavior. AP hydrogel released approximately 60% of the drug within 5 h and showed reasonable a cytotoxicity profile. The study therefore provides evidence that AP hydrogel has potential for local delivery of macromolecules to the intestinal mucosa in IBD.
Enhancement of Plasticizing Effect on Bio-Based Polyurethane Acrylate Solid Polymer Electrolyte and Its Properties
Authors: Tuan. Naiwi Tuan Syarifah Rossyidah , Aung Min Min , Ahmad Azizan , Rayung Marwah , Su’ait Mohd Sukor , Yusof Nor Azah , Wynn Lae Khine Zar
Published: October 2018

Polyurethane acrylate (PUA) from vegetable oil has been synthesized and prepared for solid polymer electrolyte. Polyol has been end-capped with Toluene 2,4-Diisocyanate (TDI) followed by hydroxylethylmethylacrylate (HEMA) in a urethanation process to produce PUA. The mixtures were cured to make thin polymeric films under UV radiation to produce excellent cured films which exhibit good thermal stability and obtain high ionic conductivity value. 3 to 15 wt. % of ethylene carbonate (EC) mixed with 25 wt. % LiClO4 was added to PUA to obtain PUA electrolyte systems. PUA modified with plasticizer EC 9 wt. % achieved the highest conductivity of 7.86 × 10−4 S/cm, and relatively improved the linear sweep voltammetry, transference number and dielectric properties. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and dielectric analysis were presented. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), followed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and morphology have been studied. The addition of plasticizer to the polyurethane acrylate shows significant improvement in terms of the conductivity and performance of the polymer electrolyte.
LDAS-Monde Sequential Assimilation of Satellite Derived Observations Applied to the Contiguous US: An ERA-5 Driven Reanalysis of the Land Surface Variables
Authors: Albergel Clement , Munier Simon , Bocher Aymeric , Bonan Bertrand , Zheng Yongjun , Draper Clara , Leroux Delphine , Calvet Jean-Christophe
Published: October 2018

Land data assimilation system (LDAS)-Monde, an offline land data assimilation system with global capacity, is applied over the CONtiguous US (CONUS) domain to enhance monitoring accuracy for water and energy states and fluxes. LDAS-Monde ingests satellite-derived surface soil moisture (SSM) and leaf area index (LAI) estimates to constrain the interactions between soil, biosphere, and atmosphere (ISBA) land surface model (LSM) coupled with the CNRM (Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques) version of the total runoff integrating pathways (CTRIP) continental hydrological system (ISBA-CTRIP). LDAS-Monde is forced by the ERA-5 atmospheric reanalysis from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) from 2010 to 2016 leading to a seven-year, quarter degree spatial resolution offline reanalysis of land surface variables (LSVs) over CONUS. The impact of assimilating LAI and SSM into LDAS-Monde is assessed over North America, by comparison to satellite-driven model estimates of land evapotranspiration from the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) project, and upscaled ground-based observations of gross primary productivity from the FLUXCOM project. Taking advantage of the relatively dense data networks over CONUS, we have also evaluated the impact of the assimilation against in situ measurements of soil moisture from the USCRN (US Climate Reference Network), together with river discharges from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC). Those data sets highlight the added value of assimilating satellite derived observations compared with an open-loop simulation (i.e., no assimilation). It is shown that LDAS-Monde has the ability not only to monitor land surface variables but also to forecast them, by providing improved initial conditions, which impacts persist through time. LDAS-Monde reanalysis also has the potential to be used to monitor extreme events like agricultural drought. Finally, limitations related to LDAS-Monde and current satellite-derived observations are exposed as well as several insights on how to use alternative datasets to analyze soil moisture and vegetation state.
Quantifying the Reflectance Anisotropy Effect on Albedo Retrieval from Remotely Sensed Observations Using Archetypal BRDFs
Authors: Zhang Hu , Jiao Ziti , Chen Lei , Dong Yadong , Zhang Xiaoning , Lian Yi , Qian Da , Cui Tiejun
Published: October 2018

