bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Interaction of α- and β-zearalenols with β-cyclodextrins
Authors: Poór Miklós , Zand Afshin , Szente Lajos , Lemli Beáta , Kunsági-Máté Sándor
Published: November 2017

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a mycotoxin produced by Fusarium fungi. ZEN primarily contaminates different cereals, and exerts a strong xenoestrogenic effect in animals and humans. ZEN is a fluorescent mycotoxin, although molecular interactions and microenvironmental changes significantly modify its spectral properties. During biotransformation, ZEN is converted into α-zearalenol (α-ZOL) and β-zearalenol (β-ZOL), the toxic metabolites of ZEN, which mimick the effect of estrogen. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are host molecules, and have been studied extensively; they can form stable complexes with several mycotoxins, including ZEN. However, information is limited regarding the interactions of CDs with ZOLs. Therefore, we studied the interactions of α- and β-ZOLs with native and six chemically modified β-CDs by fluorescence spectroscopy. Fluorescence enhancement during complex formation, as well as binding constants, were determined. To understand ZOL-CD interactions better, molecular modeling studies were also carried out. Both mycotoxin derivatives formed the most stable complexes with methylated and sulfobutylated CD-derivatives; however, the CD complexes of α-ZOL were significantly stronger than those of β-ZOL. The data presented here indicate which of the chemically modified β-CDs appear more suitable as fluorescence enhancers or as potential mycotoxin binders.
Evaluating the Potential Value of Natural Product Cuminic Acid against Plant Pathogenic Fungi in Cucumber
Authors: Wang Yong , Zhang Jie , Sun Yang , Feng Juntao , Zhang Xing
Published: November 2017

Fusarium wilt and anthracnose are two major diseases which limit the yield and quality of cucumber worldwide. Cuminic acid was extracted from the seed of Cuminum cyminum L. The mean EC50 values of cuminic acid for inhibiting mycelial growth and zoospore germination of five Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum strains were 25.66 ± 3.02 μg/mL and 15.99 ± 2.19 μg/mL, and of four Colletotrichum lagenarium (Pass.) Ellis and Halsted strains were 29.53 ± 3.18 μg/mL and 18.41 ± 2.78 μg/mL, respectively. In greenhouse experiments, cuminic acid at 2000 μg/mL exhibited 70.77% protective and 62.63% curative efficacies against F. oxysporum, and 65.43% protective and 55.46% curative efficacies against C. lagenarium. Moreover, the translocation behavior of cuminic acid, determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), showed that it could be readily absorbed and transported upward and downward in cucumber. Importantly, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and pyphenol oxidase (PPO) activities of cucumber leaves treated with cuminic acid increased significantly. All results indicated that cuminic acid showed antifungal activity, and could be used as a botanical fungicide in disease management. This study encourages further investigation on the mechanism of action of cuminic acid and the development of alternative antifungal drugs.
Dietary Pattern during 1991–2011 and Its Association with Cardio Metabolic Risks in Chinese Adults: The China Health and Nutrition Survey
Authors: Li Ming , Shi Zumin
Published: November 2017

Increased prevalence of overweight and obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and other cardio metabolic risks has become a public health concern in China, a country undergoing nutrition transition. We investigated the dietary pattern during 1991–2011 and its association with these risks in a longitudinal study among adults; Adults in The China Health and Nutrition Survey were included. Three-day food consumption was collected by 24 h recall method. Anthropometric measures, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and lipids was collected in 2009. Dietary pattern was generated using principal components analysis. The associations between dietary pattern and cardio metabolic risk were assessed with generalized linear regression adjusted for age, sex, and social economic status (SES). “Traditional” pattern loaded with rice, meat, and vegetables, and “Modern” pattern had high loadings of fast food, milk, and deep-fried food. “Traditional” pattern was inversely associated with cardio metabolic risks, with linear slopes ranging from −0.15 (95% confidence interval (CI): −0.18, −0.12) for hypertension to −0.67 (95% CI: −0.73, −0.60) for impaired glucose control. “Modern” pattern was associated positively with those factors, with slopes ranging 0.10 (95% CI: 0.04, 0.17) for high cholesterol to 0.42 (95% CI: 0.35, 0.49) for impaired glucose control. Dietary patterns were associated with cardio metabolic risk in Chinese adults.
Surviving a Dry Future: Abscisic Acid (ABA)-Mediated Plant Mechanisms for Conserving Water under Low Humidity
Authors: Sussmilch Frances , McAdam Scott
Published: November 2017

Angiosperms are able to respond rapidly to the first sign of dry conditions, a decrease in air humidity, more accurately described as an increase in the vapor pressure deficit between the leaf and the atmosphere (VPD), by abscisic acid (ABA)-mediated stomatal closure. The genes underlying this response offer valuable candidates for targeted selection of crop varieties with improved drought tolerance, a critical goal for current plant breeding programs, to maximize crop production in drier and increasingly marginalized environments, and meet the demands of a growing population in the face of a changing climate. Here, we review current understanding of the genetic mechanisms underpinning ABA-mediated stomatal closure, a key means for conserving water under dry conditions, examine how these mechanisms evolved, and discuss what remains to be investigated.
Matrix Topographical Cue-Mediated Myogenic Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Derivatives
Authors: Hwang Yongsung , Seo Timothy , Hariri Sara , Choi Chulmin , Varghese Shyni
Published: November 2017

