bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Merging High-Resolution Satellite Surface Radiation Data with Meteorological Sunshine Duration Observations over China from 1983 to 2017
Authors: Feng Fei , Wang Kaicun
Published: February 2021

Surface solar radiation (Rs) is essential to climate studies. Thanks to long-term records from the Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR), the recent release of International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) HXG cloud products provide a promising opportunity for building long-term Rs data with high resolutions (3 h and 10 km). In this study, we compare three satellite Rs products based on AVHRR cloud products over China from 1983 to 2017 with direct observations of Rs and sunshine duration (SunDu)-derived Rs. The results show that SunDu-derived Rs have higher accuracy than the direct observed Rs at time scales of a month or longer by comparing with the satellite Rs products. SunDu-derived Rs is available from the 1960s at more than 2000 stations over China, which provides reliable decadal estimations of Rs. However, the three AVHRR-based satellite Rs products have significant biases in quantifying the trend of Rs from 1983 to 2016 (−4.28 W/m2/decade to 2.56 W/m2/decade) due to inhomogeneity in satellite cloud products and the lack of information on atmospheric aerosol optical depth. To adjust the inhomogeneity of the satellite Rs products, we propose a geographically weighted regression fusion method (HGWR) to merge ISCCP-HXG Rs with SunDu-derived Rs. The merged Rs product over China from 1983 to 2017 with a spatial resolution of 10 km produces nearly the same trend as that of the SunDu-derived Rs. This study makes a first attempt to adjust the inhomogeneity of satellite Rs products and provides the merged high-resolution Rs product from 1983 to 2017 over China, which can be downloaded freely.
Spatiotemporal Fusion of Formosat-2 and Landsat-8 Satellite Images: A Comparison of “Super Resolution-Then-Blend” and “Blend-Then-Super Resolution” Approaches
Authors: Teo Tee-Ann , Fu Yu-Ju
Published: February 2021

The spatiotemporal fusion technique has the advantages of generating time-series images with high-spatial and high-temporal resolution from coarse-resolution to fine-resolution images. A hybrid fusion method that integrates image blending (i.e., spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model, STARFM) and super-resolution (i.e., very deep super resolution, VDSR) techniques for the spatiotemporal fusion of 8 m Formosat-2 and 30 m Landsat-8 satellite images is proposed. Two different fusion approaches, namely Blend-then-Super-Resolution and Super-Resolution (SR)-then-Blend, were developed to improve the results of spatiotemporal fusion. The SR-then-Blend approach performs SR before image blending. The SR refines the image resampling stage on generating the same pixel-size of coarse- and fine-resolution images. The Blend-then-SR approach is aimed at refining the spatial details after image blending. Several quality indices were used to analyze the quality of the different fusion approaches. Experimental results showed that the performance of the hybrid method is slightly better than the traditional approach. Images obtained using SR-then-Blend are more similar to the real observed images compared with images acquired using Blend-then-SR. The overall mean bias of SR-then-Blend was 4% lower than Blend-then-SR, and nearly 3% improvement for overall standard deviation in SR-B. The VDSR technique reduces the systematic deviation in spectral band between Formosat-2 and Landsat-8 satellite images. The integration of STARFM and the VDSR model is useful for improving the quality of spatiotemporal fusion.
Landsat 8 Thermal Infrared Sensor Scene Select Mechanism Open Loop Operations
Authors: Choate Michael J. , Rengarajan Rajagopalan , Storey James C. , Beckmann Tim
Published: February 2021

The Landsat 8 (L8) spacecraft and its two instruments, the operational land imager (OLI) and thermal infrared sensor (TIRS), have been consistently characterized and calibrated since its launch in February 2013. These performance metrics and calibration updates are determined through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat image assessment system (IAS), which has been performing this function since its launch. The TIRS on-orbit geometric calibration procedures include TIRS-to-OLI alignment, TIRS sensor chip assembly (SCA) alignment, and TIRS band alignment. In December 2014, the TIRS instrument experienced an anomalous condition related to the instrument’s ability to accurately measure the location of the scene select mechanism (SSM). The SSM is a rotating mirror that allows the instrument’s field of view to be pointed at the Earth, for normal imaging, or at either deep space or an onboard black body, for radiometric calibration purposes. This anomalous condition in the SSM’s position sensor made it necessary to implement a new mode of operation for this mirror, termed mode-0. Mode-0 involves operating the mirror in an open-loop control state during normal mission operations when acquiring Earth data. Closed-loop mode-4 is needed for directing the mirror towards the radiometric calibration targets and is used approximately once every two weeks to collect radiometric calibration data. Mode-0 is used for most operational imaging because it does not require SSM encoder data, thereby allowing the SSM encoder electronics to remain unpowered most of the time, reducing its use throughout the lifetime of the TIRS instrument, thus helping to preserve its nominal behavior during it use. This paper discusses the geometric calibration of the SSM mirror during its current normal mode-0 set of image operations, as its open-loop control allows the mirror to drift over time in its uncontrolled state and its effects on products. The results shown in this paper demonstrate that the ability to have ongoing updates to the modeling of the TIRS SSM mirror model, in both an automated fashion and with a set of more manual operations, allows accuracy that approaches mode-4 results within days from the start of a mode-0 event.
Deep Neural Network-Based Semantic Segmentation of Microvascular Decompression Images
Authors: Bai Ruifeng , Jiang Shan , Sun Haijiang , Yang Yifan , Li Guiju
Published: February 2021