The reflectance anisotropy effect on albedo retrieval was evaluated using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs) product, and archetypal BRDFs. Shortwave-band archetypal BRDFs were established, and validated, based on the Anisotropy Flat indeX (AFX) and time series MODIS BRDF over tile h11v03. To generate surface albedo, archetypal BRDFs were used to fit simulated reflectance, based on the least squares method. Albedo was also retrieved based on the least root-mean-square-error (RMSE) method or normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) based prior BRDF knowledge. The difference between those albedos and the MODIS albedo was used to quantify the reflectance anisotropy effect. The albedo over tile h11v03 for day 185 in 2009 was retrieved from single directional reflectance and the third archetypal BRDF. The results show that six archetypal BRDFs are sufficient to represent the reflectance anisotropy for albedo estimation. For the data used in this study, the relative uncertainty caused by reflectance anisotropy can reach up to 7.4%, 16.2%, and 20.2% for sufficient, insufficient multi-angular and single directional observations. The intermediate archetypal BRDFs may be used to improve the albedo retrieval accuracy from insufficient or single observations with a relative uncertainty range of 8–15%.
Automated Attitude Determination for Pushbroom Sensors Based on Robust Image Matching
Authors: Sugimoto Ryu , Kouyama Toru , Kanemura Atsunori , Kato Soushi , Imamoglu Nevrez , Nakamura Ryosuke
Published: October 2018

Accurate attitude information from a satellite image sensor is essential for accurate map projection and reducing computational cost for post-processing of image registration, which enhance image usability, such as change detection. We propose a robust attitude-determination method for pushbroom sensors onboard spacecraft by matching land features in well registered base-map images and in observed images, which extends the current method that derives satellite attitude using an image taken with 2-D image sensors. Unlike 2-D image sensors, a pushbroom sensor observes the ground by changing its position and attitude according to the trajectory of a satellite. To address pushbroom-sensor observation, the proposed method can trace the temporal variation in the sensor attitude by combining the robust matching technique for a 2-D image sensor and a non-linear least squares approach, which can express gradual time evolution of the sensor attitude. Experimental results using images taken from a visible and near infrared pushbroom sensor of the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) onboard Terra as test image and Landsat-8/OLI images as a base map show that the proposed method can determine satellite attitude with an accuracy of 0.003° (corresponding to the 2-pixel scale of ASTER) in roll and pitch angles even for a scene in which there are many cloud patches, whereas the determination accuracy remains 0.05° in the yaw angle that does not affect accuracy of image registration compared with the other two axes. In addition to the achieved attitude accuracy that was better than that using star trackers (0.01°) regarding roll and pitch angles, the proposed method does not require any attitude information from onboard sensors. Therefore, the proposed method may contribute to validating and calibrating attitude sensors in space, at the same time better accuracy will contribute to reducing computational cost in post-processing for image registration.
Influence of Leaf Specular Reflection on Canopy Radiative Regime Using an Improved Version of the Stochastic Radiative Transfer Model
Authors: Yang Bin , Knyazikhin Yuri , Xie Donghui , Zhao Haimeng , Zhang Junqiang , Wu Yi
Published: October 2018

Interpreting remotely-sensed data requires realistic, but simple, models of radiative transfer that occurs within a vegetation canopy. In this paper, an improved version of the stochastic radiative transfer model (SRTM) is proposed by assuming that all photons that have not been specularly reflected enter the leaf interior. The contribution of leaf specular reflection is considered by modifying leaf scattering phase function using Fresnel reflectance. The canopy bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) estimated from this model is evaluated through comparisons with field-measured maize BRF. The result shows that accounting for leaf specular reflection can provide better performance than that when leaf specular reflection is neglected over a wide range of view zenith angles. The improved version of the SRTM is further adopted to investigate the influence of leaf specular reflection on the canopy radiative regime, with emphases on vertical profiles of mean radiation flux density, canopy absorptance, BRF, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). It is demonstrated that accounting for leaf specular reflection can increase leaf albedo, which consequently increases canopy mean upward/downward mean radiation flux density and canopy nadir BRF and decreases canopy absorptance and canopy nadir NDVI when leaf angles are spherically distributed. The influence is greater for downward/upward radiation flux densities and canopy nadir BRF than that for canopy absorptance and NDVI. The results provide knowledge of leaf specular reflection and canopy radiative regime, and are helpful for forward reflectance simulations and backward inversions. Moreover, polarization measurements are suggested for studies of leaf specular reflection, as leaf specular reflection is closely related to the canopy polarization.
qCon: QoS-Aware Network Resource Management for Fog Computing
Authors: Hong Cheol-Ho , Lee Kyungwoon , Kang Minkoo , Yoo Chuck
Published: October 2018