Biomaterials varying in physical properties, chemical composition and biofunctionalities can be used as powerful tools to regulate skeletal muscle-specific cellular behaviors, including myogenic differentiation of progenitor cells. Biomaterials with defined topographical cues (e.g., patterned substrates) can mediate cellular alignment of progenitor cells and improve myogenic differentiation. In this study, we employed soft lithography techniques to create substrates with microtopographical cues and used these substrates to study the effect of matrix topographical cues on myogenic differentiation of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived mesodermal progenitor cells expressing platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRA). Our results show that the majority (>80%) of PDGFRA+ cells on micropatterned polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates were aligned along the direction of the microgrooves and underwent robust myogenic differentiation compared to those on non-patterned surfaces. Matrix topography-mediated alignment of the mononucleated cells promoted their fusion resulting in mainly (~86%–93%) multinucleated myotube formation. Furthermore, when implanted, the cells on the micropatterned substrates showed enhanced in vivo survival (>5–7 times) and engraftment (>4–6 times) in cardiotoxin-injured tibialis anterior (TA) muscles of NOD/SCID mice compared to cells cultured on corresponding non-patterned substrates.
Materials Stock of the Civilian Aircraft Fleet
Authors: Woidasky Jörg , Klinke Christian , Jeanvré Sebastian
Published: November 2017

Currently, about 25,500 large commercial aircraft are in use for passenger transport or as freighters, or in storage. As of today, the most prevalent metals in aircraft recycling are aluminium, as well as nickel and titanium super alloys, e.g., for the engines. The total fleet weight amounts to about 1.3 million metric tons of materials (not only metals). The aircraft engine material stock alone amounts to about 170,000 metric tons in the entire fleet. In the coming decade, more than 200,000 metric tons of obsolete aircraft structural materials can be expected for recycling. This article aims to quantify this flying stock in more detail.
A Spatio-Temporal Data Fusion Model for Generating NDVI Time Series in Heterogeneous Regions
Authors: Liao Chunhua , Wang Jinfei , Pritchard Ian , Liu Jiangui , Shang Jiali
Published: November 2017

Time series vegetation indices with high spatial resolution and high temporal frequency are important for crop growth monitoring and management. However, due to technical constraints and cloud contamination, it is difficult to obtain such datasets. In this study, a spatio-temporal vegetation index image fusion model (STVIFM) was developed to generate high spatial resolution Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time-series images with higher accuracy, since most of the existing methods have some limitations in accurately predicting NDVI in heterogeneous regions, or rely on very computationally intensive steps and land cover maps for heterogeneous regions. The STVIFM aims to predict the fine-resolution NDVI through understanding the contribution of each fine-resolution pixel to the total NDVI change, which was calculated from the coarse-resolution images acquired on two dates. On the one hand, it considers the difference in relationships between the fine- and coarse-resolution images on different dates and the difference in NDVI change rates at different growing stages. On the other hand, it neither needs to search similar pixels nor needs to use land cover maps. The Landsat-8 and MODIS data acquired over three test sites with different landscapes were used to test the spatial and temporal performance of the proposed model. Compared with the spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (STARFM), enhanced spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (ESTARFM) and the flexible spatiotemporal data fusion (FSDAF) method, the proposed STVIFM outperforms the STARFM and ESTARFM at three study sites and different stages when the land cover or NDVI changes were captured by the two pairs of fine- and coarse-resolution images, and it is more robust and less computationally intensive than the FSDAF.
A Flexible Algorithm for Detecting Challenging Moving Objects in Real-Time within IR Video Sequences
Authors: Zingoni Andrea , Diani Marco , Corsini Giovanni
Published: November 2017

Real-time detecting moving objects in infrared video sequences may be particularly challenging because of the characteristics of the objects, such as their size, contrast, velocity and trajectory. Many proposed algorithms achieve good performances but only in the presence of some specific kinds of objects, or by neglecting the computational time, becoming unsuitable for real-time applications. To obtain more flexibility in different situations, we developed an algorithm capable of successfully dealing with small and large objects, slow and fast objects, even if subjected to unusual movements, and poorly-contrasted objects. The algorithm is also capable to handle the contemporary presence of multiple objects within the scene and to work in real-time even using cheap hardware. The implemented strategy is based on a fast but accurate background estimation and rejection, performed pixel by pixel and updated frame by frame, which is robust to possible background intensity changes and to noise. A control routine prevents the estimation from being biased by the transit of moving objects, while two noise-adaptive thresholding stages, respectively, drive the estimation control and allow extracting moving objects after the background removal, leading to the desired detection map. For each step, attention has been paid to develop computationally light solution to achieve the real-time requirement. The algorithm has been tested on a database of infrared video sequences, obtaining promising results against different kinds of challenging moving objects and outperforming other commonly adopted solutions. Its effectiveness in terms of detection performance, flexibility and computational time make the algorithm particularly suitable for real-time applications such as intrusion monitoring, activity control and detection of approaching objects, which are fundamental task in the emerging research area of Smart City.
Performance of Three MODIS Fire Products (MCD45A1, MCD64A1, MCD14ML), and ESA Fire_CCI in a Mountainous Area of Northwest Yunnan, China, Characterized by Frequent Small Fires
Authors: Fornacca Davide , Ren Guopeng , Xiao Wen
Published: November 2017