Image semantic segmentation has been applied more and more widely in the fields of satellite remote sensing, medical treatment, intelligent transportation, and virtual reality. However, in the medical field, the study of cerebral vessel and cranial nerve segmentation based on true-color medical images is in urgent need and has good research and development prospects. We have extended the current state-of-the-art semantic-segmentation network DeepLabv3+ and used it as the basic framework. First, the feature distillation block (FDB) was introduced into the encoder structure to refine the extracted features. In addition, the atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) module was added to the decoder structure to enhance the retention of feature and boundary information. The proposed model was trained by fine tuning and optimizing the relevant parameters. Experimental results show that the encoder structure has better performance in feature refinement processing, improving target boundary segmentation precision, and retaining more feature information. Our method has a segmentation accuracy of 75.73%, which is 3% better than DeepLabv3+.
Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography to Characterize Nutraceuticals and Food Supplements Based on Flavanols and Related Compounds
Authors: Vidal-Casanella Oscar , Arias-Alpizar Kevin , Nuñez Oscar , Saurina Javier
Published: February 2021

Purified extracts from different types of berries and medicinal plants are increasingly used as raw materials for the production of nutraceuticals and dietary supplements, mainly due to their high content in bioactive substances. This is, for instance, the case of phenolic compounds such as flavonoids, which exhibit a wide range of beneficial properties, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antineoplastic and antimicrobial activities. This paper tackles the characterization of several kinds of nutraceuticals based on hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) with fluorescence detection (FLD). The study focused on the determination of flavanols and related compounds such as condensed tannins. Analytes were recovered by solvent extraction using methanol:water:hydrochloric acid (70:29:1 v:v:v) as the extraction solvent under sonication for 30 min at 55 °C. Experimental design with response surface methodology was used to optimize the HILIC separation to achieve good resolution of the main components, using acetonitrile:acetic acid (99:1 v/v) (solvent A) and methanol:water:acetic acid, (95:3:2 v/v/v) (solvent B) as the components of the mobile phase. For the assessment of the elution gradient, factors under study were solvent B percentage and gradient time. The best conditions were achieved with 10% solvent B as the initial percentage and 30 min of linear gradient to reach 25% solvent B. Principal component analysis and partial least square-discriminant analysis were used to characterize and compare the compositional features of dietary supplements based on both targeted and non-targeted approaches. Results revealed that the sample distribution relied on the oligomeric nature of descriptors.
A Sustainable Online-to-Offline (O2O) Retailing Strategy for a Supply Chain Management under Controllable Lead Time and Variable Demand
Authors: Sarkar Biswajit , Dey Bikash Koli , Sarkar Mitali , AlArjani Ali
Published: February 2021

Every industry always tries to provide the best service to its consumers. To provide better service to the consumer and optimize profit, a sustainable online-to-offline retailing strategy is proposed in this current study. Both online and offline systems are considered here, i.e., to provide the best service, the industry sells its products online and offline. Due to the consideration of online and offline systems, the selling price of the products is also different for different modes, and the demand for a particular product is the combined demand of online demand and offline demand, which depend on the selling price of the product. Moreover, the exact lead time and exact backorder are calculated to obtain the system’s exact cost or profit, which directly improves the system’s service. Different investments are incorporated to optimize the total system profit. A distribution-free approach is utilized to solve this model. Numerical examples are provided to prove the applicability of the model in reality. Sensitivity analysis is performed based on critical parameters. Special cases and graphical representations also prove the global optimality of the current study.
What Will Retirement Pensions Be Like? Analysis of Spanish Future Pensioner Households in Terms of Poverty
Authors: Urbano Blanca , Jurado Antonio , Rosado-Cebrián Beatriz
Published: February 2021