Fog computing is a new computing paradigm that employs computation and network resources at the edge of a network to build small clouds, which perform as small data centers. In fog computing, lightweight virtualization (e.g., containers) has been widely used to achieve low overhead for performance-limited fog devices such as WiFi access points (APs) and set-top boxes. Unfortunately, containers have a weakness in the control of network bandwidth for outbound traffic, which poses a challenge to fog computing. Existing solutions for containers fail to achieve desirable network bandwidth control, which causes bandwidth-sensitive applications to suffer unacceptable network performance. In this paper, we propose qCon, which is a QoS-aware network resource management framework for containers to limit the rate of outbound traffic in fog computing. qCon aims to provide both proportional share scheduling and bandwidth shaping to satisfy various performance demands from containers while implementing a lightweight framework. For this purpose, qCon supports the following three scheduling policies that can be applied to containers simultaneously: proportional share scheduling, minimum bandwidth reservation, and maximum bandwidth limitation. For a lightweight implementation, qCon develops its own scheduling framework on the Linux bridge by interposing qCon’s scheduling interface on the frame processing function of the bridge. To show qCon’s effectiveness in a real fog computing environment, we implement qCon in a Docker container infrastructure on a performance-limited fog device—a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B board.
Adaptive Feedforward Compensating Self-Sensing Method for Active Flutter Suppression
Authors: Wang Yizhe , Xu Zhiwei
Published: October 2018

A single piezoelectric patch can be used as both a sensor and an actuator by means of the self-sensing piezoelectric actuator, and the function of self-sensing shows several advantages in many application fields. However, some problems exist in practical application. First, a capacitance bridge circuit is set up to realize the function of self-sensing, but the precise matching of the capacitance of the bridge circuit is hard to obtain due to the standardization of electric components and variations of environmental conditions. Second, a local strain is induced by the self-sensing actuator that is not related to the global vibration of the structure, which would affect the performance of applications, especially in active vibration control. The above problems can be tackled by the feedforward compensation method that is proposed in this paper. A configured piezoelectric self-sensing circuit is improved by a feedforward compensation tunnel, and a gain of compensation voltage is adjusted by the time domain and frequency domain’s steepest descent algorithms to alleviate the capacitance mismatching and local strain problems. The effectiveness of the method is verified in the experiment of the active vibration control in a wind tunnel, and the control performance of compensated self-sensing actuation is compared to the performance with capacitance mismatching and local strain. It is found that the above problems have negative effects on the stability and performance of the vibration control and can be significantly eliminated by the proposed method.
Automated Vision-Based Detection of Cracks on Concrete Surfaces Using a Deep Learning Technique
Authors: Kim Byunghyun , Cho Soojin
Published: October 2018

At present, a number of computer vision-based crack detection techniques have been developed to efficiently inspect and manage a large number of structures. However, these techniques have not replaced visual inspection, as they have been developed under near-ideal conditions and not in an on-site environment. This article proposes an automated detection technique for crack morphology on concrete surface under an on-site environment based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs). A well-known CNN, AlexNet is trained for crack detection with images scraped from the Internet. The training set is divided into five classes involving cracks, intact surfaces, two types of similar patterns of cracks, and plants. A comparative study evaluates the successfulness of the detailed surface categorization. A probability map is developed using a softmax layer value to add robustness to sliding window detection and a parametric study was carried out to determine its threshold. The applicability of the proposed method is evaluated on images taken from the field and real-time video frames taken using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The evaluation results confirm the high adoptability of the proposed method for crack inspection in an on-site environment.
A Quadrature Single Side-Band Mixer with Passive Negative Resistance in Software-Defined Frequency Synthesizer
Authors: Liu Dongsheng , Hu Ang , Zhang Kefeng
Published: October 2018