An increasing number of end-users looking for ground data about fire activity in regions where accurate official datasets are not available adopt a free-of-charge global burned area (BA) and active fire (AF) products for applications at the local scale. One of the pressing requirements from the user community is an improved ability to detect small fires (less than 50 ha), whose impact on terrestrial environments is empirically known but poorly quantified, and is often excluded from global earth system models. The newest generation of BA algorithms combines the capabilities of both the BA and AF detection approaches, resulting in a general improvement of detection compared to their predecessors. Accuracy assessments of these products have been done in several ecosystems; but more complex ones, such as regions that are characterized by frequent small fires and steep terrain has never been assessed. This study contributes to the understanding of the performance of global BA and AF products with a first assessment of four selected datasets: MODIS-based MCD45A1; MCD64A1; MCD14ML; and, ESA’s Fire_CCI in a mountainous region of northwest Yunnan; P.R. China. Due to the medium to coarse resolution of the tested products and the reduced sizes of fires (often smaller than 50 ha) we used a polygon intersection assessment method where the number and locations of fire events extracted from each dataset were compared against a reference dataset that was compiled using Landsat scenes. The results for the two sample years (2006 and 2009) show that the older, non-hybrid products MCD45A1 and, MCD14ML were the best performers with Sørensen index (F1 score) reaching 0.42 and 0.26 in 2006, and 0.24 and 0.24 in 2009, respectively, while producer’s accuracies (PA) were 30% and 43% in 2006, and 16% and 47% in 2009, respectively. All of the four tested products obtained higher probabilities of detection when smaller fires were excluded from the assessment, with PAs for fires bigger than 50 ha being equal to 53% and 61% in 2006, 41% and 66% in 2009 for MCD45A1 and MCD14ML, respectively. Due to the technical limitations of the satellites’ sensors, a relatively low performance of the four products was expected. Surprisingly, the new hybrid algorithms produced worse results than the former two. Fires smaller than 50 ha were poorly detected by the products except for the only AF product. These findings are significant for the future design of improved algorithms aiming for increased detection of small fires in a greater diversity of ecosystems.
The Application of EM38: Determination of Soil Parameters, Selection of Soil Sampling Points and Use in Agriculture and Archaeology
Authors: Heil Kurt , Schmidhalter Urs
Published: November 2017

Fast and accurate assessment of within-field variation is essential for detecting field-wide heterogeneity and contributing to improvements in the management of agricultural lands. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of field scale characterization by electromagnetic induction, firstly with a focus on the applications of EM38 to salinity, soil texture, water content and soil water turnover, soil types and boundaries, nutrients and N-turnover and soil sampling designs. Furthermore, results concerning special applications in agriculture, horticulture and archaeology are included. In addition to these investigations, this survey also presents a wide range of practical methods for use. Secondly, the effectiveness of conductivity readings for a specific target in a specific locality is determined by the intensity at which soil factors influence these values in relationship to the desired information. The interpretation and utility of apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) readings are highly location- and soil-specific, so soil properties influencing the measurement of ECa must be clearly understood. From the various calibration results, it appears that regression constants for the relationships between ECa, electrical conductivity of aqueous soil extracts (ECe), texture, yield, etc., are not necessarily transferable from one region to another. The modelling of ECa, soil properties, climate and yield are important for identifying the location to which specific utilizations of ECa technology (e.g., ECa−texture relationships) can be appropriately applied. In general, the determination of absolute levels of ECa is frequently not possible, but it appears to be quite a robust method to detect relative differences, both spatially and temporally. Often, the use of ECa is restricted to its application as a covariate or the use of the readings in a relative sense rather than as absolute terms.
Characterization and Differentiation of Petroleum-Derived Products by E-Nose Fingerprints
Authors: Ferreiro-González Marta , Barbero Gerardo , Palma Miguel , Ayuso Jesús , Álvarez José , Barroso Carmelo
Published: November 2017