The Spanish public retirement pension system, the same as that of many European countries, faces two important risks in the long term. On the one hand, the sustainability of the current pay-as-you-go system and, on the other hand, the ability to maintain an acceptable standard of living for the retired population. This paper presents a study on the current situation of the Spanish public retirement pension system and its effect on the future retired population. In recent years, the concern for the long-term sustainability of the system, which is based on pay-as-you-go and defined benefit, has been very present. For this reason, two major reforms were carried out in 2011 and 2013; however, different investigations have indicated the reduction in future retirement pensions as a possible consequence. Regarding this dilemma, this paper aims to study the future poverty risk of the retired population due to the current formulation of the system, by conducting, for this purpose, an analysis of the purchasing power of future pensioners based on the EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2016 of the National Institute of Statistics of Spain. As a result, a future reduction in the replacement rate was observed, affecting the younger population to a greater extent, as well as an increase in poverty in pensioner households using two different scenarios.
The Recharge Process and Influencing Meteorological Parameters Indicated by Cave Pool Hydrology in the Bare Karst Mountainous Area
Authors: Liu Fan , Jiang Guanghui , Wang Jia , Guo Fang
Published: February 2021

Understanding the recharge and runoff processes of the vadose zone is significant for water resource management and utilization in karst mountain areas. Hydrological modeling of the vadose zone in karst caves has provided new methods of evaluating water resources in vadose zones. This paper provides modeling of vadose zone hydrology in a subtropical karst cave. The monitoring was conducted in Yuanyang Cave, Fengshan County, Guangxi Province, Southwest China. By monitoring the water level of a pool recharged by drop water in a cave, a model was established to calculate the natural leakage from the bottom and the infiltrated recharge from the vadose zone above. Combined with meteorological data records, the occurrence of recharge events in the vadose zone was analyzed. The correlation between them was established by multiple linear regression. The results showed that the infiltration ratio of precipitation was 20.88%. Recent rainfall of 4–7 days had shown a greater impact on recharge events than that of 3 days. The effect of evaporation was significant. The regression model in the cave pool was used to understand the hydrological process of the vadose zone, which provided a useful method for water resource management and evaluation in the remote karst mountain area.
How to Protect Free Flowing Rivers: The Bita River Ramsar Site as an Example of Science and Management Tools Working Together
Authors: Suárez Cesar Freddy , Paez-Vasquez Monica , Trujillo Fernando , Usma Jose Saulo , Thieme Michele , Bassi Andrea M. , Naranjo Luis German , Costanzo Simon , Manrique Oscar , Pallaske Georg , Flechas Javier
Published: February 2021

The Orinoco river basin is the third largest river in the world by volume. Its catchment encompasses 27 major sub-basins including the Bita with a catchment area of about 825,000 ha, which originates in the Colombian high plains in the Llanos ecoregion. It has been recognized as a priority area for conservation through different gap analyses and overall determined to have good health according to the Orinoco report card 2016. The natural climate and hydrologic processes, and their synergies with flooded forests, savannas, wetlands, species diversity and local economic activities, are part of a dynamic and sensitive system. With the purpose of conserving the ecological, social and cultural benefits that it brings, the Colombian Government, with the support of regional and local civil society organizations, promoted the designation of a conservation area. Technical exercises were carried out including biological and socioeconomic surveys, local stakeholder consultations and future scenario modeling. In June 2018, the Bita River basin was designated as the largest Ramsar site in Colombia, providing a worldwide example of explicit protection of riverine systems. In order to maintain this free-flowing river, land use and fisheries management, in conjunction with other conservation actions, are being implemented and provide a model of protection for freshwater ecosystems that could be replicated elsewhere.
Sustainable Education, Emotional Intelligence and Mother–Child Reading Competencies within Multiple Mediation Models
Authors: Jiménez-Pérez Elena , de Vicente-Yagüe Jara María-Isabel , Gutiérrez-Fresneda Raúl , García-Guirao Pedro
Published: February 2021

The influence of the family on the education of children is indisputable, and the mother plays a fundamental role as a direct influence on the educational process of children, especially on their reading competence. Systematically, the role of education has been delegated to the teacher when, even in academic aspects, the values of a society influence the education of the new generations. A sustainable society goes through a sustainable education, instilling values from a well-developed emotional intelligence. The objective of this study is to establish for first time the existence of relationships among reading habits, sex, and mother′s emotional intelligence regarding the reading comprehension of children. Participants included 521 adolescent baccalaureates aged between 16 and 17 years old, who attended three public baccalaureate schools in the province of Málaga and four public high schools in the province of Granada, all located in areas of medium socio-cultural context. Mediation and factorial analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) analyses were performed. The results show that girls with higher emotional intelligence and whose mothers have higher reading habits obtain higher reading competence.
Modeling Road Safety in Car-Dependent Cities: Case of Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia
Authors: Aljoufie Mohammed , Tiwari Alok
Published: February 2021