Software-defined radio (SDR) is a good solution for complying with the existing and incoming protocols for emerging wireless sensor networks (WSN) and internet of things (IoT) applications. The frequency synthesizer in a SDR tranceiver usually consists of a phase locked loop (PLL) and a post synthesizer. The PLL is the narrow band signal source and the post synthesizer generates wideband outputs by mixing and dividing. Compared with a frequency synthesizer utilizing the wideband PLL, this synthesizer features relatively constant loop parameters and mitigates the requirement for the oscillator. In this paper, a quadrature single side-band (QSSB) mixer with the proposed passive negative resistance (PNR) for frequency mixing in a post synthesizer is presented. The PNR is achieved by biasing the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFET) of the cross-coupled pair at the deep-triode region periodically and incorporates an inductor and a cap-array as the mixer load. Compared with the traditional single side-band mixers utilizing Inductor-Capacitor (LC) resonant loads or quality factor enhanced (Q-enhanced) LC resonant loads, which suffer from a selectivity versus working range trade-off, the mixer employing the proposed loading structure provides not only a wide operating range, but also a superior image side-band rejection ratio (ISRR). Moreover, the oscillating risk in conventional mixers adopting Q-enhanced LC resonant loads is eliminated. A wideband frequency synthesizer employing the proposed mixer was implemented in a TSMC 0.18 µm CMOS process and the mixer performed ISRR of 40–57 dB and 30–57 dB across 2.5–3 GHz and 2.3–3.2 GHz, respectively. The power consumption of the QSSB mixer, including buffer, is 18 mA from a 1.8 V supply and the active area is 0.445 mm2. The measurement results provide validation that the proposed QSSB mixer is suitable for wideband software-defined frequency synthesizers and other frequency generating systems.
Signalling the ‘Multi-Local’ University? The Place of the City in the Growth of London-Based Satellite Campuses, and the Implications for Social Stratification
Authors: Brooks Rachel , Waters Johanna
Published: October 2018

Around 2009 some UK universities (based outside of the capital) began to open ‘satellite campuses’ in London. There are currently 14 such campuses at present, which have been developed primarily with an international student market in mind. Concerns have been raised, however, about the quality of teaching on these campuses and the fact that student attainment is ostensibly falling significantly below that for the ‘home’ campus. This project is the first of its kind to investigate, systematically, the ways in which universities are representing themselves in relation to these campuses (data include an analysis of prospectuses, YouTube content, websites and material garnered at open days). Using these data, we discuss the role that the City of London plays as a pivotal backdrop to these developments: the way it serves to substitute and compensate for lower levels of resources provided directly to the student from the university (here we consider accommodation, the outsourcing of teaching, the absence of a substantive campus environment and a general lack of focus on ‘pedagogical’ matters in almost all marketing materials). Instead, the universities place London at the front and centre of attempts to ‘sell’ the campus to potential students. The paper makes some innovative conceptual links between work in migration studies on the role and function of global cities in attracting workers and the way in which the city operates in this case to attract international students. These campuses feed into debates around the increasing inequalities evidenced as a consequence of the internationalisation of higher education, even when such developments are ostensibly ‘domestic’.
International Occupational Health and Safety Management-Systems Standards as a Frame for the Sustainability: Mapping the Territory
Authors: Marhavilas Panagiotis , Koulouriotis Dimitrios , Nikolaou Ioannis , Tsotoulidou Sotiria
Published: October 2018

