bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Potential Underestimation of Satellite Fire Radiative Power Retrievals over Gas Flares and Wildland Fires
Authors: Kumar Sanath Sathyachandran , Hult John , Picotte Joshua , Peterson Birgit
Published: January 2020

Fire Radiative Power (FRP) is related to fire combustion rates and is used to quantify the atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols. FRP over gas flares and wildfires can be retrieved remotely using satellites that observe in shortwave infrared (SWIR) to middle infrared (MIR) wavelengths. Heritage techniques to retrieve FRP developed for wildland fires using the MIR 4 μm radiances have been adapted for the hotter burning gas flares using the SWIR 2 μm observations. Effects of atmosphere, including smoke and aerosols, are assumed to be minimal in these algorithms because of the use of longer than visual wavelengths. Here we use Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Landsat 8 observations acquired before and during emergency oil and gas flaring in eastern Saudi Arabia to show that dark, sooty smoke affects both 4 μm and 2 μm observations. While the 2 μm observations used to retrieve gas FRP may be reliable during clear atmospheric conditions, performance is severely impacted by dark smoke. Global remote sensing-based inventories of wildfire and gas flaring need to consider the possibility that soot and dark smoke can potentially lead to an underestimation of FRP over fires.
A New Approach for Estimating Soil Salinity Using A Low-Cost Soil Sensor In Situ: A Case Study in Saline Regions of China’s East Coast
Authors: Wang Jianjun , Sun Quan , Shang Jiali , Zhang Jiahua , Wu Fei , Zhou Guisheng , Dai Qigen
Published: January 2020

Accurate and timely information on soil salinity is crucial for vegetation growth and agricultural productivity in coastal regions. This study investigates the potential of using Wifi POGO, an in situ electromagnetic sensor, for soil salinity assessment over saline coastal regions in eastern China. The sensor readings, soil moisture, and temperature-corrected apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) were used to generate models for EC1:5 (a surrogate for soil salinity) estimation. Two salty areas with distinct soil textures, sandy loam (Shuntai) and clay (Dongxin), were selected. This study revealed that the difference between soil salinity and the in situ measured soil ECa (i.e., EC1:5-ECa) had a strong curvilinear relationship with soil moisture. Such a relationship allows for the direct estimation of soil salinity from soil ECa with the aid of soil moisture information. Both ECa and soil moisture can be measured in situ using a Wifi POGO, a low-cost ground-based soil sensor. By using the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV), the achieved root mean square error (RMSE) and relative RMSE (RRMSE) in EC1:5 estimation were 0.0109 S/m and 19.24% respectively in Shuntai, and 0.0157 S/m and 16.05%, in Dongxin. This new method offers a simple, cost-effective and reliable tool for assessing soil salinity in dynamic coastal regions.
Climate-Quality Calibration for Low Earth-Orbit Microwave Radiometry
Authors: Rosenkranz Philip , Blackwell William , Leslie R.
Published: January 2020

Improvements in radiometric calibration are needed to achieve the desired accuracy and stability of satellite-based microwave-radiometer observations intended for the production of climate data records. Linearity, stability and traceability of measurements to an SI-unit standard should be emphasized. We suggest radiometer design approaches to achieve these objectives in a microwave calibration-reference instrument. Multi-year stability would be verified by comparison to radio-occultation measurements. Data from such an instrument could be used for climate studies and also to transfer its calibration to weather-satellite instruments. With the suitable selection of an orbit, a climatology of the diurnal variation in the measured parameters could be compiled, which would reduce uncertainties in climate trends inferred from earlier microwave radiometers over past decades.
Integration of DInSAR and SBAS Techniques to Determine Mining-Related Deformations Using Sentinel-1 Data: The Case Study of Rydułtowy Mine in Poland
Authors: Pawluszek-Filipiak Kamila , Borkowski Andrzej
Published: January 2020