Investigating the connections between pedestrian crashes and various urban variables is critical to ameliorate the prediction of pedestrian fatalities, formulate advisories for the stakeholders, and provide an evidence base for policy change to mitigate the occurrence and intensity of pedestrian fatalities. In this paper, we aim to explore the geographically varying association between the pedestrian fatalities and other associated factors of an urban environment in Jeddah city, which is a car-dependent city in Saudi Arabia. At first, Global Moran’s I and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) were applied to visualize the clustering of pedestrian fatalities in the various districts of Jeddah. Subsequently, we developed Poisson regression models based on their geographically weighted indicators. Both the global and geographically weighted regression models attempt to assess the association between the pedestrian fatalities and the geographically relevant land use and transport infrastructure factors. The results indicate that geographically weighted Poisson regression (GWPR) performed better than the global Poisson counterparts. It is also revealed that the existing transportation infrastructure in Jeddah was significantly associated with the higher pedestrian fatalities. The results have shown that the proposed model in this study can inform transport policies in Jeddah in prioritizing more safety measures for the pedestrians, including expanding pedestrians’ infrastructure, and cautious monitoring of pedestrian footpaths. It can facilitate the analysis and improvement of road safety for pedestrians in car-dependent cities.
A Review of Applications and Communication Technologies for Internet of Things (IoT) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Based Sustainable Smart Farming
Authors: Islam Nahina , Rashid Md Mamunur , Pasandideh Faezeh , Ray Biplob , Moore Steven , Kadel Rajan
Published: February 2021

To reach the goal of sustainable agriculture, smart farming is taking advantage of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. These smart farms are designed to be run by interconnected devices and vehicles. Some enormous potentials can be achieved by the integration of different IoT technologies to achieve automated operations with minimum supervision. This paper outlines some major applications of IoT and UAV in smart farming, explores the communication technologies, network functionalities and connectivity requirements for Smart farming. The connectivity limitations of smart agriculture and it’s solutions are analysed with two case studies. In case study-1, we propose and evaluate meshed Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) gateways to address connectivity limitations of Smart Farming. While in case study-2, we explore satellite communication systems to provide connectivity to smart farms in remote areas of Australia. Finally, we conclude the paper by identifying future research challenges on this topic and outlining directions to address those challenges.
Identify Optimal Traffic Condition and Speed Limit for Hard Shoulder Running Strategy
Authors: Yang Fan , Wang Fan , Ding Fan , Tan Huachun , Ran Bin
Published: February 2021

Highway system is experiencing increasing traffic congestion with fast-growing number of vehicles in metropolitan areas. Implementing traffic management strategies such as utilizing the hard shoulder as an extra lane could increase highway capacity without extra construction work. This paper presents a method of determining an optimal traffic condition and speed limit of opening hard shoulder. Firstly, the traffic states are clustered using K-Means, mean shift, agglomerative and spectral clustering methods, and the optimal clustering algorithm is selected using indexes including the silhouette score, Davies-Bouldin Index and Caliski-Harabaz Score. The results suggested that the clustering effect of using K-Means method with three categories is optimal. Then, cellular automata model is used to simulate traffic conditions before and after the hard shoulder running strategy is applied. The parameters of the model, including the probabilities of random deceleration, slow start and lane change, are calibrated using real traffic data. Four indicators including the traffic volume, the average speed, the variance of speed, and the travel time of emergency rescue vehicles during traffic accident obtained using the cellular automata model are used to evaluate various hard shoulder running strategies. By using factor analysis and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) methods, the optimal traffic condition and speed limit of opening hard shoulder could be determined. This method could be applied to highway segments of various number of lanes and different speed limits to optimize the hard shoulder running strategy for highway management.
Quantitative Evaluation of Soil Quality Using Principal Component Analysis: The Case Study of El-Fayoum Depression Egypt
Authors: Abdel-Fattah Mohamed K. , Mohamed Elsayed Said , Wagdi Enas M. , Shahin Sahar A. , Aldosari Ali A. , Lasaponara Rosa , Alnaimy Manal A.
Published: February 2021

Soil quality assessment is the first step towards precision farming and agricultural management. In the present study, a multivariate analysis and geographical information system (GIS) were used to assess and map a soil quality index (SQI) in El-Fayoum depression in the Western Desert of Egypt. For this purpose, a total of 36 geo-referenced representative soil samples (0–0.6 m) were collected and analyzed according to standardized protocols. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dataset into new variables, to avoid multi-collinearity, and to determine relative weights (Wi) and soil indicators (Si), which were used to obtain the soil quality index (SQI). The zones of soil quality were determined using principal component scores and cluster analysis of soil properties. A soil quality index map was generated using a geostatistical approach based on ordinary kriging (OK) interpolation. The results show that the soil data can be classified into three clusters: Cluster I represents about 13.89% of soil samples, Cluster II represents about 16.6% of samples, and Cluster III represents the rest of the soil data (69.44% of samples). In addition, the simulation results of cluster analysis using the Monte Carlo method show satisfactory results for all clusters. The SQI results reveal that the study area is classified into three zones: very good, good, and fair soil quality. The areas categorized as very good and good quality occupy about 14.48% and 50.77% of the total surface investigated, and fair soil quality (mainly due to salinity and low soil nutrients) constitutes about 34.75%. As a whole, the results indicate that the joint use of PCA and GIS allows for an accurate and effective assessment of the SQI.
Challenges and Opportunities in Dock-Based Bike-Sharing Rebalancing: A Systematic Review
Authors: Vallez Carlos M. , Castro Mario , Contreras David
Published: February 2021