A significant part of literature has shown that the adoption of Sustainability and Health-Safety management systems from organizations bears some substantial benefits since such systems (i) create a suitable frame for the sustainable development, implementation and review of the plans and/or processes, necessary to manage occupational health-safety (OHS) in their workplaces and (ii) imply innovative thinking and practices in fields of economics, policy-making, legislation, health and education. To this context, the paper targets at analysing current sustainability and OHSMSs in order to make these issues more comprehend, clear and functional for scholars and practitioners. Therefore, a literature survey has been conducted to map the territory by focusing on two interrelated tasks. The first one includes the presentation of the main International Management Systems (IMS) with focus on Sustainability and OHS (S_OHSMS) topics and the second task depicts a statistical analysis of the literature-review findings (for the years 2006–2017). In particular, the main purposes of the literature research were: (i) the description of key points of OHSMS and sustainability standards, (ii) the comparative analysis of their characteristics, taking into account several settled evaluation-criteria and (iii) the statistical analysis of the survey’s findings, while our study’s primary aim is the reinforcement of OHMSs’ application in any organization. The results evince, that the field of industry (with 28%) and also of the constructions (with 16%), concentrate the highest percentage of OHSMS use. In general, there were only few publications including OHSMSs (referred to various occupational fields) available in the scientific literature (during 2006–2017) but on the other hand, there was a gradually increasing scientific interest for these standards (especially during 2009–2012).
Effect of Mechanical Pre-Treatment of the Agricultural Substrates on Yield of Biogas and Kinetics of Anaerobic Digestion
Authors: Szlachta Józef , Prask Hubert , Fugol Małgorzata , Luberański Adam
Published: October 2018

The effect of mechanical pre-treatment of nine different agricultural substrates minced to particle sizes of 1.5 mm, 5 mm and 10 mm on biogas and methane yields and fermentation kinetics was investigated. The results showed, that for five of the nine tested substrates (grass, Progas rye, Palazzo rye, tall wheatgrass, beet), a higher biogas production was obtained for the degree of fragmentation of 10 mm compared to fragmentation of 5 mm and 1.5 mm. For fragmentation of 5 mm, the highest biogas production was achieved for sorghum silage, Atletico maize and Cannavaro maize—649.80, 735.59 and 671.83 Nm3/Mg VS, respectively. However, for the degree of fragmentation of 1.5 mm, the highest biogas production (510.43 Nm3/Mg volatile solid (VS)) was obtained with Topinambur silage. The modified Gompertz model fitted well the kinetics of anaerobic digestion of substrates and show a significant dependence of the model parameters Hmax (biogas production potential) and Rmax (maximum rate of biogas production) on the degree of substrate fragmentation.
Bayesian Methods for Reliability Demonstration Test for Finite Population Using Lot and Sequential Sampling
Authors: Jeon Jongseon , Ahn Suneung
Published: October 2018

The work proposed a reliability demonstration test (RDT) process, which can be employed to determine whether a finite population is accepted or rejected. Bayesian and non-Bayesian approaches were compared in the proposed RDT process, as were lot and sequential sampling. One-shot devices, such as bullets, fire extinguishers, and grenades, were used as test targets, with their functioning state expressible as a binary model. A hypergeometric distribution was adopted as the likelihood function for a finite population consisting of binary items. It was demonstrated that a beta-binomial distribution was the conjugate prior of the hypergeometric likelihood function. According to the Bayesian approach, the posterior beta-binomial distribution is used to decide on the acceptance or rejection of the population in the RDT. The proposed method in this work could be used to select item providers in a supply chain, who guarantee a predetermined reliability target and confidence level. Numerical examples show that a Bayesian approach with sequential sampling has the advantage of only requiring a small sample size to determine the acceptance of a finite population.
Macroeconomic Impacts of Climate Change Driven by Changes in Crop Yields
Authors: Fujimori Shinichiro , Iizumi Toshichika , Hasegawa Tomoko , Takakura Jun’ya , Takahashi Kiyoshi , Hijioka Yasuaki
Published: October 2018

Changes in agricultural yields due to climate change will affect land use, agricultural production volume, and food prices as well as macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP, which is important as it enables one to compare climate change impacts across multiple sectors. This study considered five key uncertainty factors and estimated macroeconomic impacts due to crop yield changes using a novel integrated assessment framework. The five factors are (1) land-use change (or yield aggregation method based on spatially explicit information), (2) the amplitude of the CO2 fertilization effect, (3) the use of different climate models, (4) socioeconomic assumptions and (5) the level of mitigation stringency. We found that their global impacts on the macroeconomic indicator value were 0.02–0.06% of GDP in 2100. However, the impacts on the agricultural sector varied greatly by socioeconomic assumption. The relative contributions of these factors to the total uncertainty in the projected macroeconomic indicator value were greater in a pessimistic world scenario characterized by a large population size, low income, and low yield development than in an optimistic scenario characterized by a small population size, high income, and high yield development (0.00%).
Spatial Pattern of Farmland Abandonment in Japan: Identification and Determinants
Authors: Su Guandong , Okahashi Hidenori , Chen Lin
Published: October 2018