Underground coal exploitation often results in land-surface subsidence, the rate of which depends on geological characteristics, the mechanical properties of the rocks, and the applied extraction technology. Since mining-related subsidence is characterized by “fast” displacement and high nonlinearity, monitoring this process by using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is very challenging. The Small BAseline Subset (SBAS) approach needs to predefine an a priori deformation model to properly estimate an interferometric component related to displacements. As a consequence, there is a lack of distributed scatterers (DS) when the selected a priori deformation model deviates from the real deformation. The conventional differential SAR interferometry (DInSAR) approach does not have this limitation, since it does not need any deformation model. However, the accuracy of this technique is limited by factors related to spatial and temporal decorrelation, signal delays due to the atmospheric artifacts, and orbital or topographic errors. Therefore, this study presents the integration of DInSAR and SBAS techniques in order to leverage the advantages and overcome the disadvantages of both methods and to retrieve the complete deformation pattern over the investigated study area. The obtained results were evaluated internally and externally with leveling data. Results indicated that the Kriging-based integration method of DInSAR and SBAS can be effectively applied to monitor mining-related subsidence. The root-mean-square Error (RMSE) between modeled and measured deformation by InSAR was found to be 11 and 13 mm for vertical and horizontal displacements, respectively. Moreover, DInSAR technique as a cost-effective and complementary method to conventional geodetic techniques can be applied for effective monitoring fast mining subsidence. The minimum and maximum RMSE between DInSAR displacement and specific leveling profiles were found to be 0.9 and 3.2 cm, respectively. Since the SBAS processing failed in subsidence estimation in the area of maximum deformation rate, the deformation estimates outside the maximum rate could only be compared. In these areas, the good agreement between SBAS and DInSAR indicates that the SBAS technique could be reliable for monitoring the residual subsidence that surrounds the subsidence trough. Using the proposed approach, we detected subsidence of up to −1 m and planar displacements (east–west) of up to 0.24 m.
Automatic Extraction of Water Inundation Areas Using Sentinel-1 Data for Large Plain Areas
Authors: Hu Shunshi , Qin Jianxin , Ren Jinchang , Zhao Huimin , Ren Jie , Hong Haoran
Published: January 2020

Accurately quantifying water inundation dynamics in terms of both spatial distributions and temporal variability is essential for water resources management. Currently, the water map is usually derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with the support of auxiliary datasets, using thresholding methods and followed by morphological operations to further refine the results. However, auxiliary datasets may lose efficacy on large plain areas, whilst the parameters of morphological operations are hard to be decided in different situations. Here, a heuristic and automatic water extraction (HAWE) method is proposed to extract the water map from Sentinel-1 SAR data. In the HAWE, we integrate tile-based thresholding and the active contour model, in which the former provides a convincing initial water map used as a heuristic input, and the latter refines the initial map by using image gradient information. The proposed approach was tested on the Dongting Lake plain (China) by comparing the extracted water map with the reference data derived from the Sentinel-2 dataset. For the two selected test sites, the overall accuracy of water classification is between 94.90% and 97.21% whilst the Kappa coefficient is within the range of 0.89 and 0.94. For the entire study area, the overall accuracy is between 94.32% and 96.7% and the Kappa coefficient ranges from 0.80 to 0.90. The results show that the proposed method is capable of extracting water inundations with satisfying accuracy.
Evaluation of Hyperspectral Multitemporal Information to Improve Tree Species Identification in the Highly Diverse Atlantic Forest
Authors: Takahashi Miyoshi Gabriela , Imai Nilton Nobuhiro , Garcia Tommaselli Antonio Maria , Antunes de Moraes Marcus Vinícius , Honkavaara Eija
Published: January 2020

The monitoring of forest resources is crucial for their sustainable management, and tree species identification is one of the fundamental tasks in this process. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and miniaturized lightweight sensors can rapidly provide accurate monitoring information. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of multitemporal, UAV-based hyperspectral imagery for tree species identification in the highly diverse Brazilian Atlantic forest. Datasets were captured over three years to identify eight different tree species. The study area comprised initial to medium successional stages of the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Images were acquired with a spatial resolution of 10 cm, and radiometric adjustment processing was performed to reduce the variations caused by different factors, such as the geometry of acquisition. The random forest classification method was applied in a region-based classification approach with leave-one-out cross-validation, followed by computing the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUCROC) curve. When using each dataset alone, the influence of different weather behaviors on tree species identification was evident. When combining all datasets and minimizing illumination differences over each tree crown, the identification of three tree species was improved. These results show that UAV-based, hyperspectral, multitemporal remote sensing imagery is a promising tool for tree species identification in tropical forests.
A Coarse-to-Fine Network for Ship Detection in Optical Remote Sensing Images
Authors: Wu Yue , Ma Wenping , Gong Maoguo , Bai Zhuangfei , Zhao Wei , Guo Qiongqiong , Chen Xiaobo , Miao Qiguang
Published: January 2020

With the increasing resolution of optical remote sensing images, ship detection in optical remote sensing images has attracted a lot of research interests. The current ship detection methods usually adopt the coarse-to-fine detection strategy, which firstly extracts low-level and manual features, and then performs multi-step training. Inadequacies of this strategy are that it would produce complex calculation, false detection on land and difficulty in detecting the small size ship. Aiming at these problems, a sea-land separation algorithm that combines gradient information and gray information is applied to avoid false alarms on land, the feature pyramid network (FPN) is used to achieve small ship detection, and a multi-scale detection strategy is proposed to achieve ship detection with different degrees of refinement. Then the feature extraction structure is adopted to fuse different hierarchical features to improve the representation ability of features. Finally, we propose a new coarse-to-fine ship detection network (CF-SDN) that directly achieves an end-to-end mapping from image pixels to bounding boxes with confidences. A coarse-to-fine detection strategy is applied to improve the classification ability of the network. Experimental results on optical remote sensing image set indicate that the proposed method outperforms the other excellent detection algorithms and achieves good detection performance on images including some small-sized ships and dense ships near the port.
Fostering the Sustainable Development Goals from an Ecosystem Conducive to the SE: The Galician’s Case
Authors: Bastida Maria , Vaquero García Alberto , Cancelo Márquez Maite , Olveira Blanco Ana
Published: January 2020