Bike-sharing systems (BSS) have raised in popularity in the last years due to their potential share in sustainable cities. Although the first attempts to implement a bike-sharing public service date back to 1965 (Amsterdam), their widespread use arrived with the millennium becoming a vibrant research area whose activity has increased steadily in the last decade. Several authors have attempted to summarize the current state of the art, but the literature on BSS is still scattered in different fields. Thus, there is a lack of literature that summarizes and categorizes the available research on BSS. In this paper, we perform a thorough review of the challenges behind rebalancing in bike-sharing systems. The objectives of this paper are to collect papers on the repositioning problem in dock-based bike-sharing services, classify them and point to novel research venues. We render a keyword analysis in the literature and a timeline that shows the evolution of those keywords throughout the last decade. We also include an exhaustive table that will assist researchers from different disciplines to address the open challenges in the field and to transition towards more sustainable cities.
Robust Placement of Water Quality Sensor for Long-Distance Water Transfer Projects Based on Multi-Objective Optimization and Uncertainty Analysis
Authors: Li Yu , Chu Jinggang , Wei Guozhen , Jin Sifan , Yang Tiantian , Li Bo
Published: February 2021

It is important to place water quality sensors along open channels in long-distance water transfer projects optimally for rapid source identification and efficient management of sudden water contamination. A new framework which considers multiple objectives, including earliest detection time, lowest missing detection rate and lowest sensor cost, and combines the randomness of injected contaminant type and contaminant incident consisting of contaminant intrusion location, time and mass, was established to obtain optimal placement of water quality sensor with better robustness in this paper. The middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China was chosen as a case study, and it was found that both missing detection rate and detection time decrease with sensor cost gradually; furthermore, given the higher detecting precision, the detection accuracy and efficiency would be improved, a smaller number of water quality sensors would be needed, and the ten key placement positions where sensor with different detecting precision placed could be identified. Under the constraints of the allowable maximum missing detection rate, 1.00%, and detection time, 120.00 min, the detecting precision of 0.20 mg/L and 38 sensors placed could be selected as the optimal sensor placement scheme. Finally, with the consideration of contaminant uncertainty, the sensor placement scheme with better robustness could be constructed. The proposed framework would be helpful in solving the problem of water quality sensor placement with high practicality and efficiency in long-distance water transfer projects.
Sustainable Tourism: A Human-Centered Approach
Authors: Butowski Leszek
Published: February 2021

The aim of this paper is to present an alternative approach to sustainable tourism-derived from the human-centered angle. In line with this assumption, when considering the principles of sustainable tourism, the opinions of all groups of tourism actors, including host communities, tourists and tourism businesses should be taken into account equally with other factors, not merely as one of many decision makers, but as the main frame of reference. The research methodology is twofold. As regards the theoretical foundation, the model approach has been applied to conceptualize the intra-generational and inter-generational perspectives upon tourism sustainability. Consequently, the former is concerned with the problem of internal sustainability connected with the advantages achieved and disadvantages borne by tourism actors. The inter-generational perspective, on the other hand, is related to the problem of long-term tourism development under conditions of internal sustainability. In the empirical part of the research, the model was applied in a survey carried out in seven chosen areas in Poland. To this end, a set of auxiliary tools (an adopted Likert scale and a working matrix) was developed and positively tested in real-life conditions. The novelty of the study as a whole consists in the fact that it postulates taking into consideration the ‘human-centered perspective’ related to all groups of tourism actors, including who are not directly involved in tourism activity.
Influence of Built Environment on Street Vitality: A Case Study of West Nanjing Road in Shanghai Based on Mobile Location Data
Authors: Wu Wanshu , Niu Xinyi , Li Meng
Published: February 2021

A successful built environment is assumed to encourage street vitality in the time and space dimensions. The availability of mobile location data has made it possible to measure street vitality from a large-scale and multiperiod perspective. We used the mobile location data recorded in West Nanjing Road and the surrounding streets in Shanghai as a proxy for street activity, and introduced intensity and instability as indicators of street vitality to test whether there is still a correlation between street vitality and built environment in high-density cities, and whether there are applicable conditions. The results show that for spatial units with higher intensity, the street activities tend to be more unstable. It is more effective to promote street vitality by increasing the diversity of commercial formats. For the streets in high-intensity areas, increasing the mix degree of building functions and the development intensity of the surrounding blocks may not necessarily enhance the street vitality. The design of the external spaces is always an effective measure to maintain continuous vitality. Subway stations play a significant role in promoting street vitality.
Quantitative Assessment of Energy Supply Security: Korea Case Study
Authors: Park Herie , Bae Sungwoo
Published: February 2021