Characterization of petroleum-derived products is an area of continuing importance in environmental science, mainly related to fuel spills. In this study, a non-separative analytical method based on E-Nose (Electronic Nose) is presented as a rapid alternative for the characterization of several different petroleum-derived products including gasoline, diesel, aromatic solvents, and ethanol samples, which were poured onto different surfaces (wood, cork, and cotton). The working conditions about the headspace generation were 145 °C and 10 min. Mass spectroscopic data (45–200 m/z) combined with chemometric tools such as hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), later principal component analysis (PCA), and finally linear discriminant analysis (LDA) allowed for a full discrimination of the samples. A characteristic fingerprint for each product can be used for discrimination or identification. The E-Nose can be considered as a green technique, and it is rapid and easy to use in routine analysis, thus providing a good alternative to currently used methods.
Centralized Multi-Sensor Square Root Cubature Joint Probabilistic Data Association
Authors: Liu Yu , Liu Jun , Li Gang , Qi Lin , Li Yaowen , He You
Published: November 2017

This paper focuses on the tracking problem of multiple targets with multiple sensors in a nonlinear cluttered environment. To avoid Jacobian matrix computation and scaling parameter adjustment, improve numerical stability, and acquire more accurate estimated results for centralized nonlinear tracking, a novel centralized multi-sensor square root cubature joint probabilistic data association algorithm (CMSCJPDA) is proposed. Firstly, the multi-sensor tracking problem is decomposed into several single-sensor multi-target tracking problems, which are sequentially processed during the estimation. Then, in each sensor, the assignment of its measurements to target tracks is accomplished on the basis of joint probabilistic data association (JPDA), and a weighted probability fusion method with square root version of a cubature Kalman filter (SRCKF) is utilized to estimate the targets’ state. With the measurements in all sensors processed CMSCJPDA is derived and the global estimated state is achieved. Experimental results show that CMSCJPDA is superior to the state-of-the-art algorithms in the aspects of tracking accuracy, numerical stability, and computational cost, which provides a new idea to solve multi-sensor tracking problems.
Dimension-Factorized Range Migration Algorithm for Regularly Distributed Array Imaging
Authors: Guo Qijia , Wang Jie , Chang Tianying , Cui Hong-Liang
Published: November 2017

The two-dimensional planar MIMO array is a popular approach for millimeter wave imaging applications. As a promising practical alternative, sparse MIMO arrays have been devised to reduce the number of antenna elements and transmitting/receiving channels with predictable and acceptable loss in image quality. In this paper, a high precision three-dimensional imaging algorithm is proposed for MIMO arrays of the regularly distributed type, especially the sparse varieties. Termed the Dimension-Factorized Range Migration Algorithm, the new imaging approach factorizes the conventional MIMO Range Migration Algorithm into multiple operations across the sparse dimensions. The thinner the sparse dimensions of the array, the more efficient the new algorithm will be. Advantages of the proposed approach are demonstrated by comparison with the conventional MIMO Range Migration Algorithm and its non-uniform fast Fourier transform based variant in terms of all the important characteristics of the approaches, especially the anti-noise capability. The computation cost is analyzed as well to evaluate the efficiency quantitatively.
Coverage Probability and Area Spectral Efficiency of Clustered Linear Unmanned Vehicle Sensor Networks
Authors: Jung Haejoon , Lee In-Ho
Published: November 2017

In this paper, we consider clustered unmanned vehicle (UV) sensor networks for swarm sensing applications in a linear structure such as highway, tunnel, underwater pipelines, power lines, and international border. We assume that the linear UV sensor networks follow Thomas cluster process (TCP), in which the cluster locations are modelled by Poisson point process (PPP), while the cluster members (UVs) are normally distributed around their cluster centers. We focus on communications between UVs within a cluster such as local sensing data transfer or swarm coordination, where multiple UV pairs can share the same frequency band simultaneously. Thus, in the presence of co-channel interference both from the same cluster and the other clusters, we study the coverage and area spectral efficiency of the clustered UV sensor networks in a linear topology.
Super-Resolution of Plant Disease Images for the Acceleration of Image-based Phenotyping and Vigor Diagnosis in Agriculture
Authors: Yamamoto Kyosuke , Togami Takashi , Yamaguchi Norio
Published: November 2017

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) are a very promising branch of technology, and they have been utilized in agriculture—in cooperation with image processing technologies—for phenotyping and vigor diagnosis. One of the problems in the utilization of UAVs for agricultural purposes is the limitation in flight time. It is necessary to fly at a high altitude to capture the maximum number of plants in the limited time available, but this reduces the spatial resolution of the captured images. In this study, we applied a super-resolution method to the low-resolution images of tomato diseases to recover detailed appearances, such as lesions on plant organs. We also conducted disease classification using high-resolution, low-resolution, and super-resolution images to evaluate the effectiveness of super-resolution methods in disease classification. Our results indicated that the super-resolution method outperformed conventional image scaling methods in spatial resolution enhancement of tomato disease images. The results of disease classification showed that the accuracy attained was also better by a large margin with super-resolution images than with low-resolution images. These results indicated that our approach not only recovered the information lost in low-resolution images, but also exerted a beneficial influence on further image analysis. The proposed approach will accelerate image-based phenotyping and vigor diagnosis in the field, because it not only saves time to capture images of a crop in a cultivation field but also secures the accuracy of these images for further analysis.
Label-Free Detection of Cancer Biomarkers Using an In-Line Taper Fiber-Optic Interferometer and a Fiber Bragg Grating
Authors: Sun Dandan , Ran Yang , Wang Guanjun
Published: November 2017