The special alignment of the principles and effects of the social economy (SE) with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) renders this area especially suitable for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of these goals, favoring a paradigm shift towards a new economic system that reconciles growth and sustainability. In this context, governments and institutions can moderate or accelerate this path, with the implementation of a series of policies to promote and drive the social economy. In Spain, responsibility for the design and implementation of such policies is transferred to sub-central governments, known as autonomous communities. Galicia is the first Spanish autonomous community to have its own Act on SE. This article explains the promotion strategy established in this region, which has resulted in an ecosystem favorable to the development and consolidation of the Galician SE, based on a combination of public policies with synergistic effects. The outcome of this ecosystem could have a significant impact on the achievement of several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the promotion of equal opportunities (SDG 5), the promotion of decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), and the reduction of inequalities (SDG 10).
Location Choice of New Business Establishments: Understanding the Local Context and Neighborhood Conditions in the United States
Authors: Chin Jae Teuk
Published: January 2020

With the continuing shift toward e-commerce, physical business locations with a brick-and-mortar presence become an endangered element of urban fabric, land use, and the local economy. City governments and local municipalities have created and implemented a variety of strategies and incentives to stimulate new business activity within their jurisdictions. A policy of enhancing the business climate is productive in some regions but not in others. To understand these variations in outcomes, this research focuses on examining the relationship between the uniqueness of certain regions, spatially bounded characteristics, and how both affect where new establishments locate. A two-level model is introduced to employ the census tract as a spatial unit of analysis and analyzes new establishments within 27 medium-sized metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. That quantitative model allows this study to determine key regional and neighborhood factors, as well as the existence of previously unmeasured factors, influencing location decisions of new establishments. The results of this study confirm the importance of economic, demographic, and geographic conditions at the neighborhood level, providing a better understanding of the vulnerability of the local economy.
The Mediating Role of Employees’ Green Motivation between Exploratory Factors and Green Behaviour in the Malaysian Food Industry
Authors: Junsheng Ha , Masud Muhammad Mehedi , Akhtar Rulia , Rana Md. Sohel
Published: January 2020

Global business entities face the challenge of incremental pressures to restructure their strategic alignments and capabilities to be in accordance with the sustainable development initiatives of the United Nations. This study endeavours to investigate the mediating role of employees’ green motivations in the relationships of environmental ethics, the institutional environment, and managerial support with the green behaviour of companies in the Malaysian food manufacturing industry. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey completed by 230 respondents to achieve the study objectives. The respondents consisted of CEOs, company managers, marketing managers, human resources department managers, concerned authorities from environmental protection departments, and producers in the Malaysian food manufacturing industry. The study found that environmental ethics, the institutional environment and managerial support play significant roles in motivating employees’ green activities within organisations, while employees’ green motivation substantially contributes to the green behaviour of the company. This study also revealed that employees’ green motivation plays an important mediating role in the relationships of environmental ethics, the institutional environment, and managerial support with the green behaviour of the company. The implications of this study will be important for allowing governments to take instantaneous action for their climate change pledges to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) following the Paris Accord of 2015 and the Marrakech Proclamation of 2016.
Community Involvement in the Implementation of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDSs): The Case of Bon Pastor, Barcelona
Authors: Nóblega Carriquiry Andrea , Sauri David , March Hug
Published: January 2020

The persistence of urban floods and the inability of aging sewage infrastructure to deal with stormwater make sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDSs) one of the emerging paradigms in urban water management, in which stormwater is no longer a hazard but a resource. Although most of the global research has been done on the technical aspects of SUDSs, their social impacts are not always taken into consideration. The neighborhood scale that characterizes SUDSs creates a different governance system—compared to the old structures of flood risk management—characterized by decentralization practices and where communities gain a better position of negotiation and new responsibilities. The objective of this research is to recognize how the diverse stakeholders involved in SUDSs interact with each other and to look into the different levels of understanding SUDSs as a new alternative of stormwater infrastructure. In order to accomplish this task, the paper introduces the case of the neighborhood of Bon Pastor (Barcelona, Spain), which has gone through urban transformations over the past years, promoting the development of SUDSs in 2012. Empirical evidence was obtained from 10 semi-structured interviews with government, technicians, social organizations, and local community citizens as well as revision of existing policy documents and grey literature on SUDSs and historical documents on the development of the neighborhood. The results show how active the community was during the design process and afterward, as sustainability gradually became one of the main topics in the neighborhood to be incorporated in new developments. However, it also unveiled several issues related to maintenance and the ambiguity of the term SUDS for the different stakeholders involved.
Water Treatment Facilities as Civil Engineering Heritage from Guardian of Urban Sanitation to Symbol of Urban Colonial Modernity, in the Case of Ttukdo (Seoul) Water Purification Plant
Authors: Lee Yeonkyung
Published: January 2020