Ensuring energy supply security has become one of the most important purposes for many countries. To make the strategies for ensuring the energy supply security of a country, it is essential to quantitatively assess the security. This paper aims to present a methodology to evaluate the energy supply security of a country by using different indices of energy dependence and energy diversity, which have been raised as two main paradigms of energy supply security. This study also proposes two indices reflecting the correlation between a country’s energy diversity and energy import dependence to evaluate its energy supply security based on easily accessible data. The presented methodology and indices were applied to the evaluation of the primary energy supply security of Korea from 1991 to 2018. The results show that a country highly dependent on energy imports is not evaluated as secure enough in terms of energy supply even if it obtains higher energy diversity. This finding supports the importance of the correlation of energy dependence and energy diversity of a country to ensure its energy supply security. This approach could be further adapted to other countries and help them to make their energy policy and strategies.
Sustainability and Resilience after COVID-19: A Circular Premium in the Fashion Industry
Authors: D’Adamo Idiano , Lupi Gianluca
Published: February 2021

COVID-19 has challenged so many of humanity’s certainties, but it has also shown that we are able to react to serious threats [...]
Economic, Social, and Ecological Impact Evaluation of Traffic Network in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration Based on the Entropy Weight TOPSIS Method
Authors: Zhang Liang , Zhang Xubing , Yuan Shenggu , Wang Kai
Published: February 2021

In recent years, with the rapid development of urban transportation network in China, many problems have been exposed, especially in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region. Under the call of sustainable development, it is of great significance to evaluate the economic, social, and ecological (ESE) impact of transportation network in BTH urban agglomeration for promoting the sustainable development of transportation ESE in BTH urban agglomeration. In this paper, 12 indicators in the field of transportation are selected to build the evaluation index system of ESE effects of transportation network in BTH urban agglomeration. By using entropy weight TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) model and the Jenks natural breaks classification method, the ESE impacts of transportation network in 13 cities of BTH from 2013 to 2017 are analyzed from the temporal and spatial dimensions. The research shows that: (1) From 2013 to 2017, the economic impact degree of traffic network shows an annual fluctuation trend, the social impact degree increases year by year, and the ecological impact degree decreases year by year; (2) For the cities of BTH, the ESE impact assessment results of transportation network from 2013 to 2017 can be divided into seven clusters. Except Handan City, the ESE impact assessment categories of other cities’ transportation network have been improved, but the proportion of cities in the transition period is still large, especially the “Low-Low-Low” cities. The types of cities in the transitional period need to be focused. It is still a heavy burden to realize the ESE coordination and sustainable development of BTH urban agglomeration transportation network.
Influencing Factors of the Mineral Carbonation Process of Iron Ore Mining Waste in Sequestering Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Authors: Ramli Noor Allesya Alis , Kusin Faradiella Mohd , Molahid Verma Loretta M.
Published: February 2021

Mining waste may contain potential minerals that can act as essential feedstock for long-term carbon sequestration through a mineral carbonation process. This study attempts to identify the mineralogical and chemical composition of iron ore mining waste alongside the effects of particle size, temperature, and pH on carbonation efficiency. The samples were found to be alkaline in nature (pH of 6.9–7.5) and contained small-sized particles of clay and silt, thus indicating their suitability for mineral carbonation reactions. Samples were composed of important silicate minerals needed for the formation of carbonates such as wollastonite, anorthite, diopside, perovskite, johannsenite, and magnesium aluminum silicate, and the Fe-bearing mineral magnetite. The presence of Fe2O3 (39.6–62.9%) and CaO (7.2–15.2%) indicated the potential of the waste to sequester carbon dioxide because these oxides are important divalent cations for mineral carbonation. The use of small-sized mine-waste particles enables the enhancement of carbonation efficiency, i.e., particles of <38 µm showed a greater extent of Fe and Ca carbonation efficiency (between 1.6–6.7%) compared to particles of <63 µm (0.9–5.7%) and 75 µm (0.7–6.0%). Increasing the reaction temperature from 80 °C to 150–200 °C resulted in a higher Fe and Ca carbonation efficiency of some samples between 0.9–5.8% and 0.8–4.0%, respectively. The effect of increasing the pH from 8–12 was notably observed in Fe carbonation efficiency of between 0.7–5.9% (pH 12) compared to 0.6–3.3% (pH 8). Ca carbonation efficiency was moderately observed (0.7–5.5%) as with the increasing pH between 8–10. Therefore, it has been evidenced that mineralogical and chemical composition were of great importance for the mineral carbonation process, and that the effects of particle size, pH, and temperature of iron mining waste were influential in determining carbonation efficiency. Findings would be beneficial for sustaining the mining industry while taking into account the issue of waste production in tackling the global carbon emission concerns.
Forested Riparian Buffers as Climate Adaptation Tools for Management of Riverine Flow and Thermal Regimes: A Case Study in the Meramec River Basin
Authors: Knouft Jason H. , Botero-Acosta Alejandra , Wu Chin-Lung , Charry Barbara , Chu Maria L. , Dell Anthony I. , Hall Damon M. , Herrington Steven J.
Published: February 2021