A compact and label-free optical fiber sensor based on a taper interferometer cascaded with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for detection of a breast cancer biomarker (HER2). The tapered fiber-optic interferometer is extremely sensitive to the ambient refractive index (RI). In addition, being insensitive to the RI variation, the FBG can be applied as a temperature thermometer due to its independent response to the temperature. Surface functionalization to the sensor is carried out to achieve specific targeting of the unlabeled biomarkers. The result shows that the proposed sensor presents a low limit-of-detection (LOD) of 2 ng/mL, enabling its potentials of application in early diagnosis on the breast cancer.
Variability of Jump Kinetics Related to Training Load in Elite Female Basketball
Authors: Legg Jan , Pyne David , Semple Stuart , Ball Nick
Published: November 2017

The purpose of this study was to quantify changes in jump performance and variability in elite female basketballers. Junior and senior female representative basketball players (n = 10) aged 18 ± 2 years participated in this study. Countermovement jump (CMJ) data was collected with a Gymaware™ optical encoder at pre-, mid-, and post-season time points across 10 weeks. Jump performance was maintained across the course of the full season (from pre to post). Concentric peak velocity, jump height, and dip showed the most stability from pre- to post-season, with the %CV ranging from 5.6–8.9%. In the period of the highest training load (mid-season), the variability of within-subject performance was reduced by approximately 2–4% in all measures except for jump height. Altered jump mechanics through a small (0.26 effect size) increase in dip were evident at mid-season, suggesting that CMJ analysis is useful for coaches to use as an in-season monitoring tool. The highest coefficient of variation (8–22%CV) in inter-set scores in all measures except eccentric peak velocity also occurred mid-season. It appears that in-season load not only impairs jump performance, but also movement variability in basketball players.
An Interval Estimation Method of Patent Keyword Data for Sustainable Technology Forecasting
Authors: Uhm Daiho , Ryu Jea-Bok , Jun Sunghae
Published: November 2017

Technology forecasting (TF) is forecasting the future state of a technology. It is exciting to know the future of technologies, because technology changes the way we live and enhances the quality of our lives. In particular, TF is an important area in the management of technology (MOT) for R&D strategy and new product development. Consequently, there are many studies on TF. Patent analysis is one method of TF because patents contain substantial information regarding developed technology. The conventional methods of patent analysis are based on quantitative approaches such as statistics and machine learning. The most traditional TF methods based on patent analysis have a common problem. It is the sparsity of patent keyword data structured from collected patent documents. After preprocessing with text mining techniques, most frequencies of technological keywords in patent data have values of zero. This problem creates a disadvantage for the performance of TF, and we have trouble analyzing patent keyword data. To solve this problem, we propose an interval estimation method (IEM). Using an adjusted Wald confidence interval called the Agresti–Coull confidence interval, we construct our IEM for efficient TF. In addition, we apply the proposed method to forecast the technology of an innovative company. To show how our work can be applied in the real domain, we conduct a case study using Apple technology.
The Environmental Conservation Value of the Saemangeum Open Sea in Korea
Authors: Lim Seul-Ye , Park So-Yeon , Yoo Seung-Hoon
Published: November 2017

The Saemangeum open sea (SOS), which refers to the outer sea of the Saemangeum seawall in Korea, is being threatened by contamination caused by the Saemangeum development project. The policy-makers need information on the environmental conservation value of the SOS for informed decision-making about the SOS. This paper attempts to measure the environmental conservation value of the SOS. To this end, the public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for conserving the SOS is derived from a 2015 contingent valuation survey of 1000 Korean households comprising 400 households residing in the Saemangeum area and 600 households living in other areas. The authors employ a one-and-one-half-bounded dichotomous choice question format. Moreover, the spike model is adopted to analyze the WTP data with zero observations. The mean annual WTP values for both areas are calculated to be KRW 3861 (USD 3.26) and KRW 3789 (USD 3.20) per household, respectively. They are statistically significant at the 1% level. When the sample is expanded to the whole country, it is worth KRW 70.9 billion (USD 59.8 million) per annum. Therefore, conserving the SOS will contribute to the Korean people’s utility and can be done with public support. The value provides a useful baseline for decision-making for the SOS management.
A Recourse-Based Type-2 Fuzzy Programming Method for Water Pollution Control under Uncertainty
Authors: Liu Jing , Li Yongping , Huang Guohe , Chen Lianrong
Published: November 2017