Ttukdo Water Purification Plant, built in 1908, is the first modern waterworks facility in Seoul and the first waterworks industrial heritage in Korea. Modern waterworks were established in order to resolve insanitary conditions of the city as a part of modernization projects; however, it had been developed with discrimination and colonial domination under Japanese occupation. This paper investigates how Ttukdo Water Purification Plant, a product of colonial modernity, became the representative modern waterworks heritage in both aspects of a colonial and civil engineering heritage. Based on archival research, this study analyzes the transformation process of Ttukdo Water Purification Plant, and the changing meaning and value with the historical background. As a result, Ttukdo Water Purification Plant has been characterized by the universal features of water industry heritage, continuity as a facility to produce clean water, and symbolic meaning as the guardian of urban sanitation. On the other hand, Ttukdo plant is regarded as a monument which was conceived under complicated historical conditions—at the confluence of modernization, colonial rule, and emergent urban needs.
A European Mixed Methods Comparative Study on NEETs and Their Perceived Environmental Responsibility
Authors: Bonanomi Andrea , Luppi Francesca
Published: January 2020

This study explores whether young people’s propensity to take responsibility for the environment—and, consequently, to make pro-environment consumption choices—is negatively affected by living in a condition of social exclusion, such that of NEETs (i.e., Not in Education, Employment or Training). By adopting a mix of comparative methods, we used the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs-QCA) to compare European countries to find which configurations of types of NEET can be associated with different levels of perceived individual environmental responsibility. In addition, we implemented a mediation model by using Generalized Structural Equation Modeling (GSEM) estimation, to find whether the association between the NEET condition and the level of perceived environmental responsibility is mediated by individual happiness—as a proxy of social exclusion’s consequences on the individual’s well-being. Fs-QCA results are integrated at the micro level to test context-related variation. Data come from the 2016 European Social Survey, the 2016 Eurofound report, and the 2018 Italian Youth Report. We found that the presence of more vulnerable NEETs is associated with lower levels of perceived environmental responsibility. At the micro level, only in some countries does the condition of NEET lead to attribute environmental responsibility to the institutions, rather than to the single individual, and it seems related to a general lower well-being.
Erratum: Algan, E.K.; Ummanel, A. Toward Sustainable Schools: A Mixed Methods Approach to Investigating Distributed Leadership, Organizational Happiness, and Quality of Work Life in Preschools. Sustainability 2019, 11, 5489
Authors: Algan Egemen Kemal , Ummanel Azize
Published: January 2020

The authors would like to make the following corrections in the published paper [...]
Ameliorating Food and Nutrition Security in Farm Households: Does Informatization Matter?
Authors: Mwalupaso Gershom Endelani , Wang Shangao , Eshetie Aseres Mamo , Tian Xu
Published: January 2020

Improving food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa’s farm households has become a prominent priority subject for researchers and policymakers alike. Interestingly, it is realized through enhancement in dietary diversity and quality. To this end, better access to food and information is considered a prerequisite. Given that mobile phone coverage offers new prospects for increasing rural households’ access to information, can informatization (mobile phone used as a concrete example) possibly influence dietary diversity and quality? Cross-sectional data collected from farm households in Zambia is used to address this topic by applying the ordinary least square and endogenous switching regression (ESR). Household dietary diversity score was constructed based on a 7-days recall approach to measure consumption patterns. Our robust regression result indicates that mobile phone use positively and significantly influences dietary diversity and quality. Particularly, gender-disaggregated regression reveals that male-headed households have stronger positive associations than their counterparts. We also find that in comparison to non-adopters, adopters consume three more foods weekly. This is attributable to the income gains and increased frequency in information access on account of mobile phone adoption. Conversely, average consumption would increase by two more foods weekly if mobile phones were adopted in non-adopting households. Therefore, our study puts forwards substantial empirical evidence to warrant policy formulation directed at promoting informatization among farm households. Eventually, this could possibly recuperate dynamism in agricultural food production as food and nutrition security in farm households ameliorates.
Effects of the Health Promotion Programs on Happiness
Authors: Lee Munjae , Yoon Kichan
Published: January 2020