Ongoing and projected changes in climate are expected to alter discharge and water temperature in riverine systems, thus resulting in degraded habitat. Climate adaptation management strategies are proposed to serve as buffers to changes in air temperature and precipitation, with these strategies potentially providing relatively stable protection for flow and thermal regimes. Using a hydrologic and water temperature modeling approach in the Meramec River basin in eastern Missouri, U.S.A., we examined the ability of forested riparian buffers to serve as a useful climate adaptation strategy against ongoing and projected changes in climate. We developed a multi-scale approach using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrologic and water temperature models as well as a Stream Network Temperature Model (SNTEMP) with different amounts of simulated riparian vegetation to estimate streamflow and water temperature variation within the Meramec River basin under both contemporary and projected future climate conditions. Our results suggest that riparian buffers offer benefits to mitigating increases in water temperature due to shading effects; however, patterns in discharge did not vary substantially based on simulations. From an ecological perspective, the addition of riparian buffers is also projected to reduce the impacts of climate change on Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) by decreasing the number of days water temperatures exceed the thermal tolerance of this species.
Measuring Walkability with GIS—Methods Overview and New Approach Proposal
Authors: Telega Agnieszka , Telega Ivan , Bieda Agnieszka
Published: February 2021

Cities occupy only about 3% of the Earth’s surface area, but half of the global population lives in them. The high population density in urban areas requires special actions to make these areas develop sustainably. One of the greatest challenges of the modern world is to organize urban spaces in a way to make them attractive, safe and friendly to people living in cities. This can be managed with the help of a number of indicators, one of which is walkability. Of course, the most complete analyses are based on spatial data, and the easiest way to implement them is using GIS tools. Therefore, the goal of the paper is to present a new approach for measuring walkability, which is based on density maps of specific urban functions and networks of generally accessible pavements and paths. The method is implemented using open-source data. Density values are interpolated from point data (urban objects featuring specific functions) and polygons (pedestrian infrastructure) using Kernel Density and Line Density tools in GIS. The obtained values allow the calculation of a synthetic indicator taking into account the access by means of pedestrian infrastructure to public transport stops, parks and recreation areas, various attractions, shops and services. The proposed method was applied to calculate the walkability for Kraków (the second largest city in Poland). The greatest value of walkability was obtained for the Main Square (central part of the Old Town). The least accessible to pedestrians are, on the other hand, areas located on the outskirts of the city, which are intended for extensive industrial areas, single-family housing or large green areas.
The Stability of Isometries on Restricted Domains
Authors: Choi Ginkyu , Jung Soon-Mo
Published: February 2021

We will prove the generalized Hyers–Ulam stability of isometries, with a focus on the stability for restricted domains. More precisely, we prove the generalized Hyers–Ulam stability of the orthogonality equation and we use this result to prove the stability of the equations ∥f(x)−f(y)∥=∥x−y∥ and ∥f(x)−f(y)∥2=∥x−y∥2 on the restricted domains. As we can easily see, these functional equations are symmetric in the sense that they become the same equations even if the roles of variables x and y are exchanged.
Generalized Navier–Stokes Equations and Dynamics of Plane Molecular Media
Authors: Kushner Alexei , Lychagin Valentin
Published: February 2021

The first analysis of media with internal structure were done by the Cosserat brothers. Birkhoff noted that the classical Navier–Stokes equation does not fully describe the motion of water. In this article, we propose an approach to the dynamics of media formed by chiral, planar and rigid molecules and propose some kind of Navier–Stokes equations for their description. Examples of such media are water, ozone, carbon dioxide and hydrogen cyanide.
GENAVOS: A New Tool for Modelling and Analyzing Cancer Gene Regulatory Networks Using Delayed Nonlinear Variable Order Fractional System
Authors: Yaghoobi Hanif , Maghooli Keivan , Asadi-Khiavi Masoud , Dabanloo Nader Jafarnia
Published: February 2021