In this study, a recourse-based type-2 fuzzy programming (RTFP) method is developed for supporting water pollution control of basin systems under uncertainty. The RTFP method incorporates type-2 fuzzy programming (TFP) within a two-stage stochastic programming with recourse (TSP) framework to handle uncertainties expressed as type-2 fuzzy sets (i.e., a fuzzy set in which the membership function is also fuzzy) and probability distributions, as well as to reflect the trade-offs between conflicting economic benefits and penalties due to violated policies. The RTFP method is then applied to a real case of water pollution control in the Heshui River Basin (a rural area of China), where chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and soil loss are selected as major indicators to identify the water pollution control strategies. Solutions of optimal production plans of economic activities under each probabilistic pollutant discharge allowance level and membership grades are obtained. The results are helpful for the authorities in exploring the trade-off between economic objective and pollutant discharge decision-making based on river water pollution control.
Comparison of Outcomes between Endoscopic and Transcleral Cyclophotocoagulation
Authors: Beardsley Robert , Law Simon , Caprioli Joseph , Coleman Anne , Nouri-Mahdavi Kouros , Hubschman Jean-Pierre , Schwartz Steven , Giaconi JoAnn
Published: November 2017

Importance: Traditionally cyclophotocoagulation has been reserved as a treatment of last resort for eyes with advanced stage glaucoma, but increasingly it is offered to eyes with less severe disease. Endoscopic approaches in particular are utilized in increasing numbers of patients despite only a small number of publications on its results. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of endoscopic and transcleral cyclophotocoagulation (ECP and TCP) procedures in eyes with refractory glaucomas. Design, Setting, and Participants: A chart review was performed on consecutive patients who underwent ECP and TCP at a tertiary ophthalmology care center between January 2000 and December 2010. Cases with fewer than 3 months of follow-up or that had concurrent pressure reducing procedures were excluded. The main outcome measures examined were intraocular pressure (IOP), number of glaucoma medications, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), additional glaucoma procedure required, and complications. Main Outcomes and Measures: Forty-two eyes (42 patients) that underwent ECP and forty-four eyes (44 patients) that underwent TCP were identified. The TCP group had a statistically higher mean age (71.2 ± 16.7 vs. 58.1 ± 22.9 years, respectively), larger proportion of neovascular glaucoma (40.9% vs. 16.7%), worse initial BCVA (logMAR 2.86 vs. 1.81), and higher preoperative IOP (45.3 vs. 26.6 mmHg) than the ECP group. At 12 months follow-up, the mean IOP difference between groups was not statistically significant, although the change in IOP from baseline to 12 months was greater for the TCP group (p = 0.006). The rates of progression to no light perception (NLP) and phthisis bulbi were significantly higher amongst TCP eyes than ECP eyes (27.2% vs. 4.8%, p = 0.017, and 20.5% vs. 0%, p = 0.003, respectively). Of these eyes that progressed, a majority had neovascular glaucoma (NVG). Corneal decompensation was the most frequent complication following ECP (11.9%). Conclusions and Relevance: In patients with preoperative BCVA of 20/400 or better, overall complication rates (cystoid macular edema, exudative retinal detachment, inflammation, cornea decompensation) were higher after ECP than with TCP. In refractory glaucomas in a real world setting (not a trial), TCP was more frequently used in ischemic eyes. TCP was associated with a higher rate of progression to phthisis bulbi and loss of light perception than ECP. However, ECP was associated with a clinically significant rate of corneal decompensation. These outcomes likely were related to the severity of underlying ocular diseases found in these eyes.
Decomposition Analysis of Water Treatment Technology Patents
Authors: Fujii Hidemichi , Managi Shunsuke
Published: November 2017

Water treatment technology development supports a steady, safe water supply. This study examines trends in water treatment technology innovations, using 227,365 patent granted data published from 1993 to 2016 as an indicator of changing research and development (R&D) priorities. To clarify changes in R&D priorities, we used a decomposition analysis framework that classified water treatment technologies into five types: conventional treatment (117,974 patents, 51.9%), biological treatment (40,300 patents, 17.7%), multistage treatment (45,732 patents, 20.1%), sludge treatment (15,237 patents, 6.7%), and other treatments (8122 patents, 3.6%). The results showed that the number of water treatment technology patents granted increased more than 700% from 1993 to 2016; in particular, the number of multistage water treatment patents granted rapidly grew. The main driver of this growth was expansion in the R&D activity scale and an increase in the priority of multistage water treatment technology in China. Additionally, the trends and priority changes in water treatment technology inventions varied by country and technology groups, which implied that an international policy framework for water treatment technology development should recognize that R&D priorities need to reflect the diverse characteristics of countries and technologies.
Lateral Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity of Soil Horizons Evaluated in Large-Volume Soil Monoliths
Authors: Pirastru Mario , Marrosu Roberto , Di Prima Simone , Keesstra Saskia , Giadrossich Filippo , Niedda Marcello
Published: November 2017