The Healthy City program is a comprehensive health promotion program implemented by local governments to improve citizens’ health. The Healthy City program aims to improve citizens’ quality of life through health promotion activities in daily life. It also improves health by eliminating health risk factors and increasing citizens’ happiness. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of the Healthy City program on the happiness index of local residents and the correlation between the Healthy City program and the happiness index using quality of life as a parameter. We conducted a questionnaire survey of residents of Seoul, where Healthy City networks are actively promoted. A total of 392 responses were obtained. Structural equations were used to analyze the collected data. The Healthy City program had positive effects on the happiness index. In other words, it increased the happiness index by improving the health of the local residents. Relevant policy efforts are also being made to advance health services through Healthy City programs. For an effective Healthy City program, it is necessary to implement policies regarding health equity, to expand Healthy City programs based on a settings approach, and to implement a sustainable Healthy City program through the establishment of Healthy City governance.
The Woods around the Ivory Tower: A Systematic Review Examining the Value and Relevance of School Forests in the United States
Authors: Coleman Kimberly J. , Perry Elizabeth E. , Thom Dominik , Gladkikh Tatiana M. , Keeton William S. , Clark Peter W. , Tursini Ralph E. , Wallin Kimberly F.
Published: January 2020

Throughout the United States, many institutions of higher education own forested tracts, often called school forests, which they use for teaching, research, and demonstration purposes. These school forests provide a range of benefits to the communities in which they are located. However, because administration is often decoupled from research and teaching, those benefits might not always be evident to the individuals who make decisions about the management and use of school forests, which may undervalue their services and put these areas at risk for sale, development, or over-harvesting to generate revenue. To understand what messages are being conveyed about the value and relevance of school forests, we conducted a systematic literature review and qualitatively coded the resulting literature content using an ecosystem services framework. While school forests provide many important benefits to academic and local communities, we found that most of the existing literature omits discussions about cultural ecosystem services that people may receive from school forests. We discuss the implications of this omission and make recommendations for addressing it.
Double-Quantitative Generalized Multi-Granulation Set-Pair Dominance Rough Sets in Incomplete Ordered Information System
Authors: Xue Zhan-ao , Zhang Min , Li Yong-xiang , Zhao Li-ping , Sun Bing-xin
Published: January 2020

Since the rough sets theory based on the double quantification method was proposed, it has attracted wide attention in decision-making. This paper studies the decision-making approach in Incomplete Ordered Information System (IOIS). Firstly, to better extract the effective information in IOIS, combined with the advantages of set-pair dominance relation and generalized multi-granulation, the generalized multi-granulation set-pair dominance variable precision rough sets (GM-SPD-VPRS) and the generalized multi-granulation set-pair dominance graded rough sets (GM-SPD-GRS) are proposed. Moreover, we discuss their related properties. Secondly, considering the GM-SPD-VPRS and the GM-SPD-GRS describe information from relative view and absolute view, respectively, we further combine the two rough sets to obtain six double-quantitative generalized multi-granulation set-pair dominance rough sets (GM-SPD-RS) models. Among them, the first two models fuse the approximation operators of two rough sets, and investigate the extreme cases of optimistic and pessimistic. The last four models combine the two rough sets by the logical disjunction operator and the logical conjunction operator. Then, we discuss relevant properties and derive the corresponding decision rules. According to the decision rules, an associated algorithm is constructed for one of the models to calculate the rough regions. Finally, we validate the effectiveness of these models with a medical example. The results indicate that the model is effective for dealing with practical problems.
On the Crossing Numbers of the Joining of a Specific Graph on Six Vertices with the Discrete Graph
Authors: Staš Michal
Published: January 2020

In the paper, we extend known results concerning crossing numbers of join products of small graphs of order six with discrete graphs. The crossing number of the join product G ∗ + D n for the graph G ∗ on six vertices consists of one vertex which is adjacent with three non-consecutive vertices of the 5-cycle. The proofs were based on the idea of establishing minimum values of crossings between two different subgraphs that cross the edges of the graph G ∗ exactly once. These minimum symmetrical values are described in the individual symmetric tables.
Location Optimization of CR Express International Logistics Centers
Authors: Muravev Dmitri , Hu Hao , Zhou Hengshuo , Pamucar Dragan
Published: January 2020

Currently, the trade volume between China and the European Union is experiencing rapid growth. However, there are many bottlenecks in the operation of the China Railway Express, such as imbalance in inbound and outbound transported containers in the Sino–European direction and a low profit margin. More than fifty-three rail routes in China provide rail transportation to European cities and have small traffic volumes. However, such a dramatic situation affects transportation costs, which are three times higher compared with maritime transportation, causing uncertainty related to the demand of Chinese customers. This study analyzes the shortcomings of previous research studies related to multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) models applied in the field of logistics and transportation. The study proposes a novel approach to determine the optimal locations of the CR Express international logistics centers. The proposed approach involves the application of a MCDM model using the DEMATEL-MAIRCA method. This technique finds the closest solution to the ideal one by identifying the value of the best alternative in line with the observed criterion, and by measuring the distances of other alternatives according to the observed criterion of the ideal value. Finally, we show the similarity of the proposed methodology to other MCMD methods, which is one of the key topics of the Symmetry Journal, to prove the validity of the applied DEMATEL-MAIRCA method. Preliminary results show that in view of increased container turnover between China and the European Union, the determination of optimal locations for CR Express international logistics centers should be carried out dynamically.
Mechanical Chirality of Rotaxanes: Synthesis and Function
Authors: Nakazono Kazuko , Takata Toshikazu
Published: January 2020