In recent years, Japan has undergone an unprecedented increase in farmland abandonment, which not only causes serious environmental problems and rural landscape loss, but also has a significant impact on socio-economic conditions and the livelihood of Japanese farmers. Many studies have analyzed farmland abandonment and its processes and drivers at multiple scales; however, few have focused on East Asia, especially Japan, which is a heavily depopulated country in rural areas suffering from serious abandonment. Therefore, this study attempts to shed light on the spatial patterns and determinants of farmland abandonment in Japan. For this analysis, we used the former municipalities defined in 1950 at a national scale as unit samples. Consequently, the spatial patterns, characteristics and variations of farmland abandonment in Japan are displayed. As for the drivers or determinants, we adopted ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) by categorizing the determinants into geographical and socio-economic aspects. We have found that, firstly, farmland abandonment in Japan exhibits a significantly uneven pattern. While taking the farmland abandonment rate as a measurement, the results demonstrate that most abandoned farmland is positively correlated with slope and is highly clustered in the Kanto, Chubu and Chugoku Shikoku regions, compared to other regions that are suitable for agricultural production, such as the Hokkaido and Tohoku regions. Secondly, the arable land ratio of self-sufficient farm households, the ratio of non-successor farm households and the number of laborers per farm household positively affect abandonment. In contrast, arable land area per farm household and paddy field density have a negative impact on abandonment. Thirdly, the determinants are spatially varied among study regions. Farmland abandonment is driven by interactions of multiple determinants and depends on specific local circumstances. Such results can contribute to the understanding of farmland abandonment in Japan, promoting the maintenance of farmland and sustainable agriculture.
Sulfolane: Magic Extractor or Bad Actor? Pilot-Scale Study on Solvent Corrosion Potential
Authors: Bak Andrzej , Kozik Violetta , Dybal Paulina , Kus Slawomir , Swietlicka Aleksandra , Jampilek Josef
Published: October 2018

The sulfur-containing derivatives and their metabolites, regarded as ‘old devils of green’ chemistry, constitute a relevant class of air/water/soil contaminants in over-polluted world. In fact, some industrially-engineered solvents have become environmentally unfavorable. An attractive alternative to commonly used industrial liquids is sulfolane (C4H8SO2), an anthropogenic medium. The main objective of this paper is the comprehensive review focusing mainly on the state-of-the-art aspects of the sulfolane synthesis, application of sulfolane as an extractive solvent due to its ‘unique’ physicochemical properties as well as the potential of sulfolane to cause equipment corrosion and subsequent spills. The potential risk for groundwater contamination, danger for human health and ways of sulfolane biodegradation were briefly reviewed as well. Interestingly, the analysis performed on data stored in the Reaxys database revealed an alternating tendency of waxing and waning interest in sulfolane during the space of the last fifty years. Moreover, the primary goal of the presented case study was to verify applicability of industrial, multi-electrochemical technique for reliable detection of corrosion in low conductive process fluids. Several aspects of corrosion measurement including the impact of process parameters (temperature) and impurities (oxygen and chlorides) on stainless steel corrosion in pure sulfolane were investigated briefly.
A Conceptual Guideline to Age-Friendly Outdoor Space Development in China: How Do Chinese Seniors Use the Urban Comprehensive Park? A Focus on Time, Place, and Activities
Authors: Zhai Yang , Li Kankan , Liu Jianjun
Published: October 2018

The aim of this paper is to narrow the gap between the theoretical findings from past studies and current open space development through evaluating the behavior pattern and landscape preferences of seniors in urban parks in China. Combining an on-site observational approach with a questionnaire, the research has taken place in two successful traditional comprehensive parks in Xi’an, Shaanxi, China. The results for time, place, and activities were analyzed and depicted in figures. Design guidelines have been provided based on the analysis; new perspectives for further investigations have been pointed out for landscape architects and urban planners to carry on exploring the process of establishing a successful age-friendly outdoor space.
Desired but Neglected: Investigating the Consideration of Alternatives in Austrian EIA and SEA Practice
Authors: Jiricka-Pürrer Alexandra , Bösch Martin , Pröbstl-Haider Ulrike
Published: October 2018