Evaluating the lateral saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ks,l, of soil horizons is crucial for understanding and modelling the subsurface flow dynamics in many shallow hill soils. A Ks,l measurement method should be able to catch the effects of soil heterogeneities governing hydrological processes at the scale of interest, in order to yield Ks,l representative values over large spatial scales. This study aims to develop a field technique to determine spatially representative Ks,l values of soil horizons of an experimental hillslope. Drainage experiments were performed on soil monoliths of about 0.12 m3 volume, encased in situ with polyurethane foam. Median Ks,l of 2450 mm·h−1 and 552 mm·h−1 were estimated in the A and B horizon, respectively. In the upper part of the B horizon, the median Ks,l was 490 mm·h−1, whereas it mostly halved near the underlying restricting layer. The decline of Ks,l values with depth was consistent with the water-table dynamics observed at the same site in previous studies. Moreover, the Ks,l from the monoliths were in line with large spatial-scale Ks,l values reported from the hillslope in a prior investigation based on drain data analysis. This indicated that the large-scale hydrological effects of the macropore network were well represented in the investigated soil blocks. Our findings suggest that performing drainage experiments on large-volume monoliths is a promising method for characterizing lateral conductivities over large spatial scales. This information could improve our understanding of hydrological processes and can be used to parameterize runoff-generation models at hillslope and catchment scale.
Changes of the absorption cross section of Si nanocrystals with temperature and distance
Authors: Greben Michael , Khoroshyy Petro , Gutsch Sebastian , Hiller Daniel , Zacharias Margit , Valenta Jan
Published: November 2017

The absorption cross section (ACS) of silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) in single-layer and multilayer structures with variable thickness of oxide barriers is determined via a photoluminescence (PL) modulation technique that is based on the analysis of excitation intensity-dependent PL kinetics under modulated pumping. We clearly demonstrate that roughly doubling the barrier thickness (from ca. 1 to 2.2 nm) induces a decrease of the ACS by a factor of 1.5. An optimum separation barrier thickness of ca. 1.6 nm is calculated to maximize the PL intensity yield. This large variation of ACS values with barrier thickness is attributed to a modulation of either defect population states or of the efficiency of energy transfer between confined NC layers. An exponential decrease of the ACS with decreasing temperature down to 120 K can be explained by smaller occupation number of phonons and expansion of the band gap of Si NCs at low temperatures. This study clearly shows that the ACS of Si NCs cannot be considered as independent on experimental conditions and sample parameters.
Electron Heating and Saturation of Self-regulating Magnetorotational Instability in Protoplanetary Disks
Authors: Mori Shoji , Muranushi Takayuki , Okuzumi Satoshi , Inutsuka Shu-ichiro
Published: November 2017

Magnetorotational instability (MRI) has the potential to generatevigorous turbulence in protoplanetary disks, although its turbulence strength and accretion stress remain debatable because of the uncertainty of MRI with a low ionization fraction. We focus on the heating of electrons by strong electric fields, which amplifies nonideal magnetohydrodynamic effects. The heated electrons frequently collide with and stick to dust grains, which in turn decreases the ionization fraction and is expected to weaken the turbulent motion driven by MRI. In order to quantitatively investigate the nonlinear evolution of MRI, including the electron heating, we perform magnetohydrodynamical simulation with the unstratified shearing box. We introduce a simple analytic resistivity model depending on the current density by mimicking the resistivity given by the calculation of ionization. Our simulation confirms that the electron heating suppresses magnetic turbulence when the electron heating occurs with low current density. We find a clear correlation between magnetic stress and current density, which means that the magnetic stress is proportional to the squared current density. When the turbulent motion is completely suppressed, laminar accretion flow is caused by an ordered magnetic field. We give an analytical description of the laminar stateusing a solution of linear perturbation equations with resistivity. We also propose a formula that successfully predicts the accretion stress in the presence of the electron heating.
A Detached Protostellar Disk around a ∼0.2 M⊙ Protostar in a Possible Site of a Multiple Star Formation in a Dynamical Environment in Taurus
Authors: Tokuda Kazuki , Onishi Toshikazu , Saigo Kazuya , Hosokawa Takashi , Matsumoto Tomoaki , Inutsuka Shu-ichiro , Machida Masahiro N. , Tomida Kengo , Kunitomo Masanobu , Kawamura Akiko , Fukui Yasuo , Tachihara Kengo
Published: November 2017

We report ALMA observations in 0.87 mm continuum and 12CO (J = 3–2) toward a very low-luminosity (<0.1 L
⊙) protostar, which is deeply embedded in one of the densest cores, MC27/L1521F, in Taurus with an indication of multiple star formation in a highly dynamical environment. The beam size corresponds to ∼20 au, and we have clearly detected blueshifted/redshifted gas in 12CO associated with the protostar. The spatial/velocity distributions of the gas show there is a rotating disk with a size scale of ∼10 au, a disk mass of ∼10−4
M
⊙, and a central stellar mass of ∼0.2 M
⊙. The observed disk seems to be detached from the surrounding dense gas, although it is still embedded at the center of the core whose density is ∼106 cm−3. The current low-outflow activity and the very low luminosity indicate that the mass accretion rate onto the protostar is extremely low in spite of a very early stage of star formation. We may be witnessing the final stage of the formation of ∼0.2 M
⊙ protostar. However, we cannot explain the observed low luminosity with the standard pre-main-sequence evolutionary track unless we assume cold accretion with an extremely small initial radius of the protostar (∼0.65