Mechanically chiral molecules have attracted considerable attention due to their property and function based on its unique interlocked structure. This review covers the recent advances in the synthesis and function of interlocked rotaxanes with mechanical chirality along with their dynamic and complex stereochemistry. The application of mechanically chiral rotaxanes to control the polymer helical structure is also introduced, where amplification of mechanical chirality appears to cause the macroscopic polymer property change, suggesting the potential applicability of mechanical chirality in polymer systems.
Weakly Supervised and Semi-Supervised Semantic Segmentation for Optic Disc of Fundus Image
Authors: Lu Zheng , Chen Dali
Published: January 2020

Weakly supervised and semi-supervised semantic segmentation has been widely used in the field of computer vision. Since it does not require groundtruth or it only needs a small number of groundtruths for training. Recently, some works use pseudo groundtruths which are generated by a classified network to train the model, however, this method is not suitable for medical image segmentation. To tackle this challenging problem, we use the GrabCut method to generate the pseudo groundtruths in this paper, and then we train the network based on a modified U-net model with the generated pseudo groundtruths, finally we utilize a small amount of groundtruths to fine tune the model. Extensive experiments on the challenging RIM-ONE and DRISHTI-GS benchmarks strongly demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm. We obtain state-of-art results on RIM-ONE and DRISHTI-GS databases.
Face Image Age Estimation Based on Data Augmentation and Lightweight Convolutional Neural Network
Authors: Liu Xinhua , Zou Yao , Kuang Hailan , Ma Xiaolin
Published: January 2020

Face images contain many important biological characteristics. The research directions of face images mainly include face age estimation, gender judgment, and facial expression recognition. Taking face age estimation as an example, the estimation of face age images through algorithms can be widely used in the fields of biometrics, intelligent monitoring, human-computer interaction, and personalized services. With the rapid development of computer technology, the processing speed of electronic devices has greatly increased, and the storage capacity has been greatly increased, allowing deep learning to dominate the field of artificial intelligence. Traditional age estimation methods first design features manually, then extract features, and perform age estimation. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) in deep learning have incomparable advantages in processing image features. Practice has proven that the accuracy of using convolutional neural networks to estimate the age of face images is far superior to traditional methods. However, as neural networks are designed to be deeper, and networks are becoming larger and more complex, this makes it difficult to deploy models on mobile terminals. Based on a lightweight convolutional neural network, an improved ShuffleNetV2 network based on the mixed attention mechanism (MA-SFV2: Mixed Attention-ShuffleNetV2) is proposed in this paper by transforming the output layer, merging classification and regression age estimation methods, and highlighting important features by preprocessing images and data augmentation methods. The influence of noise vectors such as the environmental information unrelated to faces in the image is reduced, so that the final age estimation accuracy can be comparable to the state-of-the-art.
Micromagnetorotation of MHD Micropolar Flows
Authors: Aslani Kyriaki-Evangelia , Benos Lefteris , Tzirtzilakis Efstratios , Sarris Ioannis E.
Published: January 2020

The studies dealing with micropolar magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows usually ignore the micromagnetorotation (MMR) effect, by assuming that magnetization and magnetic field vectors are parallel. The main objective of the present investigation is to measure the effect of MMR and the possible differences encountered by ignoring it. The MHD planar Couette micropolar flow is solved analytically considering and by ignoring the MMR effect. Subsequently, the influence of MMR on the velocity and microrotation fields as well as skin friction coefficient, is evaluated for various micropolar size and electric effect parameters and Hartmann numbers. It is concluded that depending on the parameters’ combination, as MMR varies, the fluid flow may accelerate, decelerate, or even excite a mixed pattern along the channel height. Thus, the MMR term is a side mechanism, other than the Lorentz force, that transfers or dissipates magnetic energy in the flow direct through microrotation. Acceleration or deceleration of the velocity from 4% to even up to 45% and almost 15% deviation of the skin friction were measured when MMR was considered. The crucial effect of the micromagnetorotation term, which is usually ignored, should be considered for the future design of industrial and bioengineering applications.
Multidimensional Interpolation Decoupling Strategy for CD Basis Weight of Papermaking Process
Authors: Shan Wenjuan , Liu Bing
Published: January 2020