Although the consideration of alternatives is seen as a core element of impact assessments (IA) such as environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and strategic environmental assessments (SEAs), there are few scientific papers that have addressed this topic in depth based on a large empirical study. These studies, as well as the last evaluation of the application of the SEA Directive by the EC, have concluded that there is need for improvement regarding the consideration of alternatives. This paper presents a large quantitative appraisal of the consideration of alternatives in current EIA and SEA practice in Austria. Through a criteria-based evaluation of 100 environmental impact statements (EIAs) and 71 environmental reports (SEA), a quantitative and partly qualitative review was undertaken. The criteria embrace the aspects of “types of alternatives”, “combination of alternatives”, “environmental relevance”, “presentation/structure”, as well as the “consideration of the zero-alternative”. The deficiencies that were identified empirically point out the need for improvement. In particular, a strong need for improvement was identified for both instruments regarding the low environmental relevance of the alternative assessment that was presented, as well as the lack of linking the zero variant to the future development of the environmental issues.
Decision and Performance Analysis of a Price-Setting Manufacturer with Options under a Flexible-Cap Emission Trading Scheme (ETS)
Authors: Wang Shuyi , Wu Zhenhua , Yang Baochen
Published: October 2018

An Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) is widely considered to reduce carbon emissions and achieve sustainability. Unsatisfactory results of European Union Emission trading scheme (EU ETS) make China’s government propose a flexible-cap ETS system to overcome its weakness. This research is the first one introducing the flexible cap to limit the manufacturing carbon footprint. Current research on emission reduction primarily focuses on introducing option contracts to better develop the carbon market, with little consideration of the effectiveness of these contracts on the manufacturer’s optimality facing demand risks. This research fills this research gap by using call option contract to reduce the emission costs for a price-setting manufacturer under the flexible ETS. Newsvendor models are built to investigate the behaviours and performances of manufacturers, with a call option contract when the price-driven demand is uncertain. The joint emission ordering and product pricing problem is solved by three emission ordering policies: the non-option, only option, and mixed emission ordering policy. Analytical and numerical studies have shown that the mixed policy outperforms the others in profitability, and the only option policy provides more flexibility but poor profitability. Furthermore, the mixed ordering policy better protects against price volatility and stringent emission restrictions. Managerial insights help emission-dependent manufacturers to manage their carbon assets for better survival in an increasingly stringent emission market. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the option contract on manufacture optimality in the flexible-cap ETS system, in which the joint emission ordering and production pricing problem under demand uncertainty is solved by the newsvendor model.
Operationalizing Sustainability as a Safe Policy Space
Authors: Mouysset Lauriane , Doyen Luc , Léger François , Jiguet Frédéric , Benton Tim G.
Published: October 2018

It is possible to frame sustainability as occurring when the global or local system is within a set of limits and boundaries, such as the concept of safe operating spaces within planetary boundaries. However, such framings, whilst highly useful conceptually, have been difficult to translate into operation, especially in the development of policies. Here we show how it is possible to define a safe operating space, bounded by sets of constraints. These constraints can be of a variety of forms (e.g., income, or biodiversity), and, importantly, they need not all be converted to a single common metric such as money. The challenge is to identify a set of policy options that define the “safe policy space” which maintains the system within the safe operating space defined by boundaries. A formal methodology, Co-Viability Analysis (CVA), can be used to do this. This provides a coherent framework to operationalize sustainability and has a number of extra advantages. First, defining a safe policy space allows for a political choice of which policies and so is not prescriptive—such as would be the case if a single policy option were defined. Secondly, by allowing each boundary to be defined with its own scale of measurement, it avoids the necessity of having to value natural capital or ecosystem services in financial terms. This framework, therefore, has the potential to allow decision-makers to genuinely meet the needs of their people, now and in the future.
Strategic Instrument for Sustainability of Human Resource Management in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Using Management Data
Authors: Lorincová Silvia , Hitka Miloš , Štarchoň Peter , Stachová Katarína
Published: October 2018