Gene regulatory networks (GRN) are one of the etiologies associated with cancer. Their dysregulation can be associated with cancer formation and asymmetric cellular functions in cancer stem cells, leading to disease persistence and resistance to treatment. Systems that model the complex dynamics of these networks along with adapting to partially known real omics data are closer to reality and may be useful to understand the mechanisms underlying neoplastic phenomena. In this paper, for the first time, modelling of GRNs is performed using delayed nonlinear variable order fractional (VOF) systems in the state space by a new tool called GENAVOS. Although the tool uses gene expression time series data to identify and optimize system parameters, it also models possible epigenetic signals, and the results show that the nonlinear VOF systems have very good flexibility in adapting to real data. We found that GRNs in cancer cells actually have a larger delay parameter than in normal cells. It is also possible to create weak chaotic, periodic, and quasi-periodic oscillations by changing the parameters. Chaos can be associated with the onset of cancer. Our findings indicate a profound effect of time-varying orders on these networks, which may be related to a type of cellular epigenetic memory. By changing the delay parameter and the variable order functions (possible epigenetics signals) for a normal cell system, its behaviour becomes quite similar to the behaviour of a cancer cell. This work confirms the effective role of the miR-17-92 cluster as an epigenetic factor in the cancer cell cycle.
Electric Blue: Molecular Evolution of Three-Finger Toxins in the Long-Glanded Coral Snake Species Calliophis bivirgatus
Authors: Dashevsky Daniel , Rokyta Darin , Frank Nathaniel , Nouwens Amanda , Fry Bryan G.
Published: February 2021

The genus Calliophis is the most basal branch of the family Elapidae and several species in it have developed highly elongated venom glands. Recent research has shown that C. bivirgatus has evolved a seemingly unique toxin (calliotoxin) that produces spastic paralysis in their prey by acting on the voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels. We assembled a transcriptome from C. bivirgatus to investigate the molecular characteristics of these toxins and the venom as a whole. We find strong confirmation that this genus produces the classic elapid eight-cysteine three-finger toxins, that δδ-elapitoxins (toxins that resemble calliotoxin) are responsible for a substantial portion of the venom composition, and that these toxins form a distinct clade within a larger, more diverse clade of C. bivirgatus three-finger toxins. This broader clade of C. bivirgatus toxins also contains the previously named maticotoxins and is somewhat closely related to cytotoxins from other elapids. However, the toxins from this clade that have been characterized are not themselves cytotoxic. No other toxins show clear relationships to toxins of known function from other species.
De Novo Venom-Gland Transcriptomics of Spine-Bellied Sea Snake (Hydrophis curtus) from Penang, Malaysia—Next-Generation Sequencing, Functional Annotation and Toxinological Correlation
Authors: Tan Choo Hock , Tan Kae Yi
Published: February 2021

Envenomation resulted from sea snake bite is a highly lethal health hazard in Southeast Asia. Although commonly caused by sea snakes of Hydrophiinae, each species is evolutionarily distinct and thus, unveiling the toxin gene diversity within individual species is important. Applying next-generation sequencing, this study investigated the venom-gland transcriptome of Hydrophis curtus (spine-bellied sea snake) from Penang, West Malaysia. The transcriptome was de novo assembled, followed by gene annotation and sequence analyses. Transcripts with toxin annotation were only 96 in number but highly expressed, constituting 48.18% of total FPKM in the overall transcriptome. Of the 21 toxin families, three-finger toxins (3FTX) were the most abundantly expressed and functionally diverse, followed by phospholipases A2. Lh_FTX001 (short neurotoxin) and Lh_FTX013 (long neurotoxin) were the most dominant 3FTXs expressed, consistent with the pathophysiology of envenomation. Lh_FTX001 and Lh_FTX013 were variable in amino acid compositions and predicted epitopes, while Lh_FTX001 showed high sequence similarity with the short neurotoxin from Hydrophis schistosus, supporting cross-neutralization effect of Sea Snake Antivenom. Other toxins of low gene expression, for example, snake venom metalloproteinases and L-amino acid oxidases not commonly studied in sea snake venom were also identified, enriching the knowledgebase of sea snake toxins for future study.
Deep Impact of Random Amplification and Library Construction Methods on Viral Metagenomics Results
Authors: Regnault Béatrice , Bigot Thomas , Ma Laurence , Pérot Philippe , Temmam Sarah , Eloit Marc
Published: February 2021

Clinical metagenomics is a broad-range agnostic detection method of pathogens, including novel microorganisms. A major limit is the low pathogen load compared to the high background of host nucleic acids. To overcome this issue, several solutions exist, such as applying a very high depth of sequencing, or performing a relative enrichment of viral genomes associated with capsids. At the end, the quantity of total nucleic acids is often below the concentrations recommended by the manufacturers of library kits, which necessitates to random amplify nucleic acids. Using a pool of 26 viruses representative of viral diversity, we observed a deep impact of the nature of sample (total nucleic acids versus RNA only), the reverse transcription, the random amplification and library construction method on virus recovery. We further optimized the two most promising methods and assessed their performance with fully characterized reference virus stocks. Good genome coverage and limit of detection lower than 100 or 1000 genome copies per mL of plasma, depending on the genome viral type, were obtained from a three million reads dataset. Our study reveals that optimized random amplification is a technique of choice when insufficient amounts of nucleic acid are available for direct libraries constructions.