With a focus on the multivariable coupling characteristics in a cross-directional (CD) basis weight control system, we study the coupling characteristics of a CD control system and decoupling control, and we propose a novel multivariable interpolation decoupling control strategy and a real-time decomposition algorithm in this paper. Based on a model of the CD basis weight profile, a system non-square interaction matrix of high-dimensional data is analyzed by experimental studies and numerical simulation. Along the diagonal of the interaction matrix, the matrix block method is adopted to reduce the system dimension and convert it into a square system. A multivariable control system with high dimensionality is divided into several subsystems. For the high-dimensional Toeplitz symmetric subsystem with small-scale coupling characteristics, an interpolation decoupling algorithm is proposed. Then, a decoupling compensator with the structure of a symmetric Toeplitz matrix was obtained. Compared with the conventional diagonal decoupling matrix, the branch number of the new decoupling network is reduced from 2408 to 186, which realizes the fast decoupling of multivariable systems. The results were even better when we used a double size interaction matrix obtained by interpolation between actual values. By designing the diagonalized controller for the new decoupled system, a decouped CD control system for corrugated paper with a basis weight of 133 g/m2 was implemented in an actual project in a paper mill.
Isolation and Identification of Porcine Deltacoronavirus and Alteration of Immunoglobulin Transport Receptors in the Intestinal Mucosa of PDCoV-Infected Piglets
Authors: Qian Shaoju , Jia Xiangchao , Gao Zitong , Zhang Weida , Xu Qingrong , Li Zili
Published: January 2020

Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is a porcine enteropathogenic coronavirus that causes watery diarrhea, vomiting, and frequently death in piglets, causing serious economic losses to the pig industry. The strain CHN-JS-2017 was isolated and identified by cytopathology, immunofluorescence assays, transmission electron microscopy, and sequence analysis. A nucleotide sequence alignment showed that the whole genome of CHN-JS-2017 is 97.4%–99.6% identical to other PDCoV strains. The pathogenicity of the CHN-JS-2017 strain was investigated in orally inoculated five-day-old piglets; the piglets developed acute, watery diarrhea, but all recovered and survived. CHN-JS-2017 infection-induced microscopic lesions were observed, and viral antigens were detected mainly by immunohistochemical staining in the small intestine. The neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) and polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) are crucial immunoglobulin (Ig) receptors for the transcytosis ofimmunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA, or IgM. Importantly, CHN-JS-2017 infected five-day-old piglets could significantly down-regulate the expression of FcRn, pIgR, and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB)in the intestinal mucosa. Note that the level of FcRn mRNA in the intestinal mucosa of normal piglets is positively correlated with pIgR and NF-κB. At the same time, the expressions of FcRn, pIgR, and NF-κB mRNA are also positively correlated in infected piglets. These results may help explain the immunological and pathological changes associated with porcine deltacorononirus infection.
Characterization of Kyagar Glacier and Lake Outburst Floods in 2018 Based on Time-Series Sentinel-1A Data
Authors: Zhang Meimei , Chen Fang , Tian Bangsen , Liang Dong , Yang Aqiang
Published: January 2020

Early recognition of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) is required for timely and cost-effective remedial efforts to be implemented. Although the formation of ice-dammed lakes is known to begin as a pond or river that was blocked by ice from the glacier terminus, the relationship between glacier dynamics and lake development is not well understood. Using a time-series of Sentinel-1A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired just before and after the lake outburst event in 2018, information is presented on the dynamic characteristics of Kyagar Glacier and its ice-dammed lake. Glacier velocity data derived from interferometry show that the glacier tongue experienced an accelerated advance (maximum velocity of 20 cm/day) just one month before the lake outburst, and a decreased velocity (maximum of 13 cm/day) afterward. Interferometric and backscattering properties of this region provide valuable insight into the diverse glaciated environment. Furthermore, daily temperature and total precipitation data derived from the ECMWF re-analysis (ERA)Interim highlight the importance of the sustained high-temperature driving force, supporting empirical observations from previous studies. The spatial and temporal resolution offered by the Sentinel-1A data allows variations in the glacier surface motion and lake evolution to be detected, meaning that the interaction mechanism between the glacial lake and the associated glacier can be explored. Although the glacier surge provided the boundary conditions favorable for lake formation, the short-term high temperatures and precipitation caused the melting of ice dams and also a rapid increase in the amount of water stored, which accelerated the potential for a lake outburst.
Hydrodynamic Structure with Scour Hole Downstream of Bed Sills
Authors: Ben Meftah Mouldi , De Serio Francesca , De Padova Diana , Mossa Michele
Published: January 2020