Quality human resources are an integral part of corporate strategy. Human capital development is an essential step towards the success of the business on the market. This paper fills the hole by providing the information about the ways how to motivate employees in terms of occupational classification and the age. The aim of the research was to determine whether there are statistically significant differences in the level of importance of employee motivation in terms of occupational classification and the age of respondents and the studied areas of motivation. A total of 3720 employees in small and medium-sized enterprises were analysed all over Slovakia using the method of simple random sampling. Descriptive statistics were used to describe sampling units. The differences in the values of the importance of motivation factors of individual groups were tested using the method of Tukey’s HSD at the level of significance α = 5%. Following the results, the fact that there are significant differences in terms of occupational classification and the age in the analysed areas of motivation can be stated. Therefore, the managers have to motivate employees in different ways that result in the more complicated management of human resources associated with meeting enterprise goals. Thus, the issue of individual motivation programmes created for individual employees tailored to employees’ needs must be discussed.
The Geometrical Basis of 𝒫𝒯 Symmetry
Authors: Sánchez-Soto Luis , Monzón Juan
Published: October 2018

We reelaborate on the basic properties of PT symmetry from a geometrical perspective. The transfer matrix associated with these systems induces a Möbius transformation in the complex plane. The trace of this matrix classifies the actions into three types that represent rotations, translations, and parallel displacements. We find that a PT invariant system can be pictured as a complex conjugation followed by an inversion in a circle. We elucidate the physical meaning of these geometrical operations and link them with measurable properties of the system.
Future Changes in Flood Hazards across Canada under a Changing Climate
Authors: Gaur Ayushi , Gaur Abhishek , Simonovic Slobodan P.
Published: October 2018

Climate change has induced considerable changes in the dynamics of key hydro-climatic variables across Canada, including floods. In this study, runoff projections made by 21 General Climate Models (GCMs) under four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) are used to generate 25 km resolution streamflow estimates across Canada for historical (1961–2005) and future (2061–2100) time-periods. These estimates are used to calculate future projected changes in flood magnitudes and timings across Canada. Results obtained indicate that flood frequencies in the northernmost regions of Canada, and south-western Ontario can be expected to increase in the future. As an example, the historical 100-year return period events in these regions are expected to become 10–60 year return period events. On the other hand, northern prairies and north-central Ontario can be expected to experience decreases in flooding frequencies in future. The historical 100-year return period flood events in these regions are expected to become 160–200 year return period events in future. Furthermore, prairies, parts of Quebec, Ontario, Nunavut, and Yukon territories can be expected to experience earlier snowmelt-driven floods in the future. The results from this study will help decision-makers to effectively manage and design municipal and civil infrastructure in Canada under a changing climate.
Prediction of Water Utility Performance: The Case of the Water Efficiency Rate
Authors: Nafi Amir , Brans Jonathan
Published: October 2018

This paper deals with the development of a decision-aiding model for predicting, in an ex-ante way, the effects of a mix of actions on an asset and on its operation. The objective is then to define a compromised policy between costs and performance improvements. We investigate the use of multiple regression analysis (MRA) and an artificial neural network (ANN) to establish causal relationships between the network efficiency rate, and a set of explanatory variables on one hand, and potential water loss management actions such as leak detection, maintenance and asset renewal, on the other hand. The originality of our approach is in developing a two-step ex-ante model for predicting the efficiency rate involving low and high level explanatory variables in a context of unavailability of data at the scale of the water utility. The first step exploits a national French database «SISPEA» (Système d’Information d’information sur les Services Publics d’Eau et d’Assainissement) to calibrate a general prediction model that establishes a correlation between efficiency (output) and other performance indicators (inputs). The second step involves the utility manager to build a causal model between endogenous and exogenous variables of a specific water network (low level) and performance indicators considered as inputs for the previous step (high level). Uncertainty is taken into account by Monte Carlo simulations. An application of our decision model on a water utility in the southeast of France is provided as a case study.