). These facts may challenge our current understanding of the low mass star formation, in particular the mass accretion process onto the protostar and the circumstellar disk.
VLBA Trigonometric Parallax Measurement of the Semi-regular Variable RT Vir
Authors: Zhang Bo , Zheng Xingwu , Reid Mark J. , Honma Mareki , Menten Karl M. , Brunthaler Andreas , Kim Jaeheon
Published: November 2017

We report a trigonometric parallax measurement of 22 GHz H2O masers toward the semi-regular variable RT Vir from multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array observations. The parallax of 4.417 ± 0.134 mas, corresponding to a distance of 226 ± 7 pc, is significantly different from the Hipparcos parallax, but is consistent with a distance derived from the period–luminosity relation (PLR). This suggests that the Hipparcos parallax suffers from systematic bias, possibly owing to a variable photo-center for this giant star. As such, VLBI parallax measurements will serve as an important cross-check for Gaia. Combing our RT Vir parallax with other long period variable parallaxes, we find a Galactic PLR at an infrared K band of

, assuming that the slope of the Large Magellanic Cloud relation is the same to that of our Galaxy.
Clearing Residual Planetesimals by Sweeping Secular Resonances in Transitional Disks: A Lone-planet Scenario for the Wide Gaps in Debris Disks around Vega and Fomalhaut
Authors: Zheng 郑晓 Xiaochen 晨 , Lin 林 Douglas N. C. 潮 , Kouwenhoven 柯文 M. B. N. 采 , Mao 毛淑 Shude 德 , Zhang 张晓 Xiaojia 佳
Published: November 2017

Extended gaps in the debris disks of both Vega and Fomalhaut have been observed. These structures have been attributed to tidal perturbations by multiple super-Jupiter gas giant planets. Within the current observational limits, however, no such massive planets have been detected. Here we propose a less stringent “lone-planet” scenario to account for the observed structure with a single eccentric gas giant and suggest that clearing of these wide gaps is induced by its sweeping secular resonance. With a series of numerical simulations, we show that the gravitational potential of the natal disk induces the planet to precess. At the locations where its precession frequency matches the precession frequency the planet imposes on the residual planetesimals, their eccentricity is excited by its resonant perturbation. Due to the hydrodynamic drag by the residual disk gas, the planetesimals undergo orbital decay as their excited eccentricities are effectively damped. During the depletion of the disk gas, the planet’s secular resonance propagates inward and clears a wide gap over an extended region of the disk. Although some residual intermediate-size planetesimals may remain in the gap, their surface density is too low to either produce super-Earths or lead to sufficiently frequent disruptive collisions to generate any observable dusty signatures. The main advantage of this lone-planet sweeping-secular-resonance model over the previous multiple gas giant tidal truncation scenario is the relaxed requirement on the number of gas giants. The observationally inferred upper mass limit can also be satisfied provided the hypothetical planet has a significant eccentricity. A significant fraction of solar or more massive stars bear gas giant planets with significant eccentricities. If these planets acquired their present-day kinematic properties prior to the depletion of their natal disks, their sweeping secular resonance would effectively impede the retention of neighboring planets and planetesimals over a wide range of orbital semimajor axes.
Diverse Nuclear Star-forming Activities in the Heart of NGC 253 Resolved with 10-pc-scale ALMA Images
Authors: Ando Ryo , Nakanishi Kouichiro , Kohno Kotaro , Izumi Takuma , Martín Sergio , Harada Nanase , Takano Shuro , Kuno Nario , Nakai Naomasa , Sugai Hajime , Sorai Kazuo , Tosaki Tomoka , Matsubayashi Kazuya , Nakajima Taku , Nishimura Yuri , Tamura Yoichi
Published: November 2017

We present an 8 pc × 5 pc resolution view of the central ∼200 pc region of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253, based on ALMA Band 7 (

or

GHz) observations covering 11 GHz. We resolve the nuclear starburst of NGC 253 into eight dusty star-forming clumps, 10 pc in scale, for the first time. These clumps, each of which contains (4–10) 

of dust (assuming that the dust temperature is 25 K) and up to

massive (O5V) stars, appear to be aligned in two parallel ridges, while they have been blended in previous studies. Despite the similarities in sizes and dust masses of these clumps, their line spectra vary drastically from clump to clump, although they are separated by only ∼10 pc. Specifically, one of the clumps, Clump 1, exhibits line-confusion-limited spectra with at least 36 emission lines from 19 molecules (including CH3OH, HNCO, H2CO, CH3CCH, H2CS, and H3O+) and a hydrogen recombination line (H26α), while far fewer kinds of molecular lines are detected in some other clumps where fragile species, such as complex organic molecules and HNCO, completely disappear from their spectra. We demonstrate the existence of hot molecular gas (

K) in the former clump, which suggests that the hot and chemically rich environments are localized within a 10-pc-scale star-forming clump.