Experimental turbulence measurements of scour hole downstream of bed sills in alluvial channels with non-cohesive sediments are investigated. Using an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV), the flow velocity-field within the equilibrium scour hole was comprehensively measured. In this study, we especially focus on the flow hydrodynamic structure in the scour hole at equilibrium. In addition to the flow velocity distribution in the equilibrium scour hole, the turbulence intensities, the Reynolds shear stresses, the turbulent kinetic energy, and the turbulent length scales are analyzed. Since the prediction of equilibrium scour features is always very uncertain, in this study and based on laboratory turbulence measurements, we apply the phenomenological theory of turbulence to predict the maximum equilibrium scour depth. With this approach, we obtain a new scaling of the maximum scour depth at equilibrium, which is validated using experimental data, satisfying the validity of a spectral exponent equal to −5/3. The proposed scaling shows a quite reasonable accuracy in predicting the equilibrium scour depth in different hydraulic structures.
Modelling Impacts of a Municipal Spatial Plan of Land-Use Changes on Surface Water Quality—Example from Goriška Brda in Slovenia
Authors: Glavan Matjaž , Bele Sara , Curk Miha , Pintar Marina
Published: January 2020

Intensive agriculture causes nutrient leaching and accelerates erosion processes, which threatens the good quality status of surface waters, as proposed by the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive. The purpose of this study was to define the impact of two alternative agricultural land-use change scenarios defined in a Municipal Spatial Plan on surface water quality by using the Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model. As experimental area, we chose a small Kožbanjšček stream catchment (1464 ha) situated in the Goriška Brda region in Slovenia. The area, due to favorable conditions for vineyards, is facing increasing deforestation. The change of 66.3 ha of forests to vineyards would increase the sediment, nitrate, and phosphorus loads in the stream by 24.8%, 17.1%, and 10.7%, respectively. With the implementation of vegetative buffer strips as a mitigation measure of the current situation, we could reduce the sediment, nitrate, and phosphorus loads by 17.9%, 11.1%, and 3.1%, respectively, while a combination of the two land-use change scenarios would result in a slight increase of the above-mentioned loads, corresponding to 0.61%, 2.1%, and 6.6%, respectively, compared to the baseline situation. The results confirm that, as we can increase pollution levels with deforestation, we can also reduce water pollution by choosing proper types of land management measures.
Spatial and Temporal Variability of Water Quality in the Bystrzyca River Basin, Poland
Authors: Grzywna Antoni , Bronowicka-Mielniczuk Urszula
Published: January 2020

The aim of the study was to analyze the results of surface water quality tests carried out in the Bystrzyca river basin. The study was conducted over four years in four seasons. The following chemometric techniques were used for the purposes of statistical analyses: the principal component analysis with factor analysis (PCA/FA), the hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and the discriminant analysis (DA). The analyses allowed for determining the temporal variability in water quality between the seasons. The best water quality was recorded in summer and the worst in autumn. The analyses did not provide a clear assessment of the spatial variability of water quality in the river basin. Pollution from wastewater treatment plants and soil tillage had a similar effect on water quality. The tested samples were characterized by very high electrolytic conductivity, suspended solids and P-PO4 concentrations and the water quality did not meet the standards of good ecological status.
Numerical Analysis of the Effects of Crack Characteristics on the Stress and Deformation of Unsaturated Soil Slopes
Authors: Yang Liuxin , Liu Enlong
Published: January 2020

Cracks induced by evaporation or rainfall have a great influence on the stability of unsaturated soil slopes, which can lead to landslides during the rainfall process. In order to study the effect of crack characteristics on the evolution of stress and deformation of unsaturated soil slopes, a series of numerical analyses under different conditions were performed using a coupled elastoplastic finite element program that we developed for unsaturated soil. When carrying out the numerical analyses, the effective stress for unsaturated soil proposed by Bishop and an elastoplastic double-hardening constitutive model for the soil skeleton were employed. The varying parameters, including the crack location, the discharge speed, evaporation rate, infiltration rate, and tensile strength, were investigated to study the coupling process of pore water pressure and deformation in the process of evaporation and rainfall infiltration. The numerical results showed that the minimum pore water pressure of the soil slope at the end of evaporation/rainfall decreased gradually and the crack width increased gradually as the crack set closer to the slope; the larger the discharge speed of pore air, the greater the crack width. With the increase in the evaporation rate, the pore water pressure of the soil slope reduced and the crack initiated earlier and became wider. As the infiltration rate increased, the pore water pressure of the soil slope and the crack width increased, but the decreasing duration became shorter. The change of tensile strength had little effect on the pore water pressure, but the development of the crack width changed with evaporation and rainfall infiltration.
Agrotechnical passport of Bashkirski variety
Authors: Shabanov Adam , Kisilev Aleksander , Simakov Evgeny , Mardanshin Ildar
Published: January 2020

The article presents experimental data on complexes of economically valuable traits of early potato variety Bashkirski. A positive reaction was found for early planting (up to 2.0 t / ha or 6.1%), germination of seed tubers (4.1 t / ha or 12.2%) and negative - for thickening of plantings (unprofitable). Early planting of germinated tubers provided a yield increase of 5.9 t / ha or 18.1%, conditional income - 72.8 thousand rub. / ha.